WWF - WWF Philippines office

Dhaka, Manila and Jakarta top list of Asian cities facing brutal climate future

2009-11-12

Hong Kong – Dhaka, Manila and Jakarta are topping a WWF ranking of the climate vulnerability of 11 major cities in Asia.

As Heads of States gather in Singapore for the APEC summit, WWF says that developed and developing countries must cooperate to prepare these cities for a brutal climate future, highlighting that their vulnerability is yet another compelling reason for a fair, ambitious and binding deal at the Copenhagen Climate Summit in December.

According to Mega-Stress For Mega-Cities, many of the cities analyzed are extremely exposed to threats such as storms and flooding, while huge numbers of people and assets at stake result in worrying levels of socio-economic sensitivity. At the same time, the cities often lack capacity to protect themselves from devastating impacts.

“Climate change is already shattering cities across developing Asia and will be even more brutal in the future”, said Kim Carstensen, Leader of the WWF Global Climate Initiative. “These cities are vulnerable and need urgent help to adapt, in order to protect the lives of millions of citizens, a massive amount of assets, and their large contributions to the national GDP.”

“The APEC summit this week in Singapore provides an opportunity to exploit the true win-win potential offered by low carbon growth strategies for countries in the Asia Pacific region, with benefits for both the economy and the climate.”

The WWF report covers 11 urban centers across Asia, all located in coastal areas or river deltas. Following Dhaka (9 out of 10 possible vulnerability points), other cities at high risk are Manila and Jakarta (8 each), Calcutta and Phnom Penh (7 each), Ho Chi Minh City and Shanghai (6 each), Bangkok (5), and Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong and Singapore (4 each).

“Asia is urbanizing rapidly, and we can be certain that urban areas will be crucial battlegrounds in the fight against climate change”, said Carstensen.

“Cities are responsible for most of the world’s energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, but they are also pioneers when it comes to developing innovative solutions. We can’t afford to surrender them to climate change. Instead, we must empower them to become change agents and protect both rural and urban areas from devastating impacts.”

The report also includes rankings for sub-categories such as environmental exposure, socio-economic sensitivity and adaptive capacity. Poorer cities often lack sufficient adaptive capacity and generally rank higher in terms of their overall vulnerability.

“Leaders in hotspots of danger like Dhaka, Manila or Jakarta need urgent support from their counterparts in the industrialized world. Effective near-term and long-term adaptation will depend on financial support, technology cooperation, and capacity building”, said Carstensen.

According to WWF, this week’s APEC summit in Singapore provides leaders from developed and developing countries around the Pacific with a great opportunity to boost cooperation on adaptation to climate impacts as well as low carbon economic growth.

“Now we are only a couple of weeks away from the Copenhagen Climate Summit, but so far leaders have failed to clear the way for success next month in Denmark”, said Carstensen.

“APEC is the last chance before Copenhagen for leaders from a number of key countries to show that they really want to protect the planet from climate change.”

Genetic tuna tracking opens new options in race to save fish and fisheries

2009-10-27

Madrid, Spain – A new method that uses gene sequencing to accurately distinguish between tuna species has the potential to support fisheries management and possible trade restrictions for endangered tuna species.

The new method, revealed in a paper published today in PLoS ONE, the online open-access scientific journal, can make an identification from any kind of processed tuna tissue.

The true tunas – from the genus Thunnus – are among the most economically valuable fish in the world and are also among the most endangered of all commercially exploited fish . They are not to be confused with the tuna most commonly tinned, which comes from related families such as mackerel.

The paper, ‘A Validated Methodology for Genetic Identification of Tuna Species (Genus Thunnus)’, co-authored by Dr Jordi Viñas, a fish genetics specialist at Girona University in Spain and Dr Sergi Tudela, Head of Fisheries of WWF Mediterranean, proposes for the first time ever a genetic method for the precise identification of all eight recognized species of tuna.

Northern, southern and Pacific bluefin tuna are among the most stressed fish populations in the world, with the Principality of Monaco having lodged an application before the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) for a trade ban on the Atlantic (Northern) bluefin tuna where several fisheries have collapsed and failed to recover and the Mediterranean bluefin fishery is exhibiting advanced signals of impending collapse in the face of overfishing and decades of poor management.

The other tuna species are yellowfin, blackfin, longtail, bigeye and albacore tuna. Identification of traded forms of the fish, which can be dressed, gilled and gutted, or loin and belly meat, and either fresh or frozen – is a highly complex process, which has hampered conservation efforts and was a potential limitation to the imposition of trade controls.

The analysis of the DNA sequence variability of two unlinked genetic markers, one a hypervariable segment of the mitochondrial genome and the other a nuclear gene, enables full discrimination between all the tuna species.

"..findings are particularly relevant"

“This methodology will allow the identification of tuna species of any kind of tissue or type or presentation – including sushi and sashimi,” said Dr Jordi Viñas of Girona University. “The differentiation between different tunas, even those with highly similar genes, is now possible.”

“Our findings are particularly relevant for the highly overfished, overtraded – and hence endangered Atlantic bluefin tuna, for which there is a growing campaign to impose a temporary ban on international commercial trade,” added co-author Dr Sergi Tudela of WWF. “There will now be no trace of doubt when seeking to identify chilled or frozen tuna flesh at port or point of sale.”

The paper will remain available to download for free from the website of PLoS ONE and will be submitted to the relevant tuna fishing and trade management and control authorities.

(PLoS ONE is the first journal of primary research from all areas of science to employ a combination of peer review and post-publication rating and commenting, to maximize the impact of every report it publishes. PLoS ONE is published by the Public Library of Science (PLoS), the open-access publisher whose goal is to make the world’s scientific and medical literature a public resource.)

Forests fundamental to effective climate deal

2009-10-25

Buenos Aires, Argentina – The world’s ability to control climate change could be crippled if global leaders do not support clear and effective targets to arrest deforestation at climate talks in Copenhagen in December, WWF said at the conclusion of a key global foresty summit.

As the XIIIth World Forestry Congress finished Friday, WWF called for an ambitious and bold climate deal at Copenhagen to give clear guidance and incentives for the forestry sector to do its part in stopping catastrophic climate change and adapt to predicted changes.

“Setting immediate deforestation targets is a key component of any climate change agreement,” said Rodney Taylor, Director of WWF International’s Forest program.

“If the global deal on climate change ignores the dangers of unchecked deforestation, it will set the world on an accelerated path to savage climate change.”

Despite conservation efforts, global deforestation continues at an alarming rate – 13 million hectares per year, or 36 football fields a minute. It generates almost 20 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions and halting forest loss has been identified as one of the most cost-effective ways to keep the world out of the danger zone of runaway climate change.

To this end, WWF during the Congress proposed a global target of zero net deforestation by 2020 to avoid runaway climate change and stop the current catastrophic trend of species loss.

“A zero net deforestation by 2020 target will set the scale and urgency needed to gather the political will to stop forest loss,” Taylor said.

WWF will continue to advocate for a strong deforestation target to be included in all other relevant international treaties and agreements, including in the Convention on Biological Diversity.

In Copenhagen, negotiators need to agree to strong financial and emissions reduction commitments to craft a climate deal that enables developing countries to halt forest loss.

“WWF received strong feedback at the Congress from various sectors, including governments, other NGOs, and the private sector to support our target on deforestation,” said Gerald Steindlegger, WWF International’s Forest Manager on Global Policy.

