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Late Friday News, 133rd Ed., 12 March 2004
Dear Friends,
This is the 133rd Edition of the Late Friday News.
Salud,
Alfredo Quarto,
Mangrove Action Project
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.
Contents for LATE FRIDAY NEWS, 133rd Edition, 12 March 2004
FEATURE STORY
Fishermen in Sundarban in dire straits
MAP WORKS
New Website On Mangrove Restoration Launched
Things Are Really Cooking At Tiwoho's CCRC!
MAP's Art Gallery Website
Order Your 2004 Children's Art Calendars
Take A Coffee Break For the Mangroves!
Work-Study Tours In the Mangroves
MAP Eco-Study Tours In Thailand
MAP Volunteer Work Study/Eco-Tour Proposed for Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula
John Gray Sea Canoe Eco-Tours
MAP voted "Best of the Best"
Nigeria
Community groans under massive oil spill from Shell's facility.
US AID/ Shell Oil Plans Include Shrimp Farms In Nijer Delta
S.E. ASIA
Thailand
Village head, 4 others, arrested for triple murder
Potential duties spur heavy exports to US
Charges may take effect on Friday
Indonesia
Large Scale Shrimp Farming and Impacts on Women
Women and sustainable development in Indonesia
Vietnam
U.S.-Vietnam Ties Raise Hopes, Hackles
S. ASIA
Bangladesh
Bangladesh says tiger numbers burning bright
Shatkhira Sundarbans Deforestation for Shrimp Culture
Sundarbans: Back to the wall, fishermen take to logging
Eco-huts to be built in Sundarbans
Switzerland to help produce organic shrimps for exports
New Caledonia
Following the Money Trail: Unanswered Questions
Brazil
Brazil's Shrimp Caught Up in a Trade War
Honduras
The "MALINCHES" MINISTERS
USA
So Much Shrimp
STORIES/ISSUES
Corals, Seagrass and Mangroves, Essential Ingrdients
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Thematic Review on Coastal Wetland Habitats and Shrimp Aquaculture.
Society of Wetland Scientists' Ramsar Support Grant Program
CONFERENCES/WORKSHOPS/FORUMS/BOOKS/PUBLICATIONS
World Conservation Forum, Bangkok,
"IN DEFENCE OF LAND AND LIVELIHOOD"
AQUACULTURE CORNER
Aquaculture is farming, not fishing, report says
Editor's Note: The shrimp industry purports to provide many jobs for poor coastal people.-supposedly thousands of jobs. However, those jobs are more often than not short-term and highly destructive, leaving both environmental and economic ruin in their wake. The following story clearly illustrates one such industry repurcusion:
Fishermen in Sundarban in dire straits
Ban on netting shrimp fry hits them in belly
JULHAS RIPON back from Sundarban
NewAge, March 2, 2004, Dhaka, Bangladesh
www.newagebd.com
Several hundreds of poor fishermen living in different chars of Sundarban are trapped in �dadan� (debt), as they are not capable of returning borrowed money to the lenders this time due to the government�s ban on fishing of shrimp fry in the coastal rivers.
Following the strict enforcement of the government�s ban since last December, the fishermen are in great distress due to the sudden shrinking of their income sources.
The government enforced the ban to protect the country�s fish population as the fishermen destroy different fish species while netting shrimp fry.
The dadan is a traditional money-lending system in rural Bangladesh, where the influential money-lenders give the money to the needy in advance and are repaid by products or services.
As the indiscriminate fry collection from coastal rivers is destructive, the government banned collection of fry of shrimp and other fish from the coastal belt through promulgation of a law in September 2000, though it was not enforced strictly before out of consideration for the fishermen.
Talking to New Age recently at Joymoni village under Chandpai Range of the Sundarban, many villagers, mainly fishermen, said they were passing their days in misery as they are facing both the dadan-wallahs and the police.
Some of the dadan-wallahs have already filed cases against some poor fishermen complaining that �they lent the money during the needy days of the fishermen, but now they are not returning the money�.
The situation is the same in other villages such as Holdeyboni, Bouddabari, Katakhali, Sundartola, Telikhali, Amtola, Kalatola, Keyaboni, Jipdhora, Amarboina and Kuchgonia.
The villagers said that about 80 per cent of them have no land to cultivate and, as their main profession is in a critical situation and they have no other alternative to fishing, they are in no position to return the money to the dadan-wallahs.
The villagers of the nearby area mainly used to collect shrimp fry from the river Pashur, a major river that flows through the world�s largest coastal mangrove forest.
�We understand the government�s concern about the fish population, but what will we do to earn a living?� asked Aman Gazi, a fisherman at Joymoni Bazar in Chilai Union Parishad under Chandpai Range.
He said he had a family of five and had no land other than the site of his hut. �Then how can we survive if I am not allowed to catch shrimp fry?� he questioned.
Gazi said he took Tk 20,000 as loan from a local, influential shrimp businessman last year, but he could not supply the shrimp fry to him though he had used the money for buying nets and related purposes.
�I have only repaid Tk 3,000 to him, but now he wants me to return the rest of the amount,� Gazi said sadly, adding that the money-lender recently threatened him with dire consequences.
The other villagers, who have some arable lands in the area, were also dependent on catching shrimp fry or doing shrimp fry business.
They said due to abnormal increase of salinity in the land in the last few years, the production of rice and other crops has declined significantly.
Villager Mohammed Sultan Gazi told New Age that they can produce only eight maunds of Amon rice in one bigha (33 decimals), which is not economically viable.
�I am lucky that I have some land, but most of the villagers are in tremendous trouble for lack of cash,� he added.
On the other hand, the dadan-wallahs are also in a dilemma as a huge amount of their money is in the
fishermen�s hands. One of them denied the allegations of threatening or filing cases against the poor fishermen.
�I lent Tk 2 lakh to the fishermen, but I cannot get back the money from them,� said Sheikh Abul Kashem, a dadan-wallah. �Now I do not know what will happen to my family if I lose the amount.�
The forest department officials told New Age that they have no plan to withdraw the ban as the government has taken the issue seriously.
"�We want to continue the ban for the sake of increasing and protecting fish population in the coastal belt," said Mohammed Ali Kabir Haider, forest conservator in the Khulna Circle.
From: Zakir Kibria
New Website On Mangrove Restoration Launched
Robin Lewis would like to announce the opening of the web page www.mangroverestoration.com and the availability of the paper:
Stevenson, N. J., R. R. Lewis and P. R. Burbridge. 1999. Disused shrimp ponds and mangrove rehabilitation. Pages 277-297 in "An International Perspective on Wetland Rehabilitation", W. J. Streever (Ed.). Kluwer Academic Publishers, The Netherlands. 338 pp.
at:WEBSITE
Hard copies may be reqested from: SherryCapaz@aol.com
Things Are Really Cooking At Tiwoho's CCRC!
Follow-up from the Improved Cookstove and Kitchen Design Workshop.
Two community groups were formed after the improved cookstove and kitchen workshop (held in February, 2004 at Tiwoho community's recently constructed (nearly completed) Coastal Communities Resource Center in N. Sulawesi, Indonesia). The first group is called CIRARO, which means "to work together-volunteer style.� Ibu Yemmi is the leader of thegroup. The
second is called BAPAKA, which means to paddle a canoe together and is
headed up by Ibu Masni.
CIRARO has held 5 meetings since the workshop, producing 11 improved cookstoves for domestic use. The group has modified the portable one pot "Sonder� design studied at the workshop and added a small space for grilling fish. Members of the group have also met with the village head,s wife and the wife of the minister to make some larger permanent two pot cookstoves and an charcoal grill for grilling fish.
On the 9th of March the group met and formalized a small administration, choosing Ibu Yemi for the Group Leader, Ibu Dona as secretary and Ibu Sherl as Treasurer. They are pooling their resources to make a small shelter for storing cookstoves which they plan to sell commercially. Tuesdays and Fridays have been chosen as meeting days and the group hopes to produce 2 cookstoves at each meeting until the entire group (35 women) own their own improved cookstoves.
The BAPAKA group was formed on March 7, and has held 2 meetings producing 4 wood burning stoves and one charcoal grill. A larger two hole cookstove produced during the main workshop is now in use (after drying for 3 weeks) and the owners attest to the fact that it cooks much faster than their traditional stove and uses only 1/3 the amount of wood. They are pleased.
When evey member of both groups have their own cookstoves, they wil begin construction of larger, permanent two hole cookstoves for interested families. Several member of the group have also discussed commercialization of portable cookstoves but are waiting to gain more experience building cookstoves as a collective group.
From: map-indo
ENJOYABLE WAYS TO HELP SUPPORT MAP
MAP's Art Gallery Website
Visit the Website of Chilean artist Monica Gutierrez-Quarto to view her gallery café of beautiful prints and paintings.
"I'm happy to introduce my gallery web site. www.gutierrez-Quartogallery.com
Please pass on to others to help increase the visibility A percentage of all sales generated via my website will go towards supporting the good work of Mangrove Action Project."
For More Information, Please Contact: "monica gutierrez-quarto"
Order Your 2004 Children's Art Calendars
Order Your 2004 Children's Art Calendars produced for the third consecutive year by MAP with artwork from children from 12 mangrove nations. Help support MAP while keeping track of the date! Please contact MAP at mangroveap@olympus.net for more details on how to order. Calendars are $12, including shipping and handling for orders in the US and Canada, $14 abroad.
Take A Coffee Break For the Mangroves!
Mangrove Action Project
and Grounds for Change
Help support the Mangrove Action Project through the purchase of Grounds for Change triple-certified coffee! Grounds for Change will donate 10% of purchase price to the Mangrove Action Project each time you make a purchase at the Grounds for Change web site. It's a great way to support socially and environmentally-conscious coffee and healthy mangrove forests across the globe.
You can participate in one of two ways:
1. Visit the Mangrove Action Project web site and click on the DONATE TO MAP THROUGH YOUR NEXT CUP OF COFFEE link.
Or, Click on
2.GROUNDSFORCHANGE
You will then be directed to the Grounds for Change web site.
Grounds for Change sells only Fair Trade, Organic, Shade-Grown coffee which is roasted by hand, to-order at their family owned facility on Bainbridge Island in Washington State. Grounds for Change is a member of TransFair USA, the Songbird Foundation and the Fair TradeFederation. Grounds for Change further supports fair trade economics by donating 1% of profits to the Fair Trade Federation.
