RSPB Scotland has warned
that, should the development get the go-ahead, it will set a very dangerous
precedent for all internationally important sites in Scotland threatened by
similar developments. The UN Development Programme (UNDP) has pledged 7.2 million US$ for Viet Nam to implement a project on conservation and sustainable use of wetlands in the Tram Chim National Park and the Lang Sen Wetland Nature Reserve in the Mekong Delta.
The Tram Chim National Park, covering 7,588 ha in Dong Thap province, is a small-scale model of Dong Thap Muoi (Plain of Reeds). It harbours more than 130 endemic plant species, 120 species of fresh water fish, nearly 40 reptile species and 200 bird species.
The Tram Chim Wetland Nature Reserve, covering 5,030 ha in Long An province, is home to 165 plant species and 149 vertebrate species, including 13 rare species listed in the Viet Nam Red Book.
The project will help raise the community’s awareness about wetland biodiversity conservation and take proper measures to preserve and develop wetlands in Tram Chim and Lang Sen.
Source: Vietnam News Agency
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Problems of restoration of tropical peatland following inappropriate land use change, illegal logging and fire were addressed at the International Symposium and Workshop on “Restoration and Wise Use of Tropical Peatlands: Problems of Biodiversity, Fire, Poverty and Water” held in Palangka Raya, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia on 21-24 September 2005. These meetings were attended by over 200 peatland scientists from Indonesia and 13 other countries, and land managers, representatives of national and local government, NGOs and community groups, and the private sector. The symposium focused on measures needed urgently for biodiversity maintenance, fire control and water management linked to sustainable livelihoods of local people in order to alleviate poverty and reduce natural resources and environmental degradation. The workshop participants assessed specific problems of peatland restoration in the former Mega Rice Project and the Sebangau catchment areas of Central Kalimantan, and incorporated the views of specialists and stakeholders into a holistic approach to identify solutions using the “Wise Use” approach. The importance of peatlands to national and regional economies and the environment was stressed in opening statements by the Governor of Central Kalimantan and the Indonesian Deputy Minister for Research and Technology. The Governor expressed his concern over the current situation and made a strong commitment to support initiatives to solve the problems of fire and water management through sound science and wise use. He invited the participants to submit to him their conclusions and recommendations.
This resulted in the Palangka Raya statement on restoration and wise use of tropical peatlands. The statement and many more documents related to the Workshop can be downloaded from:
http://www.alterra-research.nl/pls/portal30/docs/ FOLDER/RESTORPEAT/p_download.htm
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Sago, a largely ignored cash crop because of its long gestation period, is the subject of new research on product development and improvement, agronomic, land and water management, culture tissues and planting materials. The research is also on the usage of sago trunks and compost. Sago as a cash crop has long been ignored by farmers because its maturity period is between 12 and 15 years.
Sago can grow in peat swamps and is the third most important cash crop of Sarawak, after oil palm and pepper, generating a revenue of about RM37 million last year compared to about RM24 million in 2000.
Sarawak produced 50,000 tonnes of sago starch, the most in the world, with peninsular Malaysia, Japan, Singapore, Thailand, China and the United States being the main markets.
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In Science magazine of 28 October, a short article by Finn Danielsen et al. was published that shows how the coastal mangrove vegetation played an important role in protecting the coast from the impact of the December 2004 Tsunami.
Human activities reduced the area of mangroves by 26% in the five countries most affected by the tsunami, from 5.7 to 4.2 million ha, between 1980 and 2000. Conserving or replanting coastal mangroves and greenbelts should buffer communities from future tsunami events. Mangroves also enhance fisheries and forestry production. These benefits are not found in artificial coastal protection structures.
The article can be found here:
www.forestrycenter.org/library.cfm?refid=77335
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On 7-8 November 2005, the Beijing International Renewable Energy Conference 2005 was held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. The Conference called on the world to consider renewable alternatives in the era of high oil prices.
The political commitment to encourage use of fossil fuel alternatives was strengthened by President Hu Jintao and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who both delivered congratulatory messages at the opening of the two-day event attended by 1,200 representatives from more than 80 countries and regions. A declaration was adopted confirming the goals set by the Earth Summit, the World Summit on Sustainable Development, and the United Nations 2005 Millenium Review Summit.
