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NGOs Worldwide Challenge Pulp Mill in Indonesian Borneo WASHINGTON, DC, January 27, 2004 (ENS) - Sixty-five nongovernmental organizations in 19 countries have appealed to World Bank President James Wolfensohn for the cancellation of a plan by an agency in the World Bank Group to support investment in an enormous pulp project in Indonesian Borneo.The Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), a member of the World Bank Group, promotes foreign direct investment in developing countries. In a letter of Wolfensohn dated January 11, the NGOs say the project proposed by United Fiber System/PT. Marga Buana Bumi Mulia pulp mill in Satui, South Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo would increase the already significant overcapacity of Indonesia's paper and pulp industry and its "links to rampant illegal logging." The World Bank's Consultative Group on Indonesia said in January 2003 that of the 73 million cubic meters of timber estimated for harvest in Indonesia in 2003 only about 20 million cubic meters would be logged legally. The Indonesian government has not been able to meet commitments made to international donors to halt illegal logging, which is taking place on a massive scale across the country, even destroying forests in national parks. The NGOs say the project depends on a successful pulp plantation to feed the giant mill, but "given the failure of Indonesia's pulp plantation sector, in general, and the specific problems associated with the plantations for the pulp mill proposed for MIGA support," the project should not go ahead. The groups warn of potential adverse impacts on the local communities near the proposed pulp mill site, including fishing communities. Their letter cites research done by CAPPA, the Community Alliance for Pulp-Paper Advocacy, an Indonesian NGO network, which documented four fishing villages, including those dependent on shrimp farming which are likely to have their fishing grounds impacted by waste from the proposed mill. The shrimp breeding grounds utilized by the local communities are just 400 meters from the proposed mill site. In addition, CAPPA found that the proposed location for the mill is on an ancestral gravesite. Local experience with a neighboring port built for a nearby coal mine has found severe impacts to fisheries associated not only with pollution from wastewater, but also from the tremendous increase in river traffic and associated water turbulence and large waves which place significant stress on the shrimp population, the NGO letter states. Finally, the NGOs are outraged by the fact that the majority of the finance for this $1.2 billion project will be provided by the China National Machinery and Equipment Import and Export Corporation. The Chinese state owned enterprise was placed under sanctions in July 2002 by the government of the United States under the Chemical Biological Weapons Sanctions Law. Given the "clear commitment" of the donor countries in the Consultative Group on Indonesia to protecting Indonesia's forests from illegal and unsustainable logging, the NGOs argue, MIGA should not support the pulp mill investment. Wolfensohn has not responded to the NGO's appeal, but no decision has yet been made on MIGA's support for the project.
EU Parliamentary Panel Votes to Limit Air Pollutants BRUSSELS, Belgium, January 27, 2004 (ENS) - The European Parliament's Committee on the Environment, Public Health, and Consumer Policy has voted to curb heavy metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in ambient air.By a narrow margin, the committee adopted a draft legislative proposal containing stricter binding limits on these air pollutants than those proposed by the European Commission, the EU's executive branch. On Wednesday, the committee voted 26 to 24 with two abstentions, to limit values, rather than just monitoring requirements, to regulate arsenic, cadmium, nickel and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in ambient air, as proposed by the rapporteur Hans Kronberger. It also strengthened the provisions to limit emissions of mercury. Europe's largest environmental organization, the European Environmental Bureau (EEB) "warmly welcomed" the decision. "This is an important step towards improving EU air quality and protecting EU citizens from the dangerous effects of these toxic metals," said Kerstin Meyer, air pollution policy officer at the EEB, which represents 143 member organizations in 31 countries. "Binding limit values are necessary to ensure that people can breathe safe air, regardless of the country or neighborhood they live in," said Meyer. But the EEB expressed surprise to see the liberal Members of the European Parliament, as well a member of the UK Labour Party voting against these standards. The EEB also welcomed the committee's vote in favor of introducing long term objectives for the reduction of these air pollutants, which it says already compromise public health. "This Committee has voted at last to prevent people having to breathe toxic waste," said Roberto Ferrigno, EEB's EU policy director. 