Many developing countries already are adopting major deforestation policies that mirror WWF’s call for zero net deforestation by 2020.

On Wednesday, government representatives from Argentina and Paraguay pledged during a special ceremony co-hosted by WWF and its partner organization Fundacion Vida Silvestre at the Congress to work towards zero net deforestation in the Atlantic Forest, and to implement a package of measures that include national legislation to enforce those commitments.

The Atlantic Forest initially spanned 500,000 square kms, shared between Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay. However, only 7.4 percent of the forest is left today – or about 35,000 square kilometers, making it one of the most threatened and fragmented subtropical forests in the world.

Meanwhile, the Brazilian government already has established a zero deforestation target by 2010 for the Atlantic Forest. Brazil also has pledged to establish protected areas covering at least 10 percent of the forest.

This year, the World Forestry Congress brought together more than 4,000 participants in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Philippine floods stress the human element in Bangkok climate talks - WWF

2009-09-27

Bangkok, Thailand – Extreme rainfall causing disastrous flooding in the Philippines should remind delegates gathering for the United Nations climate talks in Bangkok that their deliberations will influence the lives and livelihoods of millions, WWF said.

Regretting the loss of life in the flooding which has displaced hundreds of thousands, WWF said it was aware that Philippines meteorogists had linked the event to climate change, but cautioned that drawing such links to individual extreme weather events was difficult.

The science is clear however that more frequent and more severe extreme weather events are already and will be an increasing consequence of climate change. This will include more extreme rainfall events similar to the record rainfall brought by tropical storm Ondoy to the Manila area and to flooding from record rains that devastated Istanbul and other areas of Turkey a fortnight ago.

"Ondoy taught Manila a painful and very expensive lesson," wrote WWF-Phillipines Chief Executive Officer Jose Ma. Lorenzo Tan. "With climate change, no one is ever exempt. Its impacts are dynamic and non-linear. Coastal zones and flood prone areas along river banks and lake shores will of course get hit. But less vulnerable areas and sectors are affected as well, because the impacts of an extreme weather event spill over into transportation, infrastructure, power, telecommunications, health, food security, water - all leading to internal displacement and marginalization of hundreds, even thousands, of people."

“The Philippine floods should remind politicians and delegates negotiating the climate treaty that they are not just talking about paragraphs, amendments and dollars but about the lives of millions of people and the future of this planet,” said Kim Carstensen, Leader of the WWF Global Climate Initiative.

“After months of haggling, losing time and arguing we have now entered the last phase and have an absolutely last minute chance to rescue the climate deal.”

The UN Climate Summit of heads of state in New York last week has given negotiators a mandate to turn the 170-page draft into an agreeable treaty. This is urgently needed to ensure the survival of vulnerable nations at risk from climate change.

According to WWF in order to prevent failure in Copenhagen and future climate disasters, negotiators in Bangkok should aim at cutting the UN draft texts by 40% by the middle of the conference and by 85% by the end of the two-week talks.

The main tasks are in the hands of rich countries which need to come up with ambitious reduction targets as well as finance commitments which will help developing countries to adapt to climate change

“Delegates are equipped with a clear mandate to edit at record speed and accelerate the drafting process”, said Carstensen. “Maybe big targets and big money will only be agreed in Copenhagen, but that can’t be an excuse for wasting time, at least the crucial groundwork must be laid here. We need clarity on what the key elements are for a Copenhagen climate deal.

WWF is worried about a mismatch between credible leadership in Asia and empty rhetoric in Europe and the United States. While key Asian countries are offering concrete contributions to reach a deal in December, EU and US are emerging as major stumbling blocks.

WWF applauds Japan, China and India for outlining concrete mitigation action and for playing an increasingly constructive role in the negotiations, confirming their determination to become the world’s next economic leaders on the basis of a green economy and low carbon growth.

“Pledges such as Japan’s to reduce emissions 25% from 1990 levels by 2020 and that of Indonesia to keep emission growth 26% to 41% below business as usual projections by 2020 are bringing us closer to the global emission reduction targets we need”, said Carstensen.

Both developed and developing Asia are finding their way to the top in the world league of climate action. Now industrialized countries and in particular the US has to follow Asia’s example, and after missed opportunities in New York and Pittsburgh the talks in Bangkok present the next chance to step up.

Saving the ‘Salad Bowl’: A personal account of the struggle to rehabilitate Filipino coral reefs

2009-08-27

By Gregg Yan

Batangas, Philippines: Through my foggy mask, I make out my dive buddy giving the go signal. I back-roll, ingloriously, into the turquoise waters of northern Batangas in the Philippines. Scant seconds pass as I find my bearings, but soon the scene unfolds: a pulsating shoal of blue green chromis, interspersed with a few ubiquitous sergeant majors, hail us to Poseidon’s realm.

Beneath is a modest garden of branching and soft corals – not quite like Tubbataha, but slowly getting there.

Led by WWF Hamilo Coast Project Manager Paolo Pagaduan, our dive team is assessing Santelmo cove – a former refuge for blast fishermen, now a reef in regrowth – and the country’s newest marine protected area or MPA.

We level off at 25 feet and come face-to-face with a spotfin lionfish. It is a cool Wednesday morning, just another day at the office.

The Philippines: Welcome to MPA Heaven

The Philippines forms the apex of the Coral Triangle and is the world’s second-largest archipelago. Within this exquisite region sit 7,107 emerald isles fringed by 27,000 square kilometres of unique coral reef.

This region has been hailed by globally-renowned coral expert and Corals of the World author Dr. Charlie Veron as ‘the center of world marine diversity’ – an area so implausibly productive that a single square kilometre can keep on producing over 40 metric tonnes of fresh snapper, grouper and other forms of seafood year on year.

With proper protection, these coral reefs can eradicate Asian poverty and feed billions – a coral-coated cornucopian horn unlike any other.

There’s trouble in paradise, however.

For over a century, unchecked coastal development, overfishing, coral mining, sewage, chemical pollution, acidification, sedimentation, ocean warming and destructive fishing practices have been waging an undersea war against these marine enclaves. Now the Philippines, together with Indonesia, hosts the world’s most threatened coral reefs, less than 5 percent of which remain in excellent condition. Faced with this problem, many archipelagic countries throughout Asia have turned to the MPA solution.

“The establishment of protected areas evolved when people realized that portions of coral reefs needed continual protection to stay productive,” said WWF Conservation Programs Vice-President Joel Palma. “These areas go by a host of names: MPAs, fish sanctuaries or no-take zones. All are loosely defined as inter or subtidal spots reserved by law for the protection of a given area.”

The Sumilon Experiment

The Philippine MPA story began in 1974 – a time when cyanide and blast fishing were at their peak.

Under the guidance of Silliman University, a portion of Sumilon Isle off the south-eastern tip of Cebu was declared a no-take zone – leading to the creation of the country’s first MPA. From 1974 onwards, 25 percent of Sumilon’s coral reefs were meticulously protected. Ten years of improved fish yields from both within and outside the protected zone proved the strategy was sound.

Protection waned in 1985 however, causing fish yields to dwindle. Because of a lack of enforcement or a functioning quota system, dynamite and cyanide fishers quickly overfished the area.

“There is a need for long-term or decadal protection of reserves before fish export from reserves may be expected,” said Dr. Angel Alcala of Silliman University.