For more information and to read the declaration, visit the conference website at www.birec2005.cn
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In October, a total of 165 fires are raging over 4,300 hectares in Russian forests and peatlands, 18 of them in the Moscow region, evoking memories of the fires in 2002 that engulfed areas of Moscow in clouds of acrid smoke.
Smoke from burning peat bogs outside Moscow produced levels of carbon dioxide twice the legal maximum in southern and southeastern Moscow.
The Emergencies Situations Ministry promised to put out the fires around Moscow within a few days, and it dispatched 1,700 firefighters, 455 fire engines and four helicopters.
Hundreds of police officers and Interior Ministry troops guarded the forests around Moscow, warding off tourists and hikers. Campfires left by them were said to be the major reason for the forest fires. Unusually clear and dry weather in Moscow had contributed to the spread of the fires.
In Nizhny Novgorod, police had to block traffic on the main highway to Moscow due to low visibility caused by smoke from forest fires.
Source: Moscow Times
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News
from Georgia:
Ramsar advisory mission
An oil terminal is planned inside the “Wetlands of Central Kolkheti” Ramsar Site in Georgia (Trans-Caucasia). The Georgian Ministry of Environment asked the Ramsar Secretariat to provide advice to the experts preparing a compensation package (in accordance with Article 4.2 of the Convention). The report of the Ramsar Advisory Mission to Georgia (14-19 August 2005) can be found on the Ramsar website. Below a summary of the report.
Ramsar Site N°893 “Wetlands of Central Kolkheti” is composed of three distinct peatland complexes (Anaklia-Churia, Nabada and Pichora-Paliastomi), Paliastomi lake, the adjoining wet forests, the Black Sea coastal area, as well as the mouths and lowermost parts of Khobi (or Khobistskali) and Rioni rivers, covering a total of 33,710 ha (55,500 ha including the marine part) in the central part of the Black Sea coastal alluvial plain. Vegetation consists of typical peatland species, with freshwater marshes supporting reedbeds and brackish areas supporting halophytic plants. Various species of birds depend on the site. Human activities include tourism, small scale fishing, agriculture, timber cutting, peat extraction and hunting. Bronze age artifacts are found at the site. Since 1999, the main part of the Ramsar Site is included in Kolkheti National Park (www.knp.ge) spreading north-south between the mouths of the rivers Tikori and Supsa, established as part of Georgia’s Integrated Coastal Management Programme (with World Bank GEF support). The National Park includes Kolkheti State Nature Reserve (500 ha) established in 1947.
The mission report includes comments on the report concerning ‘urgent national interests’ for the Kulevi oil terminal construction submitted by Georgia (in accordance with Resolution VIII.20) and lists a number of concrete proposals on specific aspects to be dealt with by the compensation study.
The most important need is to compensate for the wetland resources lost at Khobi river mouth due to the oil terminal construction, including its access areas from the sea (deep water navigation channel) and from inland (railway track). The area lost to the terminal construction was particularly important for migrating fish and waterbirds, and probably also for marine animals. Emergency excavations show that it hosted a rich cultural heritage, dating back 3500 years ago.
The compensation package needs to integrate a number of actions, including the restoration of degraded natural areas, the provision of improved legal protection to specific compensation areas (through their inclusion into the Ramsar Site and National Park), and a number of operational, monitoring and evaluation measures, ideally to be carried out in cooperation between the oil terminal operator and the Kolkheti National Park authorities.
It is crucial to establish specific pollution prevention measures in order to prevent possible accidental oil pollution of the unique marine and coastal wetland ecosystems. Such measures have to focus on operating procedures at the terminal as well as on the transport corridors over land and at sea.
The report makes also some recommendations concerning the “Ispani II Marshes” Ramsar Site, the urgent need for update of information on the two existing Georgian Ramsar Sites, and concerning the possible designation of two additional Ramsar Sites (Chorokhi river mouth and Javakheti plateau lakes).
