The Sinar Mas Group was one of the biggest casualties of the campaign lead by environmental group Greenepeace, which highlighted the environmental damage being caused in Indonesia by the Palm Oil Industry. Sinar Mas were singled out as one of the main offenders, with evidence showing that huge and irreparable damage had been done to the once-extensive rainforests of Indonesia. One of the most shocking facts that emerged was that the level of deforestation had caused the mostly undeveloped nation of Indonesia to become one of the highest net producers of carbon dioxide in the world.

Sinar Mas Group is now facing the prospect of limited future expansion under Indonesia’s proposed moratorium on peatland and natural forest conversion. The moratorium is part of the government’s partnership with Norway to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and degradation. The moratorium is set to take effect in 2011.

As for Golden Agri-Resources, it too faces mounting criticism from green groups over its environmental performance in Indonesia. Last week Burger King announced it would sever ties with PT Smart, a subsidiary of Golden Agri-Resources, after an audit showed the firm had cleared tropical rainforest and peatlands in Borneo and Sumatra in violation of Indonesian law and the company’s own standards.

Unfortunately, as is so often the case with multinational corporations, when legislation closes a door in one place, another door is opened almost instantly.

The country of Liberia is one of the quickest-developing countries in Africa. Since the brutal civil war that had raged since 1989 came to an end in 2003, its economy surged 21.8% in 2005 and steadily grown 7.8% and 9.4% in 2007 and 2008 respectively.

Last year Sime Darby, a Malaysian palm oil producer, said it would invest $640 million in Liberia’s palm oil sector, which is currently limited to domestic consumption. Golden Agri-Resources is betting its improved genetic stock and efficient cultivation techniques can substantially boost the productivity of Liberian plantations.

Liberia has almost half of the last rainforest in west Africa, which once reached from Guinea to Togo and is home to most of the surviving wildlife too. But pressure on the forest is growing. Driven by rising population, villagers are extending their clearings to grow more crops and collect firewood. If there is an influx of palm-oil producers, then the remaining rainforest could come under increased pressure.

With climate change swiftly becoming a more immediate concern, developed countries’ governments are facing increased lobbying to provide subsidies for developing countries such as Liberia.

The situation emerging in Liberia could help to push through such arrangements, with the potentially lucrative investments of palm-oil producers likely to sway the Liberian government away from any altruistic desire to protect its remaining rainforests.

If you want to do something to help protect the world’s rainforests, then one of the best options is to become a member of the WWF. For just a small monthly donation, you can help to ensure that WWF has the resources to lobby governments, push for change in environmental law and put in place projects that give crucial protection to endangered species and ecosystems. Just click the button below to find out how much of a difference you could make.

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 latest findings of the WWF reveal that Pakistan’s already meagre forest cover is being depleted by 2.1 per cent, the highest annual deforestation rate in Asia. Much of this reduction can be attributed to the official policy of changing the status of forest lands and allowing their use for other purposes. According to the WWF, more than 150,000 acres of forest have been lost in this way since the country’s inception in 1947.

Pakistan’s once lush mangrove stands, which serve as natural hatcheries and offer protection against tidal surges, have taken the biggest hit with an annual depletion rate of nearly 2.3 per cent. Estimates vary but it is believed that the mangrove cover along the coast has fallen from nearly 1.5 million acres in 1966 to just about 420,000 acres today.

In a country where the disparity between the rich and poor is amongst the most extreme in the world, the apathetic attitude of Pakistani authorities towards deforestation demonstrates another area in which the rich few get richer while the poor majority get poorer.

Many people have lived for centuries in harmony with their environment, collecting fallen branches for fuel, grazing livestock and as well as many other sustainable industries based around protecting local flora and fauna.

But unfortunately as more countries impose stricter laws governing logging activity, those that have a more laissez faire attitude find their continued activity all the more lucrative. The effect of this is an acceleration of both legal and illegal logging despite Pakistan already feeling some serious effects.

Livelihoods are being lost as great swathes of forest are cleared, and the animals who once inhabited those areas are either killed during the extraction process or suffer a more drawn-out fate as their habitat is gradually depleted.

While deforestation’s link to climate change, and the possible effects that might have are debatable, there is already clear evidence that deforestation is causing significant changes to Pakistan’s land, with just as worryingly apocalyptic results. Already Pakistan has experienced an increase in deadly landslides, flash floods and the silting of major dams.

The unfortunate and uncomfortable truth is that most conservation organisations always have their resources stretched thin. This means battles must be picked in order for any real change to be brought about. Because of this too often the focus of public attention becomes blinkered, with places such as the Amazon receiving deserved, but sometimes all-too-emcompassing scrutiny.

If more details emerges from Pakistan along similar lines as this, it could soon become another key battleground if the fight to save the world’s biodiversity is ever going to be won.

