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Interview with Dr. Carlos Nobre, recipient of the WWF-Brazil Environment Personality Award

2009-11-06

Dr. Carlos Nobre has received the 2009 Brazil Environment Personality Award for the tremendous contributions he has made towards an understanding of global warming and the impacts of climate change on the Amazon.

Dr. Carlos Nobre is Head Researcher and General Coordinator of the Scientific Centre of the Brazilian National Space Research Institute –INPE’s Terrestrial System. The award ceremony took place on the night of October 13, during the visit of the Darwin Expedition to Rio de Janeiro, with a ceremony on board the clipper ‘Stad Amsterdam,’ moored at the Mauá Pier. The exhibition is retracing the journey made by naturalist Charles Darwin to the Southern Hemisphere during the 19th century.

In addition to his work as an INPE researcher, Dr. Nobre is the executive secretary of the Brazilian Climate Change Research Network (Rede CLIMA), executive coordinator of the Global Climate Change Research Programme run by the FAPESP and President of the Scientific Committee of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP).

Dr. Nobre was also one of the authors of the Fourth Assessment Report of the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 2007 along with former US Vice-president Al Gore. In 2007 he received the Conrado Wessel Foundation Environment Award. In 1991 Dr. Nobre formulated his pioneering hypothesis on possible savannization of the Amazon which today is an important reference theory worldwide.

The WWF-Brazil Environment Personality Award is given bi-annually for outstanding work in the conservation of nature and in fostering the country’s sustainable development. The first edition of the Award went to Marina Silva, at that time, Brazil’s Minister for the Environment.

Dr. Carlos Nobre was interviewed by WWF-Brazil journalists Denise Oliveira and Mariana Ramos.

WWF-Brazil – How do you feel about having received the WWF-Brasil -Brasil Environment Personality Award?

Carlos Nobre – First of all it was a great surprise. I have always seen myself as a scientist. But I am very happy and flattered that my work as a scientist should have been considered as a form of communicating the seriousness and the grave nature [of the situation] that the world is facing and living in today because of the great environmental crisis we are going through. So I am especially pleased that the efforts I have made to advance scientific knowledge in this area, particularly in Brazil, have been extrapolated to beyond the exclusive realm of scientific discussion and become useful in making society aware of the risks we are running because of the way we are treating the global environment.

It is indeed an honour for me to have been remembered in this way, and all the more so to be the second person to receive the award after ex-minister Marina Silva; that fact alone is an award in itself because I have tremendous admiration for former minister Marina Silva. I think she is a very rare kind of person in the world and I am very pleased to be the second in line to receive this WWF-Brasil Award.

WWF-Brazil – The award is being granted on the occasion of the Darwin Expedition’s visit to Brazil. In that perspective, what is your view of the threat represented by global warming to the species inhabiting the Southern Hemisphere?

Carlos Nobre – It is a great pleasure to be able to participate in the celebration of that voyage. It all adds up. Darwin shed a tremendous light on things; many classify his Theory of Evolution as one of the three most important scientific facts ever, alongside the discovery of the atom and the Theory of Relativity. Indeed, Darwin introduced a vision of the world, of Nature, that revolutionised science and firmly put we human beings back in our rightful place: we are just another animal species in the immense network of Nature even though we are endowed with some very special faculties such as intelligence and cognition.

A great deal of the Environmental crisis we are living through today is possibly related to the fact that we have not fully understood the Theory of Evolution. We continue to nurture our anthropocentric attitudes and place the satisfaction of the material needs of Homo sapiens over and above any other consideration. We are getting farther and farther away from the biological equilibrium that has always regulated interaction among the species. If Darwin were alive today, he would be highly disappointed with global warming because we are now on the eve of a massive extinction of species, a cataclysm, largely due to our activities on the planet. There have been great cataclysms before in the history of the evolution of our planet, phenomena completely beyond human control – volcanic eruptions for example and huge meteorites that hit the Earth – but there has never been anything brought about by mankind comparable to what is happening now. It is estimated that if the warming process continues unchecked, by the end of the century 40% of all the species on Earth will be threatened with extinction. And even if global warming is kept under control and does not rise more than two degrees, even then, 10% to 15% of all species are liable to disappear.

Global warming makes no distinction between hemispheres. However there are more oceans here [in the Southern Hemisphere]. But oceanic species are not safe either. There is a rapid change of temperature taking place in the oceans and the acidity of the waters is increasing to due to the injection of carbon dioxide (CO2), the same gas that we are pouring into the atmosphere in excessive quantities. Part of it gets into the oceans increasing the acidity of the water, and that constitutes a threat to the lives of innumerable marine species.

Global warming also alters many climate patterns and affects continental species too. The plants and animals that depend on continental habitats are at risso that global warning puts the survival of thousands of species in check. Even if we are successful in bringing it under control, it is inevitable that a large number of species will be at risk. All our efforts need to be directed at maintaining and saving the greatest possible number of those species that are threatened with imminent extinction. Unfortunately it will not be possible to save all of them. We have already gone beyond the point of no return, but a concerted global effort must be made to recuperate the greatest possible number of species.

WWF-Brazil – What is your view of the efforts the countries are making to achieve a global agreement? Are you optimistic about it?

Carlos Nobre – I am moderately optimistic that world leaders will not let us down at this moment of responsibility. The commitments that are to be made at the Copenhagen Climate Conference need to be far-reaching. The meeting must not disappoint us. At the present moment, however, it is quite impossible to predict what the outcome will be. I am just telling you about my own expectations.

I think we can reasonably expect that the leaders of the major countries involved in the negotiations will participate fully in the Climate Conference. It is a conference that calls for the presence of all the world’s great leaders. Who knows, maybe the Nobel Peace Prize that has just been awarded to the President of the United States Barack Obama, will stimulate him to attend the conference in person and take on the leadership of that international meeting. The USA has a leadership role in almost all fields. It is impossible to imagine any progress in the negotiations, which call for an enormous reduction in emissions, without the strong leadership of the country that has historically had the highest level of emissions in the world, namely, the United States.

WWF-Brazil – What do you think Brazil’s role should be in the quest for a global agreement?

Carlos Nobre – Brazil now has an opportunity to take on the leadership of the developing countries, especially of the tropical countries. This country has usually aligned itself with negotiating blocs of the developing countries that encompass a variety of political realities like the G77. That historical alignment with the G77 is perfectly natural because, politically it is a very strong bloc. However when the issue is climate change Brazil should try to exercise its leadership among the tropical countries that have greenhouse gas emission patterns similar to those of Brazil itself. The patterns are very different from those of most of the G77 nations and even more so, from those of the developed countries, whose emissions are linked to the energy sector, thermoelectric generating plants, coal, petroleum and natural gas. That is also the pattern in many emerging countries like China and India who are also G77 members. Our country has a pattern of emissions linked to deforestation and agriculture as is the case with Indonesia, Malaya, Congo, Bolivia and Venezuela, in other words, tropical countries. Among these tropical countries, Brazil is the one with the greatest possibilities for reducing emissions because of the scientific and technological progress it has achieved.

So then, it is up to Brazil to act the part of leader. That is what we expect. We have every possible qualification for doing so. If anybody doubts it, then the last few years serve to show that it is perfectly possible to reduce the rate of deforestation of tropical forests. We have managed to do that for the last four years. Even in Indonesia there has been a reduction in the last two years. Now is a very propitious moment for launching programmes designed to intensify the reduction of deforestation, to foster more efficient forms of agriculture to produce more food and biofuel that take up less land and use up fewer natural resources. That is a tremendous challenge and it is what we are all expecting Brazil will take to Copenhagen. I am really hoping that President Lula will decide to attend [the conference] in person.

This is also a good moment for Brazil in terms of international visibility in various fields and the time has come for the nation to formally accept its role as a leader. But that also implies taking on responsibilities. The country needs to show very clearly that it is striving to reduce the level of its emissions in compliance with what was agreed to in the terms of the Bali Climate Conference in 2007. The “Bali Road Map” text states that the developing countries will take on the responsibility of reducing their emissions. After that, it is hoped that in the future, the scientific, technological, financial and economic conditions of the developing countries will enable them to contribute to global efforts to achieve long-term emission reduction targets set for 2050.

To ensure that the planet does not heat up and that temperatures eventually stabilize at a level of less than two degrees higher than they were before the Industrial Revolution, we need to cut emissions by 80% in regard to what they were in 1990. That actually means a reduction of 90% in the level of emissions being practiced today. It means a complete de-carbonization of the world’s production and consumption systems. It is therefore, a long-term proposal and all countries will have to join in the effort.

WWF-Brazil – What do you think about the activities of the nongovernmental organizations like WWF-Brasil directed at the national delegations to the negotiations? Do you think they are of any importance?

Carlos Nobre – The NGOs have been playing a very important role. They are very effective in carrying the debate into the heart of society and afterwards they make the voice of society heard at the negotiations. They are often very effective channels for communicating society’s wishes. As an example, public opinion polls in Brazil show that 90% of the Brazilian people, including the inhabitants of the Amazon itself, do not want a development model that depends on the destruction of the forest. The NGOs have been very effective in representing that kind of opinion in the debate and in intensifying the discussion within society itself. Furthermore, insofar as they closely accompany the negotiations, they end up exerting a legitimate political pressure on the decision makers, on the political class involved in making the great international decisions. In my opinion they have been a really important agent [in those processes].

The NGOs have increasingly been aligning their political discourse with scientific reality. To me as a scientist, that is particularly gratifying because years ago the NGOs did not adhere very strongly to science and that led to much wear and tear and a certain degree of disdain in regard to the political positions adopted by NGOs which at the time were widely divorced from the respective scientific knowledge. Over the last fifteen years there has been enormous progress. Nowadays, the political positions adopted by the NGOs are closely aligned with or much more dependent on existing scientific knowledge

WWF-Brazil – What does humanity stand to lose if the global climate agreement is not signed or if it is not vigorous enough to keep the rise in global temperature below the two degree mark?

Carlos Nobre – First of all we (as a species) are going to be increasingly alone. The biological richness that our planet managed to achieve – a construction that took tens of millions of years counted from the time of the last great wave of extinction, 75 million years ago – will be destroyed as a result of our actions. Obviously we are not going to be left totally alone. However from an ethical point of view that situation is not something we should feel proud of.

Up until now science has been unable to specify definitively, how many species need to exist for the human race to survive. But there will be inevitable reductions in the effectiveness of those ecosystems that provide services that are essential to the maintenance of the quality of human life, and even for the production of food. So what can be said is that we are going to become more impoverished and it will be increasingly difficult to maintain our quality of life.

The millions inhabitants of our planet that now live in abject poverty will find it harder than ever to come out of it because climate change affects them more severely. They are highly vulnerable to the impacts stemming from climate change, much more so than most other population groups that can find solutions more readily. If we fail to control the rising temperature we are going to leave our descendants a heritage of conditions that make it more difficult than ever for those that have not achieved our present level of development to do so. We should not even think about leaving such a world for future generations. We really must make the effort. It is an effort that must be made by the present generation, the next one and the one after that, but above all by the present generation and the next one.

If we fail to alter the global warming curve in the next 20 or 30 years, we run the risk of facing serious disturbances many of which will be irreversible and it may take the planet thousands and thousands of years to restore equilibrium. We are at a critical moment and we have to make every possible effort to avoid the overheating of our planet.

WWF-Brazil – Do you think that in the present context, where the world is more highly connected by means of the Internet and there are more resources being mobilised than at the time the Kyoto protocol was drawn up, society itself is more aware and more highly mobilised in regard to global warming?

Carlos Nobre – The level of awareness of global society is extremely high. It is not remotely comparable to what it was 10, 15, or 20 years ago. There is no longer any lack of information on the seriousness of the moment we are living through. Information is disseminated every day through the global communication media. What is lacking is the transformation of awareness into concrete actions.

And the concrete actions are still not as good as they should be. They take place at a time when society at large begins to feel that it is the master of its own destiny. People merely wait for the politicians to make decisions or for the world’s statesmen and leaders to delineate their visions. Today society needs to grasp its destiny with both hands and take an active role in determining it. It is not enough just to call on the national and international political classes to find the solutions.

It also means understanding that we need to achieve a stage of human development known as post consumerism. That depends on individual actions, on changes in behaviour patterns, even on profound changes in philosophies. What we need is to infuse all levels of society and all human activities with changes in attitude and changes in behaviour.

The extent to which awareness translates into action is still very small. Admittedly, it is not an easy task because what it involves is not simply lowering the quality of life but rather viewing quality of life through different lenses, in a different perspective. Profound cultural transformations do not take place from one day to the next and that means that education is a highly important activity for facilitating them.

WWF-Brazil – You are constantly being called on to give an opinion, lecture, give interviews and participate in projects like the Climate Witness project of the WWF Network. How do you feel when you are explaining science to society?

Carlos Nobre – I think that anyone that works with Environment science, especially with topics that have a direct bearing on the crisis that the planet is going through, cannot excuse himself from communicating the results obtained by that science to society. I see that as one of a scientists’ duties in today’s world. In the past there was an erroneous and even grotesque idea that a scientist was someone that practically isolated himself in a laboratory, only lived for the possibility of making a scientific discovery and did not worry about anything else, not even whether the knowledge he produced would eventually be utilized by society at large.

I do not think that was ever the case but it certainly was the stereotype of a scientist that used to exist. Nowadays a scientist feels practically obliged to communicate his findings to society as well, especially in the case of scientists involved with scientific issues concerning the environment.

Science itself is supposedly neutral but it supplies information that is essential for the decision making process. It is mainly science that is able to provide information on risks and the path that should be followed, whether we are heading towards a sustainable planet or whether we are actually on an unsustainable trajectory. Many, many scientists today are very much aware how important it is for them to contribute to the work of providing information.

It must also be admitted that modern science has made so much progress in the tools it has available that the scientist is now a little less short of time. Technological progress within science itself has actually given scientists a little more time to dedicate to communicating their results to society.

WWF-Brazil – From the angle of science and scientific and technological development, what are the next great steps forward going to be? What should scientists be concentrating on most to enable us to achieve greater environmental stability?

Carlos Nobre – There are many areas. In regard to the question of the environment, the great crisis we are in, I think there are three priority topics for the coming years: sustainable technology, renewable energy, and re-cycling.

We also need to make rapid progress in informing society of the imminent risk of collapses, of a huge rupture in the fabric of natural systems in all spheres. That is highly important because the adaptation actions will depend on having that information. Science needs to make more progress in regard to adaptations to the coming impacts: how to reduce risks through adaptation measures, the adaptation of human beings, of the ecosystems and the species.

In the field of technology, we need to rapidly incorporate sustainable ways of maintaining our quality of life in terms of energy and food supplies. Both of them need to be produced with far less impact on the environment. That means that science and technology need to create the instruments that will enable people to choose which path to follow and hope that they choose the sustainable option, and that needs to be done as fast as possible. It is up to science and technology to provide such solutions.

Science also needs to advance in its understanding of behaviour: how can human beings be transformed in their behavioural aspect; how can it be ensured that they choose the most sustainable trajectory: living well, using less.

WWF-Brazil – What would be your environmental message to the Brazilian people?

Carlos Nobre – Brazil is in a position to be one of the cleanest countries in the world with the lowest impact on the environment not only in regard to impacts from climate change but from other alterations to the global environment. To that end, Brazilians need to firmly decide to opt for the pathway of sustainability. We must not base our development, our search for a better quality of life, on a model that is absolutely out of date, the fossil fuel model, a model that we need to abandon.

Brazilians need to envisage their future within the concept of our becoming the first tropical country to achieve development, fully recognising our tropical characteristics, our abundance of natural resources, and our use of sustainable natural resources. If we wish to become an important power in the world one day, then let us become an important environmental power and that means becoming one of the cleanest countries in the world.

That is my heartfelt wish as a Brazilian and would really like all my countrymen to share it with me. Let us turn away, not go down the long trail of development that countries have been treading for the last 200 years. Let us find a new way to arrive at development, one that our tropical nature allows us to follow, perhaps more easily than other countries. Let us set the rest of the world an example.

Experts view Hungarian conservation success from the air

2009-11-03

Budapest, Hungary: Experts and leaders from WWF’s One Europe More Nature program celebrated their final meeting last week by taking a hot-air balloon flight over the region covered by the project in Hungary.

WWF started the One Europe More Nature program to implement sustainable business practices in eight European countries. These programs show how business interests and nature conservation can coexist to profit people as well as nature.

