The environment in the news tuesday, 20 May 2008

By Beth Botts | Tribune reporter

Compact fluorescent light bulbs will be given away on a first-come, first-served basis, as will 'Melrose' sweet pepper plants (an heirloom Italian variety rediscovered in Melrose Park, to be given away at the fruit and vegetable gardens June 6 and 7). It's all part of "Save the Plants, Save the Planet" week at the Botanic Garden, which is breaking ground for its new plant conservation science center. The center, to be completed in 2009, will have laboratories for research on plants and the environment, classrooms for a doctoral program and a greatly expanded seed bank to preserve native species.

Alternative and green energy resources like hydropower, wind power, biomass, fuel cell, solar PV, geothermal and other unconventional resources constitute a high potency growth segment. In India, green energy generation has been on the priority list for quite some time, but its potential is yet to be realised because many unhelpful conditions affect viability of green energy. Inadequate power distribution networks, high cost of generation and absence of focussed approach are impediments in making green energy a preferred alternative. Recently, the government acknowledged the need for increasing hydropower generation and announced a set of relief measures but took no proactive steps for identifying viable hydropower generation projects and extending project oriented help and support to entrepreneurs.

The rising cost of staple grains across Africa has already caused food riots in a few countries. In Mogadishu, Somalia, thousands protested when food sellers rejected old currency notes amid spiralling inflation.

In Burkina Faso, riots broke out in February, and workers' unions downed their tools in April over high costs of food and fuel. About 10 people died in Mozambique in February while protesting against rising costs of living, and in Senegal, many people, waving empty rice sacks, took over the streets of Dakar on April 26 to protest against food prices.

The ill wind blew in Cameroon in February. According to the government, 24 protesters were killed ( human rights sources say over 100), forcing the government to raise salaries and suspend customs duty on basic foodstuffs.

Members of South Africa's labour federation stomped through Johannesburg in April demonstrating against increased food and electricity prices. The disturbance reached Ivory Coast in March. More riots are likely to follow.

Even though this problem is global and not African, as food protests have equally rocked Haiti (and brought down a prime minister there in April), Argentina, Peru (protesting women banged empty pots and pans outside Peru's Congress late April, while farmers blocked rail and road links in February), Bangladesh, Vietnam, Afghanistan, and even Russia, it is heartening that the AU will meet end of May to adopt a common strategy to combat the menace.

Needy countries

The African Development Bank has already earmarked $1 billion for interventionist loans to needy countries. This is in addition to its $3. 8 billion approved earlier meant for agriculture.

The World Bank is also setting aside millions of dollars to check the rising cost of staple foods in the continent, while the UN is calling for a New Deal for Africa and its agriculture, and as usual called on donor nations and aid agencies to meet the challenge of impending starvation of millions in the continent and Asia.

Yet, the situation is grim; a decade ago, the world's reserve stocks of grain had enough food to last six months. Today the stock can last for only 40 days, said Prof Don Smith, chairman of the Department of Plant Sciences at McGill University, in USA. "That's perilously trim," he added.

The global food shortage has raised the price of food by 83 per cent since 2005 and is expected to last for over a decade as it was caused by several factors.

The causes include increased wealth in places like China and India, fuelling increased demand for meat (necessitating increased production of crops as it takes 10 kilos of plant material to produce one kilo of beef, according to Smith).

Also, global human population has been exploding recently, growing more since 1950 than it did in the past 400 million years - from one billion in the 1900s to the present 6.6 billion.

Meanwhile, Canada, the U.S. and the European Union have for long granted agricultural subsidies that undercut African farmers. They export their agricultural surplus to Africa and sell it below production price, forcing African farmers out of contention.

Severe weather has also contributed to the food crisis. Drought in West and East Africa as well as flooding across much of the continent last year drastically reduced last year's crop yields, thus making African countries particularly vulnerable this year as there was little surplus yield to be stored for use this year.

Other parts of the world also faced natural disasters. Droughts in Australia halved its wheat production last year and poor crops in the E.U. and Ukraine in 2006 and 2007, though largely offset by good crops and increased exports in other countries, still weakened the food supply.

Though increased production prices (around 15 per cent), due directly to higher energy and fertilizer costs, are minimal, further crisis is ahead as global warming effects have been calculated to reduce maize production by 30 per cent in Southern Africa, and a 15 per cent drop in global wheat yields by 2030.

The trend will continue as the weather pattern worsens.

Weather patterns

Despite weather problems, Mr Achim Steiner, head of the UN's Environmental Programme, has said there's enough food to feed everyone on the planet and blamed market speculation for distorting availability, resulting in the stockpile of supplies and driving up prices.

