NatureNews

NatureNews for the week ending July 04, 2008. To subscribe to NatureNews, please write to Library.

Environment - General

Reinventing Coastal Management Zones
The Central government has recently gazette notified the proposed “Coastal Management Zone (CMZ)” Notification 2008 for public objections and suggestions by June 2008. The Notification aims to replace the existing CRZ Notification of 1991 and enhance environmentally sustainable development of the coastal belt under revised guidelines. Coastal zones have always been environmentally sensitive with different coastal states having competing demands. States viewed the existing rules as non-development-oriented and even arbitrary in some respects. Based on the coastal states’ demands for relaxation, judicial pronouncements and in consonance with scientific approach practices the world over on the baseline (HTL in existing rules to be replaced by Set Back Line (SBL) in proposed rules) and based on the recommendations of an expert committee report of February 2005, the rules aim at more explicit activities along the coastal belt, including coastal waters up to the Territorial Waters limit of 12 Nautical Miles. For more: http://www.hindu.com/op/2008/06/29/stories/2008062950011400.htm

Orissa’s wildlife, forests face mining threat
Orissa with its prosperous biodiversity and diverse ecosystem makes a unique place, where biodiversity has always been an integral part of the socio-cultural aspect of the local people. But alarmingly in recent days, its amazing wildlife and unique ecosystem is battling the warm embrace of rapid climate change, the toxic taste of accumulating chemical pollution, and mixed blessing of escalating development of its natural resources. Never before have wild animals and habitat faced the kind of threat they face today and just as dangerous is the threat to the survival of species from habitat destruction. Ecological destruction due to lopsided development projects and organised poaching has threatened the very existence of the species. The current paradigm of development has resulted not only in the depletion of natural resources of the state, but also threatens to wipe out irreplaceable ecosystems. As Naveen Patnaik’s industrial economic renaissance has brought in rapid mining activities in Orissa, on the other hand, it has damaged the forest and wildlife conservation. Basically, Naveen’s mining economy ‘minomics’ is harming elephant and crocodile breeding, resulting in isolation of their population, inbreeding and rising man-animal conflict. While inbreeding can cause genetically inferior species; loss of corridor has resulted in deaths of several wild animals, as per wildlife experts. For more: http://india.merinews.com/catFull.jsp?articleID=136864

Climate Change & Energy

'US has done least to address global warming'
The US has done the least among the world's eight biggest economies to address global warming, a study released. The G8 Climate Scorecards 2008, released ahead of a gathering of the Group of Eight on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, also found that none of the eight countries are making improvements large enough to prevent temperature increases that scientists think would cause catastrophic climate changes. The gathering includes the heads of states of the US, Japan, Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Canada and Russia. The study shows time is running out, Regine Guenther, director of the World Wildlife Fund Climate Change Program in Germany, said in a statement. "We have 10 to 15 years left in which the global emissions have to peak and decline," she said. For more: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Earth/US_has_done_least_to
_address_warming/articleshow/3192630.cms

Forest & Biodiversity

U.N. calls on Asian nations to end deforestation
The United Nations has called on more Asian leaders to agree to a plan to end deforestation by 2020 to slow down the destruction of plants and animals, a top official said. About 80 percent of the world's known biodiversity could be found in forests, where about 1.6 billion people also depend for their survival, Ahmed Djoghlaf, executive director of U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), told a news conference in Manila. "The project to stop deforestation by 2020 is feasible, it's doable," Djoghlaf said. In a meeting in Germany in May, 65 countries committed to support a call by the WWF for a zero net deforestation by 2020, but only two -- Cambodia and Vietnam -- were from Southeast Asia. Djoghlaf said the world was losing around 13 million hectares of its forest cover every year, about the size of 36 football fields a minute. About 95 countries have totally lost their forests, he said. In Southeast Asia, forest fires destroyed about 10 million hectares between 1997 and 2006. More trees were being felled due to shifting agricultural practices, illegal lumber trade and large-scale mining, he said. For more: http://www.enn.com/ecosystems/article/37455

Anger at Kenya biofuel approval
Kenyan environmentalists said that the government should revoke a decision to allow a controversial biofuels project to go ahead. The project involves growing sugarcane for biofuels in coastal wetlands. The project's backers argue the development in the Tana River Delta will produce ethanol and generate power, providing thousands of jobs. But Nature Kenya says the project threatens the habitat of hundreds of species in the 20,000-hectare site. For more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7484964.stm

Pollution & Toxics

UN meet to discuss new guidelines to get rid of 'e-waste'
Concerned over the harmful "e-waste" caused by the disposed mobile phones and computer equipment, United Nations has convened a meeting to discuss new guidelines to get rid of such e-waste in a way that protects both the environment and human health. The safe disposal of old mobile phones, computer equipment and ships are among the topics being discussed at the meeting on waste management that kicked off in Indonesia's Bali. For more: http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/008200806241001.htm

