The cheetah, eradicated in India by hunting nearly a century ago, will run again in the country, as three sites are earmarked for its reintroduction.


The government has approved wildlife groups' recommendations of two sanctuaries in Madhya Pradesh and an area in Rajasthan as potential homes.

The government will spend 30m rupees ($0.6m; £0.4m) to restore these sites before the animals are imported.

The plan is to import the cats from Africa, Iran and the Middle East.

Kuno Palpur and Nauradehi wildlife sanctuaries in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh and Shahgarh area in Jaisalmer, in the northern state of Rajasthan, have been selected as the sites to house the animals.

Trophy hunters

Environment and Forests Minister Jairam Ramesh said the reintroduction of the world's fastest land animal would "restore the grasslands" of India.

Wildlife experts say the two sanctuaries in Madhya Pradesh had the capacity to accommodate nearly 80 cheetahs, although 23 human settlements will have to be moved from the one in Nauradehi.

Scores of nomadic human settlements would also have to be cleared at the site in Rajasthan on the international border with Pakistan.

"The return of the cheetah would make India the only country in the world to host six of the world's eight large cats and the only one to have all the large cats of Asia," MK Ranjitsinh of Wildlife Trust of India told the Press Trust of India news agency.

Pursued by trophy hunters and herdsmen to the brink of extinction during the Raj, the Asiatic cheetah vanished from India many decades ago.

Conservationists say less than 100 of the critically endangered subspecies remain in Iran, roaming the central deserts.

The vast majority of the 10,000 cheetahs left in the world are in Africa.

Critics of the reintroduction scheme in India say that without restoring habitat and prey base, and reducing the scope for man-animal conflict, viable cheetah populations will not flourish.

source (and photos): http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-10798747

Wildlife officials in Malaysian Borneo are pushing to have its saltwater crocodiles removed from a list of endangered animals, saying the reptile’s numbers have strongly recovered in recent years.

Deputy director of the Sabah Wildlife Department Augustin Tuuga told AFP that a survey of the Crocodylus porosus population showed there were about 11,000 to 15,000 in the state compared to 1,000 to 5,000 two decades ago.

“We are pushing to have the crocodile downgraded from the ‘endangered’ to the ‘not necessarily threatened’ list on the Convention of International Trade of Species (CITES),” he said.

Tuuga said there was big demand for legal crocodile leather from handbag and clothing accessory manufacturers as well as for crocodile meat in kitchens throughout Asia.

“Under CITES, these crocodiles can only come from breeding farms but once the crocodile is downgraded, manufacturers will be able to get the crocodiles from the wild,” he added.

“However, before this can happen we must have an effective monitoring mechanism to keep track of the crocodile population to ensure its numbers do not fall below acceptable levels.”

Saltwater crocodiles have the most commercially valuable skin of its species and are found from Sri Lanka all the way to the Caroline Islands in the Western Pacific.

Tuuga said the increase in the crocodile population has also seen 38 attacks on humans in the last 10 years with 23 deaths and 15 injuries.

The latest was reported this month when the remains of a man who was eaten while looking for shellfish were found in the south of the state, he said.

However, Tuuga said the increasing population was not the only factor that led to the attacks.

“A lot of the crocodile’s habitat has been destroyed by development and much of its food sources have also been depleted so this and the frequent human use of the rivers mean that such attacks will occur,” he added.

With some growing up to seven metres (23 feet) in length, the saltwater crocodile has a large head with ridges that run from the eye along the centre of the snout, with bands on its lower flanks and a yellow underside.

source (and photos): http://www.dailynews.lk/2010/07/01/wld23.asp?

To protect the eggs of endangered sea turtles from the ongoing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, U.S. and Florida wildlife experts are planning to relocate them in an unprecedented operation.

The plan is to move developing eggs from some 780 nests away from where they were originally laid on Florida Panhandle and Alabama beaches to a location on the Atlantic coast of Florida far from the oily waters.

"Permitted nest surveyors have been in the field locating and marking nests daily since the start of the nesting season," said Sandy MacPherson, national sea turtle coordinator with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "Data on the nest location and the date deposited are being closely tracked. This allows us certainty in timing the nest collection phase of the plan."


Eggs will be allowed to incubate in their original nests for between 51 and 53 days. Then they will be collected by hand and individually packed in washed Styrofoam boxes with air holes lined with sand from the original nest.

They will be transported by specially equipped ground transportation to designated airports. Each day's collected nests will be air transported in a single aircraft to the Atlantic Coast of Florida. There, in a secure, climate-controlled location, the eggs will complete their incubation.

"As hatchlings emerge they will be released on east central Florida beaches where they will be allowed to make their way to the ocean," said Barbara Schroeder, NOAA Fisheries national sea turtle coordinator.

If left to hatch on their own without relocation, the turtle hatchlings would have to navigate the oil that has been spilling into the Gulf since April 20 from the broken Deepwater Horizon wellhead. That oil has now reached the shores of Alabama and the Florida panhandle.

"In developing this plan we realized early on that our expectations for success needed to be realistic," said MacPherson. "On the one hand the activities identified in the protocols are extraordinary and would never be supportable under normal conditions. However, taking no action would likely result in the loss of all of this year's northern Gulf of Mexico hatchlings."

She said that wildlife officials do not intend to implement these protocols elsewhere or in future years in this area.

Most of the nests are laid by loggerhead turtles, however, some Kemp's ridley, green, and leatherback turtle nests have also been documented. Hatchlings begin emerging from nests in early to mid-July.

In 2010, about 50,000 hatchlings are expected to emerge from Northern Gulf sea turtle nests.

Oil spill impacts to nests laid along the southwest Florida beaches are not likely to result in the loss of the entire 2010 hatchling cohort, according to Robbin Trindell with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's Imperiled Species Management Branch.

"The loggerhead turtles produced on Southwest Florida beaches are part of a larger subpopulation that also nests on Florida's Atlantic Coast beaches," Trindell explained. "The likelihood that all or a significant portion of this 2010 cohort would be lost is highly improbable."

The Fish and Wildlife Service reports that 583 sea turtles have been collected either dead or sick along the U.S. Gulf Coast as of June 29. Of these, 111 were visibly oiled, 126 were not, and the status of 346 is still pending.

All sea turtles are listed as either threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act. Five of the seven species swim in Gulf of Mexico waters - green, hawksbill, Kemp's ridley, leatherback and loggerhead turtles.

