Constantine Alexander's blog

Our Sea, Our Life!

I am always star struck when I look at nature. Perhaps this is because we are all made from stardust forged in the heart of a star and infused with a whisper of celestial wisdom.

Like so many others, I have come to realize that our lives are completely dependent on nature that provides us with clean water, fruits, vegetables, grains, fuel, fresh air, seasonal climates, coastal protection, recreation and scenic landscapes around the world that will take your breath away. It is no wonder then that nature has been immortalized for centuries by poets, musicians, artists and explorers who have appreciated that which has too often been overlooked by others.

In spite of the extent to which we have unwittingly disturbed so many terrestrial and marine ecosystems in our quest for what is often termed as progress, nature in its infinite wisdom has so far been resilient against our unnatural and often toxic incursions, adaptable, forgiving and regenerative except in some localized areas which are experiencing an unnatural species extinction rate. This degradation signals to us that nature’s strength alone cannot endure the unnatural incursions that are increasingly reaching areas of the world previously thought to be impenetrable by man such as 1,500 meter depths at which fishermen can now trawl for orange roughy and areas beneath the blue-white Antarctic ice from which tons of krill on which whales feed are now being harvested for sport fishing bait, aquarium feeds and aquaculture.

After hearing from people all over the world who share a passion and concern for the preservation of life’s necessities as well as gifts from nature, this blog was launched to share with you international wildlife news, exciting environmental research activities, political action or inaction, and what each of us can do to ensure that the wisdom of nature endures for the benefit of us all as we are mere caretakers of nature for future generations of all species which have a right to thrive in and contribute to a healthy and beautiful world.

Constantine Alexander

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Integrating climate change adaptation into civil protection

Adapting to climate change is essential to protecting populations against extreme weather events, but is it adequately integrated into civil protection policy? A new study has analysed the level of integration in Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands and provided broad recommendations for improvement.

Since the Cold War, civil protection policy in many countries has shifted from a sole focus on military issues to include natural disasters as one of its major concerns. It has also become more proactive and strategic, planning ahead and preparing, rather than simply reacting to crises. As such, it appears that climate change adaptation should become part of civil protection.

The study explored how climate change adaptation and civil protection have been integrated at a national and local level in Sweden, Norway and the Netherlands. The researchers gathered information by analysing policy documents and government websites, and conducted interviews with informants on civil protection, local political leaders and key personnel.

Since the early 2000s, adaptation in Norway has been a task for civil protection authorities. When Norway’s Climate Adaptation programme was launched, it was the Directorate for Civil Protection’s responsibility. The Directorate is also responsible for supervising local authorities on assessing risk in relation to climate change.

Sweden has no official, specific national adaptation strategy. Some adaptation tasks are proposed for national civil protection authorities, such as mapping areas vulnerable to flooding, landslides and coastal erosion, but adaptation tends to be the shared responsibility of several authorities. Unlike Sweden and Norway, the Netherlands has no separate governmental body for civil protection. It is based on the ‘safety region’ concept, for which 25 regional bodies are responsible. The adaptation strategy is part of a programme that protects the country from flooding (the Delta programme) but civil protection is not involved.

At a local city level, in Bergen (Norway), Malmo (Sweden) and Rotterdam (Netherlands), adaptation efforts are conducted by land use planners, environmental staff or those responsible for flood protection, and not those within civil protection systems. It appears that recent weather-induced events, both locally and abroad, trigger adaptation measures which tend to be based on current rather than future climate. It appears that Sweden is behind Norway and the Netherlands in integrating adaptation into civil protection policy. Differences in institutional structures could play a role, for example, it is easier to integrate adaptation and civil protection strategies if they are both centralised, as is the case in Norway. However, Sweden lacks a national adaptation strategy and the Netherlands has no central civil protection unit, which could make integration at a national level more difficult.

The researchers suggest that radical change in governance is needed to better integrate adaptation into civil protection. They emphasise the importance of understanding the policy cultures of policy domains involved in this process, i.e. the environment and the civil protection policy areas. The former aims to transform society, whereas civil protection aims to maintain and protect today’s society from external threats. This fundamental conflict may potentially separate adaptation from mitigation and thereby increase the risk of mal-mitigation (mitigation that results in increased societal vulnerabilities) as well as mal-adaptation (adaptation that results in increased GHG emissions).

The study suggests that strategies to avoid such problems will identify the dangers, and develop policy paths in international conventions on climate change that acknowledge the important role of local authorities in climate policy.

Source: Groven, K., Aall, C., van den Berg, M. et al. (2012) Integrating climate change adaptation into civil protection: comparative lessons from Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands. Local Environment: The International Journal of Justice and Sustainability. Doi: 10.1080/13549839.2012.665859.

Contact: kyrre.groven@vestforsk.no

Four key techniques to encouraging pro-environmental behaviour

A new analysis of how to encourage pro-environmental behaviour highlights four effective techniques: goal-setting, prompts or reminders, witnessing the behaviour of others and introducing new behaviours that correspond with existing beliefs.

Pro-environmental behaviours (PEB) are actions that people do in daily life that are comparatively better for the environment, for example, recycling and reducing energy consumption. There are a broad range of approaches to PEB, but there is no comprehensive review of the techniques for practitioners in this field.

The study analysed 87 existing studies on PEB to assess which techniques have been tested and found to be effective. Ten types of techniques were identified, which can be categorised into four groups:

1. Convenience techniques. These make behaviours easier to do, such as providing water-efficient showerheads to householders, or prompts and informational reminders to perform a certain action, for example, stickers that say ‘put recyclables out tomorrow’.
2. Information techniques. These include justifications to perform behaviour, such as providing facts on the amount of recyclable waste in landfills, and instructions on how to achieve a goal, for example, instructing workers to use blinds in order to keep offices cooler and reduce the use of air conditioning.
3. Monitoring techniques. These include feedback on the extent and/or impact of the behaviour, as is seen on electricity bills, or rewards/incentives for PEB.
4. Social-psychological techniques involve people interacting. For example, ‘social modelling’, which includes methods where people observe or interact with others who already undertake PEB. ‘Cognitive dissonance’ involves understanding existing beliefs, to introduce new ways of acting according to these beliefs, for example, ‘foot-in-the-door’ techniques, whereby small acts, such as changing to energy-efficient light bulbs, can lead on to larger acts, such as installing loft insulation, that follow similar principles and correspond to the same underlying belief. ‘Commitment’ techniques require people to provide a written or verbal commitment to behaving in a certain way and, lastly, goal-setting asks people to set their own targets, such as certain reductions in consumption.

The analysis revealed that the most effective techniques were cognitive dissonance, goal-setting, social modelling and prompts. Using these techniques, about 20% of people performed more PEB than they would without them. The techniques that appeared to have much less of an effect were instructions and feedback.

Further investigation indicated that no single technique (or silver bullet) is highly effective for all PEBs, but certain techniques are more suitable for certain PEBs. Most studies considered looked at combinations of techniques, which made it difficult to evaluate separate effects, but patterns could be identified. In general, low engagement treatments, such as rewards and ‘making it easy’ techniques, are better for low-effort behaviours, such as recycling, whilst high engagement techniques, such as social modelling and commitment, are better for high-effort behaviours, such as energy conservation.

Although there are limits to the analysis owing to the combinations of techniques considered, it provides useful guidance for practitioners and highlights areas for future research, such as the need to investigate the distinction between long-term and short-term behavioural change, and exploring techniques that encourage the adoption of new technologies as a form of PEB.

Source: Osbaldiston, R. & Schott, J.P. (2012) Environmental Sustainability and Behavioral Science: Meta-Analysis of Proenvironmental Behavior Experiments. Environment and Behavior 44:2 (257-299) DOI: 10.1177/0013916511402673.

Contact: Richard.osbaldiston@eku.edu

Dr. Jane Lubchenco's remarks on Fisheries at the European Parliament

European Parliament Remarks
Brussels, Belgium
May 30, 2012
Jane Lubchenco, Ph.D. Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere & NOAA Administrator

Thank you

Distinguished members and Commissioner Damanaki: Thank you for the invitation to speak with you today. It is an honor and a privilege.

The reason I am here today can be summed up in three interrelated ideas: food security, profitability, and sustainability – healthy seafood for healthy people, profitability for fishermen and sustainability of fisheries and healthy oceans. The key to these three things lies in a heretofore elusive goal: ending overfishing and managing our fisheries to ensure recovery and rebuilding of stocks. Simple in concept, yet complex to carry out.

As two of the world’s largest harvesters of seafood and two of the largest markets for seafood, the European Union and the United States have vested interests in the future of marine fisheries. That investment can pay off in good jobs. Fishing jobs are the lifeblood of many coastal communities. And each fishing job creates other jobs – boat captains and their crews, workers in seafood processing plants, truckers transporting seafood from the dock to processors and elsewhere, retailers selling key ingredients for seafood dinners, chefs and wait staff in restaurants, and the tourism industry that hosts the visitors who clamor for locally caught seafood. These jobs create critical conditions for coastal communities and economies to thrive.

