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The MAP News, 191st Ed., 11 November 2007
Dear Friends,
This is the 191st Edition of the Mangrove Action Project News - 11 November 2007.
For the Mangroves,
Alfredo Quarto
Mangrove Action Project
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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.
All news items and notices published in the MAP News can also be accessed directly from our home page www.mangroveactionproject.org, with links to the full story and the original source. New items are posted daily and are available as an RSS feed!
Contents for MAP NEWS, 191st Edition, November 11, 2007
FEATURE STORY
FSC's 'Green' Label for Wood Products Gets Growing Pains
MAP WORKS
Order Your 2008 MAP Children's Art Calendar
MAP Kayaking & Whale Watching Tour - Baja California Check Out MAP's New Adopt A Program On MAP's New Website!! New Ecological Mangrove Restoration Workshop In Florida
Nigeria
UN to launch oil contamination assessment in southern Nigeria
Cameroon
Cameroon coastal wetlands of international importance
Liberia
Seeing the carbon for the trees
S.E. ASIA
Fish Vanishing from Southeast Asian Oceans - Report
Thailand
Ban Khao Takiap community to open mangrove forest to welcome tourists and to res
Indonesia
Shrimp remain biggest hard currency earner
Vietnam
Shrimp remains Vietnam's biggest hard currency earner
Vietnam's seafood processors struggle with overcapacity
India
Killer disease hits India's shrimp exports hard
Bangladesh
BANGLADESH: Rising sea levels threaten agriculture
People's Tribunal against WB, IMF and ADB announced in Bangladesh
China
China world's largest producer and exporter of seafood, says report
China's Coastal Pollution Necessitates Rethinking Government Role
LATIN AMERICA
The Struggle Continues: Latin American Mangrove Defence Network Renews its Unwavering Commitment.
Aquaculture gaining momentum in Latin America, says new report
Brazil
Shrimp Farming In Brazil Turns To Green In The Domestic Market
Nicaragua
Of Forests, Floods, Fatalities and Famine
The Bahamas
Marine Protected Area Needed At Bimini Island
Bimini Bay--A Last Resort To Legal Threats
USA
Organic standards must not slip, says coalition
Global Aquaculture Alliance Forms Strategic Oversight Committee
Editor's Note: MAP's Stance On Imported Farmed Shrimp
WWF Takes On Battle With GAA
Wegmans Adopts New Standards for Buying Farmed Shrimp
Blue Horizon passes Wegmans shrimp test
Canada
Recall issued for shrimp sold in M&M Meat Shops across the country
STORIES / ISSUES
Climate wars threaten billions
Los Angeles Times wins Pulitzer for series on ocean pollution
Ocean Life Fading: What Can Be Done?
Global Production of Shrimp Expected to Grow by 10-12%;
Friends of the Sea launches first Sustainable Seafood Marketplace online
Biofuels 'crime against humanity'
CONFERENCES / WORKSHOPS / PUBLICATIONS
New Book on Mangroves Published
AQUACULTURE CORNER
Fish farm benefits women in US prison
Groups oppose aquaculture in Gulf Environmental coalition airs concerns
Aquaculture not the way to save salmon
Editor's Note: With the recent moves by several big international NGO and Industry groups to certify farmed shrimp based on so-called "Best Practices" and upon a loose sundry of "certification standards," we at MAP have joined other concerned groups and individuals worldwide who are expressing their strong opposition to these faulty and untenable certification schemes, where compliance cannot be guaranteed and the consumer public will be confused and ill-informed as to the serious consequence of their unabated demand for cheap farmed shrimp.
The following article, though not about shrimp, should ring the alarm, for it poses some serious concerns for these same types of certification programs that involve shrimp certifiers. It should be noted that the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is held up as the gold-standard of certification schemes. Yet from the issues raised in this article, apparently the very credibility of the FSC is in serious trouble itself now.
Again, we stand with a growing global movement opposing existing shrimp certification standards because we view these same standards as ineffective, misleading and setting a dangerous precedent at a time when the consumer public must greatly reduce their consumption of farmed shrimp.
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Wall Street Journal
(subscription required)
FSC's 'Green' Label for Wood Products Gets Growing Pains
By TOM WRIGHT and JIM CARLTON
October 30, 2007; Page B1
The environmental group that runs a widely recognized labeling system to identify "green" wood and paper products has acknowledged that some companies using its label are destroying pristine forests and says it plans to overhaul its rules.
The admission by the Forest Stewardship Council, based in Bonn, threatens the credibility of an organization whose tree-with-a-check-mark logo adorns products for sale at big retailers including Home Depot Inc., Lowe's Cos. and Ikea AB.
Some environmentalists have long complained the FSC's rules are too lax. A catalyst for the group's move to tighten its standard came earlier this month when it emerged that Singapore-based Asia Pulp & Paper Co. Ltd. -- one of the largest paper companies in the developing world and a target of criticism for its forestry practices -- planned to start using the FSC logo. The FSC has also faced questions about companies in other parts of the world that use its logo.
A Forest Stewardship Council promotional poster targets shoppers with its tree-with-a-check-mark logo, which adorns thousands of wood and paper products for sale at U.S. and European retailers and labels them as 'green.'
A rising number of "green" product-labeling organizations face a dilemma similar to the FSC's: how to maintain high standards while promoting their logos and increasing the supply of approved products to meet demand from conscientious consumers and big retailers.
For the past 14 years, the FSC -- with diverse members, from environmental groups to big retailers -- has endorsed paper, furniture, tissues and other products. Initially, the label signified that 100% of the wood used in a product was harvested by sustainable methods. The original standard measured a company's performance in specific forest areas and its overall environmental record.
But there weren't many takers. In 1993, the year it was founded, the FSC issued just three approvals and in the next few years not many more. To boost the supply of FSC-endorsed products, the organization in 1997 added a more relaxed labeling standard, allowing producers to use an FSC logo for paper in which just 50% of the pulp came from forests that that met the organization's original criteria.
For the rest of the pulp, companies had to show only that it came from legal sources. Products that passed this test could use an FSC logo with the words "Mixed Sources" printed underneath.
The number of FSC endorsements soared. As of last year, it issued 6,276 certifications. In all, the FSC's logo now adorns about $5 billion in products a year, in terms of retail sales, the FSC says.
The move to increase the number of certifications had an unintended consequence, FSC officials say, allowing forestry companies to put the FSC label on some of their products even if they are destroying large tracts of rain forest in other places. "Companies are free-riding on our name," said Andre de Freitas, head of operations at the FSC. "I feel bad about it."
The FSC, which has a headquarters staff of just 26, relies on a network of outside auditors to decide whether a company passes muster. These auditors are paid directly by the companies they assess, a practice that has also drawn criticism.
For APP, the auditor was SGS Group, a Geneva-based surveying firm. Salahudin Yaacob, a Malaysia-based SGS executive who carried out the APP audit, said that under FSC rules, his role was limited to ensuring that about 472,000 acres of an APP tree plantation was legally owned by APP. Also in accordance with FSC standards, he gave a green light to APP to use pulp from that plantation mixed with fully FSC-certified pulp from companies in Brazil and Australia to make paper that APP could label with the FSC "mixed sources" logo.
But environmentalists charge that APP has devastated a Delaware-size portion of natural forest on Indonesia's Sumatra island, putting the survival of orangutan, tiger and elephant species there at risk. Several large paper purchasers, including Ricoh Co. Ltd., of Japan; Office Depot Inc. in the U.S.; and Idisa Papel, of Spain, have canceled contracts with APP out of concern that its practices destroy rain forests.
Canecio Munoz, executive director for environment at Sinar Mas Forestry, part of the Sinar Mas Group, of Indonesia, which also owns APP, says the company is working to improve its environmental standards.
But some environmentalists were dismayed. "If they [APP] can get an FSC accreditation, there must be something wrong with the system," says Nazir Foead, director of the Indonesian-species program at the Geneva-based World Wildlife Fund, a co-founder of the FSC.
After inquiries from The Wall Street Journal for this article, the FSC this month proposed new, tighter regulations to its members, which include environmental groups WWF, Greenpeace, and Friends of the Earth, as well as Ikea and Home Depot.
Heiko Liedeker, executive director of the FSC, rescinded the FSC's approval of APP products at the same time he proposed a tightening of the FSC's rules. "This company goes against our mission," he said in an interview.
APP reacted angrily. "We played by the rules," Mr. Munoz said. "To say one company or group cannot come out with an FSC logo is, to me, ridiculous." He said APP plans to seek certification for its products from a standards-setting organization that competes with the FSC.
The FSC's proposed new rules, which the group's board will vote on next month, are aimed at preventing any company that destroys rain forests or engages in illegal logging from using the FSC's label. "This is a significant change in the FSC systems, although it addresses an issue which has concerned FSC stakeholders for many years," the FSC said in a statement to members.
If approved, the measures will make it harder for companies to acquire the green credibility -- and higher sales -- that FSC approval confers. But it could also reduce the amount of FSC-approved paper at a time when big retailers say it already is hard to come by. Home Depot, the Atlanta-based home-improvement giant and an FSC member, formally expresses a "preference" for wood certified by the group. Yet so little is available that it still represents "under 10%" of the company's total wood purchases, says Ron Jarvis, senior vice president of environmental innovation at Home Depot.
Critics say it is too late to prevent the damage done to the label's credibility, and it remains unclear how it may affect the products already on store shelves. FSC officials haven't yet decided whether the new standards will apply to companies retroactively -- a move that could potentially require an extensive review of the practices of every approved forestry company.
While the FSC's standard has the widest geographic reach and the most endorsements by environmental groups, it competes with many rivals. In North America, for example, the timber-industry-originated Sustainable Forestry Initiative, or SFI, encompasses about 135 million acres of forests, while the FSC covers just 73 million acres, according to industry records. The SFI was started in 1994 by members of the American Forest and Paper Association in response to the FSC's founding a year earlier, but SFI officials say they now operate independently from industry.
Still, many environmentalists regard FSC as the best of the existing forest certification groups. "It's a question of how do we improve the system, not whether we can keep the system," says Brant Olson, director of the old-growth-forest campaign at the Rainforest Action Network in San Francisco. "Because if you look at the alternative systems run by industry, those are even weaker."
