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The South African, Mozambican and Zimbabwean presidents will launch an African "super park" adjoining the Kruger National Park in Mpumalanga. President Thabo Mbeki, together with his Mozambican and Zimbabwean counterparts, Presidents Joachim Chissano and Robert Mugabe, will sign a treaty on 9 December to establish formally one of the world's largest transfrontier conservation areas, the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park (GLTP).
The agreement seals a two-year process of intensive preparations for the establishment of the 35 000 km2 park. The GLTP will extend across South Africa's Kruger National Park, Mozambique's Limpopo National Park and the Gonarezhou National Park in Zimbabwe.
Spokeswoman for South Africa's Environmental Affairs and Tourism Minister Valli Moosa, Phindile Makwakwa, said that South Africa had launched a three-year operation to release thousands of wildlife from the Kruger National Park to Mozambique's Limpopo National Park as part of the development of the Transfrontier Park. (http://allafrica.com/stories/200212040085.html ) (Source: South African Press Association (Johannesburg), South Africa, 3 December 2002.)
It is common knowledge that Amazonia is the world's largest intact tropical forest, but never before have so many data on the current state of its conservation been presented in one publication. The chapter on Amazonia in a recent book from Conservation International is signed by 36 authors. The experts state that Amazonia has 34 ecoregions, of which 17 are dense tropical forest. The total area is 6 241 270 km2. The largest part - 63.7 percent of the total - is in Brazil. Amazonia currently represents 53 percent of the world's standing tropical forest. Around 40 000 plant species are found in Amazonia, of which around 30 000 are endemic. (Source: Amazon News, 12 December 2002.)
ARKive is the Noah's Ark for the online era. Film, photographs and audio recordings of endangered species are being amassed and preserved digitally in a Web-based collection to be made accessible to all via the Internet. It will be a vital resource where everyone can learn about the importance of biodiversity and the urgent need to conserve it. ARKive will create digital profiles for each species, including up to ten minutes of moving footage, six still images and two minutes of audio, together with useful facts and cross-references.
ARKive requests anybody owning photographs or moving footage of any Red List species to contact them. Copyright remains with the image owner, and all images are credited with links to the owner's contact details.
It is ARKive's ultimate aim to cover the 6 000 animals and 33 000 plants on the IUCN international Red Lists.
For more information, please contact the ARKive media team:
Richard Hughes or Cameron Milne, PO Box 366, Bristol,
BS99 2HD, United Kingdom.
E-mail: [email protected] or [email protected]
www.arkive.org.uk/index.html
Preserving the forest is good business sense. It may be difficult to imagine that an intact forest is more valuable than a soya plantation or a cattle ranch or that a preserved coral reef is more valuable than the fishing industry, but that is exactly what the authors of an article published in Science have concluded.
For the population in general and for the planet, if not the farmer, rancher or fisherman, preserving nature is more profitable than destroying it, researchers say. They studied five cases of intact ecosystems that have been transformed by human activity. In all cases, the human population ended up as the losers by some US$250 billion per year. What the population gains in food and products, it loses in soil quality, erosion, the recycling of nutrients, drinking-water, climate regulation, carbon capture, pollination, the biological control of species, biodiversity - as much for hunting as for medical research - and even tourism and leisure. One of the report's principal authors, researcher Robert Costanza of the University of Maryland, has said that these services are normally ignored in economic calculations and argues that, without the environment providing them free of charge, we will have to pay for them at a later date.
Costanza said that this was a "conservative estimate" of the value of these services. In order to maintain a global network of conservation areas, covering 155 of land-based ecosystems and 30 percent of marine ecosystems, the world would spend just US$45 billion per year. According to researchers, this would give a return of between US$4.4 trillion and US$5.2 trillion and allow the sustainable use of resources. These areas would be remote with a sparse population. (Source: Amazon News , 15 August 2002.)
An innovative initiative is helping to secure the future of the Gulf of Mannar Biosphere Reserve in South India and its globally significant marine coastal life by involving local communities in promoting ecotourism and other ventures that create jobs while protecting the area's threatened natural environment. The local Ramanathaswamy Temple draws tourists from all regions of India, and this flow of visitors can be a springboard for introducing ecotourism to the Biosphere Reserve.
The Gulf of Mannar Biosphere Reserve - the first of its kind in South and Southeast Asia - is one of India's biologically richest coastal regions. It is home to 3 600 species of plants and animals, including 17 mangrove tree species. The reserve is among a world network of biosphere reserves recognized by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) for their role in conserving ecosystems, fostering sustainable development and supporting research and education on these issues. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), with the Global Environment Facility, has allocated US$7.5 million for the programme. Cofinancing by the Government of India and the Tamil Nadu government brings the total project funding to US$26.5 million.
The initiative will strengthen the role of local communities, particularly women, in managing the reserve in ways that are ecologically sound, equitable for groups with a stake in the unique area, and economically viable. The M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, a regional centre supporting environmentally friendly rural development, is implementing the project. The Tamil Nadu government is setting up the Gulf of Mannar Trust to support the project. The first such institution in India, the trust will also help other coastal areas of Tamil Nadu replicate the initiative's successful results. (Source: UNDP Newsfront , 1 May 2002.)
President Fernando Henrique Cardoso announced during the United Nations Summit of Sustainable Development that the Protected Areas of Amazonia will be tripled over the next ten years. US$395 million will be invested in the project with the money coming from the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the World Bank, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and other partners. The protected area of Amazonia should be increased to 500 000 km2, or 12 percent of the total area of Amazonia, including 23 different ecoregions and benefiting diverse local communities. The money will be used for the identification and demarcation of new areas, as well as the consolidation of existing areas.
The first phase of the programme will cost US$81.5 million over the next four years. The Brazilian Government will contribute US$18.1 million; US$30 million will come from a new fund established by the GEF; US$16.5 million from WWF; US$14.4 million from the German development agency (KfW) and a further US$2.5 million from other partners. (Source: Amazon News, 5 September 2002.)
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"Unless we find beauty and
happiness in our backyard, Anon |