In 2007 all EU Member States will have to monitor, assess and report on the conservation status of all habitats and species listed in the Habitats Directive that are found in their countries. This is to comply with Article 17 of the Directive, which requires all Member States to report on progress every 6 years.
The European Commission is looking for two main conclusions: Firstly to know the conservation status of all species and habitats listed in the Directive and secondly to assess how much the Birds and Habitats Directives contribute to meeting the target of halting the loss of biodiversity by 2010.
NGOs need to get involved with both aspects to ensure that the conservation status assessment is scientifically accurate, and also to ensure the reports reflect the vital contribution played by the Directives in protecting Europe’s biodiversity. This is particularly important at the moment as the Directives face considerable pressure from other lobby groups.
Some suggested steps for NGOs to get involved in this process are:
1. Contact the person who is responsible for this work in your country. You could ask the delegate from your country on the Habitats Committee who is specific responsible for the monitoring and reporting. The names and addresses of the delegates are available at: http://tinyurl.com/2vrlvs
2. Use the Habitat Forum Monitoring Report in your contact with the Member States. Copies of the report are available on request from the IUCN office in Brussels or can be downloaded at: http://tinyurl.com/2r6frv
3. Find out from them what timetable they are following for completing the report and ask what opportunities there are for involving NGOs and scientific experts on their reports.
During the final hours of the last meeting before Christmas on 14 December 2006 a tired and holiday hungry European Parliament adopted a new “Resolution on a strategy for biomass and biofuels (2006/2082(INI))”. In item 78, it “calls on the Commission to include peat, with regard to the life-cycle aspect, as a long-term renewable energy source for biomass and Bioenergy production”.
That this decision is ill-thought over becomes evident when the parliament at the same time warns that although wood biomass is particularly suitable, the use of forest biomass must not lead to increased pressure on natural forests, halt the recovery of historically over-exploited forests or lead to expansion in monocultures or exotic species plantations and must always be promoted in ways that were compatible with improving the ecological quality of forests. Such warning should definitely also apply to peat and peatlands!
The peat industry is on record stating they would not “harvest” pristine mires. Actually, the peat industry suggests to “harvest” only already degraded peatlands, which really raises our collective eye-brows on the “renewability” aspect as degraded peatlands do not form peat.
Without drainage and degradation of pristine mires there is no increase in the area of degraded peatlands. So either you start exploiting EU Natura 2000 habitats, or you stop calling peat a renewable resource. You cannot have it both ways.
Full text of the EU Parliament Resolution at
www.tinyurl.com/3aqw27.
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The EU-Life project “Rewetting of the western Dümmer fen area” (2002-2007) has been concluded successfully. The Life project was part of the fen restoration efforts focussing on the Lake Dümmer Area (Lower Saxony; Northwest Germany (30 km north of Osnabrück), where 2.500 ha of fens have been purchased by the public authorities. Rewetting has been carried out in the whole project area now, with water levels regulated by adjustable weirs. The main target is restoration and conservation of wet grasslands and meadow bird populations.
Measures to ensure the sustainable management of wet grasslands were carried out in cooperation with more than 100 local farmers. Since 1993 the nature conservation centre Dümmer has been in charge of managing the rewetted grassland area.
Migrating bird populations have been increasing with several breeding species, not recorded for a long time, returning to the area.
For more information: http://tinyurl.com/2s4tcy
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The Czech Republic has added Krušnohorská rašelinište (Krušnohorska mountains mires) (11,224 hectares, 50°31'N 013°10'E) to the Ramsar List. The new site comprises about 30 mire islands of representative patterned mires and raised bogs, with neighbouring natural and artificial watercourses, fishponds and reservoir shores in the northwest of the country near the border with Germany.
It includes mosaics of highly alkaline fens with scattered tree patches, preferred by grouse birds - Tetrao tetrix, Tetrao urogallus, Tetrastes bonasia - and bog expanses occupied by krummholz stands of Pinus x pseudopumilio and the Central European endemic tree Pinus rotundata, supporting high numbers of endangered plant species, such as Hamatocaulis vernicosus, Carex chordorrhiza and Drosera anglica.
