FWD: World’s largest marine reserve

October 15, 2002

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Tuesday, October 15, 2002

World & #8217;s largest marine reserve

AUSTRALIA plans to create the world & #8217;s largest fully protected marine

reserve, announcing last Wednesday it had mapped out a giant park free of

fishing and exploitation in its remote, sub-Antarctic waters.

The government said the new 6.5 million ha reserve would be created around the

rugged Heard Island and McDonald Islands group, 4,500km southwest of the

mainland and 1,000km north of Antarctica.

The Australian territory of Heard and McDonald islands is the only

sub-Antarctic island group with an intact ecosystem that has not been tainted by

foreign species introduced directly by man.

“The declaration would preserve for science, and for nature, a very large area

of one of the most pristine environments left on earth,” Environment Minister

David Kemp said in a statement, finalising two years of work to tighten up

protection of the area.

Heard and McDonald Islands were inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1997

but declaring the area a protected reserve further protects the area. It will

exclude most human activity, prohibit commercial fishing and exploration of

mineral and petroleum, and limit scientific research activities.

Kemp said the move would protect the habitat and food sources of a list of

animals including the southern elephant seal, the sub-antarctic fur seal, and

several penguin species. The reserve is also home to two species of the

world & #8217;s most majestic seabird, the albatross & #8211; the light-mantled

sooty albatross and the black-browed albatross & #8211; while the seas contain

soft corals, glass sponges and giant barnacles.

The reserve falls within one of world & #8217;s wildest places. Heard Island is

home to Australia & #8217;s only active volcano, Big Ben, and is Australia & #8217;s

tallest mountain, rising 2,745m above a thick mantle of snow and glacial ice.

& #8211; Reuters

<h3>Primates in danger</h3>

A THIRD of the world & #8217;s monkeys, lemurs and other primates & #8211; a total

of some 195 species and subspecies & #8211; are in danger of extinction,

according to a report by Conservation International (CI).

The number of species threatened by mining, poaching, deforestation, forest

fires or war soared from 120 to 195 over the past two years, it said in the

report The World & #8217;s Top 25 Most Endangered Primates released last week at

the International Primatological Society Congress in Beijing.

“These 25 are facing a very serious risk of extinction due to the ongoing and

rapid loss of their forests and, especially in Asia and Africa, their widespread

and devastating exploitation for food and body parts, bizarre decoration and

charms or potions,” lamented Anthony Rylands of the group & #8217;s Centre for

Applied Biodiversity Science, stressing that “urgent measures” must be taken for

their protection.

Among the world & #8217;s most endangered primates are Brazil & #8217;s northern

muriqui, Indonesia & #8217;s Sumatran orang utan and the mountain gorilla of

Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

But it is Asia & #8211; home to 11 of the 25 most endangered primate species

& #8211; that has now become the world leader in endangered primates, followed by

Africa, with eight.

Five of the rarest species are found in Vietnam. Only some 100 individuals of

the golden-headed langur live on the country & #8217;s Cat Ba Island. CI president

Russ Mittermeier noted that the situation in Vietnam and China is particularly

worrisome. “Indeed, with several primates now numbering only in the dozens or

low hundreds of individuals, Vietnam is at risk of undergoing a major primate

extinction spasm within the next few years if rapid action is not taken,” he

warned.

Of the 25 most endangered species, 23 live in the world & #8217;s biodiversity

hotspots, spanning just 1.4% of the Earth & #8217;s land surface and including

Brazil, Madagascar, Sri Lanka, the mountains of south-western China and the

forests of West Africa and East Africa. & #8211; AFP

<h3>Wrath of global warming</h3>

MORE frequent and more devastating storms caused by climate change could cost

an annual US$150bil (RM570bil) within the next ten years, possibly bankrupting

financial services firms, a United Nations-backed report warned.

Comissioned by the UN Environment Programme & #8217;s (UNEP) finance initiative,

the report said worldwide economic losses from natural disasters appeared to be

doubling every ten years.

Although they are directly at risk, the reaction of financial services firms to

the problem of climate change has so far been patchy, the report said, while

governments have shown little commitment to tackling the problem. It also said

that while insurers and reinsurers recognise climate change as being a threat,

few of them factor in climate change-related risks into their insurance

premiums.

In the commercial banking industry, the report found little awareness of the

issue among senior executives, though some companies have seized the opportunity

to take the lead in greenhouse gas credit trading and energy efficient loans.

Fund managers do not currently regard climate change as an investment risk,

though socially-responsible fund managers consider climate change when choosing

their investments.

The report called on financial services companies to raise awareness of the

problem of climate change as well as provide products and services that support

adaptation and mitigation of climate change. The report was written by Innovest

Strategic Value Advisors, a US-based investment research firm. & #8211; Reuters

<h3>Dugongs dwindle further</h3>

VIETNAM & #8217;S dwindling population of dugongs has been further reduced with

at least six of the whiskered sea mammals killed by fishermen over the past

month, according to official media reports.

In the latest incident, a dugong was caught last Monday near Phu Quoc Island,

off Vietnam & #8217;s southern coastal province of Kien Giang, the People & #8217;s

Army newspaper reported. Like five others caught in Vietnam & #8217;s seas in the

past month, it was killed. Dugong meat has been offered for sale in local

markets.

Nick Cox, a dugong specialist at Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) in Hanoi said

Vietnam is estimated to have about 10 of the mammals the southern islands of Con

Dao and Vung Tau and a small population in the northern province of Quang Ninh.

He said the conservation group plans to launch a programme to protect the

animals that will include educating fishermen. He said that since 1997, 10

dugongs have been killed in Con Dao.

The United Nations Environment Programme says the animals could become extinct

within 25 years. It says the dugong population has been devastated by pollution,

coastal development, fishing nets and trophy hunting in recent years, leaving an

estimated 1,000 to 2,000 worldwide. Only a few hundred are believed to live in

South-East Asia.

Rarely seen, the animal which lives in coastal areas in the tropics and

subtropics, grazes on seagrass and weighs up to about 150kg. Experts have called

for the creation of dugong sanctuaries and the reduction of pollutants that

destroy seagrass. & #8211; Reuters<p>

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October 15, 2002