I know you’re out there somewhere Somewhere, somewhere I know I’ll find you somehow Somehow, somehow And somehow I’ll return again to you The mist is

Spunky my old gal with Biggs in the kitchen just hanging out. Spunky isn’t crazy about him but mostly ignores him! At least all 4 of my animals get along.

brand new vegan and this list is wonderful!

Lilybelle sweet thing angel of fuzz gray as the mountains with white peaks on top Eyes like the yellow stars in the sky Curious energetic Puff through

Travel to the Oregon Coast with your pet? Nothing beats a trip to the coast with your four-legged friend. Sand, water, and sunshine (well, occasional sunshine) – a getaway with your pet doesn’t get much better than that! But, ever…

Britain’s rivers are under serious threat. Many are below their usual levels for the time of year and the need to conserve our rivers and reduce water demand has never been stronger.

With climate change, population growth and the demand for housing set to have significant impacts on river flows the future does not look bright for many of England’s best loved rivers.

This week, conservation organisation WWF-UK launches Riverside Tales, a new report that looks at the worrying future for some of the UK’s unique chalk streams. It warns of immediate threats to wildlife such as water voles, otters, salmon and kingfishers caused by taking too much water from these waterways. It calls for a consistent approach to making sure water use is within sustainable limits.

Although all water companies now have an obligation to deliver water efficiency, the policies for protecting our rivers are effectively bound by out of date licensing rules that do not reflect the needs of rivers.

Ecosystems in a third of river catchments are under threat because abstraction and licence levels are too high. WWF’s report focuses on the discrepancies in the fortunes of the Itchen in Hampshire, the upper Kennet in Wiltshire and the tributary rivers of the Upper Lee – the Mimram and the Beane in Hertfordshire and offers lessons for rivers around the country.

“All the water we use is taken from the natural environment, and as water scarcity becomes a bigger issue in the UK, the framework for how we manage water resources in England and Wales must be changed. Reducing unsustainable abstraction will require strong leadership from government, water regulators, and water companies.” said Rose Timlett, Freshwater Policy and Programme Officer, WWF-UK.

Of the three river catchment areas the future looks brightest for the Itchen – home to many protected and increasingly rare native species such as the white-clawed crayfish and southern damselfly. Over the next five years the Environment Agency and the local water company are planning to install water meters throughout the region helping to keep millions of litres of water in the river.

Unfortunately the same cannot be said for the other rivers. Despite the Environment Agency and water companies agreeing to reduce over abstraction, funding has not yet been secured to deliver it. There are no plans to significantly reduce the amount of water people use even though water consumption around the Mimran and the Beane rivers is amongst the highest in the country.

Based on the review of these three catchment areas, WWF is calling for all damaging abstraction licences to be amended or revoked by 2020. The government must work with regulators, water companies and local communities to become more water efficient, stop our rivers from drying out and protect our native wildlife.

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For more information, pictures of species and river catchment areas please contact:

Rowan Walker
Press Officer
WWF-UK
Tel: 01483 412 387
rwalker@wwf.org.uk

About WWF
WWF-UK is the UK arm of the WWF Network, the world’s leading environmental organisation founded in 1961 and now active in over 100 countries. WWF’s mission is to stop the degradation of the earth’s natural environment and to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature, by conserving the world’s biological diversity, ensuring that the use of renewable natural resources is sustainable, and promoting the reduction of pollution and wasteful consumption.

WWF and the leading associations for European seafood processors and retailers are to work together to push for solutions to the crisis of European seas and fisheries.

AIPCE, the EU fish processors’ association, and Eurocommerce, which represents retail, wholesale and international trade interests to the EU, are joining WWF in seeking reforms to the troubled European Common Fisheries Policy. The current policy has failed to secure the health of EU fisheries, and has put most of them under severe strain, compromising the availability of sustainably harvested seafood.

Sally Bailey, Head of Fisheries and Seafood, at WWF-UK says: “In the last decade, we have seen huge steps by the seafood industry towards sustainability. We are united in a desire to bring European fisheries back to wide scale health and prosperity, and to do this we must change the current, ineffectual way our fisheries are managed. Today’s alliance already represents a very significant portion of the supply chain from the processing and trading sector and the retail sector, and from the North Sea to the Mediterranean. Sustainability is a conservation necessity and a business necessity today.”

AIPCE President Guus Pastoor said “For the sake of an improved CFP, EU Fish processors and traders are convinced that it is necessary to join forces to achieve sustainable and profitable fisheries for the future of all EU citizens. Therefore we feel committed to support an alliance of partners seeking for a reform which meets the needs of the sector.”
In the UK, WWF-UK is already working with leading retailer M&S to address the problem of overfishing and increase demand for sustainably sourced seafood.

