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The MAP News, 184th Ed., 01 May 2007
Dear Friends,
This is the 184th Edition of the Mangrove Action Project News.
Estimates for greenhouse gas emissions from the destruction of tropical forests are commonly between 20 and 25% of all human-induced emissions. Curtailing deforestation would have considerable benefits in terms of mitigating climate change, as well as biodiversity and social benefits, yet neither the Climate Change Convention nor its Kyoto Protocol currently contain provisions for limiting deforestation. (From: Workshop on reducing emissions from tropical deforestation The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (the RSPB) and Chatham House 16-17 April 2007, Chatham House, London)
For the Mangroves,
Alfredo Quarto,
Mangrove Action Project
MAP’s Mission: 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.
Note: The latest issues of the MAP News are available on MAP's Website
Contents for MAP NEWS, 184th Edition, 1 May 2007
MAP WORKS
MAP’s Mangrove Curriculum Gets A Big Boost In Cayman Island Schools
MAP in Brazil--Making Good Progress With Local Communities Taking Charge
MAP’s Director Presents Global Perspective at UN Commission on Sustainable Development
Entries Called For Next MAP 2008 Children’s Art Calendar Contest-Entry Deadline Extended till July 31, 2007
Help MAP and Make the Call to Working Assets Today
AFRICA
Kenya
Kenya Mangrove Restoration Provides Environmental Services, but is there a Market?
Thailand
Planting the seeds for a more secure future
Thailand seafood sector accused of illegal labor
Thai Shrimp Firm Denies Illegal Labour Allegations
Climate change, submergence grim reality for Thailand coastal folk
Malaysia
Malaysia to slash fish import through developing aquaculture industry
61 areas in Malaysia identified as suitable for aquaculture
Indonesia
Harbor Project in S. Sumatra Threatens Mangroves, Communities and Wildlife-A Briefing Paper
CD Prima planning to bid for Dipasena
Japan rejects shrimp exported from S Sulawesi, Indonesia
Vietnam
Shrimp Farm Impacts On The Mekong Delta
Vietnam trying to settle shrimp lawsuit with US Southern Shrimp Alliance amicably
Sri Lanka
Mangrove resources facing grave danger says Minister
Bangladesh
Climate change set to damage biodiversity of Sundarbans
Fiji
Villagers to reap benefits of resource project
Brazil
Brazil: MST peasants occupy a shrimp farm
The Bahamas
Money Secured To Continue Legal Fight
Save Guana Cay Reef Association to Attend United
Nations Event
Cayman Islands
Famous Caymans Coral Reefs Dying, Scientists Say
St. Maarten
Mullet Pond Video Recently Released
US Virgin Islands
The Second Mangrove Clean-up at the Cas-Cay Mangrove Lagoon Marine Sanctuary
USA
As Fresh as They Get Three Young Guys Hope to Feed an Appetite for Fresh, Sustainable Farmed Shrimp
STORIES/ISSUES
Asia Has Few Plans Yet to Deal with Rising Seas
Restoring the Earth-- beating swords to ploughshares
Climate change: study maps those at greatest risk from cyclones and rising seas
Let's stop wasting tasty fish on animal feed
When will the FAO stop calling fast wood plantations "forests"?
CONFERENCES/ WORKSHOPS & PUBLICATIONS
2007 Agusan Marsh Scientific Conference
New Publication--The Biology of Mangroves and Seagrasses
New Book On Mangroves-Manual for Preservation and Utilization
A short guide to ways forestry can contribute to poverty reduction and sustainable development
ANNOUNCEMENTS
A Guideline to Establishing Marine Protected Area networks
Community Forum’s Electronic Newsletter Just Our
New Foundation Blog Focuses on Asian Issues
Countries welcome new guidelines on shrimp farming
AQUACULTURE CORNER
Countries welcome new guidelines on shrimp farming
Shrimp scampi without the guilt
Opposition Mounts to Offshore Aquaculture Bill
Tell Congress No Industrial Fish Farms
Banning Expansion of Private Aquaculture in State and Federal
FEATURE STORY
BANGKOK DECLARATION OF CONCERN ON SHRIMP AQUACULTURE CERTIFICATION
Bangkok 27 September 2006
Representatives of community-based organizations and NGOs from the tropical coastal zone of America, Asia and Africa, and other NGOs participating at the "Shrimp Farming Certification Meeting" in Bangkok, Thailand, on September 25-27, 2006 sign the present Declaration:
We thank the sponsors of this event for giving us the opportunity to express our opinions about the certification of shrimp farming, and we congratulate them for their interest in seeking adequate measures to control the negative impacts caused by the shrimp aquaculture industry.
We believe that current certification schemes will not help to address the massive environmental and severe social impacts caused by the shrimp industry in many of our communities. These certification schemes may in fact legitimize past and current injustices and even lead to further expansion. They cannot also address the very high level of shrimp consumption in Northern countries. Certification initiatives developed so far have not provided space for local communities and NGOs’ participation. We therefore reject all the certification initiatives developed so far and those currently under development.
We demand a moratorium to all such aquaculture certification schemes and we call for the establishment of a consultative process, with the full and effective participation of indigenous and local communities, to determine the basis on which a socially equitable and ecologically sound aquaculture activity can be built. Such a consultative process will allow us to properly evaluate the different certification schemes and to propose a way forward.
Additional Declaration Sign-Ons:
1. Pisit Chansnoh, Yadfon Association, Thailand
2. Win Sein Naing
Mangrove Service Network, Myanmar
3. Patrick Naagbanton
Center For Environment, Human Rights And Development (CEHRD), Nigeria
4. Consumer Association of Penang (CAP), Malaysia
5. Penang Inshore Fisherman Welfare Association (PIFWA), Malaysia.
MAP WORKS
MAP’s Mangrove Curriculum Gets A Big Boost In Cayman Island Schools
Every teacher in Cayman will be getting an exciting introduction to mangroves and their ecological importance through the reprinting of the National Trust's study guide Marvellous Mangroves in the Cayman Islands thanks to the generous sponsorship of Caribbean Utilities Co. Ltd.
Most of the copies of the original printing of the guide, first published in 2001, were destroyed by Hurricane Ivan. Now, thanks to CUC's sponsorship, 500 copies are being printed and distributed by the National Trust to teachers throughout Cayman's schools. The publication was re-introduced to teachers through workshops held at the end of January, when its content was outlined by principal author Martin Keeley, a Brac-based peripatetic ecology/science teacher.
The wetlands curriculum on which the mangrove guide is based was initially developed in the early 1990s by local school teachers in British Columbia and Washington State to teach students about wetlands in that region. In 1997, Mr. Keeley, who is also education director for the international NGO the Mangrove Action Project (MAP), began adapting the curriculum for tropical mangrove wetland areas.
The mangrove teachers' resource guide was developed, tested, written, illustrated, and completed during a three-year time-frame in Cayman. Guided by Mr. Keeley, the guide was adapted from hands-on science based programmes and activities that have been used by educators throughout North America during the past 25 years. Following standard ecology curriculum principles, the guide provides teachers with 300 pages of information and hands-on activities, covering everything from migrating birds and the properties of water, to what to do and find on a mangrove field trip. It concludes with what students can do to help protect and preserve mangrove habitat in their own communities.
While being science based the guide is cross-curricula, and incorporates subject areas such as math, language arts, social studies, drama and art. Because it was designed primarily by teachers, it is both teacher and student friendly.
Marnie Laing, the Trust's Education Programme's Manager, says that Marvellous Mangroves fills an important role in helping to educate young Caymanians on the vital importance of mangroves as an ecosystem, and that education is one of the most crucial aspects of the work of the National Trust.
Caren Thompson, CUC's Corporate Communications Manager, says CUC is delighted to be able to sponsor the reprinting of Marvellous Mangroves. "For the past seven years CUC has sponsored Mr. Keeley's monthly visits to Grand Cayman where he has educated thousands of students with his mangrove and coastal ecological programmes," she explains. "CUC applauds the efforts of the National Trust and Mr. Keeley to try to instill in our people an appreciation for the mangroves and the important role they play in the Islands' ecology.
"CUC recognized the critical importance of creating greater awareness of the vital importance of mangroves when seven years ago we agreed to sponsor this Environmental Education Programme for Year Five primary school students," Ms. Thompson explains. She says that there is presently a greater level of appreciation for mangrove ecology among Cayman's young people. "However", she adds, "we still have a long way to go to ensure that Caymanians fully understand the dire need to protect mangroves. Everyone needs to recognize that they enable us to withstand storm surges and other damaging effects that cause serious soil erosion, provide a nursery for more than 80 per cent of the fish we find on the reef, and act as a critical area of biodiversity for wildlife."
Science/ICT officer for the Education Department, Mr. Fred Speirs, says "It is important that resources such as this are developed locally. This ensures that teachers and children can identify with local problems and hopefully suggest local solutions to environmental issues. Marnie's research with Caymanian children has shown that the programme does influence our children's attitudes towards the environment. CUC is to be congratulated for its vision in supporting this project."
Since Marvellous Mangroves was first introduced into Cayman, it has been translated into Spanish and adapted for use in Honduras, Guatemala and the San Andres Archipelago (Colombia) in the SW Caribbean. Using the Cayman Islands experience as a blueprint, MAP worked with three ENGOs - CODDAFFEGOLF in Honduras, Amigos del Bosque in Guatemala, and CORALINA in San Andres and Providence - to adapt the curriculum and translate it into Spanish for use in local schools.
Because each country and/or region has different flora and fauna, and the schools have different resource capabilities, it is important to provide local teachers and ENGOs with their own resource materials as well as resource guide. Work is currently underway to adapt the materials for use in Brazilian and Indonesian schools, and it has also been introduced to Sri Lanka.