The Sumilon experiment proved that constant vigilance was essential to keep MPAs alive and productive.

Today the Philippines hosts about 10 percent of the world’s MPAs – over 500, a figure far greater than any in Southeast Asia. Established largely through local government initiatives and maintained through the efforts of local coastal communities, these undersea enclaves are scattered throughout the archipelago and provide vital safe havens for Philippine marine life.

Sadly, many MPAs are plagued by a lack of funding. Mismanagement is rife, and it is estimated that only 100 of the 500 existing MPAs are properly administered. The rest are dubbed as ‘paper parks’ – areas urgently needing funding and professional management.

Two of the country’s best-managed MPAs are Apo and Danjugan Isles in Negros, both of which received best-managed MPA awards in 1996 and 2001, respectively. The awards were bestowed upon the two sites by the Philippine Council for Aquatic and Marine Research and Development (PCAMRD), the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) and the Department of Agriculture (DA).

“Community support is paramount in achieving success,” said Pagaduan. “By protecting their area’s reefs, coastal communities also safeguard future sources of food and livelihood.”

WWF, the local to global conservation organization, has long pioneered the establishment and upkeep of protected areas in the Philippines’ largest coral reef systems. In October 2007, WWF and the local government of Sablayan in Mindoro spearheaded a ban on fishing in Apo Reef, the country’s largest reef system. Fishing was replaced by successful livelihood programmes and an ecotourism drive designed to keep livelihoods afloat while allowing the reef ample time to recover.

Dramatic results are already evident in other model sites. From 2004 to 2005, the world-renowned Tubbataha Reefs off Palawan doubled yearly fish biomass from 166 to 318 metric tonnes per square kilometre – a yield seven times more productive than a typical reef.

WWF and Hamilo Coast are now working with the local government of Nasugbu and allied organizations to establish three new MPAs off the northernmost tip of Batangas.

Nasugbu’s Newest Protected Areas

Composed of 13 limestone-ringed coves demarcating Batangas and Cavite, Hamilo Coast is the first true Filipino community master-planned for ecological sustainability.

Realizing that its best assets lay beneath the water, Hamilo Coast developer SM Land partnered with WWF-Philippines to craft and implement a coastal resource management (CRM) plan designed to revive the once-rich marine habitats along the coast.

The program began with exhaustive assessments of coral reefs, sea grass beds, mangal or mangrove forests and offshore fishing sites.

“Many surveyed reefs bore pockmarks from bomb blasts, scars from 40-years of dynamite fishing,” said Pagaduan. “We eventually identified three priority coves needing urgent protection – Santelmo, Etayo and Pico de Loro.”

Closure of the sites was the first step to recovery.

“At first there was a lot of dissent,” Pagaduan said. “Locals relied on each of the 13 coves for food and livelihood so absolute closure would rob them of income. It took over 10 months of negotiations to convince them that, given time to recover – the coves would be more productive than they could imagine. Two years later, we are ready to finally close off Santelmo for fishing.”

Pagaduan says that since 2007, the difference in fish yields has been noticeable.

“We catch more fish now than two years ago,” said local fisherman Adelito Villaluna.

Local fishers reel in from four to 12 kilograms daily – a figure attributed not just to the MPAs, but to increased enforcement efforts against illegal fishers.

Saving the Salad Bowl

Arguably the best of the three coves, Santelmo has been dubbed the ‘salad bowl’ – owing to the proliferation of Montipora, a curious-looking hard coral which closely resembles a lettuce head. Santelmo reef will now be declared a ‘no-take zone’, while Etayo and Pico de Loro’s reefs will be declared as ‘marine reserves’ – meaning a limited number of hook-and-line fishermen may continue to fish.

“This is a compromise we deemed acceptable,” said WWF Vice-Chairman and CEO Lory Tan. “Originally, we wanted all three coves declared as no-take zones. However, our top priority is still the welfare of Nasugbu’s people, so until enough spillover from Santelmo cove can accommodate their fishing requirements, we cannot deny them their right to fish.”

In the face of worsening climate impacts, protecting biodiversity enclaves makes perfect sense.

“MPAs focus on much more than just the conservation of biodiversity: should we succeed in halting climate change, these pockets of marine resilience will provide the building blocks needed to restore natural mechanisms which provide food and livelihood for millions of people," Tan said. "It’s a natural investment.”

* * *

Back at the Santelmo salad bowl, we find ourselves tracking a dozen-strong school of longfin batfish, graceful residents which vaguely resemble the silver-and-black striped freshwater angelfish familiar to aquarists. As they fade off into the blue, I self-consciously check my air pressure gauge.

At 300 PSI and low on air, we finish up and ponderously begin our ascent, inflating our BCs to begin our rise to the world above. I take a final glimpse of the ghostly batfish and smirk as I imagine how beautiful Santelmo reef will be in a decade. Will it be as beautiful as the coral-covered drop-offs of Balicasag Isle? Will it have the thousands-strong schools of fairy basslets in Coron?

Only continued protection – and time, will tell.

Maps reveal secret life of marine turtles in urgent need of protection

2009-07-28

A series of conservation maps produced by WWF reveal for the first time the secret life of endangered turtles in the world’s most diverse marine region – the Coral Triangle.

The maps are the first to bring together the different life cycle movements, migration routes, foraging grounds, and nesting sites of green, hawksbill and leatherback turtles.

The maps were produced with the help of satellite tracking, and allow the identification and targeting of areas in urgent need of protection. They also highlight the inter-connectedness of marine habitats making a strong case for cooperation among Coral Triangle countries for the protection of shared marine resources in the region.

“We now have a better picture and more comprehensive understanding of where marine turtles feed, breed, and nest around the waters of the Coral Triangle,” says Matheus Halim, WWF Coral Triangle Turtle Strategy Leader.

Marine turtles play a crucial role in the delicate web of ocean life by maintaining the health of seagrass beds and coral reefs, which are home to other marine species such as shrimp, lobster, sharks, dugongs and innumerable reef fish.

The maps serve as a guideline for where to establish Marine Protected Areas. “The maps clearly identify which areas in this region need protection”, added Halim. “WWF is calling for the establishment of a network of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) that encompass these locations as part of the new six nations Coral Triangle Initiative (CTI) and for turtles to be made a priority under The Association of Southeast Asian Nations Wildlife Enforcement Network (ASEAN-WEN).”

Apart from showing life cycle movements, the maps also give valuable information about locations with the high incidence of turtle bycatch in the region, helping to identify where fishing methods require modification.

The Coral Triangle, home to six of the seven known species of marine turtles in the world, stretches across six countries in Southeast Asia and the Pacific, covering the seas of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, and Timor Leste.

Marine turtles are listed on the World Conservation Union’s Red List of Threatened Species as either ‘Endangered’ or ‘Critically Endangered.’ This means they are among the most threatened animals on the planet and face the real risk of extinction.

The loss of nesting beaches and feeding habitats due to pollution and coastal development, the illegal trade and consumption of turtle eggs, meat, and other derivatives for commercial purposes, and the accidental catch (or ‘bycatch’) of turtles in fishing gears are just some of the many threats facing marine turtles.

Marine habitats in the Coral Triangle important to commercially-valuable fish species are being lost or degraded at an unprecedented rate. The last decade alone has seen a drastic decline in fish stocks due to inadequate fisheries management and widespread overuse of marine and coastal resources.

