Today is World Toilet Day.

Yes, that's right, there's a special day for toilets. But while it may be fodder for scatalogical jokes, for the many millions of people who do not have access to toilets it's no laughing matter.

Imagine what it would be like if we weren't able to flush away the vast amounts of human waste we generate in our cities. Apart from the stench and vermin, disease would flourish, as it does in many of the world's informal settlements.

Poor sanitation kills 1.8 million people a year--mostly children and primarily through diarrheal diseases, reports colleague Tasha Eichenseher today on National Geographic's Green Guide blog.

Read more about this intolerable situation and learn what a privilege it is to have access to a toilet.

Slowing deforestation is the most promising new strategy to protect the planet from disruptive climate change--but if it is not done carefully and sensibly biodiversity could be risk, an international group of scientists warned today.

"While it is clear that the massive destruction of tropical rainforests poses a serious threat to the incredibly rich biodiversity found on Earth, others hazards are not so explicit," the group says in an essay published in the November 16 issue of the journal Current Biology.

The group made their statement in anticipation of an international agreement that global warming can be slowed by reducing carbon emissions caused by deforestation.

NGS stock photo by James P. Blair

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) consists of 192 countries that seek to develop intergovernmental policies that address challenges posed by climate change. The UNFCCC will meet in Copenhagen in December of 2009 to complete an agreement on incentives to reduce deforestation.

"Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) proposes to compensate tropical forest countries if they reduce their rate of deforestation, thereby reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and includes strategies for conservation and enhancement of forest carbon stocks," the scientists say in a news statement.

"REDD should have multiple benefits. But, unfortunately, although the final rules might safeguard carbon stocks, they may fall short of their potential to protect biodiversity," says the author who organized the collaboration, Stuart L. Pimm from The Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University. Pimm is a regular blogger for NatGeo News Watch and a former member of the National Geographic Committee for Research and Exploration.

Pimm and colleagues explain in their essay how REDD policies might have a less than advantageous impact on biodiversity and suggest how careful policies might reduce carbon emissions and benefit biodiversity.

NGS stock photo by James P. Blair

The researchers point out that if REDD emphasizes reducing deforestation rates, governments are likely to focus on areas that are cheapest to protect and that areas with high biodiversity might not be cost-competitive.

"Further, forests with the greatest density of carbon might not be the most essential locations for biodiversity conservation. There is also concern that deforestation processes will not be effectively abated by REDD, but simply displaced to other areas," the scientists say in their statement.

"Implementing REDD might accelerate the conversion and degradation of high biodiversity areas where REDD or other conservation funding is not available."

"Implementing REDD might accelerate the conversion and degradation of high biodiversity areas where REDD or other conservation funding is not available," Pimm explained.

The authors make several suggestions for maximizing the positive biodiversity impacts of REDD policies.

They propose that rules to conserve, assess and perhaps even financially support biodiversity should be included in the text of the Copenhagen agreement.

"Biodiversity, itself, is essential to ecosystem adaptation. Ensuring that REDD policies not only reduce carbon emissions but conserve biodiversity will ensure that humanity and the biosphere can be as resilient as possible to climate disruptions," Pimm said.

Countries that invest in the management and restoration of ecosystems are likely to see far higher rates of return and stronger economic growth in the 21st century, according to a study by 100 experts from science, economics and policy from across the globe.

"Some countries have already made the link to a limited extent and are glimpsing benefits in terms of jobs, livelihoods and economic returns that outstrip those wedded to older economic models of the previous century," says a statement accompanying the release today of a report prepared by The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB).

NGS stock photo by Michael Nichols

TEEB was launched by Germany and the European Commission in response to a proposal by the G8+5 Environment Ministers (Potsdam, Germany 2007) to develop a global study on the economics of biodiversity loss. It is an independent study, hosted by the United Nations Environment Programme with financial support from European countries.

In its report released today, TEEB gave these examples of countries already reaping benefits from ecosystem projects:

• In Venezuela, investment in the national protected area system is preventing sedimentation that otherwise could reduce farm earnings by around U.S.$3.5 million a year.
• Planting and protecting nearly 12,000 hectares of mangroves in Vietnam costs just over $1 million but saved annual expenditures on dyke maintenance of well over $7 million.
• One in 40 jobs in Europe is now linked with the environment and ecosystem services ranging from clean tech "eco-industries" to organic agriculture, sustainable forestry and eco-tourism.
• Investment in the protection of Guatemala's Maya Biosphere Reserve is generating an annual of income of close to $50 million a year, createed 7,000 jobs, and boosted local family incomes.

"Accelerate, scale-up and embed investments in the management and restoration of ecosystems."

The TEEB report, The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity, calls on policy-makers to "accelerate, scale-up and embed investments in the management and restoration of ecosystems."

It also calls for more sophisticated cost-benefit analysis before policy decisions are made.

The report cites a study on mangroves in south Thailand on the conversion of mangroves into shrimp farms, an example of cost-benefit analysis that was perhaps not very well thought-through.

"Subsidized commercial shrimp farms can generate returns of around $1,220 per hectare by clearing mangrove forests. But this does not take into account the losses to local communities totaling over $12,000 a hectare linked with wood and non-wood forest products, fisheries and coastal protection services," TEEB said.

"Nor does the profit to the commercial operators take into account the costs of rehabilitating the abandoned sites after five years of exploitation---estimated at over $9,000 a hectare." 

Ecosystem-savvy economy

TEEB's report outlines a plan to catalyze a transition to more ecosystem-savvy economies able to meet the multiple challenges and deliver the multiple opportunities on a planet of six billion people, rising to nine billion by 2050.

Said Pavan Sukhdev, TEEB's study leader, "Nature's multiple and complex values have direct economic impacts on human wellbeing and public and private spending. Recognizing and rewarding the value delivered to society by the natural environment must become a policy priority.

"The economic invisibility of ecosystems and biodiversity is increased by our dominant economic model, which is consumption-led, production-driven, and GDP-measured. This model is in need of significant reform. The multiple crises we are experiencing--fuel, food, finance, and the economy--serve as reminders of the need for change.

"It is now up to governments to provide fiscal or other incentives to move us from short-term opportunism to long-term stewardship. The right policies can help us move toward a resource efficient economy."

The report comes in advance of the United Nations climate convention meeting in Copenhagen where governments are expected to give the green light to funding developing countries to maintain forests, the statement says.

"Close to 20 per cent of current global greenhouse gas emissions are linked with deforestation. Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) aims to counter this while also generating financial flows from North to South.

"REDD and REDD-Plus, which includes not only maintaining forests but planting and recovering forest systems, secured the backing of close 15 presidents and prime ministers at a special meeting hosted last month by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon." (Read about this on Stuart Pimm's blog Better REDD than dead when it comes to climate change.) 

NGS stock photo by James P. Blair

Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and UNEP Executive Director, said: "Paying developing countries under REDD marks a fundamental step forward in terms of bringing the huge financial importance of ecosystems and biodiversity into the centre of economic activity."

"It could open the door to more creative and forward looking funds and mechanisms covering other nature-based infrastructure such as peatlands and wetlands en route to support for the services generated by coastal and marine ecosystems such as coral reefs to mangroves," he said.

Read on for the key recommendations of The Economics of Ecosystems and Biovidersity:

The 2009 update of the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species shows that 17,291 species out of the 47,677 assessed species are threatened with extinction, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature said today.

Threatened with extinction are:

• 21 percent of all known mammals
• 30 percent of all known amphibians
• 12 percent of all known birds
• 28 percent of assessed reptiles
• 37 percent of assessed freshwater fishes
• 70 percent of assessed plants
• 35 percent of assessed invertebrates

"The scientific evidence of a serious extinction crisis is mounting," said Jane Smart, director of IUCN's Biodiversity Conservation Group, in a news statement accompanying the 2009 Red List.

This gorgeted puffleg (Eriocnemis isabellae) entered the IUCN Red List in 2009 as Critically Endangered. The species is known from southwest Colombia, where it occurs in a tiny area of the Serraníadel Pinche. The global population is not known but is presumably very small given that the area of suitable habitat available for this species is thought to be less than 2,500 acres, and it is suspected to be decreasing as elfin forest habitat is converted for agriculture and illegal coca plantations. The primary threat to this bird is the shifting of the agricultural border towards remaining primary forests, causing a loss of vegetation cover, contamination of watersheds and soil degradation. Illegal coca cultivation is a major threat due to the lack of governmental presence, with 8.3 percent of potentially suitable habitat reportedly damaged annually by coca cultivation.

Photo © Alex Cortes. Photo supplied by BirdLife International.

"It's time for governments to start getting serious about saving species and make sure it's high on their agendas for next year, as we're rapidly running out of time."

"January sees the launch of the International Year of Biodiversity," Jane Smart added in today's statement. "The latest analysis of the IUCN Red List shows the 2010 target to reduce biodiversity loss will not be met.

"It's time for governments to start getting serious about saving species and make sure it's high on their agendas for next year, as we're rapidly running out of time."

Tip of the iceberg

"This year's IUCN Red List makes for sobering reading," said Craig Hilton-Taylor, manager of the IUCN Red List Unit. "These results are just the tip of the iceberg. We have only managed to assess 47,663 species so far; there are many more millions out there which could be under serious threat. We do, however, know from experience that conservation action works so let's not wait until it's too late and start saving our species now."

Rabb's fringe-limbed treefrog (Ecnomiohyla rabborum) entered the IUCN Red List as Critically Endangered in 2009.

It is known only from central Panama, where it occurs in tropical forest canopy. In 2006, the chytrid fungus was reported in the area where this species is known to occur. Since then, only one individual has been heard calling. There is also some ongoing forest clearing within the species' range for the development of luxury holiday homes, although this potential threat has not yet reached critical levels. This treefrog is one of several species collected for captive breeding efforts, however so far attempts at captive breeding have not produced positive results.

Photo © Brad Wilson

Switzerland-based IUCN is a global environment organization that works on biodiversity, climate change, energy, human livelihoods and greening the world economy by supporting research, managing field projects, and bringing governments, NGOs, the United Nations and corporations together to develop policy, laws and best practice.

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species is a comprehensive information source on the global conservation status of plant and animal species. It is based on an objective system for assessing the risk of extinction of a species should no conservation action be taken. Species are assigned to one of eight categories of threat based on whether they meet criteria linked to population trend, population size and structure and geographic range. Species listed as Critically Endangered, Endangered or Vulnerable are collectively described as "Threatened."

Photo © Gerald Allen

Highlights from today's IUCN statement:

Mammals

Of the world's 5,490 mammals, 79 are Extinct or Extinct in the Wild, with 188 Critically Endangered, 449 Endangered and 505 Vulnerable.

The eastern voalavo (Voalavo antsahabensis) appears on the IUCN Red List for the first time in the Endangered category. This rodent, endemic to Madagascar, is confined to montane tropical forest and is under threat from slash-and-burn farming.

Reptiles

There are now 1,677 reptiles on the IUCN Red List, with 293 added this year. In total, 469 are threatened with extinction and 22 are already Extinct or Extinct in the Wild.

The 165 endemic Philippine species new to the IUCN Red List include the Panay monitor lizard (Varanus mabitang), which is Endangered. This highly-specialized monitor lizard is threatened by habitat loss due to agriculture and logging and is hunted by humans for food.

The rare Panay monitor lizard occurs in large trees in primary lowland tropical moist forest. The species is a highly specialized frugivorous monitor lizard (it feeds on fruit). The loss and degradation of lowland forest habitat through conversion of land for agricultural use and logging operations is a threat to this lizard. The species is also hunted by humans for food and overhunting is a serious threat to the remaining population.

Photo © Tim Laman 

The sail-fin water lizard (Hydrosaurus pustulatus) enters in the Vulnerable category and is also threatened by habitat loss. Hatchlings are heavily collected both for the pet trade and for local consumption.

"The world's reptiles are undoubtedly suffering, but the picture may be much worse than it currently looks," says Simon Stuart, chair of IUCN's Species Survival Commission. "We need an assessment of all reptiles to understand the severity of the situation, but we don't have the U.S.$2-3 million to carry it out."

Amphibians

The IUCN Red List shows that 1,895 of the planet's 6,285 amphibians are in danger of extinction, making them the most threatened group of species known to date. Of these, 39 are already Extinct or Extinct in the Wild, 484 are Critically Endangered, 754 are Endangered and 657 are Vulnerable.