From: Martin Keeley
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MAP in Brazil--Making Good Progress With Local Communities Taking Charge
2nd Experience Sharing between Coastal Communities of Bahia and Ceara States
18-23 Abril 2007
The Arte Manha Cultural Movement, Mangrove Action Project, and Instituto Terramar are carrying out the 2nd Experience Sharing between communities from Caravelas, Bahia state, and communities from the coastal regions of Ceara state. This time, shellfish and crab collectors from the Caribe and Ponta de Areia communities of Caravelas, accompanied by a team from the community newspaper „O Timoneiro‰ (The Helsman) are going to Ceara in order to learn about the local situation in these communities. The group will visit Cumbe (Aracati) and Curral Velho (Arcarau), where residents have participated in struggles and resistance against shrimp farming; Batoque (Aquiraz), where the group plans to dialogue with community members that participated in the process of creating an Extrativist Reserve (RESEX); as well as learn about experiences with community tourism in Prainha do Canto Verde (Berberibe). In a rich process of experience sharing, this is one more occasion focusing on the lives of the stakeholders living in the Coastal Zone of Ceara and of Brazil. This activity has been made possible by generous support from the Overbrook Foundation.
From Elaine Corets
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MAP’s Director Presents Global Perspective at UN Commission on Sustainable Development
On May 8th, MAP’s Director presented a well-received power point presentation at a side event held during the UN’s Commission on Sustainable Development in New York. The event highlighted the importance of mangrove forests for conservation of marine biodiversity and protection against future climatic events such as hurricanes and wave surges. Mounting problems of shortsighted over-development of tourism resorts, golf courses and marinas in the Caribbean region were also spotlighted, especially referring to the unsustainable developments now taking place in the Bahamas at Guana Cay and Bimini Island. Marwaan Macan-Markar IPS , Bernama
1. Government of Indonesia through department of Forestry granted permits to use and clear 600 ha of mangrove forest to the project of Tanjung Api-api Harbor in Banyuasin District.
2. The mangrove ecosystem to be destroyed by the project is the one of the longest mangrove area in Asia, with length of 30 km.
3. We believed that the destruction of Mangrove will create salt water intrusion to fresh ground water. Local communities will face lack of fresh ground water in the future.
4. There about hundred direct communities and thousand indirect communities will be affected by the extinction of the ecosystem. It is predicted that local communities will loss its traditional income from fisheries activities. There will be also expulsion of local communities from their land.
5. The mangrove ecosystem granted for the project was part of Sembilang National Park consisting thousands of species of flora and fauna. Some of these species are included in Class 1 of protected species under Ministry Regulation no 32/1990
6. International Union of Conservation Nature and Natural Resource-Crocodile Specialist Group (IUCNCSG) and Wetlands International research found the area as the habitat of Sinyulong crocodile (Tomistoma Schelegeli)
7. There are some endangered birds species including residential species Anhinga melanogaster), and the last colony of Pelican (Pelecanus philippensis) in region of Indo-Malaya, bangau Storm (Ciconia stormi).
For details, please contact:
1. Sri Lestari, Direktur WALHI Sumatera Selatan
mobile : +62 8153847624
phone : +62 711 353516
email : sumsel@walhi.or.id
2. Riza Damanik, Manager Kampanye Pesisir dan Laut, Eksekutif Nasional WALHI
mobile : +62 818773515
phone : +62 21 7941672
email : riza@walhi.or.id
3. WAHANA LINGKUNGAN HIDUP INDONESIA (WALHI),
phone : +62 21 7941672
fax : +62 21 7941673
email : info@walhi.or.i
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Entries Called For Next MAP 2008 Children’s Art Calendar Contest-Entry Deadline Extended till July 31, 2007
January 2007
Dear Friends of the Mangroves,
We are sponsoring our seventh international children's art competition and would like to invite children in your country to enter this contest and learn more about the important roles that mangrove forests play.
Specifically we would like you to contact schools and teachers in your area and provide them with information regarding this contest, and also to act as a liaison between MAP and the local schools as a resource person regarding mangrove and ecological information. In addition, we would ask you to collect the winners from each school participating within your country, and send the three best entries on to MAP at the above address for the final judging, and possible inclusion in the calendar. We must receive the artwork by July 31st, 2007
This provides an opportunity for participating NGOs to build relationships with teachers and to provide school children with environmental information. Educating children in the importance of mangrove and coastal ecosystems is critical to effecting long-term change. Without current information, current generations will grow up placing little value on the environment (as modeled by their parents) unless they are given new eyes with which to see coastal ecosystems and mangrove forests.
We have attached information that is ready to have your name added as the local contact representative and duplicated for distribution to teachers in your country. Please let us know if we can be of further assistance in helping you implement this exciting educational project in your country. We will send all student winners, participating NGOs and schools copies of our calendar as well.
Yours sincerely,
Monica Gutierrez-Quarto, , Calendar Project Coordinator
Please contact Monica Gutierrez-Quarto for more information at monicagquarto@olympus.net
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AFRICA
Kenya
Vol. 2, No. 3: May 2, 2007
Kenya Mangrove Restoration Provides Environmental Services, but is there a Market?
is commonly understood that coastal mangrove forests provide essential ecosystem services, including protection from coastal erosion, filtration of water pollutants, provision of habitat for sea life, and sequestration of greenhouse gases. And yet, threatened by overexploitation, conversion to other land uses and damage from pollutants, the total area of mangrove forest is estimated to be only 70 ˆ50% of its original coverage worldwide and is decreasing by 1% per year.
The Kenyan Tidal Forest research project, sponsored by the Earth Watch Institute and run through the Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute, is attempting to demonstrate that there is more value in conserving mangroves than in converting them to other uses. They have set out to measure the total economic value of the ecosystem goods and services produced by Kenya's 60,000 ha of mangrove forests. The study has so far found that the economic value of shoreline protection alone, US$1,587/ha, outweighed the total value of all other uses. The carbon sequestration potential, US$44/ha, was more valuable than fuelwood, but could not compete with the local value of the mangroves for building materials.
The challenge they now face is to find ways of marketing these and other ecosystem services of the mangrove forests. They are also focusing on finding ways to balance local livelihoods and the need to conserve the natural resource base. One attempt has already been successful at promoting both of these goals. With support from the Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute, the women of Gazi (a coastal town that has protected and restored its mangrove forests) have established an ecotourism venture that profits from the value of the mangrove's scenic beauty and biodiversity. The Kenya Tidal Forest Project provides an interesting example of the way in which economic valuation of ecosystem services can be effectively combined with community-based initiatives.
Contacto: gkairo@yahoo.com
Dr James G. Cairo of the Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute
Download a presentation on valuing the environmental services of mangroves in Kenya (PDF)
Download document on Women's Ecotourism Project (PDF)
ASIA
Thailand
The NATION
Planting the seeds for a more secure future
Published on Apr 15, 2007
Many people believe that when one door closes, another opens and new opportunities present themselves.
Survivors in Krabi's Koh Lanta and Nua Klong districts lost their jobs and families to the tsunami of late 2004, but they have since learned to appreciate their mangrove forests and natural resources, and how best to use them to protect the ones they love.
The huge waves at Baan Ta Klong in Tambon Koh Klang swallowed up the mother of Ruangdej Klongdee, 32, while his father was saved by a mangrove forest.
That made Ruangdej decide to rehabilitate the 875 rai of mangrove forests in the area, starting with the 35 rai in the village that took a direct hit. Most of the villagers agreed with his idea, so they helped plant the trees and set the rules on how to use them.
With support from the government and civil organisations, they have now completed replanting 15 rai.
"If someone needs to cut down one tree, he must plant 10 in compensation," he said. "However, villagers now don't want to cut the trees, as they've begun to love them as they take care of them themselves." Now the forests are used to set up crab, clam and fish farms instead. Aquaculture not only earns them some income, but also allows them to do things together with their families and friends near their homes.
Before the tsunami, most of the villagers left for neighbouring Andaman provinces for fisheries work.
"Shrimp farmers who used to destroy the forest with their backhoes don't dare intrude into the forest any more, as they've learned that the villagers are protecting it here," Ruangdej said. The backhoes were used to clear the forest for shrimp ponds. They destroyed the mangroves as they encroached into their habitat.
Later this month, community development organisations from other tambon in the province will meet him to learn about the project.
Theerasak Mas-osot, 20, grew up with an abundance of mangroves in Nua Klong's Baan Taling Chan. But as time went by, he saw the forest degraded by shrimp farming and destroyed by capitalists. He saw reforestation as a great opportunity to clean up his village.
Theerasak went to see the projects in Phang Nga and sought advice from community leader Boonnam Borna. They went to see the project at Baan Nam Khem in Phang Nga.
The village later received financial support and know-how from the Raks Thai Foundation, a member of CARE International.
The plan was to plant 50,000 mangrove trees to cover the village's public area. Since April 15, 2005, they have cleaned up the waste and ruins left by the waves, built growing sheds and planted 6,000 trees. Another batch of 2,000 saplings is being prepared.
At first, five of Theerasak's friends helped out. The group is now 15 as families and friends became interested.
The youths, aged 15-23, collect seeds and plant them. It takes three to four months before the seeds are ready. On World Environment Day this June 5 and on the birthdays of Their Majesties the King and Queen, the villagers will gather to plant the trees.
They have a meeting at the cultivation hut on the 12th of each month.
In their free time, the children ride around the village to check on the trees. They take samples and ask adults about the plants. They then know more about local herbal wisdom and want to preserve the natural resources they have.
Boonnam said they planned to green 600 rai in the area.
The shrimp farms they might not be able to chase away, but they hope there will at least be different and separated waterways for the shrimp farms.
Kornchanok Raksaseri, The Nation
(Note: 6.25 rai = 1 ha.)
From Jim Enright apasia@loxinfo.co.th
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Thailand seafood sector accused of illegal labor
InfoFish Media
Thai seafood firms are using illegal migrant and child labor in their processing factories, Reuters reported.