Establishing a network of MPAs can help alleviate the stress on marine and coastal resources and help build the marine environment’s resilience against other threats such as coral bleaching, caused by climate change.

“MPAs offer a range of benefits for fisheries, people, and the marine environment by providing safe havens for endangered species to thrive and for depleted fish stocks to recover,” says Dr Lida Pet-Soede, WWF Coral Triangle Programme Leader. “MPAs provide services to local communities who depend on the sea and its resources. Protecting these critical marine habitats means protecting the food and livelihood of millions people in the Coral Triangle region and beyond.”

The maps were produced by WWF in collaboration with the Indonesian Ministry of Forestry, Directorate General of Forest Protection and Nature Conservation and other regional partners.

Paper protection not enough for Vietnam's marine turtles

2009-05-23

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia — Marine turtles are vanishing from Viet Nam’s waters and illegal trade is largely to blame says a new study by TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network.

An assessment of the marine turtle trade in Viet Nam, launched to mark World Turtle Day found that large marine turtles are now virtually absent from Viet Nam’s waters except for Green Turtles around the Con Dao Islands National Park.

A government-owned souvenir shop found selling illegal turtle products was a potent symbol of how a national ban on turtle products enacted in 2002 has been undermined by a lack of enforcement.

Traders in all Viet Nam’s coastal localities reported that catches of local marine turtles, especially Hawksbill Turtles, were becoming rare, and even the few caught were smaller than in previous years.

“Without effective enforcement of the laws, the future for marine turtles in Vietnamese waters looks very bleak.” says Tom Osborn, Acting Director of TRAFFIC’s Greater Mekong Programme.

A 2002 TRAFFIC study found that trade in marine turtles had extended into a large-scale wholesale export market and a Ministry of Fisheries report estimated the combined take across the entire Vietnamese coastline at 4,000 marine turtles annually.

Shortly after these surveys, the Viet Nam Government prohibited the exploitation of marine turtles but the current TRAFFIC survey finds the trade has continued, though at a reduced rate.

Government enforcement of illegal marine turtle catching, processing and trade has been uneven at best—evidenced by a great decrease in the number of outlets and marine turtle products on display in some areas and an increase in others, particularly in some newly developing tourist areas.

In Ha Tien and Ho Chi Minh City, traders cited Indonesia and Malaysia as their main sources of turtles and raw scutes (the large scales on the turtle’s carapace or shell).

All international trade in marine turtles is banned under CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora).

Already threatened by habitat degradation, accidental or opportunistic capture by fishermen and the direct take of nesting females and their eggs, whole turtles are also stuffed and, in the case of Hawksbill Turtles, their shells turned into jewellery, fans and handbags, known as bekko.

According to the report, a lack of product more than law enforcement explains the steady downturn in the number of outlets selling marine turtle products.

Green Turtle meat was rarer than in 2002, and its price had increased significantly compared with those recorded during a 2002 TRAFFIC survey. In a Ha Tien market, after allowing for inflation, its price had more than doubled by 2008, pushing it into the luxury meat category.

However, in some towns, the study found bekko workshops and stores, including a government-owned souvenir shop, selling hundreds of marine turtle products operating in plain view of authorities.

The study found that businessmen in some areas were aware that it was illegal to capture, process and sell marine turtle products but there had been no action taken to confiscate or destroy the illegal items on sale.

The study said that most indicators pointed towards a falling demand, but vendors continued to report good sales for most marine turtle products indicating that the trade still posed a serious threat.

The study recommends that authorities look into finding alternative sources of income for communities dependent on the sale of marine turtle products, expand existing awareness programmes and confiscate and destroy all marine turtle products that remain on sale.

Rare megamouth shark caught in Philippines

2009-04-08

Donsol, Philippines: An extremely rare megamouth shark was caught by Filipino fishermen, marking only the 41st time the species has been seen in the 33 years since its discovery and giving new insight into the elusive shark’s behaviour.

Fishermen based in Donsol were trawling for mackerel along the eastern coast of Burias Isle on the morning of 30 March when they caught a large shark from a depth of approximately 200 meters.

The shark was brought to shore in Barangay Dancalan in Donsol, Sorsogon and WWF Donsol Project Manager Elson Aca immediately arrived to assess the haul and identified it as a megamouth shark – considered the world’s rarest shark.

Megamouth 41, as the Florida Museum of Natural History has named the Donsol shark, measured four meters and weighed an estimated 500 kg.

Last week’s megamouth encounter underscores the importance of the Donsol-Masbate region – part of the Coral Triangle – as a haven for rare marine life, according to WWF Philippines.

The discovery follows last month’s rescue by WWF of a 38 cm baby whale shark – considered the world's smallest of its kind ever discovered.

"The presence of two of the world's three filter feeding sharks warrants special attention for the Donsol-Masbate region," Aca said. "Whale and megamouth sharks, manta rays, dolphins and other charismatic giants indicate that the region's ecosystem is still relatively healthy.”

“By protecting megafauna, we help maintain the dynamic balance of our seas, and ensure the entire ecosystem's resilience and natural productivity,” Aca said.

WWF works with a host of partners to protect the megafauna of the Coral Triangle which is considered a major center for marine biodiversity.

WWF's satellite tagging initiatives have already shown that pelagic filter feeders such as whale sharks and manta rays regularly prowl through the region.

The megamouth (Megachasma pelagios) is a fairly recent scientific discovery, with only 40 recorded encounters worldwide until the latest find.

The first specimen was caught off Oahu, Hawaii in 1976. The discovery led to the creation of an entirely new family and genus - prompting the scientific community to hail it as the 20th century's most significant marine find and rivaling the rediscovery of the coelacanth in 1938.

The megamouth shark is so named for its enormous maw - almost a meter
wide and lined with a brilliant silver band to attract planktonic prey. It has been found roaming throughout the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans. Males average four
meters while females - which give birth to live young – can grow to five meters long.

Relatively little was known of their habits until researchers fitted a megamouth – the sixth one discovered – with a pair of ultrasonic transmitters and tracked it for two days in 1990. The research indicated that the sharks spend the daytime in waters up to one kilometre deep and surface only at night to feed on plankton, small fish and jellyfish - usually at a depth of around 15 meters.

Eight megamouth sharks, a full fifth of all recorded encounters, have been caught in Philippine waters. Four were caught in Cagayan de Oro and one each in Negros, Iloilo and Cebu. Megamouth 41 is the first megamouth shark to have been caught in Luzon, which is the Philippines’ largest island.

Sadly and despite protests from Aca, the megamouth shark caught near Donsol was later butchered and eaten. Its stomach contents revealed it was feeding on shrimp larvae.

For more than a decade, WWF has worked in Donsol to establish community-based whale shark eco-tourism, transforming the once sleepy town into one of the Bicol region's busiest revenue generators.

Current initiatives funded by WWF-Denmark and supported by the local government include researching whale shark migration routes and numbers through state-of-the-art photo-identification and satellite tagging techniques.

The waters around Donsol are part of the Sulu-Sulawesi Seas ecoregion, one of WWF's Global 200 ecoregions — a science-based global ranking of the world's most biologically outstanding habitats and the regions on which WWF concentrates its efforts. The also make up part of the Coral Triangle, a major area of marine biodiversity.

Leaders of the six nations that make up the Coral Triangle – Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Timor Leste –will meet on May 15 in Manado, Indonesia for the World Oceans Conference where they will announce a comprehensive set of actions to protect ecosystems and food security in the region.