Ore mining had a long tradition in the mountain area, which led to the disappearance of alluvial fens since the 16th century. In subsequent centuries, as mining activities retreated, many bogs were affected by peat extraction and agricultural overexploitation. Presently the site is mainly used for game keeping and forestry - in a few localities peat mining remains a critical conservation issue. A direct impact on the biota within mires is also caused by the high concentration of deer, which cause eutrophication and trampling disturbance of ombrotrophic sites. The site provides various facilities for tourism, such as marked hiking and biking trails and cross-country skiing routes.
Source: www.ramsar.org
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Fortum Tartu AS, the subsidiary of Fortum in Estonia, is building a new combined heat and power plant in the city of Tartu. The station will be fired by peat and other local fuels and have a production capacity of 52 MW heat and 25 MW electricity. So far, the customers in Tartu were provided with gas-based heat. With this investment, Fortum will transfer its know-how on the use of “biofuels” to Estonia, keeping the local heat price at a competitive level and improving the reliability of energy deliveries. The new power station is planned to be completed by the end of 2008 and will cost about €60 million. For more information, please visit http://tinyurl.com/3ybens.
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The Finnish peat extraction company Vapo Oy has completed work on a new method of extracting peat. In this new method, peat is excavated with a clam-shell bucket, then slurried in a tank to a solution of approximately 80 percent moisture. The slurry is then pumped to a drying area that can be as far away as one kilometer, where it is spread evenly over a large tarmac. Within 24 hours the moisture is down to between 35 and 40 percent moisture.
One of the advantages of this system is that it is not as weather-dependent as milling the peat. Today the milled peat method can be used for an average of about 40 days whereas the new technique could be used for up to six months.
Vapo reports that this method has a much higher efficiency and that they hope someday this new method will account for 15 to 20 percent of production.
Source: CSPMA BaleMail
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Svebio, the Swedish Bioenergy Association, will hold a conference and exhibition “Nordic Bioenergy 2007” in Stockholm on 11 - 13 June 2007, covering all aspects of Bioenergy, including peat,. As side event 3, Torvforsk, the Swedish Peat Research Foundation, has arranged a 1-day seminar on “the sustainable use of peat” on 13 June, with speakers from Sweden, Finland and the Baltics. Among the items covered are the benefits of co-combustion of biomass with peat, peat utilization and climate change, how biological diversity is affected by peat extraction and the Swedish and Finnish peat industries’ view on a “sustainable use” of peat. More information: www.nordicbioenergy2007.se.
Source: IPS Peat News
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Monday 5 February was the last day for the Scottish Executive to receive formal consultation responses on Lewis Wind Power’s revised proposals for a 181 turbine wind farm on Lewis, Western Isles. IMCG has also submitted an objection (see www.imcg.net/threat/lewisobjectionimcg2007.pdf).
In this objection IMCG stresses that the proposal to build a windfarm, with all its attendant infrastructure, across some 140 km of the blanket bog landscape of Lewis, represents a major threat to this internationally important, and internationally recognised, part of Europe’s natural heritage. The Environmental Statement prepared by the developer adopts a naïve approach in relation to a range of peatland issues. It does not follow accepted practice for assessment of peatland habitats, it adopts a number of highly-questionable positions on various ecological issues, and appears to favour a minimalist view of impact evaluation rather than genuinely seeking to identify the realistic scale and extent of combined potential impacts.
Specifically, the classification systems involved, for example for the hydrological typology and for the identification of ‘active blanket bog’ are not based on accepted systems. The developer states that ‘floating roads’ will be used across 70% of the site because the peat is so deep, and floating roads have little impact on the hydrology of the bog. This is incorrect because any linear structure such as this will cut across the natural flow of water through the bog surface. Besides, such roads will sink into the peat if they are not supported by solid pilings, and if they sink they will increasingly cause widespread diversion of surface and sub-surface water flow. Even if, in places, drainage is provided beneath such roads, this will locally concentrate flows and so potentially stimulate erosion downslope.
The developer seems to be suggesting that an estimate of likely drainage impacts over the 25-year life of the windfarm can be derived from a single study lasting no more than a year and measuring only a limited range of factors. Given the developer’s own repeated admissions that the science and ground conditions are uncertain, this position appears untenable as a genuine attempt to identify the possible extent of impacts through the life of the windfarm and beyond.
