World’s largest fishery angles for sustainability

Lima, Peru: Peruvian anchovy fishers – who pull in 10 percent of the total fish catch in the world – for the first time will be independently monitored, ensuring the sustainability of stocks.

Peruvian anchovy (Engraulis ringens) is a major Peruvian export, reaching more than U.S. $ 1.7 billion in 2008, equivalent to 70 percent of national fish exports for the entire country. Although the government in past years had gradually improved the management of anchovy stocks by creating standards and quotas, this new monitoring system will greatly bolster those efforts.

The Peruvian government earlier this month signed an agreement which formalized the establishment of the first Peruvian Observatory to regulate its fishing industry, run by universities Cayetano Heredia and del Pacifico, The Nature Conservancy (TNC), WWF and the Instituto del Mar Peruano (IMARPE). This observatory aims to implement a monitoring system that will strengthen and complement the technical capabilities of the government to ensure sustainable management anchovy stocks.

“I’m sure that with this development we’ll have the world’s best fishery and not just the largest," said the Minister of Production of Peru, Dr. Mercedes Araoz.

By providing free access to fisheries data for the scientific community and, the general public, the new Observatory will better allow for the implementation and enforcement of the “maximum established catch per boat” set previously by the government. Furthermore, it will help to assess the potential impacts of industrial fisheries and recommend best practices and strengthen the sector to improve fisheries management, ensuring the resilience of the anchovy population and the sustainability of the marine ecosystem of Peru.

"This puts Peru at the forefront of the world’s fisheries because it not only shares the information of the largest fishery on the planet, but it takes an important step towards sustainability and possible certification, and even generates inputs for the conservation of Humboldt’s marine ecosystem facing climate change", said Michael Valqui, Director of WWF Peru's Marine Program.

In addition to driving this initiative with the del Pacifico and Cayetano Heredia local universities and TNC, WWF Peru is currently contributing to the design and implementation of the operating system of the Observatory which will eventually work as an online platform with accurate technical information on the implementation of quotas, seasons and other aspects relevant to this activity. Also, the group will work in coordination with IMARPE to ensure maximum benefit from this system that, since it addresses the issue of transparency in the fishing industry, constitutes a necessary step on the path towards an eventual certification of Peruvian anchovy fishery by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC).

Danish Fishers Set Anchor on Certification

Taulov, Denmark: Danish fishers in a landmark decision today announced they planned to adhere to the internationally-recognized marine stewardship standards -- putting a stop to years of overfishing and bycatch.

The Danish Fishermen's Association declared that all fish from Danish fisheries will be certified according to standards set by the Marine Stewardship Council by 2012.
"The Danish fishermen are now taking a huge step towards securing that Danish fisheries in the future will be sustainable,” says Espen Tind Nordberg, program manager for sustainable consumption at WWF Denmark. “This is an announcement we have been demanding for years.”

“Now the fishermen deserve true recognition and support to implement their ambitious plan.”
Only 52 fisheries are certified according to MSC's standards. Three of these fisheries are Danish. With the objective announced today, the Danish Fishermen’s Association aim to certify more than 30 fisheries, which on a global scale is a positive development.

Three of the most important fisheries in Demark – plaice, eastern Baltic Sea cod and Saithe -- are ready to enter full assessment. Meanwhile, the pre-assessment process is being undertaken for the remaining fisheries.

For several years, WWF has been promoting the MSC programme as the most environmentally friendly choice in producing seafood and now both consumers and large retailers are increasingly starting to demand MSC certified fish.

"The European and North American markets are experiencing a trend where the MSC certification is becoming a market requirement” said Nordberg. “The fact that Danish fishermen are now stepping up to the challenge is good news for fishstocks and marine ecosystems - and may also help to boost Danish export of fish and jobs in the processing sector.”.

However, the ambitious decision from the Danish fishing industry cannot stand alone. To truly document sustainability of such a large number of fisheries requires political support.
"MSC is the most ambitious and trustworthy certification scheme which is currently available, partly because it creates incentives for the fishermen to constantly raise the performance bar,” Nordberg said. “But the objective announced today will never materialize if the responsible ministers keep deciding unsustainable quotas”.

The MSC is the world's leading certification and ecolabelling program for sustainable seafood, according to its website.

Showdown looms for tuna in Brussels

Brussels, Belgium / Rome, Italy - - European Union member states and the European Commission will decide in the next week whether to support bluefin tuna conservation – or to encourage the continued wilful overexploitation of an endangered marine resource.