If you are tired of hearing stories like this from around the world, then you can do something about it. One way you can help is by joining the WWF. You’re support will ensure that they are able to continue their great 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.

Logging ban

The ITTO also reports that about 60,000 cubic meters of logs destined for China remain in port, stopped by the ban. There are fears however that a halt in log exports from Gabon has pushed logging into nearby Cameroon.

Gabon hopes to encourage local industry in processed wood products, filling any job losses that result from the ban. The country hopes to move in the future towards creating its own market in finished wood products.

REDD hopes

In addition Gabon hopes to gain from the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) program expected to begin next year. Countries which preserve their forest will be paid by the program for creating carbon sinks, benefitting the entire planet.

Over 80% of Gabon in forested and between 1990 and 2005 the country lost 0.7% of its total forest cover, equal to approximately 152,000 hectares, a trend the country hopes to stop in its tracks.

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.

Moratorium Ignored

The shipment, worth nearly $16 million, is in direct violation of the moratorium imposed by Madagascar’s ruling authority only three months ago.

The ban is the result of international uproar over the organised deforestation of the country’s national parks in the wake of the military coup last year.

There is an estimated 1,500 containers worth of precious hardwoods scheduled for shipment in Northeastern Madagascar say the Ministry of Environment. Each container of roewood is thought to be worth $200,000 on the street according to a  study published last year by the Missouri Botanical Garden.

The Unique Biodiversity of Madagascar

Madagascar is the fourth largest island on the planet, and because of its early isolation from the mainland African continent most of its mammals, half of its birds and the majority of its plants are unique to the country. Today there are severe concerns that many of the islands best known species such as lemurs and chameleons may disappear before the end of the century.

Since the arrival of humans 2000 years ago 90% of the original forest has been lost due to deforestation, erosion and unsustainable agricultural practices and today only 18% of the islands native vegetation exists.

Currently the country is under Military leadership following a coup last year, since then in the ensuing political and social chaos the islands forests have experiences a massive increase in unrestricted logging activities.

47 of the world’s 48 rosewood species are found only on Madagascar, and demand for the wood on the Chinese Market is creating a very dangerous situation for the endangered trees.

The announcement that the Madagascan Alaotra Grebe has gone extinct late last month is just one conservation tragedy in what is feared is the first in a long line for the Island.

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.”

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.

Change in position

“We do not think bears should be listed,” said territorial environment minister Daniel Shewchuck. In his opinion polar bear populations of the region are healthy and no longer require the protection of the Species at Risk Act.

Federal environment minister Jim Prentice is currently considering a 2008 recommedation to keep polar bears listed as “a species of special concern” under the Species at Risk Act. Extensive national consultations are currently being pursued, and are expected to be complete by the autumn of 2010, a final descision being made by Prentice by spring 2011. Accepting the recommendation would oblige Ottawa to develop a management plan for the bears.

Initially Nunavut was in support of the recommendation, however after holding public hearings and consulting community members across the territory Shewchuck has concluded that federal protection for the regions bears is unnecessary. A position supported by Nunavut aboriginal and hunting groups.

“I’ve heard from all the communities that they are seeing more polar bears and they feel that the population of polar bears is healthy in Nunavut and we saying that as a government,” said Shewchuk. “We do not think (bears) should be listed, period.”

Expert opinion is rejected

In contrast to government opinion the Polar Bear Specialist Group of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, experts on the species, reported last summer that the number of decreasing polar bear populations has increased from five to eight since its 2005 report. The report showed three groups are stable and only one has increased in this time.

Shewchuck rejects the group’s findings arguing that too narrow a time line has been used in this research and said that the majority of scientific research agrees that polar bear numbers have increased since the 1970s.

“We do have challenges and concerns in the western Hudson Bay and Baffin Bay (populations), which we decreased the quotas on. But overall, we feel we have a very, very healthy population of polar bears.”

Threat from thinning sea ice

Recent estimations do indeed support the claim that polar bear numbers have not changed very much, hovering at between 20,000 and 25,000, however declining sea ice due to a warming climate is thought by scientists to be a very real threat to polar bears in the future. The bears require the thick sea ice as a platform from which to hunt and search for mates.

According to most recent data sea ice is projected to reach its lowest ever recorded level this September.

Shewchuck says he’s aware that many will accuse him to bowing to pressure from hunting groups however he asserts that he doesn’t care.

“That’s people outside,” he said. “If they want to come and live in Nunavut and speak with the people who live in Nunavut, then maybe I would consider their opinion.”

World Bank will provide full financial backing

State Minister for Environment and Forests Hasan Muhmud said that after a meeting with the World Bank country director Ellen Goldstein on the “Global Tiger Initiation” project the World Bank has agreed to provide full financial backing.

This tiger protection project is one of 13 projects that are currently being assisted by the World Bank.

