Posted on 13 May 2011
Nuuk, Greenland: The Arctic Council yesterday
showed off its potential, with eight countries
and indigenous organisations signing off
on Arctic-wide search and rescue provisions.
“This is not a step
forward for the council – this a great leap
forward”, said Alexander Shestakov, Director
of WWF’s Global Arctic Programme.
“It proves that leaders
around the circumpolar world are capable
of working together to meet a common need.
The Arctic states will need to make several
more such leaps to meet the challenges of
an Arctic environment that is facing wrenching
physical change, compounded by swift social
and economic change."
Progress was also recorded
on other key areas, with ministers of the
US, Canada, Norway, Finland and Russia,
Denmark and Greenland, Iceland and Sweden
together with leaders of indigenous organisations,
agreed to look further at ecosystem based
management in the Arctic. Once in place,
this system allows for better management
of resources such as fish stocks that flow
across international boundaries.
Steps hold a lot of
promise
The leaders also agreed
to take steps to assess change and resilience
in the Arctic, which would be able to build
on WWF’s work in identifying future areas
important for conservation.
Lastly the leaders agreed
to establish a task force aimed at developing
a new international agreement on oil spill
preparedness and response. WWF notes that
oil spill prevention is not included in
the mandate of the task force, which we
believe is a glaring omission. While this
will not stop new drilling for oil in the
Arctic, it may go some way toward meeting
WWF’s argument for a halt to drilling until
there are proven technologies capable of
effectively preventing or responding to
spills in Arctic conditions.
“These steps hold a
lot of promise,” says Shestakov. “The states
must now deliver on that promise. The arctic
is no longer a sleepy backwater, but a priority
region for some of the richest and most
powerful states in the world. If the Arctic
states do not quickly and effectively regulate
Arctic activities, they run the risk of
allowing this unique place to be despoiled.”
Shestakov said WWF would
have like to see stronger climate change
commitments from the Arctic countries, as
this remains the most urgent underlying
issue in the Artic.
"We need to set
the world on the path to an equitable and
low carbon future, with the long-term goal
of 80% emissions reductions by 2050 to ensure
the safety, sustainability and prosperity
of people, places and species," Shestakov
said.
"We urge the Arctic
nations to set explicit and binding national
emissions reduction targets towards 80%
reduction, and to implement ambitious action
plans for adaptation and low carbon development."
The next Arctic Council
ministerial meeting will be held in two
years. WWF will continue to monitor and
report on the Council’s progress on conservation
issues, and will continue to offer its expertise
and research.
+ More
Responsible salmon aquaculture
global standards creation process enters
final stage
Posted on 16 May 2011
The final step in the process of creating
global standards for salmon farming began
today when the Salmon Aquaculture Dialogue
kicked off the last public comment period
for the draft standards.
The final standards
will address the key negative environmental
and social impacts associated with salmon
farming and allow for the economic viability
of the industry, which produces more than
60 percent of salmon eaten globally today.
Impacts addressed through the standards
include water pollution, sourcing of feed
ingredients, disease transmission between
farmed and wild salmon and labor issues
on farms.
“Continued transparency
and involvement from a broad spectrum of
salmon aquaculture industry stakeholders,
including retailers, farmers and scientists
is needed to ensure the final standards
are strong,” said Petter Arnesen of Marine
Harvest, who is a member of the Dialogue’s
steering committee.
Feedback received during
the 30-day public comment period will be
used by the Dialogue’s nine-person Steering
Committee to finalize the standards in the
third quarter of 2011. The standards-development
process has included more than 500 farmers,
conservationists, government officials,
academics and other salmon farming stakeholders.
“We’ve already taken
one giant step forward with the 400 pages
of input received during the first comment
period last year,” said Katherine Bostick
of World Wildlife Fund (WWF), who coordinates
the Dialogue.
Significant changes
were made to the proposed standards as a
result of the public comment provided on
the initial draft. Among the changes are
greater emphases on minimizing parasiticide
use, clearer standards related to responsible
sourcing of feed ingredients, and requirements
that address key negative impacts of smolt
production. Additionally, the revised standards
seek to protect wild fish from on-farm diseases
and parasites by requiring farms to operate
in an area-based management system, monitor
wild fish and incorporate wild monitoring
results into farm management. To encourage
transparency and learning, the standards
require public disclosure of sea lice monitoring
data on the farm and in the wild.
”No other voluntary
salmon standard moves the industry forward
in this way,” Bostick said.
The Dialogue standards
will be given to the Aquaculture Stewardship
Council (ASC) to manage when that entity
is in operation later this year. WWF is
helping to create the ASC, which will be
responsible for working with independent,
third party entities to certify farms that
are in compliance with the standards being
developed by participants of the eight Aquaculture
Dialogues.
The Steering Committee
that manages the salmon Dialogue includes
representatives from Canadian Aquaculture
Industry Alliance, Coastal Alliance for
Aquaculture Reform, Fundación Terram,
Marine Harvest, Norwegian Seafood Federation,
Pew Environment Group, SalmonChile, Skretting,
and WWF. The Committee urges stakeholders
to provide constructive feedback on the
document, which remains a working draft.
For more information about the salmon Dialogue
and to provide feedback during the next
public comment period, go to www.worldwildlife.org/salmondialogue.
+ More
UK sets new legally
binding emissions target
Posted on 17 May 2011
London, UK: The United Kingdom, the first
to enshrine reductions in climate change
causing emissions into law, today announced
a 2025 target of a 50 per cent emissions
cut from 11000 levels.
The target, enshrined
in the 4th Carbon Budget for the period
2023-2027, was the minimum level recommended
by the independent Committee on Climate
Change.
WWF-UK welcomed the
decision, saying it represented a significant
and meaningful step towards a low-carbon
UK, although scrutiny of the detail will
be vital.
But WWF also said the
struggle the self-proclaimed "greenest
Government ever" had to endure in order
to agree it does leave concerns over how
committed some Government departments are
to tackling climate change.
"No other country
has set legally binding emission reduction
targets going into the 2020s and so with
this decision the UK is demonstrating genuine
leadership on climate change," said
Keith Allott, WWF-UK’s head of climate change.
"The Climate Change Act remains a groundbreaking
piece of legislation that with support,
will underpin the UK’s transition to a low-carbon
economy.”
“However, we must remember
that the Committee on Climate Change had
made clear that the carbon budget agreed
today is the "absolute minimum"
necessary, and that it should be achieved
through actions taken here in the UK rather
than relying on emission credits from overseas.
"The unwillingness
of Government to accept this recommendation
suggests that some Whitehall departments
are more committed to action than others."
WWF is keen to see more
countries follow the initiatiive of enshrining
emissions reductions targets into law. The
UK's Climate Change Act, passed in 2008,
provides a framework for UK emissions to
be reduced to at least 80 percent under
11000 levels by 2050 - a target consistent
with the reductions advocated by the the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
The Act showed it had
real teeth when Britain's High Court last
year said the emissions implications of
the proposed Heathrow Airport expansion
had to be considered in the economic case
for the project.
