Diseased dolphins, contaminated zooplankton, and dead coral: the legacies of the BP oil spill

By Peter Beaumont / The Guardian

A new study of dolphins living close to the site of North America’s worst ever oil spill – the BP Deepwater Horizon catastrophe two years ago – has established serious health problems afflicting the marine mammals.

The report, commissioned by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration [NOAA], found that many of the 32 dolphins studied were underweight, anaemic and suffering from lung and liver disease, while nearly half had low levels of a hormone that helps the mammals deal with stress as well as regulating their metabolism and immune systems.

More than 200m gallons of crude oil flowed from the well after a series of explosions on 20 April 2010, which killed 11 workers. The spill contaminated the Gulf of Mexico and its coastline in what President Barack Obama called America’s worst environmental disaster.

The research follows the publication of several scientific studies into insect populations on the nearby Gulf coastline and into the health of deepwater coral populations, which all suggest that the environmental impact of the five-month long spill may have been far worse than previously appreciated.

Another study confirmed that zooplankton – the microscopic organisms at the bottom of the ocean food chain – had also been contaminated with oil. Indeed, photographs issued last month of wetland coastal areas show continued contamination, with some areas still devoid of vegetation.

The study of the dolphins in Barataria Bay, off the coast of Louisiana, followed two years in which the number of dead dolphins found stranded on the coast close to the spill had dramatically increased. Although all but one of the 32 dolphins were still alive when the study ended, lead researcher Lori Schwacke said survival prospects for many were grim, adding that the hormone deficiency – while not definitively linked to the oil spill – was “consistent with oil exposure to other mammals”.

Schwacke told a Colorado based-publication last week: “This was truly an unprecedented event – there was little existing data that would indicate what effects might be seen specifically in dolphins – or other cetaceans – exposed to oil for a prolonged period of time.”

The NOAA study has been reported at the same time as two other studies suggesting that the long-term environmental effects of the Deepwater Horizon spill may have been far more profound than previously thought.

A study of deep ocean corals seven miles from the spill source jointly funded by the NOAA and BP has found dead and dying corals coated “in brown gunk”. Deepwater corals are not usually affected in oil spills, but the depth and temperatures involved in the spill appear to have been responsible for creating plumes of oil particles deep under the ocean surface, which are blamed for the unprecedented damage.

Charles Fisher, one of the scientists who jointly described the impact as unprecedented, said he believed the colony had been contaminated by a plume from the ruptured well which would have affected other organisms. “The corals are long-living and don’t move. That is why we were able to identify the damage but you would have expected it to have had an impact on other larger animals that were exposed to it.”

Chemical analysis of oil found on the dying coral showed that it came from the Deepwater Horizon spill.

The latest surveys of the damage to the marine environment come amid continued legal wrangling between the US and BP over the bill for the clean-up. BP said the US government was withholding evidence that would show the oil spill from the well in the Gulf of Mexico was smaller than claimed. Last week BP, which has set aside $37bn (£23bn) to pay for costs associated with the disaster, went to court in Louisiana to demand access to thousands of documents that it says the Obama administration is suppressing.

Read more from The Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/mar/31/dolphins-sick-deepwater-oil-spill

Plantations scheme in Ethiopia killing river and threatening indigenous peoples

By Survival International

New photographic evidence proves Ethiopia’s controversial plantations scheme is killing the Lower Omo River, a lifeline for 100,000 tribal people.

The Omo River downstream from the notorious Gibe III dam is now being diverted into a newly-dug irrigation canal, one of several which will feed a massively ambitious plantations scheme for state and private investors.

These manmade canals are key to Ethiopia’s plantations plan, which is already having a hugely negative impact on UNESCO’s Lower Omo World Heritage site.

The government has revealed virtually nothing about the plantations program, but an official map obtained by Survival shows the enormous scope of the project.

One local person, speaking to a Survival researcher who recently visited the area, said, ‘I’ve never seen the river this low. During the dry season, like it is now, you can usually cross by foot, and water reaches your knees. Now I could cross without my feet getting wet.’

