Today’s Queen’s Speech announced welcome legislation on energy efficiency and low carbon energy production in the form of an Energy Security and Green Economy Bill. David Nussbaum, CEO of WWF-UK, said:

“The UK needs a revolution in the way we think about and source our energy, and we strongly support the Bill announced in today’s Queen’s Speech.”

“The proposed implementation of an emissions performance standard, provided it is set at the right level, could prevent saddling us to a new generation of polluting coal fired power plants. Furthermore, the delivery of a smart grid will be crucial for the UK’s low carbon future.”

On the Green Bank:

“The promised legislation on the Green Investment bank is urgent. At a time of public spending cuts, it is essential that we get as much private funding as possible into renewables and improving the energy efficiency of our housing stock.”

On climate change and the global deal:

“The non-legislative commitment to seek effective global collaboration to combat climate change will be vital if the Prime Minister is truly to deliver on his ambition for this to be the ‘greenest ever’ government. The UK must demonstrate leadership in Europe and globally if we are to get a binding, equitable deal and funding to mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change.”

On homes:

“To ensure the UK meets its climate change targets, WWF and the Great British Refurb have long been calling for the UK’s 26 million homes to be retrofitted quickly and to the highest possible standards. A government commitment to improve the energy efficiency of our existing housing stock is therefore extremely welcome.”

“At a time when the government must create jobs and grow industry, home efficiency presents a huge opportunity to kick-start growth in a low carbon economy. However, as the detail of the Bill develops, we need to see mechanisms to ensure this happens quickly, at scale and with financial incentives that will motivate the public to take part.”

For any enquiries, or further specialist comment, please contact:

Benjamin Ward
Head of Press and Media Relations
WWF-UK

+44 (0) 1483 412 378
+44 (0) 7837 134 193
bward@wwf.org.uk

WWF Issues Detailed Response to Shell’s Proposed Safety Procedures for Offshore Arctic Drilling, Set to Begin as Soon as July 1

Two engineers with extensive experience in the oil industry have stated that Shell Oil’s plans to begin drilling off the coast of Alaska in less than six weeks are fraught with risks that have not been adequately addressed by the company. This echoes concerns voiced by WWF over Shell’s proposed safety procedures for drilling in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas.

Dr. Robert Bea, a former Shell official, and Susan Harvey, who previously worked for British Petroleum, expressed serious concerns about Shell’s drilling plans, noting that a spill in the Arctic could not be cleaned up. Dr Bea of California University, who was attending a briefing co-hosted by WWF, referred to Shell’s plans as “imagineering not engineering.”

Responding to these comments, Colin Butfield, Head of Campaigns, at WWF-UK says:
“The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has provided a stark reminder of the risks of drilling for oil anywhere, so the plans by Shell to drill in the Arctic where a spill would be even more disastrous are, quite simply, ludicrous.”

Shell plans to begin drilling in the Beaufort Sea as soon as July 1 and expand drilling operations to the Chukchi Sea soon thereafter. The company’s drilling vessel, the Frontier Discoverer, is expected to depart Subic Bay, in the Philippines, for the coast of Alaska within days. Nearly 700 leases have been sold in the Beaufort and Chukchi, setting the stage for what WWF officials have called an “Arctic oil rush.”

In a letter to US Interior Secretary, Ken Salazar, WWF addressed Shell’s proposal, point-by-point, illustrating how the technology and procedures have not yet been developed to adequately respond to a spill in Arctic waters. WWF’s analysis noted that drilling in the harsh, remote environment of the Arctic is far more perilous than in the Gulf of Mexico and that the technology and logistical infrastructure does not exist to contain and clean up a spill in the Arctic waters of the Beaufort and Chukchi seas.

As the BP oil spill crisis in the Gulf of Mexico continues to worsen, WWF has called upon President Obama and Secretary Salazar to halt Shell’s planned drilling until the Deepwater Horizon disaster has been fully investigated and the technology and procedures have been put in place to respond to and clean up a spill in the harsh, remote waters of the American Arctic.

Shell’s tar sands operations in Canada have also been called into question, with WWF calling on Shell to be transparent to its investors on the full financial and environmental risks of extracting oil from them.