Please note that in order for the 10% donation to be made to MAP, supporters must follow one of the two options outlined above.
Work-Study Tours In the Mangroves
MAP Eco-Study Tours In Thailand
MANGROVE ACTION PROJECT,S
SPIRIT OF THAILAND COASTAL RESOURCES PROGRAM
An experiential study of Thailand,s coastal resources
And the people who depend on them
A new exciting two-week experiential ecology program will provide an opportunity to learn about Thailand,s mangrove forests and other critical, but often threatened coastal wetlands. Visit Thailand's first coastal national park located on the Gulf of Thailand and world famous Phang Nga Bay and the Island of Phuket on the Andaman Sea. Learn about the ecological importance of mangroves, the endangered Dugong and see water birds, languors, and mud skippers. Learn what the Mangrove Action Project (MAP) and a local Thai NGO are doing to conservemangroves. Stay with a fisherfolk family on an island in Phang Nga Bay and experience first hand their culture and efforts to protect the coastal resources on which that their livelihood depends. An extra John Gray SeaCanoe Eco-tour can be arranged at the tour end to view the amazing mangroves and caves of Phang Nga Bay from the vantage point of a kayak, a truly intimate marine experience. www.johngray-seacanoe.com/
Program Dates: July 4-17
Fee not including airfare or food: $800/person
For more information contact: Dr. Lamar Robert lamar@thailand.com
Mangrove Action Project's website.
MAP Volunteer Work Study/Eco-Tour Proposed for Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula
A 10 day mangrove-replanting project on the Caribbean coast of Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico is being considered for the month of September 2004. MAP has received word from the local organizing NGO, SAVE, based in Akumal that a September date was more favorable for local organizing and preparations purposes. Depending upon interest and numbers of volunteers, this tour will help restore degraded mangroves and help rescue or care for threatened baby sea turtles. MAP will be co-sponsoring this tour with the local NGO, SAVE in Mexico. At least 10 volunteers are needed to firm up plans for this tour.
For more information, please contact Alfredo Quarto at mangroveap@olympus.net
John Gray Sea Canoe Eco-Tours
MAP voted "Best of the Best"
MAP encourages anyone who wishes to sea kayak in Thailand to use environmentally responsible guides, and supports JGSC as the best of the best. we are being offered a 20% contribution. the customer booking a tour must indicate that they saw the ad on MAP's website in order for MAP to receive a commission from "JOHN GRAY'S SEACANOE".
John Gray's SeaCanoe delivers high-quality tropical eco-tourism adventures guaranteed to expand your awareness. Lifelong waterman, wildlife rehabber and environmentalist John "Caveman" Gray started tropical kayaking in 1983, bringing ancient Hawaiian natural harmony to modern times. Lava sea caves highlighted Gray's Hawai'i trips, and the 1985 "Moloka'i's Forgotten Frontier" documentary won an Emmy, the first ofmany Awards. In 1999, National Geographic Adventure named Caveman's SeaCanoe Vietnam itineraries a World Top 25 Adventure.
Phuket Weather
Apr 09, 2003 - 14:50 GMT
partly cloudy 32°C
Humid.: 70 %
(c) asianhotelsdirect
Spreading the seeds of conservation to South-East Asia, Gray explored Phang Nga's limestone islands in January 1989. Caveman shared his discoveries with Phuket Thai's, created an experimental Ecotourism laboratory called SeaCanoeT and Phuket's "Low Volume, High Quality" legend was born. Today, 1,000s visit Phang Nga caves daily with so many "SeaCanoe" companies that Caveman formed John Gray's Sea CanoeT to clear market confusion. John hates the name, but it's obvious where Caveman's creative Labor of Love brings Magic to just a few.
Every trip is your own documentary combining kayaking, nature, culture, great food and re-creation. The new
"Hongs by Starlight" trip avoids daytime crowds and amplifies the serenity of early years. "The Nature Game"T is an exciting new Ecotourism concept enhancing your perspectives, adding trip value, offering new personal insights and highlighting our guides' English, training and experience.
For More Details: John Gray Sea Canoe Eco-Tours
MAP voted "Best of the Best"
Thailand's government promotes shrimp farming, seriously threatening mangroves. Combined with over-fishing and unplanned tourism, many marine ecosystems are in crisis. Thailand and MAP need all the help they can get, so John Gray's SeaCanoe celebrates 20 years of "Natural History by Sea Kayak" by donating 20% of your JGSC booking to MAP.
Expect real adventure. Started in Hawai'i in (1983) and Thailand (1989), John's concept received immediate recognition. "Moloka'i's Forgotten Frontier" won 1985 EMMY and TEDDY awards as best environmental production. Travel Channel ran his 1988-89 "Inside Hawai'i" shows three times. In Asia, exotic sea kayaking includes limestone tidal sea caves with cliff-lined lagoons behind them, and Gray invented the Tidal Technology to enter these ecosystems - see it on "Globetrekker", "Passport to Adventure" and Canada's "Beyond Borders". Gray's Ecotourism demonstration project won six environmental awards with trips receiving regular National Geographic "World's Best" mentions.
In January a MAP group tried a Phang Nga trip and the creative sparks flew. JGSC guides gained significant and ongoing mangrove knowledge, and this fundraising concept was born. If you seek an exotic and unique adventure, contact info@johngray-seacanoe.com . Make your 20% donation directly to MAP and JGSC credits the contribution to your Tropical Kayaking adventure.
From: "John Gray's SeaCanoe"
Nigeria
ERA FIELD REPORT #130: SHELL'S BOGUS SABOTAGE CLAIMS
ENVIRONMENTAL RIGHTS ACTION (ERA)
E-mail: eraction@infoweb.abs.net
www.eraction.org
DESPATCHLINE: OKU-AGHORO, EKEREMOR LGA, BAYELSA STATE, NIGERIA
FROM: OSAYANDE OMOKARO & ADAKA INENO MORRIS
DATE: FEBRUARY 25, 2004
Community groans under massive oil spill from Shell's facility..Shell, community differ on cause of spill. Shell attributes incident to sabotage, rules out compensation. Shell resumes operation, refuses to clear spill
Oku-Aghoro is a riverine Ijaw community located in Ekeremor Local Government
Area of Bayelsa State. The local people are predominantly fisher-folks, although some also engage in subsistence farming.
Shell commenced crude oil exploitation in the community in 1965 and has six oil wells and a flow-station in the area. The community is grossly underdeveloped and lacks basic amenities such electricity, pipe borne water
and health services.
On February 16, 2004, a massive oil spill occurred at Shell's Trans-Ramos pipeline located at Oku-Aghoro Community in Ekeremor Local Government Area of Bayelsa State. The said pipeline, which is used by Shell to transport crude oil from the area to its export terminal at Escravos, spewed over
1,500 barrels of crude oil into the Aghoro river and surrounding creeks, thus endangering aquatic life and disrupting fishing activities in the area.
Aghoro River, which is the only source of drinking water in the area, and the surrounding creeks in which the local people carry out their fishing activities were severely polluted by the spill. Fishing gadgets, such as
nets, hooks and wooden canoes were also submerged by the thick sludge formed
by the oil spill. The devastating oil spill also spread through rivers and creeks to neighboring communities like Ogbotobo, Opukashi and Benesede.
During an assessment tour of the affected areas, it was discovered that the faulty pipeline had been repaired. However, crude oil sludge and sheen were seen still floating on the Aghoro River and the surrounding creeks in the area. It was also observed, during the assessment tour, that the spill has
seriously impacted the surrounding vegetation and mangrove trees, thus causing them to wither. Offensive odours emanating from the crude oil hung thickly in the air while the local people were seen still pulling out their fishing nets and canoes from the polluted creeks.
SHELL ATTRIBUTES SPILL TO SABOTAGE, RULES OUT COMPENSATION FOR COMMUNITY PEOPLE
ERA's investigation at Oku-Aghoro Community reveals that as soon the spill
was noticed on the 16th of February, 2004, the incident was promptly reported to Shell officials at their zonal office in Warri. However, community people informed ERA that it took Shell about three days to respond
to the distress call sent to them.
Mr. Oweizide Orubu, a youth leader in the area, informed ERA that some Shell officials who eventually came to the community on the 19th of February, 2004, to investigate the cause of the spill accused the local people of
sabotage and vowed to make them pay for their crime. Mr. Orubu further explained that a "joint investigation report", which the people never contributed to, was later written by Shell officials and circulated to the
media....
...Apparently dissatisfied with the sabotage claim by Shell, some community people have already called on the presidency to set up an independent panel of enquiry to unravel the true cause of the spill....aa result of the strong opposition to the sabotage claim as well as the lack of evidence to support this claim, Shell has agreed to conduct another round of investigation to identify the true cause of the spill. ERA calls on Shell to involve the community people in this round of
investigation!
SHELL RESUMES OPERATIONS, REFUSES TO CLEAR SPILL
Further investigation by ERA Field Monitors reveals that three days after the spill, some Shell officials came to the community to repair their faulty facility. It was gathered from community people that the leaking portion of the said pipeline was clamped while some booms were deployed on the Aghoro River and the surrounding creeks, so as to contain the rapid spread of the
crude oil.
Local people interviewed by ERA in the community explained that no clean up
exercise was conducted by Shell in the affected areas. ERA's investigation in the affected areas corroborated this claim. Crude oil sheen and sludge were seen still floating on the Aghoro River and the surrounding creeks.
Although, Shell is yet to clear the crude oil spill from its facility, normal work has since resumed at its Aghoro flow-station and other oil installations in the area. This is clear a demonstration of Shell's insensitivity to the plight of its host community and their environment.
ERA RECOMMENDS THAT SHELL SHOULD
- Stop accusing the local people of sabotage and involve them in the investigation process aimed at unraveling the actual cause of the spill
- Immediately commence a proper clean-up exercise in the Aghoro River and the adjoining creeks and other affected areas.
- Pay adequate compensation to community people whose environment, fishing gadgets and source of livelihoods have been destroyed by the spill.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
Write protest letter to Shell asking them to:
Commence the process of cleaning up the spill
Supply relief materials to the community to cushion the economic effects of the spill
Pay adequate compensation to the local people whose environment and means of livelihood have been destroyed by the spill.
Send copies of your letter to local and international media, environmental groups and your elected representatives.