Tiny whale shark gives clues to sea giant’s behaviour

2009-03-09

The shock discovery in the Philippines of a tiny whale shark – possibly the smallest of its kind ever recorded – has given scientists new insight into the breeding behavior of these mysterious fish.

Scientists from WWF-Philippines, working with local police and government officials, freed a 38 cm whale shark over the weekend captured by a fisherman in the Philippines province of Sorsogon, near the coastal town of Donsol, a hub where whale sharks congregate.

The rescued shark was the smallest whale shark ever recorded in the Philippines, and possibly the smallest ever found in the world.

The whale shark is the world’s largest living fish, measuring up to more than 12 meters and weighing up to almost 14 tons, making the weekend encounter by scientists with the miniscule captive whale shark a unique opportunity to learn more about the huge fish species.

Despite all the ongoing research on whale sharks, little is known about where they breed or give birth.

Because of its small size, the whale shark found in the Sorsogon Province was likely born near the area. This indicates that the Philippines – at the apex of the Coral Triangle – likely is one of the places where these giants of the sea are born, according to WWF-Philippines.

For many years, scientists thought that the Sorsogon coastline was merely one of many stops along the global network of marine highways traveled by whale sharks. The recent discovery of the small whale shark could change that long-held belief and instead establish the coastline as a birthing area for the sharks.

After being tipped off that a whale shark had been caught to be sold, researchers from WWF-Philippines alerted local authorities and together they located and freed the shark, which the fisherman had restrained with a rope tied around its tail.

The rescuers then checked to make sure the shark had not been injured, and documented and measured it, before transferring it into a large, water-filled plastic bag to allow it to swim freely prior to its release. They eventually took the shark out to deeper water, where it was less likely to get entangled in a fish net, and set it free.

Although listed under Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), a status which strictly regulates the trade of the species based on quotas and permits to prevent their unsustainable use, whale sharks continue to be harvested for a variety of products, including their liver oil and fins.

The waters around Donsol are part of the Sulu-Sulawesi Seas ecoregion, one of WWF's Global 200 ecoregions — a science-based global ranking of the world's most biologically outstanding habitats and the regions on which WWF concentrates its efforts. The also make up part of the Coral Triangle, a major area of marine biodiversity.

Leaders of the six nations that make up the Coral Triangle – Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Timor Leste –will meet on May 15 in Manado, Indonesia for the World Oceans Conference where they will announce a comprehensive set of actions to protect ecosystems and food security in the region.

(C) WWF-Philippines

Thousands threatened by unregulated fishery

2009-02-24

Manila, Philippines – After 40 years of unregulated cyanide and dynamite fishing thousands of people in the western Philippines are in danger of losing their livelihoods.

The trade in live reef fish bound for expensive seafood restaurants in China is facing imminent collapse. Sixty per cent of all fish taken from the reefs around Palawan province, 600 kilometres south-west of Manila, are now juveniles, a good indication that it has been highly overfished.

"The trade in live reef fish in Palawan supports more than 100,000 people, many of whom have few alternatives for livelihoods, yet the fishery is highly unregulated and is in a serious state of decline," said Geoffrey Muldoon, live reef fish strategy leader for WWF.

"Under the business-as-usual scenario, Palawan's live reef fish trade will become economically unviable within the next decade," he added.

In a bid to help save the more than 100-million-dollar-a-year trade, WWF convened a meeting with the Palawan Council for Sustainable Development, fish traders and fishermen to discuss the sustainable management of the fishery.

Among the measures to be discussed to regulate the industry are the introduction of accreditation processes, quotas, levies, and surveillance and monitoring systems.

Muldoon said the meeting was also part of efforts to establish a regional alliance with traders from other live fish trade hubs, such as those in Indonesia and Malaysia.

"This alliance will provide a unified voice for fishers and traders to express their social and economic concerns as well as provide the regional network needed to pursue a more sustainable trade," he said.

The Philippines is the biggest supplier of most high-value live reef fish, such as coral trout, which are caught often with the use of cyanide or explosives.

The live reef fish trade from Palawan has serviced the appetite for fresh tropical fish at expensive lunches and expensive banquets in seafood restaurants in Hong Kong and China since the 1980s.

Earth Hour 2009 setting new records in climate concern

2009-02-05

Already twice the participating countries of Earth Hour 2008
Archbishop Desmond Tutu leads call for action on climate change
Obama artist Shepard Fairey likens flicking switch to climate vote

With eight weeks still to go, citizens, businesses and public authorities in 375 cities across 74 countries have already committed to turning off their lights for one hour at 8.30pm on 28 March in a graphic show of support for decisive action on climate change.

The list of cities confirming their participation in Earth Hour 2009 includes 37 national capitals and some of the great cities of the world, including London, Beijing, Rome, Moscow, Los Angeles, Rio de Janeiro, Hong Kong, Dubai, Singapore, Athens, Buenos Aires, Toronto, Sydney, Mexico City, Istanbul, Copenhagen, Manila, Las Vegas, Brussels, Cape Town and Helsinki.

The WWF-sponsored event continues to show amazing momentum, from being a Sydney, Australia awareness-raising event in 2007, to the astounding 371 cities across 35 countries total last year. As participation for Earth Hour 2009 storms past this level of municipal involvement in more than twice the number of countries, discussions are under way or nearing completion in hundreds of other cities.

WWF Director General, Mr James Leape, said he is optimistic about the campaign’s potential to drive key decision making on the issue of climate change.

“With hundreds more cities expected to sign up to switch off in the coming months, Earth Hour 2009 is setting the platform for an unprecedented global mandate for action on climate change,” he said.

Along with the great metropolises of the world, Earth Hour 2009 will also see the lights go out on some of the most recognised landmarks on the planet, including Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro, Table Mountain in Cape Town, Merlion in Singapore, Sydney Opera House, CN Tower in Toronto, Millennium Stadium in Cardiff and the world’s tallest constructed building Taipei 101.

A host of high profile ambassadors across the world have also lent their support to the campaign, most notably Nobel Peace Prize recipient Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Academy Award-winning actress Cate Blanchett.

Shepard Fairey, the artist noted for his graphic portrayals of Barack Obama during the recent US Presidential Election, has likened flicking the switch to casting a vote on climate change in artwork for the Earth Hour campaign.

Earth Hour Executive Director, Mr Andy Ridley, said the 2009 campaign as an opportunity for the people of the world to cast their vote on this important global issue.

"Earth Hour by its very nature is the essence of grassroots action. This is the opportunity for individuals, from all corners of the globe to unite in a single voice and demand action on climate change”, said Mr Ridley.

2009 is a critical year for action on climate change, with the world’s leaders due to meet at the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December to sign a new deal to supersede the Kyoto Protocol.

‘Mermaid’ rescued in Philippines

2009-01-06

Manila, Philippines - Two brave fishermen from the Philippines began the year by saving the life of a trapped dugong or sea cow, the ancient sea mammal generally credited with being the origin of the mermaid myth.

On the afternoon of 1 January Henry Barlas, from the coastal barangay of Maruyogon in Puerto Princesa, noticed something unusual as he gazed at the shallow lagoon fronting his home. Less than 10 metres from shore a 2.6m long dugong lay trapped and weakened by the tide, clearly fighting for life.