North Korea in bid to recycle toxic waste
The Stalinist regime, which is reputedly a significant poppy grower for the world heroin trade, is now tendering for bids to process toxic waste at a refurbished port close to the capital Pyongyang as part of its desperate efforts to earn foreign currency. Through a Chinese-language website the country is seeking supplies of plastic and electronic waste which "can be processed in the port but which other countries and territories are restricted from dealing in", reflecting the country's dire economic plight and its scant regard for international norms. North Korea appears to have been inspired by neighbouring China, which is itself a major importer of toxic waste and is one of North Korea's few close friends. For more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/06/30/eanorthkorea130.xml

Wildlife & Endangered Species

History made at Sariska
After a gap of four long years the tiger made a comeback to the Sariska Tiger Reserve in Alwar district of Rajasthan. The event made conservation history, as this is the first time the wild tiger is being re-introduced into a reserve anywhere in the country. Sariska, a sanctuary brought under Project Tiger in 1978, had lost all its tigers in 2004-05 to suspected poaching. “It is a historic moment. The country has done it while others have failed,” announced R. N. Mehrotra, Chief Wildlife Warden of Rajasthan. “This kind of wild-to-wild re-location has not taken place anywhere else,” he said. “The released tiger is in good shape. The operation was successful in every respect but for the small hiccups caused by the vagaries of the weather,” Mr. Mehrotra revealed. “The effort is the first step towards successful re-establishment of tigers in Sariska,” said Rajesh Gopal, Director of the National Tiger Conservation Authority of India. The plan is to release a total of five tigers in Sariska over two years. The next tiger, a female, is expected to be released soon while the third, also a tigress, some time in winter. For more: http://www.hindu.com/2008/06/29/stories/2008062950040100.htm

Tiger or science?
One of the best kept national secrets in recent times is an eco disaster waiting to happen. Few environmentalists even are aware of the fact that a top level scientific project, the India-based Neutrino Observatory, is scheduled to be built in Singar a, in the Mudumalai Sanctuary in the heart of tiger and leopard territory. Scientists who presented the news to a shocked local audience in Ooty argued that this was a dream project which was the pride and joy of the Indian scientific world. Questions regarding genuine environmental concerns about the impact on the Nilgiris Biosphere Reserve were met with defensive reactions. The atmosphere at the Ooty Collectorate, where the presentation was made, turned into practically a pitched battle between the scientists versus the conservationists. Raised voices and unnecessarily rude comments are futile and counterproductive. However, many of the questions asked by the Nilgiris activists needed valid answers from the INO team and the Chennai-based Care Earth group, an NGO presenting the pros and cons of the project. For more: http://www.hindu.com/mag/2008/06/29/stories/2008062950300800.htm

Rise in tiger population pushes leopard to fringes
Increase in the population of tiger in Katarniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary and Dudhwa National Park in Uttar Pradesh has forced the 'low profile' leopard to move to the fringes of forest leading to frequent incidents of man-animal conflict. Divisional forest officer of the sanctuary, Ramesh Pandey told PTI that in order to avoid clash with the tigers in these forest areas, the leopards have shifted their base to the periphery of jungles where they hunt for easy preys like goats, dogs and sometimes humans. There are concrete evidences of increase in the number of tigers in these areas as per the findings of the surveys conducted by the Wildlife Institute of India (Dehradun) with the camera trap method. The findings have confirmed both Dudhwa and Katarniaghat as the most dense tiger populated areas, Pandey said. For more: http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/holnus/002200806221240.htm

Tigers disappear from Himalayan refuge
WWF is alarmed by the dramatic decline of at least 30 percent in the Bengal tiger population of Suklaphanta Wildlife Reserve in Nepal, once a refuge that boasted among the highest densities of the endangered species in the Eastern Himalayas. The recent survey of April 2008 showed a population of between 6-14 tigers, down from 20-50 tigers in 2005. The Government of Nepal made a low-key announcement on July 1 based on the results of a long-term camera trap study conducted in large part by WWF. Officials identified poaching as perhaps the major cause of tigers disappearing from this protected area. Ironically, armed poachers have been photographed by the very equipment set up to capture tiger images. "The loss of tigers in Suklaphanta is undoubtedly linked to the powerful global mafia that controls illegal wildlife trade," said Jon Miceler, managing director of WWF's Eastern Himalayas Program. "The evidence suggests that Nepal's endangered tigers are increasingly vulnerable to this despicable trade that has already emptied several Indian tiger reserves—clearly, this is symptomatic of the larger tiger crisis in the region. We need a stronger, more sustained response to this issue in order to protect the future of tigers in the wild." For more: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-07/wwf-tdf070208.php

