Environment news April 2007

 

 

 

 

Item 01: Japan Electricity Generation Hits Record in 2006/07

(Reuters, 13 Aril, 2007) Japan's electricity generation surged to a record high in the business year ended in March helped by brisk demand from the industrial sector, an industry association said on Friday.

Japan's 10 utilities generated 971.33 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity in the year ended March 31, up 0.7 percent from the previous all-time high recorded in the year-earlier period, the Federation of Electric Power Companies of Japan said.

An association official said that electricity generation hit a record for the third straight year in 2006/07.

The association said electricity demand for industrial use was firm, but it was offset by lower heating demand, hurt by unusually warm winter weather which swept the nation until last month.

Eight utilities including third-ranked Chubu Electric Power Co. reported the highest generation in 2006/07, while only the two biggest firms, Tokyo Electric Power Co. and Kansai Electric Power Co. , reported a decline of up to 0.3 percent from a year earlier.

The association data also showed that electricity generation rose 1.5 percent to 83.82 billion kilowatt-hours last month from the previous year, marking the highest level ever for the month of March

 

 

Item 02: Renowned Fisheries Expert Harpoons Japan's 'Sushi Science'

(Andrew Darby, CDNN, 13 April, 2007) NEW YORK, New York-- Japan's case to begin whaling of humpbacks that migrate along the Australian coast has been undermined by one of the world's leading fisheries scientists.

The claim by Japan that reviving humpbacks are outcompeting Antarctic minke whales for food was dismissed by Daniel Pauly, a specialist in global fish stocks.

Humpbacks that begin their annual winter migration along the Australian coast within weeks face Japanese harpoons next summer in Antarctica, where the whalers plan to take 50.

As part of the rationale for the "scientific whaling" program, Japanese whalers claim that the rapid growth of the humpback population has meant a "shift in dominance" among Antarctic whales. It says that the humpbacks have begun to push minke whales into poorer feeding grounds.

However Dr Pauly, the director of the University of British Columbia's Fisheries Centre, said no such problem existed.

"These whales compete within complex food webs, and not directly with each other," he said.

A symposium on whale conservation at the United Nations heard that Japan blamed whales for declines in fish catches.

The claim has been repeated by poorer Caribbean and African nations that depend on local fisheries and vote with Japan in the International Whaling Commission.

The Japanese Institute of Cetacean Research says that the total annual prey consumption by whales and dolphins around the world is more than 249 million tonnes.

Dr Pauly said Japanese fisheries negotiators were beginning to argue for the culling of whales to save fisheries, claiming they were seeking an "ecosystem balance". But he said there was little real overlap between the food that whales ate and human fisheries.

Although there was some local competition with fisheries, such as for herring off Iceland, in regions like Antarctica they ate shrimp-like krill almost exclusively.

"And therefore if we slaughtered all marine mammals now it would make no difference for the fishermen," Dr Pauly said.

Instead, having whales and seals in the marine ecosystem could enhance the strength of fisheries. "Marine mammals not only eat prey, they eat things that compete with that prey."

Organisms such as jellyfish, which were of little use as human food, would be left to flourish without whales, he said.

Dr Pauly said it was time to remove subsidies that protected inefficient fishing, and to extend the attack to whaling. "It probably would fade out in Japan if it were not subsidised."

The symposium heard that the World Trade Organisation was likely to tackle fish subsidies as part of Doha round negotiations at a date yet to be fixed. "One could also ask the WTO to look at this subsidisation of whaling," Dr Pauly said.

Hosted by the UN Environment Program, the symposium has been called to look at breaking the deadlock in the International Whaling Commission.

 

 

Item 03: US Slow to Talk Free Trade if Japan Keeps Rice Off Table

(P. Parameswaran, AFP, 12 April, 2007) WASHINGTON - The United States said Wednesday it was reluctant to negotiate a free-trade deal with Japan unless the Asian nation opened up its tightly shut agriculture sector

Although Washington agreed to exclude rice from the recently concluded free-trade agreement with South Korea, it would not offer a similar concession to Japan, Assistant US Trade Representative Wendy Cutler told reporters.

Cutler was the chief US negotiator of the pact with South Korea, the biggest free-trade deal since the 1993 North American Free Trade Agreement.

"Clearly the agriculture sector provides an obstacle to entering into such negotiations with Japan because to date, Japan, unlike Korea, has been -- let's be honest -- unwilling to put its agriculture sector on the table and negotiate concrete market-opening provisions," she said.

Rice, of which the United States is a major producer, has long been one of Japan/'s most protected products.

Tokyo uses tariffs, farm subsidies and production controls to block nearly all cheap foreign rice.

Seoul's agreement with the United States will give Korean companies an edge in the US market over Japan and their other Asian competitors.

A day after the deal, Japan said it would study a free-trade agreement with the United States and wanted to restart trade talks with South Korea.

But Cutler said excluding rice would not become a pattern as Washington negotiates other free-trade pacts in Asia.

"The fact that rice was excluded from this agreement does not set a precedent for other FTA negotiations US may enter into in the future," she said when asked whether rice might be excluded in any pact with Japan.

Cutler also said that the US-South Korea free-trade deal "is probably the most forward-leaning and detailed and comprehensive FTA that the region so far has witnessed."

The 24-chapter pact covers extensive non-tariff measures as well as critical sectors such as intellectual property, investment and financial services. And it "comprehensively addresses" barriers in the agriculture sector, she said.

US negotiators had pushed South Korea hard to include rice in the agreement but Seoul resisted to the very end.

"We had therefore the decision to make between a very, very good deal that was achievable or a perfect deal that would not be achievable," Deputy USTR Karan Bhatia said last week.

Cutler said the free-trade agreement clearly put South Korean reformers in a "unique position" to push the Asian nation to a higher level in the global economy.

"It became apparent during the negotiations that there was a struggle within Korea between the ministries that wanted to open up and reform Korea's economy and other ministries -- and I would be diplomatic here -- which were more inward-looking," she said.

"Ultimately, these issues were taken to the cabinet level in Korea and under the leadership of President Roh (Moo-Hyun) they were resolved in a pro-reform and market-opening manner," she said.

Cutler left open the possibility of including labor and environmental provisions in the agreement with South Korea, in line with current talks between the administration of President George W. Bush and Congress.

"The Congress and administration are currently in discussions more broadly about labor provisions and possibly other provisions with respect to FTAs and we have (made) Korea aware of these discussions.

"When these discussions are concluded, we will need to discuss with Korea the way forward," she said.

 

 

Item 04: FTA to Help Hyundai in U.S.

(Choi He-suk, The Korea Herald, April 16, 2007) The recently sealed free trade agreement between Korea and the United States could give Hyundai Motor Group price reductions on Korean parts used in the company's American factories.

The FTA has paved the way for tariffs placed on Korean and U.S.-made automobiles and auto parts to be removed. If the pact is ratified, the U.S.-imposed 2.5 percent tariff on gasoline-powered passenger cars produced in Korea and the 25 percent tariff for trucks will be removed over the next 10 years. The proposed tariff eliminations have been welcomed by local automakers.

Through the free trade agreement, Hyundai's assembled cars manufactured in Korea have been projected to gain a price advantage over Japanese rivals in the U.S. market. The availability of cheaper Korean made parts will add to the growing competitiveness of Hyundai's products in the United States.

Imported parts prices would drop if the FTA is ratified.

The tax imposed on auto parts is in a similar range with passenger cars, but some items, such as tires, are still subject to a 3.4 percent tariff.

"For vehicles produced in the company's plants in Korea up to 98 percent of all the parts used are locally produced," said a Hyundai Motor Co. spokesman. "The proportion is much smaller for vehicles produced in our plant in the United States, but still a significant number of parts used are produced in Korea or made by Korean firms in their U.S. bases."

The company's U.S. plant in Alabama produces 300,000 vehicles a year, most of which are sold on the U.S. market with the exception of a small number that are exported to Canada. The company's affiliate auto maker Kia Motor Corp. is in the process of building a plant of equal capacity in Westpoint, Georgia.

"Up to 75 percent of the parts used in our Alabama plant are supplied through companies in the United States," a Hyundai spokesman said.

"Once the Kia plant is in operation, the two factories will share a large number of parts suppliers, and we expect that the proportion of Korean and U.S.-made parts will be similar for the two brands."

At present exactly how much of a price advantage will be brought to Hyundai's products is unclear.

"The exact value of the benefits gained in terms of potential cost reductions or price advantages through the tariff exemption has not been calculated yet," said a spokesman for Hyundai Mobis Co., a Hyundai Motor's affiliate auto parts manufacturer.

"However, if the free trade agreement is ratified and the tariffs are removed, some benefits will be afforded to Korean made vehicles."

According to Kim Jae-woo, a financial analyst specializing in the auto industry, it is difficult to place an exact value on the benefits brought by the elimination of tariffs on auto parts because of the complexity of the supply system.

"Among the U.S.-made parts used in Hyundai's Alabama plant, many are made by Korean firms that have established bases in the country, for which no tax benefit will be provided," Kim said. "However, a significant proportion of parts still need to be imported from Korea, and even some of the parts supplied within the United States are made in Korea but supplied through U.S.-based operations."

He added that although the reduction in prices and the potential gain for Hyundai cannot easily be quantified, it is clear that the agreement will benefit the company.

In terms of quality, Hyundai's vehicles have come a long way since the company first started exporting to the U.S. market. Consumers' and experts' evaluations of them have gradually increased to the extent that they sometimes rank with Japanese brands, such as Toyota, which boasts a much longer history in the U.S. market.

 

 

Item 05: (Praise..?) “Roh's Leadership Key to Sealing FTA with U.S.”

(The Korea Herald, 16 April, 2007) Following is the 14th of a series of articles on the free trade agreement reached between Korea and the United States. - Ed.

The mood was somber and no quick fix was in sight. The 10-month negotiations for a free trade agreement between Korea and the United States looked on the brink of collapse on March 29 as the two sides remained miles apart over agriculture and automobile issues.

South Korean Trade Minister Kim Hyun-chong, deeply disappointed with the unyielding U.S. attitude, declared talks were over and left the meeting.

"It was the most critical moment in the entire process of the FTA negotiation," Kim recalled during a recent meeting with media.

Then came a breakthrough in the form of a phone call between two national leaders.

"About that time, President Roh Moo-hyun and President George W. Bush had a phone conversation. President Roh promised to seek a 'reasonable' solution to U.S. beef imports. The following morning, the U.S. side came up with a greater concession concerning the sticky issue of car import tariffs," he said.

The summit provided breathing room for negotiators to craft a compromise. Ensuing rounds of talks yielded a final agreement on April 2, which is widely hailed as a new engine for the nation's growth and prosperity.

The successful conclusion is a boon to President Roh, who is credited with exercising strong leadership and fending off domestic opposition throughout the negotiation.

Roh's popularity sharply rose and a shower of praise was poured even from opposition parties and conservative media which have been critical of his administration.

Minister Kim said Roh's strong determination and commitment to free trade was a solid prop for the trade diplomats in the tense tug of war with Washington and raging criticism from farmers and progressives at home.

"The president repeatedly said that he will shoulder whatever political responsibility follows the deal and encouraged us to engage in the negotiation in a way merchants do their business," Kim said.

While the final rounds of the talks were under way in Seoul, Roh was on a trip in the Middle East. He remained tight-lipped to avoid affecting the negotiation, his aides said.

When the talks were helplessly stalled, however, he finally broke silence and threw his unwavering support behind the deal-makers.

"It is I, not the experts, that will have to make a final decision, after being fully briefed (on the outcome of the negotiations), as the man that will ultimately have to shoulder all responsibility," he said during a meeting with Korean businessmen and residents in Qatar.

Roh's leadership was widely appreciated by the public as shown in post-FTA opinion polls by media.

In an April 3 poll conducted by broadcaster MBC and Korea Research, 32 percent of 700 respondents approved of Roh's performance, up by 10 percent compared to a March 20 survey.

Another poll conducted by Chosun Ilbo and Gallup Korea showed 29.8 percent support for Roh, an increase of 6 percent and 12.5 percent from February 2007 and December 2006, respectively. In the survey, 58.5 percent supported the deal, while 30 percent were against it.

Roh also is basking in praise from his foes both in the politics and media to a degree that his spokesman described as "dumbfounding."

Rep. Chough Soon-hyung of the Democratic Party, an outspoken critic of Roh who led a parliamentary impeachment of him in 2003, said, "I highly praise the president's conviction and decision that was shown through the negotiation of the Korea-U.S. FTA."

After Roh made a televised address on the conclusion of the FTA, opposition Grand National Party leader Kang Jae-sup said, "President Roh indeed looked every bit a president should."

The president has risked significant political damage in pushing the FTA, which alienated himself from his political allies and progressive-minded civic groups and voters.

His former ministers Kim Gen-tae and Chun Jung-bae even went on hunger strikes. Farmers, labor unions and civic activists have staged massive demonstrations.

His aggressive push perplexed his conservative critics who had billed him as a left-leaning leader. There was a widespread conspiracy theory among them that cast doubt on his sincerity and suspected an ulterior political motive.

The theory had it that the FTA would eventually fail and that Roh and his allies would try to take advantage of the botched deal to arouse anti-American sentiment, Roh won the 2002 presidential election riding a wave of anti-U.S. sentiment.

The successful conclusion washed away such doubt, attesting to Roh's pragmatist philosophy and commitment to a free trade policy.

In February 2006, he declared that an FTA with the United States is one of his top priorities during his remaining tenure until February 2008.

In a televised statement on April 2, the president affirmed, "The FTA is neither a political issue nor an ideological issue. It is a matter affecting Koreans' economic life."

Roh assured Koreans that the nation has sufficient capabilities to overcome any impact from the opening of markets.

"There were objections and apprehensions in Korea's every attempt at market opening in the past. But we've never failed so far. Let's make a new history of success," he said.

The president has promised to make all possible efforts to get parliamentary approval of the FTA and to minimize damage to the nation's agriculture, pharmaceutical and other vulnerable industries.

 

 

Item 06: China's Yangtze River Extensively Polluted, Study Says

(Reuters, 16 April, 2007) BEIJING -- China's Three Gorges Dam reservoir has been fouled by pesticides, fertilizers and sewage, and more than 600 kilometres of the Yangtze river are critically polluted, Xinhua news agency said on Sunday, citing a report.

The joint report by an institute at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the international WWF organization and the Yangtze River Water Resources Commission also said nearly 30 percent of the river's major tributaries, including the Minjiang, Tuojiang, Xiangjiang and Huangpu rivers, were seriously polluted.

"The impact of human activities on the Yangtze water ecology is largely irreversible," Yang Guishan, a researcher of the Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences and one of the chief editors of the report, told Xinhua.

"It's a pressing job to regulate such activities in all the Yangtze drainage areas and promote harmonious development of man and nature."

China's environment has suffered for years as the country has chased rapid economic growth, with little official attention given until recently to the threats of unfettered growth to the nation's air, water and soil.

Last month at the opening session of the National People's Congress, Premier Wen Jiabao called for economic growth goals to be balanced with protection of the environment.

Cities along the Yangtze annually dump at least 14.2 billion tons of waste into China's longest waterway -- which Xinhua said accounts for 35 percent of the country's fresh water resources.

The river's annual harvest of aquatic products dropped from 427,000 tons in the 1950s to about 100,000 tons in the 1990s, according to the joint study.

It also said the Three Gorges Dam reservoir, the world's largest water storage facility, was seriously polluted by pesticides, fertilizers and sewage from passenger boats.

 

 

Item 07: Doosan Pursues Nuclear Plant Deal in China

(The Korea Times, 13 April, 2007) Doosan Heavy Industries said it will start negotiations with China's State Nuclear Power Technology Company (SNPTC) to supply nuclear plant facilities worth $200 million won.

The company said the two sides will sign a letter of intent for the project on April 23, with high-ranking government officials from both countries participating, including Kim Young-ju, the minister of commerce, industry, and energy.

If Doosan wins the contract, it will be the first time for a Korean firm to build nuclear plants in China. The company said it aims to conclude the deal no later than December.

The company is to join the China projects through a consortium with Westinghouse. The U.S.-based firm will oversea the general design and construction of the two nuclear plants near Shanghai and in Shandong Province, and Doosan will supply two nuclear reactors and four steam generators that will equip the plants.

Doosan is one of the world's leading power plant and desalination facilities builders. The company has been aggressively expanding its overseas operations over the past few years. Last year, it acquired Mitsui Babcock, a Britain-based engineering firm specializing in power plant facilities, for 20 billion yen.

 

 

Item 08: Korea to Accept U.S. Beef on the Bone

(MeatNews, 11 April, 2007) SOUTH KOREA/UNITED STATES: A South Korean official says U.S. beef on the bone will be allowed following an OIE risk classification.

A South Korean official said in radio interviews this week that beef on the bone from the U.S. will be accepted if the World Organization for Animal Health confirms the U.S. as a “controlled-risk country”.

That classification is expected to come at an OIE meeting in late May and indicate that the U.S. has effectively eliminated any cases of mad cow disease.

“If the U.S. becomes a controlled-risk country, we should resume imports of U.S. beef except specified risk material, and meat of cows under 30 months except parts of the small intestine and the tonsils,” the director general for the Korea-U.S. FTA at the Trade Ministry, Lee Hae-min, said in the radio interviews. “That means Galbi (ribs) will be imported.”

Right now, South Korea only accepts boneless meat of cows under 30 months. The U.S. has sent three shipments of beef to Korea in the past year. All three have been rejected because of small bone fragments found in the shipments.

 

 

Item 09: Far Eastern Leopard Still on the Brink of Extinction

(WWF, 18 Apr 2007) Vladivostok, Russia/Gland, Switzerland – A new census of one of the world's most endangered cat, the Far Eastern or Amur leopard, shows that as few as 25 to 34 are left in the wild, renewing fears for the future of the species.

In February and March, WWF, the global conservation organization, along with the Wildlife Conservation Society and the Pacific Institute of Geography of the Russian Academy of Science, conducted a routine snow-track census of leopard numbers.

“The recent census confirmed once again that the Far Eastern leopard (Panthera pardus orientalis) survives on a very shaky edge,” said Pavel Fomenko, biodiversity conservation programme coordinator at the Far-Eastern branch of WWF-Russia.

Mr Fomenko said encroaching civilization, new roads, poaching, exploitation of forests, and climate change had contributed to the leopards' plight.

“From my perspective,” he said, “the leopards' exact number is not the main question. What is really important is that the predator is on the brink of extinction. And still a unified protected area with national park status has not been established, which is the most important thing for the leopards' survival.”

At least four leopard litters were encountered during the census. This is a good sign because it means that the population is not completely depressed and is still able to restore itself. But for long-term survival, at least 100 animals are needed.

“Conservation of large predators needs vast territories with minimal anthropogenic changes, which is difficult,” said Dr Dmitry Pikunov, the coordinator of the 2007 leopard census and head of the laboratory of animal ecology and conservation of the Pacific Institute of Geography of the Russian Academy of Science.

According to Dr Pikunov, a mature leopard needs 500 square kilometres of habitat with good forests and high and stable amounts of ungulates, including deer. Two to four female leopards would live in the same amount of land, reproduce and nourish their cubs.

“Maybe this is the reason why leopards practically completely disappeared from the Korean Peninsula and north-east China,” said Dr Pikunov. “At the beginning of the past century, the Far Eastern leopard was a common species in the southern parts of Sikhote-Alin and in some Khanka lake areas. Right now it roams only in south-west Primorye.”

About 5000 square kilometres of land in the south-west Primorye region, close to the border between Russia, China and North Korea, were transected for the census and tracks left by the leopards in the snow were counted. Scientists were able to determine the number of the leopards by examining the shape, size and patterns of the tracks as well as determine the direction and time of the animals' movement.

In all, 35 field workers took part in the census, working in more than 158 transected sections.

“The snow track census is an important method to monitor leopard numbers. We see that its population has been balancing on the edge of survival for many years,” said Dr Dale Miquelle, director of the Wildlife Conservation Society's Russia programme and coordinator of the previous census in 2005.

“But to understand the reasons, we should research the ecology of the predator in a more profound way, using latest techniques such as automatic camera traps, radiotracking, genetic and veterinary research.”

The census 2007 found 7-9 male leopards, 3-7 females without cubs, 4 females with cubs, 5-6 cubs in all, and 6-8 undefined tracks. Total: 25-34.

This compares with 9 males in 2003, 7 females without cubs, 4-5 females with cubs, 4-5 cubs in all, and four undefined. Total: 28-30.

In 2000, the results were 4-5 males, 8-9 females without cubs, 1-2 females with cubs, 1-3 cubs in all and 8-9 undefined. Total: 22-28.

AMUR LEOPARD FACTS

The cat that stalks alone: An endangered solitary hunter

Common Name

Amur leopard, Far East leopard, Manchurian leopard, Korean leopard; Léopard d'Amur (Fr); (Sp)

Scientific Name

Panthera pardus orientalis

Habitat

Temperate Broadleaf and Mixed Forests

Location

South of the Far East-Primorskii region (Russian Far East), Tzilin, Heilundzyan Provinces (Northern China).

Status

IUCN Critically Endangered CR A2C; D

CITES: Appendix I

Population:

Less than 40 individuals

Background

Information reviewed by Pavel Fomenko, Far East Biodiversity Coordinator, WWF, Russia

The leopard is rarely found in cold or high-elevation environments and is best known in its more familiar home in the savannas of Africa, where populations are relatively stable.

However, in the northernmost part of its range, a rare subspecies of this cat lives in the temperate forests and harsh winters of the Russian Far East. This is the Amur leopard (Panthera pardus orientalis), also known as the Far East leopard, the Manchurian leopard or the Korean leopard. IUCN's 2000 Red List of Threatened Species classifies the subspecies as Critically Endangered, and the CITES has listed it on Appendix I.

In 1998, the Russian government adopted a strategy for the conservation of the Amur leopard. WWF is supporting anti-poaching activities in the Barsovy wildlife refuge, as well within the whole leopard habitat in the Russian Far East. The organization is also implementing programmes to stop the traffic in Amur leopard parts and to increase the population of prey ungulate (hoofed) species in the leopard's habitat. WWF staff are also monitoring the leopard population and its habitat.

Physical Description

The Amur leopard has some very distinguishing features. The hairs of its summer pelt are 2.5 cm long but in winter they are replaced by 7 cm long ones. Apart from its long winter coat, the Amur leopard is easily told apart from other leopard subspecies by its widely spaced rosettes with thick borders. It also has longer legs, probably an adaptation for walking through snow.

The Amur leopard is habitually nocturnal and solitary. Nimble-footed and strong, it carries and hides unfinished kills so that they are not taken by other predators.

Size

Adult males: 32-48 kg, exceptionally large males weigh up to 75 kg. Females: 25-43 kg.

Colour

Light colour in the winter, more reddish-yellow in the summer.Habitat

Major habitat type

Temperate Broadleaf and Mixed Forests

Biogeographic realm

Palearctic

Range States

Russia, China, probably North Korea

Geographical Location

South of the Far East-Primorskii region (Russian Far East), Tzilin, Heilundzyan Provinces (Northern China).

Ecological Region

Russian Far East Temperate Forests

IUCN RedList on Amur leopard:

Overall, the population has remained relatively stable over the last decade, at a very low level (Nowell and Jackson 1996, Aramilev et al. 1998). Amur leopards are now believed to be practically extinct in the mountainous regions of China's northernmost province, Heilongjiang, although a few persist in the Changbai Mountains in Jilin province along the North Korean border (Nowell and Jackson 1996, Miquelle 1998b). In South Korea, the last record of an Amur leopard is from 1969, when a leopard was captured on the slopes of Odo Mountain, in South Kyongsang province. Tracks have been reported from the Chii and Sorak Mountains, indicating that perhaps they have not completely disappeared (Nowell and Jackson 1996). In North Korea, recent evidence indicates that Amur leopards still survive in the northern mountains (Miquelle 1998a).

The prey base of small ungulates including roe deer has been depleted by human subsistence hunting and forest clearance. Sika deer are farmed for their antlers for traditional Chinese medicine, and there have been several incidence of conflict when leopards get into deer farms. Poaching for their skins continues to be a threat .

 

 

Item 10: Poaching and Trade Ban Top International Tiger Meeting Agenda

(WWF. 18 Apr 2007) Kathmandu, Nepal – Poaching is a major threat to the tiger's survival, says leading experts attending an international symposium on the species.

WWF and TRAFFIC urged delegates attending the symposium, sponsored by the Global Tiger Forum, to take a strong position on promoting improved regional law enforcement to protect the world's wild tigers and to oppose the re-opening of the tiger trade in China.

“A clear consensus emerged at the symposium that poaching of tigers in the wild must be combated urgently and that it requires immediate, coordinated efforts both by countries with tiger populations and countries driving the black market demand for tiger parts,” said Dr Susan Lieberman, director of WWF's Global Species Programme and chair of the International Tiger Symposium.

“The world's remaining wild tigers can't wait. The need for protecting them has never been more urgent.”

One issue that dominated much of the discussion was whether China would lift its successful 14-year ban on trade of tiger bone and allow domestic sales of tiger products. A petition to overturn the ban is pending before the government by wealthy tiger farm investors, who now have more than 4,000 semi-tame tigers in captivity and are hoping to profit from sales of tiger products.

“Such a move could be a death sentence for wild tigers, which will be poached even more relentlessly if there's a legal market for smugglers to ‘launder' wild tiger products through,” said Steven Broad, executive director of TRAFFIC International.

“We call on the Global Tiger Forum to send a clear message to China that the international community finds any reopening of tiger trade unacceptable.”

Other recommendations from the symposium included: investigating ways to reduce human-tiger conflict across Asia and share lessons about methods to compensate communities for tiger depredation; convening a meeting of law enforcement experts to share advice and approaches to halting illegal tiger trade; and calling for the development of a global tiger conservation strategy that would follow an approach successfully used for African lion conservation.

 

 

Item 11: Roh Says Korea Ready to Open Free Trade Talks with EU in May

(Yonhap News, 18 April, 2007) South Korea is ready to open free trade agreement (FTA) talks with the European Union (EU) in May, President Roh Moo-hyun said Wednesday after his summit with Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi at the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae.

"I and Prime Minister Prodi shared common understanding of enormous economic effects of a South Korea-EU FTA and agreed on the need to launch bilateral FTA talks as soon as possible," said Roh in a joint press conference held after the summit.

"South Korea concluded the FTA with the U.S. despite fierce opposition by many South Koreans. But South Korea's FTA talks with the EU may not run into any significant resistance. We're ready to open talks with the EU in May," said the president.

Roh said he and the Italian prime minister agreed to deepen bilateral relations in the fields of marine logistics, industrial technology, information technology and science. In particular, said the president, the two leaders held serious discussions about widening two-way cooperation in marine logistics.

Prodi said at the news conference that Italy will positively consider offering humanitarian assistance to North Korea.

Prodi arrived here on Tuesday for a three-day visit, becoming the first Italian prime minister to visit South Korea since the two countries established diplomatic ties in 1956.

The two leaders met in Rome in the middle of February and agreed to boost bilateral cooperation in the fields of information technology, marine transportation, logistics, trade and science.

