No place for feral tourists on World Heritage Fraser Island
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Remove all ferals from Fraser Island – rabbits, cats, brumbies, gambusia, cane toads, 4WDs, tourists and tour operators!
It’s time to reverse the tables. I’d like to see these exploiters racing towards catastrophic collapse instead of the native dingos – and for any trangressions automatically attract a minimum $200,000 fine and/or 6 months in gaol.
Shut down the Fraser Island Ferry Service and Manta Ray Fraser Island Barge service – pay the ferrymen compensation to retire happily.
Shut down Kingfisher Bay Resort – pay the operator out to retire happily, then convert it into a proper National Parks wildlife research station.
Such 20th Century resort tourism is inappropriate for World Heritage Fraser Island
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Fraser Island is a National Park. It is world heritage listed by crikes, not as a tourism promotion, but for its ecological values. The place is endangered, the pure native dingo is on its last legs and suffering at the hands of humans, so number one priority of a national park is ecological protection. National Parks Service needs to get its nose out of tourism exploitation and bush arson and back into its job of wildlife ecology management. But it needs to be managed at national level, because the Queensland DERM cowboys can’t be trusted.
There is no reason why the custody of the entire island should not be returned to the traditional Butchulla and Badtjala peoples to oversee the rehabilitatiin and ecological management.
Indeed, Fraser Island should renamed back to the respective indigenous names: K’gari and Gari.
It is time to get serious about ecology. Simple solution, just takes community will and leadership, like in the 1970s grassroots campaign to originally protect the island from Joh’s sand mining pillage.
Get the tourists off Fraser Island. Shut down Base Camp Fraser Island, shut down Eurong Beach Resort, shut down Fraser Island Beach Houses, Fraser Island Fishing Units, Fraser Island Hideaway, Fraser View Apartments, Cathedrals on Fraser camping ground, Fraser Island Waiuta Retreat. Compulsorily acquire their land holdings and put them on the last tourist ferry off the island.
.Pure Dingo
Threatened, harrassed on its native Fraser Island
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Last April 2011, three Fraser Island dingo pups were destroyed (read ‘executed‘) in as many weeks after displaying aggressive behaviour towards humans, according to the Department of Environment and Resource Management (DERM). DERM general manager Terry Harper said three dingoes from the June/July 2010 litters had “posed a clear threat”’ to the safety of visitors and the community. Fraser Island is the dingos native home. The tourists are feral intruders and the problem, not the dingos. Harper needs to be sacked.
Bree Jashin of the Fraser Island Dingo Preservation Group says tourists feeding and teasing dingoes on Fraser Island could lead to the extinction of the native dogs on the island. Ms Jashin provided AAP with a photograph of tourists kicking sand at dingoes and a first-hand account of another incident between tourists and a dingo pup, which she said could elicit a reaction and lead to the dingo’s destruction by rangers.
“The right for humans to play at the expense of the future of the only thoroughbred dingoes left is unacceptable,” Ms Jashin said. “Fraser Island is the dingoes’ home and humans have to remember they are guests in that home.
Chris Druery was among a group of three visitors in a four-wheel-drive south of Eli Creek on Fraser Island on October 1 last year when they saw an approaching vehicle drive directly towards a dingo pup.
“[The driver] pointed their vehicle directly towards the pup and sped up, attempting to run it down,” Mr Druery said. “They also swerved violently towards the pup, missing it by only centimetres. “We watched the pup cower and run towards the surf with its hind legs tucked up under its rear end.”
Mr Druery said those in the offending four-wheel-drive were laughing during their attempts to run the dingo down. “It is disappointing that such a jewel in the crown can be tarnished by clowns that drive dangerously on the beach,” he said.
Ms Jashin said the three dingoes in photographs she snapped last year were heading towards Eurong township beachfront when they were harassed by backpackers.
“The pups were simply minding their own business when the girls screamed and the young male backpacker began to aggressively yell, run at, and kick sand at the pups,” she said. Rather than dissuade the dogs, the yelling attracted them towards the group. “The backpackers all jumped in the vehicle and drove up close to them to take pics,” she said. She said all three of the pups had been destroyed after exhibiting allegedly aggressive behaviour towards humans.
[Source: ‘Tourists ‘threatening dingo extinction’, by AAP, 20100317, ^http://www.smh.com.au/environment/conservation/tourists-threatening-dingo-extinction-20100317-qe1o.html].
.Uncontrolled tourist interation with Fraser Island’s wild dingoesTourists and wildlife don’t mix – when will Parks Management get the message ?DERM is not a tourist operator. Fraser Island is a World Heritage National Park for wildlife.
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Fraser Island is a wildlife World Heritage sanctuary, not another Hamilton Island Resort!
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Last September 2011, some bored National Parks officers decided to start a fire on the island. They excused it as a ‘controlled burn’, but is is arson no less and surprise surprise, it got out of control. “It was going for five or six days, and the weather changed and it took off in a different direction, unfortunately. “These things are part of life. In most national parks you need to reduce the fuel load.”
The vandals need to be sacked (including the manager for probably inciting it) banned from Fraser Island and fined for the cost of the emergency response by the 18 fire fighters from Rural Fire Brigade, Queensland Fire and Rescue Service and the 4 waterbombing aircraft.
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Queensland’s Fraser Island was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1992 after nearly twenty years battle and public debate.
Once it was listed, the Queensland Government has maliciously abused the world heritage for tourism and recreation, allowing the precious island to become so degraded that some people are now arguing that it needs to be placed on the World Heritage in Danger List. (Ed: It should be, right now).
‘It isn’t that Fraser Island lacks the values that warranted its World Heritage listing in the first place. It is just that the management values for Fraser Island are pre-occupied with recreation Management to the neglect of the protection of its World Heritage values.
Unmonitored 4WDsA bit of road widening into Fraser Island’s vegetation
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On Fraser Island ‘bevans‘ rule ok!
‘On Fraser Island 4WD recreational vehicles rule all policy decisions even though environmental studies have conclusively shown the impact of the 4WDs in compacting sand in the substrate and thus accelerating water erosion. The mobilization of sand as a result of this means that over a three year period more than a million tones of sand has been mobilized and sluiced down the slopes. That means over a tonne of sand it relocated for every visitor to Fraser Island!
‘Some roads are now scoured down to a depth of 4 metres and they continue this on-going down-cutting every time it rains. As little as 5mm of rain is more than enough to start mobilizing surface sand on roads. Some of the sand is deposited lower down the slopes; other sand is being sluiced into the iconic perched dune lakes.
Road to McKenzie – the Parks Service must have gone AWOL
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Some of the sand is deposited so that picnic tables begin to get buried and other picnic spots are being scoured out demonstrating the fragility and mobility of any disturbed soil surface on Fraser Island.
‘In 1963 Indian Head had a lawn of thick grass extending right to its summit. Since then the unprotected surface soil has been disturbed but hundreds of thousands of feet. This has been eroded and washed away by rain exposing an ever expanding area of bare rock. There are no plans to repair the damage or rectify this problem in the foreseeable future.
Indian Head degradation by excessive uncontrolled tourism.
Where are DERM Parks Management – off lighting grass fires?
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Indian Head vegetation back in 1974
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‘A disproportionate amount of the budget is spent on recreational facilities, visitor safety and management, waste management. Road widening and upgrading has become an obsession. This focus has led to the neglect of research and the natural resource management, — environmental monitoring of wildlife and ecosystems, fire management, weed control, and quarantine.’
Fraser Island’s native long-necked turtlesvulnerable to 4WD hoons
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‘The preoccupation with recreation management on Fraser Island is encouraging more and more visitors to visit Fraser Island in unsustainable ways. Recreation is degrading Fraser Island’s World Heritage values including its iconic lakes. Recreation management is at the expense of managing the island’s natural resources. These suffer from lack of adequate monitoring. No monitoring of the water quality in the lakes was done for a decade while road run-off continues to pour into the lakes impacting on water quality.’
Ongoing sand dune damage by unmonitored 4WDsTourist access on Fraser Island has become a free-for-all !
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Fraser Island has less than one kilometre of boardwalks. Queensland government policy prevents any feasibility into developing an environmentally more sustainable light rail people mover there. Yet compared with Gunung Mulu National Park in Malaysia, listed eight years after Fraser Island, with exactly a tenth of the visitor number of Fraser Island puts Fraser Island management to shame.
[Source: ‘Queensland’s shameful management of the Fraser Island World Heritage site‘, by John Sinclair, 20100702, ^http://randomkaos.com/node/14, (John Sinclair is one of Australia’s leading nature conservationists and has lead the fight to save Fraser Island since 1971 when he founded the Fraser Island Defenders Organisation)]
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In 2007 an Irish backpacker tourist, Evan Kelly, while on Fraser Island thought it was a good idea to run down a sand dune into Lake Wabby. He did this several times then landed head first in the lake, hurt his back then sued the Queensland Government and the backpacker hostel, Pippies Beach House, for failing to warn him of the dangers.
Previously in 2006, tourist Su Chul Jang from South Korea, decided to run down a sand dune and dive into Lake Wabby, but became a quadriplegic and sued the tour company Fraser Escape 4×4 Tours Pty Ltd and the Queensland Government.
The Queensland Government’s World Heritage management of Fraser Island has been called into question internationally over claimed incompetence and malice.
Opposition Shadow Sustainability Minister Glen Elmes said he had “taken steps to ensure that UNESCO, the organisation charged with overseeing World Heritage listed areas, has been advised of the island’s plight”. He described island management as “incompetent at best” and a betrayal of state government conservation obligations.
Mr Elmes accused her Department of Environment and Resource Management of a major cover-up of mismanagement, environmental damage and “ruthless and cruel” policies on dingo management. Mr Elmes told Parliament this week that he had read the report, estimating the death of 97 dingoes from causes listed in autopsy reports as “lethal injection, shot, run over, poisoned, starvation and others”.
“One autopsy lists under possible cause of death, ‘rifle-itis,’ while another states ‘half an ounce of hot lead,” he said. “Labor’s interim report shows happy snaps of a dingo family, dingoes on the beach, dingoes frolicking in the water, a dingo running up the beach with a fish in its mouth. “On a normal day, those dingoes would be hazed by rangers – that is shot with a clay pellet, moving them away from the beach and away from their main food source,” he said.