Today, the European Commission’s Directorate General for Fisheries and Maritime Affairs, DG MARE, will consider DG Environment’s support for a listing of the severely overfished Atlantic and Mediterranean bluefin tuna on Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) to temporarily ban all international trade – the same day that EU member states are asked to give their own feedback on the proposal.

“It would be scandalous if the European Commission were to allow the region’s most emblematic marine species associated with a thousand-year-old fishing tradition to go extinct on its watch,” said Tony Long, Director of WWF’s European Policy Office in Brussels. “This would be a shameful legacy for the Barroso Commission. They must back the proposal to temporarily ban international trade.”

Following an initial proposal tabled in July by the Principality of Monaco, several EU countries – France, UK, Netherlands, Germany, Austria – quickly expressed support to list Atlantic bluefin tuna on CITES Appendix I, which would give the overexploited species a chance of recovery.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy was first to express his country’s support for an international trade ban through CITES, saying: “It is against this great responsibility that we will be judged by our children and the generations to come.”

In addition, the European Commission’s Directorate General for the Environment has since recommended in a draft report – excerpted in a recent Financial Times story – that “from a scientific and technical point of view, the criteria for the listing of Atlantic bluefin tuna appear to be met. (...) There is no doubt about the link between international trade and overexploitation of the species.”

If the EU Commission and member states cannot reach consensus today, the decision risks instead running to a showdown of all 27 European Commissioners, as early as next Wednesday.

“It would be extraordinary if DG MARE, the very department tasked with protecting this iconic species, sought to block a CITES listing to ban trade in this endangered animal,” said Tony Long. “How could any of us have faith that the Commission is serious in wanting to end the catastrophic policy failures in the existing Common Fisheries Policy?”

Listing Atlantic bluefin tuna on CITES Appendix I would be a real chance for the species to recover from decades of massive overfishing and overexploitation, plagued by illegal takes and disregard for scientific advice.

Once bluefin tuna shows signs of recovery, WWF hopes to see a sustainably managed, thriving fishery in the EU and around the Mediterranean again in the years to come.

WWF Australia: Oil Spill a potential disaster for marine life

WWF warned today that an oil spill off Australia’s North West coast may take a heavy toll on the region’s globally significant wildlife.

“This is a potential disaster for turtles, whales, dolphins, sea birds and sea snakes,” said Dr Gilly Llewellyn, WWF-Australia’s Conservation Manager.

“The oil and gas spill is still not under control and is expected to continue leaking for two months. Depending on winds, the slick could be pushed to atolls like Scott and Ashmore Reef – areas that are globally significant for their unique wildlife.”

Marine species such as green and loggerhead turtles are at serious risk from the pollution.

“Turtle hatchlings spend a huge amount of time on the surface of the water. Unfortunately, this means that recent hatchlings from the beaches and islands of North West Australia could be swimming into the slick,” said Dr Llewellyn.

The spill occurred at the edge of Australia’s continental shelf, an ocean highway used by loggerhead turtles, dolphins and endangered species such as the pygmy blue whale.

WWF warned that increasing the number of offshore oil and gas ventures in the region is significantly increasing the risk to marine life.

“The more industrial activity, the higher the risk – it is a simple equation,” said Dr Llewellyn.

“We urgently need to consider both short and long term ways of preventing and containing spills like this one, as well as reducing the footprint of industrial development on creatures like marine turtles.”

As the Federal Government prepares to release its environmental assessment of the proposed Gorgon liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant on Barrow Island, a Class A nature reserve and important rookery for flatback turtles, WWF is calling on all parties to consider safer alternative locations for the massive project.

“We strongly urge the Government and oil companies involved to move the proposed LNG plant to the mainland to reduce the risk of harm to our marine wildlife,” said Dr Llewellyn.

WWF has suggested Ashburton North, on the Western Australian coast may be more suitable for gas processing.

Chevron, one of three companies involved in the Gorgon project (along with Exxon Mobil and Shell) has already filed applications to develop another LNG project in the vicinity. By building infrastructure on the mainland, both the environmental and economic costs of such projects could be reduced.

“The environmental challenges on the mainland are by no means trivial, but they are vastly more manageable than at Barrow. This decision needs to be made urgently and should be the highest priority for the Government,” said Dr Llewellyn.

The location of oil and gas infrastructure would not be enough to ensure the safety of some of the world’s most diverse marine ecosystems.

“To seriously address the long term health and survival of marine species we need to build a network of large marine sanctuaries for Australia’s north west which can act as a safety net, giving animals safe passage through the oceans.”