At the February summit, Roh called on Italy to lead the European effort to open and reform North Korea, as well as promote peace on the Korean Peninsula.

 

 

Item 12: In Protest of Assembly Law, Unapproved Protest Planned, Say Civic Groups: Activists deem unconstitutional current S.K. regulation that says demonstrations must first be approved by police

(Hankyoreh, 19 April, 2007) An umbrella civic group comprised of 37 human rights organizations said on April 17 that it will hold a protest this week in central Seoul without getting prior police approval, a legal requirement in South Korea. The move is apparently to voice dissent toward the government's recent tough crackdowns on what it calls "illegal" demonstrations.

"The police are violating the freedom of assembly and demonstration guaranteed by the Constitution by requiring people to get approval before staging a street protest," activists from the 37 civic groups said in a statement. "The protest slated for April 19 will be the first non-compliance movement against the current law on assembly and demonstration," the statement continued.

The groups said that about 50 people will join this week's protest. "The demonstration will be comprised of people voicing their opinions against the current law as well as about a number of socioeconomic issues, and it will include a range of other protest activities," said Jeong Eun-hee, an activist.

The same human rights groups are working alongside legal experts to push through a revision of the law on assembly and demonstration. Park Jin, a human right activist, said, "The current law does not help protestors stage demonstrations in a proper way, but instead offers an excuse for the government to block protests inappropriately."

"We are preparing a law revision that will delete some terms of the current law, including the banning of demonstrations within a 100-meter radius of foreign embassies and the prohibition of nighttime demonstrations," said Park.

The civic groups said that they will also stage a disobedience movement next month, as well, and will announce their proposal for a revision of the law at that event.

 

 

Item 13: S. Korea, Canada to hold FTA Talks Next Week

(Yonhap News, 19 April, 2007) The South Korean government said Thursday it will hold its 10th round of free trade agreement (FTA) talks with Canada next week in Seoul.

The talks, scheduled for Monday through Thursday, are expected to focus on agricultural issues, including the exchange of initial offers on farm produce, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry said.

The initial offers will outline the extent and timetable for removing tariffs to facilitate free trade. The two countries held their first FTA talks in July 2005, it said.

Ministry officials said Canada may make a strong demand to gain access to South Korea's beef, pork and barley markets.

"Canada is expected to ask for a high degree of liberalization in these areas," said Park Chang-yong, head of the ministry's FTA division.

Seoul plans to explain the difficult situation of local farmers and ask Canada to respect the need to protect sensitive items, he said.

Other government officials said beef could become a key issue since the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) is expected to classify Canada as a mad cow "controlled risk" country in late May.

This status technically allows Canada to export all nonspecified risk materials (SRM) meat products, including bone-in beef, regardless of the age of the cow. SRMs have been cited as posing the greatest risk of transmitting mad cow disease to humans, and include head bones, brains, vertebral columns, spinal cords, the dorsal root ganglion and certain internal organs.

South Korea had banned Canadian beef since June 2003. In 2002, the country exported 16,400 tons of beef totaling $37.4 million, making it South Korea's fourth-largest source of imported beef at the time after the United States, Australia and New Zealand. Seoul banned U.S. beef in December 2003.

Seoul concluded talks on an FTA with the U.S. on April 2, and is moving to seal a similar deal with the European Union.

It currently has FTAs with Chile, Singapore and the European Free Trade Association, made up of Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein.

 

 

Item 14: China: Attempt to Save Polluted Lake Leads to Arrest

(Andreas Landwehr Monsters and Critics, 17 April, 2007) Beijing - The arrest of a prominent Chinese environmental activist who has campaigned for years against the pollution of Taihu Lake along the Yangtze River has once again drawn attention to the issue of how China deals with dissent.

Wu Lihong was hauled away from his home by police on Friday night as friends and neighbours tried in vain to prevent his arrest. 'He is a thorn in the side of local authorities,' a friend explained.

Wu has been documenting the dramatic increase in the pollution of the third-largest freshwater lake in China for several years. He has also accused civil servants and companies of nepotism.

He grew up beside Taihu Lake, the third-largest lake in China, which is located in the Yangtze Delta plain on the border of Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces.

The lake is a natural holding pool of the Yangtze River and covers an area of 2,300 square kilometres. It has been known as the Pearl of the Yangtze Delta.

However, the lake has turned into a green-brown brew, its fish are dying and a conspicuous number of people living nearby have died of cancer.

After all, 40 million people living in the districts of Jiangsu and Shanghai get their drinking water from Lake Taihu. A dangerous accumulation of fertilisers and industrial wastewater has been detected in 70 per cent of its water.

The lack of oxygen, caused by pollution, could damage and ultimately destroy the ecology of Lake Taihu.

Officers of the town of Yixing, which is located within eastern China's economical Boomtown Jiangsu, have desired to silence the 39- year-old for a long time. When the last attempt to hush him failed, they sent a large number of police.

Officials in Yixing are believed to have identified Wu as a real threat. 'About 50 to 60 police officers surrounded our house,' his wife, Xu Jiehau said on Tuesday. 'They knocked in our door and stormed into the house.' Wu was marched off.

'They searched every bit, every book, even the attic.' Wu's computer, his camera and his credit cards were confiscated by police.

'They packed everything in,' said his wife. When police were asked, what crime Wu had committed, they said, he had 'messed about with foreigners.'

Wu has granted interviews to German and other foreign media interviews about his campaign.

His case is reminiscent of that of farmer Fu Xiancai, who claimed compensation after having been resettled from the Three Gorges Dam area in central China.

He also gave interviews to foreign media. Police warned him that such interviews would have 'no good consequences.' On his return from the police station he was struck from behind by unknown attackers. The farmer has been a paraplegic since. He is undergoing treatment at a rehabilitation clinic in Beijing.

Wu was also beaten. But this time it is even more serious: He put pressure on local authorities by sending photographs, samples of the polluted water and petitions to parliament and China's Ministry of Environment in Beijing. Now they plan to accuse him of 'blackmail,' Wu's wife alleges.

'The propagandists and security people tried repeatedly to persuade Wu not to petition any more as local officials had to go to Beijing to account for his actions,' his friend said.

According to his friend, the activist did not want to cooperate with them. Quite the contrary: He had planned to reveal new evidence of their failure before a Beijing court on the occasion of Earth Day on Sunday.

'Shortly before, Wu Lihong is arrested. Is that a coincidence?'

 

 

Item 15: China: January 2006: Prison for Anti-pollution Protesters: they create social "disorder"

(Asia News, 10 January, 2006) Recurrent environmental disasters are happening in China, with tons of noxious substances ending up in rivers. And yet nine farmers who in April protested against polluting factories have been convicted.

Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Farmers who protested against factories which polluted their villages have been condemned to prison. Meanwhile, ecological disasters are multiplying in Chinese rivers, with accidental spills of tons of diesel oil and sulphuric acid.

Yesterday the court of Zhejiang province convicted nine farmers of Huaxi village who protested against pollution caused by 12 neighbouring chemical plants. In 2001, the residents of Huaxi and Dongyang were evicted from their lands without warning, so that the factories could be constructed. After years of enduring polluted crops and people falling ill, more than 30,000 residents protested, chasing local officials away and setting up blockades to prevent the supply of materials to the factories. In the early hours of 10 April 2005, more than 1,500 policemen descended on the village and knocked down the barricades.

The nine farmers were found guilty of having taken part in the protests and were handed down sentences of up to five years in prison – four received this sentence. Coverage of the trial was censored. Some lawyers of the nine, famous professionals from Beijing, complained that they had been pressured to give up the case. The defendants refuted the charge of causing disorder and said they had been subjected to torture in prison. In December, the provincial government of Zhejiang punished eight officials of Dongyang and Huaxi for failing to "preserve social harmony".

Meanwhile, news abounds of serious cases of pollution caused by factories built near important water flows and residential areas. On 5 January, the frost cracked an oil pipeline in Gongyi city, Henan province, and six tonnes of diesel oil ended up in the Yiluo River, a tributary of the Yellow River. A 60km slick of polluted water has been formed and now there is concern for water supplies of Jining city in Shandong and for residential areas along the Yellow River. The slick should reach the Bohai sea on 13 January.

On 6 January, more than 600 tons of sulphuric acid from the Huaqiang Fertiliser factory in Chongding city leaked into the Qijiang River, a tributary of the Yangtze River, creating a purple slick 300m long. For two days, the 30,000 residents of Chongding were without water.

On 8 January, a ship carrying 260 tons of sulphuric acid toppled over in the Yangtze River. Operations are under way to recover the acid containers and to avoid their getting lost in the water. There is a conductor of drinking water barely 800m from the site of the accident.

On 4 January, a leak of cadmium from a factory in Zhuzhou city polluted more than 100m of waters in the Xiangjiang River, a tributary of the Yangtze, exceeding the safety level 80 times over. Yesterday, in Changsha, the capital of Hunan, the concentration of the substance was still twice the allowed level. Official sources said more than 26.6 billion yuan (around three billion US dollars) and five years will be required to clean the Songhua River, polluted in November 2005 by tons of benzene.

The frequency of such accidents shows, according to experts, that the possibility of such risks was not considered in China's economic boom and now it is complex and no easy matter to reallocate productive plants.

 

 

Item 16: Amur Leopard Close to Extinction

(Reuters, 19 April, 2007) MOSCOW, Russia -- Logging, building, farming and poaching have virtually killed off the Amur Leopard, environmentalists said on Wednesday.

There are only 25 to 34 of the graceful animals still living in the wild, WWF said at a news briefing in Moscow to report on the results of a census of leopard numbers in Russia's Far East. At least 100 would be needed to guarantee the species' survival.

"The numbers are very disappointing and the long-term prospects are that they will not be able to survive unless urgent measures are taken," said Igor Chestin, head of WWF in Russia. He said he had hoped to report at least 35 leopards.

Oleg Mitvol, the head of Russia's state environmental watchdog, told the briefing he wanted to unify three protected areas where the leopards live.

That might result in better control of hunting of the leopards' prey and stem the encroachment of towns and farms on their habitat..

This year the Russian government changed the route of a planned oil pipeline to avoid slicing through the area.

The Amur leopard has longer legs and fur than other leopard species, allowing it to prowl and hunt with ease in the snowy eastern fringe of Siberia.

"Everybody thinks this is a truly beautiful animal," Michiel Hotte of the Zoological Society of London said. "It has a long, pale coat and stands very tall which makes its movements very elegant and beautiful."

The Amur leopard used to roam freely around the Korean peninsula and northeast China but farms, villages and roads have eaten away at its forest habitat where it hunts for deer, hare, badgers and small rodents.

Chinese medicine substitutes crushed leopard bones for tiger bones in some of its remedies, creating demand for the cat.

Hotte said at the beginning of the 20th century there were several thousand Amur Leopards.

The animal shares its natural habitat with the stronger Amur Tiger, whose numbers have soared from near-extinction in the 1940s to around 600 today.

Hotte thought the Amur leopard could also still make a comeback. "It has been resilient for several years at these levels already," he said.

WWF organized the census in February and March this year with the Wildlife Conservation Society and members of the Russian Academy of Science. The result was similar to previous counts in 2003 and 2000.

 

 

Item 17: China Criticised for 'Tiger Wine'

(BBC, 18 April, 2007) China has come under fire for allowing tigers to be bred for the production of so-called "tiger bone wine".

The drink is reportedly made by steeping tiger carcasses in rice wine. Those who drink the wine believe it makes them strong.

Chinese delegates at the International Tiger Symposium in Nepal are arguing for the lifting of a current ban on the trade in tiger bones and skins.

But other Asian nations with threatened tiger populations want the ban to stay.

Emotive issue

There has been a forceful exchange of views on the issue at the symposium, according to the BBC correspondent in Kathmandu, Charles Haviland.

Experts say there are several reasons why tiger numbers have drastically declined, but just one has grabbed the limelight, our correspondent says.

The argument centres on the existence of so-called "tiger farms" in China, which have bred thousands of captive tigers with the ostensible purpose of entertaining visitors.

But the conservation group WWF, which is chairing the symposium, says these farms are fronts for the production of tiger bone wine.

WWF also says the captive tigers cannot survive in the wild, and believes the production of wine and underhand trade in skin and bones also threaten to make wild tiger poaching more lucrative.

A senior WWF official said the discussions were heated, with Chinese academics saying their country should lift its ban on the trade in tiger parts.

But experts from states like Nepal and Bangladesh, which have threatened tiger populations, are urging that the ban should remain.

On Wednesday, a more formal forum of government delegations will begin discussing the fate of the majestic beast, which a recent television poll declared to be the world's most popular animal.

 

 

Item 18: On the Trail of Tiger Medicines

(Ross McWilliam, BBC Frontline Scotland, 02 March, 2007) Frontline investigates the trade in illegal Chinese medicines manufactured using endangered animals such as tigers and leopards.

We had heard rumours for a while that Chinese pharmacies might be selling illegal products - medicines banned in the UK because they contain endangered species.

But we knew that no-one had ever found these kind of products in the UK outside of a few big English cities.

We took advice from campaign groups and decided that the easiest thing to look for here would be plasters containing tiger or leopard bone.

They are supposed to help with arthritis and muscle sprains. We felt they were products that someone who didn't know a lot about Chinese medicine might realistically ask for in a shop.

So back in December we started visiting a few traditional Chinese medicine shops to see what we could find. At first we really struggled. Nobody seemed to stock what we were after.

Smaller stores

Then we realised we had been visiting the wrong places. We had concentrated on new stores that had sprung up over the past few years on the High Street.

We found those places knew the law and seemed to be sticking to it.

So we moved on and found smaller stores in more out of the way places. That's where we found the medicines that appear in the programme.

We then set up a couple of undercover stings to find out where the products were coming from. This was in some ways the hardest part of the investigation.

First we had to find a Chinese speaking investigator to pose as a potential bulk buyer. We sent her in with the cover story that she was thinking of opening up a medicine business.

Shocking discoveries

There was no guarantee the targets would trust her enough to admit how the medicines were being brought into the UK.

But it worked - and the trail opened up by the sting took us to China and some shocking discoveries about new threats to the tiger's global future.

It is worth pointing out that most of the pharmacies we visited didn't offer illegal products - but a significant minority did.

And the worry for anyone interested in alternative therapies such as Chinese medicine is that the people selling illegal products were often happy to lie about them to make a sale.

There are only 20 tigers left in China. And what we discovered when we went there makes it possible that tigers could be totally extinct in the wild in just 15 years.

That is a very big price to pay for an arthritis medicine.

 

 

Item 19: Beijing Admits Fish in Yangtze River Are Dying

(AsiaNews, 16 April, 2007) An official report reveals that the amount of solid and liquid waste, including industrial pollutants, pesticides and fertilisers, pumped into the Yangtze runs in the billions of tonnes. All life in the river is at the risk of extinction, even the common carp. The river provides 35 per cent of China's freshwater resources.

Beijing: The Yangtze, China's longest waterway, is so polluted that all life it contains is at risk of extinction, this according to a report released by the Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology (NIGLAS) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in association with the World Wildlife Organisation and the Yangtze River Water Resources Commission. The river, which is also the world's third longest, represents 35 per cent of the country's total fresh water resources. And the disaster is of such magnitude that much of the damage “is largely irreversible.”

For NIGLAS Director Yang Guishan, more than 600 kilometres of the Yangtze River and nearly 30 percent of its major tributaries—Minjiang, Tuojiang, Xiangjiang and Huangpu —are critically polluted.

Pollution, damming, heavy traffic, pesticides, fertilisers, sewage and freshwater use have caused a dramatic decline in Yangtze aquatic life. Rare species like the Baiji or white-flag dolphin, which had survived for 20 million years, are thought to be functionally extinct since none have been found in the most recent research expeditions. Even common species like the carp are gasping for survival, the report said.

The river's annual fish catch dropped from 500,000 tons in the 1950s to about 100,000 tons in the 1990s. Given the situation the absence of more recent official data is highly significant. And algae growth has become another major problem.

“Fishermen along the river said even if they catch some fish from the polluted river, they dare not eat them,” said Li Lifeng, freshwater programme director of the WWF China.

Official data indicate that cities along the river annually dump at least 14.2 billion tonnes of waste into the waterway. Altogether more than 26 billion tons of wastewater, sewage and industrial waste, are pumped into the river.

During the report's presentation on the week-end in Changsha (Hunan), Water Resources Minister Wang Shucheng said that the Yangtze's problems could negatively affect the sustainable development of its delta area which accounted for 40 per cent of China's gross domestic product in 2005.

For experts the fact that the authorities are realising the seriousness of the problem is in itself something new; however, they also believe that the situation is actually worse than thought.

The Yangtze and Yellow River basins are home to some 11,000 thousand industrial plants. (PB)

 

 

Item 20: Some 60 Per Cent of the Yellow River, Cradle of Chinese Civilisation, Is Dead: Tens of thousands of chemical plants discharge deadly toxic waste into the river. The country is suffering from economic development that has “sacrificed the environment”

(AsiaNews, 14 December, 2006) Beijing– About 60 per cent of the Yellow River's water is now unfit to drink, reflecting the worsening pollution of China's domestic hydro resources as a result of an lop-sided urban and industrial development.

Only 40 per cent of the 5,464 km-long river, the second in length in the country, can be categorised as level three in a five-level evaluation system for water quality, says an annual report by the Yellow River Water Resources Commission.

“Level three means the water is tolerable for drinking, which means it's still safe to drink after certain treatment,” said Ma Jun, head of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs in Beijing. However, more than 36 per cent of the river was categorised as level five—the lowest grade—the report said. The river runs through nine northern provinces and provides water to 155 million people and 15 per cent of the country's farmland. Last year it had to absorb the discharge of 4.35 billion tonnes of waste water. Discharges rose by 88 million tonnes year on year. More than 73 percent of the waste water was discharged from factories, 298 million tons more than last year.

What is more, once known as the cradle of early Chinese civilisation, the river is drying up despite efforts to conserve water use and increase its flow. Only 20.4 billion cubic metres of the river's water reached the Bohai Sea last year, almost the same as the previous year, despite efforts to divert water into it and higher water prices for consumers.

Early last week, a local newspaper reported that a paper company in Lanzhou (Gansu Province) discharged 2,500 tonnes of waste water a day into the Wanchuan Creek, a tributary of the Yellow River. The reddish brown waste water floated down the creek for more than 40 kilometres producing an irritating smell.

Some 21,000 chemical factories are believed to be located along China's rivers and coastline—more than half on the Yellow and Yangtze rivers. At the beginning of the year, the country's environment chief, State Environmental Protection Administration Director Zhou Shengxian, warned that more than 100 of those chemical plants posed safety threats. For him the situation is due to the blind rush to economic development by local officials across the nation. In its first ten years, the People's Republic of China favoured economic growth over the environment.

The situation has worsened as a result of rapid urbanisation which has often occurred without much concern for waste disposal. It is estimated that 400 of China's 662 cities face water shortage problems and about 100 are in serious trouble.

According to the Ministry of Water Resources, more than 70 billion tons of wastewater were released last year, with about 45 billion tons pumped into lakes and rivers without any treatment. The result is that more than 70 per cent of the nation's rivers and lakes are polluted.

Over 300 million people in rural areas do not have adequate clean drinking water. As a result, hundreds of thousands are afflicted with various diseases from drinking water that contains too much fluorine, arsenic, sodium sulphate or bitter salt, revealed Wang Shucheng, minister of Water Resources.

Matters have been made worse by a series of industrial accidents. A year ago for example, an explosion at a chemical plant in Jilin caused a major toxic spill in the Songhua river cutting off water supplies to millions of people ever hundreds of kilometres. (PB)

 

 

Item 21: Civic Group Releases Much Bleaker FTA Tally for Korean Demands: U.S. 64, S.K. 7, According to FTA Protest Group's Scorecard

(Hankyoreh, 25 April, 2007) At a press conference on April 24, a report announced by a research team of the civic group Korean Alliance Against the Korea-U.S. free trade agreement (FTA) - which was signed on April 2 - said that the United States accomplished 77 percent of its demands, compared to Korea's 8 percent.

Such an evaluation came after reviewing government data submitted to the National Assembly and press releases issued by the government after concluding the negotiations.

According to the report, results of 83 out of 88 issues have been confirmed and 64 issues, or 77 percent of the U.S. proposals, were accepted, compared to seven, or 8 percent, of the proposals raised by South Korea. In case of 12 items, or 14 percent, Korea and the U.S. reached a compromise. If areas including intellectual property rights, medical supplies, and investment are more specifically itemized, 89 items, or 82 percent out of 108 U.S. demands, were accomplished, compared to 12 items, or 11 percent, out of South Korea's demands.

The report stated that in the textiles sector, which the government has called a section in which South Korea benefited, Seoul in fact achieved only a tariff elimination, whereas Washington realized its demands regarding country of origin, safeguards, and customs cooperation. In the automobile sector, as well, the U.S. won most of its proposals, including auto taxation changes and easing of environmental standards in Korea, save for its demands to keep U.S. customs on Korean cars.

Items in Korea's favor included the realization of its requests for an application of adjusted tariffs for marine products, special safeguards for agricultural products, and temporary financial safeguards.

Lee Hae-yeong, an official of the anti-FTA alliance, said, "Even if there will be an increase in production in the manufactured goods sector, it will be minor compared to profit reduction for agricultural products, medical supplies, intellectual property, and the service industry. In addition, domestic consumers will have to bear the financial burden caused by higher medical fees and the restructuring of declining industries, among others."

Such an evaluation of the FTA will likely raise controversy because it is markedly different from that of the government. The government has maintained that the nation gained much from the FTA: through the Internet site of the presidential office, the government said on April 10 that Korea achieved on 35 items in the deal, while the U.S. 28.

The anti-FTA alliance said in a statement: "President Roh Moo-hyun said that he will disclose all the related data after the negotiations and will discuss the matter with critics. To help people's understanding of the negotiation results, we should hold on-air debates through the three major television broadcasting companies," The alliance went on to urge the government to disclose the FTA agreement draft to experts that would take part in the television debates in advance.

 

 

Item 22: Canada FTA Talks Set to Cover Similar Ground as Those with U.S.: Ottawa will reportedly bring up touchy beef import issue, just as Washington did

(Hankyoreh, 24 April, 2007) During Korea-Canada free trade agreement (FTA) negotiations, set to resume in their 10th round on April 23, Canada is reportedly going to bring to the table proposals on sensitive issues, such as its access to the South Korean beef market. The same issue brought controversy to the FTA between South Korea and the U.S., a deal agreed upon on April 2.

A South Korean official in the negotiations said on condition of anonymity, "Canada has informed us that it will address a possible earlier resumption of South Korea's imports of Canadian beef, which were banned due to mad cow disease outbreaks. The nation has put pressure on the South Korean government, citing the recently agreed trade pact with the U.S."

The trade talks with Canada were initially slated to resume in March, but Canada proposed a postponement; sources close to the matter say Canada wanted to evaluate the progress of the FTA negotiations between South Korea and the U.S. first.

In the Korea-Canada negotiations, as in the Korea-U.S. ones, beef cannot be an 'official' subject of the talks. But just as was the case in the FTA with Washington, it is expected to be a major ‘side player' within related negotiations. Boneless U.S. beef imports resumed last fall, part of U.S. preconditions for trade talks, and South Korea further agreed in March that if bone fragments were found in the beef, just the affected box would be sent back rather than the entire shipment, which has so far been the situation with the first three attempted U.S. shipments. Currently, the U.S. is asking Korea to entirely lift its ban on U.S. beef imports, including bone-in beef.

Park Chang-yong, an official of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, said, "Like the U.S., Canada has demanded Korea to ease quarantine inspections of livestock products, and also to acknowledge a beef product's country of origin based on where the animal is butchered, not where it is raised. During the upcoming talks, Canada may urge Korea to make concessions on the same level as those made with the United States," added Park.

Another case of mad cow disease was discovered in Canada's Alberta in early February this year. Canada, however, like the U.S., was judged on March 11 as being capable to control mad cow disease risk by the World Organization for Animal Health, an agency aimed at promoting international cooperation on the control of animal diseases, with a final decision by the organization slated for May. South Korea began importing Canadian beef in 2001, but an import ban was imposed due to a mad cow disease outbreak in Canada in late 2003.

South Korea will likely be faced with growing pressure from Canada in other sectors as well because the trade structure between the two nations is similar to the one between South Korea and the U.S., and Canada has a sense of rivalry with the U.S. in terms of trade.

Chang Jae-hyeong, an official of the Ministry of Finance and Economy, said, "If Canada and South Korea make negotiations at a lower level than those seen between Korea and the U.S., there may be a problem during the FTA's ratification process at Canadian parliament."

Chang added, "The FTA with Canada cannot be exactly the same as the deal with the U.S., but the trade pact with the U.S. can serve as the standard."

Shin Jeong-hun, an official of the Ministry of Commerce, Industry & Energy, agreed, saying, "[South Korea's FTA with] the European Union (EU) as well as the one with Canada will use the Korea-U.S. FTA as their benchmark."

FTA negotiations with Canada began in July 2005, a year earlier than those with the United States. The South Korean government does not have to put a time limit on the negotiations, but plans to conclude the talks by the end of this year.

 

 

Item 23: U.S. Beef Back in South Korea After Rejected Shipments

(Reuters, 22 April, 2007) SEOUL - A shipment of U.S. beef landed in South Korea on Monday, the first since Seoul rejected tonnes of the product due to the discovery of tiny bone chips, triggering trade tensions with Washington.

South Korea, which struck a free trade deal with the United States earlier this month, had ordered the return of all 22 tonnes of beef sent in three shipments at the end of 2006 after finding bone fragments the size of peas and grains of rice.

South Korean quarantine officials said they have changed their guidelines and will not reject all 6.4 tonnes of beef that arrived on Monday if bone chips are found, but only the packages containing chips.

"It can take up to 18 days maximum to inspect the beef and then it can be distributed," one official said.

Seoul had barred the imports after an outbreak mad cow disease in the United States in December 2003.

Once the third-largest export market for U.S. beef, South Korea in September partially reopened its market to U.S. beef from cattle less than 30 months old on condition that parts deemed risky, such as bones, were not included.

But tough inspections made it nearly impossible for U.S. meat to reach the market.

The rejection infuriated Washington and U.S. cattle producers who said the beef dispute, although separate from the free trade agreement, could harm that deal.

 

 

Item 24: South Korea Resumes American Beef Exports

(CattleNetwork, 23 April, 2007) Seoul - South Korea resumed imports of US beef Monday after three shipments totalling 22 tons were rejected late last year for containing bone fragments, officials said.

The 6.4 tons of meat from Kansas that arrived at Incheon International Airport is to undergo quarantine inspections, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry said.

This time, only individual packages would be sent back if bone fragments are found, the National Veterinary Research and Quarantine Service said.

If the beef passes inspection, the product was expected to arrive in stores by mid-May.

Last year, South Korea lifted an import ban imposed in December 2003 after the United States reported its first outbreak of mad-cow disease.

US beef made up more than two-thirds of South Korea's beef imports before the embargo. South Korea bought 850 million dollars of beef in 2003.

Some US lawmakers repeatedly have threatened to reject a free-trade agreement that was concluded with South Korea early this month unless South Korea fully opens its market to American beef.