Photo © Tim Herman

The fungus also affected the Rabb's fringe-limbed treefrog, which enters the Red List as Critically Endangered. (See photo and description higher on this page.)

Plants

Of the 12,151 plants on the IUCN Red List, 8,500 are threatened with extinction, with 114 already Extinct or Extinct in the Wild.

The Queen of the Andes (Puya raimondii) has been reassessed and remains in the Endangered category. Found in the Andes of Peru and Bolivia, it only produces seeds once in 80 years before dying. Climate change may already be impairing its ability to flower and cattle roam freely among many colonies, trampling or eating young plants. Other threats include young plants being eaten or trampled by livestock, fires, and removal of pith from trunks.

Photo © Antonio Lambe (Acción Ambiental)

Toussaintia patriciae is an Endangered shrub species native to Tanzania. It is known from less than 30 trees in the Udzwunga Mountains National Park and West Kilombero Nature Reserve, and occurs in very low numbers where found, though it is cryptic when not flowering and may be more common that is currently known. It is considered relatively secure at present, as the population is present in protected areas and occurs above the altitude to which firewood collectors are allowed to operate. However, this species could become more threatened very quickly if the impacts of human activities, especially wood collection, were to increase.

Photo © Quentin Luke

Invertebrates

There are now 7,615 invertebrates on the IUCN Red List this year, 2,639 of which are threatened with extinction. Scientists added 1,360 dragonflies and damselflies, bringing the total to 1,989, of which 261 are threatened.

The giant jewel (Chlorocypha centripunctata) is known from the Obudu Plateau, Nigeria and from Mount Kupe and the Bakossi Mountains Cameroon. The species occurs in and around rain forest streams above 700-meter altitude. Habitat loss through selective logging and forest destruction for agricultural expansion is the main threat to this species. The species entered the IUCN Red List as Vulnerable in 2009.

Photo © Kai Schütte

Molluscs

Scientists also added 94 molluscs, bringing the total number assessed to 2,306, of which 1,036 are threatened.

All seven freshwater snails from Lake Dianchi in Yunnan Province, China, are new to the IUCN Red List and all are threatened. These join 13 freshwater fishes from the same area, 12 of which are threatened. The main threats are pollution, introduced fish species and overharvesting.

Freshwater Fishes

There are now 3,120 freshwater fishes on the IUCN Red List, up 510 species from last year. Although there is still a long way to go before the status all the world's freshwater fishes is known, 1,147 of those assessed so far are threatened with extinction.

Photo © Chavalit Vidthayanon

The brown mudfish (Neochanna apoda), found only in New Zealand, has been moved from Near Threatened to Vulnerable as it has disappeared from many areas in its range. Approximately 85-90 percent of New Zealand's wetlands have been lost or degraded through drainage schemes, irrigation and land development.

The status of the Australian grayling (Prototroctes maraena), a freshwater fish, has improved as a result of conservation efforts. Now classed as Near Threatened as opposed to Vulnerable, the population has recovered thanks to fish ladders which have been constructed over dams to allow migration, enhanced riverside vegetation and the education of fishermen, who now face heavy penalties if found with this species

"Creatures living in freshwater have long been neglected."

"Creatures living in freshwater have long been neglected. This year we have again added a large number of them to the IUCN Red List and are confirming the high levels of threat to many freshwater animals and plants. This reflects the state of our precious water resources. There is now an urgency to pursue our effort but most importantly to start using this information to move towards a wise use of water resources," said Jean-Christophe Vié, deputy head of the IUCN Species Programme.

Downlisted bird species

The Mauritius fody (Foudia rubra) was downlisted from Critically Endangered to Endangered because its extremely small population has been stable since the early 1990s and is now increasing following an island translocation. The species is restricted to southwest Mauritius, and suffered rapid population declines between 1975 and 1993. However, since 1993 the population has been stable, and there is evidence that dispersing juveniles are now setting up new breeding territories, expanding the range of the species. Historically, clearance of upland forest, particularly for plantations in the 1970s, catastrophically affected this species. Introduced predators (e.g. black rat (Rattus rattus) and crab-eating macaque (Macaca fascicularis)) caused almost total breeding failure in most areas, and nest predation is still the major threat to the species.

Photo © Lucy Garrett (Rare Birds Yearbook). Photo supplied by BirdLife International.

Global figures for 2009 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species:
Total species assessed = 47,677
Total Extinct or Extinct in the Wild = 875 (2%) [Extinct = 809; Extinct in the Wild = 66].
Total threatened = 17,291 (36%) [Critically Endangered = 3,325; Endangered = 4,891; Vulnerable = 9,075].
Total Near Threatened = 3,650 (8%).
Total Lower Risk/conservation dependent = 281 (<1%) [this is an old category that is gradually being phased out of the Red List]
Total Data Deficient = 6,557 (14%)
Total Least Concern = 19,023 (40%)

Global figures for 2008 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species:
Total assessed = 44,838
Total Extinct or Extinct in the Wild = 869 (2%) [Extinct = 804 ; Extinct in the Wild = 65]
Total threatened = 16,928 (38%) [Critically Endangered = 3,246; Endangered = 4,770; Vulnerable = 8,912]
Total Near Threatened = 3,513 (8%)
Total Lower Risk/conservation dependent = 283 (<1%) [this is an old category that is gradually being phased out of the Red List]
Total Data Deficient = 5,570 (12%)
Total Least Concern = 17,675 (39%)

Not all species on the IUCN Red List are threatened. There are now more species on the IUCN Red List. This means that the overall percentage of threatened species has gone down by two percent. This is not because the status of the world's biodiversity is improving, IUCN noted, but because we have assessed more species.

"In the past, Red List assessments often focused on species that were already thought to be threatened, but as the Red List grows to include more complete assessments across entire groups, we are beginning to have a better idea of the relative proportion of species which are threatened against those which are not threatened."

Leading tiger experts, wildlife conservation charities, and representatives of governments of countries that have wild tiger ranges are meeting in Nepal this week to begin a global dialogue about the threats facing tigers as the world prepares to mark the Year of the Tiger in 2010, WWF says in a news statement.

Photo © Vladimir Filonov / WWF-Canon

WWF and others are attending the Kathmandu Global Tiger Workshop, the first in a series before and during the Year of the Tiger, that brings together decisionmakers from tiger range countries, members of the World Bank's Global Tiger Initiative, NGOs and the world's leading tiger experts, the Switzerland-based conservation group said.

"They will discuss the specific actions required to halt the extinction of the tiger in the wild."

"Tiger populations are still in steep decline and some estimates predict that tigers could be extinct in the wild by the next Year of the Tiger in 2022."

"Wild tiger populations are at a tipping point," WWF said. "While many important successes have been gained by the global conservation community, tiger populations are still in steep decline and some estimates predict that tigers could be extinct in the wild by the next Year of the Tiger in 2022."

Photo © Michel Terrettaz / WWF-Canon

The Kathmandu Global Tiger Workshop is hosted by the Ministry of Forests and Soil Conservation, Government of Nepal, and co-organized and co-sponsored by the CITES Secretariat, Global Tiger Forum, Global Tiger Initiative, Save The Tiger Fund, and the World Bank.

Photo © Martin Harvey / WWF-Canon

WWF hopes to secure major political commitments for tiger conservation, through the series of political negotiation meetings occurring throughout the Year of the Tiger and leading up to a final Heads of State Tiger Summit in September 2010.

Photo © Adam Oswell / WWF-Canon

Effective conservation of tigers can provide an umbrella for all biodiversity, according to the World Bank, which joined forces with conservation groups to launch the Tiger Conservation Initiative in 2008.

Tiger conservation is thus vital to the conservation of many other rare and threatened species, as well as to sustaining essential ecosystem-services that forests provide, such as watershed protection, soil conservation and carbon storage, the Bank says on its Web site.

Clearing of tropical rainforest for paper industry, palm oil and other plantations in, Sumatra, Indonesia

Photo © WWF-Germany/M. Radday

"Despite their ecological significance, tiger populations are in decline," the Bank adds.

"Tigers occupy only 7 percent of their historic range, and in the last decade their habitats have shrunk significantly. Within a century, wild tiger numbers have plunged from more than 100,000 to about 4,000 animals.

"Tigers have already disappeared from Central Asia, Java and Bali in Indonesia, and most of China.

"Habitat loss, combined with intense poaching of prey species and the illegal trade in tiger parts, has taken a severe toll, with entire populations eliminated from what were once considered secure reserves."

Indian tiger close-up, Bangkok Zoo, Thailand

Photo © Martin Harvey/WWF-Canon

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The city-size rock that impacted Earth sixty-five million years ago, in what is now Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula at a site known as Chicxulub, may not have been the main cause of the great extinction event that wiped out the dinosaurs and as much as 80 percent of the rest of life on the planet.

Instead, a 25-mile-wide meteorite, as much as five times the size of the one that struck Chicxulub, could have slammed into Earth where India is today, vaporizing the planet's crust and leaving the largest multi-ringed crater the world has ever seen.

Impact illustration courtesy NASA

Texas Tech University scientists think they have pieced together the geological evidence for this impact, and they will present their theory to the annual general meeting of the Geological Society of America (GSA), in Portland, oregon, this coming weekend.

"A mysterious basin off the coast of India could be the largest, multi-ringed impact crater the world has ever seen. And if a new study is right, it may have been responsible for killing the dinosaurs off 65 million years ago," GSA said in a statement about the research, released today.

"Sankar Chatterjee of Texas Tech University and a team of researchers took a close look at the massive Shiva basin, a submerged depression west of India that is intensely mined for its oil and gas resources. Some complex craters are among the most productive hydrocarbon sites on the planet," GSA said.

Chatterjee will present the research at the GSA meeting on Sunday.

Largest crater on the planet

"If we are right, this is the largest crater known on our planet," Chatterjee said. "A bolide of this size, perhaps 40 kilometers (25 miles) in diameter, creates its own tectonics."

By contrast, the object that struck the Yucatan Peninsula, and is commonly thought to have killed the dinosaurs, was between 5 and 6 miles wide, GSA said.

"It's hard to imagine such a cataclysm. But if the team is right, the Shiva impact vaporized Earth's crust at the point of collision, leaving nothing but ultra-hot mantle material to well up in its place.

"It is likely that the impact enhanced the nearby Deccan Traps volcanic eruptions that covered much of western India. What's more, the impact broke the Seychelles islands off of the Indian tectonic plate, and sent them drifting toward Africa."

Dramatic geological evidence

The geological evidence is dramatic, GSA added.

Image courtesy of Geological Society Of America

"Shiva's outer rim forms a rough, faulted ring some 500 kilometers [310 miles] in diameter, encircling the central peak, known as the Bombay High, which would be 3 miles tall from the ocean floor (about the height of Mount McKinley).

"Most of the crater lies submerged on India's continental shelf, but where it does come ashore it is marked by tall cliffs, active faults and hot springs. The impact appears to have sheared or destroyed much of the 30-mile-thick granite layer in the western coast of India."

Illustration courtesy of NASA

Two large impacts such as Shiva and Chicxulub in quick succession, in concert with Deccan eruptions (a series of monumental volcanic eruptions in India that some scientists believe may have been the real culprit that killed the dinosaurs 65 million years ago), would have devastating effects globally, Chatterjee and colleagues say in the abstract to their presentation.

That, in turn, could have caused the "climatic and environmental catastrophes that wiped out dinosaurs and many other organisms" at the time of the mass extinction.

The team hopes to go India later this year to examine rocks drill from the center of the putative crater for clues that would prove the strange basin was formed by a gigantic impact.

"Rocks from the bottom of the crater will tell us the telltale sign of the impact event from shattered and melted target rocks. And we want to see if there are breccias, shocked quartz, and an iridium anomaly," Chatterjee said. "Asteroids are rich in iridium, and such anomalies are thought of as the fingerprint of an impact."

Related National Geographic News stories:

Yucatan Asteroid Didn't Kill Dinosaurs, Study Says
A controversial new study contends that a second, as yet unidentified asteroid impact must have caused the mass extinction popularly attributed to the Chicxulub asteroid.

"Dinosaur Killer" Asteroid Only One Part of New Quadruple-Whammy Theory
The dinosaurs were killed not by a lone asteroid strike but by the quadruple whammy of global climate change, massive volcanism, and not one but two gigantic collisions.

Asteroid Rained Glass Over Entire Earth, Scientists Say
Scientists studying the fallout from a huge asteroid that crashed into Earth 65 million years ago have gained better understanding of the event that most likely took out the dinosaurs and much other life on the planet.