Yet Mr. Salahudin, the SGS auditor, cautions that the FSC's moves to tighten its rules could simply push big companies in the developing world to stop working toward approval from the council. The proposed rules, he says, "will surely drive away most of the big players in tropical forestry."
Write to Tom Wright at
tom.wright@dowjones.com1
and Jim Carlton at
jim.carlton@wsj.com2
Order Your 2008 MAP Children's Art Calendar
Dear Friends,
I wanted to take this opportunity to request your help with one of our long-time projects which involves our 7th annual production of the MAP Children's Mangrove Art Calendar for 2008. The calendars make great gifts and a great project to support. Please order your 2008 calendar now at $12 per calendar plus shipping. If you order 20 or more calendars, we ask $8 per calendar plus shipping. If you order now, we can have the printer ship directly to your street address (not PO Box). This will save MAP an extra shipping fee if the printer ships directly to you. Please help support both MAP and the calendar program now!
Following our own environmentally sound ethic, the Calendar is being printed on recycled paper using soy ink.
The Calendar has in the past paid for itself and raised around $3000 above its costs. More importantly, the Calendar Art Contest and the distribution of the printed calendars have been a great educational incentive for the NGOs, schools and children participating from around the globe. This year's calendar competition was no exception. Over 1500 kids from 12 nations participated, and new NGOs from new nations are contacting us to be involved.
Please let me know the number of calendars that you want to order! You can also go onto MAP's website to donate via PayPal or Network For Good using your credit card!
For the Mangroves and Mangrove Communities,
Monica Gutierrez-Quarto
MAP Calendar Coordinator
monicagquarto@olympus.net
Note: Postage rates vary according to the following list of options:
US & Canada - $2/calendar
Mexico - $2.50/calendar
Elsewhere - $4.50/calendar
For anywhere in the world: for 3 or more calendars, contact MAP for possible volume discount and shipping rates.
See the USPS website for rates for multiple calendars for each country: http://pe.usps.com/text/Imm/immctry.htm. Scroll down for 1st Class International.
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MAP Kayaking & Whale Watching Tour - Baja California
Mangrove Action Project
6-Day Mangrove Kayaking & Whale Watching Tour
Benefit Paddle in Baja
7-12 February 2008
Join the Mangrove Action Project for our first journey to the mangrove estuary in Magdalena Bay, a Gray Whale Nursery in Baja. This year, thanks to our friends at Blue Waters Kayaking, we'll camp three days and two nights at an exclusive island camp in the heart of the whale nursery, where the Gray Whales are born. From camp you will experience whales spouting and playing, dolphins swimming by, pelicans visiting on the beach next door and coyotes howling at night--a nature lover's dream. Mornings will be spent visiting the whales by motorboat and in great amazement these enormous mammals approach us to introduce their newly born young. We will kayak the mangrove labyrinth as flocks of white pelicans fly overhead and yellow crowned night herons stare at us at eye level between mangrove leaves. The trip begins and ends in the charming town of Loreto, where we will stay in a hotel on the Sea of Cortez.
The only Island base camp situated between a Mangrove Estuary and a Gray Whale Birthing Lagoon:
Our exclusive beach camp is ready to serve you with hot showers, and the best kitchen this side of the border, solar electricity to charge your cameras, large tents with plush sleeping pads and wall tents with elevated cots, plenty of fresh water, a large community dome, and chairs & sun umbrellas for lounging and reading.
Mangrove Action Project Benefit Paddle in Baja
February 7th - 12th, 2008
$1280( does not include airfare)
Kayaking in the bird-filled mangroves will be available * No prior kayaking experience is necessary * Kayaking is not required, however, it is offered as part of this trip.
Each trip limited to 14 participants
For More Information Contact: Blue Waters Kayaking 415/669-2600
www.bajakayaktours.com/MAP_benefit.html
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Check Out MAP's New Adopt A Program On MAP's New Website!!
Adopt a Program Section
MAP's new Adopt-a-Program has been posted to the website. Please help MAP by forward the link to anyone who might be interested in donating!
www.mangroveactionproject.org/get-involved/donate/map-adopt-a-program
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New Ecological Mangrove Restoration Workshop In Florida Scheduled
The full announcement about the 6th "Mangrove Forest Ecology, Management and Restoration Training Course", March 3-6, 2008, Hollywood, Florida, is now available at www.mangroverestoration.com.
ANNOUNCEMENT: "Mangrove Forest Ecology, Management and Restoration" training workshop, March 3-6, 2008, Hollywood, Florida.
The sixth "Mangrove Forest Ecology, Management and Restoration" training workshop will be held at the Anne Kolb Nature Center, in Hollywood, Florida, USA, March 3-6, 2008. The training site is within a 500 ha mangrove restoration project at West Lake Park operated by Broward County. The award-winning project was designed by Roy R. "Robin" Lewis III, who will be teaching the course.
The workshop includes an introduction to mangrove forest ecology, management options and problems, and restoration design issues. The class programs are all given in a PowerPoint format, and each student is provided with a print out of the presentation and additional handouts including monitoring reports for typical restoration projects. Case studies of 5 successful mangrove restoration projects, and several unsuccessful projects, are discussed. Field trips are taken within the 500 ha West Lake Park mangrove restoration project (now 18 years old) and a new project just five years old, for a comparison.
The emphasis is on cost-effective successful mangrove management and restoration, and cost figures for typical projects are discussed and explained. The hydrologic restoration of mangroves is emphasized as the best approach to successful restoration at minimal cost (see Erftemeijer and Lewis 2000; Lewis 1999, 2000a, 2000b, 2005; Lewis and Marshall 1998; Lewis and Streever 2000; Lewis et al. 2005, Stevenson et al. 1999; and Turner and Lewis 1997, for further discussion about hydrologic restoration of mangroves). Planting of mangroves is discussed in light of the many failures of this alone to successfully restore mangroves.
Cost for the course not including travel to Ft. Lauderdale, lodging or food is $800, due by January 1, 2008 to Coastal Resources Group, Inc., P.O. Box 5430, Salt Springs, Florida, USA 32134-5430. Two qualified students will be allowed to attend for free, and can apply at any time for the two fee-waived positions. This course is organized by the Coastal Resources Group, Inc., and will be taught in conjunction with the Mangrove Action Project <www.mangroveactionproject.org>. Lodging close to the training site is available at the SleepInn in Dania Beach, Florida. Reservations need to be made early. Each participant is responsible for making their own reservations.
More information can be provided by Robin Lewis at
LESRRL3@aol.com and www.mangroverestoration.com.
Nigeria
Editor's Note: Nigeria contains the 3rd largest area of mangrove forest in the world. The health and integrity of these mangrove wetlands has long been compromised by the petroleum industry. This editor visited the Delta in 1999, witnessing firsthand immense social and ecological problems directly related to oil exploitation that were worsening with time. For decades the Niger Delta region has seen huge amunts of oil extraction and resultant oil spills that have contaminated large areas of the Delta, adversely affecting the millions of Niger Delta residents. Oil production makes billions of dollars each year for the big oil companies that export their oil and their tremendous profts, while the nearby communties of the Niger Delta live themselves in abject poverty, suffering from extreme human rights abuses and deteriorating environmental conditions. The mentioned study by the government and UNEP/ UNDP may be a positive step in shedding more light on those too often igored issues.
UN to launch oil contamination assessment in southern Nigeria
5 November 2007 ˆ The United Nations environment and development agencies are joining forces to launch a comprehensive assessment of oil contamination in the Ogoni region of the Niger Delta as part of a broader Nigerian Government-led peace and reconciliation programme.
Exploration and production of oil in the area, which began in the 1950s, were suspended in the 1990s due to public unrest. Spills from this period are still problematic, and the lack of maintenance and damage to infrastructure has led to further contamination in the past 15 years.
UN officials are in Abuja today to finalize details of the project, expected to be completed at the end of next year, which seeks to ascertain the nature and extent of oil contamination in Ogoniland.
They are meeting with other UN agencies in the country as well as the Nigerian Minister of Environment, representatives from the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency and the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria.
„The assessment will seek to identify, evaluate and minimize the immediate and long-term human, social, health and economic impacts of oil contamination in Ogoniland, as well as those related to environmentally and economically important ecosystems,‰ said UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner.
Teams of international and local experts will carry out assessments in more than 300 sites to determine oil‚s impacts on land, water, agriculture, fisheries and in the air, as well as its effects on biodiversity and human health.
The project, based in Port Harcourt with smaller offices in Eleme, Tai, Khana and Gokana, seeks to benefit the community through employment and capacity-building activities.
After the teams report their findings, environmentally acceptable recommendations will be made to remedy the situation.
The new initiative comes following a request from the Nigerian Government, and will be conducted by the Post-Conflict and Disaster Management Branch of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). It will operate within the Programme Framework for Improving Human Development in the Niger Delta, led by the United Nations Development Programme.
Source: UNDP
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Cameroon
Press release, September 6, 2007
Cameroon coastal wetlands of international importance
Wetlands on the Cameroon coast are of international importance for migratory water birds and are home to an exceptionally rich diversity in wildlife. Ratification of these sites under the Ramsar convention is needed to promote wise and sustainable use of the natural resources in these vulnerable coastal areas. These conclusions could be drawn from a survey of the Cameroon coast, carried out in January and February 2007.
The coastal survey was initiated by the Foundation Working Group for International Wader and Waterfowl research (WIWO) and carried out by the Watershed Task Group in collaboration with the Cameroon Wildlife Conservation Society (CWCS), the Cameroon Biodiversity Conservation Society (CBCS), the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF), the Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife (MINEF) and a team of expatriate ornithologists. The project received financial support from Wetlands International, Koop Cameroun and Pecten Cameroun. Cameroon has recently ratified the Ramsar convention, an international convention which aims to protect wetlands of international importance, and is now in the process of identifying such wetlands within its borders. The aim of the water bird count was to identify wetlands of international importance on the Cameroon coast.
Migratory birds from Canada, northern Europe and Siberia use the Cameroon wetlands for their wintering period before returning North to breed.