Without hesitation he called his colleague Paquito Abia and with the aid of volunteers pushed the refrigerator-sized animal to safety. Since the creature was too weak to fight the ebb tide, the two fishermen fastened a rope around its midriff - it was to survive the swells that drove it ashore the animal needed to recuperate in waist-high water.

In the morning Barlas immediately notified both local officials and WWF-Philippines of the stranding before heading off to check on the dugong. When WWF assessed that the animal was fit enough for release, its ropes were untied and the animal was gradually coaxed out of the lagoon. Cheering onlookers flocked ashore to bid farewell to the wondrous creature brought in by the tide.

WWF Project Manager Mavic Matillano said: “The best part was that we barely needed to do anything. Both Henry and Paquito acted out of instinct and for this we are doubly proud. It seems that the long years of conducting dugong awareness campaigns have once again paid off.”

Trapped under similar conditions, another dugong was rescued by a 15-year old boy in 2007. “Marine mammal strandings are uncommon occurrences but they do happen,” said resident WWF dugong expert Sheila Albasin. “Fortunately it seems people know what to do when a stranding does take place.”

The gentle dugong or sea cow inhabits shallow waters of the Indo-Pacific, wherever seagrass is most abundant. It is the fourth member of the order Sirenia, alongside the three manatee species. A fifth, the gigantic eight-metre long steller’s sea cow, was completely wiped out in 1768, just 30 years after being discovered.

Sizeable herds of dugong - the source of popular mermaid lore - once plied the Philippine archipelago until hunting and habitat degradation reduced overall numbers. When seen from above, the top half of a dugong can appear like that of a human woman. Coupled with the tail fin, this produced an image of what mariners often mistook for an aquatic human.

Thriving populations are now protected in Isabela, Southern Mindanao and Palawan, keeping seagrass meadows cropped, healthy and productive. Dugongs are thought to live up to 70 years, but give birth to a only single calf every three to five years. They are classified by the IUCN as vulnerable and it is one of the flagship species that WWF protects in the Philippines.

In the last decade WWF helped establish a Roxas-based marine-mammal rescue network which has been monitoring strandings and spearheading rescues of dugongs accidentally entangled in fishing gear. Awareness drives to protect not just dugongs, but dolphins and whales, are still conducted regularly.

Another baleen whale washes up in Manila Bay

2009-01-05

Manila, Philippines - The lifeless body of another baleen whale was found floating beside a passenger ship moored on Manila Bay’s Pier 13 two days before the end of the year, according to WWF-Philippines.

Measuring 9.8 metres and weighing almost three tonnes, the whale, thought to be either a Minke (Balaenoptera acutorostata) or a Bryde's whale (Balaenoptera edeni) was brought to and buried in a local fish cemetery.

In August 2007 another baleen whale carcass was found floating at the mouth of Manila Bay. Bloated and badly decomposed, it was towed ashore to an isolated cove. After photographs and all possible records were obtained, it was buried properly by a team from the Hamilo Coast with the assistance of WWF.

Due to the condition of the animal’s body, and local concerns about possible health impacts of a large decomposing carcass on the coastline, it was difficult to conduct a proper necropsy at the time and as such the cause of death for the 2007 animal was not determined.

Baleen whales may be harmed in a number of ways: entanglement in fishing gear, heavy boat traffic leading to ship strikes, pollution, and competition with humans for food resources. They could also die from disease.

Between 2001 and 2005 a total of 417 such events were reported on the US Eastern Seaboard, involving both live and dead whales. Of these 292 mortalities were confirmed. However, the cause of death could not be determined for 76 per cent of the animals and so the odds are against ever determining how and why the 29 December whale died.

“Over the past two years the dead carcasses of two baleen whales that we rarely see in the wild these days were found floating in the area of Manila Bay,” said Jose Ma. Lorenzo Tan, WWF-Philippines Vice-Chair.

“Due to new species information about these large filter feeders, no one can say for sure what species they belong to without a proper DNA analysis. We are not even certain what whales these were. Can anyone estimate how many more whale deaths may have occurred in and around Manila Bay, which we do not even know about?”

Pacific tuna face risky fisheries meeting

2008-11-27

Yellowfin tuna and bigeye tuna fisheries in the western and central Pacific also face collapse if a forthcoming management meeting doesn't dramatically change the way they are harvested, WWF warned today.

The call follows this week's disastrous decision by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) which discarded recommendations from its own scientists and a high level internal review to continue with what the review labelled “a travesty of fisheries management” widely regarded as “an international disgrace”.

“We have to face the possibility that fishing nations will drive the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) will come up with a similar outcome when it meets in Busan, Korea, in December,” said Peter Trott, Fisheries Program Manager for WWF-Australia.

“With tuna, it seems we are just not learning – we have lost the fisheries of the North Sea bluefin, the southern Bluefin, the West Atlantic bluefin collapsed and is failing to recover and the Mediterranean Bluefin is now well on its way to collapse with rampant legal and illegal overfishing allowed to go on.”

In 2006 scientists estimated that overfishing of bigeye tuna, on the IUCN Red List as “vulnerable” since 1996, was occurring in the western and central Pacific, with a high probability it had been occurring since 1997. They have also warned that urgent action needed to be taken on overfishing of yellowfin tuna in the region.

“This is not just a warm and fuzzy call to preserve a magnificent open ocean species, it’s about preserving the world’s most valuable tuna fisheries with a landed value of close to US$4 billion in 2007 and a market value of US$6-8 billion every year,” said Trott.

“It’s a fishery that adds considerably to the economies of many of the developing Pacific Island nations in the region and to the livelihoods of millions in the region known as the Coral Triangle.”

The future of the tuna fisheries in the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries will be decided at its commission meeting during December 8 -12 this year.

For the first time the commission will seriously consider management measures to reduce the take of bigeye and yellowfin tuna by 30 per cent. These measures include closing large parts of the fishery to purse seiners and the banning of fish attractant devices from July to September every year.

“It’s a reflection of how dramatic the situation has become that the Commission has got to this point,” Mr Trott said.

“It’s beyond environmental concerns, it is about commercial self-preservation.”

WWF-Australia strongly supports the call for these closures from July to September but also wants the commission to ramp up catch documentation methods.

“Scientists have been calling for large reductions in bigeye tuna catch for over a decade,” Mr Trott said.

“But on past performance the Commission is, at best, slow to respond to such advice and at worst shows little spine when it comes to standing up to the pressure from fishing nations who continue to decimate tuna stocks.”

“Such wavering could lead to the commercial extinction of the bigeye and yellowfin tuna fishery in the Western and Central Pacific if effective management action isn’t adopted at this year’s Commission meeting.”

Improved catch documentation can also identify the size of the illegal tuna catch in the region which is estimated to in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Timely documentation of the legal catch can be measured against fish sold at markets and used to determine how much illegal tuna is being taken.

“If the Commission doesn’t move fast on restoring stocks and preventing illegal and unregulated fishing, it will directly impact the viability of the region’s tuna fisheries, the economies of developing countries and the cost and availability of tuna for every consumer in the very near future,” Mr Trott said.

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Clean energy act sets Philippines up for $3 billion rebate

2008-10-09

Manila, Philippines - With the passing of its Renewable Energy Act – legislation that spent 19 years in limbo - the Philippines can save over US$2.9 billion, a WWF and University of the Philippines study has found.