The story cited "clear evidence" Thai firms routinely use children and "slave labor" from nearby countries such as Myanmar.
One factory raided recently in Samut Sakhon, where some 40 percent of Thailand’s seafood is processed, had workers imprisoned in a compound, Reuters reported.A human rights groupsaid the factory is only the "tip of a human trafficking iceberg.?
Thai Frozen Food Association head Poj Aranwattananont denied the allegation of child labor trafficking.
"There are no more illegal workers in the Thai food industry because the government registers all the workers properly.
We never use child labor," he told Reuters.
Thailand is one of the world’s largest shrimp exporters and seafood producers
Copyright 2005 IntraFish Media
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Thai Shrimp Firm Denies Illegal Labour Allegations
27 April 2007
Leading Thai food company Charoen Pokphand Foods denied it employed illegal labourers from Myanmar in its shrimp processing factories.
Leading Thai food company Charoen Pokphand Foods (CPF) denied on Friday it employed illegal labourers from Myanmar in its shrimp processing factories near Bangkok.
CPF executive vice president Pisit Ohmpornnuwat said reports of more than 100 illegal Myanmar workers fleeing a police raid on a unit in Samut Sakhon province, 50 km (30 miles) west of Bangkok, earlier this month were a "misunderstanding".
"All labourers have been employed legally on the standard of 18-years-old age and applied on all labour laws and regulations," he said in a statement.
"The situation was normal on the visit by the police and immigration officials," he said.
The Labour Rights Promotion Network (LPN), a non-governmental organisation helping Myanmar migrants in the coastal province, told Reuters immigration police had deported 90 of the workers who tried to escape by swimming a canal.
LPN estimates there as many as 200,000 Myanmar migrants working in the seafood industry in Samut Sakhon, where around 40 percent of Thailand's shrimps are peeled and processed for export. Only 70,000 are legally registered.
Many of the workers are smuggled into Thailand by cross-border labour brokers, who enjoy the complicity if not active involvement of provincial police and government officials.
An unannounced visit by Reuters to a non-CPF shrimp processing factory in Samut Sakhon last month also revealed widespread use of child labour in the industry.
Around half Thailand's shrimps, which are worth $2 billion a year in exports, are sold to retailers in the United States. Europe and Japan account for most of the rest.
Source: Reuters
From ecorets@gmail.com
==============
Climate change, submergence grim reality for Thailand coastal folk
By
Marwaan Macan-MarkarThe sound of waves from the nearby sea is no comfort for the chief abbot of the Buddhist temple in this fishing village in the Gulf of Thailand.
It is a constant reminder of the peril that awaits the temple, Wat Khun Samuttrawachine, built in 1967, from an encroaching sea. ‘'This temple is always under threat from the sea; during the monsoon it is worse,'' says Phra Somnuk Atipanyo in a quiet tone.
Visible from the entrance of the decaying temple is a stark image that affirms his fears are not out of place. Rows of telephone and electricity poles stick out of the waters and disappear into the distance along the coast as testimony to there having once been a road that ran through this village. The sea began to swallow it more than two decades ago.
Beyond the cement poles are others relics of a community that once occupied the flat terrain. They include the water tank that once serviced a primary school for 300 children. Single-engine boats now scour the area for plankton to be used for making ‘kapi,' a prawn paste popular in Thai cuisine.
The temple in this village, a one-hour drive south of Bangkok, has become the last line of defence in an environmental tussle where the sea has been winning, metre by metre. The wooden homes of the fisher folk that once stood on either side of the temple, set in the midst of a sparse mangrove and mud-flats, have been removed. Fishermen like Prawit Inouam, 37, now live more than one km inland.
‘'We are seeing our village and community disappear,'' says Prawit who has had to move three times inland to escape sea erosion, the first when he was only three years old. ‘'We need to protect this area to reduce the impact of more sea erosion.''
It is a view echoed by other men and women who make up the 105 families that continue to brave the sea and live in Khun Samutchine. Two decades ago, some 200 households were part of this community.
Stalling further loss of land to the sea by building a barrier of cement pillars as a breakwater and a wall is a daunting prospect. So, too is the hope of fishermen like Suwan Buaphai of restoring the protective mangroves that once grew here.
‘'The rate of erosion in this area is ‘'the most rapid in Thailand,'' says Tara Buakamsri, climate and energy campaigner for the South-east Asia office of Greenpeace, the global green lobby. ‘'It is 25-30 m per year.''
The area's struggles against the sea have been brought into focus this week due to a major international conference on climate change being held in Bangkok. The plight of low-lying coastal communities across the world that face submersion is one among a range of environmental issues being discussed at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (ICCP), the premier United Nations body on global warming.
Thailand's 2,666 km-long coastline on the Gulf of Thailand in the east and along the Andaman Sea on the west has 30 such environmental ‘'hot spots,'' says Thanawat Jarupongsakul, an associate professor in the department of geology at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University. ‘'Of these there are 22 in the Gulf of Thailand, and the Khun Samutchine area is the worst-hit.''
Source:
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=37589IPS
From: icsf@icsf.net
==============
Malaysia
Malaysia to slash fish import through developing aquaculture industry
Malaysia's Agriculture and Agro-Based Industry Ministry has identified 61 areas covering 36,743 ha as suitable for aquaculture projects nationwide.
Parliamentary Secretary to the ministry Datuk Rohani Abdul Karim said a total of 20,822.4 ha had been approved by the state executive councils for zoning into aquaculture areas under the Aquaculture Industrial Zone (ZIA).
Perlis had 217.4ha, Ulu Legong, Kedah (202ha), Selangor (9,244.8ha), Negeri Sembilan (7.7ha), Pahang (10,551ha) and Melaka (599.5ha). "Another 15,920.6ha are awaiting approval," she said in reply to Datuk Mohamed Sarit Yusoh (BN-Temerloh) in the Dewan Rakyat today.
Rohani said projects under the ZIA would use standard operating procedures to ensure best practice in agriculture for an efficient, systematic and cost-efficient project management. ZIA is a zoning programme of land and marine areas identified as suitable for the development of commercial aquaculture to increase the production of fish and shellfish.
"The ZIA project is aimed at increasing the nett income of aquaculture participants to at least RM3,000 (US$875) monthly, ensuring the production of high quality fish that is safe for consumption and creating a chain of efficient aquaculture production," she added.
Source:
http://www.bernama.com.my/bernama/v3/news.php?id=257624Bernama
From: icsf@icsf.net
==============
61 areas in Malaysia identified as suitable for aquaculture
Malaysia's Agriculture and Agro-Based Industry Ministry has identified 61 areas covering 36,743 ha as suitable for aquaculture projects nationwide.
Parliamentary Secretary to the ministry Datuk Rohani Abdul Karim said a total of 20,822.4 ha had been approved by the state executive councils for zoning into aquaculture areas under the Aquaculture Industrial Zone (ZIA).
Perlis had 217.4ha, Ulu Legong, Kedah (202ha), Selangor (9,244.8ha), Negeri Sembilan (7.7ha), Pahang (10,551ha) and Melaka (599.5ha). "Another 15,920.6ha are awaiting approval," she said in reply to Datuk Mohamed Sarit Yusoh (BN-Temerloh) in the Dewan Rakyat today.
Rohani said projects under the ZIA would use standard operating procedures to ensure best practice in agriculture for an efficient, systematic and cost-efficient project management. ZIA is a zoning programme of land and marine areas identified as suitable for the development of commercial aquaculture to increase the production of fish and shellfish.
"The ZIA project is aimed at increasing the nett income of aquaculture participants to at least RM3,000 (US$875) monthly, ensuring the production of high quality fish that is safe for consumption and creating a chain of efficient aquaculture production," she added.
Source:
http://www.bernama.com.my/bernama/v3/news.php?id=257624Bernama
From: icsf@icsf.net
==============
Indonesia
Harbor Project in S. Sumatra Threatens Mangroves, Communities and Wildlife-A Briefing Paper:
The history of development
The plan of Ocean Port and South Sumatran development Site Plan (or known as Musi River Basin Study) was done in 1989 as a joint project of Government of Indonesia and Commission of European Communities. The project was post-poned due to financial in-adequeacy. The project was continued after PT OTI (Orient Technology Indonesia), a Malaysian investor interested to cooperate with Provincial Government under BOT (Built Operated Transfer) scheme. The harbour will be developed to support energy and food industries in South Sumatera. South Sumatera Province is declaring as energy province emphasizing its development based on fossil fuel and energy exports in 2009. The harbor project is estimated to cost $ 250 million.
Harbor Project Impact
1. Government of Indonesia through department of Forestry granted permits to use and clear 600 ha of mangrove forest to the project of Tanjung Api-api Harbor in Banyuasin District.
2. The mangrove ecosystem to be destroyed by the project is the one of the longest mangrove area in Asia, with length of 30 km.
3. We believed that the destruction of Mangrove will create salt water intrusion to fresh ground water. Local communities will face lack of fresh ground water in the future.
4. There about hundred direct communities and thousand indirect communities will be affected by the extinction of the ecosystem. It is predicted that local communities will loss its traditional income from fisheries activities. There will be also expulsion of local communities from their land.
5. The mangrove ecosystem granted for the project was part of Sembilang National Park consisting thousands of species of flora and fauna. Some of these species are included in Class 1 of protected species under Ministry Regulation no 32/1990
6. International Union of Conservation Nature and Natural Resource-Crocodile Specialist Group (IUCNCSG) and Wetlands International research found the area as the habitat of Sinyulong crocodile (Tomistoma Schelegeli)
7. There are some endangered birds species including residential species Anhinga melanogaster), and the last colony of Pelican (Pelecanus philippensis) in region of Indo-Malaya, bangau Storm (Ciconia stormi).
