UN relief agencies still seeking access to conflict-displaced Yemenis

The United Nations said it is still appealing for humanitarian access to Al-Jawf, a region in northern Yemen, to distribute essential supplies to thousands of people displaced by conflict.

UN agency calls for better monitoring to combat human trafficking in Europe

Trafficking in persons is an under-detected crime in Europe, according to a new United Nations report, which calls for better information sharing and monitoring to combat this scourge.

Barack Obama to save Copenhagen climate summit

President Obama must intervene personally to rescue a proposed global deal on climate change that is hanging in the balance, the British Energy and Climate Change Secretary has told The Times.

Ed Miliband said that there was a much greater chance of a successful deal being agreed in December if Mr Obama travelled to Copenhagen to lead the US delegation to the UN conference.

Gordon Brown has said that he will attend the conference but Mr Obama and most other world leaders have yet to commit themselves to going. White House officials offered no new assurances yesterday, saying only that the Administration would be represented at the “appropriate level”.

The British challenge will add to the pressure on Mr Obama to attend, but the case for staying in Washington to shepherd his healthcare reforms into law may prove irresistible.

Asked by The Times if Mr Obama’s presence in Copenhagen would increase the chances of a successful outcome, Mr Miliband said: “Yes. This only works if leaders engage. It’s a very interesting lesson that in July the leaders met in L’Aquila in Italy and agreed that they should commit to avoiding dangerous climate change above two degrees [centigrade]. If they had left it to negotiators it wouldn’t have happened. And Obama was there.”

He called on the US to make a binding and ambitious commitment to cutting its carbon dioxide emissions.

“We do need significant cuts in emissions from the US. We want as much action from America as we can get,” Mr Miliband said. “America and China are the two biggest emitters. They are very key to this. I think a deal without America would be a very bad deal.”

As a presidential candidate, Mr Obama promised to end US isolation on climate change. A cap-and-trade Bill that would allocate carbon emissions permits to major polluters was narrowly passed by the House of Representatives in June but has since been mired in Senate committees.

Senior advisers to the White House have said that alternative carboncutting strategies are being considered in case support for the cap-and-trade Bill, drafted by the Democratic congressmen Henry Waxman and Ed Markey, slips on its way to a final vote. They include limiting mandatory carbon cuts to power plants.

Another proposal involves handing responsibility for America’s carbon footprint to the US Environmental Protection Agency instead of Congress. Both scenarios would all but rule out full US participation in a successor to the Kyoto Protocol on cutting emissions, which is the goal of the Copenhagen summit.

The US never signed the protocol and its failure to do so continued to hamper negotiations, Mr Miliband said: “The biggest difficulty we face is that Kyoto was a partial deal because it didn’t have America in it.” Leaders of other countries are waiting to see what Mr Obama will do before making their own announcements.

Mr Miliband said the proposal in the Waxman Markey Bill to cut US emissions by 17 per cent between 2005 and 2020 “would be a very good start”. He said: “If you compare what America is planning to do from now until 2020 under Waxman Markey, it’s about the same as what we are doing, possibly more depending on how you calculate it. If you look back to 1990 it’s less but they are starting 20 years later.”

Britain has agreed to cut its emissions by 34 per cent on 1990 levels by 2020 and by 80 per cent by 2050.

Mr Miliband said that Mr Obama’s election was part of an “alignment of the stars” that made Copenhagen a unique opportunity to secure a deal.

Carbon target

— 190 nations will meet on December 7-18 to try to agree a global deal on cutting CO2 emissions to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which runs out in 2012

— The objective is to keep global warming within 2C (3.6F) of the pre-industrial average. The world currently emits 50 gigatonnes of CO2 equivalent a year

— Lord Stern of Brentford, former World Bank chief economist, says that emissions must fall to 44 gigatonnes by 2020 and 20 gigatonnes by 2050 to meet the 2C target

— Voluntary commitments by countries so far amount to a cut of two gigatonnes by 2020 — four gigatonnes short of the target

— Gordon Brown has proposed a global fund of $100 billion a year by 2020 to help developing countries to adapt to climate change and develop low-carbon economies

— The EU wants the Copenhagen deal to include a commitment to end the destruction of rainforests by 2030

Source: Times database

US headed for massive decline in carbon emissions

For years now, many members of Congress have insisted that cutting carbon emissions was difficult, if not impossible. It is not. During the two years since 2007, carbon emissions have dropped 9 percent. While part of this drop is from the recession, part of it is also from efficiency gains and from replacing coal with natural gas, wind, solar, and geothermal energy.

The U.S. has ended a century of rising carbon emissions and has now entered a new energy era, one of declining emissions. Peak carbon is now history. What had appeared to be hopelessly difficult is happening at amazing speed.

