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The MAP News, 214th Ed., 30 May 2009
Dear Friends,
This is the 214th Edition of the Mangrove Action Project News. Please help us keep our readers informed by sending us any updates and news items related to mangrove forest issues!
For the Mangroves,
Alfredo Quarto
Mangrove Action Project
Sign up to receive the MAP News by sending an e-mail to: mapnews@mangroveactionproject.org.
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Partnering with mangrove forest communities, grassroots NGOs, researchers and local governments to conserve and restore mangrove forests and related coastal ecosystems, while promoting community-based, sustainable management of coastal resources.
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Contents for MAP NEWS, 214th Edition, 30 May 2009:
FEATURE STORIES
Worldwide Protest Against WWF's Plans to Launch Aquaculture Stewardship Council
MAP WORKS
Join the Mangrove Action Project at the 2009 Fremont Fair
Submit artwork now for 9th MAP Children's Mangrove Art Calendar
Visit us at the Shrimp Less Blog
ANNOUNCEMENT: "Mangrove Forest Ecology, Management and Restoration" training workshop, March 3-5, 2010, Hollywood, Florida, USA.
AFRICA
African Declaration Against Unsustainable Industrial Shrimp Aquaculture in Nigeria
NIGERIA
A Writer's Violent End, and His Activist Legacy
ASIA
S.E. ASIA
BURMA
After `Nargis', mangrove restoration lacks vision
Will the Mangrove Forests be Rebuilt?
INDONESIA
Saving the 'Coral Triangle'
Fishermen, coastal residents sidelined at ocean conference
Mangrove forest needs better care
Indonesia's Mangrove Ecosystem Needs All the Attention It Can Get
S. ASIA
BANGLADESH
Shrimp Lose Shine in Bangladesh
New Developments
Aila toll leaps to 121
INDIA
Climate change leading to increase in tiger attacks in Sundarban islands
Mangroves, bulwark against cyclones, finds a study
Andheri residents take it upon themselves to save mangroves
PAKISTAN
Land mafia poses existential threat to mangroves
Pakistan may face exceptional climate change
Warming or warning signs?
Exploring ecotourism potential in mangroves
Loss of mangroves
LATIN AMERICA
MEXICO
Nudist resort destroys mangroves
COSTA RICA
Why you won't see Costa Rican shrimp on US menus
BELIZE
Seminar packed with practical information for mangrove conservation.
TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO
DrummiT2summiT2 takes environmental focus
EUROPE
Shrimp exports to EU suspended for 6 months
NORTH AMERICA
USA
How smart is your seafood?
'Farm in a Barrel': Raise Fish and Grow Your Own Organic Vegetables
Origin labels can raise questions about food safety
Imports hurting Louisiana shrimpers
Students combat beach erosion
OCEANIA
AUSTRALIA
Mangroves stuffed by nutrients
Green team combats Warrell Creek erosion
STORIES / ISSUES
Wader populations decline faster than ever
Scientists find climate change to have paradoxical effects in coastal wetlands
ENVIRONMENT: Deep CO2 Cuts May Be Last Hope for Acid Oceans
AQUACULTURE CORNER
Disease and sea lice are not under control in Norwegian salmon farms and BC stands to lose all
Violent protests erupt in Chile's fishing-dependent city of Quellón
14 May 2009
Worldwide Protest Against WWF's Plans to Launch Aquaculture Stewardship Council
Over 70 human rights and environmental groups from around the world have today expressed outrage at the planned launch of the World Wildlife Fund's Aquaculture Stewardship Council.
In a letter sent today to leading members of WWF, campaigners claim that the organization's plans to certify the industrial production of shrimp and salmon are influenced by the vested interests of the aquaculture industry, and do not reflect or take into account the wishes of local communities and indigenous peoples who live alongside shrimp and salmon farms. They say that WWF continues to reject invitations to meet with representatives of affected communities in six different aquaculture regions across the world.
Campaigners also argue that the planned certification process is inherently flawed in favor of the aquaculture industry. They point to the fact that the certification body run by WWF is part-funded by the food industry, and that the individual employed by WWF to run the process, was previously employed as a regional vice-president for a controversial aquaculture multinational, that has been widely accused of labor violations and environmental destruction.
"WWF needs to explain why they are happy to engage with industry, but have repeatedly rejected calls for meetings from over 70 groups, representing tens of thousands of marginalized people from around the world?" asks Juan Jose Lopez, Coordinator of Red Manglar in Latin America.
"How can any process be regarded as legitimate when a large Western Ngo and it's financial backers in the food industry are able to dictate what is best for the livelihoods of people in other countries around the world?" asks Alfredo Quarto, of Mangrove Action Project.
"The proposed certification by WWF promises to legitimize environmentally and socially damaging forms of aquaculture in the name of cheap prawns and salmon. It's high time that WWF stops 'Pandering' to the interests of big business, and instead begins to listen to the voices of real people that rely on the oceans and forests to survive." says Natasha Ahmad, ASIA secretariat.
Regional Contacts:
Asia: Natasha Ahmad: Asia Solidarity Against Industrial Aquaculture (ASIA), secretariat@asia-solidarity.org 00913322840767
Latin America: Juan Jose Lopez of Red Manglar (Latin American Mangrove Network), Colombia redmanglar@redmanglar.org
Africa: Abdoulaye Diamé of the African Mangrove Network, Senegal abdoulayediame@yahoo.com
UK: Jim Wickens of Forest Peoples Program jim@forestpeoples.org +44 7736070379
USA Alfredo Quarto of Mangrove Action Network, mangroveap@olympus.net. Tel. (360) 452-5844
Notes to Editor:
The rapid rise in global demand for cheap shrimp and farmed salmon has caused extensive degradation of mangrove wetlands and other coastal ecosystems and subsequent losses in biodiversity. These losses have also destroyed livelihoods among local communities and indigenous peoples in many nations across the global South.
Shrimp: At a time when shrimp is the most popular seafood in the U.S., and growing in popularity in Europe and Japan, most consumers don't realize the extensive problems their appetite for shrimp engenders. 90% of shrimp consumed in the U.S. are imported from countries where mangrove ecosystems have been recently cleared to establish vast stretches of shrimp ponds dug into once productive wetland soils. This causes serious declines in biodiversity and related wild fisheries, shoreline erosion, increased susceptibility to hurricanes and tsunamis, and releases massive quantities of carbon, which had previously been safely stored beneath mangrove roots, thus contributing to climate change. There are also many health issues raised by eating farmed shrimp grown in chemical soups of antibiotics, pesticides and other contaminants. For more information log on.
Salmon: Similar issues pervade the fin-fish aquaculture industries. Salmon farming is one such industry leading to massive escapes of non-native Atlantic salmon into Pacific Ocean waters, while endangering native Pacific salmon and other marine life because of disease and parasite outbreaks, pollution and overuse/misuse of antibiotics potentially causing dangerous pathogens to develop antibiotic resistance.
Pure Salmon
Feed: salmon and shrimp are carnivores, and for every kilo of the product on the supermarket shelf, several kilos of wild caught fish and frequently GMO-sourced soya, are used to feed the farmed salmon and shrimp. The sheer amount of food needed to feed shrimp and salmon on an industrial scale is destroying ecosystems and livelihoods on land and at sea in Latin America, where much of these feedstuffs are sourced from. See: The Ecologist
Certification: Scientific research carried out in Indonesia to assess the effectiveness of certification schemes on farmed shrimp in the region, found a catalogue of systemic problems associated with certification, and concluded that, "these systems may never fulfill any of their overarching objectives such as long term sustainability or reduced consumption of non-certified shrimps"
More Information (PDF document).
Letter to WWF from 70 International NGO Networks, Organizations and Individuals
Opposing the Formation of the Aquaculture Stewardship Council
We the undersigned non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and concerned individuals from around the world are deeply troubled by the intentions of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) to form the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC). Strong opposition to this latest among many such recent certification initiatives is based upon our years of collective experience in working to counter the negative effects of the industrial aquaculture of shrimp, salmon and other carnivorous marine fin-fish species. We see the ASC as yet another attempt by a Big International NGO to formulate some ill-conceived plan to remedy the problems of unsustainable industrial aquaculture. These kinds of flawed remedies do not involve the local communities and grassroots movements in the process of defining steps to be taken, thereby excluding those peoples most affected by these industries' ongoing assaults on ocean health and coastal integrity.
Current attempts by WWF and other intended certifiers are not supported by local communities and indigenous peoples, the global network of NGOs, academics and citizens who are still demanding a moratorium on further expansion of these socially disruptive and ecologically destructive industries.
Having gained a better understanding of the proposed mechanism for developing global standards for industrial aquaculture, we NGOs and representatives of regional NGO networks and organizations from Asia, Latin America, Africa, Europe and North America must continue to take a strong stance against these various certification schemes. We believe that these attempts at certification are funder and industry driven, and do not allow the voice of the majority of affected stakeholders - local communities and indigenous peoples - to have meaningful input into this so-called "dialogue" and standard-setting process.
The proposed standards that will define the Aquaculture Stewardship Council appear to be largely based upon supporting unsustainable, open throughput systems of aquaculture production, whether for shrimp, salmon or other fin-fish species, and not upon more sustainable closed production approaches, indicating that the proposed ASC's process is aimed in an inappropriate and environmentally dangerous direction.
We demand that WWF halt this initiative to form the ASC and immediately initiate real and meaningful dialogues with affected communities, not just with industry and a few NGOs and academics. There still is a great need for strict social and rights-based standards, not just environmental and technical fixes initiated at the aquaculture farm level. That vital component of the dialogues with the local communities and indigenous peoples is still missing, and their voices are still not heard within those elite circles that are now attempting to form the ASC. We the undersigned now join hands to strongly state our opposition to the ASC process:
· Asia Solidarity Against Industrial Aquaculture (ASIA), Natasha Ahmad, Secretariat, Bangladesh
· Association Amigos da Prainha do Canto Verde, René Scharer ,Switzerland
· Nijera Kori, Khushi Kabir, Bangladesh
· Katrin Aidnell, Bangladesh/Sweden
· International Collective in Support of Fishworkers (ICSF)
· Red Brasileña de Ecossocialistas, Brazil
· Fórum em Defesa da Zona Costeira do Ceará, Rogério Costa, Brazil
· Instituto BiomaBrasil, Brazil
· Jeovah Meireles - Prof. Dr. del Departamento de Geografia de la Universidad Federal de Ceará (UFC)/Brasil.
· Rede MangueMar Brazil
· Instituto Ambiental Viramundo, Vital Farias, Brazil
· Canadian Wild Salmon Alliance Society, Terry Anderson, Canada
· Centro Ecoceanos, Executive Director Juan Carlos Cardenas
· Centro Salvadoreño de Tecnología Apropiada (CESTA), Friends of the Earth, El Salvador, Ing. Rafael Vela,
· Coalition for Fair Fisheries Arrangements, Béatrice Gorez
· Elsa Cabrera, Executive Director of Centro de Conservación Cetacea
· First Nations Environmental Network of Canada Steve Lawson & Susanne Hare, Canada
· Fundación Pumalín, Chile
· Proyecto y Parque Pumalín , Hernán Mladinic, Chile
· Fundación Yendegaia, Chile
· Fundación Conservación Patagónica, Chile
· Centro de Conservación Cetácea,Elsa Cabrera, Chile
· Fundación Meliyou, Carlos Cuevas, Chile
· ASPROCIG, Juan Jose Lopez Negrete, Colombia
· RedManglar, Secretariat, Colombia
· FUNDECOL, Muisne - Esmeraldas - Ecuador
· Asociacion De Vecinos Para El Desarrollo Integral De Champerico, Guatemala
· Trópico Verde/ParksWatch Guatemala, Carlos Albacete, Guatemala
· CODDEFFAGOLF, Blanca Estela Herrera, Presidenta, and Jorge Varela Márquez, Goldman Prize, 1999, Honduras
· ARPMDC, Dr. Felix N. Sugirtharaj,, India
· National Fishworkers' Forum (NFF), India
· National Alliance of Peoples Movements(NAPM), India
· World Forum of Fisher Peoples (WFFP), Thomas Kocherry, India
· National Alliance of Peoples Movements(NAPM), India.
· Lolong Ulak Karang Padang, Khalid Saifullah, Indonesia
· WALHI, Mukri Friatna, Indonesia
· KIARA (Fisheries Justice Coalition of Indonesia), M.Riza Damanik, Indonesia
· WALHI/FOE Indonesia, Teguh Surya, Indonesia
· KPNNI National Commitee for Fisherfolks Organization, Dedy Ramanta, Indonesia
· COMMIT Center for Ocean Development and Maritime Civilization Studies, M.Karim, Indonesia
· La Ventana,Investigación y Divulgación Científica para el Desarrollo Regional, Mexico.
· RED VENE Científica para el Desarrollo Regional, A.C., México
· Red De Organizaciones Y Grupos Ambientalistas De Zihuatanejo . Mexico
· Bios Iguana A.C. Colima, Mexico,
· Marea Azul AC., Marco Antonio Rodriguez Badillo, Mexico
· Niger Delta Project, Patrick Naagbanton, Nigeria.
· Foundation for Agric and Social Transformation (FAST), Ibisime Etela, Nigeria.
· Centre for Environment, Human Rights and Development, Nenibarini Zabbey, Nigeria.
· Green Warriors of Norway, V. Kurt Oddekalv, Norway
· African Mangrove Network, Abdoulaye Diamé, Senegal.
· AGAMAR, Natalia Laino, Spain
· Dr. Jose J. Pascual-Fernandez (Director, Instituto Universitario de Ciencias Políticas y Sociales, Facultad de Ciencias Políticas y Sociales, Campus de Guajara, Spain
· National Fisheries Solidarity Movement of Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka
· Fältbiologerna (Nature and Youth Sweden), Ilektra Avgerinou, Sweden
· Malena Karlsson, Individual, Gudrun Hubendick, Sweden
· The Stockholm Society for Nature Conservation, Gudrun Hubendick, Sweden
· The Swallows India Bangladesh, Ragnar Hallgren & Eva Hägerstrand, Sweden
· Association Amigos da Prainha do Canto Verde, Switzerland
· The JAF Foundation, Dr. Wolfram Heise, Switzerland
· Yadfon Association, Pisit Charnsnoh, Thailand
· WRM International Secretariat, Ricardo Carrere, Uruguay
· Forest Peoples Programme, Maurizio Farhan Ferrari , United Kingdom
· Mangrove Action Project, Alfredo Quarto, USA
· Go Wild Campaign, Anne Mosness, USA
· Foundation for Deep Ecology, USA
· The Conservation Land Trust, USA
· Asociación Ecologista Para La Preservación Ambiental Del Estado Falcon (Aepa Falcón), Addison Fischer, Venezuela
· Foro De Pescadores Falconianos, Venezuela
· Pescadores Artesanales- Venezuela
· Redmanglar Venezolana, Dolores González, Venezuela
· Zolana De Lucha Contra La Desertificacion Y Sequia (Riod), Venezuela
22 May 2009
Join the Mangrove Action Project at the 2009 Fremont Fair
In our continued efforts to bring mangrove issues to the forefront of Seattle's consciousness, the Mangrove Action Project will participate in the 2009 Fremont Fair on the weekend of June 20-21st. We will have a booth at the fair where MAP staff and volunteers will educate fair-goers and hand out brochures about the loss and degradation of mangrove habitats and the resulting effects on the environment and the livelihoods of coastal communities.
As part of the Shrimp Less, Think More campaign, MAP's presence at the fair will also serve to raise awareness of the destructive actions of the shrimp and aquaculture industries on the mangroves and their ecosystems. T-Shirts and calendars will be available for purchase, with all proceeds going to support MAP and its worldwide programs to protect and restore the mangroves.
The fair is located in the funky and friendly Fremont neighborhood of Seattle. Now in its 38th year, the Fremont Fair is a celebration of the Summer Solstice and the best of the community. Expect a colorful display of art, spirit, sharing, and a celebration of working together to help each other. During Fair weekend, people from all walks of life come together to shop, eat, drink, perform, smile, dance, run, converse, debate, groove and parade. Find out more about the fair.
