The Borneo Orang-utan Survival(BOS) Foundation has already released 300 orang-utans from its different rehabilitation centres in Kalimantan, but says it is running out of suitable habitat.

There are currently 611 orang-utans being housed in cages measuring 2-by-2 meters at the Nyaru Menteng Centre. Of these 141 have now gone through the various stages that prepare them for release back into the wild.

To qualify for release, orang-utans must first enter a quarantine phase, in which they are given a health check and tested for a variety of human diseases that the species is vulnerable to, including hepatitis, tuberculosis and HIV.

Next, the animals enter a reorientation stage, where they are taught how to survive in the forest, build nests, find their own food and recognize predators and other threats.

Orang-utans younger than three years old spend their days in the forest under the supervision of baby sitters.

The final stage is meant to be the release, in which the orang-utans are introduced into habitats where there is no wild population of the animal.

Jhon Leo, head caretaker at Nyaru Menteng, says the 141 orang-utans were unable to complete the final phase because there was nowhere to release them.

“The orang-utans are already wild, but we have to keep them in cages because we don’t have anywhere suitable in which to release them,” he said.

The Forestry Ministry has issued permits for orang-utan release areas to Restorasi Habitat Orang-utan Indonesia, a company set up by BOS to manage 86,450 hectares of forest previously logged by the Mugitriman logging company in East Kutai.

It allocated another 20,000 hectares in the same district previously logged by another company, Narkata Rimba.

BOS chairman Togu Manurung says the foundation will start releasing the orang-utans into these new areas later this year.

“We have around 800 orang-utans in two rehabilitation centres,” he said. “We have around 200 at our Samboja Lestari centre, about an hour’s drive from Balikpapan [East Kalimantan], and around 600 at Nyaru Menteng.”

The first animals to be released will be a batch of 24 from Nyaru Menteng, Togu said.

“In East Kalimantan, we plan to release five orang-utans in April 2011, and continue releasing more up until 2015,” he said.

The 2015 deadline to release all orang-utans at rehabilitation centres back into the wild is stipulated in the Orang-utan National Action of Plan, drafted in 2007.

Togu said this would be the BOS Foundation’s first string of releases since 2002.

Efforts to meet this target would be boosted if 162,000 hectares of forest in Central Kalimantan were to become allocated as permitted release areas. Of that figure, 94,000 hectares are managed by Akhates Plywood and the rest are managed by Tunggul Pemenang, both logging companies. But in a visit to the rehabilitation centre this week, Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan marked this land out as suitable for become a release area for the Orangutans.

With both logging and palm oil companies coming under pressure from governments and NGOs to halt the rampant destruction of the rainforests of Indonesia, there is hope that the worrying decline of Orang-utan populations can be halted.

Among those most vociferous in petitioning governments, and providing resources for recover projects is WWF. In order for them to continue their excellent work though, they require your help. One of the best ways that you can help them save the orang-utans is by adopting one of them today. For more information on how to get involved, click on the button below.

Operation Javan Rhino started on June 21 and is an initiative of the International Rhino Foundation and Indonesian Rhino Foundation (YABI).

Its goal is to create 4,000 hectares of expanded habitat to encourage population growth in the national park, a rare patch of wilderness on the western tip of one of the world’s most densely populated island.

The fact that all of the remaining rhinos can be found in one area of National Park brings both benefits and complications to the conservation effort.

Having a small area to monitor means that keeping track of numbers and providing protection against poaching is an easier task. However it also means that if a natural disaster struck the area, or a disease was introduced to the animals, the entire population could easily be wiped out.

“Having all the eggs in one basket isn’t a good thing for any species,” Susie Ellis, executive director of the International Rhino Foundation, told the Jakarta Globe.

“With the help of the Rhino Foundation of Indonesia, the Worldwide Fund for Nature, Save the Rhino and the Indonesian government, we have committed to improving the available habitat for Javan rhinos to increase and spread out the population.”

Widodo Ramono, executive director of YABI, told the Globe that $650,000 was needed for the two-year project, with $350,000 so far having been secured from the NGOs’ own resources.

“This funding is all purely coming from the NGOs; there is no special allocation from the government,” he said. “But they have already provided the land and the human resources, so everybody is doing their bit.”

Widodo said it would take two years to physically prepare the rhinos’ habitat near Mount Honje. The money for the project will be used to improve water and food sources, build guard posts and electric fencing, construct patrol routes and hire rangers to patrol the area.

Additionally, 60 camera traps donated by the Aspinall Foundation in January will be used to gather data about how many rhinos remain in Ujung Kulon.

Adhi Rachmat Hariyadi, site manager for WWF Indonesia’s project in the park, said the cameras were crucial to keeping track of the rhino population.

“So far, from the videos we have analysed, we’ve identified 27 individual rhinos and extrapolated a maximum of 47 animals in the park, which still needs to be confirmed by surveys on the ground,” he said.

This project is just one of many that WWF are currently working on to prevent species from fading away into extinction. One way that you can help them to continue this excellent work is by sponsoring an animal.

A close relative of the Javan rhino, the black rhino is in a similarly perilous position, but they too are now receiving the benefits of numerous rescue projects. You can help to ensure that these continue by clicking the button below and sponsoring one today.

Fly-by Shooting

They came in a small helicopter, low over the Tugela Private Game Reserve in KwaZulu/Natal, and they were armed with a dart gun and a dangerous, potent tranquilizer.  They zoomed in on the previously identified white rhino cow, with a month-old calf at her side and fired the powerful drug into the animal’s thick hide.

She would have sunk unconscious to the ground within minutes, by which time the helicopter had landed. One of the poachers got out with a portable electric chainsaw and proceeded to remove both her horns in one action.

Discovered

The rhino cow should have died, but did not.  On June 25, between three and seven days after the incident, she was discovered together with several other rhino by a patrol.  Reserve owner Johan Geldenhuys was summoned.

Horrific Sight

“I immediately went across and had a look at the animal, and what a horrific sight,” he recalled. “We got there and basically from her eyes, just above the eyes was hacked down, right down to just above the lip taken out, and part of her skull, the whole nasal cavity has been cut with the skull and you know she was bleeding through the top end, between her eyes, the holes in the nasal cavity.”

Geldenhuys says after consultations and treatment by a vet, they decided not to euthanize the animal because she appeared strong, and calm, and because they hoped the calf was still alive in the vicinity.

But he says their hopes for the youngster were shattered a few days later when she was found dead near the spot where she had been born, having succumbed to starvation and dehydration.

The severely mutilated mother remains alive, under close surveillance by Geldenhuys, and continues to improve.  He says however, even if she does survive, she will have limitations.

“I reckon she has got a very good chance of surviving, of healing, although she will never be able to breathe, or to smell, to use the function of smell with her nose cavity being gashed out like that on the skull, and I think she will probably breathe through the top end of the nasal cavity below the eyes,” he said.

One of Many

Though this story is particularly disturbing, what is even sadder is that this is just one event among the 400 or so that have occurred just in South Africa since 2008. As quickly as authorities believe they are getting the upper hand on poaching and smuggling operations, the situation worsens. Experts say most rhino horn is now going to Vietnamese syndicates, whereas before the end-users were predominantly Chinese. Such changeability and the constant flow of resources to poachers mean that authorities are fighting an extremely tough battle.

How You Can Help

If stories such as this make you feel like you cannot sit by and let such activity carry on, then there is something you can do about it. There are two main options available to you.

The first is to join the WWF. By becoming a member, you will be providing a crucial source of funding for their operations and you’ll get regular updates on just how you are helping them to forward to course of conservation around the world.

The other option is to adopt a rhino with the WWF. This is a more targeted means of helping conservation, as you know that your donations will be going directly to helping projects to save the rhinos from a fate such as that described above. Just a small amount a month means that the WWF can help to protect more rhinos from poachers and ensure that we do not lose this magnificent species forever.

Results

It may have taken a few months, but conservation groups are finally beginning to see some results from the high-profile revelations made over the palm oil industry’s abuses of the environment.

For the first few months of this year, conservation regularly grabbed the headlines as high-profile demonstrations and revelations over the palm oil industry generated great anger among conservation groups and the general public alike.

While the initial protests and shocking stories of damage to wildlife did the job of bringing the abuses to the attention of a wider audience, too often public attention is too fleeting to bring about any real changes.

RSPO

The RSPO was set up in 2004 by organizations carrying out activities in and around the entire supply chain for palm oil with the intention of promoting the growth and use of sustainable palm oil through cooperation within the supply chain and open dialogue with its stakeholders.

However, earlier this year, a series of investigations revealed that actually practices in the industry were far from sustainable and severe damage was being done to rainforests, local wildlife and local people.

These were brought to the public attention with a number of protests by Greenpeace, including an advert campaign that parodied Nestle’s Kitkat adverts, replacing the kitkat fingers with that of an Orangutan alongside the slogan of ‘Give the Orangutans a break’.

Backlash

These protests were successful in bringing the Palm Oil industry under huge public scrutiny, and multinational companies such as Nestle and Unilever faced an angry backlash. Both were slow to react, but gradually they dropped one Palm Oil supplier after another as their unsustainable practices emerged.

The RSPO then faced the wrath of conservation groups and the public, as it was perceived as having failed its mandate to promote sustainable use of the land in the industry. An overhaul of policies and increased levels of regulation followed, and the results are now being reaped.

Moving Towards Sustainability

Cargill’s oil palm plantation, PT. Hindoli in Sumatra, Indonesia has received the RSPO certification and smallholders at this plantation are scheduled in the next few months to be the first to be RSPO certified. It also is working towards getting RSPO certification for its other palm plantation, Harapan Sawit Lestari. Cargill’s European and Malaysian refineries also have received approval to offer RSPO products.

The company has its own policies in place for responsible palm production on its own plantations including commitments to not plant on high conservation value forests (HCVF); to not develop new plantations on deep peat land or land that would threaten biodiversity; and a strict no-burn policy for land preparation.

Cargill has set a goal of buying 60 percent of its total crude palm oil from RSPO members by the end of 2010. It is encouraging its suppliers to join RSPO and to attain certification for all of their oil palm plantations.

Encouraging

The announcement that they will be working with WWF on an assessment of these practices is hugely encouraging, as it should ensure that the promises the company makes are actually followed through with action, rather than merely being smokescreens of good PR but no good practices.

The assessment will begin in August 2010 and the first phase will prioritise estates from Cargill’s key suppliers with the highest biodiversity concerns. WWF will supervise the overall process including the design and the selection of local environmental experts to do the field work and in-person visits to plantations. The assessment will identify progress on key areas such as land permitting, and environmental and social practices.