Extinction risk

A recent WWF led study suggests that Royal Bengal tigers could go extinct by the end of the century due to climate change and associated rising sea levels. The speed at which sea levels are projected to rise is likely to outpace the ability of the tiger to adapt.

The Sundarbans is the world’s largest mangrove forest and is made up of over a hundred tiny islands. Alongside the Royal Bengal tiger, the forest is also home to wildlife such as spotted dear, wild boar, Oliver Ridley turtles, crocodiles and according to the Sundarbans Tiger Project over 125 fish and 300 bird species. If current climate projections are correct the Sundarban’s will be beneath water within 50-90 years.

President responds to appeals

The welcome decision comes following appeals from WWF to the US president to put a hold on all new off shore drilling until a full investigation into the regulatory failures that allowed the BP Gulf of Mexico disaster to occur is launched, and safeguards are put in place to ensure further drilling will take place safely in the future.

“This is an important victory for the fragile Arctic ecosystem, for the communities of Alaska’s North Slope, and for sound science,” said Carter Roberts, President and CEO of WWF. It is clear that the Minerals Management Service is a broken agency, one that has been guided not by science, but by a culture that has often put leasing revenues ahead of thorough environmental and safety review. As the events of the past month have demonstrated, we do not have the technology or capacity to adequately respond to a massive spill—in the gulf or anywhere. Halting all new off-shore drilling until our failed regulatory system is reformed and the American people are assured that drilling can be done safely is absolutely the right decision.”

New Plans have WWF backing

Evidence has recently come to light in the press and Interior Department inquiries exposing incidences of corruption and serious conflicts of interest within the Minerals Management Service (MMS), the federal agency responsible for overseeing the management of offshore drilling. Ken Salazar, Interior Secretary, has announced plans to completely overhaul MMS as a result of these findings, and divide the existing service into three separate agencies. An independent panel has also been commissioned by the president to investigate the Gulf disaster and associated regulatory failures that will be co-shared by former WWF Chairman Emeritus William Reilly. Both decisions were strongly advocated by the WWF.

The WWF insist that the spill in the Gulf is just further evidence of America’s over reliance on fossil fuels, an obsession that risks both US economic and environmental security. Carter Roberts has urged the president to put all the energy of the White house into efforts to pass climate legislation through the Senate this year.

“The administration’s previously announced moves to overhaul MMS and commission an independent panel to investigate the BP spill are steps in the right direction. However, what is still missing is a solution to the underlying cause of the BP disaster — our addiction to dirty, dangerous oil. It has never been more urgent to break oil’s stranglehold on our economy and our environment. The catastrophe in the gulf should provide all the impetus needed for the President and Congress to finally pass a comprehensive climate and clean energy bill this year,” said Roberts.

Following the Memorial Day recess Senate Leader Harry Reid plans to meet with committee chairmen and the full Democratic caucus, it is the outcome of this meeting that will likely decide whether Senate moves on climate and energy legislation this year.

The project has been created by the WWF and Sky to encourage British people to take a greater interest in the conservation of the worlds largest and most bio diverse rainforest, and support Sky Rainforest Rescue.

It is hoped that as a result of the project one billion trees will be saved from deforestation in the Brazilian state of Acre.

Visitors will be given the opportunity to get up close and personal with the Amazon rainforest as they are guided through a 3D tour, all for free.

The Pod commences its tour at the Hay Festival in Wales before travelling across the UK, visit the Sky Rainforest Rescue website to find out when it is coming to a location near you.

Shrinking sea ice responsible

The analysis takes into consideration how long an adult polar bear can survive without food and has found that instead of a gradual drop off in polar bear numbers the population may fall by as much as 20-30% in a year as a result of the effects of climate change.

“You can go a reasonable period of time without seeing major effects. But once you look at the data, you start to see sudden, dramatic changes.” said Dr. Andrew Derocher, one of the world’s leading experts on polar bears and co-author of the study.

Shrinking sea ice will be the main factor determining the fate of polar bears. The animals rely on the ice as a means of moving between different areas in order to hunt seals. Polar bears often travel long distances in order to get enough food to prepare themselves for the mating season and then their long hibernation.  A decrease in sea ice means less available food and has a knock on effect with  fewer successful matings, less robust cubs and more adolescent bears “wandering around trying to find something to eat”.

Scientists calculate that whilst 3-6% of polar bears in the surveyed Western Hudson Bay area presently die during the 120 day summer fast, in the future, 28-48% of the bears would die should the period increase to 180 days as is expected. The amount of time polar bears have had to spend fasting has increased by 7 days per decade and is expected to continue to increase in the future.

Canadian Government yet to recognise threat

Currently Canada does not offer any significant protection to its polar bears, 900 of which are found in the Western Hudson Bay. In the US the polar bear is listed as threatened and thus receives extra protective meaures. The government advisory group Committee of the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada has labelled the polar bear only as of “special concern”. It is likely that the government will not change its position unless recommended to do so by this group.