Seoul said it would decide on a wider market opening after the World Organization for Animal Health releases its risk assessment for the United States for the brain-wasting disease in late May.

 

 

Item 25: Migratory Birds Poisoned by Pesticides in South

(Nicole Tomlinson, 21 April, 2007) Little birds told Bridget Stutchbury their days may be numbered, and the Canadian biology professor listened.

In her book Silence of the Songbirds, the Ontario resident and bird enthusiast says some North American birds that spend their winters in Latin America aren't making it back.

They're facing habitat loss, lack of food and chronic pesticide poisoning in the tropics. When it's time to head north, many of these migrants are too thin and sick to make the journey back to breed.

"Birds are being exposed to high levels of pesticides because they're sprayed heavily and frequently," Stutchbury said.

She explained that farmers in Latin America use pesticides like an insurance policy: the chemicals are cheap and easy to get, so they use them all the time, even if their crop is bug-free, to make sure it stays that way.

"These chemicals are all neurotoxins. They make exposed birds and humans dizzy, weak and short of breath," she said.

This category of pesticides, organophosphates, doesn't stick around in the body like DDT and other banned chemicals do, but they're still dangerous. They're designed to kill fast, so they're actually more harmful in the short-term.

"We've traded persistence for toxicity," Stutchbury explained.

"The new pesticides don't stick around in the environment, but they're nastier on the body."

Gideon Forman, the Executive Director for the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, says that many Canadians use the same kind of chemicals in their yards, and it's harming us.

"There are 60 pesticides in Canada that have been banned in other Western countries because they're dangerous to the environment and to human health," he said.

A specific product 2,4-D, the most widely used herbicide in Canada, has been banned in Denmark, Norway and Sweden.

A study last year by the Canadian Pediatric Society concluded that 2,4-D, an active ingredient in products like Kilex and Turfbuilder Pro with Weed Control is linked to cancer, neurological impairment and reproductive problems.

The Ontario College of Family Physicians also concluded from their research that children exposed to lawn and garden pesticides have a higher risk of developing leukemia than those who aren't.

Health Canada even found 2,4-D in the semen of Ontario farmers.

"Even if you're not using pesticides, and your neighbour is, you're being exposed. The chemicals go into the air, and they migrate to rivers and lakes, into our drinking water," Forman explained.

He thinks that municipalities across the country should ban pesticide use. Some cities, like Halifax, Toronto, and Vancouver, have banned the use of pesticides on lawns.

"In Ottawa, where it's still permitted, every location sampled on the Rideau river contained traces of 2,4-D," Forman said.

Stutchbury says that produce bombarded with pesticides in Latin America is not only hurting Canada's songbirds; it's also winding up on our dinner tables.

"When we buy food from these countries, we become part of a food chain 1000 miles away," she said.

"Latin American produce, especially grapes, strawberries and beans, is three times more likely to contain pesticides that violate standards."

Canadians can make sure that their meals are free of pesticides by buying local and organic. For exotic fruits like bananas and pineapples, Stutchbury says that buying certified organic imports will help save the birds.

"Some people just worry about how their food affects them, but this is damaging ecosystems that we depend on," she explained.

"If I'm in the store and I see tomatoes from Mexico beside ones from Canada, I buy the Canadian tomatoes because it's the right thing to do."

 

 

Item 26: China: Pollution Figures to Be Made Public

(Xinhua News Agency, 26 April, 2007) China's environmental departments and polluters will each have to publish information regarding environmental degradation and pollution, according to a draft measure tabled yesterday by the country's environmental watchdog.

"Environmental departments at all levels are required to make public 17 categories of information including laws, regulations, policies and standards regarding environmental protection," said the draft issued by the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA).

The measure, which will come into effect on May 1, 2008, tailed a State Council decree on Tuesday that sought to create additional state transparency by requiring all departments to report information more openly.

The draft measure would require environmental information within 20 working days and to be made easily accessible to the public. Furthermore, any request for information from the public must be handled within 15 days.

"Polluting companies, after being black-listed, have 30 days to publish information concerning their bad discharges in local media," states the regulation. This draft comes amidst a rising trend of pollution-related lawsuits that expand by 30 percent annually.

Pan Yue, vice director of SEPA, said China's current environmental regulations were lacking in terms of "information transparency," a gap that is not conducive to public participation in environmental protection.

"The public's right to know, to participate and to supervise should be fully considered in environmental protection. Massive public participation is needed," Pan argued. "People should participate more than planting trees or cleaning rubbish. They should take part in policy-making."

Since February last year, SEPA has declared a war on excessive pollution and public mood, stopping 43 projects worth a total of 160 billion yuan (US$20.7 billion) after public outcry at the environmental impact these would have.

 

 

Item 27: Japan: Government to Take Steps to Protect Coral Reefs

(Yomiuri Shimbun, (27 April, 2007) The Environment Ministry will revise the range of nature preserves, such as nature conservation areas and natural parks, to protect coral reefs, the ministry said.

The decision came after the International Coral Reef Initiative passed a resolution at its general meeting this week in Tokyo, calling for the establishment of an international network for protected marine areas.

The ministry will design protective measures for coral reefs endangered by a flow of red soil into the ocean and other factors and also revise the current management methods.

According to the ministry, coral reefs cover about 96,000 hectares in Japan, mainly around Okinawa Prefecture. However, less than half of them are designated as nature preserves.

In addition, management regulations of the designated areas are becoming less strict. Large-scale developments have been allowed in nature preserves if the involved organizations implemented appropriate application procedures.

The general meeting of the ICRI, which is an international framework aiming to protect coral reefs, was attended by 37 countries and organizations from Sunday to Tuesday in Toshima Ward, Tokyo.

 

 

Item 28: Importing Biofuel: Test Sales of Biofuel to Start in Tokyo Metropolitan Area

(Asahi Shimbun, 26 April, 2007) Test sales of eco-friendly biofuel will start Friday at 50 gas stations in and around Tokyo.

It will be the first time in Japan for the biofuel--a mixture of gasoline and plant-derived ethanol--to be sold for general use in such a wide area, the Petroleum Association of Japan said.

The association, which represents 18 major oil refiners and distributors, aims to start nationwide sales in fiscal 2010.

Trucks carrying the biofuel drove out of Nippon Oil Corp.'s refinery in Yokohama's Isogo Ward on Thursday and headed for the gas stations.

Tokyo and Kanagawa Prefecture will each have 15 gas stations handling the biofuel, while Saitama Prefecture will have 11 and Chiba Prefecture nine.

During the test sales through March 2009, drivers who order regular gasoline at the stations will get their tanks filled with gas with a 3-percent bioethanol content.

The biofuel will cost the same price as regular gasoline. But when full-fledged sales start in fiscal 2010, the biofuel price could be set higher because of the inclusion of ethanol, officials said.

In the association's test sales, bioethanol is converted into ethyl tertiary butyl ether (ETBE), a synthesized additive, before it is mixed with gasoline.

Bioethanol, derived from plants such as sugarcane and corn, is considered neutral in terms of carbon dioxide because the greenhouse gas it emits during combustion is offset by the amount the plants absorb in the process of photosynthesis.

It is seen as an effective measure to lower dependence on crude oil and counter global warming.

Full-fledged production of bioethanol has not yet started in Japan. For the test sales, wheat-derived bioethanol is imported from France.

The fuel efficiency of biofuel is 1.2 percent lower than that of regular gasoline. That is because the heating value of ethanol is about 60 percent that of gasoline.

But the difference can be covered by turning off the engine instead of idling the vehicle, the association said.

Countries advanced in bioethanol technology, such as Brazil and the United States, blend bioethanol directly with gasoline to create biofuel, a method different from what is used in the test sales in Japan.

Biofuels are also used in China and Europe.

There are concerns, however, that a bioethanol boom could increase prices of ingredient plants, such as corn, and trigger food shortage.

 

 

Item 29: Importing Beef: Japan Set to Ease Rules on U.S. Beef

(Asahi Shimbu / IHT, 25 April, 2007) The United States has agreed to an inspection of its meatpacking plants by Japanese experts, a step Japan has been pushing for amid mounting pressure from Washington to ease regulations on beef imports, the government said Tuesday.

If no problems are found, Japan will stop the practice of opening and inspecting every box of beef shipped from the United States, according to the announcement.

"(The United States) accepted an inspection by Japanese experts before the (Japan-U.S.) summit talks," Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Toshikatsu Matsuoka said Tuesday. "It is a big step forward."

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is scheduled to meet with U.S. President George W. Bush on Friday on his first visit to the United States as prime minister.

Tuesday's agreement is expected to lead the two countries to move on to the next stage of discussions toward raising the age limit of cattle. Japan currently restricts U.S. beef imports to cattle up to 20 months old when slaughtered because of concerns over mad cow disease.

Bush had indicated that he would press Japan to open its beef market completely during the meeting with Abe. Dropping the practice of opening all boxes of beef shipped from the United States is the first step toward that end that Washington has been calling for.

A team of Japanese inspectors will visit meatpacking plants certified as suppliers to Japan by Washington to verify if they have been complying with the terms both governments officially agreed to in July 2006 before resuming beef imports.

The terms are that the cattle must be aged 20 months or younger and that risky parts such as brain and spinal cords should be removed.

U.S. officials are stepping up their offensive to ease the age limit as the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) in late May is expected to categorize the United States as a country that can export beef regardless of age.

The Japanese government is likely to begin the process of consulting with the Cabinet Office's Food Safety Commission to get its approval if the government decides to ease import restrictions following OIE's official announcement about the United States and results of the Japanese inspection.

 

 

Item 30: Importing Vegetables: Sizing up China: Better technology helps Chinese vegetable imports thrive

(Kim Han Il, Asahi Shimbun / IHT, 23 April, 2007) Editor's note: This is part of a series on the growing influence of China in bilateral relations as well as Chinese communities in Japan

Japanese have long valued vegetables for their freshness. An old saying recommended eating harvests within a 12-kilometer radius to keep fit and live long.

Today, advances in processing, refrigeration and transportation technologies have widened the geographical reach considerably.

About 1,700 kilometers west of Tokyo, Chiyoda Bussan Co.'s factory in Qingdao, Shandong province, is producing stripped lettuce, chopped leeks and peeled potatoes.

The company has developed technologies to keep raw, precut vegetables fresh for about three weeks, long enough to export them to Japan.

Normally, leafy vegetables such as lettuce, once cut, are good only for several days. But at least five days are required for quarantine and ocean transportation alone.

While the amount of exports is still limited, President Hiroshi Yoshino said Chiyoda Bussan has received inquiries from about 500 potential clients in Japan, such as restaurant chains and catering services.

The factory, which started operations in 2005, uses vegetables from 35 contracted local farmers.

"The farmland in Shandong province is fertile, teeming with earthworms," Yoshino said. "It reminds me of Japanese soil in the good old days."

For Japan, China is already the largest supplier of vegetables, with Shandong province holding the top share.

In 2006, Japan imported fresh and processed vegetables worth about 228 billion yen from China, such as leeks, garlic, satoimo taro roots and shiitake mushrooms, according to Japan External Trade Organization.

The value was more than triple the 70 billion yen from the United States, the second-largest supplier.

Like manufactured goods from China, the country's farm produce deeply undercut domestic rivals on price.

For example, Chinese garlic sells for about one-tenth the price of products from Aomori Prefecture, Japan's chief production center, according to Isao Shibamoto, assistant manager at wholesaler Tokyo Seika Co.

Similarly, the price of Chinese cabbages is about one-fourth, and that of leeks is about half.

Yoshino said Chiyoda Bussan's Qingdao factory is supplying stripped lettuce at about half the going rate in Japan, after covering profits as well as costs for production, quarantine and transportation.

The monthly salaries of local workers are about 6,000 yen, he said.

Many other producers of raw, precut vegetables procure vegetables from Japanese and overseas suppliers and process them at domestic facilities.

At Delica Foods Co., a pioneer in the industry, Chinese products on average account for about 10 percent of all the vegetables it uses.

Director Kiyoharu Sawada said the company uses Chinese vegetables when domestic harvests are limited or clients ask for cheap products.

"For example, we increase the amount of Chinese carrots from January through May, when domestic supplies fall short," he said.

Still, many Japanese consumers have reservations about the safety of Chinese vegetables.

Industry officials said concerns stem largely from the discovery of residual pesticides from frozen Chinese spinach in 2002.

Imports of raw and processed vegetables from China fell to about 178 billion yen, down about 10 percent from the previous year, as consumers shunned Chinese products and retailers pulled them from store shelves.

The scandal has led to revisions to the Food Sanitation Law, under which sales of food will be banned if agrochemicals, veterinary medicine or feed additives are found above standard levels.

The new "positive list" system, which was introduced in May, covers all types of foodstuff, from farm produce to processed items, and applies to both domestic and foreign products.

Last year, pesticides and other substances that exceed standard levels were found in imports, including leeks and shiitake mushrooms from China.

Yoshino of Chiyoda Bussan said, however, the Chinese government has introduced strict controls on pesticides at export-oriented vegetable processing facilities.

He said Japan should join hands with China to secure farm products as the nation's food self-sufficiency ratio has been declining.

Japan imported 3.4 million tons of vegetables in fiscal 2005, more than double the 1.5 million tons in fiscal 1989. In contrast, domestic produce dropped to 12 million tons from 16 million tons, over the same period.

Japan supplied all the vegetables it consumed in fiscal 1965, but the ratio of domestic products fell to 79 percent in fiscal 2005.

Vegetable sales seem to be following the same trend as meat. The ratio of domestic products plunged to 43 percent for beef and 50 percent for pork, down from 95 percent and 100 percent, respectively, in fiscal 1965.

As farmers in Japan age, many have not been able to find successors and are abandoning their land because they can no longer work it.

Japan is also facing growing pressure from agricultural exporters, such as the United States and Australia, to open up its markets.

Sawada of Delica Foods said, however, that Japan may not be able to count on China as a stable source of vegetables forever.

In 2004, China for the first time imported more agricultural products than it exported.

"If China's domestic demand continues to expand, there could be no vegetables left for exports to Japan," Sawada said. "Japan should raise the competitiveness of its agricultural sector, with emphasis on high-end products."(IHT/Asahi: April 23,2007)

 

 

Item 31: Hunters kill one of last Amur Leopards

(Reuters, 23 April, 2007) MOSCOW:- Hunters in Russia's Far East have shot and killed one of the last seven surviving female Amur leopards living in the wild, WWF said on Monday, driving the species even closer to extinction.

Last week environmentalists said there were only between 25 and 34 Amur leopards -- described as one of the most graceful cats in the world -- still living in the wild.

At least 100 are needed to guarantee the species' survival which depends upon female leopards breeding. There are more male leopards in the wild than female because cats tend to breed males when under stress, WWF said.

"Leopard murder can only be provoked by cowardice or stupidity, in this case most likely by both," Pavel Fomenko, WWF's biodiversity coordinator in Russia's Far East said in a statement.

A hunter shot the leopard through the tail bone. It tumbled over and was then beaten over the head with a heavy object, WWF said. Amur leopards have not been know to attack humans.

Environmentalists have urged the Russian government to introduce tighter controls on its national parks in the Far East to crack down on leopard hunting.

They also want more done to protect the animal's natural environment and food supply, which they say is being destroyed by human development.

A local wildlife watchdog received an anonymous tip-off that a leopard had been killed. State wildlife officers found the dead animal after a day of searching. The leopard died on either April 15 or April 16, WWF said.

 

 

Item 32: Govt. Think-Tanks Hyping Future FTA Results: “KORUS FTA to Boost GDP by 0.6% Each Year”

(Lee Hyo-sik, The Korea Times, 30 April, 2007) A Korea-U.S. free trade agreement (FTA) is expected to boost the country's economic growth by an average 0.6 percent a year over the next 10 years and create additional 34,000 new jobs each year.

According to a report coauthored by 11 state-funded research institutes, including the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy (KIEP), the free trade pact will also help improve the world's 11th largest economy's trade balance and bring more foreign investment into the country.

South Korea's gross domestic product (GDP) is forecast to expand by a total of 6 percent the next 10 years under the assumption that the trade agreement goes into effect next year as the FTA will not only increase the nation's overall trade volume, but also contribute to improving productivity and raising capital accumulation.

The trade accord will add about 80 trillion won to the country's GDP by 2018, it said. Domestic consumers will also benefit from lower prices of various commodities and broader consumer choices, with the FTA removing a range of tariffs imposed on imports of industrial and agricultural products.

The report said the value of long-term consumer welfare stemming from the trade pact will be equivalent to 2.9 percent of the 2005 GDP, or 20 trillion won. Currently, the average tariff rate in South Korea imposed on imports stands at 12 percent, compared with 5 percent in the United States.

Stronger productivity and capital accumulation as a result of the trade agreement will help create an additional 34,000 jobs every year, totaling 340,000 for the next 10 years.

The government has tried to crate at least 300,000 new jobs each year. Last year, 295,000 new jobs were created.

By industry, the trade pact will help Korea's services sector create an extra 267,000 jobs for the next 10 years, followed by 79,000 in the manufacturing sector. But the agricultural industry is estimated to lose some 10,000 jobs over the next decade.

In the meantime, the research institutes predicted Korea's exports to the U.S. will grow by $1.33 billion each year for the next 10 years thanks to the Korea-U.S. FTA, while the country will import goods and services worth $860 million per year from the world's largest economy.

The trade agreement is expected to increase Korea's trade account surplus with the U.S. by an average of $460 million a year for the next 10 years, as well as push up its total trade account surplus with its trading partners to $2 billion per year.

The report also said the deal will help the country attract as much as $3.2 billion in additional foreign direct investment each year for the next 10 years. In 2006, Korea brought in a total of $11.2 billion in foreign investment.

 

 

Item 33: Japan and Saudi Arabia in Talks to Store Oil on Okinawa Isle

(Naohito Maeda, IHT / Asahi Shimbun, 30 April, 2007) RIYADH--Japan and Saudi Arabia agreed Saturday to start negotiations to allow the oil-rich kingdom to use existing oil reserve facilities in Okinawa Prefecture.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made the proposal to King Abdullah, whom Abe met on the first leg of his five-nation tour of the Middle East.

Under the deal, the kingdom would use facilities on Henzajima island in the southernmost prefecture.

The step is designed to further cement Japan's relations with Saudi Arabia, the country's largest supplier of oil.

Abe hopes the move will help ensure a steady supply of petroleum, crucial to a nation with few natural energy resources, officials said.

Japanese officials said oil reserve facilities in the prefecture store about 5.25 million kiloliters of petroleum, which is equivalent to what Japan consumes in 10 days.

Most of the prefecture's reserves are stored on Henzajima island, off the eastern shore of Okinawa's main island.

Analysts believe the deal could benefit the kingdom, which has no major reserve facilities in Asia. Keeping oil on the island would thus enable it to deliver oil to Asian countries much faster.

"(The use of Henzajima island) will allow Saudi Arabia to get a foothold from where it can deliver oil to Asian countries in two or three days. Currently, it takes 21 days," said an official with Japan's Agency for Natural Resources and Energy.

"It will also mean Saudi Arabia could deliver oil to the U.S. west coast in a week," the official said.

Under International Energy Agency guidelines, countries are required to maintain an oil reserve of 90 days' worth of consumption.

Japan and Saudi Arabia agreed to discuss details, including the amount of oil and how the kingdom will deposit it on Henzajima island.

Accompanying Abe at the meeting with the king was Nippon Keidanren (Japan Business Federation) Chairman Fujio Mitarai, also chairman of Canon Inc., who is leading a delegation of Japanese business leaders.

In a joint statement, the two countries stated they will set up a joint task force to bolster opportunities for mutual investment through collective efforts of the government and the private sector.

The task force also aims to spur political dialogue between the two countries

 

 

Item 34: Japan's Utilities to Buy Uranium From Kazakhstan

(Nariman Gizitdinov, Megumi Yamanaka, Bloomberg, 30 April, 2007) -- Japan's power utilities signed agreements to buy uranium from Kazakhstan, holder of the second- largest reserves of the metal, to fuel their nuclear reactors. ÿÿÿÿ Japan Atomic Power Co., Tokyo Electric Power Co., Kansai Electric Power Co. and other utilities agreed to buy uranium concentrate from Kazakh producer, Appak. The two countries signed a total of 25 agreements during a by Japanese Trade Minister Akira Amari. Japan will help Kazakhstan develop its nuclear fuel processing industry.

``We plan to build a nuclear power station and Kazakhstan and Japan have good mutual possibilities in this area,'' Kazakh Energy Minister Izmukhambetov said today in Astana, the country's capital. ÿÿÿÿ Japan wants better access to uranium amid rising competition for the fuel from China and India, which are turning to atomic energy to cut pollution and reliance on fossil fuels. Prices have risen to a record on speculation demand will outpace supply as accidents at mines in Australia and Canada slow production. Itochu Corp. said it would buy uranium concentrate from Kazatomprom, the Kazakh state-owned company said. Kazatomprom signed agreements with Global Nuclear Fuel Japan Co., Kansai Electric Power, Sumitomo Corp., Mitsubishi Nuclear Fuel Co.ÿÿand Nuclear Fuel Industries Ltd. to co-operate on uranium processing.

``We consider a possible cooperation with Japanese companies on building nuclear reactor,'' said Moukhtar Dzhakishev, president of Kazatomprom.

Build Plant

Japan Atomic Power Co., an owner of utilities led by Tokyo Electric Power Co., and Toshiba Corp. agreed to help Kazatomprom build a nuclear power station in the central Asia nation.

Kazakhstan plans to supply as much as a third of Japan's uranium by 2010, Dzhakishev said on April 14. ``We will work to achieve the 40 percent level,'' Amari said. ÿÿÿÿ Appak, part-owned by Japanese utility Kansai Electric and trading company Sumitomo., will produce 1,000 tons a year of uranium by 2010. ÿÿÿÿ The central Asia nation plans to spend about $1 billion over four years to increase uranium output to 18,300 tons, becoming the world's biggest producer, from an estimated 7,200 tons this year, Dzhakishev said. ÿÿÿÿ Japan consumed about 11,400 tons of uranium last year, with imports from Kazakhstan accounting for 1 percent. Tokyo Electric consumes about 3,000 tons of uranium a year, or about 5 percent of the world's demand for the commodity.

Secure Supplies

Tokyo Electric and two other Japanese companies bought a uranium venture in Kazakhstan, securing the radioactive metal supply for the world's third-biggest nuclear generator. Tokyo Electric, Chubu Electric and Marubeni Corp. have rights to purchase a total 2,000 tons of uranium, about one fifth of Japan's yearly consumption.

Japan, which buys 89 percent of its oil from the Middle East, plans new reactors to meet its commitments to cut emissions from fossil fuels and curb the cost of energy imports. The country wants to raise the share of atomic energy in power generation to 40 percent by 2030 from 30 percent today. ÿÿÿÿ Kazakhstan's Energy Ministry and Mineral Resources and state-owned Japan, Oil, Gas and Metal Corp. signed a memorandum for co-operation in mineral resources production. Akira, Japan's trade minister, said this may give Japanese companies access to the development of rare metals fields in Kazakhstan.

 

 

Item 35: Chinese Demand Puts a Strain on Timber

(Gillian Tett and Chris Flood, The Financial Times, 30 April, 2007) China's voracious appetite for commodities ranging from copper to corn is now lighting a fire in a new sector – timber.

Businesses dealing in wood in Europe say the cost of timber is soaring amid an acute shortage of supplies.

According to the Office for National Statistics in the UK – a big importer – the inflation rate for wood products hit 13 per cent last month – its highest level for more than a decade.

The British Timber Trade Federation estimates inflation was about 20 per cent last year, while dealers say the prices of sawn softwood have risen 30 per cent in the past six months.

Analysts say tracking price swings in timber is more difficult than in other commodities because the global forest products industry is fragmented and opaque.

Timber is traded through bilateral deals rather than centralised trading platforms. But recent figures from the United Nations show that China has become “the number one importer of softwood and hardwood logs”.

“China seems to be consuming mind-boggling amounts of wood right now,” says David Sulman, of the Scottish Timber Trade Association.

China used to be a relatively minor player in the global timber industry, but is now second only to the US as an importer.

The rise in Chinese demand has had its biggest impact in Europe, because it comes at a time when Russian exports have been undercut by tax changes.

The mild winter also made it harder to extract logs in Scandinavian countries. Meanwhile, a mild spring in Europe has fuelled strong seasonal demand for timber from the construction sector – and from gardeners.

“Spring and autumn are traditionally popular times for fencing but we can't see demand letting up before high summer,” said B&Q, a British DIY retailer, which is attempting to source wood from Chile instead of its usual suppliers in the Baltics to cope with the shortages.

The squeeze has helped push the share price of Swedish companies such as Bergs Timber and Roervik Timber to record levels in recent days, while Stora Enso recently reported a 182.6 per cent increase in first-quarter operating profits at its wood products division.

 

 

Item 36: Global WarmingTwins: “U.S., China Say Climate Report Downplays Costs”

(Michael Casey, AP, 01 May, 2007) BANGKOK, Thailand: The United States and China want to amend a major report by U.N.-sponsored climate researchers to play down its conclusion that quick, affordable action can limit the worst effects of global warming.

The critiques, among hundreds of government comments on the draft document, are the prelude to what is expected to be a contentious weeklong meeting before final wording in the report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is issued Friday. Two previous IPCC reports this year painted a dire picture of a future in which unabated greenhouse-gas emissions could drive global temperatures up as much as 11 degrees by 2100, and said animal and plant life was already affected by warmer and rising seas, spreading drought and other effects.

The upcoming third report will look at technologies and policies that could help head off damaging climate change, and at what cost, and discuss feasible goals. The IPCC assessment will provide fresh background for ongoing negotiations over a climate agreement to succeed the Kyoto Protocol in 2012. The 1997 Kyoto pact requires 35 European and other nations to reduce industrial, transportation and agricultural emissions of carbon dioxide and other warming gases by 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2012.

President Bush rejected Kyoto's mandatory cuts, contending they would hobble the U.S. economy.

China and other poor developing countries were exempted. The draft of the third report says greenhouse emissions can be cut below current levels if the world takes such steps as shifting away from coal and other fossil fuels, investing in energy efficiency and working to halt deforestation.

The U.S. wants clauses inserted saying the cost of available technologies "could be unacceptably high" and calling for a greater emphasis on "advanced technologies," many aimed at extending the use of coal. The United States and China also criticized the draft's economic projections.

 

 

Item 37: The Rich World's Policy on Greenhouse Gas Now Seems Clear: Millions Will Die

(George Monbiot, The Guardian, 01 May, 2007) Rich nations seeking to cut climate change have this in common: they lie. You won't find this statement in the draft of the new report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which was leaked to the Guardian last week. But as soon as you understand the numbers, the words form before your eyes. The governments making genuine efforts to tackle global warming are using figures they know to be false.

The British government, the European Union and the United Nations all claim to be trying to prevent “dangerous” climate change. Any level of climate change is dangerous for someone, but there is a broad consensus about what this word means: two degrees of warming above pre-industrial levels. It is dangerous because of its direct impacts on people and places (it could, for example, trigger the irreversible melting of the Greenland ice sheet and the collapse of the Amazon rainforest) and because it is likely to stimulate further warming, as it encourages the world's natural systems to start releasing greenhouse gases.