Committed

“We are committed to helping lead efforts to move the palm oil industry towards more sustainable palm oil production,” said Paul Conway, senior vice president at Cargill. “We already have responsible palm production policies on our own plantations and we want to play our part by working with the industry and the Indonesian government to encourage the adoption of sustainable production practices. WWF’s extensive experience will help us assess progress amongst our suppliers and will enable us to work with each supplier to implement the standards set out by the RSPO.”

Positive Change

“This project is very important to WWF because it will help move the palm oil industry to higher levels of performance,” said Jason Clay, senior vice president of markets at World Wildlife Fund. “Through engagement with businesses like Cargill, we can drive market transformation by creating linkages between performance and markets. This agreement allows us to affect positive change on the ground, so together we can create a process to drive continuous improvement of responsible sourcing practices.”

You can help to ensure that the WWF is able to continue to lead the fight for justice for wildlife and accountability for industry around the world. They are only able to carry out their excellent work thanks to generous help from the public. If you want to do your bit to help projects such as bringing the Palm Oil Industry to account, then you can become a member of WWF today.

Even though much good work is now being done to prevent any further damage, the Palm Oil industry has already caused devastation in the population of Orangutans in Indonesia. It will take a huge effort to help these amazing animals recover, and it will only be possible with the help of people like you. You can adopt an Orangutan with WWF today and provide key funding for projects to help save the Orangutans in Indonesia.

We have recently seen the damage that mismanagement of oil resources can do to the government. Lessons have been learnt from the Gulf of Mexico disaster, with possibly the most important being that the oil industry cannot go on putting profit above all else.

While public scrutiny is focussed upon the shores of the US at the moment, Uganda could be the next flashpoint for clashes between the oil industry and its critics.

The majority of oil and gas discoveries made so far are in the Albertine Rift, which is Africa’s most ecologically diverse and protected area, with two of the promising wells within the country’s largest conservation area, Murchison National Park.

Murchison National Park is home to the elephants, lions, giraffes, buffaloes and varieties of antelopes. The Rubongo forest within the park is home to chimpanzees and other rainforest creatures. The park is bisected by the Nile River that is host to hippos, crocodiles and a host of water birds including the rare shoebill.

Generally, the Albertine Rift is the home of 52 per cent of all African birds; Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, for instance, has hundreds of endemic bird species. Africa’s 39 per cent share of all mammals are to be found in the area, including chimpanzees and gorillas. It is also home of 14 per cent of all African reptiles, 35 per cent of all butterflies and 19 per cent of all amphibians.

The biodiversity in the Albertine Rift is the backbone of the tourism industry that contributes about $600 million a year, but with a potential to grow. Though the figure is much smaller compared with what is projected from oil, preserving the biodiversity presents a lifetime benefit to the people and the environment.

At every stage of oil and gas development, however, there is an environmental risk.

The drilling involves a liquid phase which is modified with various chemical additives, both liquid and solid, to align the performance for drilling conditions underneath the earth.

The drill cuttings, which are pieces of rock particles displaced from the earth crust to create the hole and waste fluid, are sometimes contaminated with crude oil, salt toxicity, corrosive elements, high electro-conductivity and other chemicals spilt from the drill sites.

“If handled wrongly the cuttings can cause serious impact on the environment, wildlife, human beings and plants,” said Robert Ddamulira, Oil and Gas Project Manager at WWF Uganda. WWF Uganda is part of the global network of WWF International, a leading independent conservation organisation.

“It is probable that impurities can be found in some drilling chemicals such as Barite, a key drilling chemical, which is known to exist with impurities of mercury in the natural; such impurities can be the likely sources of heavy metal contamination,” he added.

For example, when the chemical mixture is very salty owing to the various chemical salts used in drilling, since animals, birds and plants are not used to these kinds of conditions, the chemical can kill animals, birds and plants when they come into contact with them.

Given the revenue projections accruing from oil, the government is likely to exploit all the wells.

“I suspect the government will insist on getting all the oil available. Can you imagine the day the donors will stop telling us do this and that?” said Senior Presidential Advisor on Media and Public Relations John Nagenda.

Tullow Oil, the company that is doing exploration of oil in the Albertine Rift, projects that the country can produce 2 billion barrels of oil a year, which in turn will raise $2 billion each year for the next 25 years.

So the country of Uganda stands at a crossroads. With such riches promised, it will be all too easy for the government to ignore the riches the country already possesses in its huge amount of biodiversity.

Conservationists will hope that a balance can be struck and either concessions can be made to designate some areas as off-limits, or legislation be brought in that guarantees a certain proportion of money generated is pushed back into furthering the conservation effort. The former is obviously the preferable option, as whatever projects extra resources could bring in, they would be doubtless be unable to redress the damage caused by industrial development.

Unfortunately, the most likely outcome will be that some promises will be made when lucrative contracts are signed, but they will quickly be forgotten or ignored and irreversible damage will be done to the country’s wildlife.

The population of white rhinos on the African continent is currently estimated at around 20 000. The black rhino remains critically endangered with a total population in the region of only 4 000. What is most worrying about the figure of 115 rhinos having been killed so far this year is that authorities have finally paid heed to conservationists’ warnings and rolled out more monitoring and law enforcement operations.

Earlier this year, the South African authorities believed they had made a crucial breakthrough when three relatively low-level syndicate members were convicted of wildlife crimes earlier this year. The extent of the syndicate’s activity and influence is gradually being unravelled, but they are just one of many groups that are undertaking the routine slaughtering of South Africa’s wildlife.

Now the anti-poaching authorities are eyeing what they believe is an even more extensive syndicate, allegedly headed up by the son of a prominent South African mining magnate. Identified alleged associates include two well-known game veterinarians, who are suspected of providing dart guns and supplying controlled tranquilliser drugs for use on poaching expeditions.
“You knock one group of poachers out and the next team are there to take over from them,” Rusty Hustler, head of counter-poaching in the North West said this week.

The Sunday Independent’s anti-poaching sources estimate the new syndicate could be responsible for as much as 70 percent of current rhino poaching in South Africa.

Characteristically the syndicate uses military-issue R4 rifles in killing the animals, but according to Hustler, the dart guns are used in order to incapacitate the animals before the horn is removed, since horn taken from a live rhino fetches a higher price on far Eastern markets. Only after the horn has been cut off is the hapless animal finally dispatched.

In common with the alleged new syndicate, the syndicate currently being taken through the courts is mainly made up of white farmers, many with a background in the apartheid-era security forces.

Having plea-bargained in exchange for testimony against syndicate kingpins, three low-level members of the earlier syndicate were convicted in 2007 – Kalahari farmers, Gideon van Deventer and his older brother Nic, sentenced to 10 and five years imprisonment respectively, though part of both sentences was suspended in view of their turning state witness.

Their accomplice Pieter Swart was given a fine of R50 000 or 12 months in prison.

Now the saga is set to unfold in further prosecutions in October. The three convicts will testify against six alleged syndicate kingpins, charged with racketeering, money laundering, contravention of provincial conservation Acts, and theft, among other offences. Charges have also been brought in terms of civil aviation legislation in connection with a light aircraft allegedly used to spot rhinos for poaching in nature reserves.

The accused in the October trial include two safari operators, Clayton Fletcher of Sandhurst Safaris and Gert Saaiman of Saaiman Hunting Safaris, game farmer and lion breeder, Pieter Swart, along with Gauteng private investigator Johan le Grange, as well as Andre, younger brother of the convicted Van Deventers.
“Poaching has become even worse than it was in the late 1990s and we will have to take extreme measures to fight this problem at the very level that the syndicates operate,” said one investigator, who works undercover in the poaching environment.

He said it was particularly disturbing that the majority of identified South African kingpins in the international smuggling rings were respected local figures with conservationist profiles.

It seems that at as quickly as authorities and conservationists can work to improve their countermeasures against poachers and smugglers, the illegal syndicates are working even quicker to find new ways to continue profiting from killing animals.

The Bali meeting hopes to unify the efforts of tiger states (countries in which the endangered tigers live) to protect the species as well as follow up ideas raised at similar meetings  held in Hua Hin in January and in Kathmandu last year.

Several environmental NGOs have named this year the Year of the Tiger, a reference to the critical state of the tiger rather than to the Chinese calendar.

The Bali meeting is expected to draw representatives from organizations from the World Bank and various environmental NGOs. The bringing together of these two often disparate groups in one place will hopefully enable them to forge new links that will enable real action to take place rather than just continued meetings and talking.

Nazir Foead, the director of governance, community and corporate engagement at WWF Indonesia said that tiger states were not the only ones to blame for the near extinction of the species of big cat. Many countries investing in tiger states, he continued, were also to blame for encouraging activities detrimental to the natural habitats of tigers.

But Nazi underlined the need for a unified programme for helping tiger number to recover from their current precarious position, “We are hoping that there can be a conservation program that will be carried out by 13 countries that are home to tigers.”

Nazir said that although the meeting’s main agenda would be tigers, side events would include discussions on debt swaps for environmental conservation projects. The unfortunate reality is that most of the world’s most endangered species live in some of the world’s poorest countries.

Without significant co-operation between organisations, governments and institutions like the World Bank, talks too often remain just talk with little actually being done.

You can help to ensure that we do not allow the extinction of the tiger to become a reality, and that the Year of the Tiger goes down in history as the year we save the species rather than that in which it was lost.

You can help to save the tiger yourself by adopting one today with WWF.

Or by joining the WWF you will be bringing a guarantee of crucial resources that are needed for their conservation work around the world.

Read the full story here

Late last year Indonesia made global headlines with a bold pledge to reduce deforestation, which claimed nearly 28 million hectares (108,000 square miles) of forest between 1990 and 2005 and is the source of about 80 percent of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said Indonesia would voluntarily cut emissions 26 percent — and up to 41 percent with sufficient international support — from a projected baseline by 2020.

mongabay.com: The moratorium seems to have caught some by surprise–is that why were are hearing mixed messages out of some of the ministries?

Agus Purnomo and Yani Saloh: There are no mixed messages. The moratorium is for new (repeat new) concessions on primary natural forests and peat lands, for two years. The highlight of the news that the government is ‘trigger happy’ in canceling existing concession is misleading. Those who are reacting to such news are misled or perhaps have interests in mind to utilize certain remaining peat lands or getting the timber out from primary natural forests on the pretext of developing palm oil or timber plantation.