[Source: Claims of Fraser Island ‘cover-up’ by Arthur Gorrie, 20100902, ^http://www.gympietimes.com.au/story/2010/09/02/Fraser-Island-cover-up-claimed/]
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Meanwhile the Queensland Labor Government’s only interest for Fraser Island is more tourism development.
In September 2010, Federal Labor Environment Minister Tony Burke and Queensland’s Bligh Labor Government’s Climate Change and Sustainability Minister Kate Jones opened a joint $3.4 million tourist facilities at Lake McKenzie on Fraser Island.
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“This is great for tourism on the island and great news for the Hervey Bay economy.”
~ Kate Jones’ 20th Century mindset for world heritage.
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Labelling it “eco-friendly”, the modern facilities include:
Fraser Island’s 75 Mile Beach…clear of ferals of all types
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It is time to place Fraser Island on the World Heritage in Danger List, get all the ferals including the tourists and their profiteers off the island and to commence the job and investment of serious World Heritage management of one of the planet’s remaining important nature assets.
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Tigerquoll
Suggan Buggan
Snowy River Region
Victoria 3885
Australia
Lake Boomanjin on Fraser Island,Supposedly protected
(Photo by Steven Nowakowski, click photo to enlarge)
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Further Reading:
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[1] ‘Queensland’s shameful management of the Fraser Island World Heritage site‘, by John Sinclair, 20100702, ^http://randomkaos.com/node/14, (John Sinclair is one of Australia’s leading nature conservationists, has lead the fight to save Fraser Island since 1971 when he founded the Fraser Island Defenders Organisation).
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[2] ‘Fighting Ferals on Fraser Island‘, by Fraser Island Defenders Organization (FIDO) “The Watchdog of Fraser Island”, aims to ensure the wisest use of Fraser Island’s natural resources, ^http://www.fido.org.au/education/FightingFerals.html
It’s a remarkable photograph: A pregnant Orang-utan protectively clutching her five-year-old child as death seems imminent at the hands of bounty hunters armed with knives.
At The Habitat Advocate we wish to emphasise and thank the vital role of wildlife photographers around the world whose photos continue to help convey the plight of wildlife at the hands of humans. Without such photos, the truth would be less disseminated.
The following article was reproduced in The Sun-Herald newspaper (Sydney) on 20120129 on page 30. The article was borrowed from the New York Daily News newspaper (New York) which published the article on 20120127. The original source was the Daily MAIL (UK), written by Richard Shears, 20120127, under the long heading: ‘Don’t hurt my baby! Pregnant Orang-utan protectively hugs her daughter as ruthless Borneo bounty hunters move in for the kill‘.
The ultimate source is from the website of Four Paws UK.
Four Paws International is an international animal charity, campaigning to end animal suffering and cruelty. Four Paws International was founded in 1988 in Austria to campaign against fur farms and against battery farmed eggs.
The partner organisation based in Indonesia is PT Restorasi Habitat Orang-utan Indonesia (RHOI), which translates into English as the Borneo Orang-utan Survival (BOS). Its name could not be more literal! Humans are systematically exterminating a species – the Orang-utan.
BOS has developed an Ecosystem Restoration Concession with the intention of using the forest area as a release site for rehabilitated Orang-utans. The proposed concession is in East Kalimantan is comprised of the ex-PT Mugitriman International (MGI) timber concession. BOS would like to obtain sustainable funding for managing and safeguarding this forest and is currently exploring the option of an avoided deforestation/REDD project where the sale of carbon.
It’s a remarkable photograph: A pregnant Orang-utan protectively clutching her five-year-old child as death seems imminent at the hands of bounty hunters armed with knives.
At the last minute, however, members of Four Paws International, an international animal-rescue group, swooped in last week and prevented their killings in Borneo, the Daily Mail reported.
“A few minutes later and the Orang-utans could have been dead,” said Dr. Signe Preuschoft, a primate expert with the British-based organization, according to the Daily Mail. “We discovered a gang of young men surrounding them and both victims were clearly petrified.”
The incident showcases the threat Orang-utans are facing as they are targeted for slaughter with a price on their heads.
“The gang meanwhile were jubilant in anticipation of their rewards for catching and killing the animals.”
The incident, compellingly captured in a dramatic photo of the mother cradling her child for dear life, casts a fresh light on the disturbing plight of Orang-utans, who were once common throughout Southeast Asia but now mostly live in Borneo and other areas in Indonesia.
The mother, estimated to be between 25 and 30, and the child were the only Orang-utans the team found alive in the area surrounding a palm-oil plantation. The group said it was scouting the area after reports of mass Orang-utan slaughter.
The spread of palm oil plantations, the group said, is accelerating the demise of the already endangered animals, which are losing native habitat because of widespread deforestation. The very name Orang-utan means “person of the forest,” as they spend most of their time in trees.
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The palm-oil companies, the group said, are allegedly making matters worse by offering rewards of about $100 per dead Orang-utan, because they see the animals as nuisances.
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“These massacres must not be allowed to continue,” Preuschoft said to the Daily Mail.
The rescued animals have since been released back in the wild in an area far from where they almost met death. The mother was fitted with a radio transmitter to help ensure the apes stay safe, the group said.
“Tens of thousands of adult Orang-utans have been slaughtered, while their orphaned offspring is frequently being sold off as pets or left behind to die, if they aren’t killed on the spot as well“, Four Paws International posted on its website.
The slaughter of Orang-utans is illegal in Indonesia, but enforcement has stepped up only recently, the group said.
“Mass graves that were discovered last September triggered the first few serious arrests, including a senior plantation manager“, the group wrote.
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A similar article (in more detail) by the Daily Mail (UK):
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‘Don’t hurt my baby! Pregnant Orang-utan protectively hugs her daughter as ruthless Borneo bounty hunters move in for the kill’
Pair saved at last minute by UK-based animal rescue group
Palm oil firms trying to clear plantations said to be offering £70 for each Orang-utan killed on the Borneo palm oil plantations
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As bounty hunters with bush knives entrapped them in a circle and moved in for the kill, the only thing this mother Orang-utan could think to do was to wrap a giant protective arm around her daughter. The pair seemed to be facing a certain death as a gang of hunters surrounded them in Borneo, keen to cash in on the palm oil plantations’ bid to be rid of the animals.
But, happily, a team from the British-based international animal rescue group Four Paws International arrived in time to stop the slaughter and saved their lives.
The pregnant mother and daughter were captured and moved to a remote and safe area of the rainforest and released back into the wild – but not before the mother was equipped with a radio device so she and her young can be tracked to ensure they remain safe.
‘Our arrival could not have been more timely,’ said Dr Signe Preuschoft, a Four Paws primate expert. ‘A few minutes later and the Orang-utans could have been dead.’
‘We discovered a gang of young men surrounding them and both victims were clearly petrified.
‘The gang meanwhile were jubilant in anticipation of their rewards for catching and killing the animals. These massacres must not be allowed to continue.’
Saved: ‘Our arrival could not have been more timely. A few minutes later and the Orang-utans could have been dead’ said Dr Signe Preuschoft, a Four Paws primate expert
‘A few minutes later and the Orang-utans could have been dead.’ said Dr Signe Preuschoft, a Four Paws International primate expert
Mother and daughter were captured and moved to a remote and safe area of the rainforest and released back into the wild – but not before the mother was equipped with a radio device so she and her young can be tracked to ensure they remain safe.
Mother and baby rescued and placed into the wild.But with their rainforest wilderness rapidly being destroyed how long have these Orang-utans got? What happened to the father?
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Before the rescue, a Four Paws International team had scoured the area on the Indonesian side of Borneo, which is shared with Malaysia, but found no other Orangutans which had survived an earlier slaughter.
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Deforestation has dramatically reduced their habitat and their numbers have dropped from 250,000 a few decades ago to only 50,000 in the wild. And while the loss of their habitat by logging companies has created a major threat to their existence, a more brutal form of reducing their numbers has emerged in recent years – direct slaughter.
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Palm oil is used in hundreds of products from chocolate to oven chips, but the demand for buying it at a low price has resulted in significant deforestation as habitats are being destroyed to make way for plantations. Some palm oil companies see Orang-utans as pests, a threat to their lucrative business, and have placed a bounty on their heads.
Company executives are reported to be offering up to £70 to employees for each Orang-utan killed on the palm oil plantations. While such stories were at first denied, proof of the slaughter emerged last September when graves and bones were found by investigators.
‘Killing of Orang-utans is illegal in Indonesia but the law is lacking enforcement,’ said a Four Paws UK spokesman.
‘Before November last year only two low-level arrests had ever been made. But in the last two months 10 more arrests have taken place including the arrest of the senior manager of the plantation where the worst graves have been found.’
In an equally tragic scenario, babies left alive after adult Orang-utans have been slaughtered have been put up for sale in the Pet Trade by hunters.
When traumatised babies are found by Four Paws International and other animal rescue teams they are taken to a sanctuary and taught skills they will need in order to return to the wild.
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Selected comments from readers:
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‘Boycott any product with palm oil!!!’
~ maninthemiddle, 20120128. .
“Let’s find the corporate entities who are paying for the palm oil,then boycott,very sad story,very touching”
~ olefan_is_a_moron, 20120128.
olefan_is_a_moron (20120128):. “The real problem in the world is overpopulation. Natural resources replace themselves unless they are overburdened by excessive demand due to a big population. Cutting down 1% of a forest will not harm it since trees will just grow back but when you’re destroying too much at once you’re just striping the land bare.”
~ DocPaul (20120128)
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“Soon man shall be the only “animal” left for hunting.”
~ 3 VULTURES (20120128).
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“Orang-utans are critically endangered in the wild because of rapid deforestation and the expansion of palm oil plantations into their rainforest home. The situation described in this article is all too common unfortunately. If nothing is done to protect these amazing creatures, they will be extinct in just a few years. Visit the Orangutan Outreach website to learn more and make a difference! http://redapes.org Reach out and save the orangutans! Adopt an orangutan today! {:(|}”
~ OrangutanOutreach (20120128).
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“How about a bounty of $150 per dead bounty hunter?”
~ Meowmeister, 20120128.
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“This is what happens when you have: 1. People believing that the so-called phrase “and man shall have dominion over the beasts” means they can be killed at will and 2. When human beings believe nothing absolutely nothing is more important than profit.”
~ itsallinperception, 20120128.