In sum, the scheme is ill-advised in terms of its location, ill-conceived in its approach to impact assessment for peatlands, and ill-prepared both in terms of the information gathered and in the evaluations made on the basis of that information. The IMCG has therefore urged the Scottish Executive in the strongest possible terms to refuse the application.
The RSPB commissioned an independent assessment of the economic benefits claimed by the developer Lewis Wind Power (LWP). It is estimated that the number of jobs created on the Western Isles by the wind farm would be 70% less than the developer claims. Furthermore, the negative impact on the local tourism sector has not been taken into account at all by LWP. If reductions in tourism are taken into account, the net employment impact of the scheme proposed for the Western Isles could be zero or less.
LWP have consistently made extravagant claims about the economic benefits that the world’s largest onshore wind farm could bring to Lewis and the Western Isles, arguing that these outweigh any environmental damage it would cause. Its own Environmental Statement states that 137 jobs will be supported during the development phase of the wind farm, and that a further 233 jobs will be supported once the wind farm becomes operational. However, these figures have been found to be misleading and hugely optimistic.
The RSPB commissioned assessment estimates that the development will support about 70 jobs. During the operational phase, instead of 233 jobs, only 73 jobs will be supported over a period of about 20 years, and these jobs are likely to be off-set by losses in tourism.
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A section of the largest peatland of the St. Lawrence valley was given by the private company Abitibi-Consolidated to the group Nature Conservancy of Canada (see previous IMCG Newsletter). This section (1409 ha) covers a major part of the Lac à la Tortue peatland (6633 ha). This new protected area lies adjacent to an ecological reserve (100 ha) created in 1992 by the Quebec government.
Lac à la Tortue (1) and the Grande Plée Bleue (2) peatlands (Picture: government of Canada)
IMCG Main Board member Line Rochefort gave a presentation at a press conference on why it is important to conserve peatlands in the province of Québec, which was received well by the press and government representatives.
The conservation of the Lac à la Tortue peatland is very important for the southern Quebec area, because most peatlands here were destroyed by agriculture, forestry, and peat cutting. In this region of the St. Lawrence valley, agriculture is one of the most important economic activities. The Nature Conservancy of Canada will now prevent exploitation of the area, but it should also limit other human activities, such as passage of all-terrain vehicles.
Nature Conservancy of Canada is a private, non-profit organisation, striving to conserve Canada’s nature in perpetuity. The group currently manages more than 768 900 hectares of ecologically significant land nationwide and is the most important owner of privately protected areas in the Quebec province (www.natureconservancy.ca).
The superb landscape of the Lac à la Tortue peatland is characterised by a patterned complex with ponds in its center. The vegetation between the ponds is composed of Picea mariana, Larix laricina, ericaceous shrubs (such as Kalmia angustifolia and Chameadaphnea calyculata) and Sphagnum species. The sections without ponds are more homogenous and include different plant communities typical of ombrotrophic boreal peatlands. The field inventories which took place in this peatland identified species designated as threatened and vulnerable species, such as Hemidactylium scutatum, Platanthera blephariglottis var. blephariglottis, Anchistea virginica, and Utricularia geminiscapa.
Lac à la Tortue peatland. Photos: top, government of Québec; bottom, Nature Conservancy of Canada.
Its biodiversity and location in the St. Lawrence valley make the peatland an ideal object for research and university teaching. A group from the Peat Ecological Research Group of Line Rochefort (Univ. Laval, Quebec) plans to visit this site during the summer in order to make an assessment on the state of the peatland.
The Grande Plée Bleue peatland is a large natural peatland (11 km2) located in the area of Chaudière-Appalaches, at the south of the St. Lawrence River. In February 2006, the Quebec provincial government authorised acquisition of the peatland for the creation of a new ecological reserve (gazette no. 131-2007). Currently, peatlands under protection in the province of Québec correspond to 3.6% of the total peatland area of the province. Four other provinces in Canada show higher conservation records (Manitoba: 25%, Nova Scotia: 15%, Prince Edward Island: 12.5% and New Brunswick: 11%). The creation of this new ecological reserve will be an important step to improve the record of peatland conservation in Quebec province.
