Posted
on 01 June 2010
A few years ago, India’s Panna Tiger Reserve
made global headlines when all of its tigers
were lost to poachers.
Now Panna is once again
in the news, but this time for a very different
reason: Three tiger cubs were photographed
this spring with their mother, marking the
very first time that a translocated tiger
has given birth in the wild.
“This is a momentous
occasion for tiger conservation in India
and indeed the world,” said Diwakar Sharma
of WWF India “The new family is a positive
sign that tigers are returning in Panna,
but our work here is far from over until
the cubs reach safely into adulthood.”
Down to zero
In less than a decade, poachers had systematically
wiped out every single tiger in Panna Tiger
Reserve, which boasted 21 tigers in 1998.
By 2009 reports that
Panna had lost all its tigers was making
the news and in June last year, the state
government of Madhya Pradesh finally admitted
there were no tigers left in the reserve.
This raised international
concern and galvanized national action.
The Indian government immediately put together
protective and remedial actions to make
Panna a safe haven for tigers once more.
Starting from scratch
Last year, a male tiger from Pench and two
females from Bandhavgarh and Kanha Tiger
Reserves were translocated to Panna under
the expertise of the Wildlife Institute
of India. WWF lent technical support to
these historic efforts through state-of-the-art
radio collars along with remote surveillance
systems to monitor the translocated tigers.
The process has not
been without incident. A female tiger frequently
left the reserve until she marked her territory
in the core habitat of the protected area.
The lone male travelled over 190 miles until
it was captured and brought back to the
reserve on December 25, 2009.
Since 2004, WWF has
been committed to the long-term support
of Panna Tiger Reserve and has worked with
the field staff and local communities to
strengthen tiger conservation efforts. We
are helping educate children from the nomadic
Pardi hunting tribe that live around the
reserve to ensure that future generations
won’t have to rely on illegal activities
to earn a livelihood. Pardis are traditional
hunters that illegal wildlife traders often
use to poach tigers.
“The birth of these
cubs shows us that the key rules remain
unchanged—first that tigers need undisturbed
habitat with enough prey and second, they
have to be protected against poaching,”
said Samir Sinha, head of TRAFFIC-India.
“With enough protection and the continued
commitment of local communities and national
bodies, tigers can bounce back even from
small populations.”
The new frontier
The success in Panna is vital to tiger conservation
as scientists now have initial indications
that translocations can work if there is
enough prey and protection on the ground.
With wild tiger numbers
as lows as 3,200, could this be a viable
solution to repopulating tigerlands throughout
Asia?
“What we learned from
the translocation in India will help inform
bold new strategies for tigers in other
countries like Cambodia, Lao and Vietnam
where wild populations are in peril,” said
Dr Barney Long, WWF’s Asian species expert.
“The three cubs in Panna are a powerful
symbol of what can be done to ensure a future
for wild tigers.”
+ More
France gives major boost
to international water treaty
Posted on 04 June 2010
Palais du Pharo, Marseille, France - France
is set to become the 20th country to sign
up to a key international convention governing
the use and protection of rivers and lakes
crossing or forming international boundaries.
The announcement, made
this morning by French Secretary of State
for Ecology Chantal Jouanno at the kick
off meeting of the 6th World Water Forum
to be held in Marseille in 2012, is a major
boost for the 13 years old UN Watercourses
Convention, which requires 35 contracting
parties to come into effect.
France’s accession,
which follows that of Guinea-Bissau in May
and Spain and Tunisia in 2009, still requires
the French Senate to give the green light
to a bill authorizing the ratification of
the convention. France’s National Assembly
passed this measure last month.
The Secretary of State
for Ecology went on to say that France will
actively promote ratification of the Convention.
France’s move has been
welcomed by Green Cross International (GCI),
the International Network of Basin Organisations
(INBO) and WWF International, three major
organisations that have long campaigned
for the convention as the basis for peaceful
resolution of disputes over water sharing
in international rivers, lakes and aquifers.
