Bonn (Germany) / Palau,
14 March 2011 - A new pilot project using
financial incentives to address direct hunting
and the accidental capture of dugongs by
changing people's practices and improving
the livelihoods of local communities are
among the initiatives to be promoted under
the Pacific Year of the Dugong 2011.
The campaign, launched
today in Palau by President Johnson Toribiong
and Minister of Natural Resources, Environment
& Tourism Harry Fritz, is a boost to
the conservation of the mermaid-like sea
cow and its seagrass habitats. Palau hosts
the smallest, most remote and critically
endangered dugong population in the region.
The initiative to protect
the dugong, led by the South Pacific Regional
Environment Programme (SPREP) and its partner
the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory
Species of Wild Animals (UNEP/CMS), will
target local coastal and fishing communities
and water craft users in the Pacific region
by showing that livelihoods and conservation
are linked.
Dugongs, which play
a significant ecological role in the functioning
of coastal habitats, live in warm coastal
and island waters from East Africa to Vanuatu
in the Pacific. The action plan developed
under the UNEP/CMS Memorandum of Understanding
on the Conservation and Management of Dugongs
and their Habitats throughout their Range
(Dugong MoU) provides the framework for
the regional cooperation for the long-term
protection of dugongs in the Indian Ocean,
South East Asia, South Asia, Australia and
the Pacific Islands.
CMS Executive Secretary
Elizabeth Maruma Mrema said: "Innovative
measures under the CMS action plan will
help protect dugongs and other marine species.
Financial incentives will be promoted to
make sure that conservation needs and sustainable
development are reconciled at the community
level."
Two pilot projects are
currently being developed in Daru, Papua
New Guinea, and Bazaruto Bay in Mozambique
to reduce hunting and bycatch by providing
some form of incentive to drive behavioural
change - this might be in the form of loans,
or payments for ecosystem services, for
lessening their catches or for changes to
more dugong-friendly fishing gear.
In some parts of the
Pacific Islands, such as the Torres Strait
between Papua New Guinea and Australia,
hunting for direct consumption is the legal
right of traditional inhabitants and sustainable
hunting levels need to be agreed as part
of the action plan.
The projects will consider
the needs of both animals and of coastal
communities and will increase dugong protection
as well as improve socio-economic development.
Most of the world's
remaining dugong populations outside of
Australia and the United Arab Emirates are
at serious risk of disappearing without
effective and timely conservation action.
The major causes of dugong mortality are
poaching, unsustainable hunting, entanglement
in fishing gear, vessel strikes and habitat
degradation.
Gillnets are being used
in almost 90% of the dugong's habitat, which
threatens their survival. Reducing dugong
mortality in fisheries remains the greatest
challenge to the conservation of the world's
only herbivorous marine mammal. Providing
financial incentives to encourage the fishing
community to replace harmful gillnets with
alternative equipment such as line-fishing
gear to reduce bycatch is one option being
considered in the pilot projects.
In addition to biodiversity
conservation and promoting sustainable fisheries
practices, changing gear-types to reduce
bycatch would also make a significant contribution
to the Green Economy of small-scale and
subsistence fisheries. Under conservation
agreements with the communities, the ecological
and economic value of seagrass habitats
would be protected and livelihood incentives
for coastal communities would be guaranteed,
many of whom rely on these sustainable small-scale
fisheries.
For the first time,
the 18 signatories to the UNEP/CMS Dugong
MoU have agreed to fund these pilot projects
which will test economic incentives, including
micro-loans and direct payments for biodiversity
conservation.
Dugong conservation
efforts will have other benefits as the
protection of dugongs can have positive
impacts across a wide range of habitats,
in turn protecting other coastal marine
species such as turtles, whales, dolphins
and sharks.
At least five projects
will be tested in sites across the Indian
Ocean, South East Asia, South Asia, and
Pacific Islands regions, and will be funded
over a three-year period (2011-2013) through
the UNEP/CMS MoU. Community organizations,
NGOs, government officials and individuals
will participate in developing and implementing
the projects.
The Pacific-wide Year
of the Dugong campaign invites individuals,
conservation bodies, communities and governments
to support this unique drive for dugong
conservation. National campaigns will be
conducted in Palau, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu,
New Caledonia and the Solomon Islands.
The Pacific Year of
the Dugong will initiate sustainable and
long-term dugong protection by fostering
community participation in environmental
stewardship by improving their economic
livelihoods.