The ecological reserve of the Grande Plée Bleue
Photos: top, Paul Grant; bottom, Jean Cazes
Like the Lac à la Tortue peatland, the Grande Plée Bleue peatland is one of the few relatively untouched peatlands in the southern Quebec province. The Grande Plée Bleue peatland does not present good peat quality for the horticultural market. Ownership of the peatland is furthermore split between different owners, making it difficult to exploit for peat companies. With its new statute of ecological reserve, this peatland will be preserved in its entirety and human activities prohibited, except for educational projects.
The diversity of the Grande Plée Bleue peatland is evident at the landscape scale as well as in its species richness. The formation of this ombrotrophic peatland began 7000 years ago and the peat thickness varies from 3 to 5 meters. Each year, several inventories and educational visits are carried out. In total, 655 ponds are identified on the peatland, which corresponds to a total area of 18.4 ha. Several plant and animal species use this peatland as refuges in a region where the landscape is strongly fragmented by human activities. With a total of over 150 plant specie, the vegetation is composed of ericaceous shrubs (Kalmia angustifolia, Rhododendron canadense and Ledum groenlandicum), herbs (Eriophorum sp.) and trees (Picea mariana, Picea glauca, Larix laricina and Alnus sp.). Rare species include Platanthera blephariglottis var. blephariglottis, Utricularia geminiscapa, and Arethusa bulbosa. This important plant diversity offers a variety of habitats for the fauna. For example Bombycilla cedrorum, Anas rubripes, Circus cyaneus and Bubo virginianus are observed there. The presence of Dolichoderus mariae, an ant species usually found at lower latitudes, makes the pride of the entomologists!
The conservation of this peatland was made possible with the support of several organizations: Ducks Unlimited Canada, the government of Quebec, the city of Lévis, the Fondation Hydro-Québec pour l’environnement and the Société de conservation et de mise en valeur de la Grande Plée Bleue.
Claudia St-Arnaud
Peatland Ecology Research Group
Université Laval, Canada
For an interesting look at how peat extraction companies view their future, we include a report on the Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss Association (CSPMA) Annual Meeting as it was published in the CSPMA Bale Mail newsletter.
The Eighteenth Annual Meeting of CSPMA at Deerfield Beach, Florida, the theme of which was “The World of Peat,” featured nine speakers from eight different countries in Europe. Most of the speakers were members of the International Peat Society Executive Board and were asked to speak about their country’s peat industry. Markku Makela, IPS President, and head of the Finnish Geological Survey opened the meeting with a short welcome from IPS and a prediction that the next important issue facing the world peat industry will be the impact of climate change on the peat world and the effect of the peat world on climate change.
Jaakko Silpola, Secretary General of IPS in Finland, spoke on two topics: the first was an overview of the Finnish peat industry and the second one described a new harvesting method recently developed by Vapo Oy, the largest peat company in Finland.
The modern day Finnish peat industry began during the Second World War when the government initiated a program to drain peatlands for forestry. This led to utilizing peat for energy and then for horticulture. Today the industry extracts about 20 million cubic meters for fuel and 2.3million cubic meters for horticulture. There are over 100 peat extraction companies in Finland: Vapo Oy is the largest, extracting about 70 percent of the country’s peat. There are seven mid-size and about 110 small peat cutting companies. More than one million people (about 20 percent of the population) get their heat and power from peat-fuelled generating plants. In terms of the non-fuel peat market, there is little growth in sales to the horticulture industry but a significant increase in the use of peat for landscaping and animal bedding.
The Fins say they are serious about wise after-use. So far 20,000 hectares have been cut over and returned to some form of after-use including energy crops (2,300 hectares), agricultural use (4,300 hectares), forestry (4,100 hectares), rewetting (250 hectares) and natural revegetation (1,500 hectares).
Mr. Silpola concluded his remarks with a look to the future. The possibilities include:
- Producing second-generation diesel out of peat and wood – the first large-scale factory could be in production by 2015.
- Improving the value of peat based growing media two times by making the product last longer in order that less peat would be needed.
- To begin “A wise use evaluation process of all peatland use” in the country in order to secure land use possibilities for peat extraction.
- The peat industry must be able to carry on environmental discussions both within their countries and internationally.
