TheVoices for sustainable forestrySpanish-language videos form an educational series that can be viewed on the internet and are useful for community radio shows, in schools and for media use.
“Hearing and seeing an expert explain an issue can be a far more effective form of communication than reading a written technical document,” says TRAFFIC South America’s Ana Puyol, co-ordinator of the programme.
“The videos make it easy to gain access to the best information available.”
Although the lectures are focused on Ecuador, many of the topics and challenges facing forestry communities are shared with other countries in the region.
“These common problems are regional. Many of the challenges we experience in Ecuador are the same in other countries where the Amazonian forest is under threat.”
Topics covered range from explaining forest ecosystems, the dilemmas faced by indigenous communities, forest laws and most importantly forest governance.
Puyol hopes the videos may one day become part of the national teacher-training curriculum and is also at work making short online courses aimed at giving the media sound background information on forestry issues.
среда, 9 марта 2011 г.
TRAFFIC - Wildlife Trade News - Voices from the Amazon
четверг, 3 марта 2011 г.
TRAFFIC - Wildlife Trade News - WCO’s Operation GAPIN yields spectacular results
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The seizures included came from more than 31 species, including one live Barbary MacaqueMacaca sylvanus, two dead macaques, 295 pieces of ivory (statues, jewellery, chopsticks, etc), 57 kg of raw ivory, four rhino horns, 4,726 kg of pangolin meat, 323 seahorses, and one leopard skin.
Most of the seizures and/or detentions were made in Kenya, Mozambique, Rwanda and South Africa with the balance made in countries outside Africa: Belgium, China, the Czech Republic, France, Hong Kong, Israel, Japan, the Netherlands, Romania, Spain, the United Kingdom, and Viet Nam.
More than 100 seizures of wildlife protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) were made during the two-week transregional operation in January and February 2011 to combat the illegal cross-border trade in great apes and other wildlife species including their derivatives.
This initiative was conducted within the Framework of Project GAPIN—Great Apes and Integrity—which is financed by the Swedish Government and designed to stem illegal trade flows whilst cracking down on corrupt practices that help to fuel illicit trafficking.
Increasing wildlife crime and associated corruption is a matter of grave concern to governments and the international community; being on the frontline at international border crossings enables Customs to play a critical role in the fight against transnational organized crime which is more often than not linked to the smuggling of endangered species.
Other products detained during the operation and undergoing further investigation to determine their exact CITES status include: 5,300 kg of shark fins, 12,056 pieces of seashells, 11,250 kg of sea cucumbers and 1,000 kg of eel intestines.
“The World Customs Organization and its 177 Member Customs administrations remain committed to protecting the earth’s natural heritage through effective border enforcement,” said WCO Secretary General, Kunio Mikuriya.
“Enhancing Customs’ application of export controls on protected wildlife through capacity building and raising the awareness of frontline Customs officers on the dangers posed by corruption has ensured the success of this important transregional operation.”
Operation GAPIN was preceded by a one-week intensive, specialized capacity building training session in Mombasa, Kenya, for frontline Customs officials in December 2010, which focused on building the capability of officers to tackle wildlife smuggling more effectively and to identify integrity and corruption issues more readily.
Some of the countries participating in the training session made significant interceptions during the actual operation and moreover, Viet Nam Customs seized 1.2 tonnes of ivory shipped from Tanzania via Singapore just prior to the start of the operation.
“The WCO will continue its drive to build the capacity of Customs administrations across the globe to protect endangered wild fauna and flora through efficient and effective border enforcement in cooperation with its international, regional and national partners,” said Secretary General Mikuriya.
A total of 14 African countries participated in the operation, supported by 25 countries in Asia and Europe as well as the CITES Secretariat, the WCO Regional Intelligence Liaison Offices, the ASEAN Wildlife Enforcement Network, the Lusaka Agreement Task Force, the Pan African Sanctuary Alliance, and national CITES management authorities, wildlife enforcement agencies and in some countries the police.
“The WCO are to be congratulated on the success of Operation GAPIN which underlines the value both of training of enforcement officers and international co-operation in tackling transnational wildlife crime,” said Steven Broad, Executive Director of TRAFFIC.
среда, 2 марта 2011 г.
TRAFFIC - Wildlife Trade News - Too little done to address trade threat to Asia’s tortoises and freshwater turtles
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Seventy experts who gathered in Singapore last week for theConservation of Asian Tortoises and Freshwater Turtles Workshopto evaluate the current status of these species in Asia found the vast majority of are nearing extinction in the wild, and very little has been done to address the problem.