For a country where oil and coal use have been growing for more than a century, the fall since 2007 is startling. In 2008, oil use dropped 5 percent, coal 1 percent, and carbon emissions by 3 percent. Estimates for 2009, based on U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) data for the first nine months, show oil use down by another 5 percent. Coal is set to fall by 10 percent. Carbon emissions from burning all fossil fuels dropped 9 percent over the two years.

Beyond the cuts already made, there are further massive reductions in the policy pipeline. Prominent among them are stronger automobile fuel-economy standards, higher appliance efficiency standards, and financial incentives supporting the large-scale development of wind, solar, and geothermal energy. (See the data.)

Efforts to reduce fossil fuel use are under way at every level of government—national, state, and city—as well as in corporations, utilities, and universities. And millions of climate-conscious, cost-cutting Americans are altering their lifestyles to reduce energy use.

For its part, the federal government—the largest U.S. energy consumer, with some 500,000 buildings and 600,000 vehicles—announced in early October 2009 that it is setting its own carbon-cutting goals. These include reducing vehicle fleet fuel use 30 percent by 2020, recycling at least 50 percent of waste by 2015, and buying environmentally responsible products.

Electricity use is falling partly because of gains in efficiency. The potential for further cuts is evident in the wide variation in energy efficiency among states. The Rocky Mountain Institute calculates that if the 40 least-efficient states were to reach the electrical efficiency of the 10 most-efficient ones, national electricity use would be reduced by one-third. This would allow the equivalent of 62 percent of the country’s 617 coal-fired power plants to be closed.

Actions are being taken to realize this potential. For several years DOE failed to write the regulations needed to implement appliance efficiency legislation that Congress had already passed. Within days of taking office, President Obama instructed the agency to write the regulations needed to realize these potentially vast efficiency gains as soon as possible.

The energy efficiency revolution that is now under way will transform everything from lighting to transportation. With lighting, for example, shifting from incandescent bulbs to the newer light-emitting diodes (LEDs), combined with motion sensors to turn lights off in unoccupied spaces, can cut electricity use by more than 90 percent. Los Angeles, for example, is replacing its 140,000 street lights with LEDs—and cutting electricity and maintenance costs by $10 million per year.

The carbon-cutting movement is gaining momentum on many fronts. In July, the Sierra Club—coordinator of the national anti-coal campaign—announced the 100th cancellation of a proposed plant since 2001. This battle is leading to a de facto moratorium on new coal plants. Despite the coal industry’s $45 million annual budget to promote “clean coal,” utilities are giving up on coal and starting to close plants. The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), with 11 coal plants (average age 47 years) and a court order to install over $1 billion worth of pollution controls, is considering closing its plant near Rogersville, Tennessee, along with the six oldest units out of eight in its Stevenson, Ala., plant.

TVA is not alone. Altogether, some 22 coal-fired power plants in 12 states are being replaced by wind farms, natural gas plants, wood chip plants, or efficiency gains. Many more are likely to close as public pressure to clean up the air and to cut carbon emissions intensifies. Shifting from coal to natural gas cuts carbon emissions by roughly half. Shifting to wind, solar, and geothermal energy drops them to zero.

State governments are getting behind renewables big time. Thirty-four states have adopted renewable portfolio standards to produce a larger share of their electricity from renewable sources over the next decade or so. Among the more populous states, the renewable standard is 24 percent in New York, 25 percent in Illinois, and 33 percent in California.

While coal plants are closing, wind farms are multiplying. In 2008, a total of 102 wind farms came online, providing more than 8,400 megawatts of generating capacity. Forty-nine wind farms were completed in the first half of 2009 and 57 more are under construction. More important, some 300,000 megawatts of wind projects (think 300 coal plants) are awaiting access to the grid.

U.S. solar cell installations are growing at 40 percent a year. With new incentives, this rapid growth in rooftop installations on homes, shopping malls, and factories should continue. In addition, some 15 large solar thermal power plants that use mirrors to concentrate sunlight and generate electricity are planned in California, Arizona, and Nevada. A new heat-storage technology that enables the plants to continue generating power for up to six hours past sundown helps explain this boom.

For many years, U.S. geothermal energy was confined largely to the huge Geysers project north of San Francisco, with 850 megawatts of generating capacity. Now the United States, with 132 geothermal power plants under development, is experiencing a geothermal renaissance.

After their century-long love-affair with the car, Americans are turning to mass transit. There is hardly a U.S. city that is not either building new light rail, subways, or express bus lines or upgrading and expanding existing ones.

As motorists turn to public transit, and also to bicycles, the U.S. car fleet is shrinking. The estimated scrappage of 14 million cars in 2009 will exceed new sales of 10 million by 4 million, shrinking the fleet 2 percent in one year. This shrinkage will likely continue for a few years.