The committee defends its controversial rating by citing evidence that the polar bear population in 2008 was the greatest it had been for over 50 years, and argue that the effect of climate change on the bears is not yet apparent.

“A major conservation failure”

Derocher has branded the committee’s recommendations “A major conservation failure”.

“We are past the point where we can couch this in cautious terms,” he said “Canada doesn’t take the threat of climate change seriously.”

Derocher admits that he didn’t foresee the deadly results of climate change to take place in his lifetime when he first started writing about arctic warming and its threat to the polar bear in 1993.

“I thought this was something for the generation coming after me. Now I’m very certain we’re going to see very serious changes in the near future.”

Groundwork

Before any real action can be taken, the partnership will first lay the groundwork of strategies and infrastructure that will ensure that future actions will be effective.

Funds will therefore initially be devoted to finalizing Indonesia’s climate and forest strategy, building and institutionalizing capacity to monitor, report and verify reduced emissions, and putting in place enabling policies and institutional reforms.

A two-year suspension on new concessions on conversion of natural forests and peat lands into plantations also will be implemented as part of the agreement.

Expansion

By 2014, the plan is to move to expand the project out, with an Indonesian-wide instrument of funding contributions. This funding will only remain in place if verified emission reductions can be produced.

Funds will be managed by an internationally reputable financial institution according to international fiduciary, governance, environmental and social standards.

Key Meeting

The announcement of this partnership came as more than 30 governments today meet to discuss a first-time partnership at the Oslo Climate and Forest Conference to advance REDD+ activities this year.

“This partnership is a key step in developing a workable framework for reducing emissions from deforestation in Indonesia,” said Fitrian Ardiansyah, Climate and Energy Program Director of WWF-Indonesia.”

Rasmus Hansson, CEO of WWF-Norway, concurred with the sentiments coming from his Indonesian counterpart:

“Indonesia’s agreement with Norway to big reductions in deforestation is a groundbreaking achievement in the work to combat climate change. This commitment to halting destructive forest and land use by one of the world’s key forest countries promises to directly limit global CO2 emissions.”

Safeguarding

“This agreement sets an inspiring example of responsible climate cooperation between developing and industrialised nations,” said Hansson, “To WWF, it is of particular importance that the partners recognise that forest conservation is about much more than CO2 emissions. Safeguarding ecosystems, biodiversity and indigenous peoples’ livelihoods is an absolute prerequisite for making this work – and obviously a crucial benefit in itself.”

Lower Costs

A European Commission paper published today states the costs of reaching a higher target are much lower than previously thought. It also shows that an increased target will act as a stimulus for innovation and save the European economy billions of Euros in oil and gas imports.

Vital First Step

The paper presents an objective assessing of the economic and political impacts of increasing the EU’s CO2 emission reduction target from 20% to 30% by 2020. In response to this new analysis, WWF-UK’s Head of Climate Change, Keith Allott said:

“Moving to a 30% target now is a vital first step if Europe is to kick-start the transformation to a green economy and to generate new industries and jobs – especially if the focus is on domestic delivery rather than offsetting. It would also go some way to restoring EU leadership in the aftermath of the Copenhagen summit. Sticking with the current 20% target is just business as usual – and means that Europe and the UK will become locked into costly high-carbon investments.”

Stacking Up

A number of reports in recent years have echoed the sentiments of this latest paper, and the evidence for making the proposed changes to the targets appears to be stacking up:

• The RECIPE report sponsored by WWF Germany and Allianz found that a reduction target of 30% made economic sense, even without deeper reduction commitments in other countries.

• A study published in 2009 by WWF France found that a 30% CO2 cut by 2020 would yield a net gain of 684,000 jobs in France alone.
• A report WWF co-sponsored with CAN Europe and HEAL in 2008 found that the additional benefits to public health in the EU of a 30% target compared with a 20% target totalled up to EUR 25 bn. annually from 2020 onwards.

Minimum

WWF is keen to stress that a 30% reduction should just be a minimum aim, and even stricter controls will be required if climate change is to be kept in check.

Last year, WWF collected signatures from the world’s leading climate scientists on a statement indicating that developed economies like Europe ‘must cut emissions by 40 per cent by 2020 in order to keep global warming below 2 degrees.

They have called on EU leaders to make clear that they would move to a higher target in the context of an international climate agreement.

If you believe that governments and organisations around the world are not doing enough to prevent climate change, then you can help WWF to raise awareness and lobby for real change to policy. By joining WWF today you will become a member of an organisation that has great potential to shape the state of the world both in our lifetimes and for generations to come. Your donations will be invaluable to ensure that WWF can go on doing their excellent work.