We are extremely excited to be a part of such a fun and diverse event, and participate in the Fremont Fair's efforts to promote positive social change in Seattle and elsewhere. Please come join us at the fair on the 20th and 21st of June!
If you'd like to volunteer to help with the booth, please contact us via email at austen@mangroveactionproject.org. We would love to have your help!
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Submit artwork now for 9th MAP Children's Mangrove Art Calendar
A fun and exciting Art Contest for children 6 to 14 years old
We invite all primary school children from tropical and sub-tropical nations, and whose schools are located near mangroves, to create art telling us "why mangroves are important to me and my community".
Selected winners will be published in a 2010 calendar to be distributed internationally to raise awareness of mangrove forest ecology. This creative contest aims to promote appreciation and awareness of mangrove forests, and to encourage and listen to creative voices of children living in mangrove areas.
Help us launch this program in your school by contacting science and art teachers in your area and encourage them to work together on this fun and innovative project.
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What kind of art can be submitted?
Technique: Paint, color pencil, ink, collage, pastel, crayons, etc
Dimensions: Canvas, or paper, 45 cms x 30 cms. (18 in. x 12 in)
The Art Work should be in a format horizontal (long length across, the shorter length vertical), in order to fit on the calendar page. (We had received wonderful art work in a vertical format, but sadly were unable to use it. )
Artist Identification: On the back of each art work please write in English: the full name and age of the artist, the school name, address, city or town, country, and title of art work.
Age Limit: 6-13 years old
Mailing instructions: The art work has to be mailed in a small tube, such as the ones for mailing posters. Make sure the art is sent in certified or registered mail to MAP, PO Box 1854, Port Angeles, WA 98362-0279, USA.
How will entries be judged?
Each school will hold its own exhibition and select 3 or more winners in art. Winning entries will be collected in each country by a participating NGO and then mailed to MAP's office to be judged by a team of artists.
What are the prizes?
- 1st Prize will receive a certificate + calendar and the recognition of being published in an International calendar with global distribution.
- 2nd Prize will receive a certificate + calendar and the recognition of being published in an International calendar with global distribution.
- 3rd Prize will receive a certificate + calendar and the recognition of being published in an International calendar with global distribution.
School will receive 2 Calendars
NGOs will receive10 Calendars.
When is the deadline?
Please, we must receive the artwork in MAP's office by the end of 31 July, 2009.
Mailed to: PO Box 1854,.Port Angeles, WA 98362-0279, USA
Please mail in a tube or flat in a box, but not folded!
Who do I contact?
Please let us know if your school plans to participate by contacting:
Monica Gutierrez-Quarto,
Calendar Project Coordinator
c/o Mangrove Action Project
PO Box 1854
Port Angeles, WA 98362-0279, USA
tel./ fax (360) 452-5866
e-mail: monicagquarto@olympus.net and
mangroveap@olympus.net
All entries selected at the national level should be submitted to the same address.
Your local NGO contact is: (Please fill this in.)
Some suggested Field Trip and Classroom Lessons
It is suggested that this contest could coincide with an Associated Mangrove Ecology Educational Project with the children. This lesson will highlight the importance of mangrove forests for the environment, for their community, for fishermen and/or for the associated mangrove forest fauna. The intent of this educational project is to help the participating children better comprehend the important role mangroves play in their lives and for their communities.
1 - Information and guidance in the classroom, aided by text books, mangrove curriculum, slides and videos.
2 - Eco-Study Field trips for firsthand observation with the teacher and/ or a local resource person, where they can observe the myriad forms of life that inhabit the mangroves, such as the many colored birds, fish, crabs, mollusks, reptiles, mammals, and insects, while also learning about the unique characteristics of the associated mangrove plants and trees.
3- During, or after, the field trips, the children can hold interviews with their parents or local fishermen about the mangroves in their region, learning more about the history of the area's mangrove forest, as well as why they are important and what the problems are when the mangroves are lost.
4 - As a result of this research, the children may wish to create artwork for the 2010 calendar art competition.
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Visit us at the Shrimp Less Blog
As part of its new campaign, "Shrimp Less, Think More," MAP recently launched a new blog. The blog is a source of information about the destruction caused by imported shrimp, and includes frequent news updates, facts, consumer tips, reports, and other resources. It also is intended to build a network and community of people concerned about the issues--so we invite the comments and input from readers!
ANNOUNCEMENT: "Mangrove Forest Ecology, Management and Restoration" training workshop, March 3-5, 2010, Hollywood, Florida, USA.
The eighth annual "Mangrove Forest Ecology, Management and Restoration" training workshop will be held at the Anne Kolb Nature Center, in Hollywood, Florida, USA, March 3-5, 2010. The training site is within a 500 ha mangrove restoration project at West Lake Park operated by Broward County. The award-winning project was designed by Roy R. "Robin" Lewis III, who will be teaching the course. Mr. Lewis has taught this very successful course in Mexico, Jamaica, Cuba, Nigeria, Thailand, Vietnam, India and Sri Lanka.
More details at mangroverestoration.com or contact me at lesrrl3@aol.com.
African Declaration Against Unsustainable Industrial Shrimp Aquaculture in Nigeria
The NGOs/CBOs in the African continent, in addition to supporting the African Mangrove Network Communique on shrimp aquaculture in Arica, is in solidarity with Nigeria and the Mangrove Forest Conservation Society of Nigeria led Nigeria Industrial Shrimp Aquaculture Working Group during the second African Mangrove Network Conference held in Accra, Ghana from 27th-30th April 2009. Collectively declared as follows:-
1) That the several attempts and on-going plans to have industrial shrimp farms in Nigeria without an Environmental Impact Assessment Study/Guidelines is absolutely wrong as it is not in line with local, national, and international conventions, therefore it should be discontinued.
2) The Nigeria government, FAO, UNDP, UNEP and other international organizations should therefore work together work together to put in place a workable all stakeholders guidelines that would regulate sustainable shrimp aquaculture in the country.
3) We therefore condemn all unsustainable industrial shrimp aquaculture activities by foreign investors and their local collaborators and hereby support the activities of the Mangrove Forest Conservation Society of Nigeria le working group to alert the world and trigger environmental friendly sustainable actions with a view to bringing positive changes that would protect the physical and human environment.
4) In this regard, we call on the Federal Government of Nigeria to convene an all stakeholders consultation forum and to implement the FAO guidelines on shrimp aquaculture, UNEP and UNDP guidelines on the protection of environment and World Bank guidelines on conservation of Mangroves without further delay so as to protect the Nigerian mangrove ecosystem for the present and future generation.
Signed:
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NIGERIA
5 May 2009
by Patricia Cohen
A Writer's Violent End, and His Activist Legacy
"I had a surprising call this week," the author Richard North Patterson told the audience that had gathered last weekend as part of the PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature. It was former President Bill Clinton. Mr. Patterson's new novel, "Eclipse," is based on the case of the Nigerian writer and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, and Mr. Clinton spoke of a phone call he had made 14 years ago to Gen. Sani Abacha of Nigeria, asking him to spare Mr. Saro-Wiwa from the hangman.
Mr. Clinton said General Abacha "was very polite," but "he was cold," Mr. Patterson related. "Clinton took away from that, among other things, that oil and the need for oil on behalf of the West and other places made Abacha, in his mind, impervious."
The event's moderator, the Nigerian novelist Okey Ndibe, added an unexpected epilogue. A friend in the Abacha cabinet said the general later boasted: "All these pro-democracy activists run to America and expect America to save them. But the U.S. president himself is calling me 'sir.' He is scared of me."
Mr. Saro-Wiwa, a popular author who helped create a peaceful mass movement on behalf of the Ogoni people, was executed in November 1995 along with eight other environmental and human rights activists on what many contended were trumped-up murder charges. His body was burned with acid and thrown in an unmarked grave.
PEN, an international association of writers dedicated to defending free expression, along with Guernica, the online literary magazine, sponsored the panel with Mr. Patterson, Mr. Ndibe and Ken Wiwa, Mr. Saro-Wiwa's son, to discuss Mr. Saro-Wiwa's literary and political legacy.
Fourteen years have passed. General Abacha has died, and Mr. Saro-Wiwa has had a proper burial, but the circumstances surrounding the nine executions, along with related incidents of brutal attacks and torture, are getting another hearing. This month the Wiwa family's lawsuit against Royal Dutch Shell over its role in those events goes to trial in federal court in Manhattan.
"We feel that Shell's fingerprints are all over," Ken Wiwa told the audience. "Clearly Shell financed and provided logistical support."
Among the accusations are that Shell employees were present when two witnesses were offered bribes to testify against Mr. Saro-Wiwa, said Jennie Green, a senior lawyer at the nonprofit Center for Constitutional Rights, which is representing the family. She said Mr. Saro-Wiwa's brother Owens has also stated that Shell's managing director, Brian Anderson (now retired), told him, "If you call off the campaign, maybe we can do something for your brother."
Under American law you don't have to be the one who "tightened the noose" to be found guilty, Ms. Green said.
In a statement Shell said: "Shell in no way encouraged or advocated any act of violence against them or their fellow Ogonis. We believe that the evidence will show clearly that Shell was not responsible for these tragic events." The company added, "Shell attempted to persuade that government to grant clemency."
Mr. Wiwa, 40, said his father was an ebullient, ambitious man with a wicked sense of humor. "All other things being equal, he probably would have been a comedian or an actor, but he was compelled to write," he said.
At the start of the panel two performers read a short excerpt from Mr. Saro-Wiwa's play "The Transistor Radio," one of many he wrote for Nigerian radio and television that satirized the country's numbing poverty and rampant corruption. "Why were you fired?" one man asks another. He responds, "For getting the job."
Mr. Wiwa, who published a memoir in 2001, "In the Shadow of a Saint: A Son's Journey to Understand His Father's Legacy" (Steerforth), said: "My father was a great man. I grew up with this man, the myth and the memory always in front of me."
He added, "The struggle to define yourself against your father gives you a sense initially of something to write about," as did the political situation he found himself thrust into.
Mr. Wiwa is now writing a novel, but he has also felt compelled to carry on his father's environmental and human rights work. He serves as a special assistant in the government but warns that the ecological and human devastation in the Niger delta, one of the world's largest wetlands, is worse than ever.
Thousands of miles of oil pipelines run through coastland occupied by the Ogoni people, one of 250 ethnic tribes in Nigeria. Noxious fumes, spills and development have turned much of the area into a wasteland, causing severe deforestation as well as desperate poverty.
Going off on his own and writing, untroubled by politics, has "been a dream for 30 years," said Mr. Wiwa, who is Ogoni, like his father. But he added, "A lot of my most profound thoughts originate from being involved in this struggle. It compels you to consider the idea of what happens if you just go away and write. Because you may not have anything to say."
Mr. Ndibe asked about sacrifices his family made because of his father's commitment, but Mr. Wiwa demurred.
"All of us have a choice, to make our children safe in the world or to make the world safe for our children, and there are implications to that," Mr. Wiwa said, referring to others he has met who share his situation, like Nelson Mandela's daughter Zindzi and Nkosinathi Biko, the son of the South African activist Steve Biko. "Our fathers chose a different path."
Mr. Patterson was on the board of PEN 15 years ago when the organization lobbied on Mr. Saro-Wiwa's behalf. Before the panel began, he explained how he came to write "Eclipse." Since 9/11 the United States has become even more dependent on Nigerian oil, Mr. Patterson said. "I thought it was time to put Saro-Wiwa in the context of today's politics of oil: how we are all implicated in the lives of people we don't even know."
During his imprisonment Mr. Saro-Wiwa said that he often envied Western writers "who can peacefully practice their craft." Yet he also recognized that wasn't his path. As he wrote in 1993, "The writer cannot be a mere storyteller, he cannot be a mere teacher; he cannot merely X-ray society's weaknesses, its ills, its perils, he or she must be actively involved shaping its present and its future."
Source: The New York Times
BURMA
28 May 2009
by Maria Osbeck and Neil Powell
After `Nargis', mangrove restoration lacks vision
The horrors of Cyclone Nargis a year ago, and the Asian tsunami before that, have led to renewed interest in how mangroves can limit the impacts of natural disasters.
As news images of devastated landscapes and bloated corpses appeared in the days and weeks after Nargis, environmental campaigners made their point: if Myanmar's 3,000-km coastline had kept its original fringe of mangroves, the damage would have been less. Perhaps, some of those who died - up to 140,000 people, by some counts - could have been saved.
Today most governments acknowledge the importance of mangroves in dissipating the force of storms, and tides and waves caused by extreme events like Nargis. Mangroves serve as natural nurseries and feeding grounds for three-quarters of all commercially fished species in the tropics. Their unique root systems capture sediment and prevent erosion. They also filter out pollutants that would otherwise flow into the sea.
Mangrove restoration is more popular than ever before. Following Cyclone Nargis, Dr Surin Pitsuwan, Secretary-General of ASEAN, emphasised the role of mangroves in mitigating the impact of natural disasters. Before that, in the wake of the Asian tsunami Bill Clinton hosted a meeting in New York to launch "Mangroves for the Future", a multi-party project focusing on mangrove conservation in tsunami-affected countries. The Red Cross is funding major replantation efforts in Vietnam and Thailand, and Japanese government aid is supporting mangrove plantations across Asia.
However, many attempts at mangrove restoration are deeply flawed.
Mangroves are being planted in areas that never supported mangroves in the first place. In Thailand, for example, the government has been very supportive of mangrove restoration, but re-planting efforts often do not consider local ecosystems. Mangrove forests are part of a larger coastal ecosystem that typically includes mudflats, sea grass meadows, tidal marshes and salt pans. They may be linked with inland forests, peat lands, and freshwater rivers and streams. Approaches to mangrove restoration need to consider how new trees will affect existing ecosystems, and whether suitable sites are selected.
In Thailand mangroves have been planted on coastal mudflats, resulting in loss of habitat and feeding grounds for migratory birds, shellfish and other shore life - leading to conflicts with local fishermen who depend on the mudflats for their livelihood. Experience from the Philippines shows that the survival rate of mangroves planted in unsuitable terrain like this is very low. In Sri Lanka, it has been shown that extensive planting of mangroves in lagoon areas has led to an overall reduction in fish productivity.
Then there are issues of land rights and livelihoods linked to the restoration of mangroves, where the brackish water supports shrimp farming. Unclear land right systems and zoning of coastal areas are major challenges to the effectiveness of mangrove restoration in the long term.
The Mahakam delta in East Kalimantan has become one of the wealthiest areas of Indonesia due to local shrimp aquaculture, as well as gas exploration in areas formerly covered by mangrove.
Here, shrimp pond owners grow "organic" white-spot shrimp in large-scale, low-intensity systems with few chemical inputs - a practice that allows them to command higher market prices as compared with shrimp from high-intensive, smaller pond cultivation that is common elsewhere in Asia. This land-hungry enterprise has led to the loss of almost 80 per cent of the mangroves in the delta, despite the fact that most of the area is officially classified as a conservation zone.
Companies drilling for natural gas in the Mahakam delta are paying compensation to farmers for the loss of mangroves due to gas exploration. While only a small amount of mangrove loss is traced directly to gas exploration, the knock-on effects are far-reaching. Local people who have customary rights to stands of mangrove are now clearing new areas in the hope of being able to get money for the exercise. Others are holding on to old shrimp ponds that have become unproductive, rather than converting the land to other uses, in the hope of also being able to claim compensation. The lack of transparency and ambiguities in this process has led to conflicts between farmers and companies, in addition to losses of natural assets.
It is important to acknowledge current land use practices in designing mangrove restoration plans, in order to reduce conflicts between user groups, and to support law enforcement to limit further conversion and ensure long term sustainability of replanted areas.
