Tiger and panda numbers increase in landmark year
WHILE some are mourning 2016 as a year of political shocks and celebrity deaths, conservationists say it has seen some landmark environmental successes.
Environmental campaigners warn global wildlife populations could have declined by two thirds on 1970 levels by the end of the decade, but said 2016 shows that people can make a difference.
Some of the world’s most charismatic species have seen an upturn in their fortunes, with tiger numbers increasing for the first time since efforts to conserve them began and giant pandas moved off the endangered list, wildlife charity WWF said.
Nepal has achieved two years in a row with no rhino poaching, while trade in the world’s most trafficked mammal, the pangolin or scaly anteater, has been made illegal by countries meeting to discuss international wildlife trade.
This year saw the UK commit an extra £13m to tackling the illegal wildlife trade and, elsewhere in the environmental arena, ratify the Paris Agreement, the world’s first comprehensive deal by countries to tackle climate change.
In August, Scotland produced enough renewable energy on one day to power the entire country, with wind turbines generating 106% of Scottish demand for electricity.
In other parts of the world, Belize suspended seismic surveying for offshore oil exploration along the longest barrier reef in the northern hemisphere, the world’s largest marine protected area in Antarctica got the goahead and Spanish national park Donana was saved from destructive dredging.
Glyn Davies, acting chief executive of WWF-UK, said: “The world faces a challenge in keeping its beautiful places and special species.
“Global wildlife populations are likely to decline by 67% from 1970 levels by the end of this decade.
“Without greater efforts, we will face a global mass extinction of wildlife for the first time since the demise of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.
“The good news is that we know we can make a difference. 2016 has celebrated many landmark successes which will bolster global efforts to pro- tect the natural world. Some great victories have been won, but there is still an uphill battle ahead. WWF looks to 2017 as a year where actions will need to speak louder than words.
“We need to see real progress in tackling illegal wildlife trade, climate change and habitat destruction and degradation.”
Some key conservation and environmental successes this year:
While Africa struggles with high levels of rhino poaching for their horns, Nepal marked two years in May since its last rhino was poached in 2014, with zero poaching helping to increase the population of one-horned rhinos to a new high of 645.
On August 7, Scotland produced 106% of the country’s electricity needs for the day, with wind turbines providing 39,545 megawatt hours (MWh) to the grid during the day while total consumption for homes, business and industry was 37,202 MWh.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) said the giant panda was being downgraded from being classified as endangered to the less serious category of vulnerable to extinction as a result of a 17% increase in population numbers, following conservation work.
At a meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites), countries agreed to end all legal trade in pangolins, traded for their meat and scales for food and medicine, to save the species from extinction.
The longest barrier reef in the northern hemisphere won a reprieve from seismic surveying , after officials in Belize agreed to suspend the seismic portion of offshore oil exploration, which would have taken place close to the reef World Heritage site.
The UK was among 24 countries and the EU that signed an agreement to protect 1.55 million square kilometres (600,000 square miles) of the Ross Sea in the Southern Ocean, Antarctica, from damaging activities such as fishing to conserve wildlife.
The UK ratified the world’s first comprehensive treaty on climate change, the Paris Agreement, which came into force in November, and commits countries to keeping global temperature rises to “well below” 2C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to curb rises to 1.5C.
At a conference on the illegal wildlife trade in Hanoi, Vietnam, in November, the UK pledged an additional £13m to tackling the problem, which has helped drive a drop in global wildlife populations of 58% since 1970.
The Spanish government announced in December it would ban dredging of the Guadalquivir River, which – if it had gone ahead – could have seen the Donana wetlands become the EU’s first natural World Heritage Site to be put on the danger list.