Oil use and imports are both declining. This will continue as the new fuel economy standards raise the fuel efficiency of new cars 42 percent and light trucks 25 percent by 2016. And since 42 percent of the diesel fuel burned in the rail freight sector is used to haul coal, falling coal use means falling diesel fuel use.

But the big gains in fuel efficiency will come with the shift to plug-in hybrids and all-electric cars. Not only are electric motors three times more efficient than gasoline engines, but they also enable cars to run on wind power at a gasoline-equivalent cost of 75 cents a gallon. Almost every major car maker will soon be selling plug-in hybrids, electric cars, or both.

In this new energy era carbon emissions are declining and they will likely continue to do so because of policies already on the books. We are headed in the right direction. We do not yet know how much we can cut carbon emissions because we are just beginning to make a serious effort. Whether we can move fast enough to avoid catastrophic climate change remains to be seen.

Siemens Buys Israel’s Solel

FRANKFURT — German industrial conglomerate Siemens AG said Thursday it has purchased Israel’s Solel Solar Systems Ltd. for about $418 million.

Solel, which operates solar thermal fields for producing electricity, has been looking for a buyer for the past six months in order to gain more exposure to the international market and more capital for new initiatives, a Solel spokeswoman said.

Siemens Chief Executive Peter Loescher has acquired stakes in several solar-power companies this year.

The deal bolsters Siemens’s initiative to expand its presence in renewable energies such as wind power, photovoltaics and solar thermal power. The company targets sales of €25 billion ($37.3 billion) from its “green technologies” portfolio by fiscal 2011, up from €19 billion last year.

“It’s definitely crystal clear that even during the crisis we will substantially increase the share of our sales which are attributable to green technologies,” Siemens Chief Executive Peter Loescher said in March.

The Solel spokeswoman said the base of the company’s operations will remain in Israel. The firm employs about 400 people at its Beit Shemesh, Israel, facility.

Siemens outbid two French companies, Alstom SA and Areva SA, by increasing its offer from $250 million previously, German daily newspaper Handelsblatt reported Thursday. Alstom declined to comment.

Siemens expects the transaction to close by the end of the year, pending approval by regulatory authorities.
—Sara Toth Stub and William Horobin contributed to this article.

U.S. Labor, Community & Religious Fact-Finding Delegation Returns FromHonduras

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

**Media Advisory** Contact:
Teresa Gutierrez 917.328.6470
Lucy Pagoada 646.373.2383

U.S. LABOR, COMMUNITY & RELIGIOUS FACT-FINDING DELEGATION RETURNS FROM HONDURAS

EYEWITNESS TESTIMONY & INTERVIEWS CONFIRM CRITICAL SITUATION IN HONDURAS ESCALATING

Delegation Calls for Immediate Restoration of President Manuel Zelaya and an End to the Repression Sweeping the Country

Delegates Available for Immediate Interviews

WHAT: On Monday, October 12, a 12-member U.S. delegation returned from Honduras after a four-day visit to the country. Delegates conducted a fact-finding investigation that included dozens of interviews, as well as participation in street actions, in order to witness firsthand the repression carried out by the fraudulent and illegal Micheletti government.

The delegates met with human rights leaders, representatives of the National Front of Resistance against the Coup, labor and women’s leaders as well as youth groups. In addition, the delegation delivered a statement to representatives of the U.S. Embassy in Honduras in order to report on their findings.

A summary of the delegates’ findings include:

1) A civil war is brewing in Honduras. The political situation in the country becomes more and more critical with each passing hour. OAS negotiations did not go anywhere as the fraudulent Micheletti government continues to become entrenched, despite international condemnation.

2) The repression is brutal. Human rights leaders and activists report on first-hand repression that includes beatings, tear gas attacks, disappearances and assassinations as well as attempted kidnappings. The delegation learned firsthand that despite Micheletti’s announcement that the ban on civil rights had been lifted, a ban on assembly, etc. was in fact still very much in place.

3) The Honduran people are committed to their demands. Despite heavy repression, the Honduran people continue to not only demand the restoration of President Manuel Zelaya and a Constituent Assembly, but continue to organize for their rights. The level of coordination among the people and their various mass organizations is maturing and the commitment to their demands is clearly unwavering.

4) The Michelet illegal government remains entrenched and therefore more dangerous. It is a dangerous sign that despite international condemnation the Michelet regime remains entrenched. Clearly they are buying time until the proposed elections. The delegation believes no elections should be held unless President Zelaya is returned to office. The Michelet golpistas are becoming more desperate and therefore more dangerous.

5) International solidarity is key. The situation in Honduras becomes every day more serious. International solidarity including material aid is extremely important for the Honduran people and their struggle for justice.

WHO: The U.S. delegation included representatives from the following sectors: religious, veterans, anti-war, labor, professors, youth and women’s groups, as well as several Hondurans residing in the U.S. Delegates are available for interviews. To schedule interviews please call Teresa Gutierrez at 917.328.6470.

