Monthly Archives: October 2010

Biodiversity talks: Ministers in Nagoya adopt new strategy

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Jonathan Watts in Nagoya for The Guardian

Chair of the UN biodiversity talks gavelled into effect a set of targets for 2020 to at least halve the loss of natural habitats

Environment ministers from almost 200 nations agreed late tonight (29th October) to adopt a new United Nations strategy that aims to stem the worst loss of life on earth since the demise of the dinosaurs.

With a typhoon looming outside and cheering inside the Nagoya conference hall, the Japanese chair of the UN biodiversity talks gavelled into effect the Aichi Targets, set to at least halve the loss of natural habitats and expand nature reserves to 17% of the world’s land area by 2020 up from less than 10% today.

Fish and other aquatic life should be provided with greater refuge, under the Aichi Targets — as the plan is named, after the region around Nagoya — which including a widening of marine protected zones to 10 per cent of the world’s seas, an increase from barely 1 per cent today.

Frantic late-night negotiations also saw the UN’s COP10 biodiversity conference adopt a new treaty, the Nagoya Protocol, to manage the world’s genetic resources and share the multibillion-dollar benefits with developing nations and indigenous communities.

Despite concerns that targets are inadequately funded and not sufficiently ambitious to reverse the decline of habitats and species, most organisers, delegates and NGOs expressed there was relief that negotiations had avoided the friction and fracture of last year’s climate talks in Copenhagen. “This is a day to celebrate in terms of a new and innovative response to the alarming loss of biodiversity and ecosystems,” said Achim Steiner, executive director of the UN Environment Programme.

“It is an important moment for the United Nations and the ability of countries to put aside the narrow differences that all too often divide in favour of the broader, shared issues that can united peoples and nations.”

Under the Aichi Targets, all signatories to the UN Convention on Biodiversity, are supposed to draw up national biodiversity plans. Together, their voluntary actions are supposed to halt over-fishing, control invasive species, reduce pollution minimise the pressure on coral reefs from ocean acidification, and halt the loss of genetic diversity in agricultural ecosystems.

Perhaps the most remarkable breakthrough, was the adoption of the Nagoya Protocol which lays down ground rules on how nations should cooperate in accessing and sharing the benefits of genetic resources — including plants, fungi and pathogens.

Governments have been discussing this subject for 18 years, but it has been held up until now because it ran across issues of trade, health, traditional medicine and science and pitted multinational pharmaceutical companies against indigenous communities.

The Nagoya Protocol, will see governments considering ways to provide recompense for genetic material and traditional medical knowledge collected in the past that is now being used, patented and sold. This is likely to be done through a special fund for developing nations that could be used for conservation or scientific research centres.

The protocol will come into effect in 2020 and needs to be ratified by signatory nations. Several delegates, including those from Cuba, Bolivia and Venezuela, expressed unease that the protocol inadequately safeguarded the benefits due to developing nations, but said they would not stand in the way of a consensus.

Another area of frustration was financing. The conference did not specify how much money would be provided to achieve its goals to save habitats and species. Instead governments agreed to draw up a funding plan, with sums, baselines and other details, by 2012.

The host country, Japan, has pledged $2bn this week for biodiversity while the UK and France have earmarked smaller sums for related projects. However, most developed countries were unable to pledge major funding. Conservation groups said it was vital that significant extra finance was put in place to halt the demise of nature.

“We were disappointed that most rich countries came to Nagoya with empty pockets — unable or unwilling to provide the resources that will make it possible for the developing world to implement their ambitious targets.” said Jim Leape, director general of WWF International.

But Leape welcomed the overall deal. “This agreement reaffirms the fundamental need to conserve nature as the very foundation of our economy and our society. Governments have sent a strong message that protecting the health of the planet has a place in international politics and countries are ready to join forces to save life on Earth.”

Other groups emphasized that implementation was the key. “Participants may be leaving Nagoya this Friday but they still need to be working to save life on this planet from Monday morning,” said IUCN’s Director of Conservation Policy, Jane Smart. “There is a momentum here which we cannot afford to lose — in fact we have to build on it if we stand any chance of success in halting the extinction crisis.” In earlier reports the IUCN noted that a fifth of the world’s vertebrates are under threat and the die-off of all species is at a level not seen in 65 million years.

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The Shrinking Aral Sea Recovers

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Earth Observatory

The size of the Aral Sea has long hinged on the Amu Darya, which flows from the high Pamir Mountains in central Asia, across the desert, and into the southern sea. While two rivers empty into the lake—the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya—the Amu Darya is the largest and most fickle source of water. At times in ancient history, the river has bent its course to empty into the Caspian Sea, and the abandoned Aral Sea shrank. The Aral Sea has been at its largest when the Amu Darya feeds it.

The Aral Sea

Modern trends are no exception: when water began to be diverted from the Amu Darya for vast agricultural projects starting in 1960, the Aral Sea began to shrink. This image, taken on August 26, 2010, by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite, demonstrates the close connection between the Aral Sea and the Amu Darya River. It is the most recent image in a ten-year sequence published on the Earth Observatory’s World of Change: Shrinking Aral Sea.