The revival of interest in mangroves following the devastation of Nargis, should now be harnessed in designing and implementing programmes that contribute to sustainable coastal resource management. Such solutions must consider the livelihoods of local people, as well as incentives for them to maintain existing natural assets. Mangroves have many uses, and many people benefit from them. It would be a great pity if the current enthusiasm for mangroves should falter, due to a failure to reconcile conflicting aims.
Mangrove restoration should contribute to the ecosystem and local communities - and not merely to impressive statistics on how many trees have been planted.
Source: The Jakarta Post
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6 May 2009
by Kyi Wai
Will the Mangrove Forests be Rebuilt?
BOGALAY, Irrawaddy Delta Before Cyclone Nargis struck Burma's Irrawaddy delta, the island known as Mein Ma Hla (in Burmese "pretty woman") was beautiful, the home of dense mangrove forests and bamboo.
Now, the island remains badly scarred, the mangrove forests devastated, and large fallen trees still testify to the cyclone's wrath.
Cyclone Nargis destroyed 16,800 hectares of mangrove forest (about 30 percent) and 20,999 hectares of forest plantations in Rangoon and the Irrawaddy delta, according to the Post-Nargis Joint Assessment (PONJA) report.
At one time, mangrove forests formed impenetrable areas along the delta coastline. Large kanazo and beau trees towered toward the sky. One local resident recalled it was like living in a big tree house.
Traditionally, local villagers cut down trees on Pretty Woman Island and nearby Kyun Nyo Gyi for firewood and charcoal.
But more rapid changes started in 1990s, when investors began to develop the area into prawn farms. Vast stretches of mangrove forests were cleared for the farms, which reaped investors big profits.
Fortunately, much of Pretty Woman Island itself was protected by law and escaped deforestation and prawn farm development, while continuing to provide local resources to residents and offer shelter for numerous animals including crocodiles, monkeys, samburs, birds, squirrels and fish.
The one Hundred Monkeys Pagoda and other religious sites located in the area also gave many residents a feeling of sacredness and tradition, say local residents.
A forest ranger on the island recalled, "In the past, villagers who came into the forest didn't bring along meat to eat. To pay respect the spirits, they even spoke politely. They chopped a few trees for their own use, not a lot, and maintained a tradition which paid respect to the spirits." According to a local belief, a greedy tree-cutter who didn't honor the spirits would be eaten by a crocodile.
While Cyclone Nargis destroyed most of the villages along the costal area and killed nearly 140,000 people, residents on Pretty Woman escaped unharmed.
"That night, me and my wife were illegally cutting trees on the island," said a man from Lama village. "Those big trees in the mangrove forest saved our lives. Not only us, all the villagers who were on the island that night escaped from the storm."
Most of the bigger trees were broken or toppled down. Smaller trees and bushes survived.
"The bushes were there even after the cyclone," said a resident of Padaekaw village. "But many dead bodies from the villages were floating in the water and were caught up in the bushes. After about a week, the army burned the dead bodies. They used a flame-thrower. That's why many trees and bushes are also burned."
Following the cyclone, many crocodiles, monkeys, samburs and squirrels were killed or have since left the area.
"The crocs are moving," said a resident of Sitsalong village. "After Nargis, the crocs got a chance to eat dead bodies. They are now human-eating crocs. Recently, a man in our village was attacked and eaten by a croc while he was setting his fishing net. And a child from Ngethu village was taken by a croc. That time, the little boy was sitting on the back of a boat. The croc first hit the boy with its tail, then the boy fell into the water and the croc took him away. The villagers in this area are now very afraid of croc attacks."
A forest ranger estimated that there were about 1,000 crocodiles on Pretty Woman Island and in the nearby area. A crocodile farm was located on the island, and the animals were protected by law.
Conservationists have warned that deforestation plays a key role in climate change, and Burma has lost large portions of forests in the delta and throughout the country since 1990, largely due to timber cutting.
The mangrove forest in the delta at one time served as a natural barrier against storms. Environmentalists had warmed of the consequences of deforestation and the loss of animal habitat, but their pleas largely went unheeded.
An environmental conservationist in Rangoon said, "When the cyclone hit, thousand of people lost their life. It's a direct consequence of the deforestation of mangroves. Prawn farms should not be allowed in those areas. The government should consider the interest of local people and the habitat."
Initial plans call for 750 hectares of mangrove forest to be replanted in Irrawaddy Division over a five-year period, according to an officer with the Forest Resource Environment Development and Conservation Association.
Additionally, UN Development Programme plans to replant 30,000 coconut and palm trees in five townships of the Irrawaddy delta, but that represents only a small portion of the trees destroyed.
Many aid organizations and other groups are working to replant the mangrove forests, Following Nargis the attitude of local people toward the forest has changed.
"Before Nargis, I was selling firewood in Bogalay," said a villager from Lamu. "When the cyclone hit, I was on Pretty Woman. The trees saved my life. The other thing is that some people from rescue organizations talked about the importance of the mangrove forests. I don't want to cut the trees for a living anymore. I changed my mind. Instead, I am going to work as a fisherman."
He said villagers have also reassessed the role of prawn farms in the area
"In our village, prawn farms were everywhere. We had no place to hide. If we had mangrove forests, most people would have survived. Many of us are now ready to help replant the mangrove forests"
Lamu village, where the man lives, was home to about 700 people before Cyclone Nargis. About 100 survived.
Source: Irrawaddy News Magazine
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INDONESIA
18 May 2009
by Peter Gelling
Saving the 'Coral Triangle'
JAKARTA, Indonesia - With the Indonesian government leading the way, six countries signed a landmark agreement over the weekend to conserve one of the most important marine communities in the world.
The Coral Triangle contains three-quarters of all known coral species on Earth but is under attack from over-fishing, destructive fishing techniques, pollution and climate change.
Moreover, 120 million people depend on the triangle's bounty for their livelihoods, accounting for almost $2.5 billion in income every year. The Coral Triangle is roughly half the size of the United States and is now the subject of the largest marine conservation effort in history.
"The Coral Triangle is the highest expression of marine life in the world - 500 species of coral and thousands of species of reef fish," said Scott Atkinson, regional manager for the Coral Triangle Initiative for Conservation International, a non-government organization. "The agreement is totally unprecedented, there has been nothing like this ever in terms of marine conservation."
The Coral Triangle itself, which spans Indonesia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and East Timor, is somewhat unassuming to the untrained eye. To look at it from the Indonesian city of Manado in North Sulawesi is nothing special. And most people who live here have never heard of it.
But it is home to some of the world's oldest species, and for marine biologists it is the ultimate destination. Yet, like all the world's reefs, it is disappearing at a breakneck pace. Fisherman decimate the coral using dynamite, cyanide and other poisons, and in the process they are unwittingly destroying their own sources of income.
For millions of people in Indonesia alone, the massive reef provides their only source of income, through coastal and small-scale fisheries - an income that is meager to begin with. A report released during the World Ocean Conference last week showed that if the destruction of the reef was allowed to continue, widespread poverty would be one of the tragic results.
Fortunately, Indonesia's president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, has demonstrated an active interest in conservation since taking office several years ago. He organized the first-ever World Ocean Conference, which was held last week and which culminated in the signing of the Coral Triangle Initiative. Representative from around the world were in attendance.
It is the second time in as many years that Indonesia has held a major international conference to address environmental issues such as conservation and climate change. To everyone's surprise, Indonesia offered to host the United Nations Conference on Climate Change last year. While Indonesia still lags far behind other countries when it comes to protection of the environment, its leaders' willingness to engage and encourage dialogue seems to indicate a shift in attitude. Indonesia has taken a number of steps in recent years to improve its environmental record.
"There has been a great deal of initiative on the part of Indonesia," Atkinson said. "I have been extremely impressed with what has been accomplished so far and a lot of credit has to be given to Indonesia, as well as the countries who have signed on and pledged resources of their own."
For Indonesia, the Coral Triangle Initiative could be its most ambitious environmental effort yet.
"In 30 years of conservation work, I have never seen anything like this: six leaders signing a commitment to protect their marine resources for the well-being of their citizens and future generations," said Conservation International's Chairman Peter Seligmann. "We extend our deepest congratulations as they embark on this unprecedented global initiative to secure human livelihoods and adapt to climate change through the conservation of their individual and shared marine heritage."
Still, the signing of the agreement is only the first step. As the world learned after the signing of the Kyoto Protocol to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, action is the hard part. Despite being more than a decade old, the Kyoto Protocol has not yet led to reduced worldwide emissions.
But the Coral Triangle Initiative has received unprecedented support - including $40 million from the United States alone - and has struck a balance between development and conservation that analysts said might just be the key to making it work.
"People here have always been aware of the value of their resources and the need to protect them, but the development imperative has made it difficult. But the Coral Triangle Initiative is a really good model and I think we really can achieve a great deal," Atkinson said.
Source: The Global Post
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14 May 2009
by Christiane Oelrich
Fishermen, coastal residents sidelined at ocean conference
Manado, Indonesia - At the first-ever World Ocean Conference held on Indonesia's Sulawesi island this week, the devastating effects of climate change on the seas are the focus of international attention.
The survival of millions of costal residents is at stake - they are endangered by rising sea levels, increasing salinity of the oceans and decimated fish stocks.
Scientists, politicians and environmentalists paint a dire picture. But one group is conspicuously absent at the gathering of 5,000 experts from 80 nations - the world's coastal dwellers, islanders and fishermen - the groups affected most by the maritime changes.
Odd - as the people whose future is most at stake live right at the conference venue's doorstep. Manado has more than 600,000 inhabitants, all of them living on the coast, many of them fishermen.
Two activists were arrested Monday when they, together with 200 fishermen, tried to get the conference participant's attention. More than one dozen participants from the Philippines were deported.
'This event is organized for government officials only,' said conference chairman Eddy Pratomo, Indonesia's ambassador to Germany. 'We want a common understanding between ministers, and in due course we want to invite also people affected by climate change.'
The opinions of fishermen and costal dwellers do not sit well with the Indonesian government's view.
'Fisherfolks are punished in the name of conservation, but the problems are caused by others,' Berry Nahdian Furqon, head of the Walhi environmental forum, told the German Press Agency dpa shortly before he was arrested.
He referred to an extension of maritime safety zones where fishing is banned. The fishermen are usually the last ones to be informed about those changes, he said.
Indonesia, with broad international support, is pushing this extension towards 10 million hectares by 2010.
'Now it seems to be only about quantity, not quality of conservation,' said Riza Damanik of KIARA, an advocacy group for the rights of small-scale fisherfolk.
'If you talk about climate change you cannot be silent on pollution that is released in the sea by mining companies for example, or about oil and gas exploration, or sedimentation from cutting the forests or overfishing,' Damanik said.
Also, the problem of unregulated fishing by often foreign fishing fleets has to be stopped, he says. According to him, Indonesia is losing 20 to 50 per cent of its annual catch that way.
Such topics are too hot for the Indonesian government. Reining in mining companies could endanger tax gains and investment. If law enforcement goes after illegal fishing fleets too rigorously some high-level politicians who are involved in commercial fishing could be caught in the net.
Fisheries Minister Freddy Numberi talked about the fate of poor coastal dwellers affected by rising sea levels. Indonesian scientists fear that about 2,000 of the archipelago nation's 17,000 islands could be lost 20 years from now.
But at the conference, his main drive goes into a different direction. 'Oceans should be given credit for their role in absorbing carbon dioxide, similar to forests,' he said. 'Indonesian oceans can absorb 25 million tons of CO2 every year.'
It's all about money. Rich countries should pay for island nations like Indonesia to look after those valuable CO2 sinks, according to experts at the conference.
In their draft of the Manado Declaration, Indonesia's delegation included a passage seeking to ask UN bodies to 'consider including the provision of funding for integrated coastal and ocean management in the context of climate change,' a phrasing which was vetoed by many industrialized countries.
Source: Monsters and Critics
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5 May 2009
by Desy Nurhayati
Mangrove forest needs better care
Piles of garbage seem to be a common sight around the Angke Kapuk protected mangrove forest in the North Jakarta coastal area, despite the efforts of several environmentally friendly groups.
These groups, which include NGOs and private companies, hope to conserve the 44.76-hectare forest through replanting, but are challenged by overgrowth and pollution.
In some areas along the coastal forest, newly planted mangroves have been swept away by floods or waves.
"This area was replanted in June last year by a group of high school students. It was clean before a huge wave swept away the trees and brought the garbage here," said Siti Bariyah, a guard in the area.
"They *the students* carried out the replanting well. They cleaned up the rubbish before planting 200 seedlings here, and the trees grew nicely. It's a shame the area is now full of rubbish again."
To protect the trees from being eroded by waves, there are bamboo fences installed along the coastline, but the fences collapse whenever the waves strike.
"We clean up this area often, but it takes time to remove the debris," Siti said.
She said there used to be regular maintenance and replanting by the government, but now it increasingly falls on private companies and other voluntary groups to take care of the area.
"We hope there will be volunteers willing to tidy up this area soon," she said, adding the students' parents had also promised to restore the area after they managed to collect enough money.
Since last year, there have been several private companies jointly replanting the area as part of their corporate social responsibility program, as denoted by boards at the forest entrance.
Each company usually plants between hundreds and thousands of seedlings at once.
Saut, a forest ranger who lives in a nearby residential area, said the companies' representatives occasionally visited the forest to monitor the area they had planted.
"Some companies regularly distribute maintenance funds to the forestry agency, but there are also some others that only plant and then leave without notice."
"As far as I know, the maintenance is still partly financed by the forestry agency, although there are companies that regularly pay for it," said the forester, who has been working in the area for around 20 years.
He said it took four to five years for a mangrove to reach maturity, and that there should be routine upkeep to prevent weeds from overgrowing and blocking the mangrove.
"We should weed the area at least once a month, or else the mangroves will be strangled by the more vigorously growing weeds."
The protected forest stretches along nearly 5 kilometers from Muara Angke, Pantai Indah Kapuk to Kamal, North Jakarta.
The forest is separated into two parts by the Cengkareng Drain River.
The east part of the river comprises 16.26 hectares of forest along 2.1 kilometers, while the west part encompasses 28.5 hectares along 2.2 kilometers.
There are three monitoring towers and three guard posts, as well as three containers to collect garbage, according to the forestry agency's official website.
To get to the forest, people can pass through the Pantai Indah Kapuk housing complex and go about 800 meters to the north from Pantai Indah Kapuk Hospital located inside the complex.
The forest can also be reached via a 10-minute boat trip from Marina Beach in Ancol recreational park to the Cengkareng Drain pier.
Although there are still several polluted spots, the efforts to conserve the coastal mangrove forest have significantly improved, according to Nyoto Santoso, executive director of the Institute of Mangrove Research and Development.
"I think the conditions have greatly improved. There are many replanting campaigns every year, and thus there is less land available for replanting.
"Since the replanting is already sufficient, we should now focus on preserving the trees."
He added conservation efforts taken by the forestry agency were now better than in previous years.
"They did not even have a monitoring post back then, but now they have."
He said it would take a long time to revitalize the forest, including expanding the area to 63 hectares.
"Currently, there have only been 3 or 4 hectares of expansion."
He recommended the construction of walls along the coast to break waves, as well as nets to collect garbage brought by the waves.
To raise preservation awareness, some environmental organizations in the city provide technical assistance for volunteers taking part in replanting the mangrove forests, including the Jakarta Green Monster organization.
"We usually recommend the planters provide stocks of seedlings, as many as half of the total seedlings they have planted, so that they can replant the seedlings whenever the first planting fails," said Hendra Aquar, from the Jakarta Green Monster.
"We also supply seedlings that can grow faster in order to be more efficient."
Ahmad Safrudin, from the Jakarta chapter of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (WALHI), said the growth of the mangrove forest in the coastal area was further challenged by the short supply of brackish water, which is more saline than plain water, but less saline than seawater.
"Mangrove can grow well if it receives an appropriate supply of salt water combined with plain water."
"I noticed mangroves in several parts of the seashore have already been eroded, and there has not been enough replanting there."