The meeting reported that illegal and unsustainable trade was the greatest threat to the survival of this highly threatened group of species and found that laws and conventions in place to protect these animals were simply not being enforced.;)
Seventy-two of Asia’s 86 species of tortoises and freshwater turtles were assessed at the Singapore meeting, which was hosted by Wildlife Reserves Singapore Group and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), in collaboration with the Turtle Survival Alliance, Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden, San Diego Zoo Global and the IUCN SSC Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Specialist Group.
The Malaysian Giant TurtleOrlitia borneensis, one of the largest freshwater turtles in the world and found only in Peninsular Malaysia, Borneo and Sumatra, is now listed as Critically Endangered due to illegal collection and export for its meat. The Burmese Star TortoiseGeochelone platynota, endemic to Myanmar, is thought to be possibly extinct in the wild due to relentless poaching for the international pet trade.
Being driven to extinction by unregulated trade: the Southeast Asia Box TurtleCuora amboinensisClick photo to enlarge© Chris R Shepherd / TRAFFIC SOutheast AsiaAnother key finding of the meeting was the need for research to be carried out on wild populations to understand their status in the wild, natural history and current distribution better.
Experts also highlighted the need for increased monitoring of the trade that is considered the leading threat to all of these species. The urgent need for rescue centres and ex-situ assurance colonies was also raised.
Alarm bells were first sounded for Asia’s freshwater tortoises and turtles following a meeting of experts in 1999, held in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, alerting the world to what was dubbed the Asian Turtle Crisis.
Asia’s tortoises and freshwater turtles were being harvested in massive quantities to supply the demand for meat and use in traditional medicines, mostly in East Asia. These species are also in demand as pets. Much of the trade is carried out illegally.
Approximately ten years later, experts again met and found the situation has gone from bad to worse.
Of Asia’s 86 species, close to 70 species (approximately 80%) are considered threatened. This is a dramatic increase since these species were assessed in 1999—a 90% increase in the number of Critically Endangered species alone.
While there have been some successes over the past decade, overall the battle is still being lost, said experts who also discussed current threats and prioritized actions necessary to save species from extinction.
“At the current rate of decline, we will lose many of Asia’s tortoises and freshwater turtle species forever, if international and national laws and conventions are not enforced,” said Chris R. Shepherd, Deputy Regional Director of TRAFFIC Southeast Asia and member of the IUCN Species Survival Commission, Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Specialist Group.
“Trade is the single greatest threat to tortoises and freshwater turtles– a species group that has been around since the days of the dinosaurs. Their future is now in the hands of policy makers, enforcement agencies and conservation bodies. To date, efforts to protect these species have been far from adequate. If effort and motivation to save these species is not greatly increased, we are going to lose many of these species .”
Shepherd urged authorities to make full use of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) under which many of Asia’s freshwater turtle and tortoise species are protected.
“The last ten years has shown that while it is possible to save these species from extinction, the threat of trade is still present and ever-growing,” said Colin Poole, Director, WCS Regional Hub.
“Of particular concern is the increasing impact of the pet trade on a number of tortoise species and the growth of the demand for dried carapace from softshell turtles sourced primarily in South Asia.”
Notes:
• The status of tortoises and freshwater turtles, as well as other useful information can be viewed by species at the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, at www.iucnredlist.org
• The report,Turtles in Trouble: the World’s top 25+ most Endangered Tortoises and Freshwater Turtles, can be downloaded athttp://www.turtlesurvival.org/
понедельник, 28 февраля 2011 г.
TRAFFIC - Wildlife Trade News - More than 1 tonne of ivory and rhino horns seized in Thailand
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This brings the total ivory seized at this airport since the beginning of 2010 to more than five and a half tonnes.
The ivory and rhino horn passed through Doha, Qatar, and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, before reaching Bangkok.
The illegal cargo’s last leg of shipment was from Kuala Lumpur to Bangkok and was meant to be picked up by a company located in Central Thailand. However, the shipment was left unclaimed.
The Suvarnabhumi Airport Cargo Clearance Customs Bureau with the help of officers from the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation counted 118 elephant tusks and three rhino horns in the 11 cases that made up the shipment.
Customs said the shipment was declared as“craft work” in the airway bill.
This is not the first time a combination of ivory and rhino horns has been seized or transited in Thailand and Malaysia.
In July 2009, Kenyan authorities stopped a shipment of 16 elephant tusks and two Black Rhino horns which were scheduled to transit in Thailand before being flown to a destination in Lao PDR.
