Two new Asian national parks
Burma In 1981, the Government of Burma requested FAO's assistance in a project designed to identify areas suitable for setting up parks and reserves. A three-year project consisting mainly of field surveys was undertaken, and a number of potentially valuable conservation areas were pinpointed. One of these is Alaungdaw Kathapa (1600 km 2), a mountainous tract some 160 km west of Mandalay. The area is covered chiefly with mixed deciduous stands but includes some evergreen forest and pine. Selectively logged in the past for teak, it remains nevertheless relatively undisturbed. The proposed park covers the upper drainage basins of the Patolon and Taungdwin rivers.
Oryx, April 1985
Sri Lanka In an effort to harness its most powerful river, the Mahaweli, the Government of Sri Lanka has launched an important development programme involving the construction of five storage reservoirs combined with agricultural and rural development. This will occur in a 420000-ha area which is predominantly dry. In order to accommodate the planned settlement of about 1 million people in the area, 100 000 ha of high-quality forest lands will be replaced with intensive agriculture and landscape modification to prepare the way for towns, settlements and human infrastructure.
However, Sri Lanka is balancing this development programme with a five-year programme - the Mahaweli Environmental Project -aimed at setting up a system of protected areas. Under this programme, 200 000 ha of land close to the development zone will be devoted to the establishment of four national parks.
This is the first example in Sri Lanka of an integrated scheme where national parks and protected areas are incorporated within an overall development plan.
Tigerpaper, 12(1),1985
Planning for biotechnology centre advances
The panel of scientific advisers for the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, which held its first meeting from 11 to 13 February 1985 at UNIDO headquarters in Vienna, concluded that if the Centre was to achieve a standard of excellence and quality, the selection of outstanding international scientific staff was the most important criterion.
In order to speed up the establishment and operation of the Centre, which will be located in two places - New Delhi and Trieste, Italy, the panel recommended that during 1985 the preparatory committee should enlist between five and ten internationally recognized scientists as "distinguished senior scientists" of the Centre.
The basic objectives of the Centre, as identified by the panel, are to enhance the biotechnology capabilities of developing countries and to focus this technology on the solutions to problems unique to those countries. The panel also emphasized the importance of the Centre's activities in basic and applied research, in training scientists from developing countries, and in developing technology for delivery to developing countries in key areas.
OUTPUT FROM A FIJI CLONE BANK international biotechnology, cooperation advances (C. PALMBERG)
The proposed work programme, estimated to cost US$40 million, covers the first years of operation in both New Delhi and Trieste. It is estimated that three years will be required to bring the Centre into full operating capacity, and that by the fourth year, 31 scientists, 20 post-doctoral fellows and 30 technicians will work at each location. Some 88 trainees are expected to complete a 24-month training course by the end of the five-year period.
Convention signed to protect ozone layer
A Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer was signed by 20 countries and the European Economic Community on 22 March 1985 at a Conference of Plenipotentiaries in Vienna.
The Convention is designed to safeguard the ozone layer, and obliges authorities to take appropriate measures to protect human health and the environment against adverse effects from human activities that could modify the ozone layer. It calls for cooperation in ozone layer research, monitoring and information exchange, and, in particular, the control of emissions of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), believed to have the greatest potential for destroying ozone. The Convention now awaits ratification by the signatory countries.
Italy bans plastic packaging
Starting in 1991, non-biodegradable packaging will be banned in Italy. The ban makes it a legal requirement that packaging be made either from recycled fibres or at least from degradable materials. The delay in implementing the ruling is to allow the packaging industry time to find ways to adjust to the new requirement.
Although the likely beneficiaries of the ban will be kraft sack-paper manufacturers, there have been some recent successes in research into biodegradable plastics. In particular, degradable plastics sensitive to ultraviolet radiation have been developed. In general, it takes three to six months for the ultraviolet radiation in sunlight to break down the plastic's molecular structure. Less progress has been made in the area of biodegradation.
Pulp and Paper International
Dangers of burning biomass
A survey of 36 rural households in India, conducted by the East-West Center in Honolulu, has revealed that women who burn wood or cowdung expose themselves to high levels of pollutants. In India, about 99 percent of the fuels used in the villages for cooking consist of biomass. The survey found that women spend an average of three hours a day cooking and are exposed to 700 micrograms of particulates per m3. The acceptable limit is 75.
Tea vs. paper in the United Republic of Tanzania
The district of Mufundi in the United Republic of Tanzania's Mgololo Valley is entering a new era of industrialization with the construction of an integrated pulp and paper mill. The Southern Paper Mill will produce groundwood and sulphate pulp. With an annual capacity of 60 000 tonnes of industrial and cultural grades, the mill should supply 80 percent of the country's paper needs. The project, supported by the World Bank, the Swedish International Development Authority, the OPEC Special Fund and the European Economic Community, will cost an estimated US$250 million.
