Posted on 17 June 2013
| PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA – The international
body that oversees World Heritage Sites
today requested the cancelation of oil exploration
permits in Virunga National Park, some of
which are currently held by international
petroleum conglomerates, including UK-based
Soco International PLC and French oil giant
Total SA.
Located in eastern Democratic
Republic of the Congo (DRC), Virunga is
Africa’s oldest national park and one of
the continent’s first World Heritage Sites.
It was inscribed in 1979 in recognition
of its extraordinary landscapes, and because
it is home to more species than any other
place in the continent.
The World Heritage Committee,
a rotating group of countries that manages
the UNESCO World Heritage List, said it
is deeply concerned that Virunga could be
degazetted or that laws could be changed
so that oil concessions covering 85 per
cent of the park’s territory could be exploited.
Conservation organizations
warn that oil exploration could cause the
site to lose its World Heritage status and
would put in peril local livelihoods and
rare species. Total SA last month pledged
to stay out of the park’s current boundaries,
but remains active just outside its borders.
Soco International PLC has not made a commitment
to respect the integrity of the park.
“Virunga National Park
is one of the last places on Earth you should
go looking for oil,” said René Ngongo,
mining and extractives policy advisor at
WWF-DRC. “The park is of global conservation
importance and is vital for the livelihoods
of many people living around it. We are
urging alternative development models that
are sustainable for the long term -- development
that provides real benefits to local communities
and does not put endangered species at risk.”
The World Heritage Committee
also turned its attention to the responsibilities
member countries have as parties to the
Convention Concerning the Protection of
the World Cultural and Natural Heritage.
Governments were urged in a decision “to
do their utmost to ensure that the mining
or petroleum companies established on their
territories do not damage World Heritage
properties.”
During debate over potential
oil exploration in Virunga, the one committee
member stressed the particular responsibility
of corporations based in countries that
are signatories to the World Heritage Convention.
“World Heritage Sites have been recognized
for their outstanding universal value. We
are monitoring closely the situation in
African World Heritage Sites, including
Virunga, and reiterated today that oil exploration
is incompatible with the spirit of the convention,”
the committee member from Estonia said.
““The World Heritage
Committee has made it clear today that these
precious places are no-go areas for damaging
extractive activities,” said Christof Schenck,
Chief Executive Officer of Frankfurt Zoological
Society. “Oil exploration could destroy
Virunga forever and must not go forward.”
+ More
Mexico approves measure
to save world's rarest marine mammal
Posted on 07 June 2013
| The government of Mexico has taken a decisive
step to save the vaquita - a porpoise threatened
by extinction - and to promote sustainable
fisheries in the upper Gulf of California
for the benefit of fishers and their families,
says WWF-Mexico.
The new regulation,
called an official norm, comes after over
38,000 people from 127 countries signed
WWF's petition to Mexico President Enrique
Peña Nieto requesting measures to
save the vaquita and allow fishers to continue
to earn a living through sustainable fishing.
“With this norm, drift
gillnets - one of the nets used in artisanal
shrimping operations in which vaquitas die
incidentally - will be gradually substituted,
during a three year period, for selective
fishing gears that does not kill this porpoise,
but that allow fishers to keep earning their
livelihoods. The effective application of
the norm requires the participation and
commitment of local fishermen. The optimal
use of the net requires the development
of particular skills; therefore, the support
of the government and other organizations
through training and temporary compensation
programs will be essential along the fisher´s
learning curve,” said Omar Vidal, WWF-Mexico’s
Director General.
“It represents a major
opportunity to promote sustainable fisheries
in the region and to protect this Mexican
porpoise. WWF acknowledges the commitment
of the Mexican government to save the vaquita
from extinction”, added Vidal.
Of all cetaceans (whales,
dolphins and porpoises), the vaquita (Phocoena
sinus) is the only one endemic to Mexico,
has the most restricted distribution (it
only lives in the upper Gulf of California),
is the smallest (reaches a maximum length
of 1.5 meters) and faces the highest risk
of extinction.
It is estimated that
less than 200 vaquitas currently survive.
Its main threat is incidental entanglement
and drowning in drift gillnets used to catch
shrimp, sharks, rays and other fish. Vaquitas
also continues to die trapped in gillnets
used in the illegal fishing of totoaba,
a fish which is also endangered.
The new regulation establishes
shrimping standards in Mexico and defines
the fishing gears permitted in different
zones of the country.
