WWF -

Protected Areas Benefits Assessment Tool

2009-09-18

The Protected Areas Benefits Assessment Tool (PA-BAT) is designed to fill an important gap in the toolbox of protected area agencies and conservation institutions, by providing a methodology to collate and build information about the overall benefits from protected areas.

As pressures on protected areas continue to develop over time, and demand for land and water, and for management resources, is increasingly stretched, park managers need to have arguments for protection in place and backed by a solid body of data collected over time.

This need is recognized explicitly in the CBD Programme of Work on Protected Areas, for example in paragraph 3.1.2: "Conduct national-level assessments of the contributions of protected areas, considering as appropriate environmental services, to the countrys economy and culture, and to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals at the national level; and integrate the use of economic valuation and natural resource accounting tools into national planning processes in order to identify the hidden and non-hidden economic benefits provided by protected areas and who appropriates these benefits. "

The PA-BAT aims to help collate information on the full range of current and potential benefits of individual protected areas. It is a contributory methodology for the overall Arguments for Protection series, but is also hopefully a stand-alone tool that will be of wider use to the protected areas community.

Although developed primarily for use in protected areas, the tool could have wider application, for example in assessing wider benefits of forest management units, agricultural landscapes or areas set aside for recreation.

The main audience for this report is protected area managers and authorities, but it should also be useful for anyone interested in finding out about the range of benefits that protected areas provide.

Banking on Cod

2009-06-16

Defining and estimating global marine fisheries bycatch

2009-04-15

Abstract

Unselective fishing catches non-target organisms as ‘bycatch’—an issue of critical ocean conservation and resource management concern. However, the situation is confused because perceptions of target and non target catch vary widely, impeding efforts to estimate bycatch globally. To remedy this, the term needs to be redefined as a consistent definition that establishes what should be considered bycatch. A new definition is put forward as: ‘bycatch is catch that is either unused or unmanaged’. Applying this definition to global marine fisheries data conservatively indicates that bycatch represents 40.4 percent of global marine catches, exposing systemic gaps in fisheries policy and management.

Reference: DAVIES RWD, et al. Defining and estimating global marine fisheries bycatch. Marine Policy (2009), doi:10.1016/j.marpol.2009.01.003.

WWFolio Bolivia Nº 15

2008-10-27

Le presentamos nuestra edición informativa de octubre de 2008. En este número usted podrá leer sobre:

EDITORIAL VIVO:

La conservación es una disciplina de emergencia

PANTANAL VIVO:

Un enfoque ecor-regional transfronterizo para el Cerrado-Pantanal
Chichi Grillo y Rosa la Mariposa nos llevan a conocer y valorar la vida en el Pantanal boliviano
El trabajo de las artesanas del Pantanal boliviano

AMAZONIA VIVA:

Contaminación por mercurio en el Iténez
Problemática del mercurio
NUESTROS SOCIOS: El Instituto de Investigación para el Desarrollo (IRD) en Bolivia
Comunidades del Área Protegida Iténez hacia un futuro más sostenible
La Fuerza Naval de Bolivia y el Proyecto Centinela Ambiental
PUBLICACIONES VIVAS: Visión de Conservación de la Biodiversidad del Corredor Amboró-Madidi

VIDA FORESTAL:

Las instituciones públicas y su compromiso con la conservación de los bosques
La FTN Bolivia y la promoción de la oferta forestal certificada de Bolivia

MÁS VIDA:

4 de septiembre: Día Nacional de las Áreas Protegidas en Bolivia
Becas Príncipe Bernhard
Generando resultados de conservación a gran escala

Lifting the lid on Italy’s bluefin tuna fishery

2008-10-07

This WWF-commissioned report, researched and compiled by independent consultancy ATRT, contains the first in-depth analysis of the role of Italy in the bluefin tuna fishery in the Mediterranean. Its findings confirm the widely held view that Italy is among the main culprits in the region for overfishing and violation of the fishery’s management rules.

