09/13/00 
OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY 
by Forests.org

The Earth and its species are undergoing an unprecedented period of mass extinction that continues to worsen. Thousands, if not tens of thousands, of species will go extinct in the coming decades due largely to loss and fragmentation of habitat. The first primate in several centuries, a West African monkey called the Miss Waldron's red colobus, was just declared extinct-a likely portend of many more to come. There has been a shocking lack of substantive policy initiatives by the World's governments to address the biodiversity crisis--this despite the fact that the extinction crisis threatens serious and irreversible damage to our environment. Long-term food production is at risk as genetic diversity is lost. The Planet's ecosystems services, climate and soil are all dependent upon large areas of habitat with stable configurations of native biodiversity. Following is coverage of the recent declared extinction, and an important new report on the subject with policy recommendations to the German government. It is imperative that the conservation of biological diversity becomes a major international rallying cry. Our and many other equally valuable species depend upon it. 
g.b.

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ITEM #1 
West African Monkey Is Extinct, Scientists Say
Copyright 2000 The New York Times Company
September 12, 2000
By ANDREW C. REVKIN

For the first time in several centuries, a member of the primate order, the taxonomic group to which human beings belong, has become extinct, scientists say.

The vanished primate, Miss Waldron's red colobus, was not nearly as charismatic as, say, a chimpanzee or orangutan. Indeed, debate has not yet ended on whether the loud- mouthed, red-cheeked monkey from the rain forest canopy of Ghana and the Ivory Coast deserved full status as a species in its own right or should remain a colobus subspecies.

But now that debate is moot, a team of experts reports in the October issue of the peer-reviewed journal Conservation Biology.

And biologists say this is just the beginning of what they foresee as a growing stream of extinctions of West African primates and other wildlife. Fragmentation of forests by logging and road building has created isolated islands of animals that are being systematically trapped and shot by hunters supplying the lucrative trade in bush meat, which is flowing to urban restaurants.

In the paper, the five authors, led by John F. Oates, an anthropologist from Hunter College in Manhattan, conclude, "The extinction of Miss Waldron's red colobus may be the first obvious manifestation of an extinction spasm that will soon affect other large animals in this region unless more rigorous protection is applied immediately."

For biologists, proposing that something is extinct requires a special level of confidence because no one wants to be the expert who gets it wrong, and this time around, at least according to several scientists familiar with the study, the authors' confidence is justified.

Ross D. E. MacPhee, an expert on extinction and the curator of mammals at the American Museum of Natural History, said the authors, by carefully monitoring the monkeys' habitat and history over several decades, have created a rare, valuable picture of the evolutionary endgame.

Extinction is a process, not an event, Dr. MacPhee said, adding, "Most species do not wink out in an instant." With the disappearance of Miss Waldron's red colobus, scientists have had a front-row seat.

The last primate extinction documented by science occurred in the early 1700's, Dr. MacPhee said, with the disappearance from Jamaica of Xenothrix mcgregori. The next most recent extinctions occurred in Madagascar in the 1500's, he said, with the loss of several giant lemurs.

Lists of endangered primates now include lemurs from Madagascar, tamarins from Brazil, langurs from Vietnam, Sumatran orangutans, gorillas, and a variety of monkeys.

The last sightings of Miss Waldron's red colobus were in the 1970's, and a concerted seven-year effort to visit every last scrap of the swampy rain forests the monkey preferred ended late last month in the Ivory Coast without even a hint of its presence, said W. Scott McGraw, an anthropologist at Ohio State University who is a co-author of the paper.

"A healthy forest is loud, but this was like being in a deserted cathedral," Dr. McGraw said. "You don't hear anything, you don't hear birds. You stumble over snares and shotgun shells." Dr. McGraw said he offered bounties to bush-meat hunters who could lead him to a red colobus - $100 if he could hear the monkey's call or $200 for a sighting - with no results.

Satellite photographs were searched for any forgotten forest tracts.

Many ecologists have projected that dozens of obscure species of plants and animals are becoming extinct each year as tropical forests are invaded by farmers, loggers and hunters. But these vanishings are all theoretical.

What makes the apparent end of this monkey noteworthy, scientists say, is that it was a conspicuous, large mammal -weighing up to 20 pounds - and also because it was related, though distantly, to the scientists who studied it.

"People don't really worry about cockroaches or newts too much, but when you lose a large primate that's a culmination of lots of years of evolution and with which we share a lot of genes, the consequences to humans of that kind of loss - both practical and emotional - are much greater," said John G. Robinson, a primatologist and vice president of the Wildlife Conservation Society, which supported recent searches for the monkey.