The aim of preventing more than 2C of warming has been adopted overtly by the UN and the European Union, and implicitly by the British, German and Swedish governments. All of them say they are hoping to confine the concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere to a level that would prevent such a rise. And all of them know that they have set the wrong targets, based on outdated science. Fearful of the political implications, they have failed to adjust to the levels the new research demands.

This isn't easy to follow, but please bear with me, as you cannot understand the world's most important issue without grappling with some numbers. The average global temperature is affected by the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. This concentration is usually expressed as “carbon dioxide equivalent”. It is not an exact science - you cannot say that a certain concentration of gases will lead to a precise increase in temperature - but scientists discuss the relationship in terms of probability. A paper published last year by the climatologist Malte Meinshausen suggests that if greenhouse gases reach a concentration of 550 parts per million, carbon dioxide equivalent, there is a 63-99% chance (with an average value of 82%) that global warming will exceed two degrees. At 475 parts per million (ppm) the average likelihood is 64%. Only if concentrations are stabilised at 400 parts or below is there a low chance (an average of 28%) that temperatures will rise by more than two degrees.

The IPCC's draft report contains similar figures. A concentration of 510ppm gives us a 33% chance of preventing more than two degrees of warming. A concentration of 590ppm gives us a 10% chance. You begin to understand the scale of the challenge when you discover that the current level of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere (using the IPCC's formula) is 459ppm. We have already exceeded the safe level. To give ourselves a high chance of preventing dangerous climate change, we will need a programme so drastic that greenhouse gases in the atmosphere end up below the current concentrations. The sooner this happens, the greater the chance of preventing two degrees of warming.

But no government has set itself this task. The European Union and the Swedish government have established the world's most stringent target. It is 550ppm, which gives us a near certainty of an extra 2C. The British government makes use of a clever conjuring trick. Its target is also “550 parts per million”, but 550 parts of carbon dioxide alone. When you include the other greenhouse gases, this translates into 666ppm, carbon dioxide equivalent (a fitting figure). According to last autumn's Stern report on the economics of climate change, at 650ppm there is a 60-95% chance of 3C of warming. The government's target, in other words, commits us to a very dangerous level of climate change.

The British government has been aware that it has set the wrong target for at least four years. In 2003 the environment department found that “with an atmospheric CO2 stabilisation concentration of 550ppm, temperatures are expected to rise by between 2C and 5C”. In March last year it admitted that “a limit closer to 450ppm or even lower, might be more appropriate to meet a 2C stabilisation limit”. Yet the target has not changed. Last October I challenged the environment secretary, David Miliband, over this issue on Channel 4 News. He responded as if he had never come across it before.

The European Union is also aware that it is using the wrong figures. In 2005 it found that “to have a reasonable chance to limit global warming to no more than 2C, stabilisation of concentrations well below 550ppm CO2 equivalent may be needed”. But its target hasn't changed either.

Embarrassingly for the government, and for leftwingers like me, the only large political entity that seems able to confront this is the British Conservative party. In a paper published a fortnight ago, it called for an atmospheric stabilisation target of 400-450ppm carbon dioxide equivalent. Will this become policy? Does Cameron have the guts to do what his advisers say he should?

In my book Heat, I estimate that to avoid two degrees of warming we require a global emissions cut of 60% per capita between now and 2030. This translates into an 87% cut in the United Kingdom. This is a much stiffer target than the British government's - which requires a 60% cut in the UK's emissions by 2050. But my figure now appears to have been an underestimate. A recent paper in the journal Climatic Change emphasises that the sensitivity of global temperatures to greenhouse gas concentrations remains uncertain. But if we use the average figure, to obtain a 50% chance of preventing more than 2C of warming requires a global cut of 80% by 2050.

This is a cut in total emissions, not in emissions per head. If the population were to rise from 6 billion to 9 billion between now and then, we would need an 87% cut in global emissions per person. If carbon emissions are to be distributed equally, the greater cut must be made by the biggest polluters: rich nations like us. The UK's emissions per capita would need to fall by 91%.

But our governments appear quietly to have abandoned their aim of preventing dangerous climate change. If so, they condemn millions to death. What the IPCC report shows is that we have to stop treating climate change as an urgent issue. We have to start treating it as an international emergency.

We must open immediate negotiations with China, which threatens to become the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases by next November, partly because it manufactures many of the products we use. We must work out how much it would cost to decarbonise its growing economy, and help to pay. We need a major diplomatic offensive - far more pressing than it has been so far - to persuade the United States to do what it did in 1941, and turn the economy around on a dime. But above all we need to show that we remain serious about fighting climate change, by setting the targets the science demands.

 

 

Item 38: South Jeju Citizens Resist Navy Base Construction

(Hankyoreh, 01 May, 2007) Lee Bok-yeol, a 62-year-old female diver who has dived for shell fish for the past 46 years in Wimi village of the island of Jeju, has not been in the water for a month. The reason is that her livelihood could be destroyed if a naval base is built nearby if the government follows through with current plans. Lee, who lives with her blind husband, calls the ocean eunhyejeon, or "paddy of grace," because the sea supported her while she raised her four children. However, Lee's face is now filled with sorrow because she is about to be forced to leave. Things are little different for other village residents.

The navy says it is going to build a base in the island's Hwasun port or Wimi village. The 120,000-pyeong (one pyeong is the equivalent of 3.3 square meters) base will house some 20 warships, including three 7,000-ton Aegis-class destroyers. The island province's governor, Kim Tae-hwan, continues to support base construction.

Opponents to base construction say the national government is contradicting itself for designating the province an "Island of World Peace" then wanting to build a military base. Go Yu-gi, head of a group representing Jeju people against the military base, said, "It is a certainty that a naval base in Jeju would heighten military tensions with China and Japan."

Lee Cheol-gi, a professor of international relations at Dongguk University, said the base could get dragged into conflicts that do not directly concern Korea. "It could turn into a U.S. military base or a bridgehead for U.S. Missile Defense (MD) scheme, depending on the U.S. military's policy of strategic flexibility," said Lee.

However, the Ministry of Defense said the island of Jeju is an optimal site for naval protection of oil shipping routes between Korea and the Middle East. On April 13, Defense Minister Kim Jang-soo said, "A naval base in Jeju won't be used as a U.S. military base and has no relationship with Missile Defense."

The government's plans to build a naval base in Jeju were unveiled about 10 years ago. However, it is only now that the navy is nearing completion its 7,000 ton Aegis-class destroyers, in 2009, that construction plans are gaining momentum.

The defense ministry has been accused of deliberately granting vacations to some 100 officers and sailors from Jeju in an apparent move to persuade people there in favor of base construction. Responding such criticism, lieutenant commander Kim Tae-ho who is part of the government body responsible for implementing the government's plans, said, "They took a vacations because they wanted to."

When the provincial government announced it would make its final decision based on a public opinion survey, 48 year-old dry cleaning shop operator Kang Yeong-hui called the idea "violent thinking." Nevertheless, the government says it is going to seek the Jeju public's opinion as it moves ahead.

The provincial legislature is putting a brakes on what it says was a one-sided decision by governor Kim Tae-hwan to host the naval base. On April 18, it said in a press conference that, "The Jeju governor's office shouldn't one-sidedly make a decision and instead should consult with the legislature."

Public opinion remains divided. Lee Seung-hak, an official at a group representing people who support base construction said, "I support the host of a naval base because it will present an opportunity for national security and regional economy." "As a former Prime Minister Han Myeong-sook said, we can be both the 'island of peace' and have a military base," he said.

 

 

Item 39: Korean and Canadian Oil Companies Violate Laws Protecting Kamchatka Wetlands

(Pacific Environment, 08 April 2007) Pacific Environment's and the Kamchatka League of Independence have just learned that Canadian and Korean companies recently conducted seismic testing within the internationally protected Moroshechnaya Wetlands Ramsar Site, in violation of international law.

The Kamchatka League traveled to the site earlier this month, in response to rumors of seismic testing from local residents. The site visit confirmed that testing had taken place within the protected area, with three seismic testing lines in place along the shore and evidence of blasting.

The Canadian corporation CEP International Petroleum Ltd. and its joint venture partners at the Korean National Oil Corporation (KNOC) currrently hold a license for oil and gas exploration in the western Kamchatka region, but committed to refrain from seismic testing within the Moroshechnaya Wetlands in October 2006.

Full habitat impacts will not be visible until the spring thaw. The Moroshechnaya Wetlands are globally important to threatened waterfowl, migrating and breeding in the region, and to Pacific salmon populations. The area is protected under the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance, Especially as Waterfowl Habitat (Ramsar Site #695).

A coalition of local and international organizations is calling on CEP Petroleum International, Ltd. and its joint venture partner Korean National Oil Corporation to immediately halt seismic testing within the protected area. We are also appealing to the Russian authorities and the Ramsar Secretariate regarding the violation.

MORE INFO

Oil and Gas Development Threatens Kamchatka Wilderness, Fisheries

First drilling planned for this summer, both offshore and onshore

The Kamchatka Peninsula is at a crossroads. Currently, fisheries are the mainstay of Kamchatka's economy. However, Russian and international companies are poised to begin large scale oil and gas development— including drilling the peninsula's first oil wells—this summer.

What is at stake?

Spawning grounds for up to one-quarter of our Pacific salmon,

Wetland habitat supporting hundreds of thousands of waterbirds,

Local communities that depend on a subsistence lifestyle for their livelihoods, and

A regional economy that relies primarily on abundant fishery resources.

Pacific Environment and our partners are committed to raising awareness about the global importance of the Kamchatka Peninsula and opportunities to protect critical habitat areas, which are inappropriate for oil and gas development.

Offshore, Kamchatka Shelf Threats

The Russian company Rosneft holds an offshore oil and gas license off the Western Kamchatka shelf—the largest oil and gas exploratory license area in Russia (62,000 sq. km.) The company has already conducted two years of seismic exploration in the area Rosneft and its joint venture partner the Korean National Oil Company plan to construct the first offshore platform and drilling well this summer. The license area is a critical area for Russia's fisheries, including salmon and valuable Kamchatka king crab.

Local citizens have voiced their opposition to oil and gas development on the shelf, with the majority voting against the project in a public referendum. The Russian public environmental law group Ecojuris is currently engaging the Russian government to receive technical environmental impact assessment documents for the project.

Pacific Environment's local partners at the Kamchatka League of Independent Experts are calling for a moratorium on development, until modern technologies can ensure that Kamchatka's sensitive marine environment will not be harmed.

Onshore Threats

The Russian government has granted an onshore exploration license in northwestern Kamchatka to the Canadian company CEP International Petroleum Ltd. This area includes the Moroshechnaya River wetlands, recognized under the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance.

CEP International and its joint venture partner the Korean National Oil Company plan to begin drilling this summer in an area near Tigil. Numerous watersheds within the exploration area are essential salmon spawning habitat, waterfowl migration destinations, and breeding grounds for endangered species like the Stellar's sea eagle. The area also includes territories of traditional nature use for indigenous peoples.

The Kamchatka League of Independent Experts and the Russian Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North have appealed to the Russian government requesting an explanation for why an oil exploration license was granted in areas of critical ecological and cultural importance. Thus far, the Russian government has not recognized the status of protected territories overlapping with the development area.

Pacific Environment and the Kamchatka League of Independent Experts are currently approaching the Ramsar Convention Secretariat and international community to request their support in publicizing this issue.

 

 

Item 40: Gazprom Eyes Exclusive Purchase of Sakhalin-1 Gas

(Japan Times, 29 April, 2007) MOSCOW (Kyodo) Gazprom is negotiating for exclusive rights to buy all of the natural gas to be produced by the Sakhalin-1 international oil and natural gas project, according to a senior official of the partially state-owned gas monopoly.

The move suggests the possibility that Russia will take full control of the exporting rights for the natural gas produced by the project, which Exxon Mobil Corp. has led since the mid-1990s and in which Japanese stakeholders, including the government, hold a combined stake of about 30 percent

An Exxon Mobil subsidiary, Exxon Neftegas Ltd., is the project operator. Japanese stakeholders include the government, Japan Petroleum Exploration Co., Itochu Corp. and Marubeni Corp.

India's public petroleum company and Russia's state-run oil producer Rosneft also have stakes in the project, but Gazprom does not.

Gazprom is negotiating with the operator of the Sakhalin-1 project over purchasing all of the natural gas, Gazprom Deputy Chief Executive Officer Alexander Medvedev said in an interview Friday.

Gazprom is interested in increasing the economic effect of the project in accordance with Russia's national interest, he said.

His comments indicate that the move is in line with Moscow's policy of allowing Gazprom to control the nation's natural gas exports, which mainly target the Asia-Pacific market.

Earlier this month, Gazprom took control of another international energy development project called Sakhalin-2. The Royal Dutch/Shell group of Europe and Japanese trading houses Mitsui & Co. and Mitsubishi Corp. ceded a majority stake in the joint project after Russia's resources ministry ordered a partial suspension of the project due to environmental concerns.

The suspension was believed by some to be a pretext for the Russian government's efforts to secure Gazprom's leadership of the project.

Moscow has been applying pressure on the Sakhalin-1 project as well by hinting at the possibility of issuing a similar order.

Last year, Exxon Mobil signed a memorandum with China agreeing that natural gas produced by the Sakhalin-1 project will be exported to China. But the accord could be dropped if Gazprom takes full control of the exports.

Sakhalin-1 was launched off the northeast coast of Sakhalin Island in 1995.

It is one of the world's major natural resources development projects.

 

 

Item 41: ABN Amro Slammed for $1 Billion Sakhalin Deal

(Environmental Finance, 26 April, 2007) London: ABN Amro has reportedly provided $1 billion to Gazprom to finance its purchase of a controlling share in the controversial oil and gas project Sakhalin II.

Sakhalin II is located on the island of Sakhalin, off the pacific coast of Russia. Environmental campaigners have long opposed its development, because it is sited in the only known breeding ground of the rare Western Grey whale. Onshore construction is also alleged to impact on the population of wild salmon that breed in the island's network of rivers.

Shell, which originally led the consortium constructing Sakhalin II, reached a deal which saw Gazprom acquire a 50% share in the project last December, under pressure from Russia's environment watchdog. According to reports in The Moscow Times, ABN Amro provided the gas giant with $1 billion of this money.

A group of NGOs has issued a statement criticising ABN Amro for financing this deal, noting that the bank was a founding signatory of the Equator Principles, which set environmental and social standards for project finance, as well as being short listed as a contender for the sustainable bank of the year award by the Financial Times and International Finance Corporation (IFC).

Johan Frijns, co-ordinator of Utrecht-based NGO BankTrack, said: "The Financial Times and IFC have their own reputations at stake here. ABN Amro's and Barclays' association with Sakhalin II will be a credibility drag on the whole lot of them."

In addition, Dmitry Lisitsyn, chairman of the Sakhalin Island-based Sakhalin Environment Watch, said that the deal has implications for Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland, both of which are involved in bids to acquire the Dutch bank. "All banks involved in the great game around ABN Amro want it both ways; but they can't claim to be environmental leaders while taking over the financing of one of the most ecologically and socially destructive oil and gas projects in the world," he said.

ABN Amro did not return requests for comment before press time.

 

 

Item 42: Importing Uranium: Japan Eyes Uranium Supply Deal with Kazakhstan

(Japan Times, 01 May, 2007) ASTANA (Kyodo) Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Akira Amari and Kazakh Prime Minister Karim Masimov issued a joint statement Monday aimed at boosting bilateral nuclear energy cooperation and Kazakhstan's uranium supply to Japan.

Under the proposed arrangement, Kazakh's share of Japan's uranium imports could rise to 30 percent to 40 percent, up from the current 1 percent.

Top executives from 29 Japanese companies accompanying Amari to Astana signed 24 business deals with Kazakh enterprises to help ensure a stable, long-term supply of uranium and facilitate the transfer of nuclear technology for peaceful uses from Japan to Kazakhstan.

Japan sent a 150-member government-private sector delegation to Kazakhstan in the face of rising demand for uranium as more countries start adopting nuclear power in response to surging oil prices.

Kazakhstan has the world's second-largest uranium reserves after Australia, according to Japanese government data. The price of uranium has jumped 12 times between 2000 and 2007.

Nuclear power is the most promising energy source in the long run because it does not produce carbon dioxide, Japanese officials said.

Among the 24 deals, Marubeni Corp. acquired a stake in a uranium mine in a deal with Kazakhstan's state-run atomic company Kazatomprom. Toshiba Corp. agreed with Kazatomprom to help build nuclear power plants.

The Japanese side also agreed to provide Kazakhstan with technological help in processing uranium fuel and building light-water reactors in exchange for uranium supplies.

With the deals, Kazakhstan is expected to become one of the biggest uranium suppliers to Japan in the future, rivaling Australia, which has a share of 33 percent, and Canada, which has 27 percent.

"Both sides share the recognition that Japan and Kazakhstan are mutually complimentary and strategic partners, and hope that they will develop multilayered and cooperative relations," the joint statement said, citing Japan's world-class civil nuclear technology and Kazakhstan's massive uranium reserves.

"Both sides hope that the development of such cooperative relations will help raise each country's reputation as those who promote the peaceful use of nuclear power," it said.

Amari left Japan on Friday for Uzbekistan, the first leg of a four-nation tour that will also take him to Saudi Arabia and Brunei.

 

 

Item 43: China Urgently Needs to Protect Its Wetlands

(Xinhua News Agency April 20, 2007) China will spend 16.5 billion yuan (US$2.1 billion) to protect and restore its wetlands during the 11th five-year-plan period (2006-2010).

Addressing a recent forum on the Yangtze River held in Changsha, the capital of central China's Hunan Province, Zhu Lieke, deputy head of the State Forestry Administration, said China has made an inventory of 173 wetlands, most of which are in northeast China and the Yangtze River Valley.

Thirty of the country's wetlands are listed in the international wetland catalogue, and one third of them are situated along the Yangtze.

"Phenomena such as the rapid drop in the number of lakes and fast shrinkage in lake area got worse as China's economy tears through resources," said Zhu, who warned that wetlands in the Yangtze River Valley face unprecedented ecological threats.

"The problems that plague wetlands in the Yangtze River Valley include pollution, ecological degradation and dwindling water resources," said Zhu. "The protection of our wetlands is urgent."

The 6,300-km-long Yangtze, the country's longest, originates in the Tanggula Range on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and passes through Qinghai, Tibet, Sichuan, Yunnan, Chongqing, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Anhui, Jiangsu and Shanghai before emptying into the East China Sea.

Wetlands in the Yangtze River Valley include salty plateau lakes and plateau marshlands, the galaxy of lakes on the middle reaches of the Yangtze, and the coastal wetland near Chongming Island at the estuary of the river.

Dongting Lake, which flows into the Yangtze River and also serves as an important wetland, for instance, is shockingly polluted. Marine life has been decimated and people are catching a disease called schistosomiasis -- caught by swimming or wading in water where there are parasitic worms.

The water area of Dongting Lake has shrunk from 4,350 sq km in 1949 to present 2,625 sq km as a result of silting and land reclamation for farming.

According to Zhu, the country has already launched three programs to protect the wetlands in the Yangtze River Valley, including the national program for conservation of wildlife, plants and nature reserves, and the program to protect the Sanjiangyuan wetland in Qinghai Province. But much remains to be done.

 

 

Item 44: China Considers Red-crowned Crane for National Bird

(CRI.cn, 20 April, 2007) The Red-crowned Crane has won out as the candidate for China's national bird after years of expert analysis and public polls.

Heilongjiang Daily reports the State Forestry Administration has now submitted the results to the State Council for final approval.

Conducted by the State Forestry Administration and China Wildlife Protection Association, the selection was launched in 2003.

The Red-crowned Crane, a bird that Chinese used to connect with a beautiful myth, represents longevity in greetings. It won an overwhelming 64.92 percent of the vote held on more than twenty Chinese websites from May to June 2004 attracting around 5 million netizens.

Ten species, also including magpie and golden pheasant (Chrysolophus pictus), were listed as candidates.

More than 40 countries currently have national birds. The United States started the trend for national birds when it made the Bald Eagle its avian representative 200 years ago.

 

 

Item 45: Report Shows Yangtze Water Environment Deteriorating

(Xinhua News Agency, 16 April, 2007) The first annual health report on the Yangtze River indicates that the billions of tons of waste that continue to be dumped into China's longest waterway are taking a serious toll its aquatic life.

The 2007 annual report on Yangtze River protection and development shows that more than 600 kilometers of the river are in critical condition. The report says almost 30 percent of its major tributaries, including the Minjiang, Tuojiang, Xiangjiang, and Huangpu rivers, are seriously polluted.

The report says the river's annual harvest of aquatic products dropped from 427,000 tons in the 1950s to about 100,000 tons in the 1990s.

A separate study by the Yangtze River Water Resources Commission shows cities along the river discharge at least 14.2 billion tons of polluted water every year, 42 percent of China's total.

Pollution, damming and too many boats have caused a dramatic decline in Yangtze aquatic life. While rare species such as the white-flag dolphin are feared to be extinct, even common species such as carp are gasping for survival, the report said.

"The impact of human activities on the Yangtze water ecology is largely irreversible," said Yang Guishan, a researcher of the Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences and one of the chief editors of the report. "It's a pressing job to regulate such activities in all the Yangtze drainage areas and promote harmonious development of man and nature."

The report, complied by Yang's institute, the Yangtze River Water Resources Commission and the WWF, also warned of the higher flood risks.

The Yangtze accounts for about 35 percent of China's total fresh water resources but it's also responsible for 70 to 75 percent of the country's floods, the report said.

"Flood control remains an arduous task along the Yangtze, given the rising temperature and frequent occurrences of extreme weather over the last 50 years," said Yang.

Although the Three Gorges Dam, the world's largest water storage facility, has reduced flood risks in the middle reaches, the risk of flooding remains high in the lower reaches, he said.

The report also assessed the Three Gorges Dam project, showing its huge reservoir is seriously polluted by pesticides, fertilizers, and sewage from passenger boats.

China allocated 4 billion yuan (US$513 million) in 2002 to offset the impact of the dam on the ecology, the local environment, and the local people, said Prof. Weng Lida, former head of the Yangtze River Water Resources Commission, adding that more cash is coming.

"We have to take into consideration the proper settlement of the people who have been displaced, environmental protection, heavy silting, and the prevention of geological disasters," said Weng who cautioned that "faster is not always better."

The water level in the Three Gorges reservoir reached a landmark 156 meters last October, but some provinces want the level to go higher so more electricity can be produced, Weng said.

"Higher water levels will worsen pollution and silting. We have to seek more sustained development," he said.

 

 

Item 46: Asian Demand for Shark Fins Threatening Colombian Species; 'An Extremely Urgent Matter'

(Cesar Sabogal, AFP, 29 April, 2007) Bogota, Colombia: When Colombian naval officials seized two tonnes of shark fins in a boat off the Pacific coast last week, they threw a spotlight on a huge black market serving hungry Asian markets which is blamed for pushing some species toward extinction.

Asian consumers prize the fins for use in making status-symbol soups -- and one pound (450 grams) of fin can fetch 300 dollars. Some shark-fin soups go for as much as 90 dollars a bowl in the countries where the dish is most popular: Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan, Taiwan Singapore, South Korea and Thailand.

The Colombian-flagged vessel was arrested 18 nautical miles from Malpelo island, a UNESCO natural world heritage site off Colombia's Pacific coastline.

It was crammed with the fins of endangered sharks including hammerheads, silkies, oceanics, white fins, black fins, fox shark and reef shark.

Authorities arrested the crew on board and impounded the boat.

Cartels led by Japanese and Colombians are said to be behind the big business of shark fins in the Colombian Pacific.

"The Asians control the routes and the markets, and they intimidate the local fishermen and distributors who are paid a pittance per kilo," about 30 dollars, said a Colombian official with the Environmental Crimes Investigation Group, who asked not to be identified.

Biologist Sandra Bessudo, who leads the independent Malpelo Foundation, told AFP the illegal fishing situation was so critical that a species believed unique to the waters around sanctuary, the sol-rayo or ragged-tooth shark (Odontaspis ferox), was in danger of dying out.

The foundation says that in 2003 alone, more than 13 tonnes of shark fins were exported to Hong Kong, the equivalent of some 67,000 dead sharks.

And an average of 350 ships -- mostly from Japan, Taiwan, Ecuador and Mexico. -- fish for the prize in Colombian waters.

"There just is no doubt that the shark population has declined considerably in Colombian waters in recent years," said Andres Navia, director of the non-governmental group Squalus fighting for protection of those sharks.

"We are calling on authorities to protect those that are still alive; it is an extremely urgent matter."

Sharks are not the only groups under threat, by any stretch, in Colombia. Marlins, large turtles and mollusks also are in danger.

Julia Miranda, director of Colombia's natural parks, said that after illegal drugs, weapons trafficking and kidnapping, the unlawful trade in animal species moved the largest amount of dirty money in the South American country.

Fishing is banned in the Malpelo Wildlife Sanctuary, an area which sprawls over 8,575 square kilometers (3,311 square miles). The island area is also a sanctuary for birds, and a diving paradise.

 

 

Item 47: China Making Its Own Moves On Oil

(Hankyoreh, 02 May, 2007) On April 21, the Chinese government decided to construct an oil pipe this year that will link its southwestern city of Kunming, Yunnan Province, with Sittwe, a port city in Myanmar. The 900-kilometer pipeline is expected to be used as a channel that will transport imported oil from Middle East and African countries to the mainland.

The Kunming-Sittwe oil pipe will help reduce the transportation distance by at least 360 kilometers compared to the current supply line, which goes through the Strait of Malacca. It also helps remove threats from pirates that haunt the existing route.

China's decision is gaining attention for more than what it means economically.

"Any military moves these days are closely related to securing oil sources," said Shim Kyong-wook, senior research fellow at the Korea Institute for Defense Analysis. She added the ongoing American effort to redeploy its overseas forces and posture can be interpreted as an effort to secure oil resources.

Recently, the U.S. is stepping up efforts to reposition its troops in the world, under which it is increasing its military presence in eastern Europe and central Asia. Those countries are close to oil fields in Romania and Caspian Sea where oil development efforts are underway.

The so-called global posture review (GPR) by the U.S. helped Washington gain advantages in its efforts to develop oil resources in the world against China, which is one of the world's largest energy consuming countries. China, whose economy is growing at a dizzying pace, became the world's second-largest oil consumer in 2003. Its dependence on oil imports is increasing fast.

China's government is pushing to build oil pipelines designed to help it secure oil in more reliable and faster ways. It has also considered building a pipe that would run from Gwadar, Pakistan to China.

The confrontation between the two economic powers is also taking place in their competition to secure sustainable supply of oil. The U.S. has put emphasis on the Middle Eastern countries for reliable provision of oil and has recently expanded its influence on energy resources in central Asia through wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

China was late getting into the game and has failed to achieve its goals in terms of oil. In 2004 it attempted to buy BP's shares in the Kagashan oil field in Kazakhstan but the efforts fell apart in the face of opposition from Western countries.

