25 May 2012 - The United
States Senate Foreign Relations Committee
has held a hearing on the growing poaching
crisis in Africa. Witnesses, including renowned
elephant expert, Iain Douglas-Hamilton,
and John Scanlon, Secretary-General of CITES,
testified to the clear links between the
surging illegal trade in high-value wildlife
products, such as elephant ivory and rhino
horn, and transnational criminal networks
that are creating instability, breeding
corruption and helping to fund militant
insurgencies, particularly in Central Africa.
In his eloquent remarks opening the hearing,
entitled “Ivory and Insecurity: The Global
Implications of Poaching in Africa”, Chairman
John Kerry, made clear the crisis is a serious
one with far-reaching consequences.
“Poaching is not just a security threat
in Africa,” warned Senator Kerry. “It’s
also a menace to developing economies, and
it thrives where governance is weakest.
Poachers with heavy weapons are a danger
to lightly armed rangers and civilians as
well as the animals they target.”
In joint testimony submitted to the committee,
WWF and TRAFFIC recommended that “wildlife
crime needs to be treated with the same
seriousness and level of attention that
we give to other transnational organized
crime.” The two organizations also urged
“a concerted effort to greatly raise the
profile of the illegal wildlife trade and
to take this high profit/low risk crime
and turn it on its head, so that it becomes
a crime of high risk and low profit.” This
will require “enhanced enforcement, more
prosecutions, stiffer penalties and public
commitments by those with power and influence
to ensure wildlife crime is treated as a
serious offense.”
Following the hearing, Ginette Hemley, WWF
Senior Vice President for Conservation Strategy
and Science, issued the following statement:
“We are once more at a crisis moment for
Africa‘s elephants and rhinos. Today’s hearing
provided clear evidence that the multi-billion
dollar black market in illegally trafficked
wildlife products is reaching new levels
of intensity and driving poaching in Africa
to dangerous levels not seen in decades.
We commend Chairman Kerry and the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee for shining
a spotlight on this urgent issue and making
clear the need to address it at the highest
levels. The United States has long been
the global leader on the conservation of
these charismatic species, and the United
States government has a pivotal role to
play in arresting the current crisis.”
+ More
Filipinos learn to rescue
whales, dolphins
22 May 2012 - Swimming
at the beach, you quickly notice something
huge thrashing in the water. Panic vanishes
as you realize it is a whale, stranded by
the tide. What do you do?
To address rising incidents of whale and
dolphin strandings, the World Wide Fund
for Nature (WWF-Philippines) recently conducted
a two-day cetacean stranding rescue workshop
at Hamilo Coast in Nasugbu, Batangas. Over
40 staff and officers from Hamilo Coast
underwent classroom and field sessions on
cetacean biology, identification, threats,
conservation and actual rescue techniques.
“Few Filipinos realize that whales are found
right here in the Philippines,” explains
WWF-Philippines Hamilo Coast Project Manager
Paolo Pagaduan. “Training local residents
to rescue cetaceans far more than ensures
the safety of stranded whales and dolphins
– it cultivates their natural sense of stewardship.”
Cetaceans include all
whale, dolphin and porpoise species, divided
by type: Odontocetes or toothed whales feed
primarily on fish and squid. Mysticetes
or baleen whales have fringed strips of
hair-like plates in place of teeth and feed
primarily on plankton, krill and tiny fish.
Twenty eight – a full third of all known
species – have been recorded in Philippine
waters as of 2012.
Hamilo Coast has since
2007 been working closely with WWF to restore
and protect the degraded coastlines and
marine resources of Nasugbu, Batangas. The
8000-hectare eco-tourism project has fused
tourism with sustainable land development
by balancing conservation and land conversion.
Whale and Dolphin Strandings
in the Philippines
Each year, thousands of cetacean strandings
are reported worldwide. Some die at sea
and wash ashore, while others become trapped
in shallow water. Left unaided, many die
within a day or two.
About a dozen stranding events are reported
in the Philippines yearly, most occurring
during the Amihan or north-eastern monsoon
from November to March. During this period,
strong winds generate stronger-than-usual
currents.
WWF-Philippines Vice-Chair
and CEO Lory Tan says, “Our priority should
be to return stranded cetaceans to their
natural habitats as soon as possible. WWF
conducts these workshops so local leaders
know just what to do.”
Cetacean stranding causes
include the presence or a lack of food,
predators, stress, injuries, disease, pollution,
rough seas, tidal fluctuations, undersea
quakes, seismic testing, blast fishing or
the disruption of magnetic fields used by
some cetaceans for navigation.
On 10 December 2009,
a stranded 29-foot Bryde’s Whale (Baleanoptera
edeni) was towed and set-free by locals
in nearby Barangay Calayo, Nasugbu.
On 10 February 2009, 300 Melon-headed Whales
(Peponocephala electra) were stranded off
the towns of Pilar and Orion in Bataan,
in the largest recorded stranding event
in Philippine history. Three of the whales
died but the majority were herded to deeper
waters by volunteers.
On 3 March 2009, another pod of 100 Melon-headed
Whales was ushered back to deeper waters
in Odiongan, Romblon.
"When I was young,
beached dolphins used to be slaughtered
for meat," recounts Hamilo Coast Security
Officer and Barangay Calayo resident Zaldy
Flores. "The skills shared by WWF have
given us both the competence and confidence
to deal with future strandings. We’re now
ready to rescue all stranded whales and
dolphins in Nasugbu.”
Batangas Volunteer Saves Hundreds of Dolphins,
Turtles
“You don’t have to be a doctor or a vet
to save lives,” explains WWF Hero of the
Environment and dolphin mural painter AG
Saño. “Jessie De Los Reyes, a Bantay
Dagat or Sea Patrol volunteer based in Calatagan,
Batangas, was able to rescue and release
hundreds of sea turtles, dolphins, sharks
and even a large whale because he attended
a workshop like this. If one person can
do this, imagine what can happen if all
40 people here emulate him.”
Led by WWF-Philippines CEO Lory Tan, author
of the multi-awarded book, ‘A Field Guide
to Whales and Dolphins in the Philippines’,
the training team was composed of Paolo
Pagaduan, AG Saño, Marlyn Santiago,
Vanessa Vergara, Joanne Arnaldo and Gregg
Yan.
WWF has been collaborating
with leading Filipino marine mammal experts
and conservationists to conduct marine mammal
training programs with local governments,
coastal communities and private sector allies
since 1997.
So what to do in a stranding
situation? “Immediately contact WWF-Philippines,
the Marine Wildlife Watch of the Philippines
or local authorities. WWF-Philippines alone
has a 25,000-strong following on Facebook
and pools volunteer experts from a wide
range of disciplines to accomplish conservation
goals. We’re just a Facebook message or
a text away,” says Pagaduan.
“All Pinoys can do their
part,” shares Saño. “When at the
beach, throw your trash in bins. Here and
abroad, never order whale or dolphin meat.
Finally, we call on everyone to boycott
dolphin shows. If you love dolphins, then
please watch them in the wild. Palawan,
Bohol, the Tañon Strait and the Davao
Gulf are excellent places to see them in
their natural element.” (30)