For details, please contact:
1. Sri Lestari, Direktur WALHI Sumatera Selatan
mobile : +62 8153847624
phone : +62 711 353516
email : sumsel@walhi.or.id
2. Riza Damanik, Manager Kampanye Pesisir dan Laut, Eksekutif Nasional WALHI
mobile : +62 818773515
phone : +62 21 7941672
email : riza@walhi.or.id
3. WAHANA LINGKUNGAN HIDUP INDONESIA (WALHI),
phone : +62 21 7941672
fax : +62 21 7941673
email : info@walhi.or.i
From: "Riza Damanik" riza@walhi.or.id
==============
http://www.thejakartapost.com/yesterdaydetail.asp?fileid=20070426.L01
CD Prima planning to bid for Dipasena
Business and Investment - April 26, 2007
Andi Haswidi
, The Jakarta PostThe world's biggest shrimp producer, PT Central Proteinaprima (CP Prima), announced Wednesday that it planned to bid for another acquaculture firm, PT Dipasena Citra Darmaja, in a move that would further expand its shrimp farming business.
With the support of two financial advisors, Barclays Capital and BNP Paribas, CP Prima, a subsidiary of Thai agribusiness firm Charoen Pokphand Group, will participate in the auction of the Dipasena, which will be held by the State Asset Management Company (PPA) on May 25.
"CP prima has taken the initiative by availing of the services of Barclays Capital and BNP Paribas to prove its seriousness in arranging the necessary resources to meet the requirements for the acquisition of Dipasena," CP Prima operations director Erwin Sutanto said in a statement sent to The Jakarta Post.
The company said in the statement that the decision to acquire Dipasena was part of its plan to expand its network in the shrimp-farming sector and to strengthen the company's position as the leader in the aquaculture business.
Erwin said that the company had paid a deposit of Rp 25 billion (about US$2.75 million) as a precondition set by the PPA for participating in the Dipasena sale.
Under the requirements set by the PPA, investors interested in bidding must have experience of the aquaculture business and be able to invest a minimum of Rp 1.7 trillion to develop Dipasena's shrimp farms, which are run in collaboration with local farmers.
"CP Prima is one of the biggest aquaculture producers in the world and has a strong business model. BNP Paribas is glad to be able to support CP Prima in putting its strategy into effect," BNP Paribas senior advisor Ronald Felt said in the news release.
Barclays Capital representative Sity Leo Samudera said that Barclays gladly supported the company's plan to acquire Dipasena from the government.
Initially, an exclusive option to take over Dipasena was extended by the government to PT Recapital Advisors in return for a promise to inject fresh capital into Dipasena by March 1.
After failing to meet the deadline, Recapital was automatically stripped of its option.
Finance Minister Sri Mulyani said last month that the government had treated Recapital fairly as the company had been given a 12-month grace period to fulfill its commitments.
During its heyday, Dipasena was one of the biggest shrimp producers in the world, with output amounting to some 19,854 tons in 1996.
The government took control of Dipasena from Gajah Tunggal Group tycoon Sjamsul Nursalim in part settlement of his Rp 28 trillion debt to the state following the country's financial crisis in early 1998.
From: M.Riza Damanik
Wahana Lingkungan Hidup Indonesia (WALHI)
email: riza@walhi.or.id
==============
Japan rejects shrimp exported from S Sulawesi, Indonesia
Japan rejected 15 tonnes of shrimp exported from South Sulawesi for being contaminated with antibiotic substances exceeding the 5 per cent limit set by the European Union authority, a spokesman said.
Adriadi, chairman of the Indonesian Cold Storage Association (APCI) for South Sulawesi, said here Tuesday the rejection may disrupt the business operations.
Japan has been the biggest importer of Indonesian shrimps. Of Indonesia's total shrimp exports of 7,000 tonnes per year, 4,000 tonnes went to Japan, and the remaining 3,000 tonnes to the EU.
To solve the problem, Adriadi had asked the government and related institutions to improve capacity of the Makassar-based laboratory in detecting and controlling antibiotic contamination of the export commodity.
He suspected that the shrimp had been contaminated with certain chemicals used by the breeders to protect their commodities against disease.
Source:
http://www.antara.co.id/en/arc/2007/5/2/japan-rejects-shrimp-exported-from-s-sulawesi/ANTARA News
From: icsf@icsf.net
==============
Vietnam
Shrimp Farm Impacts On The Mekong Delta
Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science
Volume 71, Issues 1-2, January 2007, Pages 98-109
Sedimentological and ecohydrological processes of Asian deltas: The Yangtze and the Mekong
Abstract
Because shrimp culture in the Mekong Delta develops rapidly, it has negatively impacted the environment, socio-economics and natural resources. In particular, mangrove forests have been altered by the shrimp culture. The area of mangrove forests in the region has been reduced and this is seen especially in Tra Vinh province. The results obtained from GIS (Geography Information System) and RS (Remote Sensing) show the status of mangrove forests in Tra Vinh province in 1965, 1995 (Northeastern part of Tra Vinh Province) and 2001. In 1965, the area of mangrove forests was 21,221 ha making up 56% of total land-use, while in 2001 it was 12,797 ha making up 37% of total land-use. Also based on GIS analysis, over the 36 years (1965-2001), the total coverage of mangrove forests have decreased by 50% since 1965. However, the speed of mangrove forest destruction in the period from 1965 to 1995 was much less than that in the period from 1995 to 2001. The average annual reduction in mangrove forest coverage in the first period (1965-1995) was 0.2% whereas it was 13.1% in the later period (1995-2001). For the long time, mangrove deforestation has been caused by war, collection of firewood and clearing for agriculture, and recently, shrimp farming has significantly contributed rate of mangrove destruction.
From Robin Lewis
LESrrl3@aol.com
==============
Vietnam trying to settle shrimp lawsuit with US Southern Shrimp Alliance amicably
By
Ha YenVietnamese shrimp exporters are trying to reach an agreement with the US Southern Shrimp Alliance (SSA) regarding the annual administration review over anti-dumping tax rates, according to the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP).
The source has said that Vietnamese exporters were aiming to reach an agreement with SSA on delaying the annual administration review for five years, and to escape from the lawsuit step by step. The anti-dumping tax rates would remain unchanged if the rates were low, while the enterprises which are imposed high tax rates would accept the review.
However, it is estimated that it will take time to reach an agreement, as the anti-dumping lawsuit involves six countries, China, Thailand, Vietnam, Brazil, Ecuador, and India, and several hundred companies.
Under US law, as of October 2007, the Byrd Amendment, under which the SSA has raised the lawsuit to get a big sum of money to protect the local shrimp aquaculture (editor’s note: I believe this is an error, and should read local shrimp capture production) from imported shrimp, will not be valid any longer. Therefore, SSA will not receive money any more. In the last few years, the alliance has received more than $100mil.
Therefore, SSA wants to maintain the annual administration review with the shrimp exporters from six countries in an attempt to raise anti-dumping tax rates. The annual review obviously takes exporters much time and money. Several Vietnamese shrimp exporters last year reached an agreement with SSA on exemption from last year’s administration review (in return, the exporters had to pay SSA a sum of money). However, the agreement was just valid for one year.
According to Seafood.com, SSA reached an agreement with the American Seafood Distributors Association (ASDA) recently. Under the agreement, importers of shrimp from countries which are imposed anti-dumping taxes agree to pay money directly to the local shrimp aquaculture (?? Wild-caught shrimp??) . In return, SSA will end the anti-dumping lawsuit and other legal procedures.
Analysts said that the exchange would benefit the US shrimp industry, exporters and importers.
As for the local shrimp industry, it would get a sum of money to divide fairly and clearly.
Importers would have more stable and profuse supplies. Meanwhile, exporters would have fairer competition, under which the price and quality of products would play the decisive role, rather than the capability to negotiate for low tax rates. As such, the market would be better, healthier and more dynamic for all the involved parties.
Nevertheless, the recent moves show that it is very difficult to come to an agreement. This year, SSA proves to be weaker, and it does not have much influence on importers.
Last year, the WTO said that the ‘zeroing’ method applied by the US to calculate anti-dumping tax levels was reasonable. The conclusion would encourage importers to appeal against unfavourable judgments.
Moreover, the US Department of Commerce (DOC) has announced that this year it will apply the traditional method in selecting companies for the administration review, based on general rules. For example, companies to be selected for review must be big companies which are exporting to the US market at this moment. The department will not select companies by chance, which sometimes leads to unknown companies being selected, and the tax rates on unknown companies deciding the rates for the whole industry of a country.
Source:
http://english.vietnamnet.vn/biz/2007/04/689371/VietNamNet Bridge
From: icsf@icsf.net
S. ASIA
Sri Lanka
Daily Mirror Friday April 27, 2007
Mangrove resources facing grave danger says Minister
By Yohan Perera
Minister of Environment and Natural Resources Patalee Champika Ranawaka yesterday warned that Sri Lanka‚s Mangrove resources are facing grave danger due to shrimp farming and land expansion projects and other commercial activities.
While revealing that most affected area is the North Western Coast he stressed the need for involving local communities in the programs aimed at preserving the ecological resources such as mangroves.
The Minister made these points at a conference on Mangrove Restoration, Livelihood Development and Eco-Tourism organized by Nagenahiru Foundation Sri Lanka, Global Natural Fund and European Commission at Bentota yesterday.
Mr Ranawaka explained that Sri Lanka has only 10,000 hectares of mangrove and is fragile. „The essentiality of restoring mangrove of the country has known especially after the 2004 tsunami,‰ he added.
While stating that the national policy on wetlands restoration introduced by the government in 2005 considers wetlands as national resources he said it is essential to do it for the sake of the future generations. He said this point was raised by Arahath Mahinda when he told King Devanam Piyatissa, „ You are only the custodian of all the resources‰.
He reminded that forefathers of the nation have made great strives in restoring wetlands of the country.
