Clipmarks | Socratoad's 'conservation' clips

New fears for elephants over ivory sale to China

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 20:06:23 GMT

clipped by: Socratoad
clipper's remarks: Never ever let ethical conservation stand in the way of commerce. .... bastards

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

New fears for elephants over ivory sale to China

Conservationists yesterday attacked a decision by the international community to allow China to buy stockpiles of elephant ivory saying it would lead to more elephants being killed in Africa.

A meeting of the Convention for International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites), in Geneva, agreed that China could bid for up to 108 tonnes of ivory, collected from culls and natural deaths and offered for sale by Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe.

Cites judged that China, which wants to continue an ivory carving tradition, had put sufficient measures in place to regulate sales and crack down on the illegal domestic trade.

Record Land Grab Feared In Poor Forested Countries

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 14:15:19 GMT

clipped by: Socratoad

Clip Source: www.terradaily.com

Record Land Grab Feared In Poor Forested Countries

Crops that produce biofuels alone will require at least an additional 30 to 35 million hectares (Mha) of new productive land within the next decade or so, the equivalent of 35,000 soccer fields, according to the authors.

Escalating global demand for fuel, food and wood fibre will destroy the world's forests, if efforts to address climate change and poverty fail to empower the billion-plus forest-dependent poor, according to two reports released by the U.S.-based Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI), an international coalition comprising the world's foremost organisations on forest governance and conservation.

We Need to Protect More Land, Not Less

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 17:12:41 GMT

clipped by: Socratoad
clipper's remarks: There are few better investments of taxpayer dollars than the land reserve project, which has protected millions of acres of sensitive lands nationwide and significantly reduced soil erosion, all the while costing taxpayers about one tenth as much as traditional farm subsidies. And unlike most farm subsidies — which concentrate wealth in the hands of the wealthy — this program spreads the money around and creates more economic value than it costs.

Clip Source: www.ewg.org

We Need to Protect More Land, Not Less

A recent Post-Dispatch editorial called for plowing up portions of the nation's premier farmland protection initiative, the Conservation Reserve Program, in hopes that planting corn on highly erodible lands will ease pressure on corn markets and lower prices of food and animal feed.

This might sound like good policy, but it will not work. Plowing up the land in the CRP will do nothing to lower food or feed prices, but it will flush billions of dollars of conservation progress down the Mississippi and very likely aggravate global warming.

Birds Migrate Earlier

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 19:38:58 GMT

clipped by: Socratoad

Clip Source: www.terradaily.com

Birds Migrate Earlier, But Some May Be Left Behind As The Climate Warms Rapidly

Other researchers have already noted that some long-distance migrant birds returning from African wintering areas to breed in Europe are now mistimed with their insect food supply.

Scientists at Boston University and the Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences analyzed changes in the timing of spring migrations of 32 species of birds along the coast of eastern Massachusetts since 1970. Researchers at Manomet gathered this data by capturing birds in mist nets, attaching bands to their legs, and then releasing them. Their findings, published in Global Change Biology, show that eight out of 32 bird species are passing by Cape Cod significantly earlier on their annual trek north than they were 38 years ago. The reason? Warming temperatures. Temperatures in eastern Massachusetts have risen by 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) since 1970.

Florida megadeal aims to restore fabled wetlands

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 19:13:41 GMT

clipped by: Socratoad

Clip Source: www.terradaily.com

Florida megadeal aims to restore fabled wetlands, close US Sugar

Since US Sugar landholdings are not contiguous, the state will try to swap land with other sugar cane companies to forge a corridor for water to flow into the reservoirs to the Everglades.

Florida has reached a tentative 1.75-billion-dollar deal to buy the largest US sugar producer and turn its vast swaths of farmland into reservoirs to protect the fabled Everglades wetlands, US media reported Wednesday.

"The plan, described by Governor Charlie Crist as the largest conservation purchase in Florida's history, envisions restoring some of the natural flow of water to the Everglades from Lake Okeechobee," The Washington Post reported. The amount of land involved is some 187,000 acres (75,678 hectares).

Bridging The Iran-West Divide to Save Cheetahs

Sun, 22 Jun 2008 23:47:09 GMT

clipped by: Socratoad

Clip Source: www.planetark.com

Bridging The Iran-West Divide to Save Cheetahs

KUH-E BAFGH PROTECTED AREA, Iran - Iranian and Western wildlife experts are working together to save rare cheetahs from extinction in this arid, mountainous region, despite a nuclear row between their governments.