Nyoto suggested the area should be properly prepared before planting mangroves by considering the factors that could hamper the growth, including the supply of water, as well as the possibility it might be easily damaged by waves or floods.
"We should monitor the growth at least between six months and one year after we plant it, depending on the rate of growth.
"After the plant matures, it will take less effort to preserve, except to remove weeds."
Source: The Jakarta Post
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12 May 2009
by Sukristijono Sukardjo
Indonesia's Mangrove Ecosystem Needs All the Attention It Can Get
In the Indian Ocean region, Indonesia owns the biggest mangrove ecosystem. The mangrove areas in Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi and Irian Jaya provide a primary source of food for millions of coastal inhabitants, and they play a vital role in maintaining ecological balance. Mangroves release large quantities of carbon and nutrients to support aquatic food chains, as well as provide nursery habitats for fish and shellfish species that are sold commercially. They also stabilize shorelines, reduce soil erosion and buffer against extreme weather conditions, thereby reducing the vulnerability of coastal communities and nearby infrastructure.
But mangroves are under increasing threat from competing resource users, particularly from tambak (brackish water fish pond) developers who have conflicting goals and limited understanding of the functions of mangrove ecosystems or their underlying potential. Almost two million hectares of mangroves in Indonesia are reported to have been lost, or an astoundingly alarming rate of 160,000 hectares per year. The most serious threat to the country's mangrove ecosystem is believed to be the clearing of mangroves for the development of artisanal ponds for fish and prawn culture. Other social and environmental problems along coastal zones also contribute to the decimation of the mangroves, as a result of extending shrimp ponds into mangrove areas or forces brought about by inclement weather.
The problem of mangrove-area conversion is most serious in Sumatra, Kalimantan and Sulawesi, and has been a long-standing issue in Java. In the Aceh and South Sulawesi provinces, for instance, nearly 80 percent of the mangrove areas have paved the way for land conversion. Java, Bali, Sulawesi have lost at least half their mangrove forests in a little over 25 years. Along the Mahakam delta in East Kalimantan, irresponsible land developers have cut off large mangrove trees, while oil and other lethal chemicals from nearby oil fields have contaminated the mangrove ecosystem and affected millions of species.
Today, Mahakam faces not only the sad reality of these brazen attacks on its area, but also, ecologists say, a grim future that sees a barren, useless piece of land.
The country has been enduring this type of ecological crisis for several years now, but it is said that things will turn out worse this decade. I admit that I am fighting to save only a small fraction of Indonesian Borneo's (or Kalimantan, which make up 70 percent of the Borneo Island) original grandeur. Still, I hope the awareness by those participating in the World Ocean Conference will address the country's problem.
The mangrove ecosystem can't be allowed to die away and fall into exploitative hands.
Mangrove forests have been systematically destroyed in the name of development. It has been frequently reported that the conversion of mangrove areas to shrimps ponds or tambak and other facilities represents the single largest threat to the mangrove ecosystem in the country.
The government has imposed partial bans on logging, cracked down on illegal loggers and raised timber royalties. History shows that this type of environmental rape can have far-reaching consequences. The deforestation of mangrove areas pose similar repercussions on the environment. It can lead to the salination of agricultural lands, as in the case in Indramayu in the northern coast of West Java. It can affect the amount of rainfall as well, because trees trap moisture and then re-evaporate it. Sadly, despite the warning signs, nobody seems to care.
The Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004 is a prime example of how valuable mangroves can be. Reports from Aceh in North Sumatra and Nias suggest that the coastal communities protected by mangrove forests were damaged less compared to those that had a depleted mangrove ecosystem.
The encroachment of industries into the country's mangroves is vividly illustrated in the map of Metro Jakarta. Over 42 years until 2002, the Jakarta coastal zone lost 1,102 hectares of mangrove forest, a deplorable loss given that mangroves are a natural heritage in the country's capital.
Besides leaving a legacy to the city, mangroves in Jakarta serve a practical purpose: they prevent floods. The water level along the highway to the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport rises quickly not only because of engineering problems, but also because of the depletion of mangrove areas along the coast of Jakarta, particularly near the airport.
Campaigns to promote the importance of the mangrove ecosystem are not lacking, with billboards and posters being put up in connection with the WOC. But even though the government is aware of this environmental issue, it has failed to transform concerns from the community level into an effective national program that would save the country's mangrove ecosystem as a whole.
Conflict of interest among stakeholders, including nongovernment associations, and concerns of who gets credit for what have hampered progress, as well as other factors like population increase, pollution along coastal zones and in aquatic habitats, epidemics and catastrophes.
With some 60 percent of Indonesia's total population living along the country's coastlines, these areas have the highest concentration of people. The mangrove ecosystem, as well as coral reef and seagrass, breeds animal and plant life that provide basic resources to these communities. That means natural resources are being used up faster and in turn, opens these communities to social conflict.
Mangrove ecosystems offer food sources, serving as habitats for aquatic species that are being sold commercially and at the same time used by coastal communities as their primary source of income. If the government recognizes the potential that these ecosystems bring - both from the micro (employment opportunities for local communities) and the macro standpoints - it will do its best to maintain them. Which means the government wouldn't just rely on the short-sighted vision of converting mangroves into tambak .
The commitment made in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 has its roots in the governing council of the United Nations Environmental Program, and its declaration of the need for concerted international action for effectively conserving the world's biodiversity. Following this tact, new forms of international cooperation reflect the country's growing awareness that the disappearing mangroves is not only an issue of losing a national treasure but more importantly, an issue of playing an important global role in maintaining ecological balance.
As a result of the commitment made during the Rio de Janeiro summit in 1992, the world has a stake in conserving the country's mangrove forests. In other words, this is a concern of everybody. Stakeholders need to sit down and take the matter seriously; this ecosystem can't simply be allowed to die away and fall into exploitative hands.
The future of life on this planet captured worldwide attention during the Earth Summit in 1992 when 155 nations and states, including the European Union, signed the Convention on Biological Diversity. Humanity has long deluded itself into thinking that the mangrove shortage merely reflected problems of storms and sea flooding. Indonesia is beginning to realize that mangroves are finite and vulnerable resources, an irreplaceable commodity that must be respected and preserved.
The Manado Ocean Declaration of the WOC should be strong enough to encourage an international commitment on mangroves that would save the planet and its coastal zones.
Source: The Jakarta Globe
BANGLADESH
by Pinaki Roy
Shrimp Lose Shine in Bangladesh
Soil salinity and falling global prices push farmers to agriculture
An increasing number of shrimp farmers in Bangladesh are going back to paddy farming. They don't find the business lucrative anymore. Reason? "Shrimp farming has rendered our village saline…Even groundwater has become too salty to drink," said Krishnapada Mandal.
His village Khalsi, in Khulna district, is adjacent to the Sunderbans-the world's largest mangrove forest.
In the 1980s, when Bangladesh witnessed a boom in shrimp farming, Mandal converted his about-an-acre paddy field into a shrimp pond. Then his village was full of coconut, mango and banana groves. But over the two decades, they have given way to mangroves. "Paddy farming has become impossible," he said.
Mandal has joined many farmers from the coastal districts of Khulna, Satkhira and Bagerhat who are protesting against the hazards of saltwater-based shrimp farming.
As per the proposed national shrimp policy drafted in 2008, about 217,000 hectares (ha) is under shrimp farming, of which 80 per cent is for saltwater lobsters.
Between September and February, as upstream water flow drops in rivers, they become prone to tidal flooding and get salty. Shrimp farmers open sluice gates and allow the saline river water to flow into the canal. They irrigate their fields with this saline water and cultivate shrimp.
Village residents say years of this practice has increased the soil's salinity and reduced its fertility. Stagnant saline water in shrimp ponds often seeps into the groundwater making it useless. "This has resulted in drinking water crisis," said Mira Ray of Khalsi village. Dakop and Paikgachha sub-districts in Khulna are the hardest hit. "Most people here now collect rainwater and preserve them in large clay pots. Otherwise, we have to travel up to six kilometres to fetch drinking water," said Ray.
There are other reasons as well. "Following the global economic meltdown, the price of shrimp, mostly in demand from industrialized countries, has dropped from US $5 in 2007 to US $3.7," said Gaurango Nandi, a journalist from Khulna town. "This is a major reason for which shrimp cultivation suddenly became unpopular in this region," Nandi said. When paddy was being sown in December, farmers turned 12,000 ha of shrimp farms to paddy fields, said Dakop's agriculture officer.
It was not so before:
Two decades ago, many farmers from the coastal districts had converted their paddy fields into shrimp farms. Exports to the EU and the US made shrimp Bangladesh's second biggest foreign currency earner. But soon influential people monopolized the business. They forced small farmers to lease their land. A number of farmers did this at will, but many were forced into the business when big shrimp farm owners flooded their fields with saline water. Initially, it yielded a good profit and was dubbed white gold. Following an outbreak of white spot disease in 2000-2001, small farmers realized agriculture was a better option. But most of them had leased their farmlands and getting it back was not easy. This led to a tussle. Several police cases have been lodged against farm owners and their musclemen for trying to open the sluice gates and flooding paddy fields with saline water.
The issue also had a political impact. During the 2008 national election only those politicians won who promised to fight saltwater aggression. Farmers now demand the government take steps to ensure environment-friendly shrimp cultivation to check further damage.
Source: Down to Earth magazine
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24 May 2009
by Natasha Ahmad, Asia Secretariat
New Developments
A lot of new 'developments' are taking place in Bangladesh. The government is trying to introduce a new law that will help the industry. On the field side, the communities affected by this 'rape and run' industry are coming together and taking action. They are demanding rights to food sovereignty, livelihood and access to land. On the brighter side, the affected local communities have political support for their movement.
A few weeks ago I had posted links to newspaper clips (4 Bangla dailies have published a series of articles on this issue. I had sent out links to the few English articles on the topic) of reports on the shrimp issue from Khulna, Bangladesh.
Just yesterday, a Bangla daily reported that the Bangladesh Government has banned the export of shrimp for the next six months. The reason behind this ban is excessive level of Nitrofuran in the shrimp. Nitrofuran is a banned class of antibiotics and antimicrobials. The EU raised this issue and (I believe) also threatened to stop the import of all kinds of shrimps, fish and crabs from Bangladesh. The Government did not have any choice but to stop the export for next six months. This is the power that the EU can wield if it chooses to!
The order has been sent to the BFFEA (Bangladesh Frozen Food Exporters Association) and the ministry of Fisheries would inform the EU about action taken.
>From this fiscal year (June 2008-July 2009), the Quality Control cell of the Fisheries Department under the Ministry found very high level of Nitrofuran in all 27 lots (the report did not mention the total amount in tons) of exported lobsters. The level was 'too high' and was deemed 'hazardous'.
In another story published yesterday, shrimp workers reacted sharply to the Labour Ministry's proposed minimum wage. The entire report is pasted below.
Shrimp plant workers, rights group reject Tk 2,510 as minimum wage
Staff Correspondent . Khulna, New Age 21/05/09:
Shrimp processing plant workers, rights group and economists have rejected Tk 2,510 as the monthly minimum wage fixed by the board on minimum wage for shrimp industry workers and labourers.
The labour and employment ministry formed the six-member board through a gazette notification on November 17, 2008.
The board at a meeting on Monday in its office in Dhaka set Tk 2,510 as the minimum monthly wage for the workers, sources said.
The wage structure has seven grades with Tk 2,510 as the monthly salary for the lowest grade and Tk 5,500 for the highest grade. Members on the non-administrative staff have been divided into five grades where the fifth grade staff will get Tk 2,510 and the first grade staff Tk 5,500 as monthly salary.
Shrimp industry workers in Khulna said they needed at least Tk 7,500 a month to run a family of four to five members and Tk 2510 was only a third of the amount they needed.
They said the labourers in processing plants received between Tk 1,500 and Tk 4,500 a month, depending on their work experiences. Their condition will not improve even if the proposed wage structure is implemented, they said.
A woman labourer the Jahanabad Sea Food Limited at Rupsha said she needed at least Tk 7,000 a month to run her family of three.
'I earn Tk 2,600 a month and my husband, who works in another plant, also earns Tk 2,800. Sometimes we need to work overtime to earn more and take help from our relations,' she said. 'If the minimum wage is set at Tk 2,510, we will be in trouble and we will need to stop sending our child to school to save Tk 1,200 a month.'
The Khulna Shrimp Industry Labourer Interest Preservation Coordination Committee convener, Firoz Ahmed, rejected Tk 2,510 as the monthly minimum wage. He demanded that the amount should be Tk 7,500, including Tk 4500 in basic wage.
Khulna University economics teacher Shahnewaz Nazimuddin said Tk 2,510 as monthly minimum wage for shrimp industry workers and labourers was not acceptable in the present situation with spiralling goods prices.
Nazimuddin said the amount could not be accepted as the recent government pay commission had recommended Tk 4,000 as the minimum wage for the lowest grade employees in public sector.
A board member, S Humayun Kabir, also the managing director of the Amam Sea Food Limited, told New Age the board at Monday's meeting set Tk 2,510 as the minimum monthly wage for labourers working in shrimp industries and people having objection to the amount could send in their complaints in writing to the board in 14 days after the publication of the gazette.
He said on complaints, the board would sit again to decide the amount and if no objection was received, the amount would be finalised as the minimum wage. He said the gazette had been sent to the BG Press for printing.
Source: Asia Solidarity Against Industrial Aquaculture
==================================
27 May 2009
Aila toll leaps to 121
The death toll from Cyclone Aila rose to 121 yesterday, as thousands of people marooned in the coastal areas were battling to survive the aftermath with little food and drinking water.
The storm that ripped through the south-western coast Monday has left at least 32 people killed in Satkhira, 25 in Noakhali, 20 in Khulna, 13 in Bhola, nine in Barisal, seven in Patuakhali, six in Laxmipur, two each in Bagerhat and Cox's Bazar, and one in Magura, according to reports from the affected areas.
Besides, two persons in Chapainawabganj and one each in Natore and Lalmonirhat are among the Aila fatalities, news agency UNB adds.
The food and disaster management ministry however puts the body count at 91.
Our correspondents reported that tidal waves churned by strong winds have inundated vast swathes of land.
Heavy rains coupled with gales flattened huge tracts of standing crops and washed away numerous fisheries.
They also caused extensive damage to embankments and levees in the coastal districts.
More than 800 people have been wounded and at least 58,450 domestic animals killed, according to the disaster management ministry.
The government has deployed army and navy to help local administration and non-government organisations in rescue and relief operations. Five navy ships have been working to bring people stranded in offshore islands to safety.
Food Minister Abdur Razzak yesterday visited different cyclone-hit areas in Bhola, Patuakhali, and Khulna. He distributed relief among the locals at Panpatti village under Galachipa upazila in Patuakhali district.
Later, briefing reporters in the capital, he said water crisis seems to be the main problem in the coastal areas. Some 278 water purification machines of the army are in operation to deal with the shortage of safe drinking water.
Razzak said the cyclone has affected at least 30 lakh people.
Deputy commissioners, upazila nirbahi officers, upazila chairmen and vice-chairmen are carrying out relief work in 14 districts.
The administration will distribute rice among the victims through VGF cards. It has an adequate stock of rice at every upazila. Already 2,500 tonnes of rice and Tk 1.23 crore in cash have been sent to the local administration for distribution, he added.
The government will not seek aids from the international community as long as it can tackle the situation on its own. "We will however consider if anyone offers any relief or assistance."
Local officials said several lakh people were still stuck in remote chars. Many took refuge on treetops and roofs of their submerged houses.
The Red Crescent Society in its report yesterday said over 33 lakh people in eight districts were affected by the cyclone. Around 1 lakh were taken to safe shelters under an evacuation campaign by volunteers and law enforcement agencies, BSS adds.
Our Barisal correspondent reports: In Barisal division, Bhola appears to have borne the worst of the cyclone.
Road and water communications between seven upazilas in the district have been snapped for two days now.
