News Watch

Bottom trawling to end in sensitive ocean zones by 30th Sept 2007

Bottom trawling is a barbaric practice that drags heavy nets and giant steel rollers across the ocean floor, grinding down everything on the way and permanently destroying the delicate marine ecosystem at the bottom of the sea.

The UN General Assembly's call to halt bottom trawling has been heeded by the 20 country meeting held recently in Chile. The South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organisation (SPRFMO) has been formed to protect several delicate marine ecosystems. The protected ocean area will extend from the most eastern part of the South Indian Ocean through the Pacific to the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) of South America, and north to the Equator and south to the border of the Antarctic.

That means, hopefully from 30^th September 2007 onwards, fish and other marine creatures living near the ocean floor will be left undisturbed in the world's most sensitive marine eco-systems.

Source: http://www.panda.org/news_facts/newsroom/index.cfm?uNewsID=101180

image source: www.cepolina.com

New ecofriendly mapping technique marks roadless regions as peaks

A research team from the US Geological Survey in Fort Collins, Colorado have published a study in this week's issue of Science that uses a new technique to explore the roadless terrain of USA.

If you were to use a map made by this team, you would see roadless regions looking like mountain peaks. Don't be surprised because the elevations created by these maps represent the distances between that spot and the road. The higher the peak, the greater is the distance between that place and the road.

Summing up their newly created technique of mapping, the investigators write,“Roads encroaching into undeveloped areas generally degrade ecological and watershed conditions and simultaneously provide access to natural resources, land parcels for development, and recreation. A metric of roadless space is needed for monitoring the balance between these ecological costs and societal benefits. We introduce a metric, roadless volume (RV), which is derived from the calculated distance to the nearest road. RV is useful and integrable over scales ranging from local to national”.

If you would like to discuss the paper with Dr Raymond Watts, lead author of this study, you can write to him at rwatts@usgs.gov.

Source: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/316/5825/736?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=

10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=Raymond+Watts&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&resourcetype=HWCIT

Science 4 May 2007: Vol. 316. no. 5825, pp. 736 – 738. DOI: 10.1126/science.1138141. Roadless Space of the Conterminous United States. Raymond D. Watts,^1* Roger W. Compton,² John H. McCammon,² Carl L. Rich,² Stewart M. Wright,² Tom Owens,² Douglas S. Ouren¹

¹ U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Fort Collins, CO 80526-8118, USA. ² USGS, Denver, CO 80225-0046, USA.

EarthRights International, Amazon Watch, Law firm and Achuar tribals file case against Oil Giant

An NGO - Earth Rights International, a law firm firm Schonbrun DeSimone Seplow Harris & Hoffman LLP (SDSHH) and the Achuar tribals from the Peruvian Amazon have filed a case against Occidental Petroleum Corp. (Oxy).

A report by ERI, Amazon Watch, and the Peruvian NGO Racimos de Ungurahu claims that “Oxy dumped an average of 850,000 barrels per day of toxic oil by-products directly into rivers and streams used by the Achuar for drinking, bathing, washing, and fishing – totaling approximately nine billion barrels during the 30 years of it's operation”.

Many of the people in the Achuar communities are suffering from severe cadmium and lead poisoning.

You can read the carefully researched report at

http://www.earthrights.org/feature/a_legacy_of_harm.html.

Source: www.earthrights.org/legalfeature/indigenous_peruvians_sue_occidental_petroleum.html

Celebrate World Migratory Day this weekend!

Perhaps you would like to spend this weekend informing people in your community about the need to protect the habitats of migratory birds.

Here's the World Migratory Day Poster for you to download and share with your friends and relatives.

The World Migratory Bird Day campaign is promoted by the African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbird Agreement (UNEP/AEWA) and the Convention on Migratory Species (UNEP/CMS).

A special announcement for children :

World Migratory Day Painting Competition

Children, here's your chance to express your concern for migratory birds. Send your paintings by 1 August 2007 to the address given below:
AEWA Secretariat (WMBD 2007)
UN-Premises, Hermann-Ehlers-Str. 10
D-53113 Bonn, Germany

For more details explore this link at: http://www.unep-aewa.org/wmbd/2007/painting_competition/en/join.htm

The report from the Convention on Migratory Species is shocking. The report states that, 84 % of the species may be affected by climate change. If you would like to know more about the effects on climate change on migratory birds, you can explore this link at: http://www.unep-wcmc.org/regions/arctic_climate.cfm

Warmer seas: Cause of 'white syndrome' at Great Barrier Reef

Like tropical rain forests, coral forests below the sea are home to some of nature's loveliest creations.

A sad observation is that coral forests are getting wiped out at rates 20 times faster than normal rates. Corals of the Great Barrier Reef in Australia seem to be especially affected by a peculiar disease called “white syndrome”.

A recent study led by Dr John Bruno at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill has explored the striking links between coral deaths and rising ocean temperatures. The 6 year, 48 coral reef site study looked at observations made by the Australian Institute of Marine Science Long-term Monitoring Program, the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Coral Reef Studies and several other collaborating institutions.