Notes to Editors
The Convention on the
Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild
Animals (UNEP/CMS) works for the conservation
of a wide array of endangered migratory
animals worldwide through the negotiation
and implementation of agreements and action
plans. CMS is a fast-growing convention
with special importance due to its expertise
in the field of migratory species. At present,
115 countries are parties to the Convention
(www.cms.int)
The UNEP/CMS Office
in Abu Dhabi aims to implement the CMS Memorandum
of Understanding on the Conservation and
Management of Dugongs (Dugong dugon) and
their habitats. It was concluded in 2007
and has been signed by 18 countries: Australia,
Bahrain, Comoros, Eritrea, France, India,
Kenya, Madagascar, Myanmar, Philippines,
Palau, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands,
Seychelles, Vanuatu, United Arab Emirates,
United Republic of Tanzania and Yemen.
SPREP is the Pacific
region's major intergovernmental organisation
charged with protecting and managing the
environment and natural resources. SPREP's
mandate is to promote cooperation in the
Pacific islands region and to provide assistance
in order to protect and improve the environment
and to ensure sustainable development for
present and future generations. It has 25
members.
www.sprep.org
+ More
Rooting Out Poverty
with the E-Tree Programme in China
Beijing, 11 March, 2011
? The third phase of the China E-Tree Programme,
a web-based platform to mobilize resources
and public participation for tree planting,
was launched today at a ceremony in Beijing
to commemorate the UN International Year
of the Forests and in celebration of China's
Arbor Day tomorrow.
The E-Tree programme
is a multi-partnership initiative involving
government agencies, the private sector,
media and civil society in tree planting
activities in western China, which has a
fragile environment and large poor population.
Donations collected online will be sent
to the poor farmers living in the drought-hit
areas of western China as a means of combating
desertification and alleviating the poverty.
Launched in 2009 by
UNEP in collaboration with the China Green
Foundation and Fujian Southeast TV, the
China E-Tree programme has helped more than
16,000 impoverished families in western
China and has resulted in the planting of
nearly 10 million Sea-buckthorn trees covering
an area of more than 5,000 hectares.
The 3rd China E-Tree
Progamme was co-organized by the United
Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the
China Green Foundation, Fujian Southeastern
TV and Taobao.com. Senior officials, including
Zhang Siqin, former Vice-Chairman of the
Chinese People's Political Consultative
Conference , Zhu Lieke, Vice Minister of
China's State Forestry Administration, Wang
Zhibao, Chairman of the China Green Foundation,
as well as Chinese celebrities and media
participated in the launching ceremony.
Also present at the launch was Zhang Shigang,
representative of the UNEP China Office,
who delivered the opening speech during
the event.
The China E-Tree Progamme
has important social influence. With the
form of E-Tree, it builds an open and convenient
platform for nearly 5 million citizens to
make donations for tree-planting, broadens
the channels for the public to volunteer
in tree-planting, creates a new model to
plant trees and make China greener, and
welcomes a new era of public forestation,"
said Zhu Lieke, Vice Minister of State Forestry
Administration.
The China E-Tree Progamme
has attracted millions of Chinese citizens
as well as numerous enterprises and international
organizations. Fundraising online alone
has exceeded US$1000,000.
"The E-Tree Programme
has made important contributions to the
ecology and poverty alleviation campaign
in western China," said Dr. Young-Woo
Park, Regional Director, UNEP Regional Office
for Asia and the Pacific. "Trees and
forests play a vital role in our lives,
in our economies. They bring many benefits
? ecological, economic, and social and health.
They regulate our waters and act as a defense
against floods. UNEP is happy to participate
in this E-Tree initiative to celebrate this
year's UN International Year of the Forests."
At the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
held in November 2006 in Nairobi, Kenya,
UNEP and the International Centre for Research
in Agroforestry (ICRAF) co-launched the
Billion Tree Campaign, encouraging individuals,
communities, enterprises, business circles,
NGOs and governments to make online tree-planting
promises, in order to showcase the public
attitude to challenge climate change and
forest and ecosystem degradation.
With the same objective,
the China E-Tree Progamme focuses on the
public's growing awareness of forest protection,
as well as forestation's important contribution
to environmental protection, social values
and human wellbeing.
In a video message,
UNEP Communications Director Mr. Satinder
Bindra said: "To highlight the use
of trees and forests, UNEP has been leading
the Billion Tree Campaign. So far we have
planted 11 billion trees across the world
and China has really done very well. Along
with India it tops the roll of honor in
this tree planting campaign. China has planted
2.8 billion trees and some of them have
been planted by the China Green Foundation
which has an e-planting initiative. This
is supported by the State Forestry Administration.
And this year, the third successive year
in a row, you will be planting many more
trees in western China."
With the launch of the
3rd E-Tree Progamme, organizers hope that
more citizens, enterprises and organizations,
especially the younger generation, will
be able to join, pay more attention and
support forestation and ecological construction
in China. Each one can contribute their
individual power through the Internet, to
protect forests and the Earth while creating
a better home where humans and the nature
co-exist harmoniously.
