Posted
on 26 August 2011
Gland, Switzerland: One of the world’s key
challenges in an increasingly challenging
future will be balancing the water, food
and energy equation, WWF predicted at the
conclusion of this year’s World Water Week
in Stockholm.
“We are already exceeding the limits of
the planet in many ways, but it is the availability
of fresh water that will have the biggest
impact on the food security and energy security
of billions,” said Dr Li Lifeng, director
of WWF’s global freshwater programme.
WWF was endorsing the meeting’s Stockholm
Statement, this year urging nations at the
forthcoming Rio +20 global summit on sustainable
development to commit to “universal provisioning
of safe drinking water, adequate sanitation
and modern energy services by the year 2030”.
The Stockholm Statement
also seeks 20 per cent by 2020 targets that
include increases in crop and energy water
efficiency and water recycling, and reductions
in water pollution.
The Statement also calls
for special attention to water, sanitation
and energy needs of “the bottom billion”,
noting that access to safe drinking water
and adequate sanitation services have now
been defined as human rights.
“We all too often overlook the increasing
water intensity of energy production, and
the potential impacts on food production,”
said Dr Lifeng. “As we eat our way up the
food chain, the water intensity of many
foods is also increasing in the face of
depleting groundwater reserves and climate
change impacts.
Solving the water, energy and food equation
for the world has to be a global priority.”
Suggesting that the world might need to
look at coherent overall management of water,
food and energy, Stockholm International
Water Institute (SIWI) Director Anders Bertell
said “There are tremendous opportunities
to save water and stimulate development
by cutting water losses in energy generation,
by generating energy from water reuse and
by reducing the losses and waste of food
from the field on its way to the consumer”.
+ More
Malaysia national holiday
snared by poachers
Posted on 26 August
2011
Petaling Jaya, Malaysia – Fresh snares set
for tigers have been discovered by WWF-Malaysia’s
monitoring team only a short distance from
the country’s East-West Highway, a major
road that connects Peninsular Malaysia’s
northeast to its northwest.
The discovery came just
less than a month after the release of ‘On
Borrowed Time’, a documentary that highlights
the severity of the poaching and illegal
wildlife trade in the Belum-Temengor Forest
Complex, a wildlife hotspot that is located
in the northern state of Perak and crosses
into Southern Thailand.
“Since early August,
12 snares have been detected and deactivated
by the team, with even more expected to
be found in the area. Based on the sizes
and types of snare, it is very clear that
poachers are targeting large mammals such
as tigers,” said Dato’ Dr. Dionysius Sharma,
CEO/Executive Director of WWF-Malaysia.
WWF-Malaysia and TRAFFIC Southeast Asia
immediately alerted the Perak Department
of Wildlife and National Parks (DWNP) for
the swift removal of these threats to wildlife.
Another camera-trap in the area captured
a photo of possible poachers, just a day
before the team trekked in to retrieve the
cameras and detected the snares. The wire
snares were camouflaged so well that the
foot of one of the team’s field assistants
had gotten caught in it.
The photo was shared
with DWNP earlier this month to assist in
their investigations.
WWF-Malaysia and TRAFFIC Southeast Asia
urge enforcement agencies to be vigilant
in their monitoring and to conduct rigorous
patrols on the ground. Poachers are likely
to take advantage of the country’s national
holiday period at the end August, which
marks the end of Ramadan and Malaysia Independence
Day. This is already evident from the snares
that have been discovered in the past three
weeks alone.
“It’s painfully clear that the poachers
ravaging Malaysia’s wildlife are getting
more efficient. This begs obvious questions
about whether enforcement authorities are
managing to keep pace with the criminals.
Sadly, it appears that they are not. Even
simple actions like regular patrolling and
establishment of the planned multi-agency
task force at Belum-Temengor are stalled,”
said Dr. William Schaedla, Regional Director
for TRAFFIC Southeast Asia.
More alarmingly, a camera-trap placed in
the area has also captured the photo of
a three-footed Malayan sun bear. The injury
seen in the photo is consistent with an
animal having lost a limb while trying to
free itself from a snare.
Under the new Wildlife Conservation Act
2010, any person who sets or uses any snare
for the purpose of hunting can be subject
to fines ranging from RM50,000 to RM100,000
(US$16,700 – US$33,500) and imprisonment
for a maximum of two years.
At the launch of ‘On Borrowed Time’ last
month in conjunction with World Tiger Day
2011, WWF-Malaysia and TRAFFIC Southeast
Asia called for a revitalisation of the
Belum-Temengor Joint Enforcement Taskforce,
the pursuit of poachers and encroachers
to the full extent of the law and for all
agencies working in the area to show equal
effort and commitment towards enforcement.
From 2008 to 2010, 142 snares have been
discovered and de-activated in the Belum-Temengor
Forest Complex. Over 400 wild animals, such
as Sambar deer, pangolins, elephants and
tigers have been poached inside the protected
and numerous poacher camps have also been
found.