In April 2008 WWF released a report quantifying for the first time the fishing overcapacity of industrial fleets targeting the stock in the Mediterranean . That study identified Italy as the leader in overcapacity among EU member states, with an estimated catch capacity for the industrial purse seine fleet twice the national quota allocated to it. The study pointed to the likely underreporting of real catches in the last years, coupled with a systematic violation of international management rules and the overshoot of national quotas.

To ascertain the performance of the Italian bluefin tuna fishing industry during the crucial 2008 fishing season, the authors of this report have combined a thorough analysis of trade information with extensive field work. The latter has included the monitoring of Italy’s fleet at sea in real time, as well as the field analysis (through aerial surveys) of bluefin tuna biomass caged in every farm based in Italy, Croatia and Malta. This colossal undertaking has generated the most comprehensive picture yet of the role played by Italian interests in the Mediterranean bluefin tuna fishery, including the extent of compliance (or lack thereof) with international management rules agreed by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT, the body tasked with sustainably managing the fishery) and the EU.

This WWF study is all the more relevant now, when the Italian government holds the view that the EU’s decision to close the purse seine fishery two weeks early (15 June 2008) resulted in the Italian purse seine fleet falling short of fulfilling its quota for the year (which even led Italian interests to the extreme step of taking the European Commission to the European Court of Justice).

The current report reviews data for 2007 and demonstrates that Italy’s overshoot of the bluefin tuna national quota for 2007 amounted to a minimum of 1,653 tonnes, more than five times as much as the officially recognized overshoot of 327 tonnes. It also highlights the serious inconsistencies in the register of the fleet targeting bluefin tuna, with a broad mismatch of records between ICCAT, the EU and national fleet registers. Up to 163 purse seine vessels would have been active in the Mediterranean bluefin tuna fishery in 2008, according to the crosscheck between the relevant official registers. A total of 15 purse seine flotillas, or fishing groupings, were identified to be operating during the 2008 fishing season, including in partnership with other Libyan, Turkish and possibly Algerian vessels. The latter were identified as having been involved in an illegal operation of paper-quota transfer between Algerian and Turkish vessels during the 2008 fishing season.

The report includes extensive field information proving that Italian airports have played a key role during 2008 as a hub for illegal aerial spotting activities in central Mediterranean waters. Additionally, Italian spotter planes have operated (with others, such as US, French and Swiss) in support of the illegal activities of Italian purse seiners.

A total of 5 farms based in Italy were identified as active in 2008, containing an estimated biomass of 2,410 tonnes of live tuna (equivalent to an estimated weight at input of 2,241 tonnes). This tuna was caught exclusively by Italian purse seiners operating during the 2008 fishing season.

Additionally, a conservative 1,321 tonnes of bluefin tuna is estimated to have been caught by Italian purse seiners in the early spring fishery inside the Adriatic Sea, including an estimate of 853 tonnes that would have been caged in Croatian farms.

Finally, a further 1,159 tonnes of tuna are estimated to have been caught by Italian seiners and transferred to farms in Malta and Tunisia during 2008.

The estimate of the total bluefin tuna catch by Italian fleets during the 2008 fishing season contained in WWF’s report thus amounts to 4,887 tonnes at the very minimum. This highly conservative figure does not account for any estimate of catches by long line fleets outside of the Adriatic Sea, due to the impossibility of obtaining this information, and yet, entails a minimum quota overshoot by Italy of 724 tonnes. One wonders what the final catch of Italy’s bluefin tuna fleet might have been, had the EU not closed the purse seine fishery 15 days earlier than initially scheduled this year. Additionally, the report highlights that several relevant fishing ports for bluefin tuna in Italy, such as Pozzuoli, Vibo Valentia, Portopalo and Cetraro, are duly registered with ICCAT as landing ports for the species, but do not report any single bluefin tuna.

In WWF’s opinion, the disturbing findings of this report (concerning a significant EU member state) reinforce the conclusions contained in the recent independent verdict on ICCAT’s performance elaborated by an international panel of experts , released in September 2008. The report commissioned by ICCAT describes mismanagement in the East Atlantic and Mediterranean bluefin tuna fishery as an “international disgrace” and recommends that ICCAT immediately suspend fishing – until conditions for sustainable fisheries management exist.

