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The MAP News, 175th Ed., 27 August 2006
Dear Friends,
This is the 175th Edition of the Mangrove Action Project News. Thanks to the International Tree Foundation for their generous donation of £250.00 for mangrove restoration work in the tsunami-affected regions!
Did you know that: At the end of the equation, what aquaculture takes in is much more than what it produces. It is estimated that roughly two kilograms of fishmeal is necessary to produce one kilogram of farmed fish or shrimp. For every kilogram of shrimp farmed in Thai shrimp ponds developed in mangroves, 400 grams of fish and shrimp are lost from wild captured fisheries. Nearly one third of the world's fish caught in the wild are transformed into fishmeal and fish oil, which are then used in feeds for farmed fish.
( from Delgado C et al, The Future of Fish: issues and trends to 2020, WorldFish Center and International Food Policy Research Institute, 2003 )
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 MAP NEWS, 175th Edition
FEATURE STORY
Meeting to Enhance "Southern Voice" in Best Standards Debate
MAP WORKS
Sandhan Foundation's Coastal Community Resource Center Visit
MAP's Curriculum Gets Some Support From Disney Wildlife Conservation Fund
MAP's Coastal Communities Resource Centers And Field Work Get A Boost From Goldman Fund
ANNOUNCEMENT: "Mangrove Forest Ecology, Management and Restoration" training workshop, March 5-8, 2007, Hollywood, Florida.
MAP's New 2007 Children's Art Calendar and Membership Drive
The Gambia
Volunteers Needed In The Gambia (2nd Request for Volunteers)
Somalia
Mangrove Restoration Attempt In Somalia
Thailand
Thailand spearheads ASEAN shrimp alliance
Tsunami Spurs Interest in Asian Coasts??
Vietnam
Vietnam ranks sixth among top ten aquaculture producers
The Philippines
Oil spill damage too much to bear, says Philippines provincial governor
Phillipines Oil Spill Obs on Mangroves
Indonesia
INDONESIA'S SHRIMP PRODUCTION IN 2006 PROJECTED AT 350,000 TONS
Papua New Guinea
Ocean slowly claiming Papua New Guinea, global warming blamed
India
Intent to Implemention of Disaster Mitigation and Management of Natural Disasters
PRAWN TRADE CAUSES DISPUTES
Bangladesh
Untold Realities: How the ADB Safeguards have been violated in Bangladesh, India,
Lao PDR and Pakistan.
Shrimp worth nearly $30 mn stockpiled in Bangladesh godowns
Brazil
LETTER OF FORTALEZA FROM THE PEOPLES OF THE SEA
Disastrous experiences
Impacts of Shrimp Farming
Mexico
Shopping Mall Threatens Important Mangrove Crocodile Sanctuary
The Bahamas
"Save the Bahamas Coalition" Forms!
Concern From a MythBuster
Bimini fears a paradise lost to builder
Re: Bimini fears a paradise lost to builders.
USA
Shrimp producers. exporters agree on bypassing annual tax review by US commerce dept
STORIES/ISSUES
New Shrimp Farm Rules Aim to Save Asian Mangroves
Mangrove areas shrunk 20% in last two decades, says FAO
"Depletion, Degradation, and Recovery Potential of Estuaries and Coastal Seas"
Protective functions of coastal forests ?and trees against natural hazards
Half of fish consumed worldwide farmed, not caught
Fishing profits, farming disaster: the cost of liberalising Asia's fisheries
CONFERENCES/WORKSHOPS
New Report On Sea Level Rise & Mangroves
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Wetlands and Poverty Reduction Project
International principles for responsible shrimp farming published
GPA Stakeholder Forum Scheduled
Deforestation causes global warming
Asian Fishery Society Announces 8th ASIAN FISHERIES FORUM
AQUACULTURE CORNER
Nature Biotechnology (genetically Modified Shrimp On Their Way??
ICSF Calls on FAO to Ensure Small-scale, Family-based Aquacultue Is Promoted
Wild salmon at risk as a million farm fish escape
Fish farming for the future
Environmental Justice Foundation
Mangrove Action Project
IUCN Netherlands
Oxfam NOVIB Netherlands
Meeting to Enhance "Southern Voice" in Best Standards Debate
There has been much publicity recently about the Global Aquaculture Alliance's (GAA) Best Aquaculture Practice Standards and Guidelines, particularly as Wal-Mart and Darden Restaurants in the US and, more recently, Lyons in the UK have openly stated that they will adopt the BAP certification.
This scenario has brought certification to the forefront of consumer and media attention related to shrimp imports and raised several issues in relation both to the current position of the industry and its acknowledgement of the damaging impacts being incurred in many countries, as well as the utility and efficacy of certification in this context.
Development of the GAA certification is said to be dynamic and open to relevant influence; and inclusive of broad stakeholder feedback, with opportunity for public comment. However, analysis of the standards shows weaknesses in the degree of inclusion of comment and concern from those stakeholders most directly affected by shrimp farming - the people and communities living in the vicinity of shrimp farm developments - and/or their representatives. Other initiatives being developed include a shrimp module in EurepGAP and an Aquaculture Stewardship Council. These should also be monitored to ensure affected communities are involved.
Faced with this situation, EJF, MAP, IUCN NL and Oxfam NOVIB jointly are organizing an open meeting in which representatives from Asia, Latin America and Africa, as well as European and North American NGOs which work with Southern partners, can come together and, with the help of an independent facilitator, discuss the issues at stake (including - what major certification initiatives are in progress; what this means for local farmers and surrounding communities; whether standards used do justice to social and environmental concerns; how this could be achieved) and formulate a coherent, joint statement on their position and a route forward. A united, structured and focused declaration and plan of action will carry greater weight and should promote increased recognition of and attention to the concerns of local stakeholders.
We feel it is essential to carry southern voices and make clear the extent and severity of the problems associated with shrimp aquaculture in the most effective and dynamic way possible - quite simply, we feel that without a coordinated and effective communications strategy these voices and concerns will not be heard or, if heard, ignored. The meeting is scheduled later this month
Sandhan Foundation's Coastal Community Resource Center Visit
By: Jim Enright, Southeast Asia Coordinator
Mangrove Action Project
The Sandhan Foundation's Community Coastal Resource Centre (CCRC) has been a long term vision of Bijay Nanda, the foundation's founder, and the center is now rising out of red laterite soils at Gupti, on the fringes of the world famous "Bhitarkanika" in the coast belt of Orissa State on the Bay of Bengal. I recently had the wonderful opportunity to see this visionary CCRC literally emerging from the earth in person. Mr. Nanda had given me the invitation to visit after the "Ecological Mangrove Restoration Training Workshop" that MAP and CCDP had organized in Vijayawada, AP Nov.7-14. 2005. After the hectic planning and organizing for the workshop I was ready for a real break from work, so I gladly accepted the invitation. The 14 hr. journey from Vijayawada to Bhubaneswar on the Coromandal Express gave me plenty of time to rest, read, and unwind.
Bijay managed to find this lone foreigner waiting early in the morning on the train station platform, and soon we were off to meet the Nanda family and much appreciated cup of hot Indian milk coffee. There we discussed the next couple days in Bhubaneswar, seeing some of the sights, a day trip to Chilika Lagoon, a trip to the historic coastal town of Puri, and making the official preparation for visiting the CCRC which involved obtaining the needed official permit to enter Bhitarkanika.
Finally, the day came for our departure to the CCRC and we set off in the afternoon after some unforeseen delays in a hired vehicle with two of Bijay's friends and supporters of the CCRC development. As the CCRC is located 150 km away and takes about 6 hours to reach, we had lots of time to talk about the CCRC, its progress, and the problems encountered. As we headed north along the new national highway to Kolkata I had difficulty understanding why it would take us 6 hours, but when we turned off the main highway and soon the road became progressively undulating and narrowing I could feel the reason why, as I tried to keep my head from hitting the car roof.
After a supper break at a roadside eatery we continued on in the darkness of rural India, and at one point there was a glimpse of a fox crossing the road in our high beam lights. When we finally were getting close to our objective, Bijay pointed to a single light in the far distance saying that this was the CCRC. There were no other lights visible, except one in another direction. When we arrived at the CCRC we sat down out under the stars and heard a fox howling in the distance. Then I knew I was in a different world from the hustle and noise of Bhubaneswar, even though we were only 150 km away.
After a much needed sleep, we arose with the sun to the amazing flat landscape that unfolded before us it all directions, which was truly a rural agriculture pasture scene and very peaceful. The CCRC buildings under construction are made from red clay earth with waddle in the local traditional style, so the structures are very low cost and are environmentally friendly fitting in well with cultural landscape. Bijay mentioned that the recent floods meant that the walls had to be rebuilt several times, as standing water will weaken the whole structure.
Over the next couple of days I had time to see some of the demonstration livelihood projects that were just getting underway or being planned. These included polyculture fish rearing, planting fruit trees, and a kitchen garden, duck rearing, improved cook stoves and a small mangrove restoration project. The purpose of these model projects is to find which activities work and can help reduce poverty amongst the local people while reducing the impact on natural resource utilization like mangroves. The CCRC will be an opportunity to experiment with innovative ways to find appropriate means to help empower local people to manage resources sustainability while meeting their needs for food, shelter and income generation.
The area has been hit by cyclones in the past, and since the land is very flat and open with few trees, it makes local people very vulnerable to tropical storms, so measures are needed to address disaster prevention. We had heard that storm shelters built under a past donor project are no longer maintained and have fallen into disrepair. The storage of freshwater, food, fuel and seed will be important to recover from any future disasters.
Overall the CCRC has a great potential for awareness raising and helping local coastal communities understand government policies regarding coastal environmental protection and natural resources management. But in order for the CCRC to achieve its full objectives, it will require more financial support from the Indian government, the private sector, and international donors. The CCRC now stands about half complete, and it will take some time to reach its full potential.
From: mapasia@loxinfo.co.th
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MAP's Curriculum Gets Some Support From Disney Wildlife Conservation Fund
MAP's mangrove curriculum transfer project got another boost this summer when it was selected by the Disney Wildlife Conservation Fund (DWCF) for a $9,000 award towards the translation and adaptation of the curriculum for use in Brazilian schools. MAP was selected from more than 240 applications reviewed by scientists, veterinarians and other animal experts. The organizations range from large national groups to small community efforts, from Africa to Florida, and in total received $1.4 million in awards, bringing the DWCF total to more than $10 million in conservation projects supported, said Jerry Montgomery, Sr. Vice President of Public Affairs, Walt Disney World. Mr. Montgomery oversees the DWCF program through Disney's office of conservation initiatives. He said the programs chosen demonstrate solid science, engage local communities, and measure the impact being made to protect the environment.
Martin Keeley, MAP's education director, said work has already begun on translating and adapting the curriculum for use in Brazilian Schools. Together with MAP's Latin America coordinator, Elaine Corets, Mr. Keeley plans to hold the adaptation workshop later this fall.
"The DCWF funding has given us a great boost," he said. "Now we need to find funds to cover the next phase of the project - publishing the curriculum materials and presenting them to Brazilian teachers in a workshop."
From: Martin Keeley
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MAP's Coastal Communities Resource Centers And Field Work Get A Boost From Goldman Fund
MAP is happy to announce that the Rhichard and Roda Goldman Fund has generously support MAP with a $30,000 grant This fund will be used to support ongoing programs in Indonesia, Thailand and India. Further work in these regions is needed to bolster MAP's post-tsunami recovery projects, including mangrove restoration and sustainable livelihoods initiatives. The fund will be equally shared between the MAP's Indonesia and Thailand offices.
