Recent Activity

Filter by:

All

• 

  Wildlife photography safari to put Europe on display at Hague The Hague, Netherlands - Europe isn’t usually thought of as a destination for wildlife safaris but 69 top nature photographers will prove it could be as 100 life size photographs taken in all 48 European countries go on display in the Hague later this month.
  
  The free, outdoor Wild Wonders of Europe exhibition will be opened in the Lange Vijverberg in the Netherlands capital May 27 by Princess Irene, patron of the Biodiversity Coalition 2010. It runs until August 30, after which it will tour all European nations and later, North America.
  
  “Wild Wonders of Europe, a unique pan-European initiative, is about the beauty of nature,” said Media & Exhibition Director, Bridget Wijnberg “About what we can admire now, but are at risk of losing.
  
  “It is an exhibition that shows why European nature is important for us. And why we need to protect it.”
  
  Many of the animals and landscapes revealed in the Wild Wonders of Europe are natural treasures that would be largely unknown to the 700 million people of the continent.
  
  The 100 photographs on display were selected from almost 200.000 images taken over a period of fifteen months.
  
  The Wild Wonders of Europe Outdoor Exhibition is organized by Life Exhibitions who in the past were responsible for other cultural events including “Spirit of the Wild” and “The Earth from Above”. Among the more than 50 international partners are WWF, National Geographic, Epson, Nikon and Nokia. Leading dignitaries and many of the 69 photographers will be attending the opening launch.
  
  The Hague will be hosting the World premiere of the exhibition during the International Year of Biodiversity, where it will be one of the events of The Hague Festivals 2010 (June 10 to June 27 - www.thehaguefestivals.com)..
  
  Coinciding with the exhibition is the release of the photo book Wild Wonders of Europe published in ten languages with the Dutch edition by National Geographic and Carrera publishers the latest to be released. More information about this superb book can be found at http://www.wild-wonders.com/the_book.asp.
  
  At www.wild-wonders.com you will find lots of background information about the project, including latest news, blogs, videos, the photographers and the photos. A selection of more than 10,000 of the best images from the project are available from our exclusive agent Nature Picture Library.
   

  4 months on
  
• 

  As US oil spill worsens, Australia delays report Sydney, Australia - Australia has delayed until June 18 the release of a report into the oil blowout and spill at the Montara offshore platform in the Timor Sea last year.
  
  The late 2009 blowout, less that one tenth the flow of the Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico and in much shallower water, took 73 days to kill. The Inquiry was told the oil from the blowout covered 90,000 kilometres of sea and reef – much more than the area admitted to during the spill.
  
  WWF-Australia is asking the Australian government why its response effort to the Montara oil spill was so weak in comparison to what is happening in the US.
  
  “We’re seeing an environmental and economic catastrophe taking place in the United States,” said Dr Gilly Llewellyn, WWF-Australia’s Manger of Conservation. “There are lots of parallels between the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and the oil spill we faced last year in the Timor Sea. That is, until you compare the responses.”
  
  “In light of the current crisis and the wholehearted response, we must ask, did the Australian Government do everything it could when faced with a similar task?”
  
  Information which has come to come to light since the blowout has shown that 247 people worked to contain the spill and that operator PTTEP refused offers of help from nearby rigs. Information made available by PTTEP and government authorities charged with coordinating the response to the spill was limited. The company, which admitted that the wells at the Montara site did not meet their own safety standards, was given another drilling licence during the spill.
  
  In the US, 7500 people have been mobilised in an industry-wide response to the BP spill, with President Barack Obama spearheading a US government response which has included an immediate inspection of other wells and a halt in all new offshore oil and gas exploration while the spill is dealt with and investigated. The extent of the spill can be followed in satellite imagery on a public response web site.
  
  As the oil and gas exploration around the globe moves into more remote, more vulnerable and more technically challenging areas, industry and regulators must recognise that these same places are also making the task of avoiding accidents and responding to spills more difficult.
  
  “What concerns WWF is that in many of these remote places such as the Arctic and coastal East Africa, there will not be a US level response to a significant oil spill. Indeed we may see less than an Australian response,” said Dr Llewellyn
  
  “The unacceptable costs of these incidents on the environment, the economy and the community should give us even more impetus to rethink our addiction to oil.”
   