Miss Waldron's, Procolobus badius waldroni, is one of about a dozen variations of red colobus monkey, a group with distinctive long limbs and tails and a voracious appetite for the leaves of tropical treetops.

The monkey was first described by scientists in 1936, based on eight specimens shot in 1933 by Willoughby P. Lowe, a collector for British museums. It was named for one Miss F. Waldron, who was described in various references as a traveling companion of Mr. Lowe.

By the 1950's, deforestation and hunting were already threatening the monkey, although it remained common in a few places in southern Ghana.

Echoing the authors of the paper, Peter Grubb, a zoologist and African mammal expert associated with the Natural History Museum in London, said that, with better management of game preserves in Ghana and the Ivory Coast, the monkey could probably have been saved.

It is probably worth waiting awhile before Miss Waldron's is formally relegated to history, Dr. Grubb said, "but it doesn't sound like there's much hope."

ITEM #2
Biodiversity Report Submitted To German Government
Dramatic Loss Of Biological Diversity Endangers Chances For Future Generations
German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU)
September 13, 2000

BERLIN-The "German Advisory Council on Global Change" (WBGU) is presenting its annual report today to the State Secretary Simone Probst (Federal Environment Ministry) and the State Secretary Wolf- Michael Catenhusen (Federal Ministry for Education and Research). In this report, "World in Transition: Conservation and Sustainable Use of the Biosphere", the experts come to the conclusion that, in view of the dramatic loss of biological diversity, there is an urgent need for international action; otherwise the development chances of future generations are at risk. Irreplaceable ecological systems, such as the tropical rain forest or coral reefs, are endangered. Every day natural species are lost due to human intervention.

It is feared that this development will lead to serious damage to our environment. Through the loss of gene reserves, food production for the ever increasing world population is also at risk. Destruction of the diversity in ecological systems not only diminishes the natural heritage of mankind, but also undermines the service provided by the living nature to general functioning of the "Earth system". Therefore, protecting biological diversity is at the same time protection of climate and soil.

For a successful international "biosphere policy" which reaches beyond the classical biodiversity policy because of its relationship to climate and soil protection, the WBGU recommends that as many participants and institutions as possible are integrated, since the state cannot manage this task on its own. According to the experts, it is a question here not only of protecting the gene and ecological system, as well as the diversity of species, but also, of ensuring their sustainable use.

Protect 10-20% of the global land area

The Advisory Council considers that further development and consolidation of existing global systems in protected areas to be an urgent matter. For this purpose an area of at least 10-20% of the global land area should be legally protected. New nature reserves should be identified according to ecological criteria, a connection between existing nature reserves established and these should be developed with the objective of setting up a nature reserve system. However, the implementation of the European Guidelines (Flora-Fauna- Habitat Guideline, Bird Protection Guideline) in Germany is still unsatisfactory. Latest investigations have shown that a world-wide nature reserve system, encompassing about 15% of the global land area, would cost about 50 billion marks per year. Over 12 billion marks have already been spent today world-wide for the conservation of nature reserves; therefore financing of the remaining 38 billion marks by the international community is not an impossible task. By reducing and restructuring environmentally harmful subsidies, for example for agriculture, suitable funds could be released.

"Intergovernmental Panel on Biological Diversity"

Scientific advice on international biosphere policies is inadequate. For this reason, in 1995 the first scientific survey on the situation regarding biological diversity was submitted in a global report of the UN. This work has not been carried on continuously, however. As a first step it should be examined to what extent these tasks could be achieved by a closer linking up of existing institutions. However, it can be assumed that on this basis the establishment of a scientific expert committee for biodiversity will be necessary, for instance in the form of an "International Panel on Biological Diversity" (IPBD). In a panel of this kind all the leading scientists could be brought together, as this has already been achieved in climate politics.

Conserve the diversity of cultivated plants

Conservation of biological diversity is of great importance for safeguarding global food security. The WBGU therefore recommends the promotion of as much diversified agricultural production as possible. A "red list" of endangered cultivated plants should be drawn up, since many traditional varieties, the raw material for developing new varieties of food crops, are in danger of being lost. A large part of the collections of rare plant varieties ("gene banks") throughout the world is considered to be at risk. Existing collections must therefore be safeguarded, supplemented by particularly important varieties and linked up globally. In doing so it should be ensured that "backup copies" of collections also exist.

Support "nature sponsorship"

It will hardly be possible to protect biological diversity globally by public financing alone. Therefore the WBGU suggests that the efforts already initiated by various non-governmental organisations to create a privately operated and tax-privileged "biosphere fund" should be supported politically. The objective of such a fund should be to protect available areas of strategic importance for the biological diversity of the Earth, which are not yet under state care. For this purpose a public limited company could be established, whose shareholders would have the right to vote or a claim to profits, for example, through tourism. The WBGU recommends furthermore that the tax liability of foundations in Germany is reduced, for example in the form of an amended foundation law, with tax privileges for environmental foundations.

