Gland, Switzerland:
- On 20-22 June world leaders will gather
at Rio+20, the UN Conference on Sustainable
Development in Brazil, in what presents
a unique opportunity to develop and plan
a sustainable future for all. Decisions
made in Rio can shape the global environment
agenda for the next decade and beyond. The
Earth Summit, in 1992, delivered important
commitments – yet since then not enough
has been achieved and environmental progress
has been slow.
Financial crises worldwide
have cast a shadow over this conference
but Rio+20 is a chance for leaders to commit
to a sustainable future for generations
to come, and one which puts the wellbeing
of humans at the heart of the agenda.
“Over the past few years
we have seen how reckless mismanagement
of the world’s financial capital can wreak
havoc in society, and yet we are treating
the Earth’s finite natural capital in a
similarly dangerous way,” said Jim Leape,
Director General of WWF International. “Rio+20
needs to set a new course for the global
economy, sustaining the natural capital
we will require to meet the food, water
and energy needs of the future.”
Food, water and energy
security
Central to the discussions
in Rio will be the need to address the inter-linkages
between food, water and energy. Despite
some progress since the Earth Summit in
1992, environmental threats are far outpacing
solutions. WWF’s Living Planet Report 2012
shows we are already overusing our planet’s
resources and that nations need to react
immediately to reduce a dangerously ever-rising
ecological footprint.
Basic services are not
available to a large proportion of the world’s
population. Around 0.9 billion people lack
access to water for basic needs, 2.6 billion
lack access to safe sanitation and clean
water, close to 1 billion are undernourished
and 1.5 billion are without access to modern
forms of energy. Demands for food, water
and energy continue to rise while climate
change and population growth take their
toll.
“To meet the challenges
we have to conserve the Earth’s natural
capital – the wealth of its biodiversity
and ecosystems,” said Lasse Gustavsson,
Executive Director of Conservation, WWF
International. “For years, organizations,
governments and businesses have seen food,
water and energy security as distinct issues.
But if we are to achieve access to adequate
and safe food, water and energy, we need
to take an integrated approach.”
The links between food,
water and energy are multiple. Growing the
food needed to feed people will require
energy and water. Providing some forms of
energy requires water, and making water
safe for consumption requires energy to
clean it and then to distribute it. Climate
change – caused by our unsustainable use
of fossil fuels and deforestation – affects
food production and the availability of
water. WWF points to the need for a better
management of the world’s natural resources
including the protection of freshwater systems,
a reduction in waste in the production and
distribution of food and a more informed
use of water, land and other resources.
There needs to be stronger political commitment
and an enabling framework to carry out this
transformation.
In particular, WWF calls
for access to food, water and energy security
for all by 2030, with ambitious goals underpinned
by social, economic and environmental considerations.
These could include:
Affordable and fair access to a safe food
supply,
Additional investment and policies on sustainable
agriculture and food,
Well-managed freshwater and related ecosystems
Affordable and fair access to safe water
and improved sanitation
Policy measures aimed
to deliver sustainable access to energy
for all by 2030, including at least 40%
of sustainable renewable energy in the global
energy mix by 2030, and renewable, reliable
and affordable energy to those who live
in energy poverty.
Urgent action is needed
to protect our planet and deliver a credible
vision and plan for a sustainable future.
A strong and ambitious agreement must come
out of Rio+20 with clear timelines and goals.
“We can build a prosperous
future for people and planet, but only if
everyone steps up to do their part – community
leaders and heads of state, consumers and
CEOs,” said Leape. “At Rio+20, we look to
world leaders to come together in a shared
commitment to set the world on a different
path. And we look to leaders of all kinds
to come together in coalitions of the committed,
finding ways to drive sustainability into
their regions, their industries, their cities
and all of our lives.”
Valuing Nature
Rio+20 presents leaders
with a pivotal opportunity to recognize
and better embed the value of natural capital
into our global economic development. We
need to “measure what we treasure”:
- Rio+20 should deliver
a set of clear, transparent and comparable
indicators to measure the quality of the
environment. Indicators currently exist
for two of the three dimensions of sustainable
development (social and economic) but not
for the environment.
- Leaders in Rio should
“green” Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by
putting an economic value on natural capital.