. “Farmers are being killed in south America for the same reason, land. Plantation owners want the land to get money for carbon credits…”
~ nlohu, 20120128.
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“So sad. Palm oil is not just used in food. It is also used in cosmetics. I think it is called retinyl palmitate, something like that. Any ingredient that has “palmitate (ie: palm) is from palm oil. It is a form of vitamin A, used in skin creams alot.”
~ ana63, 20120128.
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“These companies should not be allowed to trade in the UK. We shouldn’t be trading with any company that doesn’t respect life and the environment.”
~ Lo, cheshire, UK, 20120128.
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“Everything that is wrong with the world is due to humans. We will continue to destroy our world unless something radical happens to reduce the human population and to change the greedy mindset of the human population. This makes me so incredibly sad!”
~ GB, UK, 20120128.
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“…I think what would be more helpful is to have the names of the food manufacturers who are purchasing the palm oil from those companies. I suspect we would see major names such as Nabisco, Kraft, etc.”
~ InfoOverload, 20120128.
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ANSWER: The largest palm oil company worldwide is ‘Wilmar International’
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One of the most powerful opponents of our ‘Save our Borneo’ activists is Wilmar International, the largest palm oil company worldwide, based in Singapore.
“Wilmar International Limited, founded in 1991, is Asia’s leading agribusiness group.
“We are amongst the largest listed companies by market capitalisation on the Singapore Exchange. Our business activities include oil palm cultivation, oilseeds crushing, edible oils refining, sugar, specialty fats, oleochemicals and biodiesel manufacturing and grains processing. Headquartered in Singapore, Wilmar has over 300 manufacturing plants and an extensive distribution network covering China, India, Indonesia and some 50 other countries to support a well established processing and merchandising business. Wilmar also manufactures and distributes fertilisers and owns a fleet of vessels. The Group is backed by a multi-national workforce of approximately 90,000 people.”
“We are today:
The largest global processor and merchandiser of palm and lauric oils
One of the largest plantation companies in Indonesia/Malaysia
The largest palm biodiesel manufacturer in the world
A leading consumer pack edible oils producer, oilseeds crusher, edible oils refiner, specialty fats and oleochemicals manufacturer in China
One of the largest edible oils refiners and a leading producer of consumer pack edible oils in India
The largest edible oils refiner in Ukraine
The leading importer of edible oils into East Africa and one of the largest importers of edible oils into South-east Africa.
‘We will continue to leverage on the scale and strengths of our business model to benefit from the long term growth potential of the agricultural commodity business, especially in Asia.”
‘Sucrogen, the Australian-based sugar subsidiary of Singapore-listed Wilmar International Limited, looks forward to an exciting future as the new owner of Proserpine Sugar Mill after a majority of Proserpine creditors, by number and value, voted today to approve Sucrogen’s purchase of the mill.
Sucrogen CEO Ian Glasson said the creditors’ vote was a great outcome and paved the way for the sale transaction to be completed immediately.
“The positive result means creditors will be paid, in full, before Christmas,” Mr Glasson said. “We are grateful to have received such strong support from creditors, who have clearly shown faith in us and our plans for the Proserpine region.”
Sucrogen’s offer comprised a headline price of A$120 million, plus a working capital adjustment, normal settlement adjustments, as well as absorption of the mill’s normal operating costs and certain critical capital expenditure incurred from 31 October 2011.
Mr Glasson said while Sucrogen was pleased to finally purchase the mill, it was disappointing the sale was not possible before the Co-operative was placed into voluntary administration.
“The negative campaign Tully ran to derail the first two member votes has, ultimately, cost members a substantial amount of money in administration and legal fees,” he said. Critically, it has also delayed capital and maintenance at the mill.”
However, the transition to Sucrogen management and leadership will begin immediately and we will hit the ground running next week and do our best to ensure the mill is ready for the start of 2012 season, despite the lengthy delays.”
Mr Glasson said Wilmar had expressed a strong interest in working with growers to help expand Proserpine’s sugar industry.
“We look forward to a long and productive relationship with local growers, Proserpine Sugar Mill employees and the whole Proserpine community.”
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So the company that is behind the palm plantation clearing destroying Orang-utan habitat and encouraging Oran-gutans to be slaughtered, is the parent company that sells CSR Sugar across Australia and Chelsea Sugar across New Zealand and the artificial sweetener ‘Equal‘.
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The palm oil industry says: ‘Orang-utans are pests!’
[Source: ^http://www.rainforest-rescue.org/newsletter/1267/282c3e5ec03e375e7afa82c63564ae41]
This juvenile Orang-utang’s mother was killed on one of the palm oil plantations .
“Dear friends of the rainforest, the BBC reports that Orang-utans are treated as “pest” and exterminated on Indonesian and Malaysian palm oil plantations. In the last year alone, up to 1,800 Orang-utans were killed in Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo). They wander hungry through the plantations as though in a daze, looking for food and thus eat the palm seedlings. Palm oil plantation workers are paid to kill Orang-utans either before a forest is cleared or, if they see any in a plantation. Either way, it is totally illegal to harass, harm or kill any Orang-utans.”
“The current trend of converting rainforest into palm oil plantations is devastating our country. Our people cannot provide for themselves any longer; and endangered species such as the Orang-utans are doomed to die. It is high time for us to join forces and jointly put a stop to the palm oil industry’s illegal activities on all levels.“
Nordin, head and founder of our partner organisation ‘Save our Borneo’ (SOB) has lately experienced a great deal of suffering caused by the destruction of tropical rainforest in his home province Central Kalimantan in Borneo – including his own family. His little son Mirza was born when wildfires were raging for several months, obscuring the sky over Central Kalimantan and making breathing truly agonizing. Due to his chronic breathing difficulties, Mirza had to be hospitalised often. Even though slash and burn clearing methods are prohibited in Indonesia, fires are started again and again in order to gain more space for palm oil plantations.
One of the most powerful opponents of our ‘Save our Borneo’ activists is Wilmar International, the largest palm oil company worldwide.
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(Wilmar International) act as if no rules apply to them. This company has the rainforest illegally logged and new plantations set up; they drive peasants off their land and arrest them if they defend themselves. Wilmar keeps founding new subsidiaries, and bribes officials to side-step the law.
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Therefore, Save Our Borneo’s boss Nordin sent ‘Rainforest Rescue’ a strategic plan in order to unite our efforts and take action against Wilmar: We are also supported by regional environmentalists of ‘Walhi’, the Indonesian branch of ‘Friends of the Earth’.
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“We want to sue the Wilmar Group at their headquarters in Singapore for their crimes committed against humans and nature,“ says Nordin. “However, first we will have to gather enough detailed facts and evidence for an absolutely watertight lawsuit.”
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Their strategic plan is set to run for 18 months and works on all levels, including:
Workshops with affected peasant families to discuss land rights and, possibly, draw up maps. Another goal is to inform the population about Wilmar’s modus operandi and how to defend themselves.
Training in Forest Management and Land Rights
Research and data gathering regarding activities of Wilmar subsidiaries.
Workshops on corruption
Public relations activities disclosing Wilmar’s law violations as well as any political involvement (multimedia campaign on TV, radio or the internet such as facebook, brochures etc.)
Public dialogues between all the parties involved, having politicians, scientists, journalists, environmentalists and victims of the palm oil industry all sit together at one table.
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Nordin calls his major offensive against Wilmar International an “Action Plan for a Better Life“.
The Japanese kill bottlenose whales
(Photo: Save the Whales)
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If there is one redeeming legacy about previous British Tory Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, despite the recurring criticism of her policies and leadership style by many Leftists, is that she was a political leader of strong convictions who commanded respect from foreign powers at a time when it was critical for Great Britain to stand by its principles.
Thatcher defended British sovereignty – its land, its people, its currency.
Not so Australia’s Labor-apparatchik installed puppet Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, who in pursuit of Rudd populism guided not by internal principle but by factions and focus groups is our chair warming PM of unprincipled mediocrity. Since her education revolution as Education Minister her costly results have been mediocre. Where are her principles? – ‘there will be no carbon tax under a government I lead‘, her extravagant $47 billion NBN without any cost-benefit study, her Malaysian solution for asylum seekers, her selling uranium to India against Labor principles and her appeasing foreign interests at Australia’s expense – US pharmaceutical and military interests, China’s mining and manufacturing interests, India’s nuclear interests and free trade with Indonesia, Malaysia and now Mexico and South American nations.
Clearly Ruddism drives Gillard foreign policy. All Gillard need do is fly in, deliver the speech and smile for the cameras, with Rudd up the back somewhere gesturing. Gillard abandoned Australia’s free speech defender Julian Assange and sided with the US Military. Japanese pirate whalers invade Australia’s Southern Ocean whale sanctuary to poach minke whales, endangered fin whales and threatened humpbacks. They now formal Japanese military support having brought their own guardian warship. Gillard doesn’t know what to do. She has a policy vacuum when it comes to the Environment, just like Labor siblings Garrett, Wong and Burke.
Rudd failed to honour his 2007 pledge to formally challenge Japanese whaling in the International Court of Justice. Only public outcry forced the Gillard Government to lodge its case with the court in May 2010. All Gillard does this time around with non-violent action group Forest Rescue boarding the Japanese whaling vessel Shonan Maru is to think legal and appeasing the pirate Japanese. Gillard has slammed the actions of three anti-whaling protesters as “unacceptable” and warned that others who carry out similar protests will be “charged and convicted”. However, the government should be preventing crimes in our near oceans, and illegal whaling, not condemning the actions of law-enforcers trying to do what they should be doing!
Gillard is gutless. Whaling is a sport. It is not scientific. It is not a primary industry because there is stuff all market for whale meat and the only way it is sold is because the Japanese Government subsidises the cost. Whaling is a cultural sport only and a backward cultural one at that. It is all about game.
The Japanese are traditionally a patriarchal society. Japanese males violating Australian waters for foreign whales for sport is consistent with Japanese male cultural history of violating foreign women they euphemistically called ‘comfort women’. Such Japanese culture is backward and foreign and has no place in Australian waters and the Australia Whale Sanctuaries that Australia is custodian for.
Japan‘s dogged pursuit of whales well beyond its shores in our Southern Ocean is more about preserving endangered cultural pride than science.
Japan‘s justifications for whaling are not commercial nor scientific, despite the official rhetoric.They are culturally deep and desperately self-preserving, despite being wrong, wasteful and backward. The scientific con is only to prevent flagrant breach of the Antarctic Treaty, to which Japan is a signatory.