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ANNOUNCEMENT: "Mangrove Forest Ecology, Management and Restoration" training workshop, March 5-8, 2007, Hollywood, Florida.
The fifth "Mangrove Forest Ecology, Management and Restoration" training workshop will be held at the Anne Kolb Nature Center, in Hollywood, Florida, USA, March 3-8, 2007. The training site is within a 500 ha mangrove restoration project at West Lake Park operated by Broward County. The award-winning project was designed by Roy R. "Robin" Lewis III, who will be teaching the course.
The workshop includes an introduction to mangrove forest ecology, management options and problems, and restoration design issues. The class programs are all given in a PowerPoint format, and each student is provided with a print out of the presentation and additional handouts including monitoring reports for typical restoration projects. Case studies of 5 successful mangrove restoration projects, and several unsuccessful projects, are discussed. Field trips are taken within the 500 ha West Lake Park mangrove restoration project (now 17 years old) and a new project just four years old, for a comparison.
The emphasis is on cost-effective successful mangrove management and restoration, and cost figures for typical projects are discussed and explained. The hydrologic restoration of mangroves is emphasized as the best approach to successful restoration at minimal cost (see Erftemeijer and Lewis 2000; Lewis 1999, 2000a, 2000b, 2005; Lewis and Marshall 1998; Lewis and Streever 2000; Lewis et al. 2005, Stevenson et al. 1999; and Turner and Lewis 1997, for further discussion about hydrologic restoration of mangroves). Planting of mangroves is discussed in light of the many failures of this alone to successfully restore mangroves.
Cost for the course not including travel to Ft. Lauderdale, lodging or food is $750, due by January 1, 2007. Two qualified students will be allowed to attend for free, and can apply at any time for the two fee-waived positions. This course is organized by the Coastal Resources Group, Inc., and will be taught in conjunction with the Mangrove Action Project.
More information can be provided by Robin Lewis at and www.mangroverestoration.com.
From: LESrrl3@aol.com
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MAP's New 2007 Children's Art Calendar and Membership Drive
Mangrove Action Project Needs Your Help! We have not had much support generated via our internet news service, and so I am hoping that this special appeal for membership or donor support will fall upon receptive ears! Please donate to MAP today. Our continuing efforts to conserve and restore the mangrove forests depends upon our membership's generosity in giving to this cause.
MAP's new Children's Mangrove Art 2007 Calendars will be available in September. These calendars are produced from school art competitions from primary school children. We have art work from Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean included. We are now looking for outlets, organizations and persons to help us sell these calendars, and are now asking for help from our associates in doing so. In this way too, we can figure out just how many calendars to print, as we go to the printers next week.
Any donation of $35 or more qualifies the donor for an annual membership with a free calendar! Please give generously today!
PLEASE help MAP stay in this fight for the future by becoming a donating subscriber today! Contact: mangroveap@olympus.net
The Gambia
Volunteers Needed In The Gambia (2nd Request for Volunteers)
As we have implemented an Integrated Coastal and Marine Biodiversity Management Project ICAM here in the Gambia,West Africa we are facing difficulties with MANGROVES. GEF through World Bank is a principal funding agency and WWF a counterpart funding agency.
Our mangroves are dying as a result of drought and human activities with other factors unknown to us. We are now able to control human activities. We will be pleased to have any interested volunteer to come and join us with our work here for mangrove regeneration,survey and study to spend few months or a year with us. He or she has to be an experienced person, or an environmentalist. We will be able to provide free food and accommodation but it will mainly be our traditional food and the person has to stay with our families. This could be another advantage for them to learn more about our culture, traditional set up and our own technical know-how
Not only that; our programmes of activities are very broad.We involve in community forestry scheme,Environmental monotoring,assessment and evaluation,turtle nesting/guide monitoring,(Ecotourism activities eg bird watching activities),beach sweeping environmental health and sanitation and tree planting exercises.
Mr,Badara N Bajo, Executive director
From: GUNJUR Environmental Protection and Development Group gepadg@yahoo.com
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Somalia
Mangrove Restoration Attempt In Somalia
Dear Sirs.
I am seeking consultation about mangrove planting. We are a junior environmental organization working on conservation of marine resources and the related ecosystems, while spending extra efforts on the extension of mangrove forests at the coastal areas of Somalia, in which there was NO central government for the last 16 years and despite our multi-dimensional problems, some positive steps are scored.
How ever; we have been making mangrove plantation practices and it was good at the beginning, 2003/2004. there were no seeds in 2005.then it was ok in 2006 with available seeds, but very unfortunately; the number of seeds in germination is far, far bellow our expectations as it used to be in the previous years; at some places it is either nil or less than 1%. Also the problem is at both direct seeding and the nursery. We are using the same soil combinations and the watering methods of years 03/04. We have no equipments/tools to check, measure, test. etc, and even no previous or written references.
RMCO. P.M
Eng: Galleyr.
From: "Regional Marine Conservation Org."
regmarineconservation@yahoo.com
Thailand
ENN FULL STORY?
Tsunami Spurs Interest in Asian Coasts??
September 07, 2006 - By Michael Casey, Associated Press
CHEME, Thailand - For much of his life, Viroj Dedsongprak paid little attention to the mangrove forests that surrounded his Thai village. He thought nothing of it when neighbors chopped down trees for firewood or plowed them under for shrimp ponds. ??Then came the 2004 tsunami. Viroj's village was largely spared while more exposed communities down the road were devastated. The 46-year-old fisherman credits the spidery network of mangrove trees, nipa palms and malaleucas for saving his home, and is now doing what he can to preserve his region's biodiversity.
"Before the tsunami, we really didn't understand the importance of mangroves," said Viroj, who is among nearly 40 people from three villages taking part in a World Conservation Program to plant up to 10,000 nipa palm and mangrove seedlings on an abandoned charcoal kiln. ??"Since the tsunami, there is an increased awareness about mangroves and people are getting more involved in protecting them," he said. "We know that they are important to protect us from the waves and other natural disasters." ??Conservationists say Viroj's newfound enthusiasm is catching on in many Indian Ocean communities hit by the December 2004 tsunami, which killed more than 216,000 people and leveled hundreds of fishing villages. Environmentalists say the tsunami has prompted many governments to reconsider how they manage their coastal ecosystems, with many looking to strike a balance between development and preservation.
"The tsunami brought an understanding that the ecosystem is a lot more fragile than people thought," said Austin Arensberg, a World Conservation Union official who is part of a team working on a $240,000 Spanish-funded project to restore mangrove forests in Thailand and Sri Lanka. "People took them for granted a little bit."
The World Conservation Union is teaming up Monday with the United Nations Development Program to launch the biggest program yet for mangrove conservation in Asia: a five-year project to fund ecosystem restoration and sustainable development in 10 countries affected by the tsunami.
The two agencies estimate it will cost $62 million and will hold a donor conference Monday in New York to raise the funds. The program, called "Mangroves for the Future," will help governments address long-term problems -- including reckless development, shrimp farming and industrial pollution -- that have resulted in the loss of 25 percent of the mangrove forests in Indian Ocean countries.
"Right now, mangroves are being devastated. The urgency to do something keeps growing by the day because coastal development just presses ahead," said Sergio Feld, a Bangkok-based U.N. policy adviser who helped draft the mangrove strategy. "These ecosystems need to be valued for the services they provide."
The campaign aims to recover coastal areas -- estuaries, brackish lagoons, beach forests and mangroves -- that scientists credit with providing crucial protection from storms, along with important nurseries for fish and habitat for birds, reptiles and mammals. ??Officials say involving coastal communities is key, not only because they depend on the ecosystem for fishing and crabbing but also because they will determine whether a project succeeds.
Within weeks of the tsunami, planting mangroves became the rage among non-governmental organizations, including Oxfam International. Seeing it as an easy way to promote the environment while employing tsunami survivors, NGOs planted tens of thousands of seedlings. Most died because the NGOs lacked any understanding of where and when to plant the fragile plants that grow in fresh and brackish water. ??Since then, conservation groups have stepped in to provide the expertise and launched a number of programs in India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand.
Among them is the Green Coast project run by Wetlands International, the World Conservation Union and others. Since last year, it has spent nearly $2 million from Dutch charities on more than 100 projects in tsunami-hit countries to assess the impact of the disaster, change government land use policy and rebuild damaged coastal regions.
The projects range from a mangrove nursery in India, coral reef cleaning in Indonesia and an educational campaign in Sri Lanka to increase awareness of mangroves among tsunami survivors. ??"When you see a portion of your village destroyed, it really brings about how much you have to conserve them," Arensberg said of the mangroves. "It's not just rebuilding houses but looking at the natural environment and finding a way it can come back for them." ??Source: Associated Press
From: ceciliagutierrez@terra.cl
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Thanh Nien News | World / Region |
Thailand spearheads ASEAN shrimp alliance
June 30, 2006
Thailand spearheads ASEAN shrimp alliance
Thailand's Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives is joining with neighboring countries in the region to form an ASEAN Shrimp Alliance to promote the sustainable trade of the seafood product. Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister Khunying Sudarat Keyuraphan said representatives of shrimp producers and traders from Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, Philippines and Thailand met here on Wednesday to form the ASEAN Shrimp Alliance to be a forum for cooperation to harmonize ASEAN-wide quality standards and a certification system.
Its purpose is to win recognition among consumers and buyers and to strengthen the price of the product of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on the world market.
Both ASEAN-region governmental and commercial sectors will take part in the ASEAN Shrimp Alliance activities, according to Khunying Sudarat.
In a first step toward establishing the new group, the first meeting of the Alliance asked Thailand's Fisheries Department and the Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Centre to study the scope, role, mandate, possible technical cooperation, trade and industry agreements within the framework of the Alliance.
The group will meet again on July to review its progress.
Fisheries Department director-general Jaranthada Karnasuta said the ASEAN Shrimp Alliance website is under construction and would serve as an information portal on academic, trade and regulatory information for members.
Source: TNA/OANA
Story from Thanh Nien News
Published: 30 June, 2006, 20:36:07 (GMT+7)
Copyright Thanh Nien News
From: "MAP / S.E. Asia" mapasia@loxinfo.co.th
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Vietnam
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The Phillipines
Oil spill damage too much to bear, says Philippines provincial governor
By Ronilo Pamonag
JC Rahman Nava, Governor of Guimaras, Philippines, said the damage the oil spill from a tanker wrought on the island province's ecosystem was "too much to bear."
At Malacañang, officials said the government was working round-the-clock to defuse the ecological and economic time bomb caused by the oil spill.
According to Nava, 14 per cent of Guimaras' population lost their main livelihood -- fishing. Affected fisherfolk, especially in the hardest-hit town of Nueva Valencia, now rely on relief goods for their sustenance. Prior to the oil slick, they had been small-time fishermen.
There are reports that prices of fish and other aquatic products have dipped in Guimaras' public markets. Fish brokers have refused to buy fish caught in the waters of Guimaras for fear that these might be contaminated by the oil spill.
Some 50,000 gallons of oil has already leaked from Solar I, which sank in rough seas on Aug. 11 off the southwestern coast of Guimaras with 500,000 gallons of bunker oil onboard. It was en route to Zamboanga del Sur.
The slick, which has already covered 200 kilometers of coastline in thick black sludge and is threatening marine reserves, extends 15 nautical miles from where the ship sank, Coast Guard commander Harold Harder said. His comments about the country's worst-ever oil spill came as the owners of the Solar I said they were consulting with experts about raising the vessel.