The Gibe III dam, 200 kms upstream, will interrupt the river’s natural flow and deprive thousands of tribespeople of their most valuable agricultural land by stopping the annual flood.

The flooding of the Omo River feeds the rich biodiversity of the region and ensures tribes such as the Bodi, Mursi and Dassanach can feed their cattle and produce beans and cereals in the fertile silt left behind.

There was a flood last year, but most Bodi and Mursi were not able to use it for cultivation because of the irrigation project. There will be no flood this year, as the dam reservoir starts to fill, nor in succeeding years. The people have been told they will be given food aid in compensation.

Indigenous communities are also suffering from violent human rights abuses, as plans are implemented forcibly to resettle those who stand in the way of the government’s plans, and to take away their cattle.

Survival’s Director Stephen Corry said today, ‘Ethiopia’s government is destroying the Lower Omo Valley and the livelihoods of tens of thousands of indigenous people – all in the name of ‘development’. However the human cost cannot be ignored. Re-directing a water lifeline is irresponsible and reckless.’

From Survival International: http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/8228

Minority and indigenous women in Kenya targeted for sexual violence, torture, and murder

By Shadrack Kavilu / Gáldu

Women from minority and indigenous communities are targeted for sexual violence, torture and killings specifically because of their ethnic, religious or indigenous identity, says a report by Minority Rights Group International (MRG).

The report launched recently during the International Women’s Day says that minority and Indigenous women are most vulnerable to sexual and other forms of violence or social injustices compared to other women.

The report notes that discrimination against minorities and indigenous peoples worldwide is often experienced by women as physical violence.
Carl Soderbergh, MRG’s director of policy and communications notes that in war and in peacetime, minority and indigenous women are singled out for sexual violence because they are less protected and less able to complain.

In its most recent state of the world’s minorities and indigenous peoples, MRG documented cases from across the world showing how women from minority and indigenous communities often face disproportionately higher levels of violence and are targeted for attack in situations of conflict and in times of peace.
The impact of conflict on women, the report says is wide-ranging and that women are often the most likely to stay back and protect their families thus making them vulnerable to sexual violence.

In most cases, the report adds that women find themselves heading their households and struggling to find an income. They risk being coerced into sex work or having to offer sexual favours to be able to support their families.
It further notes that if displaced, women are at risk of being exploited by border guards and human traffickers.

Beyond these risks facing women in conflict, the report says women from minority and indigenous communities are specifically targeted for attack by both state forces and armed opposition groups.
These groups of women can face sexual and gender-based violence as a means of punishing their communities.

The report attributes the vulnerability of these women to poverty and marginalization.
“These women often come from poor socio-economic backgrounds and live in remote areas and they have little access to justice and in many cases face discrimination from the police and the judicial system because of their minority status and because of their gender,” adds the report.
Like other women, minority and indigenous women also face violence from within their own communities or their own families. Poverty and social and economic marginalization are some of the factors that contribute to the incidence of domestic violence within minority and indigenous communities.

Soderbergh, MRG’s director of Policy and Communications says while risking multiple abuses in many countries the struggle to stamp out sexual violence against indigenous and minorities is being led by minority women activists themselves, sometimes at serious risk to their own safety.
He however observed that though the International Women’s Day has helped highlight the scourge of violence against women around the world, development agencies, governments and human rights activists need to realise that not all women face the same obstacles, and that violence against women often has a particular ethnic or religious dimension.

According to another report titled Kenya at 50 which was launched by the same international human rights body, the rights of indigenous people continue to be violated despite enactment of laws protecting their right to identity and recognition.
The report which reviews the current status of minority and indigenous groups in Kenya particularly how legal and policy changes over the last five years have responded to the social, economic and political challenges notes that indigenous and minority groups are yet to realise their rights.
The report shows that on the 50th anniversary of Kenya’s independence, many minority and indigenous communities feel that despite some constitutional gains, increased ethnicity of politics has deepened their exclusion, making their situation worse today than it was in 2005.

“Despite the adoption of the new Constitution in 2010, very little has changed in the way the Kenyan state approaches the question of minorities and indigenous people,’ says Marusca Perazzi, MRG’s Governance Programme Coordinator.