More than 350,000 people are employed in fishing and fish processing jobs in the European Union.i Much is at stake as we work to revise management of marine fisheries. So I am pleased to hear about your discussions of the landmark reform of the Common Fisheries Policy.

I see many parallels between U.S. fisheries policies and your Common Fisheries Policy reform. We can each learn from one another. In my brief time today, I will summarize the lessons we learned in crafting and implementing our policies as they are relevant to your proposed reforms. And I will touch upon some of our joint efforts about which I am enthusiastic.

Our key lessons revolve around the following essential features for sustainable fisheries: science-based decision-making, use of precaution when scientific uncertainty exists, strong monitoring and enforcement and firm deadlines, regionalization, and giving fishermen a stake in the future. Let me take these in turn.

SCIENCE-BASED, PRECAUTIONARY MANAGEMENT WITH TEETH, REGIONAL APPROACHES, AND INCENTIVES

Two keys to sustainable fisheries management are access to the best available scientific advice and a precautionary approach where there is scientific uncertainty. Within the draft Common Fisheries Policy, the EU Commission proposes to set the target catch at or below the level that can produce the maximum sustainable yield. Below the level would be precautionary, putting priority on the long-term sustainability of the fishery and therefore the fishermen.

I understand that there is general agreement among the EU Member States on managing fish stocks according to the maximum sustainable yield.

In the United States, fisheries management is guided by a legal framework known as the Magnuson-Stevens Act, which was first established by the U.S. Congress 35 years ago and most recently reauthorized in 2006. This legislation, especially its 2006 amendments, has transformed fisheries management in the U.S. It provided the key ingredients that have enabled us to turn the corner in ending overfishing and to rebuild stocks to a healthy state.

Under the 2006 Magnuson-Stevens Act, we are required to end and prevent overfishing through the use of annual catch limits and accountability measures. We were required to set limits on annual catches based only on scientific information. The initial focus was on those stocks that were subject to overfishing; we had four years to have catch limits in place for them. By 2011, we had to accomplish the same for all of the others - 528 federaly managed stocks and stock complexes in total. That was a huge effort, but we now have all of these annual catch limits in place save one.

The Fishery Management Councils' Scientific and Statistical Committees (SSCs) provide the scientific guidance needed to set these limits. Overfished U.S. stocks are managed under plans designed to rebuild these stocks to levels that can produce the maximum sustainable yield – the same approach proposed in the Common Fisheries Policy.

Moreover, we are required to also adjust annual catch limits to make up for catches in the previous year that inadvertently went over the limit. These measures have not been easy to implement, and they have been fraught with controversy. However, these measures are very clearly working. Thanks to this strong legislation and the sacrifices of fishermen, we are ending overfishing. “I can finally see light at the end of the tunnel,” one fisherman said to me recently. Some overfished stocks are recovering more quickly than others, as expected, and we are preventing more stocks from becoming overfished or undergoing overfishing.

As of the end of 2011, 79 percent of U.S. stocks with known population levels (174 out of 258) are not overfished, which means they are at or above a level able to provide maximum sustainable fishing. 86 percent (222 stocks) are not subject to overfishing. i.e., the rate at which fishing occurs can be sustained or enable the stock to rebuild. Two weeks ago, we announced that 6 more stocks had been rebuilt in 2011, bringing the total number of stocks rebuilt since 1990 to 27. 51 others have rebuilding plans in place.

An additional key component to success is effective enforcement of these management measures. Enforcement is meant to stop cheating that leads to unfair competition and diminished overall effectiveness of the management strategy.

Thus far, I’ve mentioned science-based decisions, use of precaution, strong monitoring and enforcement. An additional key element to success is regionalization of fishery management. The same goals and laws apply to all regions, but fishery management councils in each region propose the specific management plans that regulate their fisheries. Plans must adhere to the law and be approved by the federal government, but they come from the region.

Each Regional Fishery Management Council knows its individual fisheries best. They develop a tailored approach for each fishery. Council debates are an important part of the process. These debates encourage open, public participation, a process that engages all stakeholders early in the process and opens doors to creative solutions. Engaged stakeholders are more likely to comply with management decisions, making management easier and more effective. These councils are similar to the regionalized approach envisioned under the Common Fisheries Policy reform.

Another major challenge in fisheries is aligning short-term economic incentives with long-term economic incentives. Far too many fisheries flounder because short-term interests dominate. Rights-based, market-based incentives can be powerful tools in providing incentives to align short term with the long term. One such tool is called ‘Catch shares’ in the U.S. and ‘Transferable Fishing Concessions’ in the EU.

This is an innovative, market-based management strategy. Catch shares allocate a specific portion of the total allowable catch to individuals, communities or other entities. Catch shares help fishermen operate effectively within annual catch limits. Catch shares also allow fishermen greater flexibility in running their businesses and in making fishing decisions, which can improve safety, profitability, and quality of life for fishermen. In U.S. fisheries where they have been implemented, catch shares have ended the race to fish. In fisheries with catch share programs, fishermen no longer need to race out in the middle of a storm, or have their bottom line threatened by flooding the market with product, because when they catch their allocation is up to them.

We faced many concerns in implementing our catch share system in the United States that mirror many of your discussions: questions of consolidation, impacts on small-scale fisheries, and capacity reduction.

We have learned that none of these is an inevitable outcome; each can be avoided if the program is designed in a smart fashion. Consolidation and ownership limits can be set. Set-asides of quotas for particular fleets or ports can be established. Assistance in the form of permit banks and loan programs can be provided to assist small entities and new entrants consistent with management objectives. Around a third of our federally managed stocks are now managed with catch share programs. They have resulted in greater profitability, safer fishing conditions, and lower by-catch – a triple win.

Let me provide two examples of the flexibility that exists in the construction of catch share programs.

Alaska has one of the most highly productive marine systems in the world. In 1992, we created the Western Alaska Community Development Quota (CDQ) program. The program allows coastal Alaska Natives access to these fisheries. These are small-scale fishermen who historically could not afford to participate in many of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Island (BSAI) fisheries. The goal of the program is to promote fisheries-related economic development in western Alaska. The program is a federal fisheries program that involves 65 eligible coastal communities who have formed six regional organizations, referred to as Community Development Quota groups. The Community Development Quota Program allocates a percentage of all Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands quotas for groundfish, halibut, and crab to eligible communities. As a result of the program, these Community Development Quota groups now have multi-millions of dollars to invest in their communities and fisheries infrastructure.

Example two: Several catch share programs have provisions that limit the transferability of quota in an effort to ensure continued participation of communities and small operators in the fishery. For example, the halibut and sablefish programs limit who can transfer quota to whom by vessel size and they limit the amount of quota that can be transferred. These provisions have worked well to generally maintain the historic characteristics of the fishery.

As you can see from these examples, catch shares can be a good solution for certain fisheries. But they are not a panacea for all fisheries and all species. Again, catch share programs should be considered on a case-by-case basis and molded to the specificities and needs of the individual fishery.

To sum up this part of my remarks: science, monitoring and enforcement, regional councils, and market-based incentive programs are working in concert toward sustainability, profitability, safety, and food security.

IUU FISHING

Thus far, I have described some of the keys to our ability to end overfishing and transition to sustainable and profitable fishing. We still have a long way to go, but progress is tangible. Long-term sustainability for fisheries however depends on everyone playing by the rules. Rogue fishermen undermine food security, profitability and sustainability.

Illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing – also known as IUU, or pirate fishing – looms large: a global economic loss of $8-18 billion Euros a year. Pirate fishing is the second largest producer of fishery products in the world and it threatens the economic well-being of honest fishermen, the fishing industry and fishing communities that support them. IUU fishing results in seafood entering the market that is lower cost because it has been harvested illegally. It undermines fishermen who operate legally, threatens the health and future profitability of fisheries by destroying habitats that fisheries need to flourish.

Unfortunately, there are some in the U.S. fleet that intentionally violate the law to an unfair advantage. We work very hard to detect and prosecute them. We also actively seek out and punish those who use non-U.S. flagged vessels to fish illegally in U.S. waters. There are a plethora of vessels outside the jurisdiction of the United States or the European Union who engage in IUU activities.

Addressing these challenges requires international cooperation. In September of last year, Commissioner Damanaki and I signed a joint statement outlining our plans to combat pirate fishing. A EU-U.S. working group is making good progress toward coordinating and strengthening the requisite monitoring and enforcement.

The EU has been a global leader in curbing IUU fishing. Joint EU-U.S. efforts to combat IUU fishing are a down payment on the larger shared commitment to sustainable fisheries. Both the E.U. and the U.S., individually and collectively, have promoted the adoption of measures in regional fisheries bodies and other international fora to make it difficult for IUU fishers to operate at sea, land their illegal product in our ports and sell it in our markets. We will continue to be vigilant in these efforts.

GLOBAL LEADERSHIP AND INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION

The United States is pleased to be standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the EU on efforts to combat IUU fishing. We are also pleased to be working closely with the EU to advance sustainable fisheries management practices globally.

Over the past two years, the United States and EU successfully collaborated on a number of proposals to promote science-based, precautionary management in the regional fisheries management organizations. Notable successes include strict control measures for Atlantic bluefin tuna, progress toward science-based quotas and protection for vulnerable habitats in Northwest Atlantic fisheries, and prohibitions on landing several vulnerable shark species in the Atlantic and Pacific.