Impog

Several oil palm producers in Indonesia and Malaysia are believed to have met in Kuching, Sarawak to establish the Indonesia-Malaysia Palm Oil Group (Impog).

A spokesperson for the newly formed Impog stated that the criticisms of the industry are mainly coming from foreign NGOs who are keen on protecting their home-grown edible oil industries. In a statement released after the meeting, they have announced their intention to engage with the RSPO to develop a “more practical and implementable scheme”.

While this last statement does suggest that this collaboration is prepared to continue working with the RSPO, the establishment of Impog sends a message of a loss of faith in the Roundtable initiative.

Reports reveal that Indonesia and Malaysia, which together account for 85% of the world’s palm oil production, are closing ranks to respond to that perceived threat to their industry by European NGOs.

WWF see this perception as misplaced, as although they are a global NGO, they have individual branches that work within countries and are locally registered and governed.

Safeguarding

WWF helped found the RSPO in 2003, and have since worked closely with all stakeholders, including major Indonesian and Malaysian producers as well as both Gapki and MPOA, to agree on a robust set of standards to ensure strong environmental and social safeguards in palm oil production.

Certified and Sustainable

The worth of the RSPO has been proven in the past few months, with consumer pressure skyrocketing as a result of high-profile revelations about the effects of the industry on local ecosystems.

The RSPO offers a solution for manufacturers, traders and retailers who are facing this increased scrutiny of whether they are sourcing from sustainable plantations. With the publication of the WWF Scorecard on European buyers of palm oil products, demand for certified and sustainable palm oil has grown three fold and it is estimated that demand in Europe alone can potentially reach ten million tonnes by 2012.

More than 300,000 hectares of oil palm production have been certified and an increasing number of plantations in Malaysia, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea are becoming certified.

Keeping Everyone Unhappy

The WWF is aware that the RSPO does have weaknesses and that it does not have unanimous support from across the industry. It regularly faces criticism from both those involved in the industry and environmentalists who are opposed to it. The RSPO is in the unenviable position of at the same time being accused of both excessive strictness and leniency. But WWF points to this dichotomy as being the key to the RSPO’s success, as the reason it does not satisfy either group is because it strives to be as balanced as possible.

Undermining the Future

It would be counter-productive to call for a lowering of standards as this would undermine the success that have been achieved and brings into question the credibility of the RSPO.

If there is no RSPO, or the RSPO loses credibility, edible oil buyers may be forced to abandon palm oil, which would have a major impact on Malaysian and Indonesian economy. As well as this, the industry could close ranks and NGOs could find their calls for regulation or environmentally conscious activity falling on deaf ears. Ultimately it would be the people and wildlife of the countries that would suffer, not the industry.

You can help to raise awareness and bring about real change in the palm oil industry by joining the WWF today. You will know that your donations will be going towards ensuring that both wildlife and people around the world are not exploited for the sake of industry or development.

Atlantic Rainforest

Located in the Great Pavilion at Chelsea, the WLT exhibit recreates a tiny corner of the Atlantic Rainforest, displaying sustainably-sourced species native to the Atlantic Rainforest, and orchids on loan from the National Collection of Bonnet Orchids held by Chester Zoo.

Window to the Outside World

The main focal point of the exhibit is the Ranger’s Hut which has a ‘window to the outside world’ in Brazil, showing live streaming via webcam from the Atlantic Rainforest at the WLT supported Guapi Assu Reserve. Interpretative information featuring WLT’s partners and the Atlantic Rainforest projects were also well received.

Goodie News for the Rainforest

Bill Oddie represented the WLT on the opening Press Day of the show, after having travelled to Brazil with WLT’s John Burton to see first hand both the wonders of the Atlantic Rainforest and how it is being saved by the Trust’s project partners in Brazil and Argentina.

The Atlantic rainforest, which once stretched through the very south of Brazil and into Argentina and Paraguay, has all but disappeared – with 93 per cent cleared by humans. You can help the World Land Trust to protect our remaining rainforests by saving an acre with them today.

Exploration

The Beaufort Sea, north of the Northwest Territories, is ice-covered for most of the year and has about 54 million cubic metres of confirmed conventional crude oil reserves, compared to about 252 million cubic metres in Alberta.

Since 1970, 132 exploratory wells have been drilled, but no production wells have been approved, said Travis Davies, spokesman for the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.

Challenge

The challenge to predicting where polar bears will be is the massive territory each animal can cover in a season. One animal tagged in the Beaufort Sea last season is now in Russia. Their habitat is also continually changing.

But despite the enormity of the task, the research team have been instilled with a new sense of urgency as a result of the spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Freezing the Oil?

A review of the federal Arctic offshore drilling regulations was postponed after the BP well blew in the Gulf of Mexico last month. It seems likely that the US government will freeze all offshore drilling until a comprehensive investigation into practices has been carried out.