  4 months on
  
• 

  Oil disasters show up the risks offshore Gland, Switzerland: Recent offshore oil rig accidents and oil leaks – including the current Deepwater Horizon catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico – underline the need for the world to move strongly towards safer, cleaner energy, global conservation organization WWF said today.
  
  A world that seeks to source more and more oil and gas from deeper waters and more difficult and delicate locations also needs to factor into the equation the facts that we are also moving into territory where accidents are more likely, harder to respond to and have greater consequences.
  
  “The Gulf of Mexico’s well-developed infrastructure and access to the most technologically advanced methods for responding to a spill offer the best possible set of circumstances for coping with such a disaster,” said WWF-US Vice-President for Arctic and Marine Policy William Eichbaum.
  
  “Yet despite all these advantages, the crisis continues to worsen.”
  
  It has been estimated that 400-600 species are potentially at risk as oil from the Deepwater Horizon blowout begins to reach the US Louisiana coast at one of the worst times for migatory birds. The area is a vital wintering or resting spot for nearly three quarters of US waterfowl and now is the peak period of migrating and nesting, with the first chicks venturing into marsh ponds in the path of the oil.
  
  The oil spill area is a major spawning area for the endangered Western Atlantic Bluefin Tuna, now also returning for their limited spawning season. Also under threat is one of the largest seafood industries in the United States, responsible for around half the US landings of wild shrimp and 40 per cent of its oysters, now also reproducing.
  
  "The ecological and economic devastation now unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico is a reminder that offshore oil exploration and production is in fact deeply hazardous and we should think twice before opening up even more delicate and treacherous waters to development," said WWF International Director General James Leape.
  
  Among recent indications on how the oil industry is failing to adopt a hope for the best but plan for the worst approach, WWF has detailed how environmental impact assessments and oil spill contingency plans for exploration drilling in the inhospitable Chukchi Sea off Alaska dismiss blowout risks as “insignificant” and declined to analyse potential impacts or plan responses.
  
  Oil is highly toxic to the marine and coastal environment and its impacts on wildlife and can persist for decades. Oil can still be found and damaged is still being inflicted by the worst US marine oil spill, the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster. Deep Horizon, estimated to be leaking around 5000 barrels of oil a day, is set to surpass the Exxon Valdez quantity of oil early this week.
  
  In late 2009, WWF was involved in assessing the environmental risks and damage from the blowout of the Montara exploration well head in the Timor Sea.
  
  Though less than one tenth the scale of the Gulf of Mexico disaster (an estimated 400 barrels a day, against the current 5000), and being located in much shallower seas (around 90 metres/300 ft as opposed to around 1500 metres/5000 ft) the leak still took four attempts and 73 days to plug.
  
  Oil spread over 90,000 square kilometers of sea and reef and into Indonesian waters and the global conservation priority area of the Coral Triangle.
  
  Like the Gulf, the Montara spill area contained whales and dolphins, tuna spawning areas, turtles and seabirds.
  
  “Unfortunately I think the real toll on the wildlife will never be known,” said WWF-Australia Conservation Director Dr Gilly Llewellyn, who traveled by boat to the Timor Sea during the spill to overcome an official and company information vacuum.
  
  “There just simply wasn't enough effort put into the monitoring to really get a sense of the full impact. But we think that there were thousands if not tens of thousands of marine creatures like sea birds, whales and dolphins that would have come in contact with that oil and would have been affected.”
  
  Dr Llewellyn, a marine scientist also familiar with the Gulf of Mexico, said Louisiana’s coastal biological richness came from the complex mix of sandy barrier islands and muddy marshes.
  
  “You can clean sand but you can’t clean mud,” she said. “If the oil gets into the mud the effects could be very long-lasting.”
  