There may be enough food all right, but not all is now used just for food; a huge amount of food (wheat, soy, maize and palm oil) is now dedicated for bio-fuels as concerns over oil price increase.

Several countries have already set standards or targets for use of bio-fuels. For instance, the European Union has set a 5.75 per cent target of motor fuel use from bio-fuels by 2010.

For the U.S, 28.4 billion litres of bio-fuel is mandatory for transportation by 2012, while Brazil will require that all diesel oil must contain two percent bio-diesel by 2008 and five per cent by 2013.

If the above bio-fuel requirement is checked against the recent world experience, then Africa is in big trouble as the steep food price will persist.

As usual, poor people, especially the urban poor, will suffer. A research in eight developing countries showed that higher food prices increase the poverty rate. The direct result of this is that as the food price increased from 2005 to 2007 it has raised the poverty rate by as high as three per cent in some countries.

This should be worrisome as almost all African countries were unable, even in good times, to meet their millennium development goals target. Therefore, poverty will surely erode the little developmental gains they have so far registered. So far, few countries have launched major agricultural initiatives against the grain scarcity.

Kenya is a notable difference; its Agriculture Ministry in partnership with Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa, Equity Bank Ltd, the International Fund for Agricultural Development have signed an agreement for a loan facility of $50US million to bring affordable financing to 2.5 million farmers, agricultural value chain members such as rural input shops, fertilizers and seed wholesalers and importers, grain and food processor traders.

Kenya's Agriculture Ministry will contribute millions of dollars further to subsidise poor and needy farmers through vouchers redeemable only at agro-dealer shops in exchange for farm implements. Kenya deserves to do even more as it is in an unusual predicament as its recent post-election crisis has displaced many farmers who are yet to be resettled.

Some other African countries have, however, introduced interventions that can only be beneficial as targeted safety nets' short-term measures to support the purchasing power of the poor without distorting domestic incentives to produce more food, and without reducing the incomes of poor food sellers. Examples include the cash transfer programmes place now in Ethiopia, Egypt, Mozambique, South Africa, and Tunisia.

Several of these countries are adjusting on-going programmes in response to the food scarcity. For example, in Ethiopia, where food price inflation in February 2008 was 23 per cent, the government has raised the cash wage rate of the largest cash-for-work programme by 33 per cent.

Angola uses emergency food aid distribution to ensure food security for vulnerable groups. Egypt has also increased workers' wages by 30 per cent. Still other countries, including Burkina Faso and Mozambique, make effective use of school feeding programmes to improve the food intake of school-age children and their families.

South Africa is expanding allocations to its school nutrition programme to keep pace with the rate of food inflation. Yet, these come with additional demands on the treasury; in the case of Ethiopia, the additional costs of combined measures to raise the wage on the cash-for-work programme, lift the value-added tax on food grains, and distribute wheat to the urban poor at a subsidised price, are likely to exceed one per cent of GDP.

In Cameroon, the government slashed customs duties on certain imports, like cement, and reduced or dropped taxes on certain goods, like rice, fish, cooking oil and flour. But some traders have, however stuck to old prices, including those that had increased between 50 and 100 per cent within the year.

Emergency aid

To enforce the new price regime, the government has deployed price control teams, including gendarmes.

The Paul Biya administration also promised to create 14,00 new government jobs, cut electricity rates and review fuel prices, telephone fees, and even bank charges, as well as effecting a 15 per cent salary increase and a bigger housing allowance for civil service and military personnel.

Official figures put Cameroon's inflation rate at two per cent, but purchasing power for an estimated 18.3 million Cameroonians had dropped considerably over time.

The jump in world food price just set off the protests that have for years been waiting to happen; the worst in 15 years. The palliatives appear hardly adequate, Cameroon had in 1993 (as part of IMF-backed reforms), reduced state workers wages by 70 per cent.

Researchers warn that the lack of oxygen is potentially turning swathes of the world's oceans into marine graveyards.

The study, by scientists from some of the world's most prestigious marine research institutes, warns that if global temperatures keep rising there could be "dramatic consequences" for marine life and for humans in communities that depend on the sea for a living.

Organisms such as fish, crabs, lobsters and prawns will die in such zones, warned Lothar Stramma of the Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences in Kiel, Germany, who co-wrote the research paper with Janet Sprintall, a physical oceanographer at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in California.

In the study, published in the journal Science, they collated hundreds of oxygen concentration readings taken over the past 50 years in the Atlantic and Pacific over depths ranging from 985ft to 2,500ft.