Richard Luney,Wild Fish and Aquaculture Manager, at M&S says: “M&S are commmited to ensuring our fish stocks, and the communities they support are protected. The reform of the Common Fisheries Policy offers us a once in a decade opportunity to influence how our fisheries are managed, and we are keen to play an active role alongside WWF to ensure sustainable fish remains on our shelves.”

In the next months WWF and its allies will present their shared position to members of the European Commission and the Parliament involved in the reform of European fisheries and actively engage more and more national offices and companies to move towards sustainable and well-managed fisheries inside and outside Europe.

The alliance is seeking the replacement of “political quotas” for fish with mandatory long term management plans firmly based on science for all EU fisheries by 2015,

The alliance is also seeking to have all regional stakeholders play effective roles in developing fisheries plans and a culture of compliance for fisheries.

Strong EU standards should also apply wherever the EU fishes and this should be reflected in EU ishery and trade polices and fishing agreements and partnerships.

Fisheries policy should also seek to maximise value from catch to consumer, avoiding waste and ensuring stable supplies of seafood and added value at each stage of supply chain;

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Notes to the editor:
The alliance:
WWF is one of the worlds’ largest and most respected independent conservation organisations, with almost 5 million supporters and a global network active in over 100 countries.
AIPCE-CEP is the EU Fish Processors and Traders Association and represents 130.000 employees, 4.000 enterprises and a production value of around €20 billion (http://aipce-cep.org/)
EuroCommerce represents the retail, wholesale and international trade sectors in Europe. Its membership includes commerce federations in 31 countries, European and national associations representing specific commerce sectors and individual companies. One company out of three in Europe is active in the commerce sector. (www.eurocommerce.be).

The shared statement and list of supporting companies: (link)

For further information:
Debbie Chapman, Senior Press Officer, WWF-UK, tel. +44 (0)7900 670282, Email: dchapman@wwf.org.uk
Aurora Vicente, Secretary General, AIPCE-CEP, tel. +32 (0)2 743 87 44, Email: aipce@agep.eu
Marina Valverde Lopez, Adviser on Food Policy and Consumers, Eurocommerce,
tel. +32 (0)2 737 0584, Email: valverdelopez@eurocommerce.be

The Australian Government’s decision to delay the carbon pollution reduction scheme (CPRS) is grossly irresponsible both in terms of the environment and the economy, and is a betrayal to those who voted the Rudd Government in, WWF-Australia CEO Greg Bourne said today.

It also flies in the face of a new opinion poll which shows an overwhelming 79 per cent of respondents believe Australia should either begin reducing carbon pollution before other countries, or start reducing regardless of when other countries choose to act.

“It is clear the Australian public wants action now, and not when it is politically beneficial,” said Mr Bourne. “Delaying the scheme elevates opportunism over the welfare of future generations.”

The Government’s decision ignores environmental and economic advice from a wide range of experts recommending immediate Australian action, including the CSIRO and the Garnaut and Shergold reviews.

Both Garnaut and Shergold recommended the immediate implementation of an emission trading scheme irrespective of the positions taken by other countries because it would advantage Australia in the long run.

The new opinion poll of over 4,000 Australians living in metropolitan areas was conducted for WWF-Australia by AMR Interactive. Only 13 per cent of respondents said Australia should wait until other countries take action on reducing their carbon pollution.

Despite the overwhelming public support for action, Australia’s carbon pollution remains the highest per-capita in the developed world. Australia’s carbon pollution is currently growing at twice the world average.

“No matter where you look, the advice is the same. We need a way to set a limit on carbon pollution and begin reducing it,” said Bourne.

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For further information please contact:

Jo Sargent
Senior Press Officer, WWF-UK
01483 412 375
07867 697 519

A new, warmer Arctic cannot continue to operate under rules that assume it is ice-covered and essentially closed to fishing, exploration, development and shipping, WWF said today. WWF is launching a set of reports on the protection required for this newly accessible, highly vulnerable environment with profound significance for global climate, economy and security.

The International Governance and Regulation of the Marine Arctic reports were launched in Denmark as Russian president Medvedev visits Norwegian capital Oslo for talks which will include Arctic issues and just before the Arctic Council meets in Greenland.

“The melting of the Arctic ice is opening a new ocean, bringing new possibilities for commercial activities in a part of the world that has previously been inaccessible,” said Lasse Gustavsson, incoming executive conservation director for WWF-International and currently CEO of WWF-Sweden. “What happens in the Arctic has a global environmental and economic impact. For instance, more than a quarter of the fish eaten in Europe comes from the region, and yet we do not have effective rules for fishing in newly accessible areas.”

