WWF tells of Eco Wins in 2018

US Person thinks it correct to begin a New Year with stories from World Wildlife Fund (WWF) about successful wildlife and ecosystem conservation around the globe.  Caveat:  one negative development is included just so you do not get too comfortable and stop fighting for other creatures that have a right to exist on Earth:

• The mountain kingdom of Nepal is on track to meet the 2010 Year of the Tiger {21.01.10} commitment to double its tiger population by 2022.  An estimated 235 tigers now live in the small Himalayan nation;

• Thanks to citizen lobbying organized by WWF, Congress maintained funding for important grassland conservation measures in its annual "Farm Bill" to enhance soil, boost sustainable practices, and preserve important wildlife habitat.  According to WWF the Great Plains has lost 1.7 million acres to agriculture last year and nearly 60 million since 2009.  The measures include financial support for farmers that continue to improve their environmental performance;

• Mountain gorillas living in the Virunga Massif continue to increase in number despite existential threats from man. A recent survey shows that gorilla numbers stand at 604 up from 480 in 2010.  Globally about 1000 mountain gorillas now survive in wild.

• Spiny lobster fishers in the Caribbean received good news: their harvest of spiny lobsters was declared sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council.  It is the first Caribbean fishery to receive the designation;

•  Because Belize took several significant protection actions this year to preserve its famous barrier reef, it has been removed from UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites in Danger during the organization's meeting in Bahrain.  Belize placed a moratorium on oil and gas exploration on the reef in response to a citizens' initiative to protect their diverse natural heritage;

•  WWF helped three nations, Brazil, Paraguay and Bolivia, to establish a reserve protecting the unique Pantanal ecosystem.  The Pantanal is the world's largest tropical wetland;

• Columbia created the world's largest protected tropical rain forest by expanding to 10.6 million acres the Serranía de Chiribiquete national park.  UNESCO has declared the park a world heritage site.  The designation culminates decades of work by WWF and the Colombia government to protect this important natural resource.

Now that you have savored the good news here is the bad: Japan has dropped all pretense of "scientific research" and rejected the International Whaling Commission's ban on commercial whaling.  Japan announced the decision last week; it will begin hunting in its 200 mile exclusive economic zone in July.  The nation sought to justify its callous action by blaming the Commission for failing to live up to its 1946 mandate to find a balance between whale stocks and "the orderly development of the whaling industry."  It is unfortunate Japan's government is willing to risk international condemnation by continuing to subsidize an obsolete and unnecessary industry based on the inhumane exploitation of sentient marine mammals.  Japan did concede that it would respect "catch limits" based on IWC calculations.

Reaction to the announcement from member nations was swift and negative.  Both Australia and New Zealand governments expressed their disappointment with the decision.  Reaction from whale conservationists was stronger: Japan is now a "pirate nation", said the president of the International Humane Society.  The international Environmental Investigation Agency said Japan's lack of "multilateralism" sets a bad precedent that may encourage other countries to follow Japan out of the whaling ban.  Norway and Iceland continue to hunt whales.  According to statistics from EIA and the Animal Welfare Institute, these three countries have killed 38,539 whales since the international ban went into effect in 1986.

Inevitably, cultural differences have entered the dispute.  Whale hunting in the west is now viewed as cruel and unnecessary.  However Japan apparently considers such qualms hypocritical while pointing to the cruelties of the Occident's industrial agriculture.  Whale meat was an important source of protein in the aftermath of WWII, but it is much less popular now.  So industry is heavily subsidized by the government; it argues that the consumption of whale meat is traditional with a history going back centuries. Discarding the pretense of whale research--found unjustified by the International Court of Justice in 2012--to commercially hunt whales puts Japan in a weaker legal position if member nations decide to sue to stop the practice in the International Court of Justice.