IUCN: 36% of the World’s Flora and Fauna Threatened with Extinction

The monitor lizard is under threat due to habitat loss and hunting by humans for food. All images: IUCN.

The latest update to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species is in and if you were expecting good news prepared to be disappointed. Of the more than 47,000 species surveyed, about 17,000 are at serious risk — of those 21% of the world’s mammal species, 12% of birds, 28% of reptiles, 30% of amphibians, 35% of invertebrates, 37% of freshwater fish and 70% of plants:

January sees the launch of the International Year of Biodiversity. The latest analysis of the IUCN Red List shows the 2010 target to reduce biodiversity loss will not be met. It’s time for governments to start getting serious about saving species and make sure it’s high on their agendas for next year, as we’re rapidly running out of time.

- Jane Smart, Director, IUCN Biodiversity Conservation Group

 

One species which has entered the ranks of the extinct in the wild is the Kihansi Spray Toad, pictured above. At one time it had a population about at least 17,000 at the Kihansi Falls in Tanzania. However a dam upstream of the falls reduced water flow downstream by 90%, reducing habitat. It is suspected that a fungal disease finally doomed these amphibians.

Of the plants on the list, the Queen of the Andes (above) remains classified as endangered. Found in the Andes mountains in Peru and Bolivia, it only produces seeds once every 80 years, and then dies. Climate change is already impairing its ability to flower, while cattle ranching is also having a negative impact in some areas.

Bush Administration Proposes 48 New Endangered Species in Hawaii

Photo credit: Getty Images

Trust us, we’re as surprised as you are: In a bold, uncharacteristic, and long-overdue move, the federal government announced a proposal on Tuesday to add 48 species, found only on the island of Kaui in Hawaii, to the endangered species list. With 329 imperiled plants, animals, and insects, Hawaii has more endangered species than any other state.

Protecting these species would involve a “holistic approach,” according to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, who, lest we forget, dug in his heels every step of the way before finally reluctantly caving in to pressure to list the polar bear as threatened. If the 45 plants, two birds, and one insect are successfully added to the list, a process that involves a yearlong study, approximately 43 square miles would be designated as critical habitat for all 48 species. While this would depart from a 30-year-old practice of mapping out each species’ habitat individually, which does little to help the entire ecosystem, conservation groups remain wary.

“It is good news that the Fish and Wildlife Service has finally started to do their job, once again, of proposing protection under the Endangered Species Act for plants and animals on the brink of disappearing forever,” says Leda Huta, executive director of theEndangered Species Coalition (ESC). “Unfortunately, given this administration’s track record, we will have to go over the proposal with a fine-toothed comb to ensure that the protections are really being put into place.”

Although the ESC calls the action “an end to the drought,” it also points out that that administration has yet to act on the 23 other species it told Congress it would begin the listing process for this fiscal year.

“This Administration has the worst record of protection since the Endangered Species Act was created in 1973,” Huta says. “They have bent over backwards—and around ethics policies—to keep all but a handful of species unprotected and their record on providing adequate habitat for species to recover is even worse.”

The Center for Biological Diversity is equally skeptical. “While we welcome this action to protect these incredibly rare and imperiled species, in no way does it make up for the Administration’s abysmal track-record of listing and protecting endangered and threatened species,” says Mike Senatore, the Center’s Biodiversity Program director and senior counsel. “This action also does nothing for the hundreds of additional species that have languished for years awaiting protection under the Endangered Species Act. In fact, the proposal even falls short of the Interior Department’s announcement earlier this year that it would propose adding 71 species to the list of endangered and threatened species.”

At this point, though, we’ll take whatever we can get. ::Associated Press, ::Endangered Species Coalition, ::Center for Biological Diversity

More on the Endangered Species Act:
Bush Officials Launch Stealth Attack on U.S. Wildlife
AP Reports Proposal to Drastically Alter Endangered Species Act
Delaying Tactics Put U.S. Wildlife in Hot Water
Endangered Species List is Itself Endangered
America Celebrates Endangered Species Day
A Bush Administration Policy Adjustment

Source:

“Bush Administration Proposes 48 New Endangered Species in Hawaii”, treehugger.com, Travel & Nature, Jasmin Malik Chua, 1st Oct 2008

Singapore: Student Protest Earns Temporary Reprieve for Banyan

(Photo Credit: Mr. Hepe on flickr. Tree in photo not the particular one below-mentioned)

by Sheralyn Tay for Mediacorp News, Singapore

sheralyn@mediacorp.com.sg

THE old banyan tree has sheltered hundreds of students under its green
canopy for years.

So when student Dani Guy, 15, learned it was to be felled yesterday to
make way for a new building at the Tanglin Trust School, she was
“extremely” upset. Today understands that staff found out only on
Wednesday that the tree was to be cut down the following day. The students
were not informed.

Dani, a student for 12 years at the school, said: “The school has been on
the site (at Portsdown Road) for 30 years, and the tree had been there
long before then … it could be 100 years old. It’s been very significant
in the school’s history and there are a lot of memories associated with
it.”