The serious forestry and plantation companies are supportive to this moratorium policy, which has been in practice for the past eight months. There are of course, the rouge minority members of palm oil or timber plantation associations, just like any interest groups in society. We are hoping that the healthy open debate, through the media, will enable those elements to adjust to the grand strategy of sustainable forest management and sustainable plantations that the government is seriously implementing for the years to come.

mongabay.com: Do you have any clarification on the status of existing forestry concessions under the moratorium? Is there a possibility that permit holders would be offered the option of swapping holdings on natural forest lands?

Agus Purnomo and Yani Saloh: The moratorium on new concessions will be effective in 2011. During this phase, Indonesia will place a two-year moratorium on issuing new concessions for the conversion of peat lands and primary natural forests. Any business activities including plantations, mining or agriculture that secured permits before the year 2011 will be excluded from the moratorium. They can continue with their plans but still have to comply to the rules that have been issued prior to the moratorium such as the restriction of conversion for peat lands with more than 3 meters depth.

Forestry industries, forest management and agriculture activities can continue under their existing licenses. For their planned expansions, the government will provide information on available degraded forests as well as non-forest land where such development can take place.

International cooperation, such as the Indonesia-Norway partnership, can help improve the sustainability of our palm oil production by redirecting the expansion of the industry to fertile areas on already-deforested mineral soils.

There are detail implementation policies that the government will develop in consultation with the industries and civil society, to utilize degraded forest lands for the expansion of the forest and agriculture concessions, including the possibility of land swap on existing concessions.

mongabay.com: What about in cases where a developer does not hold a valid permit to develop peatlands or natural forest? Can these lands be seized?

Agus Purnomo and Yani Saloh: All players will have to follow the rules of the land. If they do not have a valid permit to develop peat lands or primary natural forests, then they won’t be allowed to continue with their plans. According to the Ministry of Forestry, there have been no new permits issued to convert primary natural forests or peat lands since last year.

The government will take careful steps in solving conflicts of land use and land holdings. Upholding due process of laws will be of paramount importance in our efforts to reduce illegal conversions and occupations of forests and peat lands.

mongabay.com: Will Norwegian funds be used to promote development of abandoned agricultural lands and alang alang grasslands for plantations?

Agus Purnomo and Yani Saloh: Bilateral negotiation on details of what can be funded will start soon. From the government of Indonesia point of view, degraded lands, such as abandoned agricultural lands and alang-alang grasslands, are valuable economic resources that will be developed for the welfare of its people.

mongabay.com: Norway has indicated its funds will not support Indonesia’s previously announced plan to reforest more than 20 million hectares of land. How much of this reforestation was to be plantations? Would any of the area be reforested using a diverse mix of native tree species?

Agus Purnomo and Yani Saloh: Norway money will fund a variety of projects at different levels, the many different kinds of projects needed to move our economy onto a low-carbon growth pathway. Some might be grassroots efforts for sustainable development, say through microfinance for local communities. Some money will go into traditional provincial-level development projects to help create a low-carbon infrastructure. Other funds could help smallholders improve productivity, or give incentives to palm oil companies to swap their forest concessions for a concession on degraded land.

Some of the money will be used in early stages to establish the necessary infrastructure of climate friendly development, improving our spatial planning systems, so that all parties have access to accurate data, developing our capacity and raising public awareness. It will also use to help create a system to verify and account for carbon emissions reductions.

In the first two phases of the Partnership, the focus will be on developing REDD+ at the level of one or two provinces. Local community organizations in the selected province/s will have access to the funds through the new REDD+ Agency. When we have full scale or nation-wide REDD+ implementation, local community organizations that are dependent to forest resources and peat lands can propose programs that will be funded through the Agency, from the Norwegian and other international sources of funding.

mongabay.com: Does the moratorium include a ban on new logging concessions?

Agus Purnomo and Yani Saloh: The moratorium will apply to new application of logging concession on primary natural forests or natural peat lands. The suspension of issuance of new concessions is a blanket one and it will be applied to all relevant parties. We are being transparent in announcing it ahead of time.

mongabay.com: Agus, given your work with Transparency International you are well aware of the pervasiveness of corruption in the forestry sector. Will any of the Norwegian money go towards improving transparency in land use policy?

Agus Purnomo: The Norwegian fund, at the later stage, will be a payment upon delivery of verified emission reductions. Some of the reductions will come from settlements of land use conflicts, including the development of database for degraded lands. Such implementation actions will be eligible for international funding, including the Norwegian fund.

Corruption is rampant in the last decades of Indonesian development, though the latest independent surveys on corruption in Indonesia have came with encouraging pictures of steady and significant improvements on good governance practices. The Human Rights Watch 2009 report acknowledged

improvements in forestry management under the administration of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, and significant successes in anti-corruption efforts have resulted in gains in Indonesia’s score on World Bank measures of control of corruption (Indonesia’s score nearly doubled from 2003 to 2007). The passing of a Freedom of Information Act and the establishment of an independent financial intelligence unit, the Center for Financial Transactions Reporting and Analysis (Pusat Pelaporan dan Analisa Transaksi Keuangan, or PPATK), along with recent anti-money laundering legislation and bank regulations for identifying high-risk customers and suspicious-transaction reporting are also positive development.

We welcomed the recommendations from the above report on strengthening anti-corruption efforts in the forestry and plantation sectors and have started a stronger coordination among law enforcement agencies to prevent the worsening of deforestation and forest degradation, as well reducing revenue losses from mismanagement and corrupted practices of the sectors.

mongabay.com: Apart from what has already been discussed, what are the biggest obstacles to reducing deforestation in Indonesia?

Agus Purnomo and Yani Saloh: The complexity in managing forest resources in Indonesia is high. We have a different set of challenges in managing our forests, in comparison to Brazil. Brazil’s biggest challenge on forestry issue is cattle ranching, while Indonesia’s challenges are illegal logging, oil palm expansion, forest fires, forest and peat lands conversion for economic development activities.

The oil palm and paper-pulp plantation industries are globally important industries, and extremely important for Indonesian livelihoods. Oil palm is important to world food supplies, as it is the most efficient of the edible oilseeds. It has the potential to be a useful biofuel. Palm oil growers are ahead of all the other edible oilseed growers in North America and Europe in setting standards for sustainability. But it is also true that the industry is contributing to today’s deforestation, an important source of carbon emissions, and which has many additional environmental costs to Indonesia.

In fact we believe we have enough land for the growth of this industry, suitable and fertile land that has already been cleared or has been degraded in other ways. The question is how to shift new plantations onto this degraded land, in an economically rational way. The two-year suspension comes in the second phase of our agreement, and it will allow us to work with the industry and focus our efforts on moving this industry onto a sustainable footing. Changes in regulatory regime may also be required to rationalize our spatial planning. Such efforts will increase the certainty for investors and help us secure long-term markets for our exports.

We can create improved livelihoods in Indonesia through sustainable agricultural expansion while reducing global greenhouse gas emissions.

Decentralization is another key issue, requiring coherence in planning at all levels. The Indonesia-Norway partnership will add more momentum to this alignment process. 

Local community participation in managing low-carbon development and the new REDD-Plus agency is enshrined in the cooperative framework. Empowerment and involvement of local communities is at the heart of economic development and we recognized the role that local communities can play in preventing deforestation and stewarding the environment.

mongabay.com: Last week Obama canceled his June trip to Indonesia. Despite this set back, what role can the U.S. play in helping Indonesia protect its forests?

Agus Purnomo and Yani Saloh: There are a number of ways that the US can help Indonesia in furthering the forest and climate initiative, such as: creating a regional facility on climate change that can provide scientific, technical and management system supports for various climate mitigation and adaptation efforts. The on-going discussion between the US and Indonesia on establishing a Regional Climate Change Center would be a concrete support to strengthen the Indonesian plan to implement REDD+ and to deliver emission reductions of 26% from the projected emissions in 2020.

The US can also provide data and technical support through their remote sensing and mapping agencies, such as NASA and USGS, to the – about to be created – independent MRV Agency. Such provision of data can increase the accuracy and credibility of the Indonesian MRV Agency, which in turn will improve in the implementation of REDD+ and other mitigation actions.

The dissemination of information from the REDD+ Agency (also to be created) and feedback from the MRV Agency to the communities and local governments with forests and peat lands is another possible support from the US. Through real and effective actions on the ground we can prevent deforestation, forest degradation, fires, illegal logging and conversions.

mongabay.com: Do consumers in Europe and the U.S. have a role to play in ensuring raw materials are sourced sustainably in countries like Indonesia?

Agus Purnomo and Yani Saloh: A lot of deforestation and forest degradation are market-driven, and the consumers in Europe and the US are part of the problem. Especially European and US consumers are encouraging deforestation with their reluctance to pay a small additional price for sustainably sourced forest products. Certified timber products have minimum incentive to improve sustainable forest management because of the lack of premium price.

A boycott of all Indonesian forest products will further increase pressures on the remaining forests because loggers and local communities in the forests will have to cut more trees, and thus increase deforestation, to supply the cheap East Asia market for their subsistence.

Plans Remain

In what will likely be seen as another failure by the IWC annual meeting this week, Russia still are still planning to go ahead with the survey despite calls from most other countries involved, and the IWC Scientific Committee making a strong recommendation that it does not go ahead.

Serious Concerns

With just 26 known breeding females of the Western Gray Whale population remaining, seismic blasts in the Russian Far East where females and their calves are trying to feed led the IWC’s Scientific Committee to express “serious concerns about the potential impact on Western Gray Whales” and to “strongly recommend” that a seismic survey by petroleum company Rosneft be postponed.

“The scientific recommendation and statements by several governments here at the IWC should have served as a wake up call to Russia,” said Wendy Elliott of WWF. “This whale population is on the brink of extinction, yet oil and gas exploration in its only feeding ground is increasing.”

Scandalous

“This is absolutely scandalous and completely ignores sound scientific advice,” she added. “Russia must reconsider its position on allowing the Rosneft seismic testing to go ahead this year.”

Aleksey Knizhnikov, WWF-Russia Oil and Gas Environmental Policy Officer said: ‘”n addition to scientific advice of IWC, a Russian scientific body has also raised concerns about the Rosneft survey. Furthermore, this survey will be undertaken inside the proposed whale reserve that Russian government are currently considering establishing.”

Countries that took the floor to support the Scientific Committee recommendation that the survey be postponed included the United Kingdom, the United States, Mexico and Monaco.

Powerless or Unwilling

One of the accusations that has been consistently levelled at the IWC is that although they often publish reports or publicly condemn actions that could threaten whales, they seem to be powerless or unwilling to actually do anything to change the situation.

