Posted on 28 October
2010
Public outcry derailed
an auction scheduled to be held earlier
this week by the forestry administration
of Primorsky Province in the Russian Far
East that would have opened up critical
Amur tiger habitats for logging.
The Forest Management
Department said that its director Pyotr
Diuk departed Tuesday on holiday, and the
commission responsible for conducting the
auction was a no-show.
The Forest Management
Agency of Primorsky Province had announced
earlier this month that it would conduct
an auction on Oct. 26 for logging rights
for 16 harvest sites in the Bikinsky and
Pozharsky Korean Pine Nut Harvesting Zones,
and the proposed Middle Ussuri wildlife
refuge, by making them available for so-called
intermediate harvesting.
The failed auction comes
after WWF-Russia held an emergency press
conference on Oct. 20 demanding the exemption
of protected forests in the Bikin River
Basin of northern Primorsky Province from
a timber auction authorized by the provincial
Forest Management Department.
WWF experts and representative
to the Legislative Assembly Aleksandr Ermolayev
spoke out against the proposed auction.
Their testimony then was sent to the Forest
Management Department and Primorsky Province
Ecological Prosecutor’s office for review.
Strong public reaction
in Russia and internationally
Public reaction to the
auction, in Russia and abroad, was universally
negative, especially because Prime Minister
Vladimir Putin has invited all heads of
government from tiger range states to participate
next month in the Tiger Summit in St. Petersburg.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson
for Prime Minister Putin said that a full
public statement was pending an investigation
of the circumstances surrounding the auction,
according to WWF-Russia. Also, the Russian
Federal Forest Agency sent a telegram to
Primorskii Province’s governor with a request
to investigate within 10 days the legality
of the proposed logging of Korean pine stands.
Intermediate harvesting
is a widely abused legal loophole which
allows loggers to cut valuable Korean pine,
oak and ash timber in protected forests.
This practice greatly increases poaching
access to remote tiger territories (through
forest road building), destroys key breeding,
feeding and overwintering habitat for tigers
and their prey, and significantly reduces
the supply of pine nuts and acorns on which
tiger prey species survive.
The logging rights up
for auction would have allowed loggers to
cut down forests that protect salmon breeding
grounds and are crucial habitats for Amur
tigers.
The endangered Amur
tiger, numbering fewer than 500 in the wild,
is found primarily in southeastern Russia
and northern China.
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Chile’s marine conservation
efforts on show and more protection needed
– WWF
Posted on 28 October
2010
WWF calls on Chile’s newly established Ministry
of Environment to advance fast on establishing
new marine protected areas (MPAs) in the
country’s waters to secure vital protection
for valuable and threatened marine life,
including the endangered blue whale.
Achievements, challenges
and the route ahead for MPAs in Chile were
discussed today at an event sponsored by
WWF at the Convention on Biological Diversity
(CBD) meeting underway in Japan, and attended
by Mr. Ricardo Irarrazabal, Undersecretary
for the Environment, and Mr. Miguel Stutzin,
Natural Resources and Biodiversity Division
with Chile’s Ministry of Environment.
At the event, recognition
was given to three MPAs established with
GEF funding along Chile’s coastline over
the past five years, as well as the recenlty
established no-take MPA near Salas y Gomez
Island ( Motu Motiro Hiva in Rapu Nui language)
covering 150,000 square kilometres.
WWF urges the government
to now move forward fast on establishing
more MPAs in southern Chile, notably the
Corcovado Gulf frequented by blue whales.
“WWF, along with local
and partners, have provided the government
with the results of a 800-pages landmark
report, including consultation with relevant
stakeholders, indigenous and small-scale
fishermen communities among them, concerning
the establishment of new MPAs in the south,”
said Mauricio Gálvez, WWF Chile’s
Marine Conservation Program Coordinator.
“It’s now time for governments to proactively
act on this information and move quickly
to set up the much needed new MPAs.”
The Ministry of Environment,
the Universidad Austral de Chile, the Blue
Whale Centre and WWF-Chile, as well as other
local and international NGOs have undertaken
extensive research efforts over the last
two years to create a marine conservation
plan and identify a portfolio of potential
areas for MPAs in the Chiloense Ecoregion,
which stretches from Puerto Montt to Taitao
Peninsula.
The research identified
40 sites needing protection, including areas
important endangered blue whales, fragile
coldwater corals and important fish populations.
“The implementation
of the recommendations and results arising
from this work would show the government’s
commitment to meet goals for protecting
unique marine ecosystems – particularly
those in Southern Chile that are under significant
pressure.” added Gálvez.
“The scientific justification
for creating MPAs in this area is clear
and has been scrutinized by multiple stakeholders.
The only thing needed now is the political
will to create the proposed MPAs, and we
hope that CBD is the moment for Chile’s
new presidential administration to express
its willingness to the world.”
Harnessing the sun to
protect people and wildlife
Posted on 15 October
2010
For Narad Mani Poudel, a 45-year-old farmer
living in the Madi valley of Chitwan, Nepal,
life used to be in a constant state of terror.
Recalling an incident three years ago, he
said, “Wild elephants ransacked my house
and consumed almost all of the rice that
I had stored for the coming season. My family
and I could do nothing but watch, thankful
that we got away with our lives.”