WWF-UK’s Head of Campaigns, Colin Butfield, added:
“Concerns are growing worldwide about risky activities like deepwater drilling and extracting oil from tar sands. Oil companies like Shell not only need to disclose much more information about the risks they are taking, but they also need to look beyond oil to cleaner energy. Environmentally and financially oil will, in a low-carbon world, become even more of a gamble.”

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For further information please contact the WWF-UK Press Office on 01483 412388 or 01483 412383.

NOTES TO EDITORS:
• WWF’s letter to Secretary Salazar is available at www.worldwildlife.org/DOI.
• Photos of Shell’s drilling vessel, Frontier Discoverer, taken last week of the ship in Subic Bay, Philippines, are available at www.worldwildlife.org/shellletter.
• A report issued by WWF detailing the oil spill response gap in Arctic waters, Not So Fast: Some Progress in Spill Response, but US Still Ill-Prepared for Arctic Offshore Development, is available at: http://www.worldwildlife.org/what/wherewework/arctic/WWFBinaryitem14712.pdf

WWF-UK today welcomed further detail on the environment priorities for the new Government. Included in the Coalition Deal are encouraging statements on reforming the Export Credit Guarantee Department to make it more environmentally robust, abolition of plans for a third runway, and a commitment to push for an EU emission reduction target of 30 per cent by 2020.

David Norman, Director of Campaigns at WWF-UK says:
“As a package there is much to warmly welcome from the coalition deal. WWF has long campaigned for the cancellation of a third runway at Heathrow and other airport expansion plans, and we have been calling for an emissions performance standard for power stations to ensure that the UK is not locked into new largely unabated coal plants. Measures to implement a Green Deal for household energy efficiency, potentially higher renewable targets and a Green Bank are all urgently needed and it is good to see them included. However the details of these policies will be crucial to ensure they are effective for the environment.”

“It’s great to finally see a commitment that the UK will pressure the EU to reduce its emissions by 30% by 2020. This will be essential if global negotiations towards a climate deal are to succeed. The UK should back up this leading position with a unilateral strengthening of its own target to 42%, and look to make new, additional and substantial financial support available to those countries least responsible for, but most affected by climate change.”

Whilst the deal reasserts plans originally proposed by Conservative and the Liberal Democrats to set up a green finance scheme to help homeowners carry out eco-refurbishments, we are concerned that zero-carbon targets for new homes seem to have been omitted from the coalition’s plan. WWF-UK was one of the original architects of a target to make all new homes zero-carbon by 2016 and it would be worrying if this commitment has weakened. It’s a key policy to allow the UK to meet its climate change targets.

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For further information, please contact:
Debbie Chapman, Senior Press Officer, tel: 01483 412397, email: dchapman@wwf.org.uk

Targets for ensuring all new homes are zero-carbon by 2016 have not been included in the new Government Coalition deal, raising concerns that the government is rowing back on previously-supported commitments that will help deliver deep and immediate emissions cuts, boost the market for green technologies and establish the UK as a centre for progressive green construction.

Despite both Coalition parties having previously publicly supported the zero carbon targets, the new coalition document contains nothing more than loose commitments to “improve the energy efficiency of new homes over time.”

WWF-UK were one of the original architects of this talismanic piece of environmental legislation, and consider it key to the UK attaining its climate change targets. The conservation organisation is concerned that the omission of this target will discourage industry from seeking the highest levels of sustainability with new build.

Simon McWhirter, Senior Public Affairs Officer at WWF-UK, and a member of the government’s 2016 Zero Carbon Task Force on this issue, says:

“With one hand the Government is finally making progress on the existing housing front but we sincerely hope they aren’t taking away this world-leading zero carbon target with the other. The 2016 zero carbon deadline for new homes is a progressive and ambitious target and against all the odds it has been hugely catalytic in galvanising homebuilders towards reducing the emissions from new build. To lose this target now, gives out a very worrying message about the new Government’s commitment to cutting the UK’s CO2 emissions.”

“The new Government will be held to account for its delivery on the key aspects of this Coalition Deal. To include commitments to reduce the UK’s emissions by 30%, but to omit a key delivery mechanism for achieving this is nonsensical, and we hope this is a mere slip of the pen in the flurry to craft this agreement. Industry need certainty and the confidence to continue to invest in and innovate on zero carbon. That can only come about with a renewed commitment to the zero carbon targets, on both homes and non-domestic buildings.”

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Editor’s notes

Simon McWhirter, who sits on the 2016 Zero Carbon Task Force, is available for interview today.