'It is ridiculous that there are no binding EU air quality standards on substances that are otherwise classified as toxic waste under the EU waste list and recognized as priority hazardous substances in the Water Framework Directive." The draft legislation now goes to the full European Parliament for a vote. PAHs are a group of over 100 different chemicals that are formed during the incomplete burning of coal, oil and gas, garbage, or other organic substances like tobacco or charbroiled meat. PAHs are usually found as a mixture containing two or more of these compounds, such as soot. Lab studies have shown PAHs to cause lung cancer in laboratory animals when they breathed air containing them, and PAHs are also known to cause reproductive problems in lab animals. The World Health Organization has determined that inorganic arsenic is a human carcinogen. Studies have shown that inorganic arsenic can increase the risk of lung cancer, skin cancer, bladder cancer, liver cancer, kidney cancer, and prostate cancer. Breathing high levels of cadmium severely damages the lungs and can cause death. Animal studies show that breathing high levels of nickel compounds may result in inflammation of the respiratory tract. Cadmium and nickel and their compounds may reasonably be anticipated to be carcinogens, health officials say.
SEED: Supporting Entrepreneurs in Environment, Development MUMBAI, India, January 27, 2004 (ENS) – A new global award to support small entrepreneurs in sustainable businesses was launched simultaneously at the World Social Forum in Mumbai and the World Economic Forum in Davos last week.The SEED (Supporting Entrepreneurs in Environment and Development) Awards,” were introduced at a live, video linked panel discussion between participants in both locations. The awards will honor people and organizations that are working together in innovative partnerships that create new strategies for the sustainable use of natural resources. In India, for instance, a network of women slum dwellers is collaborating with UK engineers and a French water company to improve water delivery in their communities. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is one of the founding organizations for the SEED Awards. “We are not trying to set up an international standard for ideal partnerships,” said UNEP Executive Director Klaus Toepfer. “But, rather, to honor, support and promote the entrepreneurial spirt of those working in partnerships that contribute to the achievement of the UN’s Millennium Development Goals and the World Summit for Sustainable Development’s Plan of Implementation.” “By helping entrepreneurs to plant their seeds and bring their ideas to fruition The Seed Awards can help achieve critically important goals like the reduction by half in 2015 of the proportion of the world’s people who are unable to access or afford safe drinking water or do not have access to basic sannitation,” Toepfer said. The new initiative will not award outcomes, but innovative partnership proposals. Award winning partners – whether they are community groups, businesses, workers organizations or local authorities - will receive support in developing business plans, seeking funding and setting up partnerships. Awardees will be fledgling partnership initiatives that show great promise and that have the potential to serve as showcases for other new initiatives. “Partnerships between NGOs, governments, and companies are generating new ideas on how to balance economic, social and environmental needs in a sustainable way,” says Miguel Araujo of IUCN-World Conservation Union, one of the organizations spearheading the new award. “However, not many people know about their success, why they are important, or how partnerships may be useful in their own communities.” The Seed Awards, to be presented every two years, were initiated by UNEP, the UN Development Programme, the IUCN, and the UK based NGO Stakeholder Forum for Our Common Future. The awards will be administered in collaboration with ParthershipsCentral and the Global Public Policy Institute. To date, financial support has been provided by the German government. The initiative is also supported by the United Nations Global Compact. For more information about The Seed Awards initiative see: http://www.seedawards.org