She spoke yesterday to headmaster and CEO Steven Andrews before class
started, showing him old yearbook photos “to make sure he could appreciate
the history the tree has”.

By mid-morning, news of the tree’s fate had spread. “Some of us went down
to the tree (now surrounded by a fence due to upgrading works) … we just
stood and sat in front of the tree throughout morning break,” said Dani.
Their silent protest has brought only a brief reprieve: Plans have been
postponed just a week.

“One of the people from management said it was inevitable,” said Dani.

In a statement yesterday evening, the school said necessary expansion
meant “tough decisions” had to be made and all alternatives had been
examined. “The school is actively seeking expert advice on how to save
part of the tree with a view to relocating it on the campus,” it read.

The school, which has promised “compensatory planting”, is also
considering ways for students, staff and parents to “mark the rite of
passage” of the tree, recognised as “a symbol of Tanglin’s history”.

It is not enough to satisfy Dani: “I don’t think you can plant anything
that can make up for this tree. It was what they told us today to make up
for it; I think it was in response to our actions. But it does not excuse
the fact they did not tell us about the news beforehand.”

Here’s another article on the same issue:

Tanglin Trust school says tree needs to be cut for new building. Students protest: Tree part of our history. It may look like just an ordinary old tree to some.

by Veena Bharwani for the Electric New Paper on 5th July 2008

IT may look like just an ordinary old tree to some.

But to Tanglin Trust School student Danielle Guy, 15, the three-storey tall Ficus microcarpa (banyan) tree with its buttress roots, is a part of the school’s history.

So when she heard that it is being cut down, she along with more than 30 others and several staff members of the international school, stood in front of the tree yesterday at lunch time to stage a silent protest.

The tree, which has a 30m wide trunk, has been at the school’s Portsdown Road premises for more than 20 years.

It is located behind the school campus.

The school management told The New Paper that they had decided to fell the tree because the area around it is being used to extend part of the school building to accommodate more students.

Currently, the school has 2,250 students and is looking to increase its enrolment to 3,000 by 2012.

The management consulted NParks before deciding to fell the tree. It will be cut down in due course.

However, Danielle and the others felt that cutting down the tree is like chopping away part of the school’s history.

She said: ‘I’ve been in this school for 12 years, ever since I was 3 years old and the tree has been there.

‘When I was 7, I used to swing by the tree’s long vines and have even collected insects around it for science experiments.’

‘The tree is the school,’ she added.

Upon hearing from a staff member on Wednesday that the tree will be cut down, Danielle decided to gather evidence to try and save it.

‘I only heard about it at 6pm on Wednesday. I looked through 15 old school magazines to gather information on how important the tree is to the school.

‘I found a school prospectus that had the tree’s picture on its cover and as the background of its every page.’

Her father Graeme Guy, 55, a biochemist, added: ‘I asked her if she was prepared to do this alone and she said ‘yes’, as she felt very strongly about it.’

Armed with evidence and arguments, Danielle met the headmaster yesterday morning to present her case.

She said: ‘I told him that as one of the older students in the school, it was my responsibility to try and prevent it from happening as it was a big part of the school’s history.

‘As part of the school curriculum, we learn about environmental conservation and we feel that the management is sending mixed signals to us by deciding to cut down the tree.’

Danielle, however, didn’t succeed in her appeal. The headmaster told her that the tree has to go.

She said: ‘I came out of the office crying and I told my classmates about it. They said why not stand in front of the tree to show our support for it.’

Within two hours, the entire school was buzzing with the news of the tree’s fate.

Some students had even made a poster to rally support for the tree to stay, she said.

Danielle’s classmate, who declined to be named, said: ‘We wanted to express our feelings about the decision to cut the tree down.’

In a staff briefing yesterday, the CEO of Tanglin Trust School, Mr Steven Andrews, explained that the decision to remove the tree was not something that was taken lightly and was only considered after all possible alternatives had been examined.

In an e-mail response to The New Paper yesterday, a school spokesman explained that demand for places at the school has grown significantly over the past few years, with waiting lists for places across the board.

The latest expansion – a new five-storey building – is designed to enable all students who are currently studying in the schools’ junior level (7 to 11 years) to enter the senior school and continue their studies up through to the Sixth Form (16 to 18 years).

And in consultation with NParks, the management decided to remove the tree to make way for the expansion.

However, the spokesman added that the school is ‘actively seeking expert advice on how to save part of the tree with a view to relocating it on the campus’.

My Input:

A very sad story, with likely no happy ending. It is heart-warming that the students do care for their culture, heritage, history of their school, and for their memories. It seems there’s reason for hope in some of Singapore’s youths.

UN Conference fails life on Earth

Photo Credit:  Nick Lawes on flickr

Panthera pardus orientalis (A census in 2000 revealed that there were 22 – 27 amur leopards in total in the wild)

The United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) fails to address the urgency of biodiversity loss by 2010. Although 191 countries agreed in Bonn that the diversity of life on Earth is essential for human survival, and despite scientific proof that species are rapidly declining, they were unable to agree on many of the concrete steps forward that would have been necessary.