During this period, Perazzi says forced evictions and other forms of harassment have continued to plague many minority and indigenous communities in absolute disregard of the new constitution.
Many minority and indigenous groups interviewed separately and in groups, feel issues affecting them, such as drought and state-induced landlessness to pave the way for industrialization, are not receiving enough media attention.

The report highlights that charges of trespass in the Rift Valley against pastoralist groups in Samburu and Naivasha have increased whenever the communities seek access to grazing grounds, even in what are considered community lands.

Daniel Kobei, executive director of Ogiek People’s Development Programme (OPDP), a local organization that advocates for the rights of the indigenous Ogiek people said the laws being considered for adoption by the National Assembly have betrayed a total lack of commitment to ensuring that indigenous and minorities are a functioning part of the new Kenya.
Kobei said the weak laws create fears among minority and indigenous communities that their recognition may not translate into real positive legislative and administrative developments.

For many years, Kobei says the Ogiek have suffered displacement or been threatened with eviction from their ancestral lands, in particular the Mau Forest and around Mount Elgon.

The report also highlights the plight of the Nubians in Kibera, an expansive human settlement known internationally for its poor sanitation and cramped living quarters. The community faces periodic violence pitting them against harsh landlords from majority communities, forced demolitions, evictions and an unclear citizenship status in Kenya.

To further show how minorities suffer unfair disadvantage in law and in practice, the government of Kenya has been reluctant to restore ownership to the Endorois people of their ancestral lands around the Lake Bogoria National Reserve, as recommended by the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights two years ago.

The report calls on the Kenyan government to embrace pluralism and take special measures in support of minority and indigenous communities.

From Gáldu

Studies link common pesticides to 50% decline in honeybee populations

By Damian Carrington / The Guardian

Common crop pesticides have been shown for the first time to seriously harm bees by damaging their renowned ability to navigate home.

The new research strongly links the pesticides to the serious decline in honey bee numbers in the US and UK – a drop of around 50% in the last 25 years. The losses pose a threat to food supplies as bees pollinate a third of the food we eat such as tomatoes, beans, apples and strawberries.

Scientists found that bees consuming one pesticide suffered an 85% loss in the number of queens their nests produced, while another study showed a doubling in “disappeared” bees – those that failed to return from food foraging trips. The significance of the new work, published Science, is that it is the first carried out in realistic, open-air conditions.

“People had found pretty trivial effects in lab and greenhouse experiments, but we have shown they can translate into really big effects in the field. This has transformed our understanding,” said Prof David Goulson, at the University of Stirling and leader of one of the research teams. “If it’s only one metre from where they forage in a lab to their nest, even an unwell bee can manage that.”

Prof Mickaël Henry, at INRA in Avignon, France, who led a separate research team, said: “Under the effects we saw from the pesticides, the population size would decline disastrously, and make them even more sensitive to parasites or a lack of food.”

The reason for the huge decline in bee numbers has remained uncertain, but pesticides, the varroa mite and other parasites, and destruction of the flower-rich habitats in which bees feed are believed to be the key reasons. Pesticide manufacturers and the UK government deny a class of the chemicals called neonicotinoids cause significant problems for bees, but Germany, Italy and France have suspended key insecticides over such fears.

A spokesperson from Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said the new research did not change the government’s position. “The UK has a robust system for assessing risks from pesticides and all the evidence shows neonicotinoids do not pose an unacceptable risk to honeybees when products are used correctly. However, we will not hesitate to act if presented with any new evidence.” Henry said the new research showed current approval processes for the pesticides are inadequate: “We now have enough data to say authorisation processes must take into account not only the lethal effects, but also the effects of non-lethal doses.”

The pesticides investigated in the new studies – insect neurotoxins called neonicotinoids – are applied to seeds and flow through the plants’ whole system. The environmental advantage of this is it reduces pesticide spraying but chemicals end up in the nectar and pollen on which bees feed. Goulson’s group studied an extremely widely used type called imidacloprid, primarily manufactured by Bayer CropScience, and registered for use on over 140 crops in 120 countries.