“More than 100 nations
voted for the UN Watercourses Convention
in 1997,” said Flavia Loures, leader of
the campaign for the widespread endorsement
of the convention within WWF's Global Freshwater
Programme. “They voted for it because they
recognised then that you can have agreement
or you can have conflict over water.
“While additional agreements
over specific transboundary waters have
been adopted between countries since, many
such agreements fail to deal with key water
management issues. The world still very
much needs the fair and overall blueprint
supplied by the UN Watercourses Convention.”
“As we increasingly
wake up to a world of water shortages linked
to climate change, economic growth and urbanisation,
we are seeing more and more interest in
discussions on transboundary water issues,
and more and more interest in the convention.”
“Acceding to the Convention
will not create new obligations for French
rivers as they are already subject to more
stringent European Union rules. The announcement
made by France, as the host country of the
next World Water Forum, sends a strong message
to the international community on
the importance of improving transboundary
water management” said Marie-Laure Vercambre,
the Water Programme Leader of Green Cross
International.
“France has been anxious
to promote an international legal regime
for water, the principles of integrated
water resources management included in the
Convention and a framework for peace within
the geopolitics of water.”
Currently the only legal
instrument dealing with global management
of transboundary waters, the UN Watercourses
Convention potentially sets standards and
rules for cooperation between states sharing
some 276 international watercourses - including
many of the world’s major river systems
such as the Amazon, Rio Grande, Indus, Ganges,
Mekong, Amur, Nile, Congo, Rhine and Danube.
The convention establishes
the principles of equitable and reasonable
use of and participation in the sound management
of international watercourses, codifies
the rights and duties of riparian states,
promotes dialogue and data sharing, and
facilitates negotiations on the adoption
of regional and watercourse treaties.
“France has been at
the forefront of national river basin management
and transboundary issues since the Water
Act of 1964 creating the Basin Committees
and Water Agencies," said Jean-François
Donzier, Permanent Technical Secretary of
INBO. “The rules that the UN Watercourses
Convention establishes reflect this French
model of river basin management that has
now been adopted by some sixty countries
around the world.
“This model also inspired
the European Union Water Framework Directive,
which itself created obligations for the
coordinated management of transboundary
rivers and mandatory participation of all
stakeholders, including civil society, in
the water management process.
“France encourages the
implementation of these principles of governance
within the framework of its international
cooperation, in particular by supporting
the International Network of Basin Organizations.”
The Convention will
soon count 20 contracting states, including
France – that is, 15 short of the number
required for entry into force.
Further information:
Steal for it, shoot for it or sign for it:
Stark choices facing a world running short
on water at
http://assets.panda.org/downloads/media_backgrounder_steal_for_it_forum_final_nov2009.pdf
About Green Cross International
Green Cross International (GCI) is a leading
environmental organization. Founded by President
Mikhail Gorbachev in 1993, this non-profit
and non-governmental organisation promotes
a combination of high level advocacy with
key international stakeholders, runs campaigns
and manages local projects to address the
inter-connected global challenges of security,
poverty eradication and environmental degradation.
GCI is present in over 30 countries and
has its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.
More information about GCI is available
at www.gci.ch www.gci.ch and on twitter@GreenCrossInt
About Europe-INBO
The Europe-INBO group of European basin
organizations was created in 2004 to implement
the Water Framework Directive by the concerned
members of the International Network of
Basin Organizations for exchanging field
experiences and reporting to the EU Commission
about the implementation difficulties.
Europe-INBO also presented at the November
2008 EU Water Directors meeting a mid-term
report on the transboundary cooperation
organized among the riparian States of European
shared watercourses. More information on
www.inbo-news.org
About WWF
WWF is one of the world's largest and most
respected independent conservation organizations,
with more than 5 million supporters and
a global network active in over 100 countries.
WWF's mission is to stop the degradation
of the earth's natural environment and to
build a future in which humans live in harmony
with nature, by conserving the world's biological
diversity, ensuring that the use of renewable
natural resources is sustainable, and promoting
the reduction of pollution and wasteful
consumption. www.panda.org