Stockholm sends a message to Copenhagen on water

Stockholm, Sweden: Negotiators working towards a global agreement on climate change in Copenhagen in December are to be told that “water is a key medium through which climate change impacts will be felt” and that “a strong and fair agreement on future global commitments on climate change measures—both mitigation and adaptation—is crucial in order to secure future water resource availability”.

WWF, which played a key role in the discussions leading to the Stockholm Statement as a key outcome of World Water Week, strongly endorsed the message which was greeted with a unanimous show of hands by delegates when presented by convenor the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI).

The statement identifies integrating land, water and forest management as the key to successful climate change adaptation and said that “ecosystem protection and sustainability is fundamental to adaptation and human development”.

Presenting the results of the discussions, WWF head of Freshwater Adaptation Dr John Matthews said that “water is not simply a sector, it is what we are made of”.

“Decisions about water infrastructure and management that we will live with for decades are being made now, all too often under policies and by institutions that were built on an assumption of a stable climate and have yet to adapt themselves,” Dr Matthews said.

“Adaptation measures now going forward in the negotiations are dangerously disconnected from what we are learning about successful climate adaptation and building climate resilience in the field.”

“This Stockholm Statement is important in linking the need for effective mitigation measures through which we can minimise the extent of climate change and core adaptation priorities that can minimise the impacts of climate.”

Dr Matthews said most elements of good adaptation practice were already known but more effort needed to be devoted to the assessment of regional, economic and social vulnerability to climate change impacts, and managing risk for extreme events. There was a need also to reduce the uncertainty in climate projections.

WWF celebrates saving of Himalayan forest and not so Common Leopard

Lahore, Pakistan: An initiative by Pakistan’s Supreme Court and a media and legal campaign has ended a proposed large tourism development in one of the best remaining representative areas of Himalayan forest in the Punjab.

Pakistan’s Supreme Court this month not only formalised the new government’s recent dissolution of the New Murree Development Project (NMDP), but ruled out any similar projects for the area in future.

“We are very happy with this outcome and want to thank the other groups that fought it with us and the judges who took the initiative to have it examined,” said Hammad Naqi Khan, WWF-Pakistan director for freshwater, climate and toxics.

“This project has been a threat to this relatively pristine area which has been a reserve for more than a century and to the water reservoirs supplying Islamabad and Rawalpindi since 2004.”

The new Punjab government dissolved the New Murree Development Authority in June, following Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry used his authority in September 2005 to halt the project pending a judicial review of the proposal to turn the 1,663 hectare Patriata Reserved Forest near Murree in Rawalpindi District into a ‘tourist city of international standards’..

WWF became a party to the case and, with other local individuals launched a well-supported media and public campaign against the government-backed proposal and the authority formed to carry out the development.

The envisioned the construction of hotels, restaurants, golf courses, shopping centres etc. right in the middle of a healthy reserve forest which is important habitat for the (now very uncommon in the area) Common Leopard as well as 14 other mammal species, 200 plant species, 146 bird species including rare pheasants and the Paradise Flycatcher, .22 reptiles and six amphibians.

“Most significantly however, this area was a key part of one of the best remaining Himalayan temperate forest areas in Punjab” said Khan. “The forest guaranteed better quality water with lower levels of sediments and pollutants for Simlay and Mangla reservoirs.

“The environmental and economic significance of the forests for a country like Pakistan with a looming water crisis and an agriculture intensive developing economy far outweighed the benefits of what started out as mostly real estate speculation.

“We are also encouraged that the court and ultimately government looked sensitively and sensibly at the issues.”

Wealthy world at risk from water woes elsewhere

Stockholm, Sweden: A study of the water footprint of Germany emphasises how the developed world needs to care for developing world river basins supplying vast quantities of “virtual water” embedded in imported products and commodities, WWF told World Water Week delegates today.

While German households use 124 litres of water a day directly, individual Germans use 5288 litres of water a day when the water requirements of producing their food, clothes and other consumption items are included.

The report calculated Germany’s water footprint at 159.5 cubic kilometres of water annually, with only half coming from German rain and rivers.

The water embedded in coffee, soy and beef imports makes Brazil Germany’s largest water trading partner, followed by the Ivory Coast (cocoa, coffee, bananas and cotton), neighbours France and the Netherlands, the US and Indonesia (oilseeds, coffee, coconuts, cotton and cocoa).

Other countries carrying a significant water footprint from Germany include Ghana, India, Argentina and Nigeria and the increasingly drier Mediterranean lands of Spain, Italy and Turkey.

