Southeast Asia’s Greater Mekong sub-region – a biodiversity hot spot – risks losing more than a third of its remaining forest cover within the next two decades if governments fail to boost protection, value and restore natural capital, and embrace green growth, warns a new WWF report.
WWF’s analysis reveals the Greater Mekong has retained about 98 million hectares of natural forest, just over half of the region’s land area, but further rapid loss is expected if current deforestation rates persist. Between 1973 and 2009, the five countries of the Greater Mekong lost just under one-third of their remaining forest cover.
Hong Kong customs have had some success of late in tackling the underground trade of illegal wildlife products, with large shipments of smuggled wildlife goods been intercepted through its ports. Between October 2012 and January 2013, three shipments of ivory tusks were seized by Hong Kong customs. The biggest consignment included 1,209 ivory tusks seized in two containers, arriving from Tanzania and Kenya, worth an estimated USD3.5 million.
The line between legal and illegal wildlife products can be blurred and rather confusing in Hong Kong. Firstly, the sale of animal parts is ubiquitous. Crocodile skin, earthworms, seahorses and countless others, are synonymous with their use in traditional medicine.
Authorities in Vietnam’s southern Dong Nai Province have asked the country’s National Assembly to reject the two proposed hydro-power projects, Dong Nai 6 and Dong Nai 6A, because of environmental risks.
There has been continuing controversy for two years over the Dong Nai 6 and Dong Nai 6A dam proposals due to their potentially serious environmental impact.
"Residents along Dong Nai River, including those in Ho Chi Minh City, would suffer an unimaginable disaster if the reservoirs of these hydro-power plants broke," said Tran Van Tu, chairman of Dong Nai People's Council, who also heads the group of National Assembly deputies from Dong Nai Province.
Indonesia’s House of Representatives yesterday passed two international conventions aimed at protecting the country’s biological diversity and the environment and is expected to pass another controversial bill against deforestation within this week.
Tibet is to start construction on its first genetic resource bank, which will help the country protect its genetic resources and ensure sustainable conservation, according to the regional science and technology department.
A USD10 million grant has been committed by the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF) to address the environmental crisis affecting Southeast Asia’s most threatened regions.
The world’s only wildlife trade treaty yesterday confirmed measures to protect sharks and rays at the final day of 11-day meeting of the Convention on the International Trade of Endangered Species, CITES, despite desperate moves by Japan and Grenada, in the Caribbean, to derail the agreement.
Against the expectations of some, an international conference on endangered species has voted to restrict cross-border trade on several species of critically endangered but commercially valuable sharks and rays.
Delegates to the 16th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), currently taking place in Bangkok, passed the motion by a two-thirds majority, despite some hefty lobbying by China and Japan.
Japan’s new fisheries minister said the island nation will never stop hunting whales as it is an integral part of Japanese culture in an interview with the AFP agency.
The conservation of one of the world’s most critical but threatened forest areas in the Indonesian portion of the island of Borneo is to get USD4.5 million financial support from the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
Declining harvests of caterpillar fungus, also known as yarsagumba in the Himalayas, could lead to a relapse in efforts to conserve forests and biodiversity in the mountain region, according to two recent studies.
Shanghai plans to promote wildlife protection, a green economy ethos and youth engagement with environmental conservation following the signing of landmark agreement with the UN Environment Program (UNEP).
The Asia Pulp & Paper Group (APP) – one of the world's largest paper companies – has pledged to stop its suppliers cutting down natural forests in Indonesia. It hopes this will help preserve the threatened habitats of endangered species, increase respect for the rights of the region’s indigenous peoples and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from carbon-rich peatland.
APP worked with environmental NGOs Greenpeace and the The Forest Trust (TFT) on the plan, which came into effect at the beginning of February.
The Chinese government reassured India this week that dams it is planning to build on the Brahmaputra River would not impact flood control efforts or the ecological environment in downstream regions.
The Indian government is yet again reassessing the environmental licensing for the country's mines. This time a nine-member group of ministers headed by agriculture minister Sharad Pawar will look at the environment ministry's report on identifying inviolate forest areas where mining should be barred.
This report by the World Bank spells out what the world would be like if it warmed by 4 degrees Celsius, which is what scientists are nearly unanimously predicting by the end of the century, without serious policy changes.
Companies in Asia reveal expectations that regulations that could lead to rising costs for reporting and reducing GHG emissions will also be the main sources of climate-related business opportunities.
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