- Continuous product, production and environmental protection systems must be developed
Håkan Bjur, managing director of Neovo, the largest peat company in Sweden, gave an overview of the peat industry in Sweden. He began by telling the audience that climate change is a serious issue: five of the warmest years on record occurred since 1998! The Swedish government realizes the importance of reducing the use of fossil fuels. They have stated that they want to end their dependence on oil by the year 2025. This offers a great opportunity for the peat industry to pick up the slack as oil usage drops. Currently peat accounts for about 0.66 percent of energy in Sweden. Mr. Bjur felt that the peat industry has the potential of providing more than two percent of the energy in Sweden in the future or in other terms, triple the amount used today.
Dr. Hans-Georg Belka, Managing Director of Klassman-Deilman presented an overview of the German peat industry. Dr. Belka reported that his company had a turnover in 2005 of 122 million Euros and employed 980 workers. They sold 2.7 million cubic metres of substrates for professional growers, 300,000 cubic metres of potting soil for the hobby market and about 70,000 cubic metres of green waste compost. There were 47 companies in Germany in 2000, whereas by 2005 there were only 38. Employment is near 1,600 workers. In 2000 9.6 million and in 2005 8.6 million cubic meters of peat were sold, of these 2.2 million (2000) and 1.5 million (2005) cubic meters of white peat. Black peat is now the predominant type of peat extracted in Germany, accounting for 86 percent of total amounts. Approximately 3.6 million cubic metres of black peat are used in potting soil, 2.5 million cubic metres in professional substrates, and 1.1 million cubic metres for the hobby gardener.
Dr. Belka indicated that the German peat resources will be depleted within the next two to three decades. For this reason, German peat companies are relying more and more on peat imported from the Baltic States. Not only do they buy from Baltic companies, many of the German peat companies are opening their own peat extraction companies in the Baltics. This peat is imported to offset the reduction and also to take advantage of the peat processing plants that are already in place.
Licenses are granted only for areas “without importance for nature” [sic!] but the licenses have a lot of conditions on them, especially for the protection of nature. Nearly 100 percent of bogs are rewetted when harvesting stops.
Belka shared his vision of the future of the German peat industry:
- The home-based industry will decrease.
- Companies will become more international in production and sales.
- Sales in Germany will remain the same while the import of white peat will increase.
- Substitutes like green waste compost and wood fibre will become more important.
- The German peat industry will change to an international industry and will play an important role in the international growing media market.
Source: CSPMA
The Canadian Boreal region, stretching from Yukon across the continent to Newfoundland, contains some of the world’s most intact forests and wetlands. It represents both an unprecedented conservation opportunity and a place at great risk as a frontier for extractive natural resource industries. Already much of Canada’s southern Boreal has been allocated for resource development. It is increasingly clear that the window for conserving the ecological integrity of the region is limited.
More than a 1000 scientists from Canada, the U.S., and throughout the world have signed a letter to urge Canadian policy makers to recognize the importance of the Boreal and their responsibility for its protection.
Scientists are invited to sign the letter to show the Canadian government and the world that the scientific community, as represented by hundreds of scientists, recognizes the Boreal as one of our world’s last great conservation opportunities.
You can read the letter and add your name in support (scientists only please) at:
In New Brunswick, peat is considered a quarriable substance and, as such, it belongs to the landowner. Its extraction on Crown Lands is administered under the Quarriable Substances Act. Peat is defined as an organic matter of geologic origin, excluding lignite or other coal that has a minimum organic content of seventy-five per cent on a dry weight basis.
Peatlands cover about 2% of the land surface area of the Province, equivalent to an estimated total of 140000 ha. About 70% of the 70000 ha peatland with commercial potential are located on Crown Lands. Peat produced in New Brunswick is mainly used in horticulture and greenhouses as a soil amendment or as a component of growing mixes. It is also used as casing material in the mushroom growing industry and in the manufacturing of peat containers for plants and peat pellets for seed germination.
Twenty companies were extracting peat in the Province in 2006. Most of the development is concentrated in northeast New Brunswick, mainly in the Acadian Peninsula and in the Baie-Sainte-Anne region. About 84 % of the production comes from Crown lands.
In 2006, generally poor climatic conditions contributed to production levels of 12 700 000 bales, a 5 % decrease compared to the average of the last five years. Shipments dropped 12 % from the previous year, reaching only 12 200 000 bales. In June, inventory stood at 3 000 000 bales; in December it reached 5 700 000 bales.