Companies and governments must be required
to report and reflect the environmental
costs of their activities into national
accounts and corporate balance sheets.
Sustainable Development
Goals
WWF welcomes the concept
of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
as a means to address the critical and interlinked
challenges facing the development agenda
to 2030. The new goals should cover a number
of priority areas such as oceans, food,
water and energy and apply to all countries.
The goals would be the drivers of sustainability
and should clarify how the three dimensions
of sustainable development – economic, social
and environmental – depend on each other.
The SDGs would follow
on from the Millennium Development Goals,
which are due to end in 2015. They would
need to have time-bound targets for implementation
to address the challenge of food, water
and energy security in the context of a
healthy global environment – and have indicators
that countries can put into practice according
to national circumstances.
Perverse Subsidies
All subsidies that negatively
impact the environment should be eliminated;
particularly those that drive fossil fuel
production and use, and unsustainable agriculture
and fisheries. The process of elimination
should include transparent annual reporting
and review and should result in elimination
by 2020 at the latest.
Chinese e-commerce companies crack down
on illegal wildlife trade
5Posted on 08 June 2012 | 3 Comments
Beijing, China - 15 of the leading e-commerce
sellers operating in China, including Alibaba,
Taobao, and Tencent, have signed a declaration
stating they have a zero-tolerance policy
towards their services being used to conduct
illegal wildlife trading.
The statement says sellers
and buyers must comply with all aspects
of China’s Wild Animal Protection Law and
regulations under the Convention on International
Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) governing
the trade in wildlife goods.
The declaration was
issued following a workshop on controlling
online illegal wildlife trade organized
by Chinese authorities in collaboration
with WWF’s wildlife trade monitoring network
TRAFFIC earlier this month.
Following the workshop,
all the e-commerce company representatives
read and signed the ‘Commitment to zero-tolerance
of illegal online wildlife trade’, as a
demonstration of their determination to
stop illegal online wildlife trading.
Although wildlife law
enforcement efforts in China have led to
gains in policing physical markets for wildlife,
the availability of illegal wildlife goods
online has been gaining ground, as evidenced
by the booming popularity of the internet
and the burgeoning number of websites where
‘high profile’ animal species or parts,
such as elephants, rhinoceroses, tiger and
marine turtles, are illegally offered for
sale.
In April 2012, TRAFFIC
found 3,389 advertisements for tiger bone,
elephant ivory, rhino horn and hawksbill
turtle products being offered through 15
Chinese-language e-commerce sites and associated
auction websites and chat rooms.
China’s wildlife law
enforcement authorities are taking positive
steps to tackle the issue, through sustained
intensive enforcement actions and by holding
interagency workshops on the control of
illegal online wildlife trade.
In April this year,
China’s Forest Police filed 700 relevant
cases, shut down 628 online shops and deleted
1,607 pieces of information relating to
illegal trade of wildlife from websites.
Mr Zhang Libao, director
of the Wildlife Crime Division of the National
Forest Police, said police would conduct
sustained action against wildlife crime,
particularly online trade in tiger bone,
rhino horn and ivory.
Mr Wang Weisheng, a
Division Chief of the Wildlife Conservation
Department of the State Forestry Administration,
told participants: “All commercial trade
in tiger bone and rhino horn, in any form,
has been totally prohibited since 1993.
Ivory trade is allowed only in 136 accredited
physical shops, so all online trade in ivory
products is illegal and thus prohibited.”
He urged e-commerce
companies to screen all information relating
to these three species in particular, to
keep scrutinizing their sites for evidence
of illegal wildlife trade as a priority
and to collaborate with enforcement agencies
to deter online wildlife crime.
“Those operating e-commerce
websites and associated online exchanges
should make greater efforts to delete all
suspect information, provide information
on wildlife trade regulations to potential
online shoppers, and provide a way for the
public to report suspected illegal or fraudulent
trade to servers and authorities,” said
Ms Xu Ling, TRAFFIC’s Senior Programme Officer
in China.
Alibaba.com, the best
known B2B e-commerce website in China, has
taken a lead in combating illegal online
wildlife trade by effectively screening
information on all protected animals (and
their derivatives) listed in the Wild Animal
Protection Law and CITES.
