Sunday Times investigation over Japan bribery over Whaling! A MUST SEE!
Controversial whaling proposal fails at global meeting
23 June 2010
(Agadir, Morocco) – The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW-www.ifaw.org) announced today that a controversial proposal to legalize whaling has failed at the annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) in Agadir, Morocco.
“Under a cloud of corruption allegations the IWC is taking a safe course, opting for a cooling off period that protects the moratorium and other IWC conservation measures,” said Patrick Ramage, Director of IFAW’s Global Whale Campaign. “Had it been done here, this deal would have lived in infamy.”
The proposal, three years in the making, proposed a compromise between whaling and non-whaling nations which regularly clash at annual IWC meetings. Among the most hotly debated components of the proposal was a plan to overturn the worldwide ban on whaling, in place since 1986, by allowing legalized hunting of whales by Iceland, Norway, and Japan – the last three countries still hunting whales commercially. Japan, Norway, and Iceland have illegally killed nearly 35,000 whales since the inception of the moratorium.
“This was an intense three year effort but one conducted behind closed doors and focused on defining terms under which commercial whaling would continue rather than how it would end,” said Ramage. “The proposal it produced could not withstand public scrutiny and ignored the overwhelming global support for permanent protection for whales. Any future process of negotiation should not leave the views, expertise, and perspective of the global NGO community sitting outside.”
Crisis as whaling talks move behind closed doors
ANDREW DARBY IN AGADIR, MOROCCO
June 21, 2010
High-level talks over a global whaling peace deal are to be sent behind closed doors, in an abrupt move said to show that a bid for compromise is close to failure.
The decision to suspend the International Whaling Commission’s annual meeting shortly after it opens later today was agreed in private at the demand of the acting IWC chairman, Anthony Liverpool, Fairfax Media has learnt.
It has surprised lobbyists, as well as some IWC nations who, after months of closed door talks, wanted the controversial deal finally to be argued in the open.
The suspension also prevents the peace talks from being derailed on the floor of the meeting by rising disquiet over Japan’s vote-buying scandal.
The British marine environment minister, Richard Benyon, had planned to raise reports of Tokyo’s largesse, including payments to support the attendance of Mr Liverpool who comes from Antigua in the Caribbean.
About 65 IWC members, including an unprecedented number of government ministers, are in Agadir to work on the deal that offers Japan, Iceland and Norway new rights to commercial whaling.
In exchange, the whalers’ catches were to be reduced overall, and there was to be an end to loopholes such as the IWC’s discredited “scientific” whaling clause.
A key negotiator said of the meeting’s suspension: “This is one last attempt to see if there is any common ground. We will be split up into small groups, and we won’t be coming back until Wednesday.”
Patrick Ramage, the global whale program director for the International Fund for Animal Welfare, said Mr Liverpool had ordered the closed-door meetings with a view to fast-tracking the proposal when the formal session reopens on Wednesday.
“Whatever one’s view on the proposal, its adoption under the present circumstances will destroy any remaining credibility for the whaling commission,” Mr Ramage said.
Source: theage.com.au
Japanese pay for whale delegates
The Sunday Times Insight team
Published: 20 June 2010
The chairman of this week’s international summit on whaling is being secretly funded by a Japanese company to stay in a luxury hotel.
Anthony Liverpool will open the crucial International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting in Morocco tomorrow which could vote to lift a 24-year ban on commercial whaling.
He has accepted free flights and the £4,000 cost of staying at a hotel with a private beach during the meeting. The hotel bills of five other countries’ delegates are also being paid.
The payments will increase concern that Japan is bribing delegates to secure support for whaling and may be in breach of the IWC convention which says: “The expenses of each member of the commission … shall be determined and paid by his own government.”
Richard Benyon, the minister for fisheries, will raise what he called “these very serious allegations” at the IWC meeting.
On Friday Liverpool, the Antiguan IWC vice-chairman who will stand in as chairman at the meeting, said he did not know who was paying for his trip. “I am just aware of getting support through agencies,” he said.
However, inquiries have shown that his bill at a hotel in Agadir is being paid by Japan Tours and Travel of Houston, a company said to be linked to Hideuki “Harry” Wakasa, who has previously been identified as the middleman who makes secret payments to the pro-whaling Caribbean countries.
Baleal Surf Fest II
Nos dia 18 e 19 de Junho decorre na Praia do Baleal em Peniche o BALEAL SURF FEST II.
A génese e conceito do Baleal Surf Fest surgiu de uma necessidade de consciencialização da comunidade de surf e de todas as pessoas que utilizam os oceanos e a sua infinidade de serviços na busca de soluções, mudança, e acção.
A aparente calma e beleza que o oceano nos transmite esconde abaixo da sua superfície uma multiplicidade de problemas e situações que necessitam de atenção urgente e acção.
Durante o Baleal Surf Fest decorrem várias actividades que visam promover a cultura e o desporto que é o surf, chamar a atenção para problemas ambientais e celebrar os objectivos sociais e ambientais que nos propomos atingir através de Arte e Música.