Japan‘s arrogance is repeated with its refusal to respond with an apology to the request by acting Queensland Premier Lucas over Japan’s confirmed sinking of Australia’s hospital ship the Centaur in WWII. Australian’s should never forget that Japan is the only nation ever to directly threaten Australia’s sovereignty. Three generations later Japan again defies Australian sovereignty.
Gillards’ pre-election promise of getting tough on whaling (or was that Rudd’s?) was an election promise; that’s it.
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One of the famous quotes from ‘Iron Lady’ Thatcher was “I seem to smell the stench of appeasement in the air.“
Gillard’s appeasement of Japanese whaling is the stench of her followship. Gillard is gutless. Gillard has no trait as a leader, let alone a principled leader of our nation.
Gillard has no regard for Australian sovereignty. Like her predecessor Rudd, who continues to advise on all things foreign to Australia, Gillard’s raison d’être is to comply as a puppet, enjoy her time in the sun until the next apparatchik push.
Like Rudd, Gillard treats Australian values as second rate, as if a foreigner with cultural disrespect.
Rudd reneged on his 2007 election promise to send an Australian ship to monitor Japan’s annual slaughter of 1000 minke, humpback and fin whales.
Rudd reneged on his pre-election undertaking to exercise Australia’s right to take Japan to the International Court of Justice over its whale hunting expeditions in the Southern Ocean.
Rudd’s turned his back on Japan’s harpoon whaling in Australian Antarctic waters and let Japan pirate whalers refuel in Australia.
Japan flagrantly ignores Australia’s whale sanctuary and Australia’s sovereignty. Japan condones an unprofitable, low demand and antiquainted 19th Century practice of whale harpooning, then tells international lies justifying some scientific spin that only discredits Japan’s reputation.
Japan’s Nippon Paper has been slaughtering Australian native forests for its immoral woodchip paper trade out of its habitat dead camp at its Twofold Bay mill at Eden.
How would the Japanese people like it if Gunns wanted to woodchip their sacred Aokigahara forest around the base of Mount Fuji?
[This article was first published by Tigerquoll on CanDoBetter.net on 20100416 under the same title].
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Japanese contempt for whales, dolphins and sharks has highlihghted to the world the backward culture of this part of traditional Japanese society. Japanese whalers and fishing corporations have made Japan the pariah of the world’s oceans.
The Japanese lie of scientific whaling has become a cliched euphemism. Now the science has been officially confirmed as a fraud, as if we didn’t already know.
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The following article has just been published in the online Science Daily:
. ‘DNA analysis suggests whale meat from sushi restaurants in L.A. and Seoul originated from Japan’
[Source: ScienceDaily (Apr. 14, 2010]
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“An international team of Oregon State University scientists, documentary filmmakers and environmental advocates has uncovered an apparent illegal trade in whalemeat, linking whales killed in Japan’s controversial scientific whaling program to sushi restaurants in Seoul, South Korea, and Los Angeles, Calif.
Genetic analysis of sashimi served at a prominent Los Angeles sushi restaurant in October of 2009 has confirmed that the strips of raw meat purchased by filmmakers of the Oscar-winning documentary, “The Cove,” came from a sei whale — most likely from Japanese “scientific whaling.”
Do you want dolphin with that? ‘Scientists have identified four species of whales and one species of dolphin from a plate of sashimi, like this one sold in a restaurant in Seoul. (Credit: Photo courtesy of Louie Psihoyos, Oceanic Preservation Society)’
“The sequences were identical to sei whale products that had previously been purchased in Japan in 2007 and 2008, which means they not only came from the same area of the ocean — but possibly from the same distinct population,” said Scott Baker, associate director of the Marine Mammal Institute at Oregon State University, who conducted the analysis.
“And since the international moratorium on commercial hunting (1986), there has been no other known source of sei whales available commercially other than in Japan,” Baker added. “This underscores the very real problem of the illegal international trade of whalemeat products.”
Results of the study were published in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters. “The Cove” director Louie Psihoyos and assistant director Charles Hambleton gained the attention of international news media recently by covertly filming the serving of whale products at The Hump restaurant.
Following initial identification of the samples taken from the restaurant, the products were turned over to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s law enforcement division and in March, federal prosecutors filed a criminal complaint against the restaurant, which since has closed. Baker said the samples taken from The Hump cannot conclusively be linked to an individual whale because genetic identity records of animals killed through Japan’s scientific whaling are not released by the Japanese government. In their paper in Biology Letters, Baker and 10 co-authors — including “The Cove” filmmakers — call for Japan to share its DNA register of whales taken from that country’s scientific whaling program and “bycatch” whaling.
“Our ability to use genetics as a tool to monitor whale populations around the world has advanced significantly over the past few years,” Baker said, “but unless we have access to all of the data — including those whales killed under Japan’s scientific whaling — we cannot provide resource managers with the best possible science. “This is not just about better control of whaling itself,” Baker added, “but getting a better handle on the international trade of whale products.”
In their paper published in Biology Letters, lead author Baker and colleagues from the Korean Federation of Environmental Movements also report on 13 whale products purchased at a sushi restaurant in Seoul, South Korea, during two 2009 visits. The sushi was part of a mixed plate of “whale sashimi,” and genetic testing by Baker and OSU’s Debbie Steel determined that four of the products were from an Antarctic minke whale, four were from a sei whale, three were from a North Pacific minke whale, one was from a fin whale, and one was from a Risso’s dolphin.
Further testing by collaborators from Seoul National University confirmed the individual identity of the whale products by DNA “profiling.” The DNA profile of the fin whale meat from the Seoul restaurant genetically matched products purchased by Baker’s colleague, Naoko Funahashi, in Japanese markets in 2007 — strongly suggesting it came from the same whale.
“Since the international moratorium, it has been assumed that there is no international trade in whale products,” Baker said. “But when products from the same whale are sold in Japan in 2007 and in Korea in 2009, it suggests that international trade, though illegal, is still an issue. Likewise, the Antarctic minke whale is not found in Korean waters, but it is hunted by Japan’s controversial scientific whaling program in the Antarctic.
“How did it show up in a restaurant in Seoul?”
Baker has developed an international reputation for his research in determining the origin of whalemeat products sold in markets around the world. His research on identification of dolphin meat contaminated with high levels of mercury was featured in “The Cove,” where he worked with Psihoyos and Hambleton. In their paper, the authors describe the long legacy of falsifying whale catch records, beginning with the Soviet Union, which failed to account for more than 100,000 whales it killed in the 20th century. This illegal, unreported or unregulated whaling “continues today under the cover of incidental fisheries bycatch and scientific whaling.”
. Japanese love slaughtering dolphins too!
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Each year at a cove near Taiji on the south east cost of central Japan, thousands of bottlenose dolphins and pilot whales are slaughtered by the Japanese. The cull is endorsed by the Japanese goivernment to commence on 1st September every year.
Bottlenose Dolphin, confimed as one of the most intelligent animals on the planet Typically, over six months the town’s fishermen will catch over 2,000 of Japan’s annual quota of 20,000
dolphins. Dolphin slaughter turns sea red as Japan hunting season returns “In a typical hunt the fishermen pursue pods of dolphins across open seas, banging metal poles together beneath the water to confuse their hypersensitive sonar. The exhausted animals are driven into a large cove sealed off by nets to stop them escaping and dragged backwards into secluded inlets the following morning to be butchered with knives and spears. They are then loaded on to boats and taken to the quayside to be cut up in a warehouse, the fishermen’s work hidden from the outside by heavy shutters.
‘Tensions have been rising and the culls conducted in near-secrecy since 2003, when two members of the marine conservation group Sea Shepherd released several dolphins that were being kept in an enclosure ready to be slaughtered.
During our visit we were followed at almost every turn, ordered not to take photographs and questioned by the police, who seem to view every foreign visitor as a potential hunt saboteur. None of the residents who agreed to talk would reveal their names, and requests for comments from the town office were ignored. Criticism of the dolphin hunts intensified this summer with the release of the award-winning US documentary The Cove, whose makers used remote-controlled helicopters and hidden underwater cameras to record the hunters at work. The film was released in the UK last October.
The film, with its graphic footage of the dolphin slaughter, sparked outrage after its release in the US and Australia. Last month councillors in the Australian coastal town of Broome suspended its 28-year sister-city relationship with Taiji after receiving thousands of emails protesting at the culls.
Japanese annual dolphin slaughter at The Cove, Taiji, Japan
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Taiji is regarded as the spiritual home of Japan’s whaling industry. The first hunts took place in the early 1600s, according to the town’s whaling museum, but the industry went into decline after the introduction of a global ban on commercial whaling in 1986. The town, a six-hour train ride from Tokyo, is dotted with restaurants serving whale and dolphin sashimi and cetacean iconography appears on everything from the pavements and bridge balustrades to road tunnels and a wind turbine.”
This slaughter of whales, dolphins and endangered fish such as Bluefin and sharks confirms the barbaric backwardness of traditional cultures in east Asia. Japan clearly is making a point to highlight its backwardness.
Around the world, including in Australia, Japanese restaurants continue to serve up Bluefin Tuna and Shark Fin soup and probably ‘scientific’ whale meat and dolphin. It is a disgrace!
Bluefin is critically endangered and both the scalloped hammerhead shark and whitetip shark “have seen their numbers drop dramatically since the 1980s, due to rising demand for shark fin soup especially among China’s nouveau rich and for fish and chips in Europe. Surging demand for shark fin soup among Asia’s booming middle classes is driving many species of these big fish to the brink of extinction.”
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The following example Japanese restaurants in Australia sell Bluefin and shark fin. It is time Australians boycotted such trades perpetuating wildlife extinctions.
* SYDNEY: Blue Fin Seafood Restaurant, Brighton-Le-Sands Amateur Fishermans Club, Bestic St, Brighton-Le-Sands NSW 2216 * MELBOURNE: Blue Fin, 342 Brunswick St, Fitzroy VIC 3065 * BRISBANE: Oishii Sushi Bar Shop2/70 Pinelands Rd Sunnybank Hills, Brisbane
Don’t buy Japanese – it only perpetuate’s Japan’s arrogance
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Back in 2000, Australia and New Zealand sought an international ruling at the International Court of Justice under United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) against Japan’s fishing of Southern Bluefin Tuna in the Southern Ocean.