Food production must be increased 70 percent to provide for the extra 2.4 billion people expected to come aboard planet Earth by 2050. We have the technology and the knowhow to do this without using a lot more arable land than we farm now--but only if we act in a targeted and strategic way.

That's the message that came out of Rome today at the start of this week's High-Level Expert Forum on How to Feed the World in 2050, convened by the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United Nations.

The combined effect of population growth, strong income growth and urbanization is expected to result in almost the doubling of world demand for food, feed and fiber, FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf said at the start of today's session.

© FAO/Alessandra Benedetti

Opening the two-day forum, Diouf said that agriculture must become more productive if it is to feed a much larger world population while responding to the daunting environmental challenges ahead.

"Agriculture will have no choice but to be more productive."

"Agriculture will have no choice but to be more productive," Diouf said in remarks posted on the FAO Web site.

He also noted that "while organic agriculture contributes to hunger and poverty reduction and should be promoted, it cannot by itself feed the rapidly growing population."

World population is projected to rise to 9.1 billion in 2050 from a current 6.7 billion, requiring a 70-percent increase in farm production, says an FAO report "How to Feed the World 2050."

"In order to feed this larger, more urban and richer population, food production (net of food used for biofuels) must increase by 70 percent. Annual cereal production will need to rise to about 3 billion tonnes from 2.1 billion today and annual meat production will need to rise by over 200 million tonnes to reach 470 million tonnes."

NGS photo by Bobby Haas

The report argues that the required increase in food production can be achieved "if the necessary investment is undertaken and policies conducive to agricultural production are put in place. But increasing production is not sufficient to achieve food security. It must be complemented by policies to enhance access by fighting poverty, especially in rural areas, as well as effective safety net programs."

Climate change effects

In addition to a growing scarcity of natural resources such as land, water and biodiversity "global agriculture will have to cope with the effects of climate change, notably higher temperatures, greater rainfall variability and more frequent extreme weather events such as floods and droughts," Diouf warned today.

Climate change would reduce water availability and lead to an increase in plant and animal pests and diseases. "The combined effects of climate change could reduce potential output by up to 30 percent in Africa and up to 21 percent in Asia," he noted.

"The challenge is not only to increase global future production but to increase it where it is mostly needed and by those who need it most. There should be a special focus on smallholder farmers, women and rural households and their access to land, water and high quality seeds...and other modern inputs."

It is also important to bridge the technology gap between countries through knowledge transfer using North-South, South-South and triangular cooperation to achieve sustainable increases in agricultural production and productivity.

"A special challenge is posed by water as climate change will make rainfall increasingly unreliable."

A special challenge was posed by water as climate change would make rainfall increasingly unreliable, Diouf said. Investment in improved water control and water management should be considered a priority.

Competition from biofuel

Also being discussed at this week's forum is how food production would also face increasing competition from the biofuel market "which has the potential to change the fundamentals of agricultural market systems," according to Diouf.

Increased use of food crops for biofuel production could have serious implications for food security, according to the FAO report on how to feed the world. "A recent study estimates that continued rapid expansion of biofuel production up to 2050 would lead to the number of undernourished pre-school children in Africa and South Asia being 3 and 1.7 million higher than would have been otherwise the case. Therefore, policies promoting the use of foodbased biofuels need to be reconsidered with the aim of reducing the competition between food and fuel for scarce resources."

Pennsylvania farm photo by David Braun

At this week's Forum, about 300 experts from around the world will review and debate the investment needs, technologies and policy measures needed to secure the world's food supplies by 2050. "$44 billion a year of official development assistance will need to be invested in agriculture in developing countries--against the $7.9 billion that is being spent now," the FAO says. "Higher investments, including from national budgets, foreign direct investment and private sector resources, should be made for better access to modern inputs, more irrigation systems, machinery, storage, more roads and better rural infrastructures, as well as more skilled and better trained farmers."

Through its conclusions and recommendations the Forum will contribute to the debate and outcome of the World Summit on Food Security scheduled at FAO headquarters on November 16-18, to be attended by Heads of State and Government from FAO's 192 Member Nations.

"It is hoped the Summit will agree then on the complete and rapid eradication of hunger so that every human being on Earth can enjoy the most fundamental of all human rights--the "right to food" and thus to decent life," the FAO said.

©FAO/Giulio Napolitano

The problems to be resolved

On its Web site How to Feed the World 2050, trhe FAO says these are the problems that must be resolved:

• Will we be able to produce enough food at affordable prices or will rising food prices drive more of the world's population into poverty and hunger?
• How much spare capacity in terms of land and water do we have to feed the world in 2050?
• What are the new technologies that can help us use scarce resources more efficiently, increase and stabilize crop and livestock yields?
• Are we investing enough in research and development for breakthroughs to be available in time?
• Will new technologies be available to the people who will need them most - the poor?
• How much do we need to invest in order to help agriculture adapt to climate change, and how much can agriculture contribute to mitigating extreme weather events?

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Family planning the cheapest way to prevent climate disaster?

Swapping field clothes for a suit and tie, conservation biologist Stuart Pimm attended a United Nations event last week on forests and climate change. He was among world leaders and distinguished thinkers and activists invited to publicly express their commitment and support for the role of forests as an option to mitigate the emissions of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

The forest event followed the Summit on Climate Change, convened at the UN a day earlier "to mobilize political will and strengthen momentum for a fair, effective, and ambitious climate deal" in Copenhagen this December.

Officials from almost every country will gather in Copenhagen to try to agree a new climate treaty as a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, the first phase of which expires in 2012. The conference, also known as COP15, is widely regarded as a critical opportunity for humanity to try to get a grip on the problem of climate change caused by greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere.

The meeting on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries (REDD) convened by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at the United Nations, New York.

Photo courtesy United Nations

By Stuart L. Pimm
Special Contributor to NatGeo News Watch

United Nations, New York--September 23, 2009, 5 a.m. Another morning when the alarm goes off while it's still very dark. When I dress, it's not my boots and field khakis that I put on, but a white shirt, fumbling at this early hour with the cufflinks, and a charcoal grey suit.

The flight to New York is just over an hour. Then a taxi. It can't get me very close to my destination. First, I see what must be every policeman in the city, then the traffic slows to a crawl, then a standstill, and I continue my journey on foot.

Different kind of jungle

This morning I'm off to a different kind of "jungle" and it requires different field clothes. The United Nations General Assembly is in session and I have an invitation to watch a "high level event."

What happens here may decide whether the world's forests, their biodiversity, and their indigenous peoples, have a future.

The last few blocks have the feel of a street fair. Lots of noisy people waving posters, shouting slogans--and one, carrying a placard reading simply "Indict him!", nearly knocks me over.

I wonder who the "him" is, thinking there might be 192 national leaders to choose from, then remember that some would be "her," so that narrows the field just a bit.

Finally, I reach the right street corner, see someone holding a small sign "REDD," and, in short order, I am whisked through security into the relative tranquility of the UN building.

REDD is for "Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation." It is a UN program that seeks to generate income for countries that provide sustainable management of forests while also contributing to important reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.

There's a lot of science involved and the world's forests are at stake. I worry: will this meeting of the world's top politicians--its presidents and prime ministers--have got the message?

Burning tropical forests, like this in southern Venezuela, contribute one fifth of all the greenhouse gasses to the atmosphere due to human activity--more that all the emissions from Europe.

Photo by Stuart L. Pimm

The United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, introduces the proceedings. He recognizes the commitment to the meeting--more than 85 governments are represented in the room, 18 of them by their heads of state.

Then he nails the key points:

• Deforestation causes 20 percent of the emissions of global greenhouse gases.
• Hundreds of million of mostly poor people live in forests and depend on the ecosystem services they provide.
• Forests harbor the greatest share of the planet's biodiversity.

Some background: A total of 183 countries have signed and ratified the Kyoto Protocol--an agreement to reduce the greenhouse gases that are disrupting the planet.

People often think that this is entirely a problem for industrial nations, such as the U.S., European countries, Japan, and so on. If so, the list of top emitters would surprise: after China and the U.S., come Brazil and Indonesia.

Brazil and Indonesia get to that position because of their high rates of deforestation.

Guyana in South America still has most of its forests and, with the areas of adjacent Venezuela (seen here) and northern Brazil constituting one of the largest remaining blocks of tropical forest.

Photo by Stuart L. Pimm

Under the Kyoto Protocol, developing countries cannot receive credit for the benefits their forests provide as the major stores of global carbon. REDD aims to change that.

Brazil's neighbor, Guyana, still has most of its forests. Its president, Bharrat Jagdeo, gave the event's most forceful presentation. "We all profess to know how important forests are," he started, then asked why REDD hadn't been given the attention of other solutions. "We need to correct that this afternoon."

Certainly, there were technical problems, he noted, but there are also technical problems with alternatives such as employing renewable energy. He felt that countries were focusing too much on REDD's difficulties. "This is the lowest-cost [greenhouse gas] abatement solution," he said. 

Indeed, studies done by the Union of Concerned Scientists show that about U.S. $25 billion in forest conservation would prevent a billion tons of carbon going into the atmosphere.

Stopping deforestation is a bargain compared to other solutions.

Amazon sunrise: tropical forests are home to 70 percent of the planet's biodiversity.

Photo by Stuart L. Pimm 

From the point of view of the developed world, Sweden's prime minister, Fredrik Reinfeldt, spoke on behalf of the European Union. He too started with the importance of forests--home to "70 percent of the world's biodiversity."

Deforestation was running at "13 million hectares [50,000 square miles] per year between 2000 and 2005," Reinfeldt said. Unless the world's nations could reduce that by half by 2020, there would be no way to keep the planet from warming at least two degrees, he warned.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton did not attend. Neither did British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. But a British official read Brown's statement. Yes, public funding was vital, the British agreed, but so too was the private sector who could use carbon markets to offset their emissions. (Companies could compensate for their carbon emissions by investing in carbon-trapping opportunities like forests.) 

With colleagues, I have spent a career documenting forest-loss and the species extinctions it causes. Would this science get onto the political agenda? I need not have worried. It has.

But would the broad international agreements on the science be enough to effect real change?

"The core point is will there be adequate funds to do this?"

While president Jagdeo applauded Norway's financial commitments and Brazil's efforts to reduce deforestation, his main point was emphatic: "the core point is will there be adequate funds to do this?" Can enough money be raised through carbin markets and other global sources to make forest conservaton sustainable?

I knew from previous events, drinks and canapés would follow. From the windowless meeting chamber, we trouped into a lounge with an impressive view overlooking the river.

I wasn't just there for the snacks, for there were short talks by two women who I have long admired, but never met.

Wangari Maathai is a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, rewarded for her work in environmental conservation, women's rights and--so relevant to the day's events--planting trees.

Victoria Tauli-Corpuz chairs the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. She played a central role is getting the UN to adopt the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Photos by Stuart L. Pimm

Yes, REDD is about billions of tons of carbon. And about millions of species. Maathai and Tauli-Corpuz understood that. But their unique and powerful message is that REDD is about people--whose lives and whose homes are destroyed when we clear the world's forests.

Professor Stuart L. Pimm is a conservation biologist at Duke University, North Carolina. A former member of the National Geographic Committee for Research and Exploration, Pimm is the author of dozens of books and research papers, including the book "The World According to Pimm: A Scientist Audits the Earth."

Read earlier blog posts by Stuart Pimm>>

A sturdy condom could be humankind's best weapon to prevent a climate calamity, according to a cost-benefit analysis by British economists.

Contraception is almost five times cheaper than conventional green technologies as a means of combating climate change, the London School of Economics concluded after comparing all the alternatives to reducing future emissions of CO2 into the atmosphere.

The simplest solution, in other words, is to cap human population growth.

The study looks only at the economic alternatives. The organizers of the research are fully aware of the controversial nature of the suggestion that the human population growth rate needs to be slowed, which is perhaps why they point out that that every additional person, "especially each rich person" in developed countries, reduces everyone's share of the planet's dwindling resources even further.

Image courtesy NASA

Each U.S. $7 spent on basic family planning over the next four decades would reduce global CO2 emissions by more than a tonne (2,200 pounds), said the Optimum Population Trust (OPT), a British think tank concerned with the impact of population growth on the environment. OPT commissioned the research from the London School of Economics.

