Posted on 14 November
2011
The highly endangered
sturgeons of the Danube river basin are
at risk because of the persistent illegal
trade in their caviar involving Bulgaria
and Romania, according to a newly published
TRAFFIC report compiled for WWF.
The two countries hold
the only viable populations of wild sturgeons
in the European Union (EU), but five of
the six native sturgeon species in the Danube
are critically endangered and sturgeon fishing
there has been banned.
According to the new
report, a total of 14 seizures of illegal
caviar originating from Bulgaria (27.5 kg
in five seizures) and Romania (25 kg in
nine seizures) were reported by EU Member
States between 2000 and 2009. Neither Bulgaria
nor Romania reported illegal caviar seizures
themselves.
“It is of concern that Bulgaria and Romania
reported no seizures of caviar, while other
EU Member States registered several seizures
where those two countries were implicated,”
said TRAFFIC’s Katalin Kecse-Nagy, author
of the report.
“The detected quantities
are not very high, but we must bear in mind
that the real volume of illegal trade is
likely to be considerably higher and any
illegal trade poses an unacceptable risk
to these highly threatened species,” said
Kecse-Nagy.
Kecse-Nagy also points
out that in 2007, both Romania and Bulgaria
joined the EU, meaning any illegal trade
was within the Union, and therefore harder
to detect and prevent.
In addition, due to
their geographical position, the two countries
are potential gateways for illicit caviar
trade from the Caspian Sea, the most important
sturgeon fishery in the world.
In 2009 German authorities
seized caviar smuggled into the EU and labeled
as Bulgarian farmed caviar. Bulgaria and
Romania are only permitted to trade in farmed-caviar,
but isotope analysis demonstrated the caviar
had originated from the Caspian Sea.
“This case demonstrates
how permitted caviar farming was exploited
to launder illegally sourced caviar into
legal trade,” said Kecse-Nagy.
Analysis of legal trade
data indicates a large increase in aquaculture
production in Bulgaria for export, including
within the EU.
“This means it is more
vital than ever to regulate closely the
caviar trade within the region to ensure
illicit trade is not posing a threat to
wild sturgeons.”
The TRAFFIC report recommends
both Romania and Bulgaria raise awareness
among enforcement agencies of the illegal
caviar trade and strengthen their capacity
to control and monitor the trade.
“The EU has a major
responsibility to regulate the caviar trade
because EU member states are the largest
consumer of caviar from Romania and the
second largest consumer of caviar from Bulgaria,”
said Jutta Jahrl, Sturgeon expert at WWF.
“The EU must close every
loophole in order to save sturgeons from
extinction.”
However, according to Jahrl, consumer awareness
in Europe about the threat posed by illegal
caviar trade is low, while even genuine
traders know little about the requirements
for labelling legal caviar.
“It is crucial that
traders and consumers do not buy unlabelled
caviar - this simple act would strike a
major blow against the illegal trade.”
The report, Trade in Sturgeon Caviar in
Bulgaria and Romania, was funded by The
Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund,
DBU (Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt) and
WWF.
+ More
Forest gives rise to
village bank
Posted on 14 November
2011
by John Kabubu, WWF Coastal East Africa
Initiative
The Kaya Kinondo forest of Kwale, Kenya,
is awash with all the beauty and splendor
a coastal forest should have. It is one
of the oldest forests on Kenya’s south coast.
Rare bird and plant species populate this
awesome ecosystem, along with huge indigenous
trees that are imposing in nature and magnificent
in splendor.
Forty-five butterfly
species – 5 per cent of those known in Kenya
– are found in this great forest. The extremely
rare Zanj elephant shrew, along with the
threatened colobus monkey, make their homes
in this magnificent landscape. The Kaya
Kinondo forest is also of great cultural
and spiritual importance to the Digo people
in Kenya.
This dynamic environment
also boasts something that doesn’t fly or
run, has no roots or leaves, but has become
an essential part of daily life for the
residents of Kwale, and may even help keep
the forest healthy. It’s a village bank.
‘Very good trees’
Client after client comes into the Kaya
Kinondo Financial Services Association to
either deposit or withdraw money. This bank
has no ATMs or free pens, but it does provide
effective and efficient financial services
to community members within and around the
Kaya Kinondo forest area.
According to 50-year-old mother of six Zainab
Ahmed, the success of their village bank
would have been put in serious jeopardy
had the community not realized what immense
economic potential their forest has, and
acted on it.
“Kaya Kinondo has very good trees. We were
beginning to use the forest badly, cutting
many trees from it to make charcoal. This
was badly affecting the forest and slowly
destroying it.”
It is at this point that Zainab and her
neighbors realized that there is indeed
a better way to co-exist with and even benefit
from the forest.
“In 2003, we decided to come together and
start an eco-tourism project. We sold carvings
and introduced our rich culture to tourists
along a trail in the Kaya Kinondo forest,”
Zainab says.
Through this simple venture, the community
in and around Kaya Kinondo began to see
the economic value of forest conservation.
Money begun streaming in, and the community
faced a new challenge.
“We were getting all this money, but we
had nowhere to take it because at that time,
banks were really expensive and inaccessible,”
says Zainab.
Banking on nature
It was at this point that WWF, supported
by the UN Development Programme's Global
Environmental Facility, the Ford Foundation
and Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund,
introduced the idea of banking in the village,
for the village, by the village. In addition
to the bank component, the project worked
with people who earned their living by making
charcoal or selling firewood with the aim
of helping them shift to more forest-friendly
enterprises such as growing tree seedlings,
eco-tourism and various agricultural projects,
such as chicken farming.
“We helped create Kaya Kinondo Financial
Services Association in order to help communities
in Kwale invest their revenue in environmentally
viable businesses that would keep their
forests profitable while also conserving
them,” says WWF’s Elias Kimaru, who works
on the project.
Training was carried out for community members
to help them invest wisely and ensure that
the bank is sustainable and continues to
benefit the community and the environment.
"In every village, WWF trained one
person on how to set up and run a village
bank. This was an important move because
we had previously seen other village banks
start and then die because of mismanagement.
We did not want our bank to fail. After
the training, we started the bank with 153
members who bought shares at $3 each,” explains
Zainab.
Client numbers were low at first because
villagers were not convinced that their
money would be safe in a village bank. As
Zainab recalled, other banks had been set
up and had folded; the families of Kwale
can’t afford that kind of financial risk.
Growing strong
Two years down the line, in 2005, the bank
was still open, and more and more members
enrolled.
But the community realized they needed to
learn more and expand the menu of financial
services offered, if they were to stay competitive
with other micro-finance institutions that
had moved into the area.
“In 2005, WWF offered
us training on how to manage loans as a
bank, and we began providing business loans
of up to $50 to our members,” notes Zainab.
By 2011, more than 130 members had taken
loans amounting to $60,000. From a desire
to protect their forest and promote their
culture, the members of Kaya Kinondo Financial
Services Association have created a strong
and growing community institution. With
153 members with a net worth of $3,000 in
2003, to 689 members with a net worth of
close to $100,000 today, the village bank
is indeed a testament to the fact that human
beings can live in harmony with nature.