Clemente Cancio, president of the Sunshine Maritime Development Corp. (SMDC), said the company was in talks with "international maritime experts" to see if the 998-ton tanker can be raised. Two British maritime experts from the International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation inspected the site on Friday, he said, without giving any further information.
According to the Coast Guard, the tanker is resting on the seabed in 3,000 feet of water and is still leaking oil from one of the 10 tanks that ruptured when it sank.
Source: The Philippine Star
From SAMUDRA, Aug. 29, 2006 icsf@icsf.net
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Phillipines Oil Spill Obs on Mangroves
Pasted below is the 3 Sept report from the NOAA team onscene at the spill if the Phillipines:
Tank Vessel Solar 1, Guimaras, Philippines
Summary of Oil Impacts
As described previously, the area impacted by oil is the southwest portion of Guimaras Island, extending primarily from Dolores to Lugmayan Point and along the southern shores of the nearby islands, including Panobolon Island, Guiuanon Island, and a small area of Cabalagnan Point.
Mangrove Impacts Extensive mangrove areas along the southwest coast of Guimaras Island, both within and outside the MPA, are heavily oiled. In many areas, oiling extends throughout the mangrove stands, from the seaward zone back to the landward zone.
DENR is still compiling the results of their rapid assessment survey and expects to issue a summary of the results this week.
Preliminary surveys conducted by the University of the Philippines -- Visayas (UPV) Biological Research Station in the Talong-Tandog Marine Protection Area and adjacent areas were completed last week. UPV survey results indicate that 90 -100 percent of of mangroves have been affected by the spill to some degree in the Tandog group of Islands. In the Taklong group of islands, approximately 50 percent of the mangroves have been affected. Outside of the marine reserve in the coastal areas of Barangays San Roque and La Paz, nearly 100 percent of the mangroves have been affected. NOAA and DENR observations indicate that significant portions of the areas impacted are heavily oiled (see photos). NOAA and DENR have observed that mangroves to the north of San Roque and west of La Paz also have been impacted, particularly in Tondo and Locmayan.
The likelihood of survival of the oiled mangroves is difficult to predict. Affected trees are expected, at minimum, to exhibit signs of stress within the next few weeks or months. In most areas surveyed by the NOAA, the sediment surface was not contaminated, which may improve likelihood of stand survival and recovery. Another critical factor in mangrove survival will be the nature of cleanup, if any, conducted. University of Philippines experts and some DENR staff have recommended against any attempts to clean oiled mangroves. The NOAA SSC agrees that intrusive cleanup of mangroves is not advisable.
Petron (cargo owner) is managing most of the shoreline cleanup crews and has made assurances that no cleanup will be conducted in mangroves without consultation from the University of the Philippines and the Philippine Department of Environment and Natural Resources. However, over the past two days evidence of cutting and chopping of mangrove prop roots, pneumatophores, and trunks was observed at several locations in Tondo and Lucmayan Barangays. Mangrove trees with roots or bark damaged by cutting are vulnerable to salt water intrusion. Several of these damaged mangroves have already started to show signs of leaf chlorosis (yellowing). Survival of plants with roots that have been cut is doubtful.
Other Shoreline Impacts
UPV has reported that coral in surveyed areas has not been seriously affected (less than 5 percent). Based on their observations, the university researches indicated an estimated 20 percent of seagrass beds in surveyed areas were exposed to oil to some degree. They also estimate more than half of the sandy and rocky shorelines in surveyed areas (MPA, San Roque Barangay and La Paz Barangay) have been impacted by oil to some degree.
From: Jacqui Michel jmichel@researchplanning.com
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Indonesia
Asia Pulse
August 31, 2006 Thursday 10:57 AM EST
INDONESIA'S SHRIMP PRODUCTION IN 2006 PROJECTED AT 350,000 TONS
SECTION: NATIONWIDE INTERNATIONAL NEWS
LENGTH: 113 words
DATELINE: SEMARANG, C. JAVA Aug 31
Indonesia's shrimp production in 2006 has been projected at 350 thousand tons, consisting of 110 thousand tons of tiger prawn and 240 thousand tons of "vaname" shrimps, an official said.
The shrimp producing areas are located in 27 provinces, Secretary to the Directorat General of Fishery affairs, M. Rahmat Ibrahim said here Wednesday after attending a coordination meeting on fishery affairs for Central Java and Yogyakarta.
Some 150,500 hectares of land, comprising 93,500 hectares for tiger prawn and 57,000 hectares for "vaname" shrimps were needed to reach the projected shrimps production, Rahmat said, adding that the shrimp business would absorb some 194,316 workers.
(ANTARA)
From: Andrianna Natsoulas anatsoulas@fwwatch.org
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Papua New Guinea
Ocean slowly claiming Papua New Guinea, global warming blamed
By Evan Osnos
First, their fathers noticed the palm trees that seemed to be inching toward the water's edge and the fire pit that vanished beneath the tides. Later, researchers came, scribbled measurements and offered a grim diagnosis: The sea is coming.
There is not a power line or factory or air conditioner within a day's walk of the Papua New Guinea village of Malasiga of 400 people in the southwest Pacific, but these subsistence fishermen are no strangers to the power of industrialization and climate change.
"There used to be two rows of houses," said Mickey Tarabi, a wood carver in his 50s, nodding toward the crystal blue sea. "The first one has been moved, and the second one will be gone soon."
Far over the horizon from the most advanced nations, scientists are measuring the effects of global warming in the world's least-industrialized corners. As the World Bank puts it, 15 per cent of the world's population lives in high-income countries but releases "more than 75 per cent of the carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that are altering the Earth's climate."
In places like Sri Lanka or coastal Louisiana communities are thriving on vulnerable shorelines. In Bangladesh, more than 10 million people live within 3 feet of sea level. Overall, the World Bank predicts that rising sea levels "could displace tens of millions of people living in low-lying areas" around the world.
"Sea-level rise isn't going to go away," said John Hunter, an oceanographer who studies sea levels at the University of Tasmania in Australia. "Our main worry is not what has happened in the past 30 or 40 years, but what will happen in the next century."
In a broad new study supported by the Australian government, Hunter and a team of researchers examined decades of measurements of the Pacific and Indian Oceans, concluding that natural fluctuations could not explain the rise. "The analysis clearly indicates that sea level in this region is rising," they wrote.
That is little surprise to Papua New Guinea, a rugged island nation about the size of California, east of Indonesia. The 5.7 million people in PNG, as it is known, have particular interest in their natural surroundings because 85 percent subsist on what they grow, fish or hunt. Here, rising waters are swamping coastal villages and small islands. Salt water is inundating coastal farms, destroying vital crops and orchards.
Source:Chicago Tribune
From SAMUDRA From: icsf@icsf.net
India
Intent to Implemention of Disaster Mitigation and Management of Natural Disasters, India
21st September, 2006
Organized by Responsenet, VISION FOUNDATION and GIDF
Venue: Great Indian Dream Foundation
New Delhi - 110074, India
TrainingDates : 21st, 22nd & 23rd September, 2006
Duration : Three Days (9:30 A.M. to 5:30 P.M.)
Participants : 25
An opportunity to pro actively integrate your abilities for Disaster Mitigation and management of Disasters through collective learning and preparedness in a relevant way.
Context:
India has been traditionally vulnerable to natural disasters on account of its unique geo-climatic conditions. Floods, droughts, cyclones, earthquakes and landslides have been recurrent phenomena. About 60% of the landmass is prone to earthquakes of various intensities; over 40 million hectares is prone to floods; about 8% of the total area is prone to cyclones and 68% of the area is susceptible to drought. In the decade 1990-2000, an average of about 4344 people lost their lives and about 30 million people were affected by disasters every year. The loss in terms of private, community and public assets has been astronomical.
At the global level, there has been considerable concern over natural disasters. Even as substantial scientific and material progress is made, the loss of lives and property due to disasters has not decreased. In fact, the human toll and economic losses have mounted. It was in this background that the United Nations General Assembly, in 1989, declared the decade 1990-2000 as the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction with the objective to reduce loss of lives and property and restrict socio-economic damage through concerted international action, especially in developing countries.
The super cyclone in Orissa in October, 1999, the Bhuj earthquake in Gujarat in January, 2001 and Tsunami disaster of December 26th 2004 covering several countries of north Indian Ocean and various States/UTs of India underscored the need to adopt a multi dimensional endeavour involving diverse scientific, engineering, financial and social processes; the need to adopt multi disciplinary and multi sectoral approach and incorporation of risk reduction in the developmental plans and strategies.
The Government of India have brought about a paradigm shift in the approach to disaster management. The new approach proceeds from the conviction that development cannot be sustainable unless disaster mitigation is built into the development process. Another corner stone of the approach is that mitigation has to be multi-disciplinary spanning across all sectors of development. It also emanates from the belief that investments in mitigation are much more cost effective than expenditure on relief and rehabilitation.
Disaster management occupies an important place in this country's policy framework as it is the poor and the under-privileged who are worst affected on account of calamities/disasters. Government organizations, international and Indian agencies are providing financial assistance and working in close coordination for disaster management.
From: LESrrl3@aol.com
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The Statesman (India)
August 30, 2006 Wednesday
PRAWN TRADE CAUSES DISPUTES
LENGTH: 259 words
Statesman News Service KENDRAPARA, Aug. 29: A trader was killed recently at Batighar hamlet in what is considered as a sequel to violent disputes arising out of the dollar-spinning prawn business.
With the harvesting season now in peak, apprehension of more violence and clash among various groups is anticipated, taking into account the lawlessness recorded in past years. A prawn trader Debesh Bera, was stabbed to death and the cold-blooded murder was a fallout of dispute over the share of profits after harvesting in a jointly operated prawn dyke. Significantly majority of shrimp dykes that have come up in this part of the state grossly violates the legal provisions. The illegal business continues to be a major occupation for a number of seaside villagers in the district. Amicable settlement of disputes by the panchayat bodies, might have eased the burden of police, but the situation continues to be volatile in areas where shrimp farming holds the key to local economy. As police and revenue officials describe, tension invariably prevails in these parts all through the year. Cases of forcible possession of prawn units by rival traders, inflicting large scale killing of prawns by sprinkling pesticides has become a common practice in places like Gadabshanpur, Khurunta, Japa, Ambiki, Batighar, Kharinasi, Ramnagar and several parts of Rajnagar block. Attributing commercial rivalry between various groups for such incidents, police sources say most of the cases pass unreported as certain middlemen and touts settle them.
From: Andrianna Natsoulas
anatsoulas@fwwatch.org
Brazil
LETTER OF FORTALEZA FROM THE PEOPLES OF THE SEA
The fifteen Brazilian states represented by 166 participants at the seminar "Mangroves and Community Life: the socio-environmental impacts of shrimp farming," together in Fortaleza, Ceara, from 21-24 August 2006, representing community grassroots organizations; riverine communities; quilombolas (communities descendent from escaped slaves); indigenous peoples; fishermen and fisherwomen; the national movement of fishers (MONAPE); social pastoral groups; fishing schools; local, state, national and international researchers and non-governmental organizations; declare:
1. We affirm that mangrove destruction in Brazil is occurring at an accelerating rate, and in a manner predominated by shrimp farming, the cultivation of shrimp in captivity, with unprecedented privatization of public waters and public and indigenous lands; expulsion of local populations; felling of mangroves; salinization of fresh water; pollution of rivers, tidal channels and estuaries; increasing reductions in fisheries (shellfish, crustaceans and fish); and impoverishment of the Peoples of the Waters. This destruction of mangroves and of other costal ecosystems continues advancing, and added to this is the systematic violation of human and environmental rights of the Peoples of the Sea, of the Mangroves, and of the Rivers;
2. The activity of farming shrimp, despite its historic trajectory of social and environmental destruction, continues to expand with impunity in our country, above all in the Northeast region;
3. We denounce that shrimp farming has manifested violence directed at local communities, leaders, and entities utilizing intimidation, compulsion and physical violence with the register of various murders (cases occurring in the states of Rio Grande do Norte, Bahia and Piaui), which configures itself as a violator of human rights and environmental rights.