"To achieve the same result with low-carbon technologies would cost a minimum of $32," OPT said in a statement."The UN estimates that 40 per cent of all pregnancies worldwide are unintended."

Fewer Emitters, Lower Emissions, Less Cost 

The report, "Fewer Emitters, Lower Emissions, Less Cost," concludes that "considered purely as a method of reducing future CO2 emissions," family planning is more cost-effective than leading low-carbon technologies. It says family planning should be seen as one of the primary methods of emissions reduction.

Meeting basic family planning needs along the lines suggested would save more than billion tons of CO2 between now and 2050--equivalent to nearly six times the annual emissions of the U.S. and almost 60 times the UK's annual total, OPT said.

"It's always been obvious that total emissions depend on the number of emitters as well as their individual emissions--the carbon tonnage can't shoot down, as we want, while the population keeps shooting up."

Roger Martin, chair of OPT, said the findings vindicated OPT's stance that population growth must be included in the climate change debate. "It's always been obvious that total emissions depend on the number of emitters as well as their individual emissions--the carbon tonnage can't shoot down, as we want, while the population keeps shooting up," Martin said.

"The taboo on mentioning this fact has made the whole climate change debate so far somewhat unreal. Stabilizing population levels has always been essential ecologically, and this study shows it's economically sensible too.

"The population issue must now be added into the negotiations for the Copenhagen climate change summit in December.

"This part of the solution is so easy, and so cheap, and would bring so many other social and economic benefits, from health and education to the empowerment of women. It would also ease all the other environmental problems we face--the rapid shrinkage of soil, fresh water, forests, fisheries, wildlife and oil reserves and the looming food crisis."

All of these problems would be easier to solve with fewer people, and ultimately impossible to solve with ever more, Martin added.

"Meanwhile each additional person, especially each rich person in the OECD countries, reduces everyone's share of the planet's dwindling resources even faster.

"Non-coercive population policies are urgently needed in all countries. The taboo on discussing this is no longer defensible."

In this UN map of world contraceptive use in 2007, the scale ranges from pale yellow (less than 20 percent) to dark blue (75 percent or more).

The London School of Economics study, based on the principle that "fewer people will emit fewer tonnes of carbon dioxide," models the consequences of meeting all "unmet need" for family planning, defined as the number of women who wish to delay or terminate childbearing but who are not using contraception, OPT said.

"One recent estimate put this figure at 200 million. UN data suggest that meeting unmet need for family planning would reduce unintended births by 72 per cent, reducing projected world population in 2050 by half a billion to 8.64 billion. Between 2010 and 2050 12 billion fewer "people-years" would be lived - 326 billion against 338 billion under current projections."

The 34 gigatonnes of CO2 saved in this way would cost $220 billion--roughly $7 a tonne. However, the same CO2 saving would cost over $1 trillion if low-carbon technologies were used, OPT said. "The $7 cost of abating a tonne of CO2 using family planning compares with $24 for wind power, $51 for solar, $57-83 for coal plants with carbon capture and storage, $92 for plug-in hybrid vehicles and $131 for electric vehicles."

The study may understate the CO2 savings available because the estimates of unmet need are based on married women alone, yet some studies suggest up to 40 per cent of young unmarried women have had unwanted pregnancies, OPT added.

Said Martin, "The potential for tackling climate change by addressing population growth through better family planning, alongside the conventional approach, is clearly enormous and we shall be urging all those involved in the Copenhagen process to take it fully on board."

What do you think about this? Should the leaders meeting in Copenhagen have a serious discussion about addressing population growth through better family planning? 

National Geographic grantee Cagan H. Sekercioglu was in Istanbul this week to witness the heaviest one-day rainfall in the capital of Turkey in 80 years--more than seven inches in 24 hours.

He posted an account of the experience and the floods, and the reasons why it was such a disaster, on iReport, a user-generated news site. It is republished here. The video is an Al Jazeera account of the disaster posted on YouTube.

Debris and damaged vehicles are seen after flash floods in Ikitelli, Istanbul, Turkey, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2009. Flash floods gushed across a major highway and a commercial district in Istanbul, killing 20 people and stranding dozens in cars on rooftops, the city's governor said. As waters rose more than a meter (3 feet) high in the city's Ikitelli district, motorists climbed on roofs of their vehicles waiting to be rescued. The floods occurred in the early hours as people began making their way to work, washing over a main road linking the city to an industrial area, an airport and a highway to Greece and Bulgaria.(AP Photo/Ibrahim Usta)

Revenge of the Ayamama: the Istanbul Flood

By Cagan H. Sekercioglu

Istanbul, Turkey--I am a Turkish ecologist, ornithologist, and conservation biologist at Stanford University Center for Conservation Biology. I am in Istanbul, on my way to our wetland and bird conservation project in Kars, eastern Turkey. [Read about this project in an earlier NatGeo News Watch entry: Turkey's First Island Sanctuary for Birds Is Built From an Old Dirt Road.]

My parents live 300 meters [330 yards] away from the Ayamama Stream, which flooded parts of Istanbul today.

A lot of people got affected because buildings and roads were built in or near the stream bed, which was flooded.

Where my parents live, in Atakoy, there are no apartment buildings near the stream, just hobby gardens and a construction zone. I watch birds along the stream regularly and was last there only two days ago.

The stream is extremely polluted, carrying all the industrial waste and sewage of the part of Istanbul that got flooded. Still, there are 3-meter-tall reedbeds along the stream and I recorded 31 bird species so far.

Before it got polluted and industrialized, this stream and surrounding habitats would have supported over 150 bird species, especially during migration.

"The bridge I normally walk across had disappeared under reeds and trash."

I went back today at 3 p.m. and it was quite a sight. The bridge I normally walk across had disappeared under reeds and trash. The stream had risen three meters and construction workers told me in the morning it was five meters above normal and had flooded their sheds.

Ayamama Stream was full of garbage and mud, and a TV set floated past me. The reeds were almost completely covered by water. The reeds you see on the right side of the photos [see photos here] normally form the left border of the stream.

Still, no buildings got flooded in Atakoy and nobody got hurt because there were no houses near the stream, mostly green space, construction and hobby gardens.

Video by Al Jazeera

Many watersheds in Istanbul have been built over, often illegally, and this is what happens every a few decades.

Yesterday, Istanbul received the highest daily rainfall of the last 80 years.

In Ikitelli district, ground zero, 181 millimeters/m2 of rain fell in the past 24 hours. That equals 7.24 inches, about the rainfall Phoenix, Arizona gets in an entire year.

Most loss of lives and property happened because of illegal, unplanned construction in stream beds and watersheds.

Where there was no such construction, like in Atakoy, Ayamama stream rose five meters but no one got hurt.

All these polluted streams in Istanbul need to be cleaned and turned into green spaces for the public to enjoy.

On the other hand, Atakoy itself is built upon former wetlands and is on soft ground. It is prone to earthquakes and flooding is not out of question in the future.

Cagan H. Sekercioglu is an ecologist, ornithologist and conservation biologist at Stanford University Center for Conservation Biology. His first grant from the National Geographic Committee For Research and Exploration was in 2004. His most recent grant in 2008 supports a project in Costa Rica, where he is studying what happens to birds after they leave the nest and before they become independent. Tropical songbirds in the area are on the decline, and Sekercioglu hopes to learn whether their dwindling population is mainly tied to mortality during the fledgling period of their lives.

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Geographic Explorer Gets His Photo in Spite of Machete Attack

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Why do some bird species lay only one egg in their nest, and others ten? Literally having fewer eggs in one basket spreads the risk of predation, says conservation biologist Cagan Sekercioglu. 

The future of the Earth could rest on potentially dangerous and unproven geoengineering technologies unless emissions of carbon dioxide can be greatly reduced, the Royal Society, the UK's national academy of science, said today.

Photo courtesy NASA

"Unless future efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are much more successful than they have been so far, additional action in the form of geoengineering will be necessary if we are to cool the planet," the Royal Society says in a report, "Geoengineering the Climate: Science, Governance and Uncertainty."

"Geoengineering and its consequences are the price we may have to pay for failure to act on climate change."

"It is an unpalatable truth that unless we can succeed in greatly reducing CO2 emissions we are headed for a very uncomfortable and challenging climate future, and geoengineering will be the only option left to limit further temperature increases," says Professor John Shepherd, who chaired the geoengineering study.

"Our research found that some geoengineering techniques could have serious unintended and detrimental effects on many people and ecosystems--yet we are still failing to take the only action that will prevent us from having to rely on them.

"Geoengineering and its consequences are the price we may have to pay for failure to act on climate change."

Carbon Dioxide Removal vs. Solar Radiation Management

The report assesses the two main kinds of geoengineering techniques--Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) and Solar Radiation Management (SRM).

"CDR techniques address the root of the problem--rising CO2--and so have fewer uncertainties and risks, as they work to return the Earth to a more normal state," the Royal Society says in a news release about the report. "They are therefore considered preferable to SRM techniques, but none has yet been demonstrated to be effective at an affordable cost, with acceptable environmental impacts, and they only work to reduce temperatures over very long timescales.

"SRM techniques act by reflecting the sun's energy away from Earth, meaning they lower temperatures rapidly, but do not affect CO2 levels.

"They therefore fail to address the wider effects of rising CO2, such as ocean acidification, and would need to be deployed for a very long time.

"Although they are relatively cheap to deploy, there are considerable uncertainties about their regional consequences, and they only reduce some, but not all, of the effects of climate change, while possibly creating other problems."

The report concludes that SRM techniques could be useful if a threshold is reached where action to reduce temperatures must be taken rapidly, but that they are not an alternative to emissions reductions or CDR techniques.

Plan B: No Magic Bullet

"None of the geoengineering technologies so far suggested is a magic bullet, and all have risks and uncertainties associated with them," Professor Shepherd said,

"It is essential that we strive to cut emissions now, but we must also face the very real possibility that we will fail. If Plan B is to be an option in the future, considerable research and development of the different methods, their environmental impacts and governance issues must be undertaken now.

"Used irresponsibly or without regard for possible side effects, geoengineering could have catastrophic consequences similar to those of climate change itself."

"Used irresponsibly or without regard for possible side effects, geoengineering could have catastrophic consequences similar to those of climate change itself. We must ensure that a governance framework is in place to prevent this."

Of the CDR techniques assessed, the Royal Society said, the following were considered to have most useful potential:

• CO2 capture from ambient air: This would be the preferred method of geoengineering, as it effectively reverses the cause of climate change. At this stage no cost-effective methods have yet been demonstrated and much more research and development is needed.
• Enhanced weathering: This technique, which utilizes naturally occurring reactions of CO2 from the air with rocks and minerals, was identified as a prospective longer-term option. "However more research is needed to find cost-effective methods and to understand the wider environmental implications."
• Land use and afforestation: The report found that land use management could and should play a small but significant role in reducing the growth of atmospheric CO2 concentrations. However the scope for applying this technique would be limited by land use conflicts, and all the competing demands for land must be considered when assessing the potential for afforestation and reforestation.

Should temperatures rise to such a level where more rapid action needs to be taken, the Royal Society report says, the following SRM techniques are considered to have most potential:

• Stratospheric aerosols: These were found to be feasible, and previous volcanic eruptions have effectively provided short-term preliminary case studies of the potential effectiveness of this method. "The cost was assessed as likely to be relatively low and the timescale of action short. However, there are some serious questions over adverse effects, particularly depletion of stratospheric ozone."
• Space-based methods: These were considered to be a potential SRM technique for long-term use, if the major problems of implementation and maintenance could be solved. At present the techniques remain prohibitively expensive, complex and would be slow to implement.
• Cloud albedo approaches (eg. cloud ships): The effects would be localised and the impacts on regional weather patterns and ocean currents are of considerable concern but are not well understood. The feasibility and effectiveness of the technique is uncertain. A great deal more research would be needed before this technique could be seriously considered.

The following techniques were considered to have lower potential:

• Biochar (CDR technique): The report identified significant doubts relating to the potential scope, effectiveness and safety of this technique and recommended that substantial research would be required before it could be considered for eligibility for UN carbon credits.
• Ocean fertiliization (CDR technique): The report found that this technique had not been proved to be effective and had high potential for unintended and undesirable ecological side effects.
• Surface albedo approaches (SRM technique, including white roof methods, reflective crops and desert reflectors): These were found to be ineffective, expensive and, in some cases, likely to have serious impacts on local and regional weather patterns.