To report injured or dead wildlife in the impact area call: 1-866-557-1401. Individuals are asked not to attempt to help injured or oiled sea turtles, but to report the sightings to the toll-free number.

source (and photos): http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jun2010 ... 0-092.html?
photo credit: USFWS

16 birds bred in captivity through artificial incubation at BNHS' Pinjore centre

The Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) has for the first time successfully bred in captivity 16 vultures through artificial incubation at its breeding centre at Pinjore, Haryana. The Vulture Conservation Breeding Centre (VCBC) has also rescued an injured white-backed bird of prey from Ahmedabad.

A nestling was successfully fledged at another BNHS Vulture Conservation Breeding Centre at Rajabhatkhawa in West Bengal this year, BHNS director Asad Rahmani said in a statement.

The 16 fledglings (ready to fly) at Pinjore include three each of the Long-billed Vulture, Slender-billed Vulture and White-backed Vulture species. In 2008-09, one Slender-billed Vulture and three White-backed Vultures grew to a flying stage. The centre now has a total of 136 vultures.

In 2009-10 three eggs of a Long-billed Vulture were incubated at the Pinjore centre for 57 days. The young ones started flying at the age of 108 days.

Drug the villain

Over the past decade nearly 99 per cent of the vultures in India have been brought to the point of extinction with a veterinary drug, Diclofenac, which leads to kidney failure.

The VCBCs in Haryana, West Bengal and Assam aim at breeding vultures in captivity and eventually releasing them into the wild when the ban on Diclofenac is effectively implemented. The three VCBCs are a joint programme of the BNHS and the Forest Department. They are funded by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), U.K. and the Darwin Initiative for the Survival of Species, U.K., and receive technical support from the National Birds of Prey Trust, U.K., and the Zoological Society of London.

Intensive effort

Vibhu Prakash, principal scientist of the VCBC, said, “The successful first attempt at artificial incubation of vulture eggs has given us hopes for increasing the breeding rate of these slow breeding species. Artificial incubation is a very intensive effort.” Special care was taken to avoid the young vultures getting attached to humans, he said.

Dr. Rahmani said the BNHS and various State governments had rescued young ones of vultures from the wild 5-6 years ago. As vultures take 4-5 years to reach the breeding stage, the BNHS hopes that more birds can be bred at its centres.

Dr. Parvez Ahmed, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests and Chief Wildlife Warden of Haryana and head of the breeding programme in the State, said the Pinjore centre reached another milestone in vulture conservation.

This centre hopes to increase reproduction of the birds through double clutching. It involves removing the first eggs laid by vultures and incubating them artificially. The vultures, known to lay eggs again in 3-4 weeks, will then be allowed to hatch the eggs themselves. This way annually two nestlings, instead of one, can be produced by a pair. This technique has been successfully experimented with many endangered species, including cranes.

source: http://www.hindu.com/2010/07/01/stories ... 682600.htm?

It's one of the most ambitious wildlife relocation projects in East Africa in the past 50 years. Thirty-two critically endangered eastern black rhinos are being moved from South Africa to their former habitat in the Serengeti.



source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l38_-oEuGc0

Your vote could make a huge difference to the Painted Dogs in Zimbabwe, it only takes a second of your time!

The Junior Managing Director of GaiaPark Kerkrade Zoo, nine year old Laura Dohman (pictured below), came second place in a competition and won a fabulous prize of €1,500 for Stichting Painted Dog Conservation; a generous gift from NVD (the Dutch Zoo Organisation).

On behalf of Stichting PDC, many thanks to all who voted!

However, Stichting PDC still needs your support. There is another competition with the possibility to win €2,500 for the Painted Dogs!

Please take a moment to visit the Midzomer Natuurfestival website and vote for Painted Dog Conservation (look for the yellow box on the homepage). Please vote, and ask others to vote also! One vote per IP address.

On behalf of Ron van der A, Chairman of Stichting Painted Dog Conservation, thank you very much for your support.

source (and photos): Ron van der A, Stichting PDC (via email)

Crippled by problems of encroaching and poachers, the Sonai-Rupai animal sanctuary in the remote Assam-Arunachal Pradesh border has carved out a success story for itself with sound wildlife management.

Unlike other national parks and game reserves in the state that have languished over the years due to poaching and other ailments, the nearly 200 sq km sanctuary till today boasts of housing a variety of animals as well as valuable timber.

Situated on the picturesque river bank of Gabharu and only about an hour's drive from Sonitpur district headquarters of Tezpur, the sanctuary has sufficient grasslands to house elephants, rhinos, leopards and a host of other animals.

Moreover the unique climatic condition of the area helps in the growth of valuable wood and medicinal plants. The sanctuary is also a haven for migratory birds apart from a host of big birds living inside the forest area including the peacock, hornbills and owls.

However, the jewel in the crown for the reserve forest, which was declared a sanctuary in 1998, is the addition of the rarest and smallest breed of wild pig, known as pigmy hog and the animals have found a natural home in the sanctuary.

Gautam Narayan, regarded as the father figure for the pygmy hogs which had once faced near extinction, says the release programme first initiated in 2008 has ever since been a a tremendous success.

Narayan who heads the Pygmy Hogs Conservation Programme (PHCP) in the outskirts of Guwahati city is instrumental in bringing the rare animal out of extinction from its isolated pockets in the Manas National Park and Barnadi wildlife sanctuary.

Starting the PHCP way back in 1996 with only three males and four females brought from the Manas National Park, the centre now boasts of nearly a hundred of the highly endangered species and many of them are set to make Sonai-Rupai their home.

"Yes we have conducted a ground survey which suggests that release of the pygmy hogs in Sonai Rupai was ideal and thus started the programme since 2008 and 20 of them are in the wild", Narayan told PTI.

The pygmy hog, world's smallest and rarest breed of wild pig facing extinction worldwide, has a height of about 25 cm and weighs about six to nine kilograms.

Recalling his days in 1996, Narayan said the PHCP helped the animal in captive breeding and now it was in a position to release the animals in their natural habitats.

Narayan says the pygmy hogs was an important indicator species and there was an urgent need to know the reasons for its fast disappearance from the wilderness.
Narayan says releasing the animals into the wild is an arduous task and every care has to be taken to ensure total success.

"The pygmy hogs are extremely shy and delicate animals and proper care has to be taken in terms of their age and their ability to thrive in the wilderness before deciding them to release in the wild", he says.

"the aim of the captive breeding centre at Basistha was to help in the growth of animals in the wild as it was not always possible to keep them confined within the four walls", he says.

source (and photos): http://www.deccanherald.com/content/743 ... arves.html?

Malaysia wildlife authorities have saved a second endangered pygmy elephant calf on Borneo island, a state minister said on Wednesday as he called for an urgent effort to safeguard its shrinking habitat.