"In the central and eastern tropical Atlantic and equatorial Pacific the oxygen-minimum zones appear to have expanded and intensified during the past 50 years," Times Online quoted Stramma, as saying.

The researchers found that such regions now extend deeper into the oceans and closer to the surface. Fish and other sea life cannot survive in such waters, said Sprintall.

A report by the United Nations Environment Programme found that such coastal dead zones have doubled in number since 1995, with some extending over 27,000 square miles, about the size of the Republic of Ireland.

Among the worst affected are the Baltic Sea, the Black Sea, and parts of the Mediterranean. Perhaps the biggest of all is found in the Gulf of Mexico, where the Mississippi carries thousands of tons of agrochemicals into the sea every year.

Published by HT Syndication with permission from Asian News International.

Fecha de publicación: 19 de mayo de 2008

En sólo 18 meses se han conseguido plantar 2.000 millones de árboles, el doble del objetivo original de la campaña "Plantemos Mil Millones de Árboles para el Planeta", encabezada por el Programa de las Naciones Unidas para el Medio Ambiente (PNUMA). Lanzada en 2006, esta iniciativa nació como una oportunidad para actuar contra diversos problemas de sostenibilidad, que van desde los recursos hídricos hasta la pérdida de la biodiversidad.

A día de hoy, la campaña ha superado con creces todos sus objetivos, logrando plantaciones en casi 155 países. Este proyecto mundial, que busca fomentar que tanto ciudadanos como empresas se involucren en el reto de evitar el cambio climático, acaba de aumentar su meta hasta los 7.000 millones de árboles plantados, uno por habitante en el mundo, a finales de 2009.

"Cuando se lanzó la campaña en 2006, nadie hubiera podido imaginar que iba a florecer tan rápido ni llegar tan lejos", señaló Achim Steiner, subsecretario general de las Naciones Unidas y director del PNUMA. "Habiendo excedido todos nuestros objetivos previstos, estamos ahora apelando a individuos, comunidades, negocios, industria, organizaciones sociales y gobiernos para hacer evolucionar esta iniciativa hacia un nuevo y más alto nivel, que culminará en la crucial conferencia sobre cambio climático que se celebrará en Copenhague a finales del año 2009", añadió Steiner.

El caso de España

En España, el Gobierno se ha comprometido a plantar 55 millones de árboles durante la actual legislatura. Además, la Expo Zaragoza 2008 está plantando con Ibercaja 3,5 millones de árboles en el marco de la campaña y ha declarado como lema oficial "Un árbol por visitante".

Sunchales Hoy (Argentina): Un árbol por cada habitante del planeta

Para el 2009, el Programa de las Naciones Unidas para el Medio Ambiente aspira a lograr la plantación de 7000 millones de árboles en distintas regiones del mundo. Hasta ahora, la campaña que lanzó en 2006 logró plantar dos mil millones. La reforestación es considerada una herramienta útil para combatir el calentamiento global y conservar la biodiversidad, entre otras metas.

Para realizar esa tarea, el PNUMA promueve la participación de personas y entidades de todo el mundo: particulares, grupos infantiles y juveniles, escuelas, grupos comunitarios, organizaciones no gubernamentales, agricultores, organizaciones del sector privado, autoridades locales y gobiernos nacionales.

De acuerdo con Achim Steiner, el director ejecutivo del PNUMA, la cifra de 7 mil millones de árboles es alcanzable, si se considera que la campaña lanzada en 2006 superó los objetivos. Cuando la meta era llegar a plantar mil millones, finalmente, la cifra se duplicó.

La idea de “Plantemos para el Planeta: Campaña de los mil millones de árboles” fue inspirada por el profesor Wangari Maathai, Premio Nobel de la Paz de 2004 y fundador del Movimiento Cinturón Verde de Kenya, que ha sembrado más de 30 millones de árboles en 12 países africanos desde 1977. Cuando un grupo empresarial de los Estados Unidos hizo saber al Profesor Maathai que tenía intención de plantar un millón de árboles, él respondió: “Me parece magnífico, pero lo que necesitamos realmente es plantar mil millones de árboles”.

Hasta la fecha, África es el continente donde se han plantado más de la mitad de los árboles. En América Latina, México lleva la delantera con un total de 250 millones. Según los expertos, la reforestación es uno de los principales procedimientos para contrarrestar el cambio climático, ya que los árboles y los bosques desempeñan un rol clave en la regulación del clima y en la absorción del dióxido de carbono.