Beijing has since turned its eye to Russia, one of its closest allies. It decided to invest $6 billion in buying a stake in an oil field and is currently considering ways to build a more comprehensive alliance that links it with Russia and India.

Washington is not sitting idle. It is trying to woo India away from China with gifts such as its transfer of nuclear technology, given even at the expense of upsetting Pakistan, India's rival, which has helped the U.S. in its war in Afghanistan.

 

 

Item 48: Korea Aims to Be Oil Hub of Asia (the height of ambition, post-peak oil?)

(Yoo Soh-jung, The Korea Herald, 03 May, 2007) Construction for an oil refinery base and a distribution base will begin early next year in Korea, in line with the government's bold ambitions to develop the country into an "oil hub" of Northeast Asia, government and industry officials said yesterday.

The first stage will involve developing a 4.6 million barrel storage facility early next year, following the establishment of a joint corporation comprised of domestic and foreign companies in the oil industry by November this year, they said.

The second stage, which entails building a 23 million barrel storage facility, will depend on the performance of the first-stage project.

The development projects are taking place on some predictions that the Asia-Pacific oil-refinery industry will soon approach the North American oil-refinery industry, the Korea National Oil Corporation and the Ministry of Commerce, Industry, and Energy said. As Korea will serve as an oil hub of the region, the government said it is necessary to build facilities to store oil products.

For the country to serve as an oil industry center it must be able to provide logistical convenience, which includes refining, shipping and storing capabilities. Currently, Singapore plays this role in the Asia Pacific.

The government believes that the development of an oil hub here would serve as a buffer against energy crises because the country would always have a stockpile of oil. It would also bring positive effects to the marine and logistics industries. Korea depends on imports for almost all of its oil needs. The government announced last year that it plans to boost its oil stockpile capacity by 26 percent to 146 million barrels by 2008 to cushion against supply disruptions.

The Energy Ministry and the Korea National Oil Corporation have been conducting various studies since 2005 and they completed a feasibility study on the Northeast Asian oil hub last year. The study concluded that facilities holding 4.6 million to 28 million barrels of oil could be enough to serve not only the Asia-Pacific region but also Southeast Asia, the United States and Australia.

The government plans to begin the oil hub project in Korea's southern coast city of Yeosu. It will house the 4.6 million barrel storage facility. Ulsan has been eyed for 23 million barrel storage facility.

Korea has been building stockpiles with Norway's Statoil ASA, Petrochina International Co., Algeria's Sonotrach and international traders. Seoul's Energy Ministry said yesterday that it is in talks with the United Arab Emirates and Qatar to stockpile oil in Korea.

 

 

Item 49: Soju, Pork, Main Calorie Source for Koreans

(Park Chung-a, The Korea Times, 02 May, 2007) Apart from boiled rice, the staple diet of Koreans, soju and pork are the major calorie sources for Korean men in their 30s and 40s while ramyen, or instant noodles, and coffee provide Korean women in the same age bracket, with the most calories according to a survey by a state-run health research institute.

The Korea Health Industry Development Institute's survey shows that the main source of calories for Korean men aged from 30 to 49 during summer was rice, followed by soju, instant noodles and pork. Pork is largely enjoyed as samgyeobsal, or grilled pork belly.

The survey was conducted in the form of man-to-man interview from June 27 to July 15 in 2005 on 2,454 people from 983 families.

The results showed Korean men obtained 2,400 kilocalories on average from their daily diet and took about a third or 33.9 percent of their daily calories from rice which provided them with 814 kilocalories per day.

But interestingly, the second biggest calorie source was from soju providing 138.7 kilocalories or 5.3 percent; about 84.7 kilocalories or 3.5 percent from instant noodles; and 77.2 kilocalories or 3.2 percent from pork. Grilled pork belly itself makes up 2.5 percent or 61.5 kilocalories.

Women in the same age bracket had rice, instant noodles and pork as their main energy source as their counterparts, but they drank a relatively large amount of coffee through which they obtained 38.7 kilocalories per day.

Jang Young-ae, a doctor with a nutrition team at the institute said that soju was one of the favored calorie sources for Korean men in their 30s and 40s.

``The pattern has not changed much since 1999 when the first survey on people's source of calories was conducted,'' she said.

 

 

Item 50: ROK: Do as We Say, Not as We Do?…

“Minister to Begin Environment Diplomacy”

(the article, in a great show of cognitive dissonance, mentions the upcoming Ramsar Convention of 2008 as a sign of Korea's growing duty to reach out on the environment , but not a word about massive wetland destruction at home)

(Bae Ji-sook, The Korea Times, 02 May, 2007) Amid people's increasing demand for a better environment, the nation's environment minister Lee Chi-beom will visit three countries this month to seek solutions and cooperation on environmental issues.

The report on climate change and global warming by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change shows that mankind and their surroundings will be in danger and urges the world to implement strategies to deal with the issue more now than ever. The minister believes that since Korea is to hold the Ramsar Convention in 2008, the country must play a bigger role in international environmental issues.

First, Lee will attend the United Nation's Commission on Sustainable Development convention from May 9 to 11. This year, the meeting will focus on energy for sustainable development, air pollution and climate change.

At the convention, Lee will give a keynote speech introducing Korea's experience in air quality management as well as joint measures with Japan and China in combating the yellow dust pollution issue.

The minister will also visit the Vatican city and meet Renato Raffaele Cardinal Martino, the president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, and talk about the Pope's message of the year: The ecology of peace. The minister is expected to talk with him about the conflict between industrial development and ecological sustainability.

Lee will also visit Tunisia, meet the Tunisian environment minister and sign an agreement on collaborating on environmental policies and exchanging techniques between the countries. The ministry expects the agreement will enable Korea to export sewage management and waste distribution systems to the country.

 

 

Item 51: N-E Asian Oil Hub Eyed in Yeosu, Ulsan

(Ryu Jin, The Korea Times, 02 May, 2007) A Singapore-style international oil market is to be established in South Korea's southern port cities of Yeosu and Ulsan in the coming years, which the government and relevant industries anticipate will serve as a large-scale ``oil hub'' in Northeast Asia from the early 2010s.

According to the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy and the Korea National Oil Corporation (KNOC) on Wednesday, the government and the petroleum companies have decided to start the first-phase construction in Yeosu, South Jeolla Province, for the oil hub project early next year.

Ministry officials said that the government plans to have local and foreign oil firms form a joint venture so that it could build a 4.6 million-barrel storage facility. Commercial deals will be available from late 2009.

If the project proves to be successful, the government would push for the second-stage construction in the metropolitan city of Ulsan with a storage capacity of about 23 million barrels, according to the sources.

Comprising both of production and distribution bases, the so-called oil hub is equipped with an oil repository where petroleum-related spot goods and futures are traded internationally. Europe's Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) market and the Singapore market are the famous oil hubs.

The plan to build an oil hub in the country comes from the prospect that the Northeast Asian region would emerge as a vast oil market that could match the North American market within the coming five years.

The world's oil demand, which stands around 85 million barrels a day now, is expected to increase to about 93 million barrels a day in 2010, nearly half of which would be spent by Asian countries including China, India, South Korea and Japan.

South Korea meets the basic requirements for becoming a oil hub since it has ports with deep waters and billions of barrels of oil have been discovered in the relatively neighboring area of Siberia, according to a KNOC survey.

The KNOC asked Booz Allen Hamilton, a global strategy and technology consulting firm, to conduct a feasibility study on the oil hub project in Yeosu and received positive feedback, according to the KNOC officials.

Government officials hope that the oil hub will have a lot of positive effects on the country's marine transportation and logistics industries in addition to an improved capability to counter a possible energy crisis.

``We expect our market to cover Southeast Asia, Australia and the West Coast of the United States as well as Northeast Asia once the oil hub is established in Yeosu and Ulsan,'' one of the officials said.

 

 

Item 52: Battle Brews Over Japan's Push for Ethanol Gasoline

(Risa Maeda, Reuters, 03 May, 2007) TOKYO - A regional Japanese government is locked in a head-on battle with the country's oil industry to take the lead in the green auto fuels market, a contest that could push up costs to meet Kyoto Protocol emissions targets.

Japan could end up importing thousands of barrels of gasoline to blend with ethanol if the government does not find a distributor in coming months, since domestic oil refiners are promoting a different type of alternative fuel.

The Japanese refiners' reluctance to supply the gasoline needed could create export opportunities for regional exporters such as Taiwan's Formosa and South Korea's S-Oil, and could be another setback in Japan's struggling efforts to cut emissions using voluntary measures.

Japan lacks farm products to produce biofuels but is looking to its unused biomass, including forests which cover 70 percent of the country and that can be harvested in a sustainable way.

The project in Osaka, backed by the environment ministry, uses cellulosic ethanol, which can be produced from biomass feedstocks including branches cut from planted forests and used timbers from demolished houses.

But it faces resistance from the country's powerful oil industry, which is instead promoting gasoline blended with ethyl tertiary butyl ether (ETBE) -- a petrol additive made from biomass ethanol -- a popular renewable fuel in Europe.

The oil sector is anxious to defend its nationwide network through its own alternative fuel -- launching its trial sale at 50 pump stations in Tokyo and surrounding areas last week -- on top of ordinary gasoline, as it wrestles with a shrinking petrol market.

"The two sides are critically in dispute," said a government source, who declined to be named.

"The oil industry does not like the idea of an alternative auto fuel distribution in cities. The fact that anyone can now sell gasoline under the liberalised market irks them," he said.

E3 VERSUS ETBE

Japan, the world's No. 3 gasoline consumer, is the biggest polluter among the countries with Kyoto caps. It aims to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 6 percent from 1990 levels by 2008-2012.

Japan's largest business lobby Keidanren, which opposes mandatory emissions caps, told the government last month that given the country's high energy efficiency it will have to spend 60-90 percent more than other nations in achieving Kyoto targets.

To achieve that goal, the central government decided to replace 500,000 kilolitres (kl) a year, or just 0.8 percent of annual gasoline sales, with biofuels by 2010, and subsidised cellulosic ethanol and other technologies that are affordable for resource-poor Japan.

The oil industry has said it would share 210,000 kl of the total by introducing the ETBE-blended gasoline. The project to be carried out in Osaka prefecture, western Japan, is one of the steps to meet the remaining 290,000 kl.

ETBE is a high-octane fuel, and unlike ethanol, it has low water solubility and low vapour pressure. So it affects the quality of the motor fuel less than ethanol if blended with gasoline.

Given these characteristics, big oil distributors, which are also major refiners in Japan, can mass-produce ETBE-blended gasoline and manage its price and quality under its current retail network.

In contrast, a petrol station must make adjustment to its facilities before selling gasoline directly blended with up to 3 percent of ethanol, or E3, to keep it away from water, the option pushed by the Osaka initiative.

Under Japanese regulations, gas stations are allowed to sell E3, which has practically no users so far, in a country where there is no tax incentive for gasoline mixed with biomass ethanol.

"We have no plan for an E3 test," said a spokesman at industry body the Petroleum Association of Japan. "We sell the ETBE-blended gasoline through our current distribution network," he said, adding it was set to go nationwide in 2010.

OSAKA PROJECT

Helped by a set of market deregulations by 2002, Japan's gasoline sales topped 61 million kl a year in 2005, about 10 times as much as before the Tokyo Olympics in 1964 which spurred motorisation.

But sales fell 1 percent last year as high pump prices encouraged the use of smaller, fuel-efficient cars. If the Osaka option proves feasible, more drivers could flee for the new fuel.

To promote E3 use, the environment ministry has allowed the Osaka government to spend 700 million yen (US$5.9 million) from its annual budget to gather data on the quality of E3 in each step of the process of production, distribution and retailing.

The Osaka municipal government hopes to test its fuel in August in the nation's second-biggest city. But they could be forced to import gasoline if the two sides cannot agree.

"Negotiations are under way," Masahiro Kasamatsu, an Osaka official in charge of the project, said, referring to the gasoline needed for blending, adding that a cellulosic ethanol plant in Osaka's Sakai City will provide ethanol.

Both E3 and the ETBE-blended are to be sold at the same price as ordinary gasoline of around 135 yen (US$1.13) a litre.

"In the end, it is something we can buy from gas stations nearby. Of course, we'd rather buy from someone closer to the major oil distributors in light of costs, quality and the size of supply," Kasamatsu said. (US$1=119.74 Yen)

 

 

Item 53: Red List Index to Become UN Development Indicator

(BirdLife, 03 May, 2007) The changing conservation status of birds and other species is to be used to track progress towards the UN's Millennium Development Goals.

The eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which range from halving extreme poverty to ensuring environmental sustainability, are targets for the year 2015 agreed by all the world's governments and development institutions.

The Red List Index, which was initially designed and tested by BirdLife International using data on all bird species from 1988-2004, is to be the basis of a new MDG “indicator”. To be known as the Proportion of Species Threatened with Extinction, it will be used alongside other MDG indicators, such as the proportion of population with an income below $1 per day, the rates of infant and maternal mortality, the proportion of children in primary education, and the prevalence of diseases such as malaria. The new indicator is the only species-based indicator in the UN set.

The Red List Index is based on the World Conservation Union (IUCN) Red List, which uses quantitative criteria based on population size, rate of decline, and area of distribution to assign species to categories of relative extinction risk, such as Vulnerable, Endangered and Critically Endangered. The index is based on the proportion of species in each category on the Red List, and changes in this proportion over time resulting from genuine improvement or deterioration in the status of individual species.

Birds remain the best-known class of organisms worldwide, and have the longest history of comprehensive assessment for the IUCN Red List. Birds are useful indicators for other biodiversity, and the bird Red List Index will represent the best available species-based biodiversity indicator in many developing countries for years to come. BirdLife's unique partnership of national NGOs plays a key role in collecting and providing the on-the-ground data that are used in global Red List assessments.

"I am delighted that the UN has recognised the value of species in measuring progress towards achieving environmental sustainability,” said Dr Mike Rands, BirdLife's Chief Executive. “ The likely adoption of 'The Proportion of Species Threatened with Extinction' as one of around 50 global indicators to assess progress in achieving the MDGs highlights the issue of extinction, the enormous value of species data and the importance of biodiversity to sustaining livelihoods.”

“Yet again it's really good to see birds and BirdLife playing such a leading and catalytic role in this process."

Although the new indicator is likely to be incorporated into an annexe to the Millennium Development Goals report for 2007, it will not be formally adopted into the MDG framework until 2008.

 

 

Item 54: China Plans to Hold First “No-Car” Day

(Reuters, 07 May, 2007) BEIJING - China's smog-choked capital and the financial hub of Shanghai have agreed to close their roads for the country's first "no car" day, along with over 100 other cities, the official Xinhua agency said on Saturday.

On September 22 private cars will be barred from some roads, forcing people to walk, use public transport or get back on the bicycles for which Chinese cities used to be famous.

Officials are struggling to clean up the grey skies of its major cities, as pollution takes a rising toll on health and growth, while supporting an industry key to its booming growth.

The country's car fleet has been growing, with an estimated 1,000 new private vehicles hitting the streets of Beijing alone each day, the report said.

But for those members of the growing middle class who have been car owners too long to face being crammed into a bus or train, taxis will still be allowed to ply the otherwise car-free streets.

 

 

Item 55: Asia Has Few Plans Yet to Deal with Rising Sea Level

(Neil Chatterjee, Reuters, 07 May, 2007) SINGAPORE - Asia's population is most at risk from rising sea levels and more powerful storms, but few countries in the region have made detailed plans to deal with the hazards their coastlines and ports would face.

Scientists have predicted a dire future of human-induced global warming causing rising sea-levels that could drown low-lying areas and hit Asia hard, though experts agreed in a UN report on Friday fighting climate change was affordable.

"In most of Asia, if you put that on a list of priorities it falls off the bottom of the page," said Steve Williams, head of Energy Solutions, which does consultancy work on industry services such as ports and infrastructure.

One in 10 people, mainly in Asia, live in coastal areas most at risk, an international study published last month found.

The researchers said many countries cannot afford Dutch-style dykes but urged governments to make billion-dollar policy shifts in long-term planning to encourage more settlements inland.

Limiting global warming to a 2 degrees centigrade rise would cost just 0.12 percent of global Gross Domestic Product (GDP), with the technology available, a UN climate change report said on Friday after days of wrangling at talks in Bangkok.

The Thai capital could be under water in 20 years because of rising seas from global warming and subsidence, a top Thai climate expert, who warned of a tsunami years before the 2004 disaster, told Reuters in an interview this week.

Smith Dharmasaroja, head of Thailand's National Disaster Warning Centre, said the city of 10 million people was sinking at an alarming rate and to avert disaster it needed to construct a massive sea wall. He said the government did not pay attention.

RECLAIMED LAND

For fellow southeast Asian country Singapore, where low-lying land has been reclaimed from the sea in recent decades, global warming is a big threat to its future, the city-state's founder Lee Kuan Yew told Reuters in an interview last week.

"What dykes can we build? Where do we get materials for the dykes? Do we excavate the sea bed? We are into a very serious problem," Lee said.

Even so, experts say wealthy Singapore -- known for organisation and efficiency -- is the most likely country to push ahead with sea defences to avoid being partly submerged under six metres (20 feet) of water in a worst case scenario.

"The first country that would really start thinking about this is Singapore -- they have a lot of landfill," said Energy Solutions' Williams.

Neighbouring Indonesia, which banned sand exports for land reclamation to Singapore this year, has said it could lose 2,000 islands by 2030. It has been drafting a national strategy to deal with climate change.

Ranked by population, China is most at risk to rising sea levels with 143 million people living by the coast, followed by India, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Indonesia and Japan.

Regional powerhouse China is expected to be vulnerable along its storm-prone southeastern coastline, though government environmental protection efforts have been more committed to tackling rampant air and water pollution.

In India, where ports are being expanded to boost fuel shipments from its booming oil refining sector to a region hungry for more fuel, environmentalists say coastal development has reduced natural sea defences such as sand bars and mangroves.

"We need to understand these things, their implication and certainly a strategy needs to be worked out -- but it's not that we have a plan tomorrow," said P.S. Goel, Secretary at the Ministry of Earth Sciences. "Something needs to be done for the ports ... certainly we all are worried."

(Additional reporting by Nidhi Verma in New Delhi, Emma Graham-Harrison in Beijing and Luke Pachymuthu in Singapore)

 

 

Item 56: China Records Three Sandstorms in April

(Xinhua News Agency April 30, 2007) China experienced dusty weather for four times in April, including three sandstorms, sources with the China Meteorological Administration said on Monday.

The sandstorms occurred on April 14, 16 and 22-23, the sources added.

This month's dusty weather was less than the average of six times for the same month in each of the years between 2000 and 2006. And this spring was the third that saw fewer days affected by sandstorms since 1961, next only to 1997 and 2003.

In April, temperature averaged 10.7 degrees Celsius nationwide, 0.9 degrees higher than the same month for average years, and precipitation averaged 34.5 mm, marginally lower than the 38.9 mm level for average years.

April also saw frequent disastrous weather, such as downpours, hails and strong gales, in some areas of southern China, according to the meteorological bureau.

 

 

Item 57: S Korea and EU Begin Trade Talks

(BBC, 07 May 2007) South Korea and the European Union have begun a series of free trade talks that could expand their $80bn trade.

EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson and South Korean trade minister Kim Hyun-Chong both called for rapid progress in free trade negotiations.

Kim Hyun-Chong said it was a chance to become East Asia's free trade hub linking Europe, Asia and the US.

The first talks, from 7 to 11 May, are taking place in Seoul. Officials hope to conclude negotiations within a year.

In a joint statement the two ministers said a free trade agreement (FTA) would "open new markets and expand opportunities for Korean and EU businesses while giving valuable momentum to liberalisation of global trade".

' Matter of survival'

The European Union is South Korea's biggest investor, injecting nearly $5bn into the country last year, Seoul's foreign ministry said.

It is also the country's second largest trading partner after China.

South Korea is hoping to boost its exports of cars, electronic goods and textiles to the EU.

Mr Kim said a trade deal would "expand opportunities for both sides while giving valuable momentum to liberalisation of global trade".

"As such, opening our market is not a matter of choice but a matter of survival," he added.

Mr Mandelson said the EU would focus on car exports and improving access to South Korea's service sector.

"I take pride in every European car which I see on the streets of Seoul but I would like to see a great many more," Mr Mandelson said.

He also said that the talks represent "a turning towards a stronger focus on Asia".

Last month, South Korea concluded a free trade agreement with the United States.

It has also signed FTAs with Chile and Singapore, while another with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, excluding Thailand, will be implemented on 1 June.

 

 

Item 58: China Warns of Population Growth

(BBC, 07 May 2007) China's top family planning body has warned of a "population rebound" as couples flout one child policy rules.

The widening wealth gap could lead to a rise in birth rates, Zhang Weiqing, from the National Population and Family Planning Commission, told state media.

Newly rich couples can afford to pay fines to have more than one child, while rural couples are marrying earlier, he told Xinhua news agency.

China has about 1.3 billion people, 20% of the world's total.

It is keen to curb its population growth, and the controversial family planning policy, implemented in the late 1970s, is meant to limit urban couples to one child and rural families to two.

But rising incomes mean that some newly rich couples in urban areas can easily afford to break the rules and pay the resulting fines.

In fact, last month, a survey by the National Population and Family Planning Commission found that the number of rich people and celebrities having more than one child was on a rapid increase, and nearly 10% of people in this category had three children.

Rural trends

In the countryside, too, the rules are being flouted.

China's constitution says that men may marry at 22 and women at 20, with late marriages and later childbearing encouraged.

But according to Mr Zhang, "early marriages are still prevailing in some parts of the country, especially in rural areas, which goes against the family planning policy".

Part of the reason why rural families refuse to comply is because of the traditional preference for sons.

Experts say this preference has led to the under-reporting of female births, as well as abortion of female foetuses and female infanticide.

By the end of 2006, China's population stood at 1,314,480,000, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, with males accounting for 51.5% of the population.

 

 

Item 59: Govt Urged to Take Japan to Court Over Whale Hunt

(Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 07 May, 2007) A team of international legal experts says Australia could stop Japan's scientific whaling program if it went to court.

The team says Australia could take Japan to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea or the International Court of Justice to stop the controversial whale hunt.

The claim came as the latest International Whaling Commission meeting got under way in Anchorage, Alaska.

The panel found that Japan's so-called scientific whale cull breaches a number of key international conventions.

Don Rothwell from the Australian National University says humpback whales will be targeted this year and the Government should consider the legal option.

"There's an arguable case I think the Government should be taking and one I am fairly confident they would be successful in," he said.

"We have to remember the Australian Government has taken these cases in the past where they have developed legal principles, in the French nuclear testing in the 1970's and in other related cases, where the Government has been out there pursuing environmental principles.

"I think this is a similar sort of case."

Mick Mcintyre from the International Fund for Animal Welfare says diplomatic efforts have failed so far and the Federal Government has no choice.

"Being an election year I cannot see the Australian community putting up with a Government not doing anything," he said.

But the Federal Government says all the legal options have been considered.

 

 

Item 60: FTA: First Beef, Now price of Pigs and Pork Falling

(Hankyoreh, May.10, 2007) "How do I live from now on? My livelihood has always been breeding pigs."

The faces of farmers were grim like the cloudy sky. On May 9, about 5,000 livestock farmers gathered in front of the national government offices in Gwacheon, Gyeongi Province, to express their opposition to ratifying the free

trade agreement that has been negotiated between Korea and the United States. It now awaits ratification votes by the parliamentary bodies of both countries.

Pork farmers say they are currently struggling with a sense of alienation and a loss of ambition.

"The government seems to have abandoned pigs," said Lee Byeong-gyu, 50, who breeds some 2,000 pigs in Cheongdo, North Gyeongsang Province. "How do I do from now?" Na Gwon-man, 48, of Naju, South Jolla Province, said, "I'm considering whether to keep my ranch. Many farmers were going out of their ranches."

Fear among pork farmers has been growing since South Korea negotiated a free trade agreement (FTA) with the U.S. and resumed imports of the American beef. Pig ranchers fear pork could meet with the same fate.

"How can we compete with the American pork if the meat, priced at 100 dollars (some 93,000 won) per pig, flows into the country?" asked Lee.

Added Na, "And the American beef is cheap. So we can't compete. I have no confidence." Na said about 10 out of 68 ranchers in Naju are preparing to shut down operations.

Pork imports are already on the rise. Monthly shipments of pork jumped 34 percent, to 32,294 tons, in March of this year, compared with 24,025 tons in January of last year. Of the March shipments, American pork accounted for nearly 30 percent, or 9,231 tons. The price of American pork ranges from 30 percent to 40 percent of domestic pork. American beef, which is about 10,000 won per a kilogram cheaper than domestic pork, is another threat.

Livestock farmers raise concerns about the government's safeguards, claiming such measures would be no help. The government's safeguard measures will be applied to chilled meat. However, imports of chilled meat accounted for just 4.8 percent of total imports in 2006. The remaining shipments are frozen meat that will be immune from the safeguard measures.

Another fear is the possibility pork prices will plunge. In general the price of pork, which is significantly affected by by seasonal factors, peaks in May and June and falls in September. This year, however, the price began falling in May. The average wholesale price of a pig weighing 100 kg is about 221,000 won as of this May, down 24 percent from a year ago, according to the National Agriculture Cooperative Association.

"I barely sleep because of I worry the price of pigs may collapse in the fall," said Na.

During the demonstration, legislator Kang Ki-kab of the Democratic Labor Party said, "I know well about your hard work in breeding cattle. We face a crisis, but let's fight with pride and confidence."

While Kang shouted, an elderly farmer sat down and began to cry.

 

 

Item 61: Australian Gold Diggers Move a Mountain in China

(Lucy Hornby, Reuters, 10 May, 2007) ZHENFENG COUNTY, CHINA - Deep in the mountains of southwest China, an Australian mining company is digging out a steep hillside to create what is expected to be the second largest gold mine in China.

Sino Gold Ltd. hopes to prove to Beijing that it is in China's interests to open up mining to foreign companies willing to introduce stringent safety standards as well as better social and environmental practices.

But the grey-and-white striped ore sought by Sino Gold lies beneath a region that is poor even by the standards of rural China. Average annual income is 1,200 yuan (US$155.50), child mortality is high and hepatitis and tuberculosis are common.

In this corner of Guizhou, most of the hopes for the local economy are pinned on Sino Gold's Jinfeng mine, raising expectations that the company will provide jobs and a range of social services that Zhenfeng county lacks.

"Right now, they think we are the government," said Stuart Gula, who manages the project.

Sino Gold is one of two foreign miners with gold mines in China, the world's fourth largest producer.

The other, Canadian rival Eldorado Gold Corp., began commercial production at a gold mine in the remote western province of Qinghai earlier this year.

Beijing wants foreign capital for remote mines, while keeping the most valuable deposits for Chinese firms. Most of China's gold mines are small affairs that pump poisonous arsenic into the air or leak cyanide into the water, killing fish and animals.

But Sino Gold says its processes to reuse water, reclaim land and neutralise cyanide in waste will set a new standard for China's unsafe and polluting mining industry. It is using sulphur-munching bacteria that require a careful equilibration of temperature and oxygen to help isolate the gold.

