05
Mar 2009 - Jakarta – 34 video cameras will
follow around the Javan rhinos wherever
they go, in an attempt to find out more
about the world’s most endangered large
mammal and help to prevent the species from
going extinct.
With fewer than 60 Javan
rhinos left in the world, the camera footage
is a useful tool to get to know more about
how these single-horned animals use their
habitat and thus help to protect them.
Cameras installed in
Indonesia`s Ujung Kulon National Park, home
to around 50 of the animals, have already
helped to reveal some previously unknown
behaviours of the rare mammal, which can
weigh 2,300kg and measure over 3m in length.
Now 34 cameras have
been installed in all areas known as the
rhino’s habitat blocks on the southern tip
of Java and record the large creatures 24
hours a day.
“The project is helping
the most endangered large mammal species,”
said Adhi Rachmat Hariyadi who leads WWF-Indonesia's
project in Ujung Kulon National Park. “We’ve
already recorded video of 9 individuals,
including a mother and calf.”
The rhino, known for
its shyness, has been in the limelight already
in the past. One of the female Java rhinos
made headlines across the world last year
when she was captured wrecking one of the
cameras, possibly out of fear that it may
hurt her calves.
The project is run by
WWF and the Ujung Kulon National Park.
Camera traps are fairly
basic photographic equipment with infra
red triggers which take a picture every
time they sense movement in the forest.
Extensive research is required to determine
the best place to locate the camera, which
is usually attached to a tree. Cameras are
often located in remote and inaccessible
parts of the forest where the creatures
can be found.
Not enough calves
In locations like Ujung
Kulon, a protective waterproof box is vital
to ensure the camera can cope with the rain
and humid conditions.
“Video serves as a positive
tool to provide evidence on the urgency
of saving this species", said Agus
Priambudi, head of Ujung Kulon National
Park. “It is important to be able to show
the real condition of Javan rhinos to local
and central governments.”
Of the 2 populations
left, the Indonesian population in Ujung
Kulon National Park has the better chance
of survival since it is the only one that
still has proof of breeding. But a healthy
population should have several calves born
each year. There has been no verifiable
signs of Javan rhinos breeding in Cat Tien
NP in Vietnam.
“We are concerned because
we have not seen many very young calves
for several years and worry that the population
may be dependent on 2 or 3 breeding females,”
Hariyadi said.
Conservationists want
to identify another suitable site, where
a second population could be established.
"This will help
diffuse the danger of all the animals living
in one place, which is risky because of
the danger of catastrophic events like disease,
eruptions from nearby volcanoes and other
unforeseen disasters,” said Susie Ellis,
Executive Director of the International
Rhino Foundation.
To prevent the rhino
population from going extinct, the Government
of Indonesia launched the rhino conservation
strategy in 2007 entitled “Rhino Century
Project” (Proyek Abad Badak) in partnership
with WWF, International Rhino Foundation
(IRF), Asian Rhino Project (ARP), Yayasan
Badak Indonesia (YABI), and US Fish and
Wildlife Service, to create an additional
Javan rhino population by translocating
a few individuals from Ujung Kulon to another
suitable site.
+ More
Farmed fish and shrimps
need sustainability boost
02 Mar 2009 - Aquaculture,
revealed in a key UN analysis today to be
the basis of all future growth in global
seafood production, desparately needs to
be put on a more sustainable basis, leading
global environment organization WWF said
today.
State of the World’s
Fisheries and Aquaculture 2008 (SOFIA 2008),
released this morning by the UN Food and
Agriculture Organization (FAO), said that
food supplies from aquaculture now equal
those from ocean and freshwater capture
fisheries. The report also documents a continuing
drop-off in yields from the world's marine
capture fisheries, with FAO saying "more
closely controlled approaches to fisheries
management" are needed.
"The dramatic growth
in aquaculture makes it more and more urgent
to ensure that aquaculture becomes more
sustainable and that supplying the stock
and the feed for fish farming becomes less
of a burden on traditional fisheries,” said
Miguel Jorge, Director of WWF’s Global Marine
Programme.
“Coastal aquaculture
must also stop making inroads into fish
habitat such as mangrove areas, it must
becomes less polluting and less of a disease
risk and it must be carried out without
making communities more vulnerable to natural
disasters."
A series of Aquaculture
Dialogues, coordinated by WWF and involving
more than 2,000 farmers, NGOs and scientists
are currently creating global standards
to minimize the key environmental and social
impacts associated with aquaculture.
Consideration is now
being given to whether the standards – initially
for the 12 species with the greatest economic
and environmental impact – should be administered
by a body similar to the Marine Stewardship
Council, the leading sustainability certification
scheme for marine capture fisheries.
SOFIA 2008 also recorded
a rise to 80 per cent in the number of fisheries
that are fully or over-exploited, adding
yet more weight to predictions that collapsing
fish stocks threaten food security in developing
countries and the viability of fisheries
and coastal communities across the world.
Long -promised action
on trade, unsustainable fishing fleet subsidies
and protection for marine resources has
again been unforthcoming.
“Once again, the leading
global fisheries analysis has come out to
say the state of of the world’s fisheries
is worse than we thought it was,” said Jorge.
“Indeed we and many
other analysts believe that the real position
of the oceans is much, much worse than the
gloomy report from Rome this morning as
little account of is taken of rampant illegal,
unregulated and unreported fishing.
“Also, in many cases,
even legal fishing quotas have no relationship
to actual fish stocks. To take possibly
the best known example, the legal quota
of Mediterranean bluefin tuna is around
twice what the scientists recommend and
the illegal catch is equal to the already
inflated legal quota.”
WWF is calling urgently
for fisheries to be managed in line with
scientific advice, for more closed seasons
and areas to allow stocks to recover, for
massive reductions in bycatch and discards
in fishing and for an end to the subsidies
that distort the relationship between fishing
effort and the fishing resource.
Phil Dickie, WWF International News Editor
