World’s second largest biosphere reserve at risk

Bari Baloch

QUETTA-The mineral rich province of Balochistan not only covers 44 percent of entire Pakistan’s land mass but has also a 780-km long coastal area, a 7000 year old civilization of Mehrgarh to its credit and is bestowed with unique juniper forests stretching on thousands of acres in Ziarat, Zarghoon and Harbohi areas of the province.
The invaluable juniper forests of Ziarat are as old as 5000 years and are counted the world’s second largest and oldest forests only after the juniper forests of California. Sadly, increasing temperature, lukewarm response on the part of government in preserving ancient forests and incessant cutting of trees for fuel and other purposes have brought juniper forests of Zairat at the verge of alarming extinction. The juniper trees are facing a double count threat on the one hand from parasite infection and on the other hand by ruthless chopping off by timber mafia for the sake of a trivial amount.
Junipers are one of the slowest growing trees in the world and are therefore regarded as “living fossils”. The junipers of Ziarat are the largest block in entire region but this all is changing very fast. Approximately 247,000 acres of juniper forest trees are found at an elevation ranging from 1,980 to 3,350 meters above sea-level. Along with other specialties, these trees divert rainwater into the ground and replenishing the underground water resources which irrigate the soil and also produce medical herbs such as Ephedra and Artemisia.
Although Ziarat valley is still striving hard to sustain its cool climate, serene environment, rich fruit orchards and forest yet a huge change is evident in its weather, its temperature, wideness and thickness of forest and ever-dropping water- level during the last three decades. “Ziarat used to be famous for its cool atmosphere and scenic views not only in Balochistan but also across the entire country which now sadly presents a drastically changed picture,” says Muhammad Jaffar, a resident of district Ziarat. Quoting his forefathers, he says Ziarat and its surrounding areas used to receive heavy showers and snowfall with the advent of winter while the heavy snow on the peaks of mountains used to melt very slowly that could be seen even in the hottest months of June and July.
“Nowadays, soon after snowfall, the ice on the peaks of mountains starts melting and till March one would observe the mountains peaks without the traditional snow sheet,” Mr. Jaffar said, adding that increasing temperature and deforestation were showing their negative aftermaths on the climate of the area. A deadly parasite infection named as Mistletoe is like a cancer which has ruined the juniper forests to a larger extent as when it infects any part of the tree, there will be no other option other than cutting down the whole tree or its affected branch. No adequate concentration is paid by the authorities concerned to control this parasite that has turned to be a juniper killer. Owing to infestation, the juniper trees get dry and their smaller branches break down.
Reportedly, this Mistletoe infestation was detected in 1970s by scientist working to investigate the reasons of Juniper death and later it was ascertained that 50 percent of juniper trees are infected in Ziarat. An official of forest department says that the parasite travel through wind from one affected trees to other healthy tree that ultimately leads to the cutting down of the trees. “Besides other reasons, the impact of climate change is also contributing a lot in deforestation not only in Balochistan but also in other parts of the country. Therefore, hardly a new juniper tree is seen in Ziarat,” forest officer said.
Experts say if emergent steps were not taken on war-footings, the deadly parasite, illegal cutting of the trees and impact of climate change could not only deprive Balochistan from this natural treasure but also entire world.
Officials of Forest Wildlife Department say the forest and wildlife department will spend $ 2.3 million during a seven-year period that began in 2012 to protect the Ziarat juniper biosphere reserve, and a team of 80 workers in the forest to monitor and keep it away from being deforested though budget is not enough.
Experts say protecting juniper trees can boost the economy through tourism and they will not use the slow-growing juniper wood for fuel and the area must properly be facilitated with gas.
More and more wild plants are needed to be planted and they must be given protection until they developed into fully grown trees. UNESCO has declared Ziarat juniper forest a “biosphere reserve” Pakistan’s second, and United Nations has added the forest to the world network of Biosphere reserve.
Balochistan government recently approved three projects to protect environment, forests and slow down the impact of climate change under which in coastal areas mangrove forests would be planted, desert trees would be grown in the desert areas of district Nushki, Kharan, Washuk and Chagai which could provide shelter to the local populace from sand storm and technical and professional capacity of officials and other people would be built to play their role in protecting extinct species, trees and wildlife. The government has also directed department concerned to take immediate and effective steps for protection of the forests in Balochistan wildlife and reducing the impact of climate change.