LESSONS LEARNED

In developing Jinfeng, Sino Gold is drawing on experience operating a gold mine in Shaanxi, which it sold last year once reserves were depleted.

The US$130 million Jinfeng project will produce 180,000 ounces of gold a year once it reaches full operations, and could be further expanded, the company says.

The operation is now running at minimal level while it extends the lining of its tailings dam to comply with stricter requirements after a dam breach at a nearby Chinese mine released cyanide-tainted waste.

Sino Gold is also developing a new project in northeast China, and exploring elsewhere.

The company abandoned exploration rights in an ethnically Tibetan region following a letter-writing campaign by Australian-based Tibet activists in 2003.

LOCAL COMMUNITY

In Zhenfeng county, about 85 percent of the people belong to the Buyi ethnic group. Many are illiterate and can't speak or understand Mandarin Chinese.

Impoverished stone villages perch on steep mountains. Thick forests have been cleared for miniscule farm plots and tiny terraces squeezed between limestone turrets. Every inch of flat land is planted.

The open pit and tailings dam at Jinfeng have destroyed some of that precious farmland, forcing about 55 households to relocate.

But the company says it plans to level waste ore and cover it with soil for re-distribution to farmers, creating a rarity in Guizhou - flat land.

The mine's reclaimed land will have to support more local farmers once a provincial hydropower project to serve the faraway, wealthy city of Guangzhou floods fertile farmland along a nearby river.

At the Shaanxi project, farmers protested because they never received land payments made through government channels.

To avoid the same problem at Jinfeng, Sino Gold organised a payment ceremony to give legal restitution directly to landholders. Each farmer received a bank book and the choice of taking the payment as a deposit or in cash.

To the Australians' disappointment, nearly every farmer chose cash. Many bought motorbikes, to help ferry sugar cane to market and children to school over the steep mountain paths.

Seeking to use locals in its workforce, Sino Gold designed aptitude tests to identify and train local adults to work, and to identify promising children in the schools.

"You can't just have the locals in the most menial jobs - that is sure to create problems. You have to move them into managerial positions, and early on," Gula said.

Although hampered by local illiteracy, Sino Gold says about a quarter of its workers are from the county.

But many of the experienced workers at Jinfeng have followed Sino Gold from its Shaanxi mine, where skilled jobs dried up once the Australians left.

Their presence points to a challenge that the Jinfeng management will face in the future -- how to prepare the community for the day, many years hence, when the mine will close.

 

 

Item 62: S. Korea Dongyang to Build 20 Megawatt Solar Plant

(Reuters, 10 May, 2007) SEOUL - South Korea's Dongyang Engineering and Construction and Germany's SunTechnics will build a 20-megawatt solar plant in South Korea by 2008, the companies said on Wednesday.

The 157.6 billion won (US$170.4 million) solar power plant in Sinan, southwest of Seoul, will be completed in November 2008 and will be the world's largest solar power plant, Dongyang said.

Germany's Bavaria solar plant is currently the largest with a 11-megawatt capacity.

But the South Korean plant will be overtaken by a 40-megawatt Canadian plant due for completion in 2010.

The project is part of South Korea's plan to raise clean and renewable energy usage to 5 percent by 2011 from the current 2.3 percent.

The amount of electricity the plant will generate, which would normally discharge about 20,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions via fossil fuel, will meet annual power demand for more than 6,000 households, Dongyang said.

State-run Korea Electric Power Co. will buy the electricity generated by the plant for the next 15 years in order to promote renewable energy usage.

South Korea, whose economy is the world's 11th-largest, is reliant on heavily energy-consuming manufacturing sectors such as steel and petrochemicals and ranks 10th in the world for greenhouse gas emissions.

 

 

Item 63: Taiwan Stung by Millions of Missing Bees

(Reuters, 27 April, 2007) TAIPEI - Taiwan's bee farmers are feeling the sting of lost business and possible crop danger after millions of the honey-making, plant-pollinating insects vanished during volatile weather, media and experts said on Thursday.

Over the past two months, farmers in three parts of Taiwan have reported most of their bees gone, the Chinese-language United Daily News reported. Taiwan's TVBS television station said about 10 million bees had vanished in Taiwan.

A beekeeper on Taiwan's northeastern coast reported 6 million insects missing "for no reason", and one in the south said 80 of his 200 bee boxes had been emptied, the paper said.

Beekeepers usually let their bees out of boxes to pollinate plants and the insects normally make their way back to their owners. However, many of the bees have not returned over the past couple of months. Possible reasons include disease, pesticide poisoning and unusual weather, varying from less than 20 degrees celsius (68 degrees Fahrenheit) to more than 30 degrees celsius over a few days, experts say.

"You can see climate change really clearly these days in Taiwan," said Yang Ping-shih, entomology professor at the National Taiwan University. He added that two kinds of pesticide can make bees turn "stupid" and lose their sense of direction.

As affected beekeepers lose business, fruit growers may lack a key pollination source and neighbours might get stung, he said.

Billions of bees have fled hives in the United States since late 2006, instead of helping pollinate US$15 billion worth of fruits, nuts and other crops annually. Disappearing bees also have been reported in Europe and Brazil.

The mass buzz-offs are isolated cases so far, a Taiwan government Council of Agriculture official said.

But the council may collect data to study the causes of the vanishing bees and gauge possible impacts, said Kao Ching-wen, a pesticides section chief at the council.

"We want to see what the reason is, and we definitely need some evidence," Kao said. "It's hard to say whether there will be an impact."

 

 

Item 64: Japan: Biofuel Boom Leading to Price Hikes of Food Products

(IHT/Asahi Shimbun, 10 May, 2007) Rising demand for plant-derived bioethanol has led to a shortage of cooking oil, pushing up prices of food products such as mayonnaise, and likely beef and even beer.

Corn and sugarcane are increasingly being grown as ingredients for the eco-friendly fuel, leaving makers of food products that use those or other crops with limited supplies.

Q.P. Corp., Japan's largest maker of mayonnaise, has been forced to raise prices by about 10 percent for its Kewpie brand products. It was the company's first price increase in 17 years.

The company was hit by soaring prices of soybean-derived cooking oil, which makes up 70 percent the ingredients for mayonnaise.

Farmers in the U.S. Midwest, one of the world's largest farm belts, are increasingly planting corn, a key ingredient in biofuel, and cutting production of soybeans. This has led to a global price jump in soybean-derived cooking oil.

Cooking oil makers have asked mayonnaise makers and other clients to accept price hikes.

Since last year, for example, Nisshin Oillio Group Ltd. has made the request four times and J-Oil Mills Inc. five times.

But the cooking oil makers say the higher prices will still fail to keep up with the rising procurement costs of the oil's ingredients.

Not only are U.S. farmers growing more corn, they are increasingly selling it to ethanol producers that offer higher prices.

Already, about 20 percent of the U.S. corn production has been passed on to ethanol producers this year, according to trading house Sumitomo Corp.

The shortage of available corn, coupled with speculation of further price rises, has lifted the costs of cornstarch used to make beer and cattle feed.

"The prices for ingredients are soaring," an official of a beer company said. "But we can't pass on the added cost to the prices of our products because of the (beer market's) intensive cost competition."

The Japanese government plans to promote production of bioethanol as a way to halt global warming.

In February, a council consisting of seven ministries, including the agriculture and trade ministries, drew up plans to expand domestic production of biofuel.

The council, however, said the strategy would not cause a steep rise in food prices because the program will use inedible plants.

The agriculture ministry, for example, said it will use plants such as substandard wheat and rice unsuitable for eating for the fuel. The environment ministry has its eye on grass, trees and scrap wood.

But ethanol production using wood and grass is more complicated and expensive than the process involving corn and other edible grains.

Energy industry officials have expressed concerns that edible crops will end up being used for the quick production of bioethanol in Japan.

 

 

Item 65: Korean, Chinese Youths to Plant Trees in Mongolian Desert

(Yonhap, 10 May, 2007) BEJING: -- Some 1,000 South Korean and Chinese youths will plant trees in an Inner Mongolian desert on Saturday to establish a grand forest in the desert, a project that aims to tackle one of the main sources of harmful yellow dust that hits Northeast Asia every spring, officials said Thursday.

The Seoul-based Korea-China Future Forest Association and the government of Inner Mongolia agreed to embark on the joint project to curtail damage from sandstorms in October.

Under the five-year project that will cost 7 billion won (US$7. 7 million), the two sides will establish a "Green Great Wall" 28 km long and 3 to 8 km wide in the Kubuqi Desert.

Yellow dust is fine sand that originates in arid parts of China and Mongolia. The dust particles often contain toxic chemicals and other harmful substances from Chinese factories that can cause respiratory disorders, as well as environmental and industrial damage. The dust can also adversely affect semiconductors and other precision goods.

With the size of Asian deserts growing due to climate change and the over-cutting of forests, the frequency and intensity of yellow dust storms have grown in recent years.

 

 

Item 66: China: Wen Hits at Failure to Cut Pollution

(Richard McGregor, Financial Times, 09 May, 2007) Wen Jiabao, China's premier, has delivered a scathing assessment of his government's inability to meet long-stated goals to cut pollution and energy use, saying this must be corrected to sustain growth.

The speech, delivered in late April but re-leased in full only yesterday, sets the scene for a battle between Beijing and provincial and city authorities over implementing the central government's energy and pollution standards. Beijing is often forced to make high-profile arrests to assert its power over recalcitrant provinces and cities that habitually ignore the central government, even on economic policy.

The government is also debating whether to introduce more stringent export controls, for steel-related industries in particular - which it may choose to announce before a top-level economic dialogue with US officials in Washington later this month. China has already begun to cut tax rebates for exports of steel, but Mr Wen signalled that further reductions were in the pipeline.

"This year is crucial for China in its efforts to meet the energy saving and pollutants emission reduction target set for the 2006-2010 period," he said. "We will continue to curb the energy-guzzlers by further adjusting export rebates, levying more export tariffs and reducing export quotas."

Beijing has promised for three years to rein in heavy industries, and set targets early last year for cuts in energy use and pollution emissions, but has fallen short on every marker. In his speech, delivered to an internal party meeting, Mr Wen said the six sectors using 70 per cent of energy for industry had grown by 21 per cent in the first quarter of this year, seven percentage points more than for the same period last year. The sectors are power, steel, oil refining, chemicals, construction materials and metals, according to an account of the speech by Xinhua, the official news agency.

"Without faster restructuring and an efficient method of economic growth, China's natural resources and the environment will not be able to sustain its economic development," Mr Wen said. "Outmoded production facilities must be eliminated at a faster pace, and how this policy is implemented by local governments and companies will be open to the public and subject to social supervision."

Mr Wen said inefficient use of energy and other resources would force the government to reform prices for natural gas and water, something it has been reluctant to do because of the poverty of many consumers, especially in rural areas. Mr Wen's self-censure also takes into account mounting foreign criticism of the contribution to global warming made by China's energy-intensive economic model.

China could overtake the US as early as this year as the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, according to the International Energy Agency, although its economy is only about a fifth as big. "China must take responsibility for reducing polluting emissions," he said. China remains steadfastly opposed, however, to mandatory cuts in emissions.

 

 

Item 67: Chicken from China? Questionable farming practices fuel skepticism of US plan to import poultry

(Diedtra Henderson, Boston Globe, 09 May 2007) WASHINGTON -- In China, some farmers try to maximize the output from their small plots by flooding produce with unapproved pesticides, pumping livestock with antibiotics banned in the United States, and using human feces as fertilizer to boost soil productivity. But the questionable practices don't end there: Chicken pens are frequently suspended over ponds where seafood is raised, recycling chicken waste as a food source for seafood, according to a leading food safety expert who served as a federal adviser to the Food and Drug Administration.

China's suspect agricultural practices could soon affect American consumers. Federal authorities are working on a proposal to allow chickens raised, slaughtered, and cooked in China to be sold here, and under current regulations, store labels do not have to indicate the meat's origin.

According to the US Department of Agriculture , China's top agricultural export goal is opening the US market to its cooked chickens. Representative Rosa DeLauro , who is fighting the change, says China does not deserve entry to the coveted, closed poultry market.

Agricultural exports from China to the United States ballooned from $1 billion in 2002 to nearly $2.3 billion in 2006 , according to the US Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service . DeLauro, Democrat of Connecticut and chairwoman of a US House agricultural subcommittee , said Congress should signal its willingness to restrict imports from China until it improves food safety oversight.

"There is deception. There is lax regulation, and they've got unsanitary conditions," DeLauro said. "They need to hear from us they're at risk. Congress has to look at limiting some of their agricultural imports."

The USDA, which shares food safety oversight with the FDA, says its proposal to allow the sale of Chinese chicken is in the early stages and that there will be many opportunities for the public to be heard on the matter. Under the plan, any country seeking to export meat , poultry, or egg products to the United States must earn "equivalency," with documentation that its product is as safe and wholesome as the domestic competition. USDA officials would review records, conduct on-site audits, and confirm that foreign laboratories could ensure the food's safety, said Steven Cohen , a spokesman for the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service . The agency would also inspect imported products as they enter the nation, he said.

"This is a process that has barely begun, and there is a very lengthy review," Cohen said.

According to Lucius Adkins , president of United Poultry Growers Association , the idea "should be strangled in infancy." The group represents more than 700 producers in Georgia , one of the nation's leading poultry producing states.

"You don't know what conditions existed in that plant [in China]. You didn't have a government representative there watching [poultry] being slaughtered and processed. It's going to come here packaged," Adkins said. "They're already killing our pets. Do we want to eat their food?"

The National Chicken Council , which represents companies that produce 95 percent of US-grown poultry, has not taken a position on the USDA's proposal.

Each American will eat an estimated 85 pounds of broiler chickens this year, down from 88 pounds last year -- the first per-capita decrease since 1973 . Currently, the US imports almost no poultry, except for a small amount of chicken exported by Canadian producers, said Richard Lobb, a spokesman for the trade association.

But Americans do eat food from around the world, Lobb said. "People don't have any problem with potpie from Canada. How they would feel about frozen chicken from China or specialty Chinese products that are canned or dried or something, I don't know."

In China's agricultural system, many farmers toil on 1-acre plots, while US farmers often work thousands of acres, said Michael Doyle , director of the Center for Food Safety at the University of Georgia and former chairman of the FDA's science advisory board.

In China, "there are hundreds of thousands of these little farms," Doyle said. "They have small ponds. And over the ponds -- in not all cases, but in many cases -- they'll have chicken cages. It might be like 20,000 chickens in cages. The chicken feces is what feeds the shrimp."

The USDA has found that up to 10 percent of shrimp imported from China contains salmonella, he said. Even more worrisome are shrimp imported from China that contain antibiotics that no amount of cooking can neutralize. Last month alone, the FDA rejected 51 shipments of catfish , eel , shrimp, and tilapia imported from China because of such contaminants as salmonella , veterinary drugs, and nitrofuran , a cancer-causing chemical. A long history of such test results spurred the FDA to begin working proactively with Chinese farmers on safer seafood production methods, Doyle said.

"In terms of harmful bacteria, consumers have control over that. Even in [poultry] we produce in the US, there is contamination with salmonella," Doyle said. "In terms of veterinary drugs and pesticides, well, good food handling practices won't fix that. That has to be addressed in the country of origin."

Joan Zahka , a Lexington woman, said she wouldn't buy Chinese poultry, based on what she has seen firsthand. Zahka grows her own greens and herbs, and when her children were young she ground organic baby food before it was sold in stores. She shops at Whole Foods for fresh produce and scrutinizes country of origin labels the grocery store chain voluntarily posts.

"There is no way I'm going to knowingly buy chicken from China," Zahka said. "There are all kinds of red flags for me. I've traveled through China. I know we have a much greater value on life here."

 

 

Item 68: China: Ambitious Plan to Save Reserve

(China Daily, 09 May, 2007) CHENGDU: An ambitious wetlands-protection project is to be launched this year in Southwest China's Sichuan Province with the coordinated efforts of the provincial forestry, land and water resources departments.

The project, which will run for 24 years, will involve an investment of some 1.5 billion yuan ($195 million) to protect all the wetlands in the province, which cover more than 4.2 million hectares.

Tang Daixu, head of the wild animal and plant protection section of the Sichuan provincial department of forestry, said the focus of the project will be the Ruo'ergai Wetland Nature Reserve where efforts will be made to alleviate the threats to the Yellow River caused by wetland deterioration.

Covering nearly 16,671 hectares, the Ruo'ergai Nature Reserve in Ruo'ergai County, in the Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan, is one of the world's largest alpine wetlands.

Located in the upper reaches of the Yellow River in the eastern part of the Qinghai Tibet Plateau, it is known as the "Reservoir of the Yellow River" as it is the source of 30 percent of the waterway's supply.

One of the world's most important areas in terms of biodiversity, it has 207 species of plants and 218 species of vertebrates and is a major habitat for endangered species such as the lack-necked crane and white-tailed sea eagle.

However, over the past 15 years, its area has been reduced by nearly 40 percent due to global warming, reduced rainfall and human activities. This shrinking has led to changes in the animal and plant species unique to it and the future of the reserve is under threat.

Luobuza, a Tibetan who was born and grew up in the reserve, said: "There are now very few swamps in the reserve. I could ride my horse for 50 km and not find one."

Zake, who heads the reserve's administrative bureau, said that a large number of rivers and lakes have either shrunk or completely dried up in the reserve.

The Xingcuo Lake, for example, used to cover 469 hectares; now it covers less than 10. Its dry bed is a new source of desertification and a threat to surrounding meadows, he said.

He Biao, secretary-general of the Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture government, said that desertification of Ruo'ergai was progressing at an annual rate of nearly 12 percent.

Professor Liang Yuxiang of Sichuan University, who led a recent investigation by scientists and journalists in the region, said that some 61,913 hectares, about 7.6 percent of its exploitable grassland, in the reserve were suffering from desertification. A further 135,333 hectares of land were under threat of desertification.

The new wetland-protection project will this year seek to control desertification in an area of 67 hectares and build an additional 900 sq m of bird ambulance stations.

Sichuan currently has 35 wetland nature reserves. It plans to build 19 more and establish nine wetland monitoring stations.

 

 

Item 69: East China Sea: Photos prove damage caused by trawlers: Vessels turn firm sea bottoms into ooze, destroying habitats

(Mark Hume, The Globe and Mail, 10 May, 2007) VANCOUVER -- When world-renowned fisheries scientist Daniel Pauly clicked open his e-mail recently, he was stunned by the picture that flashed onto his screen.

There before the University of British Columbia researcher was a satellite image that confirmed something he'd long known, and that he'd written groundbreaking research papers about, but which he'd never seen so graphically illustrated.

The image, sent to him by Kyle Van Houtan, an environmental scientist at Duke University in North Carolina, was a picture of a Chinese trawler fleet at work in the ocean off the mouth of the Yangtze River.

Behind the trawlers were what Mr. Pauly has named "mud trails" - great plumes of sediment churned up as the weighted nets plowed along the ocean floor.

"Divers have filmed this mud before," said Mr. Pauly, who in 1998 wrote a seminal research paper that coined the term "fishing down the food web" to describe how commercial fishing is depleting the world's oceans.

"What was not known before was that you could see these mud trails from space. I was flabbergasted by it."

Mr. Pauly said Mr. Van Houtan had found the pictures by looking at images shot from a QuickBird satellite, owned by DigitalGlobe.

"He wanted to know what we were seeing in these pictures," said Mr. Pauly.

The answer, he said yesterday, is that the satellite images show in stark reality just how destructive ocean trawlers are.

"They lift up huge quantities of mud. Basically the implications are terrifying," said Mr. Pauly. "Trawling is destroying bottom habitat."

Mr. Van Houtan provided Mr. Pauly with a number of pictures of trawlers at work in oceans around the world. Some are in such sharp detail you can see birds whirling around the sterns of the vessels to feed on discarded fish.

One was of a fleet of trawlers at work off the Yangtze.

"The one from China blew everyone's mind," said Mr. Pauly, who has shared it with his colleagues around the world. "This really shows the impact of trolling is like agriculture on land. There is no chance for wild animals to live there.

"All the [ocean] shelves on Earth are being trawled. The damage being done is enormous.

"I say it is like a geological force, because firm ocean bottoms are being turned into soft, oozy bottoms on a gigantic scale."

Mr. Pauly said the trawlers destroy coral reefs and other hard bottoms, replacing them with soft, muddy bottoms. Storms, tidal currents and the continual passage of trawlers stirs up the sediment, which drifts back to the bottom smothering life.

"These mud flats [that are created] are good for the production of shrimps only and nothing else," said Mr. Pauly.

"An environment that was dominated by large animals essentially becomes a microbial vat."

The first of the pictures was to appear today in the science journal Nature.

 

 

Item 70: Whale Hunting: A Saga of Cheating, Bribery and Greed

(Ben Macintyre, The Times, U.K., 10 May, 2007) As a child, I sat on a whale every day. Many years before I was born a 50-ton sperm whale had washed up on the Scottish coast near to where I grew up, and one of my relatives had cleverly fashioned a stool out of one of its enormous vertebrae. To a child, that bone-stool was a thing of wonder: a fraction of a creature of impossible vastness. I would scan the sea, imagining the great beast from which my seat had come, dreaming that another whale might one day burst the surface. It never did.

My whale (as I considered it) had been found on the beach in 1946. By coincidence, that was also the year 15 whaling countries signed up to a convention “recognising the interests of the nations of the world in safeguarding for future generations the great natural resources represented by the whale stocks”. Quite how far those stocks had been depleted was a matter of guesswork, but an estimated two million whales were killed in the 20th century alone. Right-thinking people agreed: continuing to destroy these beautiful, intelligent, ecologically important and seriously endangered mammals was not clever. The International Whaling Commission (IWC) banned commercial whaling in 1986.

The future of the whale should have been secure, yet today the whaling ban is closer to being overturned than at any time in the past 20 years, consensus on whaling is more distant than ever and many whale species remain on the brink of extinction. This week the IWC meets in Alaska with pro-whaling nations, led by Japan, determined to resume the hunt on a commercial scale.

The whaling debate was stranded and picked clean long ago. It is a rotten thing, riddled with bad science, exploited loopholes, petty politicking, bribery, blind nationalism and human greed, both gastronomic and economic. But perhaps more alarming still, the whaling debate bears disturbing parallels with the looming battle over climate change, another issue on which the clarity of science is being hopelessly clouded by politics and narrow self-interest. The world has had 60 years to protect the whale for all time; there is nowhere near that long to find a way to rebalance a warming world.

Japanese tactics in the whaling struggle have been ruthlessly cynical. Last year Japanese whalers killed 853 minke whales and 10 fin whales, and they will start hunting humpback whales this year. All were eaten, in the name of “scientific research” that most reputable biologists dismiss as a sham. Killing a whale for research is like building a coal-fired power station to examine greenhouse gases.

The claim that whales eat lots of fish and thus threaten stocks needed for human consumption has been comprehensively rubbished by scientists: whales and human tend to prey on different fish.

The Japanese campaign to resume whaling is more a matter of national pride than culinary taste. Indeed, whale meat is principally eaten by the older generation in Japan, who turned to it as a foodstuff during postwar shortages. Japan insists that whale meat is a national delicacy; in truth, its relationship to the Japanese palate is closer to our own lingering fondness for Spam; inexplicable to anyone under the age of 60.

Last year Japan gained a majority on the IWC by recruiting countries to the whaling cause in return for fisheries grants worth millions of dollars. Mongolia, for example, has proved a keen supporter of whaling, despite not having a coastline: Gobi Dick, sadly, has yet to be discovered.

The whalers would need a 75 per cent majority to overturn the ban, but with a single-vote advantage last year they managed to push through a resolution declaring that the moratorium on whale hunting was no longer necessary. In response, a British diplomatic campaign has rounded up six new member nations this year to vote against Japan and its allies. What once seemed a moral imperative has become a grubby game of vote-bargaining, which defenders of the whale must play.

Japan insists that whale populations have grown sufficiently to permit a resumption of hunting, but most marine ecologists disagree, pointing out that while some species may be slowly recovering, others are still perilously close to extinction. Whales are still dying from unnatural causes: errant fishing nets, human noise, pollution and continued hunting. No one knows quite how many are left. That is surely the best reason for not killing any more.

The pro-whaling lobby points out that Britain and the US played a big role in the slaughter, while opponents of whaling stand accused of “imperialism” for “imposing moral and ethical judgments that affect our rights to use resources”. The argument echoes that of the polluters in China and India, who insist that since the West caused the environmental damage that has led to global warming, we are in no position to lecture others.

No amount of dodgy science and diplomatic manoeuvring should disguise that whaling is as indefensible today as it was 60 years ago: the unspeakable in pursuit of what is, to most of the world's population, uneatable. Whale-hunting is moribund, inhumane and uneconomic; whale-watching, on the other hand, is profitable, harmless and rapidly expanding.

Today the argument for tackling climate change may seem equally stark, but that too is being swamped by the accusations of nationalism, imperialism and influence-peddling. If we could not combine to defend this single symbolic organism during the past 60 years, what hope is there of finding a working consensus on global warming before it is too late?

Whale oil represented a huge global market in the 19th century, because it burned brightly, was relatively easy to harvest, cheap to process and supplied by nature in apparently endless quantities. The same was once said of oil.

 

 

Item 71: High Value of Whale Meat Costs Minkes in Korea

(Peter Aldhous, New Scientist magazine, 10 May 2007) DNA detective work has revealed that fishermen in South Korea are snaring far more whales in their nets than they admit. The "bycatch" is so large that some observers believe whales are being netted deliberately, breaking the moratorium on commercial whaling set by the International Whaling Commission (IWC).

Whale meat can be sold legally in South Korea if the animals are caught by accident in fishing nets, but such deaths must be reported to the government. Between 1999 and 2003, fishermen reported snaring 458 minke whales. Now a team led by Scott Baker of Oregon State University in Newport says the true catch was nearly twice that number and threatens the survival of minke whales in the Sea of Japan.

Baker had South Korean colleagues buy minke meat from local markets and used DNA fingerprinting to determine how many individual whales the meat had come from. That alone did not reveal the total number of whales caught; the researchers calculated that figure by borrowing a technique called "mark and recapture". Ecologists estimate the size of an animal population by trapping, marking and releasing animals, and then seeing how many marked and unmarked animals turn up in subsequent trapping efforts. Using the DNA signatures of individual whales as markers, successive surveys revealed population data for the dead whales whose meat was being sold in the Korean markets.

With the aid of a mathematical model developed by Justin Cooke of the Center for Ecosystem Management Studies in Gutach, Germany, Baker's team estimated that South Korean fishermen caught 827 minke between 1999 and 2003 (Molecular Ecology, DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-294X.2007.03317.x). "This is a very exciting study because it finally provides a tool to establish the magnitude of the bycatch problem," says Phil Clapham of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Alaska Fisheries Science Center in Seattle.

"We suspect this is really a form of unregulated commercial whaling," says Baker. Given that a single minke whale can fetch up to $100,000, there is a strong financial incentive for fishermen to entangle whales in their nets.

