25
Feb 2009 - Vladivostok, Russia - Protected
forest in Russia including a “maternity
hospital” for the Amur tiger and unique
Korean pine stands have been sold for logging
in controversial circumstances and in the
face of protests by WWF-Russia and the local
population.
Last week the Forestry
Agency of Primorskii Province in south-eastern
Russia auctioned off more than 400 forest
plots, covering four wildlife refuges and
five Korean pine nut harvesting zones.
The auction, which for
unknown reasons was held two days before
the scheduled date, ignored new regulations
on three regional and one federal wildlife
refuge.
Also ignored were long
standing appeals by local people asking
to lease two of the pine nut harvesting
zones to collect nuts, medical and edible
plants and conduct responsible hunting,
appeals which had the support of WWF and
Ministry of Natur? Resources and Ecology
of Russia.
“Unfortunately we cannot
prevent tending cutting in protective forests
by simply pointing to the the breaches of
the law,” said Denis Smirnov, forest program
coordinator, WWF Russia Amur branch. “Tending
of forest in Primorye has been long a loophole
for conducting large-scale illegal cutting.”
Pavel Sulyandziga, first
vice-president of the Association of Indigenous
peoples of the North, Siberia and Far East
of Russia, said: “In the village of Krasnyi
Yar local aboriginal tribes cannot get permission
to cut trees for construction of houses
or for firewood.
“This is at a time when
the Korean pine nut harvesting zone is being
prescribed for logging. This zone belongs
to us but over 15 years we have not been
able to get approval to establish the territory
for traditional nature use. The auction
demonstrates a cynical attitude of authorities
to the issues of aboriginal people.”
The areas sold include
areas in the Chyornye Skaly refuge that
are habitat for goral – small hoofed animals
with a goat-like appearance that are enlisted
in the Russian Red data book. The Amur “maternity
hospital” is in the Tayozhnyi refuge, the
Korean pine stands in five Korean pine nut
harvesting zones including one in the Bikin
River.
The federal wildlife
refuge Leopardovyi – a key habitat for the
Amur leopard - just established in October
2008, was withdrawn from sale following
an official demand from Yurii Trutnev, Russia’s
Minister of Nature Resources and Ecology,
to Sergei Darkin, Governor of Primorskii
Province.
As in 2008, a contract
for forest protection, maintenance, restoration
and tending cutting in 12 Primorye forestries
will be signed in 2009, with the only claimant
being the governmental organization Primorskii
Forestry Enterprise. WWF-Russia alleges
that the enterprise and its contractors
have conducted illegal logging disguised
as tending cutting.
“Having taken the decision
to sell plots of protected forest to the
Primorskii Forestry Enterprise, the Forestry
Agency of Primorskii Province has turned
a blind eye to the enterprise’s participation
in illegal logging,” said Smirnov. “Probably
the Forestry Agency has weighty reasons
to once again give a green light to dishonest
forest users.”
WWF-Russia is asking
law enforcement bodies to recognize as invalid
the decision of the Forestry Agency to place
orders for forest protection, maintenance,
restoration and tending cutting with the
Primorskii Forestry Enterprise in 2009.
“We predict this sale
will precipitate a new round of illegal
logging in Primorye and devastate areas
important to wildlife and local indigenous
people,” said Smirnov.
+ More
Hungary burns carbon
credibility propping up budget
27 Feb 2009 - Hungary
- a major seller of carbon credits– will
weaken its credibility in the growing international
carbon markets by using revenues to prop
up its budget rather than green its energy
production, WWF-Hungary has warned.
Mr Imre Szabo, the Minister
of Environment, announced that “the Ministry
will cut its annual budget this year by
freezing 67 million Euros from its 2009
Kyoto carbon trading revenues”.
According to WWF-Hungary,
this will not improve the budget balances,
create jobs or decrease the country’s energy
dependence on gas and oil but it will bring
into question the validity of Hungarian
carbon credits.
Hungary had recently
settled deals with Spain of 6.6 million
AAUs (Assigned Amount Units is the trading
unit of the Kyoto carbon trading system)
and Belgium of 2 million AAUs – on the basis
of projects to be undertaken through the
country’s planned Green Investment Scheme
(GIS).
“The Belgians have already
criticized Hungary for being late with greening
projects and freezing carbon trade revenues
will only frustrate them even more”, said
György Dallos, climate change programme
officer of WWF Hungary.
The Hungarian government
already has a track-record in undermining
carbon trading revenues, WWF said. Although
the Ministry of Environment had prepared
the draft of the National Allocation Plan
for the years 2008 to 2012 a year ago, the
Budapest government has been unable to have
it approved by the European Commission so
far.
The delay is estimated
to have cost Hungary €5 million due to an
inability to fully participate in auction
revenues under the European Quota Trading
System (ETS) at a time when higher prices
prevailed.
Halting or slowing the
pace of investment in green technologies
is also running counter to world trends
of increasing such spending.
“President Barack Obama,
Prime Minister Gordon Brown as well the
Canadian, the German, the Australian and
many other governments agree with Sir Nicholas
Stern that supporting green investments
in energy efficiency and renewables is an
effective tool to save and even create millions
of jobs and decrease energy bills,” Dallos
said.
The German “Alliance
for Work an Environment” programme saved
and created 145.000 jobs and saw 342.000
flats had been retrofitted for energy effiency
in the difficult recession period of the
German construction industry between 2001
and 2006, Dallos noted.
“If 1.8 million badly
insulated Hungarian family houses were insulated
within a 5-year period, it would create
tens of thousands of jobs all over the country,”
Dallos said.
“In addition to that,
1.5 million cubic metres of imported Russian
gas, as well as 3 million tons of greenhouse
gases, would be saved annually, thereby
reducing energy costs. This would bring
relief to millions of Hungarians.”
Other WWF Hungary proposals
for new and sustainable energy politics
include saving hundreds of millions of Euros
by eliminating the current gas price support
system and increasing “ridiculously low”
mining fees on lignite could cut budget
deficits and decrease energy dependency.
Additionally the Government
could also stop supporting the Vertes Coal
Plant through the “coal penny” system collected
on every Kilowatt-Hour consumed in the country.
Another efficient way
to save government money is stopping the
state owned Hungarian Energy Company (MVM)
to build a new lignite plant which would
never reach a break even given current conditions.
“MVM, the largest state
owned company, is sitting on piles of cash
thanks to the exceptionally high profits
in the last two years,” Dallos said. “So
far the government has hardly touched these
profits in order to establish a new sustainable
energy policy for a brighter future of Hungary.”
+ More
Tiger part trader becomes
TRAFFIC contributor
20 Feb 2009 - Richmond,
Canada - A Canadian company specializing
in Chinese traditional medicines is to pay
the bulk of a CAN45,000 (USD36,000) penalty
for trading illegally in tiger parts to
TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network
that helped secure its conviction.
Wing Quon Enterprises
Ltd., pleaded guilty to possessing and attempting
to sell medicines containing parts from
Tigers and other protected species in a
Richmond Provincial Court earlier this week.
TRAFFIC, whose expertise
helped secure the conviction, are to receive
the bulk of this sum, some CAN40,000 (USD
32,000).
The company was also
ordered to forfeit seized medicines and
products made from other endangered species,
including costus root, agarwood, bear, pangolin,
musk deer and rhinoceros. All are listed
in the Convention on International Trade
in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and
Flora (CITES), which imposes strict controls
on listed plants, wildlife and their derivatives.
TRAFFIC, which operates
globally, was established as a partnership
between WWF, the world's leading conservation
organization, and the International Union
for the Conservation of Nature, a global
consortium of government, scientific and
civil society organizations.