The other major failure of this weeks’ IWC meeting was that no agreement was reached on the proposal to lift the ban on international whaling. A lifting of the ban may have actually improved the welfare of whales around the world, as it would have allowed closer monitoring and control of those countries that would go on whaling regardless.

However, Russia’s continuing plans to go ahead with this survey demonstrate one of the key reasons why no agreement could be reached on the ban, as those countries that remain opposed to whaling do not have faith in the IWC to satisfactorily police whaling around the world.

Greatly Improved

The concerned agencies plan to link the GPS with another technology called GIS (Global Information System). The amalgamation of the two is the latest MIST (Management of Information System Technology) technology used for intelligence gathering and movement tracking and should greatly improve authorities ability to protect these species.

Knowledge is everything in the war against poachers in Nepal. By improving tracking and monitoring of species, authorities are able to better allocate resources once a more in-depth knowledge of movement patterns is understood.

More Accurate Picture

With closer monitoring of individual animals, the MIST will also give a more accurate picture of how populations of the species rise and fall. One of the biggest stumbling blocks for conservation is that authorities can often only estimate the numbers of an animal remaining. This creates the dual problems of possible resources being wasted on animals whose numbers may be higher than estimates or not enough being allocated to those under greater threat.

Having accurate figures for the number of animals left in a population will also be a powerful tool for lobbying governments and other organisations. If there is hard evidence that animals’ numbers are suffering a sharp decline, then it will be much more likely to spark remedial action than anecdotal evidence that can be much more easily ignored.

Quick Implementation

Director of WWF-Nepal Ghana Gurung said, “We are preparing to introduce MIST at the earliest for conservation purpose.” He further said that it will be implemented as soon as 12 officers from concerned agencies, along with three Nepal Army personnel, receive training from Thailand.

Nepal Army, on the other hand, has persuaded the government to equip more animals with GPS to make the tracking more effective.

“At least 400 rhinos and 200 tigers should be equipped with GPS so that poaching can be effectively curbed,” a highly-placed NA source said.

Haven

The Chitwan National Park should be a haven of protection for animals, yet still the effects of poaching are felt. Importantly though, the numbers of animals that have been killed by hunters has been steadily falling .

Chief Warden of CNP Narendraman Babu Pardhan, said, “Although we have not been able to stop poaching altogether, the actual number has not increased in comparison to the last six years.”

Pradhan said that 11 rhinos have succumbed in the hands of the poachers this fiscal year so far, while the number was 12 previous year.

“More deaths have been reported in four months starting from Chaitra to Asar,” Pradhan said, adding, “Going by the trend, we cannot say that poaching has crossed all limits this year.”

In areas such as this, where the protection offered by a National Park already gives authorities more of a chance to put a halt to poaching, provide crucial places for at-risk species to recover. If the improved MIST can be implemented, it could be the boost needed to rid the National Park of the threat of poaching once and for all.

While the agenda at the recently concluded IWC meeting was focussed upon resolving disputes surrounding Iceland, Japan and Norway’s continued whaling, these revelations may throw closer scrutiny on the “aboriginal subsistence whaling” (ASW) allowances.

Limited Allowances

Despite the moratorium on commercial whaling, these allowances mean some indigenous peoples can hunt a limited number of whales to meet long-standing cultural and nutritional subsistence needs. These include the Inuit of Greenland.

WDCS, the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, does not oppose legitimate so-called “aboriginal subsistence whaling” (ASW) — as long as it is humane, sustainable, well managed and based on documented human need for local subsistence use only.

Supermarkets and Hotels

Although the IWC grants ASW quotas as an exemption to the commercial whaling moratorium to meet the nutritional subsistence needs of indigenous communities, the WDCS investigation revealed that people with a genuine need for whale meat may be denied access because so much is sold at high prices through hotels and supermarkets.

In a secretly filmed conversation with journalists, the director of Arctic Green Foods (AGF), Greenland’s largest single buyer of whales, explained: “We are selling the whale meat faster (to supermarkets) than we can get hold of whales.” The price in supermarkets for whale meat and mattack is up to 10 times higher than in the local meat markets, yet “it still sells, and sells, and sells!”

Managers of the main supermarket chains in the towns and cities confirm the high price whale meat and mattak are sold for. “Mattak is more expensive than the best parts of imported beef,” said Les Nyborg, manager at Brugsen’s supermarket in Nuuk, in an interview with reporters. “It is very popular. People use it as a snack, to chew on it. We make 1 million kroner [approx € 143.000; US$ 165.000] a year only with this one product.”

When its stocks are low, the processing company commissions fishermen to get them whales. “We asked a particular whaler, with whom we have worked before, if he could get us five whales – and fast, because we need them now. We are sold out.” said the manager.

Whale meat intended for the subsistence needs of remote and isolated Inuit populations, also ends up as fancy 4-star dinners in hotel restaurants.

Lucrative

Niels Olsvig, one of the whalers in Ilulissat, acknowledged that “Most of the whale meat is sold to the local meat market and to hotels.” In the summer season more than 50 luxury cruise liners have Ilulissat as their destination, as well as daily direct flights from Iceland. “Whale steak” is openly listed on the menu of many of the hotels at prices equivalent to other luxury dinners (e.g. DKK 160, € 22; US$ 27)

Government Involvement

The companies’ involvement in these practices is worrying, but hardly unsurprising given the profits that can be made. More worrying is the fact that this all appears to be done with full knowledge from the government.

AGF informs the department of fisheries and hunting of the Government of Greenland about its requests and waits for its approval. “We hope we are allowed to get the whales we want, but it depends on the quotas. The Government has the overview, and maybe we get some others.”

Increasing Quotas

The Greenland government claims that the whole vast territory is ‘local’ and does not distinguish between the original people of Greenland, the Inuit, who culturally eat whale meat, and the Danish population of Greenland. They have now asked the IWC to increase their quotas.

“Commercial wholesalers commissioning whalers to hunt whales so they can sell meat to tourists or town people, who have all the options of a modern supermarket is not what the IWC intends when it authorises subsistence whaling. This practice clearly limits the availability of whale meat to those in remote settlements who live under harsh circumstances and have a genuine subsistence need for whale meat.”

As long as Greenland fails to take its full quota of whales yet its whalers sell meat to supermarkets and hotels, the WDCS believes it cannot justify its repeated request for an increase in its whaling quotas.

The fact that it has taken the WDCS investigation to uncover what is going on is Greenland demonstrates the current deficiencies in the IWC monitoring. The issue of abuses of subsistence quotas and the fact that countries are able to use loopholes to carry on whaling but highlight the need for some kind of reform in the IWC.

It may fall on the shoulders of NGOs such as WDCS to bring to public attention the current failures of the organisation that is supposed to be protecting the world’s population of whales.

However, a big step has been taken towards providing much better elephant welfare in the northern state of Rajasthan, where celebrations have marked the opening of India’s first “elephant village”.

Fifty-one houses have been built in the village of Kunda to house the mahouts – keepers – and their elephants.

The state government has allotted the land for the village, close to the historical Amer Fort in the state capital, Jaipur.

Every year 1.4 million tourists visit the fort and for many, an elephant ride is the highlight of the visit.

Rajasthan Tourism Minister Bina Kak, who inaugurated the elephant village on Saturday, said it was a great gift to the animal.

“As of now, 51 elephants have been accommodated here. The rest would also get their quarters soon,” Ms Kak said.

The minister said the village would be developed as a tourist spot, and animal lovers and researchers would be able to come here to study the pachyderm.

”I am so moved. This is the realisation of the 40-year-old dream of the mahout community,” Elephant Owners’ Association president Abdul Rashid said.

Amer fort has 113 elephants which are used to ferry tourists around.

“The elephant ride is much in demand by both foreign and Indian tourists. Tourists feel like royalty when riding an elephant,” says Shyam Gupta, vice-president of Elephant Owners’ Association.

An elephant makes four rounds a day and earns 900 rupees ($20). From this, 200 rupees ($4.30) goes towards the welfare of the animal, Mr Gupta says.

The village has a man-made pond to provide water for the animals and a veterinary clinic.

It is hoped that other regions will follow suit around the country. The benefits of a village such as this are far-reaching. Not only do the animals and their keepers have a guarantee of good-quality accommodation, but if the Rajasthan elephant village proves to be a hit with tourists, it could provide a more elephant-friendly means of using the animals to bring revenue to communities.

Controversial

While many conservation groups will no doubt be celebrating the fact that the countries have not adopted the controversial deal that would have legitimised whaling by Iceland, Japan and Norway but place their activity under official oversight from the IWC.

Impasse

Debates over the issue have often lead to angry disputes between pro and anti-whaling parties, both on the level of conservation groups protesting, but also at the high-level of government, where political wrangling has often degenerated into the two parties refusing to budge from their respective positions.

The apparent impasse was hoped to have been breached at this meeting as a result of a new proposal. The deal was intended to provide a compromise between the two groups. Because Iceland, Japan and Norway have used loopholes that allow them to continue whaling, the proposal was intended to make their activity legal once again, but with the proviso that they would face closer monitoring.

Unsatisfied

Unfortunately, rather than pleasing both sides, the proposal appear to have left both unsatisfied, and as a result, the ‘peace talks’ on international whaling have failed.

The countries hoping to have their whaling activity legitimised felt that the proposal would be transforming the IWC into a whale conservation organisation rather a resource management organisation, which they believe its role should be.

Behind the scenes, Japanese sources said the key stumbling block for them was the demand from the EU and the Buenos Aires group of Latin American countries that its Antarctic whaling programme must end within a set time-frame.

For Japan, agreeing to reduce its quota from 935 now to 200 in 10 years time represented a significant step forward, which they thought ought to have been acceptable to their opponents, with further discussions – possibly on a phase-out – taking place subsequently.

Pressure

Many of the anti-whaling countries were under pressure from conservation groups to reject the proposal as they believed it would undo the good work that had been done for whale conservation since the ban came into place. Even though groups accepted that giving the IWC greater capacity for monitoring whaling would be extremely beneficial, the general perception was that the IWC would not be capable of controlling the whaling activity.

Absence of Compromise

Sir Geoffrey Palmer, New Zealand’s former prime minister and current whaling commissioner, who has been intimately involved in the “peace talks”, said that “Japan did show real flexibility and a real willingness to compromise”.

“But we are in the situation now where the gaps cannot at this time be bridged; and the reason for this I think is obvious enough – there is an absence of a political will to bridge those gaps, an absence of political will to compromise.”