Local sources said Aila has destroyed thousands of hectares of crops including Aus, Aman and Boro rice, and vegetables.
Manpura flood control embankment has been breached at many points. Strong current has carried away a 10-km stretch of the dam, and onrushing tide levelled hundreds of homes.
People in the remote flood-affected areas were suffering from an acute shortage of drinking water.
Our staff correspondent from Khulna reports: At 5:00pm yesterday, the death count in the cyclonic storm stood at 22, according to official sources.
Of the dead, 20 were in Khulna district and the other two, women, in Bagerhat district.
The storm and tidal surge have destroyed almost 80 percent of the forest camps in Chandpai and Sharankhola ranges, said Mihir Kumar, divisional forest officer in charge of the Sundarbans east wing.
According to Khulna district control room, Aila has left around 30,000 houses in ruins. The number could be even higher once a full assessment is done.
Unofficial sources said over three lakh people in Khulna and Bagerhat districts have remained marooned as of filing this report at 7:00pm.
At least 90 percent of shrimp enclosures and flood control dams in Khulna and Bagerhat districts have been washed away.
Cargo handling at Mongla Port, which was suspended on Sunday night, resumed yesterday morning.
Our correspondent from Satkhira said at least 32 people including children were killed in Cyclone Aila. Shyamnagar and Assassuni upazilas were the worst affected.
At least 90 percent of thatched houses and mud huts have been demolished by Aila-fed tidal surge, forcing thousands of people to take shelter in nearby buildings and cyclone centres.
Those in cyclone shelters were passing hard times for scarcity of food, drinking water and medicines. The local administration was yet to launch any relief efforts.
Meanwhile, fears of an outbreak of diarrhoea and other water-borne diseases were growing.
Our Patuakhali correspondent reports: The number of people affected in Cyclone Aila is over 11.50 lakh. Around 400 km flood control embankment and 75 km roads of LGED have been damaged.
The district had at least 30,000 hectares of crops including Aus damaged in the storm.
Our Gopalganj correspondent said hundreds of mud houses were knocked down and trees uprooted during the cyclone on Monday.
The affected areas had been without electricity for over 24 hours. Land phone connections and mobile network were yet to start functioning.
According to government figures, 352 unions and 62 upazilas in 14 districts-Barisal, Bhola, Pirojpur, Patuakhali, Barguna, Jhalakathi, Khulna, Bagerhat, Satkhira, Chittagong, Cox's Bazar, Laxmipur, Feni and Noakhali-have been affected.
Crops on 68,385 acres of land have been damaged completely and those on 2,39,212 acres partially. A total of 42,038 houses have been flattened and 1,98,823 damaged. Of the roads in the 14 districts, 258.5 km have been too battered to be used.
Besides, 509 km embankments have been wrecked and 2,155 km damaged.
EXAMS POSTPONED
The HSC and equivalent examinations scheduled for the next two days have been postponed in nine upazilas-Ashashuni and Shamnagar of Satkhira, Koira, Paikgacha, Botiaghata, Dumuria and Dakop of Khulna, and Mongla and Rampal of Bagerhat district.
Jessore Board Controller Amirul Islam told The Daily Star that dates for these examinations would be announced later.
Source: Bangladesh News
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INDIA
9 May 2009
by ANI
Climate change leading to increase in tiger attacks in Sundarban islands
London, Oct 22 (ANI): Conservation experts have said that the number of tiger attacks on people is growing in Indias Sundarban islands as habitat loss and dwindling prey caused by climate change drives them to prowl into villages for food.
The Sundarbans, a 26,000 sq km area of low-lying swamps on Indias border with Bangladesh, is dotted with hundreds of small islands criss-crossed by water channels.
According to a report in New Scientist, wildlife experts said that endangered tigers in the worlds largest reserve are turning on humans because rising sea levels and coastal erosion are steadily shrinking the tigers natural habitat.
In the past six months, seven fishermen were killed in an area called Netidhopani, said Pranabes Sanyal of the World Conservation Union.
Owing to global warming, the fragile Sundarbans lost 28 percent of its habitat in the last 40 years. A part of it is the core tiger reserve area from where their prey migrated, he added.
But as sea levels rise, two islands have already disappeared and others are vulnerable.
Wildlife experts said that the destruction of the mangroves means the tigers most common prey, such as crocodiles, fish and big crabs, is dwindling.
Mangroves have been overexposed to salt water as sea levels rise. Many plants have lost their red and green colours and are more like bare twigs, exposing tigers to poachers who hunt them for their skin and bones.
Sundarban villagers pass through tiger territory on boats to fish in the sea, or to collect honey in forest areas.
Villagers are not supposed to enter a number of islands earmarked as tiger territories, but they seldom follow the rules, get attacked and claim compensation, said Pradip Shukla, a senior forest department official.
Once home to 500 tigers in the late 1960s, the Sundarbans may only shelter between 250 and 270 tigers now, wildlife officials said.
The Indian Statistical Institute said that the number is as low as 75. Most tigers have been wiped out due to poaching and habitat loss.
According to authorities, a tiger was killed by poachers in the Sundarbans earlier this month, the latest such killing in India.
The area is the worlds largest mangrove reserve and one of the most unique ecosystems in South Asia, recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Ullas Karanth, of the Wildlife Conservation Society India, said that the Sundarbans are a poor quality tiger habitat because of low prey densities.
The tendency to seek alternate prey in the form of livestock and sometimes humans might be higher in these tigers, Karanth said.
Source: Sundarban News
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15 May 2009
Mangroves, bulwark against cyclones, finds a study
KENDRAPARA: Mangrove forests protect villages from storms and cyclones and the more the mangrove forests the better the protection. This is the finding of a study on the storm-related deaths in the coastal pockets of Kendrapara.
The study by researchers of University of Delhi and Duke University, the USA, covered deaths in more than 400 villages in Kendrapara district during 1999 super cyclone that killed nearly 10,000 people in the coastal pockets.
Duke University Prof Jeffrey R Vincent told this paper through e-mail, ''Our research found a clear relationship between the number of deaths per village and the width of the mangroves between those villages and the coast. Taking other environmental and socio-economic factors into account, villages with wider mangroves recorded significantly fewer deaths than ones with narrower or no mangroves.'' ''We believe this is the first robust evidence that mangroves can protect coastal villages from certain types of natural disasters,'' he said.
In 1944, an average village in Kendrapara district had mangroves measuring 5.1 km in width. Since then, nearly half the area has been denuded mostly for agriculture purposes and the average width of mangroves between villages and the coast has been reduced to just 1.2 km. Though early warnings are most effective in saving lives, Vincent said, retaining the remaining mangroves in Orissa is economically justified even without considering many other environmental benefits they provide like acting as nurseries for fisheries or sites for eco-tourism. ''We show in our study that mangroves were associated with statistically significant reduction in human deaths in October 1999. We focused on the villages in Mahakalapada and Rajnagar blocks of the district that were inundated by storm surge. We analysed the number of storm-related deaths in the two blocks and four tehsils. Although 564 villages in these areas were inundated by the storm surge, we limited our sample study to the 409 coastal villages.'' Vincent conducted the analysis with Saudamini Das of University of Delhi's Swami Shradanand College. The study was supported by South Asian Network for Development and Environmental Economics (SANDEE) with research facilities provided by the Institute of Economic Growth, New Delhi.
Source: Express News Service
==============================
22 May 2009
by Dhanya Nair
Andheri residents take it upon themselves to save mangroves
Mumbai: Mangroves, a natural greenbelt or buffer zone that has the potential to protect the city from powerful rains, are depleting at a fast pace. Ahead of monsoon, the residents of a suburban area have taken it upon themselves to avoid further depletion of the greenbelt.
As part of their pre-monsoon preparedness, the residents will undertake a cleanup drive on the stretch between Lokhandwala and Seven Bungalows in Andheri. The drive will be kickstarted on June 5, the World Environment Day.
Environmentalists say huge pile-up of garbage is one of the main threats to the existing mangrove stretch in the city. In Lokhandwala, the daily pile of rubble from private constructions and other works, almost 7,000 tonnes a day, is on the rise owing to ongoing excavations for mega projects.
The residents, fearing a 26/7 like situation, are gearing up for action. "Mangroves act as natural buffers and can prevent a flood-like situation because their roots go about 5 ft deep and sometimes even further. They can soak any amount of rainfall," said Rishi Aggarwal, joint secretary, Mangrove Society of India, Mumbai chapter. "This stretch is more important because trees have the best survival rate here."
However, residents fear that this time it won't be a smooth sail. "With garbage piling up, it will act as a bottleneck preventing mangroves from doing its natural task. Hence, we have to clean up this mess before it proves too costly," said Aggarwal.
They have written a letter to the BMC, seeking help to carry out the drive. "We won't be able to make much of a difference. We have approached the civic body to give us its volunteers as well. Once we have them with us, we can bring a change," said resident and joint secretary of Lokhandwala Complex Environment Action Group, P K Patel.
Ahmed Kareem, the chief engineer of the solid waste management in BMC, admitted that garbage pile-up in the mangrove stretch is a huge problem. "Garbage in mangrove belt can create leakages and bottlenecks. The problem is definitely high and if residents and community associations are undertaking cleanup drives we will definitely help them," said Kareem.
The residents also want a wall to be built on the periphery of a temporary garbage dumping ground that falls inside the belt. "Ideally, this dumping ground should not be here. But we think it's a necessary evil. Therefore we want the BMC to build a retaining wall," said Aggarwal.
The residents are also planning awareness campaigns on the importance of segregating wet and dry garbage. "Residents don't segregate their garbage and ultimately it all lands up in this stretch. We aim to change this mind set," said architect Yash Merchant, another resident.
Source: Indian Express
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PAKISTAN
2 May 2009
by Shafi Baloch
Land mafia poses existential threat to mangroves
Despite their tall claims, the concerned ministry and the law enforcers in Pakistan have completely failed to stop mafia from cutting mangroves in the coastal belt of the metropolis, sources confided to The Nation on Friday.
Influential land grabbers have eliminated thousands of tons of mangroves within a month in coastal areas including Hawks Bay. They are also active in encroaching large tracts of lands at Sandspit Road, Fisheries Goth, Younusabad, Kakka Village and other parts of the coastline while concerned authorities did not bother to take any action against the culprits.
Local residents said that influential people used to dump industrial waste into water to develop plots and that several housing schemes had been launched through such tactics. A social activist in the area, Ali Akbar Shah, said that authorities concerned doing nothing to save the decades-old villages and deprived the local citizens of basic facilities such as drinking water, health and education while at the same times they were supporting illegal schemes in the area.
Local people, NGOs and different political parties have complained umpteen times the lack of basic facilities in the area and activities of the mafias and land grabbers but it always fell on deaf ears. Despite receiving huge funds from foreign donor agencies to save the mangroves, the NGOs operating in the country have failed to secure them.
Similarly, the government agencies have also not taken any initiative in this regard. Pakistan is heavily dependent on these mangrove forests to maintain the ecological balance. Moreover, the mangrove leaf litter provides major source of nutrients besides maintaining a diverse habitat for rare species of invertebrates, fish, birds, and reptiles.
The primary productivity of these mangrove-covered deltaic areas are four to seven times more than those of coastal areas without such forests.
According to sources, the South Asian waterfowl seeks food and shelter in these estuaries and mangroves. Additionally, most of the tropical marine, such as the commercially important shrimp species, seek shelter in the mangroves during various stages of their life cycles. The shipping industry also affects this environment through its discharges, water pollution and possible leakages and spills.
Mangroves are inter-tidal forests with great economic and ecological significance. The mangrove conservation efforts in Karachi provide another illustration of sustainable community development.
Hundred of thousands people in Karachi depend on the mangroves for their livelihood. For villages surrounding the forests, the mangroves provide food, fodder and firewood. They also provide protection to the coastal areas from strong winds and ocean currents. Besides, their vegetation helps in reducing coastline erosion because the roots collect sediments that flow into sea from the river.
Over the past several years, the degradation of Pakistanís mangroves has occurred at the rate of 6 per cent per annum. As a result, only 16 per cent of these forests exist today. The most harmful environmental stress that the mangroves face presently derives largely from human activity. The steady growth of a major industrial city within
in its vicinity, the untreated sewage and industrial discharge, the increase in the demand for firewood, overgrazing and over-exploitation of resources are just a few of the strains on the mangrovesí ecosystem.
The reduction of incoming freshwater flows also threatens the ecosystem.
Earlier, the World Bank proposed to declare mangrove area a national park and a foreigner NGO demanded it to be designated a biosphere reserve so that it could help protect and contribute to the conservation of the area as well as foster economic and human development, enabling the communities to manage natural resources themselves and ensure sustainability.
Owing to the high dependence of villagers on the mangrove resources, these proposals do not seem very practical to many. Presently, there are three governmental bodies, namely, the Sindh Forest Department, the Port Qasim Authority and the Board of Revenue, which control and manage different areas of the mangroves.
Source: The Nation
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6 May 2009
by Muktar Alam
Pakistan may face exceptional climate change
KARACHI: A UK-based climate change expert has said that there will be an exceptional change in the temperatures in Pakistan as a whole in the coming years, but that the province of Sindh will be less affected as compared to the other parts of the country.
Speaking to senior officials and heads of various departments of the City District Government Karachi on the second day of a training workshop on climate change, environmentalist Matthew Savage added that the temperature increase in Pakistan as a whole would be higher than the expected global average increase. Climate change projections up to the year 2080 were discussed at the workshop.
The projected temperature increase in the north is somewhat higher than in the south of Pakistan, Mr Savage said, adding that the projected temperature increase in winter is more than that in summer.
Discussing the impact of climate change in the future, the scientist said that there were chances of decline in irrigated wheat yield in the semi-arid areas of Pakistan in the range of nine to 30 per cent for a temperature increase of one degree centigrade to four degrees centigrade.
About 80 per cent of the nation's food and fibre needs are met by irrigated agriculture, with the canal irrigation network mainly dependent on glaciers of the Hindu Kush and Himalayas, which are believed to be receding. He said that climate change is expected to result in changes in land and water resources that will subsequently affect agriculture productivity.
Speaking about the monsoon season, Mr Savage said that climate change could influence monsoon dynamics and cause summer precipitation levels to drop, as well delays in the start of the monsoon season. There may also be longer breaks between rainy periods, he said.
According to him, Karachi may however face the threat of rising sea levels by the year 2100, and therefore better monitoring and data collection is required to calibrate models correctly. More saline-tolerant species of mangroves should be planted, and there should be a strict control on the removal of mangrove trees. Further, there needs to be community involvement, as well as a topographical survey of coastal and mangrove areas, he said.
He regretted that climate change research was 'essentially neglected' in Pakistan until recently.
The local administration is the first line of response to climate change and as such they should acquaint themselves with the changes of climate and should know more about the impact of drought, water shortages, wild fires, flooding, rising sea levels and infrastructure disruption, he asserted.
The visiting expert also shared his views on the issue of adaptation and responses, and called for promoting and facilitating new development and infrastructure that was located, designed and constructed for the climate it will experience over its design life.
During the session on Monday, the environmentalist stated that deforestation, along with a substantial increase in the number of motor vehicles and industrial zones, had contributed significantly to the rapid changes in the global climate.
With the melting of huge glaciers, the sea surface is expected to rise by two metres, which would result in the sinking of many islands and a further increase in the populations of many already overburdened cities, he said.
While updating the EDOs and senior officers of the CDGK, Mr Savage had remarked that human beings around the world should bring about changes in their behavior, as climate change was a problem faced not by a single country, but by the entire world, and it could only be dealt with by coordinated efforts.
We should also use natural resources with great care, so that the next generation should not suffer from their scarcity, he added.
Hinting about the availability of funds for undertaking research and development of mitigation mechanisms, the British expert said that Pakistan had never asked for assistance in this sector, while other developing countries had been getting help from the world community. Pakistan should also get this assistance from the developed world, he suggested.