WHY: The U.S. government is pivotal in assuring that the violence and repression ends and that the rightful president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, be returned. Solidarity from this country is also pivotal. That is why the Oct. 7 delegation traveled to Honduras and that is also why the delegation participated in street actions in order to witness firsthand the attitude of the Micheletti de-facto government towards the Honduran people.

The first night of the visit, October 7, U.S. delegates went to the Brazilian embassy to interview President Zelaya, who would have gladly met with the delegation. When Honduran troops menacingly amassed with guns, tear gas and masks, the delegation was forced to run with the Honduran people away from the troops, clearly proving the ban was still in place.

For a preliminary report of our findings, please see the attached letter to the U.S. Embassy that was delivered on October 9 by the delegation.

WHEN: The U.S. Labor, Community and Religious Fact-finding Delegation will report back from their trip to Honduras on Tuesday, October 27 at 777 U.N. Plaza at 6:30 pm. A video report from their trip will be premiered at that time. In addition to the delegates, also invited to speak is Honduran Ambassador Jorge A. Reina as well as Ramsey Clark, former U.S. Attorney General.

Statement to the U.S. embassy by the U.S. Labor, Community and Religious Fact-finding Delegation to Honduras

About the delegation – The U.S. Labor, Community and Religious Fact-finding Delegation to Honduras consists of 12 representatives of labor, community, peace, veterans and religious organizations in the United States. We have come to Honduras to learn the facts and context behind the military coup d’état and its aftermath, and the current situation.

While in Honduras we have met with over 100 representatives and leaders of labor and peasant organizations and a broad representation of organizations of women, youth, indigenous and Garifuna peoples, including representatives of various barrios and colonias and a large number of members of the clergy.

Our delegation wishes to communicate the following information –

1. The de facto regime’s ban on the free exercise of the Honduran people’s civil and constitutional rights and civil liberties has NOT been lifted, as claimed by the regime. This ban is still in effect, and is still being brutally enforced by the police and by the Army, whose commander was trained at the notorious U.S. School of the Americas.

As an example, our delegation personally observed the police and Army forcibly break up the massive, peaceful and nonviolent demonstration on the afternoon of Wednesday, October 7th at the Brazilian Embassy, where President Zelaya maintains his presence. Our delegation was chased fro two city blocks by police and soldiers armed with weapons and 3- to 4-foot wooden batons, and two members of the delegation were almost hit by batons.

Our delegation personally observed multiple truckloads of police and Army being deployed in an attempt to intimidate a massive peaceful demonstration at the Francisco Morazan pedagogical institute on the morning of Thursday, October 8th, and again when the demonstration re-formed later in front of the Clarion Hotel, where OAS representatives were huddled to discuss the political crisis in Honduras. We observed a water cannon truck, of the kind that has been used to hose down demonstrations, and preparations for use of tear gas on the part of the military authorities. (Earlier delegations had reported the use of US-supplied LRAD weapons to emit ear-splitting screams of sound in the direction of President Zelaya and others in the Brazilian Embassy.)

We must also note that the majority of the demonstrators at the Brazilian Embassy, Francisco Morazán Institute and at the Clarion Hotel were women and children, with a large number of older people also present.

These actions by the de facto government were clear attempts to prevent the exercise of the expression of the popular will of the majority of the Honduran people. A private poll certified by the Honduran government, showed that by a 3 to 1 margin, the majority of the Honduran people oppose the coup and desire the immediate return of Zelaya to the Presidency.

2. As long as the de facto and illegal regime remains in place, with its repressive apparatus preventing the free expression of the popular will, then any attempt to go ahead with the previously scheduled November 29th elections, under these conditions, can only have an undemocratic result and should be abandoned.

3. We call on the Obama Administration and U.S. Congress to immediately discontinue ALL aid to Honduras, including humanitarian aid, as long as the de facto and illegal regime remains in power, and to clearly state that the US will not support any solution to the Honduran political crisis without the unconditional restoration of the elected Zelaya government.

4. We further call on the Obama Administration to continue the visa sanctions on the members of the illegal de facto government, and to freeze the US bank accounts of these individuals until the legal Honduran government of President Zelaya is able to determine where the funds came from.
–
Teresa Gutierrez
IAC National Co-Director
National IAC Coordinator Immigrant and Latin American Projects
Build May Day 2010
Bail out the People, not the Banks
Si Se Puede!
917.328.6470

Biodiversity Loss Accelerating, UN Target Will Be Missed

The world will not achieve its agreed target to stem biodiversity loss by next year, the International Year of Biodiversity, say experts in Cape Town for a science conference on the variety, abundance and conservation of plants and animals.

The target was agreed at a conference of Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity in April 2003. Some 123 world ministers committed to “achieve, by 2010, a significant reduction of the current rate of biodiversity loss at the local, national and regional levels, as a contribution to poverty alleviation and to the benefit of all life on Earth.”