Began in 2003, the program set out to solve environmental problems by developing, testing, and implementing practical business partnerships which benefit business, nature, and local people.

The program came to end this year, and was considered very successful. All of the pilot projects developed under the program delivered benefits for conservation, as well as jobs and new income for local people.

„Nature conservation organisations have tended not to focus on financial profits,” said Charlie Avis, leader of the OEMN project. „We now have real-life examples that companies can derive profits when they use nature in a sustainable way.”

„By integrating nature into their business models, conservation becomes their interest too,” Avis said. And then when nature returns, as it is doing across all the project sites, all sorts of other economic opportunities open up.”

The program is based on a Dutch business model focused on brick production and floodplain restoration, and was developed in Spain, Romania, Greece, Hungary, Estonia and Marocco. In Spain and in Morocco farmers produce strawberries using less freshwater and fertiliser; in Romania and Estonia biodiversity and landscape conservation works by natural grazing and sustainable tourism development and in Greece the famous giant beans is produced in a way that the biodiversity of Prespa-lakes remain on a high level.

In Hungary the pilot project’s goal was to restore biodiversity in floodplain grasslands of the Tisza (Eastern Hungary) by producing local renewable energy and at the same time increasingly diversifying local income streams.

Large areas of the land formerly covered by an aggressive, invasive shrub (Amorpha), together with less productive arable lands, are now being given back to nature, to restore the floodplain’s former glory.

The Amorpha is bought by a local power company and burnt as renewable biomass for green electricity production. Some of the area is being replanted with willow trees, which will also serve as a long-term, sustainable supply of “biomass” for the power plant. Participating farmers are obliged to set some lands aside for wetland and grassland conservation, the management of which will be paid for by revenues from biomass sales.

„We believe – as do our partner sin the commercial sector - that this is the way of modern nature conservation, and hope the pilot programs show good, inspiring examples for others to learn from and maybe replicate,” Avis said. „This approach of partnering business with nature has huge potenital for moving the world to a greener future and there are opportunities everywhere for initiatives which are good for nature, good for people, and good for business.”

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.

Learning from “good” beetles key to sustainable cotton production

2009-05-15

Andhra Pradesh, India – For Rajita Nandsee and many other families in her village, growing sustainable cotton means getting excited about insects – a sharp contrast to how farmers typically feel towards pests.

On a recent afternoon in Andhra Pradesh state in India, Devender Reddy (pictured below) was happy to prove that point by showing off a test area he oversees near Nandsee’s village, replete with a yellow plastic screen covered in a lot of bugs.

The screen secretes fragrance pheromones that attract insects and is part of a larger WWF-IKEA joint project in the area, for which Reddy acts as a project manager. Everybody involved works to encourage the sustainable growing of cotton by introducing innovative practices to villagers.

"We can see whether the number of insects is increasing or decreasing,” Reddy said. “The farmers use the information to decide what type of pest reduction measure they want to use."

Cotton has been used as a fiber in clothing and textiles for more than 5,000 years, but the plant’s popularity and its dazzling white surface have a downside - cotton is a thirsty crop which often requires large quantities of water and chemicals.

However, WWF and the international furnishings company IKEA are working to solve that problem, and negate cotton production’s negative effects on the environment and people’s health.

For the last three years, the two organizations have run a joint project to support more sustainable cotton production in the Warangal district of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, and the project already is showing success.

"Our goals included reducing the use of water, chemical spraying and chemical fertilizers whilst increasing family incomes,” said Vamshi Krishna, project leader. “We have managed to break many trends and we have great hopes for the future.”

(C) Richard Vincent / WWF (All pictures)

Cotton Boom

The mid 1990s saw a cotton boom in India and the cotton growers in Warangal expanded their area of cultivation. Many farmers took out loans but the competition from American cotton growers with huge subsidies led to a fall in prices. Drought and serious insect damage contributed to crop failure and poor yields in the early 2000s.

After this, many farmers chose to use new types of cotton and seeds resistant to insect attack, such as genetically modified cotton (Bt cotton).

Twenty-two-year-old Chiranjeeevi Rnukuntta, from the village of Shyampet, is one of those farmers who had to live with the consequences of those difficult times. His parents committed suicide, one after the other, in 2001 and 2002. They had borrowed money during the drought and could not repay it.

"I had two younger sisters to care for and I had to take care of everything," says Chiranjeevi, who is also a part-time student. “It took me three years to get back on my feet but now I believe in myself and my future.”

Cotton growers test new approaches

The WWF and IKEA project for more sustainable cotton production began in 2006 on a small scale with around 40 families. Today, the project covers 18 villages and involves around 600 cotton growers. More than 6,000 villagers and farmers have taken part in meetings for the project and the number of growers involved is on the rise.

When the project began, the cotton growers formed a cooperative and members discussed issues such as what can be bought in collectively and how the chain from cultivation to market can be made more effective.

"It is positive that we can find solutions and make decisions together. All sorts of issues are handled, from insect control and drinking water quality to how we can get better prices from the buyers and increase our incomes,” said Purushotham Reddy, winner of the ‘Farmer of the Year’ award from the Warangal district authorities.

Andhra Pradesh is a state that traditionally uses a great deal of water for irrigation and is responsible for one quarter of India’s total chemical use. New methods are needed to face the challenges of the future and to improve the current situation, according to WWF.

An important driver for change has been the opportunity for families to receive training at the project’s Farmer Field School. The training course runs for 20 weeks during the high season from August to November. The participants meet twice a week to learn more about cultivation techniques, water and environmental issues.

The model used in the Warangal project is called Better Management Practices (BMPs). It involves adapting cultivation methods to increase yields, minimize environmental effects and achieve best possible social conditions for the farmers. The cotton growers work with test areas where they test co-planting of crops, look at which pests are active and test biological pesticides. For example, growing maize and cotton close to each other is a way of reducing insect damage.

The Cotton plant has long growing and flowering seasons and this makes the plant sensitive to insect damage. In the past, the farmer would spray their plants 20-30 times per season; today they only spray six to seven times per season. They often use plant-based preparations - amongst others, from the Neem tree and extract of Vitex and biological pesticides, with "good" beetles that eat up the pests.

"Last year was a good year. We could work without any toxic chemicals. It’s good for our health to use less chemicals." said Rajita Nandsee, who added that she hopes for more investment in water and toilets in the villages.

Villagers currently have to buy jugs of drinking water that are driven to the village.

"In the future we hope that we can increase our income so that we can pay for a good education for our children," she said.

Environmental and health benefits

Water problems have worsened in India. Groundwater availability is declining in many areas, cotton is one of the thirstiest agricultural crops, and new approaches are needed to cope with future climatic changes.

The cotton growers mainly use rainwater stored in tanks to water their crops, but this is often not enough. So in Warangal, the farmers have invested in drip irrigation. They also treat the soil before sowing by ploughing and applying compost and silt, which helps the soil to retain water. The results so far are very positive. Water consumption has been halved, the use of chemicals has fallen by about 40 percent and artificial fertilizers have been reduced by 30 percent.

"We have broken the negative trend and our next goal in the project is to reach 5,000 cotton growers” said Vamshi Krishna, a project manager for WWF India´s sustainable cotton project.

(All Photo Credits - (C) Richard Vincent / WWF)

Mountain in recovery - Qingmuchuan’s first monitoring patrol since the May 12th earthquake

2009-01-19

Text / Photo by Chen Xu

Six months have passed since the devastating May 12th earthquake struck western China’s Sichuan Province. Though there are still aftershocks, locals are trying to break away from horrible memories and stagger back into a normal daily life. And so, it seems, is the wildlife. The Qingmuchuan Nature Reserve is the only corridor for giant pandas between the Qinling and Minshan mountains, but Qinling Mountain also hit hard by the quake. How is the reconstruction work going? And how much has been restored naturally? We are keeping our eyes on how this area of rich biodiversity—for both humans and wildlife like the giant panda—recovers from this catastrophe.

With support from WWF, I visited Qingmuchuan Nature Reserve at Ningqiang County of Shaanxi Province in October 2008 in hope of finding answers.

Most houses collapsed

Qingmuchuan Nature Reserve is surrounded by a few small settlements. On the morning of Oct. 11th, I traveled to the town of Qingmuchuan with staff from the nature reserve. Making good time, we stopped at a bridge to take in the surroundings. Rising all around us were rough green-ridged mountains with the grey tips of small houses peaking out of the foliage at their base—a perfectly hushed, pastoral

picture. But only a few hundred meters away sat a group of ramshackle tents, other small structures, and the ruins of mud houses that reminded me of the horrible effects of the earthquake. It’s far from over. People are still trying to recover from the damage. The Yuquanba Protection Station office, for example, collapsed in the quake and staff has since worked out of small makeshift offices. They say it’s better than working in tents.

We started out again. It didn’t take us long to reach Qingmuchuan, and one of the first things I noticed were the spider webs of cracks crawling over the remaining buildings. For safety, all houses have tents out front. And for those without houses, earthquake shelter tents are the only choice.

We arrived at our destination. I saw another small temporary structure functioning as the Qingmuchuan Protection Station. Around the area were a group of tents that differed from the others—chance had it that they were donated by WWF. Villagers say the tents have helped a lot over the past few months.

Village One at Changshaba is in the core area of the nature reserve. It is also in total disrepair. There are around 50 families living there, but most able-bodied youth have left to find work after much of their farmland was returned to forestry. Other villagers are working hard on the limited remaining land, raising pigs and planting mushrooms to supplement their incomes. Even this meager amount of farming hasn’t been easy: the earthquake tore a 1km long cleft in the mountain. If a strong aftershock where to hit the area, it’s likely the entire mountain would collapse and the village reduced to rubble. The government is pushing to relocate the village: many local residents will leave their mountain homes soon.

Although many wood and mud houses survived, their roofs simply weren’t strong enough to handle the torrential rainstorms that came later. With their houses destroyed, villagers moved to tents at the foot of the mountain and waited for relief housing to arrive. Most of their possessions were lost and their homes reduced to little more than small sheds covered in branches and couch grass.

I watched as Shen Zuorui did her homework on a stone slab. She is nine, and lives in Village Two at Changshaba with her four family members. When asked where her home is, she pointed to a shed and the tilted house behind; tears welled up in her eyes. Her father told me she was in Grade Three at Qingmuchuan Primary School, about 10km from her home. And with the last mushroom harvest just around the corner, the government-led relocation plan would go into full swing. At the foot of the mountain, the government offered 70 square meter temporary prefab housing to each family. “We have to manage living in such a space while we wait for a chance to build a new house. The winter is coming, and we will freeze to death if we continue to live in a shed. Anyway, it’s not safe to live here anymore,” said a local man.

But not all of the materials needed to complete the prefab housing were available. They could do nothing but wait.

Fenlinba Village is in the core area of the Qingmuchuan Reserve. Few houses are left standing and no single family was lucky enough to escape the damage the earthquake caused. Those unwilling to leave stayed in the tents provided by WWF, while many of the area’s youth moved out of the mountain. Many elderly residents say that in November, the whole village will be relocated, leaving their land to the nature reserve. Only Fenlinba Protection Station will stay.

I asked them how they would make a living in the future: “maybe the young men can go out as migrant workers, and the elderly and children just stay behind,” one resident suggested.

Fenlinba Protection Station didn’t survive. The earthquake shook the structure to the ground, with one large rock smashing though the upper portion of Wei Shunqiang’s bunk.

“I was so lucky!” he noted. “If I had been taking a nap or if the earthquake happened at night, I would have been killed by that rock.”
With much of their routine work shaken to pieces, the staff at Fenlinba moved into tents while waiting for construction to finish.

The area also has a large number of beehives. Many were made of logs and covered by huge pieces of slate to stop rainwater from leaking in. Such rough methods of keeping bees are somehow incredible--but these are the living conditions of the communities on the nature reserve.

The area is mired in poverty, with the damage forcing some 727 villagers to move. Though given some government allowance, each new house on the Qingmuchuan Reserve would take on a huge debt load. But relocating will increase overall community living standards and help restore the area’s natural balance. Protection and management on the nature reserve, however, will fall entirely on the shoulders of its staff. The villagers from Changshanba and Fenlinba have been helping with protection and volunteer work over the past few years. The quake has pushed most villagers into poverty, which means locals might be forced to use protected mountain resources to make ends meet. WWF Xian Office and Qingmuchuan Nature Reserve have adjusted work plans to deal with potential threats.

WWF has plans to launch community development projects on the reserve. The earthquake damaged many homes, and the aftershocks stopped beekeeping as well as tea planting and some local tourism. The change from protection to development at Qingmuchuan has pushed reserve staff to move projects to new areas within the reserve. Using government policies as guidance and assistance from WWF, local residents will be able to start over again in new settlements. With new guarantees being made for their livelihoods, the reserve’s residents will find the mountains a less attractive source of income.

Signs of Wildlife

Monitoring and patrolling of the panda’s habitat at Qingmuchuan started again in October. Conducted by WWF and its partners, patrols are slowly but surely getting back to normal after the earthquake.

WWF-supported giant panda monitoring and patrolling on Qinling Mountain, including the Qingmuchuan Nature reserve started in 2005. Through regular field data collection, special monitoring and protection regulations were established to protect giant pandas and their habitats. The restart of monitoring is an important foothold in future plans for reconstruction.

The recommencement of monitoring is a monumental event for the reserve. It means, in part, that the reserve has overcome some of the difficulties that go along with post-earthquake conservation work. It also shows that they’ve gained an opportunity to start the field surveys necessary to monitor the changes affecting habitats and the surrounding communities.

There are 5 routes for monitoring and patrolling on the Qingmuchuan Reserve. I was sent out with a group patrolling 3 of them, while others took on the remaining 2.

I left in the early afternoon on Oct.11th with reserve staffers Dang Xiaowei and Mo Chenqing for Fenlinba. Starting at Changshaba Village at the core of the reserve, passing Xietaishan village, and then down a ridge to the village of Xiaojiawan and on to Fenlinba would take about 5 or 6 hours. We planned to stay there for the night and cover the remaining 2 routes over the next few days.

We left Changshaba, and after 2 hours of walking we reached our first stop on the monitoring route: a patch of farmland that has been returned to forest. I noticed some newly planted saplings and several horses wandering around the area. Horses are the only transportation villagers’ have in the mountains.

There was a clear boundary between the forest and what used to be farmland, and I heard the gentle trickle of a stream. Dang Xiaowei told me that we’d reached the beginning of the monitoring route. Sitting on a rock, Dang and Mo Chenqing took out their GPS units and began to write a journal entry.

Monitoring notes and position recorded, we stepped into the forest and covered a leaf-covered and weedy path. Here we saw more signs of the quake: a deep groove was stamped in the earth where a massive boulder had fallen. Piles of smashed stones sharply contrasted to the luxuriant green that infused the area. I tried to find more evidence of the earthquake, but Mo Chenqing said mud and weeds had covered a lot of damage after the rainy season and that the vegetation hid most of the danger.

Because of rain a few days before, the forest air was humid. Mushrooms were craning in the grass near the path, where we could see hoof prints. Mo Chenqing said it was a wild boar. We also found some prints made by the boar’s nose.

Almost out of nowhere, we heard the angry squeal of an adult boar. Probably frightened by our approach, the squealing, snorting boar was protecting its food.

It was harvest season. There were ripe wild nuts and grains all over the mountain. Acorns and chestnuts are the favorite of both boars and black bears. We stopped again to listen and heard the distinct sound of another boar grunting angrily around 20 meters away. Mo Chenqing suddenly leaped for a tree, shouting: “Come up, quickly! The boar is coming!” Safe in the tree, we quickly lost track of the boar even though we kept a close watch on the underbrush. We descended and the forest fell into silence: We could hear nothing but the crunch of leaves under our feet.

Later, at around 1,389 meters, we found traces of a black bear. The braches of a chestnut tree had been torn down and made into a shelter by one of the animals--chestnut shells were scattered all over the ground. The tree above was completely bare, and in another area nearby we found more chestnut shells. The sharp squeak of a rock squirrel flashed out, protesting the noise we made. Somewhere nearby a black bear could have been vigilantly watching us moving in its territory.

At 1,692 meters we saw more telltale signs of the earthquake. Broken rocks lay under a cliff, but above we found traces and fresh takin droppings. Later we heard takins braying in the distance: they might have been calling their companions to spend the night together. The woods were too dense to see any of them, however. At the very least, the animals were alive and will continue to survive in the recovering landscape.