Autumn leaves of trees in North America often turn red. But in Europe the leaves mostly go yellow. Scientists think that the regional difference can be explained by the geographic orientation of each continent's mountains.

NGS photo by Robert Sisson

A new theory provided by Simcha Lev-Yadun of the Department of Science Education-Biology at the University of Haifa-Oranim in Israel and Jarmo Holopainen of the University of Kuopio in Finland proposes taking a step 35 million years back to solve the color mystery, says a news statement by the University of Haifa.

"According to the theory provided by Prof. Lev-Yadun and Prof. Holopainen, until 35 million years ago, large areas of the globe were covered with evergreen jungles or forests composed of tropical trees," the university said.

"Trees also began an evolutionary process of producing red deciduous leaves in order to ward off insects."

"During this phase, a series of ice ages and dry spells transpired and many tree species evolved to become deciduous. Many of these trees also began an evolutionary process of producing red deciduous leaves in order to ward off insects."

Scientists have determined that leaves turn yellow when the green pigment, chlorophyll, recedes prior to the onset of winter, as trees prepare to shed their leaves for the cold weather. Leaves that turn red are the result of trees producing anthocyanin, a red pigment, which some scientists think is an evolutionary response that deters insects from laying their eggs in the trees.

Whatever the reason for leaves turning red, it occurs a lot more commonly in North America than in Europe. Could it have something to do with the physical geography of the continents?

North-South Mountain Chains

"In North America, as in East Asia, north-to-south mountain chains enabled plant and animal 'migration' to the south or north with the advance and retreat of the ice according to the climatic fluctuations," said the University of Haifa. "And, of course, along with them migrated their insect 'enemies' too.

"Thus the war for survival continued there uninterrupted.

"In Europe, on the other hand, the mountains--the Alps and their lateral branches--reach from east to west, and therefore no protected areas were created. Many tree species that did not survive the severe cold died, and with them the insects that depended on them for survival.

"At the end of the repeated ice ages, most tree species that had survived in Europe had no need to cope with many of the insects that had become extinct, and therefore no longer had to expend efforts on producing red warning leaves."

According to the scientists, evidence supporting this theory can be found in the dwarf shrubs that grow in Scandinavia, which still color their leaves red in autumn.

NGS illustration by Walter A. Weber

"Unlike trees, dwarf shrubs have managed to survive the ice ages under a layer of snow that covered them and protected them from the extreme condition above. Under the blanket of snow, the insects that fed off the shrubs were also protected--so the battle with insects continued in these plants, making it necessary for them to color their leaves red."

The research was published in the journal New Phytologist.

Dozens of skins of various species, including Sumatran tigers, were seized and suspects were arrested in the latest raids on illegal wildlife traders by Indonesian authorities, the Wildlife Conservation Society said today.

Photo courtesy Wildlife Conservation Society

The most recent raid took place in Jakarta on August 7 and recovered two complete tiger skins and those of many other protected wildlife species, the New York-based conservation charity said in a statement. This raid resulted in the arrest of four suspects for attempting to illegally sell a Sumatran tiger skin.

"Four suspects were arrested in the raid and 34 skins of various species were recovered, including two tiger skins," said Colonel Agus Sutisna, Director of the Special Crimes Unit of the Jakarta Police. "The skins were destined for sale to collectors in Indonesia and abroad. This successful operation was a joint collaboration between the Police, the Department of Forestry and NGO partners."

On July 16, a raid in Sumatra recovered 33 tiger skin pieces, ranging in size from a few centimeters to larger pieces, and resulted in another wildlife trader arrested, WCS said.

"Both raids were conducted by the Indonesian Police and the Indonesian Department of Forestry, Directorate-General for Forest Protection and Nature Conservation (PHKA), working in conjunction with the Wildlife Conservation Society's Wildlife Crime Unit and local partners.

"These raids, part of recent stepped-up efforts by Indonesian authorities to control the illegal wildlife trade, bring the number of arrests to 20 in the last 18 months for trading in tiger parts. Seven of these cases have already resulted in prison sentences and fines, and the rest are awaiting trial."

Last month also saw the sentencing of four traders in Jakarta arrested earlier this year and found guilty of illegally possessing and selling tiger skins, bones, and teeth, WCS added.

Photo courtesy Wildlife Conservation Society

In Indonesia, tigers (Panthera tigris) are now only found on the island of Sumatra, where the subspecies is considered a distinct form: the 'Sumatran Tiger' (Panthera tigris sumatrae), WCS said. "Former populations in Bali and Java are extinct. The total population of tigers on Sumatra is probably now less than one thousand."

Under Indonesian law it is illegal to kill, possess, buy or sell tigers or their body parts.

Tigers are killed by hunters to supply the demand for tiger parts such as skins, teeth, bones, hair, WCS said. "These parts are used as souvenirs, in traditional medicine, and as talismans. Many of the tiger parts traded in Indonesia are bound for export to east Asia. Tigers are also killed when they become involved in conflicts with local farmers."

The WCS Wildlife Crime Unit provides data and technical advice to law enforcement agencies to support the investigation and prosecution of wildlife crimes. In Jakarta it operates as part of the Forum Against Wildlife Trade, an alliance of local organizations fighting illegal wildlife trade.

"We commend the work of the Indonesian police and forestry department in these recent cases for their commitment to uphold and enforce the law," said Dr Noviar Andayani, Director of the WCS Indonesia Program. "We also commend the courts for the message they send when these cases are tried fairly and sentenced heavily."

"It is only through decisive action against those that participate in this illegal trade that we can stamp it out."

"The illegal trade in wildlife threatens not only iconic animals like the tiger, but also many other endangered species of marine and terrestrial animals," said Dr. Elizabeth Bennett, director of WCS's Hunting and Wildlife Trade Program. "It is only through decisive action against those that participate in this illegal trade that we can stamp it out."

"The Indonesian Government is committed to stopping illegal wildlife trade and strengthening its commitments to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES)," said Mohammed Awriya Ibrahim, Director of Forest Protection for PHKA. "We are seeking to put a stop to the capture, possession and trade of protected wildlife in Indonesia,"

Other wildlife traded illegally from Indonesia includes rhino, elephant, orangutan, birds, bears, orchids, marine and freshwater fish, turtles, fragrant timber, pangolins, coral, snakes, bats and sharks, according to WCS.

Thirty years ago, Dr. Tom Lovejoy, the chairman of National Geographic's Conservation Trust, set up a unique experiment to monitor biodiversity in Brazil. It's to be repeated in Borneo, conservation biologist Stuart Pimm reports from Borneo for Nat Geo News Watch.

Photo of oil palm plantation by Stuart Pimm

By Stuart L. Pimm
Special Contributor to NatGeo News Watch

Borneo, Malaysia--The flight from Kota Kinabalu to Lahad Datu across the northern end of the island of Borneo passes south of Mount Kinabalu--at 4,000 metres (13,400 feet) the tallest mountain in southeast Asia. Above it, and towering above us, is a massive thundercloud, threateningly black with its edges backlit by sunlight.

Such storms bring part of the three meters (120 inches) of rain that makes this tropical forest grow.

But exactly the same conditions make the land below a perfect place for oil palms, a crop that has rapidly become the dominant land use in much of southeast Asia. Princeton University ecologists Lian Pin Koh and David Wilcove showed in a paper in Conservation Letters last year that there are now more then 13 million hectares (52,00 square miles) of oil palm.

As we land in Lahad Datu, the land below us is mostly oil palm.

Photo of oil palm fruits on the way to market by Stuart Pimm

Like most monocultures--cropland where only one species is planted--these oil palm plantations are home to very few species.

Many conservation biologists view the expansion of oil palm as one of the greatest threats to biodiversity. And Borneo is a country that teems with species of plants and animals. (See Pimm's related story "An Inordinate Passion for Moths."

Experiences elsewhere in the world tell us that some forest will remain after clearing for crops and cattle grazing.

Photo of cattle grazing in a Brazilian clearing by Stuart Pimm

It was the threat posed by cattle-grazing--and the need to understand how many species would remain in small fragments--that led Lovejoy and Brazilian colleagues to create an extraordinary experiment in the middle of the Amazon forest thirty years ago.

It's known as the BDFFP--the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project.

Lovejoy holds the Biodiversity Chair at the Heinz Center in Washington D.C. and also chairs National Geographic's Conservation Trust.

The experiment, north of Manaus, used the forest clearing for cattle ranching to establish a set of plots--of one hectare (roughly 100 by 100 yards), 10 hectares, and 100 hectares. Some control plots of the same size were marked out in forest that would remain intact.

Photo of forest fragments in Brazil by Stuart Pimm

Lovejoy and his team then surveyed the plots for the species they contained and watched, over the years, how they disappeared. "Many and quickly" was the simple answer, from work done with Tom by my former graduate student Gonçalo Ferraz. "We found that even in the largest fragments, many bird species were missing within a decade or so," Ferraz told me. "The majority of the birds were gone from the smaller fragments in a matter of a few years."

Photo of land cleared at the site of Lovejoy's experiment by Stuart Pimm

Would the same be true for forest fragments in Borneo that would be surrounded by oil palm plantations?

That was the question of a new experiment Dr. Robert Ewers, of Imperial College London, explained to me when I met him earlier this year. We sat in the dingy bar at Silwood Park where faculty and research students have crowded on Friday evenings for decades to discuss ecology's latest ideas. It seemed a long way from Borneo's rainforest.

Ewers had lots of good ideas to test--and, of course, the experiences and hindsight of what happened in Brazil. Would such species as orangutans and large birds, such as Borneo's many species of hornbill be able to survive? I thought not, on the basis of what we'd learned in Brazil.

Photos of black hornbill (above) and orangutan (below) in Borneo by Stuart Pimm

The simple comparison of Brazil and Borneo was going to be important -- a means to decide whether we really understood what had happened in Brazil and why.

I was looking forward to being in Borneo. When I finally got there, I talked to Dr. Glenn Reynolds, the director of the Royal Society's Southeast Asia Rainforest Research Programme. The program has been based at the Danum Valley Field Centre since 1985.

He told me that they were about to establish a large forest fragmentation program. Large portions of forest will be planted in oil palm, but some areas will be kept as forest, however.

The sizes of those fragments will be the same as those in Brazil's Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project.

Working with their local partners in Borneo, the Sabah Foundation, researchers will spend two years surveying the areas for their biodiversity before the forest is cleared. This will establish the baseline.

Then after fragmentation, teams will follow the change.

Photo of forest cleared for cattle pasture in Brazil by Stuart Pimm

Deciding how large fragments were needed to protect different kinds of animals and plants provided very important advice to managers in Brazil. We now knew that forest fragments had to be large enough if they were to protect biodiversity.

But there were many ecological variables that the Brazil project had not measured. The new experiments in Borneo would give scientists a chance to address so many questions they wished the Brazil project had tested.

"What will you measure?" I asked Reynolds. "Beetles, moths, butterflies--birds certainly," he explained. "But one of the strategic aims of this project is to set up a platform, so that scientists in different disciplines from Malaysia and around the world can work on this problem."

Reynolds plans were ambitious--but then there are so many things we need to know about what happens as humanity shrinks Earth's tropical forests.

Watch Stuart Pimm's video report and interview with Glenn Reynolds:

Professor Stuart L. Pimm is a conservation biologist at Duke University, North Carolina. A former member of the National Geographic Committee for Research and Exploration, Pimm is the author of dozens of books and research papers, including the book "The World According to Pimm: A Scientist Audits the Earth."

Photo Brazilian rain forest by Stuart Pimm

Read earlier blog posts by Stuart Pimm:

An Inordinate Passion for Moths

Florida Panther Fights for Survival Again--This Time in Washington D.C.

Many Mammal Migrations Are at Risk of Extinction, Research Finds

Related NatGeo News Watch content:

Support for Sustainable Palm Oil Gains Traction in China

National Geographic grantee Professor Roger Kitching wants to know how much less diversity there is in tropical rainforest that has been logged than in unlogged "primary" forest. He finds some clues from the moths he draws to his lamp, Stuart Pimm reports in words, images, and video from the field, deep in the Borneo jungle.

By Stuart L. Pimm
Special Contributor to NatGeo News Watch

Borneo, Malaysia--Nothing quite captures the idea of "biodiversity" than standing in front of a white sheet lit by a mercury vapor lamp in the equatorial jungle at night. Mercury vapor lamps emit a lot of ultraviolet light which seems to be particularly attractive to moths.