The observations were then compared with data from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to calculate weekly sea surface temperatures changes. The investigators have found that “white syndrome” is a stress related disease that hits the coral populations whenever the sea surface temperature rises.

If you would like to know more about this study or you wish to collaborate with Dr John Bruno and his team, you can email him at jbruno@unc.edu

The team have published their findings in PLOS Biology.

Source: Bruno JF, Selig ER, Casey KS, Page CA, Willis BL, et al. (2007) Thermal Stress and Coral Cover as Drivers of Coral Disease Outbreaks . PLoS Biol 5(6): e124 doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0050124.

http://biology.plosjournals.org/
image source: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net

Viewpoint on WTO and Liberalization

Written by Sham Kashyap

Please click on the images to read the text

About the article: The article is a short introduction to WTO and liberalization and discusses it's relevance for farmers in Karnataka. Sham's article was first published in the May 11th-May 18th 2007 issue of a Kannada Weekly, Vikranta Karnataka.

About the Author: Sham Kashyap holds two post-graduate degrees, one in Computer Science and the other in Agricultural Economics from Kansas State University. Sham has specialized in Evolutionary Computation and Artificial Intelligence as well as Agricultural biodiversity.

He did an internship in 2005 with UNICEF where he did a case study on the quality of education in rural government schools in Chamarajnagar district. Between 2003 and 2006, Sham also gained significant work experience in integrated pest management using non-pesticide techniques.

Sham works as a Senior Research Associate with the Ashoka Trust for Ecology and Environment. His work deals with exploring relationships between land use patterns, government policies and sustainable development.

News Watch

UN warns biofuels may eat up crop and forest land and increase poverty

Yesterday UN-Energy released a report titled, Sustainable energy: A framework for decision-makers. While speaking at a press conference, senior UN Energy officials warned the media about bio-fuels eating up precious agriculture and forest land.

The report warns, " At their best, liquid bio-fuel products could enrich farmers by helping to add value to their products. At their worst, however, bio-fuel programmes could result in concentration of ownership that could drive the world’s poorest farmers off their land and into deeper poverty".

On the positive side, bio-fuels can meet the energy requirements of a large segment of the earth’s population. Alexander Muller, Assistant Director-General for the Sustainable Development Department of FAO says that modern bio-energy can serve as a useful energy source to 1.6 billion people who have no access to electric power.

However, making bio-energy a profitable and sustainable source of power is challenging. The report outlines a framework for countries and policy makers to follow and warns that there are no rigid rules that can be applied. Each country will have to work out it’s own policy.

Source: http://www.un.org/News/briefings/docs/2007/070508_Energy.doc.htm
image source: IMSI Clip Arts

An interesting link on the World Digital Library Initiative

You can explore it at http://www.worlddigitallibrary.org/project/english/

This link was sent in by ATREE Librarian, Nithin. If you have an interesting idea about digital libraries and would like to discuss it further, please email Nithin at nithinl@atree.org

The objectives of the World Digital Library are to promote international and inter-cultural understanding and awareness, provide resources to educators, expand non-English and non-Western content on the Internet, and to contribute to scholarly research.

WRI launches How to Guide for Restoring Ecosystems

The World Resources Institute released a 101 page report titled, Restoring Nature's Capital: An Action Agenda to Sustain Ecosystem Services.

Reproduced below are the main points of the synopsis from the report.

The report identifies 5 barriers to working effectively in ecosystem restoration work

· People fail to make the connection between healthy ecosystems and the attainment of social and economic goals.

· Local people often lack clear rights to use and make decisions about the ecosystem services they depend on for their livelihoods and wellbeing.

· The management of ecosystem services is fragmented among many different agencies and bodies that often work at cross-purposes and fail to coordinate across levels.

· Government and business accountability mechanisms for decisions about ecosystem services are frequently absent or weak.

· Responsible management of ecosystem services does not always pay.

Here's a 5 point Action Agenda from the Report to reverse ecosystem degradation

· Develop and use information about ecosystem services : That includes efficient monitoring, spread of information, use of local knowledge and development and use of effective ecosystem management tools

· Strengthen the rights of local people to use and manage ecosystem services : through supportive services, good rules, strong social networks and enhanced local participation.

· Manage ecosystem services across multiple levels and timeframes : through dialogue and efficient resolve of conflicts and having a good knowledge of the ecosystem and applying good management practices at all levels

· Improve accountability for decisions that affect ecosystem services : by aligning taxation policies along with ecosystem stewardship and making elected leaders more accountable

· Align economic and financial incentives with ecosystem stewardship : by including ecosystem stewardship goals in facility managers’ performance objectives and supporting and participating in markets and payments for ecosystem services

You can download the complete 101 page report here at http://www.wri.org/biodiv/pubs_description.cfm?pid=4309

Source: http://www.wri.org/newsroom/newsrelease_text.cfm?nid=383
image source: IMSI Clip Arts