Wildlife Management Urgent in Climate-Changed World New UNEP report Outlines Threats and Challenges to the Long Distance Travelers of the Natural World
UNEP (Posted by YubaNet.com)
25 Nov 2006
Climate change is and will increasingly have dramatic impacts on migratory species from whales and dolphins to birds and turtles a new report by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) says. Some species, like green turtles, are suffering higher levels of tumours with the rise linked to warmer waters that may be favouring infections. Others, like the North Atlantic Right Whale, may be impacted by a decline in their main food source-plankton-as a result shifts in big ocean currents says the study launched at the climate convention talks in Nairobi. Meanwhile changes and losses in habitats have - and are likely to increasingly have in the future - significant impacts on species that migrate long distances.
The report, by UNEP's Convention on Migratory Species, has been compiled with support from the UK Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. It cites lower water tables and more frequent droughts that will reduce habitat for theBaikal Teal and foraging grounds for species like the Aquatic Warbler. Around a fifth of the bird species listed under the Convention could be affected by rising sea levels, erosion and greater wave action linked with climate change including the Lesser-White Fronted Goose. Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and UNEP Executive Director, said: "Biodiversity - a term for the range of animal, plant and other life on this planet - is already suffering from a range of impacts including over exploitation, loss and damage to habitats and pollution.
Related Links
>>>Migratory Species and Climate Change:
Impacts of a Changing Environment on Wild Animals by UNEPCMS
South Korea Culls 236,000 Poultry to Halt Bird Flu
Reuters
27 Nov 2006
South Korea expects to cull 236,000 poultry by the end of the week to prevent spreading of the highly virulent H5N1 strain of bird flu, after the country's first outbreak in three years, officials said on Monday. The Agriculture Ministry will cull all poultry within a 500-metre (1,640-ft) radius of a farm in North Cholla province about 170 km (100 miles) from Seoul where officials said on the weekend the avian influenza strain had been detected. The quarantine will also include culling about 300 pigs and 600 dogs within the area. "We finished culling of all poultry at the infected farm on Saturday and began slaughtering other poultry near the farm from yesterday," said an official at the Agriculture ministry.
Quarantine authorities also banned the shipment of more than 5 million poultry from 221 farms within a 10-km (6.2-mile) radius of the farm. Shares in the country's top chicken meat processor Halim Co. Ltd. <024660.kq> were down 3.07 percent at 2,525 won by 0302 GMT, underperforming a 0.3 percent fall in broader market <.KS11>. North Korea is also stepping up measures to prevent bird flu, its official media said on Monday. North Korea, which had an outbreak of bird flu at two poultry farms near Pyongyang in February 2005, said it had inoculated poultry and increased checks along its borders.
Scientists Prove SARS-Civet Cat Link
China Daily
23 Nov 2006
Qiu Quanlin
A group of scientists recently announced that a joint research team had found a genetic link between the SARS coronavirus appearing in civet cats and humans, bearing out claims that the disease had jumped across species. Health authorities initially blamed the outbreak of the mysterious respiratory illness on the cat-like animal. It was thought that SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, had spread to humans from civet cats that had been slaughtered for their meat. The results of the research project, jointly conducted by the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, Hong Kong University and the Guangzhou Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, are believed to be the first to provide a genetic basis for how SARS spread.
"Our research has shown that the SARS coronavirus found in human victims is the same as the SARS coronavirus found in civet cats," said Wang Ming, an official from the Guangzhou Centre for Disease Control and Prevention. Wang added that the discovery provided proof that civet cats had spread SARS to humans. Based on the team's findings, Wang advised the public to be cautious about eating wild animals, particularly civet cats. However, civet cats are still being sold in markets around Guangzhou, the capital of South China's Guangdong Province.
Prospects Increasing for Helping Threatened Frogs' Survival
KVOA
25 Nov 2006
Survival prospects could leap upward for the threatened Chiricahua leopard frog _ if such mortal threats as bullfrogs and fungal disease can be dealt with. The green critters speckled with black dots, native to portions of Arizona, New Mexico and northern Mexico, have dwindled greatly in population and habitat because of factors ranging from nonnative predators to disease, drought and habitat destruction _ essentially ranches being broken up for development. But since 2000, even before the frogs' 2002 listing as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act, federal and state wildlife agencies have been developing a plan to get ranchers and other private landowners to help protect them through so-called safe harbor agreements. "It's really a win-win sort of situation, because it benefits wildlife, it benefits the private landowners, scientists, the general public and wildlife managers," said Valerie Boyarski, amphibians and reptiles conservation planner for the Arizona Game and Fish Department.
"It provides protection against regulatory repercussions when dealing with threatened species that might be on their property." "If a landowner enters into agreement with us, it buys the landowner's cooperation in restoring or making habitat available for the species, even if it's of short term," said Jeff Humphrey, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spokesman. "And in return, the landowner gets to have the assurance that if in the future he has to return to a baseline situation, free of any frogs, he doesn't face any liability." The safe harbor agreement program, in the planning stages for several years and officially signed statewide in late September, is expected to start in earnest in 2007.
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