  Further information:
  Steve Ertel, Senior Director Media Relations, WWF-US, steve.ertel@wwfus.org , +1 202 460 4641
  
  Dr Gilly Llewellyn, Conservation Director WWF-Australia, GLlewellyn@wwf.org.au,
  +61 406380801
  
  Phil Dickie, WWF International News Editor, pdickie@wwfint.org, +41 79 703 1952
  
  
  

  4 months on
  
• 

  Slovakia moves to sacrifice wildlife for ski slopes Slovakia is considering opening its oldest national park to developers in a move that flouts basic conservation principles, WWF says.
  
  Authorities recently submitted a proposal to rezone Tatra National Park that would open some of the most ecologically sensitive areas of the park to developers, including important European breeding sites for chamois and marmots.
  
  The proposed zoning would allow for tourist infrastructure development, particularly ski resorts, in undisturbed areas that were designated as priority areas for nature conservation.
  
  The proposal ignores that nature conservation is a primary management objective in the Tatra National Park under existing Slovak legislation, and that as well as the park is a part of the European network of protected areas Natura 2000. In addition, the proposal has been produced in a non-transparent way without any expert review or call for public comments.
  
  Tatra National Park is located in the Tatry Mountains in northern Slovakia. Covering an area of 738 square kilometers, it was created to conserve the valuable high-mountain ecosystems of those mountains, such as untouched mountain forests, alpine habitats, mountain lakes and streams as well as glacial and rock reliefs.
  
  Due its unique location, highly isolated from other high mountains, unique flora and fauna have evolved in the park, with many endemic species such as types of chamois and marmot. The proposed zoning would greatly contribute to the destruction of fundamental conservation values of the area and to deterioration of its conservation status. In particular it would destroy the most important breeding sites of chamois and marmot in the West Tatra Mountains.
  
  The park’s forests also are home to the one-of-a-kind Tatra Pine Vole (Microtus tatricus), dwarf pine scrub, and serves as a critical habitat for many bird species, including for the black grouse and the capercaillie.
  
  A new proposal of zoning in compliance with the international guidelines must be prepared prepared, involving experts and the public and that this zoning will permit the development of tourist centers only if nature conservation requirements are met, WWF says.
  
  “Zoning and planning could guide development and management of the area, ensuring opportunities for development while maintaining the natural values that are the area’s chief attraction,” said Andreas Beckmann, Director of WWF Danube-Carpathian Programme.
  
  „As protection of wilderness in Europe is our major concern we are following the dispute over the Tatra National Park of Slovakia very closely”, said Zoltan Kun, Executive Director of PAN Parks Foundation, which protects Europe’s wilderness in close cooperation with government agencies and local business partners.
  
  “Tatra National Park is a potential PAN Park, which hosts not only important wilderness related species such as brown bear and chamois, but also habitats with European importance. According to the current zoning proposal, Tatra would lose significant part of its wilderness. We have already sent a letter to the Ministry of Environment urging them to reconsider”, he added.
  
  “At the most recent meeting of EU Ministers of Environment they took the bold decision to support the most ambitious post 2010 European biodiversity target. That target calls for a halt to biodiversity loss and the degradation of ecosystem services in the EU by 2020, and restoring them "in so far as feasible". By strengthening and not weakening the protection of Tatra National Park, Slovakia can set an example to other European countries," Kun said.
  
  

  4 months on
  
• 

  Swedish hunters help save Amur tigers Vladivostok, Russia – The Swedish Association for Hunting and Wildlife Management is helping Russian tiger conservation efforts thousands of miles away by sharing their secrets to raising prey animals like deer and wild boar.
  
  The managers of four sustainable hunting estates in Russia recently joined leaders from WWF-Russia’s Amur branch on a special trip to Sweden to learn how to increase the number of prey in their areas – a crucial component of efforts to save wild tigers.
  
  The managers, who head Tigrovoye, Medved, Orlinoye, and Borisovskoye hunting estates, have been working with the Amur branch of WWF-Russia since 2000 to better use their natural resources and conserve rare and endangered plants and animals on their lands.
  
  The Russian team visited hunting estates in the north and east of Sweden in collaboration with the country’s National Veterinary Institute, the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, the Swedish Association for Hunting and Wildlife Management, and the Kolmården Zoo, the largest in Scandinavia.
  