I wish to highlight sharks as species especially susceptible to overexploitation. Many sharks grow slowly, are slow to reproduce, and highly migratory. These characteristics have resulted in far too many sharks being serious threatened. Shark conservation and management is a global issue that looks to multilateral engagement for creative solutions.

The EU’s recent efforts to advance conservation and sustainable management of sharks are commendable. I was pleased to hear of Parliament’s 2010 Resolution promoting fins naturally attached and the Commission’s subsequent proposal for fins naturally attached as EU policy, one that we fully support. For the United States, requiring fins naturally attached greatly enhances enforcement efforts and our ability to collect species-specific data.

CLOSING

In summary, the EU and US have worked together often and we have worked together well on a wide variety of fisheries issues. I look forward to our shared future progress.

For far too long, we have heard that we must choose between the environment and the economy. But as you know well, this is a false dichotomy. Chronic overfishing results in a downward spiral of fewer and fewer fish and therefore fewer and fewer fishing jobs and profits. A healthy economy of the future depends upon a healthy environment. We can and must achieve both.

The decision to manage for sustainable fisheries can be a decision favoring long-term profitability for fishermen and the fishing industry. The decision to support sustainable fisheries looks to build long-term food security, jobs, and economic stability for coastal communities - top priorities for nations all over the world, especially in these challenging times. The decision to combat pirate fishing supports sustainability and profitability.

The proposed reforms to the Common Fisheries Policy are visionary acts of courage. They will not be easy. If adopted, these reforms will require some sacrifice, but I believe, as has been the case in the United States, these sacrifices will be repaid by much greater rewards. Seeing the rewards will take time. So patience and a commitment for the long-term are essential.

The U.S will continue to stand by our EU partners as we both take necessary actions to ensure the long-term sustainability of fisheries that our nations deserve, the future profitability of fishing for fishermen and the fishing industry, and a continuous supply of healthy seafood for generations to come.

Food security, profitability, and sustainability are three intertwined things we care about. One depends on the others. We can link them successfully. We still have a long, long way to go on sustainable management of fisheries on a global scale. The EU Common Fisheries policy reforms have the potential to be a giant leap forward toward that goal.

Mystery of monarch migration takes new turn

Emory University study finds strong evidence that eastern and western monarchs belong to a single genetic population

During the fall, hundreds of millions of monarch butterflies living in eastern North America fly up to 1,500 miles to the volcanic forests of Mexico to spend the winter, while monarchs west of the Rocky Mountains fly to the California coast. The phenomenon is both spectacular and mysterious: How do the insects learn these particular routes and why do they stick to them?

A prevailing theory contends that eastern and western monarchs are genetically distinct, and that genetic mechanisms trigger their divergent migratory paths.

An analysis led by Emory University biologists, however, finds that the two groups of monarchs are genetically mixed. Their research, published in the journal Molecular Ecology, suggests that environmental factors may be the key to the butterflies' choice of winter homes, and to where they wind up in the spring.

"Our data gives the strongest signal yet that the eastern and western monarchs belong to a single genetic population," says Emory biologist Jaap de Roode, who led the research. "This distinction is important to help us better understand the behavior of the organism, and to conserve the monarch flyways."

In addition to researchers in the de Roode lab, the study involved a scientist from the Institute of Integrative Biology in Zurich, Switzerland.

Biologists have long been fascinated by the innate and learned behaviors underlying animal migrations. When monarchs are breeding, for instance, they can live up to four weeks, but when they are migrating, they can live as long as six months.

"As the day length gets shorter, their sexual organs do not fully mature and they don't put energy into reproduction. That enables them to fly long distances to warmer zones, and survive the winter," de Roode says. "It's one of the basic lessons in biology: Reproduction is very costly, and if you don't use it, you can live much longer."

Mass movements of animals have huge ecological impacts. They are also visually arresting, from the spectacle of giant herds of wildebeest trekking across the Serengeti to hundreds of thousands of sandhill cranes flocking along the banks of Nebraska's Platte River.

In the case of long-lived mammals and birds, the younger animals may learn some of the behaviors associated with migration. That's not the case with the monarchs, notes Amanda Pierce, a graduate student in Emory's Population Biology, Ecology and Evolution program, and a co-author of the study.

"We know there is no learning component for the butterflies, because each migration is separated by two to three generations," Pierce says. "To me, that makes the problem even more interesting. How can these small, delicate animals travel thousands of kilometers and arrive at the same destination as their great-great grandparents?"

The question of whether eastern and western monarchs are genetically the same has been hotly debated, and may be an essential piece to the puzzle of their divergent migration patterns.

The researchers used 11 genetic markers to compare the genetic structures of eastern and western monarchs, as well as non-migratory monarch populations in Hawaii and New Zealand. The results showed extensive gene flow between the eastern and western monarchs, and a genetic divergence between these North American butterflies and those from Hawaii and New Zealand.

"In a sense, the genetic markers provide a DNA 'fingerprint' for the butterflies," de Roode says. "Just by looking at this fingerprint, you can easily separate the butterflies of North America from those in Hawaii and New Zealand, but you can't tell the difference between the eastern and western monarchs."

The Emory researchers have now joined a project headed by Harvard, which also involves the University of Georgia and the University of Massachusetts, to sequence the full genomes of monarch butterflies from places around the world. That data should rule out genetic differences between the eastern and western monarchs, or reveal whether any smaller genetic differences, beyond the 11 markers used in the study, may be at play between the two groups.

The idea that eastern and western monarchs are distinct populations has been bolstered by tagging-and-tracking efforts based in the United States. That data, gathered through citizen science, indicates that the butterflies stay on separate sides of the Rocky Mountains – a formidable high-altitude barrier.

De Roode, however, theorizes that when spring signals the eastern monarchs to leave the overwintering grounds in Mexico, they may simply keep radiating out, reproducing and expanding as long as they find milkweed plants, the food for their caterpillars.

"Few people have tagged the monarchs within Mexico to see where they go," he notes, "because Mexico doesn't have as much citizen science as the U.S."

If the theory is correct, some of the monarchs leaving Mexico each spring may wind up in western North America, while others may filter into the eastern United States. This influx to the western U.S. could be crucial to survival of monarchs on that side of the continental divide.

"There are far fewer monarchs west of the Rockies," de Roode says. He notes that all of the overwintering monarchs on a typical overwintering site along the California coast consist of about the same number clustered onto a single big tree in Mexico's Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, where hundreds of millions of monarchs blanket the landscape in the winter.

The monarch butterfly migration has been called an endangered phenomenon, due to the loss of habitat along the routes. The Mexican overwintering sites, located in the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt region northwest of Mexico City, particularly suffer from deforestation. Drug trafficking in the region has decimated eco-tourism and hampered efforts to protect the trees.

"We hope our research can aid in the conservation of the monarch flyways," de Roode says.

Raising monarchs for release at weddings, memorials and other events is a growing industry, but U.S. Department of Agriculture regulations restrict shipping the butterflies across state lines.

De Roode stresses that this regulation should remain in force, even if further research confirms that eastern and western monarchs are genetically identical, because parasites that the butterflies carry can differ by region. "It's not a good idea to be shipping parasites around," he says.

Emory University is known for its demanding academics, outstanding undergraduate experience, highly ranked professional schools and state-of-the-art research facilities. Emory encompasses nine academic divisions as well as the Carlos Museum, The Carter Center, the Yerkes National Primate Research Center and Emory Healthcare, Georgia's largest and most comprehensive health care system.

Contact: Beverly Clark
beverly.clark@emory.edu
404-712-8780
Emory University

 

Liberals vs. conservatives: How politics affects charitable giving

Americans are more likely to donate to a charity that reflects the values of their political affiliation, according to a new study from Rice University, the University of Texas at San Antonio and Pennsylvania State University.

"The political divide not only impacts political actions, but everyday actions such as donating to charity," said Rice University Professor Vikas Mittal, co-author of the research paper. "When you ask people if their donation behavior to a charity helping children will change because of their political leanings, most say, 'Of course not!' We wanted to see if that is true or not."

The paper, which will appear in the International Journal of Research in Marketing: Special Issue on Consumer Identities, is based on three studies, two of which comprised nationally representative samples of adults and another based on a randomized experiment with students. The researchers asked why liberals or conservatives would donate more or less to a specific charity.

According to Mittal, the J. Hugh Liedtke Professor of Marketing at Rice's Jones Graduate School of Business, donations to a specific charity by Republicans and Democrats are strongly affected by their perceptions of the charity's alignment with each party's respective moral foundations. Republicans' moral foundations are embedded in respect for authority and traditions, loyalty and purity; Democrats' moral foundations are rooted in equality and protection from harm.

In a novel study, the researchers presented participants with a description of the same charity, Rebuilding Together. However, they subtly changed small parts of the description to suggest that the charity was either supporting American traditions and loyalty or ensuring equality. Among participants who indicated that morals are highly important, they found that Republicans were almost three times as likely as Democrats to donate when the charity was described as supporting working American families following traditions and supporting their communities (that is, Republican moral foundations). In contrast, Democrats were twice as likely as Republicans to donate when the charity was described as ensuring the protection of a home to every individual.