WWF continues to advocate a moratorium of the fishery – and in parallel encourages retailers, chefs, restaurants and consumers to join the growing boycott of the species – until Mediterranean bluefin tuna has been pulled safely back from the brink.

Exploratory co-management interventions in Kuiburi National Park, Central Thailand, including human-elephant conflict mitigation

2008-09-03

John W.K. Parr (Corresponding Author)
Supol Jitvijak, Saowanee Saranet and Songsak Buathong

Co-management is a developing field of protected area management. Increasingly, the practice is to involve local communities and other stakeholders in protected area planning and management. In many countries,
management boards, co-management structures and other participatory mechanisms are being created.

This paper reports on promoting co-management involving participatory management planning at Kuiburi National Park, Central Thailand, through the establishment of two working groups, namely a core management planning team comprising park personnel (charged with plan implementation), operating in parallel with a park management board working group (local people and other stakeholders).

These institutional bodies participated in a park management planning process, which was fuelled by socio-economic data focusing on the high profile human-elephant conflict in the buffer zone. The initiative led to a major rethink on participatory management planning by the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation. The process also led to some valuable recommendations for elephant-wildlife mitigation, both at Kuiburi and the international context.

Common Ground - Reducing human wildlife conflict

2008-05-13

The WWF report ‘Common Ground’ (PDF - 3.74MB) assesses cases of Human Wildlife Conflict (HWC), focusing on elephants as a flagship of these conflicts. Often the scale of the damage that can be caused by them, and the fact that they can injure or even kill humans, makes them the species that communities most fear.

Although the dynamics and drivers of HWC can be very different wherever it occurs, there are themes in the studies that can be used to compose a 'Common Ground' or a basic list of solutions available and tested. Here are some of them:

Scale of the problem
Common Ground found the most serious conflict and harm to both human communities and elephants resulted from unplanned and unregulated development. In Namibia, elephant related conflict costs communal farmers around $US 1 million a year, while in some Nepalese communities it can be up to around a quarter of the household incomes of poor farming families.

The most significant consequence of the conflict was loss of human life, but other considerable, costs of human wildlife conflict go largely uncounted – for instance, in Nepal, men in elephant-ravaged villages faced difficulties in marrying as women as scared to move to villages where elephants are a problem. In some areas, retaliatory killing of elephants was a major threat to already vulnerable elephant populations.

Effective land use planning can reduce HWC
In Nepal, the study compared communities with high levels of wild elephant damage with an area where the conflict costs were at half those levels, and found that the less damaged area had more forest cover in edge areas and less fragmented forests overall. Further analysis revealed that the level of habitat fragmentation was actually more influential in determining the amount of crop loss than the amount of forest coverage itself - although there are many other factors which play a part.

In Namibia levels of crop damage were closely related to the distance of farms from wildlife areas, with farms immediately adjacent to unfenced wildlife habitat being “a drain on the national economy”. Human wildlife conflict in just one region of Namibia was estimated as causing annual losses of US$700,000 to the national economy. Therefore effective structures and planning process that ensure new agricultural developments are places as far away from wildlife habitat as possible will reduce HWC and ensure greater profitability for the agricultural enterprise.

Community Based Natural Resource Management
The report also found that an effective way to manage HWC was to give rights over wildlife to local communities, thus enabling local communities to benefit from neighbouring wildlife. Economic analysis in Namibia demonstrated that these communities were able to generate more income from wildlife than they suffered from wildlife losses. In Nepal, communities which received benefits from wildlife and wildlife habitat showed a much greater tolerance towards elephants than communities receiving no benefits.

A united effort
In order to be truly effective, prevention of Human Wildlife Conflict has to involve the full scope of society: international organizations, governments, NGOs, communities, consumers and individuals. Drivers of the problem are not just local, but can be regional or even international. In Namibia for example, international agreements between Europe and Africa artificially enhance the economic viability of the livestock sector compared to other land-uses and add to wildlife conflict pressures.