The savings would come from increasing the country’s renewable energy share in its power generation mix from 0.16 per cent to 41 per cent from wind, solar, ocean, run-of-river hydropower and biomass.

Today 26 per cent of the country’s power comes from burning imported coal, whilst 23 per cent comes from burning oil. Last year the country imported 101.4 million barrels of oil alone, costing US$7.5 billion.

“In passing this landmark legislation, the Senate has just paved the way for the country’s drive towards energy independence and low-carbon growth,” said WWF’s Asia Pacific Energy Policy Manager Raf Senga.

“By tapping our massive reserves of clean energy resources – a competitive advantage that was largely neglected in the past – the Philippines now stands a far better chance of attaining sustainable development whilst contributing to global efforts to prevent dangerous climate change.”

A separate Renewable Energy Coalition analysis says that renewable energy sources can reduce the country’s oil imports by half, and the savings can be used for social and infrastructure programs.

“We can send 17 million children to school, build 250,000 classrooms, establish 135,000 health centres, feed three million families and build 38,000 kilometres of farm-to-market roads,” said Renewable Energy Coalition spokesperson Catherine Maceda.

The landmark legislation aims to accelerate the development and use of the nation’s vast renewable energy resources through fiscal and non-fiscal incentives for investors. It also assures investors in wind, solar, ocean, run-of-river hydropower and biomass premium rates in electricity generated from these clean sources through feed-in tariffs.

Other incentives include duty-free importation of equipment, tax credit on domestic capital equipment and services, special realty tax rates, income tax holidays, net operating loss carry-over, accelerated depreciation and exemption from the universal charge and wheeling charges.

‘Nurseries of the seas’ needing protection

2008-10-07

Barcelona, Spain - The survival of species critical to the livelihoods of millions - such as those in the "nusery grounds" of the Coral Triangle - is being called into question in the wake of the IUCN's warning this week of a mass global extinction unseen for 65 million years.

The warning was issued during the World Conservation Congress in Barcelona, as the IUCN issued the latest update in its Red List of threatened species.

The IUCN has for the first time assessed all 161 species of grouper, a reef fish which makes up a large part of the lucrative live fish trade in the Coral Triangle, which spans Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Timor Leste, and contains 75 per cent of the world’s coral species, as well as critical spawning grounds for globally valuable species such as reef fish and tuna.

Twenty grouper species were assessed as threatened with extinction, including the squaretail coral grouper and humpback grouper, which are found throughout the Coral Triangle and are a popular luxury live food in Asian seafood restaurants.

“The huge demand for live reef fish among wealthy consumers in China and in Chinese communities around the world is a major contributor to the overfishing of these species,” said Geoffrey Muldoon, programme leader for WWF’s live reef fish work in the Coral Triangle.

“The squaretail coral grouper is an example of a species that cannot currently be farmed and therefore all fish are caught from the wild. In order for operators to meet increasing demand, many are resorting to targeting spawning aggregations, many of which are now disappearing from the Coral Triangle.”

Resource depletion rates in the Coral Triangle are high and accelerating due to the explosive growth of Asian fish markets and the insatiable demand for tuna and shrimp in the US, Europe and Japan.

Local demand for food and space is also adding to global pressures and enhancing the risk of instability and insecurity. This is further compounded by the impacts of climate change and destructive fishing techniques, such as the use of explosives or cyanide to catch reef fish.

“Coastal development, destructive fishing and overfishing, unsustainable tourism and climate change are taking a heavy toll and, if left unchecked, will cause the collapse of the world’s most remarkable coral reef ecosystem,” said Dr Lida Pet Soede, head of WWF’s Coral Triangle Programme.

“The implications of loss of habitat and natural resources in the Coral Triangle are enormous in terms of the impact on ocean life globally and on regional livelihoods. This ‘nursery of the seas’ supports global populations of turtles and tuna, while 180 million people depend on its coasts and coastal resources for food security.”

The IUCN also lists other Coral Triangle species at risk of extinction, such as green turtles (Endangered), hawksbill turtles (Critically endangered) and scalloped hammerheads (Near threatened).

Another report released today by the United Nation’s Environmental Programme further emphasises the need for greater focus on the conservation of marine areas.

The Annual Report on Protected Areas: A review of Global Conservation Progress in 2007 shows that the world’s nations are a long way off meeting their protected area targets, and that marine areas are especially poorly protected.

“The Coral Triangle is the world’s centre of marine life, on a par with the Amazon Rainforest or the Congo Basin in terms of its importance to life on Earth. We need to recognise that the same level of threat exists in our oceans as it does on the land,” said Dr Pet Soede.

WWF’s Coral Triangle Programme has goals for 2020 of protecting 10 per cent of priority coral reefs in the region, zero decline in sea turtle populations from 2007 levels, and reversing the degradation of the area’s marine resources, including turtles, tuna and reef fish.

For more information:
Charlie Stevens, Media Manager, WWF Coral Triangle Programme, +61 (0)2 8202 1274, +61(0)424 649 689, cstevens@wwf.org.au

Foreign poachers cost Philippines another 100 turtles

2008-09-04

Foreign poaching of Philippine marine life has flared up as an issue again following the discovery of more than 100 dead Hawksbill turtles aboard a Vietnamese fishing vessel apprehended near Malampaya.

The fishing boat’s 13-man crew flooded their vessel as a Filipino gunboat approached them near the country’s main gas field, around 80km off the coast of Palawan Island in the South China Sea. A total of 101 Hawksbill turtles were found drowned in the vessel’s cargo hold.

Resting sea turtles, which grow up to a metre in length and can weigh as much as 80kg, can remain submerged for up to two hours but stressed individuals must resurface every few minutes.

“Again and again, foreign nationals have encroached upon Philippine waters to plunder our nation’s dwindling marine resources,” said WWF Project Manager RJ de la Calzada. “It disheartens us to find the animals we work so hard to conserve slaughtered on a wholesale basis.”

Distinguished from other sea turtles by a hooked beak and heavily-serrated carapace, the Hawksbill has for millennia been hunted for food and tortoiseshell, a material used as far back as the ancient Greek and Roman times to fashion jewellery, combs and brushes.

The Hawksbill turtle is protected under Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), which prohibits all international trade. It is also now classified by the IUCN as Critically Endangered, the highest risk rating for a living animal. Under Philippine and international law it is illegal to capture and kill sea turtles and to trade in turtle by-products.

The 13 Vietnamese poachers are just the latest in a long line to have intruded upon Philippine waters, violating both local and international laws. Last year over 200 Green turtles were retrieved in the Sulu Sea and two years ago 359 CITES-protected Napoleon or Humphead Wrasse were seized.

“The list goes on and not one case has ever led to a serious conviction,” said De la Calzada. “The Vietnamese poachers were not the first and they will certainly not be the last.”

Amid fears that justice might again prove elusive, WWF is acting as a watchdog to ensure that charges are pressed in this case. The 13 Vietnamese crewmen will be charged with violating the Philippine Wildlife Conservation and Protection Act, penalties for which can include a fine of up to one million Philipppine pesos (US$21,500) coupled with a six-year jail term.

“WWF condemns such blatant poaching of internationally-protected marine life and hopes that the Philippine government will finally have the resolve to dispense due justice against foreign poachers who disregard both local and international laws,” said WWF-Philippines president Dave Valdes.