The Ndian Basin, the second largest mangrove forest in West Africa, borders on the Korup National Park and the Nigerian border and is home to a wide variety of wildlife. The largest ever observed group of African Skimmer, a near-threatened African bird species, was seen in the Ndian basin. This group may represent as much as 20% of the global population of this species, underlining the importance of these wetlands. Near Douala, the second city of Cameroon and a regionally important harbour, the estuary of the Wouri River forms an extensive zone of mudflats and mangrove swamps, home to large numbers of water birds. The Ndian Basin and Wouri estuaries contain large areas of non-disturbed mangrove forests which form important breeding grounds for fish, shrimp and other important wildlife. Local communities in both areas are engaged in fishing and fish smoking. Since they are mostly (illegal) settlers from other West-African countries, basic services are lacking and un-sustainable use of resources make life difficult for these people.
Further south, the lower reaches of the Sanaga River form seasonally flooded sandbanks bordered by pristine lowland forest. The sandbanks are home to one of the largest known breeding colonies of African Skimmer while Grey Pratincole, another African waterbird species, also reaches numbers of international importance. The local population is dependent on the river for fishing and seasonal harvesting of freshwater clams. The Ndian Basin, Wouri river and lower Sanaga River can be classified as wetlands of international importance according to criteria under the Ramsar convention. All three sites are under threat of habitat destruction and loss of biodiversity. Oil & gas exploration is just starting in the Ndian Basin, an extension of the neighbouring Nigerian oil-rich delta region. The Wouri estuary is under pressure from extension of the harbour and environmental pollution. Plans for extended hydropower production on the Sanaga River may affect the fragile ecosystems and livelihoods downstream.
The participating NGOs work to stimulate sustainable practises with local communities to reduce pressure on the fragile habitats. Fish smoking ovens are introduced to improve the quality of the smoked fish and reduce fuel wood consumption. Canerat domestication is promoted among hunters to reduce bushmeat consumption. The NGOs participating in this project are now in discussion with the Cameroon government to undertake the necessary actions to get these sites listed as Ramsar sites to promote sustainable and wise use of these wetlands.
For more information, please contact:
Watershed Task Group
Napoleon Chi
nforpah@yahoo.fr
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Liberia
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7053332.stm
Seeing the carbon for the trees
VIEWPOINT
Peter Seligmann
Protecting the world's remaining tropical forests will play a vital role in preventing dangerous climate change in the future, says Peter Seligmann. In this week's Green Room, he calls for a global system that offers nations an economic incentive to halt the destruction of the Earth's "lungs".
Liberia's greenhouse gas emissions are roughly 250,000 times lower than those of the US, yet its remaining forests store approximately four billion tonnes of carbon dioxide
As Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf met US President George Bush at the White House last week, an expert from Liberia's Forestry Development Authority was across the river in a hi-tech laboratory, working on his country's potential involvement in a global strategy to confront climate change.
Augustine Johnson has been looking at ways to map and assess Liberia's remaining tropical forest and the carbon it stores.
If all goes according to plan, that carbon and the forest's ability to store it will become a valuable economic asset capable of bringing new revenue to the African country in desperate need of help to recover from civil war. The forests are already a valuable environmental asset for the whole planet.
Fifteen years have passed since Liberia and the US were among 190 countries that signed the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) at the Rio Earth Summit.
Since then, Liberia has emerged from its long civil conflict, but economic recovery and widespread unemployment remain daunting challenges.
Untapped asset
Climate change poses another major threat to Liberia and other developing countries. The anticipated impacts, such as rising sea levels and more severe droughts, will cause the most harm to the world's poorest people living in nations that lack the resources to help them adapt.
Nations such as Liberia have high levels of people living in poverty
Liberia's greenhouse gas emissions are roughly 250,000 times lower than those of the US, yet its remaining forests store approximately four billion tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2), equivalent to the amount emitted by 57 million cars over 10 years.
Original forests are universally recognised as one of our planet's greatest natural resources because they provide jobs and sustenance for hundreds of millions of people.
They are nature's pharmacies and raw material factories, with unmatched biological diversity. They cleanse and restore water supplies, and they help prevent the spread of certain tropical diseases.
However, the amount of tropical forest our planet loses each year is one-and-a-half times the size of Liberia, releasing almost 20% of total greenhouse gas emissions - more than all the world's cars, trucks and planes combined.
Protect and preserve
Regulated carbon markets, recognised by the UNFCCC and mediated by Kyoto Protocol processes such as the Clean Development Mechanism, offer incentives to reduce methane from farming and landfill sites.
The markets also have programmes that reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the industrial sectors of emerging economies such as China and India.
Yet they lack any mechanism to reduce the emissions from cutting and burning the valuable tropical forests of developing countries.
At December's UN climate change conference in Bali, Indonesia, leaders from all countries can find common ground to ensure forest protection is included as a valid, direct and immediate action that generates measurable carbon credits.
President Johnson-Sirleaf has demonstrated Liberia is a serious partner. A year ago, her newly elected government enacted the Forest Reform Law as a bold step to manage these natural forest resources.
The legislation established 30% of its remaining forests as national protected areas. These biologically rich and unique forests comprise the most extensive forest coverage in West Africa, providing resources depended on by a large percentage of the nation's people.
However, rampant poverty poses a serious threat to the government's ambitious policy. Many people have little choice but to earn a living by logging or mining, sometimes within the forests that are protected by law.
Liberia and other developing countries should be able to benefit economically from protecting their forests for the long-term global good, rather than sacrificing them for short-term survival.
But this will require reliable and consistent economic incentives from many different financing sources, including carbon credits and economic development assistance.
It will also require political will from developed nations such as the US, Japan and EU member states. Investment will be needed to quantify the carbon savings from forestry protection, and to build technical capacity and expertise in the forestry programmes of developing countries.
And the corporate sector that buys carbon credits would have to be engaged and receptive to the concept.
Like many developing countries in tropical Africa, Latin America and Asia, Liberia possesses a vast wealth of biologically rich and globally important forests, despite its difficult economic circumstances.
By supporting this promising and courageous democracy with the right economic tools and technical assistance to protect these forests, we will not only be helping Liberia, but a global community facing the unprecedented challenge of climate change.
Peter A Seligmann is chairman and chief executive of Conservation International
The Green Room is a series of opinion pieces on environmental topics running weekly on the BBC News website
From: mapasia@loxinfo.co.th
Editor's Note: In addition to overcapacity of the fishing fleets, there is a large-scale loss of mangrove forest and related wetlands--the very nursery and breeding grounds for the wild fishery. In addition to improving ocean commercial fishing practices, conservation of remaining coastal wetlands and restoration of damaged areas can contribute greatly to restoring the wild fishery.
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Fish Vanishing from Southeast Asian Oceans - Report
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AUSTRALIA: November 8, 2007
SYDNEY - Southeast Asia's oceans are fast running out of fish, putting the livelihoods of up to 100 million people at risk and increasing the need for governments to support the maintenance of fish stocks, an Australian expert said.
Fisheries in the region had expanded dramatically in recent decades and Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines were now in the top 12 fish producing countries in the world, Meryl Williams said in a paper for Australia's Lowy Institute.
"As the fourth largest country in world fish production, Indonesia is a fisheries giant. Yet ... Indonesian marine fisheries resources are close to fully exploited and a significant number in all areas are over-exploited," she said.
Williams, a former director general of the international WorldFish Center, said the number of fishers was still increasing in most Southeast Asian countries despite a trend since the 1980s to close frontiers due to territorial claims and overfishing.
In the Gulf of Thailand, the density of fish had declined by 86 percent from 1961 to 1991, while between 1966 and 1994 the catch per hour in the Gulf by trawlers fell more than sevenfold.
In Vietnam, a new fishing power and a rising source of imports by Australia, the total catch between 1981 and 1999 only doubled despite a tripling of capacity of the fishing fleet -- a sure sign that fishing was reaching capacity, she said.
In the Gulf of Tonkin, where Vietnam shares resources with China, the record was even worse with fish catch per hour in 1997 only a quarter of that in 1985.
"In the Philippines, most marine fisheries were overexploited by the 1980s, with catch rates as low as 10 percent of rates when these areas were lightly fished," she said.
Williams said Southeast Asian fisheries were serviced by a plethora of regional bodies and agreements, but few acted effectively on illegal fishing and shared stock management.
At the same time, illegal fishing was "dynamic, creative, clever and usually one step ahead of authorities".
A Southeast Asian government may issue a single fishing licence only to find it being used by four different boats, she said. In Indonesia, foreign fishing vessels, often Chinese in joint-ventures, operated on the "margins of legality" in a geographically vast archipelago.
Williams said Australia should step up collaboration with Southeast Asian countries to help manage fish stocks. (Reporting by Michael Byrnes; Editing by Richard Pullin)
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
From LESrrl3@aol.com
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Thailand
Ban Khao Takiap community to open mangrove forest to welcome tourists and to res
Posted by admin / 2007-11-05 03:09:05
| Mr. Pissanu Khlakhai |
Chamnan Puengioh - The Ban Khao Takiap community will open its mangrove forest to welcome Thai & foreign tourists and to restore its ecology for the marine animal bleeding zone and as an educational point for students from schools and universities.
Mr. Pissanu Khlakhai, a Khao Takiap community leader, Nong Kae Sub-district, Hua Hin District, Prachuap Khirikhan, revealed to Hua Hin Today that he, community committees, villagers, teachers and students are working together on improving 5 rais of mangrove forest in front of Khao Klai Lat Temple by planting Sa Mae trees (or Aegiceras cornicalatum) and mangrove trees. Presently the planted trees grow up and give shade to those who come by. In the near future, there will be a plan issued for improvement on deepening and widening a front canal a long its length to the entrance of the temple for the purpose of draining sea water into the mangrove area.
