Species facing mass extinction: U.N.

TOKYO: The world must act immediately to stop the rapid loss of animal and plant species and the habitats they live in, the United Nations warned on Monday at the start of a major summit on biodiversity.

The 193 members of the U.N.'s Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) began gathering in the central city of Nagoya in Japan to try to work out strategies to head off a manmade mass extinction.

“The time to act is now and the place to act is here,” CBD executive secretary Ahmed Djoghlaf said as the meeting opened, describing the event as a “defining moment” in the history of mankind.

“The savings from a coordinated ecosystems approach to climate change, biodiversity loss, avoiding deforestation and land degradation are incalculable”.

The 12-day conference aims to throw a spotlight on a global environmental issue that has drawn less attention in recent years than the related problem of manmade climate change, blamed on a surge of greenhouse gas emissions.

Scientists say worldwide human population pressures are wiping out ecosystems such as tropical forests and coral reefs, killing off animal and plant species that form the web of life which humanity depends on. “Our prosperity and indeed our survival depend on healthy ecosystems,” said Jim Leape, the chief of the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF). “The Earth's forests, oceans and rivers are the very foundation of our society and economy”.

“Even in purely economic terms, it is far, far more cost effective to conserve or restore healthy ecosystems than to artificially provide natural services that we currently take for granted”.

Delegates in Nagoya plan to set a new target for 2020 for curbing species loss, and will discuss boosting medium-term financial help for poor countries to help them protect their wildlife and habitats. But similar pledges to stem biodiversity loss, first made when the U.N. biodiversity convention was adopted in 1992, have not been fulfilled. At the start of the decade, U.N. members pledged under the Millennium Development Goals to achieve “a significant reduction” in the rate of wildlife loss by 2010, the International Year of Biodiversity. Instead, habitat destruction has continued unabated, and some experts now warn that the planet faces its sixth mass extinction phase — the latest since dinosaurs vanished 65 million years ago.

Nearly a quarter of mammals, one-third of amphibians, more than one in eight birds, and more than a fifth of plant species now face the threat of extinction, said the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

In May, a U.N. report warned of looming “tipping points” that could irreversibly damage ecosystems such as the Amazon rainforest, through logging and land clearance, and coral reefs through global warming and overfishing. The Earth's 6.8 billion humans are effectively living 50 per cent beyond the planet's bio-capacity in 2007, according to a new assessment by WWF, adding that by 2030, humans will effectively need the capacity of two Earths. — AFP

Source: The hindu, 19-10-2010

China's glaciers may shrink 27 percent by 2050: Report

BEIJING: The average area of glaciers in western China might shrink by 27.2 percent by 2050 because of global warming, damaging crop production and worsening droughts, according to a report released at the UN climate talks in north China's Tianjin Municipality.

The "Climate Changes and Poverty - Case Study in China" report was jointly released by organizations including the Institute of Environment and Social and Sustainable Development in Agriculture with the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

Xinhua quoted the report as saying that forecasts of glacier recession patterns, summer temperatures and precipitation showed that the average glacier area in western China might be reduced by 27.2 percent by 2050. Ocean glaciers, affected by wet airflow from the oceans, would shrink by 52.5 percent, and Asian continental glaciers, formed in the continental climate would shrink by 24.4 percent.

The report warned that glacier shrinkage would also threaten China's agriculture sector and further stated that overall crop production capacity would drop by 5 to 10 percent by 2030 due to global warming, especially in wheat, rice and corn, and the impact would worsen after 2050.

The report further warned that global warming would reduce the seasonal snowfall period while melting area would be higher, contributing to the sharp decline. Ice volumes would reportedly decrease substantially and the runoff water to rivers would fall sharply.

A four degree Celsius rise in temperatures would increase the drought-affected area by 843,000 square kilometres, it added.

Meanwhile, Sun Cuihua, an official with the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), has claimed that the Chinese government had attached importance to tackling the problems caused by climate change and taken effective measures to reduce the negative impacts.