Masidi Manjun, eastern Sabah-state tourism, culture and environment minister said the two-year-old female elephant was found last Friday. About two weeks ago plantation workers found a starving six-month-old elephant in another area.

'I hope the saving of the two pygmy elephants will highlight the need by the people of Sabah to treasure our jungles and our rare animals,' he said.

Pygmy elephants are unique to Borneo and form a sub-species of the Asian elephant. The creatures have a rounded appearance and males stand only about 2.5m tall, compared to around 3m for mainland Asian elephants. Authorities say the elephant species is considered endangered, with around 1,500-2,000 left on Borneo island.

Wildlife activists have warned that Borneo Pygmy elephants are fast losing their natural habitat to deforestation and human encroachment. Masidi said he feared the two calves could have been separated or abandoned by their mothers 'in a haste to escape hunters or humans', as poaching was rife in the state.

'Sabah's wildlife faces challenges. Poaching is the number one problem. Its wildlife habitat is experiencing destruction, degradation and fragmentation of the forest,' he warned. 'Indiscriminate logging will affect our wildlife.' Masidi said since eco-tourism was a major income earner for Sabah, failure to safeguard nature will have 'far reaching implications' on the state economy.

source: http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNew ... 37725.html?

Increased numbers, improved sex ratio and more areas conquered — the lion king is healthy and prospering in Gujarat. Chief minister Narendra Modi declared the lion census figures of 2010 on Sunday, which showed that there were 411 of the big cats in Gir sanctuary and surrounding areas. The figure shows a jump of 52 over the previous census in 2005.

The lion is reclaiming territory much further away from the Gir sanctuary than originally thought. As many as 33 big cats were counted 250 km from Gir National Park in semi-forested areas of Mahuva and Palitana in Bhavnagar.

No less than 74 lions are now roaming outside the sanctuary near human habitation. These are fast turning into the new habitats of the big cat. Coastal areas of Rajula and Jafrabad in Amreli have also recorded sizable population.

Wildlife experts are excited about a number of findings. For instance, there are 97 males and 162 females. The rest are cubs. Youth power seems to be on the rise as there were 77 lions aged less than one year. Another 75 of them are categorized as sub-adult cubs in the age group of 1-3 years. Modi said the maximum number of lions, 297, were found in Gir National Park and adjoining areas.

The sex ratio too has improved. While there were 1.2 females for every male in 2005, the 2010 census put the number at 1.67 females for every male. Taking a dig at the skewed sex ratio in several parts of the country, including Gujarat, Modi said humans should take a lesson or two from the lions. Among their new dens, the lions have shown a special liking for Girnar sanctuary. Established in 2007, the new abode has 24 lions. In the 2005 census Girnar was not a sanctuary.

source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Home ... 884572.cms

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
Published: April 14, 2010
HWANGE NATIONAL PARK, Zimbabwe

We humans are suckers for certain kinds of wildlife, from lions to elephants. I hadn’t known I was a zebra fan until I drove my rented car into a traffic jam of zebras here. My heart fluttered.

As for rhinos, they’re so magnificent that they attract foreign aid. Women here in rural Zimbabwe routinely die in childbirth for lack of ambulances or other transport to hospitals, and they get no help. But rhinos in this park get a helicopter to track their movements.

Then there are animals that don’t attract much empathy. Aardvarks. Newts. And, at the bottom tier, African wild dogs.

Wild dogs (which aren’t actually wild dogs, but never mind that for now) are a species that has become endangered without anyone raising an eyebrow. Until, that is, a globe-trotting adventurer named Greg Rasmussen began working with local villages to rebrand the dogs — and save them from extinction.

It’s a tale that offers some useful lessons for do-gooders around the world, in clever marketing and “branding,” and in giving local people a stake in conservation. For if it’s possible to rescue a despised species with a crummy name like “wild dogs,” any cause can have legs.

Mr. Rasmussen was born in Britain but grew up partly in Zimbabwe. He bounced around the world for years as a sailor, zookeeper and kennel owner, surviving a charging elephant, a venomous 12-foot black mamba, a possibly rabid mongoose and a coma from cerebral malaria.

Eventually, he ended up researching African wild dogs. He crashed his small plane in the African bush (he was found a day and a half later, half-dead, as he was being stalked by lions), and while learning to walk again he earned a doctorate in zoology, emerging as one of the world’s leading specialists on wild dogs.

Once the African wild dog was found by the hundreds of thousands across Africa, but today there are only a few thousand left, mostly in Zimbabwe, Botswana, Tanzania and South Africa.

Wild dogs are not dogs, which split off from wolves only in the last 30,000 years. In contrast, wild dogs last shared a common ancestor with dogs or wolves about 6 million years ago. They are the size of German shepherds and look like dogs, but they don’t bark and have different teeth and toes. And although many have tried, they have not been domesticated.

“Chimpanzees and gorillas are closer to us humans than wolves are to painted dogs,” Mr. Rasmussen said.

Note that terminology: “painted dogs.” Central to Mr. Rasmussen’s effort to save the dogs has been a struggle to rename them, so that they sound exotic rather than feral.

Do-gooders usually have catastrophic marketing skills. Pepsi and Coke invest fortunes to promote their products over their rivals, while humanitarians aren’t nearly as savvy about marketing causes with far higher stakes — famine, disease, mass murder.

Mr. Rasmussen is an exception, and his effort to rebrand the species as “painted dogs” caught on. The name works because the animals’ spotted coats suggest that they ran through an artist’s studio.

Mr. Rasmussen runs the Painted Dog Conservation, a center that offers the animals a refuge from poachers and rehabilitation when they are injured. But most of all, he works with impoverished local villagers so that they feel a stake in preserving painted dogs.

Conservation efforts around the world often involve tensions with local people. But you can’t save rainforests if their advocates are 5,000 miles away, and conservationists increasingly are realizing that they can succeed only if they partner with local people.

For Mr. Rasmussen, that has meant turning his conservation center into a children’s camp for school groups, sponsored by donors at $60 a child. Kids learn that painted dogs don’t attack humans or prey much on livestock.

“It makes a difference,” Washington Moyo, a dog-keeper here, said of the villagers’ visits. “Once they come, they can differentiate between hyenas and painted dogs. Because when livestock are taken, it is primarily by hyenas, not painted dogs.”

The conservation center has also started economic development programs for nearby villages. The idea is for local people to benefit from the dogs’ presence and gain incomes so that they won’t feel the need to poach wildlife.

“What we’re trying to achieve here is a model not just for painted dogs, but something that applies for any species,” Mr. Rasmussen said. “Conservation has to be inclusive, and lots of people have to benefit.”