“Cuando se lanzó la Campaña de los Mil Millones de Árboles en la Convención sobre Cambio Climático en Nairobi en el año 2006, nadie hubiera podido imaginar que iba a florecer tan rápido ni llegar tan lejos. Pero ha logrado ofrecer una oportunidad a millones de ciudadanos de todo el mundo para expresar sus frustraciones, así como depositar sus esperanzas”, señaló Steiner.

Salta al día - Funcionarios del Ministerio de Ambiente y Desarrollo Sustentable recibieron a representantes del Plan Estratégico de Acción para la Cuenca Binacional del Río Bermejo con el objetivo del próximo lanzamiento y consulta del proyecto PNUMA 2231 “Sistema de Información y monitoreo ambiental para la cuenca del Río Bermejo”.

El Ministerio de Ambiente y Desarrollo Sustentable (MAyDS) a través de la Coordinación General, recibió a representantes del Plan Estratégico de Acción para la Cuenca Binacional del Río Bermejo en la ciudad de Salta. El motivo de esta presentación fue el lanzamiento y consulta del proyecto PNUMA 2231 “Sistema de Información y monitoreo ambiental para la cuenca del Río Bermejo”.

El objetivo de este proyecto es implementar un Sistema Integrado de Información Ambiental de la Cuenca del Río Bermejo, el cual tenga en cuenta la recopilación de información existente y a generar por los diversos subsistemas, el procesamiento de la misma bajo estándares acordados con la Unidad Ejecutora Argentina y su difusión a todos los usuarios y generadores de información. Todo esto se realizará a través de un sitio web que se habilitará, aproximadamente, en dos meses.

Con la presencia de Armando De Angelis, Consultor de la Unidad Técnica PEA, Martín Marazzi, Responsable del Proyecto de Sistema de Información y Francisco López Sastre, Coordinador General del MAyDS; se proyectó una muestra de la información que contendrá la página web, una vez en marcha: Información sobre la Cuenca: Red de Hidrosedimentos, Red Hidrometeorológica, Directorio de Actores, Cartografía actualizada, Normativa de ambiente y Estadísticas, entre otras.

“El objetivo principal, dijo De Angelis, es articular la información entre los interesados de diversas áreas: ya sean académicas o gubernamentales; y los investigadores del PEA que vienen trabajando de años atrás. Para que todos esos datos sean tomados en cuenta a la hora de tomar decisiones”.

El Programa Estratégico de Acción para la Cuenca Binacional del Río Bermejo es un esfuerzo conjunto de los gobiernos de Argentina y Bolivia con el fin de promover el desarrollo sustentable de todo su ámbito de influencia que abarca el departamento de Tarija en Bolivia y provincias de Salta, Jujuy, Chaco y Formosa en Argentina. El programa cuenta con la asistencia financiera del Fondo para el Medio Ambiente Mundial (FMAM), su agencia de implementación es el Programa de las Naciones Unidas para el Medio Ambiente (PNUMA) y su agencia ejecutora regional es la Organización de los Estados Americanos(OEA).

A través de su accionar el PEA promueve, entre otras cosas, el establecimiento de mecanismos de articulación y coordinación regional y de participación pública y la implementación de programas, proyectos y acciones de prevención y remediación ambiental y de desarrollo sostenible de los recursos naturales prioritarios.

Bayer premia jovens ambientalistas

Os autores dos quatro melhores trabalhos vão ganhar uma viagem à Alemanha, com tudo pago pela Bayer. Eles participarão de um encontro internacional de jovens embaixadores ambientais com estudantes de 17 nações, para discutir as diferenças entre as questões ambientais dos países e encontrar soluções para problemas comuns.

As inscrições para o concurso estão abertas até o dia 20 de agosto no site www.byee.com.br.

Resultado de parceria mundial entre a Bayer e o Programa das Nações Unidas para o Meio Ambiente (PNUMA), o programa tem no Brasil apoio do Ministério do Meio Ambiente e da Universia, uma rede que envolve 250 universidades do Brasil.

Durante o lançamento na UERJ, diretores da Bayer, entre eles Flávio Abreu, diretor do parque industrial de Belford Roxo; Sandra Abrahão, diretora da área Médico-Científica da Bayer Schering Pharma; e Gerhard Bohne, diretor de Operações da Bayer CropScience no Brasil, falarão sobre as pesquisas realizadas pela Bayer que contribuem para a saúde, novas tecnologias industriais e na produção de alimentos. © 2008 NoticiasFinancieras - Jornal do Commercio - All rights reserved
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Other Environment News

Planet Ark: "Herculean Task" To Safeguard Biodiversity-Germany
GERMANY: May 20, 2008

BONN, Germany - The world faces a Herculean task to safeguard animal and plant life from climate change and pollution, German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel said at the opening of a UN biodiversity conference on Monday.

