25
Feb 2009 - Jakarta, Indonesia – In the wake
of the deaths of six people from tiger attacks
in Sumatra’s Jambi Province in less than
a month, conservationists are calling for
an urgent crackdown on the clearing of natural
forest in the province as a matter of public
safety.
Tigers killed three
illegal loggers over the weekend in Jambi,
according to government officials. Three
people were killed earlier in the same central
Sumatran province. Three juvenile tigers
were killed by villagers this month in neighbouring
Riau Province, apparently after straying
into a village in search of food. And in
an unrelated incident, two Riau farmers
were hospitalized after being attacked by
a tiger last weekend.
“As people encroach
into tiger habitat, it’s creating a crisis
situation and further threatening this critically
endangered sub-species,” said Ian Kosasih,
director of WWF’s Forest Program. “In light
of these killings, officials have got to
make public safety a top concern and put
a stop to illegal clearance of forests in
Sumatra.”
There is rampant clearing
of forests by individuals and corporations
in the region for palm oil plantations and
pulpwood plantations. This forest loss is
one of the leading drivers of human-tiger
conflict in the region. About 12 million
hectares of Sumatran forest has been cleared
in the past 22 years, a loss of nearly 50
percent islandwide. The incidents in Riau
occurred in the Kerumutan forest block,
a site where many forest fires have been
set in the last two months, as well as the
location of many plantation developments
threatening tiger forests.
Jambi Province is the
site of the only two “global priority” tiger
conservation landscapes in Sumatra, as identified
by a group of leading tiger scientists in
2005. There are estimated to be fewer than
400 Sumatran tigers left in the wild.
Didy Wurjanto, the head
of the official Jambi nature conservancy
agency, BKSDA, said his team has increased
its patrols following the killings. He is
also working with local officials to halt
the rampant conversion of forests by illegal
loggers and palm oil plantations, which
is mostly done by people from outside Jambi.
“The shocking news that
six people have been killed in less than
one month is an extremely sad illustration
of how bad the situation has become in Jambi,”
Wurjanto said. “It’s a signal that we need
to get serious about protecting natural
forest and giving tigers their space, and
ensure local governments have sustainable
economic development policies in place that
include long-term protections for our natural
resources.”
WWF is working with
officials and communities in both provinces
on ways to reduce the conflict and has deployed
field staff to the site of the Riau killings
to investigate the incidents.
+ More
WWF gives Europe a roadmap
to Copenhagen
27 Feb 2009 - Brussels,
Belgium: With a series of critical European
Union meetings on a new global climate deal
about to begin, WWF has set out what Europe
needs to do to grow in a green way while
contributing to helping the world avoid
passing the 2 degree threshold of warming
that presents unacceptable risks of catastrophic
climate change.
“There is a clear link
to be made between ambitious climate policies
and a new phase of economic growth,” said
Stephan Singer, Director of Energy Programme
at WWF International.
“The recent financial
bailouts prove that when governments decide
to fix a problem, money and regulatory instruments
are there. There is no excuse to treat the
climate crisis with less support and attention.”
The WWF roadmap to a
successful new global agreement in Copenhagen
in December would see Europe radically strengthen
its announced commitments of cutting emissions
by just 20 per cent by 2020 and 50 per cent
by 2050.
European environment
ministers will consider target developed
and undeveloped country emissions to take
to Copenhagen at Monday’s EU Environment
Council meeting in Brussels.
Commit to zero net emissions
Based on various studies,
including the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change (IPCC) scenarios, WWF says
that emissions will have to be reduced by
at least 80 percent by 2050 globally to
keep warming below 2°C. In compliance
with its fair share of responsibility, the
EU must commit to net zero emissions by
2050.
The IPCC also said that
industrial countries will have to reduce
their greenhouse gases by between 25 and
40% by 2020. The current EU target is only
20%, with a possibility to increase to 30%
if other developed nations will join an
international agreement.
These targets are clearly
at the lower end of the IPCC scale, and
even lower in reality considering that EU
countries are allowed to fulfil up to two
thirds of their commitment by way of certificates
for projects in developing countries (the
so-called CDM credits).
At the forthcoming Economic
and Financial Affairs Council (Ecofin) meeting
on Tuesday March 10, European finance ministers
will consider both the plan to boost economic
recovery in Europe and financing climate
protection measures.
WWF said Ecofin must
come to grips with the fact that so far
EU countries have failed to seriously face
the challenge and to see the opportunities
created by a greener economy.
Today, the fossil fuel
energy sector in the EU-15 countries still
receives about €20 billion of subsidies,
equal to 0.2% Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Europe imports about 4.8 billion barrels
of oil per year, equal to 3% of GDP. Natural
gas imports are another 3% of GDP.
According to the European
Commission, between 600,000 and 900,000
jobs can be created by renewable energy
by 2020, compared to today’s 150,000 jobs.
As a comparison, the cement and the steel
sectors – some of those crying wolf about
strong climate measure – employ about 60,000
and 300,000 people respectively.
With finance to developing
countries being touted as a make or break
issue at Copenhagen, WWF is calling for
European contributions for clean technology
and reduced deforestation in developing
countries to
amount to €35 billion per year, in addition
to the long-time promised 0.7% GDP for development
aid.
Funding of climate protection
measures (avoidance, adaptation and forest
protection) needs to be sustainable, predictable
and controlled in a transparent manner by
the international community.
The European Commission’s
current proposal also fails to address the
enormous potential of energy efficiency,
with an almost complete lack of concrete
proposals for technology co-operation.
WWF says that the EU
financing of technology development and
research should be increased by a factor
of 10 compared to current levels by 2020,
particularly for renewable energies, energy
efficiency and carbon capture and storage
(CCS).
The EU should also promote
the setting up of a technology action programme
under the UNFCCC to protect intellectual
property rights and promote innovation.
Outcomes from the Ecofin
and Environment Council meetings are scheduled
to be considered by EU Heads of State at
a European Council meeting on Thursday 19th
and Friday 20th March. Some issues however
may carry over to when Sweden assumes the
presidency of the EU.