For a complete report, surf to:
http://www.ramsar.org/ram/ram_rpt_54e.htm
Tobias Salathé
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On 4 – 5 November 2005, a forum on “Sustainable management of Estonian mires” was held in Jäneda, Estonia. The meeting, organised by the Estonian Wetland Society with the support of the Environmental Investment Centre, was attended by 83 participants from science, the peat industry, non-government organisations and other bodies. The attendants discussed important issues regarding the regulation of peatland use in Estonia, among them the lack of uniform understanding of mires and terminology, e.g. in statistical data, the threat of forest melioration to pristine mires, organisational issues in rehabilitating abandoned peatlands and the role of the state in choosing peatlands for extraction and in setting production limits for peat as a renewable resource.
Source: IPS
From 22-26 August 2005 the second workhop in the LIFE Co-op project “Dissemination of ecological knowledge and practical experiences for sound planning and management in raised bogs and sea dunes” was held in Latvia and Estonia. Over 100 people, involved in nature management, policy making and scientific research in different disciplines, from 13 European countries participated.
We acknowledge all participants of the workshop for their input, and especially Vija Znotina, Brigita Laime, Mara Pakalne, Marika & Mati Kose, Agu Leivits, Anneli Roosalu, and their colleagues for organizing the interesting excursions to Latvian and Estonian bogs and dunes; Elve Lode, Urve Ratas and Kadri Vilumaa for organizing the outstanding post-tour!
The powerpoint-presentations presented during this workshop can be downloaded from the website of the project: www.barger.science.ru.nl/life/ under “Workshop 2005 – Program”. The picture gallery has now 107 pictures of the workshop, excursions and post-tour.
We are now working on the decision support system for restoration management on bogs and dunes. If you have useful reports, references, links to websites, or other material that is useful to be put on the website of the LIFE Co-op project and/or that should be incorporated in the decision support system, please inform us!
Gert-Jan van Duinen G.vanDuinen@science.ru.nl
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Finland has designated 38 new Ramsar sites throughout the country, totaling 606,345 hectares in surface area, with nine sites in each of Southern and Western Finland, five in Eastern Finland, eight in the middle province of Oulu and finally eight new sites in the most northern region of Lapland, which are in some cases transnational wetlands with Russia, Sweden or Norway. At the same time, the information on a further eleven Ramsar sites already designated in 1974 (Ramsar sites numbers 2 through 12) has been thoroughly updated, and two of those existing Ramsar sites have been significantly extended in area. The total area of the 49 Ramsar sites in Finland now amounts to 799,518 hectares and covers besides river, estuary and coastal areas very large extensions of peatlands, which are identified as being under-represented in the List of Wetlands of International Importance.
Many different varieties of peatlands which are threatened in Europe have thus been assigned as Ramsar sites such as palsa mires, eccentric bogs, raised bogs, aapa mires and other types. They are widely spread throughout the country, with the largest extensions in Lapland, where the various types of peatland cover more than 400,000 ha from aapa mires, bog woodland and springs, Fennoscandian deciduous swamp woods, but also spring fens, blanket and hanging bogs and others. Palsa mires such as Sammuttijänkä-Vaijoenjänkä Mires (51,749 ha), which represents Finland’s largest continuous mire area in natural state, are among the most valuable breeding areas of waterfowl and waders in Fjeld Lapland.
Sedge fens with flarks and Sphagnum papillosum sedge fens are the most common mire types with nutrient levels varying from oligotrophic bogs to rich fens. Its entire range of types is represented through sites such as Torronsuo National Park, Kauhaneva-Pohjankangas National Park, Levaneva Mires, Veneneva-Pelso Mires, Olvassuo Mires, Oulanka National Park, Riisitunturi National Park, River Luiro Mires, Teuravuoma-Kivijärvenvuoma Mires and Lemmenjoki National Park in northern Lapland, which is Finland’s largest National Park and one of Europe’'s most extensive roadless and uninhabited wilderness areas.
Several new coastal sites have been designated in southern Finland along the long, complex coast of the Baltic Sea. They include large estuary and coastal areas as well as widely scattered rocky archipelagos with countless islands and islets. In addition to the newly-designated island and bay sites, the existing Valassaaret & Björkögrunden Archipelago (16,730 ha) has been vastly extended to nearly 64,000 ha, encompassing a large area of additional islets and skerries under the new name of Quark Archipelago. It is situated in the narrowest and shallowest area of the Gulf of Bothnia at the northern limit for many marine species.