http://www.nation.com.pk/snippets/09-Dec-2013/world-s-second-largest-biosphere-reserve-at-risk

UNDP FOCUS ON Balochistan

BARI BALOCH July 31, 2013

QUETTA – “UNDP is committed to protect valued forests and species of Balochistan as Juniper forests and wildlife in the province are very precious to the whole world and they must be protected”, this was stated by Country Director of United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Pakistan Marc-Andre Franche addressing a gathering at Serena Hotel Quetta on Tuesday.
Marc was briefed on the achievements in the recently completed projects named Biodiversity Conservation and Juniper Forest Ecosystem and Conservation of Habitat & Species of Global Significance in Arid & Semi-arid Ecosystem of Balochistan.
Marc-Andre appreciated the project’s encouraging outcomes and assured their support in future for same initiatives. He said that Balochistan is a rich province in biodiversity saying that natural resources, local wisdom and knowledge were also very crucial for its sustainable management.
The five year projects had been completed jointly by UNDP, IUCN, GEF and Government of Balochistan in Ziarat and Nushki districts of Balochistan.
Officials of UNDP Faiz Muhammad Kakar and Tahir Rasheed briefed the audience about the projects and their success in carrying them. Tahir Rasheed told the gathering that his team along with the cooperation of the Forest Department of Balochistan had proposed some changes in the legal framework of the department and suggested addition of an act that would help in protecting the endangered species in the province.
The Act would soon be presented in the provincial assembly for formal legislation. He said that the Act would eliminate illegal trade and hunting of wild animals which were amongst the biggest threats to wild life in Balochistan.
They said that through the two projects sustainable initiatives had been launched which included promoting awareness amongst people, training public staff and building infrastructure for encouraging the people to avoid consuming the precious assets. The gathering was also informed that the efforts of UNDP and its partners the Juniper Forests of Ziarat had been included in the World Network of Biospheres by UNESCO.
At the occasion the Secretary Forests Government of Balochistan Khudai Rahim Ejbani thanked UNDP and donors of the project for their efforts in protecting the valuable assets of Balochistan. “The technical and financial assistance provided in the projects have been very useful for the province” he said adding that such support would be required in future ensure protection to the forests and wild life in Balochistan.
Also present at the seminar were Secretary Planning and Development Zeeshan ul Haq, Chief Conservators of Forest Department, Syed Ghulam Muhammad and Taj Muhammad, Local leaders Nawabzada Mehboob Jogezai and Sardar Naseer Tareen and members of beneficiary communities.

US supports Nepalese system to detect forest fires

By Saleem Shaikh
Thomson Reuters Foundation – Thu, 16 May 2013 02:53 PM

Hira Pulami peels bark from the trunk of a pine tree burned in a forest fire that broke out in mid-April in Seti Devi village, 16 km southwest of Kathmandu. TRF/Saleem Shaikh

SETI DEVI, Kathmandu (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – For Hira Pulami, seeing the charred trunks of the precious pine trees he grew up with is a cause of lingering pain. But he is hopeful that Nepal’s new forest-fire detection system will help avoid a repeat of the recent catastrophe that struck his village.

“I myself planted with these hands many of the pine trees that burned down during the raging forest fire in Seti Devi last month,” he said sorrowfully.

Seti Devi is a scenic mountain village, 16 km southwest of Kathmandu. Popular with tourists, it is renowned for its ancient pine trees.

Pulami was asleep when the blaze erupted in his village on the night of April 14, proceeding to burn for almost 36 hours.

Army troops, backed by police and fire fighters, arrived some 21 hours after the fire began. The delay was caused by the village’s location on a steep mountain without proper road access, the 40-year-old said.