Even though the sun has set, it's still hot, the humidity is 100 percent, sweat drips down our faces and into our eyes, making the mill of flying insects into our faces even more annoying.

We're here to teach a group of undergraduates from Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia about the basics of tropical rainforest natural history.

Before this course, Roger had been here to ask a particular question, one with important implications for protecting global biodiversity.

The field center accommodates not just us, but an enthusiastic set of visitors who come to the forest to enjoy its wildlife.

It's the gibbons that have everyone getting their cameras and, on several days, the orangutans. They are close enough to us evolutionarily that it's hard not to read human interpretations into their behaviors and expressions.

When one makes a tree-top nest in which to sleep for the night just opposite the center's open dining room, our loud chatter turns to whispers. We wouldn't want to disturb its sleep.

With every day, we add to our list of birds, mammals, lizards, and frogs. And every night, small groups go out with spotlights to add to the totals those species that only emerge at night.

Exciting though these vertebrates are, Kitching's focus on insects--and moths in particular--is deliberate.

The Danum Valley is a large tract of "primary" or largely unlogged rainforest. Surrounding it, however, are large areas of "secondary" forest--forest that has been logged, sometimes extensively, and which is re-growing--either on its own or with some help with replanting.

Photo by Stuart Pimm

Kitching's question is how these two kinds of forest differ.

Everyone expects there to be fewer species in the secondary forests.

How many fewer is the easier of two questions. One counts the species in primary and secondary forest--and compares them.

Ecologists call these counts "alpha diversity"--they are measures of how many species there are at a particular place.

Kitching could do this easily--running his sheet and UV light in primary and secondary forests close to the center.

The second question is the more difficult one. "We need to know beta-diversity--how much turnover there is from place to place."

Watch Stuart Pimm's video report:

Video copyright Stuart Pimm

Kitching explained the general idea that logging tends to homogenize the forest. Just as you can get the same hamburger in New York, London, Beijing and even Borneo, so in secondary forest the same species may occur everywhere.

"Moths are a good test of this--because they are herbivores that are tied to specific plant species. They reflect the likely homogenization of the logged forest--the fact that only a few common tree species survive in the canopy there."

So, for the last two years, Kitching has trapped moths at sites in primary forest separated by 100 meters (yards), to 60 kilometers (40 miles) apart and a similar set in secondary forest. At each site, he identifies the first one thousand individuals to species--and there are a lot to choose from.

"We have firm estimates that there are nearly 4,000 species of the larger moths around Danum and perhaps 10,000 species in Borneo as a whole," he says.

"And the answer, Roger?" I asked. "You have to wait for that, we've only just finished counting and identifying all those species!"

Photo by Stuart Pimm

Professor Stuart L. Pimm is a conservation biologist at Duke University, North Carolina. A former member of the National Geographic Committee for Research and Exploration, Pimm is the author of dozens of books and research papers, including the book "The World According to Pimm: A Scientist Audits the Earth."

Read earlier blog posts by Stuart Pimm:

Florida Panther Fights for Survival Again--This Time in Washington D.C.

Many Mammal Migrations Are at Risk of Extinction, Research Finds

The first integrated analysis for all coastal areas of the world has ranked hotspots of human impact.

The hottest hotspot is at the mouth of the Mississippi River, says Benjamin S. Halpern, lead author of the study, with the other top 10 in Asia and the Mediterranean.

Nutrient runoff from farms draining into the Mississippi has caused a persistent "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico, where the river runs into the ocean. The dead zone is caused by an overgrowth of algae that feeds on the nutrients and takes up most of the oxygen in the water.

Image by NASA

The Mississippi mouth and the other hotspots are areas where conservation efforts will almost certainly fail if they don't directly address what people are doing on land upstream from these locations, said Halpern, who is based at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) at the University of California in Santa Barbara (UCSB).

The study was published in the Journal of Conservation Letters.

Global hotspots where human activities on land are impacting coastal marine ecosystems. The numbers show the rank order of the hottest hotspots (red dots). The blue and green dots are land-based activities that are having an important effect on marine systems but not as much as those areas marked by the red dots.

Illustration courtesy B. Halpern and colleagues, NCEAS

"Resource management and conservation in coastal waters must address a litany of impacts from human activities, from the land, such as urban runoff and other types of pollution, and from the sea," Halpern said.

"One of the great challenges is to decide where and how much to allocate limited resources to tackling these problems."

"One of the great challenges is to decide where and how much to allocate limited resources to tackling these problems," he said. "Our results identify where it is absolutely imperative that land-based threats are addressed--so-called hotspots of land-based impact--and where these land-based sources of impact are minimal or can be ignored."

The study surveyed four key land-based drivers of ecological change:

• nutrient input from agriculture in urban settings
• organic pollutants derived from pesticides
• inorganic pollutants from urban runoff
• direct impact of human populations on coastal marine habitats.

Not All Coastal Waters Fully Impacted

A large portion of the world's coastlines experience very little effect of what happens on land, nearly half of the coastline and more than 90 percent of all coastal waters, Halpern said.

"This is because a vast majority of the planet's landscape drains into relatively few very large rivers, that in turn affect a small amount of coastal area.

"In these places with little impact from human activities on land, marine conservation can and needs to focus primarily on what is happening in the ocean. For example: fishing, climate change, invasive species, and commercial shipping."

Coauthors from NCEAS are Colin M. Ebert, Carrie V. Kappel, Matthew Perry, Kimberly A. Selkoe, and Shaun Walbridge. Fiorenza Micheli of Stanford University's Hopkins Marine Station and Elizabeth M. P. Madin of UCSB's Department of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology are also co-authors. Selkoe is also affiliated with the University of Hawaii's Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology.

NCEAS is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the National Marine Sanctuaries, and an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship provided additional support for this research.

The risks of legalized farming of tigers are too great a gamble for the world to take, the World Bank told the 58th meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) Standing Committee, meeting in Geneva, Switzerland this week.

"We cannot know for sure if tiger farming will work. And if it does not work the downside risks are just too high--irreversible harm," says a formal statement read to the CITES meeting yesterday by Keshav Varma, director at the World Bank and leader of the World Bank's Global Tiger Initiative.

NGS stock photo of wild tigers in a pen by Michael Nichols

CITES is an international agreement between 175 governments that aims to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival.

"This is not surprising. There are myriad unknowns and even more unknowables that no amount of research can cast light upon."

• Will legalized farming facilitate laundering?
• Would it create new markets and an even higher demand for wild tiger products--for those who want a luxury good--the "real thing"?
• And why if farming is so effective are wild bears still poached when there is a surplus of farmed bear bile in the world?

NGS photo by Michael Nichols

"We cannot know for sure if tiger farming will work. And if it does not work the downside risks are just too high--irreversible harm."

Having carefully weighed the economic arguments, the Bank says, it urges the CITES community to uphold the ban on wild tiger products and for all countries to continue to ban the domestic trade of wild tigers.

"We also call upon the international community at large to join efforts in providing the necessary technical and other support to the respective countries in phasing out tiger farming. This is the only safe way to ensure that wild tigers may have a future tomorrow."

The World Bank's statement was endorsed by WWF International, a global environmental organization with headquarters in Switzerland.

"Stopping all trade in tiger parts, and phasing out these tiger farms, is of the utmost urgency if the tiger is to survive in the wild."

"Stopping all trade in tiger parts, and phasing out these tiger farms, is of the utmost urgency if the tiger is to survive in the wild", said Susan Lieberman, director of the Species Programme of WWF International, "It is time for the world community to join together, with tiger range state governments, to stop all poaching of tigers for illegal trade, and WWF welcomes the engagement of the World Bank in these efforts".

Tiger trade is prohibited internationally and banned domestically in all of its range countries, including China--historically the largest market for tiger products, WWF said. 

"However, owners of privately run tiger farms and a contingent of wealthy business men across China have been pressuring the Chinese government to allow legal trade in tiger parts within China and lift its domestic tiger trade ban, implemented in 1993."

National Geographic Magazine published a cover story about wild tigers in December, 1997. "No one knows how many wild tigers exist today," the article said.

"The commonly cited estimate of 5,000 to 7,000 is a guess, since census methods can be faulty, some governments inflate numbers, and cat experts may understate numbers for fear of losing protected status.

"What is certain: If tigers are to survive in the wild, they need massive human intervention."

Save the Tiger Fund, a program of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundaton, estimates that there were less than 5,000 tigers left in the wild by 2005--down from an estimated 100,000 in 1980. Only two countries had populations of more than 500 wild tigers.

By contrast, according to Save the Tiger Fund, there were more than 15,000 tigers in farms, safari parks, and menageries.

Video: Tiger Eye: Up Close and Personal
Watch how National Geographic photographers used motion-sensitive cameras to capture tigers in the wild.

More from National Geographic News:

India's Tigers Number Half as Many as Thought

Chinese Tigers Learn Hunting, Survival Skills in Africa

As Tigers Disappear, Poachers Turn to Leopards in India

Black Market Tigers Linked to Thai Temple, Report Says

Saving Jaguars, Tigers Can Prevent Human Diseases?

Captive Tigers Harbor Rare "Purebred" Genes

Tiger Habitat Plummeted 40 Percent in 10 Years, Survey Finds

Siberian Tigers Stable, According to Landmark Survey

Big Cats Kept as Pets Across U.S., Despite Risk

Rhinos are falling to poachers at the rate of two to three per week in some areas as Asian demand for their horns escalates, according to a report to the 58th meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) Standing Committee this week in Geneva.

Photo of white rhino poached for horn by Martin harvey/WWF-Canon

Poachers in Africa and Asia are killing an ever increasing number of rhinos to meet a growing demand for horns believed in some countries to have medicinal value, says the briefing to the international wildlife trade regulation body by WWF, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and their affiliated wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC.

"Illegal rhino horn trade to destinations in Asia is driving the killing, with growing evidence of involvement of Vietnamese, Chinese and Thai nationals in the illegal procurement and transport of rhino horn out of Africa," the briefing states.

NGS photo of knives made with rhino horn on sale in Yemen by Steve Raymer

Rhino poaching is also a problem in Asia. About 10 rhinos have been poached in India and at least seven in Nepal since January alone--out of a combined population of only 2,400 endangered rhinos.

"Rhinos are in a desperate situation ...This is the worst rhino poaching we have seen in many years and it is critical for governments to stand up and take action."

"Rhinos are in a desperate situation," said Susan Lieberman, director of the Species Programme, WWF-International. "This is the worst rhino poaching we have seen in many years and it is critical for governments to stand up and take action to stop this deadly threat to rhinos worldwide.

"It is time to crack down on organized criminal elements responsible for this trade, and to vastly increase assistance to range countries in their enforcement efforts."

"Increased demand for rhino horn, alongside a lack of law enforcement, a low level of prosecutions for poachers who are actually arrested and increasingly daring attempts by poachers and thieves to obtain the horn is proving to be too much for rhinos and some populations are seriously declining," said Steven Broad, executive director of TRAFFIC.

NGS photo of slices of rhino horn sold in Japan as aphrodisiacs by Steve Raymer.

The situation is particularly dire in Zimbabwe where such problems are threatening the success of more than a decade's work of bringing rhino populations back to healthy levels, the briefing said.

"For example, earlier this week a park ranger arrested with overwhelming evidence against him for having killed three rhinos in the Chipinge Safari Area, was acquitted without any satisfactory explanation for the verdict.

"Similarly, in September 2008, a gang of four Zimbabwean poachers who admitted to killing 18 rhinos were also freed in a failed judiciary process."

Firm International Action

The briefing concludes that governments need "an accurate and up-to-date picture of the status, conservation and trade in African and Asian rhinoceroses, as well as the factors driving the consumption of rhinoceros horn, so that firm international action can be taken to arrest this immediate threat to rhinoceros populations worldwide."

"Rhino populations in both Africa and Asia are being seriously threatened by poaching and illegal trade," said Jane Smart, director of IUCN's Biodiversity Conservation Group. "IUCN and its African and Asian Rhino Specialist Groups are working hard to gather data and information on rhinos so that CITES parties can make informed decisions and ensure that rhinos are still here for generations to come."

The 58th meeting of the CITES Standing Committee is being held in Geneva from July 6 -10 . This issue will be further discussed at the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to CITES, which will be held in Doha, Qatar March 13-25, 2010.

CITES is an international agreement between 175 governments that aims to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival.

Wildlife is under serious threat across the planet, despite the commitment by world leaders to reverse the trend of biodiversity loss by 2010, according to a detailed analysis of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species.