The path forwards now is unclear. Many delegates are asking whether there is any point in leaving the issue open for a further year; if agreement is impossible, they suggest it would be better to face up to the fact now.

Opting for more time would “raise the question of the commission’s credibility,” said Remi Parmentier, senior policy adviser to the Pew Environment Group, which has been one of the organisations backing the exploration of compromise.

But there may also be a reluctance to leave the more constructive tone of the previous two years behind, and risk a return to the acrimony that formerly characterised the IWC.

Conservation groups can celebrate for the moment that legal whaling will not be resuming any time soon. But Iceland, Japan and Norway will go on whaling regardless, and with the prospect of significant time passing before talks resume again, the whales could ultimately suffer more.

With ten grams of tiger parts selling for an estimated cost of $20, authorities have intercepted shipments that could have been worth over $40,000 to smugglers on the black market.

Along with the tiger parts, the consignment contained 555kg of pangolin scales. Pangolins are highly protected under the Indian Wildlife Conservation Act, but like many animal products, there is a huge demand for pangolin scales for use in traditional Chinese medicines. A kilogram of pangolin scales can fetch as much as £1000.

While the seizure gave reason for conservation groups to celebrate, the estimated route that the consignment took to the area points towards Kaziranga National Park as its origin.

While the National Park is a site lauded for its work to protect many species, it has also developed a reputation for being vulnerable to poachers.

“Dimapur is the hub of poachers. All these parts were on their way to China, because it was consigned to Imphal and from Imphal it goes via Moreh and to Mynamar and then to China,” said Sukanta Das, Superintendent of the Anti-Smuggling Unit.

Any seizure such as this brings good and bad news. Authorities ability to intercept the shipment shows that good work is being done to halt the illegal trade in wildlife, and any seizure keeps money out of the hands of smugglers and poachers. However, the fact that the shipment is around at all indicates that animals are still being harmed in order to feed the black market in animal products.

A lot of hard work will have gone into uncovering the smuggling operation, but it will be the follow-up investigation that will prove crucial if this activity it going to be stopped once and for all.

Endangered

The Javan rhino is considered by many to be the most endangered mammal in the world. Even optimistic estimates of their population don’t put their numbers at much higher than 50.

Threats

These rhinos are rarely spotted, so we are still not sure of the extent of the danger they are in. We do know of the range of threats that these animals face.  Most significant among these are those caused by humans. Both poaching and encroachment on habitat are putting huge pressure on the rhinos, with a rhino found as recently as a fortnight ago with bullet wounds from suspected hunters.

The fact that people are continuing to cause the rhinos harm is made worse because they already face problems as a result of the natural world. Competition from other species and an ongoing drought—which has dried water sources and depleted grasses essential for their diet—have become major challenges.

Protection

While we can do little to control the elements, it is imperative that we minimalise the damage that we are causing them if their numbers are ever going to improve.

Because the population is localised to a small national park in Indonesia, they feel the effects of local environmental change more strongly, but it should also mean that protecting them from damaging human influence an easier task.

Poached

Recently, two skeletons were found in Ujung Kulon National Park, the rhinos’ primary home, and a third was found in Vietnam. While investigators believe the first two rhinos died due to natural causes, the third—found with a gunshot wound and missing horn—was clearly a victim of poaching.

Adhi Rachmat Haryadi, a WWF-Indonesia official stationed at the park, commented:

“When you are talking about populations as small as this, even one death is significant.”

Action

Even though these rhino deaths are obviously sad, especially with numbers already so low, they may ultimately prove beneficial to the species as a whole, as the run of deaths have brought the rhinos’ plight to public attention and spurred conservationists into increased action to protect the remaining animals.

Construction of a seven-mile-long electric fence that will create a new protected area alongside the park has already begun, while officials are also considering a relocation program. A similar project has proved successful in boosting populations of Black rhinos.

While it seems as though things are bleak for the Javan Rhinos, it must be pointed out that without the efforts of conservationists over the last half a century, the species could already have gone extinct. In the 1960s, only about 20 rhinos remained in Ujung Kulon National Park. The population rebounded to about 50 by the 1990s and has remained about the same ever since.

The Future

A lot more hard work will be required if this success is to continue, and hopefully with the extra public attention, conservationists will receive further support with the hope that one day Javan Rhinos won’t just be avoiding extinction, but will once again be thriving.

“My name is Janas. But first, I would like to remind you that you forgot to mention the name of our village, which is hosting our meeting today.” These were the opening words of Acoi Janas, a 62-year old Dayak speaking at an orang-utan conference in Central Kalimantan.

Apparently the master of ceremony had mentioned in his introductory speech the names of all the villages whose residents were invited to attend the meeting, except Janas’.

Frustration

Janas’ joking rebuke was a more lighthearted take on the overall sentiment that was expressed by many villagers. Others spoke more angrily on how some of them have lost land for farming or their homes as a result of conservation projects expanding, but also the frustration at the unwillingness of some NGOs to involve local people in the day-to-day running of conservation projects.

The conference was being held partly to address some of these concerns, with representatives of NGOs such as WWF, Borneo Orangutan Survival (BOS), Orangutan Foundation International (OFI), Orangutan Conservation Services Program (OCSP), the Natural Resources Conservation Center (BKSDA), and palm oil company Agro Group all attending alongside people from local villages.

It is surprising that Janas’ village’s name could have been forgotten, as it is home to around 32,000 orangutans, or more than 60 percent of the island’s total population of the great apes.

Welfare

But while there is no doubting the great work that NGOs are doing on the island of Borneo for the orang-utans, the villagers want their own welfare to be recognised.

“BOS has been operating here for more than 10 years,” Janas explained, “But I think you haven’t been paying enough attention to the local people. You have set up a special clinic for orangutans, but none of you care about our welfare.”

A schoolteacher in a nearby village claimed that local people were suffering as a result of some of the conservation projects. He revealed that many people who planted their crops in certain zones for generations found they had to hand over their plots of land as the Sebangau National Park expanded.

Conservation

It is easy to see why the people of Kalimantan would be upset at this treatment, but in the same way as Save the Rhino have responded to criticism by explaining that they are not responsible for wide-ranging welfare projects, but ensuring that their limited resources can be targeted at specific conservation projects that can actually make a difference.

Togu Manurung, the chairman of BOS, said locals should differentiate between NGOs, the government, and private companies.

“They are different in terms of functions. Our job as an NGO is to rehabilitate orangutans. That’s our main task. So, it’s not our job to improve people’s health or empower locals. That’s the government’s job. Here, we’re partnering with the government to help conserve orangutans,” he said, “But we will take on board some of your feedback on prioritizing locals to source goods and services.”

Sustainable

This last point is one great positive that may be taken from this conference. If you look around the world, you will find that the most successful conservation projects work with locals to develop sustainable local industries that promote the conservation of local wildlife.

Janas appeared eager for this to happen in Kalimantan, saying in his speech how NGOs should help empower locals by prioritizing them as potential workers, and think of them as partners who can provide goods and services for their programs. If this does happen, then it will bring benefits to local people, the NGOs and most importantly to the animals of Kalimantan.

India’s Tigers

Wild tiger numbers have plummeted by more than 97% worldwide over the last 100 years mainly due to illegal poaching for the black market in tiger skins, bones and organs. Despite having 39 tiger reserves and 663 protected areas there are estimated to be as few as 1,400 living wild in India, with some experts putting the number closer to 800.

Recognising the dramatic decline of its most charismatic animal the Indian government is now taking radical steps to prevent the Bengal tiger from going extinct. The key threats to the big cat of poaching, illegal logging and habitat loss and the mushrooming tourist trade are all being tackled in a concerted effort to halt the tiger’s demise.

In the first 5 months of 2010 21 tiger deaths have been recorded, 11 of these were from poaching – for a species of dwindling numbers every animal counts.

Tigers and the WPSI

For the past 15 years the WPSI has working with the Indian government to turn around the country’s growing wildlife crisis, providing information and support to government authorities in the areas of illegal wildlife trade, poaching, and the increasing problem of human-wildlife conflict and supporting conservation field projects.

One of the organisations most successful endeavours has been their anti-poaching and illegal wildlife trade programme. Using a network of field in investigators the programme keeps enforcement authorities informed on the actions of wildlife criminals, assisting in the arrests of hundreds throughout India and the seizure of wildlife products, especially tiger parts. A constantly updated Wildlife Crime Database, that has records of over 16,500 incidences of wildlife crime and the details of more than 12,900 alleged wildlife criminals, is another tool that has proved vital in exposing the extent of poaching and trade in India. At the same time the database has played an important role in the development of conservation strategies.

“We also conduct Wildlife Law Enforcement Workshops” said Wright.

“So far, we have hosted nearly 190 workshops and provided training to more than 7,800 forest and police officers in 17 states across India. We have given specialist presentations to institutions such as the National Police Academy, the Indian Institute of Criminology, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), Customs and Excise, the Wildlife Institute of India, and various enforcement training centers.”

Involving human communities

Belinda Wright is also very aware of the role that humanitarian issues play in conservation and involves local people throughout many of WPSI’s activities.

“Our on-ground projects reflect this. We always hire local staff, and endeavour to create income-generating activities among the local communities to reduce pressure on the forests and wildlife. Through our Community Outreach Program in the Sundarbans, for instance, we have supported the development of a range of livelihood activities to help reduce people’s dependency on the forests.”

WSPI has also supported micro-credit schemes that provide self-help groups for women of the Sundarbans, enabling them to generate incomes for their families through the running of mangrove plantation nurseries and the creation of silk embroidery. In addition this programme the WSPI gives communities access to healthcare and education, informing people about the importance of protecting their environment and local wildlife.

“It is really heartening to see that where we have been able to effectively combine conservation and humanitarian activities, the local communities have started to view their wildlife as an asset rather than as a threat. The understanding that they cannot survive without their forests is palpable, and some people have even begun to undertake their own conservation activities.” Said Wright.

Demand for tiger parts

One of the biggest challenges to tiger conservation comes from the demand for tiger parts on the Chinese market. The WSPI works closely with the Indian government to prevent poaching from occurring and halting the illegal trade in wildlife. Despite their best efforts however India’s wildlife continues to suffer a steady decline.
“Although we have good wildlife laws and policies, they are not implemented effectively. Enforcement has also not moved with the times.” Said Wright.