Moreover, a pavilion, a bridge and walking trial will be built for the advantage of Thai and foreign tourists to sightsee the mangrove forest and scenic view during holidays as well. Furthermore, local sea animals like Pla Krabok or sea mullet fish, Pla Mo Thed or Java Tilapia fish, Meder's Mangrove Crabs, Serrated Mud Crabs, Jinga Shrimp, Snappers, and Brown Spotted Groupers will be released in a form of natural mangrove forest feeding. Then, the place where the sea animals are released will be assigned as a marine animal's life circle study point for students from municipality schools, secondary school and university students. Mr. Pissanu also added at the moment the Ban Khao Takiap mangrove forest has been invaded by the capitalists from Hua Hin and Bangkok by using legal power to clear up sea animals bleeding zone. Unfortunately, the governmental authority cannot halt such an invasion nor do anything in this case. Therefore, he on behalf of the community leader and conservation committees are working together on turning the area in front of the Khao Khlai Lat Temple into an ecological source for the villagers and community. The mangrove conservation project requires a budget of millions to carry on, but the community committees have not received any budget as yet. So the movement of the project depends on donations from kind foundations and people who wish to see such a project become a reality, not just a fantasy. Money and resources are needed all the time to push the project forward. By the way, the hundred-year large Buddha images museum has been completed and expected to officially open at the end of this year. After its grand opening, the front area will be the aforementioned mangrove forest which needs to be improved and decorated as planned. With permanent structures of the community, all projects will be perfectly prepared to welcome visitors. Said Mr. Pissanu.
From: "Kwon, Cheemin (FOEL)"
Cheemin.Kwon@fao.org
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Indonesia
Shrimp remain biggest hard currency earner
2 November 2007
Shrimp has remained the country‚s biggest hard currency earner among seafood products, accounting for 39.4 percent of seafood export value.
According to the Viet Nam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), the country has so far this year exported close to 110,000 tonnes of shrimp for over 1 billion USD, a year-on-year increase of 1.2 percent.
As shrimps have been grown popularly in the world, the Vietnamese fisheries sector has accelerated measures to control the products‚ quality, safety and hygiene as well as promote trademarks.
Source: Vietnam Economic Times
From: ICSF
icsf@icsf.net
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Vietnam
Shrimp remains Vietnam's biggest hard currency earner
Shrimp has remained Vietnam's biggest hard currency earner among seafood products, accounting for 39.4 percent of seafood export value.
According to the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), the country has so far this year exported close to 110,000 tonnes of shrimp for over 1 billion USD, a year-on-year increase of 1.2 percent. As shrimps have grown in popularity around the world, the Vietnamese fisheries sector has accelerated measures to control the products' quality, safety and hygiene as well as promote trademarks.
Source: VNA
From: ICSF
icsf@icsf.net
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Vietnam's seafood processors struggle with overcapacity
Seafood imports must increase so Viet Nam's aquaculture processing industry is fully utilised, according to a new circular approved by Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai.
The 1626/TTg-NN circular signed last week recommends steps that must be taken over the next few years to improve the nation's fish processing industry. The document was issued as a reply to a proposal written by the Viet Nam Association of Aquaculture Export and Processing Enterprises (VASEP).
In the circular, Deputy PM Hai asks the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) to operate in partnership with the Ministry of Finance to work out a list of tax rates for imported aquaculture products, which will assist domestic processing enterprises and comply with international commitments. The list will need to be approved by the Prime Minister.
Hai also insists that MARD, relevant ministries and people's committees enforce the PM's 37/2005/CT-TTg 06/2007/CT/TTg guidelines which regulate the use of antibiotics and chemical substances in production processes. The guidelines attempt to establish standards for food safety and hygiene in the fish farming industry.
The Ministry of Finance has also been asked to work alongside MARD and VASEP to calculate a new set of fees based on international regulations for checking and examining food safety and hygiene. According to Tran Thien Hai, VASEP's president, fish farming enterprises need to supervise all their production processes and pass industry safety exams before they are ready to export products.
Companies must themselves finance inspection procedures which can cost up to US$1,000 per container, which is considered too costly for many domestic fish processing enterprises. The Deputy PM asks MARD in the circular to support the industry by developing human resources and implementing VASEP's policies that encourage quality aquaculture operations.
In VASEP's proposal, Hai points to the alarming lack of planning to overcome shortage of raw materials. Imports are so low that fish processing factories are operating 50 per cent below capacity. Even in a relatively material-rich region like the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta, many processing enterprises face shortages, Hai says.
According to the former Ministry of Fisheries, Viet Nam currently imports aquaculture from 40 countries and has a turnover between $90 - 100 million, which accounts for five per cent of the nation's aquaculture export turnover. The main import markets include India (26 per cent), China (18 per cent), ASEAN countries (18 per cent) and Japan (11 per cent).
In order to meet demand, Viet Nam's aquaculture imports must increase by 8 -10 per cent annually from now until 2020. There are about 470 aquaculture processing enterprises operating in the country, mainly producing shrimp and fish. In the first 10 months of this year, the nation's aquaculture export turnover reached more than $3 billion, recording an increase of nearly 11 per cent over last year. The year-end figure is expected to reach $3.6 billion with the quantity of 3.8 million tonnes.
Source: VNA
From: icsf@icsf.net
India
Killer disease hits India's shrimp exports hard
By Melvyn Thomas
For foodies across the world, it's a bad news. The much-savoured cultured shrimps reared in the coastal belt of Olpaad taluka in Surat, India, have been hit by a killer disease.
The outbreak of the white spot syndrome (WSS), a highly lethal and contagious disease killing shrimps quickly, has set alarm bells ringing for shrimp farmers as shrimp exports of around 900 tonne from some 40% farms in Olpaad have been affected. The loss has been estimated at Rs 30 crore.
The aquaculturists are not ruling out the fact that almost all the farms in the area that export 2,000 tonne of shrimps annually are susceptible to the virus transmission. If this happens, then the farmers fear that the outbreak may wipe out the entire population of the shrimp farms in Olpaad incurring losses of Rs 70-80 crore.
Olpaad taluka in Surat district exports around 2,000 tonne of tiger prawns reared in some 1,400 shrimp ponds to Europe, the US, Japan, South Africa and Gulf countries.
This is for the first time that the aquaculturists in Olpaad are facing such a situation. Earlier, some 85 shrimp ponds in Samapur village in Navsari district that exports shrimps worth Rs 5 crore had been affected following the outbreak of WSS in April-2007.
"This is the first time the aquaculture in Olpaad is being eclipsed with the outbreak of white spot virus," said secretary of Surat Aquaculture Farmers' Association (SAFA) Manoj Sharma.
Although the cause of the outbreak is difficult to investigate, farmers told ET that some of the farmers had bought low quality shrimp seeds on cheap prices from the suppliers in Mumbai and that it might be responsible for the outbreak of the disease.
The transmission of the virus is mainly through oral ingestion and water borne routes in farms and infected mother prawns in case of shrimp hatcheries. The virus is present in the wild stocks of shrimp, especially in the coastal waters adjacent to shrimp farming areas, but mass mortality of wild shrimps is yet to be observed.
Experts said the clinical signs of WSSV in the shrimps include a sudden reduction in food consumption, lethargy, loose cuticle and often-reddish discoloration and presence of white spots of 0.5 to 2.0 mm in diameter on the inside surface of the carapace, appendages and cuticle over the abdominal segments.
The virus has a wide host range, is highly virulent, and leads to mortality rates of 100% within days in case of the cultured shrimps. The first reported epidemic due to this virus is from Taiwan in 1992 followed by the outbreaks in India in 1994-96 that gave a big blow to the shrimp industry.
The shrimp farmers in Olpaad are taking serious bio-security measures by using large numbers of disinfectants to prevent an outbreak, disposing of the crops in proper manner, etc. Meanwhile, the district collectorate has sent a team to take stock of the situation. A senior officer said: "Samples have been collected from the farms and are sent for clinical testing to confirm the virus".
Source: Economic Times
From: icsf@icsf.net
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Bangladesh
BANGLADESH: Rising sea levels threaten agriculture
01 Nov 2007 Source: IRIN
KHULNA , 1 November 2007 (www.IRINnews.org) - Sudhir Koiborto Das, a 60-year-old local farmer with two hectares of land, was doing well by Bangladeshi standards, but brackish sea water is now encroaching on his farm, rendering it useless.
"The result has been disastrous. The once fertile land of this whole southwestern region has now turned into a huge saline swamp where no vegetation grows," he said.
"The seepage has destroyed the fertility of our crop lands. We cannot grow rice or any vegetables. Coconut palms and banana groves are dying. The coconut water that used to be so sweet and refreshing even a decade ago has now become bitter," he said.
Climate change
Rising sea levels in the Bay of Bengal are encroaching on vast flat agricultural lands in the southern districts of Khulna, Satkhira, Bagerhat, Jessore and Magura - resulting in soil salinity and other environmental hazards.
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Bangladesh is slated to lose the largest amount of cultivated land globally due to rising sea levels. A 1m rise in sea levels would inundate 20 percent of the country's landmass.
"It is clear that climate change is taking its toll in the form of saline water intrusion into the mainland of Bangladesh, which is one of the lowest-altitude countries in the world," Golam Mohammad Panaullah, a soil scientist and former director of research of the Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI), told IRIN in Dhaka, the capital.
"In 1973, 1.5 million hectares of land had mild salinity. In 1997, this expanded to 2.5 million hectares," he said.
And while there has yet to be an up-to-date survey, he believed that figure to be more than three million hectares of agricultural land now. Of 37 million people living in 12 coastal districts, 20 million had been affected by the expanding sea, he added.
A soil survey by six government agencies, including the BRRI and the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council, found higher-than-acceptable soil salinity in 72 percent of all arable land of Magura district, about 200km from the sea.
Since 1948, salinity in the rivers of southern Patuakhali, Pirojpur, Boguna, Satkhira, Bagerhat and Khulna districts has risen by 45 percent.
Ramifications
According to Panaullah, increased salinity in turn affects soil fertility. On more than 25,000 hectares of land in the south, agricultural production has dropped significantly in recent years. Most of the affected area is less than 1.5m above sea level. With every rising tide, sea water deposits salt on the land.
Cultivation of rice, a food staple, has suffered most, while the production of wheat, pulses, rape seed and coconut has also been affected.
And despite the fact that there is no official record of reduced agricultural output due to increased salinity in the soil, analysts say the drop could be as much as 50 percent over the past 30 years.
Another factor is the sharp rise in shrimp cultivation, which has created permanent saline water-logging in the region.