Asian Wild Ass (Equus hemionus). Threat category Endangered

Photo © Jean-Christophe Vié

The IUCN assessment, which is published every four years, has been released just before the deadline governments set themselves to evaluate how successful they were in achieving the 2010 target to reduce biodiversity loss.

Deadline will not be met

The IUCN report, "Wildlife in a Changing World," shows the 2010 target will not be met, the organization said in a statement today.

"It's time to recognize that nature is the largest company on Earth working for the benefit of 100 percent of humankind--and it's doing it for free.

"Governments should put as much effort, if not more, into saving nature as they do into saving economic and financial sectors."

IUCN is the world's oldest and largest global environmental network. Based in Switzerland, it is a democratic membership union with more than 1,000 government and NGO member organizations, and almost 11,000 volunteer scientists in more than 160 countries.

Its report analyzes 44,838 species on the IUCN Red List and presents results by groups of species, geographical regions, and different habitats, such as marine, freshwater and terrestrial.

The Red List is the most comprehensive information source on the global conservation status of species. It is based on an objective system of assessing the risk of extinction for a species. Species listed as Critically Endangered, Endangered or Vulnerable are collectively described as threatened.     

"A minimum of 16,928 species are threatened with extinction."

The updated list shows 869 species are Extinct or Extinct in the Wild, and this figure rises to 1,159 if the 290 Critically Endangered species tagged as Possibly Extinct are included, IUCN said.

"Overall, a minimum of 16,928 species are threatened with extinction."

Considering that only 2.7 percent of the 1.8 million described species have been analyzed, this number is a gross underestimate, IUCN added. "But it does provide a useful snapshot of what is happening to all forms of life on Earth."

Shoebill (Balaeniceps rex). Threat category Vulnerable  (

Maldives has created three new marine protected areas, including important feeding grounds for manta rays and whale sharks.

Photo by Thomas P. Peschak/Save Our Seas Foundation

The Indian Ocean archipelago country is famous as a destination for tourists seeking exotic island getaways. But it is also one of the planet's most important hotspots for many species, including whale sharks and manta rays, two of the largest and most charismatic fish.

At least 120 individual whale sharks, the world's largest fish, live in the ocean around the Maldives. The country is one of the few places in the world where whale sharks can be encountered all year round.

Mohamed Aslam, the Environment Minister of the Maldives, announced the protection of coral reefs and waters in and around Baa atoll Hanifaru, Baa atoll An'gafaru and South Ari atoll Maamigili to commemorate World Oceans Day on June 8.

Maldives image by NASA/ GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./ Japan ASTER Science Team

"The government is committed to protecting and preserving the Maldives' exceptional biodiversity," Aslam said in a statement announcing the proclamation.

"The marine environment is the bedrock of our economy, supporting our largest industries, tourism and fisheries.

"Not only will this initiative protect whale sharks and manta rays, but also other important megafauna, including reef sharks.

"The marine protected area sites are globally significant. By protecting them we are helping to protect manta rays and sharks throughout the Maldives."

Photo by Thomas P. Peschak/Save Our Seas Foundation

Apart from restrictions on fishing, the marine protected areas will permit diving and snorkeling only under strict guidelines. Speed limits will be imposed on boats to prevent lacerations to the giant fish from boat hulls and propellers, and waste management programs will be run on local islands to prevent pollution.

The initiative is spearheaded by the government, the Maldives Whale Shark Research Programme and the communities of Baa atoll and South Ari atoll, according to the Maldives Environment Ministry.

NGS illustration of Hanifaru by Caitlin Sargent

The new protected areas are "one of the last places on the planet where rays and whale sharks still roam in numbers reminiscent of times gone by," said Save Our Seas Foundation (SOSF) Marine Biologist Guy Stevens, who has been doing manta ray research in the Maldives for the past five years. The National Geographic article "Feeding Frenzy" covers the work of Stevens and features photographs by SOSF chief photographer Thomas Peschak.

See photographs by Thomas P. Peschak of manta rays as they converge to feed in a spectacular coral-reef ballet:
Mantas in the Maldives >>

"Each year between May and November the tide works its magic to suck krill and other plankton into Hanifaru Bay," SOSF said in a separate statement about the new marine protected areas (MPAs). "The tiny creatures then become trapped and form an irresistibly thick soup. This delightful offering attracts manta rays from all over the Maldives and they converge here to feed in the hundreds."

Photo by Thomas P. Peschak/Save Our Seas Foundation

SOSF said the proclamation of waters around Hanifaru in the Baa atoll as a marine protected area (in the map above) was a giant step towards protecting the threatened manta rays. "This and the creation of two other MPAs, An'gafaru in the Baa atoll and Maamigili in the South Ari atoll, demonstrates the new government's forward thinking in marine conservation."

The marine protected areas are the latest in a series of environmental initiatives by President Mohamed Nasheed's administration, which assumed office after the country's first multiparty presidential election by popular vote, in November last year.

"President Nasheed deserves much praise for his push to protect these ecologically valuable marine areas in the Indian Ocean," said SOSF Director Chris Clarke. "His action protects one of the world's most vital populations of manta rays by prohibiting all forms of commercial fishing, only permitting traditional bait-fishing by local fishermen."

Earlier this year Maldives banned reef shark hunting, and Nasheed announced in March that the Maldives will become the world's first carbon-neutral country by 2020.

Photo by Thomas P. Peschak/Save Our Seas Foundation

The largest illegal ivory market in Asia--much of it poached from elephants in Africa--continues to thrive in Thailand, according to the latest market surveys by the wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC. 
 

Photo of ivory Buddhas by Daniel Stiles/TRAFFIC

The organization also raises concerns that legal provisions in Thailand governing trade in domesticated elephants are providing cover for illegal trade in wild-caught, highly-endangered Asian elephants from both Thailand and neighboring Myanmar.

TRAFFIC, a partnership of WWF and IUCN, oversees a global monitoring program, the Elephant Trade Information System (ETIS), for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

CITES is an international agreement between governments that aims to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival.

Thailand Signed Treaty Regulating Willdife Trade

Thailand is one of 175 countries that is party to the agreement.

But surveys documented more than 26,000 worked ivory products for sale in local Thailand markets, "with many more retail outlets dealing in ivory products than were observed during market surveys carried out in 2001," the network TRAFFIC in a statement.

"Market surveys found 50 more retail outlets offering ivory items in Bangkok and Chiang Mai in 2008 than the previous year. However, overall there was less worked ivory openly on sale than in 2001," the report noted.

"Thailand has consistently been identified as one of the world's top five countries most heavily implicated in the illicit ivory trade, but shows little sign of addressing outstanding issues," said Tom Milliken, of TRAFFIC.

"Thailand needs to reassess its policy for controlling its local ivory markets as currently it is not implementing international requirements to the ongoing detriment of both African and Asian Elephant populations," Milliken said.

"Since 2004, the Thai government has only reported two ivory seizure cases totaling 1.2 tonnes of raw ivory."

Bangkok is the Hub

Thailand's capital, Bangkok, a major tourist destination, has emerged as the main hub for illegal ivory activities, accounting for over 70 percent of the retail outlets in Thailand offering ivory items for sale, TRAFFIC said.

The report includes new information on ivory workshops--eight in Uthai Thani, one each in Chai Nat and Payuha Kiri, and three in Bangkok--"between them employing dozens of carvers in the production of ivory jewelry, belt buckles and knife-handles."

Photo of ivory factory in Uthai Thani by Danile Stiles/TRAFFIC

Much of the ivory being worked is illegally imported from Africa, TRAFFIC said.

"Some workshop owners boasted close ties with European knife makers, while others reported sending ivory, steel and silver items to the U.S. for sale in gun shops."

"The Thai Government needs to crack down on this serious illegal activity and stop allowing people to abuse the law," said Colman O'Criodain, WWF International's analyst on wildlife trade issues.

"A good first step would be to put in place a comprehensive registration system for all ivory in trade and for live elephants."

"Traders [are] buying wild-caught elephant calves for use in Bangkok as 'beggars.'"

The study also uncovered reports of traders buying wild-caught elephant calves for use in Bangkok as "beggars" on the streets in major tourist centres, or selling them to elephant camps and entertainment parks, TRAFFIC said.

"Hundreds of live elephants are known to have been illegally imported from Myanmar in recent years, to be sold to elephant trekking companies catering to adventure tourism in Thailand.

"The capture of wild elephants has been banned in Thailand since the 1970s, but such trade usually goes undetected because domesticated elephants do not have to be registered legally until they are eight years of age." 

The study also found that over a quarter of all live elephant exports from Thailand between 1980 and 2005 could have been illegal due to incomplete and inaccurate declarations made on the documentation required under CITES.

"There must be greater scrutiny of the live elephant trade if enforcement efforts are to have any impact at all," said Chris R. Shepherd, TRAFFIC Southeast Asia's Acting Director.

"Thailand and Myanmar should work together, and with urgency, to address cross-border trade problems," he added.

More about the ivory wars >>

NGS photo by Jodi Cobb

Good news for polar bears, walruses, caribou:

Russia will create a new 3.7 million-acre (1.5 million-hectare) park in the Arctic, a central area for the Barents and Kara Sea polar bear populations, WWF said today.

NGS photo of polar bear in the Russian Arctic by Gordon Wiltsie

Announcing the park, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said he hoped it would be a major attraction for tourism, and announced that he personally plans to vacation there, WWF said.

The new Russian Arctic park is located on the northern part of Novaya Zemlya, a long island that arcs out into the Arctic Ocean between the Barents and Kara Seas, WWF said. It also includes some adjacent marine areas.

"WWF has long been lobbying for the park, which is also a key area for walrus, wild reindeer and bird population," the conservation charity said.

Industrial activities are prohibited in the new park.

NGS photo of walruses swimming in Arctic waters by Bruce Dale

"This is exactly the sort of thing we need to see from Arctic governments," said Neil Hamilton, director of WWF International's Arctic Programme.

"The only way these Arctic populations are going to survive the ecological havoc caused by global warming is by providing them with enough breathing room."

"If industrial activity is kept far enough from key habitat, the animals have a chance."

"We also need urgent global action on climate change to ensure that the parks stay cold enough."

One of the world's rarest and most charismatic big cats, the snow leopard, has moved into very fancy digs in New York's Central Park. Heating and airconditioning are included.

WCS photo by Julie Larsen Maher

"The exhibit's rugged evergreen habitat, complete with a rocky waterfall, replicates the critically endangered snow leopard's home below the tree line in the mountains of Central Asia," says a news statement by the Wildlife Conservation Society, operator of Central Park Zoo.

The multi-million-dollar exhibit's design makes use of the latest behavioral enrichment ideas and technology. "Hot rocks provide warmth during the winter; and shallow caves and trees offer shade in summer. Fog and a waterfall add ambient cooling and dramatic visual effect; rocks and deadfall encourage the cats to pounce and play," WCS said.

WCS photo by Julie Larsen Maher

Three cats in the exhibit can be viewed nose-to-nose from two lookouts.

"This wonderful new exhibit will offer its visitors a quick escape from New York's urban landscape to Asia's great mountain ranges," said Steven E. Sanderson, WCS President and CEO. "We hope that all who visit this exhibit will be inspired to join our efforts to help save these animals and other rare species around the world."

Scientists estimate there are only a few thousand of these cats left in the wild; approximately 700 live in captivity.

WCS is a world leader in the care and conservation of snow leopards. The Bronx Zoo, also operated by the conservation charity, became the first zoo in the Western Hemisphere to exhibit the rare spotted cats in 1903.

WCS photo by Julie Larsen Maher

In the past three decades, nearly 80 cubs have been born in the Bronx as part of the SSP, and have been sent to live at 30 zoos in the U.S. and eight countries in Europe, Asia, Australia, and North America. All the WCS snow leopards are a part of the Species Survival Program (SSP), which helps ensure healthy populations of select endangered species in zoos, WCS added.

Central Park Zoo's new snow leopard facility includes an off-exhibit area that will serve as the breeding area and can accommodate cubs.

WCS photo by Julie Larsen Maher

The Allison Maher Stern Snow Leopard Exhibit is named in recognition of a $7 million leadership gift to the WCS Gateways to Conservation campaign by Allison and Leonard Stern. "Mrs. Stern has a personal passion for animals and volunteered at the Central Park Zoo in 1988. She has been a WCS trustee since 1992 and currently serves as Vice Chair of the WCS Board," WCS said.