Durante a segunda edição do Baleal Surf Fest que decorre nos dias 18 e 19 de Junho na Praia do Baleal, Peniche iremos:
- Dar aulas de Surf Grátis a quem quiser experimentar este desporto único;
- Dar aulas a pessoas com mobilidade reduzida e necessidades especiais a de 3 instituições da região;
- Realizar limpezas de Praia;
- Realizar campeonatos de remada e surf “vintage” (recordando as bases e raízes do surf);
- Exibir o Documentário “THE COVE”, ganhador do Óscar 2009 da sua categoria (com uma breve palestra sobre a condição dos golfinhos e baleias e o debate contemporâneo sobre a Baleação);
- Exibição de pranchas antigas, eco-artesanato, pintura de pranchas ao vivo, e eco-arte;
- Espectáculos de Música ;
- E MUITO MAIS!
Mais informação sobre o evento em www.balealsurffest.com
10 Reasons to Reject (the Palmer Plan)!
Some time ago I wrote a post about my optimism in relation to Japan cuts on government spendings and how I thought the world economical crisis would solve the whaling problem.
Well, forget all that!!
Later some Japanese official in a visit to Australia, assured that the whaling program was not under revision, and that Japan was still pursuing their intents at the International Whaling Commission (IWC).
Now I’m not just worried with Japan but with the IWC all together! The Small Working Group (SWG), a sub-group inside the IWC assign to cut a deal between the parties and solve the whaling issue, came up with unthinkable solutions.
Sidney Holt, my tutor-guru-mentor, looked into it:
In my view the suggestions made by the IWC Chairman on the basis of advice from the CSG and SAG constitute a move back towards the situation of the IWC in its earliest days – the 1950s – and tend to nullify most of the advances made in conservation and management of whaling since then. In 1961 – my first year of attendance at the IWC – there was a virtual monopoly of large-scale factory-ship whaling in the Antarctic, held by five nations; a catch limit was set without benefit of scientific input at a level economically convenient for the five national whaling fleets; participation by “civil society” and the media was not permitted and even the Verbatim Records of the IWC’s meetings were kept secret for many years (after some decades of making such records public the IWC no longer publishes them, thus impeding historical analysis).In my view the suggestions made by the IWC Chairman on the basis of advice from the CSG and SAG constitute a move back towards the situation of the IWC in its earliest days – the 1950s – and tend to nullify most of the advances made in conservation and management of whaling since then. In 1961 – my first year of attendance at the IWC – there was a virtual monopoly of large-scale factory-ship whaling in the Antarctic, held by five nations; a catch limit was set without benefit of scientific input at a level economically convenient for the five national whaling fleets; participation by “civil society” and the media was not permitted and even the Verbatim Records of the IWC’s meetings were kept secret for many years (after some decades of making such records public the IWC no longer publishes them, thus impeding historical analysis).
The Palmer-Donovan Plan would legitimise and confine whaling for at least ten years to the three countries that still deny the IWC’s 1982 decision to pause all commercial whaling until certain conditions were met (those conditions have not yet been met) as a result of which five whaling nations dismantled their industries, forwent their profits and disbanded their work forces.The rationale of the P-D plan is that it would prevent any further escalation of the activities of three whaling countries, but that belief is, for me an expression of naive optimism, no matter how fine the intentions might be, and the price to be paid for embarking on a tten year voyage on this leaky ship (mutiny prohibited) is unbearably high.
The Palmer-Donovan Plan was recently discussed at a meeting in Florida of representatives of nearly thirty countries (only about one-third of the IWC’s Membership) constituting a “Small Working Group”. This was very ably and fairly chaired by Ambassador Anthony Liverpool, Commissioner for Antigua & Barbuda (The IWC Chairman was absent because of the terrible earthquake event in Chile) and was attended by Observers from non-governmental organisations but not the media; for the first time since the 1970s Observers were given opportunities to address the meeting. The SWG’s Report will be considered – perhaps together with a new version of the Chairman’s Report on the CSG – for decision by the IWC at a full Annual Meeting in Morocco in June 2010. That meeting will be open to Observers from civil society and to the media.
Dr. Holt identifies 10 reasons for Concern about the IWC Chair’s suggestions regarding the future of the IWC (the “Plan”). And for vigorously opposing its adoption at the forthcoming meeting of the IWC in Morocco.
1. It envisages continued whaling in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary;
2. It rejects the Precautionary Principle that was pioneered by the IWC in 1976;
3. It applies ten-year “block quotas”, that were disastrous in the 1970-80s, even for four or six years only;
4. It ignores the consequences of inevitable changes in IWC Membership and/or attendance during the ten “interim” years;
5. It is unfair to ex-whaling countries that accepted the 1982/86 “moratorium”;
6. There are no provisions to enforce or even encourage a ban on or limitation of international trade in commodities from whales;
7. It contemplates authorizing the killing of sperm whales.
8. It undermines the role of international law in conserving and managing the use of living resources of the sea, particularly of the High Seas and Highly Migratory Species;
9. It weakens the IWC;
10. It fails to recognize global changes in public perception of whales and whaling and will encourage actions outside the IWC’s orbit.