“What we need now is professional, intelligence-led enforcement. Without this we cannot hope to stop the poaching mafias that empty our forests often with impunity, and the well-organized traders and smugglers that control the trade in tiger and other wildlife parts across international borders.”
Wright admits however that until China agrees to maintain its 1983 ban on the use of tiger bone in tradition Chinese medicine the most that India can do is focus its efforts on keeping the tigers alive, something the appropriate implementation of the country’s wildlife laws would go a long way to achieve.

“We must also deal with three other critical issues of habitat loss, man-animal conflict, and good leadership in the field. There is now a lot more awareness of these problems and the Indian Government is providing the funds and taking big steps to address these issues.” added Wright.

What the public can do

Wright believes that if people keep talking about the tiger, ensure they are not forgotten and make it clear that they care about the animal’s survival there is still hope for the big cat.

“India, and the other 14 tiger range countries, need to know that this is a critical issue and that the eyes of the world are watching them.”

“China, in particular, needs to understand that saving wild tigers is an important global issue and that it is imperative that China takes five urgent steps: (i) publicly declare that the 1993 ban on the use of tiger bones for traditional Chinese medicine is permanent, (ii) destroy all its stockpiles of tiger parts, as India has done, (iii) phase out tiger farms, (iv) send a strong message to consumers that the use of skins and other tiger parts will not be tolerated, and (v) enforce the law.”

Keeping yourself informed, putting pressures on your government to be aware of the issues, and donating money to the tiger conservation movement are all ways that people can be sure of keeping this critical issue alive in the hearts and minds of governments and wider society.

“It is essential that we all work together to save what is undoubtedly the most charismatic animal on this planet. If we fail, the world will be a much, much poorer place, and indeed future generations will condemn us for letting this glorious animal slip through our fingers”.

Despite the daunting work still to be done to secure the survival of the Bengal tiger Wright remains optimistic that the tides may yet turn and save this magnificent animal.
“All hope is not lost for the tiger. Tigers are resilient and good breeders. If we can secure their protection, good prey densities and inviolate space for these incredible big cats, India can certainly sustain a much larger tiger population.”

See http://news.mongabay.com/2010/0606-bhalin_belinda_wright_tigers.html for the full article.

Eating the penguin to extiction

According to the ICUN Redlist more than 60% of the planet’s 18 species of penguin are threatened by extinction. This percentage increases to over 70% when “near threatened” species are taken into account.

Penguin Expert Dr. David Ainley says that competition with humans in the industrialised world for food is the fundamental cause for plummeting penguin numbers.

“The main threat [to penguins] is depletion of fish by industrial fishing,” Ainley recently explained, “and all penguin species except for the Antarctic ones, whose habitat so far is protected a bit by sea ice, have been seriously affected by this […] Penguins need lots of food, nearby, reliably available. It’s easy for fishing to negatively alter this,”
Contrary to popular opinion only four penguin species is native to Antarctica and its surrounding islands. These are the species that are most isolated from human disturbance and as a result the least threatened.

“The Antarctic penguins are still very abundant and an appreciable number of reporters find their way to their areas. So, we get story after story after story about the penguins on the Antarctic Peninsula, to which lots of nature tours go, and little from elsewhere. Most of the other penguin species occur on offshore islands which are often harder to get to for the usual media story,” Ainley explains.

The role played by climate change

Penguins also suffer from the destruction of their breeding areas by humans and climate change however Ainley makes clear that these threats are far less important in isolation that the damage industrialised fishing has wrought on the marine environment.

“That’s the inconvenient truth that even the climate change champions can’t admit.” He says.

However climate change alongside industrialised fishing will result in further pressure on penguin food sources.

“Changed wind patterns, affected upwelling, altered ocean temperature, and eventually greater acidification which will affect process way down in the food webs relative to where penguins occur in them,”

Evidence has shown that where there is lower fish availability penguins are in decline, a trend seen across the world.

“[Penguins'] very high energy needs make them very sensitive to food availability and other ecosystem processes that affect food,” Ainley explains. “It ‘costs’ a lot of energy to swim in the ocean, especially the cold ocean where penguins occur. Since they don’t fly, they are very poor at searching for food. Thus, it is very necessary for there to be a lot of food in known locations.” said Ainley.

As the main predatory species in many areas penguins act as good indicator species for the general condition of oceans, especially for the marine food chain. Unfortunately findings aren’t good, many reports showing that industrialised fishing has “simplified” marine food webs negatively impacting on penguins and many other species.

Human lust for oil

One species of penguin is also at threat from the infamously destructive human desire for fossil fuels. Southern African Penguin (Spheniscus demersus) exists in one of the world’s busiest shiping regions. The species has been seriously affected by two oil spills in the last two decades – 1994 and 2000- killing at least 30,000 penguins. The lasted spill in 2000 launched the largest ever bird rescue where tens of thousands of volunteers battled to save oiled birds.

“Add to [the oil spills] the huge alteration of the Benguela Current, owing to fish depletion, and it is little wonder that this species is critically endangered,” says Ainley. He warns that other species of penguins may become threatened by oil spills as well.

“If drilling ever happens on Falklands Shelf—and this must be the reason that Argentina and UK went to war, i.e. for potential oil—then a number of penguin populations there would be vulnerable,” says Ainley.
There are 5 species of penguin that breed on the Fawklands, a spill here would be devastating for the world’s penguins.

What you can do

Of all the threats facing penguins’ industrialised fishing remains the greatest. Penguin lovers can help protect the birds by “asking for the establishment of marine protected areas, which are the only way to control the fishing industry and prevent the ultimate complete depletion of Earth’s marine resources.” said Ainley.

Consumers are also advised not to purchase Chilean Sea Bass, a species that’s decline is affecting a number of animals, from whales and seals to penguins. The Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch program lists this fish as one which consumers should avoid.

“As the penguins said in Happy Feet, which I thought to be a very good film, much more sophisticated and true than March of the Penguins: ‘STOP EATING OUR FISH!!!’” concluded Ainley.

Retraining

A group in northern Sumatra has found a solution that should please all parties by providing former illegal logging workers with a new eco-friendly profession. The Tangkahan elephant project is retraining the loggers as elephant trainers.

$1 Billion Deal

The Indonesian government will be happy to see such proactive projects arising, as the country will be coming under close scrutiny from many conservation groups following their $1 billion deal with Norway to stop deforestation. While this will obviously provide a huge boost to the country’s biodiversity, many Indonesian people will fear that they will struggle for jobs without logging companies to work for.

Perfect Model

The Tangkahan elephant project is an almost perfect model for the kind of project that will help to take the country forward following the high-profile deal.  The project is mixing conservation with eco-tourism. Foreign tourists who visit the site help wash elephants or can go on a four day patrol with the elephants to monitor the state of the forest and check for any illegal activity.

Sustainable

Sustainable industries such as this are crucial for conservation to actually work in countries such as Indonesia. Industries like this give a reason for local people to protect and conserve their biodiversity rather than exploiting it.

What makes the Tangkahan elephant project especially ingenious is that with time it should provide even more benefits to the local elephant populations. Not only have the elephants now got a much more comprehensive protection force against poachers, but by having people work closely with the animals, their attitudes towards the elephants should change.

Changing attitudes

While loss of habitat is the main cause of falling elephant populations, human-elephant conflict is also a significant factor. But learning more about the animals and how to live alongside them, the number of elephants killed each year by poisoning, beating or trapping should be greatly reduced.

We can only hope that more areas of Indonesia take note of the good work being done here.  Testimonies such as this from 30-year-old Rutkita Sembiring demonstrate the good that can come for the people of Indonesia as well as the wildlife:

He first began illegally harvesting timber from the nearby forest when he was 19.

Rutkita Sembiring says unlike large-scale illegal logging operations they only had a small team of eight people.

“We had to select the best log, predict the price, we preferred the logs closest to the river so it’s easier to bring to the city to sell them,” he said.

He says the threat of law enforcement and a growing concern for the forest helped change his mind about logging.

But when he switched jobs to look after elephants in 2002 he took a big pay cut.

He used to earn a $1,000 a month, now he is down to $130 a month.

“We got a lot of money but it was easy come, easy go and we don’t feel as happy as we do working with the elephants and protecting the forest.”

Scarred by his traumatic childhood, Jeremy Keeling found solace working with exotic animals. He reveals how he became a ‘mother’ to an abandoned baby orang-utan called Amy – and how she healed his broken heart…

The car climbed the steep bank at high speed and then rolled – nose to tail – back on to the motorway hard shoulder, the impact ripping the roof and shattering windows. Everything went black. I suffered head injuries, as did Amy, the one-year-old orang-utan I had rescued after her mother abandoned her.

Luckily, my girlfriend Meryl was unscathed and my son Jamie escaped with bruising. A policeman, arriving at the scene, crawled into the mangled wreck from the rear and saw the back of my blood-soaked head. He noticed a large, hairy hand reach out and wrap itself around my head, cradling it. I had once saved Amy. And now she would not let me go.

There was always an innate attraction between me and the orange people – the orang-utans (the name actually comes from the Malay for ‘man of the forest’). Chimps are highly intelligent and sociable. Gorillas are gregarious but lazy.

The orang-utan, though, is a simple, solitary creature that just wants to eat, sleep and work out mechanical formulas. It is the grumpy old man of the forest, something I empathise with. That’s why I felt so much for Amy. I knew what it was like to be unwanted. I too had been discarded by my mother, Jill, who ran our family zoo in the Pennines, as punishment for making contact with my absent father.

I was forced to live in a beaten-up caravan at the age of 12, deprived of love and affection. Perhaps that was why I was so drawn to Amy. We were both loners. My mother was the dominant force in my family. The death of her childhood sweetheart days before they were to marry left a bitter resentment that she took to her grave.

After I left home, I briefly worked with chimps at a zoo owned by family friends and later at Colchester Zoo, where I gained my first introduction to orang-utans. Here was I, a troubled 18-year-old, responsible for chimps, baboons, spider monkeys, capuchins, gibbons and lemurs. The main draw for me, however, were Guy and Prissy, the zoo’s orang-utans. You just get on better with some people than others and it is exactly the same with animals.

In 1975, I was hired as a keeper at a private zoo in Surrey owned by Gordon Mills, a multi-millionaire music impresario. Gordon had struck gold by taking Tom Jones and Engelbert Humperdinck to stardom. This was rock ‘n’ roll zoo-keeping.

After arriving at Gordon’s zoo, I worked hard to raise standards of cleanliness, safety and diet. By the time Amy was born, I had tried to save her mother Jane’s two previous babies. Both died before they reached three months, despite my constant attention.