“We will certainly miss the target for reducing the rate of biodiversity loss by 2010 and therefore also miss the 2015 environmental targets within the UN Millennium Development Goals to improve health and livelihoods for the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people,” says conference speaker Georgina Mace of Imperial College, London.

“Species extinction rates are at least 100 times those in pre-human times and are expected to continue to increase,” says Mace, vice-chair of the international DIVERSITAS program, opening its four-day Open Science Conference with 600 experts from around the world.

“It is hard to image a more important priority than protecting the ecosystem services underpinned by biodiversity,” says Mace, who develops criteria for listing species on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species and co-ordinating biodiversity inputs to the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. “Biodiversity is fundamental to humans having food, fuel, clean water and a habitable climate. Yet changes to ecosystems and losses of biodiversity have continued to accelerate.”

All primates, all cetaceans whales and dolphins, all big cats such as leopards and tigers, all bears, all elephants, and all rhinoceroses are at risk as evidenced by their listing by the Cconvention on International Trade in Endangered Species.

In Cape Town, scientists will preview the release next year of a report by the UN Convention on Biodiversity called the Global Biodiversity Outlook, to include a major focus on catastrophic biodiversity “tipping points,” which complicate predictions. Such thresholds, if breached, will make global change impacts difficult to control, and slow and expensive to reverse.

“A great deal of awareness-raising is still much needed with respect to the planetary threat posed by the loss of so many species. The focus of biodiversity science today, though, is evolving from describing problems to policy relevant problem solving,” says Stanford University Professor Hal Mooney, who chairs DIVERSITAS.

“Experts are rising to the immense challenge, developing interdisciplinary, science-based solutions to the crisis while building new mechanisms to accelerate progress,” Mooney says. “Biodiversity scientists are becoming more engaged in policy debates.”

Since 1992, even the most conservative estimates agree that an area of tropical rainforest greater than the size of California has been converted

Endangered golden lion tamarin, Leontopithecus rosalia, native to Brazil (Photo by Tim Knight, Primate Gallery courtesy CITES)

mostly for food and fuel, but Mace says the situation is not hopeless.

“There are many steps available that would help but we cannot dawdle,” she says. “Meaningful action should have started years ago. The next best time is now.”

At the conference this week, scientists will advance planning to create a science-based global biodiversity observing system called GEO-BON to improve coverage and consistency in observations at ground level and via remote sensing.

GEO-BON head and DIVERSITAS vice-chair Professor Robert Scholes, says, “GEO-BON will help give us a comprehensive baseline against which scientists can track biodiversity trends and evaluate the status of everything from genes to ecosystem services.”

Others are creating an international mechanism to unify the voice of the biodiversity science community to better inform policy making, its function similar to that of the International Panel on Climate Change.
In Nairobi last week, environment ministers from around the world considered the creation of this body, called IPBES - the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services - which would require UN General Assembly approval.

In Cape Town, biodiversity scientists will pool their knowledge in an attempt to stem the collapse of freshwater ecosystems. They warn that this “silent crisis” is making freshwater species “the most threatened on Earth.”

Massive mismanagement and growing human needs for water are driving freshwater species into extinction at rates four to six times higher than their terrestrial and marine cousins, according to conference experts.

Klement Tockner of the Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries in Berlin says that while freshwater ecosystems cover only 0.8 percent of the Earth’s surface, they contain roughly 10 percent of all animals, including more than 35 percent of all vertebrates.

“There is clear and growing scientific evidence that we are on the verge of a major freshwater biodiversity crisis,” says Tockner. “However, few are aware of the catastrophic decline in freshwater biodiversity at both local and global scale. Threats to freshwater biodiversity have now grown to a global scale.”

The problem puts billions of people at risk as biodiversity loss affects water purification, disease regulation, subsistence agriculture and fishing. Some experts predict that by 2025 not a single Chinese river will reach the sea except during floods, with tremendous effects for coastal fisheries in China.

Tockner says freshwater ecosystems and their species also absorb and bury about seven percent of the carbon humans add annually to the atmosphere, affecting regional carbon balances.

“Freshwater ecosystems will be the first victims of both climate change and rising demands on water supplies,” Tockner says. “And the pace of extinctions is quickening - especially in hot spot areas around the Mediterranean, in Central America, China and throughout Southeast Asia.”

A study published earlier this month shows that one-fifth of Mediterranean dragonflies and damselflies are threatened with extinction at the regional level as a result of increasing freshwater scarcity, according to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

Endangered golden arowana, Scleropages formosus, an Asian freshwater fish (Photo by Jorg Hess, Zoological Garden Basel courtesy CITES)

“It is likely things will only get worse for these unique species as climate change and increased water demand take their toll,” says Jean Pierre Boudot, member of the IUCN Dragonfly Specialist Group and co-author of the report.