Prince Charles Promotes Seafood Certification, Eco-Labeling LONDON, UK, January 27, 2004 (ENS) - The Prince of Wales uses eco-labeled seafood certified by the London based Marine Stewardship Council in his own line of Duchy natural and organic foods, and now he is promoting the certification scheme within the fishing industry.Speaking at a seafood plant north of London in Grimsby on Friday, Prince Charles said, “In addition to good science and good regulation, we need a system that harnesses the power of the consumer and provides economic incentives to well managed fisheries." "That is exactly what the Marine Stewardship Council does," he said, "and that is why I have been such a strong supporter.” The Prince cited the international Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) program as one of the best examples of ways to address the plight of the world’s seafood resources. At a time when many fisheries are overexploited and marine environments are being damaged by destructive fishing practices, Prince Charles said, we must provide incentives for fisheries to operate responsibly to ensure the future of the seafood we enjoy today. “With 200 MSC labeled products now on sale in 14 countries, it is clear that a significant number of consumers, retailers, food processors and food service providers are willing to support independent certification,” he said. “Only yesterday I heard the encouraging news that four Norwegian fisheries – including one haddock and one cod stock – have decided to go through MSC assessment.” The blue and white MSC eco-label gives consumers a quick and easy way to select the best environmental choices in seafood from fisheries that are not overfished, and do not destroy other non-target fish species, marine mammals and seabirds. Today, seven fisheries have earned certification under the program, including the first U.S. fishery, Alaska salmon. The 100th Alaska salmon product was certified by MSC in December. More than a dozen other fisheries are currently undergoing full assessment by independent, third party certifiers accredited by the MSC, including Pacific halibut, Alaska sablefish, Alaska pollock and British Columbia salmon. Some two dozen fisheries are at other points in the MSC process. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization reports that of the world's commercially important marine fish stocks 25 percent are under-exploited, 47 percent are fully fished, 15 percent are over-exploited, and 10 percent are depleted or slowly recovering. MSC says if fish stocks were better managed, ecosystems would be healthier, and an increase in the world’s fish production by around 10 million metric tons per year might be possible. Consumers can help. When certified seafood, identified by the blue and white MSC eco-label, is preferred in the marketplace, well managed fisheries are rewarded and others have an incentive to improve the way they operate. MSC operates in Europe, Australia, New Zealand and the United States. Americans can find eco-labeled fish in Whole Foods Market stores nationwide and on seafood products including Wildcatch, SeaBear Smokehouse and Vital Choice. National Park visitors will find the eco-label on menus in restaurants operated by Xanterra Parks & Resorts – the first American food service company to commit to providing certified wild Alaska salmon to guests. The Marine Stewardship Council was created in 1997 by WWF and Unilever as a business-green partnership and became independent of its founders in 1999. Wild catch fisheries come forward voluntarily to be assessed against the MSC Standard for Sustainable and Well-managed Fisheries by independent certifiers accredited by the MSC. Visit: http://www.msc.org
Flamingo Lakes of Kenya Explored LEICESTER, UK, January 27, 2004 (ENS) - The University of Leicester, in association with Earthwatch Institute Europe, has received Darwin Initiative funding from the British government for three years to further the conservation of lesser flamingo and Kenya's Lake Bogoria National Reserve, a wetland of international importance designated under the Ramsar Convention.The Darwin Initiative provides a means of mobilizing British expertise, in partnership with conservationists from developing countries worldwide, to help safeguard the Earth's biodiversity. Earthwatch programs team amateur volunteers with scientists to further research and exploration. Project leader Dr. David Harper is a senior lecturer in ecology in the Biology Department at the University of Leicester. He has been leading teams of ecologists to study Rift Valley lakes for 20 years. He started working at Bogoria in 2000 and Baringo in 2001. In 2000, Lake Bogoria was designated as a Ramsar wetland. This status requires the development of a conservation management plan, but there is little scientific information concerning the lake's ecology to aid this process. The lake is a vital feeding site for the threatened lesser flamingo, Phoeniconaias minor, and an important Kenyan site for the black-necked grebe, Podiceps nigricollis, and Cape teal, Anas capensis. The lake often holds more than 90 percent of the total number of both species found in Kenya. Dr. Harper says understanding the interaction between these species and between them and the lake ecology is critical to their conservation and development of a sound management plan for Lake Bogoria. The cornerstone of the scientific research is the monthly research expeditions to the three key flamingo lakes in