Pointing to a large area that now looks like unsightly wasteland, Pulami said that, after engulfing most of the tall pines in Seti Devi, the wildfire rapidly swept through the forests in the adjoining villages of Sheshnarayan and Chhaimale.

“Local people used every resource at hand to douse it, but in vain, for it was too fierce to be tamed by just a few of us,” he recalled.

Besides thousands of decades-old pine trees, precious medicinal herbs were also reduced to cinders in just a few hours, Pulami said, his voice choking with grief.

1,000 FIRES SINCE MARCH

Police deputy superintendent Guru Bishnu Kafle told Kantipur News TV on April 22 that, since the dry season started in the third week of March, Nepal had already witnessed forest fires in over 1,000 places, destroying both community and public forests and protected areas including the Chitwan National Park, Parsa Wildlife Reserve and Annapurna Conservation Area.

The forest fire season continues until mid-August, but official records indicate that about 60 percent of wildfires occur in March and April, Kafle said.

The major causes include mismanagement of the ‘slash and burn’ agriculture method in forests, lack of community awareness programmes, careless use of flammable substances, and the absence of plans to demarcate firebreaks.

Sundar Sharma, coordinator of the UNISDR-Regional South Asia Wildfire Network , said preparedness and response mechanisms for forest fires are weak in Nepal.

According to the Nepal forest fire management chapter of the network, around 239,000 hectares of forests were destroyed by wildfires in 2009-2010 alone.

RISING TEMPERATURES

Temperatures are rising in mountain areas close to Kathmandu, largely due to increased deforestation, as trees are cut down for fuel in the winter and land is cleared for urbanisation, which also hikes vehicle emissions and timber demand. The risk of forest fires is growing in line with these trends.

Pulami said forest fires have become more frequent as the local climate has warmed over the past decade. In the past, the winter cold would last until late April, but now warm days are occurring as early as mid-March, he explained.

“The latest forest fire incident in my village was the fourth in the most recent three years of my 40-year life,” he said.

So he was glad to learn that through a new SMS service that sends alerts to mobile phones, he can now be informed of a wildfire incident within just 20 minutes of its detection.

“(This) can really help us tackle a forest fire…before it spreads far and wide,” he said with hope. “Wildfires are easily controllable when on a smaller scale.”

U.S. SUPPORT

The “Forest Fire Detection and Monitoring System” was launched in March 2012 as a pilot programme in a few of Nepal’s forest districts by the Kathmandu-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD).

Technical support has been provided by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), with funding from USAID, under the multi-million-dollar SERVIR-Himalaya initiative.

The Nepalese system uses data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument on NASA satellites, combined with geographic information system (GIS) and remote sensing (RE) technologies, to carry out automated data acquisition, processing and reporting on exact fire locations.

After the successful test phase, ICIMOD rolled out the system in late April in collaboration with the Ministry of Forest and Soil Conservation in all of Nepal’s 75 districts, as part of national climate change adaptation and mitigation efforts.

Sudip Pradhan, leader of the project at ICIMOD, told Thomson Reuters Foundation that the system now sends forest fire alerts via SMS and email to 200 subscribers, who include district forest officials and local members of the Federation of Community Forest Users’ Group Nepal.

“In view of the country’s large area, satellite data have proved highly useful for near real-time fire detection, monitoring and assessment of burnt areas,” he said.

The system, planted on the roof of ICIMOD headquarters, receives images directly from NASA’s Terra and Aqua satellites. These are processed by ICIMOD, and if fires are detected, alerts are sent out to subscribers in just 15 to 20 minutes to help them respond quickly, Pradhan explained.

RESPONSE KEY

Forest Management Officer Pashupati Koirala said the system would help his colleagues across the country, as well as the wardens of protected areas.

“Once the forest officers get fire alerts, they pass on the information to forest range posts and coordinate with the community forest user groups,” Koirala said. “This is really helping us overcome forest fires very soon after they break out, to stave off loss of life, as well as damage to forest resources and public properties.”