Last August, five rhino horns and two tonnes of elephant ivory bound for Malaysia was seized by authorities in Kenya raising concerns about the former’s role in the global ivory trade.
The Elephant Trade Information System (ETIS) lists Thailand as one of three countries most heavily implicated in the illegal global ivory trade and Malaysia as a country of concern because of its role as a significant transit point.
ETIS is the world’s largest database of elephant product seizure records, comprising more than 15,400 ivory seizure cases compiled over the last 21 years and is compiled by TRAFFIC on behalf of CITES.
In an effort to address the problem,Customs Authorities in Thailand teamed-up with TRAFFIC Southeast Asiato raise awareness among Customs Officers based at airports and other key checkpoints about ways to tackle the illegal ivory trade.
Thailand’s Customs Department has also seen a series of successful raids at Suvarnabhumi Airport since stepping up its efforts.
“The authorities involved are to be congratulated,” said TRAFFIC Southeast Asia Regional Director Dr William Schaedla.
"This successful seizure highlights, once again, a flow of illegal ivory through Thailand and Malaysia. Customs authorities from both these countries must work with their counterparts in Africa to stem the tide of elephant and rhino poaching.
"Airport seizures are welcome, but there must also be a concerted long-term effort to investigate and shut down the criminal networks that enable the illegal ivory and rhino horn trade in the region.”
Forphotographsof the latest seizure, please contactRichard Thomas, TRAFFIC's Global Communications Co-ordinator, +44 1223 279068, mob +44 0752 6646 216, email: richard.thomas@traffic.org
воскресенье, 27 февраля 2011 г.
TRAFFIC - Wildlife Trade News - Trade alliance formulated in China
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Mr Liu and other TCM traders from across China and beyond are sampling TCM plant products today in Beijing, where they are meeting with collectors of wild TCM plants from the Yangtze River area.
They aim to establish a‘trade alliance’ between local producers and traders for the sustainable production of wild medicinal plant species.
The inaugural conference on international trade alliances held by TRAFFIC, WWF and the World Federation of Chinese Medicine Societies (WFCMS) will help establish links between producer associations in mountainous villages and national and international traditional Chinese medicine traders.
Around 15 representatives from TCM manufacturers in the Netherlands, Russia, USA, Korea and Brazil as well as China and 15 representatives from three producers associations in three pilot study sites have helped establish the foundations for the trade alliance.
They have exchanged information on international TCM export requirements and sustainable harvesting.
The meeting is the latest development in a collaborative WWF China, IUCN and TRAFFIC China project‘Sustainable Management of Traditional Medicinal Plants in High-biodiversity Landscapes of Upper Yangtze Ecoregion’ through the European Union’s China Biodiversity Programme (ECBP), funded by the European Union Development Programme (EUDP).
Mountain landscapes in the upper Yangtze River basin are internationally recognized for their biodiversity values and listed as the top priority area for biodiversity conservation in China.
An estimated 75% of commercially harvested Chinese medicinal plant species are found in the region, but many are endangered due to overharvesting.
In order to mitigate the degradation of populations of TCM species and improve local plant harvesters’ livelihoods, in 2007 WWF, IUCN and TRAFFIC launched the project within the ECBP in China.
Local producers in villages in Sichuan, Gansu and Shaanxi Provinces have been introduced to the concept and skills needed for sustainable harvesting of wild TCM plants.
Guidelines for the certification of wild-collected products have been introduced and producers helped with marketing of their sustainably harvested medicinal plant species.;)
“We now have more a stable supply of Schisandra by supplementing our existing supplies with sustainably wild-harvested fruit,” said Mr. Wang, Manager of the winery, who addressed the meeting in Beijing.
“Once the winery gets into full production capacity, hundreds of additional jobs will be made available to local villagers.”
Thanks to the joint work of these conservation organizations, 6 producers associations have been established in the villages of the three Provinces, representing about 970 local families and 3322 villagers, who treat wild collection as an important income.
“Three years after TRAFFIC/WWF and our partners introduced standards of sustainable management of wild medicinal plants to producers in the Yangtze region, our work is beginning to bear fruit,” said Professor Xu Hongfa, Director of TRAFFIC’s programme in China
суббота, 26 февраля 2011 г.
TRAFFIC - Wildlife Trade News - South African measures to restrict cycad trade inadequate
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But TRAFFIC says the measures don’t go far enough and is calling on the South African authorities to introduce a blanket trade ban on cycads.