4. We call to the state ombudsman to take action in order to avoid the recurring police (civil and military) action in the states, as they have assumed the role of private security on shrimp farms, including the use of state uniforms, police cars and ammunition and, without a doubt, acting with violence against local populations;
5. We denounce that our state laws are being revised in order to permit the expansion of shrimp farmers' destructive activities in areas characterized by coastal ecosystems. We refuse any modification whatsoever in legal systems with the objective of diminishing the protection and permit the appropriation of coastal marine areas and their areas of influence.
6. Public financial institutions (Bank of the Northeast, Bank of Brazil, National Bank of Economic and Social Development) have financed the activity of shrimp farming, developed in an unsustainable manner, thereby exercising a decisive role in the expansion of shrimp cultivation and in the portrait of degradation and of poverty growing in the Coastal Zone and riverine area;
7. We denounce that an export-focused development model is emphasized in our country, oriented by agro-business and hydro-business and directed towards the production of goods for export (as in the case of shrimp farming) at the cost of our rich ecosystems and increasingly poor populations. The Sao Francisco River transposition project responds to the demands of the Brazilian business sector, including that of shrimp farming, and we find unacceptable its realization by the Brazilian state. We call for sustainable policies that satisfy the necessities of local populations and guarantee rights and access to natural resources (fisheries, water, land….);
8. We call upon the Regional Delegacies of Labor for effective action in order to halt the exploitation of workers on shrimp farms (irregular work contracts or absence of formal employment, lack of individual protection equipment, forced overtime, child labor, slave labor) and problems related to worker health (skin diseases, intoxication by sodium metabisulphite);
9. We denounce that state governments, especially, sustain and stimulate the expansion of shrimp farming in an unsustainable manner through the development of laws that open the doors for degradation of mangroves and coastal ecosystems. Incentives are provided for large impact activities (shrimp farming, tourism, industrial fisheries) that have no relation at all to the necessities of coastal and riverine populations, their quality of life and of health and the conservation of coastal and marine ecosystems;
10. We denounce that traditional activities are being substituted for new economic activities chosen by governments (state and federal) as alternatives to the current economic crisis. These alternatives continue concentrating wealth in the hands of the few while diminishing the quality of life of the great majority of the local population. We call for the elaboration of public policies that strengthen traditional productive activities of our Coastal Zone. These policies should guarantee sovereignty and the rights related to citizenship and life;
11. We demand preventative and corrective action from state and federal governments to determine that the recuperation of abandoned shrimp farms should occur by the actual causers of degradation and that there be a reversion of occupation and/or title of these areas in order for them to be integrated into the public patrimony;
12. We observe that some of the research and management activities of our ecosystems continue to be oriented to satisfy necessities contrary to those of our communities, thereby establishing the basis for the degradation of the ways of life and of culture of our peoples, through the expansion of destructive and unsustainable activities;
13. We reaffirm our constant and determined intension to resist the processes of privatization and destruction of the natural resources of the marine coastal zone in our states;
14. We express our solidarity and support to the People of the Sea of the South of the State of Bahia and request the immediate creation of the Extractivist Reserve Cassuruba by the federal government;
15. We demand of the Justice Ministry and of the Special Secretary of Human Rights the protection of residents in the communities of Cumbe, Porto do Céu, Cabreiro, Tabuleiro and Volta in Aracati, Ceara; São José e Buriti in Itapipoca, Ceara; Camondongo and Passagem Rasa in Itarema, Ceara; Salinas da Margarida, Canavieiras and Praia do Guaibim in Valença (Bahia); Logradouro in Porto do Mangue (Rio Grande do Norte); and Porto do Carão in Pendências (Rio Grande do Norte).
Concluding:
1. We stand against the expansion of shrimp farming in Brazil at the same time that we demand the halt to the concession of new permits and financing of the activity of shrimp cultivation, as well as the embargo of installed farms and recuperation of degraded areas;
2. We demand a clear position from the Special Secretary for Aquiculture and Fisheries - SEAP, the Ministry of Environment - MMA, the Brazilian Environment Institute - IBAMA, National Foundation for Indigenous Affairs - FUNAI, Council for the Defense of Human Rights - CDDPH, Secretary of Federal Patrimony and Regional Manager of Federal Patrimony, financial Institutions, and state Governments concerning the scenario presented in this letter and a platform of action from these institutions in the face of the problem;
3. We call for the urgent establishment of public policies which guarantee that those responsible for this destruction (Institutions of credit; federal, state and municipal governments; industries; speculators, and shrimp farmers) recuperate the degraded ecosystems in the Brazilian coastal zone.
Translation from Elaine Corets manglar@comcast.net
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Disastrous experiences
by Rogéria Araújo
25 August 2006
The American non-governmental organization Mangrove Action Project affirms that more scientific and field studies are not necessary in order to demonstrate that the cultivation of shrimp in captivity is ruinous to fishing communities and destroys the environment. "The proof of this can be seen in Ecuador, in Thailand, in Honduras, in Mexico, in all of the countries where shrimp farming exists," stated Elaine Corets, Latin-American coordinator of MAP.
Elaine is referring to the devastation of numerous mangrove ecosystems caused by the advance of poorly planned aquiculture without any concern for environmental conservation. Worldwide it is estimated that during the last decades the area of mangroves has decreased 35% The destruction occurs at a rate of 2.1% per year. In Latin America, the best example is in Ecuador, whose mangrove ecosystem was reduced from 363,000 ha to 108,000 ha in 2002.
In Brazil, where it is estimated that more than 1 million ha exist, the situation is no different. "It is very clear that Brazil is not the first country to experience shrimp farming and we do not need to do more studies in order to understand how the industry functions. We already know that it destroyed a greater part of the mangroves of Ecuador, that it generates social and environmental conflicts, slave labor, corruption associated with the industry and involvement of public officials in the industry," affirmed the representative of MAP.
The organization has been accompanying the growth of shrimp farming in Brazil for two years and has already visited fishing communities affected by the activity in the states of Ceara and Bahia. According to Elaine, the organization develops environmental education projects, mangrove restoration, and sustainable alternatives ˆ such as community tourisms ˆ in response to the problem.
MAP was founded in 1992 because of the situation of the mangroves in Thailand, which were reduced in half by shrimp farms. The organization also follows the problem in Indonesia, India, Viet Nam, Ecuador and Honduras. Elaine Corets participated in the seminar Mangroves and Community Life ˆ the social-environmental impacts of shrimp farming, which closed this Thursday, 24 August, in Fortaleza, Ceara.
Source
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Brazil to Speed up 120 Infrastructure Projects
Impacts of Shrimp Farming
By Rogéria Araujo
17 August 2006
Having as a focus the advance of shrimp farming and the environmental and social consequences that this activity has on fishing communities, non-governmental organizations and entities in the area will carry out the seminar, Mangroves and Community Life: the Socio-Environmental Impacts of Shrimp Farming, 21-24 August, in Fortaleza, Ceara. The objective of the event is to bring together fishermen and fisherwomen ˆ the most affected by shrimp farming ˆ in order to involve them more with the issue and point out guidelines for diminishing the negative impacts on their communities.
According to Angelaine Alves, of the Pastoral Counsel of Fisherfolk ˆ CPP (Conselho Pastoral dos Pescadores), the seminar will enable fishing communities to get together and find healthy forms to confront the problem. She explains that, with the advance of shrimp farming, many fishermen and fisherwomen are threatened with losing their means of survival, as the majority of the time the farms for the cultivation of shrimp in captivity destroy mangrove areas.
„Many times, the fisherfolk don‚t know who to look to, where to go, what they can do to guarantee their rights, what is illegal, and what is not. So this seminar is going to elaborate this joining of forces, so that in a confrontation situation, they don‚t end up abandoned.
The confrontation situations, she adds, are growing and growing, including threats to fisherfolk and persons allied with proprietors of farms. In the state of Ceara, the focus of conflict is intense in the region of Acarau. There are also conflicts in other places, like Porto do Ceu, Itaicaba, Camocim, Aracati, and Itapipoca.
The dialogue will be open with States that possess shrimp farming industries already in place, as well as States that make up the next frontier of expansion, in order to highlight the forms of resistance already experienced, as in the case of Ceara. The proposal is to define common strategies of confrontation for the affirmation of a proactive posture by fishermen and fisherwomen.
During the four days of the event the following panels will occur: Shrimp farming ˆ a vision from fishing communities; Panorama of shrimp farming and of water in Brazil; Public policies for shrimp farming and for the conservation of mangroves; and Strategies of confrontation.
Translated from the Portuguese by Elaine Coret manglar@comcast.net
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Mexico
Shopping Mall Threatens Important Mangrove Crocodile Sanctuary
By this means we want to inform you about the Laguna Del Carpintero Park Mega Project (attached is the project's pdf presentation proposed by the town hall of the municipality) that will take place in Tampico, Tamaulipas, México. This project is intended to clear a valuable quantity of hectares that include mostly mangrove trees and other endemic trees for the construction of a mall. This lagoon, located in Tampico's downtown, has a natural entry of water coming from the Panuco-Tamesí River. This channel is locally called Cortadura channel; there is also an entrance of drainage pipelines to this lagoon, reported by the authorities as pluvial drainage. This lagoon is surrounded with mangrove trees, and is the habitat of more than 300 Morelet's crocodiles (Crocodylus moreletii) among many species of fish, including the tarpons (Megalops Atlanticus) which will be affected...specially the community of crocodiles, since this is their nesting zone. It is necessary to mention that in the year 2003 there was a filming made in this place for Animal Planet of the Discovery Channel (The Crocodile Hunter), in which they mentioned that this lagoon is the only place in the world in which the crocodiles reproduced in an urban environment and the need to protect and support this zone as a whole, integrated ecosystem was emphasized.
For the above mentioned, we ask you for help in our struggle to preserve this local ecosystem by preventing the construction of the mall (area indicated as number XII of the sheet 5 of the attached document). We are grateful in advance for your attention and actions.
Lucirene Carstensen Aragón
Bertha Amalia Díaz Covarrubias Fernández
The Bahamas
"Save the Bahamas Coalition" Forms!
The Save Guana Cay Reef Association and other like minded Environmental and Local Rights Groups feel that there is strength in numbers, and if we could create an organization that could unify our efforts on a national scale we could all help each other.
Please join us in Freeport for an important event! We want to create a "Save The Bahamas" NGO.
Save Guana Cay Reef Association, invites you, along with other interested representatives from the island communities , the scientific community, and other concerned parties in meeting together to discuss the issues we are all currently facing. We recognize that the development of mega resorts and the rampant environmental destruction of our islands is a problem that is affecting us all. We also realize the issue is a large one that encompasses the giving away of Crown land, the permitting process and the lack of consultation with local government by central government and developers.