SHELL'S ADDRESS
Managing Director
Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC)
Freeman House
21/22 Marina, PMB 2418
Lagos, Nigeria
Tel:23412601600-19
Fax:23412636681
Email: info@spdc.shell.com and shellcorp-id@spdc.shell.com
For more information contact:
ENVIRONMENTAL RIGHTS ACTION/ FRIENDS OF THE EARTH (FoE, Nigeria)
E-mail: oilwatch@infoweb.abs.net
E-mail: disera@infoweb.abs.net
www.eraction.org
From: Beth Burrows beb@igc.org
US AID/ Shell Oil Plans Include Shrimp Farms In Nijer Delta
Note: For months now rumors have been flying that Shell Oil and US AID have gotten together to implement large-scale investment project in Niger Delta vis a big grant to initiate cassava production and shrimp production for the export markets. The following news report culled from the Nigerian Guardian newspaper on Feb. 27, 2004 seems now to bear out the truth in this earlier rumor.
The following news story may well point to the beginning of the planned move for the Shell/ US AID promotion of introduction of indusrial shrimp farming in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria.
THE GUARDIAN
CONSCIENCE, NURTURED BY TRUTH
LAGOS, NIGERIA. Friday, February 27 2004
news
Shell, others okay N1.5b cassava scheme
From Chido Okafor, Warri
AMAJOR deal to boost cassava production in 11 states in the country was on Wednesday signed by Shell Petroleum Development Company, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the International Institute of Tropical
Agriculture (IITA) in Delta State.
Under the scheme, a N1.518 billion ($11 million) Cassava Development Project (CEDP) will be implemented over five years and will target 300,000 farm households. It will provide farmers with access to disease-resistant varieties, develop marketing outlets for cassava
products and establish cassava processing enterprises at the community level.
A five-year $20 million memorandum of
Understanding (MOU) to share their common goals apart from the joint cassava project, was on Wednesday signed by the three partners at the opening
of a three-day stakeholders' workshop
in Effurun, Delta State. Representatives of Shell locations world-wide are attending the workshop.
The cassava enterprise development will concentrate its efforts in 11 states in the South-East and South-South.
The Guardian gathered that the partnership would help address developmental challenges in the Niger Delta.
Mission Director of USAID/Nigeria, Mr. Dawn Liberi, said: "As we know then, the primary source of revenue for the government of Nigeria is from oil exploration and production in the Niger Delta region. However, this region is one of the most under-developed areas in Nigeria and continues to experience serious conflicts".
The USAID/Nigeria recently
approved a five-year strategy (2004-2009) where $350 million dollars had been earmarked to improve democratic governance, the economy, social sector services and reduce the impact of the dreaded Human Immuno-deficiency Virus (HIV) and the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AID).
The IITA was founded in 1967 with a mandate to improve food production in the humid tropics and to develop sustainable production systems.
(c) 2003 - 2004 @ Guardian Newspapers Limited (All Right Reserved).
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From: Niger Delta
S.E. ASIA
Thailand
Village head, 4 others, arrested for triple murder
The NATION Published on Feb 15, 2004
A village headman in Samut Sakhon and four workers on his prawn farm have been arrested over allegations that they murdered three Phetchaburi livestock farmers who disappeared in December, police said yesterday.
Two of the men confessed that the three victims were shot execution-style and that their bodies cremated one at a time in a 200-litre oil drum.
The five murder suspects are Chaiwat Rodtassana, the village headman, and four residents of Phetchaburi - Amornthep Lerdbangplad, Alak Makban, Sompop Meekaew and Anuphan Nuchapong.
The victims - Saroj Sangnimit, Amnuaychai Pengnuam and Sompoj Phuraya - were livestock farmers in Ban Laem district.
They were last seen on December 11 gathering hay to feed their cattle near Chaiwat's prawn farm.
After investigators intensified their interrogation of the farm workers, Anuphan confessed, which led to the arrest of Chaiwat and the other suspects, Warawut said.
Anuphan, whose confession was corroborated by Sompop, said the triple homicide was sparked by an argument between the victims and Amornthep's wife, Sukritta Lerdbangplad.
Sukritta and the three argued after they entered the prawn farm to gather hay for their livestock. They told her that they had permission from Chaiwat to enter his property, then made disparaging remarks about her, Anuphan said.
Sukritta called Chaiwat to report the insulting trespassers and he and Amornthep arrived back at the farm in a rage, Anuphan told police.
The two summoned Sompop, Alak and Anuphan to help them subdue the three men. After the three victims were tied up, Chaiwat allegedly shot each one in the head. The five suspects then allegedly burnt the bodies and dispersed the ashes over the prawn farm.
Bangkok Post March 3, 2004
Potential duties spur heavy exports to US
Charges may take effect on Friday
Phusadee Arunmas
Thai shrimp exports to the United States have surged as exporters step up shipments before March 5, the date when anti-dumping duties could potentially come into effect if the US government rules that punitive tariffs must be charged.
Exports of both frozen and processed shrimp in January and February were four times higher than in the same period last year. Shipments totalled 15,700 tonnes in January 2003 and 14,983 tonnes in February.
According to Panisuan Jamnarnweij, president of the Thai Frozen Foods Association, US importers have been placing heavy orders since the start of the year, though the period traditionally is considered the trade's low season.
He said importers were rushing to get shipments into the US before March 5, the day when shrimp imports may become subject to the new duty charge.
Mr Panisuan said that although the US Department of Commerce (USDC) was not scheduled to rule until June 8 on whether shrimp from six countries including Thailand have been unfairly dumped, the punitive tariff charges would likely be backdated 90 days.
Last month, the US International Trade Commission ruled 6:0 in favour of a petition by US shrimp raisers to investigate whether imports from Thailand, China, Brazil, Ecuador, Vietnam and India were being sold in the US at below home-market prices, making them liable for anti-dumping duties.
Mr Panisuan said the USDC was investigating four Thai producers and exporters _ Thailand Fishery, Thai Ekkamai, Chanthaburi Seafood and Union Frozen Plc _ over their pricing policies and production costs as part of the trade complaint process before a decision is made in June.
Mr Panisuan has called on the Thai government to take action to help shrimp producers avoid the crippling duty. "Once it is imposed, the anti-dumping duty will be effective for five years with an annual review," he said.
He said that even a 5% extra duty would jeopardise one-third of the country's 120 processing plants and could force them out of business. "A 10% duty would have consequences for half of all producers."
According to a source at the Thai Frozen Foods Association, Thai shrimp could face duties of 5-10%, causing at least 20 billion baht in damages to the economy as the impact would be felt by exporters as well as related industries and more than 30,000 farm households.
The US is the largest market for Thai shrimp, accounting for half of last year's 220,000-tonne export total.
Indonesia
W R M B U L L E T I N 79 February 2004
Large Scale Shrimp Farming and Impacts on Women
Inland aquaculture has been practiced in Asian countries, namely in Indonesia, China, India and Thailand for hundreds of years. Shrimps were traditionally cultivated in paddy fields or in ponds combined with fishes, without significantly altering the mangrove forest, which for centuries has been used communally by local people providing them a number of products such as commercial fish, shrimp, game, timber, honey, fuel and medicine.
Women have played a key role in taking the advantage of mangrove resources. In Papua Island, indigenous knowledge regulates woman's role in mangrove forest.
Recent increase in market demand have pressed for a change into intensive and semi-intensive shrimp farming, with much less respect to local ecosystems and people. Multinational corporations, coupled with the support of the World Bank and Asian Development Bank, have expanded intensive shrimp aquaculture in Asia, taking all the access and blocking traditional users' access to coastal resources. This has meant loss of food, health, income and social and cultural welfare for them.
Shrimp cultivation is the most high-risk process in the shrimp industry, especially after virus attacks that began in 1993 and continue until today. In spite of that, small farmers were encouraged by the government and influenced by the industry to continue investing in this activity. Most of the small farmers became indebted and did not continue the business anymore. The current shrimp owner is mostly the local businessman who bought the ponds from several small indebted farmers.
This modern and large-scale shrimp farming creates major socio-economic problems to the local people, including land conflicts, exploitation of the poor by large corporations, and changes in social structures of local communities. Although coastal communities may in fact have used and cared for the land over a long period, they do not posses formal landownership documents. So, most resistance against shrimp industry has been related to land taking by government and corporations.
Farmer families who lose the land will leave to the cities for low-skill jobs. Woman and children are the most fragile group related to changing in social structures, and in some cases may end up in prostitution. Employment opportunities of shrimp processing factories for the local people are often limited to unskilled and low-paid jobs, such as watchman and harvester. Only few jobs are available to local women, who can be employed as cleaning service and other low skill and part time works.
The current trend in Indonesia is that the traditional farmers are directed to join as satellite farmers in a Nucleus Estate Smallholders Scheme (NESS). Large scale NEES is usually supported by government and provided with high technology. The NESS system is also very biased against women. In large-scale shrimp farming only adult and educated men can hope to get a job. In case of death or inability to work of the smallholder males, women must leave the farming estate, leaving behind all the assets that they had been paying for by credit installment.
The change from traditional to industrial shrimp farming that is rapidly taking place might in the short term benefit the government and the large-scale shrimp investors due to foreign currency generation, but the environmental and social costs associated with the industry by far outstrip the benefits. Local communities are particularly marginalized and exploited and local social structures are threatened by growing tensions and conflicts.
Adapted and excerpted from "Large Scale Shrimp Farming and Impacts on women", by P. Raja Siregar, Campaigner of WALHI (Friends of The Earth- Indonesia) and Coordinator of Coalition of Anti-Debt Movement. Sent by the author. E-mail: radja@walhi.or.id . The full document is available.
From: Teresa Perez teresap@wrm.org.uy
Breaking out of the poverty-environmental degradation cycle:
Women and sustainable development in Indonesia
You are a poor widow living in rural Indonesia. You have three children to support and only the most basic of educations. What do you do? If you live in forested area-as much of Indonesia used to be-the answer is simple: you sell wood that you can collect freely. Your children help you, and there is always a need for fuel wood. But what happens when the forest runs out? This is a growing concern in Indonesia, and a focus of the Women's Union for Equality, an Indonesian NGO that hopes to change patterns such as this one.
Women in Indonesia, as in other developing countries, often lack access to services that could greatly contribute to their quality of life. As the organization notes, violence against women is a continuing problem in Indonesia, as well as persistent social, political, and economic discrimination. They are systematically excluded from decision-making positions: women hold only eight percent of parliamentary seats in Indonesia. Women also suffer from inadequate access to family planning resources. Research has suggested that women in Indonesia comprise the majority of the poor, particularly in the poorest sector of Indonesian society. It is hard to dispute that women are disproportionately affected by poverty.