Between 2000 and 2009, the Aral Sea steadily shrank. In 2006, severe drought settled in over Amu Darya Basin. Very little water reached the Aral Sea in 2007, and nothing flowed from the Amu Darya to the Aral Sea in 2008 and 2009, says Philip Micklin, a geographer from Western Michigan University who has been monitoring the Aral Sea for many years. Without water from the Amu Darya, the southern Aral Sea rapidly dwindled, the eastern lobe all but disappearing in 2009.

In 2010, however, the drought broke. Snow in the Pamir Mountains was normal, and enough water flowed into the Amu Darya that the river reached the Aral Sea. The muddy pulse of water settled in a shallow layer over the bed of the eastern lobe of the South Aral Sea, making it look much larger that it had in 2009.

Before 1960, the Aral Sea was the fourth largest lake in the world. However, much of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya have been diverted for agriculture, limiting the flow of water into the sea. Since 1960, the Aral Sea has lost 88 percent of its surface area and 92 percent of its water volume, says Micklin.

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Stark warning three months into Pakistan flood crisis

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By Nasir Jaffry for AFP

ISLAMABAD — International aid agency Oxfam warned Friday that three months into Pakistan’s unprecedented flood crisis funds were drying up, putting millions at risk with swathes of farmland still under water.

The stark warning came as the United Nations refugee agency said thousands of people displaced by the floods were likely to spend the winter in camps.

The UN issued a record two-billion-dollar appeal for funds to cope with Pakistan’s worst humanitarian disaster, which ravaged an area roughly the size of England and affected 21 million people.

The World Bank and Asian Development Bank have estimated the damages at 9.7 billion dollars — almost twice those of Pakistan’s 2005 earthquake which killed more than 73,000 people.

“Funds for the UN flood appeal are drying up and threatening the aid and reconstruction effort,” Oxfam said in a statement marking the third month since heavy monsoon rains began falling in northwestern Pakistan.

“The crisis is far from over,” said Oxfam’s director in Pakistan, Neva Khan.

The United Nations issued the funding appeal on September 17 in New York. Officials say around 35 percent of the appeal has been funded.
“Cases of disease are increasing and large areas remain under water in southern Sindh province,” said Oxfam. “As winter approaches, seven million people are still without adequate shelter.”

UN officials say 10 million people are in need of immediate food assistance and health authorities have reported scores of confirmed cases of cholera.

“The funding shortfall is so serious that existing regular food rations to 3.5 million people could be in jeopardy,” Oxfam said.

Tens of thousands of families, who had sheltered in schools and other buildings, are being newly displaced as schools reopen. Officials warn that some of the worst-affected areas could take up to six months to dry out.

The United Nations joined forces in urging donors to come forward, particularly for victims in the south, part of the country’s breadbasket.
Spokeswoman Stacey Winston said the United Nations and its partner agencies were doing everything possible to help the victims but warned: “It is simply not enough. We need to have more money.”

“The emergency still continues in Sindh and people are surrounded by water,” Winston said, adding that malnutrition, food security, health conditions and shelter are major concerns.

She said many areas in Sindh were surrounded by floodwaters, which she warned may not subside for another three months. “It is a very major concern to us.”

The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation said this week it had begun distribution of wheat seed to half a million farming families affected by the floods in order to allow the current planting season to commence.

Pakistan’s agriculture sector, which contributes 21 percent to gross domestic product and employs about 45 percent of the labour force, has suffered massive losses that are expected to last several years.

The UN refugee agency said thousands of people were likely to be stuck in camps for months to come.

Adrian Edwards, a spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) told reporters in Geneva: “Three months after floods hit Pakistan, UNHCR believes tens and possibly hundreds of thousands of people will have to remain in camps throughout the winter.”

“Those hardest hit by the flooding — people affected by extreme poverty, loss of livelihoods and other vulnerabilities — may need camp accommodation even longer,” he added.

The World Health Organisation said that 141 cases of cholera, which can be carried by contaminated water, have been confirmed in the flood-hit areas.

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Despair of Pakistan’s forgotten flood victims

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By Orla Guerin in Sindh Province for The BBC

Liaqat Babar, a farmer in Pakistan’s southern province of Sindh, sees just one escape from the hunger, loss and torment inflicted by the recent catastrophic floods. Suicide.

“When I see my kids, I feel like killing myself,” he says.

“We are powerless. We just keep quiet and ask God for death.”

Three months after the flooding which affected 20 million people and one fifth of the country, Liaqat has no home, no hope and no answers for his six children.

“They are crying for food, ” he says.

“I tell them God will send someone very kind, and I send them to sleep. In the morning they ask again for food, and I say again that God will send someone.”

Queuing in vain

Liaqat was among a throng of broken men queuing for hours under a blistering sun, at a distribution of aid in the town of Daur.