Other conference presentations include assessments of the ecological and economic risks of the rising global trade in wildlife, many of which carry potentially harmful diseases. The United States alone imported almost 1.5 billion live animals between 2000 and 2006, experts say, with inadequate regard to the risks involved.

Scientist Peter Daszak of the Wildlife Trust, based in New York, says the emergence of new human diseases from wildlife such as HIV/AIDS, SARS, Ebola, and H5N1 bird flu is a threat to public health and conservation and also to the global economy.

Such deadly diseases impede wildlife conservation as pressure builds to eradicate reservoir populations and cause disruption to agriculture and trade, tourism and other key economies, he says.

“The single outbreak of SARS cost US$30-50 billion and a truly pandemic H5N1 avian flu outbreak would cost an estimated US$300-800 billion,” says Dr. Daszak.

He says disease emergence and spread can be predicted based on human environmental and demographic changes.

Other scientists will focus on biodiversity and climate change, exploring how biodiversity loss impacts rates of natural carbon sequestration and carbon cycling on land and in the ocean.

Scientists will warn that bioenergy and artificial carbon sequestration projects should be preceded by greater understanding of the environmental pressures these will create.

The conference will conclude with a plenary session, chaired by leading expert Lijbert Brussaard, of Wageningen University, The Netherlands, on ways to reconcile the competing Millennium Development Goals of protecting biodiversity, reducing world hunger and alleviating poverty.

Source:
Environmental News Service, “Biodiversity Loss Accelerating, UN Target Will Be Missed“, accessed October 15 2009

Wildlife expert claims gorilla dung is critical to containing climate change

A mountain gorilla in Parc Nacional des Volcans, Rwanda. Photograph: Andy Rouse/Corbis

Gorilla dung could conceivably be the salvation of the planet.

A leading UK wildlife expert today said protecting the large primates he called the “gardeners of the forest” could provide the easy fix for global warming envisaged by international reforestation programs.

America and other industrialized countries are looking to reforestation programs in Africa, South-east Asia and South America to help contain the effects of climate change.

But Ian Redmond, the UN ambassador for the year of the gorilla, said the industrialized countries would be making a mistake if they did not commit specific funds to protecting the gorillas as part of the discussion on reforestation efforts at the climate change negotiations at Copenhagen next December.

“If we save the trees and not the animals then we will just see a slow death of the forests,” Redmond said. “What I am urging the decision makers at Copenhagen to consider is that the gorillas are not a luxury item. If you want a longterm healthy forest you have to take action to protect them.”

The gorillas - or “gardeners of the forest” as Redmond called them - were crucial to fighting climate change, he said. Gorillas, which are herbivores, feed on fruit and plants. The digested food, as it passes through their systems, helps seeds to germinate.

The full extent of the gorillas’ role in propagation is unclear. But Redmond said a number of plant species could not flourish without them, or wild elephants, the other large mammal crucial in germination.

The gorillas - caught up in the region’s civil wars, preyed on by poachers, and crowded out of their homes by mining and logging industries - are already endangered across Africa.

But Redmond’s argument could help give the animals a new level of protection.

The world’s forests act as a natural trap for carbon emissions, sucking up some 4.8bn tons of carbon dioxide a year.

Economists such as Lord Stern have said that spending some $15bn a year on reforestation programs would be the cheapest way of cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

In the run-up to the meeting on climate change in December, there has been a growing focus on reforestation programs in Africa, South-east Asia and South America.

However, there has been no direct recognition of the role played by large animals - such as gorillas - in propagating plants on the jungle floor.

Redmond said gorillas were crucial in maintaining the life cycle of the rainforests in the Congo basin. The forests themselves suck up more than 1bn tons of carbon every year.

“This is what the species are for. They are not ornaments. They are not just interesting things to study. They are part of an ecosystem,” he said.

All of the big apes are now considered endangered. Nearly 20 years of civil war in the Great Lakes region of Africa have seen an explosion in illegal mining and logging by militias seeking money for guns.

Two gorillas are killed in the Democratic Republic of Congo each week and their corpses sold as bush meat, an investigation by Endangered Species International found.

Many gorillas live outside the relatively small protected enclaves of national parks.

Those gorillas are losing their habitat because of rapid urbanization. Villagers are venturing deeper into the forest to cut down trees for cooking charcoal.

Source:
The Guardian, “Wildlife expert claims gorilla dung is critical to containing climate change“, accessed October 15,2009

Western-backed MDC-T Threatens to Split Inclusive Government OverArrest of Former White Farmer for “Terrorism”

Zimbabwe PM suspends government meetings

08:17 AEST Fri Oct 16 2009

Zimbabwe’s Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has suspended a cabinet meeting amid fresh doubts over the country’s unity government following the detention of one of his top aides on terrorism charges.