If clever marketing and strategic thinking can take reviled varmints such as “wild dogs” and resurrect them (quite justly) as exotic “painted dogs” to be preserved, then no cause is hopeless.

article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/15/opini ... istof.html
photos: courtesy of Gregory Rasmussen

Concerned over 14 big cats dying in the last three months, the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) has decided to convene a three-day meeting of wildlife officials of tiger-range states to review protection strategy in national parks.

The meeting, to be chaired by NTCA Member Secretary Rajesh Gopal, has come days after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh expressed concern over the recent unnatural tiger deaths in sanctuaries particularly Corbett and Kanha tiger reserves in Uttarakhand and Rajasthan respectively.

"The meeting, which commences from April 10, has been proposed at Ramnagar in Uttarakhand to discuss the strategies for plugging the loopholes to ensure safety of tigers. Chief Wildlife Wardens and Field Directors will attend the meet," Deputy Inspector General (NTCA) SP Yadav said.

The government has already warned that as many as 18 reserves in the country threatens to go the Panna and Sariska way where all native striped cats were wiped out by the poachers.

"During the meeting, issues such as need for expediting buffer and core zones, streamlining tourism and strengthening weaker areas would be deliberated in detail," Yadav said.

Poaching, infighting and conflict with villagers have taken a toll on the endangered tigers whose habitat has shrunk to meet the human needs for development. On March 15, a tiger died in Tarai West, Ramnagar in Uttarakhand. During the same month, a total of four tigers died in Valmiki Tiger Reserve in Bihar, Ranthambore National Park and Wayanad in Kerala. On April 1, a tiger cub was found dead in Bandipur Tiger reserve in Karnataka.

In 2009, 60 tiger deaths were reported across the states, highest in the past three years. Now, merely 3,500 big cats are left in the wild of which 1,411 are in India.

source (and photos): http://www.deccanherald.com/content/623 ... otect.html?

A team of biologists from the Turtle Survival Alliance (TSA) and Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) reported today that Madagascar's radiated tortoise -- considered one of the most beautiful tortoise species -- is rapidly nearing extinction due to rampant hunting for its meat and the illegal pet trade.

The team predicts that unless drastic conservation measures take place, the species will be driven to extinction within the next 20 years.

The team recently returned from field surveys in southern Madagascar's spiny forest, where the once-abundant tortoises occur. They found entire regions devoid of tortoises and spoke with local people who reported that armed bands of poachers had taken away truckloads of tortoises to supply open meat markets in towns such as Beloha and Tsihombe. Poaching camps have been discovered with the remains of thousands of radiated tortoises, and truckloads of tortoise meat have been seized recently.

"Areas where scores of radiated tortoises could be seen just a few years ago have been poached clean," said James Deutsch, director of the Wildlife Conservation Society's Africa Program. "Back then one could hardly fathom that this beautiful tortoise could ever become endangered, but such is the world we live in, and things can -- and do ? change rapidly."

"The rate of hunting of radiated tortoises is similar to the hunting pressure on American bison during the early 19th century, where they were nearly hunted to extinction when they once numbered in the tens of millions," said Brian D. Horne, turtle conservation coordinator for the Wildlife Conservation Society's Species Program.

Tortoise populations near urban centers have crashed with poachers moving closer and closer to protected areas; it is simply a matter of time before those areas are targeted too, the biologists predict.

"Radiated tortoises are truly under siege now as never before, and if we can't draw a line in the sand around protected areas, then we will lose this species" said Rick Hudson, president of the TSA. "I can't think of a tortoise species that has undergone a more rapid rate of decline in modern times, or a more drastic contraction in range, than the radiated tortoise. This is a crisis situation of the highest magnitude."

Formerly occupying a vast swath of the southern portion of the island nation of Madagascar ? the radiated tortoise was once considered one of the world's most abundant tortoise species, with an estimated population in the millions. It is now ranked as Critically Endangered by the IUCN Red List.

One of the most troubling trends is that poachers are now entering protected areas (Special Reserves, National Parks, World Heritage Sites) to collect tortoises and the staff there are poorly equipped to patrol and protect populations. The situation is exacerbated by several factors:

Years of extreme drought that have led to diminished agricultural production and increased poverty, which leads people to tortoise hunting for survival;
Enforcement action is often days away so that local officials do not have the capacity to stop poachers;
Severe habitat degradation has made the spiny forest the most endangered forest type in Madagascar. After burning and clearing for agriculture invasive plant species take over and today thick stands of opuntia (prickly pear) and sisal (agave) dominate the landscape;
Current political instability has resulted in an increased open access to natural resources and illegal pet trade.
The radiated tortoise is still able to "make a living" and survive in this degraded habitat. However, the tortoise cannot survive the current threat of wholesale collection for food markets. Community mobilization linked to sustainable habitat protection is needed to save this unique critically endangered species.

Dr. John Robinson, WCS's executive vice president for Conservation Science, testified before Congress recommending that freshwater turtles and tortoises receive greater attention under the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service-administered Marine Turtle Conservation Fund.

The Wildlife Conservation Society's Bronx Zoo owns many radiated tortoises kept at the Behler Chelonian Conservation Center and other U.S. zoos and about a dozen held at the WCS Bronx Zoo. Many of these are Species Survival Program-recommended animals for breeding. These animals form a significant percentage of the animals in the U.S.

Link:
http://www.wcs.org

source: http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/madagasc ... ction.html?

The United States Department of Justice and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service were recently honored for aggressive action against illegal trafficking in sea turtles.


The United States Department of Justice and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service were recently honored for aggressive action against illegal trafficking in sea turtles.

The Animal Welfare Institute, a non-governmental organization that promotes the humane treatment of animals, bestowed its prestigious Clark R. Bavin Law Enforcement Award to the Department of Justice and the Fish and Wildlife Service for their successful work in Operation Central, uncovering and prosecuting 4 sea turtle smuggling rings that were operating full-scale supply networks in Mexico and China. These operations were carried out with the full cooperation of the Government of Mexico.

"Those honored by the Animal Welfare Institute for their contributions to this case included Service special agents and Justice Department prosecutors. This award appropriately recognizes the talented and dedicated prosecutors in the Environmental Crimes Section, who worked tirelessly to break up these international smuggling rings," said Ignacia Moreno, Assistant Attorney General for Justice Department's Environmental and Natural Resources Division.

Working closely with authorities in Mexico, Operation Central uncovered 4 sea turtle smuggling rings – 2 based in Mexico and 2 in China – engaged in illegal trafficking in endangered and threatened sea turtles and other protected species, and products made from their parts. The investigation and prosecution stands as the largest probe ever of the black market exploitation of highly endangered sea turtles.

