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WORLDWIDE
FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS
West
African Monkey is Extinct, Portend of More to Come
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Forest Networking a Project of Forests.org
http://forests.org/ -- Forest
Conservation Archives
http://forests.org/web/ -- Discuss Forest
Conservation
09/13/00
OVERVIEW
& COMMENTARY
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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RELAYED
TEXT STARTS HERE:
ITEM #1
Title: West African Monkey Is Extinct, Scientists
Say
Source: Copyright 2000 The New York Times Company
Date: 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
Title: Biodiversity Report Submitted To German
Government
Dramatic Loss Of Biological Diversity
Endangers Chances For Future
Generations
Source: German Advisory Council on Global Change
(WBGU)
Date: 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