Guest guest Posted May 21, 2002 Report Share Posted May 21, 2002 ***************************Advertisement*************************** TechCentral http://star-techcentral.com ***************************************************************** This message was forwarded to you by yitzeling. Comment from sender: no to shark fins and others This article is from thestar.com.my URL: http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2002/5/21/features/green2105 & sec\ =features ________________________ Tuesday, May 21, 2002 No to shark fin TAIWANESE President Chen Shui-Bian has taken a personal stand on shark fin soup by recording a television appeal to reduce consumption of the delicacy, saying: “Don’t use shark fin soup to entertain your guests. By changing one aspect of your daily life, you can help to protect oceans.” He joins a list of celebrities, which includes popular Asian icons such as Hong Kong actor Tony Leung, Taiwanese singer Richie Ren and Taiwanese director Ang Lee, in a series of announcements to be broadcast throughout the world. Since taking office, Chen has announced that dishes requiring the use of endangered and threatened species as an ingredient, including shark fin soup, have been removed from the menus of official banquets. He also refrained from serving shark fin soup at his daughter’s engagement banquet last year. “In the end, it is the consumer who will decide the fate of these ancient creatures, a fact which the President has clearly understood,” said Peter Knights, director of conservation group WildAid which has led the campaign to protect sharks. “As the main source of demand for whale shark products, Taiwan could single-handedly take the greatest step to conserving the world’s largest fish by banning imports and local hunting of this ancient species.” Taiwan imported over 498,000kg shark fin in 2000. The fins and meat of whale sharks, a gentle, slow-moving plankton-feeder which can grow to 15m in length, are in demand in Taiwan. Ninety-four whale sharks were caught in Taiwan between March 2001 and March 2002. Taiwanese scientists have estimated that catches of whale sharks have declined by 60% to 70% in less than a decade. There is an illegal market for whale shark meat in Taiwan and Hong Kong. In 1998 the Philippine authorities seized 23 boxes, weighing 812kg and destined for Taiwan. – Wildaid Shoot to kill WESTERN conservation organisations are employing experienced gunmen to hunt down elephant poachers, amid fears of a massive resurgence in ivory poaching across east and central Africa. An anti-poaching unit led by a former South African army officer and funded by two foreign conservation groups recently attacked two gangs of poachers in the Central African Republic (CAR), killing one man. The initiative seeks to replicate the successful shoot-to-kill policies ordered by Richard Leakey, then head of Kenya’s wildlife agency, during the poaching epidemic of the 1980s; but marks a violent departure for wildlife charities. “For me it’s been a moral struggle, but sometimes you have to use force to change people’s minds,” said Eric Lindquist of the African Rainforest and Rivers Conservation Organisation, the American charity which has set up the anti-poaching unit in co-operation with the CAR government. The unit, which is part-funded by the Hans Wasmoeth Wildlife Foundation of the Netherlands, consists of three CAR presidential guards, commanded by “David Byrant,” an alias used by a 50-year-old former officer of the South African and Rhodesian armies. Recently, Byrant launched a mission to arrest Congolese poachers in the southern CAR, having previously attacked a Sudanese gang, killing one and arresting three. Karl Amman, a conservationist who co-ordinated the recent operation, said former Congolese soldiers had killed up to 400 elephants along the CAR’s border with the Democratic Republic of Congo in the past five years. There are now virtually no elephants within a 160km swath of the rainforest there, he said. After a decade of limited poaching, increased demand for illegal ivory and war in Congo have triggered a new wave of elephant poaching, raising fears of another of the killing sprees that almost wiped out the species a decade ago. – Guardian News Service Weaker El Niño THIS year’s looming El Niño, the weather anomaly blamed for devastating droughts and floods, will be much weaker than it was in 1997-98 when it caused an estimated 24,000 deaths and US$34bil (RM129.2bil) in damage worldwide, weather experts said. However, governments from Indonesia to South Africa are preparing for the worst because even a weak El Niño can have a significant impact on developing countries. El Niño, or “boy child” in Spanish, is an abnormal warming of waters in the eastern Pacific that distorts wind and rainfall patterns around the world, causing floods and droughts. It usually occurs every four to five years and can last up to 18 months. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the United States projected a “weak to moderate” El Niño by the end of this year and it will have “considerably weaker global impacts than were experienced during the very strong 1997-98 El Niño.” One report predicted increased risk for crops across the Western Pacific later this year. That includes agricultural commodities from Australia, South-East Asia, and to some extent, India and southern China. In South Africa, weather experts said they expect the region to be hit at the end of the year, bringing yet another dry spell after an already disappointing harvest this year. – Reuters Empty nests A SHOCKING 247 (76%) of Asia’s 323 threatened birds are forest dependent species that face extinction because of logging and forest clearance for agriculture as well as timber and palm oil plantations, according to BirdLife International. As many as 27 Asian forest birds are listed as “critically endangered”, including the Sumatran Ground-cuckoo. A further 54 are “endangered”, such as the white-winged duck and 166 are “vulnerable”, such as the crestless fireback. Based on data from Threatened Birds of Asia, BirdLife has ranked the Asian countries with the most threatened forest bird species: Indonesia (101 species), the Philippines (55), China (39), India (29), Malaysia (27), Myanmar (20), Thailand (18), Vietnam (16), Brunei (16) and Japan (12). Birdlife International said tropical moist forests are essential for the survival of 70% of Asia’s threatened forest dependent bird species. The continuing loss and degradation of lowland rainforest in Indonesia and Malaysia is particularly disturbing. Nowhere is the crisis facing forest birds in Indonesia worse than the island of Sumatra where 17 forest bird species are globally threatened and a further 73 “near threatened”. – Birdlife International ________________________ Your one-stop information portal: The Star Online http://thestar.com.my http://biz.thestar.com.my http://classifieds.thestar.com.my http://cards.thestar.com.my http://search.thestar.com.my http://star-motoring.com http://star-space.com http://star-jobs.com http://star-ecentral.com http://star-techcentral.com 1995-2002 Star Publications (Malaysia) Bhd. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of Star Publications is prohibited. 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