The researchers said their findings were supported in two additional studies that focused on children's charities, including one for children's advocacy, which seeks to break the cycle of child abuse through prevention, education, advocacy and funding. The charity was described as either aligning with Republican moral foundations of purity and loyalty or Democratic moral foundations of equality and protection from harm. Again focusing on the participants who value morals highly, the researchers found that when the charity description emphasized protection from harm, Democrats were much more likely than Republicans to donate; when the charity description emphasized purity and loyalty to community, Republicans were more likely than Democrats to donate.

"We found that while both Republicans and Democrats tend to equally value justice and caring for the vulnerable, Republicans place a much higher value on issues of purity and respect for authority," said Karen Page Winterich, study co-author and assistant professor of marketing at Pennsylvania State University. "Given these differences, Republicans are more inclined to donate to a charity when these values of purity and respect are met, whereas Democrats are more inclined to donate when the emphasis is purely on equality or protection rather than respect or purity."

"Charities, in addition to focusing on their main mission, must also clarify how their mission is aligned with the moral foundations of a donor's political identity," said Yinlong Zhang, study co-author and associate professor of marketing at the University of Texas at San Antonio. "A very simple repositioning of the charity's description so that it aligns with a person's political identity can increase donation intentions two- or threefold. Of course, this raises important questions for charities in terms of their communication strategy. But assuming this divide does not exist can only hurt their chances of maximizing donations from liberals and conservatives."

Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation's top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of Architecture, Business, Continuing Studies, Engineering, Humanities, Music, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences and is known for its "unconventional wisdom." With 3,708 undergraduates and 2,374 graduate students, Rice's undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice has been ranked No. 1 for best quality of life multiple times by the Princeton Review and No. 4 for "best value" among private universities by Kiplinger's Personal Finance.

Contact: David Ruth
david@rice.edu
713-348-6327
Rice University

Grazing snails rule the waves

Major new marine herbivory study

Coral reefs and seashores largely look the way they do because large fish and urchins eat most of the seaweed that might otherwise cover them, but a major new study has found that the greatest impact of all comes from an unexpected quarter – small marine snails.

The study published in the journal Ecology Letters is the largest of its kind ever undertaken into the ecological impacts of marine grazing animals: it was led by Associate Professor Alistair Poore, of the UNSW Evolution & Ecology Research Centre, who worked with an international team of 10 researchers.

It found that, on average, marine herbivores remove almost 70% of the plant material growing on the sea floor – an effect far greater than grazing animals have on land plants.

"We found that across the globe marine herbivores profoundly reduce the abundance of marine plants, with the strongest effects in rocky seashores," says Poore.

"Icons like the Great Barrier Reef would look very different otherwise: the corals and rocks are usually free of seaweed, but that's only because animals eat all the plants as soon as they grow.

"Big animals such as fish and urchins have major impacts on reefs and kelp forests but what may surprise many people is that we found that the strongest impacts of all were snails controlling seaweeds on rocky shores."

The study team analysed results from over 600 experiments, conducted over the past 40 years across the planet, where ecologists have experimentally removed herbivores to understand their importance in structuring marine habitats.

Manipulating animals in their natural habitats is the most powerful technique to understand how ecological interactions work, they note.

"When these grazing animals are removed, the seaweeds quickly start to dominate," notes Poore. "One of the exercises we give our students to illustrate this is to visit a rocky shore at Sydney's Maroubra Beach and remove all the snails from a selected area. When we return a few weeks later, the rocks are covered in green seaweed."

Of particular interest to ecologists is the team's finding that the global data set rejects the long-standing idea that herbivores in the sea and on land have stronger impacts on plants in the tropics.

"For decades, ecologists have believed that biological interactions like predation or herbivory are more intense in the tropics compared to temperate areas," says Poore. "But we found no evidence of stronger herbivory close to the equator, nor increased herbivore impacts with increased temperature. Despite expectations, grazing on coral reefs did not have larger impacts than in several other marine habitats."

The study also found that in some ways, marine plants are winning the long evolutionary battle with their herbivores. Some groups of seaweeds and seagrasses can avoid herbivore damage with the help of chemical or physical defences or because they are poor quality food.

Contact: Bob Beale
bbeale@unsw.edu.au
University of New South Wales

 

Singing in the rain: Technology improves monitoring of bird sounds

This instrument is used by researchers at Oregon State University to monitor bird sounds in the forest, with technology far more effective than any available before. Photo courtesy of Oregon State University

Researchers at Oregon State University have created a new computer technology that can listen to multiple bird sounds at one time to identify which species are present and how they may be changing as a result of habitat loss or climate change.

The system, one of the first of its type, should provide an automated approach to ecological monitoring of bird species that is much more practical than a human sitting in the field, hours on end.

"It's difficult to hear and identify even one or two bird species at a time, and when you have many of them singing at once it's even more difficult," said Forrest Briggs, a doctoral student in computer science at OSU.

"Birds are important in themselves, but also an early warning system of larger changes taking place in the environment," Briggs said. "Now we can tell down to the second when a bird arrives, leaves, when and where it's choosing to nest, that type of information. It's just not practical to do that with human monitoring."

The "multi-instance multi-label" machine learning system developed at OSU, researchers said, could ultimately be used to identify not just bird sounds but many other forest noises – everything from wind to rain drops or a falling tree. It could also be used with other animal species, including grasshoppers, crickets, frogs, and marine mammals. The research was supported by the National Science Foundation and the OSU College of Engineering.

"It would not be reasonable for a person to count birds once per minute, 24 hours a day, for three months, but we aim to obtain similar results with acoustic surveys," the researchers wrote in a recent study published in the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

The error rate of this technology is already similar to that achieved by human experts, Briggs said. In one day of testing, for instance, it produced 548 10-second recordings of sounds from 13 different bird species. It is also omni-directional, meaning the microphones do not have to be pointed right at the sound in question to function accurately, one of the limitations of some previous technology.

Researchers are still working out some issues, including interference caused by rain, not to mention people heard partying in the woods, and what appeared to be the bite mark of a bear on the microphone.

Contact: Forrest Briggs
briggsf@eecs.oregonstate.edu
Oregon State University

 

A 'B12 shot' for marine algae?

Scientists find key protein for algae growth in the ocean

Scientists have revealed a key cog in the biochemical machinery that allows marine algae at the base of the oceanic food chain to thrive. They have discovered a previously unknown protein in algae that grabs an essential but scarce nutrient out of seawater, vitamin B12.

Many algae, as well as land-dwelling animals, including humans, require B12, but they cannot make it and must either acquire it from the environment or eat food that contains B12. Only certain single-celled bacteria and archaea have the ability to synthesize B12, which is also known as cobalamin.

Studying algal cultures and seawater samples from the Southern Ocean off Antarctica, a team of researchers from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and the J. Craig Venter Institute found a protein they described as "the B12 claw." Stationed at the algae's cell walls, the protein appears to operate by binding B12 in the ocean and helping to bring it into the cell. When B12 supplies are scarce, algae compensate by producing more of the protein, officially known as cobalamin acquisition protein 1, or CBA1. The team reported their findings May 31 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Discovery of CBA1 illuminates a small but vital piece of the fundamental metabolic machinery that allows the growth of marine algae, which have critical impacts on the marine food web and on Earth's climate. Via photosynthesis, marine algae draw huge amounts of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, from the air, incorporating carbon into their bodies. The algae provide food that sets the food chain in motion. When they die or are eaten, some of the carbon ends up sinking to the ocean depths, where it cannot re-enter the atmosphere.

The discovery also opens the door for industrial or therapeutic applications. Since CBA1 is essential for marine algae growth, it could provide clues to how to promote growth of algae used to manufacture biofuels. Learning to manipulate the B12 biochemical pathways of beneficial or detrimental microbes could eventually lead to antibiotic or antifungal medicines.

To discover CBA1, Erin Bertrand, a graduate student in the MIT/WHOI Joint Program in Oceanography, and her advisor, WHOI biogeochemist Mak Saito used an approach now common in biomedical research but only recently applied to marine science: proteomics, the study of the proteins organisms make to function in their environment and respond to changing conditions. Among thousands of other proteins present in the algae, they identified the novel CBA1 protein when it increased in abundance when the algae were starved of vitamin B12. They then worked with colleagues at the Venter Institute to demonstrate CBA1's function and its presence in the oceans.

Bertrand, the study's lead author, earned a Ph.D. from the MIT/WHOI Joint Program in Oceanography in September 2011 and is now a postdoctoral scientist at the Venter Institute. In addition to Saito, co-authors of the papers are Andrew Allen, Christopher Dupont, Trina Norden-Krichmar, Jing Bai and Ruben Valas of the Venter Institute. The research was funded by the National Science Foundation and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation's Marine Microbial Initiative program.

The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution is a private, non-profit organization on Cape Cod, Mass., dedicated to marine research, engineering, and higher education. Established in 1930 on a recommendation from the National Academy of Sciences, its primary mission is to understand the oceans and their interaction with the Earth as a whole, and to communicate a basic understanding of the oceans' role in the changing global environment.

