ASEAN Ministers responsible for the environment met at the 11th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on Haze on 10 November 2004, to review and enhance cooperation in addressing land and forest fires and the resulting transboundary haze pollution.
The Ministers discussed the implementation of the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution, following its entry into force on 25 November 2003. The Meeting noted that seven ASEAN Member Countries (Brunei Darussalam, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, and Viet Nam) have ratified the Agreement, and that the three remaining Member Countries (Cambodia, Indonesia, and the Philippines) have taken the necessary steps to ratify the Agreement as soon as possible.
The Ministers noted the possibility of a weak El Nino developing towards the end of the year and in early 2005, and forecast of drier-than-normal conditions in 2005.
The Ministers, therefore, agreed on the need to remain vigilant and take necessary preventive and mitigation measures to curb land and forest fires in the region.
The Ministers reviewed the activities of individual ASEAN Member Countries and agreed that Member Countries enhance collaboration in exchanging information and best practices and assist each other in addressing land and forest fires.
The Ministers also noted the substantial progress on regional collaborative activities, such as the inventory of fire-fighting resources, the ASEAN Peatland Management Initiative, publication and dissemination of zero burning and controlled burning practices, early warning information systems, standard operating procedures for monitoring, assessment and joint emergency response, which are available on-line
for public information on the ASEAN Haze Action Online website: www.haze-online.or.id ..
The Global Environment Centre and Wetlands International made a presentation on the root causes and status of peatland fires in the ASEAN region as well as case studies on community and NGO action to prevent fires and rehabilitate peatlands. The Ministers indicated their strong support for measures to address the peat fire problem in the region and reiterated their support for the development by mid 2005 of the ASEAN Peatland Management Strategy and associated National Action Plans to guide the work of government and other stakeholders over the period 2005-2020 to stop peat fires and ensure sustainable management of peatlands. They also called on the governments of the region to provide more support for actions by local communities and NGOs to address peatland management and fire prevention.The Twelfth ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on Haze will be held in Indonesia in 2005.
For further information contact: Adelina Kamal, ASEAN Secretariat, lina@aseansec.org
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A site conservation management plan is being drawn up for the Maludam National Park, which is home to the world’s only viable population of the red-banded langur (long-tailed monkey). Various studies were done on the park in the Betong Division under a four-year project that recently ended. The Malaysia-Holland funded Maludam-Ramin project comprised two components.
The first is a detailed study on the park’s wildlife, soil, hydrology, and ecotourism. The second is research on the ecophysiology of ramin wood and the sustainable management of peat swamp forests. Although the forests had been selectively logged, a good number of rare wild animals remained together with a wide diversity of peat swamp flora and fauna. Maludam is the state’s second largest national park at 43,147ha. A proposal to extend the park by another 9,125ha has been submitted to the state Cabinet.
As there are Iban, Malay, and Chinese settlements in the park periphery, a more detailed study on the socio-economic well-being of these communities should be carried out. The study may help to find alternative sustainable livelihoods for them to reduce the pressure on the park’s resources.
Source: http://thestar.com.my
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On the 18th of November hearings on renewable energy sources were organised in the Lower Chamber of the Russian Parliament (Duma). The initiator was the Chairman of the Russian branch of IPS Alexander Belyakov – vice chair of the Committee for Nature Resources of Duma. His main assistant and ideologist behind the action was Dr. Vladimir Kosov. As expected, peat was considered as one of the main renewable sources of energy. Before the hearings a brochure was distributed in which peat is promoted as a very fast growing matter and an ecologically safe fuel from a climate point of view (cf. Kyoto protocol, although ratified by Russia recently, mechanisms for its implementation are not in place).
Opposition to the approach had been prepared, but unexpectedly both Belyakov and Kosov were invited by President Putin for an unplanned meeting of his party (United Russia). The Russian IPS bosses are active members of this party and so they were absent in the hearings. It also meant there was chance to present more renewable energy sources to the deputies than just peat.
Thus the great achievements of Russian scientists in wind and solar energy were presented – constructions a hundred times more effective than their western counterparts. All developed in small labs, without financial support, and no promise of money in future either. Instead of support for wind and solar energy, the official decision of the Duma hearings supports the peat industry by fiscal and other financial means. The important environmental role of Russian peatlands was brought forward, but this turned out to be more of public awareness training, than something immediately effective in the political arena.