"In my view, climate change and the loss of biodiversity are the most alarming challenges on the global agenda," Gabriel said in a speech opening the conference, held once every two years.

BONN, Germany (AFP) - Climate change has emerged as a major factor behind the growing risk of extinction facing birds, the world's leading conservation agency warned on Monday.

"Long-term drought and sudden extreme weather are putting additional stress on the pockets of habitat that many threatened species depend on," the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) said in a report issued on the sidelines of a global biodiversity convention.

"This, coupled with extensive and expanding habitat destruction, has led to an increase in the rate of extinction on continents and away from islands, where most historical extinction has occurred."

The Swiss-based organisation issued an update of its "Red List," the highly respected catalogue of species at threat.

Of the 1,226 birds on the list, 190 are "critically endangered," the highest category of threat.

Eight additional species have entered this category compared to the last list. These each face an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild, and include the Tristan albatross (Diomedea dabbenena) of the South Atlantic and the Floreana mockingbird (Nesomimus trifasciatus) of the Galapagos islands.

In all, 24 species have moved into a higher level of threat as a result of shrinking population or declining habitat. Just two species have seen their prospects improved.

Those seen at greater threat include widespread continental species such as the Eurasian curlew (Numenius arquata) and Dartford warbler (Sylvia undata), both previously in the "least concern" category but now regarded as "near threatened."

"Species are being hit by the double whammy of habitat loss and climate change," said Stuart Butchart, research coordinator with BirdLife, an alliance of conservation organisations, which helped compile the list.

"As populations become fragmented the effect of climate change can have an even greater impact, leading to an increased risk of local extinctions."

The IUCN highlighted the threat to three species:

-- The Mallee emuwren (Stipiturus mallee), a native of South Australia, where the last significant population comprises just 100 birds confined to 100 square kilometres (38 square miles). "Its habitat is now so fragmented that a single bushfire could be catastrophic," the IUCN warned;

-- The New Britain Goshawk (Accipiter princes), a bird of prey in Papua New Guinea, whose habitat has been ravaged by palm-oil plantations;

-- The spoon-billed sandpiper (Eurynorhynchus pygmeus), which migrates between northeastern Russia and Southeast Asia. Its tidal-flat habitat has been badly eroded and its tundra breeding grounds are threatened by climate change.

The rare pieces of good news offered by the IUCN were attributed to two successful conservation programmes.

The first involved the Marquesan Imperial-pigeon (Ducula galeata), whose signature call is a "deep bellow waah-waah, like the mooing of a cow," according to BirdLife.

The species, which is a native of French Polynesia, is doing well under a translocation programme which has shifted breeding pairs to a new home.

The other is the little spotted kiwi (Apteryx owenii). Individuals have been moved out of New Zealand's South Island to new territories and are slowly reproducing.

"This goes to show not only that conservation action works but that it is vital if we are to prevent the extinction of these and other species," Butchart said.

Some 6,000 representatives from 191 countries are attending the 11-day conference on the UN's convention on biodiversity, which was first adopted at the Rio Earth summit in 1992.

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Reuters: Climate change hitting bird species, shows study

Mon May 19, 2008 12:41pm EDT

By Madeline Chambers

BONN, Germany (Reuters) - One in eight of the world's birds are at risk of extinction as climate change puts birds under great pressure, a leading conservation group warned on Monday.

The population of rare birds such as the Floreana mockingbird of the Galapagos Islands or the spoon-billed sandpiper, which breeds in northeastern Russia and winters in south Asia, has declined sharply and they could go extinct, the International Union for Conservation of Nature said in a report.

The 2008 "Red List for Birds" report, published on the first day of a May 19-30 U.N. conference about biodiversity in the German city of Bonn, said 1,226 species of bird were now threatened.

The annual report, closely watched among conservationists, added eight of the world's 10,000 bird species to the Critically Endangered category, the greatest level of threat.

"The latest update of the IUCN Red List shows that birds are under enormous pressure from climate change," said Jane Smart, head of the IUCN Species Programme. The IUCN groups governments, conservation groups and scientists.

Long-term drought and sudden extreme weather are putting additional stress on habitats that threatened species depend on, said the report, noting that extinction rates were rising on continents, rather than on islands where, historically, most extinctions have occurred.

Of the 26 species that moved category due to changes in their population size, rate of decline or range size, 24 were moved up to a higher level of threat.