Shrimp, which need sea water to grow, are a significant foreign-exchange earner and farmers have taken to building high mud walls around their farms to retain the saline sea water of the high tide. Over the past three decades, thousands of shrimp farms have sprung up in the region.
Yet while sea water helps the shrimp farmers, it destroys all other vegetation.
Third, fresh water flow has dropped off significantly in the Padma (Bangladesh branch of the Ganges) since India commissioned the Farakka Barrage upstream. During the dry season (December-June) the Padma flows at less than a quarter of its capacity.
Finally, Panaullah said the stagnant saline water on the surface often seeps into the groundwater - rendering it useless for either irrigation or drinking purposes.
Official line
Golam Hossain, deputy director of the agricultural department, told IRIN that a quarter of all agricultural land in 10 sub-districts in Khulna had been affected by rising sea water.
But while accepting that an incursion of sea water into traditional croplands had reduced crop patterns in the region, Hossain did not believe it was all bad - a sentiment underscoring the government's reluctance to address the issue or provide any meaningful form of mitigation.
"Farmers are more than compensated for their crop losses by growing shrimp in their erstwhile paddy fields. Shrimp fetches more money than rice," the government official said.
Niladri Das, a farmer of Da Kope village, whose half-acre of once fertile land has turned into a virtual salt bed due to seepage from shrimp farms, however, disagrees.
"Only a handful of big landowners and the powerful are making money from shrimp. Poor people like us who refuse to sell their land to shrimp farmers are victims of increasing salinity. Some people export shrimp and get filthy rich, but tens of thousands like me are ending up as paupers," Das complained.
Shafiqul Islam, president of the Water Committee, an advocacy group, said plants are dying while various forms of local fish and livestock now faced extinction, adding that job opportunities had also been reduced and poverty increased in the region.
sa/ds/mw
© IRIN. All rights reserved. More humanitarian news and analysis:
www.IRINnews.org
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People's Tribunal against WB, IMF and ADB announced in Bangladesh
NewAge, November 4, 2007. Dhaka, Bangladesh
Academics, economists, politicians and activists jointly announced the formation of a people's tribunal against the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and the Asian Development Bank on Sunday.
The announcement was made at a press briefing at the National Press Club in Dhaka, a few hours before the arrival of the World Bank president, Robert Zoellick.The tribunal's national preparatory committee was convened after former justice, Golam Rabbani, announced its formation.
Anu Muhammad, professor of economics at Jahangirnagar University, briefly outlined the plan of action while presenting the concept note. He said in the next six months there will be investigations into the effects that the lending agencies have had on various sectors including jute, water, power and energy, health, education and agriculture.
These investigations will then be used to build up cases against the agencies at the tribunal which will be headed by former justices. He said the investigative process would naturally be as inclusive as possible and the tribunal would try to involve people from the entire cross-section of society.
The people's committee would include researchers, economists, educationists, politicians and members of various professional bodies.
'The policy prescriptions of the lending agencies have destroyed
Bangladesh's potential for development and are merely another form of colonisation. The People's Tribunal will try to find the ways and means of breaking the shackles that the lending agencies have wrapped around our country,' said Anu….
From: "zakir kibria"
zakir.kibria@gmail.com
China
China world's largest producer and exporter of seafood, says report
China is now the largest producer of seafood in the world, supplying some 35 percent of total global seafood products*. In addition, China leads the world in terms of the export of seafood produce, with Japan accounting for about half of its total seafood exports in recent years. Glitnir's latest report highlights that demand for high quality seafood in the Chinese market is set to continue to grow, due to increasingly affluent consumers, greater production capacity and the traditional popularity of seafood, particularly shellfish, in Asia.
Glitnir, the leading global supplier of financial services to the seafood industry, released its new report on China's seafood industry today, at the Ocean of Opportunities Conference in Shanghai, China. The report provides an analytical overview of the main trends and developments in the Chinese seafood sector….
…Main findings from the report:
Production China's total seafood production was 51 million tons, which represented a stable year-on-year growth of 4.08 percent.
Aquaculture, capture, production and processing are concentrated in a few regional centers, notably around the coastal cities of Dalian and Qingdao in the north and the provinces of Zhejiang, Fujian and Guangdong in the south. Shandong province, of which Qingdao is the capital, was the leader among China's provinces in the production of seafood, with a total of 7.4 million tons.
Out of the top ten aquaculture products harvested in Chinese seawater, six are varieties of shellfish. Of the freshwater aquaculture products, it is carp that is most likely to find its way onto the Chinese dining table, accounting for 72 percent of total production. However species such as shrimp and tilapia are gaining in importance and in recent years China produced some 41 per cent of the world's shrimp, making it the world's largest producer.
However, the growth and success of Chinese seafood production in 2007 has been overshadowed by a series of import bans from trading partners relating to antibiotic contamination, carcinogens, and in earlier years traces of chloramphenicol. In response to sharp criticism from abroad, the Chinese government has implemented a series of measures to address product quality control and monitoring, including over 700 national standards, almost 2,000 industrial standards and 1,780 quality inspection agencies at provincial, municipality and county level.
Seafood consumption in Asia is the highest in the world. Consumption in China has grown in line with the expansion of the country's affluent middle class, rising from 11.5kg per capita in 1990 to an average of 25.6kg per capita in 2006. A further rise of 40 percent to 35.9kg is expected by 2020. With the exception of shrimp, consumption of which has grown tenfold in the last decade,
China is forecast to be able to satisfy such an increase in demand independently. The Chinese domestic market is dominated by freshwater fish and molluscs and the only imports for domestic consumption are higher value seafood like abalone and shrimp. Changes in the habits of domestic shoppers are becoming evident. A move away from the traditional wet markets and smaller shops towards supermarkets and mega-stores is now being seen. This is fueled in part by the recent food safety scares but also by the sudden appearance of large foreign chains such as Carrefour and WalMart, which have both had to accommodate a diverse and mostly live seafood selection onto their shop floors.
Processing In recent years seafood processing has seen significant growth in China and processing for re-export has become a multi-billion dollar trade. Much of the raw material for this activity is frozen seawater catch and is supplied by Russia and the US. Processing for re-export is supported by a 100-percent tariff rebate, paid at the time of export.
Source: Hugin via ABN Newswire
From: icsf@icsf.net
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China's Coastal Pollution Necessitates Rethinking Government Role
8 November 2007
by Yingling Liu
The waters off China‚s eastern and northeastern coasts, home to the country's major seafood production and fish farms, have become a giant dumping ground for chemical wastes, according to Nanfang Daily. The wild fish catch has been shrinking, farmed fish are being poisoned, and fishers and local residents are abandoning once-prosperous coastal villages for locations further inland. But while industrial polluters currently bear much of the blame, the country's negligent governmental bodies must also shoulder a large share of the responsibility.
The Bohai Sea, a partly enclosed sea off north China that laps the shores of Shandong, Hebei, Liaoning provinces and Tianjin Municipality, is known traditionally as the "Fish Barn of the Emperor's Lands." But today its waters are dying from the poisonous inflows from China's rivers, which carry chemicals and toxic waste from inland areas to the coast. An estimated 43 of the 53 major waterways that run into Bohai are heavily polluted, with the worst conditions occurring near the mouths of the Yellow, Xiaoqing, and Zhangwei rivers.
Giant effluent pipes from coastal chemical factories lurk beneath the Bohai Sea, sending torrents of reddish or brownish effluent deep into its waters. Each year, an estimated 5.7 billion tons of toxic waste and 2 billion tons of solid waste are dumped into the sea; its heavy metal content now exceeds the acceptable standard by 2,000 times. Large patches of the water body are completely devoid of any living aquatic creatures.
Yangjiao Port, located in Shouguang City of Shandong province, was once the area's leading wholesale seafood market. Nowadays, business has nearly dried up. "There are no fish," complained local fisherman Wang Dayou. "What is the use of this fish market?"
In Shuigou Village, at the estuary of the Zhangwei River, more than 2,000 villagers depend on the sea for a living. Before 1995, the water from the river was drinkable, but now it poisons ducks and geese. Most of the fish caught from the sea are dead, with loose scales that are easily shaken off. Fishers‚ nets are weighed down not by golden harvests, but by the residues of dark oil and other debris that clings to the once-white threads.
In Wudi County, the two best-preserved shorelines for shells, which extend roughly 70 kilometers along the coast, were once a popular nesting spot for migratory birds. But they have long since lost their vitality. Area residents (historically, China's first rural residents to become "better-off" due to the ocean's rich offerings) have seen their per-capita incomes plummet from more than US$1,200 a year to a meager $200.
Seas to the south are faring no better. According to a recent National Bureau of Oceanography report, all four of the large seas lining China's northern and southern borders are suffering from declining environmental quality. An estimated 83 percent of the industrial and other sources that discharge waste into the Yellow Sea release substandard effluent, and the estimate is similarly high for the East Sea (80 percent), South Sea (73 percent,) and Bohai Sea (72 percent). In total, an average of 9,230 tons of pollutants were released into these seas daily in early 2007, a 6.7 percent increase over the same period last year.
Shoreline residents are starting to abandon coastal homelands they have depended on for generations. The urge to flee China's dead and poisonous ocean has spread from the north to the south, leaving entire villages and towns absent of their former hustle and bustle. A 700-student school in Jiangsu‚s Yanwei Port has immediate plans to move inland after growing numbers of students were hospitalized for inhaling harmful ocean air. At this rate, the nation's inland retreat will create hundreds of kilometers of "no-mans lands" along Chinese shores, from Shandong in the north to Jiangsu in the south˜leaving behind only reeds, dirty beaches, and seagulls fluttering over debris.
Currently, the Chinese public and activist groups are laying the blame on numerous polluting chemical plants, which are clustered in industrial parks along the nation's rivers and coastlines. Jiangsu province alone has at least three such parks˜in Xiangshui County, Guannan County, and Lianyungang City˜totaling more than 100 chemical plants that spew out tons of pollutants daily. Over the next year or so, authorities in Lianyungang City aim to merge the three parks into one giant industrial park harboring more than 200 large and medium sized chemical plants.