This is an extensive list of problems to address, especially because in many cases they are interrelated. One of the Women's Union for Equality (Persatuan Perempuan Sama, or PPS) strategies has been to work towards solutions to problems that emerge in regard to the relationship between women and the environment. Women make up the majority of natural resource managers in Indonesia, and yet paradoxically, they are the ones that tend to have the least access to resources that could aid their management ability. It is in this context that situations such as the one mentioned above arise. How can women escape from cycles of poverty and environmental degradation if they are not aware of their resource management options?
In response to this problem, PPS has begun projects with poor women who harvest mangrove forests in order to make a living. Focusing in one region in the Sulawesi Province, PPS created an initiative in 2003 to help expand women's choices through training in alternative livelihood practices.
Wangkolabu, the village where the project is taking place, used to be located in an extensive mangrove forest that occupied over 500 hectares (1,200 acres) of land. Today, this area has been reduced to 150 hectares (370 acres) of degraded mangrove forest, mostly due to exploitation for local housing materials and the fuel wood trade. Fishing has traditionally been the staple income provider of this town, but in recent years it has been necessary for people to add on other income generating activities to make ends meet-namely, the sale of fuel wood. However, increases in mangrove harvesting have led to decreases in fish populations, which depend on mangrove habitat, fueling a vicious cycle.
With the help of Global Greengrants funds, PPS was able to develop a program designed to halt, or at least slow, this process. Aimed at helping women maintain income generating projects as well as ecosystem protection and environmental sustainability, PPS conducted a four day participatory workshop in which 20 women-10 of them single parents-learned about the ecological importance of the mangrove and were trained in alternative livelihood practices, enabling them to leave the fuel wood trade. The group identified the central goal of increasing viable fish habitat in the village through mangrove restoration projects, and also included objectives for lowering local consumption of mangrove and establishing a ban on the fuel wood trade. The focus group for this workshop was purposefully comprised of members of Wangkolabu's most marginalized population, as these are the people that are most likely to contribute to environmental degradation out of economic necessity. It is important to note that Wangkolabu is comprised of 91 families, of which 43 are headed by single women-these women are under intense pressure to provide for their families in a society that devalues women's work.
This success story is not the only example of proactive, community-based participatory projects that PPS has helped to initiate. In fact, in Kuala Sungai Pinang on Penang Island, a PPS project in 2000 laid the groundwork-literally-for continued ecosystem restoration. This project consisted of the construction of what are known as "empang parit", or dredged out ditch ponds, which, when paired with extensive mangrove planting, create attractive habitat for various fish species. In cooperation with rural indigenous women's groups living around degraded mangrove forests, PPS built an empang parit to demonstrate how women can improve both fish habitat and, as a result, their long-term income levels. Over 5,000 mangrove saplings have so far been planted, and women now have the knowledge to continue mangrove restoration projects into the future. Furthermore, as a result of the success of this project, PPS has been granted a substantial amount of funds by the Indonesian government in order to continue the work on Muna Island, where they have identified a target group of over 3,000 indigenous people.
Both of these projects help PPS to achieve its overall goals: the equal participation of women in public policy making, an increased role of women in natural resource management, and the decrease of the "feminization" of poverty. Environmental protection provides a framework that promotes women's empowerment, as they are the ones that are trained in project development and implementation, restoration methods, and livelihood training. As women increase their leadership ability, with the help of groups such as PPS and Global Greengrants, the cycle of environmental degradation and women's poverty is well on its way to being broken.
Jessica Sherman, March 2004
From: jessica.sherman@colorado.edu
----------
Vietnam
U.S.-Vietnam Ties Raise Hopes, Hackles
Determined to Increase Trade, Communist Leaders Court Former Enemies
WASHINGTON POST
By Alan Sipress, Washington Post Foreign Service Saturday, March 6, 2004; Page A12
HA TINH, Vietnam -- Huu Dinh clambers up the steps to the roof of his one-story office building and points like a general into the distance where his sprawling empire of man-made shrimp ponds melts into themists of central Vietnam's coastal plain.
"Last year, if you came here, all you'd see is sand," said Dinh, 48, a
stocky man with a white ball cap pulled down over thinning black hair.
"For a thousand years, nobody touched it. Nobody did anything with it. When I started, people said I'd be facing disaster."
Dinh's success has been fueled by the decisive turn in relations
between Vietnam and the United States over the past year, described by officials on both sides as the most significant improvement in relations since they were normalized in 1995. Dinh raised 1,000 tons of shrimp last year, exporting half to the United States, a tenfold increase since a bilateral trade agreement took effect two years ago.
But the new intimacy between the two countries has also created a raft of irritants, most notably an anti-dumping suit filed in the United States against Vietnamese shrimp exporters that threatens to drain the profits from Dinh's ponds just as he is planning to triple the sizeof his Ha Tinh farm.
During the last year, trade between the two countries has doubled,
reaching about $6 billion annually, according to U.S. and Vietnamese figures. The United States is now Vietnam's largest export market, with clothing, shoes, furniture and seafood making up the bulk of the goods.
"No one was expecting it would be so dramatic, the change that we've had," said a Western diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The economic progress in turn has driven closer ties across a spectrum of issues, breaking a logjam in relations....
The Vietnamese have repeatedly discovered that Americans do not always appreciate their gusto in penetrating the U.S. market. Vietnam's largest export to the United States is textiles. Last year, the Vietnamese government grudgingly agreed to a cap on exports demanded by Washington.
Vietnamese officials were less accommodating when U.S. producers sued Vietnam's catfish exporters, alleging that they were dumping their fish on the U.S. market at below cost. Vietnam lost that case and the Department of Commerce imposed tariffs on catfish imports of between 36 to 64 percent. The Vietnamese have now appealed to the U.S. Court of International Trade.
Now, a new battle over Vietnamese shrimp exports to the United States valued at $450 million a year has been joined in Washington.
Vietnam's reaction this time is more practical and less polemical, a measure of how quickly the relationship between the two countries has matured. "It is normal that when you start to have business, you start to have problems," Dung said. "After the catfish dispute, we learned how to do business."
Vietnamese officials said they had stepped up efforts to lobby the U.S. administration and strike political alliances in Washington to protect their interests. Vietnamese shrimp producers have also hired a major U.S. corporate law firm, Willkie, Farr and Gallagher, after conducting what one lawyer involved called a "tortuous," year-long competition among at least seven foreign firms.
"It shows that Vietnam is learning by doing, by integrating into the
world economy," said Nguyen Hong Duong, deputy director for Europe and America in the Ministry of Trade. "We're getting familiar with the game and how to play in international trade now."
Huu Dinh became a shrimp entrepreneur after returning from the United States, where he had lived since he was a teenager.
He developed three shrimp farms in northern Vietnam before turning to the impoverished Ha Tinh province, wedged between the mountains and the sea. He decided to establish the largest shrimp farm in the country here, encouraged by the prospect of exporting to the United States under the reduced tariffs and higher banking standards fostered by the bilateral trade agreement, he said.
On a recent afternoon, Dinh surveyed his domain, taking stock of how he has transformed the landscape. Riding with his chauffeur in a white Lexus, he drove along the earthen wall running beside his ponds, which he had scooped an acre at a time from some of the poorest soil in Vietnam. Dinh also carved a broad, mile-long canal to carry water to the farm and erected a mile of overhead electrical lines to power an oceanfront pump for the pipeline serving his new shrimp hatchery.
Laborers are finishing the complex of low buildings to house the brood stock, flown in from Hawaii, in temperature-controlled tanks. "You can turn sand into something," Dinh said, his smile widening. "I'm amazing even myself."
He bridles at the accusation from U.S. shrimpers that Vietnamese are exporting below cost and he vows to fight the case.
"I'd be in deep, deep trouble if I can't send shrimp to the United
States," he said. "Who's going to pay the bank interest for me? Who's going to pay my employees?"
Dinh is gambling that the United States will continue to offer him
opportunity as it has repeatedly during his life. He has already
developed 1,500 acres of ponds at Ha Tinh and expects to have a total of 5,000 acres shortly. He is close to completing another shrimp farm and working on two more. He aims to produce 7,000 tons of shrimp this year, a sevenfold increase from last year, he said.
"The game plan is on the move," he said. "It's impossible to reverse
it."
From: "Andrianna Natsoulas"
----------
S. ASIA
Bangladesh
Bangladesh says tiger numbers burning bright
By Reuters March 11, 2004
DHAKA � The number of tigers in Bangladesh's part of the world's largest mangrove swamp has risen to around 500 from 362 a decade ago, a triumph for environmentalists battling to preserve the endangered big cat.
Shahjahan Siraj, Bangladesh's Minister for the Environment and Forests, told a news conference that a recent count suggested the royal Bengal tiger may be making a comeback in the Sundarbans after numbers dwindled from 450 in 1982 to around 360 in 1993.
"A primary analysis of the paw prints hints that the number of tigers might be around 500," he said.
The Sundarbans, which stretches into India's West bengal state, is about 400 km (250 miles) southwest of Dhaka and is home to a large variety of wildlife. But its chief attraction is the beautiful tiger � the largest big cat in the world.
Siraj said the tiger enumerators had scoured the 6,000-sq-km (2,320-sq-mile) Bangladesh wetland and swamps from Feb. 26 to March 3 and collected 1,546 tiger paw prints or pug marks.
"Plaster of Paris molds of the pug marks will also help ascertain age, weight, and gender of individual animals," the minister said.
Forest officials said increased surveillance against poaching and lower human interference in the wildlife had helped the tiger population to recover.
Authorities put increased efforts in protection of the Sundarbans after the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation declared the area a World Heritage site in 1997.
India counted the tigers in its 4,000-sq-km (1,545-sq-mile) portion of the Sundarbans in January, but those figures have not yet been released.
The Sundarbans form a fragile ecosystem that is being ravaged by the pressures of population and the weak enforcement of environmental regulations.
About 3 million people live in the portion of the swamps that belong to Bangladesh, and 3.5 million more reside in the Indian portion in the neighbouring state of West Bengal.
URL: ENN
From: Zakir Kibria
Shatkhira Sundarbans Deforestation for Shrimp Culture: Forest official suspended, 11 others transferred
The Daily Star, March 6, 2004
The Sandarbans Station Officer in Kaikhali, Golam Rabbani, has been suspended for negligence in duty following felling of trees on about five acres of forest area by some local influentials allegedly for building a shrimp enclosure.