Related news:
 
Snow Leopards, 32 Other Species Receive Protection in Afghanistan

LEOPARD PICTURES: Rare Snow Cats Caught by Camera Traps

The Geography of Peace

The world has become slightly less peaceful in the past year--a consequence perhaps of intensified violent conflict in some countries, the effects of rapidly rising food and fuel prices in 2008, and the global economic meltdown.

"Rapidly rising unemployment, pay freezes and falls in the value of house prices, savings and pensions is causing popular resentment in many countries, with political repercussions that have been registered by the Global Peace Index (GPI) through various indicators measuring safety and security in society," says the Institute for Economics and Peace, a global think tank dedicated to the research and education of the relationship between economic development, business and peace.

The 144 countries encompass almost 99 percent of the world's population and over 87 percent of the planet's land mass.

Indicators combined internal and external factors ranging from a nation's level of military expenditure to its relations with neighboring countries and the level of respect for human rights. Indicators include how easy it is to obtain guns, levels of organized crime, proportion of people in prison, the likelihood of violent protests and how stable government institutions are.

The GPI was founded by Steve Killelea, an Australian international technology entrepreneur and philanthropist. Endorsed by a number of Nobel Peace Prize laureates, the GPI creates a snapshot of relative peacefulness among nations while continuing to contribute to an understanding of what factors help create or sustain more peaceful societies.

New Zealand Is the Most at Peace

Small, stable and democratic countries are consistently ranked highest; 14 of the top 20 countries are Western or Central European countries, according to the GPI 2009 executive summary.

"This is, however, a reduction from 16 last year, with Hungary and Slovakia both slipping out of the top 20, while Qatar and Australia moved up to 16th and 19th place respectively," the GPI summary says.

All five Scandinavian countries are in the top ten of the GPI. Island nations generally fare well, although Madagascar fell by 30 places amid mounting political instability and violent demonstrations.

Iraq Is the Least at Peace

The average score for the nations surveyed in the 2009 GPI is 1.964 (based on a 1-5 scale). There is little variance between the overall scores of the top 20 countries (1.202 for New Zealand and 1.481 for Chile), although the 20 lowest ranked countries exhibit a far greater spread, varying between 2.485 (Sri Lanka) and 3.341 (Iraq).

Working with the Economist Intelligence Unit, the Institute for Economics and Peace, the think tank that houses the GPI, looked at 23 qualitative and quantitative indicators that affect a country's GPI ranking.

U.S. Is Not Changed Much

The U.S. ranking did change, however, with the country jumping six spots higher from 89 last year to 83 in 2009. The jump was partially due to a drop in the GPI indicator measuring the likelihood for terrorist attacks. It was also the result of other countries seeing a decrease in their GPI ranking.

GPI indicators that prevented the U.S. from being ranked higher were:

• High number of jailed population per 100,000 people.
• Ease of access to firearms.
• Number of deaths from organized external conflicts

Top Ten Countries
(Most Peaceful)

1 New Zealand
2 Denmark
2 Norway
4 Iceland
5 Austria
6 Sweden
7 Japan
8 Canada
9 Finland
9 Slovenia

Bottom Five Countries
(Least Peaceful)

140 Sudan
141 Israel
142 Somalia
143 Afghanistan
144 Iraq

Countries With Biggest Index Changes
(Change in rank, 2008-2009)

Top Five Risers
 50 Bosnia and Herzegovina +23
100 Angola +16
106 Congo, Republic of the +15
 54 Egypt +13
 87 Trinidad and Tobago +11

Top Five Fallers
 72 Madagascar -30
108 Mexico -16
 54 Latvia -16
123 South Africa -15
119 Yemen -13

Among the most popular books published by the National Geographic Society are its books about birds.

I am only a casual birder, but I do appreciate any opportunity to learn as much as I can about birds.

I remember often the excellent advice given to me by a former news editor boss, an avid "twitcher," who once asked me as I was about to visit South Africa's Kruger National Park if I would be looking out for the birds. My head was filled with anticipated sightings of lions, elephants, buffalo, and other large fauna, but I had not given much thought about the birds I might see. His advice was to drive through Kruger slowly and also take in the birds. "You will triple your enjoyment of the park," he said.

He was right. I have enjoyed looking out for birds all over the world since I first really opened my eyes to them in the Kruger Park.

The first stages of becoming a birder are relatively easy, I found. A good field guide and a pair of binoculars quickly led to identification of the more obviously discernible species. But then came the hard and very hard parts. It's very difficult to distinguish between many of the more subtly differentiated species. This is where knowledge of habitat, behavior, diet, and calls become very important.

"Complete Birds of the World" provides a more holistic picture of the universe of birds, from Arctic to Antarctic and every climate zone inbetween. Understanding birds from the perspective of their different families adds much to my comprehension of our feathered relatives, and certainly to my appreciation of their infinite variety.

This is labeled Blue Grouse in the book (page 32) but is now renamed Dusky Grouse because it was recently split.

NGS photo

The project editor for "Complete Birds of the World" was Jonathan Alderfer, who also wrote the foreword. "The book was an international effort," Alderfer told me in an email. "The editor was Tim Harris from England, ten authors wrote the text, many award-winning photographers contributed, and National Geographic cartographers produced the maps."

I interviewed Alderfer about the book. Here is an edited Q&A:

Photos on this blog entry by Jackson Xu/FFI

Magnolias are blooming in gardens everywhere, but nearly half of the species of the famous flowring tree are now threatened with extinction in the wild, experts at Fauna and Flora International (FFI) warn.

Often described as the aristocrats of the plant world, magnolias produce large, beautiful flowers. But in the wild they are used as a source of timber, food and medicine for local communities, FFI said.

"Sadly almost half the known species of magnolia are now threatened with extinction," FFI Global Trees Campaign coordinator Georgina Magin said in the news release. "Most magnolias take a long time to start flowering and until then they are not reproducing, which means they are very vulnerable to over-exploitation. Without urgent action many of these gems of the forest could be lost forever."

Magnolias have been cultivated for centuries. Some specimens growing in Chinese temples are believed to be 800 years old and they are still very popular as ornamental plants in gardens, FFI said.

About two thirds of magnolia species are found in Asia, with more than 40 percent of these in southern China. Almost half of all wild Chinese magnolias are now at risk of extinction. One species, Magnolia sinica, is reduced to just 50 trees in the wild.

The remaining species are found in North and South America, where they are also dying out.

Global Trees Campaign

The Global Trees Campaign, a joint partnership between FFI and Botanic Gardens Conservation International, has been working to conserve some of these wild species.

Over the past two years they have been working with partners in Yunnan Province in southern China to increase the wild population of Magnolia sinica. They have already planted 400 nursery-grown saplings in a nature reserve and these are now being tended.

This is providing a much-needed lifeline for this endangered species, FFI noted. "Survival rates appear to be high so far and it is hoped this project could be used as a model to restore more of these glorious species in their natural habitats."

Photo by Jackson Xu/FFI

WCS photo by Alex Dehgan

One of Afghanistan's best-known natural areas--a spectacular series of six deep blue lakes separated by natural dams made of travertine, a mineral deposit--has been declared the country's first national park.

The park is near the Bamyan Valley, where the 1,500-year-old giant Buddha statues destroyed by the Taliban once stood.

WCS scientist Chris Shank with two Afghan park guards

WCS photo by Chris Shank

USAID provided key funding that led to the park's creation, including support of WCS to conduct preliminary wildlife surveys, identify and delineate the park's boundaries, and work with local communities and the provincial government, WCS said in a news statement. WCS also developed the park's management plan, helped the government hire and train local rangers, and provided assistance to the Afghan Government to design the laws enabling the park to be created.

"At its core, Band-e-Amir is an Afghan initiative supported by the international community. It is a park created for Afghans, by Afghans, for the new Afghanistan," said Steven E. Sanderson, president and CEO of the Wildlife Conservation Society. "Band-e-Amir will be Afghanistan's first national park and sets the precedent for a future national park system."

WCS photo by Chris Shank

Band-e-Amir had been a destination for travelers since the 1950s, with a peak visitation in the 1970s, WCS added. Tourism was almost entirely absent during the war years between 1979-2001. "Today, Band-e-Amir is visited every year by thousands of Afghan tourists and religious pilgrims as well as many foreigners currently living and working in-country."

Though much of the park's wildlife has been lost, WCS said, recent surveys indicate that it still contains ibex (a species of wild goat) and urial (a type of wild sheep) along with wolves, foxes, smaller mammals and fish, and various bird species including the Afghan snow finch, which is believed to be the only bird found exclusively in Afghanistan. "Snow leopards were once found in the area but vanished due to hunting in the early 1980s."

Fragile Travertine Dams

The llakes are under growing threat from pollution and other human-caused degradation to the fragile travertine dams.

Creating the national park will provide international recognition essential to helping develop Band-e-Amir as an international tourist destination, and assist it in obtaining World Heritage status, which would provide additional protection, according to WCS. "It also sets the groundwork to create an Afghan Protected Area System that could include the wildlife-rich transboundary area in the Pamirs shared by Afghanistan, Pakistan, China and Tajikistan."

The new park will be managed by Afghanistan's National Environmental Protection Agency, the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock, and the Band-e-Amir Protected Area Committee.

WCS helped the 13 villages lying within the park establish this committee, which provides local input into all management decisions. "The park will provide employment, tourism-derived revenue, and ensure that local communities play a key role in protecting this world class landscape," WCS said.

One of the travertine dams that make up the series of six lakes. Note the person standing on top of the dam.

WCS photo by Chris Shank

Smithsonian's National Zoo photo by Lisa Ware

An endangered clouded leopard at the Smithsonian's National Zoo's Conservation & Research Center in Front Royal, Virginia, gave birth to a genetically valuable litter of two cubs today. They are the first such births at the special breeding facility in 16 years.

"Staff has been on pregnancy watch of the two-and-a-half year-old clouded leopard 'Jao Chu' (JOW-chew) for five days. She gave birth to the litter early Tuesday morning," said a zoo news release.

This is Jao Chu's first litter. She and the cubs' father, two-and-a-half year-old "Hannibal," were born in Thailand in a collaborative research program with the Zoological Park Organization of Thailand. The pairing of Jao Chu and Hannibal and the resultant offspring infuses precious genes into the captive population of clouded leopards.

The cubs' sex will not be known until the first veterinary exam, the zoo said. They are being hand raised by zoo staff to increase their chances of survival.

"Due to deforestation and hunting, clouded leopards are vulnerable to extinction. National Zoo scientist Dr. JoGayle Howard and colleagues are aggressively working toward saving this species from decline," the statement added.

Smithsonian's National Zoo photo by Lisa Ware

Breeding clouded leopards in captivity has been a challenge, primarily due to male aggression, decreased breeding activity between paired animals, and high cub mortality, the zoo said.

In 2002, the National Zoo in collaboration with the Nashville Zoo and the Clouded Leopard Species Survival Plan created the Thailand Clouded Leopard Consortium -- the largest population of confiscated clouded leopards in Southeast Asia.

The species survival plan oversees clouded leopard populations in zoos worldwide, and makes breeding recommendations for potential pairs based on the genetics of each cat.

(Watch a National Geographic video about this breeding progam below.)

Smithsonian's National Zoo photo by Lisa Ware

To date, the Thailand Clouded Leopard Consortium has produced 32 surviving cubs. The National Zoo's program at the Front Royal facility is the only one of its kind combining breeding with scientific research.

"For example, scientists still do not know why male clouded leopards attack their possible mates," the zoo said. "but several graduate students at the National Zoo are studying the males' behavior -- one student plans to test anti-anxiety drugs used in humans and domestic cats in an attempt to suppress male aggression."

Clouded leopard breeding video by National Geographic

Howard and colleagues have learned how to reduce the risk of fatal attacks by hand-rearing cubs for socialization and also introducing males to their mates when they are six months old, allowing the pair to grow up together. "Hannibal and Jao Chu, the only compatible pair of clouded leopards at CRC, are proof that these techniques work," the zoo said in its statement.

Little is known about clouded leopards. They are cats native to Southeast Asia and parts of China in a habitat that ranges from dense tropical evergreen forests to drier forests if there is suitable prey.

They are the smallest of the big cats, weighing 30 to 50 pounds and measuring about five feet long. Their short legs, large paws, and long tail (accounts for half their length) help them balance on small branches, and their flexible ankles allow them to run down trees headfirst.