Kenya - Bogoria, Nakuru and Elmenteita. Never before has the ecology of these three lakes been studied concurrently. The research will be carried out by staff from the project's scientific partners in Kenya - Lake Bogoria National Reserve, National Museums of Kenya Ornithology Department, University of Nairobi Zoology Department, Kenya Wildlife Services Naivasha Training Institute, WWF, and Delamere Estates. Theories about why lesser flamingos move between these lakes in an unpredictable manner can now be tested. Some scientists think that it is a decline in food quality at one lake that triggers movement; others think it is a change in environmental stressors. Scientists will attempt to answer some of their questions about lesser flamingos utilizing satellites to track the birds. Dr. Brooks Childress, who is leading the flamingo study, is a research associate of the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust and at the National Museums of Kenya. He has tagged seven birds to learn their movement patterns. More information about the funding partnerships that have led to satellite-tracking of Kenyan lesser flamingos, as well as the individual birds' movements, are on the WWT website at: http//www.wwt.org.uk. Scientists will try to understand why the lesser flamingos die in large numbers at irregular intervals. They will build up an understanding of the biology of the bird in health, so that a database of knowledge exists when another die-off occurs. They will study body mass, blood cell volume, proportion of different white blood cells and total parasite load. The Darwin Initiative will fund the more expensive analysis, both of blood and environmental samples such as water and sediment from the lakes, in the UK. The Darwin project will identify the essential lake ecosystem properties that sustain these water birds and collect the baseline data needed to help understand the birds' response to changes in these properties. A field laboratory will be established, and the results will also be translated and disseminated to local communities living around the lake who will be responsible for its conservation. The training component funded by the Darwin Project can be seen as an educational pyramid, with formal university training of a few core partners at the pinnacle, leading down to a base stretching out to all the inhabitants of the area of Lake Bogoria through their schools. Five individuals will receive university training under the Lifelong Learning programme at Leicester. Two will be trained to Masters level in biodiversity. Three more will be trained at undergraduate level in ecology and conservation. Nine Kenyans will be invited to apply to fully participate in the Earthwatch research teams at one per team, and 120 Kenyan undergraduate students and scientists will be invited to apply for weeklong workshops. The famous ornithologist, Leslie Brown, who discovered the flamingo breeding site at Lake Natron, wrote in 1979, "Personally, I hope that no one ever will fully rationalize flamingos, and that they will remain the supremely beautiful, elusive, opportunistic, unpredictable beings I like to think they are." To find out more, contact Dr. David Harper at: dmh@le.ac.uk
World's Largest Solar Power Station Set for Summer MUNICH, Germany, January 27, 2004 (ENS) - Shell Solar GmbH and Gesellschaft für Solarenergie (GEOSOL) plan to build the largest solar power station in the world, south of Leipzig in Germany. GEOSOL is the initiator and project developer while Shell Solar is the prime construction contractor, the companies jointly announced last week.The solar power station, due on stream in July, will be built on a former lignite mine ash deposit near Espenhain. The free-standing array will be made up of some 33,500 solar modules. The total output of five megawatts will be fed directly into the grid operated by enviaM Mitteldeutsche Energie AG, and will be sufficient to meet the electricity demand of about 1,800 households. The companies estimate the solar power station will save some 3,700 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually. In the Epsenhain project, Shell Solar will be using high performance photovoltaic modules of the new Shell SQ series in large scale industrial production for the first time. These modules are capable of handling high-voltage and delivering the highest energy yields. Siemens AG is supplying the inverters, the transformers and the medium-voltage connection equipment. To date, Shell Solar has supplied solar cells and modules with a total peak capacity in excess of 350 megawatts. This corresponds to about one-fifth of the entire capacity installed worldwide. In 1997 Shell Solar completed an installation at the Munich Trade Centre that is still the world’s largest roof mounted photovoltaic installation. Shell Solar is part of Shell Renewables, a core business of the Royal Dutch/Shell Group of Companies.
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