Ridiculously, the court found that it had no jurisdiction to make binding rulings on Japan’s access to high seas fisheries, and that Japan can make “its own unilateral decisions as to what to fish, and where.”
So Japan continued to unilaterally embarke on a three year “Experimental Fishing Program” (EFP), that…is we want the tuna and no-one is getting in our way!
Last month at CITES COP15 meeting, Monaco had called for a global ban on bluefin tuna fishing by CITES, arguing despite stocks having fallen by about 85%, the organisation responsible for managing the bluefin fishery – the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) – had not implemented measures strict enough to ensure the species’ survival. Australia voted against the ban, supporting Japan. ICCAT is due to meet on the bluefin issue on 14 June 2010 in Madrid Spain.
Meanwhile, in the Southern Ocean, the Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna is a voluntary fishery management group comprised of Australia, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea and the Philippines as a formal cooperating non-member. Much of the Southern Bluefin Tuna catch ends up in Japan where it is prized as sushi and sushimi.
Australia’s tuna fishing industry is based in Port Lincoln in South Australia. Japanese, Korean, Indonesian and Taiwanese Bluefin tuna fleets use long line fishing which results in the incidental deaths of thousands of seabirds, particularly petrels and albatross.
For over 20 years Japan has plundered the Southern Bluefin Tuna Fishery under its unilaterally imposed ‘Experimental Fishing Program (EFP)’, similar in deception as ‘Japanese scientific whaling’. According to Humane Society International, the Scientific Committee to the Commission has estimated the SBT population is at a mere 3-8% of its pre-exploitation biomass.
. It is time to boycott Japanese sushi, sushimi, seafood restaurants and indeed all Japanese products, until Japan’s arrogant poaching of protected and endangered marine life is stopped!
“Farmers are illegally slaughtering thousands of wombats in South Australia, a nature group says. Brigitte Stevens from the Wombat Awareness Organisation says burrows of southern hairy-nosed wombats are being bulldozed or blown up on Yorke and Eyre Peninsulas and in the Murraylands.
She says farmers can get permits to destroy a few wombats, but that it not a licence to wipe out the entire population.
“There’s not enough or not good enough regulations on what actually happens to the wombat if those numbers are being killed,” she said. “Now I know it’s difficult because I know you need a lot of staff to be able to do that. But it’s really hard for us when we’re trying to stop people killing them illegally – if it’s allowed by the government through permits, how are we going to stop it?”
Ms Stevens wants the Department for Environment and Heritage (DEH) to act on evidence the group has gathered.
“We’ve also got evidence, photographic, and also I’ve kept all my correspondence with DEH, the RSPCA about places that we’ve reported that have ended up having destruction permits, but we’ve got evidence the animals are being buried alive, the entire population is being killed on that particular property,” she said.
Department for Environment and Heritage chief executive, Allan Holmes, says it will act when enough evidence is provided. “You need to know where it’s occurred, when it occurred, it’s about providing evidence that will stand up in a court of law,” he said. “Again the issue for me is at the moment these claims are largely unsubstantiated. “If the evidence is provided we will investigate them.”
Mr Holmes says mass killings with petrol bombs or bulldozing will not be tolerated.
“The only way that you can legally destroy a wombat is by shooting with a particular calibre rifle,” he said. “And, as I said, given the evidence we will prosecute with the full force of the law.”
They’ve always been uneasy bedfellows, but now Hairy-Nosed Wombats – a rare and protected marsupial – are being slaughtered in large numbers by South Australian farmers as their numbers boom thanks to abundant rain and plenty of food.
. Nearly 900 southern hairy-nosed wombats have been shot with South Australian Government sanction since 2006, and there are claims that many more have been slaughtered illegally.
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The Government also has rules which state that any young wombats found in the pouch of a shot wombat should be killed by decapitation, as this achieves “a sudden and painless death”.
Sickeningly, Parliament has been told that apart from the official deaths, hundreds more wombats are being killed illegally by landholders across the state.
As well as being the state’s animal emblem, the wombat is classed as a vulnerable species, but farmers claim its burrows destroy their land and damage farm machinery.
Like badgers in the United Kingdom, wombats are much maligned by the farming community and are seen as a menace, copping the blame for everything from soil erosion and breaking the legs of cattle (from falling into wombat burrows) to spreading disease.
Official figures show that between January 1, 2006, and December 22 last year, 139 permits were issued for destruction of South Australian wombats.
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Hairy-nosed Wombats?
The much rarer southern hairy-nosed wombat has larger ears than the common wombat, and its snout is coated with fine hairs, whereas the northern hairy-nosed wombat is presumed extinct in NSW.
The southern hairy-nosed wombat prefers dry, open country bu have become very rare, and until recently were thought to be extinct in NSW. They are currently listed as endangered.
A wombat can reproduce after it reaches two years of age. Mating occurs between September and December, and usually results in one offspring. The newborn wombat, which weighs only 1 g and is less than 3 cm long, has to crawl from the birth canal into the mother’s pouch. This pouch faces backwards, which stops dirt and twigs getting caught in it when the mother digs. The young wombat will stay in the pouch for between seven and 10 months.
Because of settlement and agriculture, wombats in most areas have been pushed into the rugged hills and mountains. As long as they remain in these areas, wild dogs and collisions with cars are more of a threat to these marsupials than landowners. However, because of their habit of wandering down to the flats to enjoy the tasty morsels growing there (knocking down fences on the way), they are sometimes killed by farmers.
‘The Wombat Awareness Organisation (WAO) is a non-profit organisation specialising in large scale rescue, rehabilitation and conservation of the Southern Hairy Nosed Wombat (Lasiorhinus latifrons).
The Wombat Awareness Organisation is playing an instrumental role in preventing unneccessary suffering of the wild population of Southern Hairy Nosed Wombats in hope to conserve this incredible little Aussie for future generations.
When WAO established itself in the Murraylands of South Australia in 2007 we were overwhelmed at the lack of services and protective rights offered to SA’s faunal emblem. Battling the effects of drought and global warming, Sarcoptic mange, habitat destruction, vehicular accidents and culling both legal and illegal it was obvious that this species was in trouble. Getting back to basics and finding simple, productive alternatives of drought relief, mange management and coexistence strategies have become the main focus of the organisation by aiming to protect these beautiful wombats from suffering and minimise the need for them to come into care.’
Government wildlife protection has long been a joke and so much so that ‘Government wildlife protection‘ has become an oxymoron. Community frustration is obviously a boiling point at learning about an endangered wildlife species being poached by selfish farmers for their own ends.
If there were a fund for taking out poachers of wildlife I would gladly donate to it.
If it were legal to shoot wildlife poachers I would be amongst the first to enlist. It is legal to shoot wildlife poachers in parts of Africa where it is needed…
‘They’re trained to kill, with orders to shoot on sight. Could they be the saviors of Africa’s wildlife?
Writer Tom Clynes went deep into the Central African Republic to find out. Here he reveals the stories behind his new article, “They Shoot Poachers, Don’t They?”
This year Wyoming conservationists took their battle overseas into the savanna of the Central African Republic. With the permission of President Ange-Félix Patassé to shoot on sight, the group is raising a militia to patrol the eastern third of the African country for poachers.
Writer Tom Clynes spent nearly a month with the hired guns in this latest effort to stop the bush-meat trade, perhaps the pre-eminent threat to African wildlife today. The assignment was as complicated as it was fascinating.
“The good stories begin with intriguing questions. And in this case the questions were complicated and quite epic. You had a bunch of Americans who had basically convinced a leader of a Third World country to let them raise an army and take over a third of the country with shoot-on-sight authority,” says Clynes. “I had a good idea how I felt about this kind of thing: Killing is wrong—end of argument.”
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In the heart of central Africa, marauding bands of bush-meat hunters are terrorizing villages and slaughtering wildlife to the brink of extinction. Now a family practitioner from Wyoming has decided to recruit his own army to stop them.
The story, as I first heard it, had the zing of a Hollywood pitch: Led by a soft-spoken doctor, a band of American conservationists had persuaded the president of the Central African Republic to let them raise a militia and take over the eastern third of the Texas-size country. Their mission was to drive out the marauding gangs of Sudanese poachers who were rapidly wiping out the region’s elephants and other animals.
Their authority: ‘Shoot on sight’
No one had been killed yet when I arrived in Bangui in early March. Throughout the dilapidated capital, signs of a November coup attempt were still fresh: Bullet divots scored the bricks of the Tropicana Club, and a curfew remained in effect. A detachment of Libyan paratroopers hulked in front of the mansion of President Ange-Félix Patassé, who had been bailed out, again, by his friend Muammar Qaddafi.
Most of the fighting had taken place in the northern reaches of town, where the American group, Africa Rainforest and River Conservation (ARRC), had rented a gated compound. As I approached the large whitewashed porch, it struck me that ARRC was well prepared for another flare-up. Scattered among the wicker furniture were several men in fatigues, a couple of AK-47s, a grenade launcher, and a very excited chimpanzee.
Dave Bryant, a 49-year-old South African who had been hired in August to lead the militia, extended his hand. “Welcome to bloody paradise,” he said. He introduced a slight, 26-year-old Iowan named Michelle Wieland, who was in charge of ARRC’s community-development component, and a thin 35-year-old named Richard Hagen, who had flown up from South Africa to help with security.
“And the little fellow jumping up and down is Commando,” said Bryant. “We rescued him from a Sudanese trader, and to show his appreciation he’s been crapping all over our floors.”
Bryant’s face seemed custom-assembled for bad-ass impact. Beneath a clean-shaven scalp, a towering forehead descended into a deep ravine of a scowl line, bridged by wraparound sunglasses. An expansive Fu Manchu mustache arched around a loaded cigarette holder, which dangled expertly from one side of his mouth.
“I guess you’ve heard that we’re in a bit of a cock-up,” he said. “We’ve been stuck in this shit-hole for five months now, trying to get out into the bush to do a reccy [reconnaissance] before the rains hit. We’re waiting for gear, we’re waiting for money, and we’re waiting for vehicles. And we’re waiting for people in this zoo they call a government to do something other than put their bloody hands out.”
The three were eager to hear about my meeting that day with the American ambassador, Mattie Sharpless. Sharpless had recently arrived in Bangui, and I had asked her what she knew about ARRC.