  Their Swedish counterparts shared methods on how they increased populations of ungulates, including roe deer, wild boar, fallow deer, reindeer and elk. The Amur tiger’s main prey in the Russian Far East are roe deer, red deer, sika deer, and wild boar.
  
  In addition, increasing the number of prey animals in tigers’ habitats reduces human-tiger conflict because when tigers have enough wild prey they are less likely to wander into villages and kill domestic livestock.
  
  There are as few as 3,200 tigers left in the wild and only about 450 Amur tigers left in Russia. Low population numbers, an increase in poaching and illegal trade and a decrease in habitat and prey mean that tigers face an uncertain future in the wild.
  
  However, scientists say that there is enough habitat across Asia to support tens of thousands of tigers, and if these big cats have enough space and prey and are protected from poachers, then their numbers will increase.
  
  Projects such as this one that are helping tiger populations recover are a part of WWF’s Year of the Tiger campaign, which seeks to double the number of tigers in the wild by the next Year of the Tiger in 2022.
  
  In late February, the Russian hunters visited feeding grounds for reindeer, elk, roe deer, wild boar, and fallow deer, learned how to prepare different feeding mixes, and studied the types of animal feeders used in Sweden.
  
  “The experience gained will help us achieve one of our main goals – to increase ungulate numbers so that they will be sufficient both for tigers and humans,” said Sergei Aramilev, biodiversity conservation program coordinator at WWF-Russia’s Amur branch.
  
  “We have seen the unique Swedish approach and expertise based on people’s knowledge, and love and care for nature,” said Pavel Fomenko, biodiversity conservation program coordinator at WWF-Russia’s Amur branch. “One of the strongest impressions for me is that game management in Sweden is very democratic – all people regardless of their social or financial status are involved into this process.”
  
  Sergei Voblyi, head of the Orlinoye hunting estate said he expected that Sweden and Russia’s approach to hunting management would be different.
  
  “But the study tour has proved the contrary,” Voblyi said. “Being in Sweden, I have learned that the approach for game management is similar and have realized the importance of new approaches for my future work in Russia.”
  
  Already, the hunting estate managers have begun changing their approach to raising prey. Voblyi and other hunting estate managers said they are now installing new types of feeders and are now using different kinds of forage.
  
  WWF plans to organize a series of seminars to share the findings of the trip with other hunting estates in Primorskii and Khabarovskii Provinces, which are interested in conservation of wild ungulates as the main prey for the Amur tiger and the Amur leopard.
  
  

  4 months on
  
• 

  WWF and Industry Leaders join forces to save European fisheries Brussels, Belgium: Global environment organisation WWF and the leading associations for European seafood processors and retailers today announced they will work together to push for solutions to the crisis of European seas and fisheries.
  
  The EU Fish Processors’ and Traders’ Association, AIPCE-CEP, and Eurocommerce, which represents retail, wholesale and international trade interests to the EU, and WWF will be jointly seeking reforms to the troubled European Common Fisheries Policy to lay the basis for sustainable fisheries and a sustainable fishing industry.
  
  The current EU Common Fisheries Policy has failed to secure the health of EU fisheries, and has put most of them under severe strain, compromising the ability to offer the EU population the sustainably harvested fish they are demanding.
  
  “In the last decade conservationists and the seafood industry have definitely changed. Where once we might have been adversaries, today we are allies and all agree that without these key reforms we will not be able to bring European fisheries back to wide scale health and prosperity,” said Tony Long, Director of the WWF European Policy Office.
  
  “Today’s alliance already represents a very significant portion of the supply chain from the processing and trading sector and the retail sector, and from the North Sea to the Mediterranean. Sustainability is a conservation necessity and a business necessity today.”
  
  AIPCE President Guus Pastoor said "For the sake of an improved CFP, EU Fish processors and traders are convinced that it is necessary to join forces to achieve sustainable and profitable fisheries for the future of all EU citizens. Therefore we feel committed to support an alliance of partners seeking for a reform which meets the needs of the sector."
  
  Xavier Durieu, Secretary General of EuroCommerce, said "The commerce sector is committed to play an active role in helping to achieve a sustainable and well managed supply of fish, which in turn should enable retailers to meet the growing consumer demand for healthy and environmentally friendlier fish and aquaculture products."
  