Pulp will come from nearby Pinus patula, P. elliottii and some eucalypt species. Since the same sources must also continue to supply the existing Sao Hill sawmill nearby, the question has been raised whether demands made upon forest resources by the two mills will not diminish the supplies of fuel and building material, already in short supply in many areas.
Although the mill is expected to create favourable economic and employment opportunities, it could have a negative environmental impact. The new mill town will attract immigrants who will increase competition for scarce arable land as well as for pasture, energy and food. Water pollution from pulp mill effluents is expected to damage fish stocks in the Kigogo-Ruaha River and possibly affect water supplies.
DRYING COW DUNG FOR BURNING new evidence of potential harm (F. BOTTS/FAO)
However, the major concern is air pollution, and this has been expressed very strongly by the tea growers, namely Brooke Bond Tanzania Ltd. whose plantations cover 2 500 ha. Two of the most productive of these are located downwind of the mill site. Airborne emissions and an increased pH soil value could seriously jeopardize the quality and flavour of the tea. Since tea exports represent a large proportion of the company's foreign capital earnings, it is quite concerned about this possibility.
Ambio, 14(3),1985
Preserving Africa's wildlife
MOTHER AND CHILD facing new threats from poaching (NORMAN MYERS)
ELEPHANTS IN THEIR HABITAT new serial survey reports depletion (FAO)
Poaching threatens African park
Shared by three countries - the Niger, Burkina Faso and Benin the W Park owes its name to the large W formed by the Niger River as it flows alongside the park's western border. It is the only large and essentially undisturbed tract of savannah wildland and the last important stretch of riparian forest remaining in the Niger. Vegetation types are richly varied, with up to 450 plant species. Fauna has generally been abundant: elephants, forced to migrate into the park by extensive grazing and agricultural development nearby; buffaloes; the only topi population alive west of the Republic of Cameroon; hippopotamuses; leopards; and a wide variety of reptiles, including the Nile crocodile.
Now, however, the W Park is facing a set of severe problems, one of the most crucial of which is poaching. Poachers set up their camps in the Beninese or Burkina Faso area of the park, where the Niger's authorities cannot reach them. Even without this fact, however, a basic problem lies in a lack of effective park management. There are only ten guards and one Land Rover to serve the whole park; there is a lack of coordination between the three countries in terms of law enforcement; and, perhaps most important, there is a lack of avareness among forest dwellers of the value of wildlife.
With its restricted budget, the Niger can provide only marginal support to wildlife conservation. If international aid does not arrive soon, another irreplaceable portion of West Africa's dwindling natural heritage could be lost.
Oryx, October 1984
Zaire's white rhinoceros
Zaire has pledged to take steps to prevent the extinction of the last of the Northern white rhinos. In the 1970s the country had more than 1 000 examples of this species, but heavy poaching, aimed primarily at extracting and selling the valuable white: rhino horn, has brought on its virtual elimination. Only about 20 of the species remain in captivity and only 15 in the wild - these located in Garamba National Park.
Elephants and rhinos depleted
Poachers have seriously depleted elephant and rhino populations in the Central African Republic - considered one of the last strongholds for animals in the region - according to a recent aerial survey. The statistical survey revealed that there were almost, twice as many dead elephants as live animals, with an estimated 7 861 carcasses as against only 4 308 live animals in the 64 400 km2 northern area of the country, which includes Bamingui-Bangoran and Manovo - Gounda-St Floris national parks.
The aerial survey and report were carried out in June 1985 by the World Wildlife Fund and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources at the request of France's Centre national pour la protection et l'aménagement de la faune, UNDP and FAO.
The report concludes that "there has been a catastrophic reduction of elephants in both national parks". The country's elephant population, estimated as the largest in Central and West Africa after that of Zaire, is estimated to have been reduced from 80 000 to 15 000 in the last decade.
Black rhinos in the survey area "have been reduced to the point of extinction", according to the report. Until several years ago, they had been relatively plentiful. In 1981, for example, the country's rhino population - then the most important remaining in Central and West Africa - was estimated at 1500.
The survey team report recommended that all ivory trade in the country be stopped, that a coordinated government effort to stop poaching be put into effect immediately, and that appropriate organizations and individuals support these efforts.
THE BLACK RHINOCEROS nearly extinct in the Central African Republic (NORMAN MYERS)
THE WHITE RHINOCEROS Zaire pledges to protect it (T. RINEY FAO)