Several species of the illegally traded sea turtles nest solely in Mexican waters, and this illegal trade had a significant impact on these species' populations. The market value of the wildlife parts and products at issue was estimated at well over one million dollars.

The complex multi-year investigation resulted in 12 individuals being charged with more than 50 counts of conspiracy, smuggling, and money-laundering. The investigation included the execution of search warrants in 5 different U.S. states and the arrest of 8 of the charged individuals, 6 of whom entered U.S. jurisdiction from Mexico and China. The Government of Mexico cooperated by conducting simultaneous arrests in Mexico of Mexican citizens suspected of engaging in similar criminal activity in Mexico.

All of the defendants arrested in the United States pled guilty and were sentenced. This effort curtailed illegal trade in a significant population of endangered sea turtles and other wildlife, and forged a cooperative and successful relationship with Mexican law enforcement authorities engaged in wildlife protection.

"Let there be no doubt: the United States is not a safe-market for illegal wildlife products," said Assistant Attorney General Moreno. "We will continue to work with our allies around the world to stop the destructive practice of illegal wildlife smuggling."

source (and photos): http://www1.voanews.com/policy/editoria ... 29197.html?

Efforts to save the critically endangered Sumatran rhino in Indonesia have hit a major stumbling block.


Conservationists say it appears that a female rhino that had become pregnant in captivity has had a miscarriage.

It is estimated that there are only 200 rhinos left in the wild. Their numbers have dropped by 50% from last year, mainly due to illegal poaching.

When eight-year-old Ratu became pregnant in February she found herself the centre of attention in Indonesia.

The female rhino's pregnancy raised hopes that she would soon give birth to the first Sumatran rhino born in captivity in the country.

But according to conservationists, ultrasound tests have revealed she may have lost her unborn baby.

Widodo Ramono, the executive director at the Indonesian Rhino Foundation, told the BBC that the latest tests had shown that Ratu's embryo had disappeared, leading the organisation to believe the female rhino had suffered a miscarriage.

Experts hope that Ratu will begin ovulating again some time this month - and they say they will try again.

But getting her to breed was not easy the first time round.

When Ratu and her partner Andalas first met last year, it is believed Andalas chased Ratu and fought with her, leaving her with serious injuries.

It was only on their fourth attempt to mate that Ratu conceived.

These mammals are some of the most endangered in the world.

They have long been the target of illegal poachers who see them as valuable prizes - there is a long-held belief that their horns have medicinal properties, especially in traditional Asian medicine.

source (and photos): http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8603255.stm?

Two tiger cubs were on Sunday found dead under mysterious circumstances in the Ranthambhore National Park (RNP) in Rajasthan's Sawaimadhopur district, 175 km from here, a top wildlife official said.

"Carcasses of two male cubs were spotted near Taleda village located in the North of RNP along with two carcasses of goats," R N Mehrotra, the state chief wildlife warden, said.

The cause of their death was yet to be ascertained, he said, adding that, however, that prima facie it seemed like a case of poisoning.

When asked to clarify whether it was a poaching incident, he said it was too early to draw such a conclusion.

The carcasses have been sent for post-mortem. According to a census conducted by the forest department in May 2009, there were 40 tigers in and around Ranthambore National Park and Sawai Madhopur wildlife sanctuary.

Meanwhile, People for Animal (NGO) state convenor Babulal Jaju demanded that a high-level probe be ordered into the deaths by the state government.

source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home ... 654841.cms

Early this morning Save the Elephants (STE) research facility and Elephant Watch Safari Camp located in Samburu National Reserve, Kenya, were completely destroyed by unexpected flooding of the Ewaso Ng’iro River, along with seven other neighbouring lodges.

At approximately 5am this morning, a wall of water akin to a Tsunami surged through Elephant Watch Camp, catching tourists and staff unawares and sweeping away tents and facilities. It has been confirmed that camp owner Oria Douglas-Hamilton and guests managed to escape to safety by climbing to higher ground. Several members of staff were trapped in trees until the water subsided later today.

At approximately 7am the flood hit and decimated Save the Elephants’ research facility down river. Researchers and staff managed to drive to safety within seconds of the flood waters surging through the facility.

News just in confirm scenes of devastations at both facilities, with beds, tents, computers and vital research documentation submerged in mud and strung up in the treetops. Over 200 people watched from a hill above the camps as the waters wrecked havoc.

Staff and researchers hastily salvaged computers and camera equipment, but reports confirm that key research data, computers, equipment, kitchen facilities and food, lodging and personal effects have been washed away.

Although it is too early to asses the cost of the damage, Operations Manager Lucy King expects it will cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to rebuild the facility, and Save the Elephants is now calling on the generosity of donors and interested parties to kick start the effort.

The immediate relief process has already begun, with blankets and water flown in by STE founder Iain Douglas-Hamilton this morning, as well as the assistance of the British army which is attempting to airlift people to safety and bring additional supplies.

The waters have currently receded to the point where staff are able to wade through the remnants of the facilities and retrieve what is left of their belongings.

Ominously, heavy rain clouds hang over Samburu and more heavy rains are expected as early as this evening at what is only the start of Kenya’s rainy season.

Please note that news updates on the flooding will be posted on the STE website. To donate to STE’s rebuilding effort, please go to http://www.savetheelephants.org
For all media enquiries please contact: Lucy King: +254 (0)720 275561

source (and photos): http://www.savetheelephants.org

With the advent of spring, animals will begin to awake from hibernation and to think of pleasant pastimes. Like mating, for instance. In the case of toads, this poses a problem. They need to reach certain specific ponds and pools to pursue their love life, and they have traditional routes for getting there. Unfortunately, modern life has interposed obstacles like roads – but, apparently, you can’t explain to a toad that it would be a good idea to go somewhere else. So the Toad Migration Group of The Hague is asking for volunteers to spend at least one evening a week for six weeks supervising toad crossing. Anyone interested can apply to http://www.haagse-dierenbescherming.nl or call 070-392 42 89.

source: http://www.thehagueonline.com/headlines ... s-the-road

An Indonesian government proposal offering rare Sumatran tigers
up for adoption by wealthy citizens has drawn scorn from environmental activists, who say it's the wrong approach to conservation.

There are only 400 Sumatran tigers left in Indonesia, where deforestation has destroyed much of their native habitat and they are hunted for traditional medicines and illegal menageries.

Tiger "adoption" -- where a pair can be rented out as pets in exchange for a 1 billion rupiah ($107,100) deposit -- could help curb illegal hunting and trade, a Forestry Ministry official said on Friday.

"There are many orders from rich people who want them, who feel if they own a tiger they are a big shot. We have to take concrete steps to protect these animals," said Darori, the ministry's director general of forest protection and nature conservation.