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The Ramsar Secretariat announced that Austria, just a few months after having designated a number of valuable mires in the Salzburg region, has appointed, as of 15 October 2004, a small collection of bogs, mires, and fens in the Steiermark region in the southeast as Ramsar sites. The “Moore am Nassköhr” site (211 hectares, 47°43'N 15°33'E), already a Nature Reserve, comprises a number of mires. One bog, the Torfstichmoor, has been used for peat cutting in the 19th century. The other peatlands have been more or less affected by cattle grazing and trampling. In a joint project with the landowners, the Austrian Federal Forests (ÖBf-AG), the Institute of Ecology and Conservation Biology of Vienna University (IECB), and WWF-Austria initiated a management plan financed by the ÖBf-AG in order to improve conditions for the peatlands. In spring 2002 the ÖBf-AG built dams into all drainage channels and in autumn - after long-lasting negotiations with the farmers - they began building a fence to keep the cattle out from most of the mires.
A brief description of the site follows: Moore am Nassköhr. 15/10/04; Styria; 211 ha; 47°43'N 15°33'E; Nature Reserve. A karst depression of the northern limestone Alps which presents bogs, transitional mires, and fens. The site supports a high biodiversity of the associated mire vegetation; typical species include the Few-flowered Sedge (Carex pauciflora), the Sundews Drosera anglica, D. intermedia, and D. rotundifolia, Bogbean, Bog Swertia, and numerous moss species. The wetland has an important role in groundwater recharge and water retention, especially after heavy rainfall. 19th century peat extraction, long discontinued, still negatively affects the hydrology through lowered water tables and erosion. Trampling by cattle has caused disturbance of the vegetation cover. Meanwhile, peat extraction and drainage are prohibited in the mires and a fence to prevent grazing has been set up. Outside the mires, sustainable forest management, hunting and pasturing are continuing. Ramsar site no. 1404.
Source: www.ramsar.org
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The North Lewis peatlands, one of the largest blanket bog areas in Europe, is under threat of destruction. There are plans to build the largest windfarm in the world on this Special Protection Area and Ramsar Site.
The proposal by Amec and British Energy is for a 234 turbine, 702MW wind farm on the Isle of Lewis in the Western Isles of Scotland. The turbines will be 140m high to the tip of the blade and be supported by a large concrete foundation. The application also includes 167km of roads, nine electrical substations, a control building, 9 wind monitoring masts, 210 pylons supporting a network of overhead lines, 5 rock quarries, 8 temporary compounds, and 4 concrete batching plants. All this will take roughly three years to build. The total area of land taken up by the development will be over 750 hectares.
The developers are AMEC, a multinational construction company, and British Energy, Britain's largest nuclear energy supplier. Over 88% of local residents are opposed to the proposal. The area depends heavily on tourism, and over 90% of tourists visiting the area are opposed to the plans. The area is the heartland of a minority language, and has a rich cultural heritage associated with the moorland, which would be destroyed.
The Lewis Peatlands Special Protection Area (SPA) was classified under the European Council Directive on the Conservation of Wild Birds (79/409/EEC); the site encompasses an area of 58,984.23 hectares. Of all the British SPAs, this has the largest population of golden plover at the highest densities; it also has the largest population of dunlin. It is also almost certainly the ‘best’ site in Europe in terms of golden plover and dunlin.
The Environmental Statement (ES) produced by the developer states that the 50 golden eagles and 16 red-throated divers are at risk of colliding with the development throughout its 25-year lifetime. The ES also concludes that 352 golden plover territories and 314 dunlin territories could be displaced during the operation of the wind farm, hundreds more will be affected during construction. Merlin, greenshank, whooper swans, greylag geese, and corncrakes may also be affected by displacement, disturbance or collision.
The ES concludes that 577hectares of SPA habitat will be lost or disturbed including 152ha of active blanket bog, a priority habitat under the EC Habitats Directive. The construction on the peatland will lead to a release of stored carbon. Recent data suggests that wind farms developed on peat have a 1-3 year payback time in terms of carbon loss (assuming wind farms are displacing electricity generation using fossil fuels). If the development were to result in the complete degradation of the peatland then this carbon payback period could be between 20-30 years.
IMCG has written a letter of protest to the developers, referring to commitments to the Ramsar Convention, to the Ramsar Global Action Plan for Peatlands stressing the need to protect more peatland worldwide, to the EU Habitats & Species Directives obliging to protect blanket mire, and to the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy to keep special sites special.
For more information, visit www.mwtlewis.org.uk, or the developers website at www.lewiswind.com
“Then the electric power arrived with all its amenities: no more looking for matches, or blowing at a dying peat ember when you arrived home after a day on the moor, at the peats or the croft, trying to ignite a paper in order to light the lamp, no more nasty smell of paraffin or toasting of oat bannocks by the fire, and no more cursing of wireless sets when the battery conked out in the middle of the Gaelic programme. All wireless sets in the isles were battery sets.