Contact: WHOI Media Relations
media@whoi.edu
508-289-3340
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Wildfire and an example of its important link to the ecosystem

A dilemma is smouldering, even as several wildfires top the headlines: new findings highlighting the practice of aggressive fire suppression

		Wildfires used to be a natural part of Sierran ecosystems, with minor fires sweeping through at intervals of 10 to 25 years. Photo courtesy of Dale Johnson and Soil Horizons/Soil Science Society of America

Traveling the western U.S. state of Nevada in the 1860s, a young American writer named Mark Twain heard a "world of talk" about the beauty of Lake Tahoe and so set out one August day to see the lake perched high in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Determined to make the 11-mile journey on foot, Twain and his companions became briefly discouraged after toiling up one mountain and then another to no avail. But they trudged on until "at last the Lake burst upon us," Twain wrote in his 1872 book, Roughing It.

One hundred and fifty years later, visitors to this border region between California and Nevada still marvel at Lake Tahoe, but sadly the "jewel of the Sierra" is not the same gem it was in Twain's time. Boating on the lake during his trip, Twain said he could see rocks at least 80 feet below the surface—a degree of clarity that scientists attribute to "ultra-oligotrophic" conditions, meaning exceptionally nutrient-poor and pure. Since the 1960s, however, Lake Tahoe's renowned water quality has been in slow decline, and exactly why "is the $64,000 question," says soil scientist Dale Johnson of the University of Nevada in Reno.

Damaging blazes sweep the Tahoe region regularly, and by the time Johnson teamed up with his University of Nevada colleague, Wally Miller—an expert on Tahoe's water quality—scientists already knew how catastrophic fires could affect downstream streams and lakes. Wildfire can leave slopes bare of vegetation and unprotected from erosion. Burning also releases nitrogen, phosphorus, sulfate, and other biochemicals locked in plants, wood, and soils, allowing the nutrients to run off downslope or seep into groundwater. But when Miller and Johnson began their studies, they discovered something that few, if anyone, had suspected: Not only could a major disturbance like fire affect Lake Tahoe, but so too could a lack of disturbance—the absence of fire. "The results were very surprising and therefore very hard to publish," Johnson says. "No one believed it."

But the findings also lead to a dilemma. On one hand, wildfire is beneficial in that it burns away decades of accumulated organic material, which Johnson and Miller have shown can potentially be a slow but significant source of nutrients to Lake Tahoe. On the other hand, severe wildfire can also deplete forests of nitrogen and send pulses of nutrients downstream—not to mention the damage it does to timber and private property.

"So what do you do?" Miller asks. The answer lately embraced by forest managers is to mimic the natural, Sierran fire regime that existed before aggressive fire suppression began. Managers will purposely light small, controlled fires to burn away accumulated woody debris. Or they'll remove wood with harvesting equipment or chip it on site.

But managers don't want to remove too many nutrients from the system, since they're needed to support future generations of trees. So Miller and Johnson have been studying the practices' impacts on nutrients and on water quality, just as they earlier investigated catastrophic wildfire and fire suppression.

Contact: Teri Barr
tbarr@sciencesocieties.org
608-268-3976
American Society of Agronomy

 

Study shows consumers need more guidance about fish consumption choices

Brigham and Women's Hospital researchers lead a novel evaluation of the factors that influence fish consumption in the United States

In a first-of-its kind summary of fish consumption choices, a team of researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital has determined that consumers are not getting all the information they need to make informed decisions about fish consumption. Their research is published in the June 1 issue of Environmental Health Perspectives.

The researchers, led by Susan Korrick, MD and Emily Oken, MD of Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH), summarized the issue of fish consumption choice from toxicological, nutritional, ecological, and economic points of view through evaluation of the scientific literature, public health guidelines and fish consumption advisories made in the United Sates. They found that there is no one place that gives consumers a complete view of the advantages and disadvantages of various fish species. "Our research shows that there is no one perfect fish when considering nutritional value, toxicity rates and the environmental and economic impact," said Oken. "Consumers are forced to decide what tradeoffs they are willing to make. But as a consumer standing in a store, it is difficult to understand the pros and cons of a fish purchase, because the amount of readily available information is limited."

"Our research highlights the need for the development of clear and simple consumer advice that describes the multiple impacts of fish consumption," said Korrick. "Despite caveats, fish is generally a healthy food; the challenge is providing advice that is both comprehensive and accessible so consumers don't give up eating fish out of frustration."

Additionally, researchers also emphasize the need for policy and fishery management interventions to ensure long term availability of fish as an important source of human nutrition.

This study was funded by a Dartmouth College Superfund Research Program Grant, a Dartmouth Formative Children's Center Grant, the National Institutes of Health (R01 ES 016314), the Harvard Clinical Nutrition Research Center, the Gelfond Fund for Mercury Research & Outreach, the Consortium for Interdisciplinary Environmental Research, SUNY Stony Brook, the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, the Swiss National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the United States Environmental Protection Agency.

This study is a companion to a study led by Dartmouth researcher Margaret Karagas, Ph.D. which examines the current scientific evidence for effects of low-level exposures to methylmercury on neurological and other human health outcomes and also appears in the June 1 issue of Environmental Health Perspectives. Both papers resulted from the Coastal and Marine Mercury Ecosystem Research Collaborative.

Contact: Tom Langford
tlangford@partners.org
617-534-1605
Brigham and Women's Hospital

A robot that flies like a bird

One of the oldest dreams of mankind is to fly like a bird. Many, from Leonardo da Vinci to contemporary research teams, tried to crack the "code" for the flight of birds, unsuccessfully. Until in 2011 the engineers of the Bionic Learning Network established by Festo, a German technology company, developed a flight model of an artificial bird that's capable of taking off and rising in the air by means of its flapping wings alone. It's called SmartBird. Markus Fischer is Festo's head of corporate design, where he's responsible for a wide array of initiatives. He established the Bionic Learning Network in 2006.

SmartBird is inspired by the herring gull. The wings not only beat up and down but twist like those of a real bird -- and seeing it fly leaves no doubt: it's a perfect technical imitation of the natural model, just bigger. (Even birds think so.) Its wingspan is almost two meters, while its carbon-fiber structure weighs only 450 grams.

Fischer says: "We learned from the birds how to move the wings, but also the need to be very energy efficient."

 

Wells Fargo fosters environmental conservation through University of Miami's RJD program

Partnership to inspire STEM learning, build awareness of marine environment

		Wells Fargo & Company awarded the University of Miami’s R.J. Dunlap Marine Conservation Program a grant for $40,000 in support of marine conservation science. The grant will address two major needs: the lack of engaging science education opportunities that inspire youth to learn STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) skills, and a lack of knowledge and awareness about marine ecology and conservation, particularly in relation to shark species. Credit: Christine Shepard

Wells Fargo has awarded the University of Miami's R.J. Dunlap Marine Conservation Program a grant for $40,000 in support of marine conservation science. The grant will address two major needs: the lack of engaging science education opportunities that inspire youth to learn STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) skills and adopt conservation attitudes and behaviors, and a lack of knowledge and awareness about marine ecology and conservation, particularly in relation to shark species.

The program will impact a local audience through hands-on trips, as well as people across the globe via online education tools, including virtual expeditions, webinars, pod-casts, blogs, online curricula and social media. Students are lead through a series of field research activities and assignments that give them the feeling of actually being in the field. Interactive Twitter "teach-Ins" every month provide teachers nationwide with knowledge and feedback on scientific topics of interest.

"Wells Fargo is pleased to support the efforts of the University of Miami's R.J. Dunlap Marine Conservation Program,'" said Frank Newman, South Florida Regional President at Wells Fargo. "We are committed to helping make our community aware of the importance of preserving the environment and fostering greater understanding of marine ecology and conservation within the South Florida community."

RJD was established in 2010 to provide marine science education opportunities that inspire youth to learn STEM skills and become informed supporters of ocean conservation. The program addresses a lack of knowledge and awareness about marine ecology and conservation, particularly in relation to shark species, by providing students with hands-on experiences that capture the imagination and engage the spirit.

Over the past four years, RJD has taken more than 3,000 high school students from 41 countries into the field to participate in shark research – students attending run the gamut from private schools, to economically disadvantaged, to juvenile offenders. High school students visit the University of Miami's research field station on located on Broad Key, Fla. and are taught about marine conservation issues from the station's in-house classrooms. The facility also serves as the base for students to join scientists in data collection and analysis, including shark abundance surveys, stable isotope analysis, underwater visual surveys, acoustic studies, and blood hormone analysis. In doing so, students will be trained in scientific methods, data synthesis and reporting.

"We are extremely honored and grateful to receive this prestigious grant from Wells Fargo," said Dr. Neil Hammerschlager, UM faculty member and director of RJD. "These much needed funds will go a long way toward expanding and enhancing our marine conservation research and educational work."

This donation is part of Wells Fargo's commitment to supporting the environment. As part of the company's commitment to "greener" communities, economy and operations, Wells Fargo has committed to $30 + billion in environmental investments by the year 2020.