“The rumor is that they’re hiring South African mercenaries and diverting funds into diamond ventures,” Sharpless had answered.
Wieland winced when I relayed the quote, but Bryant smiled and leaned back in his chair. “Yes, well. We South Africans don’t usually like to use the term ‘mercenary.’ We prefer to say ‘playing at soldiers on a privately employed basis.'”
Most of Australia’s native vegetation cover, over 75% of that predating the 1788 Colonial Invasion, has been ‘cleared’ – a euphemism for deforested, logged, destroyed, killed.
Today, as one travels around Australia and sees vasts areas of unproductive, degraded, denuded and abandoned farmlands – one questions why destroy more fragile environment? Yet the exploitative bastards are still hell bent on killing more native forest and bushland, even though they can’t properly manage the ‘already ‘cleared’ lands they’ve got. It is a short sighted insatiability, harking to a 19th Century ‘old blighty’ mindset of taming the land. It is deluded thinking that just because the native vegetation is green and looks fertile that it can be replaced for pasture and cropping and that new cleared land will be any different to that already cleared.
The Liberal-Labor governments and their rural National mates haven’t given a toss throughout the entire 20th Century and still couldn’t give a toss.
Recent land clearing in the Daly River catchment area
Northern Territory, Australia.
Photo: Environment Centre NT
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Moree region New South Wales – mainly deforested
Visit Google Earth and zoom into any area of NSW and see that most of it has been deforested
(click image to enlarge)
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Still across Australia in 2011, thousands of hectares of native forests continue to be deforested – albeit for farming, logging and development, or just bizarre bushfire abandonment. Not only is this occurring on private land, but in State Forests, which most people think are protected. Native forests on land are being cleared branded by State governments as ‘State Forests’ are simply not protected.
The native trees, flora and fauna are not protected from logging, bushfire, State-sanctioned arson (aka ‘hazard reduction‘), State napalming (aka indiscriminate ‘hazard reduction‘), indiscriminate State aerial poisoning with 1080, wildlife poaching, 4WD hooning, trail bike hooning, or even backpacker murdering. The watercourses (and the interconnected groundwater aquifers), that flow through State Forests are not protected from fishing, stormwater run-off, mine tailing contamination, farm pesticide and herbicide, industrial pollution.
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Helicopter Aerial Incendiary
Over Bindarri National Park, 20km south-west of Coffs Harbour, New South Wales
Yes, even our National Parks and Wildlife Service sets indiscriminate fires to National Parks!
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For the likes of taxpayer funded government industrial loggers ‘State Forest’ is a euphemism ‘for not logged yet‘. This applies to the likes of Forestry Tasmania, VicForests, Forests NSW, Forestry SA (spot the naming trend), as well as the more aptly Queensland Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries, and likewise the Forest Products Commission of Western Australia.
It seems that doesn’t matter whether there is proof that there is an endangered and protected species such as the Long-Footed Potoroo in the Cann Valley State Forest or Drummer State Forest in Victoria, or protected Koalas in the Murrah/Mumbulla State Forests of New South Wales, or three identified endangered species, the wedge-tailed eagle, the swift parrot and the wielangta stag beetle in Tasmania’s Wielangta State Forests, the Liberal-Labor governments of those States turn a blind eye to deforestation.
It is only when self-funded local communities take the respective government logger to the Supreme Court and win that logging stops momentarily, such as in the recent Victorian Supreme Court case Environment East Gippsland Inc v VicForests [2010] VSC 335. In 2006, the Victorian State Government committed to increasing the conservation parks and reserves within the broader Brown Mountain area. Disregarding its elected master and ignoring any concerns for the ecological Precautionary Principle, State industrial logger VicForests, got stuck in with its mechanical clearfelling of old growth forests in the Brown Mountain area.
Not-for profit group Environment East Gippsland (EEG) self-funded and obtained numerous studies of the area indicated the presence of important threatened and rare species. EEG requested the Minister for Environment and Climate Change, Gavin Jennings, to make an interim conservation order to conserve critical habitat of the endangered Long-footed Potoroo, Spotted-tailed Quoll, Sooty Owl, Powerful Owl and Orbost Spiny Crayfish at Brown Mountain. Even then, the Minister for Environment and Climate Chang did not grant a conservation order, but instead increased the conservation area surrounding Brown Mountain. It took the overriding legal authority of the Supreme Court to stop the Victorian Government and its delinquent logger trashing protected old growth habitat.
Victorian Labor Minister for Environment (etc), 2007-2010
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In March 2010, Forests NSW began controversial logging operations in the Mumbulla State Forest, south of Bermagui on the state’s far south coast. Despite being criticised, after a recent survey identified the forest as a key colony for the region’s remaining koala population, Forests NSW Regional Manager Ian Barnes says the logging must go ahead across 240 hectares of the forest, in order to satisfy a supply agreement with the timber industry.
Deforestation is all about lining ones pockets out of ecological wanton exploitationIt’s a ‘wam bam thank you mam’ approach no different to what the Vikings did to the British in the eight Century. Colonial Australians and their descendants are doing the same to Australian ecology in the 19th, 20th and 21st Centuries.
Mr Barnes says the logging will not affect the koala habitat. “We’ve taken quite some effort to avoid any possible conflict there,” he says. “As anybody who reads the recent report will know, the koalas have been found in the eastern side of the forest, and our logging is planned for the western part, as far away as we can get from the koalas.”
Despite assurances, anti-logging campaigners have organised a vigil in the forest in an attempt to stop the logging. Conservationist Prue Acton says the activity will devastate the koala population.
“Why risk the only healthy koala colony left in the far south coast. For what? “ she said. “95% of what is going to be logged is going to end up at the Eden woodchip mill, be shipped to Japan for cheap copy-paper. What a disgrace.”
The Greens MP Lee Rhiannon says the Premier should put the protection of koalas ahead of the interests of logging companies. “The New South Wales Government has refused to end logging in the south east native forest but they should step in and stop the destruction of the koala habitat,” she said.
The amount of bushland being cleared by logging in NSW soared last year to the highest level since state-wide records began in 1988. An area equivalent to 138,400 football fields was cleared for crops, forestry or infrastructure, says a government report.
The Office of Environment and Heritage said the rise in logging was probably cancelled out by regrowth, leading to no net loss of trees, though its most recent survey took place in 2008, before the land clearing spike. It said the reasons for the logging increase were unclear.
”[The] most likely factors relate to market demand and favourable climatic conditions and [they] can be expected to fluctuate over time,” a department spokesman said. ”It is also possible that recent changes in forestry methods are more readily detectable by satellite monitoring.”
Environment groups said the annual vegetation report was evidence that logging companies were operating in an unrestrained manner.
Bushfires remain the biggest destroyer of forests in the state, leading to a net loss of 48,300 hectares in 2010, the report said.
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But logging activities now come a close second, accounting for the removal of 42,700 hectares of trees in 2010. This is up from 31,000 hectares the previous year, and an average of about 21,000 hectares a year since 1988.
About 21,200 hectares of bushland was cleared in 2010 to make new areas for crops and grazing, while 5300 hectares were cut down to make way for roads, factories and housing.
”The NSW government is currently conducting a review of native vegetation controls,” said the chief executive of the Nature Conservation Council of NSW, Pepe Clarke. ”They should take this report as a warning – what is required are stronger land- clearing laws that do more to protect the environment, not weaker ones.”
The Wilderness Society said the government had ”failed in its promises to restrain land clearing, resulting in rapid and accelerating degradation of wildlife habitat and water catchments.”
The most recent State of the Environment report found that there had been no net loss of ”woody cover” across NSW between 2003 and 2008.
”This is because, although clearing has occurred over that period, there has also been an equivalent amount of regrowth including government sponsored environmental and forestry planting programs conducted by private landholders and state forests, within crown forests areas,” the department said.
”Notwithstanding no net loss over the whole state, some regions have experienced net declines in woody cover.”
The report uses the international definition of ”woody cover”, which includes land at least 20% covered by the crowns of trees higher than 2 metres, a description which would include relatively open country.
The introduction of a satellite monitoring system for land clearing last year appears to have increased the level of prosecution for illegal land clearing on private property. On crown lands, the number of prosecutions has increased threefold, from a low base, since 2007.
In 2010, the government received 471 reports of suspected illegal land clearing.
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‘Landowners sent satellite images identifying land clearing‘
NSW Department of Environment Climate Change and Water (DECCW) today began a high tech education campaign to encourage compliance with native vegetation laws by sending letters to landholders including before and after satellite pictures identifying land clearing.
DECCW Director-General Lisa Corbyn said the letters were part of an ongoing education program to encourage compliance with the laws and inform landowners of the proper channels available to them if they want to clear native vegetation.
“We’ve been using satellite technology for some time to identify changes in vegetation cover that may warrant further investigation,” Ms Corbyn said.
“Now we are also using the technology as an education tool. From today, advisory letters will be sent to landowners including before and after satellite pictures showing that vegetation has been cleared on their land.”
Ms Corbyn said the letters aim to inform to the landowner that the satellite imagery has picked up that vegetation had been cleared and highlight the proper channels available to them under the legislation to allow clearing of native vegetation, such as property vegetation plans.
The letters support other tools used by DECCW to encourage compliance with the legislation, including strategic investigations, prosecutions, penalty notices, stop work orders, remedial directions, warning and advisory letters.
The letter also alerts landowners to incentive funding available to restore and protect native vegetation on their properties.
The Native Vegetation Act was introduced in 2003 to bring an end to broadscale land-clearing in NSW. Since then, more than 400,000 hectares of native vegetation has been conserved or rehabilitated on private land through property vegetation plans (PVPs) and 1.6 million hectares has been managed for thinning and invasive native scrub management.
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Over 60 % of the native vegetation in NSW has been cleared, thinned or substantially disturbed.
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The impacts of native vegetation clearing have included the extinction of 77 plant and animal species, soil erosion, increased dryland salinity and a decline in water quality.’
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2003: ‘Clearing rate in NSW 116,000 to 216,000 hectares per year: NSW Govt report’
[Source: ‘Clearing rate in NSW 116,000 to 216,000 hectares per year: NSW Govt report’, by Stephanie Peatling, Environment Reporter, Sydney Morning Herald, 20031117, ^http://www.sydneyalternativemedia.com/id64.html]
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The equivalent of up to 200,000 football fields may be illegally stripped of native trees and grass each year in NSW, figures suggest.