The latest meeting is
part of a longer-term campaign led by TRAFFIC
and WWF to encourage e-commerce websites
to commit to not selling illegal wildlife
products, with the aim to reduce both availability
and demand for such contraband.
According to Dr Shi
Jianbin, Head of TRAFFIC’s China Programme:
“TRAFFIC is co-operating with online providers
and wildlife enforcement authorities to
heighten awareness among potential buyers
and sellers about illegal online wildlife
trade.
“Results of TRAFFIC’s
monitoring of suspected online illegal wildlife
trade will be passed on to relevant wildlife
enforcement authorities for further investigation,
as well as to e-commerce companies to help
them in improving their strategies to prevent
illegal trade.”
TRAFFIC is a joint programme of WWF and
IUCN.
+ More
New hope for elephants
under threat in Central Africa
Ndjamena, Chad - Central
African countries today signed a groundbreaking
regional plan to strengthen law enforcement
and better combat poaching of elephants
and other species at risk from illegal wildlife
trade.
The plan was adopted
by the ten member states of Central African
Forest Commission, known as COMIFAC, as
escalating rates of wildlife crime plague
the region.
Wildlife ministers from
the COMIFAC countries pledged to undertake
unprecedented levels of cooperation with
law enforcement agencies, such as the police,
customs and the judiciary, to tackle the
issue. They also announced plans to hold
a head of state conference next year to
address wildlife loss and maintaining Africa’s
biodiversity. The conference would bring
together African leaders as well as government
officials from key Asian trading partners
and intergovernmental supporters such as
the Africa Development Bank and the UN to
explore opportunities for cooperation.
“Without strong and
efficient collaboration among the COMIFAC
range states, we will never succeed in combating
this plague,” said Mahamat Bechir Okormi,
the Chad Minister for Environment and Fishery,
in his closing statement at the COMIFAC
preparatory meeting held yesterday in Ndjamena,
Chad.
Anti-poaching efforts
to increase across the ten Central African
nations
The law enforcement
action plan approved today includes provisions
to increase anti-poaching efforts in each
of the countries and to enable joint-country
patrols in some transborder areas.
Ivory, often bound for
Asia, is frequently smuggled across inland
borders before reaching overseas exit points
such as ports and airports. Under the plan,
customs controls are also set to be bolstered
at international transit hubs.
Ramping up investigations
of wildlife poachers
To ensure that criminals
engaging in illegal wildlife trade are arrested
and prosecuted to the full extent of the
law, COMIFAC countries plan to ramp up investigations
and conduct more thorough prosecutions.
Cases will also be monitored for corruption
and action taken against anyone attempting
to impede justice.
“This regional action
plan comes at the right time, as a coordinated
response to the recent upsurge of large
scale poaching witnessed in Central Africa,”
said Marc Languy, Leader of WWF’s Green
Heart of Africa initiative. “This is an
important milestone and there is need now
for COMIFAC countries to initiate the first
steps to implement it. The plan will also
need support from the international community.”
Finalization of the
plan has come just after the president of
the African Development Bank spoke strongly
about the urgent need to tackle illegal
wildlife trade.
“We are taking our ecosystems
for granted,” Africa Development Bank President
Dr Donald Kaberuka told reporters Friday.
“The increase in large
scale seizures is evidence of the involvement
of well organised criminal networks in illegal
wildlife trade, now the fifth largest illicit
transnational activity, worth between $8-10
billion per year. It is something we must
absolutely put to an end.”
Also at the Ndjamena
event, Chad, Central African Republic and
Cameroon signed a tri-partite declaration
to join forces and increase transboundary
collaboration to fight poaching. “This is
a welcome sign and will help ensure that
there will never again be a slaughter of
elephants on the scale witnessed in Cameroon
earlier this year,” said Lamine Sebogo,
WWF’s African elephant expert.
“We were all shocked
by the recent killing of more than 200 elephants
in Bouba N’Djida National Park,” said Bas
Huijbregts, Regional Field Programmes Manager
of WWF’s Central African Regional Programme
Office. “The strategy defined in this action
plan will allow countries to react more
quickly and efficiently to similar threats
in the future.”
WWF, together with TRAFFIC
and the US Fish and Wildlife Service, has
provided technical and financial assistance
toward the development of the plan and is
offering ongoing support for implementation.