Flads and gloes are another particularity in the Baltic sea, which are occurring at the coastal areas such as Bird Wetlands of Hanko and Tammisaari, the Lake Läppträsket, Liminganlahti Bay and Lake Kirkkojärvi and Lupinlahti Bay. Both the flad and gloe forms are typical for Finnish coasts because of land upheaval but are unique in universal scale as special kinds of lagoons. Gloe lakes are a special type of freshwater lake which has become naturally separated from the sea in recent times; flads refer to such formations before the separation is complete and the site still has some contact with the sea.
Other types of lake and river wetlands, estuaries and bays are described as bird-lakes or bird wetlands such as Rantasalmi, Lapväärtti, Rääkkylä and Kitee, Heinä-Suvanto and Hetejärvi, Haapavesi and Hailuoto Island, and Siikajoki. In fact, however, most of the designated sites are important bird areas for breeding, molting, staging or wintering regardless of whether they are coastal, estuarial, river wetlands or peatlands. Furthermore the majority of sites except the archipelagos also support threatened mammals, especially wolf and globally threatened species such as wolverine, brown bear, as well as more common species such as lynx and otter.
Site descriptions can be found on the Ramsar page:
http://www.ramsar.org/wn/w.n.finland_38.htm
Source: www.ramsar.org
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The Government of Poland has designated five new Ramsar sites, including some with strong mire values, some with extraordinary cultural heritage, and two with potential for identification as collaborative transboundary Ramsar sites, with Ukraine and the Czech Republic respectively. Poland now has 13 Ramsar sites covering a surface area of 125,760 hectares. Ramsar’s Dorothea August has prepared these brief site descriptions:
Druzno Lake Nature Reserve. 29/10/02; Warminsko-Mazurskie; 3,068 ha; 54°05'N 019°26'E. Natura 2000 SPA, Nature Reserve. A shallow and largely overgrown lake in the Vistula Delta region near the Baltic Coast, with surrounding wetlands, reedbeds, and alder carrs which are a relict of a much larger water body formerly part of the Vistula Lagoon. The most widespread aquatic vegetation is represented through floating communities of different associations of water lilies. The site is important for birds migrating along the Baltic coastline and provides refuge for more than 150 bird species during the summer. The region owes its origins to human draining and damming activities. In several settlements typical old Dutch buildings have been preserved and religious memorials such as 18th-century Mennonite cemeteries, pumping stations, sluices from the 19th century and inclines on the Elblag Canal are industrial monuments of European significance. While the lake was formerly used as a water route for rafting timber, it is now appreciated mainly for tourist cruising and recreational activities. Ramsar site no. 1563.
Narew River National Park. 29/10/02; Podlaski; 7,350 ha; 53°04'N 022°52'E. National Park. A 35-km section of a natural swampy valley with a well-developed system of bends, oxbows and highly sinuous riverbed breaking through moraine hills. Traditionally the meadows were used for cattle grazing and haymaking, but recent social and economic transformations led to a cessation of mowing and grazing management, causing a shrinking of open biotopes and a decrease of local biodiversity. The main potential threat is a diminished water input upstream in view of the Siemianowka dam at the Belarus-Polish border and water pollution caused from towns upstream. A local historical mansion hosts both a visitor centre and the museum of the Narew river swamps, and there are tourist trails, two observation hides, and an educational path. Ramsar site no. 1564.
Poleski National Park. 29/10/02; Lubelskie; 9,762 ha; 51°17'N 023o27'E. National Park, UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, NATURA 2000 SPA. A unique complex of shallow lakes and mires, ranging from raised bogs to transitional and calcareous mires and rare alkaline fens with vegetation indicating some features of tundra and woodland tundra in its westernmost location, situated at the watershed between the basins of the Bug and Wieprz rivers in southeastern Poland bordering with Ukraine and part of the European Ecological Corridor of the Bug River. Forest communities vary from pine woods to alder carrs with a typical hollow-and-mound structure. The site supports a wide range of about 146 breeding bird species including very rare raptors such as Lesser Spotted Eagle, Hen Harrier and Montague’s Harrier. The only sparsely populated area, which hosts a rich cultural heritage of traditional wooden cottages, is used for extensive agriculture, fishing and forestry. Agricultural facilities in the surrounding area are affecting the site through water pollution. Since 2002 the National Park is also forms the core zone of the West Polesie Biosphere Reserve, and it is planned to be identified as a transboundary Polish-Ukrainian Ramsar site in the future. Ramsar site no. 1565.