The tiger "renters" must allow visits at three-monthly intervals by a team of vets, animal welfare officers and ministerial staff.

The animals will come from those already kept in captivity, and must be given cages with minimum dimensions of five metres high, six metres wide and 10 metres (16 feet by 19 feet by 32 feet).

"That's almost as big as my house," said Darori. "And because these people are rich, they will definitely give them good food."

The tigers will remain state property and will be returned to the state if they are no longer wanted, he said. Any cubs the tigers produce will be the property of the state.

Darori said he had received complaints about the plan from 12 environmental NGOs.

"So we have invited them for consultation before we continue with this plan. If we can agree, it will be put into practice as soon as possible," he said.

Greenpeace's forest campaigner, Bustar Maitar, said the plan was tantamount to selling the tigers off.

"It shows the government is not serious about addressing the real issues threatening Sumatran tigers. They need to stop issuing forest concessions," he said.

source (and photos): http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home ... 488134.cms

A tiger census will be undertaken in Melghat reserve from January 27, forest officials said.

The census will be done in an area spanning over 2,000 sq km. Training will be given to officials involved in the survey, they said.

"The survey is scheduled to be completed within six days as per the programme. However, it may take two-three days more," Project Tiger's Field Director A K Mishra said.

The census will comprise four phases -- field data collection, compilation, verification and analysis.

The census is part of a detailed study on tiger population in 17 states undertaken by Wildlife Institute of India in collaboration with the Centre, various state forest departments and Project Tiger, Mishra said.

Data on tiger population will be compiled at state level and will be then sent to the Centre for verification, he said.

source (and photos): http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home ... 409551.cms

Scientists are calling the latest count of Siberian tigers a wake-up call that the world could do better to protect these persecuted cats. A recent report by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) revealed that the last remaining population of Siberian tigers has likely declined significantly due to the rising tide of poaching and habitat loss.

The report documented a 40 percent drop in tiger numbers, taken from a 12-year average. The study’s authors say the decline is due primarily to increased poaching of both tigers and their prey in the region, coupled with a series of reforms in Russia that reduced the number of enforcement personnel in key tiger areas. The report was released by the Siberian Tiger Monitoring Program, which WCS coordinates in association with Russian governmental and non-governmental organizations.

Annual tiger surveys are conducted at 16 monitoring sites scattered across tiger range, and serve as an early warning system to detect changes in the population. The monitoring area, which covers 9,000 square miles, represents 15–18 percent of existing tiger habitat in Russia. Only 56 tigers were counted at these monitoring sites. Deep snows this past winter may have forced tigers to reduce the amount they traveled, making them harder to detect, but the report notes a 4-year downward trend in their population figures.

The total number of Siberian tigers across their entire range was estimated at 500 individuals in 2005. That count was hailed as a significant recovery for the population, since a count in the late 1940s tallied fewer than 30 animals.

Dr. Dale Miquelle of the WCS Russian Far East Program called the results of the surveys “sobering,” but remained hopeful. “The good news is that we believe this trend can be reversed if immediate action is taken,” he said.

Russian scientists and non-government organizations are recommending changes in law enforcement regulations, improvements in habitat protection, and a strengthening of the protected areas network to reverse the downward trend.

“While the results are indeed bad news in the short term, we believe the overall picture for Siberian tigers remains positive,” said Colin Poole, director of WCS-Asia. “There is an enormous amount of good will for saving Siberian tigers. We just need to translate this into action.”

WCS’s conservation work in this region has been generously supported by: 21st Century Tiger, E. Lisk Wyckoff, Jr. and the Homeland Foundation; Save The Tiger Fund – a partnership of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and the ExxonMobil Foundation; US Fish and Wildife Foundation; Robertson Foundation; Panthera; and the Liz Claiborne and Art Ortenberg Foundation.

source: http://www.wcs.org/new-and-noteworthy/s ... -away.aspx

The Koala Foundation says it has evidence that the wild koala population has steeply declined in recent years and wants the marsupial put on the endangered species list.

The national Threatened Species Scientific Committee (TSSC) is again examining whether the marsupial should be listed as vulnerable to extinction.

In 2006 the TSSC rejected a nomination to list the koala under the Commonwealth Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.

It found that there were likely to be in the order of hundreds of thousands of mature individuals in the wild.

But the Australian Koala Foundation says it has evidence that the wild population has steeply declined in recent years from hundreds-of-thousands to as few as 43,000.

Australian Koala Foundation CEO Deborah Tabart says the koala is in trouble.

"We're saying it could be as low as 43,000 and as high as 80,000, and that's a lot different to what the government thinks," she said.

Since European settlement hunting, disease and habitat loss have greatly reduced koala numbers.

"I really think climate change is starting to affect koala populations," Ms Tabart said.

"I was just in Charleville in western Queensland and we had about eight people looking for four days and we didn't find one koala.

"Ten years ago it was estimated it could have been 20,000 koalas."

Ms Tabart says there has been political reluctance to declare the koala a threatened species because it could hamper developments and infrastructure projects.

"The quality of the data we put in is not reflected in the documents that come back out," she said.

"Developers fear them. Politicians fear them because they think it's going to stop projects.

"The power of the development industry is very great. There has been a great deal of opposition to the protection of the koala over many years and I think that still exists."

Ms Tabart says if Environment Minister Peter Garrett knocks back the request to protect koalas, they will look for international help.

"If the koala doesn't get listed, then I have completely lost faith in our legal system," she said.

"I think all hell will break loose in some respects because I think we'll have to ask the international community to step in somehow, some way."

Under consideration

Last year the Federal Government ordered a review of the koala's status believing that its situation probably had changed. The TSSC was asked to again examine numbers.

Professor Bob Beeton from the TSSC says they will discuss the latest figures with scientists today but will not make a recommendation until the middle of next year.

"We'll spend the day with them talking about this issue of koala numbers, abundance, etc, because we judge under different criteria," he said.

"We're interested in whether there's a decline in numbers, whether there's a decline in range, how rapidly those things are occurring, what's the probability of extinction?

"We're interested in all those things."

Profesor Beeton says the fact the koala is emblematic and a drawcard for international tourists will not influence their decision.

"There's a number of species which are charismatic and emotionally charged. We don't consider that," he said.

"I mean, we'd consider the koala with the same level of diligence and dedication as if it were the death adder."

'Clear evidence'

Dr Bill Ellis has been researching koalas in Queensland for two decades and is one of the scientists taking part in the talks.

"Well there's a pretty clear, or very clear evidence of major declines in populations across Queensland and certainly evidence that the same thing's happening in areas of New South Wales," he said.

"So the time to review their situation is probably right now."

