Posted on 03 February
2014 | The United Nations agency in charge
of World Heritage Sites today announced
that it had received written confirmation
from Total SA committing not to explore
for oil or gas in wilderness areas recognized
for their outstanding universal value. The
French oil giant says it will not conduct
“any extraction of oil or gas nor any exploration
activity within the perimeter of the natural
World Heritage Sites.”
Oil, gas and mining
threats are on the rise in World Heritage
Sites, according to a publication by the
United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
“World Heritage Sites
are some of the most precious, and often
the most fragile, wild places remaining
on Earth. There is an increasing recognition
that responsible companies have no business
violating them,” said Lasse Gustavsson,
Executive Director of Conservation at WWF
International. “WWF urges members of the
extractive industries, as well as the banking
and finance sectors, to stand in defence
of World Heritage Sites by pledging to respect
their integrity."
WWF and its supporters
have conducted a sustained campaign against
Total seeking a firm pledge by the company
that it will remain out of World Heritage
Sites.
Total’s move follows
an earlier pledge to remain out of Virunga
National Park, a World Heritage Site in
Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC),
although the company is still operating
outside the park’s boundaries. The World
Heritage Committee has requested that all
oil permits infringing on Virunga be revoked.
London-based Soco International
PLC is planning to begin soon seismic testing
inside the World Heritage Site. The company
has warned that its exploration activities
could lead to habitat loss, wildlife poaching,
invasive species, diseases, pollution, drinking
water contamination, and the loss of fishing
jobs.
“WWF is deeply concerned
about what oil exploitation could mean for
the people living around Virunga National
Park,” Gustavsson said. “Fishermen may soon
be restricted from their lake so that foreign
prospectors can blast sound into it looking
for oil deposits. Many nearby residents
fear that if oil exploitation occurs the
fish and water they depend on may be ruined
leaving them with nothing.”
Soco has continued to
pursue oil exploration in Virunga, Africa’s
oldest and most biodiverse protected area,
despite opposition from across Europe and
beyond. WWF has filed a complaint against
the company with OECD alleging environmental
violations and human rights abuses, and
over 500,000 activists are demanding Soco’s
immediate retreat.
SIGN THE PETITION AGAINST SOCO NOW
Virunga National Park
has the potential to become a driver of
long-term, sustainable economic growth for
eastern DRC through investments in hydropower,
fisheries and ecotourism. Worldwide, WWF
advocates for a transition to 100 per cent
renewable energy sources and the rapid phase
out of all fossil fuels.
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Satellite tracking identifies
risk zones for leatherback turtles
Posted on 18 February
2014 | The last large populations of the
leatherback turtle are at risk because their
migratory routes in the Atlantic Ocean converge
with the locations of industrial fisheries,
a new study shows.
Researchers used data
from satellite transmitters attached to
turtles to track their movement across the
Atlantic Ocean. These movements were overlapped
with information on high pressure fishing
areas to identify where the turtles are
most susceptible to entanglement and drowning.
The international study,
jointly led by Dr Matthew Witt of the University
of Exeter and Dr Sabrina Fossette of Swansea
University, found that urgent international
efforts are needed to protect the iconic
species. Laurent Kelle, Aimée Leslie
and Sebastian Verhage of WWF co-authored
the report.
Between 1995 and 2010,
a total of 106 leatherback turtles were
tracked by satellite in the Atlantic and
southwest Indian Oceans. The information
was interpreted along with knowledge of
longline fishing efforts, resulting in the
identification of nine areas with the highest
risk of bycatch.
Maps of the daily locations
of the turtles revealed that Atlantic leatherbacks
use both deep sea international waters (more
than 200 nautical miles from land) and coastal
national waters, either seasonally or year-round,
in a complex pattern of habitat use.
More than 4 billion
hooks – equivalent to 730,000 hooks per
day – were set throughout the entire Atlantic
Ocean by industrial fisheries between 1995
and 2010, the study shows.
“This study demonstrates
the need to take action at a regional policy
level,” said Aimée Leslie, global
cetacean and marine turtle programme manager
of WWF International. “The International
Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic
Tuna (ICCAT) has a unique opportunity to
use this data to assess the impacts of fisheries
under their watch.”
The study results from
the collaborative efforts of ten data providers
that have tracked leatherback turtles in
the Atlantic Ocean since 1995 through the
Trans-Atlantic Leatherback Conservation
Initiative (TALCIN), a WWF led initiative.
“The TALCIN initiative
will continue to build on this work by reaching
out to collaborate with organisations such
as ICCAT to help assess the level of damage
on Atlantic leatherbacks and other marine
turtles,” said Leslie. “We will also work
with a collaborative fisheries research
fellow from the Virginia Marine Institute
to find solutions to the threats these species
face. The time to act is now.”
The article, ‘Pan-Atlantic
analysis of the overlap of a highly migratory
species, the leatherback turtle, with pelagic
longline fisheries,’ is published in Proceedings
of the Royal Society B.