Like many other areas in Sindh, Daur is cut off by water - an island of desperation.

Troops were deployed to control the hungry, who began gathering at six in the morning.

With a single helicopter the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) could only bring in 250-300 rations. But three or four times that number had joined the queue.

“It is heartbreaking,” said WFP’s Dorte Jessen, looking across at the swelling crowd.

“The need is so big, and you want to help everyone.”

But they could not all be helped that day. Liaqat was among those who was left empty-handed.

Soon there could be even less to go round. The WFP says it will have to cut rations - by half - in November because of a lack of donations. The UN’s $2bn (£1.26) appeal for Pakistan is less than 40% funded.

Dying from hunger

There is already the spectre of malnutrition. It is always a problem in Sindh province and now it is rising dangerously, according to Dorte Jessen.

“In the camps we have been tracking, the malnutrition rate is shockingly high,” she says.

“The rates were high before. Now they are alarmingly high.”

In a hospital in the city of Sukkur the BBC found some of hunger’s young victims. The grimy airless pediatric ward was overcrowded.

Some of the seriously-ill children were two to a bed, among them a six-month-old boy called Ali Nawaz.

He was motionless and skeletal - his body shrunken by starvation. Ali Nawaz was also suffering from pneumonia - contracted from sleeping under an open sky.

His grandmother Mai Sehat was keeping a vigil by his side.

“We had no transport to take him anywhere,” she said, through her tears.

“We are absolutely helpless due to poverty. We are in agony now, because of Ali Nawaz. I can’t bear to look at him in this condition.”

As she spoke she stroked his tiny frame, calling out to God again and again to give long life to her only grandchild.

Casualty of chaos

Other flood victims have already buried their children. In a camp in the town of Shikarpur we found two grieving families.

Basra Qurban lost her 18-month-old daughter Aasia during a chaotic food distribution. The little girl was knocked from her mother’s arms and killed by her fall.

“Her back was broken on the spot,” Basra said.

“When she was born we thought we would give her a good education and a good environment. That child was the most dear one.”

Since the food distribution that killed her daughter two weeks ago, Basra has received no help.

“We are dying from hunger,” she said. “Our only hope is in God.”

Her neighbours in the camp say that when they protested about Aasia’s death, the authorities responded fast.

“We had a sit-down protest and blocked the road,” said Liaqat Hussain.

“People from the government came and beat us with sticks and told us to get back to the camp.”

Like many others we met in our return visit to Sindh province, they told us they had received no help from the government.

It has admitted to a slow start in responding to the crisis, but months later it is still struggling to cope.

It is a short walk from the camp to the spot where Nimani Bakhsh buried her twin girls, Hanifa and Sharifa, in the shade of a large tree.

They lived for just 12 days. Nimani says they died of hunger because she could not produce enough milk.

“Please come back, my children,” she said, weeping at the graveside.

“You have gone to the other world my children, but please come back. Oh God, please bring them back.”

New threats

Aasia, Hanifa and Sharifa are among the flood’s hidden victims - their passing almost unnoticed. The fear is that many more will be at risk in the months ahead.

Aid agencies say many promises of help have receded with the flood waters. They warn that funds are drying up, as new threats are emerging.

Some families and their livestock are living out in the open, marooned on embankments

Diseases are spreading, and winter is closing in on the 20 million flood victims - seven million of whom still do not have shelter.

We found some of them deep in the flood zone, in Dadu district. It took two hours to reach them, by boat. We travelled with the Pakistan army across farmland still buried beneath the water.

A young mother called Parveen was cradling her baby son Mohammed Hussain in her arms and wondering how he would survive the falling temperatures.

She and thousands of others are marooned on a network of embankments, hostage to the flood waters, and exposed to heat, cold and mosquitoes.

“We are worried about the winter,” she said. “We have no blankets and no warm clothes, and there is nothing to eat.”

After two months on the embankments they do not even have tents - failed by their leaders, and by the international community.

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U.N. wants water, biofuel balance

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UPI

Water used for the production of crops used for biofuels may create more problems than are solved, a U.N. environmental study found.

Achim Steiner, the executive director of the U.N. Environment Program, said in a statement that increasing the water use for biofuel production in areas where water is in short supply complicates efforts to move toward a green economy.

“There is no doubt that we need to decrease our reliance on fossil fuels and move to cleaner, more environmentally friendly options, but we need to make sure we are not creating more problems than we solve,” he said in a statement.

A report on bioenergy from UNEP found that 2 percent of the world’s water was used for irrigation of crops used in the production of biofuels.

The report warned that bioenergy development can alter land use and result in a reduction in water supplies for purposes such as drinking and conventional agricultural uses.

The UNEP director said the international community needed to strike a delicate balance between tackling climate change and making the most out of vital resources.

“Biofuel production has risks and opportunities,” Steiner said. “We need to examine all the risks, so that we can take full advantage of the opportunities, for emissions cuts, for new green jobs, and for raising the standards of living for some of the world’s poorest communities.

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