  The alliance is seeking the replacement of “political quotas” for fish with mandatory long term management plans firmly based on science for all EU fisheries by 2015.
  
  The alliance is also seeking to have all regional stakeholders play effective roles in developing fisheries plans and a culture of compliance for fisheries.
  
  Strong EU standards should also apply wherever the EU fishes and this should be reflected in EU fishery and trade polices and fishing agreements and partnerships.
  
  Fisheries policy should also seek to maximise value from catch to consumer, avoiding waste and ensuring stable supplies of seafood and added value at each stage of supply chain.
  
  In the next months WWF and its allies will present their shared position to members of the European Commission and the Parliament involved in the reform of European fisheries and actively engage more and more national offices and companies to move towards sustainable and well-managed fisheries inside and outside Europe.
  
  
  
  For further information:
  Stefania Campogianni, Press Officer, WWF European Policy Office, Tel. +32 (0)2 743 88 15,
  Mob: (0) 499 539736, Email: scampogianni@wwfepo.org
  Aurora Vicente, Secretary General, AIPCE-CEP, tel. +32 (0)2 743 87 44, Email: aipce@agep.eu
  Marina Valverde Lopez, Adviser on Food Policy and Consumers, Eurocommerce,
  tel. +32 (0)2 737 0584, Email: valverdelopez@eurocommerce.be
  
  This press release and related material is available on www.panda.org/eu
  .
  
  
  

  4 months on
  
• 

  Western Pacific island states taking back control of their fisheries Brussels, Belgium: A group of western Pacific nations is showing the way in making major fisheries both environmentally and economically sustainable, WWF said today as the world’s leading seafood fair opened in Brussels, Belgium.
  
  It was announced today that the Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Tuvalu had submitted a key element of their shared tuna fisheries for Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification – the highest and most extensive sustainability certification available.
  
  The application, which will cover about half of the total tuna catch for the area, breaks new ground in the number of national parties involved, the size of the fishery involved and the area of sea covered
  It follows a string of other recent substantial steps by the nations, who together are Parties to the 1983 Nauru Agreement on terms and conditions for tuna purse seine fishing in the region.
  
  “These eight nations are to be commended for the lead they are taking on sustainable fishing issues,” said WWF International Director General James Leape.
  
  “We are seeing – and strongly support – Western Pacific fisheries conservation measures that are world firsts, such as the closure of high seas pockets between their economic zones, controls on Fish Aggregating Devices (FADs) and 100% observer coverage for purse seine fishing vessels.
  
  “We are also seeing innovative economic measures to ensure that these countries reap more of the benefit from fishing in their waters, including the introduction of competitive bidding for fishing rights, crewing agreements and moves to bring tuna processing into the region.”
  
  The waters to be covered by these measures and the new certification application substantially overlap with WWF priority areas of the Coral Triangle and South West Pacific and will influence tuna management over much larger areas of the Pacific and potentially Indian Oceans.
  
  “We are encouraged by new initiatives by neighbouring nations such as Indonesia, which recently imposed a moratorium on new licences for purse seine fishing and trawlers,” Mr Leape said. “The whole region, moving together, has the potential to take the global effort to make fisheries sustainable to a whole new level.”
  
  About half the global purse seine tuna fleet is active in the waters controlled by the Parties to the Nauru Agreement.
  
  The MSC evaluation will only assess skipjack tuna caught in purse seine fisheries in “free swimming” unassociated sets, a fishing technique that yields the lowest likelihood of catching other overfished species such as juvenile yellowfin and bigeye tunas. This distinct section of the fishery catches approximately 560,000 tonnes of skipjack tuna per year in the Western and Central Pacific with no recourse to Fish Aggregating Devices, floating platforms to which high seas fish are attracted.
  
  The PNA nations also have introduced some of the toughest bycatch rules for dolphins, sharks and turtles.
  The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), co-founded in 1997 by WWF and Unilever, then the world's largest buyer of seafood, rewards sustainable and well-managed fisheries with its distinctive blue eco-label.
  