The Arctic may well be ice free in the summers within decades. Commercial ships have recently successfully sailed the Northern Sea Route above Siberia, and ship yards are getting more and more orders for tankers capable of dealing with remnant ice.

Accelerating oil and gas exploration is raising the prospects of Exxon Valdez scenarios – spills in highly susceptible environments in the absence of clean-up rules and infrastructure. A related issue is the impact on marine mammals and fish from noise generated by shipping and seismic activity to locate hydrocarbon deposits.

There are three reports in the set. The first looks at how today’s international legal regime meets the challenges posed by the unprecedented rapid change taking place in the Arctic. It concludes there are large gaps in governance and management regimes, with loopholes that could allow irreparable damage to the marine environment, its biodiversity and Indigenous peoples. The responsibilities and mechanisms for keeping marine resource extraction within sustainable limits are unclear and so are the responsibilities and mechanisms for preventing or responding to pollution accidents and shipping disasters.

The second report outlines the various options for addressing the identified gaps in governance and the third proposes a new arctic framework convention as a legally-binding instrument that could help ensure the future protection of the Arctic region.

“It’s time to recognise that the current international rules just can’t cope with the complex challenges of the Arctic region.” said David Norman, Director of Campaigns at WWF-UK. “The ice has protected the Arctic Ocean for hundreds of years; we have collectively removed that protection though our contributions to climate change, and now we must work together to manage the new risks we have created.”

For further information:

Benjamin Ward, head of press, WWF-UK: bward@wwf.org.uk, +44 7837 134 193
Lasse Gustavsson, incoming executive conservation director at WWF International and currently CEO of WWF-Sweden: lasse.gustavsson@wwf.se, +46 70 105 30 55
Dr. Tatiana Saksina, arctic governance officer, WWF International Arctic Programme: tsaksina@wwfint.org, + 41 79 535 28 26

To download the full report: http://assets.panda.org/downloads/3in1_final.pdf

The benefits of living in a green home should be available to everyone in the UK, but the reality is that many homeowners cannot afford to carry out green refurbishments, are confused about the best options for their home, or simply oblivious to the grants and advice that are currently available to them.

The benefits of living in a green home should be available to everyone in the UK, but the reality is that many homeowners cannot afford to carry out green refurbishments, are confused about the best options for their home, or simply oblivious to the grants and advice that are currently available to them.

For homeowners who want to make sense of it all, the Great British Refurb Campaign, fronted by Grand Designs’ Kevin McCloud is presenting a series of seminars and ‘How To’ sessions at this year’s Grand Designs Live (London ExCel, 1 -9 May).

These events, featuring Kevin McCloud will give visitors to the show an opportunity to hear more about the campaign and add their support for greater financial incentives to help homeowners cover the cost of green refurbishment.

Tackling our old, inefficient housing stock is vital to help the UK cut its carbon emissions, as our homes are currently responsible for at least a quarter of the UK’s CO2 emissions. Greater financial incentives will help more people take action to make their homes more energy efficient, and the Great British Refurb Campaign is specifically proposing tax breaks to help drive national uptake. Experts will be on hand at the following events to highlight the benefits of a greener home.

Saturday 1 May: The Big Debate, 1-2pm
Kevin McCloud introduces a discussion on the Great British Refurb Campaign, with experts from WWF and Knauf Insulation providing information on how homeowners can go about retrofitting their homes – transforming them from old homes to “super homes.” Will Homoky, who won a green home makeover, discusses his experience of retrofitting from understanding different types of home insulation to fitting solar panels.

Friday 7 May: The Big Debate, 1-2pm
You’ve decided to retrofit your home, but where should you put your money? This discussion featuring representatives from the house building sector and the Great British Refurb Campaign, looks at the costs involved in achieving a low carbon home and the pros and cons of retrofitting an old property versus buying a new energy efficient home.

How To Sessions
Saturday 1 May, 3.30-4.15pm
Thursday 6 May, 12.45-1.45pm
Spokespeople from the Great British Refurb Campaign provide advice on How to choose the right retrofit options in this informal Q&A session.

For further information or images, please contact:
Debbie Chapman, Senior Press Officer, WWF-UK, tel: 01483 412397, 07900 670282 email: dchapman@wwf.org.uk

Notes to Editors
For more information on the Great British Refurb Campaign visit http://www.greatbritishrefurb.co.uk/

For information on Grand Designs Live, including tickets and venue information visit http://www.granddesignslive.com/