In this context he pointed out the tank based irrigation projects and the tradition of Kandyan home gardens are perfect examples of this.
From: Jim Enright mapasia@loxinfo.co.th
==============
Bangladesh
Climate change set to damage biodiversity of Sundarbans
Says BEA president
http://www.thedailystar.net/2007/04/16/d70416060167.htm
Climate change is set to damage biodiversity of the Sundarbans increasing the inundated areas and salinity in water in coastal areas.
As a result, crops, fisheries, forests and livestock will be at high risk in the country.
This was stated by Prof Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad, lead author of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)'s Working Group-2, at a press briefing organised by Bangladesh Economic Association (BEA) and Bangladesh Unnayan Parishad (BUP) at Dhaka Reporters Unity in the city yesterday.
"Though Bangladesh is committed to conserve the World Heritage Sites in the Sundarbans, those are at great risk due to climate change," he said referring that two of the total 104 islands of Sundarbans in the Indian side have been lost due to rise of sea level.
Prof Kholiquzzaman said due to climate change, around two crore people in flooded areas will lose employment and their socio-economic security and millions will be forced to become refugees and face various diseases like malaria, diarrhoea and skin diseases.
On the other hand, the climate change caused by global warming, will deepen drought in north-western region leaving agriculture and farmers at great risk, he added.
Citing researches, Prof Kholiquzzaman, also president of BEA, said a huge number of hardcore people will turn into beggars, the poor into ultra-poor and the lower income groups into poor.
"The consequences of ice-melting in the Himalayas caused by global warming will be devastating for Bangladesh," he said, adding, with more floods, there will be more people migrating to cities creating immense pressure on urban areas and compelling them to live an inhumane life in the slums.
In the wake of such research-based apprehensions, Prof Kholiquzzaman said Bangladesh as well as other developing countries should be united against the industrialised nations, which are mainly responsible for global warming, but are passing the burden on the developing ones.
According to a report of IPCC, on an average global temperature will increase from 1.8 degree Celsius to 4 degree Celsius, while sea level will increase by 18 to 59 centimetres by next century.
Another IPCC report, published early this year, said 120 crore people of Asia and 25 crore people of Africa will suffer from scarcity of water in the case of increasing temperature by 1 degree Celsius.
"And if the temperature increases by 2 degree Celsius, productivity of rice in China will come down by 12 percent, 20 lakh people will face coastal flooding in Asia and 160 core more people in Africa will suffer from scarcity of water," it added.
Increasing capacity of adoptability and controlling the global warming process are now very urgent, the report suggested.
BEA General Secretary Prof Abul Barakat and Prof Zahurul Karim, chairman of Centre for Agri Research and Sustainable Environment & Entrepreneurship Development, also spoke.
Date: Mon, 16 Apr 2007 12:26:13 +0600
From: BanglaPraxis
OCEANIA
Fiji
Fuji Times Online
Copyright © 2007, Fiji Times Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Villagers to reap benefits of resource project
Amelia Vunileba (Thursday, April 12, 2007)
Six villages took part in a district project on the island of Gau in the Lomaiviti Province and have been rewarded for their hard work on their resource management project.
Called the Mositi Vanuaso Project, initial planning stages of this community initiative started in 2001 and got off to a start in 2002.
This is an environmental project which encourages villagers to manage their environmental resources to ensure there is something for future generations.
Their efforts have been recognised and have been awarded the National Energy Globe Award for Fiji….
…Because many island villages rely on marine life for their daily sustenance and livelihood, the project looked at different resource management activities particularly so as coastal areas were often subjected to harsh elements that have been compounded by environmental problems…
"….-Project activities will benefit future generations through the improvement in people's lives, protection of critical coastal habitats and the provision of alternative sources of livelihoods."
Dr Veitayaki says that like other coastal communities, the villages in this district are vulnerable to the effects of rising sea levels and extreme natural disasters like cyclones, tsunamis and flooding.
But, he says villagers were now taking hold of the situation and caring for the environment and getting involved in developmental activities that would not only sustain their environments but safeguard their interests as well.
"These activities demonstrate that the care of or for the environment can be rewarding in ways that may seem removed at first but in fact are logical, given the interrelated nature of the environment."
"The villagers have named the initiative Mositi Vanuaso, which means having deep attachment to the place, its resources and inhabitants."
Copyright © 2007, Fiji Times Limited. All Rights Reserved.
From: Jim Enright mapasia@loxinfo.co.th
LATIN AMERICA
Brazil
World Rainforest Movement Bulletin # 116 March 2007
COMMUNITIES AND FORESTS
- Brazil: MST peasants occupy a shrimp farm
The problem of the loss of territories by peasants and indigenous peoples in favour of industrial projects has several aspects in Brazil and the Landless Peasant‚s Movement (MST) has been struggling to counteract this process.
We have reported on the successive occupations of land covered with vast monoculture eucalyptus plantations for pulp production ˆ one of such occupations recently involved the women of Via Campesina/MST on the occasion of International Woman‚s Day.
Mangroves are also affected by depredatory projects. Shrimp farming is an extractive business that implies mangrove destruction. On 21 January this year in response to the situation and to protest against the slowness of the agrarian reform in the state, approximately 150 families associated with MST invaded the Qualibras shrimp farm located in Itapipoca, the coastal region of the State of Ceara.
With this occupation, MST was denouncing yet another act of violence by agro-business in the country: that of the Qualibras group destroying the mangroves in the region. According to Brazilian law this is a serious environmental crime because of the importance of mangroves, among other things, in the marine food chain. The Brazilian Terramar Institute denounced that the shrimp farms are violating Ceara laws as they are building nurseries in permanent protection areas. „An assessment made by the Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA) found that 75 percent of the shrimp farms in Ceara are located in permanent preservation areas, violating the state laws.‰
In the mangroves big business finds great profitability thanks to low production costs, an abundant and close water supply and tide movements that help to keep down the cost of pumping water into the tanks.
In spite of the environmental importance of mangroves and of the legislation, shrimp farming companies continue to expand their business: between 2003 and 2004, the area of shrimp farms in Brazil rose from 14,824 to 16,598 hectares with a total of close on 1,000 farms throughout the country, compared to the 20 that existed in the eighties.
While this agro-business advances over the mangroves in the northeast of the country, the workers are getting organized. The families that took part in the occupation are camping in the coastal region of the state, struggling to be given land and granted deeds. There are a total of 1,700 families spread out in 25 camps, and many of them have been waiting for over five years for the promised agrarian reform. In 2006, the goal of the National Institute for Settlement and Agrarian Reform (INCRA) was to settle 2,000 families in the State, but only 206 have received lands. The indigenous group „Tremembes‰ also took part in the occupation, demanding demarcation of lands in the indigenous zone of Buritis in Itapipoca.
Gunmen hired by the company surrounded the camp on the night of 23 January, in an attempt to intimidate the men, women and children. Finally and to avoid a conflict placing the safety of their families at risk, the landless peasants abandoned the occupation the following morning.
"We left with the intention of returning again in the event that INCRA does not definitively resolve the problems of the agrarian reform,‰ affirmed a representative of the landless movement.
Article based on information from: „Brasil: MST ocupa fazenda devastadora de mangues no Cear ‰, Igor Felippe Santos, http://www.biodiversidadla.org/content/view/full/29831
http://www.biodiversidadla.org/content/view/full/29831; „MST ocupa fazenda de cria o de camar o‰, Carlos Henrique Camelo, OPovo online, http://www.opovo.com.br/opovo/ceara/664429.html
MST sai de fazenda com amea as de jagun os no Cear ‰, CUT, http://www.cut.org.br/publique/cgi/cgilua.exe/sys/start.htm?infoid=7314&sid=22
From: manglar@comcast.net
THE CARIBBEAN
The Bahamas
Money secured to continue legal fight http://www.thenassauguardian.com/national_local/315069692484789.php#%23%23%20
template%20not%20found%20%23%23%23
By KRYSTEL ROLLE, Guardian Staff Reporter
krystel@nasguard.com
The Save Guana Cay Reef Association (SGCRA) has secured the money it needs to continue its fight against a multi-million-dollar resort on the tiny island in the Abacos.
Embroiled in a legal battle with the Baker's Bay Golf and Ocean Club, SGCRA has spent almost two years trying to protect the environment and marine life surrounding the $500 million development.
Most recently, the group was ordered by the court to put up a $100,000 security bond after applying for an injunction.
The court determined that in order to continue the case the group would have to give security. After "some wrangling back and forth" the developers reportedly agreed to accept $75,000 but reneged on that deal when the group appeared in court.
At that time, SGCRA had only secured three quarters of the money; however, the group's lawyer, Fred Smith told The Guardian yesterday that the association has been able to secure the full amount.
"We received tremendous support from our members and other donors and we have the $100,000 by way of security for costs to be paid in an account," he said.
"We are not going to let these obstacles and challenges which these developers are putting in the association's way vitiate our rights."
Smith argued that it would be useless to have courts if only the rich could fight for their rights.
Now, SGCRA is calling on the new government to pass legislation to ensure that the rights of the poor are not taken away.
It wants the government to ensure that in public interest cases, security fees cannot be used by developers or the government to prevent people from suing to protect rights. "The association has a group of very motivated Bahamian citizens who are very passionate about the environment and local rights and they are not going to allow foreigners to invade their homeland and then to try and use their own judicial system to best them. It will be a cold day in hell before the association is muzzled."
Despite challenges so far, the lawyer is confident that the Court of Appeal will analyze the case and rule in their favor. According to Smith, their case is very strong and one which the group intends to pursue to the end.
The project that the group is protesting will include an exclusive resort and gated community, along with an 18-hole, 585-acre championship golf course.
"So far the developers have disrespected their local government rights, our culture, heritage and our fiscal and marine environment," claims Smith.
However, Baker's Bay insist that its development will not harm the environment or marine life.