  The MSC, an independent non-profit organisation, has developed an environmental standard for sustainable fishing in co-operation with NGOs, scientists and the fishing industry. In order to be certified, qualifying fisheries must prove to an independent assessment team that their fishery is well managed and that fish stocks are healthy.
  
  “This assessment is an important development in the history of the MSC and I am pleased to see the eight PNA states move this fishery into MSC full assessment so shortly after their announcement of intention earlier this year,” said Chris Ninnes, Deputy Chief Executive of the MSC.
  
  “If the assessment process finds the fishery meets the MSC standard, about half of the skipjack tuna caught from the Western and Central Pacific, will be eligible to bear the MSC ecolabel. This would be a significant milestone towards satisfying some of the demand for credible, certified sustainable skipjack tuna for the canned market.
  
  “I wish this fishery every success with their assessment.”
  
  For further information:
  Phil Dickie, WWF International News Editor, +41 79 703 1952, pdickie@wwfint.org
  
  About WWF
  WWF is one of the world's largest and most respected independent conservation organizations, with almost 5 million supporters and a global network active in over 100 countries. WWF's mission is to stop the degradation of the earth's natural environment and to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature, by conserving the world's biological diversity, ensuring that the use of renewable natural resources is sustainable, and promoting the reduction of pollution and wasteful consumption.
  
  www.panda.org/media for latest news and media resources
  

  4 months on
  
• 

  New Arctic needs new rules: WWF Copenhagen, Denmark - A new, warmer Arctic cannot continue to operate under rules that assume it is ice-covered and essentially closed to fishing, resource exploration and development and shipping, WWF said today as it launched a group of reports on protecting a newly accessible, highly vulnerable environment with profound significance for global climate, the global economy and global security.
  
  The International Governance and Regulation of the Marine Arctic reports were launched as Russian president Medvedev visits Norwegian capital Oslo for talks which include arctic issues and just before the Arctic Council meets in Greenland.
  
  “The melting of the arctic ice is opening a new ocean, bringing new possibilities for commercial activities in a part of the world that has previously been inaccessible,” said Lasse Gustavsson, incoming Executive Conservation Director for WWF-International and currently CEO of WWF-Sweden.
  
  “What happens in the Arctic has a global environmental and economic impact. For instance, more than a quarter of the fish eaten in Europe comes from the Arctic, and yet we do not have effective rules for fishing in newly accessible areas.”
  
  The Arctic may well be ice free in the summers within decades. Commercial ships have recently successfully sailed the Northern Sea Route above Siberia, and ship yards are getting more and more orders for tankers capable of dealing with remnant ice.
  
  Accelerating oil and gas exploration is raising the prospects of Exxon Valdez scenarios - spills in highly susceptible environments in the absence of clean-up rules and infrastructure. A related issue is the impact on marine mammals and fish from noise generated by shipping and seismic activity to locate hydrocarbon deposits.
  
  The first report analyzes how today’s international legal regime meets the challenges posed by the unprecedented rapid change taking place in the Arctic. It concludes there are large gaps in governance and management regimes, with loopholes that could allow irreparable damage to the marine environment, its biodiversity and Indigenous peoples.
  
  The responsibilities and mechanisms for keeping marine resource extraction within sustainable limits are unclear and so are the responsibilities and mechanisms for preventing or responding to pollution accidents and shipping disasters.
  
  While the second report outlines the options, the third report proposes a new arctic framework convention as a solution that could address the urgent gaps.
  
  “We challenge arctic governments to advance alternatives that would work equally well to safeguard the region,” said Gustavsson.
  
  “WWF shows that it is not possible to simply deny that problems exist, or to insist that there are already adequate responses to the problems.”
  
  “We need a new comprehensive solution for the protection of the arctic marine environment. The ice has protected the Arctic Ocean for hundreds of years; we have collectively removed that protection though our contributions to climate change, and now we must work collectively to replace that protection.”
  
  

  4 months on
  
• 

  Commercial whaling could get green light for first time in nearly 25 years Gland, Switzerland - A proposal announced today by the International Whaling Commission (IWC) would, if adopted, for the first time in almost 25 years, endorse the killing of whales in their most precious feeding grounds, the Southern Ocean.
  