US- and British-based conservation groups are backing a campaign spearheaded by Iran's Department of Environment (DoE) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to prevent the endangered Asiatic cheetah from dying out.

Iran is believed to host the only 60 - 100 Asiatic cheetahs left in the wild. Some eke out a living in a forbidding terrain of jagged peaks, deep gorges and bone-dry plains in the Kuh-e Bafgh protected area in Yazd province in central Iran.

The sleek and spotted cats once roamed between the Arabian peninsula and India, but their number in Iran is estimated to have fallen by roughly half in the last three decades.

Dubious Distinction

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 21:04:25 GMT

clipped by: Socratoad

Clip Source: incontemptcomics.com

Dubious Distinction

A few weeks ago the U.S. Department of the Interior added polar bears to the list of animals threatened with extinction by the melting of ice in the Arctic sea. As the LA Times reports, the polar bear is the first species to be officially acknowledged as threatened by the effects of global warming.

But here’s where the BushAdmin renders this listing moot:

But the department also issued special rules designed to exempt from the law offshore oil and gas drilling in prime polar bear habitat off Alaska’s north coast.

Moreover, Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne announced he was taking a series of steps to short-circuit legal plans by conservation groups to use the polar bear’s protected status to block new power plants and other sources of carbon dioxide and other gases that contribute to global warming.

Not that there are any special interests motivating this decision or anything:

Brazilian Federal Court Rules Unanimously in Sea Shepherd’s Favor in Historic Decision

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 18:40:48 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: The limit for drag-net fishing is 3.5 miles off the coast of Rio Grande do Sul, Resolution nº 26, SUDEPE. The intention of the standard is to protect the extreme fragility and importance of the coastline. The Rio Grande do Sul shores are a nursery and migratory route of hundreds of sea animals, constituting complex and delicate ecosystems.

All compensation awarded in court as a result of Sea Shepherd’s lawsuits must be deposited into the State Environmental Fund coffers and used according to article 13, Law 7.347/85; mainly by federal regulators for purposes of environmental preservation and education related to fishing along the southern state’s coast.

Clip Source: www.seashepherd.org

April 16, 2008, Porto Alegre, Brazil – In a completely packed court room, the Federal 4th District Court ruled unanimously on Sea Shepherd Brazil’s favor in its public civil action suit against a predatory drag-net fishing boat owner, Mr. Henry Xavier, in southern Brazil. The defendant’s vessel, “Casablanca”, was caught flagrantly on the scene practicing illegal drag-net fishing along the southern Brazilian coast in 2001. The joint law enforcement operation in that occasion was promoted by Sea Shepherd Brazil and counted on the Military Brigade’s assistance. After losing this latest judicial battle, the defendant’s last resort to appeal the court’s ruling is Brazil’s Supreme Court.

ruled that the defendant, Mr. Henry Xavier was indeed responsible for the illegal fishing operation and was fined the equivalent of US$466,000 dollars. The boat owner was also ordered to purchase new fishing nets with turtle exclusion devices (TEDS), and offer marine conservation courses to his employees.

The National Post Exposes the Truth About the Economics of the Seal Slaughter

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 18:32:27 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: See the link for excellent article on the lies of Canadian gov't

Clip Source: www.seashepherd.org

Finally, at least one media outlet in Canada has the guts to print the truth about the economics of the Canadian seal slaughter.

Most of the Canadian media have been bullied into parroting the Canadian government party line that the seal slaughter is sustainable, humane and good for the economy. Mike Duffy on CTV has been so biased in his support of this ridiculous position that he has lost all pretense to objectivity as a journalist. And of course the CBC or the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation has for years been referred to by seal defenders as the Controlled By Canada network.

And for years the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has been saying that the seal slaughter is a burden on the Canadian tax payer and little more than a glorified welfare project.

The article below is reprinted from their website and can be found online here.

Biofuel Sustainability - Part 2 (Recommendations)

Sat, 12 Jan 2008 18:39:23 GMT

clipped by: JICWyllie

Clip Source: www.esa.org

We must assess the tradeoffs of these impacts with the benefits associated with biofuel development.

SYSTEMS THINKING. A systems approach is crucial to assess the energy yield, carbon neutrality, and the full impact of biofuel production on downstream and downwind ecosystems. It should take into account all of the flows, controls, and storage of materials and energy.

CONSERVATION OF ECOSYSTEM SERVICES. A focus on ecosystem services will provide the foundation necessary for win-win scenarios.

SCALE ALIGNMENT. Explicit consideration of scale in policy and management is necessary to achieve sustainability goals.