The route we took on the morning of October 12th was first of the five designated paths. It started at Fenlinba Protection Station and continued to Majiashan, looping around after reaching an altitude of 1,800 meters. The other group would also reach Fenlinba in the evening and we would spend the night together. The next morning we would again start out on two different routes and finally meet at Qingmuchuan when we completed the circuit.

Mo Chenqing and Wei Shuqiang left at dawn, taking a machete with them to hack a path through the bush. There were no villages along the way where Mo and Wei could pick up supplies, so they had to return to Fenlinba before dark. Dang Xiaowei accompanied me on a visit to a community in the area.

Mo and Wei returned safely from their trek. I glanced at their journals: “found a living sambar at 1,224 meters; trace of takin at 1,238 meters; trace of boar at 1,252 meters; found traces of hog badger at 1,397 meters; traces of black bears at 1,488 meters; golden monkeys at 1,801 meters, with shoots and bark under trees; found a large area of arrow bamboo that had grown to 2 or 3 meters; no trace of giant pandas.” A pity they didn’t find any evidence of giant pandas, especially since we are in the only corridor between Qinling and Minshan. Where were the pandas?
The other monitoring group was made up of three members: Liu Tao, Su Ning and Pang Shihua. They also made it to Fenlinba before nightfall on the 12th. I checked their monitoring journals, finding few records of living animals but rich evidence of vegetation, especially arbor.

Both groups started out from Fenlinba on the morning of the 13th, taking two different routes. I followed Wei Shuqiang and Dang Xiaowei on the second route, walking along the old path between Shaanxi and Gansu Provinces until we reached the boarder, then took the ridge and followed a stream back to Fenlinba. After that we hurried to Qingmuchuan to meet the other group and wrap up the monitoring.

There used to be a lot of people living along the route; all that remains now are basic dwellings and pear trees. We were trudging through the autumn sunshine, but found it was too late when we finally got to the pear trees. The pears on the first tree were small. They didn’t taste bad, don’t get me wrong, but there wasn’t much fruit on them. Some boar droppings were under the tree. Wei Shuqiang said there might still be trees with big juicy sweet pears out front. Disappointment struck as soon as we got there: the pear tree was too big to climb. There were a few deep scratches left by black bears on the trunk, with a pile of discarded branches at the base. As we searched for more evidence of the bear, we noticed the situation was even worse than we had originally anticipated: Boars had eaten up every pear on the ground. We moved on in hope of finding more, but quickly discovered that Golden monkeys, macaque and black bears had already eaten almost all of the fruit. We could do nothing with the pears on the tree but watch and sigh. Staring at what was left of the fruit under the trees, Wei Shuqiang sighed: “Poor humans! We can only pick pears like boars do.”

When reaching 1,790 meters on the second route, we saw some oak braches shaking wildly. Taking it as golden monkeys, we rushed there excitedly. To our astonishment we didn’t see any monkey, but instead the fresh paw prints of a black bear on the trunk. We were totally shocked! We could be in a lot of danger if the bear were nearby.

Later we saw a path made by takin at 1,800 meters above sea level. It was zigzagging along the mountain ridge, sometimes going though the bamboo and sometimes the bush below the arbor. We had to crouch and endure branches whipping every part of our bodies. The smell of fresh takin urine was in the air. Then we saw takin hoof prints in mud, both big and small, walking together. They could be watching us somewhere in the deep forest, but we could not see anything.

As we started back I saw a porcupine quill. It was thrust deeply into the mud, probably after being shot at a predator. I picked it up and wiped off the dust. Judging from its length and strength, I could tell it was from a healthy adult, so I kept the quill and brought it back home with me. The dense woods of Qingmuchuan still appear to be full of wildlife.

Endangered bamboo

The monitoring routes that start at Fenlinba border Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu provinces. Walking along an old path between Shaanxi and Gansu, the scenery is beautiful and offers few hints that a devastating earthquake recently shook the area. The golden-hued woods above 1,600 meters shone vibrantly against a blue sky; streams lapped against lichen covered rocks and plump wild gooseberry hung for one last moment before falling off the branch. But if you looked a little closer, traces of the destruction that scarred the area only six months ago weren’t hard to spot.

The first major threat to Qingmuchuan Nature Reserve was damaged bamboo, the giant pandas’ main source of food.

The reserve’ management bureau says 4 strong aftershocks hit Qingmuchuan after May 12th, happening on May 25, May 27, August 1 and September 12 Mud-rock flows and rock falls soon began to seriously damage the reserve’s bamboo groves, with large areas of the woody perennial evergreen dying. Giant pandas were then left with little to eat.

On the second monitoring route, we saw a huge area of bamboo blooming, while other tracks had already flowered and died. More still has dried up, with only stems left as a reminder. Walking along the mountain ridge we could see a prominent border between old and new bamboo growths. Dang Xiaowei told me the area represented only a small part of the endangered bamboo in the nature reserve.

Why was the bamboo in Qingmuchuan blooming and dying? Was the earthquake totally to blame?
A report from the International Network for Bamboo and Rattan (INBAR) says many factors could cause the death of bamboo at Qingmuchuan: the earthquake and changes in climate and soil; Rhizomys sinensis, the Chinese bamboo rat, had devoured the root systems and pushed the plant down from 1,300 meters to 1,000 meters; 30% of the bamboo groves on the shady slopes had been frozen by the heavy snow in 2008; and large areas of bamboo died unexplained deaths in Yindongzi and Maojialiang.
Natural disasters have harmed 1500 hectares of bamboo at Qingmuchuan, of which 300 hectares have died, mainly on the borders between Sichuan and Gansu Provinces. This area is a key part of the giant panda corridor in Shaanxi, Gansu and Sichuan and the Qingmuchuan Reserve plays an irreplaceable role in the mix and transaction of the giant panda population. If the bamboo groves continue to die, the lack of available food means the giant panda corridor between Qinglin and Minshan will cease to exist. Given that giant pandas cannot migrate without a reliable food supply, this would be an absolute disaster.

But Qingmuchuan is making a backup plan. According to Li Baoqing, head of the reserve’s management bureau, a thorough survey will be conducted and then new groves will be planted in affected areas. They also want to raise public awareness on the situation and request outside assistance to plant bamboo above 900 meters. This, they hope, will help maintain the only corridor between Qinling and Minshan.

Urgent reconstruction

Qingmuchuan’s monitoring trails were badly damaged by the earthquake. Few dared risking a trip into the mountains, so many of the trails we were trying to follow had been reclaimed by the mountains. On the third monitoring route, the woods above 1,400 meters grew increasingly dense. Thick masses of fern flanked both sides of the trail, while weeds had clamored over what once provided direction underfoot. Mo Dengqing was familiar with the area and leading us forward.

The ridge stands at 1,733 meters above sea level. Though the altitude didn’t climb much higher, the dense vegetation made it difficult to move forward. Since about 1,500 meters we had to make our way directly over, on and through the foliage: we fought against vines underfoot and branches and thorns overhead. When reaching 1,600 meters we walked though bamboo and arbor, making our way up to the ridge along the animal path. Large trees prevented us from getting a view of the ridge, with the sky appearing in cracks between massive branches. We planed to spend 5 hours reaching our destination, but we only able to cover half that distance.

The path to the foot of the mountain was even more difficult to walk on. Broken rocks caused chaos around the ridge and we could not even find a trail made by animals. On top of that, it was getting dark. We took out torches, but our lights could only cover one or two meters ahead in such dense. We were staggering, trying to hold on to branches or vines. Still, we tried to ignore the difficultly of our journey and move faster.

We were lost. One moment, while walking on a 10-meter wide belt of ground, I felt my feet sinking. I quickly jumped on to a dry trunk on and informed the rest of the group of the danger. Looking around with torches, we found ourselves walking on an endless crest of a valley. The earthquake dislodged mud and stone, and all the plants were pushed in to a massive pile in the distant darkness. Dang Xiaowei took out a GPS and satellite remote sensing map--experience was no longer enough to guide us.

With the help of the GPS and satellite-sensing map, Dang Xiaowei found out where we were. Checking old monitoring journals, he said we were 200 meters away from the monitoring route. And if all went well, we would soon arrive at Xiaojiawan.
Relaxing slightly after finding the way, the pale moonlight enabled us to see the mountain opposite, where we found a huge white plate. It was a gash made by the earthquake, but now functioned as a trail marker. Around 40 minutes later we arrived at Fenlinba Protection Station, our destination. We could feel the warmth from the lights that surrounded us. I checked the time: 21:34. We spent 8 hours in the forest on route 3.

Fenlinba Protection Station is special because of its location. Three paths from Sichuan and Gansu provinces unite directly in front of the gate to Fenlinba Protection Station, and extend to Qingmuchuan Town. The station’s location also helped prevent unwanted and potentially harmful access to nature reserve.

Waking up in the tent on the morning of the 12th, I was cold. I could not imagine how the reserve staff could survive through the winter in this weather. Outside I saw some lace-like clouds covering the mountains along the opposite riverbank. Wei Shuqiang told me I had been walking down from the very mountains I was looking at last night. I looked for a while but could not see any trace of a path--maybe we just flew down on the clouds.

Patrolling on the second route was also hard work. It used to take only 6 six hours round trip, but this time we spent 9 hours from start to finish. With no monitoring for 5 months, the path was hidden under a thick tangle of weeds. We were lucky that the weather was cool and no poisonous Qinling vipers lay in wait as we struggled along. This may not be the case in the coming spring and summer.

On the return journey, we went over a hillside that was farmland being returned to forest. The old path was covered by weeds higher than a human being and further defended by thorns; we had to use a scythe to clear the way. Wei Shuqiang mentioned that people coming from Gansu no longer come this way when going to Qingmuchuan Town’s market because of all of the nearby villages were empty. The thick thorns and weeds certainly don’t help matters much either.

According to Qingmuchuan Nature Reserve staff, the earthquake was a double-edged sword for nature conservation. If following former plans, it might have taken over a decade to move Changshaba Village out of the core area. But the earthquake forced the government to move the village out immediately, thereby reducing human interference while the reserve healed.

But there are also many disadvantages. In the future, rangers will face dangerous areas alone. And without the surrounding villages, Fenlinba Protection Station will find it hard to manage its electric bills. They will thus have to convert to new alternative energies like solar--but that would also cost a lot. Road maintenance could also be a problem. After the earthquake, huge boulders blocked off the road to large vehicles. Reserve residents also had to traverse frozen—and sometimes flooded--rivers around 9
times before reaching their destinations.

Most of Qingmuchuan’s 20km of monitoring trails were damaged by the collapse of the mountain, falling rocks and weeds. Rebuilding a safe monitoring path remains a problem.

Basic structures on the nature reserve were severely damaged as well. Three protection stations collapsed, and three other protection and education centers were rendered useless hulks. A great deal of equipment was also destroyed, which stopped routine office work as well as field protection and management. Qingmuchuan’s direct losses stand at around RMB4,980,000. The costs of recovering monitoring abilities to pre-quake levels are staggering. Where are the funds for this? With the arrival of winter, providing shelter for quake victims is key. Building temporary houses for villagers from Changshaba Village means, however, that Ningqiang County will not be able to afford reconstruction costs due to limited reconstruction funds.

The Qingmuchuan Nature Reserve is in dire need of outside support to rebuild the giant panda corridor. With luck, this biodiversity hotspot will regain its balance.

Giant Panda Habitat: Long road to recovery

2008-11-17

By Wang Ying

Nearly six months after the May 12 earthquake devastated southwest China’s Sichuan Province, local residents are making big strides as they rise above the rubble.

However, it was still unknown how the catastrophe affected the local ecosystem and wildlife in the steep forest-covered mountains that are home to many endangered wildlife including the giant pandas.

Few dared enter the mountains over the July to September rainy season due to fears of aftershocks and landslides.

The massive earthquake mainly jolted the Minshan and Qionglai mountains in Sichuan and Gansu as well as the Qinling mountains in Shaanxi, the main habitat area of giant pandas and one of the world's key biodiversity areas.

To learn more about the post-earthquake impact of the giant panda habitat in Sichuan, WWF launched a field survey in the Minshan Mountains in mid-October.

First Panda traces found in the first field survey

Ranger Jiang Zhongjun, 36, is a calm person who has experienced hundreds of dangerous situations in his 12 years of patrolling the Minshan Mountains in northern Sichuan but the aftershocks of the May 12 earthquake still stet him shudder.

"I remember one of the latest ones very well as a large falling stone almost killed me in Dujiangyan at 10 am on October 16," he says. "I felt the ground suddenly jerking up and down, making it hard to stand. The falling stone, as large as a cooking pot, fell toward my head at great speed while I was measuring the size of a landslide near a mountain at Longchi Park."

Jiang's quick reflexes got him out of harm's way just in time for him to see the huge rock land several centimeters from his feet. There were two further aftershocks later that day, causing Jiang and his colleagues to rush out of their shelter, an abandoned, collapsed house at a village on their monitoring route.

Jiang's quick reflexes got him out of harm's way just in time for him to see the huge rock land several centimeters from his feet. There were two further aftershocks later that day, causing Jiang and his colleagues to rush out of their shelter, an abandoned, collapsed house at a village on their monitoring route.

"Three aftershocks a day! I still felt the ground was moving several days later," says Jiang.

That day was the first day rangers had entered Longchi Park at the Longxi-Hongkou nature reserve in Sichuan since the earthquake jolted southwest China nearly six months earlier.

Jiang was part of a field trip collecting first-hand material on how the earthquake affected wildlife and the habitat of giant pandas in the Minshan and Qionglai mountains in Sichuan, the main habitat of giant pandas and one of the world's 25 key biodiversity areas.

Organized by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and local forestry departments, the two-week field trip was the first survey on the impact of the quake on giant panda habitats in Sichuan.

Aftershocks and mudflows caused by rain had kept people out of the mountains ever since the devastating quake, measuring 8.0 on the Richter scale, killed more than 80,000 people and destroyed tens of thousands of houses.

Despite the several aftershocks, Jiang had been longing for the field survey and experienced a moment of great, albeit brief, joy when he found evidence of giant pandas still living in the wild.

At the Longxi-Hongkou nature reserve, Jiang found fresh giant panda feces in the dense bamboo forest 2,000 m above sea level. He measured the size of the feces, recorded the detailed location and ground situation of the site and collected samples for further lab analysis.

"It was rare to find giant panda traces in the wild even before the earthquake because the animal tries hard to avoid human beings," he says.

The giant panda's three basic living requirements are water, bamboo and flat areas, with slopes of less than 30-40 degrees. The group's chances of finding giant panda traces were quite rare as the panda meeting places were greatly reduced by the disaster, Jiang says.

Field survey for panda habitat restoration

The pilot survey chose the Qianfoshan and Longxi-Hongkou nature reserves, two heavily damaged panda reserves in Sichuan, to get a general idea of the earthquake's damage on the local ecosystem.

More than 40 rangers and researchers took part, setting up 15 monitoring lines, each stretching 10 to 40 km. Their daily treks, often more than 30 km, made the days long and exhausting but all coped thanks to their years of field experience.

Zhu Yundong, 31, a ranger from Xiaozhaizigou nature reserve in Beichuan county, whose 5-year-old twin boys were killed in the earthquake, went on the trip to help collect evidence of wildlife in the giant panda habitat. Zhu, whose wife is still in hospital with heavy injuries caused by the earthquake, has developed a sharp nose to distinguish wild animal traces.

He discovered dozens of traces of wild animals like leopard cats, musk deer, tufted deer and pheasants.

To compare the wildlife situation before and after the disaster, the survey covered all the former monitoring and patrolling routes in the two nature reserves before the earthquake.

"Wild animal traces including giant pandas' have obviously decreased, compared with before the earthquake," he says.

It is unknown how many wild pandas were killed or injured in the earthquake as no panda corpses have been found in the wild so far, says Prof Ran Jianghong, from the Bioscience Institute of Sichuan University, who also attended the survey.

Wild pandas' innate survival instincts would have alerted them to flee quake-triggered landslides on high ground.

"The earthquake might not have caused direct population loss to the pandas but it would have damaged their habitats and blocked their migration routes, which may affect the animal's breeding in the future." Ran says.

“Final report of the pilot survey will be complete by the end of November and other nature reserves will also conduct such survey in the near future to present a detailed and complete view of the earthquake impact to the ecosystem.” says Wang Tao, deputy director of the Qianfoshan nature reserve. The survey result will help conservationists to develop future plans to restore panda habitat.