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) is a nationwide, diversified, community-based financial services company with $1.3 trillion in assets. Founded in 1852 and headquartered in San Francisco, Wells Fargo provides banking, insurance, investments, mortgage, and consumer and commercial finance through more than 9,000 stores, 12,000 ATMs, the Internet (wellsfargo.com), and other distribution channels across North America and internationally. With more than 270,000 team members, Wells Fargo serves one in three households in America. Wells Fargo & Company was ranked No. 23 on Fortune's 2011 rankings of America's largest corporations. Wells Fargo's vision is to satisfy all our customers' financial needs and help them succeed financially.

The R.J. Dunlap Marine Conservation Program is a joint program of the Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science and the Leonard and Jayne Abess Center for Ecosystem Science and Policy at the University of Miami. The Rosenstiel School offers one of the largest, most comprehensive marine and atmospheric programs in the nation. Robust academics and in-depth scientific investigation are hallmarks of the School's programs. The Abess Center creates innovative interdisciplinary initiatives that bridge the gap between hard science and environmental policy.

Contact: Barbra Gonzalez
barbgo@rsmas.miami.edu
305-421-4704
University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science

United States and European Union Share Vision for Sustainable World Fisheries

Dr. Lubchenco and Marina Damanaki addressing the European Union Parliament on May 30, 2012 in Brussels, Belgium.

Jane Lubchenco, Ph.D., United States Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere, and Maria Damanaki, European Union Commissioner for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, issued the following joint statement on sustainable fisheries management today as the two leaders delivered remarks to the EU Parliament on EU/US cooperation in Brussels:

As European Commissioner for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries and U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere, we come together this week to advance our shared goals of healthy oceans and seafood, prosperous and sustainable fisheries, and economically vibrant coastal communities. To achieve these goals, we recognize the importance of putting into place policies and practices that favor long-term sustainability and prosperity.

We are here today to acknowledge the progress to date on rebuilding sustainable fisheries, promoting sustainable aquaculture, and combating pirate fishing (also called illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing). We recognize the importance of strong international cooperation to achieve sustainable and legal fisheries on a global scale.

We have identified the most effective tools for rebuilding and maintaining sustainable fisheries. These tools include:

• A science-based, precautionary, and ecosystem-based approach to fisheries management;
• Working partnerships to conduct cooperative scientific research and to develop innovative fisheries management strategies that improve profits while sustaining healthy fisheries;
• Strong measures to combat pirate fishing because it leads to unfair competition for lawabiding fishermen in the marketplace, and it undermines efforts to manage fisheries sustainably;
• Sustainable aquaculture to meet the growing demand for seafood that wild fisheries alone cannot satisfy;
• Global leadership and a commitment to implement best practices for using these tools.

The United States turned the corner on ending overfishing and rebuilding sustainable domestic fisheries with the help of specific tools provided by the U.S. Congress in the landmark Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, with the commitment of U.S. fishermen to rebuild sustainable and profitable fisheries, and with the use of catch shares to align fishing and conservation incentives. The United States implemented annual catch limits and accountability measures in all federally managed fisheries, which are designed to end overfishing and rebuild stocks. The latest report shows that 79 percent of U.S. fish populations that were scientifically examined are at or above a level able to provide maximum sustainable fishing. Around a third of federally managed stocks are now managed with catch share programs, resulting in greater profitability, safer fishing conditions, and lower by-catch.

The EU is engaged in the development of a drastically reformed Common Fisheries Policy that draws upon similar tools. This reform emphasizes the central importance of following scientific advice for exploitation of the resources, setting concrete deadlines for reaching maximum sustainable yield of fisheries, and open, highly participatory regional decision-making.

The reform also aims to eliminate wasteful practices, such as discarding of unwanted catches.

Reversing the decline of fish populations requires time for stocks to rebuild and longterm commitment of managers, the fishing industry, processors, coastal communities, and other stakeholders. We believe, as has been the case in the United States, that taking steps to reverse these declines will be repaid by greater rewards – sustainable and profitable fishing, healthy seafood and thriving coastal communities.

As the EU and U.S. continue the hard work of rebuilding domestic fisheries, we are also making progress in combating pirate fishing to level the playing field for law-abiding fishermen.

As two of the largest harvesters of seafood and two of the largest markets for it, we have a responsibility to ensure that seafood provided to consumers, whether domestically produced or imported, is fished in accordance with responsible fishery management measures. Since we signed the statement last September in which we agreed to join forces against pirate fishing, the EU and U.S. have improved coordination and strengthened monitoring and enforcement. We have also worked together to secure adoption of stronger science-based management measures by the various regional fishery management organizations responsible for managing internationally shared fisheries. Our partnership to combat pirate fishing is a down payment on our larger shared commitment to sustainable fisheries, healthy seafood and prosperous fishing and fishing industry jobs.

• Download Joint Statement on Sustainable Fisheries Management

Contact: Monica Allen, NOAA Communications, at +1-301-427-8028, +1-202-379-6693, or Oliver Drewes, spokesman for Maria Damanaki, at +32-229-51752

Current focus of veterinary medical profession leaves research, food security, public health needs underserved

Without immediate action, a new National Research Council report warns, the academic veterinary community could fail to prepare the next generation of veterinarians for faculty teaching and research positions as well as for jobs in state diagnostic laboratories, federal research and regulatory agencies, and the pharmaceutical and biologics industry. Although the supply of veterinarians is growing, more than half of veterinary students seek training in companion animal or pet medicine. In addition, increasing debt from veterinary education may inhibit graduates from pursuing Ph.D. training that would prepare them for academic careers, key jobs in the public sector, and some positions in industry.

Cost-cutting measures at universities have adversely affected the ability of colleges and schools of veterinary medicine to hire faculty in less popular fields of veterinary medicine and to support graduate research training. A potential shortage of professionals with training beyond a Doctor of Science in Veterinary Medicine could impact the supply of veterinarians to fill jobs overseeing and enforcing food safety and animal health standards, conducting research in human drug development and advances in pet health, and participating in wildlife and ecosystem management, infectious disease control, biosecurity, and agro-terrorism prevention.

"Companion animal medicine and its growing number of specialties that improve the health and lives of pets has been a success story, but it dominates veterinary schools' curriculum and resources, sometimes to the detriment of equally critical fields," said Alan Kelly, emeritus professor of pathology and pathobiology at the School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Pennsylvania and chair of the committee that wrote the report. "We must ensure that schools train qualified veterinarians in sync with the diverse and growing array of societal needs."

For example, food-animal production is changing dramatically in the U.S. and abroad. Large U.S. producers need veterinary services to focus on "herd health" while small producers, who have difficulty collectively supporting a full-time veterinarian, need primary animal care. Having fewer veterinarians in rural areas raises concerns about the level of animal disease surveillance in the field, which is critical to the prompt detection of outbreaks with potentially massive economic consequences.

In developing countries, where meat demand is growing, crowding animals in hot, humid conditions places the health of animals, humans, and ecosystems at risk and is unsustainable. "The fact that 60 percent of all infectious diseases in humans are of animal origin and 75 percent of emerging infectious diseases in the last decade arose from animals underscores the importance of maintaining expertise in other areas of veterinary medicine," explained Kelly.

Addressing these challenges depends on the profession's commitment to promote and develop diverse career paths in veterinary medicine and on the efficient delivery of veterinary services, which in some cases may mean using veterinary technicians to extend the field's reach. The report's recommendations center on partnerships among professional veterinary organizations, academia, industry, and government. These groups could form a national consortium or committee to focus on the economic sustainability of the profession in all sectors of service, education, and research, and develop a national veterinary curriculum that could be delivered electronically or through alternative measures.

Veterinary medical organizations and the deans of veterinary colleges could work to increase the profession's visibility, standing, and potential to address global food security, says the report. Establishing a health-oriented think tank with the goal of advancing sustainable food-animal husbandry practices, welfare policies, ecosystem health standards, and the capacity of the veterinary profession in the developing world is important and could help future generations of veterinarians collaborate across professions, disciplines, and cultures. A part of this body could also evaluate the competencies required of U.S. veterinary graduates to address the global challenges of food and water safety and security, the impact of urbanization on food supply systems, and the health of wildlife and ecosystems.

The study was sponsored by the Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges, American Veterinary Medical Association, American Animal Hospital Association, Burroughs Wellcome Fund, and Bayer Animal Health Inc. The National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine, and National Research Council make up the National Academies. They are independent, nonprofit institutions that provide science, technology, and health policy advice under an 1863 congressional charter. Panel members, who serve pro bono as volunteers, are chosen by the Academies for each study based on their expertise and experience and must satisfy the Academies' conflict-of-interest standards. The resulting consensus reports undergo external peer review before completion.

Contact: Lorin Hancock
news@nas.edu
202-334-2138
National Academy of Sciences

Voluntary groups can promote pro-environmental practice at small scale

New research by the University of Southampton has examined the role of voluntary organisations in promoting pro-environmental behaviour change. It points to evidence of success around small-scale, local initiatives, but questions whether these can be scaled up to reach the wider public.

The research review points to qualitative and quantitative evidence of third sector initiatives that have changed people's practices around recycling, reuse and home energy use.