The time to make a difference is now. This meeting is a terrific chance for you to voice your concerns, ask questions, and learn what you can do to make a huge difference.
By opening the lines of communication between people with a shared concern our ability to affect change grows exponentially. Save Guana Cay Reef has had tremendous success recently with two favorable rulings in the highest court in the land, The Privy Council.
We would like to hear your stories. We would like to hear your concerns and your ideas. We can share our experience and form a very powerful lobbying group. Let's ride the tide of recent media coverage of this important issue. We can make it work for us! We can change the awful course this unchecked, ill-planned development has set the Bahamas on!
We have secured a beautiful hotel with discounted rooms at a convenient location directly adjacent to The Port Lucaya Marketplace!
September 29th, 30th, October 1st
Freeport, Grand Bahama,
First ever meeting of a multi-island coalition united against destruction of the environmental, culture, traditions heritage and local rights throughout the Bahama Islands!
Let's join forces and win. We invite you to attend and help create the most powerful voice ever in the history of the Bahamas!
For More Details and schedule of events: Contact Save the Bahamas Coalition! at bahamas_18@hotmail.com
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Bimini Field Station News
August 27, 06 - Concern From a MythBuster
In recent months there has been a surge of news concerning resort developments on the "Out-Islands" of the Bahamas, including Bimini. This issue has drawn international attention, as not only are the local communities concerned about their future, but others who have grown to love these islands are also pleading for more responsible development.
Now Jamie Hyneman, host of TV's popular show MythBusters, has added his voice to the issue. The MythBusters pride themselves on separating facts from fiction, and as a former dive operator, Jamie has seen for himself the negative effects irresponsible developments can have on the oceans.
Jamie Hyneman - Host, MythBusters"A season or so ago we shot an episode of Mythbusters on Bimini and grew to love the place. It was beautiful and relatively untouched until just recently. As a seasoned diver, and operator of a dive charter business in the Caribbean for a number of years, I have seen first hand the destruction that tourist development can cause on coral reefs and mangrove forests. These ecosystems are interdependent and fragile and are already under a great deal of stress due to human activity. We should not allow huge developments to come in and wipe out these areas- this is what is happening in Bimini right now. Unless people put a stop to this destruction these beautiful areas will be gone forever."
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UP FRONT | DEVELOPMENT
Bimini fears a paradise lost to builder Miami developers are turning laid-back Bimini into a high-end resort, with the promise of new jobs. But not everyone is happy about the huge project.
BY JIM WYSS
jwyss@MiamiHerald.com
BIMINI, Bahamas - For decades, all it has taken to lure tourists to this Bahamian island 48 miles east of Florida has been clear water, world-class fishing and the lack of just about everything else.
So Lloyd ''Duda'' Edgecombe, a Bimini district council member, questions the wisdom of Miami developers who want to build a 250-room hotel, 18-hole golf course, 550-slip marina and glitzy casino on a flattened strip of sand once thick with marshes and mangroves.
The project, the Bimini Bay Resort and Casino, is far from the largest development in the Bahamas, but it's massive by Bimini standards. It will ultimately cover a tenth of the island, and developers promise it will create jobs for the entire population of 1,700.
But some critics worry it's also an example of how such mega-projects threaten the environment and the traditional island lifestyle that beckons visitors to places like Bimini in the first place.
Just a two-hour journey by fast boat from South Florida, or a 20-minute flight, Bimini has always been a world away. Over the years, personalities such as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and author Ernest Hemingway -- who wrote of its ''gin clear'' waters -- have been lured by Bimini's island vibe and sportfishing culture.
Now the world is coming to Bimini. Led by RAV Bahamas, a subsidiary of Miami's Capo Group, the $850 million project will eventually cover about one square mile of this 9.5-square-mile island. The upscale resort will include a hotel managed by the Conrad Hilton chain, a shopping court with a Starbucks and a casino with a 10,000-square-foot gambling floor.
About 140 houses and condos have already been built -- and sold -- as part of the development, and the construction site is teeming with earthmovers and backhoes racing to build about 350 more. There is a two-year waiting list to purchase homes.
WILL IT BE THE SAME?
Though many Bimini residents are encouraged by the prospects of new jobs, others wonder whether Bimini will still be Bimini once the project is complete. ''There are golf courses and casinos in Nassau, Freeport and all over the United States, so why do we need one here?'' Edgecombe asked. 'We don't want the project shut down, but we need to ask ourselves, `Is this project the right size for us?' '' The head of Bimini's tourism office, Norma Wilkinson, said most of the island's 48,000 visitors last year came from South Florida. But if the island hopes to generate year-round tourism and steady jobs for the locals, she said Bimini needs the additional attractions -- and hotel rooms -- that Capo is bringing.
The developers are financing the project themselves and are counting on the high-end real estate and luxurious amenities to keep luring buyers and tourists from South Florida. After all, Bimini is closer to South Florida than Orlando, points out Capo Group partner Sean Grimberg.
''We're building Bimini as Miami's next playground,'' he said. ``And it's just a hop, skip and a jump away.''
But some locals are concerned it's a playground where they might not be welcome. Last year, RAV Bahamas built a massive concrete archway across Bimini's sole north-south road, which leads to the northern third of the island and popular public beaches. Developers say the arch is merely decorative, but locals have picketed the guarded gate, fearing it's an attempt to keep them away from the new Bimini Bay community, with its neat rows of pink and blue houses and cobbled roads.
Life beyond the gate may be out of reach anyway, said Ashley Saunders, a local historian and district council member who supports the project, hoping it will ease the island's steep unemployment.
''We may be up there as workers, but I don't think too many [residents] will be enthusiastic about going up to the place and spending money,'' he said.
With studio apartments starting at about a quarter-million dollars, Saunders doubts any Bimini resident could afford to live there.
''I think we'll have two Biminis,'' he said from Dolphin House, his traditional coral rock home. ``The old Bimini down here and the new Bimini up there.''
But what's good for tourists is good for the entire island, said Capo Group Chairman Gerardo Capo. Already, Capo has built a 300,000-gallon water desalinization plant that is providing the entire island with fresh water for the first time in decades. The company also has donated 50 computers to schools and is bringing in educational consultants to create a curriculum that will prepare high school graduates for some of the 1,500 jobs Bimini Bay expects to create.
For all the talk of jobs, however, some think the project has generated precious few. RAV Bahamas says it recently employed about 100 Bimini residents, but admits that the vast majority of its 300 construction workers -- who have been on the job for more than two years -- are from Latin America. Capo said the construction jobs are temporary and that he is more concerned with training islanders for permanent, skilled jobs, which will come on line as more owners move into the homes and condos.
NEEDS CONVINCING
But Edgecombe is unconvinced.
''If this project really is for the Biminites like they say, then why aren't we at full employment?'' he said, noting that unemployment in Bimini is about twice the national average of 10 percent. ``Instead, the government is allowing them to bring in cheap foreign labor and that's disgraceful.''
There are also concerns about Bimini's ecological health.
Environmental groups complain RAV Bahamas has destroyed mangroves and dredged the seabed to build the foundations for the new condos and houses.
Capo said about 50 acres have been added to the island through dredging and filling efforts. The company has spent more than $1 million on environmental impact studies, he said, and all the construction has been sanctioned by the government's environmental authorities.
But not everyone is convinced the government is right.
Last year, a long-time Bimini shark researcher and University of Miami professor, Samuel Gruber, resigned his post as a member of the Bahamas National Trust, a body dedicated to protecting the island's natural resources, to protest the government's approval of the project.
In 2005, ''I watched a bulldozer in two feet of water remove mangroves by the acre in a healthy, viable wetland,'' he wrote in his resignation letter. ``How sad it is that the Bahamas, a world leader in the area of marine conservation, should have authorized such an egregious act.''
Bahama's ambassador for the environment, Keod Smith, the nation's top environmental official, did not respond to several interview requests.
Bimini's mangroves are the breeding and nursing grounds for more than 140 marine species, including some of the game fish that draw anglers from all over the world, said Alfredo Quarto, the executive director of the Mangrove Action Project, based in the state of Washington.
WON'T DESTROY IT
RAV Bahamas claims the grumbling comes from a small but vocal minority. The developer also points out that the project has already been scaled back once -- in part, to spare mangroves along the eastern banks of the property.
''Bimini's environment is what brought me to the Bahamas to begin with,'' Capo said. ``So why do you think I am going to destroy it?''
Jim Summerlin, who owns a wholesale car dealership in Miami, is sold on the project. He bought two properties in Bimini Bay about a year ago and says he has seen prices on the island rise ever since.
''I'm very happy with the investment,'' said Summerlin, who visits the island a few times a month. ``And there's no telling what it's going to be like once the casino and golf course goes in.''
But Annett Saunders, a Bimini resident who makes pottery and ceramics for tourists, said it was depressing to see bulldozers and work crews along the beaches leading to isolated fishing spots and the ''Healing Hole'' water springs. ''That's what people come to Bimini for,'' she said. ``But they're trying to re-create Miami at that end of the island.''
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Editor, The Miami Herald
August 28, 2006
Re: Bimini fears a paradise lost to builders.
The Bimini Bay project on north Bimini in the Bahamas has forever altered fragile mangrove and grass flats that made the only marine nursery area in the northwestern Great Bahama Bank such a unique and important environmental zone. A development of this scope and magnitude with its blatant disregard for the environment would never be allowed to be built here in Florida. Things must really be „different in the Bahamas‰!
Developer Gerardo Capo says that he scaled back the project once already, well 250 hotel rooms, 500 marina slips, 2500 houses and condos and an 18 hole golf course is so out of proportion for an island the size of Bimini, that it is no wonder that Keod Smith, the Bahamian Ambassador of the Environment would not return the Heralds calls for a requested interview. Probably his law partner and brother, Kean Smith, who represent Capo and other controversial Bahama developers advised against the Ambassador answering environmental questions in public.
The real issue is, after completion, were will Bimini Bay dump all its sewage, fertilizers, garbage and other debris as well as effluent from the 500 yachts in its marinas. The devastation of Bimini will just continue to go on and on. Hemingway must be rolling over in his grave by now.
For a clearer view of the ramifications of this development please go to this website.
From Captain Dan Kipnis: kipnisd@atlanticbb.net
USA
Shrimp producers. exporters agree on bypassing annual tax review by US commerce dept
By Ha Yen
United States shrimp producers and 104 shrimp exporters from six countries have reached agreement on bypassing the annual tax review by the US Department of Commerce (DOC). 23 Vietnamese companies are among these exporters.
At first, Dewey Ballantine Law Firm, representing the plaintiff, the South Shrimp Alliance (SSA), sent a document to the DOC), stating that it agreed to withdraw its request for a review of dumping taxes applied to 19 Vietnamese companies. With four further companies later added to the list, those listed will still be imposed taxes at the current rate until the next review by the DOC administration.
Under the agreement signed by the 104 shrimp exporters and the SSA, the exporters will pay sums of money directly to the SSA, so that the alliance can lobby US authorities for inspection of antibiotic residues in imported shrimp. SSA will also lobby US customs for stricter supervision over the imports in order to prevent dumping tax evasion.
Some sources said that the exporters will pay sums equivalent to 1 or 2% of total annual export turnover, while in return SSA will withdraw its request for a review to increase tax rates, leaving the anti-dumping tax rates unchanged for these companies.
SSA spokeswoman Deborah Long said that agreements with exporters from six countries (Brazil, China, Ecuador, India, Thailand, and Vietnam) were different. Some agreements consider the annual export turnover, while the others consider fixed rates.
