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Conservation in transition
The IUCN Future of Sustainability project (2006-2008), which included a 460-person electronic discussion and subsequent debates, sets out the challenge of a transition to a peaceful, equitable, fulfilled human future. It concludes there are three essential steps: (1) decarbonise the world economy, achieving dramatic reductions in carbon use by increased technical efficiency, de-linking energy generation from carbon production, and de-linking energy use from economic growth; (2) commit the environmental movement to a path of justice and global equity; and (3) protect the biosphere.
Solutions include: (1) changing the way we think about growth and prosperity, to achieve more with less; (2) rejuvenating the global environmental movement to link communities and organisations working out practical solutions to sustainability challenges, and ways to live with more happiness and lower energy and material consumption; and (3) building an institutional architecture to bring about change, with collaborative and coherent action by political and business leaders, governments and an effective international environmental regime.
The report lists some particular challenges for the conservation movement: (1) integrating conservation with wider ecosystem health and human wellbeing – for rich and poor alike; (2) crafting conservation strategies that include people, with new kinds of protected area that link nature to human need; and (3) planning to integrate the evolution of biodiversity with changes in ecosystems. The outputs will inform the long-term direction of IUCN.
Source: Adams WM and Jeanrenaud SJ, 2008. Transition to Sustainability:
Towards a Humane and Diverse World. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland, 108 pp.
Breathing life into tired soils
An international Food & Agriculture technical workshop in July 2008 explored investment in sustainable crop
intensification, against a backdrop of rising grain and fuel prices. Workshop participants agreed that plough-based farming is ill-suited to respond to emerging problems in the food system. They called for a major investment to catalyse a widespread shift from tillage-based production systems to those based on minimal soil disturbance, organic residue retention, and crop rotations and combinations – Conservation Agriculture (CA). Such a shift will lead to savings in machinery and energy use and in carbon emissions, a rise in soil organic matter content and biotic activity, reduced erosion, increased crop water availability and thus resilience to drought, improved recharge of aquifers, and reduced impact of weather volatility associated with climate change. It will thus cut production costs, lead to more reliable harvests and reduce farmer risks.
The workshop identified strategic issues, goals and actions to support science and technology development, to underpin the scaling-up of CA, and to create supportive policies and incentives. Participants propose to establish a number of interconnected Communities of Practice that further CA objectives. Up to 2007 China had just 1000 km2 of CA land - 0.1% of its arable land – but uptake is now quite rapid.
Source: Food & Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2008,
Making the best of plantations
A three-year review was intended to help maximise benefits and minimise negative impacts of "intensively managed" planted forests (IMPFs), from economic, social and environmental perspectives.1 Plantation forests occupy 1.4 million km2 worldwide, increasing at 2% per year; by 2050 they will supply most of the world's wood. More than 250,000 km2 are IMPFs, for industrial wood production including timber (e.g. conifers), pulpwood (e.g. tropical acacias and eucalypts) and secondary wood production from crops for other uses (e.g. rubber, oil palm). The authors conclude that environmental benefits and costs are influenced by the degree of landscape modification, the pace of landscape changes, and the institutional and governance context. In landscapes subject to a long period of modification, such as parts of Guangxi, the focus of conservation is likely to be at the level of particular forest stands, with management activities focusing on protecting riparian zones, preventing soil erosion, and maintaining site productivity, with a contribution to landscape restoration. They argue that the need for a landscape approach, protecting areas of high conservation value, becomes progressively more important and urgent in landscapes with lower (or more recent) disturbance.
The review makes practical recommendations for governments, funding institutions, businesses and other agencies, urging that IMPF pursues models that share benefits and costs equitably. In one such recommended action, China is working on national adaptation of FAO's Voluntary Guidelines for Responsible Management of Planted Forests.2
Sources:
1 Kanowski P and Murray H, 2008. Intensively Managed Planted Forests:
Toward Best Practice. Summary and Recommendations from TFD's IMPF
Initiative, June 2005 – June 2008. The Forests Dialogue.