This has provided research projects such as this with a window of opportunity to undertake crucial investigations of their own of the possible effects of a similar spill in the Arctic.

Predict

The project hopes to understand the bears’ movements across the ice and better predict where the animals are likely to be given wind conditions, the ever-changing sea ice and location of seals, their primary prey.

They hope to collect enough information to present evidence showing the extent of the damage that could be done to polar bears and other wildlife in the event of an oil spill

Disastrous

Edmonton-based biology Prof. Andrew Derocher said an oil well blowout in Canada’s northern Beaufort Sea just before freeze-up could be disastrous to northern animals.

When spring returned, a sheen would appear through the cracks in the ice as a dripping polar bear sat by the edge, neurotically licking the oil from its fur, he said.

Harmful

Previous experiments have shown that oil can be particularly harmful to polar bears, not just because of the fragile habitat’s the tend to be found in. Officials with Indian and Northern Affairs exposed three problem bears to oil and published a report on it in 1981.

They were surprised at the intensity of the polar bears’ reaction, Derocher said. The bears immediately started grooming themselves without stopping. Two of the three died. “They ingested so much oil they basically died of kidney failure,” he said.

The future of the polar bear could now lie in the hands of conservation groups. It is with their continued efforts to raise awareness of the species’ fragile position that governments and other organisations are realising that measures need to be put in place to protect them.

If you adopt a polar bear with WWF, you can make a real difference to what the future holds for these magnificent animals.

A Difficult Past

The history of the park has not been been without its miseries. The early years of the park were marred by drought and uncontrolled poaching which devastated the areas elephant and rhino populations.

Between the 1970s and the mid 1990s the large mammals of Tsavo and across Kenya and much of Africa were killed on an unprecedented scale pushing many species to the brink of extinction. Over 90% of the country’s elephants and rhinos were wiped out over 25 years of uncontrolled poaching.

Fuelled by the market for “wild gold” or ivory in the Far East and the newly oil rich states of the Middle East Africa’s elephants and rhino underwent a systematic decimation of their numbers.

It wasn’t until the mid 1990s that the massacre was brought under control as the world woke up to the reality of a future without mega herbivores and other wildlife. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITIES) placed rhinos and elephants under appendix I prohibiting further trade in the animals or their products.

Kenya was one of the first nations to make a public commitment to this new era of appreciation and not exploitation of its wildlife and famously burned 12 tonnes of ivory worth $1 million in 1989.

The government also formed the Kenya Wildlife Service to manage the country’s national parks and reserves, working tirelessly to turn around the neglect and poor infrastructure of these areas and improve the working conditions of wardens and rangers.

Tsavo Today

Contemporary Tsavo is one of the last wildernessness of its size and the problems that the park faced in the 1970s continue to be a problem requiring constant vigilance, alongside these there are many new issues to contend with.

When Tsavo was formed in the 1940s the human population of Kenya was one million, compared with 40 million people today. The land bordering the park is becoming increasingly populated and human-wildlife conflict is an issue which is becoming ever more apparent as people and animals are forced into closer proximity.

Climate change, trade in arms between war torn states and the bush meat trade are all modern day concerns that have risen up and must be tackled alongside poaching.

The parks administrators recognise the need for a multi-dimensional approach to these multi-faceted problems taking place across a huge and diverse ecosystem.

Conflicting policies across state boundaries do little to help these efforts, and should “Kenyan” elephants or rhinos stray into neighbouring Tanzania there is very little protection for these animals in a country where sports hunting is allowed.

Since the beginning of this year four black rhino have already killed, a big loss for a species that plummeted from 6000 individuals before the 1970s to less than 50 and is still a long way of recovery.

Tsavo’s rhino population stands at 60 in the Ngulia sanctuary and a further 10 were recently released into the main park.

The risk posed to elephants by poaching tells the same story. Prior to the 1970s 36,000 elephants roamed across Tsavo, the drought is thought to have killed 5,900 while poachers massacred 90% of the population. Today only 6000 remain in the park and over the past year a number have been killed for their tusks.

“Dead elephants fall under three categories — those that died of natural causes and still have their tusks; those that have their tusks and notable spear wounds (indicating a human-wildlife conflict) and those that have their tusks missing — a clear case of poaching,” said Dan Woodley, Senior Warden at Tsavo.

“Previously, the tusks were not hacked off, indicating human-wildlife conflict. But now the tusks are being severed and smuggled out of the country,” he added.

What the future forecasts for Tsavo

The future of Tsavo national park depends upon a new approach to wildlife conservation, the animals and landscapes alone cannot pay for all the social needs of a rapidly growing local population.

“KWS helps in community projects bordering the parks to cater for social needs like schools, dispensaries, water and cattle dips and helps in income-generation projects like farming in aloe and harvesting honey from beehives.” Says Dan Woodley.

