Posted on 08 July 2009
L-Aquila, Italy- G8 leaders today recognized
the need to keep temperature increases below
the two degree limit recognised as presenting
unacceptable risks of catastrophic climate
change - but have yet to outline immediate
actions to achieve this goal.
WWF welcomes the leaders’
initiative but the lack of an agreement
on ambitious midterm emissions reduction
targets, clear financial commitments and
a date for global peak and decline of emissions
could turn the 2 degree commitment into
an empty statement, the global environment
group said.
“World leaders have
come down to earth. We welcome them back
here but why have they failed to tell us
how they want to achieve what they promise,”
said Kim Carstensen, the leader of the WWF
Global Climate Initiative.
Carstensen said the
G8 commitment to reduce their emissions
by 80 per cent or more by 2050 is welcome
news, but it does not compensate for the
lack of clear and ambitious short-term targets.
“What are they going to do between now and
2020?” he asked.
An ambitious midterm
target for 2020 of developed countries is
needed to ensure immediate action and so
far the emission reduction pledges by individual
industrialised countries did not add up
to the level of action needed.
"Without setting
the path to reduce emissions, the actual
obligations of countries will be watered
down, and staying below 2 degrees will be
impossible," he said.
WWF believes the group
of industrialised countries should cut emissions
by 40 percent by 2020 compared to 11000
levels. The US should take a comparable
target, in nature, legal form and effort.
The global conservation
organisation also asks developed countries
to put forward a financial commitment of
160 billion USD a year for emission cuts
and adaptation to climate impacts in the
developing world.
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Poaching crisis as rhino
horn demand booms in Asia
Posted on 09 July 2009
- An adult rhino in Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary,
Assam
Geneva, Switzerland — Rhino poaching worldwide
is poised to hit a 15-year-high driven by
Asian demand for horns, according to new
research.
Poachers in Africa and
Asia are killing an ever increasing number
of rhinos—an estimated two to three a week
in some areas—to meet a growing demand for
horns believed in some countries to have
medicinal value, according to a briefing
to a key international wildlife trade body
by WWF, the International Union for the
Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and their
affiliated wildlife trade monitoring network
TRAFFIC.
The impact in Africa
An estimated three rhinos
were illegally killed each month in all
of Africa from 2000-05, out of a population
of around 18,000. In contrast, 12 rhinoceroses
now are being poached each month in South
Africa and Zimbabwe alone, the three groups
told the 58th meeting of the Convention
on International Trade in Endangered Species
Standing Committee this week in Geneva.
“Illegal rhino horn
trade to destinations in Asia is driving
the killing, with growing evidence of involvement
of Vietnamese, Chinese and Thai nationals
in the illegal procurement and transport
of rhino horn out of Africa,” the briefing
states.
The impact in Asia
Meanwhile, rhino poaching
is also problematic in Asia. About 10 rhinos
have been poached in India and at least
seven in Nepal since January alone—out of
a combined population of only 2,400 endangered
rhinos.
“Rhinos are in a desperate
situation,” said Dr. Susan Lieberman, Director
of the Species Programme, WWF-International.
“This is the worst rhino poaching we have
seen in many years and it is critical for
governments to stand up and take action
to stop this deadly threat to rhinos worldwide.
It is time to crack down on organized criminal
elements responsible for this trade, and
to vastly increase assistance to range countries
in their enforcement efforts.”
Almost all rhino species
are listed in CITES (the Convention on Trade
in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and
Flora) in Appendix I, which means that any
international trade of any rhino parts for
commercial purposes is illegal.
“Increased demand for
rhino horn, alongside a lack of law enforcement,
a low level of prosecutions for poachers
who are actually arrested and increasingly
daring attempts by poachers and thieves
to obtain the horn is proving to be too
much for rhinos and some populations are
seriously declining,” said Steven Broad,
Executive Director of TRAFFIC.
The situation is particularly
dire in Zimbabwe where such problems are
threatening the success of more than a decade’s
work of bringing rhino populations back
to healthy levels.
For example, earlier
this week a park ranger arrested with overwhelming
evidence against him for having killed three
rhinos in the Chipinge Safari Area, was
acquitted without any satisfactory explanation
for the verdict. Similarly, in September
2008, a gang of four Zimbabwean poachers
who admitted to killing 18 rhinos were also
freed in a failed judiciary process.
The briefing concludes
that governments need “an accurate and up-to-date
picture of the status, conservation and
trade in African and Asian rhinoceroses,
as well as the factors driving the consumption
of rhinoceros horn, so that firm international
action can be taken to arrest this immediate
threat to rhinoceros populations worldwide.”
“Rhino populations in
both Africa and Asia are being seriously
threatened by poaching and illegal trade,”
said Dr Jane Smart, Director of IUCN’s Biodiversity
Conservation Group. “IUCN and its African
and Asian Rhino Specialist Groups are working
hard to gather data and information on rhinos
so that CITES parties can make informed
decisions and ensure that rhinos are still
here for generations to come.”
The 58th meeting of
the CITES Standing Committee is being held
in Geneva from 6 -10 July. This issue will
be further discussed at the 15th meeting
of the Conference of the Parties to CITES,
which will be held in Doha, Qatar March
13-25, 2010.