The first estimates on the extent of the clearings, which the Department of Natural Resources field staff prepared for the Government’s vegetation taskforce, suggest the figure could be as high as 100,000 hectares a year. The figures show between 150,000 hectares and 560,000 hectares were illegally cleared between 1997 and 2002.
The advice is the first official guess at NSW’s illegal clearance levels. The highest rates are in the Barwon, Central West and Far West regions where much of NSW’s remaining native vegetation is located.
The figures have shocked environmentalists, who stress the urgency of making changes to the state’s natural resource management system, which Parliament is debating this week.
A Wilderness Society campaigner, Francesca Andreoni, said: “The new system needs to be fair to everyone, particularly farmers doing the right thing.
“The shocking extent of illegal clearing confirms the urgent need for the Government to implement its decision to end broadscale clearing.”
Figures recording the rate of illegal land clearing each year are almost impossible to compile because it so hard to charge people who breach native vegetation laws. There is also a complicated system of exemptions which allow people to clear land for purposes such as maintaining fire access trails.
Monitoring illegal clearing is potentially dangerous for departmental compliance officers. After reports of illegal clearing earlier this year on a property near Nyngan, in the state’s west, department officers were prevented from entering the property by an angry crowd of up to 150 people.
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When the amount of land illegally cleared is added to land that is legally approved for clearance, the department estimates between 700,000 hectares and 1.3 million hectares of land were cleared between 1997 and 2002.
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The figures suggest clearing was faster than the Department of Natural Resources’ previously admitted figure of about 60,000 hectares a year. That figure would give NSW the second-highest clearing rate in the country behind Queensland.
Debate on the Government’s package to overhaul native vegetation laws, based on an election promise to end broad-scale clearing, will take place this week. Last month the Premier, Bob Carr, announced a $406 million deal between farmers and environmentalists to end broad-scale clearing.
Most of the money is expected to go towards such things as tree planting and fencing waterways to help counter salinity and erosion. But local authorities may also compensate farmers for not clearing land. Clearing will still be allowed where it is deemed environmentally necessary.
Under the new system, natural resource management is being overhauled. Thirteen catchment management authorities will replace 19 catchment management boards, 20 regional vegetation committees and 33 water management committees.
Scientists often name land clearing as one of Australia’s most urgent environmental concerns. It contributes to soil salinity, loss of biodiversity and greenhouse gas emissions because carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere when the cleared timber is disposed of, usually through burning.
Environment groups have banded together to criticise the level of logging occurring in New South Wales. The Nature Conservation Council, The Wilderness Society, National Parks Association, the Northern Inland Council for the Environment and the North Coast Environment Council have issued a joint warning that iconic and endangered species are being threatened by land clearing.
Illegal deforestation for fire wood, near Taralga, on the western edge of the Blue Mountains
Source: ^http://www.orchidsaustralia.com/article_%20conservation_no3.htm
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In a joint press release, the groups said the NSW annual report on native vegetation released by the Office of Environment and Heritage (Ed. yet another money wasting name change) this month showed 2009/10 was the “worst year on record for clearing of native bushland”.
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The Wilderness Society campaigns manager Belinda Fairbrother said the report showed that in 2009/10 an area equating to 138,400 football fields was cleared for crops, forestry or infrastructure.
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“This is higher than any other year since records commenced in 1988 and shows the NSW Government has failed in its promises to restrain land clearing, resulting in rapid and accelerating degradation of wildlife habitat and water catchments,” she said.
North Coast Environment Council president Susie Russell said the report made a sad end to the International Year of Forests.
“The area cleared for forestry in 2009/10 was almost five times greater than it was in 1988/89,” she said.
“It reveals a massive increase in the rate and intensity of logging in NSW, which will be causing untold damage to the extraordinary high diversity forests of north-east NSW.”
Nature Conservation Council chief executive officer Pepe Clarke said land clearing was recognised as the single greatest threat to wildlife in Australia.
“It causes the death of birds and animals, the extinction of species, leads to the poisoning of soils from salinity and makes a major contribution to global warming,” he said.
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The Liberal-Labor Party ‘Island Vision’ for Australia’s State Forests
‘The Hill’ (Penrose State Forest, NSW) 2007, drawing by James King
^http://www.jamesking.com.au/drawings.html
[This article was initially published by Tigerquoll on CanDoBetter.net on 20100107 under the title ‘Twilight Samurai pride clinging to a right to pillage distant whales in foreign oceans‘. Quite appropriate since the Japanese Government’s whaling vessel the Yushin Maru 3 is at it again poaching whales in the Southern Ocean, while Australia’s latest prime minister is today more interested in commentating on the cricket.]
In true Ruddism style (hollow popularism) Australia is domestically making noise while doing squat to resolve Japan’s state-sanctioned slaughter of endangered whale species or to ethically stand up to an illegitimate foreign aggressor. So year on year, the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society does the dirty work of another Australian government.
Japanese whalers are tens of thousands of miles south of Japan in Australian Antarctic waters and seriously outside any feasible extension of what may constitute ‘traditional’ Japanese hunting grounds. They try to argue on the one hand that:
Whaling is a cultural tradition practiced by the Japanese for centuries and so have an inherent right to continue this tradition, then on the other that
Japanese whale hunting is purely scientific
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Combined, the two justifications expose the motive as a prima facie fraud and as one more important that the mainstream media have realised. Japan’s justifications for whaling are not commercial and not scientific. They are culturally deep and desperately self-preserving, despite being wrong, wasteful and backward.
Proud Japan’s once mighty economy overtaking the west through the 1970s and 1980s reached it’s inevitable bubble, but the Japanese rebirth in pride since humilating defeat in World War II, could not foresee a second cultural failure. But when the Japanese real estate and stock price bubble burst in 1990, immediate nation-wide shock and depression ensued lasting throughout the 1990s, which now has been acknowledged as Japan’s Lost Decade.
Worse for Japanese pride has been its once globally accepted and admired business management practices that have consequently fallen into disrepute internationally. These include Japan’s once acclaimed Kaizen management practice, market first product focus, Genbutso Genba (facts, figures and check) learning from competitors, and Hoshin Kanri (process management).
So right now, Japanese pride is at an ebb one could say. Then to hammer the nail into the coffin, Japan has seen its historic arch rival, China, recently replace and exceed Japan’s economic success.
How is Japan’s cultural pride relevant to Japan’s whaling activities in the Southern Ocean?
Well let’s investigate the facts.
Japanese whalers, tens of thousands of miles south of Japan in Australian Antarctic waters and seriously outside any feasible extension of what may constitute ‘traditional’ Japanese hunting grounds, try to argue on the one hand that (1) whaling is a cultural tradition practiced by the Japanese for centuries and so have an inherent right to continue this tradition, then on the other that (2) Japanese whale hunting is purely scientific – is an exposed prima facie fraud.
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Founder and President of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, Paul Watson, provides an historical synopsis of the Japanese 19th Century commercial interest in whaling in his article of 27 June 2006 ‘The Truth about “Traditional” Japanese Whaling’: “In the 1890’s Japanese man, Jura Oka, made his way to Norway, the Azores, and Newfoundland to study whaling and learn of the commercial rewards. Oka then formed the first Japanese whaling company Hogei Gumi with one vessel, the Saikai-maru, and killed a total of three whales. In 1908 the Nihon Hogeigyo Suisan Kumiai was established (Japanese Whaling Association) with Jura Oka as the first President. In 1908 the association’s 12 companies with a total of 28 whaling vessels killed 1,312 whales. The average kill for the next 25 years would be around 1,500 whales.
…The 1930’s became the greatest decade of whale slaughter in history. In 1931, 37,438 blue whales were massacred in the Southern Oceans. Japan sent its first ships to Antarctica in 1935. The sale of whale oil helped to finance the invasion of Manchuria and China. In 1937 alone, more than 55,000 whales were slaughtered yielding 3 million tons of animals.”
Post World War II, America’s General Douglas MacArthur, encouraged the revitalisation of a defeated and demoralised Japan.
“In 1946, General Douglas MacArthur proposed the creation of a Japanese whaling fleet to secure protein for the conquered Japanese people. He did so in order to cut down on the United States’ costs of transporting food to post war Japan. On August 6th 1946 MacArthur signed the directive authorizing two factory ships and twelve catcher boats to begin whaling in the Antarctic for the 1946-47 season. The deal was that Japan would get the meat and the oil would be turned over to the United States. The United States provided $800,000 in fuel for the ships and received over 4 million dollars in whale oil in return.
The two ships sent down to Antarctic waters were the Hashidate Maru and the Nishin Maru.” Do these vessel names sound familiar?
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“The brutal killing of whales has become an icon for the Japanese identity. This is not unusual. Japan has always closely identified with blood and slaughter. From the decapitations by the Samurai upon innocent peasants to the suicidal insanity of the Kamikaze, violence and self destruction have been a part of Japanese culture.” .
With Japan’s Samurai culture castrated, its military culture castrated, its economic miracle failed, what pride can traditional Japanese otherwise cling to?
Few eat whale meat in Japan. The scientific research of whales is only an excuse so that that Japan can claim to be technically complying with the Antarctic Treaty. But the activity is one of lost Samurais with no other quest. It’s all really quite sad for Japan and symptomatic of a once proud people having become.
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Japanese arrogance in the Southern Ocean extends to Tokyo
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On 20 Dec 2009, a US shipwreck search team lead by US marine scientist David Mearns finally found the wreckage of the Australian World War Two hospital ship, the Centaur, which sank in 1943 killing 268 people. Submarine photography has confirmed the gaping hole where the Japanese torpedo and ensuing explosion tore the hospital ship off the Queensland coast just 30 miles east of the southern tip of Moreton Island. The footage shows the ship’s bright red cross and a corroded number 47, its identification number.
At the time supreme Allied commander Douglas MacArthur called the Japanese torpedoing an example of “limitless savagery” and Australian Prime Minister John Curtin said violated “all the principles of common humanity”.
In 1943 the Japanese government issued a statement denying responsibility for the sinking of the Centaur, and has never since acknowledged that Nakagawa was responsible for the sinking. However, an acknowledgment came from the Japanese navy in 1979 in its History of Submarine Warfare, written by Rear Admiral Kaneyoshi Sakamoto. The official history specifically acknowledges that Nakagawa was responsible.