Bumblebees were fed the toxin at the same level found in treated rape plants and found that these colonies were about 10% smaller than those not exposed to the insecticide. Most strikingly, the exposed colonies lost almost all of their ability to produce queens, which are the only bee to survive the winter and establish new colonies. “There was a staggering magnitude of effect,” said Goulson. “This is likely to have a substantial population-level impact.”

The French team analysed the effect on honey bees of a new generation neonicotinoid, called thiamethoxam and manufactured by Syngenta. They fitted tiny electronic tags to over 650 bees and monitored their activity around the hive. Those exposed to “commonly encountered” levels of thiamethoxam suffered high mortality, with up to a third of the bees failing to return. “They disappeared in much higher numbers than expected,” said Henry. Previous scientific work has shown insect neurotoxins may cause memory, learning, and navigation problems in bees.

A spokesman for Syngenta said: “Although we take good research very seriously, over the last four years, independent authorities in France have closely monitored the use of Cruiser – the product containing thiamethoxam – on more than 1.9m hectares. When properly used no cases of bee mortality have been recorded.”

Julian Little, spokesman for Bayer Cropscience, criticised Goulson’s study because the bees were exposed to imidacloprid in the labaratory, before being placed outside in a natural field environment to feed. “All studies looking at the interaction of bees and pesticides must be done in a full field situation,” he said. “This study does not demonstrate that current agricultural practices damage bee colonies.”

Goulson dismissed as “nonsense” Little’s suggestion that the doses given to the bees were higher than in reality. Both Bayer and Defra suggested other field studies had shown no harmful effects to bees. Goulson said: “If they have done these studies, where are they? They are not in the public domain and therefore cannot be scrutinised. That raises the question of just how good they are.”

From The Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/mar/29/crop-pesticides-honeybee-decline

Peat swamp forest set ablaze by palm oil companies, killing more than a hundred orangutans

By Kathy Marks / The Independent

Fires raging unchecked in an Indonesian peat swamp forest could wipe out the remaining Sumatran orang-utans which live there, conservationists are warning. The forest is one of the last refuges of the great apes. The illegal fires, started by palm-oil companies clearing land to plant the lucrative crop, are believed to have killed at least 100 orang-utans – one-third of those living in the Tripa swamp, on the west coast of Sumatra’s Aceh province. The rest could die within weeks, according to Dr Ian Singleton, conservation director of the Sumatran Orang-utan Conservation Programme.

“The speed of destruction has gone up dramatically in the last few weeks… This is obviously a deliberate drive by these companies to clear all the remaining forests,” Dr Singleton said. “If this is not stopped right now, all those orang-utans… will be gone before the end of 2012.”

Only 6,600 Sumatran orang-utans are estimated to be left in the wild, and the Tripa swamp – where they are most densely concentrated – is considered crucial to the species’ survival. But less than one-quarter of the peat forest remains; the rest has been converted to palm-oil plantations.

Satellite imagery showing 92 fires over the past week has horrified conservationists, who are awaiting a court ruling with far-reaching implications for the protection of wildlife habitats in Indonesia. The judgment relates to a lawsuit brought against the governor of Aceh by the local branch of Walhi, an environmental group. Walhi decided to act after the governor, Irwandi Yusuf, granted a new permit to one of the country’s biggest palm-oil companies, PT Kallista Alam. Walhi Aceh argues that the permit, which would allow another 4,000 acres of peatland to be destroyed, was granted illegally.

The judges are due to reach a decision next Tuesday. If they dismiss the challenge, other important habitats could also be threatened. Tripa is nominally protected by a presidential moratorium on new logging and palm-oil concessions, as well as by legislation governing the conservation area within which it is located.

There may now be as few as 200 orang-utans left in the Tripa forest, which shelters a dozen endangered species, including the white-handed gibbon, clouded leopard, Malayan sun bear, Sumatran tiger and giant soft-shelled turtle.

From The Independent: http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/up-in-smoke-ecological-catastrophe-in-the-sumatran-swamps-7600987.html