Panda habitat and migration routes damaged

There are around 1,600 pandas in the wild, according to figures from the State Forestry Administration. The pandas live in 67 nature reserves in western China's Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu provinces - 1,200 in Sichuan, 300 in Shaanxi and 100 in Gansu.

The administration estimated in June that the panda habitat area affected by the earthquake reached 1.96 million hectares, or 83 percent of the country's total giant panda habitat areas, according to remote sensing surveys.

Twenty-seven out of the 40 giant panda nature reserves in Sichuan and eight out of the 20 nature reserves in Shaanxi, as well as all the seven nature reserves in Gansu were damaged.

At the Longxi-Hongkou nature reserve, 34 percent of vegetation was lost due to the earthquake, according to remote sensing results.

Xu Weihua, a researcher at the Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, joined the field survey in Sichuan to see if the situation in the nature reserves tallied with the remote sensing results.

"We found that the ground situation of the vegetation damage was basically in accordance with the remote sensing results we obtained months ago," Xu says.

"When giant panda’s population in a habitat is less than 60, the giant pandas are easy to fall inbreeding which leads to gene degradation," Professor Ran Jianghong says. The latest national giant panda survey found only 35 pandas in the habitat of southern section of Minshan mountains where located four nature reserves.

In that case, the Tudiling corridor in Maoxian county, the important channel linking the giant panda group in southern and northern Minshan Mountains will be critical for the panda’s migration. However, the newly-formed Tangjiashan quake lake inundated roads connecting Beichuan to the outside world,forcing local people take the road of the corridor.

The construction plans of a road connecting Jiuzhaigou and Chengdu in Sichuan and a railway connecting Lanzhou in Gansu and Chongqing have been suspended due to the earthquake. The two large construction projects will pass the panda preserves.

Professor Ran hopes that the post-disaster reconstruction work will take into account of the protection of giant panda's habitat and migrant routes to prevent artificial blockage and fragmentation.

In nearby Shaanxi province, local forestry departments are considering restoring some bamboo forests after recently monitoring and patrolling in Qinling Mountains, the main giant panda habitat in Shaanxi.

No trace of any panda life was found during the week-long monitoring and patrolling in the nature reserve but rangers found extensive damage to large areas of bamboo forests, the giant panda's only food.

Wang Ge, a researcher from the International Network for Bamboo and Rattan, says one reason for the demise of the bamboo forests is the change in ground conditions and local climate caused by the quake.

The snowstorms earlier this year also destroyed a large area of bamboo trees, leading to a plague of rats and further damage in Shaanxi, he says.

To make things worse, the most badly affected bamboo forest areas, more than 300 hectares, bordered Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu provinces and were on the giant panda's migration route, says Li Qingbao, director of the reserve's administrative bureau.

"If a large area of bamboo forests died on this migration route and cannot quickly recover, the food chain of the giant panda will break and the panda group in the Qinling mountains will be completely separated from that in Sichuan," Li says.

Panda Protection system destroyed

The earthquake also caused severe damage to the panda protection system. The Sichuan Forestry Bureau Eighty panda protection stations were affected, while others, such as Gaochuan station in the Qianfoshan Reserve, were reduced to rubble.

Many protection stations located above 2,000 meters were the hardest hit, bureau officials say. Structures were severely damaged as were computer systems and years of archived information. At Wolong, the quake also ruined a large number of specimens used in panda research.

“The greatest difficulty is that our protection was almost totally wiped out overnight after over 30 years of growth. It will take a long time to recover,” says Fan Zhiyong, director of the WWF species programme.

WWF's post-earthquake work has focused on getting protection stations up and running as quickly as possible. GPS systems, computers, cameras, trucks as well as technical and financial support have been provided to start new panda habitat monitoring and patrolling. Two temporary protect stations were also set up at the Baishuihe Reserve and Anzihe Reserve with support from WWF.

Preliminary survey and patrolling in Sichuan and Shaanxi provinces has finished, which means more research projects in disaster-affected areas will start.

But even with more research underway, gathering funds to rebuild nature reserves has proven challenging. With most government money has been earmarked to resolve local people’s housing problems, which puts Sichuan’s 27 badly damaged nature reserves on the back burner.

Yan Yongbi, a Forestry Department official from Anxian country near the epicenter of the earthquake, says dozens of houses at Sichuan’s 80 protection stations collapsed and major infrastructure was damaged.

“We are trying to find more support to help us conduct biodiversity surveys in the disaster areas in the future,” Yan said. “We hope our influence will help speed up the restoration process.”

A double-edged sword

"For conservation, the earthquake was a double-edged sword," says Xu Weihua from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. "When landslides block roads, destroy houses and bury farmland, humans have to move out, leaving their former land to wildlife," he says.

With road access extremely limited in some quake-affected areas, human impact has been reduced to a minimum. Reports suggest that wildlife populations in Sichuan’s Longxi-Hongkou and Baishuihe reserves have thrived as a result.

"Traces of musk deer, leopard cat, tufted deer and sambar deer can now easily be found
in areas that previously saw few wild animals," Xu says.

In nearby Shaanxi, earthquake damage has forced out many long-term residence out of another giant panda habitat, the Qingmuchuan Reserve. Reports say the area’s environment is also benefiting as a result.

China’s large population means that land resources are limited. This is a cause for alarm, notes WWF China’s Fan Zhiyong: "Human beings entered the heart of natural forests and mountains for mining, logging, poaching and farming, which has greatly damaged the sanctuary wildlife once had," he said.

One look at the decline of the giant panda population says as much. There were roughly 2,500 wild pandas in the 1970s, but the number now stands at fewer than 1,600, according to WWF and Chinese government survey from 1999-2003.

The establishment of new nature reserves has helped keep the panda population in balance. So has a 1998 ban on logging in natural forests. But progress has been blighted by large-scale infrastructure construction, leaving many groups in fragmented and isolated locations.

New roads, power stations, mines and massive tourist projects have caused irreparable damage to some of China’s richest wildlife depositories, the Minshan and Qionglai mountains among them.

“The top concern during reconstruction should be reducing human disturbance on the environment.” Fan Zhiyong says.

Balancing human needs with the policies and actions necessary to ensure panda habitats are restored to optimal health is a formidable challenge. If funds are available for relocation of local residents, reserve staff may have an easier time ensuring the precious habitat is naturally restored. But if funding simply isn’t available, the challenges will be greater. The situation does indeed present a razor sharp double-edged sword.

Community matters

WWF has launched surveys to learn how the May 12th earthquake impacted communities located on or near nature reserves.

Using a new study tool called Rapid Environmental Impact Assessment in Disasters (REIAD), survey teams have discovered that running water, electricity and building material shortages need to be urgently addressed.

Through questionnaire sampling covering 30% of a residential community, group discussions, and village assembly, investigators looked into strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats villages faced in their future development.

The destruction of hydropower stations in reserves, for example, means many local residences have been forced to rely on firewood to supply their cooking and heating needs. This comes at considerable cost to the environment.

To remedy this, WWF plans to launch a project later this year that will provide 45 biomass gasifier stoves to three residential communities in the Wolong Nature Reserve. Surveys determined that the move would help reduce local people’s reliance on firewood.

Lianhe village was devastated in the earthquake, with 5 dead and 99% of its houses destroyed. Of its 428 people, most relied on farming and livestock for survival, but few can now support themselves.

Lianhe entire village was relocated to a temporary residential site 20 kilometers from its original location. Power lines, roads, farmland and the forest that surrounded the village were all destroyed, cutting off major sources of income. Lianhe’s population is now completely reliant on meager government subsidies.

Making matters worse, landslides blocked up rivers in high altitude areas effectively choking off all of the village’s water resources.

To help solve the drinking water problem, WWF is planning to build a water pipe.

38-year-old villager Liu Fanxiang, a mother of two teenage boys, is concerned about her family's future life as most of their kiwi and officinal magnolia trees were damaged in the disaster.

"Without enough water, we cannot resume farming. We won’t be able to make any money this year," Liu says.

Most village families earn an average of 2,000-3,000 RMB per year, lower than other villages near the reserve, she says.

"Many people visited us after the earthquake," she says. "We hope they will bring more development projects to help us improve our lives."

The total destruction of their homes, possessions and livelihoods often leaves earthquake victims feeling empty and lost.

"WWF has organized painting, drama workshops and other activities to add a little color to peoples’ lives. In one case, we’re going to encourage people to paint the walls of their make-shift houses," says Chen Can from WWF’s Chengdu office.

Tang Lu, a 6-year-old girl, was very excited that her school library received a number of new books donated by WWF: "I love painting and I like the new picture books in our library," Tang says.

A "Green reconstruction" concept has also been introduced to conserve resources in earthquake-stricken areas.

To consume fewer resources, WWF has been calling for the use of environmentally-friendly construction material when rebuilding houses.

In nearby Shaanxi province, the earthquake destroyed most of the houses in residential communities around the Qingmuchuan Reserve, pushing many deep into the grip of poverty.

Before the earthquake, villages around the nature reserve were very poor and young people went out to work, leaving only the elderly and children at home. Most made a living raising pigs and cultivating mushrooms.

But the disaster forced all 727 people living near the reserve to move elsewhere. Government will help local people build new homes, which will also push them deep into debt. Few will be able to find new opportunities to earn a living.

"If local people cannot obtain other sources of income, they might start using mountain resources," says Li Qingbao, director of the administrative bureau of the nature reserve.

"WWF will help us carry out community development projects like beekeeping and tea planting in the future. This will help prevent locals from relying on the forest as a source of income," Li says.

Dubbed the “Green Heart of China," the quake-stricken area is located in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, which is also home to the Qinling, Minshan and Qionglai mountains. The area is a biodiversity hotspot and habitat for the giant panda and other rare species.

"Restoration of this “’Green Heart,’” says Ling Lin, director of WWF’s Chengdu office, “plays a key role in China's sustainable ecological development. Proper treatment will ensure China holds on to own one of the world’s most valuable natural landscapes."

Ling reveals that WWF is considering a five-year "Green Reconstruction" framework to include recommendations and ideas from experts around the world.

"Reconstruction is long-term work. Be we will work with partners from home and abroad to make sure our contributions count," Ling says.

Marina Silva: philosophy in practice

2008-10-28

Interview with Marina Silva, winner of the 2008 WWF Duke of Edinburgh Medal

Common people, in their majority, envisage philosophers as persons who have lost contact with the real world and live somewhere between heaven and earth, in some kind of ideal realm, far from the ungracefulness of every day life. Maybe they are like that, or at least partly so, since their occupation is to understand and explain the human soul and the meaning of things.

Maria Osmarina da Silva de Lima, known as Marina Silva, did not go to Philosophy school. Perhaps this can explain her amazing nonchalance as she goes back and forth between the ideal and the real worlds. Furthermore, she creates a solid bridge between those two realms, pointing out earthly solutions for environmental problems - whether they are real, philosophical or invented ones.

It could be that her sensitivity and reality during a very difficult childhood and adolescence made dream and pragmatism blend together.

Marina Silva was born 50 years ago, in Breu Velho, at a rubber tapping forest area called Seringal Baçado, 70km distant from Rio Branco, the capital city in Acre state. She spent her childhood and early teenage years laboring in rubber latex extraction. Marina Silva was 16 years old when she finally learned how to read and write – that happened after she moved to Rio Branco to work as a house servant. Until then, she had learned from nature, the forest and her own people – these masters arose in her the love for the environment, as well as the senses to interpret it.

At 26 years old she got her university degree in History, from Acre’s Federal University, and in 1988 she started a political career.

Now a global citizen, Marina Silva is one of the most acknowledged and celebrated women in the world; she was awarded over 50 honor distinctions.

After heading the Brazilian Ministry of the Environment, where she fought the conservative forces composing the rural scene in Brazil – especially in the Amazon, Marina Silva is back in the Senate, where she continues to fight for social and environmental sustainability. Brazil learned that her apparently fragile physical structure is inhabited by two different personas: a gentle and well balanced forest citizen and a powerful and bold warrior.

Senator Marina Silva, what are your views on the environmental movement today, as far as the alleged antagonism between development and conservation is concerned?

First of all, I don’t think we should envisage environment and development in opposite sides. I believe this century’s greatest challenge is to achieve protection with development, and development with the protection of the natural resources. During the last ten years, the environmental movement has made significant progress in that direction. Those who insist in that opposition have a purely developmentist mentality.

Environmentalists have already understood that the greatest challenge is to act to achieve change in the development models – from unsustainable to a sustainable ones – in order to cover all sustainability dimensions, i.e., the economic, social, cultural, political, ethical and even aesthetic aspects, since the changes we impose upon the natural landscape deconstructs our identity, as well as our relationship with each other and with nature.

Therefore, I believe the great challenge is to achieve the change in the development model. The starting point is to break with the established patterns which took natural resources for granted, as if they were infinite, and required that all efforts should be endeavored to overpower nature in order to protect ourselves from the phenomena which we could not control. During this effort to overcome our limits as human beings, we ended up by facing nature’s own limits.

In my opinion, the real challenge is to understand that we are actually living in the age of limits. It is an age that leads men towards a new vision of wealth and a new meaning of happiness. Moreover, it is a new vision of what is it that places us as the subject in our relationship with one another, with ourselves and with nature.

What is your view on the climate change issue in a global level?

Once more, the change in the development model is the great challenge for both the developed and the developing countries. For developed countries, this means “decarbonize” their economy, i.e., to change the energy matrix from fossil fuel to renewable sources.

In the developing countries, change means to diversify the energy matrix and to use natural resources on a sustainable basis. Countries will need support to do that. They will need funds and technology transfer, but our contribution to revert the climate change process will help the entire planet.

The developed countries already have a stabilized economy and fulfill the basic needs of their population. Theoretically, it is now easier for them to develop an emission decrease process. Developing countries, on the other hand, have to decrease emissions while ensuring economic growth to meet the people’s needs.

Thus, we have two different challenges: one in the developed countries, where decrease of historic and present emissions is mandatory; and another one in the developing countries, where historic emissions are low but present ones are extremely high and therefore must be reduced. This goes for Brazil, China, Mexico, India, and any other developing country with high emissions.

Are you optimist regarding the Earth’s social and environmental future and its sustainability?

In this situation one ought to overcome the optimist-pessimist duality. We have to be persistent to structure policies that can lead us with a civilizing vision, policies which can change the production, consumption and residue destination processes we are used to.

I am talking about a civilizing inflexion through a democratic and transparent process, which can enable society to access the means to be proactive in a political way, influencing both the national and the global strategic agenda. An agenda to be backed by all governing leaders – because changes will happen in medium and long term and a commitment to decrease emissions, diversify the energy matrix and protect biodiversity is something to be sought by all leaders, aside from their political alignment.
The same goes for the creation of a structure to take in the contribution from the rich and the poor, citizens and business, scientists and civil organizations – a structure with firm process management objectives and, at the same time, flexible enough to take in all the contributions and to provide quick answers in emergency situations.

It is also crucial to keep in mind that efforts need to be made: national, individual, group, and regional efforts. The crisis will only be solved in the context of a strong multilateral agenda and commitment. There will be no ‘homeland savior’ heroes. This is about a joint effort, a horizontal one, where each and every one has its own responsibilities in order to achieve the common goal of saving the objective conditions to promote life on Earth.

What would you highlight as an achievement in your administration at the head of the Ministry of the Environment?

One of the most important things was the environmental policy vision we brought to the Ministry. We set the principle that we should establish an environmental policy based on social control and participation, sustainable development, strengthening of the national environmental system and a crosscutting environmental policy.

Following those guidelines, we started to tackle the policies in a practical way. Perhaps the best example is our plan to fight deforestation, where all guidelines were jointly implemented. We realized that in order to fight deforestation we needed a crosscutting action, involving the various government sectors. We needed a lasting strategy, to build a structure with a long term view.

It was a three-fold plan: fight illegal practices, put an order to land use and land property, and support sustainable economic activities.

Regarding the fight against illegal practices, we managed to seize one million cubic meters of timber, send more than 700 criminals to jail, break over 1,500 illegal businesses, bar around 37,000 illegal properties, and increase patrol and intelligence actions, by making the official environmental agency – Ibama - work together with the Federal (Investigation) Police and the Defense Ministry. We involved all sectors dealing with illegal action combat.