The two-day workshop was held on the directives of City Nazim Syed Mustafa Kamal with the collaboration of the British Deputy High Commission in Karachi to update the government EDOs and senior officers on global climate changes and its effects on coastal cities.
Source: DAWN.com
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10 May 2009
by Dr. Noman Ahmed
Warming or warning signs?
During end of February 2009, ministers from industrialised countries visited Antarctica to examine the status of the ice clad continent. This move emanated from the growing concern related to global warming, and among the potential targets are the coastal mega cities located in the Asia Pacific region.
During a workshop at Bangkok on the topic of 'Cities at Risk' during the same time period, experts and researchers from across the globe deliberated on the issues of climate change and its impacts on coastal mega cities. Scholars from Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, University of Tokyo, Asian Development Bank; World Bank, University of Hawaii, University of South Carolina; NED University, Karachi, United Nations University, Bonn; Ibaraki University, Japan, and several other organisations participated and presented valuable research findings. It was found that some of the risk factors have already begun showing their mark. Recurring cycles of typhoons in Manila, changing flooding patterns in Dhaka, rain-based disasters in Karachi and Mumbai, and many similar events in the recent past confirm that they were not accidental happenings. They represent an anticipated sequence of events that have a direct link with compound effects of global climate change.
It was also agreed that locally induced climate changes also constituted a vital aspect that can transform the local ecology. And it was unanimously ratified that conventional disaster management approaches are not adequate to address the gravity of issues that must be dealt to secure the habitat and assets of mega cities, including Karachi. The outcome of the moot has offered many points to be considered for policy makers pertinent to urban planning and management in the Pakistani megapolis.
Karachi is now only eight feet above on an average sea level, compared to 33 feet a decade ago. The level of sea is rising which needs a greater monitoring for proper estimation and planning. It may be noted that the global warming and melting of poles are only one of the reason for this impending menace. Locally induced urban disorders also contribute to the climatic changes. The gradual removal of mangrove cover, thoughtless process of land reclamation, construction on the mouths of natural drains and estuaries are some factors that affect the local eco-system.
During 2004 and afterwards, mega scale real estate developments on the Karachi coast and surrounding Bundal and Buddo islands have caused adverse impacts on the contextual environment. Local climate change can lead to many catastrophes in the near future. Rising sea level can cause ingress of sea wave and salinity in the low lying coastal areas. In the absence of a natural barrier of mangrove cover, the storm surges can evolve and damage the coastal locations without warnings. In the recent past, Karachi was under threat of storms and cyclones which, mercifully, did not hit the city. It makes all the more reason that we take appropriate measures to deal with the threats that confront the city and adjoining coastal locations.
The collection of appropriate physical and meteorological data is the first step. Whereas reasonable data collection is done for meteorological variables, accurate information about the sea level benchmarks has to be initiated. Relative changes in sea level rise must be measured which evolve as a consequence of developmental and environmental activities all across the city and its hinterland. Conservation and re-plantation of mangrove forests is the next precaution. Many threats shall be mitigated by adopting this simple but effective step.
Mangroves are a natural environmental asset. They prevent the devastating effects of tidal waves, storms and even tsunami from approaching the settlements. A normal habitat of mangroves can perform a service that can be done only by a multi-billion dollar dyke construction. Conscious and steady action is thus needed in this direction without delay.
The marine pollution caused by operation of ships and ports destroys the mangrove forestation. About 90,000 tonnes of oil waste is thrown in the ocean in the proximity of Karachi. Institutions such as the Marine Pollution Control Board must be re-activated and charged with timely actions to prevent the coastline and surroundings from this expanding menace.
A reassessment exercise is needed to establish the minimum threshold line to allow development. This task has to be done at two levels. The existing developed neighbourhoods need to be examined for potential sea rise threats. These areas must be declared hazard-prone areas which can be expropriated by the state according to the procedure of land value indexing. The land so acquired can then be utilised for environmental consolidation strategies to benefit the city.
At the next level, the undeveloped land can be scrutinised for the same set of variables. A mechanism of land acquisition of such sold and unsold land must be done in a scientific manner. This is probably the toughest of challenges given the speculative nature of land allocations, management and transaction. Multiple agencies are in control of land management function.
A coastal disaster prevention plan must be prepared to safeguard the coastline in particular and the city in general, with the input of the land management agencies. Federal government may initiate the launch of the planning exercise in order to ensure the active participation of the concerned stakeholders. The input of research institutions, the Meteorological Department, research scientists, engineers and urban planners must be ensured and incorporated.
Karachi is the economic life line of Pakistan. It cannot be left at the mercy of disasters which have struck in the past with lesser intensity. Something needs to be done now, not later.
Source: DAWN.com
=====================
11 May 2009
Exploring ecotourism potential in mangroves
Environment Secretary Kamran Lashari emphasised exploring potential for ecotourism in the backwaters and mangrove forests near Sandspit at Karachi Beach.
He highlighted this during a visit to the Wetlands Centre at Sandspit along with World Wide Fund (WWF) Pakistan officials.
"The Sandspit Beach, for being an important ecological site by providing a nesting place for the endangered green turtles, needs our immediate attention and for this purpose the role of the WWF's Wetland Centre is vital," Lashari said.
He observed how the untreated sewage from Lyari drain is thrown into the Arabian Sea, which poses a severe threat to marine life. He felt the need for a comprehensive plan for awareness raising and conservation initiatives in the area. In this regard he pointed out that the backwater mangroves; flora and fauna and scene environment of the area has tremendous potential to attract a large number of visitors, as the place is located near Karachi - of the biggest metropolis in the region. He observed and appreciated the initial efforts taken by WWF Pakistan and the local communities of Kakapir villages.
Later, the secretary was briefed by a team of WWF Pakistan headed by Regional Director Dr Ghulam Akbar. Dr Akbar gave a detailed presentation about WWF's intervention in the area including the Indus for All Programme, which intends to demonstrate the community-based conservation initiatives in the lower Indus Basin by enhancing livelihood opportunities for the local communities.
WWF officials Rab Nawaz and Dr Altaf Abro informed the secretary about future plans to have a long-term programme for Pakistan's coastal areas including the Indus Delta and mangroves ecosystem.
Source: The News International
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20 May 2009
by Shafqat Hussain Quershi
Loss of mangroves
It is unfortunate that the government of Sindh has failed to protect the land reserved for developing a mangrove forest on the coast of Karachi. The federal minister for environment disclosed this fact before the media at a conference organised under the auspices of the United Nations Development Programme at Kaka Peru village, on the outskirts of the metropolis.
The minister revealed that out of 110,000 acres of land, reserved for developing mangroves, 11,000 acres have already been sold by the provincial government for developing various housing schemes. The minister further asked the provincial government to cancel the sale immediately and also stated that looking at the enormity of the problem, he will raise this question before the federal cabinet.
The unbridled and unchecked depletion of mangroves, through cutting and discharge of untreated industrial waste/effluences into sea, has played havoc with the local ecosystem. The sale by the government of 11,000 acres of reserved land to construction companies has, however, sealed, once for all, the fate of the project under which fresh mangroves would have been grown.
The Sindh Coastal Development Authority, an agency established for the development of coastal area of Sindh, should also be involved in preparing a long-term comprehensive plan so as to replenish the lost mangroves in the shortest possible time.
Source: PakTribune
MEXICO
11 May 2009
Nudist resort destroys mangroves
MEXICO CITY, May 11 (Tierramérica).- Residents of Marquelia, a coastal town of some 15,000 people in the southwestern Mexican state of Guerrero, have complained that municipal authorities allowed the destruction of mangrove forests in an area where a nudist resort is to be built.
"Workers cut down the mangroves and other trees to build a road, and they are continuing with this project. We are poor, but we have enough, and we don't want nudists," Marquelia resident Sofía Martínez told Tierramérica.
The municipality will spend 370,000 dollars on a private nudist tourism complex, with hotels and restaurants, along 11 kilometers of beach. The company that will own the complex is not yet known.
The Federal Environmental Prosecutor inspected the area in March and April, and warned that it could shut down the project because it does have permits or environmental impact studies.
Source: Tierramerica
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COSTA RICA
18 May 2009
by Alex Laff
Why you won't see Costa Rican shrimp on US menus
SAN JOSE - The U.S. State Department this month banned imports of Costa Rican shrimp because of this country's failure to enforce laws that prevent shrimpers from catching and drowning endangered sea turtles in their trawl nets.
The news came as a blow to a country thought to be leading a green revolution: There are fears here that the ban will tarnish Costa Rica's eco-friendly reputation. In addition, there are economic concerns. Costa Rica's seafood has slowly crept onto menus at U.S. restaurants in recent years.
"The initial economic impact won't be as bad as the way this will affect our image, which could spread to other sectors of the fishing industry as well. That's a big concern," said Patricia Arce, executive director of the National Chamber of Fishery Product Exporters.
But environmental groups say shrimpers here have had their chance to uphold Costa Rica's green standards.
Four species of marine turtles - the green sea turtle, the olive ridley, hawksbill and leatherback - nest along Costa Rica's Pacific coast. All four species are listed on The World Conservation Union Red List as either endangered or critically endangered: Accidental netting by fishermen is one of the main threats to the turtles' existence, according to the Marine Turtle Restoration Program (PRETOMA), a Costa Rica-based non-governmental organization.
PRETOMA hopes the U.S. trade embargo on Costa Rican shrimp - effective May 1, 2009 through April 2010 - will act as a wake-up call to the country's fishing industry, which includes more than 50 shrimp companies.
The ban came after an assessment of shrimping practices by nations whose marine animals are endangered. U.S. law prohibits imports of shrimp and shrimp products harvested in ways that may threaten the existence of certain sea turtles. The study led U.S. officials to certify the shrimping practices of nearly 40 countries, including Central American nations such as Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador.
Costa Rica is conspicuously absent from the list.
"In meetings with senior Costa Rican fisheries officials during the December 2008 certification visit, the State Department representative stressed that without rapid remedial action Costa Rica's certification might be compromised," according to a State Department statement. "Costa Rican officials were aware of the issue and promised (to) resolve it early in 2009. However, the United States Embassy in San Jose reports that since that December visit Costa Rican authorities have not taken all the action they promised."
It's not the first time that the United States, Costa Rica's chief shrimp buyer (shrimp exports to the U.S. grossed $2.8 million in 2007), has put a trade embargo on Tico shrimp. The ban has been imposed four times since 1999, in an attempt to penalize this country's shrimping habits.
Fishers are netting shrimp illegally near river heads and protected marine areas in the Pacific, and aren't using technology designed to prevent turtles from drowing in trawl nets, according to PRETOMA.
The NGO, a sister organization of the California-based Turtle Island Restoration Network, informed the U.S. government of Costa Rica's failure to crack down on such shrimping practices, which are illegal under Costan Rican law.
"The problem is that INCOPESCA (the fisheries authority) is negligent and does not enforce any of these laws," said PRETOMA spokesman Andy Bystrom.
Fishing companies are supposed to use a turtle excluder device (TED), a grid of bars placed in the shrimp net which has an opening through which larger animals such as turtles - which are accidentally caught - are ejected, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a U.S. federal agency (Click here for a more detailed description and images).
But according to Arce, the executive director of the fisheries chamber, shrimp companies here complain that TEDs are not designed for use along Costa Rica's ocean floors - they say the devices get clogged with debris and end up limiting the number of shrimp they can catch. Arce said the shrimp supply has already grown scarce over the years, though Bystrom said this is due to over-harvesting by the commercial fishing industry.
Bystrom disputes complaints about the TEDs, citing studies showing that shrimp harvests can actually increase with the device in place. Without TEDs, larger animals tend to stretch out the trawl nets, allowing shrimp to pass through the holes, he said. Regardless, he added, the law should be enforced.
Arce wants new regulations. Current Costa Rican legislation is flawed because it lacks concrete guidelines on how to penalize shrimping companies, some of which possess TEDs but aren't using them correctly, she said. "The law only punishes the non-use of TEDs," according to Arce. "We're proposing a reform."
Tico fishery officials say they are working to strengthen the laws so that Costa Rica gets re-certified by the U.S.
"In the course of this year, this country will demonstrate that it has implemented regulatory improvements directed toward achieving efficient guidelines to sanction potential noncompliance, which would be equal to United States legislation," Luis Dobles, executive president of INCOPESCA, said in a statement soon after the ban was announced.
Bystrom is skeptical. "Costa Rica has a lot of very good laws in place on the books, so to speak," he said - but authorities lack the ability to enforce them. Until they do, Americans should not expect to find Tico shrimp on the menu.
Source: GlobalPost
===============================
Seminar packed with practical information for mangrove conservation.
We're planning an seminar packed with practical information for mangrove conservation.
Please consider attending or forwarding this notice to any potentially interested parties.
Many thanks,
Timothy B. Smith
Brooksmith Consulting
Ecology, Fisheries, Education
011-501-624-0769
===========================
TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO
24 May 2009
by Renuka Singh
DrummiT2summiT2 takes environmental focus
A meagre crowd gathered at the St James Amphitheatre yesterday for the second installment of the Drummit2 Summit entitled DrummiT2summiT2 which focused on environmental issues.
Eleven-year-old Chatham resident, Nalini Singh took the podium and faced the arc of drummers to relate the story of life in Chatham nowadays to the small gathering.
"We not taking any ALCOA handouts," said this junior activist. "We say no to smelters, no to steel mills and not to stupidness."
Norris Deonarine, president of the National Farmers and Foodcrops Association, urged the Government to invest more money in agriculture and less on smelters and steel plants.
"Food and water is the most important resource. We have to protect it!" he said. His sentiments were echoed by Kishore Boodram, president of the Claxton Bay Fishing Association, who bemoaned the destruction of the natural hatching ground off the waters in Claxton Bay.
Boodram said the Claxton Bay mangrove produces over 400,000 pounds of mullet fish per year, yet despite the mangrove's importance, the National Energy Corporation (NEC) was applying to build a massive port, to facilitate the Essar Steel plant. Boodram explained that the proposed site of the new port will destroy 625 acres of the seabed.
The group informed the attendants that they have the right to demand the proper management of the country's resources and urged them to write to the Prime Minister and the Members of Parliament to help highlight the issues facing the citizens.
Source: Trinidad & Tobago Express
20 May 2009
by Sohel Parvez and Quazi Amanullah
Shrimp exports to EU suspended for 6 months
Exports of fresh water shrimp, second biggest foreign currency earner, to the European Union face a suspension for the next six months in the wake of cancellation of more than 50 consignments to the region due to the detection of health hazardous antibiotic-nitrofuran since January this year, officials said yesterday.
"It's a voluntary restraint by the exporters who have agreed not to export fresh water shrimp until resolution of the problem," said a top government official who attended an inter-ministerial meeting on the issue yesterday.
The meeting, also attended by stakeholders of the shrimp industry, was held after buyers from the EU area detected presence of nitrofuran antibiotic in more than 50 consignments of fresh water shrimp (Galda) exported from Bangladesh.
The total value of the consignments stands around more than Tk 60 crore, exporters said.
"We have taken decision of not exporting galda(fresh water shrimp) to European Union for the next six months. But we will continue exporting other shrimps to this region," Kazi Shahnewaz, acting president of Bangladesh Frozen Foods Exporters Association (BFFEA) told The Daily Star.
Shahnewaz said the halt to galda exports to the EU will be effective from June 1.
He, however, claimed that that the move would not hurt the sector in the long run.
Officials at the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock Ministry said the decision will be effective with immediate effect and no new application for export of fresh water shrimp to the EU will be accepted.
Exports of salt-water shrimp or bagda will not fall under the suspension move, officials claimed.
The latest move of halting exports came as a pre-emptive measure to avoid any sanction by the EU authority.
After registering a growth of 3.64 percent in the fiscal year 2007-08, exports of frozen foods, mainly shrimp, now faces a slack period as the global financial meltdown bites demand.
Export from the sector fell by 13.01 percent to $355.67 million during July-March of the current fiscal year from $ 408.87 million a year ago.