Unfortunately, North Jiangsu is not a special case. Industrial parks dot Chinese watersheds from middle Jiangsu province to coastal areas in Zhejiang province to the south. They also sprawl northward, with Huangdao Industrial Park in Qingdao City of Shandong province, chemical parks in Huangye Hebei province, and large petrochemical parks in Tianjin Municipality being prominent examples. The chain of industrial parks ultimately engulfs the Bohai Sea, the farthest north of China's large coastal water bodies.
Yet blaming the polluters alone is off the mark. Business has its own rules to follow, and it naturally runs after profits. In a country where controlling pollution costs more than paying fines for discharging it freely, and where industrial images remain untarnished because of a muffled press, it is understandable that polluters will act in ways that is most beneficial to their interests. Any attempt to hold businesses in check on moral grounds is nothing more than naivéte.
Rather, it is China's government, which has neglected its basic function as guardian of the public good, that is responsible for much of the country's environmental harm. Local governments are the ones that woo investments, offering lax regulations as an incentive to business. They are the ones that actually run the industrial parks and derive revenues from them, and that cover up any misdeeds by blocking the flow of information. And it is they that have provided a haven for unrestricted pollution. The coalition of local government and profit-driven business has formed an unstoppable juggernaut, running roughshod over the interests of underrepresented groups and any other small players that dare stand in the way.
The Nanfang Daily article recounted two cases of such abuse. Villagers from Duigou Village, in Jiangsu province's Guannan County, decided to have their river water tested because of noticeable pollution. The results showed that the water was undrinkable for both people and animals. Residents demanded compensation of 40,000 RMB (US$5,000) from the chemical plants in the local industrial park. In response, the administrative committee, a government branch, sued them on charges of blackmail. Several villagers were imprisoned for six months as a consequence of their daring deeds. With this precedent, the residents become quiet, harboring only growing internal anger against both local businesses and the government.
Even citizens of conscience who have greater influence than China's chronically overlooked rural residents have no means to escape. He Hongshi, party secretary of Touzen Village of Jiangsu province, is currently serving two years in prison for leading villagers in their complaints against chemical parks.
It has taken decades to achieve just a few faint signs of progress in the effort to divest businesses from the government in China. The government still has the liberty to allocate many resources, including land, bank loans, business registration, and various other tools to meddle in the private sector. This power enables some local governments to engage in rampant rent seeking, forcing partnerships with businesses that are not always happily compliant. Meanwhile, as the government is busy making money, it neglects or totally forgoes its responsibility to uphold clear and just rules to safeguard social justice against the self-interested drive for profit.
With China at the brink of environmental collapse at the hands of a booming private sector, the government should be the greatest hope for preserving the public good and admonishing businesses that exceed their limits. Local governments need to stop being accomplices to environmental abuses and the suppression of underrepresented groups. Instead, they must begin to see themselves as accountable rule-setters and negotiators of the public interest in the face of ruthless, profit-driven businesses. The sooner this shift happens, the sooner China's environmental woes can be effectively addressed.
Yingling Liu is manager of the China Program at the Worldwatch Institute.
Source: Worldwatch Institute
Redmanglar Summary Notes On 3rd Meeting
The Struggle Continues: Latin American Mangrove Defence Network Renews its Unwavering Commitment.
Redmanglar International, the Latin American mangrove and coastal community defense network, gathered together 70 delegates from its 10 Member countries and invited international observers for its Third General Assembly. The meeting took place from 8 to 13 October 2007 in Cuyutlán, Colima State on the Pacific coast of Mexico, adjoining the mangrove rich Cuyutlán lagoon. The meeting was hosted by Bios Iguana A.C…
Delegates shared experiences and discussed issues of the day. Through the Declaration of Cuyutlán, Red Manglar Members took a stand against privatisation of the coasts, urging Governments to provide guaranteed access to coastal spaces for artisanal fishers and gatherers; they condemned the commercialisation of ecosystem functions and components, and their appropriation as "environmental goods and services" to the detriment of local communities; they rejected the organic certification of industrial shrimp aquaculture as "green wash"; and they reaffirmed their unwavering commitment to defend mangrove ecosystems as "the source of livelihood and security for millions and the natural patrimony of communities, that serve humanity". The Cuyutlán Declaration pays homage to over 30 associates of Redmanglar, men and women, whose lives have been lost in the struggle to defend mangroves, some of them assassinated.
Given an alarming acceleration in the destruction of mangrove ecosystems in the region by mega-projects, the importance of this commitment and of the role of Red Manglar in strengthening resistance in coastal communities in Latin America was highlighted. This strengthening is to be achieved through protest movements and denouncements; awareness raising campaigns; political platforms for making demands; and through declarations, resolutions, participative analysis and synthesis, and communications.
The chosen venue of Cuyutlán was of special significance for two main reasons. The nearby port of Manzanillo is set to become a major terminal for liquefying natural gas and for shipping this highly explosive export product. Environmentalists consider this project as a major threat to the mangrove and related ecosystems in the Cuyutlán lagoon, and for the artisanal fishing communities and salt harvesters who live there. Secondly, the mangrove ecosystems, both in the Cuyutlán lagoon and Mexico-wide, are threatened by a proposed modification to Mexican federal law (Norma Oficial Mexicana 022-SEMARNAT-2003) that protects mangrove ecosystems. This proposes to boost economic development ˆ tourism, real estate development, industry, etc ˆ in coastal areas, by easing environmental regulations.
The weeklong meeting included presentations from 10 Latin American countries on the state of mangrove ecosystems. These exposed and denounced the globalisation processes through which the use of marine coastal areas is being appropriated by economic interests, with little consideration for environmental conservation or the lives and livelihoods of local communities. They underlined the importance of community-based approaches to defending and managing coastal marine ecosystems, and the failure of national laws and law enforcement in providing adequate protection.
Fernando López Romero, Profesor at the Central University of Ecuador, gave an overview of the current economic context in Latin America. "We face a situation of enormous complexity," he said, "with overlapping areas of interests between the world's powers, huge threats to communities and the environment, with scarce capacity for resistance at community level or by social and political organizations"
The meeting discussed the issues of "Food and Water Sovereignty and Marine Coastal Ecosystems", and the important role of artisanal fishing in providing livelihoods and sustaining life in coastal communities. These discussions highlighted the magnitude of the problems facing coastal communities, given the need to sustain food and water supplies, and given the increasing competition for coastal space and associated natural resources, coupled with environmental degradation and pollution.
Following a presentation on the certification of shrimp farming from a Brazilian perspective by Professor Jeovah Meireles from the Federal University of Ceará, members ratified the position of Red Manglar International against organic certification of industrial shrimp aquaculture. This was described as a "green wash", designed to hide the environmental, social and economic evils of the shrimp farming industry.
The meeting closed with the election of ASPROCIG from Colombia as the new Executive Secretariat. ASPROCIG, the Producers and Sustainable Community Development Association of Cienaga Grande in Bajo Sinú, take over the role from the team of C-CONDEM from Ecuador.
ENDS. Compiled by Brian O‚Riordan, who attended the meeting as observer.
Based on Redmanglar sources
www.redmanglar.org:80/
For more information: Veronica Yepez, Comunicaciones, Redmanglar Internacionalinfo@redmanglar.org
Redmanglar International, Declaración de Cuyutlán
http://redmanglar.org/redmanglar.php?c=685
Redmanglar International, Press Release 24/10/2007: Se Cumplio La Iii Asamblea General De La Redmanglar Internacional - ASPROCIG de Colombia, elegida como nueva Secretaría Ejecutiva.
http://redmanglar.org/redmanglar.php?c=686
From: "Brian O'Riordan" briano@scarlet.be
==================================
Aquaculture gaining momentum in Latin America, says new report
Latin America is an important player in the global seafood industry. Peru and Chile alone account for approximately half of the world's total fishmeal production and Chile is the world's second largest producer of farmed salmon after Norway. Aquaculture is a growing trend across the region, with demand for aquaculture products expected to increase worldwide by 8 percent annually. The region currently supplies around 99 percent of the total import volume and value of fresh tilapia fillets to the US.
Glitnir, the leading global supplier of financial services to the seafood industry, today released its new report on the Latin American seafood industry. The report analyses the main trends and developments in the seafood sector across the continent with particular focus on Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Peru. A case study on tilapia farming in South America is also included.
This latest Latin American Seafood Industry Report is the second annual report to be published by Glitnir on the Latin American market and is the final report in a series of seven planned for 2007. Glitnir's seafood reports covering Europe, North and South America and China are available at www.glitnir.is/seafood.
Findings from the report
* The total catch of Latin American nations amounted to 17.1 million MT in 2005, (17.7% of the global catch) with Peru and Chile standing out as the main fishing nations producing 82% of the total volume.
* In 2006 the Argentine catch increased by 24 percent over the preceding year to 1.1 million MT due mainly to a massive increase in the white fish catch, the biggest contributors being squid and argentine red shrimp.
* Hake is the most important species in Argentina with the total catch reaching 354 thousand MT in 2006, a 2.3 percent decrease from the preceding year.
* Peru is the world's second largest fishing nation, measured in MT, based on the 2005 world catch. A large part of that catch is low-value pelagic species
* Peru is the world's largest producer of fishmeal with approximately one third of global production and 41 percent of world exports in 2006.
* Annual seafood consumption in the countries under focus is highest in Peru (20.0 kg per capita), followed by Chile (16.5 kg per capita), Argentina (6.5 kg per capita) and Brazil (6.0 kg per capita)
Chile is the leading aquaculture country in Latin America with a production of 698,000 MT (52% of total) at a value of US$ 3.1 billion in 2005. Growth in volume of 78% has been seen over the past five years. The US is the single largest market for Chilean Atlantic salmon, with total imports of 64,959 MT worth US$470 million in the first 8 months of 2007.
Fuelled by a drive from China for fishmeal, aquaculture production has also been growing in Peru, the world's largest producer of fishmeal. Honduras, Ecuador and El Salvador are now establishing themselves as important players in the export of fresh tilapia fillets to the US market. Mexico and Brazil lead the way in tilapia farming, producing 100,000 MT each in 2006, but their harvests are mainly for domestic use.