The fire notifications are particularly useful as they provide geographical details such as longitude, latitude, district and village names, and even ward numbers, he added.

Pramod Kumar Aggarwal, South Asia programme leader for the CGIAR Research Programme on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), warned that the success of the new system will depend on how forest officials on the ground react to the alerts.

“Certainly such an information system is a key to efficient protection of forest resources, and further progress can be achieved through timely and efficient response to the forest fire detection and monitoring,” he said.

ICIMOD’s Pradhan said the centre has chalked out a plan to share the system with other South Asian countries. Collaboration is underway with Bhutan and Bangladesh, and the technology will be soon transferred to them, he said.

Staff in forest departments and others concerned will also receive hands-on training to be able to run the fire detection systems effectively, he added.

Saleem Shaikh and Sughra Tunio are climate change and development reporters based in Islamabad.

Effort to end global illegal ivory trade urged

NAIROBI/ISLAMABAD: On a fact-finding mission to Kenya, film actress Li Bingbing–one of China’s most popular celebrities and a rising Hollywood star–has urged greater effort by governments and consumers to combat illegal wildlife trade.

Li Bingbing said citizens and the business community in Asia can play a crucial role in preventing the illegal killing of elephants in Africa by saying no to ivory products.  The major recent spike in elephant killings–now at their highest levels in around a decade–is threatening the future of some elephant populations and the livelihoods of millions of people linked to tourism.

The visit marks the first overseas engagement for Li Bingbing, recently named ‘Asian Star of the Year’ by Variety magazine, in her role as Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). A dedicated environmental campaigner, Li Bingbing founded the L.O.V.E Green Movement in 2009 which encourages Chinese citizens to adopt resource-efficient, low-carbon lifestyles. She has extensively promoted the Think.Eat.Save: Reduce Your Foodprint campaign by UNEP and partners across social media networks in China. The campaign aims to reduce food waste and food loss worldwide. 

Earlier today, Li Bingbing visited the renowned David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust near Nairobi, where young elephants, many of whom have been orphaned due to poaching, are cared for and often returned to the wild.

“The current poaching crisis raises major concerns about the survival of elephants and rhinos here in Kenya,” said Li Bingbing during a press conference at UNEP headquarters in Nairobi.

“But there are also other, far-reaching impacts. Illegal killings of elephants are being linked to organized crime and the funding of armed militia groups. Many consumers in Asia do not realize that by buying ivory, they are playing a role in the illegal wildlife trade and its serious consequences. As global citizens, we need to take responsibility by learning more about the potential impacts of our lifestyle choices,” she added.

A regular on red carpets from Hollywood to Cannes, Li Bingbing is among the most recognized faces in China and counts over 20 million followers on Chinese social media networks among her many fans. She has starred in a number of high-profile English-language films, including the most recent installment of the hit ‘Resident Evil’ series and ‘The Forbidden Kingdom’ with Jackie Chan and Jet Li.

Rise in Illegal Killing of Elephants 

In the past decade, the number of elephants illegally killed in Africa has doubled, while the ivory trade has tripled, according to a recent study by UNEP and partners, Elephants in the Dust.

Data from the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) monitoring programme ‘Monitoring the Illegal Killing of Elephants’ (MIKE), shows that 17,000 elephants were illegally killed in 2011. MIKE covers areas home to around 40 per cent of African elephants, meaning the true figures may well be even higher. Indications are that the number of elephants killed in 2012 ran into the tens of thousands.

In Cameroon, up to 450 elephants were killed early last year. Profits from poached ivory are believed by some experts to be supporting armed conflict in the region.

Demand for illegal ivory remains highest in the rapidly growing economies of Asia, particularly China. Large-scale seizures of ivory destined for Asia have doubled since 2009. Weak governance in source, transit and destination countries is also contributing to the problem.

“Rising wildlife crime in Kenya and other parts of Africa is an issue of global concern, impacting many regions of the world. Profits from the high price of elephant ivory and rhino horn are being linked to criminal networks involved in the illegal drugs trade, illegal logging, and human trafficking according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime,” said UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner.