Stakeholders said the health hazardous element comes from feeds, although the use of nitrofuran is prohibited in Bangladesh, with some suspecting that the element is coming through illegal channel of trade.
"We have agreed in principle to suspend export of fresh water shrimp for the next six months," said Maqsudur Rahman, the BFFEA vice president.
Maqsudur said exporters will strengthen their monitoring activities as well as initiating awareness campaign among farmers to encourage them to avoid using feeds having nitrofuran.
A foreign consultant is expected to be assigned for investigation into the source of contamination. Steps will also be taken to examine the water and soil of the shrimp farming areas, officials said.
Source: The Daily Star
UNITED STATES
19 May 2009
by Tony Rahman
How smart is your seafood?
Soon, it'll be quite smart if it's tagged with Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) systems. IBM Smart Food initiative provides businesses and governments with the technology and expertise needed to create a "smarter, safer food supply for consumers around the world".
As of May 18th, IBM announced a pilot project in Vietnam to deliver a system that will use RFID to track Vietnamese seafood exports -- a market worth more than US$4.25 billion in 2008, according to IBM press.
As part of this initiative IBM has joined forces with FXA Group that employs its traceability technology to collect the "critical data about each batch of shrimp and other seafood -- which farm it came from, where it was processed, its current location, temperature, and other relevant data."
We all will be able to answer precisely the awkward questions like: "It's 2am, do you know where your shrimp is?"
Source: The Seattle Post-Intelligencer
============================
12 May 2009
by Chris Reinolds
'Farm in a Barrel': Raise Fish and Grow Your Own Organic Vegetables
Talk about eating locally.
It doesn't get much more local than your own backyard.
A Georgia company is selling 'Farm in a Barrel.' It's a self-contained eco-system that allows homeowners to raise organic fish and vegetables at the same time. The method, called aquaponics, combines aquaculture (fish farming) and hydroponics (growing plants in a soil-less system.) The fish produce the nutrients to feed the plants, while the plants and bacteria clean the water for the fish.
Earth Solutions' smallest system is about $200. Fish, such as tilapia, catfish, and bass live in the detached bottom half of the barrel, while basil, lettuce and strawberries grow in the top half. Tilapia is a hardy fish that produces a lot of ammonia - don't ask - for the plants to grow.
Larger systems cost upwards of $2,500, but also produce a lot more organically grown fish and food.
A beginner's kit comes with one-inch long fingerlings. It takes about seven months for the fish to reach maturity - or plate size. At that point it's up to you whether to eat one a week or have all the neighbors over for an old-fashioned fish fry.
For the squeamish, Earth Solutions owner David Epstein recommends putting the fish on ice to kill them.
"They just fall asleep," said Epstein, who is also a medical doctor. "You can cook them whole. Leave the head on, slice the belly and take the guts out."
To keep the fish year round, use a greenhouse or a heater to keep the fish comfortable. If you don't want to eat the fish, try hardy goldfish.
Source: Organic Consumers
===========================
5 May 2009
by Valerie Phillips
Origin labels can raise questions about food safety
I like knowing if the watermelon I'm buying was grown in Green River or Mexico, or if the grapes came from Chile. So I appreciate country of origin labeling, known as COOL.
But the recently added meat and seafood labels make me feel geographically challenged. For instance, the package of ground beef that says it came from Canada, the United States and Mexico. Surely the label could be more specific than a whole continent? That just seems like a heckuva lot of miles for one cow to travel.
But, from what I've been able to interpret, this could mean that the cow was born in one country, raised in another country and slaughtered in a third. Or that the ground beef was made from meat scraps from more than one cow, and they all came from different spots on the map.
The seafood labels are even more confusing. I saw a package of frozen salmon that proudly proclaimed "WILD ALASKA SALMON" on the front.
But the small print on the back said, "product of China." I asked the butcher how wild salmon caught in Alaska could still be a product of China. After all, that's quite a swim for a fish.
She told me the fish is caught in Alaska, then shipped to China for processing. I must have looked incredulous, because she added, "They've been doing this for a long time, but it's only because of the country of origin labels that anyone noticed."
I checked packages of other frozen fish, which are apparently well-traveled. Great American Seafood Imports' "Pacific wild-caught salmon fillet" came from China. Its farm-raised tilapia fillets were also from China, and its white shrimp from Thailand. Kroger's "wild-caught" cod fillets were from China, as were its bay scallops.
Chicken of the Sea frozen shrimp was a product of Indonesia, and Star Kist's canned "wild- caught tuna" said, "product of Ecuador." Harbor Seafood's "sushi-grade" swordfish, "all-natural, wild-caught," was a product of Singapore.
I e-mailed the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute, asking how much wild Alaska salmon takes a detour to China before it's sold in the United States.
"ASMI does not have access to this information. Only individual seafood processors would have that information. I can tell you that it would likely be a significant amount, but that not all of it comes back to the U.S., much goes to the E.U.," spokesperson Emily Butler wrote.
She added that the fish is quick-frozen before it's shipped to China. The processing includes portioning it into fillets, and the purpose ofsending it to China is "cost savings."
Perhaps my concerns are unfounded, but this is the same country that gave us toxic melamine in milk products and pet food, and lead paint on toys.
If our own country, with its many safety regulations, can still end up with salmonella in peanuts or E coli in spinach, why do we trust our food to a country where there are a lot fewer laws?
For more information, I went to Ty Frederickson, who has been buying Alaskan seafood for Gastronomy's Market Street restaurants and fish markets for the past 30 years. He also teaches classes on buying and cooking seafood.
"What happens is, they over-caught, they have too much fish, and they can't sell all of it. So the excess is frozen and shipped over to China, where the labor is cheap," he explained.
In China, factory workers remove skin and bones, cut the fish into portions, etc., and then it's refrozen and sent back to the United States.
Frederickson said he won't buy salmon that's been processed in China, even though it can be $5 per pound cheaper than salmon coming directly from Alaska.
"I do buy some frozen wild salmon, but it's been frozen correctly, and I don't buy anything that's left the United States. Just because it's wild doesn't necessarily mean it's good."
Gastronomy's farmed salmon comes from Canada, because Frederickson doesn't like buying fish flown from Chile to Miami and then to Seattle. He does buy shrimp from Contessa, an American company that has a farm in Vietnam. However, he won't buy frozen scallops from China or crab from Russia.
He sticks with distributors that he knows and trusts.
Likewise, he advises consumers to get to know the people working behind the fish counter.
"Ask where it was caught and where it was processed. It should be the same place," he added.
Another bothersome issue with COOL labels: fish, meat and poultry that have been cooked, breaded, sauced, etc., are exempt. So you have no way of knowing where those fish sticks or frozen dinners were processed.
Country-of-origin labels are a start in helping us figure out where food comes from. But they raise a lot more questions than they answer.
Source: Deseret News
===============================
11 May 2009
by Theresa Schmidt
Imports hurting Louisiana shrimpers
LAKE CHARLES, LA (KPLC) - Inland shrimp season opened in the eastern zone of Louisiana today-- it's still a couple of weeks off for Southwest Louisiana which is zone 3. There may be fewer shrimpers out there for reasons ranging from imports to fuel prices.
It's always been a tough way to earn a living and it's increasingly so. Though Louisiana's inland shrimp season doesn't open here for a couple of weeks, in Hackberry there's one boat unloading shrimp at Davis seafood, they were caught at the jetties in Cameron. Down the road at Hackberry seafood there are offshore catches of fin fish like red snapper and grouper. It's physically demanding hard work and not always profitable. The young ones more than likely grew up doing the work.
Says commercial fisherman Travis Constance, "I'm 20 years old. I've been in the commercial fishing industry for 17 years. That's all my dad ever taught me to do. I've lived off the water ever since."
Many have left this traditional Louisiana industry and found other ways to earn a living. Yet others like Eddie Lejune don't have another trade. Says Eddie, "I think they need to focus a little bit more on some of the laws and regulations that's been hurting the fishermen and not helping them." Like what? Says Eddie, "Different categories of fishing. They still have no redfish season and there are plenty of redfish out there. And nowadays more than 90 percent of the shrimp consumed in the U.S. is from imports. Eddie fin fishes and will shrimp when the season opens here in two weeks. "Imports of any sort hurt our local economy market."
David Deere of Hackberry Seafood says one solution would be to impose a tariff on imports. "They're competing with traditional markets that we already have here. And the only way you're going to combat that is to put a heavy tariff on it." And there are other issues. "Used to we would have a lot of large shrimp. We don't have them now like we used to since the weirs and the levies went up. Most all of our shrimp now is all small shrimp."
Although Louisiana leads the country in domestic production of shrimp, with fishers hauling in nearly 58 million pounds last year, it amounts to less than 5 percent of the shrimp consumed in the United States. Inland shrimp season for our zone, which is zone three, opens at 7:30 a.m. Monday May 25th. Zone three extends from the western shore of Vermilion Bay and Southwest Pass at Marsh Island to the Louisiana Texas line.
Source: KPLC-TV
============================
23 May 2009
Students combat beach erosion
FORT MYERS: Combating beach erosion is an issue environmentalists have battled with for years. On Saturday students tried an innovative new approach to the problem.
Students at Island Coast High School's Academy of Natural Resources spent their day out at Fort Myers Beach planting mangrove trees along the shore using an eco-friendly method they developed.
The mangroves need protection from the waves while they take root.
Other groups have used PVC piping, but these students wanted to use all-natural materials.
"I tried to think of another tube structure that would help the mangroves and I thought bamboo. It's easy and it bio-degrades. Once it breaks away it will slowly bio-degrade and it's good for the environment," said Michele Mikell, Island Coast High School.
The students even grew the trees hydroponically, meaning without any soil.
"The bamboo is anchored in the sand so it protects the roots as the waves hit it so it isn't loose and once the mangroves grow it will keep the, it will slow the erosion process," said Mikell.
This is a project the students have been developing for months.
Source: WBBH (NBC2 News)
AUSTRALIA
20 May 2009
by University of Queensland
Mangroves stuffed by nutrients
New UQ Science research has found the increase in nutrients coming out of our river systems is putting pressure on our mangrove forests and making them far more susceptible to environmental variability and climate change.
Originally thought to benefit mangrove growth, Associate Professor Catherine Lovelock's research shows the man-made rise in available nutrients from runoff or urban and industrial processes, actually decreases their resilience.
Dr Lovelock, from the Centre for Marine Studies, said this increase in nutrients could be responsible for the death of formerly healthy mangroves.
"While this increase in available nutrients initially favours mangrove growth, you get an increase in the growth of shoots relative to roots, and that's the wrong kind of growth," Dr Lovelock said.
"This higher ratio of shoots to roots means the mangroves are much more susceptible to high salinity and drought."
She said under such conditions, the plant needs to have as many roots as possible so that it can provide water for its shoots, however nutrient enrichment causes the exact opposite.
"Our results show that mangroves exposed to high nutrient availability suffer greater mortality during drought, and that nutrient-induced mortality is greater in sites subject to periods of low rainfall, low humidity and high salinity," she said.
"It's particularly important in terms of climate change because droughts may become more extreme, or at least more frequent, and we could see mangrove populations collapse.
"This paints nutrient enrichment as one of the greatest threats to near shore coastal ecosystems, bringing increased mangrove mortality on top of algal blooms, coral reef degradation and loss of biodiversity and ecosystem resilience."
Dr Lovelock and her team added either nitrogen or phosphorous based fertilisers to mangrove trees at 12 study sites around the world including Australia, New Zealand, Florida and the Caribbean.
The team then measured the growth and mortality rates for the mangroves at these sites over a period of more than three years.
The study showed a marked difference in tree mortality between sea fringing mangroves - that are flushed out by the tide - and further inland 'scrub' mangroves.
Dr Lovelock said while the increase in nutrients had little effect on the sea fringing mangroves, there was a massive increase in mortality for the 'scrub' mangrove forests.
"Scrub forests are less frequently inundated by tides, so in times of low rainfall the surrounding soil can become extremely saline and the plant cannot survive," Dr Lovelock said.
"So nutrient enrichment could have a particularly disastrous impact on ecosystem function in drier areas where scrub forests account for the majority of mangrove forest cover."
The new research, titled Nutrient enrichment increases mortality of mangroves, was published in the international journal PLoS ONE.
Source: Science Alert
==========================
14 May 2009
Green team combats Warrell Creek erosion
Nyambaga Aboriginal Green Team was one of 12 Coastcare Groups nationwide to receive a $10,000 Coastcare grant, to restore and protect the local coastline.
The Green Team used the funds to continue restoration of the Warrell Creek Estuary's natural mangrove vegetation, through targeted plantings at key locations, said Nyambaga Green Team project manager Terrence Hudson.
Practical techniques to prevent the erosion of the riverbanks and sand bars would also be implemented to protect the nesting sites of birds and deter turbidity caused by wind, wave action and wake wash from boat traffic.
The grant comes from The Barefoot Radler Coastcare Grant Scheme. Barefoot Radler is Australia's first certified carbon neutral beer, committed to offsetting greenhouse gas emissions produced over the Barefoot Radler lifecycle.
Mr Hudson said the grant was greatly appreciated because it allowed the local conservation group to continue to combat erosive elements in Warrell Creek.
During the past five months, the team has worked to build rockwalls along Warrell Creek at Gumma.
The walls, which were around one metre high, were designed to lower the erosive impact of waves on highly eroded sections of Warrell Creek.
However, they were also designed to catch sediment to form quiet pockets for mangroves to grow and provide a permanent wave shield for the banks.
Mr Hudson said so far the project was successful and small mangroves had already started to appear in these pockets - something conservationists did not expect for up to five years after the pockets were established.
Coastcare members from all over the country were invited to apply for the grant.
Numerous submissions were received from each state and these were judged solely by Coastcare's judging panel including member of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists Dr John Williams, oceanographer and Coastcare PR Manager Giselle Firme and Landcare Australia Project Manager Sheena Martin.
The grant is a new initiative in continuation of Barefoot Radler's efforts to tread softly on the planet.
Source: Nambucca Guardian News
20 May 2009
Wetland International Press Release
Wader populations decline faster than ever
More than half the populations of waders in Europe, West Asia and Africa are declining at an accelerating rate. There is a need for better protection of the key wetlands along their flyways, especially in Africa and the Middle East. This is the conclusion of the Wetlands International's Wader Atlas, the first comprehensive overview of key site networks for waders in Europe, West-Asia and Africa, launched in London today.
Waders are relatively small waterbirds including species like lapwings, plovers, godwits, curlews and sandpipers. Many of them undertake long distance migrations from their Arctic breeding grounds to wintering areas as far away as Southern Africa. Some concentrate in huge numbers at just a few sites, making these critical wetlands for their survival.
Incomplete network of protected areas:
The European Union has established a comprehensive network of protected areas for waders in Europe under the Birds Directive. Outside the EU however, the protection and management of key sites is still far from adequate. A string of wetlands concentrated on the western coast of Africa, (Sahel zone along the Senegal and Niger rivers, around Lake Chad), and in East Africa in the Sudd, along the Rift Valley and eastern coast of Africa, is crucial for the survival of many migratory waders.
Therefore, if EU investment in protecting waders is to be effective, these crucial sites must also be included in its conservation strategy. Wader Atlas author Simon Delany said: "Waders such as the Ruff are heavily protected in the EU; farmers receive thousands of Euros for nest protection. These same birds are for sale in the markets of Mopti, Mali for just 25 cents each! If just a part of the finance available in the EU for waterbird protection were to go to the areas where these same birds winter, a huge difference could be made".
Pressure on wetlands:
The wetlands of the African west coast are under enormous pressures. The sparse water
resources in the Sahelian zone are tapped by dams on the Niger or Senegal rivers, which have turned formerly shallow wetlands into permanently dry lands. Irrigation schemes for growing human population disrupt the water flow in wetlands such as the shrinking Lake Chad. Often wetlands themselves are converted to agricultural use, such as in the Tana River Delta in Kenya, which is threatened by conversion to sugar cane plantations.