2 www.fao.org/docrep/009/j9256e/j9256E00.htm
Cao Vit Gibbon census reveals good news
A concerted survey in September 2007 of Cao Vit gibbons Nomascus nasutus on both sides of the Vietnam-Guangxi border, at Cao Bang and Bangliang (Jingxi County), found some 110 individuals in 18 groups, a much higher population total than previously thought. The survey, lasting 11 days in Vietnam and seven days in China, was led by Fauna and Flora International with the respective provincial Forestry Departments.
Sources: Insua-Cao P et al., 2008. Oryx 42: 481-482.
New Begonias from Guangxi
New species of Begonia (Begoniaceae) continue to be described from limestone regions of western Guangxi. Begonia aurantiflora is from Xinjing Zhen, Jingxi County.1 Begonia pengii is known only from Xishan, Bama County.2 Begonia arachnoidea is described from Encheng Nature Reserve, Encheng Township, Daxin County, while
B. subcoriacea is also from Daxin.3 The narrow distributions
of these species place them at high risk.
Source:
| 1 |
Peng CI, Liu Y and Ku SM, 2008. Begonia aurantiflora (Sect. Coelocentrum, Begoniaceae), a New Species from Limestone Areas in Guangxi, China. Botanical Studies 49(1): 83-92. |
| 2 |
Ku SM, Kono Y and Liu Y, 2008. Begonia pengii (Sect. Coelocentrum, Begoniaceae), a New Species from Limestone Areas in Guangxi, China. Botanical Studies 49(2): 167-175. |
| 3 |
Peng CI, Ku SM, Kono Y et al., 2008. Two New Species of Begonia (Sect. Coelocentrum, Begoniaceae) from Limestone Areas in Guangxi, China: B.arachnoidea and B. subcoriacea. Botanical Studies 49: 405-418. |
Giant Softshell breeding attempt:
initial failure
None of the 100 eggs laid by China's last captive Giant Softshell Turtles, Rafetus swinhoei, have survived to hatch. A number of the eggs had thin or cracked eggshells, suggesting a suboptimal diet in the animals kept for many years at Suzhou and Changsha Zoos, where their meat diet lacked the calcium they would naturally obtain from bones. The >80 year-old female is now being fed whole freshwater crayfish, whole fish and chicken parts with bones, along with calcium and vitamin supplements, in the hope of better luck in 2009.
Source: Turtle Survival Alliance, October 2008,
Chinese scientists struggle
to publish internationally
According to an editorial in the Biological Conservation journal1, acceptance rates of papers from China and India are dramatically lower (2% and 4% respectively) than those from English-speaking countries such as Canada (47%), Australia (34%), UK (31%) and USA (30%). The editors suggest scientists from the latter countries should help their colleagues from non-English speaking countries prepare their papers for publication.
Sources: 1 Primack RB and Marrs R, 2008. Bias in the review process. Biological
Conservation 141: 2919-2920.
Towards nature-friendly hotels
A guide has been produced for running hotels with minimal negative impacts on biodiversity.1 The guide, produced by International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and Accor Hotels, introduces principles for taking biodiversity action in a hotel, with steps for hotel restaurants, guest rooms, public spaces, souvenir shops, grounds and gardens and destinations. It also includes TRAFFIC guidelines for sustainable use of resources including tuna, salmon, molluscs, Asian seafoods, other fish, crustaceans, caviar, wood, medicinal and aromatic plants, live animals, wildlife-based souvenirs, horticultural plants and activities and excursions. It contains links to resources of regional help, such as WWF Hong Kong's guidance on South China seafoods.2,3 Much of the information is of use to other consumers and retailers.
Sources:
1 Biodiversity: My Hotel in Action. A Guide to Sustainable Use of Biological
Resources. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland, 128 pp.
2 http://wwf.org.hk/eng/conservation/seafood/C1.htm
3 http://www.wwf.org.hk/eng/conservation/wl_trade/reef_fish/online_guide/index.php
New bird checklist released
An updated list of world birds, including English common names and scientific names, has been published for the International Ornithological Congress.1 The website also contains links to some other authorities on nomenclature.
Sources: 1 http://www.worldbirdnames.org/index.html
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