Roy Bennett’s detention ahead of his trial next week also prompted sharp criticism from Western powers, which called for an end to what they said was harassment of Tsvangirai’s supporters.

There had already been deep concern over whether longtime arch-rivals Tsvangirai and President Robert Mugabe could work together in the unity government, and Bennett’s detention seemed to pose another serious threat.

“The prime minister has suspended the council of ministers’ meeting and any government appointments until the Bennett issue is resolved,” an official in Tsvangirai’s office told AFP on Thursday.

Bennett, Tsvangirai’s pick as deputy agriculture minister, was sent back to jail on Wednesday before his trial on Monday in a ruling his party said was a serious attack on the credibility of the inclusive government.

The Movement for Democratic Change party treasurer, accused of possessing arms for the purposes of banditry, terrorism and inciting acts of insurgency, had been free on bail since March.

He was arrested on February 13, the day the unity government was sworn in.

Washington has demanded Mugabe “end the harassment” of the former opposition, including Bennett.

The European Union presidency, held by Sweden at present, called the court’s decision an act of “politically motivated abuse”.

It “indicates a lack of commitment to the letter and spirit of the Global Political Agreement (GPA),” which allowed for the formation of the unity government.

British ambassador Mark Canning said it showed “limited” political progress by the government, despite advances in the economy.

“The progress, of course, on the political front as we see from the current developments relating to Mr Bennett has been far more limited,” he told journalists.

Bennett, a feisty white former coffee farmer whose land was expropriated under Mugabe’s land reforms, was arrested on his return from South Africa, where he fled after being implicated in an alleged plot to kill the veteran leader.

Mugabe must stop harassment - US

The US has called for Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe to stop “harassing” his rivals, a day after a senior politician was imprisoned.

The state department said the jailing of Roy Bennett was a “blatant example” of a lack of the rule of law.

Mr Bennett, an aide to Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, faces trial over an alleged plot kill Mr Mugabe.

Mr Tsvangirai has begun a boycott of his offices and cabinet meetings in protest at Mr Bennett’s imprisonment.

The prime minister’s Movement for Democratic Change party says the charges are politically motivated and untrue.

Analysts say the issue threatens to split the unity government Mr Tsvangirai formed with Mr Mugabe in February.

State department spokesman Robert Wood joined a chorus of international disapproval that has followed Mr Bennett’s jailing.

“Mugabe has to end the harassment of the opposition, including Mr Bennett,” he said.

The EU also said it was “deeply concerned” that “politically motivated abuse persists”.

Terrorism charge

Mr Tsvangirai’s spokesman, James Maridadi, said the prime minister had tried to contact Mr Mugabe to discuss the issue, but had failed.
—————————————————————————-
ROY BENNETT
Former coffee farmer
2000: Elected MP
2004: Jailed after pushing minister in parliament
2006: Accused of plot to kill President Mugabe
2006: Fled to South Africa
2009: Nominated as deputy agriculture minister; arrested
———————————————————————————–

“The Council of Ministers [cabinet meeting] has been cancelled,” he told South Africa-based ZimOnline news website.

“The prime minister has suspended his coming to the office until the issue of Senator Bennett is resolved.”

Mr Bennett, who is Mr Tsvangirai’s nominee for deputy agriculture minister, is due to stand trial on 19 October on charges of terrorism, insurgency, sabotage and banditry. If convicted he faces a life jail term.

He was initially arrested and jailed in February, on the day ministers in the coalition government were sworn in.

He was released in March but judges revoked his bail on Wednesday.

Mr Bennett, a white farmer whose land was seized under Mr Mugabe’s land reform programme, fled to South Africa in 2006 saying he feared for his life, before returning to serve in the government.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/8309519.stm
Published: 2009/10/15 20:31:05 GMT

October 16, 2009

Britain to Give Zimbabwe $100 Million

By REUTERS

HARARE, Zimbabwe (Reuters) — Britain said Thursday that it would provide $100 million in aid to Zimbabwe this year, its largest annual donation to the country, to help the new unity government and to ease a humanitarian crisis.

“We thought the formation of the inclusive government was a significant step,” the British ambassador, Mark Canning, told reporters. “The U.K. wants it to succeed. We are not holding back and will be supporting it to the tune of $100 million this year.”

“We don’t want it to fail as a result of lack of financial support,” he said.

Relations between Britain and Zimbabwe have been strained for a decade, with London accusing President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe of disastrous policies, including the often violent seizure of farms owned by whites, electoral fraud and human rights abuses.

But the formation of a power-sharing government by Mr. Mugabe and the leader of the opposition, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, has raised hopes for improved ties.

Mr. Canning said the aid would be used to restore vital services like water, sanitation, health care and education — which have virtually collapsed after years of neglect — as well as to provide food aid, seeds and fertilizer to poor households.