Innovative financial solutions
In many cases, innovative financial solutions are required. These range from compenstation and insurance, to Payments for Environmental Services and the development of ‘Wildlife Friendly Products’. These solutions are available, but need development, backing and support.

Field based solutions
There are a number of practical field based solutions that can limit the damage done both to humans and human property, and to wildlife. These are solutions that aim to prevent wildlife entering crops or villages. But this is something on a case-by-case basis. What people see as solution in one place, they may resist in another. What works in one place, may have the opposite effect somewhere else.

The 2010 Biodiversity target in EU Development Cooperation

2008-04-29

In 2001, EU Heads of State and Government meeting at the EU’s Spring Summit in Gothenburg, made a commitment to “halt the decline of biodiversity by 2010”. In 2002, on the occasion of the Sixth Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and, subsequently, at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), world leaders agreed to “the achievement by 2010 of a significant reduction in the current rate of loss of biological diversity”.

The aim of this paper is to provide a brief analysis of the progress made by the EU towards the 2010 Biodiversity Target in its external development co-operation policy with a focus on policies and programmes for Africa Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries and Asia and Latin America (ALA) countries. Progress made is assessed in light of the political commitments and instruments adopted and their implementation. Whilst acknowledging the importance of the development aid delivered through bilateral relations, the paper focuses on the initiatives and undertakings made by the European Commission in its development cooperation policy to foster the achievement of the 2010 Biodiversity target outside Europe.

Livestock Insurance Scheme

2008-02-14

The latest document on the theme sustainable livelihoods, focuses on the compensation mechanism for wildlife induced vulnerability. It is based on the study carried out in Kanchenjunga Conservation Area, one of the project sites of Sacred Himalaya Landscape in eastern Nepal. The document targets the local audience vulnerable to livestock depredation (especially yak) by wild animals (especially snow leopard). To reduce the vulnerability, build local people’s coping capacity and reduce the retaliatory killings of snow leopards by victimized people, the concept community based livestock insurance scheme was started five years ago.

The recent publication is a practical field based assessment using different triangulation methods to explore the perceptions, benefits, use and management of Livestock Insurance Schemes and its other induced livelihoods opportunity.

Mongolia takes first steps towards PoWPA implementation

2008-01-29

Implementation of the CBD Programme of Work on Protected Areas (PoWPA) is a step closer in Mongolia following a workshop that, for the first time, brought together diverse stakeholders to support the Mongolian government’s continuing commitment towards a representative, effectively managed, and sustainably financed network of protected areas in the country.

Update after 5 years of Marine Turtle monitoring in Gamba, Gabon (2002-2007)

2008-01-22

Considering the environmental concerns on global level, and following other countries in the Congo
Basin, Gabon has been endowed with a network of 13 National Parks, representing the countries
ecological and biological wealth. One of the characteristics of the country’s recognized biological
diversity is the presence of nesting sites for several marine turtle species of the cheloniidae family and
one of the dérmochelyidae family.

The presence of four species of marine turtles in Gabon, of which some estimates go as far as 30% of
the worlds nesting leatherback (Dermochelys coriacea) population (see 2006 report) and their
endangered status, make them flagship ship species for conservation and scientific research.

The beaches near Gamba town situated in the Gamba Complex of Protected Areas (GCPA) are part of
these privileged nesting sites for marine turtles. The 200 km of coastline of the Complex receives an
average of 2000 turtles every year (see 2006 report). Since 2002, the NGO Ibonga-ACPE in
collaboration with WWF and his partners (PROTOMAC) contributes every nesting season to the
monitoring and daily research on 5.75 km of beach near Gamba.

For the 2006-2007 nesting season, the activities of Ibonga’s monitoring team started at the 5th of
November 2006 till the 31st of April 2007 (including one week preparing the camp), thanks to financial
support from the RAPAC (Réseau des Aires Protégées d’Afrique Centrale) and the UICN (the World
Conservation Union).

This report will firstly present the geographical context, the different conservation activities, before
showing the final results and analysing these results, to end with suggestions for future activities and
the conclusion.