Imports of tilapia into the US market have increased dramatically in recent years and it is now the country's sixth most popular seafood due to its mild flavour, adaptability to various styles of preparation and a texture that differs from many other types of fish. About 96 percent of all tilapia consumed in the US is imported, and 99 percent of this comes from Latin American countries. Lower transportation costs make Latin America a competitive supplier.
Pelagic species make up a significant part of the Peruvian catch and are the most utilised in the Peruvian seafood industry. The single most important species is anchovy. Since 2002, only anchovy can be used in fishmeal. The use of sardines, mackerel and horse mackerel are reserved for direct human consumption.
In 2006, Peru exported 97 percent of its fishmeal and 96 percent of its fish oil production. 41 percent of its exports went to China, 16 percent to Germany and 13 percent to Japan. Demand for fishmeal particularly from China and Europe is expected to rise further in the coming years with an increasing demand for healthier food. The weak US Dollar is currently making fishmeal cheaper in both Europe and Japan, and unforeseen temporary events in China weakened demand for fishmeal in the first half of 2007, leading to lower prices. However fishmeal prices have now stabilized at US$ 830/MT FAQ FOB Peru, with a premium of USD 100-200 for prime and super prime and going forward strong demand and limited supply, will probably keep prices relatively high.
Source: Hugin via ABN Newswire
From: icsf@icsf.net
=========================
Brazil
Shrimp Farming In Brazil Turns To Green In The Domestic Market
According to an article by Ben DiPietro that appeared in Intrafish on Nov. 1st, 2007, Brazil's shrimp industry is looking towards greatly increasing its domestic market for fam-raised shrimp this year and in the future.
According to DiPietro, "Unable to compete on price with Asian producers, and facing an export market where the U.S. dollar has dropped more than 40 percent against the real the past two years, Brazil is focusing its efforts on building up its domestic shrimp market…"
Over fifty percent of the shrimp grown in Brazil in 2006 sold in the domestic market, and the industry is expecting this to increase to between 70 and 75 percent of Brazil's total production.
Accirding to Itamar Rocha, president of the Brazilian Shrimp Farmers Association (ABCC)
"We have a very competitive price with meat and salmon and the imported fish. Brazil is the No. 1 Latin American importer of fish, so there is increasing demand for seafood in Brazil," said Rocha.
Again, according to Rocha, "The big companies, the companies that always were involved in the international markets, they are now paying attention to the local market," he said. "They are developing new products - not heads-off or fillets only, but some real value-added products."
Brazil is also moving towards establishing a "green seal of certification" that Rocha claims will cover all aspects of shrimp farming, including farms, feeding companies, processors, hatcheries, and involves not only establishing standards but providing training so farmers and others can understand what they need to do to meet the requirements for certification.
http://www.intrafish.no/global/news/article146584.ece?service
11/1/2007
=======================
Nicaragua
Of Forests, Floods, Fatalities and Famine
José Adán Silva
MANAGUA, Oct 24 (IPS) - The forces of nature are giving Nicaragua no respite. After the hurricane that devastated the country‚s northeastern Caribbean coast in September, weeks of torrential rains have claimed lives and caused economic damages, and now the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) is warning of famine.
Hurricane Felix ploughed into the country‚s northern Atlantic region on Sept. 4, leaving a death toll of 102, with 130 people still missing, and 220,000 people homeless. Economic losses were estimated at 900 million dollars, and crops in the area were completely wiped out, according to the national system for disaster prevention and relief (SINAPRED).
The government was seeking international aid when another natural disaster hit. Heavy rains fell for 50 consecutive days, starting before hurricane Felix, and flooding large areas on the Pacific side of the country in the north and south. The administration declared a state of national disaster on Oct. 19.
"This is worse than Mitch," said President Daniel Ortega, referring to the damage caused by the hurricane in October 1998 that killed over 3,000 people, left 700,000 families homeless and caused damages to the tune of between 1.5 billion and two billion dollars…
….Prior to the alert sounded by FAO, U.N. resident representative Alfredo Missair had warned that the vulnerability of people in the areas hit hardest by the natural disasters would increase the already wide gap between rich and poor.
The poverty gap has grown "alarmingly" over the last five years, undoing all efforts to improve living conditions for the 47 percent of the population of 5.4 million who live on less than a dollar a day, he said.
Even before the advent of hurricane Felix, the northern Caribbean coastal region, home to more than 300,000 indigenous people, was already in a state of poverty, malnutrition and economic inequality, he said.
Eighty percent of the region‚s population was already living in extreme poverty, and a further 16 percent were poor, according to the 2005 census.
In 2005, authorities declared a state of famine in the indigenous communities living along the Coco river and in the north of Chinandega, two of the areas that have been hit especially hard now.
According to Vice President Jaime Morales, although the international community has sent disaster relief donations to mitigate the humanitarian crisis, the rural areas are so "fragile, vulnerable and poor" that the aid cannot make inroads into chronic malnutrition, which affects up to 50 percent of the people in some districts.
Managua Mayor Dionisio Marenco warned of the risk of landslides due to flooding, and of the possible collapse of the Augusto César Sandino international airport owing to the river torrents that sweep down from the hills surrounding the south of the capital city.
"This is hardly a Œnatural‚ disaster, because the flooding is caused by merciless deforestation in the mountains," said Marenco, who promised a municipal plan to reforest the southern slopes of Managua, and to build embankments to prevent flooding of the city.
Jaime Incer Barquero, a biologist and geographer, said that unless the government implements a strategic plan to curb environmental damage, the country could be on its knees within a few years because of the effects of global warming.
"Nicaragua is not to blame for the hurricanes and storms, but it is responsible for the destruction of its forests, which form a protective barrier. Rain causes greater damage to land stripped of its trees than to forested areas," the scientist said.
Before the September and October rains, the authorities had launched a campaign to reforest 60,000 hectares of woodlands a year.
But now "this project has been suspended because of the national emergency, since the entire state apparatus is concentrating its efforts on overcoming the crisis caused by the heavy rainfall," a government statement said.
According to the Environment Ministry, in 1950 there were eight million hectares of forest in Nicaragua, compared to just three million hectares today.
U.N. agencies like FAO, the European Union, and countries such as Norway, Venezuela, the United States, El Salvador, Honduras and Cuba have sent emergency aid.
Natural resources management expert Guillermo Bendaña said that the challenge is not so much that of obtaining aid for crisis relief, but "to see whether it might be possible to get the country to stop destroying its environment, because the greater the extent of deforestation, the worse will be the soil erosion effects of the rains," he told IPS.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39793
The Bahamas
Marine Protected Area Needed At Bimini Island
It is rare to turn on the news these days, or flip through a newspaper, and not see evidence of the growing movement towards environmental sustainability and increased ecological responsibility. From the reconstruction efforts in storm ravaged New Orleans utilizing environmentally sustainable architecture (1), to WalMart's new found commitment to ecologically friendly products (2), to the recent declaration of Bahamas Deputy Prime Minister ensuring that environmental safety is a priority for the current Bahamian government (3), it seems as if much of the world is finally moving past the false debate between progress and preservation. The two strategies can, and should, coexist.
As witnessed from the media coverage, when planning environmentally sustainable projects to address grand issues such as increased global energy needs or affordable housing to large developing countries such as China, the issue can take on an almost overwhelming tone. But if we shrink our focus down to the islands of Bimini, the concept of sustainability becomes much more manageable.
There have been several reports lately about downward trends in tourism to the Bahamas (4), though tourism business seems to actually be improving in Bimini (5). It would be hard to argue that such a quick boost in Bimini's tourism product is anything less than a benefit for the island.
So, while increased tourism seems to be benefiting these magnificent little islands, there must be some attention given to the sustainability costs of such an increase in people as well. Examples of such costs are; more people means more trash to an island that has a long-standing problem with trash and litter, more people means more of a strain on a finite fresh water supply, and more people means more pressure on Bimini's marine resources.
And tourists aren't the only ones additionally accessing Bimini's resources. Over recent years it has been made clear that due to the Bahamas's rapid business growth that many of the island's labor pools simply cannot sustain the needs of businesses and resorts. (7) This means that additional laborers are being brought to islands, such as Bimini, from other Bahamian islands as well as other countries, thus bumping the number of residents even higher.
So the question I'm offering as a counter-balance to all of this growth, is "what is sustainable for Bimini?"
To address only the issue of Bimini's marine resources, what is being done to see that Bimini's fish stocks and marine ecosystems are being sustained for the future?
It has been widely publicized that Bimini was designated as the highest-priority site for a Marine Protected Area in all of the Bahamas, back in 2000. (8) It has also been publicized that Bimini is already witnessing diminished fish, conch, and lobster populations (9, 10, 11).
More people coming to the island will mean more of a drain on Bimini's fish stocks through increased food demand & increased sport-fishing. Meanwhile Bimini's marine nurseries are shrinking (12), making the concept of sustainability seem much less likely.
In January of this year, residents of Bimini laid out a clear list of "Key Goals" that were designed to not only improve the tourism product on the island, but also respect the concept of sustainability for the residents here. One of these Key Goals was, " Set aside a key area of our waters as a Marine Reserve/Park." Similarly, the Department of Marine Resources distributes a flier explaining the Bahamas' proposed Marine Reserves Network, and the 2007 version of this flier still lists Bimini as first priority under the "initial selections." (13)
As the sole mangrove habitat on the western Great Bahama Bank, Bimini's need to retain a level of ecological "self-sufficiency" is arguably higher than many of the other Bahamian islands who can rely on neighboring islands for replenishment of marine resources due to closer proximity. I would suggest that implementing Bimini's MPA is the least that should be done in order to achieve true sustainability for Bimini's future. Additionally, if you consider the economic value of mangroves and healthy reefs (14) as they relate to tourism opportunities, storm protection, and even climate change (15), it is increasingly more difficult for anyone to justify the clearing and filling of Bimini's mangrove wetlands.
The campaign against irresponsible development on Bimini has reached a massive international audience (see attached document ), yet there are still recent statements being made boasting to replace one of North Bimini's last mangrove ecosystems with a golf course (5).