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

As industrial boats prepare to set sail on Saturday for the annual Atlantic bluefin tuna fishing season on the Mediterranean Sea, WWF is urging all fishing countries to keep the fishery closed this year until a scientifically based management plan is in place that bans destructive industrial fishing.

This will underscore commitments to follow scientific advice in fisheries management made in Doha, Qatar in March by several governments invested in the bluefin tuna fishing industry at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), the largest international wildlife trade convention meeting.

High-tech purse seine fishing vessels – whose vast sack-like nets encircle massive shoals of bluefin tunas gathering to spawn – will once again set off for the high seas on Saturday.

WWF welcomes the decision of Italy to impose a moratorium on its large purse seine fleet this year and its commitment to scrap most of the vessels – and urges other Mediterranean nations to also keep their fleets in port. However, WWF is dismayed at the extensive subsidies being disbursed to compensate Italian boat owners for not going fishing and help them finance vessel scrapping.

“Italy’s decision to keep its purse seiners ashore is to be applauded and upheld as an example to follow,” said Dr Sergi Tudela, Head of Fisheries at WWF Mediterranean. “Atlantic bluefin tuna stocks cannot resist for much longer – by all accounts the species is endangered, with current populations dwindling at less than 15 per cent of what they once were. Nevertheless this year fleets are sanctioned to catch another 13,500 tonnes of fish, even when the rules are still widely violated.

“WWF calls on ICCAT – the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas, the regional management organization in charge of the Atlantic bluefin tuna fishery – and its members to respect their Doha commitments to sustainable fisheries management. A sound recovery plan for the exhausted species must finally be imposed when ICCAT meets in Paris in November – including above all a dramatic cut in catches to well below 8,000 tonnes.”

The latest advice from renowned international scientists shows that even an annual catch of 8,000 tonnes would give at best a 50 per cent chance of recovery to Atlantic bluefin tuna.

Such a quota would necessarily entail the closure of the entire Mediterranean industrial fishery, allowing a moderate catch by traditional artisanal fishing methods – such as the tuna traps around the Straits of Gibraltar, which have supported hundreds of fishing families for more than 3,000 years.

Over 150 members of CITES met in Doha, Qatar on March 9-25, where a majority rejected the proposal by the Principality of Monaco to list Atlantic bluefin tuna on Appendix I of the Convention. The species amply met the criteria, yet the listing was rejected on political grounds – largely due to a comprehensive lobbying effort led by Japan.

However, at the CITES meeting, key ICCAT member countries – notably Japan, the EU, the U.S., Canada and Norway – committed to adopt radical measures to save the species when they next meet in Paris, France in November 2010.

In a statement to the CITES plenary in Doha, ICCAT chair Dr Fabio Hazin told delegates: “Setting management measures not in line with scientific advice is no longer an option,” while Japan also intervened at the end of the Doha meeting, committing to lead a global effort to ensure the recovery of Atlantic bluefin tuna. Given its importance as largest consumer of the species, WWF strongly expects Japan to play a central role in shifting fisheries management in the right direction.

“WWF calls in particular on the EU and Japan – the main catchers and consumers of this endangered species – to lead in honouring their Doha commitments to respect science in fisheries management,” said Dr Tudela of WWF. “WWF’s wish is that this will be remembered as the year the world did good by Atlantic bluefin tuna. This is our watch – let’s make it our finest hour.”

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Editor’s notes
WWF is one of the world’s largest and most respected independent conservation organizations, with almost 5 million supporters and a global network 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.

A man from Papua New Guinea has been presented with one of the world’s top conservation awards for his vital work safeguarding endangered species in the remote Torricelli Mountain range, an area where a number of unique species are to be found. Mathew Akon, Senior Project Officer of the Tenkile Conservation Alliance won the Whitley Award donated by WWF-UK for his grass roots work protecting a 250,000ha area rich in wildlife.

Nine awards in total were presented last night during a ceremony at the Royal Geographical Society in London, by HRH The Princess Royal.  The judges were impressed by Mathew’s work which includes using GPS technology to conserve one of the world’s most endangered marsupials, the little known Tenkile, or Scott’s tree kangaroo. The most threatened of all tree kangaroo species, the tenkile’s habitat is restricted to just 150km² of rainforest.