Subalpine bogs in Karkonosze Mountains. 29/10/02; Dolnoslaskie; 40 ha; 50°45'N 015°36'E. National Park, UNESCO Bilateral Biosphere Reserve. Three subalpine bogs situated on mountain flats in the dwarf pine zone, along the Polish-Czech border in the Karkonosze Mountains. Situated at the European watershed dividing the Baltic Sea and North Sea basins, the area has special importance for groundwater recharge and flood control in the mountains. The vegetation is dominated of dwarf pine communities with cloudberry vegetation and surrounded with spruce forest growing on sloping bogs. Most typical of the site are peat moss communities including associations resembling subarctic tundra with a combination of alpine and arctic species. The major threat for the bogs is trampling, littering and water pollution from tourist and recreation activities in the area. Since 1992 the site has been part of a MAB Bilateral Biosphere Reserve, and discussions are under way with Czech authorities of the Krkonoská raseliniste Ramsar site about management collaboration as a transboundary Ramsar site. Ramsar site no. 1566.
Wigry National Park. 29/10/02; Podlaskie; 15,085 ha; 54°00' N, 023o06'E. National Park. A diverse wetland system around Wigry Lake and 42 smaller lakes of glacial origin and associated peatlands. It is dominated by woodlands of boreal character with a swampy forest communities as well as aquatic and mire vegetation in close to natural state. Amongst almost 90 non-woody plant communities, notable are mire communities, in particular those of raised bogs and transitional bogs including floating moss mats. The site harbours three globally endangered bird species, Red Kite, White-tailed Eagle and corncrake, and a further 150 bird breeding species. The numerous small rivers in natural state are habitat for beavers and affected by their damming activities. The site also includes Paleolithic archaeological sites, with remnants of Stone and Iron Age nomadic hunter settlements, a graveyard of the Jacwing people with mounds from the 3rd and 4th centuries, and a valuable baroque monastery. Timber production is a predominant land use, followed by crop production and recreational activities such as water sports or angling. Unfortunately the massive tourism with about 100,000 visitors per year brings an increasing threat for the site. Ramsar site no. 1567.
Source: www.ramsar.org
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Located in Northeast Jutland, Denmark, Lille Vildmose is the country’s largest nature reserve and a candidate for becoming the first Danish national park. Notably, Lille Vildmose is the home of the largest raised bog in Denmark, which is also the largest of its kind in the lowlands of Northwest Europe. Indeed, the forests, lakes, and peatlands of Lille Vildmose constitute a unique and fascinating area well worth a visit. So far, immediate and detailed information about the area, its history, and character has been fairly scattered and therefore difficult to come by for visitors and tourists. However, this flaw will be corrected when a visitor centre, situated in the heart of Lille Vildmose, opens to the public in April 2006. The highly anticipated state-of-the-art centre includes a small movie theatre, a cafe, an Exploratorium, interactive information stands, and four exhibitions detailing the history, the people, and the distinct flora and fauna of Lille Vildmose.
The new centre is first and foremost intended to encourage and inspire visitors to experience the many facets of Lille Vildmose up close. Thus, the centre offers visitors free of charge bicycles, as well as maps of walking paths and lookout towers in the area. In addition to the scenic landscape of Lille Vildmose, the towers make it possible to observe deer, wild boars, and a great variety of birds, including rare ones such as the golden eagle.
Furthermore, guided tours of the centre and its surroundings will be offered frequently, allowing visitors to experience an insider’s take on Lille Vildmose. An exciting stop on the tour is sure to be the large fenced area containing wild boars, which is located only a short walk from the centre. Other notable Lille Vildmose sights close to the centre includes the recreated Tofte lake, the moraine hills of Mulbjerge that offers an impressive view of the Kattegat sea, and Stejlgabet – a valley that cuts through Mulbjerge from the small town of Dokkedal to the sea. However, the main attraction is perhaps the natural phenomenon responsible for the Lille Vildmose area’s name (mose is Danish for bog), namely the raised bog. Thus, Smidiebakke hill provides a great overview of the raised bog area while Portlandsmosen offers the opportunity to experience it up close.