For further information please contact: Gregg Yan, Information, Education and Communications Officer, WWF-Philippines. Tel: +63 2 920 7923/26/31. Fax: +63 2 426 3927. Email: gyan@wwf.org.ph

Calls for crackdown after illegal fishers abandon boat on Bali reef

2008-07-25

A 30-metre Taiwanese vessel, found abandoned on a Balinese reef badly damaged and leaking oil, has compelled WWF to issue a renewed call for the countries of the Coral Triangle to impose and enforce more stringent monitoring and accountability measures to cut down on illegal fishing.

The boat, which is thought to have been involved in illegal fishing activities, has been pushed out of the wave impact zone, reducing fears that it may break up, but complicating attempts to remove it.

The vessel, off popular Padang Padang beach, will likely remain stranded, amid efforts to clean up the fuel spillage threatening wildlife and affecting tourism, with reports of the oil slick reaching the length of the surfing peninsula.

"Apparently there's fishing hooks, lines, nets, debris from the boat all over the reef," said Mike O’Leary, founder of the Rivers, Oceans, Lakes & Ecology (ROLE) Foundation, which runs marine projects in the region.

It is thought that, prior to being caught on the reef and subsequently looted, the boat contained illegally fished shark and tuna.

This is not the first time this vessel has been involved in such illicit activities, having been caught off the coast of Costa Rica in 2003 with 60 tons of shark fin, and again this year fishing in the pacific.

This weeks news highlights that efforts to prevent illicit fishing activities have been unsuccessful, making it all but impossible to manage fish stocks.

The region, site of many key WWF projects, is widely recognised as the most important area of marine biodiversity on the planet, and is often referred to as the nursery of the seas.

Insufficient monitoring means that the region is susceptible to activities that could destabilise its unique marine biodiversity, a system that directly sustains the lives of nearly 130 million people across six countries of south-east Asia

“The health of the Coral Triangle is critical to the livelihoods of millions of people and it is crucial that adequate management systems are in place to prevent the kinds of scenes we have seen in Bali over the last week, and to reduce the threat of oil spills and overfishing,” said the leader of WWF’s Coral Triangle Program, Lida Pet Soede.

The sustainable management of these locations is especially important, and particularly difficult, as over-exploitation of marine resources is exacerbated by a combination of extreme dependence of coastal economies, population growth and poverty.

“It is crucial that we properly manage the Coral Triangle’s unique marine wilderness for the benefit of the whole planet,“ Ms Soede said.

Giant clams 'secure for another generation' after Philippine re-seeding

2008-07-07

Re-seeding programmes on over 50 reefs are securing the survival of the giant clam for at least another generation, according to WWF-Philippines.

The clams, the world’s largest bivalve mollusks and the star of lurid but mostly imaginary literary and cinematic depictions of trapped divers, can live for over a century. They have been known to exceed 1.4 metres in length and weigh in at over 260 kilograms.

Once common throughout Philippine reefs, excessive hunting for the food, pet and curio trade all but depleted the wild giant clam population by the mid-1980s, prompting the IUCN to classify them as vulnerable.

An attempt to restore natural clam populations is now being spearheaded by Dr. Suzanne Mingoa-Licuanan of the University of the Philippines Marine Science Institute in partnership with WWF-Philippines.

“Several species of laboratory-raised giant clams have been re-seeded in over 50 reefs nationwide, significantly bolstering wild stocks and ensuring their survival for at least another generation,” said WWF Project Manager Paolo Pagaduan.

By way of example, a fresh batch of 40 true giant clams (Tridacna gigas) wrapped in watertight plastic bags made the journey last month from rearing laboratories in the west of the country down the coast to their new homes in Batangas province on Santelmo Reef, a prized snorkeling site being restored with the help of WWF and a nearby ecotourism development.

With an average length of 36 centimetres and weighing almost 10 kilograms, each of the 40 clams was painstakingly but successfully laid to rest – alive of course – in
pre-designated nooks and crannies. Some 102 clams were planted in the same area last November and another 35 are being grown for transplanting in coming months.

“When we planted the first batch last November, all clam mantles were pale ochre. Now, each clam shows off electric hues of blue and violet – an indicator that the area is conducive to clam growth,” said Pagaduan.

“It is hoped that baby clam recruits will eventually appear to seed outlying areas in Batangas.”

Giant clams are an integral part of the reef, serving as nurseries for a host of fish and invertebrate species including damsels, gobies and tiny commensal crustaceans such as shrimp.

Sedentary organisms like sponges, tunicates, corals and algae find giant clam shells perfect substrates for attachment. Giant clams also act as filter feeders, sifting planktonic debris from the water for food thereby improving overall water quality.

For more information please contact: Gregg Yan, Communications Officer, WWF-Philippines + 63 2 920-7923/26/31

Manage wildlife trade for better development outcomes

2008-05-24

Well-managed wildlife trade has the potential to be even more of a key development tool for the world’s poor, finds a new report by the wildlife trade monitoring network, TRAFFIC, and WWF.

Trading Nature: the contribution of wildlife trade management to sustainable livelihoods and the Millennium Development Goals shows that a key development advantage of wildlife trade is the opportunities it offers to the very poor and the level of involvement by local communities. But many of the benefits are threatened when illegal trade is allowed to flourish.

Excluding the products of the commercial timber and fisheries industries, the wildlife products covered in the report include medicines, food, clothing, ornaments, furnishings, pets, ornamental plants, zoological and botanical display, research, manufacturing and construction materials. As well as contributing to the incomes of the poor, many also contribute directly to their housing, health and other needs.

The report finds that well-managed, legal and sustainable trade can have a significant impact on all eight of the Millennium Development Goals, the globally agreed roadmap which lay out targets in development assistance and poverty reduction.

“Trade in wildlife products can have a significant economic impact on people’s livelihoods, childhood education, and the role of women in developing countries, provided it is legal, well-managed and sustainable,” said Dr Susan Lieberman, Director of WWF International’s Species Programme.

Wildlife trade can make a direct major contribution to primary healthcare too—the subject of three MDGs—through the significant trade in wildlife-based medicines of both plant and animal origin. Underpinning the sustainable management of wildlife trade is good governance, the key to MDG 8.

Trading Nature examines a series of case studies. For example, Uganda’s lake fisheries produce fish worth over US$200 million a year, employ 135,000 fishers and 700,000 small-scale operators in processing trade and associated industries. It also generates US$87.5 million in export earnings.

Analysis of the wild meat trade reveals estimates of contributions of up to 34% of household income in East and Southern Africa. Wild meat is also providing both an affordable source of animal protein and a livelihood opportunity for men as hunters and women as traders.

The report studies the effects of the trade in peccary and caiman skins and vicuña wool in Latin America. The caiman skin trade generates a low income for ranchers compared to cattle, but it can be significant for the poor and landless with few other income-generating opportunities.

The report suggests incentives for the conservation and security of natural resources upon which many livelihoods depend. The legal, international trade in wild plants and animals and the products derived from them was estimated as worth close to US$300 billion in 2005, based on declared import values—and the value is rising.

“Without good governance, none of the other MDGs are truly attainable,” said Steven Broad, Executive Director of TRAFFIC.

“We call on governments to pay greater attention to resource access issues, and to develop innovative approaches to address unsustainable harvesting of the most commercially valuable wildlife commodities.”

For further information:
Richard Thomas, Communications Co-ordinator, TRAFFIC, t + 44 1223 279068, mob + 44 752 6646 216, email richard.thomas@traffic.org