Said Smith: "I don't know why American developers think they can just come to The Bahamas and they can get a crop of land to do whatever they want to do."
The SGCRA is expected to post the security sometime today.
From: "Ed Sims" <bahamas_18@hotmail.com>
==============Save Guana Cay Reef Association to Attend United Nations Event
Save Guana Cay Reef Association has been invited to send delegates to the United Nations Commission, who will be discussing Sustainable Development in the third world at their New York City offices, in early May.
The Guana Cay Association began their fight in early 2005 and are still fighting to save their tiny island from what they see as over development destruction. The are now widely recognized in The Bahamas as the grass roots non-governmental organization opposing the Baker‚s Bay Club Development on Great Guana Cay‚s pristine northeastern end, and the Save Guana Cay Reef Association is now pushing for environmental protection laws for the entire Bahamas.
The attending members from Save Guana Cay Reef have been accredited and will join the historic meeting attended by other member nations from around the world, UN agencies, major international funding agencies, the private sector and the press. Global mangrove protection will be a central issue, and Alfredo Quarto; the Director of MAP (Mangrove Action Project) will join SGCR to speak on behalf of mangrove protection in the Bahamas and the Caribbean.
The Association will present videos, scientific documentation and photographic evidence of their concerns about unchecked development from islands throughout The Bahamas.
Loss of mangroves, threats to coral reefs, and fish habitat will be their primary focus. The group will have floor time on May 7th and they hope to capture the attention of the world as they work to save The Bahamas reefs, beaches and oceans. "This will be a wonderful opportunity to share our collection of research with other island nations facing similar concerns," said Sidney Weatherford, Guana Cay life resident and association member.
The association has built an international audience and attracted the support of organizations throughout the world. Scientists supporting SGCR include a coral ecologist from Canada, a coral scientist from Jamaica, a coral pathologist from the Woods Hole Institute in the United States, Jean-Michel Cousteau and Ocean Futures Society and the Sierra Club. The Global Coral Reef Alliance will be joining Save Guana Cay Reef and the association‚s lead attorney, Fred Smith, in New York this May.
Save Guana Cay Reef has been integral in building the Save The Bahamas Alliance; a network of out-island environmental and community rights groups fighting like minded battles for local rights and environmental protection. Save Guana Cay Reef also networks with organizations in other Caribbean Basin nations to share ideas about sustainable practices so that these tourism and marine resource-based economies can continue to prosper from their delicate, but bountiful resources.
We are absolutely not opposed to development," says SGCR President Troy Albury, "we just want the developments to be better planned, the impacts monitored, and most importantly environmentally safe for the surrounding reefs."
This visit is an historical one for the association and the Bahamians who started the campaign. It is the first time a Bahamian delegation has attended the UN on environmental issues and the SGCR members are thrilled to be representing their country and to know that their concerns will be heard internationally.
Save Guana Cay Reef continues to battle the proposed Baker‚s Bay Club on the grounds that the development‚s footprint is much too large and destructive for this small island whose economy relies on small-scale tourism and fishing. The world‚s most respected coral and marine scientists back their position on Baker‚s Bay Club‚s monstrous mega-development. They have stated publicly that the development will harm the islands reef, fishing resources, mangroves, and Guana‚s quiet tourism-based economy.
The group plans to travel to the New York after the general elections, which they have been watching with deep interest. "When we started all of this we did not realize what a large impact land sales and development issues would be in the forefront of political concerns." added Albury."We are thrilled that our countrymen now know we must be told about every development in our islands and that we have the right to be involved in what happens in our country and most importantly with our land."
From: Pat Weatherford
==============
Cayman Islands
Famous Caymans Coral Reefs Dying, Scientists Say
http://www.planetark.com/mail_dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=41745
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CAYMAN ISLANDS: May 7, 2007
GEORGE TOWN, Cayman Islands - To coral reef-driven tourism industries like those of the Cayman Islands, there could be a greater cost in ignoring climate change than fighting it.
Ranked among the top 10 scuba diving destinations in the world, the reef system of the western Caribbean territory has lost 50 percent of its hard corals in the last 10 years in spite of strong environmental laws, scientists say.
"We are at a very critical time in the history of coral reefs," said Carrie Manfrino, president of the Central Caribbean Marine Institute on Little Cayman island.
"It is like working with a sick patient. How well we treat that patient will determine if that patient survives. We could potentially see the end of hard coral reefs in our lifetime."
The Caymans tourism industry, which represents about 50 percent of the colony's gross domestic product, was kick-started in 1957 when dive industry pioneer Bob Soto opened the first scuba diving operation in the Caribbean.
Fifty years later, about 2 million visitors arrive every year, with most either diving or snorkeling on famous sites like the North Wall or Stingray City.
The sport helped transform a sleepy territory of 8,500 people subsisting on fishing and seafaring into a luxury tourism destination and sophisticated offshore banking center whose 52,000 people have the highest per capita income in the region.
A UN panel -- the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change -- has warned that the world must make sweeping cuts in greenhouse gas emissions to avoid a rise in temperatures that could inundate islands and coastlines under rising seas, and kill off the world's temperature-sensitive coral reefs.
In a report issued on Friday, the IPCC said keeping the increase in temperatures within 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) would only cost 0.12 percent of the world's annual gross domestic product.
To Cayman residents who depend on tourism, that would be a small investment if it were enough to save the coral reefs.
Global warming is heating sea water, which leads to coral bleaching, an ailment that causes normally colorful corals to turn white, and white plague, a disease sweeping and killing coral around the world.
PROTECTING THE REEFS
Another threat in the Caymans comes from cruise ships, which have damaged large areas of living coral with their anchors and chains, said Gina Ebanks-Petrie, director of the Cayman Islands Department of the Environment.
Yet cruise ships are an important and growing part of the Caymans' tourism industry. Thirty-six percent of tourist revenue comes from 1.7 million cruise ship passengers who visit each year, and more ships are making the islands a port of call.
Even with a 50 percent decline in hard corals, Caymans' reefs are still considered among the healthiest in the Atlantic. Scientists say the islands are geographically isolated by surrounding water 6,000 feet (1,830 metres) deep, which minimizes the impact of pollution from other countries.
The Marine Conservation Law passed in 1986 established the marine park system and has played a key role in protecting Caymans' reefs. But Ebanks-Petrie said it has struggled to adapt to rapidly changing environmental conditions.
The dive industry worries that without a coral reef, the Cayman Islands will not have anything different to offer tourists than the rest of the Caribbean.
"If the coral reef dies, the algae will go, and the tropical fish will go. Then there will be nothing left to see," says Nancy Easterbrook, operator of Divetech.
Manfrino said hope is not lost.
"We can't give up," she said. "Science is always coming up with major discoveries, so we may find a way to save our reefs."
Story by Shurna Robbins
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
http://www.reuters.comFrom Roy Robin Lewis iii
LESrrl3@aol.com
==============
St. Maarten
Mullet Pond Video Recently Released
The Mullet Pond Coalition announces the release of a video showcasing the ecological diversity and value of Mullet Pond in Simpson Lagoon, St. Maarten. This five minute video provides a view into the underwater world
and wildlife encountered among the mangrove trees and seagrass there. It also outlines why Mullet Pond is so environmentally important and how it may
be under threat. The video can be seen at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQEgQhy8QAE
or by searching You Tube by the title "The Last Stand: the mangrove trees of Mullet Pond."
Several non-profit organizations have formed the Mullet Pond Coalition in order to advocate for the protection of the mangroves and seagrass beds of Mullet Pond. Specifically, the Coalition supports the zoning of Mullet
Pond, located between Point Pirouette and Mullet Beach, as a protected area in which it is prohibited to remove and/or cut existing vegetation, including mangroves and seagrass, within 15 meters of the lagoon shoreline. Members of the group include Environmental Protection in the Caribbean
(EPIC), Nature Foundation St. Maarten, OceanCare, and PRIDE Foundation.
The coalition formed in response to development plans posted on sxmprivateeye.com which describe an 85 yacht marina, including megayachts up to 300 feet, and 32 yacht villas with private docks.
The Mullet Pond Coalition's webpage is at
http://www.epicislands.org/Mullet%20Pond%20Coalition.htm
where visitors can lean more about the campaign to protect Mullet Pond as well as how to take action, including an online petition.
Natalia Collier. President
Environmental Protection In the Caribbean (EPIC)
==============
US Virgin Islands
The Second Mangrove Clean-up at the Cas-Cay Mangrove Lagoon Marine Sanctuary
Sunday May 13th - Water based clean-up
Saturday May 19th - Land based clean-up
Organizations and individuals are being called to action! In an effort to beautify and learn from the Cas Cay - Mangrove Lagoon Marine Reserve and Wildlife Sanctuary on St. Thomas, USVI, The Virgin Islands Mangrove Research and Conservation Coalition (VIMRCC) is conducting a large scale clean-up and monitoring effort. The water based clean-up will be conducted on May 13th and the number of volunteers will be limited by the number of kayaks and boats we have available. The land based clean-up will be conducted on May 19th and involve any individual or group that wishes to volunteer.
Those interested in being involved should contact the VIMRCC coordinator, Amber McCammon, by phone or e-mail a.s.a.p. for details of where and when to meet. ambermccammon@yahoo.com <mailto:ambermccammon@yahoo.com> 340-642-2307
The main objective of this work is debris removal to allow for future restoration efforts in the Mangrove Lagoon Marine Reserve. Cleanup activities will be conducted at four times throughout the year and environmental quality will be measured during each cleanup event with the help of community volunteers. Volunteers will gain the scientific skills to assess environmental quality, aid in educating fellow community members about our precious mangrove ecosystem, and enjoy the company of fellow environmentalists while making our island a cleaner place.
Baseline environmental quality measurements are necessary to allow for successful mangrove restoration in the future. This project will serve as a model to mangrove restoration in the USVI, and integrates debris removal with baseline data for mangrove restoration and public education.