Ms Long said that SSA members would only agree to cease lobbying for the tax review in return for funds with which they can lobby US authorities for antibiotic residue inspections and control of tax evasion. Exporters hope that the payment will be seen as their commitment to cooperating with the SSA in settling these disputes.
However, several companies that are imposed at the highest tax rates, could not find agreement with SSA. For example, taxes imposed on Brazilian firm Norte Pesca will remain at 67.8%, Vietnamese firm Kim Anh at 25.76%, and Indian firm Hindustan Lever Limited at 13.42%.
Source: VietNamNet Bridge
New Shrimp Farm Rules Aim to Save Asian Mangroves
MALAYSIA: August 23, 2006
KUALA LUMPUR - Environmental regulation of shrimp farming operations across Asia takes a major step forward next month, when the UN food agency considers adoption of a set of tougher industry guidelines published on Tuesday
The key victims of Asia's shrimp farms are its mangrove forests, the stilt-like luxuriant root systems of which form a natural protective barrier against destructive waves, prompting many countries to plant them after the 2004 tsunami.
Environmental devastation wreaked by shrimp farms across the region has driven policymakers to hammer out a strategy which aims to save natural resources and protect livelihoods, experts meeting in the Malaysian capital said.
Asia generates about 75 percent of total world production of farmed shrimp, which stood at 1.6 million tonnes in 2003 and was worth nearly US$9 billion, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) estimates.
As demand for shrimp grows worldwide, concern over the sustainability of fish stocks has risen, forcing consumers and retailers to demand that the food meets environmental guidelines.
"It's ridiculous to think that a multi-billion-dollar industry can be stopped," said environmentalist Ben Brown, who works for the Mangrove Action Project in Indonesia. "But the aquaculture industry is very far from adhering to best practices. It's still very much a get-in-quick, do-it-dirty approach, and it causes a lot of havoc." Policymakers have found it hard to reconcile different environmental yardsticks, spurring a group of United Nations agencies and the World Bank to join hands in thrashing out the new, simpler prescription for the industry.
"There are too many environmental guidelines out there -- there's confusion among governments and investors about which ones to follow," said Koji Yamamoto, a researcher with the Network of Aquaculture Centres in Asia-Pacific (NACA). NACA, which groups 17 nations from India and China to Australia and North Korea, published the set of eight principles for responsible shrimp farming, which an FAO panel is due to weigh and consider adopting at a meeting in September.
Once adopted by the FAO, the guidelines would be incorporated in the national shrimp farming policies of different governments, Yamamoto added. NACA's 17 members have already signed off on the guidelines.
The rules address issues ranging from farm location, design and construction to questions of shrimp feeding, health and nutrition, as well as food safety issues and concerns over sharing the farm's benefits with surrounding communities.
Stricter regulation is crucial because governments often overlook the true environmental costs of shrimp farms, which destroy mangroves, and rip up the livelihoods of poor coastal communities, researchers and economists said.
"There is no incentive to take account of mangrove costs, because they are not felt as losses to the private producers, but to the wider economy," said Lucy Emerton, an environmental economist with the World Conservation Union, IUCN.
Clearance for shrimp ponds accounted for 20 to 50 percent of mangrove clearances, Emerton said, noting that over the last 20 years shrimp aquaculture had grown by 400 percent while mangrove forest areas had shrunk by 26 percent.
"In Asia, the average intensive shrimp farm survives only two to five years before serious pollution and disease problems cause early closures," said Brown, adding that 99 percent of mangroves in some parts of East Java had been lost to shrimp farming. Polluted soils left by unprofitable shrimp farms often needed to be treated for a very long time to be rejuvenated, he said.
Story by Clarence Fernandez
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
From: Darlene chanfald
darlenes@olympus.net
==========
Mangrove areas shrunk 20% in last two decades, says FAO
By D. Arul Rajoo
The benefits of mangrove and other coastal forests as protection against tsunamis and other coastal hazards have been undervalued by many, resulting in mangrove areas decreasing by 20 per cent worldwide over the past two decades, a United Nations agency said Monday.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) said the value and management of other types of coastal forests and trees had been overlooked even more.
It said that a gathering of world experts in Khao Lak, southern Thailand, last week confirmed that forests and trees could act as bioshields for protection of people and other assets against tsunamis and other coastal hazards.
Susan Braatz, the FAO's programme coordinator for early forestry rehabilitation in tsunami-affected countries, said the workshop called for urgent action to protect existing coastal forests, rehabilitate degraded ones and plant new forests and trees in sites where they are suitable and have the potential to provide protection.
She said although the experts concluded that bioshields, if well designed and managed, are able to provide protection against most coastal hazards, care must be taken to avoid generalisations and to create a false sense of protection as coastal forests are not able to provide effective protection against all hazards.
"The FAO cautions against indiscriminate planting of trees in the name of coastal protection. The degree of protection offered by coastal bioshields depends on many factors related to the characteristics of the hazard, the site and the forest."
She said physical and biological factors needed to be taken into account in addition to economic, social and cultural ones.
In cases where bioshields are not a feasible option or sufficiently effective, provisions must be made for other forms of protection, including hard engineering solutions and a hybrid of hard and soft solutions, and in extreme events, evacuation must be relied upon.
The FAO said the gathering of 65 coastal engineers and oceanographers, forest ecologists and managers, disaster management specialists and coastal planners provided a rare opportunity to examine the role of coastal forests against tsunamis, cyclones, coastal erosion and wind and salt spray in a multi-disciplinary manner.
"There have been many meetings on tsunamis in the past two years, but this is the first one that has assembled physical and natural scientists and coastal resource managers to look at this important issue together," said Gegar Prasetya, an Indonesian coastal engineer and tsunami expert.
The FAO is providing emergency relief and early rehabilitation in the agriculture, fisheries and forestry sectors for improved livelihoods of tsunami-affected communities through 75 projects with a combined worth of $65 million.
More than 200,000 people died in the region, mostly in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand when the tsunami struck on Dec 26, 2004.
Source: bernama.com
From: icsf@icsf.net
==========
Excerpt from article from Science "Depletion, Degradation, and Recovery Potential of Estuaries and Coastal Seas"
Depletion, Degradation, and Recovery Potential of Estuaries and Coastal Seas
Heike K. Lotze,1* Hunter S. Lenihan,2 Bruce J. Bourque,3 Roger H. Bradbury,4 Richard G. Cooke,5 Matthew C. Kay,2 Susan M. Kidwell,6 Michael X. Kirby,7 Charles H. Peterson,8 Jeremy B. C. Jackson5,9
Estuarine and coastal transformation is as old as civilization yet has dramatically accelerated over the past 150 to 300 years. Reconstructed time lines, causes, and consequences of change in 12 once diverse and productive estuaries and coastal seas worldwide show similar patterns: Human impacts have depleted 990% of formerly important species, destroyed 965% of seagrass and wetland habitat, degraded water quality, and accelerated species invasions. Twentieth-century conservation efforts achieved partial recovery of upper trophic levels but have so far failed to restore former ecosystem structure and function. Our results provide detailed historical baselines and quantitative targets for ecosystem-based management and marine conservation.
Estuaries and coastal seas have been focal points of human settlement and marine resource use throughout history. Centuries of overexploitation, habitat transformation, and pollution have obscured the total magnitude of estuarine degradation and biodiversity loss and have undermined their ecological resilience (1-5). This poses potential for disaster, as demonstrated in numerous fisheries collapses (1-3) and the recent impacts of the 2004 Asian tsunami and 2005 Hurricane Katrina that were exacerbated by historical losses of mangroves and wetlands (5-7). With recognition of their essential role for human and marine life, estuaries and coastal zones have become the focus of efforts to develop ecosystembased management and large-scale restoration strategies. To be successful, these approaches require historical reference points and assessments of the degree and drivers of degradation in an ecosystem context (8, 9)…..
==========
Protective functions of coastal forests ?and trees against natural hazards
Eric Wolanski
Australian Institute of Marine Science
PMB No. 3, Townsville MC, Queensland 4810, Australia.
E-mail: e.wolanski@aims.gov.au
Abstract
This paper argues that coastal forests and mangroves need to be restored and even created, to enhance the capacity of estuaries and coastal waters to provide ecological services to the human population living on its shores, as well as to protect the coast from wind damage, salt spray, coastal erosion, typhoons, and even in saving human lives during a tsunami. It is stressed that these coastal bioshields cannot provide complete protection; they must be part of regional plan to reduce the risk of loss of life, property and infrastructure to an acceptable level.
A sacrificial zone within this bioshield must be incorporated in the management plan. The appropriate choice of vegetation depends on the severity of the natural hazards, the bathymetry, and the climate, the local land use, and the available options to survive extreme events. It is stressed that the solution to protecting the coast from natural hazards is not just local; it also involves the whole river catchment. Indeed vegetation must be used to protect the coastal population from landslides in the mountainous areas and along the river banks, and large dams must be operated so as to maintain the coarse riverine sediment flow necessary to prevent coastal erosion.
Bioshields, including mangroves, provide important ecohydrological services such as creating self-scoured navigable channels, sheltering coastal seagrass beds and coral reefs from excess sedimentation, and enhancing fisheries; these are all resources that the human population living along tropical estuaries and coasts rely on for their livelihood and quality of life.
From: "Eric Wolanski"
e.wolanski@aims.gov.au
==========
Editor's Note: Here is a response about proposed genetically modified mangroves! This seems still in the pre-research phase, but I am not certain. Strange that the researcher gave up the project for lack of funds, but wants MAP to follow in his footsteps! I am afraid we will have to pass on this, as we stand strongly opposed to such play with the fire of life!
Anyone venture a guess as to this idea for coastal protection from erosion via GM mangroves going anywhere fast? We are concerned that with the effects of global warming and sea level rise there will be a rush for such disingenuous solutions, and the precautionary principle will be tossed to the vagrant winds of change.
Date: Tue, 29 Aug 2006 21:06:37 -0700 (PDT)
Mangroves, Genetical modifications
The idea is to develop a Genetically Modified Mangrove Species (GMMS), which could be planted in the erosionsites created by harbour like nearshore platforms. Coastal erosion is a big problem nowadays, due to the development of ports and harbour to meet the essential need of human economy, development and welfare. Since the port and harbour area's land value is increasing fast and protect the social structures including warehouses, industries, houses etc are essential commitment to all coastal nations. The governmnts are spending lots of money to protect the essential lands by hard meassures such as sea wall construction or dumping of hilocks in the area to avoid further damage inside the land area. They are harming to the biological composition of the area and changingspecies composition of the region.
Since, natural mangroves coud not survive in the high energy erosion environment, it has been reported the attempts oftransplantation of natural native mangrove have failure. Hence, we need to produce one GMMS to protect which could survive in the erosion sites and should not harm to the environment as per the International Conventions related to genetically modified species (if traded). Since, I am a temporary employee (300 US dollars per month) of my organization and the organisation and my government is not giving me the social security such as employment and welfare, I have applied HSMP visa to UK and Australia. Hence I voluntarily lost my interest in the proposal. Since you have been interested in this subject, I encourage you and your organisation to innovate the GMMS, which could be patented and will earn more economy for your nation. Since USA has developed through inventions and innovations, you could succeed in this endeavour.