Evidence suggests third sector organisations (TSOs) can be successful at changing behaviour within local, small group settings, which encourage collective action and the creation of new group norms. They have also been successful at providing alternative infrastructures – such as sustainable housing projects, community farms, food or renewable energy co-operatives – that enable behaviour change.

However, the small, local and time-intensive nature of many projects poses a barrier to implementing them on a wider scale. There is also a lack of evidence around whether TSOs can have impact on 'harder to change' behaviours, such as transport practices.

Milena Buchs, from the Third Sector Research Centre at University of Southampton, who conducted the research, says: "Quite broad claims have been made about the ability of third sector organisations to influence behaviour. There are certainly good examples of them working with people to successfully change the way they approach things like energy use, food or waste. But evidence also suggests that many people who get involved in these projects are already engaged with environmental issues to some extent. The question that remains is whether it is possible to engage the broader public, especially where behaviour change challenges mainstream attitudes and norms.

"This may mean that additional government action is needed to change environmental practices at a national level."

Contact: Glenn Harris
G.Harris@soton.ac.uk
44-238-059-3212
University of Southampton

The environment and pharmaceuticals and personal care products: What are the big questions?

Routes of release of human and veterinary pharmaceuticals to the environment (EMBO Reports Vol 5[12])

Researchers at the University of York headed a major international review aimed at enhancing efforts to better understand the impacts of chemicals used in pharmaceuticals or in personal care products, such as cosmetics, soaps, perfumes, deodorants and toothpastes (PPCPs), on the natural environment.

Over the last two decades, scientists and regulators have raised concerns over the potential environmental effects and risks of the 4,000 pharmaceuticals and substantial number of personal care products that are used by society.

Following use, these substances can be released to the sewer system and can end up in rivers, aquifers and soils. Many PPCPs have been detected in the natural environment across the world. Though reported concentrations are generally low, some people are worried that, due to the biological activity of these substances, they could be adversely affecting the health of the environment and may also be getting into drinking water supplies.

The researchers in the University of York's Environment Department, working with academic, government and industry colleagues in the USA, Canada, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, S. Korea and Argentina identified key outstanding issues regarding the effects on human and ecological health in order that future resources will be focused on the most important areas. Their findings are published in the latest issue of Environmental Health Perspectives.

They developed a 'Top 20' list of questions about issues that need to be addressed to better understand and manage the risks of PPCPs in the environment. An international expert workshop reduced an initial list of 101 potential questions to a final 20 ranked by importance.

The top 20 questions fell into seven categories:

• Identification of PPCPs and situations that research should be focussed on
• Understanding how PPCPs get into the natural environment
• Uptake of PPCPs from the environment into organisms
• Assessment of effects on organisms
• Assessment of risks to people and the environment
• Antibiotic resistance
• Management of risks

Professor Alistair Boxall, of the Environment Department at York, who led the review, said: "A large body of information is now available on PPCPs in the environment. This exercise has prioritised the most critical questions to aid in development of future research programmes and policy development on this important topic The development of the 'top 20 list' should mean that researchers, regulators and industry can begin to work more closely together to answer the most pressing questions in a coordinated and timely manner."

Contact: David Garner
david.garner@york.ac.uk
44-190-432-2153
University of York

New study reports rise in community land rights in tropical forests; most laws unenforced

Citing global land-grab, lack of action by authorities in vulnerable nations, authors warn of risk to positive 20-year global trend -- even in Latin America

New research released today by the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI) shows that hundreds of millions of forest peoples in tropical nations have, in the last 20 years, quietly gained unprecedented legal rights to the land and resources owned under customary law. The research also finds, however, that more than one-third of the rules governing land rights in most of the forests of Africa, Asia and Latin America significantly limit a community's ability to exercise those rights.

The new report provides the most comprehensive global legal analysis to date of the status of forest tenure rights held by Indigenous Peoples and other local communities in more than two-dozen developing countries. The nations covered in the study account for approximately 75 percent of the forests of the developing world, home to some 2.2 billion people.

"All 27 of the countries we analyzed have one or more laws recognizing legal rights of communities, either nationally or regionally," said Fernanda Almeida, one of the authors, and primary researcher of the study. "But the laws themselves are not enough. They must be 'good laws', and they have to be implemented."

In their analysis, Almeida and her colleagues warn of an imminent risk of rollback of these rights, as illustrated by the efforts of wealthy ranchers in Brazil to weaken land rights held by traditional and Indigenous communities, and by an on-going global "land grab" by investors on every continent.

"Forest peoples are caught between the forces of a drive for environmental sustainability and the intense pressure of economic development", said Jeffrey Hatcher, Director of Global Programs for RRI, and one of the authors of the new report. "Despite tremendous progress in establishing legal tenure regimes, a lack of political will and bureaucratic obstacles make it a struggle to implement any real action in most forest-rich developing nations. The exorbitant technical and financial costs of addressing these hurdles are often beyond the means of rural communities."

Also, because governments control which lands are covered by the rights they grant, they are able to limit the scope and impact of the measures, and prevent them from living up to their promise, said James Bampton, program coordinator, RECOFTC-The Center for People and Forests. "Such rights aren't something that should apply to some people and not others," he said.

Rise in Percentage of Forests under Community Control

The RRI report identifies a significant global trend that began in the wake of the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, as Indigenous and community leaders pressured governments for legal rights to their traditional forestlands. The area of forest under the control of forest peoples in developing countries has risen from 21 percent of the total forest area in those countries to 31 percent; globally, such rights now cover 15 percent of all forests, compared to 10 percent in 1992.

"If these laws ever make it off the books, billions of hectares and millions of people will have access to one of the most effective tools available for eradicating poverty and conserving limited resources," said Andy White, coordinator of RRI. "Previous research by RRI and others has shown that when their rights are secure, Indigenous and community forest peoples are spectacularly successful at sustaining themselves, while at the same time protecting their forests at least as well as governments or industry."

The RRI report cites, for example, the findings of a recent World Bank report, which estimates that the incidence of forest fire—often a precursor to deforestation in the tropics—was cut five-fold or more in protected forests controlled by Indigenous peoples, when compared with those managed by the state. Studies in Nepal show that community control leads to increases in both forest area and tree density.

But the RRI study shows that national and provincial authorities often fail to enforce laws meant to protect the tenure rights of forest peoples. Even in Latin America, where most progress has been made in transferring rights to forest peoples, high commodity prices are fueling efforts by the state and private interests to override those rights. "Without strong rights, landholders have no confidence they will benefit from measures aimed at sustainable use of the forests," White said. "By their inaction, authorities stifle the capacity of local communities to succeed on their own terms and in a way that benefits everyone."

The study identifies 59 systems for recognizing tenure rights to forestlands in 27 nations: 17 in Africa, 17 in Asia and 25 in Latin America.

• 51 of the 59 identified legal systems or regimes have been established since 1992. Latin America has led the way.
• Most land tenure regimes prevent local communities from exercising at least one of the seven rights considered fundamental to land ownership.
• In six of the 17 regimes identified in Africa, rights cannot be implemented because there are no regulations to define those rights, nor the processes for implementing them.
• Perhaps most critically, of all the regimes the RRI study identifies (21 of 59), more than one-third fail to recognize the right to exclude outsiders from entering the forest and exploiting its resources—a critical element of land ownership.

Even without such limitations, other obstacles can prevent Indigenous Peoples and communities from benefiting from the rights they are granted.

• In Indonesia, for example, laws and policies recognize the rights of Indigenous Peoples to their traditional lands. But the constitution says all land and resources belong to the state. Tens of millions of people living in more than 20,000 villages are essentially squatters on their own land.
• In Mozambique, local community members must submit six copies of a topographical map that identifies detailed geographical features of the land in a proposed concession. In 2009, ten years after the law was enacted, not one concession had been approved.

According to White, even the global leaders most deeply engaged in organizing the conference known as Rio+20 have so far ignored the importance of recognizing land rights in negotiating a plan for developing and implementing sustainable development goals.

"The world's forests are increasingly valuable and relevant to our efforts to slow global climate change and encourage sustainable development," he said. "If negotiators are serious about reducing poverty and conserving forests, they will call on forest nations to strengthen community land rights in their forests. Only when such rights are a reality on paper and in practice, will communities be able to do what they do better than anyone else—manage the forests and curb the unsustainable practices now threatening tropical forest nations worldwide."

The Rights and Resources Initiative is a global coalition of international, regional, and community organizations advancing forest tenure, policy and market reforms. RRI leverages the strategic collaboration and investment of its Partners and Collaborators around the world by working together on research, advocacy and convening strategic actors to catalyze change on the ground.

Contact:

• Coimbra Sirica
  csirica@burnesscommunications.com
  301-943-3287
  Burness Communications
• Jenna DiPaolo
  jdipaolo@rightsandresources.org
  202-412-0331
  Rights and Resources Initiative

 

Closure of this year's Spanish and French Bluefin Tuna purse seine fishery

The Bluefin Tuna purse seine season lasting from 16 May to 14 June came to an early end this year for France and Spain. The purse seine quota allocated to both countries was exhausted yesterday at 20:00 and both Member States have decided to call back their vessels to port. The Commission has closely cooperated with both Member states since the beginning of the fishing campaign and welcome their decision to act swiftly and rapidly.