Eleven other forest officials and staff have been transferred from the station in Shatkhira district.
Divisional Forest Officer (DPO) Badrul Alam Bhuiya took the action on February 29 after a probe, official sources said.
The forest department has filed a case against three persons --Rashedul Gazi, Ebadul Gazi and Moktar Gazi of Bhetkhali in Shyamnagar upazila -- for felling the trees for shrimp cultivation.
They took away several hundred Geoa, Kewra and Hetal trees from Compartment No 47 in Kaikhali near Golkhali village in Shyamnagar upazila in January, forest official Kazi Karim said quoting from the probe report.
The probe was done by forest officials Nurul Amin and Kazi Nurul Karim, Karim said.
During a recent visit to the area some local people told this correspondent that some influential groups had been eyeing the Suandarbans for long to grab land for shrimp cultivation.
The Kaikhali Forest Station covers 1,51,351 acres of land. Human habitation has been separated from the Sundarbans by building an embankment.
The trees from the five-acre area were felled within two weeks from the last week of January in connivance with a section of corrupt forest officials, they alleged.
When contacted, Rashidul Gazi and Moktar Guzi said they cut the trees as tigers from bushes there often come to nearby shrimp farms, threatening life of security guards. They said their intention was not to grab the Sundarbans land.
From: Zakir Kibria banglapraxis@yahoo.com
Sundarbans: Back to the wall, fishermen take to logging
URL: THE DAILY STAR
Sundarbans' poor farmers and fishermen are increasingly resorting to illegal logging and poaching to survive in the face of a government ban on catching shrimp fry, depleting precious plant and wildlife resources of the world's largest mangrove forest.
Coupled with a poor aman harvest this season, the ban on shrimp fry has snatched the livelihood of subsistence farmers and fishermen, who constitute around 80 percent of the population living on the fringes of the forest, depending solely on netting fish fry and collecting forest resources.
Last December, the government imposed the ban to protect the fish in the area as harvesting shrimp fry also means a large number of other fish fry end up dead in the fisherman's net.
According to the Department of Forest, anywhere between 80,000 and 150,000 people of the 17 upazilas around the forest scratch out a living from catching shrimp in a network of 450 canals and rivers in addition to collecting other forest resources.
But with the ban in place, they are unable to pay back dadon or seasonal loan they traditionally take from money lenders during off season every year. Consequently, a rising tide of poor people are resorting to illegal logging and poaching.
"We live from hand to mouth catching fish fry, but the ban has put us out of work. So when our children cry for food, we have no choice but to pick up the axe and head for the forest. We are helpless and you people can not save the forest staying at the capital, unless the government finds an alternative means of livelihood for us," said Abdul Latif of Joymuni village under Chandpai range.
During a recent field trip to the village, this correspondent found that people there cannot afford rice daily.
"Today I cooked rice and kochu (a sort of arum). But we can't have rice every day and eat boiled potatoes with salt," said a jobless Momtaz Begum, who used to eke out a living from netting shrimp. Other poor families of the village have the same story to tell as do the people of neighbouring villages of Sundartala, Banshtala, Chila, Haldibuniya and Kaan Mari.
Even last year, these families harvested 10 to 12 maunds of aman paddy per bigha, but this year per bigha yield was only two to three maunds.
Lutfar Rahman Sana, a money lender of Joymuni, does not know how to get back his money from borrowers -- mostly shrimp fry catchers. "I know they do not have any source of income to pay me back," he said.
"Unless the government can arrange for an alternative source of income for these desperately poor people, it will be impossible to save the forest," said a forest official requesting anonymity.
At the inauguration ceremony of the recently concluded tiger census at the Sundarbans, Environment and Forest Minister Shajahan Siraj acknowledged the gravity of the situation saying alternative employment opportunities should have been created for local residents over the years after independence. "But the governments have failed to do that," the minister conceded.
From: Zakir Kibria banglapraxis@yahoo.com
Eco-huts to be built in Sundarbans
The Daily Star, February 26, 2004.
Dhaka, Bangladesh
Prime Minister Khaleda Zia yesterday told the Jatiya Sangsad that the government has undertaken a plan to set up eco-huts at various points of the Sundarbans in a bid to attract tourists.
Replying to a question from M Nurul Islam, the PM said the huts would help both foreign and local tourists witness the beauty of the world's largest mangrove forest.
A bio-diversity protection project was being implemented in the Sundarbans at a cost of about Tk 400 crore to develop tourism, set up eco-huts and save trees, she added.
Khaleda also said there is a plan to spend about Tk 1.3 crore from the non-development budget of the current fiscal for promotion of eco-tourism.
She said the project would also raise government's revenue earnings and create alternative employment opportunities for the people dependent on the Sundarbans.
She also told the House that tenders had been floated for the project and a policy was adopted to turn existing structures in the Sundarbans into eco-huts.
From: Zakir Kibria
Switzerland to help produce organic shrimps for exports
BSS, Dhaka
URL: THE DAILY STAR
Switzerland yesterday expressed its keen interest in helping Bangladesh to produce organic shrimps at traditional farms to fetch more export earnings from European countries.
"Bangladesh shrimps have big potential in Switzerland and other European countries as demands for such fish are very high there," Jurg Casserini, charge d' affaires of the Swiss Embassy in Dhaka, said at a dialogue.
Swiss embassy organised the dialogue with shrimp producers, exporters and policymakers as part of the visit of Markus Stern, an executive of a Swiss business promotion firm. Markus Stern arrived in Dhaka on a four-day visit to help promote Bangladesh exports to Switzerland and other European countries.
Stern said the organic shrimps have 20 percent higher price than that of the traditional shrimps. The price is not an important factor for the European buyers, he said adding that the buyers were more prone to costly but quality foods than that of cheaper ones.
Bangladesh could earn more from the exports of organic shrimps, the fish which is produced without using any inorganic substances like fertiliser and chemicals, said Markus Stern.
"The shrimp we are producing now is almost organic," Secretary General of Bangladesh Frozen Foods Exporters Association (BFFEA) Mahmudul Hasan claimed in the dialogue. The claim was, however, refuted immediately by the Swiss charge d' affaires saying that there was no scope of 'almost' in case of shrimps which must be 'fully organic.�
From: Zakir Kibria
New Caledonia
Note: Please Contact Point Zéro / Base Line For Complete Article.
Following the Money Trail: Unanswered Questions
Mining and Export Credit Finance in Kanaky/New Caledonia
Stephanie Fried, Ph.D.1 and Rick Anex2
January, 2004
Background: Biodiversity and Nickel Mining in Kanaky/New Caledonia
Kanaky or New Caledonia, a country under French rule in the Southwestern Pacific, is one of the most unusual biodiversity hotspots on earth. A remnant of ancient Gondwanaland , the main island, La Grand Terre, separated from Australia some 85 million years ago and has existed in isolation from other land masses, surrounded by deep ocean trenches.3 Kanaky contains the largest concentration of nickel laterites in the world (approximately 20% of the known reserves) and contains 75% of the reefs and lagoons under French control.4 Due to the country's geological history, isolated location and unusual soils which are poor in nitrogen, potassium and phosphorous and rich in chromium, magnesium, nickel, iron and cobalt - elements usually toxic to plants - over 75% of the country's plant species are endemic and are found nowhere else on earth. Some of New Caledonia's terrestrial ecosystems have rates of endemism as high as 91%.5 Kanaky is home to extraordinary "living fossils" including 18 species of the Winteraceae family of plants which date back 120 million years, to the age of dinosaurs.6
Surrounded by an extraordinary barrier reef - the second largest in the world, after Australia's Great Barrier Reef - Kanaky contains one of the world's largest lagoon systems. The location of Kanaky's reefs relative to prevailing currents and temperature regimes has allowed them to remain relatively unscathed by recent massive coral bleaching events which have had profound impacts on the reefs of neighboring Australia and throughout the Pacific.7 This little-researched reef and lagoon system - occupying close to 10 million acres (44,000 km2) - is home to a vast number of marine species including many found nowhere else on earth.8
Recently, marine researchers discovered over 2,700 species of marine molluscs at one Kanaky site, alone - several times the number of species than those recorded from any other comparable area in the world.9 This recent discovery and other current analyses of Kanaky marine molluscs is likely to force an upward recalculation of the total number of living species on Earth.10
In January 2002, after pressure by courageous indigenous Kanak leaders and local environmentalists, the French government proposed New Caledonia's reef ecosystems for listing as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In March, 2002, sixty-two coastal and marine scientific experts convened in Hanoi, Vietnam and concluded that the reefs of New Caledonia were of "Outstanding Universal Value" in terms of their biodiversity attributes, placing these reefs at the top of priority list for World Heritage designation in the Pacific.11 The UNESCO process, however, has since been blocked and the nomination has not progressed. The French Minister of Ecology and Sustainable Development has stated that France now prefers to "work with international mining companies...to ensure environmental protection" instead of seeking World Heritage status for the reefs.
Given the nickel-rich soils, and a recent "World Nickel Meeting" held in the country, large international mining companies are preparing to initiate massive mining operations on indigenous lands in this fragile island ecosystem. In addition, there are plans for the development of large-scale industrial shrimp aquaculture operations. There are indications that both mining and aquaculture companies are attempting to secure international finance, including ECA support, for their proposed ventures. This paper focuses on the provision of public finance for mining sector. The potential impact of public finance on the aquaculture sector will be examined in a later paper.
Mining and Public Finance
New Caledonia has sometimes been called the "El Dorado of Nickel" by the international mining community. However, international nickel prices have not been stable and civil unrest appears to be on the increase locally. Under conditions of clear political and commercial risk, it is likely that transnational mining companies and their investment partners are seeking methods of shifting the risk burden to the public sector, especially through the utilization of various forms of public finance and political risk insurance from ECAs in their countries of origin.....
- Environmental Defense, P.O. Box 520, Waimanalo, Hawai'i, 96734 U.S.A. stephf@environmentaldefense.org
- "Point Zéro / Base Line ", courriel : pointzero@canl.nc , Nouméa, New Caledonia. Rick Anex, courriel : dakuwaqa@lagoon.nc
- Identified by scientists as one of the world's top ten biodiversity "hotspots" in Meyers, N , cited in "Radiatoin of crenobiontic gastropods on an ancient continental island: the Hemistomia-clade in New Caledonia", M. Haase and P. Bouchet, Hydrobiologia 367: 43 - 129. 1998
- French Embassy, In Depth Review: Region: New Caledonia. New Caledonia was an Overseas Territory of France until May 1998. After the signing of the Noumea Accord in 1999, New Caledonia became a "French Overseas Country". www.info-france-usa.org
- Jaffre, T, P. Bouchet, J-M Veillon, "Threatened plants of New Caledonia: Is the system of protected areas adequate?", in Biodiversity and Conservation, 7, 109-135 (1998).