Asir Ramesh
==========
Half of fish consumed worldwide farmed, not caught
04 September, 2006 - NEARLY half the fish consumed as food worldwide are raised on fish farms rather than caught in the wild, says a new report from FAO. "The State of World Aquaculture 2006" was presented today to delegates from 50+ countries attending the biennial meeting of the FAO Sub-Committee on Aquaculture (Hotel Ashok, New Delhi, 4-8 September).
While in 1980 just 9 percent of the fish consumed by human beings came from aquaculture, today 43 percent does, the report shows.
That's 45.5 million tonnes of farmed fish, worth US$63 billion, eaten each year. Currently, freshwater and marine capture fisheries produce 95 million tonnes annually, of which 60 million tonnes is destined for human consumption.
Globally, consumer demand for fish continues to climb, especially in affluent, developed nations which in 2004 imported 33 million tonnes of fish worth over US$61 billion - 81% of all fish imports that year, in value terms. But levels of captures of fish in the wild have remained roughly stable since the mid-1980s, hovering around 90-93 million tonnes annually. There is little chance of any significant increases in catches beyond these levels, FAO says.
The agency's most recent global assessment of wild fish stocks found that out of the nearly 600 species groups it monitors, 52 percent are fully exploited while 25 percent are either overexploited (17%), depleted (7%) or recovering from depletion (1%). Twenty percent are moderately exploited, with just three percent ranked as underexploited.
"Catches in the wild are still high, but they have levelled off, probably for good," explains Roh ana Subasinghe of FAO's Fisheries Department and Secretary of the Sub-Committee on Aquaculture.
This levelling off, coupled with a growing world population and increasing per capita demand for fish, spells trouble.
FAO's report estimates that an additional 40 million tonnes of aquatic food will be required by 2030 - just to maintain current levels of consumption. The only option for meeting future demand for fish, Subasinghe argues, is by farming them.
There's just one question. Can aquaculture actually deliver?
The jury is still out, according to FAO's report. "Aquaculture could cover the gap between supply and demand, but there are also many forces which could pull production in the opposite direction, making it difficult for the industry to grow substantially enough to meet demand in the decades to come," it notes.
www.fishupdate.com is published by Special Publications. Special Publications also publish FISHupdate magazine, Fish Farmer, the Fish Industry Yearbook, the Scottish Seafood Processors Federation Diary, the Fish Farmer Handbook and a range of wallplanners.
FishUpdate
From: manglar@comcast.net
==========
Fishing profits, farming disaster: the cost of liberalising Asia's fisheries
GRAIN
The tsunami that swept across the Indian Ocean in December 2004 devastated coastal communities in 13 countries. The damage to lives, properties and livelihoods was staggering. Among the badly hit were Indonesia, India, Thailand and Sri Lanka - countries where the liberalisation of the fishing sector has contributed to the intensification of more destructive and exploitative commercial fishing. Clearing natural coastal defences for industrial aquaculture production is a growing trend in these parts of Asia. Along with increased vulnerability of coastal and surrounding rural comunities, marine biodiversity is in serious decline, and there is an escalating dispossession of the small-scale and artisanal fishing sector. GRAIN investigates.
The December 2004 tsunami killed more than 170,000 people and some 100,000 are still missing. In Thailand, the loss in the fishing industry alone was estimated to have totalled at least 500 million baht (US$13m)1 while damage to homes and lives remain beyond calculation.
Governments and aid donors were quick to say that countries affected were 'caught by nature's surprise'. However it later became clear that it was an event that could have been greatly mitigated had certain ecological functions - i.e mangrove areas that act as coastal defence - not been badly destroyed by unsustainable development initiatives like aquaculture.2 In a study of satellite images in Cuddalore, India, taken before and after the tsunami, exposed villages were completely levelled, but those behind the mangrove suffered virtually no damage. Scientists who went to Sri Lanka after the tsunami had similar findings: greater damage corresponded with greater extent of coastal development.
It seems that lessons from this are hard to learn. Industrial aquaculture continues to be pushed indiscriminately "because of massive funding and short-sighted development pressures by influentially powerful government and inter-governmental institutes like the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, USAID, and the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)"…3
FISHING PROFITS, FARMING DISASTER: THE COST OF LIBERALISING ASIA'S FISHERIES
by GRAIN
PDF file
From: Russ Cullinane
coasia@indo.net.id
New Report On Sea Level Rise & Mangroves
Pacific Island Mangroves in a Changing climate and Rising Sea" UNEP Regional Seas Report and Studies No.179.
UNEP
Wetlands and Poverty Reduction Project
A project funded by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs Directorate-General for International Cooperation (DGIS)
SEED FUNDING FACILITY
CALL FOR PROJECT CONCEPTS
Wetlands International's Wetlands and Poverty Reduction Project will support partnerships to prepare project proposals that address poverty-environment issues in wetlands
The Wetlands and Poverty Reduction Project (WPRP) is a 4-year project that aims to influence policy and practice at all levels to enhance the recognition of the interconnection between human well-being and wetland management. Through activities focused on local demonstration, capacity building and awareness-raising, the WPRP will contribute to the wise-use of wetlands and poverty reduction. Over the next 2.5 years, the WPRP's Seed Funding Facility will make €350,000 available to support partnership processes in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Additional details on the Wetlands and Poverty Reduction Project are available from Wetlands International's website.
From: Small Grants Program
proposals@iucn.nl
==========
International principles for responsible shrimp farming published
The International Principles for Responsible Shrimp Farming have just been released. The International Principles have been developed by the Consortium on Shrimp Farming and the Environment, which consists of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the Network of Aquaculture Centres in Asia-Pacific (NACA), the Global Programme of Action for the Protection of the Marine Environment from Land-based Activities of the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP/GPA), the World Bank (WB) and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).
Shrimp farming is one of the fastest growing aquaculture sectors in many parts of the world and also one of the most controversial. Rapid expansion of this sector generated income for many countries, but has been accompanied by rising concerns over environmental and social impacts.
The International Principles for Responsible Shrimp Farming provide the basis upon which stakeholders can collaborate for a more sustainable development of shrimp farming.
The principles address issues including farm siting; farm design; water use; broodstock and postlarvae; feed management; health management; food safety; and social responsibility.
The International Principles for Responsible Shrimp Farming can be downloaded free as a PDF file from the NACA website.
Source: NACA
From: icsf@icsf.net
==========
GPA Stakeholder Forum Scheduled
the Second Intergovernmental Review Meeting (IGR-2) for the Global Programme of Action for the Protection of the Marine Environment from Land-based Activities (GPA) will take place on 16-20 October 2006 in Beijing, China. More information about the upcoming IGR-2 .
From: "Felix Dodds"
fdodds@stakeholderforum.org
==========
Deforestation causes global warming
4 September 2006, Rome
Most people assume that global warming is caused by burning oil and gas. But in fact between 25 and 30 percent of the greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere each year ˆ 1.6 billion tonnes ˆ is caused by deforestation.
Now online: FAO
From: "Kwon, Cheemin (FONL)"
Cheemin.Kwon@fao.org
==========
Asian Fishery Society Announces 8th ASIAN FISHERIES FORUM
Fisheries and Aquaculture: Strategic Outlook for Asia
While we are passing through a phase of threats and destabilization, it is time that the fisheries scientists take upon themselves the challenge of addressing these issues through strategic and anticipatory research leading to interventions which will ensure not only long term sustainability but also make fisheries and aquaculture a rewarding, environment friendly, socially acceptable and economically profitable activity. It is with this focus, the 8th Asian Fisheries Forum has chosen the theme " Fisheries and Aquaculture: Strategic Outlook for Asia".
ABOUT THE ASIAN FISHERIES SOCIETY
The Asian Fisheries Society, established in 1986, is the largest fisheries non-governmental organization in the Asian region with a membership of over 3000 scientists, technocrats, fish farmers, administrators and activists. The AFS has been holding the Asian Fisheries Forum once in every 3 years since its inception. The Society is now organizing the 8th Asian Fisheries Forum in Kochi, India from 20-23 November, 2007.
The AFS endeavours to make the 8Ih Asian
Fisheries Forum the largest fisheries gathering in the Asian region.
THE CONFERENCE
The theme of the Conference shall be "Fisheries and aquaculture: Strategic outlook for Asia".
The Conference will be from 20-23 November, 2007. There will be several simultaneous technical sessions, a poster session, two symposia, a trade exhibition and post forum tours.
THE VENUE
Kochi,
On line registration
ABSTRACT SUBMISSION
June 30th 2007 is the deadline for submission of abstracts. Abstracts received after this date may not find a place in the Book of Abstracts. The abstracts can be submitted online through the website.
Abstracts can also be sent through email to
8aff2007@gmail.com
or through post to the Secretariat.
Ian Baird
ianbaird@shaw.ca
Nature Biotechnology (genetically Modified Shrimp On Their Way??
Published online: 6 July 2006;
doi:10.1038/nbt0706-735
Profile: Elliot Entis
Passion and perseverance have seen Elliot Entis down the long road of bringing transgenic salmon to market. His experiences 'swimming upstream' in animal biotech shows that endurance is key in bringing pioneering technologies to market.
Kendal Powell
Viz Media
Anyone who has spent time with Elliot Entis, CEO and cofounder of Aqua Bounty Technologies (ABT), has heard him say that he subscribes to the "pinball theory of life." That is, when the right people and the right ideas are bouncing around together, the combination eventually results in a high score.
Of course, it helps if there is a pinball wizard like Entis behind it all. His tenacity has earned him nicknames like 'cockroach' (impossible to kill) and he's been described as "willing to get up on his hind legs" to fight for what he believes in. The animal analogies fit Entis, who is guiding the first transgenic animal food product to market and recently led his Boston-Massachusetts-based company to its successful £20 ($37.6)-million Initial Public Offering (IPO) in March 2006.
ABT began with an idea about antifreeze proteins (AFPs) bouncing around Entis' head on an "idle Sunday afternoon, reading the New York Times" in 1991. Then running his father's wholesale seafood business, Entis saw the potential for preserving the flavor of frozen fish. After a few meetings with a group of scientists characterizing AFPs, namely Boris Rubinsky, Garth Fletcher and Choy Hew, he realized the much bigger potential for preserving human organs. And a new biotech company focused on using AFPs to preserve cells, tissues and organs called A/F Protein was born in 1992.
In an early meeting, a researcher offhandedly noted that they had used the promoter of the antifreeze gene found in ocean pout to turn on growth hormone in salmon year-round (salmon normally produce growth hormone only in the summer).
"I knew we were about to take an unexpected turn at that moment," says Entis, who's knowledge of aquaculture led him to refocus on this rapid-growing salmon. Aqua Bounty, the transgenic salmon portion of A/F Protein, was spun off in 2000. And it became Aqua Bounty Technologies in 2003, reflecting a shift in the company to broader support of aquaculture through biotech products.
Entis counts that diversification as one of the wisest decisions he has made. "Up until 2000, we were only known for the transgenic salmon," he says. "Expanding to include products that focus on the health of aquaculture animals was a fulfillment of the original vision of the company, supporting the blue revolution of aquaculture. Commercially, it was a good move as well."
His investors agreed. ABT's pipeline now includes a hefty portion of shrimp therapeutics and diagnostics. ABT already has connections to the Latin American farmers, but Entis notes that the big prize will be Southeast Asia, which produces 75% of farmed shrimp.
"With his connections to the fish industry, Elliot understood the market opportunity for the shrimp products, which are more near-term, have lower regulatory hurdles and fill a huge unmet need in the developing world," says Rob Hopfner, vice president of Bay City Capital in San Francisco, the first venture capital firm to invest in ABT.