A similar story can be told for the Middle East. Many waders migrate from the Arctic and
Scandinavia to the coastal zones along the Persian Gulf. These coastal areas are now suffering from rapid development which threatens the habitat of the scarce and declining Broad billed Sandpiper, for example.
Highlighting important wetlands:
The Wader Atlas highlights the most important wetlands to be protected for each wader population. It will thus provide decision makers across the Africa-Eurasian region with crucial information so that they can increase and better focus their efforts for wetland conservation. Better water management preserving the Sahelian wetlands benefits not only waders, but also local people. Indeed, involving local people in protection strategies for waders has been successful in many regions.
Simon Delany
Senior Technical officer Waterbird Conservation
Wetlands International
Tel. +31 (0)6 55 68 45 50
simon.delany@wetlands.org
Alex Kaat
Communication Manager
Wetlands International
Tel. +31 (0)6 5060 1917
alex.kaat@wetlands.org
==============================
23 May 2009
by John Gibbons
Scientists find climate change to have paradoxical effects in coastal wetlands
Rising atmospheric carbon dioxide is largely responsible for recent global warming and the rise in sea levels. However, a team of scientists, including two Smithsonian ecologists, have found that this same increase in CO2 may ironically counterbalance some of its negative effects on one of the planet's most valuable ecosystems-wetlands. The team's findings are being published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences the week of March 23.
The team conducted their study for two years (2006 - 2007), during which they focused on the role that organic matter, both growing and decaying, plays on soil elevation in wetlands and the effect CO2 has on this process. Coastal wetlands must build upward through the accumulation of mineral and organic matter to maintain a constant elevation relative to water levels; otherwise, they will drown and disappear. Climate change, however, is causing acceleration in the rise of sea level, which would seemingly put wetlands at risk of excessive flooding. "Our findings show that elevated CO2 stimulates plant productivity, particularly below ground, thereby boosting marsh surface elevation," said Adam Langley, the paper's lead author. Patrick Megonigal, the paper's corresponding author, added "We found that by stimulating root growth, thus raising a marsh's soil elevation, elevated CO2 may also increase the capacity for coastal wetlands to tolerate relative rises in sea level." Both scientists are ecologists at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Edgewater, Md.
These findings bear particular importance given the threat of accelerating sea-level rise to coastal wetlands worldwide. Some evidence suggests that only a two-millimeter increase in the rate of sea-level rise will threaten and possibly eliminate large portions of mid-Atlantic marshes. And the loss of these wetlands threatens critical services that the ecosystems provide, such as supporting commercially important fisheries, providing wildlife habitat, improving water quality and buffering human populations from oceanic forces.
Determining soil-surface elevation change is important for two reasons. First, the loss in soil elevation relative to local sea level may provide an early indication of the collapse of a tidal wetland. Second, tracking elevation changes in marsh soils through time, along with measurements of plant productivity and other environmental variables, allow scientists to identify specific mechanisms critical to the persistence of tidal wetlands under accelerating sea-level rise. To examine how CO2 may interact with other factors that will accompany sea-level rise, the authors also manipulated CO2, salinity and flooding in a companion greenhouse study.
The team of scientists from the Smithsonian Institution and the U.S. Geological Survey added CO2 gas to a tidal marsh at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center. The gas flowed continuously from the bottom upward through the top of large (two-meter diameter) cylinders surrounding marsh plots. Half of the plots also received added soil nitrogen, simulating increasing water pollution, which tended to diminish the positive effects of elevated CO2 on marsh surface elevation. Changes in elevation were measured with an instrument developed by the U.S. Geological Survey that can detect changes in elevation as little as one millimeter. According to Langley, "Elevated CO2 doubled the short-term rate of elevation gain in our marsh. Our next step is to determine whether this will continue in the long-term and in the face of actual sea-level rise and other climatic changes."
Though marshes appear to benefit from CO2 in the short-term, the scientists stress that increasing CO2 levels will continue to warm the Earth, melt glaciers and expand ocean water, thus accelerating sea-level rise. Ultimately, rapidly rising seas could outstrip the positive effects of CO2 on the marshes that they have observed.
"Wetlands are some of the most specialized and valuable ecosystems in the world, not only to wildlife but humans as well," Megonigal said. "The sooner we can understand the effect global warming is having on them, the better we will be equipped to save them."
Source: Smithsonian Institute
=================================
15 May 2009
by Stephen Leahy
ENVIRONMENT: Deep CO2 Cuts May Be Last Hope for Acid Oceans
UXBRIDGE, Canada, May 15 (IPS) - Ocean acidification offers the clearest evidence of dangers of climate change. And yet the indisputable fact that burning fossil fuels is slowly turning the oceans into an acid bath has been largely ignored by industrialised countries and their climate treaty negotiators, concluded delegates from 76 countries at the World Oceans Conference in Manado, Indonesia.
Oceans and coastal areas must be on the agenda at the crucial climate talks in Copenhagen in December, they wrote in a declaration. "We must come to the rescue of the oceans," declared Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono at the opening of high-level government talks on Thursday in the northern city of Manado.
It is fair to say most international climate negotiators aren't aware of the impacts of climate change on the oceans, said Carl Gustaf Lundin, head of the IUCN's Global Marine Programme.
"Very few people understand that carbon emissions are making the oceans acidic," Lundin told IPS.
Over the past 150 years, burning of fossil fuels and deforestation has put more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The oceans have absorbed more than one-third - about 130 billion tonnes - of those human emissions and have become 30 percent more acidic as the extra CO2 combines with carbonate ions in seawater, forming carbonic acid.
Each day, the oceans absorb 30 million tonnes of CO2, gradually and inevitably increasing their acidity. There is no controversy about this basic chemistry.
This increased acidity is affecting coral reefs and shell-forming organisms like clams and many types of plankton. Newer research suggests that it may also affect basic physiological functions for many types of marine organisms.
Rising levels of acidity may also increase the size of oceanic dead zones - areas that have too little oxygen to support life, according to research published in Science magazine Apr. 19. Dead zones, such as the one in Gulf of Mexico, have dramatically increased in number and size around the world in the past three decades.
"Climate change will have a huge number of very serious impacts on the oceans," said Duncan Currie of Greenpeace New Zealand.
"What we do in the next 10 to 15 years (regarding carbon emissions) will affect the oceans for thousands of years," Currie said in an interview from Manado.
And that is why Indonesia, a country made up of 17,508 islands, is hosting the May 11-15 conference and wants to send a message to Copenhagen about the impacts of climate change on the oceans, he said.
The Copenhagen talks under the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) are expected to result in a new agreement on reducing carbon emissions by a set target for all developed nations by 2012, when the Kyoto Protocol expires.
Participants and experts at the conference spoke about tropical forests receiving far more attention while there was little awareness in the global community about the broad impacts of climate change on the oceans.
There is also little awareness that coastal mangrove forests soak up large amounts of carbon from the atmosphere, protect shorelines and are "fish nurseries". Protection of mangroves is essential and restoring coastal forests are "win-win" situations that must be encouraged and supported under a future climate agreement, Currie said.
"The role of coastal mangrove forests has not been part of the climate debate at the climate meetings," agreed Lundin.
Some coastal plants can increase their size by 10 percent per day, a rapid growth rate that exceeds land-based plants. "What are the benefits of CO2 capture and sequestration? I think coastal species offer an excellent opportunity to capture carbon," he said.
IUCN is working with experts to collect data on this and will soon be able to quantify the carbon capture potential, he said. "Right now no one is talking about this," Lundin added.
There is also little awareness that oceans and coastal zones have been in steep decline for the past few decades.
At the conference, the international conservation group World Wildlife Fund released a report showing that 40 percent of reefs and mangrove in the Coral Triangle have already been lost. This 5.7 million sq km area, considered the Amazon of the ocean with 75 percent of all coral species, spans eastern Indonesia, parts of Malaysia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Timor Leste and the Solomon Islands.
The 40 percent is probably an underestimate, said the report's chief author, Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, a coral biologist at the University of Queensland, Australia. Much of that decline is not due to climate change but result from pollution, overfishing and damage done to coastal regions such as chopping down mangrove forests and inappropriate coastal development.
"...These are destroying the productivity of ocean, which is plummeting right now," Hoegh-Guldberg said according to media reports. And since oceans absorb about 40 percent of carbon emissions, damaging that enormous carbon capture system will make climate change far worse.
"To preserve ocean health we're calling for 40 percent of the oceans to be protected," Greenpeace's Currie said.
Greenpeace is campaigning for a global network of fully protected marine reserves - off limits to all fishing - that would include large areas in the high seas where there is little management. Daniel Pauly, a renowned fisheries expert at the University of British Columbia, has called for protection for at least 60 percent of the oceans.
Lundin says the IUCN also wants large areas of the oceans protected to help restore the health of fish stocks, protect ocean life from habitat destruction and collapse so that they can better withstand climate change.
But creating Marine Protected Areas is not enough - ecosystem-based management of these and even larger regions is needed. Current fisheries management on a species by species basis has been a disaster, leading to collapse of fish stocks like tuna, Lundin said.
Major reforms are needed, among them the creation of regional oceans management organisations based on ecosystem principles, he said.
But when it comes to the impacts of climate change on the oceans, the only solution is a global agreement to sharply reduce emissions. While Lundin is optimistic there will be a deal in Copenhagen, he acknowledges some countries will put their self-interest first and foremost, and the global recession will make it difficult for politicians to agree to significant emissions cuts.
"We have to realistic in our expectations about the emission targets that will be agreed to," he said.
Source: IPS News Italy
27 May 2009
by Alexandra Morton
Disease and sea lice are not under control in Norwegian salmon farms and BC stands to lose all
I have been in Norway for 10 days because 92% of fish farming in British Columbia is Norwegian owned. I have met with many Norwegian scientists, members of the Mainstream and Marine Harvest boards, been to their AGMs, toured the area with fishermen, examined a closed-containment facility, met the Norwegians fighting for their fish and joined a scientific cruise.
I thought Norway had this industry handled and I expected to learn how marine salmon farming could work, but this has not been the case. My eyes have really been opened. This industry still has major issues that are growing and has no business expanding throughout the temperate coastlines of the world. The way they have been treating sea lice in Norway has caused high drug resistance. The only solution in sight is increasingly toxic chemicals. In the past two years (2007, 8) sea lice levels have actually increased on both the farm and wild fish. The scientists I met with are holding their breath to see if drug-resistant sea lice populations will explode and attack the last wild salmon and sea trout. The same treatment methods have been used in BC and we can expect this to occur as well.
I am not hearing how the industry can possibly safeguard British Columbia from contamination with their ISA virus. Infectious Salmon Anemia is a salmon virus that is spreading worldwide, wherever there are salmon farms. In Chile, the Norwegian strain of ISA has destroyed 60% of the industry, 17,000 jobs and unmeasured environmental damage. The industry is pushing into new territory. If this gets to BC no one can predict what it will do to the Pacific salmon and steelhead, it will be unleashed into new habitat and we know this is a very serious threat to life.
Professor Are Nylund head of the Fish Diseases Group at the University of Bergen, Norway, reports that, "based on 20 years of experience, I can guarantee that if British Columbia continues to import salmon eggs from the eastern Atlantic infectious salmon diseases, such as ISA, will arrive in Western Canada. Here in Hardangerfjord we have sacrificed our wild salmon stocks in exchange for farm salmon. With all your 5 species of wild salmon, BC is the last place you should have salmon farms."
New diseases and parasites are being identified. The most serious is a sea lice parasite that attacks the salmon immune system. There is concern that this new parasite is responsible for accelerating wild salmon declines. The Norwegian scientists agree with many of us in BC. If you want wild salmon you must reduce the number of farm salmon. There are three options.
The future for salmon farming will have to include:
· permanently reduction of not just the number of sea lice, but also the number of farm salmon per fjord,
· removing farm salmon for periods of time to delouse the fjords and not restocking until after the out-migration of the wild salmon and sea trout.
· But where wild salmon are considered essential they say the only certain measure is to remove the farms completely.
There are many people here like me. I met a man who has devoted his life to the science of restoring the Voss River, where the largest Atlantic salmon in the world, a national treasure, have vanished due to sea lice from salmon farms. Interestingly he is using the method I was not allowed to use last spring... Towing the fish past the farms out to sea. Another man is working with scientists and communities to keep the sea trout of the Hardangerfjord alive. There are so many tragic stories familiar to British Columbia.
The corporate fish farmers are unrelenting in their push to expand. With Chile so highly contaminated with the Norwegian strain of ISA all fish farmed coasts including Norway are threatened with expansion. I made the best case I could to Mainstream and Marine Harvest for removing the salmon feedlots from our wild salmon migration routes, but they will not accept that they are harming wild salmon. They say they want to improve, but they don't say how. Norway has different social policies which include encouraging people to populate the remote areas and so fish farming seemed a good opportunity to these people. BC has the opposite policy, but the line that fish farms are good for small coastal communities has been used in BC anyway. I have not seen any evidence that it has even replaced the jobs it has impacted in wild fisheries and tourism.
It is becoming increasingly clear to protect wild Pacific salmon from the virus ISA the BC border absolutely has to be closed to importation of salmon eggs immediately and salmon farms MUST be removed from the Fraser River migration routes and any other narrow waterways where wild salmon are considered valuable.
Our letter asking government that the Fisheries Act, which is the law in Canada be applied to protect our salmon from fish farms has been signed by 14,000 people to date at www.adopt-a-fry.org has still not been answered.
Please forward this letter and encourage more people to sign our letter to government as it is building a community of concerned people word wide and we will prevail as there is really no rock for this industry to hide under and longer.
Source: Adopt A Fry
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20 May 2009
by Benjamin Witte
Violent protests erupt in Chile's fishing-dependent city of Quellón
Rampant unemployment in the fishing-dependent city of Quellón (Region X) has created a pressure cooker of social discontent that now looks to be boiling over.
Starting Tuesday night, approximately 500 people occupied the main highway leading into Quellón, a city of approximately 30,000 located in the south of Chiloé island. Early the next morning police moved in to break up the demonstration. An ensuing confrontation left four police officers injured, according to the Quellón municipal government.
"There was a disturbance. The Carabineros (uniformed police) wanted to stop the protest. That's when the fishermen fought back. There were clashes and tear gas," municipal worker Sonia Aguilar told the Patagonia Times.
Among the protestors are salmon industry workers, artisan (small-scale local) fishermen, shell-fish workers and representatives from a local indigenous group. Together they are trying to call public attention to a worsening economic crisis that has resulted in a city-wide unemployment rate of approximately 50 percent.
The Quellón economy depends almost exclusively on fishing-related activities: salmon farms, shell-fish farms and artisan fishing. An ongoing crisis in Chile's farmed salmon industry that began in mid 2007 with an outbreak of a virus called Infectious Salmon Anemia (ISA) has resulted in thousands of layoffs, mostly in and around Puerto Montt and Chiloé. Quellón has been particularly hard hit.
The already dismal situation worsened significantly this past March when a toxic "red tide" that was originally concentrated further south off the coast of Aysén made its way to Quellón. Authorities responded to the algal bloom by prohibiting the extraction of local shellfish, which along with farmed salmon are one of the pillars of the local economy.
The proverbial straw that broke the camel's back surfaced last week when the government released a report suggesting that salmon industry well boats, which ship live fish from Aysén to Chiloé, are responsible for spreading the red tide. Organizations like the Association of Quellón Shellfish Workers and the Artisan Fishers Group accuse the salmon companies of "bioterrorism."
"Right now the unemployment situation is very grave," said Aguilar. "If there isn't a solution soon, (the social unrest) could be a long and serious problem. Some help has arrived from the government, but it's not enough. That's why the people are making their demands. They feel the government didn't take the problem seriously enough. So the fishermen organized, assuming that when the entire community gets together, big things can happen."
Rampant unemployment in the fishing-dependent city of Quellón in Chile's Region X has created a pressure cooker of social discontent that now looks to be boiling over.
Source: The Patagonia Times