- Lowry, P. "Diversity, Endemism, and Extinction in the Flora and vegetation of New Caledonia," Missouri Botannical Garden, 1996.
- Lough, J. "Analyses of sea surface temperatures (SSTs) in vicinity of New Caledonia (1-degree latitude x 1-degree longitude box centred on 20.5oS, 164.5oE) using data from UK Hadley Centre (1871-1999) and IGOSS-NMC (2000-2002)." Australian Institute of Marine Science, January, 2003.
- According to an IFRECOR (French Coral Reef Initiative) report on the state of the environment in New Caledonia, the rich marine biodiversity of New Caledonia's reef systems has "scarcely been studied by biologists." IFRECOR cites an ORSTOM report indicating potentially 15,000 marine species, but concludes, given that "many areas have never been explored...it is likely that biodiversity is even higher." IFRECOR, "State of the Environment in New Caledonia". www.environnement.gouv.fr/ifrecor .
- Bouchet, P, P. Lozouet, P. Maestrati, V. Heros, "Assessing the magnitude of species richness in tropical marine environments: exceptionally high numbers of molluscs at a New Caledonia site", Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2002, 75, 421-436.
- ibid
- "World Heritage Marine Biodiversity Workshop: Filling Critical Gaps and Promoting Multi-Site Approaches to New Nominations of Tropical Coastal, Marine and Small Island Ecosystems," Hanoi, Vietnam: 25 February to 1 March, 2002. "Hanoi Report", June 17, 2002, Draft version.
From Point Zéro / Base Line pointzero@canl.nc
Brazil
Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company
Brazil's Shrimp Caught Up in a Trade War
By LARRY ROHTER , March 10, 2004
ITAPISSUMA, Brazil - The shrimp farms that have sprung up all along the coast here are one of Brazil's great success stories, cited by
government officials as an example of the country's ability to compete on world markets. From 1998 to 2003, Brazil's shrimp exports jumped from a mere 400 tons to more than 58,000 (tons), with a third of that going to the United States.
During the boom, few companies have prospered more than Netuno S.A., which grows shrimp in 64 ponds at an 1,850-acre farm here and also buys from scores of other producers throughout the region. Founded 15 years ago as a modest market selling fish and lobster to local customers and hotels, Netuno is now Brazil's largest single exporter of shrimp to the United States.
"Like everyone else in Brazil, we started off late in this business,
without a formula for exporting," said Hugo Campos, the industrial
production director. "The idea was to grow as much as we could, and the boom in world demand for shrimp has been our path to success."
Now, though, producers here are facing a serious new challenge in their biggest market. On Dec. 31, the Southern Shrimp Alliance filed a dumping complaint against Brazil and five other countries, seeking to impose tariffs of up to 300 percent, and last month the Commerce Department ruled that there were grounds to proceed because there were indications of a "danger of injury" to American producers.
"We're really getting killed over here," Eddie Gordon, president of the Southern Shrimp Alliance, said in a telephone interview from Mount Pleasant, S.C. "Prices are so low that our boat owners can't even afford to go out shrimping, and that's because the product is being sold against what all our trade agreements are."
Brazilian shrimp growers deny that they have engaged in unfair trade practices, arguing that they are merely benefiting from a natural competitive advantage. They point to significantly lower labor costs, the availability of cheap land and, above all, a benevolent tropical climate that allows them not only higher productivity per acre, but three harvests a year.
Politically, the dispute could hardly be more inconveniently timed.
Though Brazil and the United States are the leaders of the talks aimed at establishing a Free Trade Area of the Americas by the end of this year, the government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has expressed doubts about the desirability of such an accord, sometimes in piquant terms.
Specifically, Brazil fears that the United States is trying to impose a
free trade accord that will not remove the subsidies and other barriers that have limited Latin America's exports of agricultural products to the United States. Until the Bush administration yields on that point, the Brazilians and their allies argue, there is no point talking about fully opening markets here to more American
goods and services.
In that atmosphere of suspicion, the shrimp case is seen here as
politically motivated and abusive. As Brazilian government officials and news reports have repeatedly pointed out, the Southern Shrimp Alliance represents shrimpers in eight states, including Florida and Texas, and this is an election year.
Producers here and in the other five mostly Asian countries named in the complaint are supported by the American Seafood Distributors Association. That group, which represents supermarkets, processors, restaurants and hotels, says it is American shrimpers who are engaging in unfair trade practices.
"A continued supply of imported shrimp is critical to consumers and
seafood companies because it cannot be replaced by increased domestic production," the group argues in a recent document. "Current efforts to restrict trade in these circumstances constitute pure protectionism."
The dumping complaint does not contend that Brazil is selling shrimp on the American market below the cost of production, the most common definition of dumping. Rather, it contends that Brazil is price gouging by selling its product below "fair market value," an assertion that shrimp farmers here dismiss as not reflecting market realities.
"The producer in Brazil doesn't dictate the price of the product, which is set by a company in the United States," said Itamar Rocha, president of the Brazilian Association of Shrimp Growers. "We're completely at the mercy of the middleman, who is already forcing us to sacrifice on prices, and yet they still concoct this case against us."
An even more fundamental difference, however, has to do with the
economic differences between farmed and sea-caught shrimp. Most shrimp produced in the United States comes from trawlers plying the Gulf of Mexico or the Atlantic Ocean, while almost all production here, as in Asia, is done on farms.
"It's like trying to compare vinyl discs and CD's," said Luiz Claudio
Duarte, a lawyer with the firm of Cameron & Hornbostel who is
representing Brazilian shrimp farmers in the dispute. "Raising shrimp in captivity is not the same as going out to sea to capture them, and so this complaint is totally absurd."
Shrimp producers here argue that there is simply no way for American shrimpers operating from trawlers to compete against more efficient farms. Production in the United States has stalled over the last decade, they maintain, because of the vagaries of weather, overfishing, high costs and a reluctance to embrace aquaculture.
"We saw the writing on the wall," said Mark Kleinberg, an American who formerly had a shrimp fleet in Brownsville, Tex., and has shifted
operations to northeast Brazil. "Shrimp boats cannot compete because insurance premiums and the cost of diesel fuel, repairs and maintenance are so high, and if you try to keep that around, you're just dragging out the misery."
But American shrimpers dispute that claim. "All we are doing is
harvesting, which is cheaper than trying to raise shrimp yourself," Mr. Gordon said. "It's much harder and requires a lot more effort and cost to raise shrimp larvae and build a pond for them than to just go out to harvest them at sea."
From: "Andrianna Natsoulas"
Honduras
The "MALINCHES" MINISTERS
(Jorge Varela M�rquez, February 25, 2004)
Meditating on an Editorial of the journalist Mairena Tercero about a famous indigenous woman "Malinche" that offered herself to be at service of the Spanish in order to make easy the conquest of her country fellows in Mexico, we contribute with what we think is other case of "malinchismo" precisely in these moments when a Spaniard, assisted by ENVIRONMENT MINISTERS, is destroying the Protected Area and part of the RAMSAR SITE 1000th, "Laguna de la Berberia" in the Gulf of Fonseca.
At this precise moment, February 24 of 2004, the Spanish Antonio Cano, in charge of the shrimp company El Faro, is destroying what is left of the Protected Area La Berberia, and he continues turning it into a shrimp farm, with the complicity of the "environmentalal" bureaucracy of the present Government.
Well what happens is that this lagoon went along thousands of hectares of coastal wetlands, constituted by salt flats and mangroves, that in the rainy season particularly, was the refuge of an ample biological diversity of coastal marine species among them: fish, crustaceans, mollusks, mammals, reptiles, native and migratory birds, etc., which gave food, income and recreation to thousands of peasants that went there to fish and hunt in such productive ecosystems.
When the shrimp industry establishes itself without any order or control in Honduras, citizens of different origins get there to build shrimp farms in the zone of "La Berberia" and other nearby lagoons, reducing it considerably. Transfers of concessions of State lands would be worthy of investigation on the part of the Office against the corruption· it will work, for example in the following case:
In 1989 the Ex-Minister of Environment, Elvin Ernesto Santos, gets 2000 Has as concession in the heart of "La Berberia", having a two year-old term to begin the construction of a shrimp farms, activity that never starts because fishermen impede it.
On July 10 of 1999, "La Berberia" is designed part of the RAMSAR SITE 1000th and on January 20 of 2000 it is declared Protected Areas by the National Congress and it passed also to be part of the "Mesoamerican Biological Corridor
With this it is supposed that what is left of "La Berberia" was saved.
But in 2001, the EX-MINISTER OF ENVIRONMENT, ELVIN ERNESO SANTOS, gave, (or sold?) to the shrimp company, El Faro, which is commanded by the Spaniard Antonio Cano, the concession on "La Berberia".
In 2002 the EX-MINISTER OF ENVIRONMENT XIOMARA GOMEZ, a few days before leaving her position, gave the Environmental License on the Protected Area "La Berberia" to the shrimp farm El Faro, knowing that this area is protected since two years before by an international commitment and a Decree of the National Congress. (Ignorance or corruption?)
On April 1 of 2002, CODDEFFAGOLF presented a revision appeal before the MINISTER OF ENVIRONMENT, PATRICIA PANTING, against the Environmental License given to El Faro.
At the beginning of 2003, taking advantage of the dry season and the lack of resolve on the part of Minister Panting, El Faro began to destroy a large part of La Berberia in order to expand its shrimp farms. Fishermen protested, and three times they expelled the bulldozers that would destroy their lagoon. The current Mayor of El Triunfo, Santos Pineda, and the governor of Choluteca, Fausto Cabrera (who himself is also an employee of El Faro) defend the company at all cost· (malinchismo· corruption· or?...) the Spaniard, Antonio Cano, accused several fishermen and also Jorge Varela, Executive Director of CODDEFFAGOLF, before the Public Ministry for "damages, usurpation and threats". In this case, the District Attorney's Office with the assistance of the Police immediately came to the service of the requirements of the Spaniard, Antonio Cano. The destruction culminated unpunished, and in 2004 the company has already exported shrimp.