“In traditional economics, eco-services provided by natural resources are not part of the equation. But today, environmental economics is becoming more appreciated. Industries at the coast should be taxed for the eco-services that the Chyulus provide. This money can then be channelled directly into the conservation of the Chyulus.”

This approach to wildlife conservation is one that has worked for Brazil, a success story that Tsavo hopes to imitate.

“150 years ago, the minister for environment in Portugal (Brazil was Portuguese territory) declared coffee plantations be destroyed and replaced by forests,” recounts the game warden.

It took 21 years to replant 127,000 acres on the hills. “The forests now supply more than 70 percent of Rio’s 12 million people with water. It can be done,” says Dan.

Risks are Clear

The conservation charity have asked Shell why they continue to dig deeper for the fossil fuel when the associated risks of oil extraction are becoming more and more apparent.

The explosion in the Gulf of Mexico last month that killed 11 people and continues to dump gallons to toxic oil into the ocean should be heeded as a clear example of the sheer scale of destruction that can be wreaked when oil extraction goes wrong.

The Canadian tar sands are just another instance that clearly demonstrates the polluting consequences of oil exploitation. Acid rain, increased carbon emissions and the result this has for the world’s climate are all costs of digging for oil.

Oil: A Fuel of the Past

As the planet moves toward a low carbon economy are these risks worth the expense? Along with Shell’s shareholders the WWF want evidence that company is considering the financial and environmental costs of entering into a project that depends upon long term investment, possibly as much as 40 years worth.

If you believe that the big multinational oil corporations should be brought to account for the damage they are doing to the economy, then you can help WWF to achieve this. Through their efforts lobbying the industry, they have brough to both the public and government attention the need for greater scrutiny. They are only able to continue to do this if they received continued support from the public. You can pledge your own support and make a real difference to all our futures by joining WWF today.

An Inuvialuit elder has shot what he believes is a polar bear/grizzly bear hybrid whilst out hunting for polar bears.

Mystery Bear

Robert Kuptana was surprised to spot the brownish coloured bear in the middle of a pack of seals about 30 km from Victoria Island where rare hybrid bears have been found before.

“Why would a grizzly bear be hunting seals?” he said. “It’s a land animal. They wait for fish in rivers.”

Kuptana shot the bear dead and was immediately taken by what he believes to be unusual features of the bear’s morphology.

“Its fur is probably a little lighter,” Kuptana said. “The back paws, the nails, they’re short just like a polar bear. The front paws, they’re long and huge. They’re really different. Twice as big as polar bears.”

Grolars and Pizzlies

DNA has been taken from the animal to be sent to Inuvik for testing, but as of yet the nature of the bear, grizzly or grizzly-polar hybrid – known as grolars or pizzlies- has yet to be determined. Last month Mr Kuptana’s neighbour, David Kuptana, shot the first confirmed secong-generation polar-grizzly hybrid.

Despite the excitement of Mr Kuptana experts are more pessimistic about the identity of the bear.

“The two (hybrids) that we’ve had so far are very blond looking, with mixed markings,” said Marsha Branigan of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, manager of wildlife management. “If I had of seen that bear just standing there, I would have thought it was a grizzly bear … he (Kuptana) hasn’t heard of any grizzlies hunting seals but we have.”

Evolution in Action

Regardless of the outcome of the DNA results of this bear the grizzly-polar hybrids that have been proven offer an interesting insight into evolution in action. Professor of biological sciences and polar bear expert Andrew Derocher would like the opportunity to tag and track a hybrid to gain an understanding of the behaviour of these animals, do they hibernate like grizzlys? However he recognises that the rarity of these animals such that it is up to chance as to whether this ever becomes a reality.

Evolution

“Evolutionary, it’s an interesting question: what does this mean?” he said. “As grizzly bears move further north, all bets are off in terms of predicting the future of evolution.”

Biologists estimate there to be as many as 50 grizzly bears living on Victoria Island making the chances of Mr Kuptana’s bear being a typical grizzly not uncommon. Derocher also points out that blonde grizzly bears have also been known to exist.

Polar bears are likely to be one of the first and most significantly affected species as a result of climate change. This means that more responsibility will fall on the shoulders of organisations such as WWF to help them get through these difficult times. You can help in your own special way by sponsoring a polar bear with WWF and help to ensure that the species has a future.

The coral triangle stretches 27,000 square kilometres across one-fourth of the world’s islands and covers the seas of six countries: Indonesia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, The Solomon Islands, and Timor-Leste.

Celebrated wildlife photographer Yogi Freund and his wife Stella will be embarking on the 18 month expedition to capture the wildlife, people of the region and threats faced by the triangle on film exploring how these interact and overlap. The project has been named the WWF and Freund Expedition and will document the work done by the WWF to conserve this global centre of marine diversity.