CURLEW, WARBLER

They included the Eurasian curlew and Dartford warbler, which lives in Europe and north-west Africa. Both were previously in the "Least Threatened" category.

"We urge governments to take the information contained in (the report) seriously and do their level best to protect the world's birds," said Smart. The U.N. Climate Panel says that burning of fossil fuels is stoking global warming.

The report showed that Brazil and Indonesia had the highest number of threatened bird species with 141 and 133 respectively.

The group picked out several other species, including the Mallee emuwren in Australia which has suffered from years of drought and is seeing its population shrink sharply.

Its habitat has become so fragmented that a single bushfire could be catastrophic, said the report.

In the Galapagos Islands, the population of the Floreana mockingbird has fallen to fewer than 60 from an estimated 150 in 1996 and is now on the Critically Endangered list because the species is vulnerable to extreme weather.

The report also pointed to some species that had fared better as a result of conservation efforts, including the Marquesan Imperial-pigeon and the little spotted kiwi.

Around 4,000 delegates at the U.N. meeting of the Convention on Biodiversity will discuss ways to safeguard the range of species and try to slow the rate of extinctions among plants and animals.

(Editing by Ibon Villelabeitia)

The 2008 Bird Red List warns that long-term droughts and extreme weather puts additional stress on key habitats.

The assessment lists 1,226 species as threatened with extinction - one-in-eight of all bird species.

The list, reviewed every four years, is compiled by conservation charity BirdLife International.

"It is very hard to precisely attribute particular changes in specific species to climate change," said Stuart Butchart, BirdLife's global research and indicators co-ordinator.

"But there is now a whole suite of species that are clearly becoming threatened by extreme weather events and droughts."

In the revised Red List, eight species have been added to the "critically endangered" category.

One of these was the Floreana mockingbird (Nesomimus trifasciatus), which is confined to two islets in the Galapagos Islands.

From an estimated maximum of 150 in the mid-1960s, the population has fallen to fewer than 60.

Conservationists listed the mockingbird as Critically Endangered because it experienced a high rate of adult mortality during dry years that have been linked to La Nina events.

Dry years have become more frequent in recent years, and have been blamed as the main driver of the current decline.

"Another threat for small island species, such as the Floreana mockingbird, is the threat from invasive species, in particular mammals and plants," Dr Butchart told BBC News.

"They are having a devastating effect on habitats. For example, goats and donkeys on Floreana are changing the ecological structure.

"Eliminating or controlling invasive species is a very tractable conservation action that can help these birds hang on in the face of these additional pressures from climate change.

"The key actions that are needed to prevent a species like this from going extinct are the very broad-scale climate-change mitigation measures - such as reducing our carbon emissions, limiting the global average temperature rise to no more than 2C (3.6F), and changing society's values and lifestyles."

Dr Butchart said another example of a species being affected by shifts in the climate was the akekee (Loxops caeruleirostris), a Hawaiian honey-creeper.

"Not only is it being negatively impacted by prolonged heavy rain causing nesting failures, but they are extremely threatened by introduced diseases, which are carried by invasive mosquitoes.

"The mosquitoes have been restricted to lower altitudes, so the birds do best at heights above which the mosquitoes can go and pass on avian malaria.

"But because of climate change, the temperature zones are shifting. It is getting warmer at higher altitudes, so the mosquitoes can now move higher.

"This is eliminating the mosquito-free zone that the birds used to occupy."

As a result, Dr Butchart explained, this bird was also being uplisted to the status of Critically Endangered.

Despite the latest assessment showing a continuing downward trend in the world's bird populations, he said that conservationists were still optimistic that many species could be saved.

"It is undoubtedly true that we are facing an unprecedented conservation crisis but we do have conservation success stories that give us hope that not all threatened species are doomed.

"We have the solutions but what we need are the resources and political will."

BirdLife International has recently launched its Preventing Extinctions Programme, which targets the 190 species listed as Critically Endangered.

Its goal is to find a "species champion" for each bird, who will fund the on-the-ground conservation work of "species guardians".

"Success stories provide us with the great hope that this can be achieved, provided that we act soon enough."

One bird that has been downlisted from Critically Endangered to Endangered in the latest assessment is the Marquesan imperial-pigeon (Ducula galeata).

The main threat facing the bird came from rats, an invasive species.

In order to protect the population of the slow-breeding birds, conservationists moved 10 adults to a neighbouring rat-free island between 2000 and 2003.

The new community of pigeons is now established on the island, and conservationists are hopeful that the population will reach 50 by 2010.