As far as ordering the land property and use, 24 million hectares of protected areas were created and 10 million hectares of indigenous territories were ratified. The Public Forest Management Law was approved, creating sustainable forest districts for the production of sustainable timber, with certification and forest management in order to add value to the standing forest.

As to the support of sustainable activities (I understood that it depends on other sectors, particularly agriculture, energy and transports), the agenda did not develop quite in the same speed. Nevertheless, we managed to decrease deforestation by 57%. During three consecutive years, deforestation decreased: from 27,000 square kilometers in 2004 to 18,000 in 2005; then 14,000 in 2006 and 11.200 in 2007.

By the end of 2007, the predatory forces got organized and deforestation went up again. Very strong measures were adopted and there were lots of pressure to cancel them; pressure came from sectors which I consider to be in the wrong way of history in Brazil.

It was in such a pressure context that I asked to leave government. I understand that my leaving aroused the national public opinion in a fantastic way, in support of all the measures taken – and those measures referred to criminalization of the entire production chain if it were on illegal basis, preventing any illegal activity in the Amazon to have access to bank credit, both public and private banks, as well as establishing a moratorium in 36 municipalities which were the top deforestators, conditioning the return to normality to the legalization of all the embargoed owners. If this measure gets implemented, I believe we will break the deforestation structure. The great challenge is to consolidate those measures and to change the development model.

Interview by Gadelha Neto

The J Paul Getty Award for Conservation

2008-10-20

By Kerry Zobor

“I believe that wildlife conservation, the work of World Wildlife Fund, is one of the most constructive enterprises that any man or woman could be interested in today…I get satisfaction out of having done my duty as I see it. If this prize makes more people concerned about conservation and thus makes the world a better place to live in, then I will be satisfied. “
J. Paul Getty
Sutton Place, 1974

The J Paul Getty Award for Conservation, one of the world’s most prestigious such awards previously won by an array of distinguished scientists, has this year gone to Malagasy schoolteacher Roger Samba.

Administered by WWF, the Getty prize recognizes an individual who has shown leadership in conservation in one of three rotating themes: political leadership, scientific leadership and community leadership.

Previous winners of the award have included Dr. Jane Goodall, Sir Peter Scott and Pan Wenshi. Nominees for the Getty Award are submitted to WWF by conservation organizations around the world and the winner is chosen by an independent jury of individuals from a wide and distinguished array of expertise.

Russell E. Train, Chairman Emeritus of WWF–US and former head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recalls the 1983 awards ceremony in his book Politics, Pollution and Pandas: An Environmental Memoir.

“In July 1983, we succeeded in having the president personally present the J. Paul Getty Wildlife Conservation prize to the awardees at a ceremony in the Rose Garden of the White House. When the president (Ronald Reagan) walked out of his office and stepped up to the microphone, he opened the proceedings by saying to the large assemblage: “Well, first let me welcome you all to the White House. I don’t need to welcome Russell Train of the World Wildlife Fund. Russell’s more at home here than I am. (Laughter.) He served in two administrations, and this is my first (Laughter.) …”

Reagan went on to describe the Getty Prize as the Nobel Prize for conservation and praised the democratic government of Costa Rica. When he was through, I pinned a panda button on his lapel and told him he was now a member of WWF.”

Three years ago, after seeing a decline in marine health – and as a result, a drop in catches by local fishermen – Roger Samba, the president of the remote coastal village of Andavadoaka in south-west Madagascar, decided to take action.

Despite having no background in conservation, Samba successfully brought together organizations, fisheries groups, government agencies and community members to develop and launch Madagascar’s first community-run, no-take zone for octopus – the region’s most economically important fishery.

The Getty award is unique in that it not only recognizes today’s leaders in conservation but also helps develop conservation leadership for tomorrow by establishing graduate fellowships in the name of the winner and J. Paul Getty, the legendary American industrialist and philanthropist.

The award, currently sponsored by J. Paul Getty’s son Gordon and his family, is intended to encourage conservation innovation and heighten public awareness of the need for conservation.

Samba was nominated for the award by Alasdair Harris, director of scientific research at Blue Ventures, who said: “Under Samba’s leadership, the Andavadoaka project proved so successful that eight neighbouring villages instituted their own protected areas for octopus in order to reap similar benefits.

“The national government of Madagascar in 2005 also used the project as a model to create similar seasonal closures across the country. The project is a proven example of how economic development can both inspire and benefit from the conservation of natural resources.”

For generations, the indigenous semi-nomadic Vezo people of Andavadoaka have depended on artisanal fishing activities for their livelihoods, culture and tradition. But in recent years, the region’s marine resources faced growing threats from expanding coastal populations, unsustainable tourism and an increase in international fishing fleets.

Samba spent much of the last five years working to protect the region’s fragile marine biodiversity and habitats. He created a blueprint for empowering local communities to take on management of coral reefs and related habitats. Since 2003, plans for creation of community-managed marine protected areas have spread from one village to more than 30 in the region.

This work has inspired the development of ambitious alternative livelihood and environmental education initiatives, influenced national fisheries legislation, and brought unprecedented attention to marine and coastal conservation issues. Fishermen and women have traveled from across Madagascar and beyond to learn from the Andavadoaka model.

Saving Sumatra’s Endangered Peoples

2008-08-07

By Michael Stuewe & Desmarita Murni

The Orang Rimba people have inhabited the jungles of Sumatra for centuries, traveling in tight-knit family groups in the Indonesian forests, hunting, fishing and collecting non-timber forest products on their traditional lands. Members of this indigenous tribe occasionally trade goods with villages on the edge of the forest, but prefer to keep to themselves. Now, as Sumatra’s forests disappear under the relentless onslaught of chainsaws and bulldozers, even keeping to themselves is becoming impossible.

Experts who have studied the culture of the Orang Rimba, which literally means “forest people,” estimate that there are fewer than 3,000 individuals. They are one of two indigenous tribes that live exclusively in Jambi Province in central Sumatra. The Orang Rimba are nomadic and dependent on forest resources. And like much of the wildlife that inhabit the same forests, the Orang Rimba’s survival is endangered by logging that is clearing Sumatra on a scale unseen almost anywhere else in the world.
WWF researchers have long encountered Orang Rimba people while in the forest. And occasionally, WWF camera traps set up to to record the comings and goings of wildlife have snapped candid photos of families as they move through the forest.

Recently, a team from WWF and Jambi-based NGO WARSI met with a group of four families trying to survive on land that is being logged under legally questionable circumstances by companies affiliated with Asia Pulp & Paper (APP). The head of the group, Bujang Rancak, recalled that they used to be very prosperous, when the forest still provided them enough food and other resources to sell or trade.

“Now, a greedy PT (company) took away our forests. We can no longer live in our own forest because the PT forbids us to use or plant it. Anything we do is wrong to them,” said Rancak.

Until 2006, the Bukit Tigapuluh forest block where they live, which is divided between Bukit Tigapuluh National Park, protection forest and many logging concessions, was relatively free from large–scale commercial forest conversion. But APP is rumoured to have dramatically increased the capacity of its Jambi pulp mill, now requiring more wood than ever. And a police investigation into illegal logging in adjacent Riau Province forced a de facto moratorium on all logging of natural forest there, prompting logging companies like APP to move to Jambi Province instead. The results have been disastrous for the forests and forest-dwelling people.

A team of investigators from WWF and other NGOs working in the area found that the Bukit Tigapuluh forest block where the Orang Rimba live will soon be split into two by a massive logging highway that connects forest concessions associated with APP to APP’s pulp mills in Riau and Jambi provinces.

“Orang Rimba families have become marginalized wherever their forest was opened, easily infected by new diseases and extraordinarily poor without forests to hunt and gather,” says Diki Kurniawan of WARSI, who has studied the tribe for the last decade.

“Bukit Tigapuluh has become the last retreat for many families who have migrated here trying to avoid the wave of forest conversion. But with the arrival of forest conversion giant APP here at the very edge of Bukit Tigapuluh National Park, there is no more place to run. The Orang Rimba’s way of life will go with their forests.”

Click to enlarge (© Michael Stuewe / WWF indonesia)

The Orang Rimba’s disappearing forests are of high conservation value and five NGOs have called on the government to include the remaining unprotected forests into an expansion area of the Bukit Tigapuluh National Park. They have also called on the companies associated with APP to stop construction of the logging highway and clearance of more forests with high conservation values.

“APP is stealing natural forests away from the indigenous tribes who depend on this forest area for their existence,” an investigative report by WWF and four other organizations working in the area concluded earlier this year.
Also under threat are the Talang Mamak, a sedentary tribe who live only in the Bukit Tigapuluh forest block. These are people whose whole existence depends on these forests.

The Bukit Tigapuluh Forest Landscape contains some of the richest biodiversity on Earth. It is one of the two last remaining ideal habitats for endangered Sumatran elephants, with an estimated population of more than 50 individuals. It has also been identified as one of 20 “Global Priority Tiger Conservation Landscapes” by some of the world’s leading tiger scientists. And Sumatra, the largest island in Indonesia, is the only place in the world where endangered elephants, rhinos, orangutans and tigers co-exist.

The government of Indonesia does not account for the traditional land rights of indigenous peoples when it leases logging concessions to industry. Some Orang Rimba are now forced to live part of the year on palm oil or pulpwood plantations because there isn’t enough natural forest left. The Orang Rimba have long practiced a system of forest resources management that protects their resources and has allowed them to survive on forest produce for generations. But as their forests disappear, according to Rancak, the government’s solution has been to provide them with pre-fabricated houses to live in, without shade, without water. It hasn’t worked. What they want is their forests.

After the companies logged the Bukit Tigapuluh forest and destroyed the resources they used, the Orang Rimba turned to slashing and burning in the destroyed forest to plant food such as corn, paddy, cassava, or harvest rubber to sell in the market. They said they now have no choice other than farming. The remaining forest surrounding them no longer provides enough resources to support them, no more animals to hunt, no more rattan and resin to collect and sell, and fewer and fewer fish.

“Perhaps we should just cut down all our forests before the PT take them all away from us,” Rancak said.

Michael Stuewe is a scientist currently working with WWF in the United States. Desmarita Murni is the campaign coordinator for WWF Indonesia.

Long flight to photo award for Albatross

2008-08-05

Like many fishers, Cameron Long is a man of few words.

But he was persuaded to make an acceptance speech as he collected the winning prize at the Southern Seabird Solutions competition.

"I wasn't going to say anything, being a fisherman." the New Zealand fisher acknowledged wryly.

Click to enlarge
(© Cameron Long, Southern Seabird Solutions Trust Competition)
Luckily, his photos speak for him. His stunning winning shot of a solitary Salvin's albatross (Thalassarche salvini), navigating its flight a few well-judged inches from the ocean's surface, tip of one wing breaking the water, expresses the perfection of the albatross in a way words fail to.

This winning shot is one of thousands that Cameron Long has taken whilst at sea. Cam is one of the many fishers who marvel at the seabirds they share the seas with. "You're in a desert," he explains. "At sea, it's a wet desert. There's you, the boat, and the seabirds. And they're amazing. Most people can't appreciate their size. When you see one of the big mollymawks sitting on the water, and it looks pretty big, but then an albatross will fly next to it, and it's just a different scale."

The photography competition is part of Southern Seabird Solutions work to promote fishing practices that avoid seabirds like the albatross in Cam's shot from dying in fishing gear.

It is a unique partnership, bringing together conservationists from WWF, fishers, industry and government in one common cause - saving seabirds. Many seabirds die trying to feed around the fishing boats, so Southern Seabird Solutions was formed to tackle the problem.

"It's an absolute pleasure to take the photos of them, " says Cam about the seabirds. Having fished the Southern Ocean for 10 years - " I was in-shore fishing before that, but the money was unpredictable, " Cam says of his move to off-shore fishing - he says that over that time much has changed in making fishing practices better in New Zealand.

"You used to see a hell of a lot of birds in a feeding frenzy around boats, but now nothing goes over the side of the boat. We've got all the range of mitigation devices. No-one wants to see a dead seabird."

There is still work to be done – fishing remains the number one threat to seabirds. But, with New Zealand fishers, WWF, government and industry all united by the will to save these amazing seafarers, there is hope for their future.

Background notes

Southern Seabird Solutions was established to promote fishing practices that avoid seabird deaths in southern hemisphere fisheries. It is an alliance of New Zealand and international interest groups working together to solve the incidental capture of seabirds during longline and trawl fishing.

The organisation includes representatives from government departments, fishing industry, environmental groups, eco-tourism operators, fisheries trainers, indigenous fisheries interests and others.

A core premise of Southern Seabird Solutions is that fishermen hold the key to finding solutions to stopping seabird mortalities. Southern Seabird Solutions works with fishermen to pass on their knowledge, technology and skills to promote good practices in the longline and trawl fisheries.

The organisation’s scope extends beyond New Zealand’s Exclusive Economic Zone because seabirds that breed in New Zealand territory are global travellers, roaming the oceans as far afield as southern Africa, Australia, Japan, and North and South America.

The Southern Seabird Solutions Trust is supported financially by the New Zealand government through the Department of Conservation, and the fishing industry through the New Zealand Seafood Industry Council and the Deepwater Group Ltd. The Trust is also supported by WWF-New Zealand. Funding for the Trust’s projects comes from a variety of sources, both within and outside New Zealand, and includes financial contributions from supporters, grants, sponsorship and services in kind.

Story by Jen Riches, Marketing & Communications Manager at WWF New Zealand

Once upon a time in Hunza Valley

2008-05-14

By Ali Gohar Hunzai.

I am a resident of Hunza Valley, situated in the north of Pakistan. A few days ago, I was thinking about the changes that had occurred in my valley since I was a child. I was quite shocked to know that while we enjoy modern facilities today, we have lost many things which were part of the natural environment of these areas and are now irreversibly lost. I would like to share the changes I have observed in three decades in Hunza Valley and the Karakoram areas where I was raised.

I remember when I was a school going child in mid-seventies. The winters used to be severe. Everything froze, the land, water in the streams, even the water stored inside homes. Running water in the streams froze and it made at least four inch layer of ice. There were no pipes to supply water to homes so the women of the area collected water from the nearest stream. In the morning a man used to break the layer of ice and make a hole to pass a bucket into the stream. Then the whole day the women would collect water from the same spot and the following night again it froze and this cycle continued up to mid-February.

In the month of February the weather would change a little bit. People would start ploughing the fields. On some days the land would be frozen and the farmers could not plough the fields. At that time cash crops were not introduced in Hunza Valley, so each household was dependant on subsistence farming of wheat, barley, buckwheat maize and potatoes.

People had strange traditions at that time. No farmer would plant any kind of trees on his farm. The logic was that the shade of the tree would disturb the growth process of the crop. After the harvest the whole village remained open and barren. Someone would grow spinach, carrots or other vegetables just to store for winters; usually people were dependent on potatoes and dried meat stored in the month of December.

I remember in the months of February and March hundreds of crows, some with red beaks and others with yellow would migrate along with hundreds of wild pigeons. All these birds would remain in Hunza for some weeks then migrate again to unknown destinations. Similarly in the months from June to August we could observe quails and birds hovering above the wheat crop.

After the construction of Karakoram Highway (1966-1978) a great socio-economics change took place in the Hunza valley and over all Karakoram areas. People started importing wheat and other needed items form the south. They become fewer dependants on subsistence farming of wheat.

In 1982 Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (AKRSP) was initiated in these areas. It gave the idea of cash crop. Initially the idea of cash crop seemed to be ridiculous to the people. It was a deviation from the customs of the area. Many people argued that fruit is not the substitute of bread. The plantation also raised issues and disputes among and between the neighbours but with the passage of time these things settled down. Not more than 5 years had passed when people had the results. The fruit gave a better financial return than wheat. It became a trend to plant fruit trees and grow potatoes. Within less than a decade the wheat crop came to a minimum in the region.

When I look back at Hunza of mid-seventies I see that a revolutionary change has taken place. The farms are now completely covered with fruit plants and there is abundant fruit to sell in the market and even to eat round the year for households. We have basic facilities of hospitals, roads, better schools, electricity, tourism and the Internet.

I feel that the fragile ecosystems of these areas have been greatly affected due to many reasons. I wonder if this is only a case with Hunza or there are similar cases in other parts of the mountainous areas. If there are, then how can we play our role for sustainable development of the mountainous areas of Karakoram, Himalayas and Hindukush?