…
“There is no doubt that electric power revolutionised life in the isles. It dealt with blow to many of bad customs and unfortunately to many good ones. The ceilidh house as we knew has gone. Modern progress and real ceilidhs do not go together. You have to knock at most doors now and wait for an invitation to come in. There are carpets on the floor and cushion on the chairs, and you cannot smoke volumes of thick, black tobacco and spit accurately from a distance into a fire. The ceilidh now is in a hall, and that in a way is a good thing, but there will be no peat reek, no sooty caber, no drink of pure spring water from the tinker’s jug, no steady thump of the flail behind the tallan and no mellow lowing of cattle at milking time. These conditions were essential for a real ceilidh.
A new era has crept in. It brought with it many improvements, but it has swept away many things which the older generations cherished and held clear, something that money cannot buy – the traditional ceud mile failte of a kind and hospitable people. Civilisation, so called, had reached the isles and commercialism and distrust along with it.”
Kenneth MacDonald (2003). Peat fire memories. Life in Lewis in the early twentieth century. Tuckwell Press, East Linton.”
Criminal organisations are turning to the countryside to make money with devastating effects on Scotland’s native habitats. Police officers working with Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) have found that work parties, often involving illegal immigrants and asylum seekers, are put to work by criminal drug gangs to pick sphagnum moss, which is then sold to garden centres.
Large tracts of endangered peatlands are being irreparably damaged for the black market trade in moss used in Christmas wreaths and for hanging baskets.
The new Nature Conservation (Scotland) Act, which came into effect last month, will make it an offence for anyone to damage protected sites. It is illegal to take plants or other natural resources without the permission of the landowner.
Scottish Natural Heritage is working with Strathclyde Police as part of the Partnership for Action Against Wildlife Crime initiative, to urge gardeners to find out where the moss was sourced or if garden retailers supply wreaths made from non-moss products.
This year there have been two known cases of large-scale illegal gathering of sphagnum moss in Lanarkshire, one of which caused £34,000 damage.
Source: The Scotsman
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News from the EU An eco-label for peat:
new rounds – new chances?
In IMCG Newsletter 2001/1 we reported on the European Union revising the criteria for ecolabeling of soil improvers and, for the first time, growing media. Initial ideas included the proposal to give an ecolabel to growing media that – next to 30% of ecolabeled soil improver – could contain up to 70% of peat. IMCG successfully intervened with an extensive position paper (see Newsletter 2001/1 or www.imcg.net/docum/ecolabel.htm) leading to the EU decision (2001/688/EC) NOT to allow peat in any ecolabelled growing media and soil improvers. The relevant decision text stated:
- “A product shall only be considered for the award of an eco-label if its organic matter content is derived from the processing and/or re-use of waste materials.”
- “Products shall not contain peat or any products derived from peat.”
These revised criteria were decided to be valid from 28 August 2001 until 27 August 2006.
The Stichting Milieukeur (the Dutch Competent Body for the European Eco-label) has now been commissioned to revise the criteria again. This Stichting Milieukeur again asked SV&A sustainability consultants in Leiden (the Netherlands) to perform the necessary research activities and process support. SV&A has now recently formed an Ad Hoc Working Group to give their input and views. The revision process will focus on:
- market and environmental information concerning growing media (certification of) functional quality
- the possible use of sewage sludge
- criteria compatibility with national legislation e.g. heavy metal
- a reassessment of the possible use of peat
- packaging
- a reassessment of nutrient loadings.
Again we see that peat is being considered for eco-labelling.
Most of the objections that IMCG had raised in 2001 still exist. On the other hand the political field has slightly changed: we now increasingly encounter the incorrect claim of the peat extraction lobby that peat is a sustainable and renewable resource and we see governments for political reasons or for lack of common sense honouring that claim (see a.o. “Renewability revisited” in IMCG Newsletter 2004/1). IMCG (Hans Joosten) has been asked to participate in the Ad Hoc Working Group. We are eager to see whether the International Peat Society will again only represent a peat extraction lobby (see Newsletter 2004/3) or that it will succeed in applying the IPS-ratified principles of Wise Use…
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News from Canada:
IPS conducting study on impact of peat use
Commission II of the International Peat Society has organized a study that will gather information on the total impact peat has in horticulture. It takes into account the overall sales of peat, the products grown in peat and the number of people employed in those industries dependent on peat. The results of the survey will be used to promote the peat excavation industry and to defend it by showing its overall economic impact. University of Waterloo to set up new hydrology lab
According to Dr. Jonathon Price, the University of Waterloo has allocated space for a new laboratory that, when completed, will be the best peatland hydrology lab in the country. Dr. Price is a research director with the Peat Ecology Research Group (PERG) and is active with the Industrial Research Chair on Peatland Management. He has been working with Dr. Line Rochefort and other colleagues for several years and is the leader of their hydrology research.
Source: Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss Association
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