"This has greatly reduced the extinction risk because the bird is now spread over a couple of islands," observed Dr Butchart.

"This goes to show not only that conservation works but that it is vital if we are to prevent the extinction of these and other species."

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Reuters: G8 climate talks to discuss targets, rift remains

Mon May 19, 2008 5:29am EDT

By Chisa Fujioka

TOKYO (Reuters) - Environment ministers from rich nations and other major greenhouse gas emitters will seek to build momentum for talks on emissions reduction targets this weekend in Japan, but agreement will be hard to reach.

Officials from the Group of Eight and big emerging economies, including China and India, meet from Saturday in Kobe, western Japan, as countries remain divided over the need for a global target to halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

G8 leaders agreed to seriously consider the mid-century target at last year's summit in Germany, a proposal backed by Japan, the European Union and Canada.

But developing countries have balked at committing to the goal without the United States doing more to reduce the emissions that cause global warming, posing a headache for Japan as it tries to encourage all major emitters to sign up at a G8 summit it hosts in July.

Japan said the three-day meeting of environment ministers would try to lay the groundwork for the July leaders' summit but breakthroughs were unlikely since any agreement would ultimately be left to heads of state.

"Consensus-building among ministers will be a major agenda, but we are not necessarily aiming for a final conclusion," Ryutaro Yatsu, councilor for global environment at the environment ministry, told Reuters on Monday.

"A major part of the chairman's summary will be agreement among the G8 and outreach countries, but I think there will be a small percentage of the agenda where we cannot reach a consensus."

Outreach countries include China, India, Indonesia, Brazil and South Africa.

Newspapers have reported that Japan would seek to take leadership on the issue before the summit by setting a target to cut its own greenhouse gas emissions by 60-80 percent from current levels by 2050.

"'50 by 50' is a global target, so as an industrialized country, Japan should have a much more stringent target than a 50 percent reduction," Yatsu said, adding that Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda was likely to outline a new policy on climate change next month.

TOOL, NOT TRAP

Another area of contention will likely be medium-term targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, with environment ministers meeting as countries try to work out a U.N. climate pact to succeed the Kyoto Protocol after it expires in 2012.

At U.N.-led talks for a new framework, Japan has promoted a sectoral approach to emissions goals, with curbs set for particular industries such as steel or cement that could be added up to a national target.

Developing countries have objected to the approach, arguing that the curbs could throttle their energy-intensive industries. They have insisted curbs should be imposed on rich nations alone.

Japan says understanding for the approach has grown among some countries, including China, although activists say Beijing remains suspicious despite a public show of support during President Hu Jintao's visit to Japan earlier this month.

"In a way we've already gone through a breakthrough on addressing the sectoral approach, by starting to discuss how this could be utilized rather than whether it is worthy of being used or not," said Koji Tsuruoka, director-general for global issues at Japan's foreign ministry.

"This is because people now appreciate the nature of the sectoral approach, not as some kind of a trap, with some kind of intention, it is a neutral tool," he said.

Also on the agenda at the weekend meeting are ways to slow the rate of extinctions of species and steps to reduce, reuse and recycle waste.

(Additional reporting by Linda Sieg; Editing by Alex Richardson)

GENEVA (AFP) - Insufficient food, climate change and pandemic flu are global crises which could unravel progress in public health, the World Health Organisation's director general said Monday.

"These three critical events, these clear threats to international security, have the potential to undo much hard-won progress in public health," WHO director general Margaret Chan told delegates from 193 member states at the WHO's annual general assembly.

Two of the three are beyond the control of the health sector, but human health "will bear the brunt" for all three, she said.

WHO has already identified 21 hot spots around the world which are experiencing high levels of acute and chronic undernutrition, said Chan.

She pointed out that poor families spend up to 75 percent of disposable income on food, saying that with food costing more now, even less funds would be channeled to health care.

Likewise in climate change, the hardest-hit would be the poorest, she said.

Among items to be considered during the assembly is a draft resolution on climate change, which, if passed, would require the WHO to draw attention to governments on the risk of climate change posed to health as well as to promote research on the issue.

Meanwhile, Chan noted that it is in pandemic flu that the health sector could act directly to shape policies on readiness.

She also urged the international community not to be complacent about the issue.

"The threat has by no means receded, and we would be very unwise to let down our guard, or slacken our preparedness measures. As with climate change, all countries will be affected though in a far more rapid and sweeping way," she said.

The assembly meets in Geneva until Saturday.

Mon May 19, 2008 11:01am EDT

By Jeremy Lovell

The project, Climate Change in Our World, is the result of cooperation between web search engine Google, Britain's environment ministry and the country's Met Office.