“While the South African government is to be applauded for considering action against the illicit trade in cycads, TRAFFIC is concerned that the measures simply won’t stop the wild extinction of yet more cycad species,” said David Newton of TRAFFIC East and Southern Africa.
Cycad species affected are those in the genusEncephalartos, several of which are commonly known as bread palms or bread trees because their stems can be used to prepare a bread-like starchy food.
“Cycads among the oldest living seed plants, but are today are among the most highly threatened groups of species. South Africa is a global hotspot for cycads, and 31% of the country’s species are classified as Critically Endangered, principally because of severe over-harvesting to supply private horticultural collections,” said Simon Stuart, Chair of IUCN's Species Survival Commission.
IUCN, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, classifies around 70% ofEncephalartosspecies in Africa as threatened with extinction—four species no longer exist in the wild.
AllEncephalartosspecies are listed in Appendix I of CITES, which precludes their international commercial trade.
However, trade in artificially propagated plants from South Africa is still permitted, and despite existing regulations to restrict trade, including new CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) regulations promulgated in 2010, the plunder of wild cycad populations has continued.
According to the CITES trade database, over 5,000 cycad plants (Encephalartosspecies) were reported as exports from South Africa in 2009 alone. All were reported to be artificially propagated.
“Even just monitoring that number of exports to ensure they are all cultivated plants and not illegally wild-sourced is a massive challenge,” says Newton.
He also points out inconsistencies in the government’s proposals, such as no requirement for Critically Endangered cycad species under a certain size to be microchipped, unlike less threatened species.
According to Newton, the proposed new rules would do little to improve regulation of the international trade in cycads.
“The South Africa government recently delisted Abalone {a type of mollusc} from CITES because they were unable to meet the CITES export inspection requirements for farmed Abalone. So why do they now think they will be able to inspect and monitor size limited cycad exports, as proposed in the government gazette, given they have been unable to do so in the past?”
Under CITES rules, the Scientific Authority in South Africa would have to demonstrate what levels of plants could be traded without posing a conservation risk.
Such a study is known as a Non-Detriment Finding (NDF), but these have not yet been completed for all South Africa’s cycads.
“TRAFFIC calls on the South African government to impose a complete ban on the export of cycads until the completion of non-detriment findings and the establishment of biodiversity management plans that will ensure cycads' correct management by all stakeholders,” says Newton.
“This drastic measure is now required given the poor management of this trade over the years and the fact that an increasing number of cycad taxa are becoming extinct in the wild.”
In December 2010 the European Union (EU) imposed a ban on trade in cycad species from South Africa.
For more information, please contact:
Richard Thomas, Global Communications Co-ordinator, TRAFFIC. + 44 1223 279068; +44 752 6646216.
пятница, 25 февраля 2011 г.
TRAFFIC - Wildlife Trade News - Officers in Andhra Pradesh receive training on wildlife law enforcement
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The meeting took place in the State of Andhra Pradesh which, due to its abundant biodiversity, has always been a significant target for illegal wildlife trade.
Red Sanders, a protected tree species is a near endemic to the State that is in high demand. Large seizures of this wood have recently taken place at the Indo-Nepal border and in Jammu& Kashmir. In October 2010, Mumbai customs arrested a man on suspicion of attempting to smuggle about 10 tonnes of Red Sanders logs to Dubai.
There are also recent reports of tarantula spiders being illegally captured from southern and eastern parts of the State, the rampant poaching of Red Sandboa and the State is a major route in the smuggling of star tortoises.
The two-day workshop organized by TRAFFIC India aimed to make enforcement officers aware of the latest tools and techniques available to fight such illicit wildlife trade and also to provide an overview of organized global wildlife crime.
The workshop was inaugurated by Mrs C. S. Ramalaskshmi, Director General-CEFNARM (Centre for Forests and Natural Resource Management). Fifty participants from various enforcement agencies including the forest department of Andhra Pradesh, police, railway protection force, Customs, State postal and transport departments participated.
Mr Raghuveer, Director APFA emphasized that such multi-agency training helped in the co-ordination of the various departments that play a key role in curbing illegal wildlife trade.
Khalid Pasha of TRAFFIC India spoke about the regional and global reach of organized transnational wildlife crime and the need to update skills and knowledge continuously to meet the challenges this presented.
The workshop was held at the Andhra Pradesh Forest Academy, Dulapally, Hyderabad, and was the third in a series organized by the Indian and UK governments and TRAFFIC for dissemination of knowledge and skills for combating wildlife crime across India.
The programme is supported by Defra, under the UK-India Sustainable Development Dialogue (UK-India SDD) between the Governments of India and the UK.