Technical Report:
Update after 5 years of Marine Turtle monitoring in Gamba, Gabon (2002-2007)
By: Gil-Avery Mounguéngui Mounguéngui
Technical Coordinator IBONGA-ACPE
Translated by Bas Verhage (Conservation Advisor WWF, Gabon)

Polar Bear Factsheet

2008-01-11

In some areas of their Arctic home, polar bears are in decline. Their drop in population can be traced to another decline: that of sea ice, reduced by global warming. Sea ice is the polar bears’ primary habitat and they rely on it for survival. Unless major actions to reduce global warming are taken, two-thirds of the world’s polar bears are likely to be gone by 2050.

Antarctic Penguins and Climate Change

2007-12-11

A WWF overview, Antarctic Penguins and Climate Change, shows that the four populations of penguins that breed on the Antarctic continent — Adélie, Emperor, Chinstrap and Gentoo — are under escalating pressure. For some, global warming is taking away precious ground on which penguins raise their young. For others, food has become increasingly scarce because of warming in conjunction with overfishing.

Is Europe fulfilling its CBD obligations?

2007-10-05

This document aims at giving a practical overview of the similarities and differences between the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Programme of Work on Protected Areas (PoWPA) and the European Commission provisions for the protection of natural areas, in particular Natura 2000 and the EU Action Plan on the protection of biodiversity published in 2006.

It also highlights areas where additional work is needed at the national and/or European level, beyond the implementation of the most relevant EU legislation and policies, to effectively contribute to reaching the CBD goals on protected areas.

Learn more about Natura 2000

Protected Areas for a Living Planet - CBD Programme of Work for Protected Areas

2007-06-06

Factsheet giving an overview of the CBD Programme of Work on Protected Areas (PoWPA) - an historic commitment by 190 governments to create a global network of comprehensive, well-managed, and representative terrestrial and marine protected areas.

Protected Areas for a Living Planet - Activities in Europe, Central Asia, and Africa

2007-06-06

Factsheet on activities in Europe, Central Asia, and Africa for WWF’s Protected Areas for a Living Planet programme, which aims to help governments achieve the 2012/2012 targets of the CBD Programme of Work on Protected Areas - an historic commitment by 190 governments to create a global network of comprehensive, well-managed, and representative terrestrial and marine protected areas.

Protected Areas for a Living Planet - Dinaric Arc Ecoregion Project

2007-06-06

Factsheet on WWF’s Protected Areas for a Living Planet Dinaric Arc Ecoregion Project, which aims to help governments from the ecoregion achieve the 2012/2012 targets of the CBD Programme of Work on Protected Areas - an historic commitment by 190 governments to create a global network of comprehensive, well-managed, and representative terrestrial and marine protected areas.

Protected Areas for a Living Planet - Caucasus Ecoregion Project

2007-06-06

Factsheet on WWF’s Protected Areas for a Living Planet Caucasus Ecoregion Project, which aims to help governments from the ecoregion achieve the 2012/2012 targets of the CBD Programme of Work on Protected Areas - an historic commitment by 190 governments to create a global network of comprehensive, well-managed, and representative terrestrial and marine protected areas.

Protected Areas for a Living Planet - Carpathian Ecoregion Project

2007-06-06

Factsheet on WWF’s Protected Areas for a Living Planet Carpathian Ecoregion Project, which aims to help governments from the ecoregion achieve the 2012/2012 targets of the CBD Programme of Work on Protected Areas - an historic commitment by 190 governments to create a global network of comprehensive, well-managed, and representative terrestrial and marine protected areas.

Protected Areas for a Living Planet - Altai-Sayan Ecoregion Project

2007-06-06

Factsheet on WWF’s Protected Areas for a Living Planet Altai-Sayan Ecoregion Project, which aims to help governments from the ecoregion achieve the 2012/2012 targets of the CBD Programme of Work on Protected Areas - an historic commitment by 190 governments to create a global network of comprehensive, well-managed, and representative terrestrial and marine protected areas.