What we have lost in this period of time is irreversible. We experience less snowfall compared to the seventies and earlier. The winters are less severe; now the streams do not freeze and young ones cannot enjoy skating and also waterfalls do not make icicles that we used to play games with. I loved seeing birds hovering over the fields. We have lost quails, pigeons, crows and wolves in winters, we have lost bald eagles that always hovered over the area spreading whitish brown wings and we have lost rabbits and vultures in the meadow. People had myths about the bald eagles. My grand mother connected the movement of these birds with the ruling family of Hunza and declared the presence of these birds a good omen.

Moreover, Ultar Glacier, the main source of water for central Hunza has retreated about one and a half kilometre below the point where it was in the seventies and early eighties. There is much more human activity in the Ultar meadows and its biodiversity is the victim of hunting, over grazing constructions due to tourism activities.

A tale of two places – restoring rhinos to their ranges in Assam, India

2008-04-17

By Joanna Benn

Lying in the foothills of the Himalayas on the border between Indian and Bhutan, Manas National Park has long been considered a crown jewel among India’s many spectacular wildlife reserves. Known for its breathtaking scenery and wildlife, the park is part of the largest conservation area in the region, its habitat linked with the forests of Bhutan in the north and the Buxa Tiger Reserve in West Bengal.

It is home to the tiger, pygmy hog and golden langur as well as elephants, wild buffalo and Indian bison. Once it was common to see its native rhino.

But the glory of Manas was damaged by a violent local agitation that began in 1989 to carve out a separate Bodo homeland within the Indian federation. An armed struggle caused massive upheaval and destruction of the Park’s infrastructure, including destruction of anti-poaching camps, roads and bridges and killing of forest staff.

Declared a World Heritage Site in December 1985, by 1992 Manas was listed as a World Heritage Site “in danger” as it became a battleground in a protracted insurgent war. The last rhino in Manas disappeared in 1996.

“I remember rhinos being here from before. They were all lost in the ethnic strife. It will be good to have them back here again,” smiles the local boatsman in the park.

As of April 2008, the rhinos are back. As part of an ambitious project called Indian Rhino Vision 2020 (IRV 2020), the government of Assam State and conservation groups are repopulating the park with rhinos and rebuilding the park’s infrastructure to ensure they are protected.

There is a strong economic incentive for local communities, including the local ethnic community of the Bodos, to make sure the rhinos thrive.

“When tourists come, they want to see animals – it will be helpful to have the rhinos,” adds Dhan Chandra Doley, a local forest guard.

Ex-militia turned gamekeepers
Manas is in a state of renewal. Antipoaching camps funded by IRV 2020 are scattered throughout the park – some are finished, others nearly built. At each camp, forest personnel are supplemented by volunteers from the Bodo community. The volunteers, several of them ex-poachers, have swapped their civilian dress for khaki greens – a uniform for protectors of the forests and wildlife.

“We work in the park as volunteers, mainly in areas that have been encroached upon already. If we find someone poaching for the first time, we tell them to stop it and that it’s illegal. If we find them doing it again, we arrest them,” says Munin Sargary, aged 18.

“I used to be involved in hunting and fighting but I learnt that Manas has to be saved for the long term. If Manas can thrive, we can all be sustained,” he adds.

Manas Jungle Camp is a new Community Conservation Tourism project running four small ecofriendly huts run by the Manas Maozigendri Ecotourism Society (MMES). It is committed to the revival of Manas, part of which is to get it off the UNESCO World Heritage Red list.

The camp is owned entirely by the community, which in large part consists of ex-poachers and students. According to Mahendra Basumatary, secretary of MMES, most current tourists are Indian but they want to attract more foreign visitors. “Home stays” with local Bodo families – most of whom are poor, landless labourers or marginal farmers – is one new idea for the adventure traveller.

“We don’t have raw materials for industry but we can start ecotourism. We used to have lots of poachers but now they are ‘protection volunteers.’ That’s a first for India,” Basumatary says.

Demand for a Homeland, called Bodoland
More than 45,000 people live in the fringe villages of Manas National Park, 90 percent of them below the poverty line. The Bodos who recently struggled for self-determination within the framework of the Indian constitution are now struggling to save their park and its wildlife through innovative initiatives. Most acknowledge there is a need to develop more tourism, to develop home stays and to continue training local people to become guides, but agree it’s starting well.

Kampa Borgyari, an energetic and quick-spoken man, is deputy chief of Bodoland Territorial Council. Before the first rhinos were moved into Manas, from Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary 250 kilometers away, he spoke of what the park and its rhino means to his people.

“Manas is our identity, but the last 20 years have been difficult. The local people, the Bodo people were blamed for the demise of the park. We have mobilized ourselves to bring the glory of Manas back …

“Now our youths work day and night around the clock to protect the park. It is unique – certainly in India and maybe throughout the world. That should be recognized.”

He pauses.

“It’ll be good to have the rhinos home.”

Pobitora: A sanctuary with no room for more rhinos
Rhinos dot Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary’s landscape like cattle, an unexpected sight when one considers that they are among the most critically endangered species on the planet.

The burgeoning numbers of these endangered prehistoric-looking animals crowded into Pobitora in Northeast India is, according to conservationists, a huge achievement and the result of strong antipoaching legislation and active community engagement.

“Not a single rhino has been poached here in the last two years,” says Surajit Dutta of the Guwahati Wildlife Division. “We couldn’t have done it without public support.”

Pobitora now boasts the highest density of rhinos in the world, with more than 80 rhinos in less than 18 square kilometers of rhino habitat. So four rhinos - two males and two females – were selected to be the first moved to their new home in Manas. IRV 2020 carries high hopes: to lessen pressure on Pobitora for food and space, to reduce the straying of dangerous rhinos into nearby villages and once resettled, to help rejuvenate Manas National Park.

Hope for the future
These rhinos are the vanguard of an ambitious conservation project that seeks to build a 3,000-strong rhino population distributed over seven protected areas in Assam in Northeast India. The aim is to create what’s known as a viable population – the lowest possible number of individuals of a species or population that can survive in the wild without facing extinction from natural disasters.

“Having too many rhinos in one location carries a high risk, rather like having all one’s eggs in the same basket. The threat of a disease outbreak or a poaching spate means it’s important to spread that risk,” says Tariq Aziz from WWF, the conservation organization helping to facilitate this project.

Moving a two-tonne rhino
Moving a rhino is no easy task. It requires months of planning and careful staging, like a piece of theatre involving a cast of thousands. To begin, one must carefully choose the rhinos: those that are young and healthy to be founder stock for the new population. These chosen rhinos were tracked for months and when the time came were driven to a place where they could be tranquilised. Fifteen trained domestic elephants and their mahouts, or trainers, from all around Assam were brought to the area to “shepherd,” or corral, the rhinos to one area. Once darted and tranquillised with immobility drugs by vets, and radio collared, the rhinos were rolled to a specially built sledge which then was pulled into the crates by a bulldozer. The rhinos lying on the sledge are edged into the crates and then large cranes will move the crates into the trucks. Over the last few months, roads from Potibora to Manas have been mended, and bridges rebuilt in preparation for this historic journey.

At their release into Manas, the rhinos were greeted like film stars by eager villagers, a sign that their park and their way of life may be on the rise.

“We will patrol the park day and night. Even if we don’t have food, we will take our water bottles,” pledges local forest guard Dhan Chandra Doley. “We are ready to look after the rhinos, whatever it takes.”

Joanna Benn is the former Communications Manager for WWF’s International Species Programme

Contact : Joanna.benn@gmail.com

END NOTES:
The greater one-horned rhino is also known as the Indian rhino. Its original range extended from Pakistan all the way through India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Myanmar. But by the beginning of the 20th century, only a few dozen rhinos remained across its range. By 2002, conservation efforts resulted in the swelling of greater one-horned rhino populations to approximately 2,400 in the Eastern Himalayas foothills of India and Nepal, and the grasslands of Assam and north Bengal, northeast India. This success aside, the greater one-horned rhino is still listed as Endangered.
With 92% of the park still under forest cover, Manas National Park represents one of the best examples of the Eastern Himalayan ecosystem.
IRV2020 is a joint project of the Government of Assam, WWF, the International Rhino Foundation and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to increase the rhino population in Assam from about 2000 to 3000 by the year 2020. These rhinos will be distributed over at least 7 protected areas to provide long-term viability of an Assam meta-population of rhinos. The conservation of rhinos in Assam and India has been a great success and through strict protection, the declining population of 10-20 rhinos in 1905 has recovered to over 1700 individuals. But now, more than 93 percent of
India's rhinos live in just one national park, Kaziranga. The IRV 2020 project will further improve the security of all rhinos in Assam by expanding the distribution of rhinos to reduce risks like disease, in-breeding depression and mass mortality. The project also aims to reduce the rhino population pressures in any single habitat by ensuring a better distribution of the rhino population over suitable ranges.

WWF Objectives for Manas
1. Conserve the biodiversity of the park through the implementation of a five-year conservation management plan.

2. Build and strengthen the capacity of the park management and local communities through training, education and infrastructure development.

3. Provide rural development opportunities for residents of the park through the integration of conservation and development.

Activities
The ideal way to explore Manas National Park in Assam is in a 4-wheel (Jeep) drive petrol vehicle. The park is closed in the Monsoon season. The best months to visit are November to April.

Tourism Contacts
Assam Bengal Navigation CompanyAssambengal@rediffmail.com (India)
Assam Bengal Company Assambengal@btconnect.com
www.assambengalnavigation.com (London)
Basbari Lodge http://www.nivalink.com/bansbari/index.html

Hot, dirty and rewarding – moving rhinos in Assam

2008-04-17

by Sujoy Banerjee, Director Species Conservation, WWF-India

It was a long wait for this day. Over the past one and a half years, Manas National Park, once and now to be a future home for rhonos, went through a major reconstruction process. Security against poachers was reinstalled by construction of protection camps and posting of extra staff and volunteers. The habitat was monitored and found suitable for the rhinos.

There was eagerness on part of the Forest Department authorities to move the rhinos, and there was equal eagerness on part of Manas National Park authorities to receive them. But I was keeping my fingers crossed. The rhino translocations had to be called off a month ago at the very last moment due to non-availability of valid drugs on time.

Not taking any chances this time, WWF sponsored a veterinarian to visit Singapore to procure valid drugs. The veterinarian came back with the drugs on Monday, 07th April, 2008 and the date of translocation was scheduled four days later. But anything could have gone wrong; bad weather, possibilities of ethnic clashes, curfew . . .

Everything seemed perfect on the D-day. The weather gods smiled upon us and the day was clear. Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary, from where the rhinos were to be moved, was agog with activity since very early in the morning with tight security positioned at entrance points and only authorized persons associated with the translocation allowed entry into the area. Cranes, earth moving machinery, an ambulance and loads of trucks were in place.

The operation started off at 5.30 in the morning and a group of veterinarians went off on elephant back to tranquilizing the rhinos. Ramesh Bhatta, Project Officer of WWF-India, who had identified the four rhinos (two males and two females) to be translocated, was also with the tranquilizing team.

Everything went off as planned initially. Of the four rhinos identified, Bhatta showed three of them to the tranquilizing team one by one, and the elephants, splayed out in a single file, gradually started cordoning the rhinos. But all three rhinos managed to break the elephant cordon.

It was 9.00 am and the tranquilizing team had not been able to tranquilize even a single rhino. The wireless was crackling with frantic conversations. The sun was now up and the temperature was gradually rising. The rhinos had sensed that the people on elephant back were not usual visitors and avaoided being closely approached. It appeared that the team may not be be able to tranquilize even a single rhino.

The tranquilizing team changed tactics. They now started stalking the rhino on foot, using the elephants as cover. In the next half hour that ensued, the first rhino, a male, was tranquilized. After fifteen minutes of tracking, the rhino grew sluggish and his hind legs started sinking. A vet then approached this animal and gave him a second shot of tranquilizer. But as soon as the dart hit him, the animal was up on his feet and running again!

The rhino lost consciousness in the next ten minutes and the tranquilizing team approached him cautiously. A person prodded him with a stick, and when he was found totally unconscious, others, waiting in the flanks swooped in.

The eyes of the rhino were covered with a cloth and buckets of water were poured over him to keep his body temperature down. While the vet team busied themselves taking measurements and samples; blood, nose smears, temperature, pulse, length, height etc., the radiocollaring team started fixing the radiocollar in place. The darts were taken out and the wound sprayed with antiseptics. The rhino was also administered antibiotics and sedatives for the long journey ahead.

The excavator began digging a cavity about a foot behind the felled rhino. Once this cavity of depth equal to the height of the stretcher sledge was excavated, labourers with shovels and diggers moved the loose earth and gave proper shape to the pit. The stretcher sledge was placed into this cavity. Everyone lent a hand in flipping over the rhino, weighing around fifteen hundred kilos, on to the stretcher sledge. The sledge was then pulled out of the cavity by the excavator and dragged about five hundred meters to the site where the crate (wooden cage) was parked.

Time was running out, since the rhino was to be revived and the stretcher sledge carrying the unconscious rhino was hurriedly taken inside the crate. The crate, which is a wooden cage, has two sliding doors on both side, which can be lifted vertically to open the cage. The cage was closed from one side and the door towards the head of the rhino was lowered halfway. A vet entered into the crate and administered a drug for reviving the rhino from his unconsciousness. In ten seconds, the rhino was stirring and stood up on his feet, albeit a trifle groggy and dazed. But no sooner had he gained foothold, he began heavily pounding the walls of the crate with the horn sitting over his nose.

The next operation involved pulling out the stretcher sledge from the crate to provide the rhino with a better foothold during transportation. Inch by inch, the stretcher sledge was pulled out of the cage ensuring that the rhino was not injured in the process. Once the sledge was out, the sliding doors of the cage was sealed using cross-iron strips which were bolted on the door. The door was also secured to the body of the crate with ropes.

The crane was moved in to lift the crate and put it into the back of the truck. In the first attempt, the crane lifted the crate a feet or two in the air only to find that it was tilting to one side The two securing steel ropes were readjusted and the crate was lifted about eight feet from the ground. Then the rhino moved. The crate tilted heavily on one side at an angle of forty five degrees and hung precariously as the entire mass of rhino came to that side side, and for a moment it appeared that the crate would come crashing down with the poor rhino inside it. But the crate, made out of strong Sal wood stood its ground. Finally, the crate was maneuvered to the ground before anything untoward could take place.

Now the excavator was summoned. As it was lifted, the excavating arm of the excavator keep the crate upright and the crate was loaded onto the truck without any further event.

It almost noon by the time decision was taken to make an attempt to tranquilize the second rhino. Having learnt a lesson from the earlier event, things went quite smoothly this time and the second rhino, again a male, was put into the crate and secured in the back of the truck.

At 2.30 pm, the vet team started their reconnaissance for the third rhino and they had been able to locate a rhino, which broke off the elephant cordon and moved into a wooded area on the fringes of the grasslands of Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary.

While it was being contemplated whether to drive the rhino out of the woodland into the open for tranquilization, Mr. B.S. Bonal, the Chief Conservator of Forests who was in charge of the translocations decided to call off further translocations as everyone was very tired and fagged out. While returning back to base, Ramesh Bhatta and Garga Mohan Das, a veterinary doctor working as a Project Officer with WWF-India spotted a rhino at close distance. Garga had a loaded tranquilizing gun, and without any hesitation, this rhino, thought to be a female, was tranquilized. To the utter dismay of everyone it turned out to be a male again! The rhino was revived and allowed to go immediately.

The team waited till sundown to start the transportation of the rhinos. At about six pm, the convoy of vehicles with the trucks carrying the rhinos in the center, started moving. As soon as the convoy reached the exit gate of the sanctuary, it was greeted by a huge number of local people, who had been waiting since morning to catch a glimpse of their rhinos. People cheered as the procession passed by.

The vet team kept monitoring the rhinos every half and hour and water was poured over them periodically. The vehicles in the convoy maintained contact with each other through walkie-talkies. The police provided an escort vehicle with flashing red lights to lead the convoy, and the traffic of cities and towns that were stopped throughout the journey by the police to make way for the "VIP" convoy to pass by. The escort vehicle in front, called the “pilot” kept changing from time to time as soon as the border of a district was reached; the pilot leading the convoy would pull by and another pilot, already waiting by the side of the road, would take his place upfront without stopping the convoy, as if it were a part of some kind of relay race.