Baker's team was also able to show that the average "half-life" of meat from an individual whale in South Korean markets is 1.82 months, suggesting that surveys to monitor for illegal meat should be conducted about every two months. Baker's project was backed by the International Fund for Animal Welfare and Greenpeace International.

The South Korean government has shown little enthusiasm for launching a monitoring programme of its own. Japan, meanwhile, has rebuffed attempts to discuss meat surveys at previous IWC meetings. The IWC meets later this month in Anchorage, Alaska.

Minke whales in the Sea of Japan are the subject of an ongoing IWC review. "This population is clearly in trouble," says Clapham, who is a member of the US delegation to the IWC. "It is being hit from Japan and Korea by bycatch, and probably by deliberate take."

 

 

Item 72: South Korean Whale Catch Questioned

(NewsWire.co.nz, 10 May, 2007) Research from America suggests South Korean fishermen are catching many more whales than they declare, possibly breaking an international moratorium on whaling.

The researchers from Oregan university carried out DNA tests on whale meat bought in South Korea between 1999 and 2003 .

Their study suggests the total whale catch was nearly double the 450 creatures officially declared.

Whale meat can be sold legally in South Korea if the animals are accidentally caught in fishing nets, but the deaths must be reported.

The American scientists say the fishermen may be intentionally trying to catch whales.

 

 

Item 73: 'Accidental' Whaling Scrutinised (Korea, 2005)

(Richard Black, BBC, 23 June 2005) It's not the typical design of embassy - just a green tent surrounded by colourful images of whales wrought in metal and stone.

It is in fact the "Whale Embassy" of Ulsan, set up by environmental groups on the shore, next to the imposing Whale Museum, which celebrates the region's long association with whales and whaling.

The embassy was set up by a local group, the Korean Federation for Environmental Movements (KFEM), and Greenpeace International. Their snap line is that it's "there to give whales a voice" - to say what whales would say if they could speak.

And its message to the citizens of Ulsan is to stop loving whales for their taste, and start loving them for themselves.

Ulsan's association with whales and whaling goes back for millennia - at nearby Bangudae there are petroglyphs, pieces of rock art, which may be as much as 8,000 years old, depicting hunts in progress.

In the modern era, hunting began in earnest around a century ago, when Russian fishermen set up camp around Ulsan's mighty harbour; it gained renewed vigour under the Japanese occupation.

After the end of World War II, whales were a valuable source of food in a time of scarcity and hunger; and hunting continued until the International Whaling Commission (IWC) introduced a global moratorium in 1986.

Long association

Every year for a decade or so, Ulsan has celebrated its past with a whaling festival in two town parks, one just by the Whale Museum and, now, the Whale Embassy.

Children frolic and demand sweets from their parents, old women sit chatting at the food stalls, and loud, mournful song assaults the ear-drums.

"Even from long back in history, Ulsan is known for its whales," one of the festival organisers Man Woo Lee told the BBC News website.

"But now they're disappearing, and the whaling culture is becoming extinct; so we're trying to revive it, and let people know how it was back in the past ages."

In the city's restaurants, whale eating is anything but extinct. A 200m walk from the Lotte Hotel where the IWC meeting takes place brings me to a backstreet lined end to end with seafood restaurants.

In the early-morning sun the freshly mopped floors sparkle; the water tanks are crammed with fish, eels and crabs waiting for the lunchtime tide of customers.

Outside one restaurant, one owner - who didn't want to give her name - is happy to chat as she lays out mushrooms to dry in the sharp sunshine.

"For a long time, we've eaten whales as part of our staple diet," she tells me. "Some people have a special affinity for whales, and they are my customers here; but unfortunately, there's not as much meat available as there used to be."

The price varies, she said, between US$20 and US$100 per kilo depending on the cut.

Just at the end of the street is a small but heavily stocked fish market - and there, on a stall just inside the door, are various cuts of whale, freshly washed, waiting to be bought.

Bad publicity

None of the market traders, though, will discuss their business - they've had too much interest, too much bad publicity, they say.

Much of that interest centres on where the meat comes from - because, officially, Korean fishermen are not allowed to catch whale.

"Korea has the policy of 'release alive' since 1998," Korea's Whaling Commissioner, Barng Ki Hiok, told me, "and the Korean government persuades fishermen to let the whales go uninjured.

"Also, it is illegal for fishermen to carry a gun, a rifle, a long spear or a harpoon."

Nevertheless, dead whales do come back to shore. According to data from the South Korean government, the IWC calculates that Korean fishermen catch about 90 minke whales each year.

This haul is usually labelled "by-catch", or accidental catch, but some of it is deliberate. The Report of the IWC Infractions Sub-Committee, prepared for this meeting, states: "The Republic of Korea sincerely regretted the reported incidents of illegal catches by its nationals in 2004".

According to the IWC's Scientific Committee, enough minke whales are taken that the local population, the J-stock, could be seriously affected.

"This is the first year of an in-depth assessment by the Scientific Committee to answer just that question," said Doug DeMaster, the Committee's chair, "and hopefully next year we'll have the answer.

"We did look at this in our 2003 meeting, and we found out that in the worst-case scenarios, the by-catch levels at these orders of magnitude were not sustainable.

"These were worst-case scenarios; but at least you can certainly craft a plausible argument that this level of by-catch is potentially problematic for this particular stock."

Ye-Yong Choi, from the KFEM, a prime mover behind the Whale Embassy, has a simple explanation for the level of by-catch.

"In Korea, there is a market for whale," he told me, "and the whale market needs meat from any source. The accidental catch is not accidental."

Nighttime butchery

He and other activists say they have seen whales being brought to shore and cut up at night, the various parts taken away by traders.

They have pitched the embassy in its current site because they fear South Korea's whale catch is about to go up rather than down.

Local and national authorities plan to build a scientific research centre, which will contain a whale-meat factory.

KFEM believes the facility will make it easier for the whale meat trade to flourish; but Barng Ki Hiok says the opposite is true.

"Once such a facility is built, meat must go there for processing," he told me. "Then we can easily detect illegal trade. Therefore, construction of such a facility is the best way to prepare for the future, I think."

Just before the IWC meeting, when the issue first leaped into the media spotlight, the South Korean government indicated that the factory might not go ahead - but Barng Ki Hiok indicated that it will.

The Whale Embassy will close just as IWC delegates leave Ulsan at the end of this week's meeting; it has been there for nearly three months, and activists say that during that time their relations with local people have changed, with hostility softening and supplies of food and other essentials brought regularly.

Young people with whom I chatted in Ulsan believe that whale meat is an older person's dish, a taste forged in the harsh after-flames of World War II.

If they are right, the trade which makes a whale worth up to US$100,000 will die a natural death, and spare South Korea the opprobrium it will undoubtedly face from some western governments and lobby groups if the by-catch rates do not come down.

 

 

Item 74: USA: The Root of Everything: A returning South Korean intern reflects on the universal role of the farmer

(The New Farm, 11 May, 2007) I came to the US just a month ago from South Korea for a nine-month internship at the Rodale Institute. I was here last summer with my Korean classmates to participate in a collaborative program between The Rodale Institute and the agronomy department at my university (Gyengsang National University). This was a very rewarding experience for me, so I applied for a 2007 internship and I am here again.

I have taken a leave of absence from my university, having completed my sophomore year before I left. It is typical in Korea for students to take a leave of absence during their college years for a practical experience. My major is agronomy and I am learning many technical things related to organic farming at The Rodale Institute, but at this time I would like to make some comments about normal people's thinking about farmers and farming rather than the technical things.

Below is a well-known Korean traditional saying related to farming and the farmer:

The Korean pronunciation of the saying is: “Nong ja chun ha ji dae bon.”

My T-shirt with this saying on it (pictured below) was the agronomy department's student T-shirt last year. The saying means: "The people who are farming are the root of everything in the entire world."

Think about it! Isn't this a great saying? I think it is a very worthy saying, but I think most people don't think like I do.

Often, I hear young college students in my country say they might have to farm if they don't study hard now. Of course, I know that is sort of a joke. But I wonder what kind of thinking is the basis of these jokes.

In Korea, most people think I did not have good grades or I did not have a certain goal at the time that I chose my major (if I have told them what my major is). As I said, my major is agronomy, and agronomy is the science of farming. Most people may not think like that if I told them I was a student in the medical department, law school or some other major. Because of these reasons, many of the students in my department cannot say their major proudly. I thought this is a very big problem in Korea before I came here, but now I realize it is also a problem in the United States. I am not writing this to pass judgment, rather to say we have to change our thinking about farming.

Most people today simply know that their food is from the shelves in the food store or at the grocery market. We can just pick up bread, butter, fresh vegetables, milk, fruit, etc., on the grocery shelves—anything, anytime. I know it has become part of our lifestyle and it makes us feel very comfortable and secure. But we surely have to know where the food we eat everyday is coming from and who grows it. No one can deny that it comes from the farm and the farmer.

Are you a consumer? Yes, of course you are. And on a daily basis you consume a variety of many wonderful delicious and nutritious foods. All of them, before being processed, were grown by the hard work of the farmer. Please think one more time about your food and about your attitude when you buy your groceries from a market and you make a joke related to farming or a farmer. You know it is very easy to make a joke when your belly is full, but when you're hungry… then things aren't so funny.

Are you a farmer or a student like me? Do you feel proud because you are a farmer? We might think a farmer doesn't make that much money, and he certainly doesn't wear a fancy uniform or clothes out of the fashion magazine. But let me tell you farming is very difficult and a tough occupation that deals with the uncertainty of the weather, other environmental factors and many business and market challenges. So the fact remains that you may not understand farming and you may not truly appreciate the farmer, but it will always be true that the farmer and farming is the root of our societies. This holds true no matter what continent you live on or what nationality you are or what religious beliefs you may have. When our bellies growl, they are all speaking the same universal language

 

 

Item 75: Korea: Migrating Birds' Habitat Threatened by Sea Wall

(Steve Conner, The Independent, 12 May 2007) Thousands of birds are being starved on their migratory routes between Australia and Siberia as a result of a huge land-reclamation project that has drained a valuable wetland habitat in South Korea.

A 20-mile-long sea wall has stopped the ebb and flow of the tides that have made the Saemangeum wetland one of the most important feeding points in the world for migratory birds. British conservationists from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) said yesterday that since the wall was closeda year ago the wetlands have been turned from a thriving bird reserve to a barren wasteland.

"The upper tidal flats are now more like a desert," said Sarah Dawkins of the RSPB. "You can drive out on to the estuary for several miles. The birds are confined to the water flowing from the two main rivers draining into the area."

"Very quickly they are depleting food resources. One week they are there, and the next they are gone."

The Saemangeum wetland - one of the biggest in the world - was once an important refuelling area for around 400,000 migratory birds making the 15,000-mile round trip between the southern hemisphere and south-east Asia and their breeding sites in Russia and Alaska. On any one day there could be more than 150,000 birds from 25 species feeding on the mudflats. Two species in particular, the spoon-billed sandpiper and Nordmann's greenshank, face extinction because of their reliance on Saemangeum and the other remaining tidal flats of the Yellow Sea,the RSPB warned.

"Estuaries should be fantastic places, full of the bustle of shorebirds feeding on shellfish and worms in the mud and sand," Ms Dawkins said. "The wall has blocked the life-giving ebb and flow of the sea, boats are stranded waiting for the tide that will never come and the mudflats are strewn with mile upon mile of litter. Saemangeum really was the jewel in the crown yet the place is dying."

The South Korean authorities began to build the sea wall 15 years ago to drain the wetlands for agricultural purposes - they wanted to establish rice paddies in the area. But it has emerged that there is not enough fresh water for growing crops and there are problems with pollutants in the drained estuary.

Ms Dawkins said: "Now they are talking about building a golf course, a huge casino or even a Formula 1 track.

"It would be like putting a casino in The Wash."

Before the sea wall was built, the difference in height between high tide and low tide at Saemangeum was 23ft. Now it is less than 7in - well short of the flow needed to replenish the estuary.

Despite the huge changes incurred as a result of the seawall, there is still a glimmer of hope for wildlife if the authorities can be persuaded to keep the sluice gates in the sea wall open to allow some limited tidal flow, said Nial Moores, director of the charity Birds Korea.

"International appeals to the authorities here in South Korea would underline just how precious Saemangeum is," he said.

"The Ministry of Agriculture claims the birds will just move to neighbouring estuaries but the birds there are already fighting over food and at least one of these estuaries may also be reclaimed." If the Saemangeum wetlands can be saved, they could become a magnet for eco-tourists from all over the world, which would help sustain the local economy, said Park Meena of Birds Korea.

"The birds are still coming and parts of the site are still alive so there is a chance we can save it," Ms Meena said."If the sluice gates were opened the tides would return, restoring life to the mudflats and bringing food both to the birds and the people with whom they co-exist."

 

 

Item 76: Korea: Huge Sea Wall Puts Wading Birds in Danger of Starving

(The Times Online, 12 May, 2007) Two species of wading bird could be driven to extinction because the world's largest land reclamation project has destroyed a critical staging post on their migration route, conservationists said yesterday.

The completion of a 33-mile (53km) sea wall to drain wetlands in South Korea has left thousands of migrating birds facing starvation, according to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.

For the spoonbilled sandpiper and Nordmann's greenshank, both of which are on the list of endangered species, the destruction of the Saemangeum wetlands, one of their most important habitats, could mean extinction. There are believed to be fewer than 1,000 mature individuals of each species left in the wild.

The threat is particularly acute because although the reclaimed land was to be used for rice fields a lack of fresh water for irrigation means that it is now to be filled completely.

Sarah Dawkins of the RSPB, who is monitoring the impact of the sea wall on birds, said: “Now they are talking about building a golf course, a huge casino or even a Formula One racetrack. It would be like putting a casino on the Wash.”

Saemangeum was once an estuarine tidal flat on South Korea's Yellow Sea coast, and was an important feeding and rest station for about 400,000 migrating wading birds making the 15,000-mile round trip between South Asia and Alaska and Russia. It also provided a livelihood for 25,000 people who relied on fishing for their survival.

The RSPB said that the closure of the sea wall a year ago had destroyed vast stretches of shellfish beds and thousands of plants.

The tidal range of the 155sq mile wetland has dropped from about seven metres (23ft) to less than 18cm, and all but 30 of the 400 boats that fished the waters have been kept ashore as a result.

“Estuaries should be fantastic places, full of the bustle of shorebirds feeding on shellfish and worms in the mud and sand,” Ms Dawkins said. “The wall has blocked the life-giving ebb and flow of the sea, boats are stranded waiting for a tide that will never come, and the mudflats are strewn with mile upon mile of litter.

“Saemangeum really was the jewel in the crown, yet all around me the place is dying.”

The South Korean Government has no plans to compensate for the environmental impact of the reclamation project, the RSPB said. The sea wall took 15 years to build because of a succession of legal challenges from conservationists.

The RSPB and other wildlife and conservation groups said that many birds could be saved if the sluice gates built into the sea wall were opened, saving part of the wetlands. They have highlighted the project to mark World Migratory Birds Day, which is today.

Birds Korea wants the British Government and the European Union to offer conservation support to South Korea, and is urging people to write to the South Korean embassy in London calling for the sluice gates to be opened.

Nial Moores, director of Birds Korea, said: “International appeals to the authorities here in South Korea would underline just how precious Saemangeum is. The Ministry of Agriculture claims that Saemangeum birds will just move to neighbouring estuaries, but the birds there are already fighting over food, and at least one of these estuaries may also be reclaimed.”

Park Meena, national co-ordinator of Birds Korea, said: “Saemangeum could be a huge lure for eco-tourists from all over the world if it was restored. The birds are still coming and parts of the site are still alive, so there is a chance we can save it.”

 

 

Item 77: Birds 'Starve' at S Korea Wetland

(BBC, 12 May, 2007) Tens of thousands of migratory birds are facing starvation in South Korea, the UK-based Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) says.

The group says a land reclamation project has destroyed key wetlands used by the birds on their way from Asia to their breeding grounds in the Arctic.

Without the food at the Saemangeum wetlands, on the east coast, many of the birds will not survive the journey.

Two endangered species of wading bird face extinction because of the changes.

There are believed to be fewer than 1,000 mature spoonbilled sandpipers and Nordmann's greenshanks left in the wild.

The RSPB and other wildlife and conservation groups are highlighting the environmental problems at Saemangeum to mark World Migratory Birds Day.

'Motorway service station'

Saemangeum was once an estuarine tidal flat on South Korea's Yellow Sea coast.

It was an important feeding ground for about 400,000 migrating birds making their way on a 24,000km round-trip between Asia and Alaska and Russia.

But 15 years ago, the government revealed plans for the world's biggest land reclamation project in order to drain the estuary and create fertile paddy fields.

After a succession of legal challenges from conservationists, the 33km sea wall was finally closed a year ago.

Since then, according to the RSPB, the vast wetlands have been replaced by parched earth, shellfish beds and plants have been destroyed, and thousands of birds are starving as a result.

"What we've lost here is one of the jewels in the crown of wetland habitats," Sarah Dawkins, who is monitoring the impact of the sea wall on birds, told the BBC.

"The Yellow Sea is an amazingly important stopover point for birds travelling up from places like New Zealand and Australia to their breeding grounds in the Arctic."

"And Saemangeum was one of the most important areas in the Yellow Sea."

Ms Dawkins said the birds relied on the tidal flats at Saemangeum as somewhere where they could land and "refuel" after a nine-day flight from New Zealand.

"It's a bit like losing a motorway service station and then your car running out of petrol," she explained.

Despite the damage, Ms Dawkins said there was still hope for the wetlands if the two sluice gates built into the sea wall were opened.

"That would restore a few thousand hectares of estuary system within Saemangeum and that would be at least something to help the birds," she said.

"The birds are still here. They're still coming."

"I think we really do need to still try to save some of their habitat."

Ms Dawkins also said it was critically important to mount a global effort to safeguard other estuaries around Saemangeum, one of which the government is planning to reclaim.

 

 

Item 78: U.S. May Seek FTA Renegotiations on Labor, Environment: According to U.S. Media Reports, new labor standards will bring Korea – U.S. trade deal

(Hankyoreh, 14 May, 2007) Washington plans to demand renegotiations on several areas of the Korea-U.S. free trade agreement (FTA) signed on April 2, according to U.S. media reports.

Should the U.S. ask for a reworking of the trade deal's terms on areas touching upon labor and the environment, experts predict controversy to erupt in South Korea.

Seoul has repeatedly denied that there will be any further negotiations on the FTA.

On May 10, the U.S. Congress reached an agreement with the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush on trade policy, specifically regarding new standards encompassing labor and the environment in all bilateral trade deals.

Accordingly, the United States will renegotiate FTAs it has recently signed with countries such as Panama, Peru, South Korea, and Colombia, according to the U.S. press. These FTAs have been signed but still face approval from U.S. Congress, the reason they still may face revision due to the May 10 policy addendum.

Regarding the new standards adopted by U.S. Congress on May 10, in an interview the same day with Agence France-Presse, Max Baucus, chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance, said that recent FTAs with four nations including South Korea should contain the five core standards set forth by the International Labor Organization (ILO); namely, the right to organize, the right to bargain collectively, and bans on child labor, forced labor, and employment discrimination.

Korea and the U.S. did not ratify collective bargaining rights and freedom of association when they inked the trade deal on April 2. Summarily, after the May 10 legislative session, some members of U.S. Congress have expressed the ‘need to take a hard look' at the Korea-U.S. FTA.

Seven environment-related international treaties, such as the CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) and the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, also are covered by the new standards adopted by U.S. Congress on May 10.

Regarding the effect of the new Congressional regulations on the Korea-U.S. FTA, there will likely be significant changes in provisions in connection with labor, according to experts in Korea.

Song Hong-seok, an official of the Labor Ministry, said, "South Korea has not approved four of the [ILO] provisions - the right to organize and to bargain collectively, and two terms regarding a ban on forced labor. If the U.S. steps up its demands on such matters, Korea will both have to change labor-related parts of the FTA and revise the nation's labor laws."

If the FTA is indeed renegotiated per U.S. Congress' new terms, items which sparked controversy prior to the FTA's ratification will have to be revisited, which could touch off more protests against the trade deal.

Meanwhile, the government has maintained it will be steadfast in opposing any renegotiation of the FTA. While meeting U.S. Ambassador to Korea Alexander Vershbow on May 11, Trade Minister Kim Hyun-jong said, "There will be no renegotiations. Under any circumstances, the current agreement must be maintained."

Lee Hye-min, South Korea's deputy chief negotiator in FTA talks with the U.S., said, "As Washington hasn't made official moves yet [regarding any renegotiation proposal], it is difficult for Seoul to express its view on this issue. We are currently trying to confirm whether [the U.S. demands] the ILO key standards to be stated in the agreement and to be ratified," added Lee.

The U.S. Congress and administration on May 10 also agreed to limit contracts with suppliers who do not meet the ILO's five basic labor standards in the area of government procurement, a process that refers to a foreign company being hired on a state-sponsored contract. This area also falls within the Korea-U.S. FTA.

 

 

Item 79: China: Mangrove to Vanish in East China's Coastal City

(Xinhua News Agency May 14, 2007) More than 90 percent of the mangrove wetland in the coastal city of Xiamen, east China's Fujian Province, has vanished in the past five decades due to various construction projects, said a mangrove expert.

Wang Wenqin, vice chairman of the China ecology association, said Xiamen used to claim 320 hectares of mangrove in the 1950s, and the number plunged to the present 13 hectares.

He explained that land reclamation from the sea and construction of roads and piers are the main reason.

As a complete ecological system, mangrove wetland is composed of forest, low beaches and shallow pools, all of which are the guarantee to keep the balance of wetland system, the so-called "kidney of the earth".

Statistics show that in the past 50 years, the country's mangrove land has decreased by 70 percent, with the present coverage of 22,639 hectares.

To better protect mangrove, Wang suggested the government pay more attention, take effective measures and train more personnel.

 

 

Item 80: Empty Nets as Tide Turns on Asia's Fishermen

(Jalil Hamid, 13 May, 2007) KUALA MUDA, Malaysia (Reuters) - The old adage 'there are plenty more fish in the sea' no longer rings true for Malaysian fisherman Shafie Said.

"These days, we have to go farther offshore and into deeper waters to fish," said Shafie, aged 39, his face weather beaten after 16 years sailing tropical waters in the Andaman Sea, off the coast of northwest Malaysia.

"Sometimes we return empty handed," Shafie said sadly.

It is a story told across Asia by millions of fishermen who ply the region's seas to bring home their main, and often only, source of income.

A staple in Asia with its extensive coastlines and poor populations, seafood provides up to 70 percent of the animal protein intake of most Asians.

But the tide is turning as fish stocks in Asia have declined by 70 percent in the past 25 years, says Stephen Hall, head of WorldFish, a non-profit research body based in northern Malaysia.

"We are taking far too many fishes out of the sea and not leaving enough there to grow and re-generate," Hall said at his seaside office on the Malaysian resort island of Penang.

Compounding the problem is global warming, which will bring rising sea levels, higher sea-surface temperatures, higher salinity and greater weather extremes from droughts to storms

Scientists predict mean sea levels will rise by 10-90 cm (4-35 inches) over this century, with most estimates in the range of 30-50 cm (12-20 inches).

"This will likely damage or destroy many coastal ecosystems such as mangroves and salt marshes, which are essential to maintaining many wild fish stocks," explained a WorldFish report.

Warming seas are changing fish migration patterns with some fish heading south and others moving north, damaging entire ecosystems and affecting reproduction and replenishment rates.

Scientists in Australia are already warning of a massive decline in fish along the country's eastern seaboard with marine life such as yellow-fin tuna and stinging jellyfish moving towards Antarctica as sea waters warm.

"It's not a disaster for the ones that can move south. It is for the ones that can't move south," Dr Alistair Hobday, the lead author of a recent report from the CSIRO, Australia's premier scientific institution, told Reuters recently.

FAVOURITE FOOD

Researchers say the implications of the global overfishing crisis are greater for Asia than any other part of the world. Fish is a vital part of food security, employment and income in the region.

But while the number of fish in the sea is dropping dramatically, the demand for fish is rising as populations grow.

The Asian Development Bank has predicted that demand for fish in Asia will continue to rise, reaching 69 million tons by 2010 and accounting for 60 per cent of the world demand for fish for human consumption, compared to 53 per cent in 1990.

China with its 1.3 billion population and growing affluence is expanding its fish consumption, especially for expensive reef fish sold live at restaurants.

In the Philippines, a major source of reef fish, 90 percent of fish stocks have been depleted, conservation group WWF said. Divers report seeing lifeless reefs in areas that were once teeming with fish.

Last December, Philippine authorities rescued more than 1,000 endangered humphead wrasse from poachers. The reef fish, which can sell for as much as $200 per kilo, are adored by diners in China because their large lips are considered a delicacy.

In India, turtles get caught up in their thousands in trawler nets and nesting sites such as Devi -- where tens of thousands of Olive Ridley turtles would nest in a single night -- are becoming devoid of turtles.

A shark species called "Karat hangar" has already vanished off the coast of Bangladesh along with sea-horses and other fish.

FISHERMEN'S LIVELIHOOD AT RISK

And it's not just the environment that is at risk.

Fishermen in Asia and across the Indian Ocean in Africa are economically vulnerable to the decline in fish stocks, which directly affects their livelihoods, local economies and diet.

Poor and often uneducated, many are unaware of the need to help marine life rejuvenate by throwing back immature fish and avoiding catching turtles and other sea creatures in nets

"Fishers need to reduce their reliance on narrow resources by learning to exploit a broader range of species and pursue alternative sources of income and fish production such as marine and aquaculture," Hall explained.

But teaching the world's estimated 29 million fishermen about sustainable fishing is an enormous task, especially as many live in countries where education systems are poor, poverty endemic and where there is little investment in aquaculture projects.

WorldFish suggests governments enforce tighter controls over fishing such as ceilings on the number of boats allowed to operate in certain areas and institute a vessel registration system. But enforcing such a system may be close to impossible.

Another solution is expanding fish farms in Asia. But these require significant investment as well as a successful campaign to convince fishermen to change their lifestyles from plying the seas for fish to raising them in ponds on land.

Bangladesh, one of the most relies on fish for about 80 percent of its national animal protein intake. Yet the fish are disappearing, leaving Bangladeshi fishermen baffled and their incomes dropping.

"Many fish species have vanished and our prime catch of silvery Hisha is also dwindling," said fisherman Suleman Miah.

"The golden days of fishing are gone.

(Additional reporting by Anis Ahmed in Dhaka)

 

 

Item 81: ROK: Lee's Canal Plan Shrouded in Controversy

(Jin Hyun-joo, The Korea Herald, 18 May, 2007) Even after he retired as the chief executive of Hyundai Construction and Engineering in 1992, presidential hopeful Lee Myung-bak has been passionate about large-scale building projects.

As Seoul mayor in 2005, he completed the challenging task of restoring the Cheonggye Stream in the bustling heart of Seoul, an achievement which buttressed his bid for the nation's top job.

As a key election pledge, Lee has put forth another ambitious plan -- building a cross-country canal that would not only connect East and West Korea, but would also go into the North. The plan mostly involves widening and dredging rivers that already exist.