Since 2003, the MINISTER OF ENVIRONMENT, PATRICIA PANTING, has allowed the destruction of the Protected Area, La Berberia. El Faro converts it into a shrimp farms, without resolving the ussues raised by the fishermen interposed through CODDEFFAGOLF.
In February of 2004, protected by the accomplice silence of the MINISTER PANTING and all the environmental bureaucracy, El Faro continues enlarging implacably.
While the poor people of Honduras are deprived of their vital basic resources, the "Political Malinches" in high and low positions of the State Ministries and then out of them, are proud because with their betrayal exports get higher and higher, and they pay no attention to the poor people that are getting poorer· poorer and poorer· and in the case of the "Environmental Malinches", they ignore the environmental damage that the nation, and actually all of humanity are receiving.
(*) Corrupt
(**) Corruption
From Jorge Varela, (CODDEFFAGOLF)
cgolf@sdnhon.org.hn
USA
So Much Shrimp
Sure, it's abundant. But it's hard for a consumer to know where it's
from, how it's raised and if it's safe.
By Walter Nicholls
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, February 25, 2004; Page F01
What has American shrimp fishermen so steamed?
For the second year in a row, shrimp has beaten out tuna as the
country's favorite seafood, according to the National Fisheries
Institute. Shrimp is abundant and popular everywhere from suburban chain restaurants to Embassy Row.
At Red Lobster's 649 restaurants in the United States and Canada
customers are offered a meal of what the restaurant calls "endless"
fried and broiled shrimp for $13.99.
On the Washington party circuit "people chase the waiters around the room for shrimp," says Eric Michael, co-owner of Occasions Caterers on
Capitol Hill.
Still, shrimp fishermen from the Carolinas to Texas say it's not their
shrimp, for the most part, that people are peeling or chasing.
The total value of the U.S. shrimp harvest plunged more than 50 percent between 2000 and 2002, according to the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). American shrimpers say since 2000 the wholesale price for domestic, wild-harvested (as opposed to farm-raised) medium shrimp has dropped from an average of $6 per pound to a current $3.80.
"Hundreds of boats are tied up and banks are repossessing boats.
Shrimpers can't make ends meet," says John Williams, a shrimp fisherman for 37 years in Tarpon Springs, Fla., in a telephone interview. Recently, Williams and some of his fellow fishermen decided that enough was enough.
The culprit? Shrimp fishermen cannot compete with bargain-priced,
farm-raised shrimp imported to the United States from more than 50
countries, a supply that now represents 88 percent of the U.S. market. The remaining 12 percent is domestic, whether wild or farm-raised, according to the NMFS.
On the last day of December, the Southern Shrimp Alliance, an
organization of shrimp fishermen and shrimp processors from eight
southeastern states, filed formal complaints with the Department of
Commerce. In these documents they allege that some of the world's
largest producers of farm-raised shrimp -- Brazil, China, Ecuador,
India, Thailand and Vietnam -- are selling shrimp in the United States at a lower price than they sell it in their home market, a practice known as dumping, which U.S. shrimpers say increases the import's market share at an unfair advantage and breaches practices of fair trade.
Last week the International Trade Commission (ITC), an independent federal agency that provides expertise on the impact of imports on U.S. industries, agreed in a 6-0 vote that the U.S. shrimp industry has been injured by increased imports from the six countries. The commerce department will now proceed with an investigation, which may take one year to complete. Tariffs, if any, will be imposed at the outcome by the U.S. Customs Service.
Shrimpers say they know why ever-increasing levels of foreign shrimp are entering the United States at lower prices.
"First of all, these countries have overstimulated their production
over a number of years. On top of that, the European Union has imposed tariffs up to 20 percent. Demand from Japan has declined. Then there are the health issues," says Deborah Regan, a spokeswoman for the U.S. shrimpers' group. "EU countries have had higher quality standards for testing for banned chemicals that show up in farm-raised shrimp. And what happens? The U.S. becomes a dumping ground."
Last year the ITC ruled that Vietnam illegally dumped catfish on the
U.S. market, and the United States subsequently imposed tariffs ranging from 37 percent to 64 percent on the country's frozen fillets.
The Vietnamese are denying accusations involving their shrimp exports.
"We are definitely not dumping shrimp," says Minh Vu, head counsel of the economic section of the Embassy of Vietnam in Washington. "Our products are lower priced because of our advanced technology, lower labor costs and our natural resources."
Click here!
American shrimp farmers stand behind the U.S. shrimp fishermen. "We're very supportive. We're U.S. shrimp producers too," says Fritz Jaenike, general manager of the Texas-based Harlingen Shrimp Farms, the largest producer of shrimp in the United States.
Intensive shrimp farming is a relatively young industry. Large-scale
shrimp aquaculture began in the early 1970s in Asian countries,
particularly in Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines, and has been
evolving.
Early, primitive farms were situated in cleared and dammed mangrove swamps in coastal areas. Water pollution went unchecked as farm waste in the form of chemical fertilizers used to promote the growth of algae (which is used as shrimp food) was flushed into a nearby coastal sea or iver system. Health standards for the shrimp were poor, and diseases spread quickly. Environmental groups voiced widespread criticism of
shrimp farm practices.
But decades of technological advances have made shrimp aquaculture farms, constructed of multi-acre concrete ponds with sophisticated water exchange systems, more competitive and, in some cases, more environmentally friendly, though environmental groups continue to be concerned about their impact. Disease-resistant species of shrimp are more common, especially the white-shaded variety litopenaeus vannamei, commonly referred to as the vanna white.
If the U.S. Customs does impose tariffs on select countries it is
unclear what effect tariffs will have on retail prices. In a recent
spot-check at Whole Foods Market, 26-30 count, previously frozen,
farm-raised shrimp were selling for $9.99 per pound. The same size of fresh, wild shrimp from Georgia was $12.99. At Jessie Taylor Seafood on Maine Avenue in Southwest Washington, previously frozen, domestic, wild-harvested shrimp and imported farm-raised shrimp ranged in price from what the market called "super saver" shrimp at $8.45 per pound to "super giant" at $18.95 per pound.
Southern Shrimp Alliance members say the wholesale value of shrimp has dropped to the lowest level in 40 years. Consumers have seen a modest dip in prices. "Prices have definitely gone down -- I'd say $1.50 to $2 a pound at retail in the last two years," says Leif Klassen, owner of
Swedish Fish, a wholesaler in Arlington.
But are these farmed shrimp safe to eat? There are similarities in the way farmed shrimp and farmed salmon are raised.
David O. Carpenter is director of the Institute for Health and the
Environment at New York's State University at Albany (SUNY) and chief author of the two-year study published in January in the journal Science that concluded that farm-raised salmon contains significantly higher concentrations of PCBs, dioxin and other cancer-causing contaminants and should be eaten infrequently.
"I would say [farmed] shrimp are probably not contaminated if they are fed a primarily grain diet. But people need to know how the shrimp are fed," says Carpenter. "Our results suggest that salmon is the worst of foods, but the real problem is recycled animal fats in what we eat. People have to be made aware of it and the consequences."
Feed formulas vary from farm to farm but basically are composed of a combination of soybean meal, cornmeal and sometimes squid meal and, unfortunately, fish oils.
"The problem is with added oils in the feeds. And with salmon, there
tends to be more oils in the feed. Contaminants go to the fat," says Jim McVey, program director of aquaculture for National Sea Grant, an agency of the Department of Commerce. "All living things have contaminants. But I'm comfortable, as a consumer, saying that the majority of our shrimp are perfectly fine."
In June 2002 the FDA announced an increase in sampling of imported shrimp to determine the presence of chloramphenicol, a potent antibiotic used to fight serious infections in humans and by some shrimp farmers to control bacterial growth in ponds. "Due to the unpredictable effects of dose on different patient populations, it has not been possible to identify a safe level of human exposure to chloramphenicol," agency officials wrote in the news release.
Last week, in a revised import alert, the FDA announced that
chloramphenicol was detected last year in some frozen shrimp imports from Brazil, China, Malaysia, Peru, Thailand and Vietnam and went on to say: "The use of the unapproved new animal drugs will have an impact on the safety of aquaculture products for consumers." No antibiotics are currently approved by the FDA for use with shrimp.
The ongoing trade issues and health concerns have an impact on
consumers. If shoppers choose to buy fresh shrimp from domestic waters they will pay a premium price. If they buy imported, previously frozen shrimp, they often have no way of knowing in which country it was raised or how. In addition, there are a confusing number of varieties and sizes. Overall, there are no guarantees.
"A lot of people lie when they say it's fresh and never been frozen.
But most of the time, you get what you pay for," says Klassen of Swedish Fish. He is not a fan of the "tiger" variety of shrimp, which he calls "lousy." "They are not comparable to good shrimp," he says. Fresh or frozen, he prefers a white shell shrimp from the Gulf of Mexico. "That's a good shrimp with lots of flavor."
Jeff Grolig, owner of River Falls Seafood in Potomac, says consumers
should ask to touch and smell shrimp before they buy it.
"What you want is a hard shell. That will ensure that the meat won't shrink up when it's boiled or steamed," he says. The shell should be shiny and bright and free of black spots, which signal decay. There should be no odor other than the slight smell of the sea.
Grolig has his own favorite varieties: gray-colored shrimp from North
Carolina, pink shrimp from Key West and brown shelled shrimp from the Gulf of Mexico. If you can find them, he says, "Man, you'll be
overwhelmed by the texture and taste."
Corals, Seagrass and Mangroves, Essential Ingrdients
3/9/04
CONTACT: Dawn Levy, News Service: (650) 725-1944, dawnlevy@stanford.edu
COMMENT: Fiorenza Micheli, Hopkins Marine Station: (831) 655-6250, micheli@stanford.edu
Stephen Palumbi, Hopkins Marine Station: (831) 655-6210, spalumbi@stanford.edu
EDITORS: This release was written by Joy Ku, a postdoctoral researcher in the Pediatric Cardiology and Mechanical Engineering departments at Stanford.
Relevant Web URLs:
Fiorenza Micheli's home page.