The 6 Spanish and the 9 French purse seiners were operating together in Joint Fishing Operations, which has lead to a more rapid exhaustion of their quota.

This is a clear indication that the ICCAT (International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas) and EU rules are effective since no vessels can continue to remain at sea once the quota is exhausted. The Commission, in close coordination with France and Spain as well as with other Member States continues to closely monitor the other fishing activities on Bluefin Tuna, namely done by small scale fisheries and by traps.

Contact: The Office of Maria Damanaki, EU Commissioner for Maritime Affaires & Fisheries.

 

Is California preparing for climate change?

Results from new climate adaptation survey

California Auto License Plate

A majority of California's coastal planners and resource managers now view the threats from climate change as sufficiently likely that practical steps on the ground need to be taken to protect against growing threats, according to results from a new survey published by Stanford University's Center for Ocean Solutions (COS) and the California Sea Grant.

Survey respondents acknowledge the need to prepare for changes along the coast that might result from rising sea levels and other impacts, such as more floods, loss of beach access, coastal erosion and potential damage to transportation infrastructure, including highways, roads and ports.

The new survey – an update on a similar one conducted six years ago – shows a strong uptick in California coastal professionals' attention to preparing and planning for climate change. Results reveal that managers are ready and willing to develop adaptation strategies, despite tighter belts in most local and state agencies in recent years. But lack of money to prepare and implement plans, insufficient staff and lack of technical know-how are significant challenges.

"Communities are willing to adapt to the reality of climate change, but they are struggling. This is a story that needs to be told when billions of dollars in assets are at risk," said Susanne Moser, Director of Susanne Moser Research & Consulting in Santa Cruz and a Research Associate of COS. She worked with colleagues at University of Southern California Sea Grant, California Sea Grant and the University of California, Berkeley, and an unprecedented collaborative of 12 other coastal organizations in California to systematically probe coastal professionals' knowledge and attitudes toward global warming, their level of preparedness for the future, and the challenges they face in taking action.

The survey shows that 40 percent of coastal professionals who are responsible for protecting natural resources, property and human safety have begun trying to understand the risks they face, and another 40 percent are actively planning for climate change impacts, such as sea level rise, coastal flooding and erosion. Yet, only about 10 percent are actually doing things on the ground that may reduce the full brunt of climate change.

"The big take-away from the survey is that coastal managers are knowledgeable and understand the importance of preparing for climate change," said USC Sea Grant Associate Director Phyllis Grifman, a co-author of the survey report, Rising to the Challenge: Results of the 2011 California Coastal Adaptation Needs Assessment. "And they are doing what they can even before there is a mandate to develop adaptation plans. They know it is important, and they are concerned, both personally and at work, but they need help."

Most of the nearly 600 coastal professionals who responded to the survey describe a work environment that is already consumed by other pressing issues and constrained by limited fiscal and staff resources. More than 70 percent also indicate that they believe the severity of their leading management challenges, such as protecting water quality and wetland habitats, will further intensify in the next five years, creating yet higher hurdles in meeting the state's call to prepare and plan for rising sea levels.

The survey also allowed coastal managers to identify the information, training needs and tools that would make their work more effective. According to Juliette Finzi Hart, Regional Research and Planning Specialist at USC Sea Grant and lead author of the survey report, "The organizations that worked together on this survey have an opportunity – and a responsibility – to help California coastal managers meet the challenge of climate change. Information alone won't solve the problem, but we can help build coastal professionals' capacity to make our coasts a safer place to live and work."

Today at the Headwaters to Oceans (H2O) Conference in San Diego, Grifman will moderate a discussion of the survey results at a session on climate adaptation and coastal management. Panelists include Hart and co-authors Monique Myers of California Sea Grant, and Julia Ekstrom, a postdoctoral researcher at UC Berkeley.

In a second panel today, co-author Adina Abeles of COS will moderate a session of several survey partners addressing what California coastal managers need, in terms of information, training and tools, to deal with sea level rise and other climate change impacts, and how these organizations are helping to provide this technical assistance.

The current survey revealed a strong increase in adaptation activity compared to the very low level observed at the time of the first coastal adaptation survey conducted in 2005/2006. That survey – conducted by researchers at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, including Moser – found that among the local governments in coastal areas that were surveyed, only two counties at that time had begun considering climate change in their planning efforts, and another six cities and four counties were in the process. Five years later a marked shift is evident: today 93 percent of all survey respondents (including representatives from local, regional, state and federal entities) say they are in the process of understanding their climate change risks, assessing their adaptation options, or implementing a strategy.

"The survey results are timed perfectly with ongoing state efforts to update the 2012 California Climate Adaptation Strategy," said Abe Doherty, a project specialist at the Ocean Protection Council, one of the 15 organizations that collaborated on the survey. Others include the California Coastal Commission, NOAA Coastal Services Center and Southern California Coastal Ocean Observing System.

"It is important to get feedback on what coastal managers are using for information and what they need for technical assistance and training," said Doherty, who is currently drafting the ocean and coastal resources portion of the climate adaptation strategy. "The barriers are mostly fiscal for communities. We know we have limited funds, so what is the best approach for moving forward? We have to craft strategies and focus staff time strategically. The survey results help us prioritize staff time and resources."

The USC Sea Grant and California Sea Grant programs are part of a national network of 32 programs of marine research, outreach and education activities and part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), U.S. Department of Commerce. Sea Grant is dedicated to helping citizens use scientific information to support a vibrant economy and ensure ecological sustainability.

The Center for Ocean Solutions is a collaboration among Stanford's Woods Institute for the Environment and Hopkins Marine Station, the Monterey Bay Aquarium and the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. Across these institutions, COS draws from about 80 scholars, researchers and educators who work on coastal and ocean ecosystems in the natural, physical and social sciences. COS also works with experienced conservation practitioners and policy experts. Located at Stanford and in Monterey, California, COS is uniquely positioned to leverage expertise and develop practical solutions to the most urgent and important ocean conservation problems.

Contact: Susanne Moser
promundi@susannemoser.com
831-234-8219
Stanford University

Co-ordinated action points the way ahead for EU's LIFE Program

Karl Falkenberg, Director General of DG Environment. © EU

In an address at Green Week in Brussels on 24 May, Karl Falkenberg, Director General of DG Environment, said that integrated projects which co-ordinate actions with other funding streams represent the way forward for the LIFE programme.

Speaking at the session, ’20 years of LIFE – the past, present and future of water policy funding’, Mr Falkenberg said that the limited LIFE budget means that projects will have to use “multiplier effects” to achieve an impact that is not merely local but one that spreads across Member States, he said. The EU will favour cross-border initiatives, while partnerships for research will give access to additional finances, he added.

Mr Falkenberg praised those who set up the LIFE programme 20 years ago, saying that they had a “good understanding of the demonstration potential” of the instrument.

Dr. Lynne Barratt, ASTRALE, LIFe External Monitoring Team. © EU

Speaking ahead of the Director General, Dr Lynne Barratt, ASTRALE (external monitoring team for the LIFE programme) gave an overview of the strengths and opportunities of the programme. “LIFE projects excel in policy implementation but not in all areas of the policy lifecycle,” she said.

Dr Barratt emphasised that the programme could play a greater role than it has done in influencing policymaking. Mr Falkenberg concluded his address by reaffirming this point. We need to work towards making LIFE a source of knowledge that can help revise policy, he said.

Mr Falkenberg concluded the session by presenting the two winners of the ‘Best of the Best’ and three winners of the  ‘Best’ LIFE Environment projects with their plaques.

‘Best of the Best’:

• ‘INSU-SHELL – Environmentally Friendly Facade Elements made of thermal insulated Textile Reinforced Concrete’ (LIFE06 ENV/D/000471) This German project demonstrated a new technology to minimise the amount of concrete necessary in the construction of the facades. The beneficiary, the Rheinisch - Westfaelische Technische Hochschule Aachen, developed a high-tech, thermally insulated textile reinforced concrete (TRC) technology, which reduces the C02 produced by more than half.
• Moveable HEPP – Demonstration Plant in the Kinzig River: Moveable Hydroelectric Power Plant for Ecological River Improvements and Fish Migration Reestablishment (LIFE06 ENV/D/000485). This German project demonstrated ‘Moveable HEPP’, a new hydropower technology that doesn’t adversely affect natural ecosystem functions of river habitats. The technology is economically advantageous event at low turbine heads.

‘Best’:

• ‘ES-WAMAR – Environmentally-friendly management of swine waste based on innovative technology: a demonstration project set in Aragón (Spain)’ (LIFE06 ENV/E/000044)
• ‘BATinLoko – Environmental performance indicators and their relation with economic factors in textile BAT implementation’ (LIFE07 ENV/P/000625)
• ‘Lake recult. in Gniezno’ – Recultivation of Jelonek and Winiary lakes in Gniezno by inactivation of phosphorus in bottom sediments’ (LIFE07 ENV/PL/000605)

 Download The Voices of LIFE- 20 years of getting things done