By the end of 2009, the government had announced plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions per unit of GDP by 40 to 45 percent by 2020 from 2005 levels. As part of that goal, the government had stepped up closures of outdated production capacity, which had been blamed for pollution and hindering the upgrading of industry.

Source: Times of India, 9-10-2010

India bags two Green Oscars

BANGALORE: India had a golden day at Wildscreen Festival in Bristol, UK on Wednesday. While Mysore-based duo Krupakar-Senani bagged an award for their film 'The Pack: Episode 5' in the Animal Behaviour Category, Rita Banerji and Shilpi Sharma of Delhi with their 'The Wild Meat Trail' won in the category to promote filmmakers from developing countries.

The Wildscreen awards, popularly known as The Panda Awards or the Green Oscars, received 446 entries this year. Eminent judges shortlisted 67 finalists.

It's the first time a film shot in India by Indians was nominated to the Animal Behaviour Category. Bangalore-based Adarsh NC, part of the Krupakar-Senani production team says: "It's an honour to work with Krupakar-Senani. Given the terrain, it's difficult to shoot wildlife in Indian forests. They've spent over a decade tracking wild dogs in the Nilgiri Biosphere and deserve the award.

"The winning film is about 27 minutes and won against films which are over 50 minutes." Two films by Indians were nominated in the category to promote filmmakers from developing countries. In the list were Bangalore-based filmmaker Sandesh Kadur's 'North-Eastern Diaries: Seeking Wildlife in the Eastern Himalayas' and 'The Wild Meat Trail'.

"It's a great honour, and more than anything, it'll help us take the film to a bigger outreach platform," says Rita from Bristol.

Source: Times of India, 15-10-2010

Climate change: Plant migrates to safer place

NEW DELHI: A plant which was originally found in warmer regions of Uttar Pradesh has gradually migrated to higher elevations of 1,300 m in Himalaya regions in the last fifty years, indicating the impact of climate change, scientists have said.

"It appears that S. anthemifolia is responding to the changing climatic conditions and showing an uphill movement pattern. Studies on its habitat requirements and dispersal mechanisms therefore become important," researchers have said as they kept track on its migrating pattern.

Originally, a native of South America and Australia, Soliva anthemifolia, a diffuse, creeping, stoloniferous herb was reported for the first time in 1963 from Uttar Pradesh at an altitude of 630 m is now observed in Palampur in Himachal Pradesh at an altitude of 1300 m, they said.

And since Palampur has shown an increase of 0.6°C in temperature over the last three decades, i.e. 1978-2008 and is also a relatively wet place that receives substantial rainfall, both the factors are favourable for the mesic habitat-loving species of the warm regions.

Tracing the plant's dramatic growth movement, the experts noted that in 1966, its extended distribution northward into the Himalayan states was reported from Dehradun (now in Uttarakhand), where it was growing at an altitude of 640 m.

In 1973, it was reported as new addition to the flora of Delhi. Later, its extension to Jammu, where the plant was collected from an altitude of 400-700 m, was reported.

The plant was also reported from Rajasthan and Haryana. Soon after, the plant was observed growing along water channels at an altitude of more than 1000 m in the Patti locality of Himachal Pradesh.

"It should be noted that the higher limit of its distribution in the Himalayas has been mentioned to be 1000 m. Subsequently, the plant has now been observed in Palampur at an altitude of 1300 m," said the team of researchers Sanjay Uniyal, Om Parkash and RD Singh, from a leading organisation, Institute of Himalayan Bioresource ( CSIR) in Palampur.

"This area is frequently visited by us and we had also not encountered this plant in our earlier surveys, until the recent one," the authors noted in their study published in latest edition of 'Current Science' journal.

Various studies have warned that the change in the length of growing season and their severity will dramatically affect food supply and potential for food security.

Source: Times of India, 15-10-2010