The global Partnership of BirdLife International today expressed its deep disappointment at the lack of progress, especially on financing biodiversity, protected areas and tackling the increasing threat to biodiversity from climate change.

“Despite good leadership shown from Germany, most other rich countries have failed to match their words with financial commitments” —Dr Mike Rands, Director and Chief Executive of BirdLife International

Dr Mike Rands, Director and Chief Executive of BirdLife International stressed “Despite good leadership shown from Germany, most other rich countries have failed to match their words with financial commitments. BirdLife urges governments to recognise the urgency and importance of biodiversity conservation, by immediately making money available to save life on Earth.”

At the conference an economic study was presented showing that if investments are made now, the costs will be far lower than if we delay.

Governments were also unable to agree on concrete steps to establish a global network of protected areas. Without a comprehensive network of protected areas it is highly unlikely that the global community will meet its 2010 commitments.

Climate change presents an unprecedented threat to humans and nature. At the same time, biodiversity plays a crucial role in enabling us to overcome the challenges of climate change. Despite this, with final conclusions pending, the Bonn conference risks failing to establish the urgently needed cooperation between the UN Convention on Biological Diversity and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. The conference also missed the opportunity to take immediate action to prevent damage to biodiversity from biofuels.

With only 18 months to go until 2010, BirdLife urges the global community to face reality, cooperate and take responsibility for future generations.

Source:

UN Conference Fails Life on Earth, BirdLife International, 30th May 2008

Links:

Don’t miss the previous article by Channel News Asia on what came out of the Convention for Biological Diversity

UN biodiversity conference ends with package to protect wildlife

UN biodiversity conference ends with package to protect wildlife

BONN, Germany – UN talks on Friday yielded a package of measures aimed at staving off what scientists fear is a mass extinction of Earth’s species and blocking irreparable damage to the ecosystems on which human life depends. 

After a 12-day conference, 191 nations attending the Convention on Biological Diversity agreed to set up the first-ever deep-sea nature preserve and expand reserves on land to an area that, if combined, would be nearly twice the size of Germany. 

In another first, a long-stymied effort to compensate developing nations for “genetic resources” extracted to make drugs and cosmetics also gained traction. 

German Environment minister Sigmar Gabriel hailed progress on this so-called access and benefits-sharing regime as a “real success.” 

Other measures passed included a de-facto ban on sowing oceans with chemicals, an experimental process championed by some nations — notably Australia — as a potential carbon-reducing solution to global warming. 

And the conference also took the first steps toward setting global standards for developing biofuels, a renewable energy that has been accused of accelerating deforestation and widening hunger as farmers swap food crops for fuel crops. 

Green groups were critical, though. They slammed the outcome as badly failing the UN Millennium Development Goal which sets 2010 as the deadline to “substantially reduce” biodiversity loss. 

The bloc of 77 developing countries and China approved the consensus package but issued a warning. 

A major reduction of biodiversity loss by 2010 “is unlikely at the current rates,” they said. “Let history not say about our age that we were rich in resources but poor in will.” 

They also called for benefit-sharing from genetic resources to be given legal teeth. This was an issue that divided the industrialised north and the developing south. 

Gabriel acknowledged that Bonn meeting “achieved less than we should have, given the dimension of the problems.” 

But, he argued, “achieving unanimity among 191 states is difficult.” 

The conference agreed on criteria for marine protected areas in the high seas and deep-sea habitats. 

On land, tens of millions of hectares (acres) are to be earmarked for nature preserves, under initiatives unveiled Indonesia, Malaysia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Bosnia. 

Another hotly contested issue — how to describe the link between climate change and biodiversity — ended with a vague statement which said efforts to reduce and adapt to global warming should avoid potentially negative impacts on biodiversity. 

Scientists say that species are becoming extinct at a dizzying rate — between 100 and 1,000 times the natural pace of extinction. 

One in four mammals, one bird in eight, one third of all amphibians and 70 percent of plants are under threat. 

The Biodiversity Convention is an offspring of the 1992 Earth Summit, but it has long played the frustrating role of junior partner to the Framework Convention on Climate Change, Rio’s other landmark treaty. 

The Bonn meeting was framed as an attempt to catapult Earth’s other environmental crisis to greater prominence. 

In attempt to show the dollar value of natural resources, development economist Pavan Sukhdev estimated that the lost benefits of biodiversity and ecosystems cost as much as 3.1 trillion dollars a year, or six percent of the planet’s gross national product. 

Another initiative at the conference was to set up an independent panel of scientists to deliver regular assessments on the state biodiversity, modelled on the lines of the Nobel-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). 

German Chancellor Angela Merkel pledged 500 million euros (785 million dollars) in funding for biodiversity work before 2013, and an equal amount annually thereafter. But other major economies are yet to follow suit. 

Source:

UN biodiversity conference ends with package to protect wildlife, Channel News Asia Online, 31st May 2008