  The IWC has had a moratorium on commercial whaling since 1986 but Iceland and Norway have legal objections to the moratorium and Japan continues to conduct commercial whaling using a loophole in the IWC which allows whales to be killed for “scientific purposes.”
  
  In an effort to bring this whaling under IWC’s control, the Chair of the IWC has proposed to give these countries official commercial whaling quotas for the next 10 years.
  
  “The proposed quotas are not set using the IWC’s own scientific methods, but are a result of political bargaining which has little if anything to do with the whales’ themselves,” said Wendy Elliott, Species Program manager, WWF-International. “Setting quotas for commercial whaling based on politics not science would be a step backwards for IWC,” Elliott said.
  
  If adopted the new proposal would legitimise commercial whaling in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary, despite the IWC’s absolute ban on commercial whaling in this area since 1994. The Southern Ocean is the main feeding ground of many whale species such as blue whales, humpback whales and fin whales.
  
  “The Southern Ocean is the whale equivalent of a restaurant or supermarket. Some whales feed exclusively in the Southern Ocean – not eating at all during the winter months when they travel up to tropical waters” added Elliott.
  
  “If there is one place on earth where whales should have full protection, it is the Southern Ocean. Allowing commercial whaling in an area where whales are so vulnerable goes against all logic.”
  
  Furthermore the IWC Chair has proposed commercial whaling quotas for whale species listed by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as endangered.
  
  Both fin whales and sei whales are endangered species, yet this proposal would allow the commercial killing of 65 fin whales in the Southern Ocean and 500 Sei whales in the North Pacific over a ten year period. “Both fin and sei whale species were depleted to severely low levels by previous whaling that spun out of control, and remain endangered as a result. Allowing new commercial whaling on these species when they have yet to recover from previous whaling is management madness.”
  
  The sei whale in the North Pacific was reduced from 42,000 to just 8,600 by whaling in the late 20th Century, when 40,000 sei whales were killed. The extent to which this whale population has recovered is not clear. 725,000 fin whales were killed in the Southern Hemisphere in the twentieth century, and the most recent estimate puts numbers at just 15,178.
  
  The positive aspects of the proposal include increased efforts to secure the recovery of depleted whale populations, action on critical conservation threats facing whales such as bycatch and climate change, and improved governance and compliance.
  
  The members of the IWC will decide whether to adopt the proposal at its next annual meeting in Agadair, Morocco, June 21st – 25th.
  
  “WWF calls on all countries attending the IWC meeting to put science and responsible management back at the forefront of IWC decision making.”
  
  For more information contact: 
  
  Natalia Reiter, + 41 798 738 099, nreiter@wwfint.org
  
  
  
  
  

  4 months on
  
• 

  Out-of-court negotiations lay way for less damaging Baltic pipleline Berlin, Germany - The controversial Baltic Sea gas pipeline is to be less damaging to the vulnerable sea following out-of-court negotiations between proponents Nord Stream and WWF-Germany and BUND (the German chapter of Friends of the Earth).
  
  Under the agreement, Nordstream will modify construction procedures to better protect the environment, greatly increase funding for nature conservation activities, provide more in compensation and provisions for nature conservation measures.
  
  BUND and WWF will discontinue their legal action against the zoning approval and hence waive the option tohave construction work stopped.
  
  “The agreement is a trailblazing success for the protection of the Baltic Sea”, notes Jochen Lamp, head of the Baltic Sea office of WWF Germany.
  
  The operators are guaranteeing that they will implement additional measures to protect nature during the construction of the pipeline, going so far as to implement a modified concept of digging. Funds for compensation measures and nature conservation tasks and maintenance will be increased by more than €10m.
  
  On the crucial Greifswald bodden Nord Stream has agreed to considerably reduce disruptions from construction activity, with marsh soil rich in slush now to be transported to onshore dumps or used as construction material. This will eliminate unnecessary water turbidity which would have killed soil organisms and benefit herring spawn.
  
  The company also entered into an agreement with fishers, which will see the the fishing season for herring in the Greifswald bodden reduced by ten days during next year’s spawning season.
  