The move helped secure public trading on the alternative investment market (AiM), part of the London Stock Exchange. Choosing AiM let ABT avoid the onerous Sarbanes-Oxley reporting requirements in the US (See Lawrence article p731) and take advantage of fewer reporting deadlines, a faster due diligence process, with friendlier investors and smaller fund raisings than on Wall Street.
But the flagship product and Entis' raison d'être for the past 14 years is the AquAdvantage salmon brood stock. These genetically modified (GM) salmon reach market size twice as fast as domestically farmed fish and convert feed to body mass slightly more efficiently. Production costs are thus 25-50% of traditional salmon farming.
Entis expects the salmon to be approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) later this year after a five-year review process. The lengthy review stems from a lack of policy guidance at the agency and an extra-cautious approach, both due to the pioneering nature of the product: a GM animal meant for consumption that swims in the ocean.
Those qualities have placed Entis squarely in the spotlight for attacks from anti-GM critics and for applause from the animal biotech industry. He admits his blood pressure soars when people shun any technology applied to food production. And though he has enemies within some groups, his determined promotion of the technology has won over many skeptics.
Early on, "Entis was vocally and vigorously defending his product-there's no fault there for a CEO-but he was not always doing it scientifically," says William Muir, a population geneticist at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. A one-time critic of GM salmon and now a collaborator on risk assessment of the product, Muir credits Entis with learning from the mistakes of agricultural biotech failures. "The biggest thing he did to help his cause was to announce the company's plan from the beginning-showing the public that the company is above board," says Muir.
Entis also has a talent for talk, communicating with investors, scientists, the general public and critics equally well. "He's not reactionary during emotional arguments," notes Kurt Klimpel, ABT's chief scientific officer, based in San Diego. "Instead, he will listen to a group's arguments and rationally go through them. Nine times out of ten, the argument is defused."
Entis' diplomatic tongue may be leftover from his political science training at Harvard and Berkeley. Add to that his passionate belief that GM salmon are a critical contribution to the world's food supply, and it becomes a winning combination for holding investor interest. The difficulties in raising funding in animal biotech separate these companies dramatically from their human healthcare counterparts.
"He managed to sell his dream very well to over 150 investors before going public," notes Hopfner of Bay City Capital. Some of those investors he kept interested for ten years or more as the fish crept toward approval. Now that approval seems near, those investors may reap a huge opportunity as the seafood industry shifts from fishing to aquaculture.
Boulder, Colorado
Article brought to you by: Nature Biotechnology
zcorrigan@fwwatch.org
==========
ICSF Calls on FAO to Ensure Small-scale, Family-based Aquacultue Is Promoted
4 September 2005. The International Collective in Support of Fishworkers (ICSF) calls on the FAO to promote small-scale family based aquaculture, and to ensure that irresponsible aquaculture practices do not undermine sustainable coastal livelihoods.
The call was made to representatives from more than fifty countries gathering at the five day FAO Aquaculture Subcommittee meeting in New Delhi, India on Monday. According to the recent FAO State of World Aquaculture 2006 report, in 1980 just 9 percent of the fish consumed by human beings came from aquaculture; today 43 percent does.
ICSF notes that whilst fisheries and aquaculture play an important role in meeting the growing demands for fish, and in creating and sustaining livelihoods for women and men of coastal communities, there is a need for greater coherence and complementarity between fisheries and aquaculture.
Indiscriminate development of aquaculture, notably of shrimp and salmon in Asia and Latin America, has led to serious socioeconomic problems. Some aquaculture developments have caused severe conflicts, and even violence against local communities. The ICSF lauded the concerted action by civil society in India to highlight these problems, which resulted in a landmark supreme court judgment. This has played a major role in state regulation of irresponsible shrimp aquaculture in the country hosting the FAO meeting.
At the same time the overdependence on fishmeal, and the social and environmental problems associated with reduction fisheries for fishmeal in Latin America is a cause for concern, as is the use of low-value fish species (inappropriately called Œtrash fish‚) for fishmeal in Asia. This has increased the conflict between the use of low value fish as fishmeal and as food, while compromising local food security and livelihoods, particularly of women in coastal communities.
Further information:
Founded in India in 1986, the ICSF is an international NGO that works on issues of importance to fisheries worldwide, but with a particular focus on the social and economic concerns of fishworkers in the developing countries. With offices in Chennai in India, and in Brussels Belgium, ICSF is a global network of community organizers, teachers, technicians, researchers and scientists. Its work has achieved international recognition. Website
The full ICSF statement
Information about the FAO Aquaculture subcommittee meeting.
From: "Brian O'Riordan"
briano@tiscali.be
==========
The Daily Telegraph (UK), 29th August 2006
Wild salmon at risk as a million farm fish escape
Charles Clover
MORE than a million farmed salmon have escaped into the wild in the past three years in accidents which scientists fear may be driving the wild salmon population towards extinction.
The figures, released by the Scottish Executive, show that a total of 1.6 million salmon have escaped from fish farms in more than 50 separate accidents since 2000, with 821,512 escaping last year alone. So far this year, official figures show 105,987 of the fish have escaped from salmon farms.
Recent scientific evidence shows that the accidental escape of farmed salmon from pens each year can lead to catastrophically reduced survival of the progeny of wild salmon which breed with the domesticated fish.
Scientists call the effect the "extinction vortex'' because they say it could lead to the demise of wild salmon populations which have evolved over thousands of years in particular rivers.
The latest figures would appear to confirm fears among officials of the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organisation that wild salmon populations are continuing to decline despite the widespread buy-out of commercial nets in Europe and Greenland.
The figures, released in response to a request from the Pure Salmon Campaign under the Freedom of Information Act, show that the largest numbers of salmon escaped from nets in the windiest places.
A total of 320,000 fish escaped from farms in Orkney in 2000, 313,000 fish in Shetland in 2002, and more than 300,000 in the Western Isles last year.
It is now estimated that up to 90 per cent of the salmon returning to some rivers in Scotland, the Faeroe Islands, Norway, Ireland and Canada are fugitives of farmed origin.
Most domesticated Atlantic salmon are descended from about 40 original stocks of Norwegian fish which are genetically different from native British and Irish salmon.
Scientists carried out a 10-year study on the Burrishoole river system in Co Mayo examining first and second generation hybrids of wild and domesticated fish.
They found that domesticated fish have both genetic and competitive effects on wild fish populations. Overall, farm salmon showed an estimated success rate over a lifetime in the wild of two per cent of that of wild salmon. The study, by researchers of Ireland's Marine Institute and Queen's University Belfast, found that 70 per cent of the second-generation hybrids died in the first few weeks as a result of genetic incompatibilities.
This meant that a river could look as if it was healthy for some time after an escape of domesticated fish, with larger domesticated fish being welcomed by anglers, but a population collapse would then occur in the second generation.
The study by Philip McGinity and Prof Andy Ferguson, published in a Royal Society journal, also showed that stocking with farmed brown trout, which is carried out on an even wider scale, is detrimental to the fitness and survival of wild populations.
Don Staniford, of the Pure Salmon Campaign, said: "Farming salmon in sea cages is an open invitation to mass escapes. Salmon farmers term escapes 'Acts of God' but placing farms in remote locations where the weather is known to be stormy makes escapes seem more a man-made than a natural disaster.''
charles.clover@telegraph.co.uk
Telegraph
From: Don Staniford
don_staniford@yahoo.co.uk
==========
The Straight, 24th August
Fish farming for the future
By andrew findlay
It's lonely swimming against the mainstream currents of fish farming˜just ask Richard Buchanan. Through his company, AgriMarine Industries, this professional engineer has been dumping his energy and life savings for the past six years into the development of a floating, closed-containment aquaculture system. With this, he aims to address the problems of disease transfer, fish escapes, and fish waste that have plagued the Canadian fish-farming industry over the last decade. However, until Buchanan manages to attract investment, all he‚ll have to show for his efforts is a 1/10th scale model made of Styrofoam on display in his mostly vacant Campbell River office.
„I‚m confident that we can bring it from the model to a working prototype. I‚m confident in the design,‰ Buchanan recently told the Georgia Straight. Buchanan˜who has been involved in various capacities with the Vancouver Aquarium for more than two decades, and who splits his time between Vancouver and Campbell River˜has seen all sides of this controversial industry, which has an annual production worth about $200 million in B.C. In the early 1990s, AgriMarine was farming fish off Vancouver Island using conventional net pens; however, the firm lost entire years of production in 1992 and 1994 due to phytoplankton, or algae, blooms. After suffering another catastrophic algal loss in 1996, AgriMarine bailed on traditional fish farming.
Then in 2000, AgriMarine was selected by the B.C. government to develop a land-based fish-farming system in Cedar, south of Nanaimo. After the two-year trial was finished, Buchanan says AgriMarine proved it could raise healthy salmon in a closed-containment system, four concrete ponds with electric pumps that poured 1,500 gallons of seawater per minute through each. At the time, the fish were sold to the Vancouver Islandˆbased grocery chain Thrifty Foods under the label „Eco-Salmon‰. However, the costs of pumping the water proved to be prohibitive, and that‚s when Buchanan turned his efforts toward developing a floating system that would reduce pumping costs by as much as 90 percent. (It took an average investment of 20 kilowatt-hours of power to raise a four-kilogram fish.)
Six years later, Buchanan thinks he has the answer: floating tanks of reinforced concrete and Styrofoam that would separate the farm and marine environments, allow the collection and treatment of waste from the tanks, and enable the careful monitoring of fish-farm conditions. However, at an estimated construction cost of $1 million per tank, the required start-up capital has been a considerable deterrent to outside investment. Unable to attract adequate private interest, Buchanan has turned to government. Originally, AgriMarine partnered with Scott McKinley of UBC‚s faculty of land and food systems and applied to the federal Western Economic Diversification (WED) fund for a $1-million grant to build a single tank and get a working model in the water at an already-approved site at Middle Bay north of Campbell River. Under the Agri?MarineˆUBC partnership, once a working farm is in the water, McKinley and his team of researchers will study the environmental science and economic feasibility of Agri?Marine‚s technology.
„We know from our experience at Cedar that the biology works; now we need to marry it with this new technology. It‚s been a challenge to raise the money,‰ Buchanan admits. „I‚m hopeful the government will give us enough for a tank so we can test the impacts and do the science.
However, the UBCˆAgriMarine proposal may be in jeopardy. A spokesperson for WED, which is currently undergoing an internal review of funding priorities, has suggested that AgriMarine may fall through the cracks. „WED does not fund for-profit commercial enterprises,‰ Bernée Bolton told the Straight, adding that the proposal is still undergoing a process of due diligence.
Even if the partnership implodes, Buchanan isn‚t deterred. He is already looking at possible alternatives, including funding from another not-for-profit federal initiative, Sustainable Development Technology Canada. In addition, Buchanan recently helped to form the Middle Bay Sustainable Aquaculture Institute, a nonprofit group that will chase funds with the goal of floating a closed-tank system as soon as possible.
Among politicians and environmentalists, a growing number of people believe industry should look harder at new technologies instead of putting bandages on the old….
…Since 2000, when the Coastal Alliance for Aquaculture Reform (CAAR) came about, member First Nations and environmental groups such as the David Suzuki Foundation and the Georgia Strait Alliance have been touting closed-containment technology as the way to eliminate the risk of fish escapes, the transfer of sea lice to migrating wild stocks, and the impacts of fish waste.
From: Don Staniford
don_staniford@yahoo.co.uk