Mathew was born in the Torricelli Mountains and witnessed first hand the decline in the region’s fauna and wildlife. His efforts to interest and involve some 10,000 local people in protecting the rich and rare wildlife of the mountainous region, and his work on behalf of the Tenkiles resulted in the Whitley Award nomination.

Glyn Davies, Director of Programmes at WWF-UK, said: “Mathew shows how a wise community leader can engage with local communities, and with support for them to use GPS technology to map their communal lands, enable them to press government to recognise their wish for forest conservation. It is inspiring to see what has been achieved in this remote area of Papua New Guinea.”

Georgina Domberger, Director of the Whitley Fund for Nature, added “The judges were particularly impressed by the high level of support Mathew is gathering from local people, by the connections he is demonstrating between improved livelihoods and nutrition and wildlife conservation, and by the commitment of the region’s communities to creating a protected nature area in the heart of their mountains.”

The Award includes a project grant of £30,000 donated by WWF-UK, an engraved trophy, membership of the influential network of past Whitley Award winners, international recognition and leadership development training.

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Editor’s notes

The way we live is leading to environmental threats such as climate change, species extinction, deforestation, water shortages and the collapse of fisheries. WWF’s One Planet Future Campaign is working to help people live a good quality of life within the earth’s capacity. For more information visit www.wwf.org.uk/oneplanet

The Whitley Awards are the flagship grants of the Whitley Fund for Nature (WFN), a UK-registered charity. WFN’s aim is to identify the world’s most dynamic conservation leaders and support them in practical work that benefits both wildlife and local communities. The first Whitley Award was given in 1994 when a single winner received £15,000 GBP. Since then, the number and value of the prizes has grown so that the awards are now acknowledged internationally as one of most valuable accolades a conservationist can win.

The ceremony at which Mathew Akon received his accolade was co-hosted by BBC wildlife presenter Kate Humble and witnessed by a 350-strong audience which included embassy representatives, Whitley Fund for Nature donors, including HSBC, and WWF-UK, and leading environmentalists.

In all, grants worth £270,000 were presented, bringing the total amount distributed by the Whitley Awards since their inception to £6m across 55 countries.

The Whitley Awards scheme is an annual competition, now in its 17^th year. It exists to identify, fund and encourage inspirational local conservation leaders and their teams in developing countries. To find out more about the charity and its work please see: www.whitleyaward.org

The full list of £30,000 Whitley Awards winners this year is:

Mathew Akon (Papua New Guinea) who is enlisting one of the world’s most endangered marsupials – the little-known tenkile (or Scott’s) tree kangaroo – to inspire villagers in Papua New Guinea’s remote and wildlife-rich Torricelli Mountains to agree hunting limits and support habitat protection. Whitley Award donated by WWF-UK.

Diego Amorocho (Colombia) who is teaching Pacific coastal fishing communities how to reduce the accidental bycatch of sea turtles, become turtle first aiders and earn money as conservation supporters and from beach care.  Whitley Award donated by The Friends of WFN

Pablo Borboroglu (Argentina) who is establishing the world’s first coalition to use penguins as ambassadors for global ocean conservation, highlighting the need to mitigate threats to marine wildlife and habitats from over-fishing, oil pollution and climate change. Whitley Award donated by Natasha and George Duffield.

Susana Gonzalez (Uruguay) who is combining scientific research with public outreach to safeguard Uruguay’s two  remaining Pampas Deer populations and reverse the trend which has seen the country’s grasslands dwindle to 1% of the area covered in 1900. Whitley Award donated by The Garfield Weston Foundation.

Vadim Kirilyuk (Russia) who is working on the vast steppe grasslands at the Russian-Mongolian frontier to win better protection for the Mongolian gazelle and its migration routes, including through the opening up of international border fences and greater community understanding and support. Whitley Award donated by The William Brake Charitable Trust.

Angela Maldonado (Colombia) who is exploring community-backed alternative ways for the impoverished people of the Colombian Amazon to earn a living, to end the illegal capture of night monkeys for biomedical research and raising awareness of the violation of international wildlife trade laws. Whitley Award donated by HSBC Private Bank + extra £30,000 as Whitley Gold Award winner. 

Jimmy Muheebwa (Uganda) who is inspiring communities in Lake Victoria’s catchment zone to use the wetlands sustainably, to improve livelihoods and save the region’s local wildlife, including Uganda’s national bird, the grey-crowned crane. Whitley Award donated by The Shears Foundation.