Acting Queensland Premier, Mr Lucas said “In this barbaric act, people lost their lives. Sailors, soldiers, nurses, doctors, orderlies. It was totally senseless and a wanton act” and has called on the Japanese government to apologise to the Australian people. But Japan has refused to apologise.
Australian’s should never forget that Japan is the only nation ever to directly threaten Australia’s sovereignty. Three generations later Japan again defies Australian sovereignty. Some people are a bit slow at getting the message.
Respect for Japan has hit a low. Its government’s disrespectful of the dead, and remains dishonourable over its accountability for its many war crimes such as this.
Survivor Martin Pash, 87, told the Brisbane Courier-Mail that while the Japanese government had issued a general apology for its wartime behaviour, he now sought a direct acknowledgment that the Centaur, which was clearly marked as a hospital ship, should not have been torpedoed. National RSL president Ken Doolan in siding with the Japanese on this issue and stating that the RSL would not be demanding an apology, should hang his head in shame and resign.
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Japanese Scientific Whale Meat for sale
^http://www.examiner.com/green-celebrity-in-national/whale-wars-news-sushi-restaurant-serving-whale-meat-southern-california-closes-for-good
~Tom Milliken, Elephant and Rhinoceros expert for the wildlife trade monitoring network ‘TRAFFIC’
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Large seizures of elephant tusks make this year the worst on record since ivory sales were banned in 1989, with estimates suggesting as many as 3000 elephants were killed by poachers as Asian syndicates move into the continent.
Tom Milliken, elephant and rhino expert for the wildlife trade monitoring network Traffic, said: “2011 has truly been a horrible year for elephants.”
In one case earlier this month, Malaysian authorities seized hundreds of African elephant tusks worth $1.3 million that were being shipped to Cambodia. The ivory was concealed in containers of Kenyan handicrafts.
‘Around 23,000 elephants live in Kenya but populations can be devastated by poaching within a couple of years.
A recent survey in Chad showed its elephant population had declined from 3,800 to just over 600 in the past three years.’
^http://www.thestar.com/article/692972
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“In 23 years of compiling ivory seizure data . . . this is the worst year ever for large ivory seizures,” said Milliken.
Most cases involve ivory being smuggled from Africa into Asia, where growing wealth has fed the desire for ivory ornaments and for rhino horn that is used in traditional medicine, though scientists have proved it has no medicinal value. Traffic said Asian crime syndicates were increasingly involved in poaching and the illegal ivory trade across Africa, a trend that coincides with growing Asian investment on the continent.
“The escalation in ivory trade and elephant and rhino killing is being driven by the Asian syndicates that are now firmly enmeshed within African societies,” Milliken said. “There are more Asians than ever in the history of the continent, and this is one of the repercussions.”
Reports from Central Africa were particularly alarming and if current levels of poaching were sustained, some countries, such as Chad, could potentially lose their elephant populations in the very near future, said Jason Bell, director of the International Fund for Elephant Welfare.
In Tanzania’s Selous Game Reserve alone, some 50 elephants a month are being killed, according to the Washington-based Environmental Investigation Agency. It has been a disastrous year for elephants, perhaps the worst since ivory sales were banned in 1989 to save the world’s largest land animals from extinction.
According to the wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC, a record number of seizures of elephant tusks from at least 2,500 dead animals shows that organised crime networks, in particular Asian syndicates, are increasingly involved in the illegal ivory trade and the poaching that feeds it.
Endangered elephant butchered for TCM
(Photo by Michael Nichols)
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Some of the seized tusks came from old stockpiles, the elephants having been killed years ago. It is not clear how many elephants were recently killed in Africa for their tusks, but experts are alarmed.
TRAFFIC’s elephant and rhino expert Tom Milliken thinks criminals may have the upper hand in the war to save rare and endangered animals: “The escalation in ivory trade and elephant and rhino killing is being driven by the Asian syndicates that are now firmly enmeshed within African societies.”
Miliken said: “There are more Asians than ever before in the history of the continent, and this is one of the repercussions.”
Most cases involve ivory being smuggled from Africa into Asia, where growing wealth has fed the desire for ivory ornaments and for rhino horn that is used in traditional medicine, though scientists have proved it has no medicinal value.
All statistics are not yet in, and no one can say how much ivory is getting through undetected, but “what is clear is the dramatic increase in the number of large-scale seizures, over 800kg in weight, that have taken place in 2011,” TRAFFIC said in a statement.
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Asian Elephant Parts Trade:
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In the most recent case, Malaysian authorities seized hundreds of African elephant tusks on December 21 worth $1.3m that were being shipped to Cambodia, hidden in containers of handicrafts from Kenya. Most large seizures have originated from Kenyan or Tanzanian ports, TRAFFIC said.
Fifty elephants a month are being killed, their tusks hacked off, in Tanzania’s Selous Game Reserve, according to the Washington-based Environmental Investigation Agency.
With shipments so large, criminals have taken to shipping them by sea instead of by air, and falsifying documents with the help of corrupt officials, monitors said.
Milliken said some of the seized ivory has been identified as coming from government-owned stockpiles, made up of confiscated tusks and those of dead elephants, in another sign of corruption.
“In 23 years of compiling ivory seizure data … this is the worst year ever for large ivory seizures,” said Milliken.
Africa’s elephant population was estimated at between 5 million and 10 million before the European colonisation era. Massive poaching for the ivory trade in the 1980s halved the remaining number of African elephants to about 600,000.
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Tusk seizures double in last year as syndicates continue to undermine 1989 ban on sale of ivory.
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It’s a big business year for illegal African ivory. A record number of ivory seizures were made globally this year, produced by an enormous surge in elephant poaching.
Central Africa is most brutally affected, with most of the illegal African ivory collected for China or Thailand where most of the tusks are made into jewelry and art carvings. Tom Milliken in Zimbabwe manages Traffic, which operates an Elephant Trade Information System. He says
“A conservative estimate of the weight of ivory seized in the 13 largest seizures in 2011 puts the figure at more than 23 tonnes, a figure that probably represents some 2,500 elephants, possibly more.”
The Guardian reports that Millliken also says that the 13 large-scale seizures of over 800kg of ivory recorded in 2011, compares with just six seized in 2010. He notes that’s the largest amount of seizures in the more than two decades since he’s been operating his database.
The increased poaching and illegal trade are the result of China’s decision to make an investment drive into Africa to obtain the mineral and energy resources it needs to fuel its economic growth.
Milliken comments:
“We’ve reached a point in Africa’s history where there are more Asian nationals on the continent than ever before. They have contacts with the end-use market and now they are at the source in Africa. This is all adding up to an unprecedented assault on elephants and other wildlife”
Such a heinous crime invokes capital punishment – eye for and eye beheading
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He concedes it is possible that some of the ivory getting into illegal markets could be coming from African government stockpiles from old seizures. But Milliken points out that trade figures and wildlife monitors show a rise in elephant killings. Most of the kilings he notes are occurring in the Congo, but poaching is also going on in Zimbabwe, Zambia, northern Mozambique, Tanzania and Kenya.
In 1989, a global ban placed on the ivory trade was credited with stemming the unstoppable slaughter of African elephants in Africa’s central region. Since then, African governments have sanctioned occasional auctions from its stockpiles.
It’s believed Africa’s elephant population varies widely from 400,000 to 700,000. Some southern African states like Botswana have large and growing populations and in South Africa burgeoning elephant populations are raising concerns that they are damaging the environment.
‘There is a war taking place on our planet for which there are no headlines, no demonstrations, and no voice. It is a war against some of the most endangered species on our planet and it takes place in some of the most majestic and unexplored biospheres of the world. Unseen and untouched by the Western world, these places are well-suited to commit atrocious acts in hiding.’
Traditional Chinese Medicine – a backward asian cult that must be eradicated!
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TCM is 5000 years old. Its quacks profit from promising cures for headaches, skin disorders, irritable bowel syndrome, constipation and diarrhoea, stress, allergies, and impotence. Of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) that relies on slaughtering endangered wildlife for their body parts for potions, it promotes a sick barbaric trade. It is a witchdoctor cult.
In the West, when something happens we ask what we can do about it. In the East when something happens they ask what has caused it. Traditional Chinese Medicine looks for the underlying causes of imbalances and patterns of disharmony within the body, blabs on about Yin and Yang, then goes out and slaughters endangered wildlife for their body parts to make a dodgy quack potion.
Boycott Traditional Chinese Medicine. It is illegal by driving the illegal trade in endangered species. It is more barbaric than the child sex trade.
Australian model Elle Macpherson does. Since 2010 she says she regrets any distress she may caused by jokingly advocating the use of powdered rhino horn, a traditional Chinese medicine that is banned worldwide, during an interview with The Sunday Times Magazine, the Australian model said that she had tasted rhino horn and that it had “done the job“. The model told news.com.au today that she had “never knowingly consumed or encouraged the use or consumption of any products which contain material derived from endangered species”.
No place for feral tourists on World Heritage Fraser Island
Such 20th Century resort tourism is inappropriate for World Heritage Fraser Island
4WD tourist hoons on Fraser Island in 2009
[Source: ‘Overseas tourists drive up Fraser Island 4WD carnage’,
by Tony Moore and Cameron Atfield, Brisbane Times, 20091215,
^http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/travel/travel-news/overseas-tourists-drive-up-fraser-island-4wd-carnage-20091214-ks6f.html]
Pure Dingo
Threatened, harrassed on its native Fraser Island
Say no more!
Uncontrolled tourist interation with Fraser Island’s wild dingoes
Tourists and wildlife don’t mix – when will Parks Management get the message ?
DERM is not a tourist operator. Fraser Island is a World Heritage National Park for wildlife.
Unmonitored 4WDs
A bit of road widening into Fraser Island’s vegetation
Road to McKenzie – the Parks Service must have gone AWOL
Indian Head degradation by excessive uncontrolled tourism.
Where are DERM Parks Management – off lighting grass fires?
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Indian Head vegetation back in 1974
Fraser Island’s native long-necked turtles
vulnerable to 4WD hoons
Ongoing sand dune damage by unmonitored 4WDs
Tourist access on Fraser Island has become a free-for-all !
Leave Lake Wabby alone!
Fraser Island’s 75 Mile Beach
…clear of ferals of all types
Lake Boomanjin on Fraser Island,
Supposedly protected
(Photo by Steven Nowakowski, click photo to enlarge)