Amy’s birth was thankfully trouble-free, but from then on she was in grave peril. It didn’t help that her mother discarded her. I kept her warm by borrowing a hospital incubator and force-feeding her milk every two hours. Utterly uninterested in feeding, she just wanted to cling to me, the natural reaction of a helpless, defenceless baby orangutan. I had become her mother.

After nurturing Jane’s previous babies, I went into a familiar routine: putting Amy in baby-grows to keep her warm, and wearing a mask to prevent infection. I was her protector, but at some point I needed to expose her to the world to build up her immunity. Amy stayed in the incubator for two months, a lot longer than she should have done.

One day, I turned off the lamps. Constant feeding had given her some strength, but it remained hard work. I made a home for her by fixing a plywood box with a Perspex front on a television stand so I could wheel her around. I christened this contraption Evil Edna and introduced it to Amy. Orangutans live in treetops.

They are not made for walking around on the ground and really have four hands for clinging to things. I put a teddy bear in with Amy and drifted off to sleep, hoping for a few minutes’ rest before the next feed. Fat chance. I was jolted awake by a cacophony – Amy was in hysterics. She had rolled on top of the teddy and panicked because she had nothing to grab on to.

I rolled up a towel and she grabbed on to it with her feet as if it were a perch. Amy settled instantly, looking at me with her brown saucer eyes as if to say: ‘Don’t ever do that again, OK?’

I counted down the days until the three-month mark with pride and panic. ‘So you think life is worth living after all?’ I asked her that night.

She was hanging on, to the towel and life. In the evenings, I would wheel her into the lounge in Evil Edna so we could watch television. Slowly, with each ounce of milk that Amy drank, I felt more confident. I still had the other orang-utans and gorillas in the zoo to care for, not to mention the tigers, and it was becoming a problem giving Amy the constant care she needed.

So I brought in extra help. Amy remained dependent on me though, and would cling on to my shoulders like an angora backpack as I walked around.

Sometimes I had to take her to the shops. She would sit in the car passenger seat or, more often, hang upside down in the back window, gurning at passers-by and enjoying the chaos she wrought.

Just like her mother, Amy was inherently bloody-minded. Her modus operandi was ‘because I can’ and pointing out her shortcomings had little effect. A baby orang-utan is conditioned to hang on to its mother. It takes a long time, several months, before it lets go and starts doing things for itself.

I made sure I laid down the ground rules. If I was watching television and Amy was plucking things from the bookshelf, I would raise my voice.

‘You’ve got your things and I’ve got mine,’ I told her as I scooped up the scattered pages. ‘Let’s keep it that way.’

Hand-rearing Amy meant I couldn’t do anything for myself that took longer than 20 minutes. I barely had more than an hour’s unbroken sleep and, although I loved her, I looked forward to the day when I could throw her out of the house.

Despite her quirks, it was Amy who diverted me from wallowing in negative thoughts when Gordon announced he was closing his zoo, leaving me without a job or home.

In 1984, I found a job at Howletts, the zoo in Kent owned by John Aspinall, the bookmaker turned Mayfair club owner. Amy came with me. I was driving on the M2 back to Kent with my girlfriend Meryl and son Jamie, from a previous marriage, when I fell asleep at the wheel and crashed.

I had fractured my skull in three places and there was a fragmented area above my right ear. A later scan showed that I had suffered significant brain damage.

‘I’m afraid your son is unlikely to live until morning,’ the hospital consultant told my mother after I arrived unconscious. ‘He is clinically brain dead.’

‘He’s never been brain alive,’ she replied, before giving her permission to turn off the life-support machine. ‘I do not agree with keeping people alive in a vegetative state,’ she said. ‘A waste of resources.’

Her advice was ignored and I came out of the coma after three days. My recovery from the crash took a little longer, however, and nothing would truly look the same again. It gave me a wider perspective.

I read, hugged Amy and came to appreciate the basic values and relationships that get taken for granted.

The next three years would be a recuperation period. Meryl and I married and had a son, Kenyon.

Amy had now outgrown the small quarters I had built for her in the house we had in Kent, so I set about constructing something better on the patio.

Even though she would still accompany me as I rode my bicycle around, her long, matted hair and rubber hand occasionally obscuring my vision and putting us both in fresh peril, my intention was always to see Amy living with other animals.

‘I like you, dear,’ I told her one day, ‘but don’t you think you should start behaving like an orangutan?’

Amy was probably unaware that she was an orangutan. She saw me as her mother; an odd-looking, gruff mother, perhaps, but a mother nonetheless.

She was there for me, too. In 1987, Meryl, Kenyon and I moved to Dorset, where I co-founded

Monkey World, a sanctuary in Wareham, together with Jim Cronin, with whom I’d worked at Howletts. Meryl’s and my second child Megan was born shortly after.

Monkey World’s opening day did not go well. Most of our monkeys had been rescued from laboratories and were hesitant about exploring their vast, new enclosures. There was little to see.

We watched one group of people shuffling between the apparently empty enclosures and looking up at the lemurs’ trees, mystified. Then a light bulb flashed on in my mind. I rushed back to Amy. ‘Right, old girl,’ I said. ‘It’s show time!’

I took her by the hand and she jumped up on to my chest. We shuffled along until we came across the first visitors. The reaction was instant. Eyes lit up and children smiled.

‘This is Amy,’ I began.

‘She’s so cute,’ a woman gushed.

Amy was a huge hit. I squeezed her and she tapped me on the head with her knuckles, as if to see if there was anything inside. Not for the first time in my life, Amy had saved the day.

There were times, however, when I had to be cruel to be kind. Amy’s genes were too valuable to waste. I wanted her to live with other orangutans and become a mother.

Unfortunately, she did not behave much like an ape. She would have breakfast with Kenyon and sit on his bed, next to his gorilla soft toy.

One day, I decided enough was enough. So I took her outside and showed her the trees that surrounded our hut.

‘This,’ I said, pointing upwards, ‘is known as a tree. You climb them.’

Like most apes, orangutans respond to hand signals, especially if accompanied by a reward. But they also learn by example. Amy was unimpressed. She hung on to me, showing no inclination to start shinning up a trunk. I sighed. There was only one thing for it: I started climbing the tree with her clinging on.

When we got to the top, I hoped she would disembark and do what orang-utans do. But no, so I prised her from me and deposited her at the top of the tree before climbing down.

I had barely got to the bottom before the screaming began, obliging me to start climbing back up. I was surely the only man to have saved an orang-utan from a tree. She jumped back on me and I fixed her with an incredulous glare.

‘How come I get the only orang-utan in the world who is scared of heights?’ I asked.

It was only much later, when Amy got her own enclosure and when she thought I wasn’t looking, that she decided she would happily climb to the highest point. It was a point of principle with her. If I wanted her to do something, then she would do the opposite.

Amy moved into her enclosure the following year. Not that she was pleased: she sat in a hairy pile and looked plaintively out of the mesh, condemnation in her large, sad eyes.

It took her three days to make her mark. First, Amy had hit the window of her quarters with a pebble. Then she got a bigger stone. Finally, she dug a hole and found a great big rock, which she had gleefully bashed against the window, leaving a large, jagged crack. ‘Ah, just the job.’

Orang-utans will happily use tools. They’ll work anything out given time. A few days later, Amy was introduced to another orang-utan.

On loan from Chester Zoo, Banghi was 15 days younger. I was glad to see that Amy’s hand-rearing had not tempered her instincts. She started hollering, and gave him a few slaps and thumps.

The following day, I let the two outside. Amy had evidently been relishing this prospect, because the first thing she did was introduce Banghi to the electric fence round her enclosure – by pushing him head first into it.

By now, a battered Banghi was aware of their roles and the pair settled down to a harmonious life. Banghi was a good boy and a simple soul; Amy wasn’t.

Meanwhile, my own relationship in the human world was not working out. A gulf had grown between Meryl and me and she eventually left, taking Kenyon and Megan with her.

I coped with the situation by burying my head in the sand and throwing myself even deeper into the care and wellbeing of my other, animal family. And I always had Amy – not much of a looker I admit, but a reliable presence.

Our chimps were highly successful at breeding, so much so that we had to put them on the contraceptive pill. Every unplanned birth meant one less place for a neglected or abused animal.

It was ironic that, while we were trying to prevent chimp pregnancies, Amy’s went wrong.

She became pregnant by Banghi but she had a miscarriage. To make matters worse, Banghi was ill.

Fortunately, Amy became pregnant again and this time we were lucky.

One morning I went to Amy’s enclosure to find a bundle of wispy hair shrouding large brown eyes. Gordon had arrived – Monkey World’s first orang-utan birth. I was now a surrogate grandmother.

While Amy had cleaned him, it was obvious she did not know what to do. As with humans, if a child is neglected by parents, the chances are it will then become a poor parent itself. When Amy put Gordon down, I took that as the sign. An orang-utan should never do that to a baby, so I realised we would have to remove Gordon.

I went in with Amy and tried to encourage her to fend for Gordon, but she adopted an air of utter indifference.

I felt sorry for Amy. The poor thing had no idea what to do. I thought back to my own childhood and my mother’s lack of maternal instincts and sympathised.

I reintroduced Gordon to Amy a year later. She was initially indifferent, but they eventually grew to love each other. Gordon had to dig away at that tough, grizzled exterior to find the soft underbelly of the mother ape. But before long, he would refuse to go anywhere without her.

Sadly, though, poor Banghi’s health deteriorated and we decided the kindest thing to do was put him to sleep.

Amy, however, got a new mate, Tuan, a magnificent beast found running amok in a city in Taiwan after he had escaped from being kept as a pet. He was captured and brought to Britain.

Tuan soon settled down at Monkey World and he and Amy mated. In fact, that proved to be Gordon’s downfall. Intrigued by the grunting of the rutting beasts, he wandered over. Tuan is a nice creature, but everyone needs a degree of privacy, so he clouted him.

Gordon was unabashed and came back for more, which was when Tuan snapped and inadvertently bit his eye. Along with his Fu Manchu beard, this remains Gordon’s distinctive mark.

With Tuan settled in, though, we had a proper group of orang-utans. For me it was the end of a journey that had started when I had force-fed Amy. Finally, the old girl was part of a family.

It felt good.

Today orang-utans are facing a much wider struggle. Their natural habitats in Borneo and Sumatra are being destroyed by the palm oil and logging industries. Poachers shoot the mothers and sell the carcass as an illegal delicacy, while the babies are smuggled into the pet trade.

Experts estimate wild orang-utans will be extinct within ten years. While some have argued that if an animal is unable to survive in the wild then it should be left to die, I believe it is our duty to preserve these wonderful animals.