Louis Nkembi (Cameroon) who is introducing community-based landscape and biodiversity management to the Lebialem Highlands – a refuge for many rare plants, birds and other animals, including chimpanzees and Africa’s most endangered great ape, the cross river gorilla. Whitley Award donated by WildInvest.

For further information/images, please contact:

Kellie Hulbert, Press Officer at WWF-UK, tel: 01483 412383, email: khulbert@wwf.org.uk

A Javan rhino was found dead late last week in Cat Tien National Park in, Lam Dong Province, Vietnam, further endangering the population of one of the world’s rarest large mammals. It is now uncertain how many, if any, Javan rhinos are left in Vietnam, WWF said.

The rhino is suspected to have been killed by poachers after a scientific examination by WWF and national park authorities found the animal had been shot and the horn had been removed. Rhino horn is a highly valued commodity in the illegal wildlife trade, with the skin and faeces used for alleged medicinal purposes.
“This is devastating news for rhino conservation and Vietnam,” said Dung Huynh Tien, National Policy Coordinator of WWF Vietnam. “The loss of this rhino is symbolic of the grim situation facing endangered species like the rhino and tiger across Vietnam.”

Local people first reported finding the body of a large mammal to National Park authorities on April 29. A forest patrol team was immediately deployed to the site where they confirmed the dead animal was a Javan rhino.

“We’re urging the Vietnamese Government to launch an urgent and extensive criminal investigation into this animal’s death,” said Dung Huynh Tien.

It is a criminal offence under Vietnamese law to trade, use or consume any part of an endangered animal such as the Javan rhino. Those convicted of this crime can face imprisonment and large fines.

Rhino poaching worldwide hit a 15-year high in 2009. The illegal trade is being driven by an Asian demand for horns, made worse by increasingly sophisticated poachers.

Vietnam was highlighted as a country of particular concern at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) meeting in March, and Vietnamese nationals operating in South Africa have recently been identified in rhino crime investigations.

Vietnam’s Javan rhinos (Rhinoceros sondaicus annamiticus) are one of only two populations of the species left on Earth. Official estimates say there are fewer than 60 Javan rhino left. The largest population is found in Ujung Kulon National Park, Java, Indonesia. There are no Javan rhinos in captivity anywhere in the world.
“This is truly heartbreaking news.” said Diane Walkington, head of species at WWF-UK. “With such a small population of Javan rhinos left, every single animal is critical. We can only hope that this terrible loss acts as a clear call to the Vietnamese government that they need to clamp down much harder on wildlife crime – before it’s too late.”

WWF recently finished a field survey in Vietnam using highly trained sniffer dogs from the US to locate rhino dung. These dung samples will undergo DNA analysis to determine the exact population status of the species. Results from this study will be available later this year. WWF will send samples taken from the dead rhino to Queen’s University in Canada for analysis to see if the DNA of the dead rhino matches any of the dung samples taken during the population status survey.

For further information contact:

Benjamin Ward in the WWF-UK press office: +44 7837 134 193, bward@wwf.org.uk

Nicole Frisina in the WWF Greater Mekong Programme, +856 207 590 164, nicole.frisina@wwfgreatermekong.org

Notes to the editor

• For high-quality photos of the Javan rhino including photos of the taken of the rhino found in Cat Tien National Park visit: http://www.divshare.com/gallery/715805-485
Please note caption information is saved as the file name. All credits to WWF.

• Rhinomania blog: http://www.rhinomania.blogspot.com

• The Javan rhino (Rhinoceros sondaicus annamiticus) was listed as Critically Endangered on the 2009 IUCN Red List.

• Three different subspecies of Javan rhino are recognized. The most abundant subspecies (R. sondaicus sondaicus) lives only in Ujung Kulon National Park, Java, Indonesia, with approximately 40-60 individuals remaining. The subspecies once found in Bengal, Assam, and Myanmar (R. sondicus inermis) is now extinct. The third subspecies (R. sondaicus annamiticus) survives only in Vietnam, and is the subject of this population survey.

• WWF is working to conserve 600,000 km2 of the world’s most biologically diverse, economically viable, and seriously threatened forests and rivers within the Greater Mekong region, home and life source to over 300 million people in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and southern China.

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