Regardless of any one's opinions on mega-resorts and development, I'm simply asking that people consider which is truly more sustainable for Bimini, a golf course or a Marine Protected Area? Developers, resort owners, and more importantly Biminites, would all benefit from an MPA. Who would benefit from the golf course? And what will happen to the fishing guides, eco-tours, Bone Fishermen, lobstermen, restaurants, scores of "traditional" Bimini tourists, and everyone else who relies on Bimini's marine resources if more mangrove degradation is allowed? I am yet to hear any one dispute the value of protecting Bimini's mangroves, yet both North and South Bimini are currently losing these precious resources to property development.
It has been several weeks since I have contacted the Bahamas National Trust, the Nature Conservancy, the BEST Commission or the Department of Marine Resources about Bimini's MPA. I would like to again respectfully ask if any progress has been made on this issue? Bimini's MPA would benefit tourism, benefit local businesses, benefit numerous threatened species, and more generally stated, benefit Bimini's future.
I'm not asking that anyone consider my opinion as more valuable than anyone else's, I'm simply asking that people look objectively at Bimini's future and consider what is sustainable for the island. Like hundreds of people that have voiced their concern on this issue, I truly want Bimini to prosper as much as anyone else does, but am concerned when such a large piece of this small island's future can be influenced by developers who have incited such a controversy ( see attached document). I have tried to create an open dialogue with developers on Bimini, and contrary to what some of these people and their lawyers are saying, I am not opposed to development in Bimini, nor am I trying to spread false information about this issue. My continued suggestion is that every individual concerned with Bimini's future take some time to investigate all sides of this issue for themselves, not taking my, or anyone else's words as indisputable.
Grant Johnson
South Bimini, Bahamas
From: "Grant Johnson" grantjohnson86@gmail.com
==============================
Editor's Note : The following response from Dr. Gruber, a well-known expert on sharks and marine ecology, is noteworthy because both he and I received the same threatening letters from the below addressed lawyer demanding that we "cease and desist" from our efforts to spotlight the destructive development now going on at Bimini Island, which most definitely is having a negative effect upon the island's marine ecology, destroying mangroves and threatening to wipe out the nursery areas for the lemon sharks and other now threatened marine life including the area's surrounding coral reefs. MAP is endorsing the idea of halting further development of this resort, including halting construction of the golf course in the mangrove area, and urging the government to declare the area that has already been earmarked for a Marine Sanctuary as an officially protected conservation zone.
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Bimini Bay Resort Resorts To Legal Threats
Letter from Dr. Samuel Gruber
Carlos A. Velasquez Esq. P.A. CERTIFIED MAIL
101 N Pine Road Suite 101 RETURN RECEIPT REQUESTED
Fort Lauderdale 33325 Re: Your file 07-4371
October 31, 2007
Dear Mr. Velasquez,
I am in receipt of your certified letter, ending in -5885, in which you set forth the accusation that I "have been disseminating false and disparaging information concerning the Bimini Bay project." Naturally, I was surprised on reading your accusation, which expressively, failed to specify any false statement I have made. This is likely because my statements are empirically-based scientific opinion gleaned from decades of research and the reams of data I have collected about the North Sound, site of the Bimini Bay development.
Although you state that you have "investigated" the matter, I would like to take this opportunity to clarify the basis of my interest in the Bimini islands. Unlike your client, I am not an American commercial developer with an interest in exploiting the economic potential of a Bahamian island. Rather, I am an experienced scientist who has spent the last 25 years studying the delicate ecology of the island.
As of May 31, 2007, I am a retired emeritus full professor at the University of Miami, after having been a member of the tenured faculty for 39 years. I am also Adjunct Professor of Biology at the University of North Carolina (Wilmington); founder in 1990 and founder/director of the Bimini Biological Field Station; council member of the Bahamas National Trust with 16 years of service to the people of the Bahamas and board member of the University of Southern Mississippi's College of Marine Science. I have been a long-time member of numerous professional societies and founder of the American Elasmobranch Society (over 500 members worldwide) and founder of the World Conservation Union's (IUCN) Shark Specialist Group. In my professional capacity, I have presented over 150 invited lectures to scientific societies on a range of topics related to shark biology Academically I have mentored over 40 graduate students, worked tirelessly to promote conservation of sharks, created educational opportunities at Bimini for Florida teachers and minority high school students, served as referee for several scientific journals, received decades of funding from and reviewed grants for federal agencies, sat on state and federal scientific panels and taught advanced courses at University of Miami in animal behavior, tropical marine biology, and physiology of marine organisms. My latest CV is enclosed for your perusal
In addition to the above, I have been expedition leader on 49 oceanographic research cruises around the Atlantic Ocean and authored over 150 peer-reviewed, scientific publications ranging from works on the visual, olfactory, and acoustic sensory systems of sharks; shark repellents; shark husbandry; bioenergetics, age and growth, productivity, survival and nutrition in sharks. I have carried out behavioral research including telemetry studies, revealing habitat selection and homing of lemon sharks and eagle rays and investigated circulating steroid hormones. I have also published on cleaning symbiosis between rays and wrasses and a number of anatomical studies on sharks. Over the past quarter century my research emphasis has been on the ecology, behavior and conservation biology of sharks, with the primary research areas being the North Sound at Bimini Bay, North Bimini, The Marquesas Keys, Florida, Jupiter reefs Florida and Atol das Rocas Brazil.
It should be apparent from the above that I have sufficient expertise the field of marine biology and ecology to offer my expert opinion on ecological conditions at Bimini and elsewhere. Indeed I am listed as an independent expert witness in TASA's registry. As a scientist, academician, and conservationist I have a professional obligation to educate the public about the ecological consequences of development. If, as you assert, the Bimini Bay project is consonant with the environment health of Bimini's marine habitats, one would imagine that your client Gerardo Capo would prefer to show the community how his resort has been developed in an ecologically-sound manner thereby rebutting my scientific opinions. Instead of such dialogue it appears that he has hired lawyers in an attempt to intimidate me to stop rendering my opinion. However, Florida law does not look favorably on such attempts to use the threat of defamation suits to chill the legitimate grievances of concerned citizens. Indeed, many jurisdictions, including Florida, have adopted "anti-SLAPP" legislation for the express purpose of preventing such actions.
I hope that, after reading this letter, you will kindly advise your client that my endeavors in the present case are not that of a business trying to gain advantage in the market place, or a personal enemy trying to disparage someone. Such cases perhaps might be candidates for cease and desist letters. On the contrary, this is a case about a concerned scientist rendering an opinion on the ecological effects of business development, and therefore it is wholly inappropriate to send letters threatening legal action. Furthermore, you should know that I have many legal advisors willing to devote their time and effort to the important cause of the environment of Bimini. They fully assure me that I am within my rights to render a professional opinion on the state of the environment in Bimini and should not be silenced by legal strong-arm tactics.
Thank you for your attention to this letter. Any future correspondence should be addressed to:
Dr. Samuel H. Gruber
Bimini Biological Field Station
9300 SW 99 St
Miami FL 33176-2050
Sincerely Yours,
Samuel H. Gruber, PhD
Professor Emeritus
enclosure
From: "Samuel H. Gruber" sgruber@rsmas.miami.edu
USA
Organic standards must not slip, says coalition
06 November, 2007 - Fish Farmer Online
A COALITION of more than 40 groups has signed a letter urging that United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) organic standards be upheld for aquaculture.
The organisations wrote to the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB), urging caution as the body considers whether or not to allow farmed fish to carry the USDA Organic label.
The NOSB is due to meet later this month to consider the report of its Aquaculture Working Group. If acted upon, its recommendations would allow fish to carry the label - despite being raised under conditions that the coalition claims fail to meet basic USDA Organic principles. In the letter, the groups - which claim to collectively represent more than one million stakeholders and concerned citizens - comment on the Aquaculture Working Group's recommendations to allow use of fishmeal from wild fish (which they say has the potential to carry mercury and PCBs) and open net cages (which they claim promotes pollution from fish waste, can spread disease and parasites killing wild fish and allows escapes of farmed fish into the wild).
The co-signing organizations conclude that while the farming of herbivorous finfish may be conducted within organic regulations, farming carnivorous finfish (including salmon) in open net cage systems is an inherently flawed farming practice, incompatible with organic principles.
Center for Food Safety, Legal Director Joseph Mendelson adds: "Raising fish in this manner directly contradicts USDA Organic regulations; putting a USDA Organic label on these fish is like trying to force a round peg into a square hole."
The organizations voice "urgent concern" regarding consumer expectations raised by use of the USDA Organic label. Urvashi Rangan, PhD, Senior Scientist and Policy Analyst at Consumers Union says: "Consumers deserve clear assurance that their choice of organic products supports a safer and more sustainable environment. Fish labeled as 'organic' that are not fed 100 percent organic feed, come from polluting open net cage systems, or that are contaminated with mercury or PCBs fall significantly short of consumer expectations and undermine the integrity of the organic label."
The coalition reiterates its unified support for development of organic aquaculture standards for herbivorous species that can be successfully farmed organically. It also calls on the NOSB to abandon proposed regulatory changes that would allow use of non-organic, wild fish as feed and open net pen systems.
www.fishfarmer-magazine.com is published by Special Publications. Special Publications also publishes FISHupdate.com, FISHupdate magazine, Fish Farmer, the Fish Industry Yearbook, the Scottish Seafood Processors Federation Diary, the Fish Farmer Handbook and a range of wallplanners.
From: George A. Kimbrell |
gkimbrell@icta.org
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Global Aquaculture Alliance Forms Strategic Oversight Committee
from today's www.Seafood.com
The Global Aquaculture Alliance (GAA) today announced that it will form a 12-member Standards Oversight Committee (SOC) to coordinate its Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) standards. The SOC will manage public input, oversee the process of developing standards, and coordinate revisions to BAP standards. Executive Director Wally Stevens said its members will include equal representation from three key stakeholder groups: non-governmental conservation and social justice organizations; academic institutions and regulatory agencies; and industry. Stakeholder input will be solicited through the GAA website.
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Editor's Note: MAP's Stance On Imported Farmed Shrimp
This battle described in the article below between the NGO and Industry certifiers is actually quite expected. In fact, there are big differences between industry certifiers themselves, as well as between NGO certifiers themselves. These kind of tumultuous goings-on display the whirlwind of confusion that enters too often t