Peat extraction in New Brunswick, 2007
Export destinations remain unchanged from last year. The United States continues to be the principal export market for New Brunswick peat producers. In 2006, about 7 million bales were shipped to the USA and 3.4 million bales were distributed in Canada. The Japanese market, although diminishing, continued to favour peat of Canadian origin and accounted for 8 % of New Brunswick’s exports.
Peat imports by Japan were at their lowest since 1993 and exports of Canadian peat continued their downward slide, falling to their lowest levels since 1991. Canada’s share of the Japanese market plunged below 50 %, whereas it accounted for 84 % in 1991. Canada’s main competitors are Germany, the Baltic States, China and Russia. The three Baltic States continued to strengthen their presence accounting for 13% of Japan’s imports of peat. The Province of New Brunswick holds about 27% of the Japanese peat market representing 58% of Canadian exports to that country. In 2006, Japan imported about 3.4 million bales of peat from 22 different countries, valued at $38 million dollars.
Updated peatland inventory data shows that in 2006 there was 5 250 ha of peatland area used for the extraction of peat in New Brunswick. Abandoned commercial peatland area totals 1 400 ha of which 480 ha have undergone restoration. Peatlands protected within the park system or inside protected conservation zones total about 15 500 ha.
See the following web page address for more information on the New Brunswick protected areas: http://www.gnb.ca/0399/index-e.asp
As a result of combined efforts by industry and government, restoration of former commercial extraction areas is becoming better integrated in peat companies activities. To assist in the preparation of peatland restoration plans, the Department of Natural Resources has adopted a policy that provides a regulatory framework and guidance in preparing restoration plans. Beginning in January 2005, the Department has initiated a process to revise and update restoration plans for all companies operating on Crown lands. To date, twenty-five plans have been approved.
Source:
New Brunswick
Department of Natural Resources
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The Nariva Swamp is a tropical, freshwater to brackish, coastal wetland located on the Caribbean island of Trinidad. It is the largest and most diverse wetland system in the country, with 15,400 acres (6,234 hectares) of swamp forest, palm swamp forest, herbaceous swamp and mangrove forests. This area contributes to a rich biodiversity by providing habitat for numerous species of flora and 300 species of animals.
It is especially important for large numbers of waterbirds and small populations of endangered manatee and anaconda. The swamp was designated as a Ramsar site in 1993. Although almost entirely state owned, extensive areas of the swamp have been subjected to illegal rice farming. Illegal rice-farmers drained plots by digging ditches. When dried out, the section was burned to eliminate peatland vegetation and to burn as much of the peat layer as possible. As rice does not do well in peaty soils, the soil usually was exposed to sun-drying during two dry seasons in order to oxidize enough of the peat
Despite recent removal of these illegal operations by the Trinidad & Tobago government, the ecological integrity of this area remains altered. Irrigation channels constructed by illegal rice farmers have drastically modified the natural hydrology and intense dry periods and high winds have made these drained areas conducive to fires. The goals of the Nariva Initiative are to conserve and restore the natural hydrology and aquatic vegetation of Nariva Swamp, reforest areas cleared illegally for agriculture, and develop a comprehensive fire response plan.
The Nariva Swamp Restoration Initiative Map is now on-line (gis.ducks.org/NarivaSwamp/). Comments and suggestions for improving it are welcome as data is still being added. The goal is to provide the Government of Trinidad and Tobago with management tools (hydrology information, land cover changes, fire prevention, and engineering options) for the successful restoration of the Nariva Swamp.
More information: http://tinyurl.com/ys3yxb
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The Zambia Wildlife Authority has used the occasion of World Wetlands Day, 2 February 2007, to designate four large and rich new sites for the List of Wetlands of International Importance, and to extend very significantly the areas of two more. All six sites are all or mostly parts of National Parks and Game Management Areas, and all are home to an array of mammals, birds, and fish, many of them rare or vulnerable and many of them endemic. The four new Ramsar sites are Busanga Swamps (200,000 hectares, 14°05'S 025°47'E) in Northwestern Province; Luangwa Flood Plains (250,000 ha, 12°40'S 032°02'E) in Eastern Province; Mweru wa Ntipa (490,000 ha, 08°52'S 029°47'E), the lake of that name and surrounding flat wetland plains in Northern Province; and the Zambezi Floodplains (900,000 ha, 15°15'S 023°15'E) along the Zambezi River in Western Province, the second largest wetland in the country. In addition, Zambia has extended the areas of the Bangweulu Swamps and Kafue Flats Ramsar sites, both designated in 1991, to 1,100,000 and 600,500 hectares respectively. Brief descriptions of the new sites can be found here:
http://www.ramsar.org/wn/w.n.zambia_4new.htm.