Lea Fransson Thiesen ( lft@sejlflod.dk )
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An embarrassing loophole has been exposed in a £17m scheme meant to safeguard a Yorkshire peatland from peat extraction and preserve it as a nature reserve. It was found that further peat could be removed in future because an area of land within the reserve is not covered by the agreement.
Recently, Environment Minister Elliot Morley visited South Yorkshire to formally open the Humberhead Peatlands National Nature Reserve, which now includes Thorne, Hatfield, Goole and Crowle Moors.
English Nature spent £17.3m of taxpayers’ money to buy out peat extraction rights from Scotts Company, and the area was restored before being opened up as a nature reserve.
However, the agreement did not cover a small area of land which had been used as a storage area, which Scotts now wants to exploit. If that happened it would be a severe blow for the area, which is a Site of Special Scientific Interest, a Special Protection Area and a Special Area of Conservation.
The area has long been a battleground between businesses seeking to exploit the peat for commercial gain and those wanting to preserve it. More than 10 years ago the Vanishing Wilderness campaign spearheaded by the Yorkshire Post led to areas of Thorne and Hatfield Moors being handed over to English Nature from then owners Fisons PLC.
But a threat has continued to hang over the area in the intervening years with repeated suggestions that its SSSI protection could be removed.
Three years ago the Government and Scotts reached a £17m agreement to end peat cutting on Hatfield Moor by the end of 2004. But now it seems Scotts has retained ownership and peat extraction rights for around 30 hectares of the site and had signalled an intention to commence peat cutting again.
English Nature insist the land involved is only a tiny area compared to the 3,500 hectares safeguarded by the buyout deal and a spokesman said the company would need to gain permission before they were able to start any peat extraction.
No comment was available from Scotts.
Paul Whitehouse, Yorkshire Post
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In a damning report the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds Scotland claims that the £411 million development of a windpark on Lewis Island, involving the erection of 234 wind turbines across 43km, will have a catastrophic effect on more than 6,000 hectares of protected peatland and other vital habitats.
RSPB Scotland has warned
that, should the development get the go-ahead, it will set a very dangerous
precedent for all internationally important sites in Scotland threatened by
similar developments.
This year Western Isles Council decided by 19 votes to eight to support the proposed development by Lewis Wind Power, a consortium led by British Energy and Amec.
The Executive, which will have the final say, has received more than 4,200 representations on the proposal, with just nine in favour.
RSPB is calling on the Executive to reject the scheme because of its disastrous implications for rare birds and wildlife.
For certain species, including golden plover and dunlin, the peatland habitat where the project will be sited is the best in Europe, and hosts a significant proportion of their total British or world populations.
Source: The Scotsman
For more on the Lewis Island windfarm project, surf to: www.rspb.org.uk/scotland/action/lewis/index.asp
Richard Lindsay has prepared a report commissioned by the RSPB that can be downloaded from the site. Follow the Lewis Wind Farm Peatland Report (771Kb) link.
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On 27 September 2005, a meeting was held in Dublin to establish an Irish Peat Society, which will assume from Bord na Móna the status of Irish National Committee of IPS. Mr. Donal Clarke was elected Chairman of the Society, to be supported by Secretary Pat Fitzgerald. Dr. John Feehan of University College Dublin and Dr. Roy Tomlinson of Queens University Belfast were among those elected to the Society's Executive Board. The some 30 participants accepted the interim statutes as presented. So far, the tasks of IPS in Ireland were mainly carried out by Bord na Móna. It is hoped that the new organisation will attract a wide variety of people interested in peat and peatlands.
Furthermore, it was announced that Abbey Conference Services has started working on the preparations for the 13th International Peat Congress, which was confirmed to be held in Tullamore on 9 - 15 June 2008. Please contact donalcke@indigo.ie for further information. Source: IPS
An intensive campaign to protect Irish peatlands, which has been ongoing since 1989, has finally come to a successful close. Sixteen years ago the Irish Peatland Conservation Council (IPCC) provided information on site destruction that resulted in the EU winning a case against the Irish government regarding the lack of protection of Irish peatlands. The threat of this case and of the fines that would ensue if the Irish government did not act positively for bogs was behind many of the victories achieved for the protection of Irish peatlands throughout the last sixteen years. For example, the reduction of the minimum threshold for Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) for peat extraction from 50 hectares to 30 hectares; the designation of our best peatland sites as Special Areas of Conservation (SACs); and now finally, it has resulted in a total of 70 raised bog and 73 blanket bog Natural Heritage Areas (NHAs) being formally designated by the Irish government. These sites are now legally protected in Ireland.