Stephen Palumbi's home page:
Saving Nemo: New insights into coral reef ecosystems provide guidelines for marine policies in the Bahamas
The Bahamas conjures up images of intense blue waters and sun-drenched beaches for most of us. But it means much more than that for Stanford marine scientists Stephen Palumbi and Fiorenza Micheli and visiting scholar James Sanchirico from Resources for the Future, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank. These researchers are key participants in a project called the Bahamas Biocomplexity Project (BBP). This collaborative study aims to provide a multidisciplinary view of the Bahamas ecosystem for use in designing marine policies for the region.
"This is the first time a group of people has gone in and simultaneously studied the physical side of the system, the connectivity side, the ecological and habitat side and the socioeconomic side all together," says Palumbi, a professor of biological sciences at Stanford's Hopkins Marine Station. Researchers hope that policies based upon this systems perspective will produce more viable and sustainable marine environments.
The three scientists provided a progress report on the project during a talk sponsored by the Stanford Institute for International Studies on Feb. 26 titled "Coupled Natural and Human Dynamics in Coral Reef Ecosystems of the Bahamas."
The BBP is a five-year project funded primarily by the National Science Foundation and headed by Dan Brumbaugh of the American Museum of Natural History. Participating researchers come from disciplines as varied as anthropology, biology, physics, economics and applied mathematics.
The focus of the BBP is on marine reserve networks. These are collections of many small marine protected areas, or MPAs - regions that are entirely closed off to fishing and exploitation. The BBP researchers think marine reserve networks may be preferable to one large marine reserve.
Micheli, an assistant professor at Hopkins Marine Station, remarks that these marine reserve networks are important because they spread risks. In a reserve network, a hurricane or other disaster, natural or man-made, could ruin one MPA without causing the entire system to stop functioning.
Palumbi's research on the staghorn coral population in the Caribbean supports this idea of a marine reserve network. He generated a family tree of the DNA sequences for each staghorn coral population. By comparing these DNA family trees, Palumbi concluded that most populations of staghorn corals through the Caribbean are genetically distinct. This implies that staghorn coral do not easily propagate from one region to another.
In the Bahamas alone, Palumbi has identified at least four genetically distinct regions based on coral data. "The replenishment of corals in the Bahamas is going to have to be a fairly local thing," he concludes. "One can't imagine that coral in San Salvador are going to be rescued by larval production elsewhere in this archipelago."
His colleagues, project leader Brumbaugh and biodiversity specialist Kate Holmes of the American Museum of Natural History, are also beginning to see similar regional distinctions based on DNA family trees for lobsters in the Bahamas. What emerges from both the coral and the lobster studies is the suggestion of an east-west division of the Bahamas. The coral and lobsters on the east side of the islands are genetically different from those on the west side. Palumbi excitedly notes that this pattern correlates with oceanography data describing how particles travel in the Caribbean.
While Palumbi's work provides guidelines about how big the reserve network should be, Micheli focuses on what to preserve. According to Sanchirico, a visiting scholar at Stanford's Center for Environmental Science and Policy, more than 60 percent of the coral reefs are estimated to disappear over the next 30 years.
"[The coral reefs] are sort of the quarterback of habitats," says Sanchirico. But other habitats are necessary for the Bahamas ecosystem to function. It's not enough to protect just the coral reefs, Sanchirico says. There needs to be what he calls "a portfolio of habitat types." Biologist Micheli and other BBP team members have identified at least three essential habitat types in the Bahamas - coral reefs, seagrass beds and mangroves.
BBP colleague Peter Mumby of the University of Exeter published a study in the Feb. 5 issue of Nature suggesting that these three habitats need to be located near one another to maintain biodiversity and sustain populations important for fisheries in the region. The study specifically looked at striped parrotfish, bluestriped grunt, yellowtail and snappers. These fish all live in the Caribbean reefs as adults, and all of them increased in size and/or abundance if mangrove habitats were nearby.
The results suggest mangroves may be an intermediate habitat that allows juvenile fish more time to grow before they move to their more dangerous adult habitat, the coral reef. Mangrove deforestation will have "significant deleterious consequences for the functioning, fisheries, biodiversity and resilience of Caribbean coral reefs," Mumby says.
Micheli also worked with the BBP team to map out the marine habitats in the region. By combining satellite imagery with direct observations, the team was able to identify approximately 19 different habitat categories. Habitat maps like these will be valuable when selecting the sites for the MPAs.
The BBP is also investigating the socioeconomic impact of marine reserve networks. Will closing an area force fishermen into another trade? Or will they just begin fishing in another area? The research of Sanchirico and his social science colleagues in the BBP addresses these questions. The answers are critical in determining when and where a marine reserve will improve the biological "health" of the ecosystem at the lowest cost to users of that marine environment, Sanchirico says.
And how does the BBP's work impact the design of marine policies in other regions of the world? Palumbi describes a few similarities between ecosystems in the Bahamas and other locations. But he emphasizes that it is the methodology, the BBP's multidisciplinary approach, that will be most helpful in designing marine policies in other regions.
Joy Ku is a postdoctoral researcher in the Pediatric Cardiology and Mechanical Engineering departments at Stanford University.
From
The following publication and all associated annexes can now be accessed at the link provided.
Lewis, R.R. III, M.J. Phillips, B. Clough and D.J.Macintosh. 2003. Thematic Review on Coastal Wetland Habitats and Shrimp Aquaculture. Report prepared under the World Bank, NACA, WWF and FAO Consortium Program on Shrimp Farming and the Environment. Work in Progress for Public Discussion. Published by the Consortium. 81 pp.
Click here: Network of Aquaculture Centres in Asia-Pacific - Publications
From: LESrrl3@aol.com
Society of Wetland Scientists' Ramsar Support Grant Program
The Society of Wetland Scientists (SWS) is soliciting proposals for their Ramsar Support Grant Program. The grant program was established to advance Ramsar Convention objectives, including the selection, designation, management, and networking of Ramsar sites; and the promotion of Ramsar's Wise Use guidelines. Two to five projects are funded each year at a level of US $5,000 on a competitive basis as reviewed by an evaluation committee.
Grant guidelines, an application form, and a description of previous grant awards can be found on the SWS web site or you can request these materials from:
Eric Gilman
Society of Wetland Scientists
Ramsar Support Grant Program
E-mail: ericgilman@earthlink.ne t
Applications are due via e-mail on 1 March 2004.
From: "Mike Shanahan"
CONFERENCES/WORKSHOPS/FORUMS/BOOKS/PUBLICATIONS
World Conservation Forum, Bangkok, Thailand; 17-25 November 2004
People and Nature - only one world
The World Conservation Forum (18-20 November) is one of the key elements of the 3rd IUCN World Conservation Congress. It will convene over 3,000 of the world's leading
specialists and practitioners to address the key challenges in conservation and sustainable development today. The World Conservation Forum will present a more comprehensive, accurate, and up-to-date assessment of the state of biodiversity on our planet than ever before.
Through Global Synthesis Workshops and a series of related events and platforms the Forum will explore and demonstrate how cutting edge knowledge can be applied to address the world's most pressing sustainable development challenges through four broad themes.
Ecosystem Management - Bridging sustainability and productivity
Health, Poverty and Conservation - Responding to the challenge of human well-being
Biodiversity Loss and Species Extinction - Managing risk in a changing world
Markets, Business and the Environment - Strengthening corporate social responsibility, law and policy
The website for the 3rd IUCN World Conservation Congress was launched
this week ( www.iucn.org/congress ) and will be continually updated as the Congress develops. Please note
that the call for contributions to the Congress has been issued and is attached here -- the deadline for contributions to the "Global
Synthesis Workshops" is March 31 and proposals for all other events are due April 15.
There will be a substantial marine component built into the Congress, and I encourage you to start considering your contributions soon!
Contact: Kristin L. Sherwood, Marine Program Officer, Global Marine Program
IUCN - The World Conservation Union
Email: KSherwood@iucnus.org
Web Address:
www.iucn.org/themes/marine/
From Martin Keeley mangrove@candw.ky
"IN DEFENCE OF LAND AND LIVELIHOOD"
Faris Ahmed about six years ago wrote a report called "IN DEFENCE OF LAND AND LIVELIHOOD" which was co-published by CUSO,
Sierra Club of Canada and the Consumer's Association of Penang. The report told the stories of communities in Asia impacted by the shrimp aquaculture industry. Hard copies of this report are now hard to find but it lives on in cyberspace and you can download a PDF file version.
Please go to the Inter Pares website and look under Publications and then Archives. Or try this link.
From: "Jim Enright"
Aquaculture is farming, not fishing, report says
VICTORIA (Mar 2, 2004)
Fish farming is farming, not fishing, and Agriculture Canada should be the lead agency overseeing it, says Canada's commissioner for aquaculture development.
Yves Bastien says the aquaculture industry cannot meet its potential for providing a food source and economic development for smaller coastal communities under the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.
He also urged Ottawa to devote more money for aquaculture.
The report, released yesterday, incensed environmentalists who accused Bastien of working for the industry on the taxpayer's dime.
"It outrages me that this is even being proposed," said Lynn Hunter of the Coastal Alliance for Aquaculture Reform.
"Taxpayers are being asked to fund the privatization of our oceans. We're being asked that the oceans be given over to the multinational corporations and we're supposed to fund it."
Bastien said in his report the Fisheries Department is consumed with the conservation of wild stocks, and should be.
"The aquaculture industry cannot continue to be treated as a subset of the fishery," Bastien wrote. "Aquaculture is a farming -- not fishing -- industry."
Instead, he said the main responsibility for aquaculture should fall under the Agriculture Department.
Fisheries Minister Geoff Regan rejected that.
"In terms of who should be the lead agency for aquaculture, we've done a considerable review of this and had a good look at this question.
"It's our view that the Department of Fisheries and Oceans should remain the lead agency," Regan said in Victoria, where he was meeting with British Columbia's fisheries and agriculture ministers.
Bastien said aquaculture is an agri-food business that has very little in common with wild fisheries, which is a hunting activity.
The report was welcomed by the B.C. Salmon Farmers' Association. Spokeswoman Mary Ellen Walling said her group wants strong environmental assessment regulations because it believes in the highest environmental standards.
Environmentalists and aboriginals say salmon farms pollute the ocean and are responsible for spreading diseases that threaten wild salmon.
But the provincial government and the industry say salmon farming is a safe, year-round industry.
In January, the U.S. journal Science published an international report that found eating more than a meal of farm-raised Atlantic salmon a month, depending on its country of origin, could slightly increase the risk of getting cancer.
Environmentalists say the net-pen style of salmon farming used primarily in B.C. is nothing more than an open toilet that flushes wastes into the ocean.