Nova Publicação
Na passada segunda-feira foi lançado o livro Abrindo Trilhos, Tecendo Redes – Reflexões e Experiências de Desenvolvimento Local em Contexto Lusófono.
O Livro foi apresentado na Livraria Barata; a Prof. Clara Carvalho, Presidente do Centro de Estudos Africanos (CEA/ISCTE-IUL) fez a apresentação inicial, muito elogiosa. Depois, o Professor Luís Moita teceu considerações sobre o desenvolvimento local, a pertinência do livro e os autores. Por fim, a coordenadora do Projecto Brígida Rocha Brito contou a “história” do livro: como surgiu, porquê e para quem. A sessão terminou com os autógrafos.
Mais em http://africadetodossonhos.blogspot.com
Eu sou Também autor deste livro com um capitulo sobre o meu trabalho em São Tomé e Príncipe.
Referência:
Gonçalves, F. 2010. Os cetáceos de São Tomé e Príncipe: A luta pela biodiversidade e dignidade de um povo. In: Abrindo Trilhos, Tecendo Redes – Reflexões e Experiências de Desenvolvimento Local em contexto Lusófono. Gerpress. pp.123-138
Limpar Portugal (Baleal)
Cheguei pelas 1600 ao Bar do Bruno, na Praia do Baleal Campismo, onde não estava ninguém para além do Bruno Bairros, Coordenador da acção e proprietário do Baleal Surfcamp.
O Tourita que tinha ido comigo não lhe apelava muito a ideia de andar de rabo para o ar a limpar a praia e fugiu assim que viu que a iniciativa parecia ter pouca adesão.
Estavam presentes apenas alguns clientes do Bruno e no total éramos creio que uns 4 ou 5. Mas lá pelas 16 e qualquer coisa chegou o Telmo Vital com o pessoal que estava a ficar no Maximum Surfcamp.
Juntaram-se a nós também Luis Silva, Marcos Bairros, João, Rainer Gersch, e outros; num total de umas 30 pessoas, aproximadamente.
No total retirámos do areal e das zonas circundantes às dunas todo o tipo de plástico, garrafas de vidro, cordas de nylon, redes de pesca, bocados de foam de prancha, botas etc. um total de 5 metros cúbicos.
Alguns daqueles detritos eram sem dúvida o resultado da falta de consciência e responsabilidade cívica dos utentes da praia.
Isto apenas de uma pequena porção da praia, se pensarmos a um nível mais abrangente, gerar-nos certamente um grande sentimento de preocupação…
No final de contas foi um sucesso a Ocean Initiatives da Surfrider Foundation levada a cabo por cidadãos livres e conscientes das nefastas consequências que o lixo nas zonas costeiras pode ter.
Assinámos no fim uma petição que será juntada às outras assinaturas recolhidas pela Surfrider Foundation, para ser apresentada à UE quando atinja as 10.000 assinaturas, para que os nossos representantes em Bruxelas rectifiquem a actual classificação do lixo, que ainda não é considerada um meio de poluição!
Saiba mais aqui (em inglês)!
Poluição de Mares e Oceanos (Projecto da Escola Secundária da Lourinhã)
Abrindo Trilhos, Tecendo Redes (lançamento do livro)
Na próxima segunda-feira, dia 22 de Março de 2010 pelas 18:00 será feito o lançamento do livro “Abrindo Trilhos, Tecendo Redes. Reflexões e Experiências de Desenvolvimento Local em contexto Lusófono“, na Livraria Barata na Avenida de Rome 11-A.
Eu sou co-autor, contribuindo com um capitulo para o livro, com o tema: Os cetáceos de São Tomé e Príncipe: A luta pela biodiversidade e dignidade de um povo.
O livro é publicado pelo Centro de Estudos Africanos (CEA- ISCTE), Universidade Autónoma de Lisboa (UAL) e a Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia (FCT).
Limpar Portugal (dunas do Baleal)
No próximo dia 20 de Março 2010 dá-se a iniciativa Limpar Portugal. Na cidade de Peniche vamos limpar os sistemas dunares da zona do Baleal.
Irá ser dada uma breve explicação sobre os diferentes tipos de lixo que encontramos nas dunas e os seus malificios tanto para o ambiente como para os organismos marinhos.
Anualmente, o lixo mata centenas de animais marinhos, um flagelo difícil de combater e controlar. É nesta base que vamos alertar, educar e promover uma maior consciência ambiental na nossa comunidade surfista e sociedade cívil.
É dever e responsabilidade de todos ajudar neste ambicioso projecto. O maior projecto ambiental de voluntariado de todos os tempos.
Contamos com todos dia 20 de Março pelas 16:00 junto ao Parque de Campismo do Baleal.
Mais informação em http://www.initiativesoceanes.org/cleanup.php?idclean=738