While IPCC is delighted with these results, there is still more work to be done. All non-bog NHAs remain as proposed NHAs and, as such, receive no legal protection, despite their conservation importance. IPCC are now focusing the campaign effort on fens, which have been sadly neglected by the government. IPCC is working together with three other Environmental NGO (An Taisce, Irish Wildlife Trust and Coastwatch Ireland) to bring a number of issues to the attention of the Minister for Environment, Mr. Dick Roche, including the lack of legal protection for non-bog NHAs (including fens) and the management and protection of our SACs and NHAs. www.ipcc.ie
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The US Senate blocked oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in Alaska, thereby also rejecting a must-pass defense spending bill presented in the same package. Supporters placed the bill in the same portfolio to gain support for the decades old environmental issue.
The vote was 56-44 in support for the drilling, which is four votes short of the required 60. Senate leaders are expected to withdraw the legislation so it can be reworked without the drilling issue.
Senators determined to protect the refuge from development found it difficult to oppose the politically popular defense bill, which has money for troops in Iraq, relief for Katrina hurricane victims and help for low-income families to pay energy bills.
A decade ago a Republican-led Congress passed an ANWR bill, only to have it vetoed by President Clinton. This time President Bush has made ANWR drilling one of his top priorities and is eager to sign a bill.
Drilling opponents long have argued that ANWR’s oil should not be exploited because of the coastal plain’s fragile ecosystem and its wildlife. Drilling proponents say modern techniques can extract the oil without damaging the environment.
The bill passed the House of Representatives some days before with support of many who previously opposed ANWR drilling. They supported the included $29 billion for Katrina hurricane relief, $2 billion in emergency funding for low-income families to pay high heating bills this winter as well as money for troops in Iraq. The bill would funnel 80 percent of the proceeds from Arctic refuge oil lease sales to hurricane relief and 5 percent for the energy assistance program.
Alaska relies heavily on proceeds from oil production, a revenue stream that has been in steady decline as the vast Prudhoe Bay oil fields to the west of ANWR become less productive.
Source: Associated Press
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In October, Jamaica was the venue of the Vth Interamerica Dialogue on Water Management organized by UNESCO and of the Meeting of the Focal Points and National Committees of the International Hydrological Program for Latin America and the Caribic (IHP-LAC) of UNESCO.
At this opportunity, IMCG Main Board member Rodolfo Iturraspe, who is also Coordinator of the Snow and Ice program of the IHP-LAC, together with the IHP national authority of Ecuador successfully presented a motion to recommend special attention to studies about the hydrological function of “turberas” and “páramos”, underlining the importance of giving international support to activities witch contributes to their conservation.
Turberas are the general name for peatlands in Spanish and páramos are special tropical Andean ecosystems located between 3500-4500 m a.s.l. which include mires and peatlands.
With this motion, the IHP-LAC for the first time formulated a special recommendation with respect to conservation of South American mires. Previous recommendations usually addressed wetlands in general.
Rodolfo Iturraspe
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The Government of Belize has added its second wetland site to the Ramsar List, as of 19 October 2005: Sarstoon Temash National Park (16,955 hectares, 15°58'N 089°00'W) is a complex of several different terrestrial ecosystem types located in Toledo district on the southern frontier with Guatemala, bisected by two large rivers, one of which forms the international border across which lies Sarstun, hopefully a future Ramsar site. Seasonally and permanently flooded forests predominate, with some 1,100 hectares of lowland sphagnum peatlands, unique to the region, a saline/brackish inland lagoon, and 9,600 ha of saline swamps, with the country’s most undisturbed and largest stand of red mangrove (Rhizophora mangle) and its only stands of Comfra Palm (Manicaria saccifera). Several threatened and vulnerable species are supported, such as Black Howler Monkey, the Hickatee Turtle, the tapir Tapirus bairdii, the West Indian Manatee, and Morelett’s Crocodile. The buffer zone of the park is home to the indigenous Kekchi Maya and Garifuna people, both of which attach high cultural importance to parts of the site. Stands of mahogany, cedar, and rosewood are targets for illegal crossborder logging efforts. The Sarstoon Temash Institute for Indigenous Management (SATIIM) is active in research and management planning for the site and has a co-management agreement with the government. Belize now has two Ramsar sites totaling 23,592 hectares.