The distance of 240 kms from Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary to Manas National Park was covered in twelve hours due to slow movement of vehicles in the interest of comfort and safety of the rhinos. It was daylight by the time we were reaching Manas, and only one obstacle needed to be negotiated……. a flowing river!

There was only about two feet of water in the river and the leading vehicles cleared the river with ease. People watched with bated breath as the first truck carrying the rhino crate entered the water. If the truck got stuck in the river, it would be a gargantuan task to pull it out. But luck was on our side as the truck crawled out the water uneventfully, the second truck following closely behind the first.

The convoy entered the Manas National Park and continued some ten kilometers inside to reach the area where the rhinos were to be released. We were greeted by a large group of people who had been waiting for hours to catch a glimpse of the rhinos. Two ramps had been created by excavating the earth, and both the trucks backed down into these depression. The iron board securing the back of the truck was opened, which formed a platform for the rhinos to walk over from the truck to terra firma. The space between the crate and end of the iron board was covered with mud and grasses and rhino dung was scattered over it to provide a natural base for the rhino to come out.

Some team members climbed on the top of the crate, while the onlookers clambered on to another truck carrying water tanks parked in the vicinity. Some people placed themselves on the two Machaan (elevated wooden platform), strategically built especially for this event to provide the best glimpse of the rhino release. Dozens of cameras were lined up to record the history that was going to be created. And the door of the cage was lifted up. All eyes were focused on the rear of the truck from where the rhino was to emerge. The fingers on the cameras were ready and taut to click the best shots possible. But the rhino did not emerge.

In the next half and hour that followed, attempts were repeatedly made to get the rhino up on his feet, but the rhino had planted itself firmly to the floor of his crate and would not budge. Water was poured over him repeatedly and he was prodded with a stick, but he held his ground. As the minutes passed by, people were getting more apprehensive about some injury that may have incapacitated the rhino.

It was then decided to release the second rhino. Some others got on to the top of the crate while I decided to help unscrew the bolts for opening the door. A plank, which was fixed at the bottom of the door needed to be taken out. So I requested the people operating the door to lift it six inches to lift the door. As the door was lifted a few inches, I was crouched on the ground attempting to pull out the plank. Then there was a bang and the rhino managed to lift the door with his horn, and I was staring at the face of a snorting rhino two feet away! I jumped and moved aside. But the rhino could not balance the door on his nose for long and it came down crashing the very next moment. It was decided not to make any further attempts to remove the plank.

While all this was happening, another drama began to unfold. The people on top of the first crate shouted that the rhino, which had not budged an inch for the past forty five minutes decided to move. Someone shouted to me to run for cover (I was the only person on the ground) and I scampered into the cabin of the truck carrying the second rhino. The rhino emerged from the back of the truck and turned right, straight towards the truck with a loadful of people parked some twenty meters away! It banged on the truck with its horn five or six times much to the chagrin of a group of onlookers on board the truck. Then it turned around and ran into the grassland and disappeared as the crowd broke into a loud applause.

Before the second crate was opened, I had managed to plant myself on one of the Machaan overlooking the back of the second truck to get some pictures of the rhino release. No sooner was the door of the crate of the second rhino was opened, the head of the rhino poked out of the rear of the truck, and it surveyed the scene around it. Then it came out full charge, turned a full circle, and banged the side of the truck that had been carrying it for the past fourteen hours. Then it galloped and vanished into the thickets, again evoking loud applause from the crowd.

Happy and content, but very weary, the team returned back. Most of us had a very scanty sleep over the past few two nights, while some had not slept properly for three. Everyone was covered with a mix of sweat and dirt from head to toe.

As we drove back, the significance of this exercise dawned over me. It was not merely a process of shifting some rhinos into a place where rhinos once existed, we were bringing back the lost glory of this World Heritage site, which the local people were once proud of. Above all, it would secure a long-term future for the rhinos in this part of India, as this would help building up of another population of rhinos in another part of the state of Assam. If the Indian Rhino Vision 2020 Programme goes on successfully, then rhino populations would also be built up gradually in other places of Assam as well by translocating rhinos to such areas. There would be opportunities for tourism, a reduction of human-rhino conflicts in areas rhinos are taken from, and an intermixing of genetic material through rhinos being brought into Manas from different places.

While I write this articles, the sequence of events unfold before my eyes, as if I am watching a replay. And what impresses me most in the whole event is the role of the people of Assam. What started off as an initiative of the Government of Assam in partnership with Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF), International Rhino Foundation (IRF) and US Fish and Wildlife Services actually turned out to be really a movement of the people of Assam. Apart from local NGOs, individuals, doctors, veterinarians, academicians and a host of other people had participated in the event whole heartedly, and the contribution of these people to the success of the first translocation is immense. It was really a role model to learn in terms of team work.

I guess the effort of translocation was successful in more ways than one!!

Chance sighting gets Fiji its first satellite tagged turtle

2008-03-20

Fiji researchers have been attempting for more than two years to satellite tag a turtle, a key factor in learning more about migration patterns around the vast waters and multiple island groups of the Pacific. After unsuccessful attempts over the last 2 years, this was the final one during this nesting season to locate and satellite tag a hawksbill nester, a first for Fiji. One of the major challenges has been the lack of funds to reach isolated islands which are now thought to support what remains of a once thriving Fiji turtle nesting population. Additionally, unlike that of the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea and Indonesia, there is no one large known nesting beach in Fiji.

While nesting sites have been recorded on various islands throughout the Fijian Archipelago, nesting incidences in recent years have been minimal. Records of turtles nesting on Makogai Island for a period of 20 years show that in 1987 there were 21 nests while only 5 nests were recorded in 2007 (Department of Fisheries, Fiji, 2007).

Then in January, a National Trust and WWF team struck it lucky. On their way to await turtles and carry out research work, they spotted a nesting hawksbill turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata) on a secluded beach locally known as Talice, North east of Yadua Taba Island.

The turtle was spotted by the National Trust Officer, Jone Niukula, and other members of the team. The sight of the turtle crawl tracks on the beach triggered a wave of excitement among the researchers. Pita Biciloa, Yadua Taba park ranger maneuvered his boat in an attempt to channel through a small passage to get to Talice. “This was a difficult task, especially because of storm waves that were battering the beach”, he said.

The team managed to secure the boat ashore, their excitement and enthusiasm fuelled even more, as they approached the turtle crawl tracks on the beach and heard loud “swooshes” – the sound of sand being scattered as the hawksbill turtle began to dig its nest.

The collaborative effort between the National Trust of Fiji (NTF), the community of Yadua, The Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), the National Ocean & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and WWF has been the climax of ongoing efforts over the past years to protect an endangered cultural icon.

“It is highly possible that the 88.8cm hawksbill turtle is a hatchling of Yadua returning after more than 25 years to the beach of her birth to transfer her genetic code into the future”, said Sanivalati Navuku.

The hawksbill was named ‘Marama ni Yadua’ (Lady of Yadua) by the villagers. They expressed great emotion at seeing the turtle lay its eggs and, with the attachment of the satellite tag, commented that it would be an unforgettable experience for them and Yadua community.

The satellite tag was attached to the turtle’s shell using a laminating resin that should ensure the tag remains for at least 6 months.

A small church service was conducted before the turtle was released into the sea with the hope to see it return to Yadua in the years to come.

The excitement generated out of locating the nesting turtle on Yadua Taba stems from the fact that this is Fiji’s first ever satellite tagged turtle.

“It has become increasingly difficult to find nesting turtles in Fiji”, said Jone Niukula. “Reasons for this difficulty include low numbers of turtles returning to nest perhaps due to the low numbers of hatchlings that mature to an age where they’re capable of reproducing. This could be due to many reasons including domestic consumption of turtles and eggs, loss of feeding and nesting grounds or being accidentally caught in fisheries gear. So when the team saw Marama ni Yadua, we quickly reacted to ensure that we could satellite tag a turtle out of Fiji.”

Turtles are known to nest from November through to March. Thus, over the holiday period, several other teams were conducting nesting beach work around Fiji including the Mamanuca group, Koro Island and Yadua Taba.

“These surveys are a part of Fiji’s Sea Turtle Recovery Plan – a document developed by various stakeholders to address key threats contributing to the decline of turtle populations in Fiji”, said Sanivalati Navuku.

Around the region, satellite telemetry work has enabled several Pacific Island countries and territories (PICTs) like Samoa, Cook Islands, the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea and New Caledonia to track the migration of turtles that had nested on their beaches.

Several of these telemetry results illustrate a westward trend to migration, with turtles tagged in 3 of the countries / territories listed above migrating to Fiji. Fiji’s healthy sea grass meadows and coral reefs are ‘hotspots’ for turtles to feed.

One famous illustration of this type of work was the migration of Lady Vini – a female hawksbill turtle tagged in Samoa in March 2006 and then moved through the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ’s) of 6 Pacific Island Countries & Territories (PICTs) before entering Fiji’s in October 06 where the signal then died.

*Jone Niukula is working for the National Trust of Fiji
*Sainivalati Navuku is WWF Fiji Country Programme officer

Editor’s Note:
For several years now, turtle migrations have been tracked through various tagging methods including titanium flipper, passive internal transponder (PIT) or satellite tags. Titanium flipper tags are the more commonly employed method as it is relatively inexpensive. However, data retrieval is entirely dependant upon the serial numbers being reported to the relevant authorities by those who come across turtles carrying these flipper tags. Based on these reports, authorities are then able to plot the turtle’s path of migration.

While being more expensive, using satellite telemetry to track the migration of turtles during the 2006 Year of the Sea Turtle, SPREP facilitated the satellite tagging of turtles in Samoa, American Samoa, French Polynesia and were working with Fiji to do the same. Perhaps the most famous of those satellite tagged turtles was Lady Vini – a hawksbill nester tagged out of Samoa in March (06) and arrived in Fiji in October (06) after having swum through the EEZs of 6 other Pacific Island countries including Samoa, American Samoa, Cook Islands, Kiribati, Tuvalu, Wallis & Futuna. Unfortunately, the signal was lost shortly after her arrival in Fiji.

The turtle conservation work in Fiji significantly contributes to meeting key goals of the turtle bycatch component in the Coral Triangle Network Initiative.

The Coral Triangle is the world’s epicenter of marine life abundance and diversity. The richness of coral, fish and other species is so high that the region is sometimes referred to as the “Amazon of the Seas”. This triangular shaped region covers all or part of the seas of six countries: Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Solomon Islands and Timor-Leste. Fiji is part of WWF‘s Coral Triangle Initiative, which also includes the neighboring country of Australia. Fiji is home to a rich coral biodiversity as well, but with lower numbers known to science.

Will a young tigress make it into the wild?

2008-03-13

By Yulia Fomenko*

The starving little tiger cub took advantage of owners’ absence to kill a dog and eat him before seeking shelter in his box. That’s where members of the Tiger Inspectorate found the cub, not far from Vyazemskoye settlement of Khabarovsky Province, last January. They named her Angara.

A second tiger cub, probably from the same litter, was not so lucky. A truck driver found him in critical condition on the road side, 14 km off Vyazemskoye village, but the little animal was exhausted and died in spite of all the efforts taken by the veterinarians.

Meanwhile, Angara was staying safe and warm at the temporary base for rescued wild animals in Razdolnaya, under the supervision of Tiger Inspectorate specialists and veterinarians.

Questions were raised about the future of Angara. Should she be raised at the Utes rehabilitation centre in Khabarovskii Province and then be released into the wild? A similar experiment with two young tigresses was done in 2001. But they were killed by poachers.

“Over the last 2 years, 11 tiger cubs were taken from the wild and none of them had been brought back to the taiga, said Yury Darman, head of WWF-Russia Armur branch. The 5 cubs who survived were moved to the zoos.”

“Now we hope that with the age of the cub and her experience, she could survive in taiga - with our help of course. We want to catch this opportunity to bring at least one cub back into the wild.”

The Tiger Inspectorate, the Department for nature resources control of the Far Eastern Federal Okrug, the commission on rare species of the Russian Academy of Science and public organizations such as Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) and Utes rehabilitation centre supported the project.

“We hope that in August-September, after rehabilitation course in Utes centre, Angara could be released into the wild with a radio collar”, said Yury Darman.

“We’ve done everything to prepare the cub for further rehabilitation, but we are seriously concerned about her future”, said Vitaly Starostin, deputy head of the Tiger Inspectorate.

As only the militia has the power to control natural resources use there is no proper registration of poaching cases.

But the number of injured and killed tigers is a strong indicator of the growth of tiger poaching: five cases of injured and killed tigers have been registered since the beginning of this year. It is believed the toll might be five times higher.

“Our last hope to change the situation in nature protection, and therefore the situation of the cub, is the creation of the Russian Committee on Ecology, with full rights and liabilities”, said Vitaly Starostin.

Edward Kruglov, director of Utes rehabilitation centre, and Vasilii Solkin, director of Zov Taigi nature conservation centre came to take Angara at the end of February.

“The whole team was seriously concerned about the cub reaction after a 16 hours trip, said Vasilii Solkin. When we arrived, we placed the tigress in a closed cage. And we were relieved the morning after to see she had eaten the meat we gave her.”

Angara is now living in a large enclosure, located far from human eyes, to minimize contacts with humans is one of the main conditions of rehabilitation.

“She has to learn at least two important things once she is released into the wild, said Vasilii Solkin. First: to stay away from humans and try to be out of sight at a remote distance. Second: to learn hunting by herself.”

Normally, the mother trains the cubs to do this during their first year. Now, Edward Kruglov will replace the mother.

“We need to get a license for the cub maintenance, which means collecting several documents and sending them to Moscow, said Edward Kruglov. Then, we need to train Angara’s hunting skills, and to save her natural instinct to recognize the taste and smell of the game.”

“We already implemented this methodology and can manage it. We are also concerned about her release: the place is to be determined in advance and should be a protected area.”

Environmentalists from Zov taigi centre will observe the development and future condition of the cub.

Follow up the news on http://www.wwf.ru/eng

Yulia Fomenko is Head of Communications at WWF-Russia, Armur Branch

Elephant flying squad celebrates new members

2008-03-06

Tesso Nilo National Park, Sumatra – Communities on the fringes of Sumatra’s Tesso Nilo National park mixed tradition and conservation on March 1, with a party to name and welcome the newest members of the WWF’s Elephant Flying Squad.
In Riau Province, the flying squad are four adult elephants and eight mahouts patrolling an area along the National Park boundaries, keeping wild elephants away from local communities and teaching villagers non-lethal ways to protect their crops.

About 80 guests helped Nella celebrate her 1st birthday while Wan Abu Bakar, Vice Governor of Riau Province, officially conferred the name Tesso on the younger calf, born three months ago. It is a tradition in Indonesia to have a naming ceremony soon after the birth of a baby.

When Vice Governor Wan Abu Bakar arrived at the Flying Squad Camp, he was greeted by a welcoming committee of the four adult Flying Squad elephants. Ria, Tesso’s mother, came forward bearing a string of flowers that she placed around the Vice Governor’s neck.

In addition to honoring the tradition, the naming ceremony and birthday celebration had a serious conservation purpose.

The head of Tesso Nilo National Park noted in a speech the success of the Flying Squad in minimizing human-elephant conflict around the park.

The park head called for greater collaboration for effective human-elephant conflict mitigation in the park and for efforts to safeguard the national park.

WWF is working to see the park expanded from 38,000 to 100,000 hectares to ensure enough habitat for a viable elephant population in Riau Province.

The Vice Governor, who also sits on the trustee board of the Provincial Team of Human-Wildlife Conflict Handling, promised to protect the forest in Riau Province that serves as elephant habitat.

As shrinking habitat in Riau leads to greater human-elephant conflict, he hopes that the newly established Provincial Team will be a success in mitigating human-elephant conflict, just as the Flying Squad has done in Tesso Nilo.

And how do elephants celebrate? With brownies! Following tradition, Vice Governor fed the treats (baked especially for the elephants out of corn, palm sugar, minerals and oats) to Tesso’s mother to mark the naming of her son and to Lisa, Nella’s mother, on the occasion of her calf’s birthday.

Tesso and Nella seemed mostly oblivious to the celebration going on around them, sticking close to their mothers’ sides. Tesso was born on 16 November 2007 and Nella was born on 23 February 2007.

Both calves were fathered by wild elephants and the pregnancies were welcome surprises to the Flying Squad mahout team. Nella has already begun following along with the Flying Squad on patrol occasionally for fun, but still finds time to play with Tesso.