India's endangered rhino battles for survival
India's one-horned rhinoceros faces an uncertain future in the country's northeast, its main home, because of unending poaching and shrinking of the habitat so vital for the animal's survival. Last year alone, poachers killed at least 20 rhinoceroses in and around Assam's sprawling Kaziranga national park. This year, the toll has already reached seven, officials said. The 430-sq km park, with around 1,800 rhinoceroses, has the world's largest population of this primitive mammal. Two other reserves in Assam, Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary and Orang National Park, have around 150 rhinoceroses. Three rhinoceroses were killed in Orang this year. Countrywide, the rhino population could be just over 2,200, including in West Bengal, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, said Prabal Sarkar of the NGO Wildlife Trust of India (WTI). At the turn of the sanctuary, the rhino roamed almost all over the Gangetic plain. Its numbers fell sharply over the decades because of depleted grassland habitat and frequent hunting -- to feed the illegal rhino horn trade. Experts say these animals are killed for its horn, which is used as aphrodisiac by some tribes in the northeast and in some Asian countries. For more: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Flora__Fauna/Indias_
endangered_rhino_battles_for_survival/articleshow/3180097.cms

Extinction risks vastly underestimated: study
Some endangered species may face an extinction risk that is up to a hundred times greater than previously thought, according to a study released. By overlooking random differences between individuals in a given population, researchers may have badly underestimated the perils confronting threatened wildlife, it said. "Many larger populations previously considered relatively safe would actually be at risk," Brett Melbourne, a professor at the University of Colorado and the study's lead author, told AFP. There are more than 16,000 species worldwide threatened with extinction, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). For more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080702/ts_afp/environmentsciencespeciesextinction

Birds

The accidental sanctuary
Sinbad is only seven years old, but without the help of his parents he has already travelled more than 15,000km. He stays in Abu Dhabi during the winter, flies to Iran in the spring and makes occasional visits to Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan. Even by nomadic standards, this is a flamingo that likes to travel. “We’ve been tracking Sinbad for two and a half years now,” says Salim Javed, head of bird monitoring and conservation at the Abu Dhabi Environment Agency (EA). “He is still a bachelor, he doesn’t have babies yet. He likes to travel.” Sinbad is one of about 1,400 flamingos living at the Al Wathba Wetland Reserve, 40km outside Abu Dhabi. Comprised of three shallow lakes, sand dunes, small brown bushes and yet more sand dunes, at first glance the site is not particularly impressive. What is impressive, however, is the diversity of wildlife that calls the reserve home – and what is surprising is that this now-protected area came about by accident. In began in 1982 – and in less than promising circumstances. Treated sewage water from the Al Mafraq Wastewater Treatment Plant was leaking into the desert outside the plant’s walls, creating pools of high-salinity water. They proved to be rich in nutrients. For more: http://www.thenational.ae/article/20080605/PAGETHREE/709556418/-1/ART

Reptiles & Amphibians

Radio chips to monitor Ghariyals in River Chambal in Uttar Pradesh
Worried over the depleting population of Ghariyals in the River Chambal in Etawah, the Government is taking help of expert researchers of WWF to ascertain reasons behind the steady decrease. The WWF team is using radio transmitters to monitor the movements of the Ghariyals for which chips are being fixed on their tails. Geoffrey Lang, the famous animal researcher, believes that fitting such high capacity chips can give a lot of clue behind the Ghariyals' overall and seasonal movements. But he also said that the data of various aspects has to be compiled to arrive at any particular conclusion. "We do not know that Ghariyals live in small places and basically move along the riverbanks during the monsoon or they travel back and forth on the upstream or downstream. So all of these things will help us understand more about the requirements of the Ghariyals. As it is a special animal in South Asia and Chambal population is the most important in the world. This way we can learn on scientific basis to conserve and manage the Ghariyals in this beautiful river," said Geoffrey Lang, a researcher on reptiles. For more: http://in.news.yahoo.com/139/20080629/808/tnl-radio-chips-to-monitor-ghariyals-in.html

EVENTS

International Conference On “Financing For Climate Change - Challenges And Way Forward”; 15 - 17 August 2008; Dhaka, Bangladesh; http://www.unnayan.org

International Conference: Adaptation Of Forests And Forest Management To Changing Climate With Emphasis On Forest Health: A Review Of Science, Policies, And Practices; 25 - 28 August 2008; Umeå, Sweden; http://www.forestadaptation2008.net/home/en/

29th Session Of The Intergovernmental Panel On Climate Change (IPCC 29); 1 - 4 September 2008; Geneva, Switzerland; http://www.ipcc.ch/

IUCN 4th World Conservation Congress; 5 - 14 October 2008; Barcelona, Spain; http://www.iucn.org/congress/2008/

International Conference On Traditional Forest-Related Knowledge And Sustainable Forest Management In Africa; 13 - 16 October 2008; Accra, Ghana; http://www.iufro.org/download/file/2595/95/ghana08-tftfk-1st-announcemt-call-upd.doc

Twentieth Meeting Of The Parties To The Montreal Protocol (MOP-20); 16 - 20 November 2008; Doha, Qatar; http://ozone.unep.org/