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Côte d’Ivoire has designated five new sites for the List of Wetlands of International Importance, effective as of 18 October 2005: Complexe Sassandra-Dagbego, Fresco, Grand Bassam, Iles Ehotilé-Essouman, and N’Ganda N’Ganda. This significant achievement has been made possible with funds from the Swiss government, under the Swiss Grant for Africa programme, and with the support of Ramsar. The country’s six sites now add up to an area of 127,344 hectares and include a large extent of mangroves, a wetland type which has been identified as being under-represented in the Ramsar List and which should be prioritized in the designation process.
The sites are important from both a biological and socio-cultural point of view. They support a number of endangered, often charismatic species, such as the chimpanzee, forest elephant, pygmy hippo, crocodile species, and manatees; they are an important nesting ground for up to five species of turtles (green, hawksbill, olive ridley, leatherback and loggerhead); and they are also important breeding, resting or feeding grounds for different waterbird species.
At the cultural level, both the Grand Bassam and the Complexe Sassandra-Dagbego sites have old colonial cities, with an architectural and historical interest for the relatively numerous tourists who visit the sites from overseas and within the country. The importance of these sites for the local people is also very high, in terms of the natural resources that they provide (fish, reeds and wood for construction, plants for medicinal purposes, game meat, etc.), but also for religious and traditional reasons, as ceremonies take place there. Furthermore, some of the people, like the Ehotilé, believe they are the children of the lagoon of the same name by which they live. Although most of the sites are relatively well-preserved, a number of growing impacts from threats, including natural resources over-exploitation, oil exploration, reduced flows due to upstream dams and indiscriminate development, loom in the future. It is important that now that the designations have been made, the country profits from the momentum to produce and implement management plans (some have already been started) for these sites, to ensure their wise use into the future. We would like to congratulate Côte d'Ivoire again for having increased its number of Ramsar sites, after nine years since its first site was designated! We are also grateful to the Federal Government of Switzerland for its continuous support to Africa countries under the Swiss Grant for Africa.
Source: www.ramsar.org
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Less than ten years after the South African government put an end to speculations that the St Lucia dunes could still be open to titanium mining, it seems that another major southern African wetland system is threatened, this time because of Namibia's energy needs.
If approved, a dam for a hydro-electric scheme proposed by Namibia's Nampower would lead to high erosion and salination of the Okavango Delta with effects being felt within two decades. The scheme is intended for Namibia's Papa Falls on the Okavango River which flows from its main catchment in Angola, through Namibia, and ends as the spectacular Okavango Delta in the Kalahari Desert in Botswana. Although only 15m high, the dam would impact on about 60km of river and, more significantly, would change the water's sediment load and chemistry.
Despite a 96% evapo-transpiration rate, the delta has avoided becoming a giant salt pan like other similar systems because of the role of island vegetation in drawing solutes out of the flow and storing it in the islands. The delta vegetation is adaptated for low-nutrient conditions and, papyrus in particular, is sensitive to changes in salinity. The higher transpiration rate in the proposed dam would result in higher salinity of the water flowing into the delta and the dam would also act as a sediment trap, resulting in erosion downstream.
In addition to being of significant biodiversity importance, the Okavango Delta is responsible for a substantial proportion of Botswana's tourism revenue and is an important resource for the dozens of nearby communities who harvest wild food, medicine and building materials from it.
This information is drawn mainly from a brief discussion with Dr William Ellery of the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. More (scientific) information to follow in the next newsletter.
Rehana Dada
Ellery, W.N. & McCarthy, T.S. 1994. Principles for the Sustainable Utilisation fo the Okavango Delta Ecosystems, Botswana. Biological Conservation, 70, 159-168.
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