Many might wonder just what I see in Amy, a gruff, solitary 27-year-old with a chip on both shoulders, but we have been through so much together that there will always be something special between us.

I don’t know what the future is for orang-utans, but I am glad there are people working hard to help them. If I have done my bit, I am happy.

It is a two-way street though. I may have helped to save orang-utans like Amy but, in return, I have been rescued by her and the orange people.

The raids which took place in Botwana, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland and Zambia were focused on markets and shops and resulted in the arrests of 41 people said Interpol in a statement.

“Taking these illegal items off the market is just the first step,” said Peter Younger, manager of Interpol’s Africa wildlife programme.

“Information gathered as part of this operation will also enable law enforcement, both in Africa and abroad, to identify smuggling routes and eventually to further arrests.”

Rhino poaching reached a record high worldwide in 2009 say the WWF, leaving just 18,000 rhino remaining on the continent. Likewise where once millions of elephant roamed sub-Saharan Africa today the region is home to 690,000 elephants at the most.

Poaching activity is fed by the demand for ivory in Asia and political instability in Africa, a combination that encourages the formation of international crime rings, say wildlife experts.

“The impact of wildlife crime is wide-ranging,” said Younger.

“People are threatened with violence, law enforcement officers have been killed while carrying out their duties, and there is the wider economic impact on a country and therefore the livelihoods of ordinary people.

Traditional Chinese medicine espouses the belief that Rhino horn can cure arthritis and fever, where as ivory is used for the creation of ornaments such as in carving dagger handles.

The original article that appeared in the Sunday Times questioned the ethics of a wildlife conservation group partnering up with a group that advocates, and even promotes hunting of the species that is being conserved. Save the Rhino responded by explaining the extensive consultation process that the organisation went through, the conclusion of which was that the promotion of sustainable hunting practices would have an ultimately beneficial effect rather than ignoring the trophy hunting industry completely.

Simon Barnes is a patron of Save the Rhino and writes a weekly wildlife column for the Sunday Times. On Sunday he gave his own take on this highly contentious issue.

Saving the rhinos

Barnes is a supporter of the rhino charity and is first and foremost appreciative of the good work that Save the Rhino does for the world’s five surviving rhino species, supporting projects across the planet with limited resources.

He asks a number of valid questions that all conservation charities should ask themselves. Does the acceptance of £33,631 since 2006 from the trophy hunting organisation alter the fact that good work has been done? And is it really a wildlife charities responsibility to attempt to alter morally questionable human actions when benefits are to be had for the wildlife as a result?

Saving species not individuals

Barnes points out that Save the Rhino is working to save a species and not individuals. The work that they do is a conservation effort whose focus is preservation of biodiversity and an entire ecosystem and not individual animal’s welfare. He explains that emotional backlashes and the subsequent problems for charities arise when we as individuals confuse these two ideas.

“Many individuals who give to charities do so on an emotional basis. It is much easier to tug the heart-strings with, say, a cute picture of an orphaned orang-utan in a nappy than with a complex pitch about saving the forests the orangs live in. We prefer simplicity to complexity when it comes to giving. But it’s the forests that matter if orangs are to survive.”

It is a reality that welfare organisations capture the public’s conscience more readiliy than conservation charities. Barnes provides the statistics that demonstrate this fact – the Donkey Charity received £22,554,000 in the last financial year, where as the Gorilla Organization was donated a fraction of this amount £1,268,834.

Hardline Conservation

Save the Rhino are unapologetic of their hard-line approach to conservation – accepting that culling can be an important conservation tool. They also make clear that they have never attempted to hide their relationship with Safari Club International.  The charity has supported the “sustainable use” of rhino since it was formed in 1994 and avoids a sentimental approach to an unfortunately brutally realistic situation.

Barnes believes the Save the Rhinos partnership with Safari Club International therefore to be a “logical and tenable position”, to espouse the sustainable use of the species and then reject money offered in good faith by the hunters would be completely hypocritical.

Reluctant acceptance

As a patron of Save the Rhino Barnes grudgingly accepts the “reluctant role” he will play in standing alongside trophy hunters as supporters of the rhino charity. However, he does not pull any punches in saying that his personal choice would have been to avoid working with Safari Club International:

“I would also have resisted working with Safari Club International on personal grounds. I have met a good few hunters in my travels across Africa and they have all been — how shall I put this politely? What’s the mot juste? Arseholes. I thinks that’s about as polite as I can get. They have all been arseholes.”

Barnes also warns of the inherent dangers of partnering with organisations that may be seen as morally questionable by the public:

“A good organisation gets bad publicity because a comparatively small donor attracts a very strong and negative emotional response from the public.”

But Barnes is a realist, and he clearly understands that the situation is bigger than individual moral quandaries and personal opinions.

“I’m ultimately on the side of the rhinos myself, so I shall continue to support Save The Rhino. I believe the world is a better place with rhinos than without them. I accept the logic behind the stance taken by Save The Rhino, and applaud its consistency in taking it. But I do so with the most colossal reluctance.”

Ultimately for Barnes rhinos as a species are deserving of his money and support, despite his misgivings about the actions of a select group of donors he accepts that as a wildlife charity Save the Rhino is not responsible for human morality and must focus on the bigger picture of saving an endangered species from extinction. If this means that a number of individuals much be sacrificed for the good of the whole then he is reluctantly prepared to accept this as the reality of a difficult situation.

Gunshots

Tests carried out last week confirmed suspicions that a bottlenose dolphin found at Lower Light Beach, had died as a result of multiple gunshot wounds.

The autopsy report said 12 bullets of three different sizes were found in the dolphin’s body, with evidence indicating the animal did not die immediately after it was wounded.

Part of a Pod?

Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society director Dr Mike Bossley planned to check if the dolphin belonged to the Port River pod.

“I will try and identify the dolphin using photographs, but I would be surprised if it was one frequently in the Port River,” he said.

Prosecutions

Dr Bossley hoped the people responsible would be identified and prosecuted.

“It’s terribly important where there has been serious crime to make a prosecution, as it will hopefully act as a deterrent to anyone one else.” Dolphin Trauma Group co-ordinator Dr Catherine Kemper said the post-mortem indicated the dolphin had probably died as a result of infections from the gunshot wounds.

“There seems no doubt that this dolphin was shot with a shotgun and perhaps a rifle, but the primary cause of its death is not known,” Dr Kemper said.

Penalties

An Environment Department spokeswoman said dolphins were protected under the National Parks and Wildlife Act, with maximum penalties of $100,000 and two years imprisonment for harming them.

Not Just the Royals

Pictures of tigers captured on camera trappings challenge the widely accepted fact that the only species of tiger Bhutan is the royal Bengal tiger. Cameras in Jigme Dorji Wangchuk national park (JDWNP) last year captured a tiger different from those normally spotted in the country’s many parks national parks.

Siberian

Nature conservation division’s chief forest officer Dr Sonam Wangyel said that tigers found in JDWNP were stouter, had bushy fur and their facial structure resembled a Siberian tiger of Russia.

“They’re quite small built, compared with their counterparts in the other parks,” he said. Dr Sonam Wangyel wonders what caused their physical differences, which only a genetic analysis could confirm”

“It could be a natural adaptation or probably some level of inbreeding is taking place that may actually lead to genetic depression,” he said. “It could also be associated with their mutation manifested in their appearances.”

In absence of a nationwide tiger survey, Dr Sonam Wangyel said it was difficult to decipher with certainty where the tigers are across the country.

Year of the Tiger

Various conservation programmes are being rolled out this year in an effort to stop the alarming fall in tiger numbers worldwide. WWF’s year of the tiger is seeking to raise awareness of the need for immediate action.

Even if the animals are taking things into their own hands and adapting to harsher circumstances, even these tigers will stuff suffer persecution at the hands of people as a result of beatings or habitat loss. It remains a crucial time if we are not going to see them disappear within our lifetime.

You can help to ensure we do not lose these magnificent animals by adopting a tiger today.

Continued Drilling

While the US has halted all drilling activity for the moment. the deepest exploratory well in Canadian history is being drilled right now in the Orphan Basin, 400 kilometres north-east off the coast of Canada.

Three other exploratory deep-water wells are planned in Canada’s Beaufort Sea over the next five years: One of them is being drilled by BP, another is being drilled by Imperial, and the third oil company is still to be determined.

Weaknesses

The fact that such activity looks set to go ahead is made more worrying by perceived weaknesses in Canada’s regulatory systems.

Since the Gulf of Mexico spill, investigations have shown that there were serious lapses in enforcement of US regulation policies. While such negligence is a cause for great anger among conservation groups, at least there are regulatory practices in place.

In Canada the national regulatory system here is a lot weaker than in the United States. Both safety requirements and decisions on where drilling is allowed are not significantly addressed in official regulatory processes.

In the past five years, requirements such as comprehensive environmental assessments, prescriptive safety equipment and relief-well capacity have been removed from industry regulation.

WWF Worries

Craig Stewart, director of the Arctic program for WWF Canada explained in a recent interview for a Canadian newspaper the degree to which Canada is failing to address the danger posed by deep sea drilling:

“Decisions on where to let leases is not part of the regulatory process. Secondly, Canadian regulations governing drilling on the East Coast do not require use of relief wells at all – which is crazy given that’s going to be the ultimate solution in the Gulf. And thirdly the Canadian process does not require an environmental or risk assessment during the exploratory drilling phase, unlike the United States.”

In the same interview, Stewart explained how a clean up operation in Canada would be almost impossible, and that would make the impact even more devastating on the country’s wildlife and environment.

“The major difference in Canadian waters from the warm waters of the Gulf is that we would not be able to contain or clean up more than 5 per cent of spilled oil,” he said. “And that’s because in the Arctic we cannot clean up oil that flows under ice, and in the North Atlantic the rough seas would make it virtually impossible to contain the oil before it spread.”

“The United States government estimates there is up to a 40 per cent chance of an oil spill in the American Beaufort Sea…We would expect the same odds in Canada.”

Devastating

With many species in and around Canada’s Arctic waters already suffering as a result of global warming, an environmental disaster on the scale of the Gulf oil spill could push many over the brink into extinction.

When asked what would happen if a spill did occur, Stewart’s answer was simple:

“Basically we’d be screwed.”

You can help the WWF to lobby against deep sea oil drilling and put pressure on governments to change regulation policy. By joining WWF, your donations will help to ensure that WWF continue do valuable conservation work around the world and you will get regular updates letting you know exactly how your donations are changing animals lives for the better.