Integrate "bioregional management" in existing area planning

The WBGU recommends that the strategy of "bioregional management" is applied to land utilisation. This should be orientated towards the categories "protection before utilisation", "protection through utilisation" and "protection despite utilisation", and aligned with the integration of all important participants. It should be examined as to what extent this approach can be more effectively coupled to the German planning system. Integration of protection and utilisation of the biological diversity can be more easily achieved with bioregional management than solely through measures ordered "from above". This concept is particularly suitable for development co- operation.

Implement the Biodiversity Convention more resolutely

The Convention on Biological Diversity is currently the central international regulatory instrument for biological diversity. This was brought into being in 1992, and has been ratified by 178 parties up to now. In this convention the contracting parties commit themselves to conservation of biological diversity, sustainable use of its components and benefit sharing. Implementation of these objectives ought to be carried out more energetically in Germany. For this purpose sectored strategies should be developed in the federal ministries, as has already taken place in the Federal Ministry for Economic Co-operation and Development (BMZ). Close co-operation of the federal ministries is an important prerequisite here; therefore the WBGU recommends the setting up of an "Interministerial Working Group for Biodiversity Policy".

Obligatory regulation of forest protection

Uncontrolled logging is still proceeding, making the realisation of a successful climate policy more and more difficult, and destroying valuable biological diversity. In order to improve world-wide forest protection, in the past the WBGU has called for a forest protocol to the Biodiversity Convention, and still considers this solution to be the most promising one. In a forest convention, to be negotiated and established by the UN-Organisation for Food and Agriculture (FAO), equal rights of protection and sustainable use, like already anchored in the Biodiversity Convention, would have to be reintroduced. However, more important than an agreement is its quick adoption and its legally binding status.

Reinforce the MAB programme of the UNESCO

The UNESCO programme "Man and the Biosphere" (MAB) provides good conditions for regional implementation of the Biodiversity Convention. In particular the WBGU welcomes the trend to larger, better linked and increasingly crossboundary biosphere reserves. However, the MAB-programme could be used more effectively as an instrument in international co-operation for biosphere protection. Since this programme has no financing mechanism of its own, the states should be encouraged to use the possibilities of the GEF to a greater extent.

Intensify bi- and multilateral co-operation

Germany is involved to a considerable extent in international biosphere protection, and is the third largest contributor to the Global Environmental Facility (GEF). Germany is also leading in implementing debt for nature swaps. The initiative of the Federal Republic regarding debt relief for the heavily indebted, poor developing countries ("Cologne Debt Initiative") is also expressly welcomed by the WBGU, since it provides the affected countries more scope for action - also for nature conservation measures.

Nevertheless, in view of the declining trend in Official Development Assistance by the OECD countries over many years, with at the same time a growing pressure from global problems, greater financial commitment of the international community is absolutely necessary. With great concern the WBGU noticed that the international community is further away than ever from the 0.7% target. In the opinion of the scientists an increase in funds for German development co-operation to a target figure of 1% of the gross national product is desirable, in accordance with the resolutions of the Earth Summit of Rio de Janeiro, and is appropriate to the urgency of the problems.

The WBGU

The WBGU was established by the Federal Government in early 1992 as an independent scientific advisory council. The following reports have appeared so far in the "World in Transition" series: Basic Structure of People-Environment Relations (1993), The Threat to Soils (1994), Ways Towards Global Environmental Solutions (1995), The Research Challenge (1996), Sustainable Management of Freshwater Resources (1997), and Strategies for the Management of Global Environmental Risks (1998). The Council also prepared special reports on the occasion of the climate summits in 1995, 1997 and 1998. In 1999 the council publisehd a special report on Environment and Ethics.

Please direct your queries to the WBGU secretariat Tel. ++49 471 4831 1723 (wbgu@wbgu.de) or to Prof. Dr. Schellnhuber ++40 331 288 2502. Press releases and reports can be downloaded under: www.wbgu.de/.

P.O. Box 12 01 61 D-27515 Bremerhaven Germany Fax: ++49-4711-4831-1218 Phone: ++49-4711-4831-1723

German Advisory Council on Global Change Wissenschaftlicher Beirat der Bundesregierung Globale Umweltvernderungen, WBGU

For more information, contact: Benno Pilardeaux Dr German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU) 49-471-4831-1723 bpilardeaux@wbgu.de Web site: http://www.wbgu.de Error: Unable to read footer file.