Dr Ellis' research has involved capturing koalas and attaching satellite transmitters to monitor numbers.

"We've had examples of localised extinctions, especially in New South Wales where there's been long term projects where people have been looking at koalas and involving community and surveys and getting good support from the community because they're concerned that their koala numbers are dwindling," he said.

"But they haven't been able to save them and they have gone extinct."

source (and photos): http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009 ... 738150.htm

Kuala Lumpur, 5 November 2009 — Malaysia’s roadmap to saving its wild tigers has received its most solid endorsement yet—a firm and clear commitment from Government to protect the species and the places it calls home.

The National Tiger Action Plan was officially adopted by Malaysia’s National Biodiversity-Biotechnologys Council yesterday. It is a detailed document that government and environmental NGOs jointly shaped over the past two years.

Malaysia’s Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, who chairs the Council said the government would take concrete efforts to protect the Tigers, double their number by 2020 and widen the area where wildlife is protected.

The high-powered Council counts Ministers of Environment, Health, Education, Science, Technology and Innovation as well as International Trade and Ministry among its members.

Consultations on the draft plan between the Wildlife and National Parks Department and a coalition of NGOs that formed the Malaysian Conservation Alliance for Tigers (MYCAT) began in 2006. The coalition comprises TRAFFIC Southeast Asia, WWF Malaysia, Malaysian Nature Society and the Wildlife Conservation Society-Malaysia Programme.

The plan, which was completed and released late 2007, spells out the direction and specific actions that government agencies and NGOs must carry out between 2008 and 2015 to secure a future for wild Malayan Tiger populations.

These actions include securing ample Tiger habitats, ensuring connectivity of habitats, protecting Tiger prey-species and enforcement against poachers and has even been built into spatial and infrastructure development planning.

Its overall indicator of success will be 1,000 wild Tigers surviving on wild prey in the year 2020, in a secured, well-connected swathe of forest that runs through the centre of Peninsular Malaysia, referred to as the Central Forest Spine.

Malaysia currently has an estimated 500 wild Tigers, down from about 3,000 in the 1950s.

“This is a monumental step forward for conservation of Malaysia’s Tigers and all wildlife,” said Chris R. Shepherd, TRAFFIC Southeast Asia’s Acting-Director.

“There’s much work ahead to realize the plan and many problems to address, but this is exactly the kind of commitment we hope all Tiger range States will show.

Among those problems, which the Council also addressed, were threats posed by encroachment into protected areas and poaching. The Deputy Prime Minister called on the all State Governments, the Wildlife and National Parks Department and the Forestry Department to work towards curbing the problem.

The adoption of the plan is a timely boost for conservation efforts and comes at a critical time for Tiger and Tiger prey survival. Poaching levels are high, as indicated by numerous recent illegal activities in Malaysia’s forests.

In July, the government took another crucial step towards protecting Tiger prey-species by placing a two-year ban on the hunting of Sambar and Barking Deer.

Most recently, on October 26, Wildlife and National Parks Department arrested two men for poaching two Barking Deer, just off a highway that cuts through a biodiversity rich forest in the north of Peninsular Malaysia.

The men, both from the town of Gerik in Perak, will face charges under Section 68 of the Protection of Wildlife Act 1972 for possession of a protected species and could face up to RM3,000 in fines or a maximum three years in prison, or both, upon conviction.

Wildlife officers in Gerik town alone have handled 16 cases involving poachers so far this year, Perak State Wildlife Department Director Shabrina Mohd Shariff said.

In May, authorities caught two men with the skull and bones of a Tiger and arrested Cambodian poachers in Malaysia’s forests with wildlife parts. Just last month, a Tiger was found in a snare by authorities and WWF’s wildlife protection unit, unfortunately it died of its injures.

source (and photos): http://www.traffic.org/home/2009/11/5/m ... opted.html

The world's tiger population is declining fast despite efforts to save them, and new strategies are urgently needed to keep the species
from dying out, international wildlife experts said on Tuesday.

"We are assembled here to save tigers that are at the verge of extinction,'' Nepal's secretary of forest and soil conservation, Yuvaraj Bhusal, told a conference of tiger experts from 20 countries, including the 13 where wild tigers are still found.

An estimated 3,500 to 4,000 tigers now roam the world's forests, down from the more than 100,000 estimated at the beginning of the 20th century. All the remaining tigers are in Asia.

Participants at the conference, which also includes the World Bank, the World Wildlife Fund and other groups, plan to discuss strategies for tiger conservation, as well as challenges such as poaching, the trade of tiger parts and conflicts between tigers and local populations.

“Despite our efforts in the last three decades, tigers still face threats of survival. The primary threat is from poaching and habitat loss,'' Nepal's prime minister Madhav Kumar Nepal told the conference.

He said extreme poverty has also challenged efforts. “Global and regional solidarity and corrective measures are more necessary now than ever to face these challenges,'' the prime minister said.

Bhusal, the forest secretary, said participants hope to make high-level policy makers in their countries more aware of the animal's possible extinction.

The 13 countries where wild tigers are still found include Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Russia, Thailand and Vietnam.

source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home ... 169093.cms

In just ten seconds online you could help the Gorilla Organization to continue funding a vital project that reduces pressure on precious gorilla forests in DR Congo to preserve the long-term future of gorillas.

Out of nearly a thousand nominations, the UN Year of the Gorilla 'Jiko Stoves' project in the area surrounding the Virunga National Park has been selected as one of only twelve finalists in the World Challenge 09 competition.

Online voters simply have to visit www.theworldchallenge.co.uk/2009-finalists-project04.php and cast a vote for the DR Congo 'Jiko Stoves' project. It takes only ten seconds and does not require registration.

The area surrounding the Virunga National Park in DR Congo, home to the critically endangered mountain gorilla, is densely populated, with most families reliant on firewood and charcoal for cooking and heating. The collection of firewood can have a detrimental effect on the gorilla habitat, and is also very time-consuming and physically exhausting for the villagers and children involved.

Partnering with local group AIDE-Kivu, the Gorilla Organization launched the fuel-efficient stove project in 2008, producing and distributing ‘jiko’ stoves which reduce the consumption of firewood and charcoal by at least 75%. Families with fuel-efficient stoves are now using on average just 1.5 sacks of charcoal a month compared to four sacks per month before.

The Director of The Gorilla Organization, Jillian Miller, says “The ‘Jiko Stoves’ project in DR Congo has shown proven success in reducing the consumption of firewood and charcoal – which is a huge threat to the critically endangered mountain gorilla. Winning the $20 000 prize money in the World Challenge competition would fund this vital project for an entire year”

source (and photos): http://www.gorillas.org/World%20Challenge%20Vote%20Now

A political crisis in this African island nation has triggered a pillage of its mythical wildlife and forests, and conservation groups fear that the peril will worsen as donors suspend funding to punish coup leaders running the country.

