03 Jul 2008 - The rarest
marine dolphin in the world – down to 111
individuals following decades of entanglement
in fishing nets – is to receive protection
over more of its range from the New Zealand
government following several years of sustained
WWF campaigning.
The critically-endangered
Maui’s dolphins, living only along the west
coast of New Zealand’s North Island, could
be functionally extinct within just 25 years
largely as a result of a losing battle with
fishing nets.
Unable to detect the
fine mesh, dolphins can quickly become entangled
and drown. Now Maui’s numbers are so low
they could be functionally extinct, unless
they are given total protection.
Since 2002, WWF has
sustained pressure on the New Zealand government
to remove all threats to the Maui’s dolphin
and its South Island cousin, the Hector’s
dolphin – which has suffered a population
decline from an estimated 26,000 in the
1970s to just 7,270 today.
From 1 October 2008,
set net and trawl fishing will be banned
in more of the areas where Maui’s dolphins
and Hector’s dolphins range.
“We’re thrilled the
government has finally acted,” said Rebecca
Bird, Marine Programme Manager for WWF-New
Zealand. “The new measures mean fewer dolphins
will die in fishing nets, and that’s a strong
first step.
“After years of government
delays and more dolphin deaths, we are now
seeing real action to improve their chances
of survival.”
Though a step forward,
the protection measures don’t go far enough
for the dolphin populations to recover.
Maui’s dolphins won’t be protected inside
harbours or in the southern extent of their
alongshore range, while Hector’s dolphins
along the west coast will remain unprotected
from trawl fishing and only given limited
protection from set nets.
Based on population
modeling by University of Otago scientists
Dr Elisabeth Slooten and Dr Steve Dawson,
the new protection will at best hold Hector’s
dolphin numbers at their current depleted
level.
With such low numbers,
this still leaves Hector’s and Maui’s dolphins
at risk of extinction and
WWF is continuing its campaign to ban net
fishing throughout the dolphins’ range.
“Total protection is
the only way to give the dolphins the chance
to recover so they are no longer at risk
of extinction,” said Bird. “We want a future
where Hector’s and Maui’s return to their
historic abundance and distribution. These
measures are the first step towards this.”
+ More
International recognition
for northern Andes wetlands
01 Jul 2008 - Two unusual
high-altitude wetlands in South America
were declared sites of international importance
on 25 June 2008 after a five-year campaign
for northern Andean wetlands by WWF, other
NGOs, governments and local communities.
Laguna del Otún
in Colombia is a lake, swamp and peat bog
area surrounded by glaciers, forest and
high altitude grassland ranging up to 4,850
metres. Its 6,579 hectares contain 148 plant
species, many of them unique, and it provides
water for more than half a million people.
Llanganati in Ecuador,
a 30,000-hectare complex of glacial lakes,
swamps and seasonal peat bogs, is fed by
rivers and floods and home to Andean condors,
bears and mountain tapirs as well as significant
frog, deer and puma populations.
“The Llanganati has
a very different composition from the rest
of the Andes, with its drastic climate and
its isolation resulting in singular vegetation
formations,” said Luis Germán Naranjo,
director of Ecoregional Conservation for
WWF Colombia. “It is also an important source
of water for nearby populations and provides
electrical energy for the centre of the
country.”
The wetlands of the High Andes are ecosystems
of enormous strategic importance for millions
of people from the Pacific coasts of Columbia,
Ecuador and Peru to those in the gigantic
Amazon basin. The international Convention
on Wetlands, signed on 2 February 1971 in
the Iranian city of Ramsar, considers them
to be highly fragile ecosystems as a result
of both natural causes and human intervention.
The designation of Llanganati and Laguna
del Otún, as well as of the Sistema
Lacustre de Chingaza area in Colombia, are
direct contributions to the Regional Initiative
on High Andean Wetlands. The initiative,
developed under Ramsar auspices over the
last five years, brings together the governments
of the seven Andes countries plus Costa
Rica and several NGOs including WWF Colombia
and the WWF International Freshwater Programme.
“The primary service
of the high Andean ecosystems is the production,
storage and mobilization of water to the
lowlands,” said Ximena Barrera, director
of Public Policy and Corporate Responsibility
for WWF Colombia. “The multiple peat bogs
are also an important contribution to carbon
capture and, therefore, regulation of the
global climate.”