A fierce dispute is brewing over his proposal as his rival in the Grand National Party, Park Geun-hye, and liberal presidential hopefuls are stepping up attacks on the idea.

It will also become one of the main issues in the party's vetting process, which is likely to start late this month. If his idea materializes, the Pan-Korea Grand Waterway will be the nation's first canal. He said the proposed waterways will reduce the nation's heavy reliance on road transport and will thus relieve logistics costs. The gritty politician said the project will bring about a "logistics innovation" and will pave the way for the nation to prosper.

However, critics question the feasibility of what they call an old-fashioned transport method. They doubt the waterway could replace land transportation, citing complicated processes and lengthy loading and unloading times.

They also question whether the proposed canal would be more efficient than simply sailing around the coast. The nation, after all, is surrounded by seas on three fronts. Its potential harm to river ecology is also a hot topic among environmentalists.

Study is still underway

The South Korean part of the envisioned waterway will consist of two arteries. The Gyeongbu Canal will link the Han River in Seoul and northern parts of the country to the Nakdong River in the southeast, including Daegu and Busan.

The Honam Canal would connect the Geum River and the Youngsan River in the southwestern parts of the nation.

The two sub-canals will converge and would eventually be connected to a new proposed canal in North Korea, he said.

However, the planners have yet to conclude a sufficient feasibility study. His advisory group for the project said they have not even started the examination of the economic efficiency of the Honam Canal.

"We will study expected cargo traffic after completing a technical review on the Honam Canal. That is because without technical feasibility, the pledge will be an empty promise," Lee Cheol-soo, an official of the group, told The Korea Herald.

It is also unclear whether North Korea would ever cooperate in Lee's plan.

Opponents say name of the proposed project, the Pan-Korea Grand Waterway, is politically motivated to appeal to voters in the southwestern Jeolla region as well as in the southeastern Gyeongsang region. People in Gyeongsang and Jeolla have been divided politically, with the former backing the conservative GNP and the latter supporting liberal political groups.

The study group has not yet released a blueprint, and even simple figures such as the length of the canal and construction costs are inconsistent.

The information known to the public about the canal so far has been given by Lee and his policy advisors during interviews and forums.

"We keep examining and changing the plan because we are seeking the most suitable one. It is better than insisting on an inexact one," the official said.

According to Lee, some 60 to 70 researchers here and overseas have been reviewing the idea for the last 10 years.

The latest figures show the Gyeongbu Canal would be 440 kilometers long, including 40 kilometers that would have to be entirely dug out, and will cost 20 trillion won ($21.6 billion). Nineteen docks and 16 weirs will be constructed over four years to maintain a constant depth of 6 meters and to allow the passage of a 2,500-ton barge.

He also says it would take four years to complete its construction. But critics are skeptical given the 5.8-kilometer-long Cheonggye Stream was completed in just under three years.

Economic efficiency

Most of the controversy is over whether canal shipping is more economically efficient than truck, rail, or coastal shipping.

Lee said the main strength of canal shipping is cheaper transportation rates compared to trucks, the nation's dominant mode of transport.

His advisors claim that 80 percent of freight shipped in containers through roads between Seoul and Busan will be transported via the canal.

As a whole, the proposed waterway could grab up to 10-15 percent of the market, according to Lee.

However, critics are doubtful of a modal shift from trucking to water shipping, mostly because the latter requires more time and steps.

"The criteria that shippers use to choose the mode of transport includes not only costs but also time and process. There are two or three processes in road transport as opposed to 10 steps in canal shipping," economics professor Hong Jong-ho of Hanyang University said.

Experts also question whether canal shipping will be able to compete with coastal transport.

Hong said a vessel moving between Incheon, a port city near Seoul, and Busan carries more cargo and saves more time than a barge does.

He also said it takes 30 to 35 hours to get from Incheon to Busan while Lee's camp said the Seoul-Busan canal will take 36 hours.

Shore-to-shore shipping also lags behind highway transport, mainly due to its complicated transport process, experts say.

Coastal shipping accounted for a meager 1.6 percent of global container cargo tonnage in 2006 while road transport took up 88 percent and rail took up 10.4 percent, according to the Korea International Trade Association.

Citing the decline of the coastal shipping industry, environmental professor Kim Jung-woo of Seoul National University said, "Even a person who has little knowledge of the economy knows, based on common sense, that the project lacks economic validity."

However, proponents claim that inland waterway transport arteries are more stable and predictable than shore-to-shore transport.

They also say the project will generate a synergy effect by connecting sea and inland waterway transport.

"The nation will become competitive by building a comprehensive logistics network that links water shipping with road, rail and air transport," said Noh Chang-kyun, a professor in the department of the maritime transportation system at Mokpo National Maritime University.

In response to questions over whether the new transport mode will be able to attract freight traffic, he said, "Supply creates its own demand."

"Companies will move along the canals and use new transport modes," he said.

They also said the canal system will enhance the country's competitiveness by relieving its logistics costs. It will reduce costs caused by road congestion and air pollution in trucking, according to them.

They often cite the statistics released by the Korea Transport Institute which showed that Korea's logistics costs accounted for 12.7 percent of its gross domestic product in 2002. The ratio was higher than other industrialized countries such as Japan and the United States.

However, critics say it is better to innovate the current logistics scheme to reduce costs rather than throwing enormous amounts of money at the "economically inefficient project."

"Logistics experts have already presented many ideas to reform the nation's logistics system. I do not know why he brings forward a past-looking transportation mode like a canal," Hong said.

Impact on environment

Experts are also divided over whether or not it will have a negative effect on the environment.

Opponents of the project say weirs and docks will keep water stagnant or slow-moving and deteriorate water quality. This threatens the supply of potable water to 31 million people who use the Nakdong River and the Han River as main sources of drinking water, they say. "I am especially concerned that the canal project would cause a drinking water crisis and water contamination," said Han Myeong-sook, a former Environment Minister and an Uri Party lawmaker.

She said canals are not a good fit where people heavily rely on rivers for potable water. In European countries where there are many canals, people usually use underground water as potable water, she noted.

Proponents of the project, however, say barges, equipped with propellers, will supply oxygen and clean water.

Park Seok-soon, an economic science and engineering professor of Ehwa University, also said weirs, a small overflow-type dam used to raise the level of the rivers, will furnish clean water during a dry and wet season.

Lee's advisors also said the canal will reduce air pollution caused by carbon dioxide emissions from trucks. "Above all, it is a project that improves the environment," said Kwak Seong-jun, an economics professor at Korea University.

Political wrangling

The frontrunner's canal plan has been the target of broad criticism from across the political spectrum.

Rep. Chun Jung-bae, said, "It is anachronistic to put forth a pledge which would have worked in a past era of dictatorship development."

Lee Hae-chan, a former prime minister and a key confidant of President Roh Moo-hyun, accused Lee's plan of being populist.

Lee "thinks about shoveling anywhere if it helps gain votes. It is a very dangerous act," he said.

He also said former President Kim Dae-jung considered doing a similar large-scale public project during the Asian financial crisis of 1997, but scrapped the plan as scholars concluded that it was economically inefficient, harmful to the environment and outdated.

Moon Kook-hyun, the head of Yuhan Kimberly Ltd., also said the nation should promote the knowledge-based economy rather than relying on an old-fashioned strategy of growth.

"We should not be nostalgic for the miracle on Han River, which was achieved during the era of dictatorship development during 1960s and 70s."

Lee brushed aside a barrage of attacks on his project.

"Politicians think their popularity will rise if they pick a fight with me," he said.

Rep. Chung Do-eun, a Lee confidant, proposed an open debate on the contentious project. "Spare some time, study the project and come out for a debate," he said.

His rival in the GNP, Park, is also gearing up for a full-blown attack on Lee's proposal as the party is set to launch a panel tasked with the scrutiny of candidates.

Rep. Yoo Seong-min, a Park confidant, said, "I will open fire on the canal project soon."

 

 

Item 82: More Whales Dying in South Korean Fishing Nets

(WDCS, 15 May, 2007) Researchers at Oregon State University have discovered a massive discrepancy between the number of whales caught and reported as ‘bycatch' in South Korea, and the actual number dying. As meat from the whales ends up being sold for human consumption, this may be a form of unregulated commercial whaling.

Commercial whaling has been banned since 1986 by The International Whaling Commission (IWC), the body which regulates whaling.

South Korea is bound by the moratorium and does not conduct commercial whaling, but it is legal in Korea to sell whale meat from an animal that dies accidentally in a fishing net. However, all animals caught in this way must be reported to the Government.

Between 1999 and 2003, fishermen in South Korea reported a total of 458 minke whales caught and killed in fishing nets, but DNA analysis carried out by the Oregon State University team has revealed that actual numbers could have been higher than 800 whales.

This new evidence, from a study funded by Greenpeace and the International Fund for Animal Welfare, suggests that whales are being netted deliberately, and that fishermen are violating the ban on commercial whaling set down in 1986 by the International whaling commission.

Minke whales in this region are currently under review by the International Whaling Commission as they are heavily targeted both by Japanese ‘scientific' hunts and high, and increasing, levels of bycatch by Japan and Korea.

A tiny population, known as ‘J stock', that is genetically distinct from the bigger minke whale population in the North Pacific is vulnerable to bycatch both by Korea and Japan. Scientists are concerned that it could become extinct in a matter of years if nothing is done to protect the whales from the increasing threats from ‘bycatch' as well as ‘scientific whaling' conducted by Japan in the region which catches J stock animals accidentally.

The International Whaling Commission meets in Anchorage Alaska at the end of this month, where WDCS staff will be present and will be providing regular updates on decisions and events throughout proceedings.

 

 

Item 83: World and DPRK: Record Cereal Production Forecast in 2007 But Supply/Demand Situation to Remain Tight: Biofuels industry drives up demand, prices

(FAO, 16 May, 2007) 16 May 2007, Rome -- World cereal production in 2007 is on track to reach a record level of 2 095 million tonnes, a rise of 4.8 percent over 2006 levels, FAO said in a tentative forecast issued today. But with stocks at their lowest level in over two decades, total supplies would still be barely adequate to meet increased demand, boosted by the fast-growing biofuels industry.

International prices for most cereals have risen significantly in 2006/07 so far and are likely to remain high in 2007/08, according to FAO's latest Crop Prospects and Food Situation report. As a result, the cereal import bill of the low-income food deficit countries (LIFDCs) is forecast to increase by about one-quarter in the current season.

Ethanol production boosts maize use

The early forecast for coarse grains production in 2007 has been revised upward to around 1 051 million tonnes, 7.1 percent up from last year and a record high, according to the report. The bulk of the increase is expected in maize, which accounts for about 70 percent of the total.

Fast growth in demand for maize-based ethanol production is expected to boost total industrial use of coarse grains in 2007/08 by 9 percent, the report said.

Expectations for the world wheat harvest are down slightly since FAO's April forecast, but at just below 621 million tonnes, production is still expected to be 4 percent above the previous year's level.

FAO's early and very tentative forecast for world rice production in 2007 points to a slightly larger crop at some 422 million tonnes, which would match the 2005 record.

Low-income food-deficit countries

For the LIFDCs as a group, the report predicts 2007 cereal output to be similar to last year's good level. However, excluding China and India, the largest producers, the aggregate crop of the remaining countries is forecast to decline slightly.

In North Africa, a sharp decline is expected in 2007 cereal production, reflecting dry conditions in Morocco that are anticipated to halve the country's wheat production this year.

In Southern Africa, a reduced cereal harvest is being gathered for the second year in succession. In drought-affected Zimbabwe, a huge rise in the price of the basic staple maize is anticipated. By contrast, in Malawi, an ample exportable surplus is available following a bumper harvest.

Hunger hotspots

Despite improved food supply in many of the countries normally most at risk from food insecurity, following record or bumper 2006 cereal crops, food difficulties persist in 33 countries worldwide.

Emergency assistance is required for large numbers of vulnerable farmers in Bolivia affected by serious crop and livestock losses following drought and floods during the 2007 main cropping season.

In the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, despite steady recovery in agricultural production over the past few years and a recent pledge of 400 000 tonnes of food aid by the Republic of Korea, the food supply situation for millions of people remains a serious concern, the report said.

The recent flare up of conflict in southern Somalia has displaced hundreds of thousands of people and is likely to reduce the area planted, particularly in areas surrounding the capital, Mogadishu, during the 2007 main “gu” cropping season currently under way.

In Zimbabwe, the report anticipates food shortages for millions of vulnerable people struggling under the deepening economic crisis and sky rocketing inflation, currently considered to be the highest in the world.

 

 

Item 84: South Korea to Launch Fund to Promote Renewable Energy (Reuters, 21 May, 2007) SEOUL - South Korea's top retail lender Kookmin Bank will launch a US$330 billion won (US$354 million) fund on Monday to promote renewable energy facilities, Seoul's energy ministry said on Sunday.

The fund targets an annual yield of more than 7.0 percent after the deduction of a 0.56 percent maintenance fee, the ministry said. The Bank of Korea's benchmark overnight call rate stands at 4.5 percent.

The ministry, welcoming the fund, said it would support South Korea's aim to raise clean and renewable energy usage to 5 percent by 2011 from the current 2.3 percent.

The ministry said the fund will be used mostly to promote building solar power plant facilities. Earlier this month, South Korea's Dongyang Engineering and Construction and Germany's SunTechnics said they would build a 20-megawatt solar plant in South Korea by 2008 worth 157.6 billion won.

South Korea, whose economy is the world's 11th-largest, is reliant on heavily energy-consuming manufacturing sectors such as steel and petrochemicals and ranks 10th in the world for greenhouse gas emissions.

 

 

Item 85: Japan: Endangered White Storks Hatch Egg

(Steve Jackson, BBC, 20 May, 2007) A couple of endangered storks in Japan have hatched an egg in the wild for the first time in more than 40 years.

The oriental white stork chick emerged from its egg at the top of a 13m-high pole in the west of the country.

Oriental white storks became extinct in Japan in the 1980s, but conservationists have been trying to successfully reintroduce the species.

A captive breeding programme has been underway for 20 years using birds donated by Russia.

But the new chick is the first one known to have hatched in the wild in Japan since 1964.

Step forward

Its parents were among a dozen storks born in captivity but released into the wild to breed.

The oriental white stork (Ciconia boyciana) is generally a solitary species with distinctive red markings around its eyes.

It lives on a diet of fish and frogs and migrates south in the winter.

In recent decades numbers have declined because of hunting and the destruction of its habitat.

Most of the remaining birds live in Russia and China.

Conservationists in Japan are very excited by the new arrival and say it represents a big step forward in reintroducing the species to the wild.

The storks are officially designated a national treasure in Japan.

 

 

Item 86: U.K.: Wetlands Restoration Garners Cranes: Birds Breed Again After 400 Years

(BBC, 17 May, 2007) Cranes have been found breeding in the fens of East Anglia after 400 years.

The Suffolk wetland which the birds are nesting in was a carrot field until the RSPB turned it into Lakenheath Fen Nature Reserve 11 years ago.

Large-scale drainage of fens for agriculture had led to the birds' disappearance in the 1600s.

RSPB chief executive Graham Wynne said the arrival of the birds came ahead of plans to make further wetland reserves in the Norfolk and Cambridgeshire fens.

RSPB staff discovered the nest by chance while carrying out a routine survey of the site. It is believed the eggs are near to hatching.

The RSPB plans to create 20 sq miles (51 sq km) of wetlands in the fens over the next 20 years.

Mr Wynne said: "The arrival of cranes at Lakenheath Fen is fantastic news for the future of this species in the UK.

"It is also testimony to the truly inspirational work done at the site - we have gone from carrot fields to cranes in 11 years.

"Their decision to nest on the reserve was totally unexpected, very exciting and completely wonderful."

A new visitor centre at Lakenheath Fen Nature Reserve opened on Thursday.

Long history

The common crane is one of the biggest European birds. It nests in marshy vegetation, and populations all over Europe have suffered historically from the disappearance of wetlands.

Its wingspan can reach 240cm (7.8ft) and has a loud bugling call.

Adults have a grey body and black, white and red markings on the neck and head.

The bird has a long history in England: it appears on medieval illuminated manuscripts and was on the menu for a feast held in York by Henry III in 1251.

Their presence is also recorded in place names such as Cranfield and Cranbrook.

The fens of East Anglia used to cover an area of roughly 3,336 sq km (1,300 sq miles). But the draining of these lands in the 17th Century, coupled with persecution by people, led to the crane's complete disappearance as a breeding bird.

Lakenheath Fen was created to act as a wetland habitat for another bird, the bittern. Between 1996 and 2002, the RSPB converted over 200 hectares (500 acres) of arable land into reedbeds and damp meadows.

 

 

Item 87: Universities to Set Up Industrial Complex

(Kang Shin-who, The Korea Times, 21 May, 2007) Universities will be permitted to set up industrial complexes and commercialize new technologies through their research institutions.

Small and Medium Business Administration (SMBA) announced on Monday that it has introduced a new guideline for venture business promotion.

By the new guidelines, universities or their attached research centers will be able to start up businesses and establish factories on campus.

Venture enterprises or general companies are required to be established in the form of a corporation and universities or the affiliated research institutions should own more than 30 percent of the companies' capital.

The new system is expected to enable universities to raise funds for their research and development and create many jobs for university students who are having difficulty landing jobs.

Professors or research workers will be able to become board members of the companies and be allowed to create affiliated companies.

Also, they are allowed to establish nursery centers and operate them. However, a certain amount of benefit from their businesses will need to be reinvested in research and development.

To encourage more professors and researchers to initiate business start-ups, the SMBA has eased and sometimes removed regulations related to facilities of laboratory factories.

The land size for the factories has been increased to 3,000 square meters from 500 square meters but it should be less than 30 percent of the whole campus.

In addition, professors and researchers will be allowed to leave schools for up to six years to concentrate on their businesses, compared with the current three years.

``The new system will help universities commercialize new technologies and promote research and studies with the benefits from their business,'' said Song Jong-ho of SMBA. ``Also it will strengthen networking between industry and universities.''

 

 

Item 88: Lee's Group Unveils Canal Blueprint

(The Korea Herald, 22 May, 2007) An advisory group of presidential frontrunner Lee Myung-bak yesterday unveiled the blueprint of his core election pledge of building a cross-national waterway connecting South Korea with the North.

This is the first time that Lee's camp has made public a draft on the canal project.

The project, dubbed the Pan-Korea Grand Waterway, will be 3,100 kilometers long and comprise 17 routes, including five in the North, professor Jo Won-cheol of Yonsei University, a member of the group, said at a symposium.

The longest canal will be Gyeongbu Canal or Seoul-Busan Canal which will link the Han River in Seoul to the Nakdong River in the southeastern port city of Busan.

Construction of the Gyeongbu Canal will take four years and cost 14.1 trillion won.

"The project will link waterways, regions and open our hearts," the group said in a statement.

Amid controversy over the project's economic viability, the group also said, "It would demonstrate our poor imagination to our descendants if we only emphasize the economic effects of the canal project such as job creation, the development of the tourism/leisure and logistics industry and the balancing of regional development."

Jo listed a number of reasons why the nation needs the new transport mode.

The nation should make use of its well-developed natural rivers. In fact, 90 percent of Gyeongbu Canal will involve rivers that already exist, he added.

He also said the nation needs to develop a variety of transport modes to cope with increasing freight traffic.

He said the volume of freight shipped in containers is expected to jump by two or three times by 2020, citing statistics by the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries.

He also said the canal will reduce the nation's heavy reliance on road transport. Canal shipping is also cheaper and more reliable than coastal shipping.

He also claimed the canals will improve the quality of rivers which are the main sources of drinking water.

Lee was the chief executive of Hyundai Construction and Engineering before entering politics in 1992.

As Seoul mayor in 2005, he completed the challenging task of restoring the Cheonggye Stream in Seoul, an achievement which buttressed his bid for the nation's top job.

Lee, a member of the opposition Grand National Party, holds a commanding lead in public polls with about 40 percent approval ratings.

His rival in the GNP, Park Geun-hye, garners about 20 percent public support according to the surveys. By Jin Hyun-joo

 

 

Item 89: Government Slams Door on Press Rooms

(Shin Hae-in, The Korea Herald, 22 May, 2007) The government plans to close most press rooms in ministry offices and consolidate them into a few briefing rooms as early as July.

The plan met with fierce criticism from journalists, civic groups and political rivals who view the move as an attempt to gag news outlets critical of the administration ahead of the December presidential election.

The Cabinet today will likely approve the proposal, to take effect July 1. President Roh Moo-hyun will preside over the meeting.

Under a draft plan, the current 37 reporters' quarters and briefing rooms in the administrative branches will be consolidated into three in government complexes in central Seoul, Gwacheon and Daejeon.

But Cheong Wa Dae, the National Assembly, and the prosecution and police will retain their separate briefing rooms.

Journalists will not be allowed to be stationed in any government offices and will be offered temporary press cards to attend news briefings. The government will communicate with the media only through press releases and official briefings. Most government offices will be off-limits to reporters.

The plan is one of Roh's press reform measures since his inauguration in 2003. The government has tried to remove reporters' quarters, an exclusive preserve for established media companies, and provide all media equal access to briefings.

But the government failed to close those quarters amid criticism that it would hamper news media activities and damage public knowledge of government activities.

The new plan came after Roh on Jan. 16 ordered the Government Information Agency to survey the public relations practices of foreign governments after news reports criticized the government's new welfare program.

Roh, who has been on uneasy terms with Korea's major newspapers, sharply criticized journalists from privileged companies for "colluding" to determine the tone of news.

According to the information agency, the government currently runs 37 press conference rooms. Of some 3,200 reporters registered with government offices, about 480 reporters show up on a daily basis to government agencies that provided a combined average of 6.6 press briefings per week last year.

Police and prosecution authorities will also be recommended to reduce the number of their pressrooms, but the plan will not include the National Assembly and judicature agencies for now.

The presidential office of Cheong Wa Dae also plans to keep its press room out of the new plan, citing the need to "keep in touch with public opinion."

The main opposition Grand National Party reproached the Roh government for its "dictatorial mindset."

"The new measure reminds me of the drastic media oppression during the authoritarian rule of the military governments," said GNP spokeswoman Na Kyung-won yesterday. "The government has no right to tell reporters where and how to convey what the public must know."

Rep. Lee Joo-young of the GNP said, "This is an anachronistic move to block public eyes and ears. I cannot help but question Roh's hidden motives behind the suppressive measure."

The People's Coalition for Media Reform, a collaboration of 47 civic groups, expressed deep regrets toward the government move.

"There is no doubt that the new measure will infringe on the people's right to know as reporters will be blocked from observing what really goes on behind the government's policy-making process," said Chu Hye-son, deputy secretary general of the group.

Chung Il-yong, chairman of the Journalists Association of Korea, called for a new discussion with journalists.

"I do not understand the government's sudden decision to control media," he said. "The government should make the new plan public as soon as possible and be ready to discuss the details with reports before making it final."

The Korea Association of Newspapers also expressed its opposition saying, "Reporters will have difficulties in keeping an objective view on government policies if they are led to report depending only on government news releases and briefings."

Prof. Kim Seo-jung of Sungkonghoe University had similar concerns.

"The merger of press rooms might have a positive effect on transforming the system of journalism in Korea, but it should be predicated on the government's disclosure of sufficient information," he said. "The government should encourage officials' contact with journalists, not limit it."

Media reform was one of Roh's key pledges during the 2002 presidential election. As part of Roh's pledge to revamp the press room system, the government established an "open briefing" system in 2003, which permitted all registered reporters - including internet and the so-called "minor" media journalists - to attend government briefings. On the other hand, Roh waged a war against the major press by banning reporters from visiting government offices without making prior appointments.

But the culture of the press corps has been almost unchanged except for a slight change in their number.

 

 

Item 90: Sungwon Signs Deal on Dubai Project

(Hwang Si-young, The Korea Herald, 22 May, 2007) Sungwon Corp., a Korean construction company, said yesterday it has signed a $20 billion contract to help redevelop an area of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.

Sungwon will be developing a section of Deira, a port area located across the Dubai creek from Dubai's artificial island complexes, company officials said.

The company's president and CEO Jeon Yoon-soo signed a nonbinding agreement with Deira Investments Co. chairman H.H. Sheikh Ahmed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum yesterday at the Grand Hyatt hotel in Seoul. As many as five Korean subcontractors will be working with Sungwon for the urban redevelopment project. The timing and value of the project have yet to be revealed, the company said.

Deira Investments Co. chairman H.H. Sheikh Ahmed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum is a younger brother of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, vice president of the United Arab Emirates and prime minister and ruler of Dubai, who is currently visiting Seoul with officials from Deira Investments.

The project calls for building residential, commercial and public facilities in a 9.7-million-square-meter area of land in Deira on a turn-key basis. A large port logistics center will be set up there possibly through land reclamation.

Sungwon plans to complete the project in three stages by 2012. The first stage of construction will cost about $5 billion.

"The bidding included planning, design, construction and after-management and showed a strong effort by Sungwon, which has been building residential/commercial complexes and office buildings in Dubai since 2004. Additional bidding can be expected as Dubai plans on further urban redevelopment projects," an industry insider said.

 

 

Item 91: Australia: Farmer Faces Big Fine, Accused of Bulldozing Wetland

(Rob Taylor, Reuters, May 22, 2007) CANBERRA - An Australian farmer accused of partly bulldozing an internationally protected wetland -- home to thousands of migratory birds -- could face A$1 million (US$820,000) fines after the government on Monday ordered an investigation. Up to 750 hectares (1,850 acres) of flood plain in the Ramsar Convention-listed Gwydir River wetland, 650 km (400 miles) north-west of Sydney, were allegedly bulldozed in April amid Australia's worst-known drought.

"It's very hard to understand how this could have happened on the sort of scale that we've seen. Everybody knew that this was the most important wetland area in the whole of the Gwydir catchment," water bird expert Richard Kingsford told local radio.

The wetlands are home to more than 225 species of birds when flooded, including colonies of rare, endangered and vulnerable water birds such as ibis and egret. They were listed under the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands in 1999.

In floods 10 years ago, more than 500,000 water birds flocked to the wetlands, which spread over a mixture of freehold and permanent leasehold land, managed by private landholders.

Federal Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull said he had received complaints about the clearing on the Yarrol property, near the town of Moree, and wanted to know if it breached national land-clearing laws. "I've asked my department to investigate and report back to me," Turnbull said.

Turnbull's state counterpart, New South Wales Environment Minister Phil Koperberg, said the owners could face prosecution within weeks, although an investigation was still underway into whether they had received local permissions.

"It is potentially disastrous. The site is just so significant so as to make one wonder what on earth may have possessed the owners," Koperberg told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.

The Ramsar Convention, signed in an Iranian town of that name in 1971, protects wetlands throughout the world and provides protection and recognition to over 120 million hectares (300 million acres) of globally significant wetlands.

Australia has more than 60 Ramsar sites, covering an area greater than the southern island state of Tasmania.

Kingsford, from the University of NSW, said clearing an area the size of 750 football fields could permanently threaten important bird breeding grounds.

"The next time we get a good flood, essentially they'll come back and they'll be all ready to go to breed, because they're faithful to the same site year in, year out -- and there will be nowhere for them," he said. (US$1=A$1.21)