The triangle is home to 600 of the 800 known corals in the world, 2700 species of fish, six of the seven marine turtle species and a vast array of other wildlife.

Unfortunately behind the spectacular beauty is the reality that human actions are a real threat to the reefs. The Philippines and Indonesia are home to the world’s most threatened coral reefs, less than 30% of the reefs in the Philippines are currently in a good condition and are being destroyed by chemical pollution, acidification and destructive fishing practices.

“Taking photos is the easy part, but it’s keeping your eyes open that was really hard. There are times when I was really stunned by the locals’ practices and how they treat the marine animals. Sometimes I need to re-compose myself and remember my task of documenting what’s happening to provide more information to the public,” said Freund.

The Philippines lies at the heart of the triangle and Verde Island Passage is one of the most important links to the global coral reef system in the world, known as “the centre of the centre of marine biodiversity”.

Of the number of residential leisure destinations in this area sadly very few private sectors take an interest in preserving their coral reefs. Hamilo Coast a hotel complex in the region is one of these few and works closely with WWF Philippians to conserve the marine wildlife, participating in ecologically sustainable community development.

“We conducted an initial baseline study two years ago to check the health of reefs and the quality of marine life in the area and found out that these sites have the most potential for being declared as MPAs because of the biological attributes,” said Joel Palma, WWF-Philippines Vice President for conservation programs.

“However, the survey also revealed that the area has been subjected to various environmental stresses caused by illegal means of fishing, resulting in the deterioration of conditions of the coral, reef fish, and seagrass or macrolagal communities,” explained Palma.

It is hoped that the images from the WWF/Freund Project will send a clear message to Filipinos that is time to protect their coastline and oceans and will open people eyes to the wealth of life and beauty hidden beneath the sea.

Questioned

Despite finding oil palm to be the most profitable crop for small scale producers, when applied to biodiesel production the efficacy of the crop was questioned due to its traditional use in food products and the possible negative impact on food security and prices of derived foods.

Positive

A life Cycle Assessment (LCA) was conducted for biofuel production within the environmental impact portion of the study. Taking energy efficiency and Green House Gas reduction into consideration, as well as other environmental aspects including soil use and degradation, and use of fertilisers and pesticides;  it was found that oil palm and jatropha crops had the most positive environmental impact in agriculture upon already deforested land with scarce vegetation.

WWF help to fund and undertake studies into the possible environmental impact of development around the world. Help them to carry on doing so by joining today.

The World Land Trust protect the world’s most important ecosystems by offering protection for rainforest around the globe. Invest in the future of the world by buying an acre of rainforest with the WLT today.

Not Over Yet

Any clean-up operation was going to face a certain amount of sacrifice, and the need for difficult decisions to be made. But even though the need for immediate action to prevent the Gulf’s marshland coastline being contaminated is undeniable, the trade-off in effects may not be justifiable.

Justified?

Dispersants are one of the most often-used techniques for dealing with oil spills, but while their effectiveness in preventing immediate damage is undeniable, so is their potential for more long-term damage.

From a PR point of view, dispersants provide an excellent short-term solution. It chemically binds to the oil and causes it to drop from the surface of the ocean, instead falling to the ocean floor. This prevents the slick from reaching the shore and with it the accompanying newspaper-friendly photos of oil-covered birds, or beaches blackened by the spill.

But rather than solving the problem, the dispersants may just be conveniently moving it out of view. As the oil is not removed, all that happens is that a different ecosystem is affected.

Damage

Birds and terrestrial species will be saved the effects of the spill, and the delicate marshland ecosystems should largely remain uncontaminated.

But the cost of this is that sea-floor ecosystems could be decimated and fish will similarly be affected.

The actual cost of this damage could far outreach that of any marshland clean-up operation. Whereas cleaning of the coastline would be costly and time-consuming, it would at least be possible, whereas cleaning the ocean floor of the damage caused by the oil would be near-impossible.

Similarly, even though the Gulf tourist industry relies on the pristine coastline for much of its revenue, there are many other industries that will be affected for years to come as a result of mussels, oysters and fish being contaminated by the spill.

The desire to protect the birds and beasts of the coastline by moving the spill to the ocean floor may be similarly misguided, as the build-up of the oil’s poisonous effects in the food chain is likely to meant that those animals who live on the coastline are affected anyway as the food that they prey on is either no longer there, or poisons them when they do eat it.

Difficult Decision

Despite all of these concerns over the clean-up operation, the extent of spill means that no matter what techniques are used to try to prevent damage being done in the Gulf, there will still be considerable, most likely historic levels of harm caused.

So while preventative measures being taken could mean that it appears large-scale damage is being avoided, the true tale may just be hidden at the bottom of the ocean.

For that reason, those involved in the clean-up operation will need all the help they can get. So by joining the WWF today, you will be helping to ensure that resources are available to help the Gulf’s animals recover from this disaster.