“UNEP, CITES and partners are working together to improve collaboration between customs, police forces and national governments to tackle this black market.  But illegal wildlife trade can only be eradicated if the demand for products disappears. Li Bingbing’s work to highlight the multiple costs of illegal trade can reach millions of consumers, and encourage sustainable choices    that can support the survival of Africa’s elephants,” added Mr. Steiner.

UNEP recently signed an agreement with the city of Shanghai–home to 23 million people–to display a series of photographs in the underground rail network highlighting illegal wildlife trade. The images by seven leading international wildlife photographers will draw attention to the black market in elephant ivory, rhino horn, skins, fins and flowers, which is threatening the survival of many endangered species.

A film, Elephant in the Room, produced in partnership with CITES, will be displayed in Shanghai’s main city square. The film traces the origins of an ornament made from illegally-sourced ivory and ends with the tagline, ‘when we stop buying, they stop dying’.

In a joint effort by UNEP and the NGO Save the Elephants, Li Bingbing will travel to the Samburu National Reserve in northern Kenya this week, where she will meet with wildlife experts and visit sites where elephants have recently been killed by poachers.

“An excessive demand for ivory is at the root of the rise in the illegal killing of elephants, and attempts to save them will fail unless this is tackled,” said Iain Douglas-Hamilton, Founder and CEO of Save the Elephants.

“Appetite for ivory can be changed, as it was in the US, Europe and Japan. The reality of what is happening to elephants in Africa must be communicated–such as through the work of Li Bingbing and other celebrities–in ivory consumer countries. If it is not, the outlook for elephants looks very bleak,” he added.

“With the current trend of elephant poaching for ivory across its range, there is a risk of sending elephants to extinction,” said Patrick Omondi, Head of Species Conservation and Management at the Kenya Wildlife Service.

“Global citizens need to come together to fight this internationally organized wildlife crime. A clear strategy on demand reduction in consumer states will go along way in saving the African elephants,” he added.
Besides illegal killings, elephants are also threatened by the increasing loss of habitat in around 29 per cent of their range areas – primarily as a result of human population growth and agricultural expansion. According to the Elephants in the Dustreport, this figure could rise to 63 per cent by 2050, posing a major additional threat to the long-term survival of the species.

Global Illegal Wildlife Crime

The World Wildlife Fund estimates the global illicit trade in wildlife to be worth at least US$19 billion per year, making it the fourth largest illegal trade in the world after narcotics, counterfeiting and human trafficking.

Reptiles, sharks, great apes, and certain timber species are among the flora and fauna most affected by illegal wildlife trade.

A recent UNEP study showed that almost 3,000 live great apes are being taken from the forests of Africa and Southeast Asia each year. The main markets for the illegal trade in chimpanzees, gorillas and organutans include the tourist entertainment industry, disreputable zoos, and individuals who wish to buy great apes as exotic pets.

Research by UNEP and INTERPOL estimates that between 50 to 90 per cent of logging in key tropical countries of the Amazon basin, Central Africa and South East Asia is being carried out by organized crime. This is threatening attempts to reduce deforestation as well as efforts to combat climate change under initiatives such as Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD or REDD+).

Despite ongoing challenges, positive steps are being taken to tackle environmental crime and ensure sustainable trade.

During the recent Conference of the Parties to CITES held in March 2013, some 170 government backed moves to afford increased protection status to hundreds of timber species, certain tortoises and turtles, and other plant and animal species. Five shark species and manta rays were also brought under CITES controls.

Other actions include the establishment of Project Leaf (Law Enforcement Assistance for Forests) – a recent consortium of forests and climate initiatives that aims to combat illegal logging and organized forest crime. The project is led by the INTERPOL Environmental Crime Programme and the UNEP’s collaborative centre in Norway (GRID-Arendal), with support from the Government of Norway.

The story published first in Lahore Times on May 6, 2013

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