Fields are managed at the level of individual farms, but sustainability must also be assessed at landscape, regional, and global scales. What is sustainable at one scale may be unsustainable at another.

Tags: energy, biofuels, i-policy, i-recommendations

Biofuel Sustainability - Part 1 (Critique)

Sat, 12 Jan 2008 18:29:27 GMT

clipped by: JICWyllie

Clip Source: www.esa.org

The current focus on ethanol from corn illustrates the risks of exploiting a single source of biomass for biofuel production. A growing percentage of the U.S. corn harvest – 18 percent in 2006 – is directed towards grain ethanol production. This has not only resulted in record-high corn prices, it has produced strong incentives for continuously-grown corn, higher-than-optimal use of nitrogen fertilizers, the early return of land in conservation programs to production, and the conversion of marginal lands to high-intensity cropping. All of these changes exacerbate well-known environmental problems associated with intensive agriculture:

Continuously-grown corn is more susceptible to insect damage and allows weeds to become more persistent, requiring more insecticides and herbicides.

Nitrogen fertilizer is the principal contributor to nitrogen pollution of groundwater, surface waters, and coastal zones, and a major source of the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide.

reduces wildlife diversity

Tags: energy, biofuels, i-policy, i-subsidies, i-consequences, environment, i-destruction

Thieves Butcher, Behead Rare Siberian Tiger at Central China Zoo

Mon, 24 Dec 2007 01:33:48 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: It said the locks of the tiger's cage were broken and that police found four homemade anesthetic rifles near the cage.

Calls to the zoo rang unanswered on Sunday. A man at the Forestry Bureau of Yichang city confirmed the killing and said an investigation was under way. He refused to give his name.

Clip Source: www.foxnews.com

BEIJING — Police were searching for the culprits behind the beheading and skinning of a rare Siberian tiger at a zoo in central China, state media reported Sunday.

The female tiger was found with its head, legs and skin missing Thursday morning at the Three Gorges Forest Wild Animal World in Yichang city in Hubei province, Xinhua News Agency.

"It is highly possible that the killer or killers broke into the room, anesthetized the tiger, opened the cage and then dragged the animal out of the room and butchered it," Xinhua quoted one unnamed official as saying.

Tiger skins are sold on the black market in China, and tiger parts are used in traditional medicines.

The WWF conservation group lists the Siberian tiger as "critically endangered" and says there are only about 530 of the animals alive in the wild. Most live in the far east of Russia or northeast China.

Hundreds more live in captivity. Xinhua said China has established breeding bases to help protect the animals.

Tags: siberian tiger, china zoo, black market in china, skins, traditional medicines

Oil and Greed Versus Dolphins

Fri, 21 Dec 2007 18:14:40 GMT

clipped by: Socratoad

Clip Source: www.earthtimes.org

Oil search could threaten dolphins

EDINBURGH, Scotland, Dec. 21 Scottish environmentalists warn that allowing oil exploration in the Moray Firth could be the end for the most northerly group of bottlenose dolphins.

Mark Simmonds of the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society said that seismic testing could be very dangerous for dolphins because hearing is their most used sense.

"To go ahead with oil and gas exploration in one of only two protected areas seems wrong," he said. "At worst, this could dramatically impact the dolphins' chance of survival in the Firth and, in combination with other threats, could even drive this population towards extinction."

Polar Bear Conservation

Fri, 21 Dec 2007 01:23:36 GMT

clipped by: Socratoad

Clip Source: www.polarbearsinternational.org

Polar Bears International

About Us

Adventure Learning Program

All About Polar Bears

How You Can Help Polar Bears

Look at Polar Bears

Whoop! Whoop! Whoop! Hurrah!

Sun, 16 Dec 2007 19:23:26 GMT

clipped by: Socratoad
clipper's remarks: A little good news today.

Clip Source: www.theglobeandmail.com

YELLOWKNIFE — One of the most majestic and endangered birds on the continent appears to be making a slow flight to recovery, say experts who see whooping cranes returning to their Texas wintering grounds in record numbers this year.

December 16, 2007 at 12:47 PM EST

THE CANADIAN PRESS

The cranes were on the verge of extinction in 1941 — a mere 15 birds could be accounted for. But last week Tom Stehn, whooping crane co-ordinator for the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, confirmed that 262 had arrived at the Aransas reserve on Texas's Gulf of Mexico coast and four more were in transit.

“The comeback is what makes them really a symbol of conservation in North America,” said Stehn.