“Germany is a relatively water rich country but its reliance on water sourced from some of the drier areas of the world still makes it very vulnerable to the degradation of river catchments and groundwater supplies and water related impacts of climate change elsewhere,” said Martin Geiger, Head of Freshwater at WWF-Germany.

“National water footprints are underlining just how dependant the developed world is on water from areas where water management is relatively poor,” said Dr Stuart Orr, WWF International water policy officer.

“It therefore pays for wealthy nations to support the protection and better management of the river basins and aquifers of the developing world.”

Germany is to be commended for having already taken one of the most significant steps to caring for the sources of its water in being the only G8 nation to sign up to an international treaty designed to reduce conflict and promote appropriate water management on waters forming or crossing borders.

However, more than a decade since an overwhelming great majority of the world’s nations approved the UN Watercourses Convention, it still lacks enough signatories to come into effect although three quarters of the world’s countries share waters and 40 per cent of world population are in border catchments.

“Other major economies would do well to follow Germany’s example in signing up to the UN Watercourses Convention to provide a global framework for minimising the risks of disruption to the water supplies they depend on,” said Flavia Loures, who leads a WWF-initiated global campaign to have the convention brought into effect by 2011.

BONN CLIMATE MEETING: MISSED OPPORTUNITY, ALL EYES ON UNGA, G20 and Bangkok

Bonn, Germany –Delegates in Bonn missed an opportunity to speed up progress of climate negotiations ahead of a series of high-level political meetings next month, WWF said.

Negotiators who gathered in Germany for another round of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) talks concluding today made some steps forward, but they didn’t reach the speed needed to achieve a strong climate agreement in Copenhagen at the end of this year.

A key stumbling block was still the level and the source of financial support for poor countries. The growing number of countries supporting the idea of Copenhagen delivering a legally binding outcome was a positive sign.

The attention now shifts to September when a series of crucial political meetings takes place: the United Nations General Assembly, the Major Economies Forum, and the G20, all dealing with climate change.

“We would have liked the Parties of the UNFCCC to use the opportunity and take initiative. But delegates spent too much time arguing over procedures and technicalities. This is not the way overcome mistrust between rich and poor nations,” said Kim Carstensen, the head of WWF Global Climate Initiative.

“Delegates are kept back by political gridlock. The political leaders must now unblock the process.”

The recent commitments during the G8 and MEF meetings on 2°C were reflected in the climate talks in Bonn, but they were not enough to set the negotiations on a pathway to success. ”
“If the meetings of the General Assembly, the Major Economies Forum and the G20 in September are successful in building the political momentum needed, the UN negotiations can progress much faster at the next meeting in October in Bangkok.”

WWF would like the G20 meeting in late September to make a commitment to 3-4 viable means of mobilizing resources at the scale of $160 billion per year, in order to set the stage for success in Copenhagen.

“Without commitments on funding, it is impossible to design a solid climate agreement. It is like asking a manager to run a company without telling him what his budget is.”

BAN CALLS ON WORLD’S CITIZENS TO JOIN UN IN SENDING A MESSAGE ON CLIMATE CHANGE

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has urged people everywhere to join the United Nations and millions of citizens around the world in sending a message to government leaders to protect the planet by switching off their lights for an hour tomorrow night.

The UN will flip off the light switch at 8:30pm at its landmark Headquarters in New York to observe "Earth Hour" on 28 March to raise awareness of climate change and mobilize nations to reach agreement on a for a new agreement later this year in Copenhagen on a successor pact to the Kyoto Protocol, whose first commitment period ends in 2012.

"It promises to be the largest demonstration of public concern about climate change ever attempted," Mr. Ban said in a message marking the event.

By marking Earth Hour, people will send a message to their representatives to "seal a deal in Copenhagen" and reach a deal that will protect people and the planet," he noted. "We need an ambitious agreement. An agreement that is fair and effective. An agreement based on sound science."

The symbolic gesture will be observed by more than 1,000 cities and close to an estimated one billion people, who will turn off their non-essential lights for one hour starting at 8:30pm local time on Saturday.

This year, Earth Hour, which was launched two years ago in Australia by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), falls the day before 2009's first round of UN negotiations on new climate change agreement in Bonn, Germany. The talks, which are slated to wrap up on 8 April, will be the first of three sessions leading up to the Copenhagen talks in December.

"Let us use this unique opportunity to protect people and the planet. The United Nations is committed to this vision, but we need your support," stressed Mr. Ban. "Together, we can make a difference."
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