  In addition to the requirements imposed by the public authorities, Nord Stream will contribute €10 million for the implementation of nature conservation measures in the Baltic Sea.
  
  Nature reserves as large as up to 1,000 hectares are to be created in order to compensate for damage caused during construction, with Nord Stream paying for maintenance of these areas for a term of 35 years.
  
  Furthermore, the company will provide a guarantee for remedial action concerning unforeseeable environmental impacts of the pipeline.
  
  The additional funds can now be used to develop and implement nature protection projects in the Baltic Sea habitats in due time. These projects include, for instance, steps to remedy the low oxygen content in the sea which is burdened anyway.
  
  Other options include the creation of large wetlands near the coast and the relocation of dams in order to create space for flooded salt marshes.
  
  Notes Corinna Cwielag, managing director of BUND Mecklenburg-Vorpommern: “We have achieved far more for Baltic Sea protection than public authorities were able or willing to do.
  
  “We have achieved a revision of the approval by the mining authorities which foresaw compensation of just 40 percent - and hence also achieved the main goal of our action.”
  
  Eberhard Brandes, head of WWF Germany, called it a “historical achievement” as the first time that a material value visible for investors had been defined for nature on the seafloor and costs had been identified for intervention in marine nature.
  
  This would set standards for the future, he said.
  
  
  

  4 months on
  
• 

  Heart of Borneo emerges as home of world’s longest insect, lungless frog and “ninja” slug Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei: A frog with no lungs, a “ninja” slug firing love darts at its mate, and the world’s longest insect are among new species discovered in the three years since the Heart of Borneo conservation plan was drawn up by the three governments with jurisdiction over the world’s third largest island.
  
  New WWF report Borneo’s New World: Newly Discovered Species in the Heart of Borneo details 123 new species discovered since the February 2007 agreement by Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia and Malaysia to conserve 220,000 km2 of irreplaceable tropical rainforest, designated the Heart of Borneo (HoB).
  
  “As the past three years of independent scientific discovery have proven, new forms of life are constantly being discovered in the Heart of Borneo,” said Adam Tomasek, leader of WWF’s HoB Initiative.
  
  Explorers have been visiting the island of Borneo for centuries, but vast tracts of its interior are yet to be biologically explored, he said.
  
  “If this stretch of irreplaceable rainforest can be conserved for our children, the promise of more discoveries must be a tantalising one for the next generation of researchers to contemplate,” he added.
  
  The HoB, an “island within an island” is home to ten species of primate, more than 350 birds, 150 reptiles and amphibians and a staggering 10,000 plants that are found nowhere else in the world, the report says.
  
  The rate of discovery since the foundation of the HoB is more than three new species per month, providing ample justification for the decision to protect the region.
  
  Speaking at the launch of the report during a meeting of the three Heart of Borneo governments, Brunei Darussalam’s Minister of Industry & Primary Resources, the Honourable Pehin Dato Yahya, paid tribute to the dedicated scientists who spent countless hours in challenging conditions to uncover the staggering bio-diversity.
  
  “These amazing new findings highlight the importance of our efforts to implement the HoB Declaration’s bold vision,” he said of the region which also contains the pygmy elephant, orangutan, rhinoceros, and clouded leopard.
  
  With so many new species discovered every month, WWF has made the region a global priority through its Heart of Borneo Initiative. WWF offices in Malaysia and Indonesia support tri-government efforts to conserve and sustainably manage the HoB.
  
  Under the 2007 agreement, the three governments have committed to enhance protected area and trans-boundary management, develop eco-tourism and support sustainable resource management.
  
  “Three years on, the Heart of Borneo Declaration is proving to be an irreplaceable foundation for conservation and sustainable development by establishing a framework for action to protect Borneo’s globally outstanding biodiversity, eco-system services and livelihoods,” WWF’s Tomasek said.
  
  “The discovery of these new species in the Heart of Borneo underlines the incredible diversity of this remarkable area and emphasizes the importance of the commitments already made by Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia and Malaysia to protect it,” he added.
  
  The discoveries also highlight the need to increase financial and technical support to ensure their continued survival, he said.
  
  

  4 months on