Western donors have been reluctant to give substantial development aid to Zimbabwe until they see more evidence that reforms are being enacted.

Dave Fish of Britain’s Department for International Development said Britain was not yet giving money directly to the unity government.

“We would expect significant developments on the political front before we deepen support or even provide funding directly through the government,” Mr. Fish said.

“We expect respect for human rights and international obligations, policies that help the people and the ability to manage donor funds transparently. In those three cases, Zimbabwe failed the test.”

The unity government has faced problems from the start, with Mr. Tsvangirai’s party, the Movement for Democratic Change, accusing Mr. Mugabe of undermining his pact with it by refusing to reverse senior appointments that he made without consulting the opposition.

On Wednesday, Roy Bennett, a senior member of the Movement for Democratic Change, was detained after being indicted on terrorism charges, prompting an angry response from his party, which says its members are being persecuted through the courts.

Embassy of the Republic of Sudan on the Failed US Policy TowardsAfrica’s Largest Geographic Nation-State

National Press Release

Embassy of the Republic of the Sudan: Why the Activists Push for Policy Proven to be Failed and Detrimental in Sudan!

WASHINGTON, Oct. 15 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The following statement was issued by the Embassy of the Republic of the Sudan:

These past two weeks have witnessed a flurry of letters to the Obama administration from outraged activists and groups who in essence demand that the president change his policy of engagement and assume, like the previous administrations, a hostile posture towards Sudan. Among the latest of these missives is one that explicitly calls for the resignation and replacement of the U.S. envoy, General Scott Gration, whose diplomacy has brought us closer to a resolution than his predecessors have managed in years.

Ironically, this campaign comes at the backdrop of monumental initiatives that Sudan and the international community have or will inaugurate. Last week’s conference in Moscow was one such initiative in which the tremendous progress made by Sudan on the salient issues was unanimously affirmed.

And while recognizing the challenges that remain, the summit acknowledged and pledged support to Sudan’s ongoing efforts to see a swift conclusion to those pending issues. Moscow’s conference was preceded by a number of other initiatives that sought to build consensus between the rebel groups.

Among these were the meetings held in Cairo, Tripoli and those convened in Addis Ababa where the unity of certain groups was achieved. The upcoming Doha conference, foreseen to produce a final and comprehensive peace agreement for Darfur, is also a significant milestone that is the fruit of earnest diplomatic efforts exerted by Sudan and the international community.

Sudan is reaching out and taking steps to mend fences with Chad so full diplomatic relations are restored. This will undoubtedly have a positive impact on Darfur. There is also the democratic transformation of the country that the upcoming elections will instigate.

The Sudanese are diligently working to create the necessary mechanisms that will ensure the smooth conduct of legitimate plebiscites. In a matter of months after these elections, a referendum is scheduled to take place. Preparations for that are already underway and the parties are now diligently working on the referendum law as promulgated in the CPA.

All of these highlight Sudan’s serious commitment to peace and proactive pursuit of solutions to the problems, a fact that clearly negates the picture painted by these activists. Their statements stand in stark contrast to those made by far more knowledgeable and impartial international authorities on the ground. It was only last month when the Joint Representative of the UN-AU, Rodolphe Adada, and the hybrid force commander, General Luther Agwai proclaimed that the war in Darfur has ended, a fact reiterated by the AU summit held shortly afterwards.

And yet these activists want the world to believe their own cooked up “facts” and disregard what such credible authorities report. And the world found out how deceitful these groups really are when the dissenting group of Darfuris who helped build the case for ICC recently announced at a conference in Ethiopia that they falsified information and were told what to say.

It is true that the influence of these groups, which has primarily been achieved by placing pressure on the White House to adopt policies suiting to their own end, has had a devastating impact on the situation. Voices from Darfur have long spoken out against these groups precisely because of this fact.

Therefore it is paramount that we face the fact that the daily bread and butter of these groups comes from the very crises they profess to “end”; so that while the rest of the peace-loving world cries out for solutions, they’re vigorously seeking ways to undermine positive efforts and gains made.

Lastly, its noteworthy that most of those groups criticizing General Gration today were also staunch critics of the previous envoys whose modus operandi was more in-line with what the activists are now calling for. Yet the inescapable fact is that these ambassadors were unable to deliver any solutions to the problems.

It is baffling then why someone who claims to genuinely be in pursuit of peace, would advocate for a policy proven to be failed and in fact detrimental. As for those rebel groups who are calling for the resignation of another country’s envoy, the energy would best be spent on uniting and galvanizing their own people so that they solve their own problems.

Information Office
Embassy of Sudan

CONTACT: Embassy of Sudan Press and Information Office, phone: +1-202-338-8565, or fax: +1-202-667-2406

SOURCE Embassy of the Republic of the Sudan