Conservationists say the problem is particularly distressing in Madagascar, because it is a land like no other. After the island broke off mainland Africa 160 million years ago, Indian Ocean isolation created a biological laboratory that spawned thousands of plants and animals -- massive moths, brawny baobabs, a hundred species of furry lemurs -- that exist nowhere else.

Security in Madagascar has broken down since a coup in March, and traffickers have smuggled out record numbers of Ploughshare tortoises, one of the world's rarest, for sale to Asian and European collectors, environmentalists said. A nature organization has exposed a lemur-poaching racket providing scores of the rare primates, roasted, to restaurants in port cities.

Most troubling, activists said, is a brazen plunder of protected forests by armed bands of illegal loggers who, by threatening park rangers, loot prized hardwoods for a "timber mafia" that exports them to lucrative furniture markets in Asia and the United States.

'Exploiters Everywhere'

"Once the crisis exploded, there was no more state of law in Madagascar," said Herve Bakarizafy, the director of this park, which closed for two months this year as gangs felled hundreds of rosewood trees in a luxuriant forest that is home to 11 species of threatened lemurs. "Everyone saw the exploiters everywhere, even us. What could we do?"

On a continent with fantastic natural wonders and turbulent politics, what is happening in Madagascar is simply a fresh example of what can occur when the two intersect. Years of war in Congo have fueled assaults on forests and gorillas. A decade of economic collapse in Zimbabwe has coincided with sharp declines in rhinoceroses and other wildlife.

"When there's a governance crisis . . . you just know what's going to happen," said David Reed, director of the macroeconomics program at the World Wildlife Fund. "The profiteers are going to come in. You know there's going to be illegal logging, game hunting, extraction of mineral wealth. It's very predictable."

Years of deforestation and slash-and-burn agriculture left just 10 percent of Madagascar's original vegetation, and protecting what remains is an urgent concern of international conservation groups. That effort has made great strides in the past three decades, they say, through programs to expand protected areas and encourage sustainable farming.

That is in large part because of donor funding that props up one of the world's poorest nations. About one-quarter of Madagascar's national budget, and 70 percent of investment spending, comes from outside assistance. Its national parks system draws 80 percent of its budget from donor funds, according to a parks official, and half of that is from the World Bank.

But after the coup, most international donors and lending agencies suspended or terminated non-humanitarian assistance, such as environmental programs, until a constitutional government is put in place. That is a typical response, but conservationists say it could be devastating for Madagascar's flora and fauna and the thousands employed to preserve it.

"Madagascar's real brand, the real competitive advantage, is this unique biodiversity," said Russell A. Mittermaier, president of the Washington-based Conservation International and a lemur expert. "By cutting the funding, we're not just hurting Madagascar, we're hurting the world as a whole."

Tourism and economic growth, which rose steadily in recent years, have plummeted since former president Marc Ravalomanana, a business tycoon with an authoritarian streak, was ousted by the DJ-turned-mayor of the capital city, Andry Rajoelina, who had military backing.

Timber Frenzy

Here in the forests of Madagascar's remote northeast, the breakdown has allowed a veritable "gold rush" of illegal logging and poaching, transforming corners of languid parks into mini-battlegrounds, said Niall O'Connor, the WWF's regional representative.

A decree issued by the Ravalomanana government in January permitted select companies to temporarily export stocks of rare rosewood and ebony trees that had been felled by a cyclone. When the government collapsed, those exporters saw a green light to pillage, and a renewed decree in September has only validated that, conservationists and park officials said. Local politicians, some suspected of involvement in the trade, spread word that rules no longer applied. Exporters broadcast radio ads offering money for timber.

The rush began at Marojejy, a 230-square-mile UNESCO World Heritage Site that is marked by a rocky peak and patrolled by 14 rangers who have bicycles, but no weapons or powers to arrest.

Hundreds of loggers descended on the park, passing through Mandena, a sleepy village of wood huts on the park's periphery. Villagers who resisted were threatened. Bakarizafy, the park director, was warned that his house would be torched.

That is what happened to the house of Mandena farmer Jaotombo Mahajery.

"Each time there's a political problem in Madagascar, that touches the people here under the trees," said Mahajery, 61, stoically recounting his losses -- axes, dishes -- in a blaze he is sure was meant to quiet him.

Loggers earned $5 a day to chop and drag precious logs to faraway roads, said park officials, who recently took a visitor to see the aftermath of the plunder in one corner of the park. A makeshift trail was cut far up a slippery hill home to the world's few hundred remaining silky sifaka lemurs. Rouge-colored rosewood stumps dotted the area.

The situation in Marojejy cooled by summer, after national police were called in to patrol with park rangers, though some park officials worry that logging continues in the northern reaches.

The police patrols were possible in part because the park's main funder, Germany's development bank, did not suspend environmental programs. The bank suspended other non-humanitarian aid.

Selective Aid

That is the approach environmentalists are urging donors, including the United States, to take. U.S. environmental assistance of $8.5 million a year funds agriculture and forestry management programs and the expansion of protected areas, but not law enforcement or park patrols. That funding has been or will be suspended, a U.S. Embassy spokesman said.

In a statement, the World Bank said it is "concerned" about illegal logging and considering resuming the $10 million annual environmental funding it froze in March. U.S. officials are standing firm, noting that the Madagascar coup was the fourth in one year in Africa.

"We warned the Malagasy that there would be serious consequences if they went ahead and had a coup . . . we didn't do this lightly," U.S. Ambassador Niels Marquardt said in an interview in Antananarivo, the capital. He added: "I do not share the analysis that the lawlessness that has become prevalent in the northeast part is due in any way to the suspension of assistance programs."

In recent months, logging has escalated in the parks southeast of Marojejy, according to conservationists and government reports.

There, according to one park report, "a pillage without precedent" is underway. A preliminary report by Global Witness, an international environmental watchdog, said that about 500 loggers fell 200 rosewood trees a day -- a bounty worth as much as $1 million.

Dozens of loggers involved in illegal activity have been arrested this year, as have a few lemur poachers. But convictions are elusive, conservationists say, and national parks officials suspect that high-level corruption will keep it that way.

Conservation activists said they are encouraged by the new environment minister, an army colonel named to the transitional government last month.

There is a one glitch. Though an agreement on a new transitional government was reached last week, the international community views the administration the minister serves in as illegitimate. So it is anyone's guess how long he will keep his job.

source (and photos/video): http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 03907.html