The Vice Governor and guests were enthusiastic to hear stories about the life of the Flying Squad elephants, all of whom were moved from government-run camps where conflict elephants are kept to work with WWF in 2004. It was indeed a day of the elephant.

Information on the WWF Elephant Flying Squad:
In 2004, WWF introduced the first Elephant Flying Squad to Riau Province in central Sumatra, to a village near the newly established Tesso Nilo National Park. It was a way to bring short-term relief to the intense conflict between people and elephants there and to create support for elephant conservation among hard-hit communities.
Because the region around Tesso Nilo is being cleared so rapidly and the forest converted into agricultural plantations, elephants with no place to go are forced to wander in search of food, making farms and commercial plantations an irresistible temptation for elephant-sized appetites.
An Elephant Flying Squad consists of eight mahouts (rangers) with noise and light-making devices, a pick-up truck and four trained elephants that drive wild elephants back into the forest whenever they threaten to enter villages. It has proven to be very effective to reduce losses suffered by local communities near Tesso Nilo. Since it began operating in April 2004, the Tesso Nilo Flying Squad has reduced the economic losses of a local community from elephant raids.
The concept for the flying squad has a long tradition in India and other places, but had not been used in Indonesia before. WWF recruited mahouts and elephants from elephant camps that the Indonesian government maintains. These eight men and four elephants went through intensive training to create bonds and make them effective as a team to drive back wild elephants.
The project has been so successful that companies working in the area are starting their own Elephant Flying Squads to protect crops from wild elephant raids.

Further information:
Syamsidar Syamsidar, Communications Manager, WWF-Indonesia Riau office, syamsidar@wwf.or.id

WWF Climate Savers Tokyo Summit, February 2008 - “Not a business-as-usual conference”

2008-02-16

It was Sony CEO, Sir Howard Stringer, who best set the tone at the WWF Climate Savers Tokyo Summit in February, saying it was not “a business-as-usual conference”.

It wasn’t business as usual – it was business as innovator; business as visionary; business as Climate Saver.

Innovation and ambition

Sir Howard, the former journalist who has become one of the world’s leading business figures, was hosting the annual meeting of companies trying to carve themselves a leading role in facing the challenges of climate change. By way of example, Sony’s new HQ where the meeting was held, achieves a 40% reduction in CO2 emissions.

The emphasis of the Summit, also sponsored by Sagawa Express, Tetrapak and offset trading company Climate Friendly, was on innovation and ambition.

Sony, said Sir Howard, had targeted an ambitious 7% reduction in absolute CO2 emissions from 2000 levels from sites by 2010 – and had already achieved 9%. The company’s ambition continues: Sony is expecting the operating power of consumer electronics to be halved over the next few years.

Oliver Rapf, WWF International’s Head of Business and Industry Engagement on Climate Change, emphasised the value of partnerships and their potential as areas of innovation. Climate Savers member Novo Nordisk – the world leader in diabetes care – provides an impressive example.

“We wanted to be ambitious,” says Anne Gadegaard Larsen of Novo Nordisk. “We wanted to go beyond energy efficiency and we realised that we needed to decouple economic growth from growth in CO2 emissions.”

Novo Nordisk has negotiated an innovative partnership with DONG Energy, the Danish energy supplier. Experts from DONG help Novo Nordisk find and implement energy savings at the company’s sites. Novo Nordisk earmark the savings to purchase new renewable energy from DONG. This enables DONG to expand its investment in renewable energy production, and by 2014, the electricity used by Novo Nordisk in Denmark will be 100% delivered by wind energy.

The business benefits to Climate Savers companies are very real. “Our environmental policy and commitment is helping us win competitive Government tenders”, says Anne Larsen.

“There have to be real benefits to the companies,” emphasises Oliver Rapf – “and that extends to customers and stakeholders too.”

This is indeed the case at Sagawa Express. Senior Managing Director, Toshiaki Tsujio described how the company had successfully introduced CNG vehicles; “in the past, CNG was 20-30% more expensive, but with the price of conventional fuels going crazy, CNG is actually now cheaper – it’s becoming more and more economical.

“And the customers like it too, it’s a service to them: they much prefer the CNG trucks, which are less noisy and less smelly!”

Innovation can be impressively simple. “We’re introducing a reminder, on all new mobile phones, which tells you, on-screen, to unplug your charger when the battery is full,” says Outi Mikkonen, Nokia’s Director, Environmental Affairs. It’s a simple reminder which can stop a completely unnecessary wastage of energy.

Facing the crisis

At the previous day’s closed session, images of melting icecaps, polar bears under siege, and disappearing coral reefs had left no doubt about the urgency of actions.

“The time to act is now,” according to Hans Verolme, Director Climate Change, WWF International. “We don’t have time to waste. The actions you take over the next 5 years are likely to be decisive.

“Inspiration is the key. As WWF Climate Savers we inspire each other: and the companies inspire their suppliers and customers. Climate Savers was the right initiative to start in 1999 and now we have we have jumped a hurdle.

“Ten years ago there was virtually no company willing to stand here and say ‘we’re cutting CO2 emissions – it’s good for our business’. And look at this packed hall at Sony HQ today – we are really making progress.”

The Tokyo Declaration – global leadership

Emissions need to peak and then decrease over the next 10-15 years,” said Oliver Rapf. “Through the Tokyo Declaration the Climate Savers recognise this and are committed to acting now.

“What you see here is true leadership,” stated Jim Leape, WWF’s Director General. He emphasised that companies have to show Governments the way, and the fact that three new members had joined Climate Savers in the last month alone – Nokia, Spitsbergen Travel and Hewlett Packard – is strong evidence of the timeliness and potential influence of the Climate Savers initiative.

“The future belongs to those who act now,” says Jim Leape: Companies who get ahead, who find innovative ways to cut CO2 emissions, will benefit.

“The achievements of the Climate Savers send a clear message to companies, supply chains, customers and Governments – it is possible”.

The first day of the Conference, a closed Climate Savers only session, was dedicated to providing the latest updates on the issue of climate change – and the steps Climate Savers are taking to tackle it.

Hans Verolme (WWF International’s Director, Climate Change) and Keya Chatterjee (Deputy Director, Climate Change, WWF-US) emphasised the need for urgent action in the context of the reality of the threats posed by climate change – and drew attention to the strengthening of global policy, which makes the work of Climate Savers particularly timely.
Erik Teetzel, Google’s Renewable Energy Manager, described his organisation’s major initiative to cut emission in a booming business area – IT - within the Climate Savers Computing Initiative (endorsed by WWF) – critical here is the increased energy efficiency of IT equipment.
Three new Climate Saver companies described their commitments. Nokia, Spitsbergen Travel and Hewlett Packard all outlined a range of ideas to reduce emissions, for example:· Kirsi Surmonnen described how Nokia would substantially increase the energy efficiency of chargers by reducing the average no-load consumption by 50% within three years and reminding consumers to unplug chargers when not in use.· Jan Sivert of Spitsbergen Travel said that his company would reduce its own emissions and indirect purchased power related (Scope 2) emissions to 7% below 2005 levels – in the face of an anticipated business growth of 4-5% annually.· Pierre Delforge of Hewlett Packard described how his organisation aimed to reduce life cycle emissions from HP operations by 6 million tonnes below 2005 levels by 2010
By videolink, Paul Dickinson, CEO of the Carbon Disclosure Project, described the big push that is starting for transparency on supply chain emissions, and Neil Hamilton, the Leader of WWF’s Arctic Network Initiative, described the dramatic nature of the changes in the Arctic.
The day was completed by three participant seminars. One group discussed smart greenhouse reduction targets, and concluded that a smart target should be carefully and specifically tailored to the enterprise in question. A second group explored green electricity and carbon neutrality, and concluded that it may become cheaper to go for green electricity rather than carbon offsets.The final group talked about employee engagement, shared ideas about the value of volunteering and scenarios/roleplays in getting employees involved in corporate responsibility across the enterprise – and agreed that the best and most effective approaches are bottom-up and not top-down: they are actually owned and led by the people at the heart of the business – the staff.

Cambodian conservation work – not just a man’s world

2008-01-30

By Porny You

Women are working as hard and sweating as much as the men in WWF conservation programs in remote areas of Cambodia.

In WWF Cambodia’s Srepok Wilderness Area Project (SWAP), in the country’s eastern plains, Khmer, foreign and local indigenous Phnong women play a vital role in preserving the Mondulkiri Protected Forest (MPF).

Hy Somaly, a Phnong indigenous woman, joined SWAP’s Community Extension Team to inform and educate the indigenous community on the importance of wildlife conservation.

“I have to go to different communities to inform and educate them on how to improve their livelihoods with sustainable natural resources use”, she explains.

It is testament to Somaly’s skills and talents that she can work across three cultures – her own, Khmer and that of her foreign colleagues.

Her Khmer colleague, Att Sreynak, a data assistant with the Srepok project, notes that though Khmer and Phnong people have different traditions, they can work together very effectively to reach the projects goals.

“Luckily Somaly can speak Khmer, so there is no language barrier between her and other colleagues”, she says.

Sreynak is no stranger to hard work on the project. While collecting data, she often has to walk long distances into the forest. She acknowledges it is quite demanding, but would never let the mainly male ranger team that accompanies her know.

“Even though the conditions can be quite bad, especially in the rainy season – we would never give up – because we are responsible for getting the job done”, she says.

As SWAP has planned to develop its site for ecotourism, Olga van den Pol has been a recent new female addition to team, joining as ecotourism team leader.

Originally from Holland and fluent in many languages, she is still struggling with the Khmer language.

“Though I cannot speak Khmer language, I can ask for help from any Khmer colleagues who can interpret for me. The system works and we recently had a reward from our conservation efforts with the “capture” by a camera trap, of one tiger we knew was in the forest, but which we had not seen for two years. It was good to know it was still thriving in the forest area we are protecting and developing”, she explains.

She hoped, as a result of WWF Cambodia’s work in this area, that wildlife populations would increase and alternative livelihoods could be developed to reduce the local communities’ dependence on natural resource use.

The MPF is a quiet place with fresh air and bird sounds, where some people wish to visit or stay at for a while for pleasure. However, as it has not yet been developed as an ecotourism site, it also can be considered as a dangerous place, in particular for women who live there for work.

All rangers and police have to leave their posts to go patrolling – leaving only women, who are chef and cleaners at the posts. According to Keo Sopheak, senior SWAP officer, women do not dare to walk at night around in the open, because they are afraid of dangerous wildlife.

“I can not blame them as in the past we have seen tiger tracks around the camp sites. It is not only wildlife that is dangerous, humans can be worse with hunters and poachers who might take the opportunity to visit the post sites while the rangers and police are not there”, he said.

“Though they feel scared, these women never ever give up their work. They all play a vital role in supporting WWF Cambodia’s conservation work, even a chef and cleaners, they support by keeping our staff strong and healthy. Working in the hard conditions of the forest might seem like a job more suited to a man, but in the SWAP, the women play just as important a role at every level of our conservation work”, Sopheak says.

Further information:
Porny You, communication officer, WWF Cambodia
Porny.you@wwfgreatermekong.org

One Planet Wales

2007-10-11

By Ruth Bates and Alakie Asige*

A comfortable wage and a high quality of life are generally what people strive for, but our growing desire to consume more is taking its toll on the environment.

Take for example the food we buy and where we choose to go on holiday. Today, over 75% of all food eaten in Wales comes from supermarkets. Scan the vegetable and fruit shelves and it’s easy to forget that we have our own seasonal Welsh food. For instance, strawberries are now available nearly all year round, but this has an environmental impact: flying a tonne of strawberries to Wales from the Middle East in winter creates 300 times more CO₂ than transporting home-grown strawberries in summer.

But such damage to the environment is a price many of us are willing to pay, especially when the airlines and supermarkets keep tempting us with their bargain offers.

The problem, as WWF has discovered by measuring humanity’s ecological footprint — our impact on the planet — is that if everyone consumed natural resources and produced CO₂ at the rate we do in Wales, we’d need three planet Earths to support us.

Reducing the ecological footprint
The One Planet Wales campaign aims to help people living in Wales to significantly reduce their ecological footprint, while enabling others, currently using far less than their fair share, to develop and enjoy a good quality of life in ways that avoid environmental damage.

To help Wales achieve this goal, WWF commissioned a report entitled One Planet Wales: Transforming Wales for a prosperous future within our fair share of the Earth’s resources. The report, written by the University of Manchester’s Centre for Urban Regional Ecology, outlines solutions, as well as challenges to the Welsh Assembly and the private and public sector on how to transform Wales’ economy through greatly increasing the efficiency of energy and resource use.

In today’s society, we are buying and consuming more than the planet can afford. Food and drink account for a quarter of Wales’ total ecological footprint, while travel and tourism contribute a further 17%, mostly due to car traffic and air travel — a sector that is on the increase. The biggest element of our footprint is the CO₂emissions from our use of energy.

Using ecological footprinting as a measure, the report concludes that Wales can reduce its impact by 75% by 2050, and that CO₂ emissions must be reduced by at least 75%. However, if by 2050 current trends continue and existing policies are followed, Wales’ footprint will rise by 30%, owing to increases in air travel and the food and drink sectors.

The report also shows that if the campaign is to be successful, strong leadership from government is needed. The private and public sector also have an important role to play.

Meeting the targets
From national to local levels, the housing, transport and supply chains need to work together for One Planet Wales to be a success. This means reducing the footprint of eight key sectors — food, buildings, transport, products, services, energy, resources and our lifestyles.

Is it possible to meet the targets proposed in the One Planet Wales challenge? The answer is most definitely "yes", but it does mean a shift from our current "three planet" lifestyle to a "one planet" future.

When it comes to food, why not opt for fresh locally-sourced produce instead of pre-packaged foods? Buying locally-produced food cuts down on food miles — the resources used to get food from producer to plate. In the long run, changes in this sector could lead to a 30% reduction in the food footprint.

Reducing your footprint through a change in food and shopping habits also links with transport and travel. Personal transport contributes 18% of the total CO₂ emissions in the UK, and is a growing contributor to climate change. The resulting problems include not only noise pollution and traffic congestion, but also the constant pressure to build more roads and expand airports.

One Planet Transport envisages a future where the transport sector could reduce its total ecological footprint by up to 20%, through improved local traffic management, use of public transport, cycling and walking. These options would be both cheaper and better for the environment.

The campaign also seeks to bring about change in the energy sector, which currently contributes 21% of our footprint. The One Planet Energy vision sees a future where Wales’ energy demand is reduced and local renewable energy sources are accelerated. Building and occupying our homes accounts for 27% of all CO₂ emissions and the way in which houses are insulated can have a dramatic effect on our footprint.

By reducing, reusing and recycling, we aim to promote sustainable living, and to protect scarce resources and the fragile environment.

Making the change
Some of the One Planet Wales changes will be easy, others more difficult. Some require just waking up in the morning and deciding to do it, others will involve adding your voice to tens of thousands of others to demand governments introduce policies, and to encourage businesses to ensure that their products and practices allow us to lead better quality lives.

Recognizing the scale of resource efficiency improvements required by the business sector, and rewarding businesses that identify opportunities that reduce their footprint and that of the market sector are crucial steps in moving towards a One Planet Wales.

Morgan Parry, Head of WWF Wales sums it up best: “Our very future depends on our ability to live within the limits of the Earth’s natural resources, yet since the 1980s human demand has been exceeding the Earth’s ability to replenish and absorb. To meet the unprecedented global challenges we have before us, we need a shared vision and a shared plan. A vision whereby everyone in Wales, by 2050, can enjoy a high quality life, using our fair share of the Earth’s resources.”

The pressure is now on us to make changes in the way we consume, the energy we use and the impact we have on the environment. By living sustainably we can find lasting solutions to our problems both today and tomorrow. We all have a role to play.

* By Ruth Bates, WWF Wales Communications Officer, and Alakie Asige, WWF Wales Intern

END NOTES:

• The Ecological Footprint measures the resources we use to support our economy and our lifestyles. It is the best available measure for telling us whether or not we are living within the limits of the planet. The Ecological Footprint in Wales is largely made up of transport 17%, housing 21% and food 25%.

• One Planet Wales forms part of WWF-UK's One Planet Campaign which is about inspiring individuals, businesses and government to help achieve a future where people everywhere can lead happy, healthy lives within their fair share of the Earth's resources.