Zambia now has seven Ramsar sites covering a surface area of 3,800,500 hectares.
Source: www.ramsar.org
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The International Course on African Wetland Management (ICAWM) has been offered annually since 2001 in Naivasha, Kenya, by the Kenya Wildlife Service Training Institute, and the next 6-week session will run from 12 September to 23 October 2007.
ICAWM is designed for middle-level managers who are actively involved in either inland or coastal wetland management. Participants may be wetlands, wildlife, environment, water resource, forestry or fisheries officers as well as resource planners in the county councils and officers from non-governmental organizations within or outside Africa.
The ICAWM is endorsed by the Ramsar Convention and based on the Ramsar “New Guidelines for Management Planning for Ramsar Sites and other Wetlands”.
Please find the brochure on the KWSTI Web site:
http://www.kws.org/images/KWSTI-ICAWM-Brochure-Nov-2006.pdf.
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The Indonesian government has announced that a large part of its peatland reclamation “mega rice project” in Central Kalimantan will be set aside for conservation projects.
Eighty percent of the peatland, or around 1.1 million hectares must be conserved, with the remaining 20 percent of the converted peatland, 300,000 hectares, used for agricultural land, to be worked by locals and transmigrants. All agricultural work in the area would have to take the conservation effort into account.
The government had earlier said that it would reclaim up to 500,000 hectares of peatland in Central Kalimantan for agricultural use and plantations as part of an effort to revitalize the agricultural sector. Another 600,000 hectares of the peatland was to be conserved to reduce damage to the ecosystem.
The new project is part of an effort to salvage the plan of former president Soeharto to turn 1.4 million hectares of peatland in the province into agricultural land, although the project was later abandoned.
The aborted project, kicked off in 1995, toward the end of the Soeharto administration, caused massive environmental destruction.
Forests in the vicinity of the converted peatland have also been destroyed by illegal logging. Between 1996 and 1997, only 70,000 hectares of peatland was converted into agricultural land.
Then president B.J. Habibie issued instructions to halt the conversion of the peatland in 1998. But now plans to convert the land are revived and like before the plans are to plant with rice and other field crops. Some of the land will also be used for cattle raising and aquaculture.
The central government is yet to disclose how much it will spend on the new peatland project, but a great deal of it will be covered by the Central Kalimantan provincial budget.
Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com
The Sarawak Forestry Corporation (SFC) is working out a management plan with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to conserve Loagan Bunut, Sarawak’s largest natural freshwater lake that is in danger of becoming extinct.
The SFC in a statement said the development and implementation of the plan would encourage the conservation and sustainable use of globally significant genetic, species and ecosystem diversity of peat swamp forest surrounding the lake that had been declared a national park in 1990.
The UNDP will fund the project under its Global Environment Facility (UNDP/GEF) that involves promoting tourism activity at the park.
A guidebook on the park was recently launched, being the first-ever informative guide on the national park that contains a general glimpse of the park’s diverse plants and animals, as well as the rich cultural heritage associated with the lake.
The management plan was adopted as the lake was facing threats from land development activities upstream, which contributed substantial sediment to its bottom and raised fears it could be gone in 60 years if the problem is not addressed.
The sediment has also affected the lake’s aquatic habitat and the situation has been made worse by unsustainable fishing activities and illegal hunting of wildlife around the park.
Located in the Baram river flood plain in north-eastern Sarawak, the national park covers a 10,736ha area where the lake, depending on the season, could reach a maximum size of 650ha.
The park records over 800 species of flora and fauna rarely seen in other places. The lake and its ecosystem is the source of livelihood for local communities residing there.
Source: http://www.thestar.com.my
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