The first clean-up involved a core group of people that wished to help establish a clean-up method within the sanctuary by sea and by land. The members of the group will act as team leaders for the May clean-ups, managing the larger community volunteer effort.
From: amber mccammon
NORTH AMERICA
USA
The Washington Post April 18, 2007 WednesdayAs Fresh as They Get;
Three Young Guys Hope to Feed an Appetite for Fresh, Sustainable Farmed Shrimp
DATELINE:
HURLOCK, Md.Scan the brown, bubbling water, and the untrained eye can't see a living thing. "Focus on the edge, on one spot," says Scott Fritze, co-owner of MarvestaShrimp Farms, an indoor aquaculture facility here. And, sure enough, right where the artificial pond's black plastic liner meets the algae-covered wooden frame, there's one, then another wriggling crustacean on the move.
"It's really neat when you feed them," Fritze says. "Their little legs grab for the food."
Fritze and partners Andrew Hanzlik and Guy Furman, all 27, are forerunners in the brave new world of indoor shrimp farming. The vast majority of shrimp consumed in the United States is imported from Asian coastal farms that environmentalists say damage coastlines and threaten wildlife, such as sea turtles. But this trio thinks its technologically advanced system of producing a sustainable supply of fresh shrimp year-round in a non-polluting environment may represent the future source of America's favorite seafood -- or at least earn the partners a tiny piece of the market.
They'll have plenty of competition, not just from the frozen imports but, soon enough, from a much larger indoor shrimp-farming facility being built in Virginia.
The three men started small. In 2003, they broke ground and built the first of five hoop-style greenhouses, covered in white polyvinyl, on a five-acre plot surrounded by cornfields in Hurlock, 17 miles east of Easton. Inside are the saltwater ponds, most 140 feet long, 30 feet wide and an average five feet deep, each stocked with shrimp in different stages of development -- from tiny post-larvals to jumbos that are eight inches long, ready for the saute pan.
Furman, with a master's degree in biology and environmental engineering from Cornell University, brought to the project a science background and his thesis on shrimp farming. His childhood pal, Fritze, met Hanzlik at Bucknell University, where each received a business degree. They put together the corporate and development plan.
"We didn't have experience," says Fritze, who like Hanzlik was otherwise headed for Wall Street. "But we did have passion and diligence and saw an opportunity to pioneer this business."
These days, most often dressed in wet suits, all three are up to their necks in shrimp.
The men will not share details on how they heat, circulate, filter and oxygenate the water or how they keep their facility bio-secure. The shrimp are nourished on a fortified, soy-based feed. Fritze will say that there were "not fun years where we were pushed to the edge with peaks and valleys," dealing with power outages, heating failures and water quality issues. Now they are satisfied with their system, which they say is completely recirculating, with no waste products. Water is trucked in from the ocean. And because Marvesta is inland, there is no chance of discharge into waterways.
When Hanzlik grabs a pole net and scoops deep beneath the brackish surface, out come dozens of the creatures, which contract their tail muscles and spring two to three feet in the air. They are a disease-resistant species, Litopenaeus vannamei, commonly referred to as white shrimp because of their color.
Last year, Marvesta's first in commercial production, the men produced 10,000 pounds of medium and large shrimp and sold them, hours after scooping them from the tanks, to 15 high-end restaurants from Easton to Annapolis. At an average $10 per pound retail, prices are comparable to domestic, previously frozen, wild-caught shrimp from the Gulf of Mexico. In the past two months, though, demand has exceeded the supply, and they have stopped, for the time being, taking on new restaurant clients or accepting mail orders at their Web site, <http://www.marvesta.com>http://www.marvesta.com.
Says Fritze: "The market is starved for a fresh producer of shrimp." How starved? It's safe to say that most people in this country have never eaten a fresh shrimp.
The overwhelming majority of shrimp sold in the United States, whether domestic wild-caught or imported farm-raised, are frozen at the source, soon after capture. The delicate creatures deteriorate faster than other seafoods.
"There are two kinds of shrimp: frozen and rotting. Freezing makes for better quality," says John Williams, executive director of the Southern Shrimp Alliance, which represents shrimpers and processors in eight East Coast and Gulf states. Shrimp freeze well. But in the marketplace, fresh is always considered superior.
The total wild catch, in 2006 a near-record harvest of 300 million pounds, is nowhere close to what we throw on the grill. Nearly 90 percent of all shrimp consumed in the United States is farm-raised and imported from more than 24 countries. Imports totaled more than 1.1 billion pounds last year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Most commercial shrimp farms are in coastal areas and consist of a series of large ponds, many made by clearing and damming mangrove swamps or dredging clear-cut forest lands, creating a host of environmental problems.Water quality is often an issue. Multi-acre abandoned farms, no longer suitable for production, litter the coastline.
At many farms, wastewater containing excessive amounts of fertilizers, used to promote the growth of algae for shrimp food, is flushed into the coastal waters. Health standards for the shrimp are sometimes poor, and diseases spread quickly.
To further muddy the waters, in February 2005 the Commerce Department imposed anti-dumping orders and fines on six countries: Brazil, China, Ecuador, Vietnam, India and Thailand. U.S. shrimpers say the decision stopped the deep decline in imported shrimp prices, which have been sliding since 2000. However, U.S. shrimp prices are still at record lows, and the value is similar to that of shrimp in the 1960s, shrimpers complain.
Of the 15 or so commercial shrimp farms in the United States, most are seasonal, outdoor operations in Texas. There is one indoor shrimp in operation in Texas, another in Michigan. (All are monitored and regulated by state and federal agencies.) And skeptics question the economic sensibility of the operations, indoors or out.
"With the competition from imported shrimp, it's virtually impossible to make a profit in shrimp farming," says Bob Rosenberry, editor and publisher of Shrimp News International. "People have been trying to grow shrimp in this country for 40 years, and to the best of my knowledge no farm has made a consistent profit over several years."
But no shrimp farm is quite like the one under construction in Martinsville, Va., near the North Carolina border. Scheduled to begin tests within 90 days, Blue Ridge Aquaculture's 30,000-square-foot indoor facility is expected to produce nearly 50 million pounds of fresh, live shrimp per year, in a total recycling system with no waste or discharge.
"We're going to alter the way people eat fish," says company president Bill Martin. "It's all about volume. And we have no interest in frozen."
Blue Ridge is already one of the largest producers of live tilapia in the country, raising nearly 4 million pounds per year. Most go to Asian restaurants and supermarkets.
"The live market for shrimp has never been serviced, and it's a golden marketing opportunity," says George Flick, Blue Ridge adviser and professor of food science and technology at Virginia Tech. By the end of the year he hopes to have live shrimp in supermarkets in the Washington area.
Marvesta has explored selling live shrimp, but for the time being isn't focusing on it. After the shrimp are removed from the tanks, they are chilled and quickly die before being delivered to restaurants. Plans are underway to build 50 additional greenhouses and produce 250,000 pounds of shrimp by next spring.
J.J. Minetola, executive chef of Metropolitan restaurant in Annapolis, has been buying Marvesta shrimp for the past six months. "These are cool guys with gorgeous shrimp," says Minetola, who buys as much produce, meats and seafood as he can from local farms. "I call the guys at 1 p.m.," he says. "They pull them out of the tank, and by 3 p.m. they're at the kitchen door. That lets you know how fresh they are."
From: Andrianna Natsoulas
STORIES/ISSUES
Asia Has Few Plans Yet to Deal with Rising Seashttp://www.planetark.com/mail_dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=41733
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SINGAPORE : May 7, 2007
SINGAPORE - Asia's population is most at risk from rising sea levels and more powerful storms, but few countries in the region have made detailed plans to deal with the hazards their coastlines and ports would face.
Scientists have predicted a dire future of human-induced global warming causing rising sea-levels that could drown low-lying areas and hit Asia hard, though experts agreed in a UN report on Friday fighting climate change was affordable.
"In most of Asia, if you put that on a list of priorities it falls off the bottom of the page," said Steve Williams, head of Energy Solutions, which does consultancy work on industry services such as ports and infrastructure.
One in 10 people, mainly in Asia, live in coastal areas most at risk, an international study published last month found.
The researchers said many countries cannot afford Dutch-style dykes but urged governments to make billion-dollar policy shifts in long-term planning to encourage more settlements inland.
Limiting global warming to a 2 degrees centigrade rise would cost just 0.12 percent of global Gross Domestic Product (GDP), with the technology available, a UN climate change report said on Friday after days of wrangling at talks in Bangkok.
The Thai capital could be under water in 20 years because of rising seas from global warming and subsidence, a top Thai climate expert, who warned of a tsunami years before the 2004 disaster, told Reuters in an interview this week.
Smith Dharmasaroja, head of Thailand's National Disaster Warning Centre, said the city of 10 million people was sinking at an alarming rate and to avert disaster it needed to construct a massive sea wall. He said the government did not pay attention.
RECLAIMED LAND
For fellow southeast Asian country Singapore, where low-lying land has been reclaimed from the sea in recent decades, global warming is a big threat to its future, the city-state's founder Lee Kuan Yew told Reuters in an interview last week.
"What dykes can we build? Where do we get materials for the dykes? Do we excavate the sea bed? We are into a very serious problem," Lee said.
Even so, experts say wealthy Singapore -- known for organisation and efficiency -- is the most likely country to push ahead with sea defences to avoid being partly submerged under six metres (20 feet) of water in a worst case scenario.
"The first country that would really start thinking about this is Singapore -- they have a lot of landfill," said Energy Solutions' Williams.
Neighbouring Indonesia, which banned sand exports for land reclamation to Singapore this year, has said it could lose 2,000 islands by 2030. It has been drafting a national strategy to deal with climate change.
