Eighth Conference of the Parties (COP-8) to the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS)

ENB Reports

The eighth Conference of the Parties (COP-8) to the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) opened on Sunday afternoon, 20 November 2005, in Nairobi, Kenya. Following a children's music performance, delegates heard opening statements, and attended the CMS Thesis Award ceremony, the presentation of the "Friends of CMS," and the CMS Partnership Fair. COP-8 will convene until 25 November, with the theme "On the Move to 2010."

Plenary elected Patrick Van Klaveren (Monaco) as COP-8 Chair, Rolph Payet (Seychelles) as Chair of the Committee of the Whole (COW) and COP-8 Vice-Chair, and Roberto Schlatter (Chile) as COW Vice-Chair. Latvia, Niger, Peru, Morocco, and Australia were appointed as members of the Credentials Committee.

 

COW

 

Press Conference

During a midday press conference, above, the CMS Secretariat explained the legal and practical implications of Appendix I and II listings, and outlined actions undertaken with a focus on Africa. Wetlands International and Birdlife International stressed the crucial role that CMS can play in the debate on avian influenza, saying CMS should feed ecological knowledge into the FAO- and WHO-dominated discussions.

CMS COP-8 Concludes Successfully

On Friday, 25 November, at the eighth Conference of the Parties (COP-8) to the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS), the Committee of the Whole (COW) convened in the morning to endorse outstanding resolutions and recommendations. Delegates met in plenary to consider the possible listing of the Gorilla on Appendix II, principles for the expansion of agreements, and the 2010 target. The plenary also adopted outstanding resolutions and recommendations, and heard closing statements about the successful outcome of COP-8. Chair Patrick van Klaveren declared the meeting closed at 5.29 pm. Above: CMS Executive Secretary Robert Hepworth gave Vice-Chair Rolph Payet, Seychelles, and Chair van Klaveren bottles of Danzig Goldwasser liqueur from Germany in appreciation for their work.

MENR receives royal invite

Seychelles Nation - 28.05.2005 (www.nation.sc ) 

Environment and Natural Resources Minister Ronny Jumeau and Environment Principal Secretary Rolph Payet leave Seychelles on Saturday to take part in a scientific meeting on global warning organised by the King of Sweden.

Both Minister Jumeau and Mr Payet received personal invitations from King Carl XVI Gustaf to deliver separate presentations to his Seventh Royal Colloquium in Sweden from May 30 to June 1, 2005.

The Royal Colloquia are a series of international environmental symposiums of a select – no more than 25 – number of political, scientific and academic personalities which are held regularly by the King. They deal with environmental issues of significance to the well being of ecosystems and the lives of the millions of people all over the world who depend on them.

This year’s Royal Colloquia will look at the melting of the polar ice by global warning under the theme: “Artic under Stress: A Thawing Tundra.”

Minister Jumeau’s presentation, entitled “Arctic Stress – Tropics in Distress,” will look at the effect the melting of the Arctic has on small island developing states. Mr Payet will address the colloquium on Biodiversity at the Frontline: Links between the Artic and tropical biodiversity.

“Mr Payet and I have been invited to drive home the message that the melting of the polar ice is of serious concern to not only the countries  and peoples of the Artic, but to all mankind as far as us here in Seychelles,” said Minister Jumeau.

“It will, for example, accelerate sea level rise and thus the flooding and submergence of even small islands in the tropics,” he said.

The minister described the invitations from the King of Sweden as “a rare honour” for Seychelles as it will be the only developing and small island state represented among the 20 participants.
The colloquia are usually held in the King’s palace, but will this year take place on board an icebreaker as it travels down the Gulf of Bothnia from Sweden’s northernmost port of Lulea to Stockholm.

Most of the other participants come from Canada, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the United States, all of which form part of the Arctic region.

Participants come from science academies and scientific institutes and publications, universities, environmental foundations and governments.

Coral Reefs a Global Concern

Iran Daily May 12 2005

Marine biologists launched an appeal for more funds to monitor and protect the world’s imperiled coral reefs, warning that rampant damage to the undersea
ecosystems poses a global threat, AFP reported.
“The threat to coral reefs is therefore no longer just an island problem but a world concern,“ Seychelles Environment Minister Ronny Jumeau said.
With about 20 percent of the earth’s reefs damaged beyond repair, 24 percent under imminent threat and 26 percent facing long-term threats, Jumeau said the international community had to do more to ensure their protection.
“The developed world should commit more funds to coral reef monitoring programs and to the management of protected areas,“ he said.
“If we allow our coral to die especially in the face of sea level rise, thousands of islands across the globe will disappear, along with whole countries, innumerable communities, entire cultures,“ Jumeau said.
According to reports, reefs have been damaged in the waters of 93 nations.
In parts of the Indian Ocean, where the Seychelles Islands are located, researchers fear that reefs could disappear from vast swathes of sea beds in the next 20 years.
Although such damage has immediate effects on small islands, it can also endanger food security in larger nations.
“Many species of fish depend on coral reefs for their food or protection and the collapse of the reefs would lead to elevated costs of fish worldwide,“ said International Coral Reef Initiative chief Rolph Payet.
ICRI is a private sector-government partnership set up in 1995 to address coral reef conservation and management and to reduce the destruction of coral reefs as well as other related ecosystems.

10TH ANNIVERSARY ICRI MEETING HELD IN THE SEYCHELLES

From: Reefcheck, April 2005

The 10th anniversary meeting of the International Coral Reef Initiative was held from April 25–27, 2005 in Mahé, The Seychelles. The meeting was co-chaired by Rolph Payet of the Seychelles and John Roberts of the United Kingdom. Seventy-five participants, including three new members, attended the meeting. RC Executive Director, Gregor Hodgson, represented Reef Check. The meeting produced a number of decisions, including one to have GCRMN do a post-tsunami follow-up to their Status of Coral Reefs of the World report. A draft resolution on reef rehabilitation was also proposed (see below). To view a summary of the meeting, click here.

ICRI Meeting Proposes Resolution on Artificial Reef Restoration and Rehabilitation
One of the outcomes of the ICRI meeting was a draft resolution on reef restoration. Various commercial and non-commercial organizations have proposed a range of ‘engineering’ techniques as reef reconstruction or rehabilitation techniques, including:
- A mechanism using wire frames through which electricity is passed to accrete calcium carbonate and accelerate the growth of transplanted corals;
- Installation of artificial reefs, including concrete structures; and
- Mechanisms for re-cementing and re-gluing corals and other organisms to the substratum.

These techniques have recently been brought to the forefront due to reef damage from the 2004 tsunami. The following is an excerpt from the proposal, click here to read the full resolution that was adopted by ICRI this month:

"The proponents of this Resolution, the ICRI Operational Units, CORDIO, GCRMN, ICRAN and Reef Check, while acknowledging that some innovative and new approaches to coral reef conservation and management may have limited applications, are concerned that there have been insufficient peer-reviewed, long-term scientific studies of reef rehabilitation using these and other techniques and that there have been few cost-benefit analyses to assess effectiveness of the methods over natural recovery processes. The available evidence suggests that some of these techniques may be useful in specialized cases, but have limited or no application and value for large-scale coral reef rehabilitation. In addition to effectiveness considerations, construction of any engineered structure on a coral reef must be evaluated against any potential environmental damage caused during construction or later degradation."