Based on Google Earth which uses NASA satellite images, viewers can run a time lapse series to watch the earth warm under medium case scenarios up to 2100 either from a planetary perspective or zeroing in on countries and even cities.

"This project shows people the reality of climate change using estimates of both the change in the average temperature where they live, and the impact it will have on people's lives all over the world," said environment secretary Hilary Benn.

"By helping people to understand what climate change means for them and for the world we can mobilize the commitment we need to avoid the worst effects by taking action now."

Leaders of the major world economies tentatively agreed last year that carbon emissions should be cut by half by 2050 from 1990 levels. But there is now a stand-off between rich and poor nations over who should make the first move.

The Google map shows the world heating as the years advance, with some of the greatest temperature increases at the ice-bound poles where vast areas turn red indicating rises well into double digits.

The map also offers specific information on local impacts and actions people can and in some cases already are taking.

Scientists say global average temperatures will rise by between 1.8 and 4.0 degrees Celsius this century due to carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels for power and transport, causing floods and famines and threatening millions of lives.

But within this global average there will be vast local and regional variations.

"Climate change is arguably one of the biggest issues facing the world today," said Met Office chief John Hirst.

"Merging the Met Office's unparalleled climate science expertise with the exciting technology of Google Earth is a great way of bringing the impacts of a warming world to life."

See the new animated map at snipurl.com/29lkd

(Reporting by Jeremy Lovell; editing by Keith Weir)

Whalers had been seeking a quota of about 100, but ministers settled on 40, which they say is commercially viable.

The decision came after weeks of delay, reportedly because of disagreements within government.

Environmental groups said the decision would further damage the Icelandic economy which is already badly affected by the international debt crisis.

The decision was expected a month ago, and whalers had been asking for a swift decision so they could begin hunting.

Finally, the govenment gave the go-ahead on Monday morning, and whalers said they would launch as soon as possible.

"It all depends on the weather, but if the weather is good then we hunt tomorrow (Tuesday) morning," said Gunnar Bergmann Jonsson, head of the minke whaling association.

Market forces

The government insists its decision is commercial, based on the market for minke meat within Iceland.

"We issued... a minke quota which limits the catch to 40 animals, and that's similar to the amount that was caught last year," said Iceland's whaling commissioner Stefan Asmundsson.

There is no quota for fin whales, another target of Icelandic vessels.

Mr Jonsson confirmed that meat from last year's minke catch had been sold. But he told BBC News his members hoped eventually for a larger annual quota - nearer to the 100 they had requested this year.

"We caught 45 whales last year and sold it all, so if we can sell all the meat from 40 animals this time I believe we can get more quota, but we'll see how it goes."

This will be the third hunting season since Iceland resumed its commercial programme in 2006.

Its annual catch is much smaller than those of Norway and Japan, but its hunt is nevertheless controversial, partly because it had ceased operations and partly because in some peoples' eyes the policy conflicts with the image Iceland often portrays as an unspoiled, ecologically conscious "green" nation.

"We strongly urge the Icelandic government to rethink this decision," said Robbie Marsland of the International Fund for Animal Welfare (Ifaw).

"The resumption of commercial whaling could prove to be extremely damaging to the already fragile Icelandic economy and its international reputation."

The economy is already struggling owing to large borrowing by its three major banks. Inflation is runing above 11%, and interest rates are up to 15%.

Mr Marsland suggested that the growing industry of whale-watching could be an important asset to Iceland in this difficult period.

"We encourage the government to act now to protect this multi-million-pound industry and its wider economic interests."

The delay in announcing the minke quota has strengthened rumours that some government departments, notably the foreign ministry, shared some of Ifaw's views.

But the decision remains in the gift of the fisheries ministry, which believes there is no ecological reason to cancel a hunt for 40 minkes when the population in the north Atlantic is believed by the International Whaling Commission (IWC) to number about 174,000.

"There can be no question that this is a sustainable activity," said Mr Asmundsson.

Richard.Black-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk

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Planet Ark: Certified Non-Rain Forest Palm Oil Set For Germany

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BERLIN - The first consignments of palm oil, certified as produced using farming which has not involve destroying tropical rain forests, will arrive in Germany in the second half of this year, the German edible oil industry association OVID said on Monday.

But palm oil certified under the programme Round Table for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) could be up to 10 percent more expensive than non-certified oil, OVID Chairman Wilhelm Thywissen told a press conference.

However, it was not yet possible to make an accurate forecast of the price difference.

5:00AM Tuesday May 20, 2008