Ranked by population, China is most at risk to rising sea levels with 143 million people living by the coast, followed by India, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Indonesia and Japan.
Regional powerhouse China is expected to be vulnerable along its storm-prone southeastern coastline, though government environmental protection efforts have been more committed to tackling rampant air and water pollution.
In India, where ports are being expanded to boost fuel shipments from its booming oil refining sector to a region hungry for more fuel, environmentalists say coastal development has reduced natural sea defences such as sand bars and mangroves.
"We need to understand these things, their implication and certainly a strategy needs to be worked out -- but it's not that we have a plan tomorrow," said P.S. Goel, Secretary at the Ministry of Earth Sciences. "Something needs to be done for the ports ... certainly we all are worried."
(Additional reporting by Nidhi Verma in New Delhi, Emma Graham-Harrison in Beijing and Luke Pachymuthu in Singapore)
Story by Neil Chatterjee
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
From: LESrrl3@aol.com
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Restoring the Earth-- beating swords to ploughshares
The environment is moving from a green issue to a red alert. This was made clear in two interventions this week ˆ Margaret Beckett‚s New York lecture in which she set out the security threats arising from crop failure, flooding and water shortages ˆ and the report by a dozen former generals and admirals in the US, saying that climate change poses a serious threat to America‚s national security.
These warnings need to be taken to their logical conclusion. Security issues demand security responses. And that should mean that the economic ˆ and military - might of the world‚s most powerful and wealthy states needs to be harnessed to fight what Greenpeace calls "the weather of mass destruction".
The world is waking up to the need to invest in low carbon energy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere, but at the same time there is a need to rebuild damaged environments at ground level as part of an effort to restore the entire global ecosystem to health and stability. For the next hundred years, we need to embark on a large-scale co-ordinated effort to restore the climate‚s regulatory services that only healthy ecosystems can provide ˆ this is the great work ahead for coming generations.
The forests, oceans, wildlife, tundra, grasslands and freshwaters are all being degraded. For example, today, as the oceans are warming and the mangroves and coral reefs being depleted, the absorption of CO2 is lessened. According to scientists the ocean is taking up less CO2 now than it did in the 1980‚s - the excess of CO2 in the atmosphere leads to its acidification.
On a global scale, MAP (Mangrove Action Project) claims the nutrient deficit in marine ecosystems caused by the degradation of mangroves results in annual losses of approximately 4.7 million tons of fish and 1.5 million tons of shrimp for the fishing industry ˆ here both the ecology and the economy is compromised. To make the case for restoring them - planting mangroves would not only benefit the sea life itself, but will at the same time, absorb CO2, provide fish stock to communities, enhance local health and generate economic activity.
Our global forests are in crisis and shortages of forest foods and fuel wood create social hardships for the poor: 90 percent of the poorest of the poor depend on forests (World Bank). For example in the Sahel desert, thanks to one NGO called newTree, through ordinary gestures such as keeping foraging goats out of seeded areas, highly biodiverse forests are developing and starting to provide food, energy and shelter to the local communities.
Lester Brown in his Plan B puts some interesting figures on earthrestoration and the type of budget it requires: He estimates costs of $6 billion for Reforesting the Earth; $24 billion for Protecting topsoil on cropland
$9 billion for Restoring range lands
$13 billion for Restoring fisheries
$31 billion for Protecting biological diversity
$10 billion for Stabilising water tables
$93 billion Total
This compares with current Military Budgets of $492 billion in the United States; $65 billion in Russia; $56 billion in China; $49 billion in United Kingdom; $45 billion in Japan; $40 billion in France; $30 billion in Germany; $19 billion in Saudi Arabia; $19 billion in India; $18 billion in Italy; and $142 billion elsewhere - a total of $975 billion World Military Expenditure. In other words restoring critical eco-systems and stabilizing them for the future costs around a tenth of current military expenditure.
This budget, no charity or environmental group can implement. How do we advocate for the above to happen? The ERS (Earth Restoration Service) has argued that the military is in a very good position to start restoration initiatives. Indeed, at a small scale, it already does. Existing examples are the US Army Corps of Engineers restoring the Everglades ecosystem in Florida, the Indian army undertaking restoration projects throughout the sub-continent and the South African military responding heroically to the flooding and environmental disaster in Mozambique at the turn of the millennium. Our founder Alan Watson Featherstone writes "funds might well be drawn from existing military resources which would give a new sense of value and fulfillment to the military, as they engage in addressing real threats to environmental security"
This is almost literally beating swords to ploughshares and spears into pruning hooks.
What a redemption to change the pursuits of war to the tending ofecosystems - what can be more inspiriting than to see our world turning away from destruction to restoration? Both restoration and destruction are similar as they spring from intention ˆ so we have been given a choice.
There is no longer time to sit back and make flower decorations for our life boats and "feel good" solutions to Climate Change - restoration on a global scale needs to be implemented, as a way to regain our place within nature‚s web and as a powerful pursuit for peace.
In its search for resources and wealth, humanity is developing the last wildernesses of the world and damaging many of its treasures. We have to look behind us and clear up the destructive path we have walked. We are at the threshold of the age of restoration.
Andreas Kornevall, Director of Operations
Earth Restoration Service
www.earthrestorationservice.org
Notes:
The U.S. number is the budget estimate for FY2006 (including $50 billion for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan); Russia and China data are for 2003.
"Building a New Future," in Lester R. Brown, Plan B 2.0: Rescuing a Planet Under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble (New York: W.W. Norton & Company,
2006. Additional data and information sources at www.earthpolicy.org
Forest Restoration in Landscapes, beyond planting trees (Stephanie
Mansourian, Daniel Vallauri, Nigel Dudley.
Tim Flannery, the weather makers (Harper Collins)
MAP (Mangrove Action Project)
From: "Andreas Kornevall, Earth Restoration"
andreas@earthrestorationservice.org
==============
Climate change: study maps those at greatest risk from cyclones and rising seas
The first global study to identify populations at greatest risk from rising sea levels and more intense cyclones linked to climate change will be published next month in the peer-reviewed journal Environment and Urbanization.
The research shows that 634 million people - one tenth of the global
population - live in coastal areas that lie within just ten metres above sea level.
It calls for action to limit the effects of climate change, to help people migrate away from risk and to modify urban settlements to reduce their vulnerability. But it warns that this will require enforceable regulations and economic incentives, both of which depend on political will, funding and human capital.
Key findings of the study by Gordon McGranahan of the International Institute for Environment and Development (UK) and his colleagues, Deborah Balk and Bridget Anderson, at the City University of New York and Columbia University, are that:
* Nearly two-thirds of urban settlements with more than 5
million inhabitants are at least partially in the 0-10 metre zone.
* On average, 14 percent of people in the least developed
countries live in the zone (compared to 10 percent in OECD countries).
* 21 percent of the urban populations of least developed
nations are in the zone (11 percent in OECD countries).
* About 75% of people in the zone are in Asia.
* 21 nations have more than half of their population in the
zone (16 are small island states).
* Poor countries - and poor communities within them - are most at risk.
The study will be published on 14 April along with papers that focus on specific cities, including Cotonou (Benin), Dhaka (Bangladesh), Mumbai (India) and Shanghai (China).
"Urban development in the coastal zone brings multiple risks," says
McGranahan. "It exposes people to seaward hazards such as storms, flooding and cyclones, and it can damage sensitive ecosystems including those such as mangrove forests that protect the coastline."
"One in ten people, and one out of every eight urban dwellers, live on the coast no more than ten metres above sea level, but that number is increasing," says McGranahan. "People are running towards risk, particularly in China but also in other parts of the world such as Bangladesh, where more 40% of the land area is within ten metres above sea level."
China's economic boom has been driven by policies that promote coastal development and which have encouraged one of the largest coastward migrations ever. The study says that unless action is taken that China's economic success will be placed at risk.
Last month the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) latest report warned that sea levels could rise by tens of centimetres this century, making coastal populations more vulnerable to flooding and storm surges. It also predicted more intense tropical cyclones (typhoons and hurricanes).
"The IPCC is aware that there are high population densities in coastal
areas, but it has not yet recognised the links to urbanisation, and the implications for adaptation to climate change," says co-author Deborah Balk, the acting associate director of the Institute for Demographic Research at the City University of New York.
The new study highlights the importance of "the three Ms": mitigation, migration and modification.
"It is too late to rely solely on a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions to mitigate climate change, although this is clearly an imperative," says McGranahan. "Migration away from the zone at risk will be necessary but costly and hard to implement, so coastal settlements will also need to be modified to protect residents."
"Of the more than 180 countries with population in the low-elevation coastal zone, 130 of them - about 70% - have their largest urban area extending into that zone," adds Bridget Anderson, research associate at Columbia University's Center for International Earth Science Information Network.
"Furthermore, the world's large cities - those with more than 5 million residents - have, on average, one-fifth of their population and one-sixth of their land area within this coastal zone."
Many of the countries with the most people in the 0-10 metre zone are large Asian nations with densely populated river deltas, while many nations with the greatest proportion of their people in the zone are small island states.
"Climate change is not a natural disaster but has largely been caused by wealthy countries emitting greenhouse gases during their industrialisation," says McGranahan. "Yet the poorest countries that have contributed least to the problem are most vulnerable to its effects. It is therefore incumbent on rich nations to help poorer ones to adapt to the changes ahead."
McGranahan and colleagues analysed the GRUMP (Global Rural-Urban Mapping Project) databases of fine-scale information on population and urban extent along with elevation data derived from NASA's Satellite Radar Topography Mission, and World Bank data on national income.
"Carefully combining spatial data layers allows us to calculate the
distribution of each country's population and urban settlements by elevation along a narrow coastal strip of land in most places," notes Balk. "These kinds of estimates are impossible to derive from national-level data."
"The ability to map both human activities and environmental conditions globally has revolutionary possibilities - and is very timely given the emergence o