Situated in the southern
part of Chitwan, the Madi valley is surrounded
on all the sides by protected areas; the
southern border is shared with India, through
the Balmiki Tiger Reserve. However, this
unique geography has led to human-wildlife
conflict, resulting in severe crop damage,
attacks on livestock, destruction of property
and human injuries and casualties. Traditional
methods of defending crops from wildlife
– torches, drums, trenches and thorn bushes
– proved futile. Already poor and struggling
to make ends meet, the communities of Chitwan
took a dim view of the parks and the animals
that inhabited them; some retaliated with
violence.
Purna Bahadur Kunwar,
Co-manager for WWF-Nepal’s Terai Arc Landscape
Protected Areas and Buffer Zone project,
remembers back to 2007, when he began discussions
about biodiversity conservation with community
groups. “They repeated a local adage, saying
they are trapped in a ‘natural jail.’ They
were not paying any attention to us at that
moment.”
But over the course
of several months, the community groups
and WWF found common ground. Residents wanted
to live in peace, and WWF wanted to safeguard
endangered tiger, rhino and elephant populations.
Both agreed that the solution might lie
in another adage: Good fences make good
neighbors.
“We worked together
on a detailed plan for solar-powered electric
fencing. The proposal included total cost,
community contribution, the possibility
to leverage other funds and a management
and maintenance plan for the wooden fence
posts. With this plan, we called a joint
meeting of four Buffer Zone User Committees
of Madi,” said Kunwar.
Support for the project
was unanimous. The committees chose to start
from the southeastern corner of Madi valley,
the Ayodhyapuri, which is contiguous to
the Parsa Wildlife Reserve and home to wild
elephants. It was also the area with the
most reported cases of human-wildlife conflict.
With the installation of 14km of solar fence,
wildlife damage to crops and property dropped
immediately.
WWF-Nepal assessed the
first harvest following the installation
of the fence and found that the value of
the crop production has increased by 300%.
What’s more, farmers have now started to
cultivate other crops during winter season.
A farmer in Ayodhyapuri expressed his satisfaction
at having harvested lentils for the first
time in 29 years; before he kept his field
fallow during lentil cultivation because
the risk of encountering wildlife or losing
his whole crop was just too high.
The fence is maintained
by community members, with each household
contributing cash on the basis of its land
holding. The farmer Narad Mani says he can
sleep soundly all night without fear of
his crops being destroyed or his family
being harmed.
“Based on this experience,
we plan to replicate this achievement with
three other Buffer Zone User Committees,”
said Kunwar. “I have a vision to develop
this valley as a poaching free zone. Instead
of lamenting their ‘natural jail,’ now I
hear people say, ‘If there is a heaven,
it is Madi.’”
by Purna Bahadur Kunwar, WWF-Nepal
+ More
Montenegro relaunches
assault on wild beauty
Posted on 19 October
2010
Podgorica - Montenegro promotes itself to
international tourism markets as a bastion
of wild beauty. The government, however,
appears to be trying to push forward plans
to erect multiple dams along the outstanding
Moraca canyon.
Just over two months
ago, the government promised to consider
alternatives to the 40-year-old dams plan
after a storm of domestic and international
criticism.
The government is now
working to introduce a “concession act,”
which would in effect reinvigorate the multiple
dams plan by giving directions to potential
investors.
The concession act,
for which consultation just ended, once
approved will enable the government to launch
a call for tenders for the project.
“This procedure is completely
unacceptable,” said Francesca Antonelli,
Head of the Freshwater programme at WWF
Mediterranean, on behalf of WWF and Green
Home, its partner NGO in Montenegro. “It
sidesteps the government’s obligation to
complete its earlier and largely discredited
strategic environmental assessment of the
plan, and on one hand sets up an option
which is largely structured around the original
proposal.
On the other hand, the
“concession act” allows the government to
give investors the opportunity to propose
alternative plans with no environmental
or social performance guidance, or restrictions,
Antonelli said.
“Investors are being
given the option to stick with the original
plans, lower the walls on the highest dams
or come up with another proposal with no
guarantee that this would be subject to
any reputable environmental and social assessment.”
The government’s own
figures show that Montenegrin power consumption
per capita is five times the European Union
average, with other studies showing transmission
losses of more than three times the European
rate. More than 50 percent of the country’s
electricity demand comes from an aging and
inefficient aluminum plant – KAP, which
is currently undergoing serious economic
difficulties.
WWF Italy has written
to Italian company A2A, the 43 percent owner
of Montenegro’s power company and largely
regarded as the leading contender to build
the dams, asking it to not to participate
in the flawed process.
WWF and Green Home had
expressed very strong concerns on the plan
proposed in February this year by the Montenegrin
government to build four dams on the Moraca
river because they would significantly threaten
important biodiversity areas – so-called
Emerald sites that should become the country’s
future Natura 2000 sites once Montenegro
joins the European Union – and impact one
of the most important bird and fish habitats
in the Mediterranean region.
The Moraca River, the
second most important in Montenegro, provides
two thirds of the flows into Lake Skadar,
the biggest lake in the Balkans and one
of the most important bird and fish habitats
in the Mediterranean region, providing more
than 90 per cent of fish consumed in Montenegro.
Lake Skadar, listed
under the Ramsar Convention as a wetland
of international significance, is one of
Europe's five most important wintering sites
for birds. Very rare endemic species of
trout could disappear, and the fishery of
Lake Skadar could shrink by 30 per cent
– with a loss of some €1.5 million in annual
fishing revenues.
