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Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) – partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 20 September 2010
South Africa is considered among the top five most mega-diverse countries in the world, boasting almost 10% of the world’s known bird, fish and plant species and over 6% of the world’s mammal and reptile species contained on a land surface of only 1,1 million square kilometres (1% of the Earth’s total land area).
To highlight the crucial role nature’s rich diversity plays in our lives, the United Nations (UN) has declared 2010 the International Year of Biodiversity (IYB-2010).
 Tswaing Crater,about 40 km north of Pretoria, is extraordinarily rich in fauna and flora. According to the UN Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, biodiversity (the variety of life on Earth), is essential to sustaining the living networks and systems that provide us with health, wealth, food, fuel and the vital services our lives depend upon.
The Convention, of which South Africa is a signatory, covers all ecosystems, species and genetic resources, linking traditional conservation efforts to economic goal of using biological resources sustainably, setting principles for the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits from use of genetic resources, notably for commercial use and covering rapidly expanding field of biotechnology, and addressing technology development and transfer, benefit- sharing and biosafety.
Unfortunately, South Africa’s increased population growth, habitat destruction, overexploitation, pollution and the introduction of invasive alien species are all placing increasing pressure on our natural systems.
This holds particularly true for South Africa’s freshwater ecosystems, with the 2006 South Africa Environment Outlook indicating that 82% of the country’s main river ecosystems are threatened. Continue reading 2010 – The International Year of Biodiversity
Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) – partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 21 August 2010
A dramatic rise in the surface temperature of Indonesian waters has resulted in a large-scale bleaching event that has devastated local coral populations. Following a report of a bleaching incident in May, WCS-Indonesia dispatched a “Rapid Response Unit” of marine biologists to investigate. Their initial survey revealed that over 60 percent of corals have bleached. The incident took place in the province of Aceh, on the northern tip of the island of Sumatra.
 Coral bleaching Coral “bleaching,” or whitening, occurs when algae living within coral tissues are expelled. The condition results from stress triggered by environmental factors such as sea surface temperature fluctuations. Some bleached corals may recover over time, while others die.
Subsequent monitoring conducted by marine ecologists from WCS, James Cook University in Australia, and Syiah Kuala University in Indonesia were completed in early August. The rate and extent of the coral mortality exceeds that of most other bleachings on record. The scientists found that 80 percent of some species have died since the initial assessment and more colonies are expected to die within the next few months.
Sea surface temperatures in the Andaman Sea—an area that includes the coasts of Myanmar, Thailand, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and northwestern Indonesia—have been on the rise. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Coral Hotspots website, temperatures in the region peaked in late May, when the temperature reached 34 degrees Celsius. This represents a dramatic 4-degree rise over the long-term averages for the area.
“It’s a disappointing development, particularly in light of the fact that these same corals proved resilient to other disruptions to this ecosystem, including the Indian Ocean Tsunami of 2004,” said WCS-Indonesia Marine Program Director Dr. Stuart Campbell. Continue reading Bleaching devastates coral populations
Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) - partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 24 May 2010
How can communities develop economically and socially without damaging the fragile ecosystems they live in?
That was the primary question at a seminar hosted at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University on Friday by the national Department of Social Welfare, the UN’s Leadership for Environment and Development (Lead) programme and the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality.
 Agathosma serpyllacea - coastal fynbos, Western Cape The seminar is one of six set to take place over the next six months in preparation for the International Training Session on Population, Climate Change and Development Conference in Port Elizabeth, in October.
One of the speakers at Friday’s event, Schalk Potgieter, assistant director of strategic planning in the municipality’s human settlement unit, said the nexus of population development and critical ecosystems was a crucial one in Mandela Bay.
Five biomes or broad indigenous vegetation zones meet here and two, coastal fynbos and thicket, are particularly fragile.
These ecosystems are vulnerable to human development and also to climate change, which will likely result in rising seas and increasingly fierce and frequent storms – putting pressure especially on impoverished communities living on marginal land.
This can result in migration by “climate change refugees” and conflict, in turn, with people in the areas where they migrate to, and greater pressure on that land. Continue reading Fragile ecosystems under threat of growing communities
Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) - partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 11 May 2010
Far too many of the world’s plants and animals — and the wild places that support them — are at risk of collapse, a U.N. report finds, despite a global goal set in 2002 for major improvement by this year.
 Frogs and other amphibians are most at risk of extinction. Frogs and other amphibians are most at risk of extinction, coral reefs are the species deteriorating most rapidly and the survival of nearly a quarter of all plant species is threatened, the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity said Monday in a report issued every four years.
The outlook on the planet’s ecological diversity and health is produced under a 1993 treaty since joined by most of the world’s nations. It says the planet is falling short of its goal to achieve by this year “a significant reduction in the current rate of biodiversity loss at the global, regional and national levels.”
Pollution, climate change, drought, deforestation, illegal poaching and overfishing are among the many culprits named.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warns in the report that the consequences of “this collective failure” will be severe for everyone on the planet if it is not quickly corrected.
“We must give it higher priority in all areas of decision-making and in all economic sectors,” he says. “Conserving biodiversity cannot be an afterthought once other objectives are addressed — it is the foundation on which many of these objectives are built.”
The U.N. had declared 2010 would be the “International Year of Biodiversity,” seeking to raise awareness.
But the report provides extremely dire projections of the state of biodiversity globally, such as the loss of huge areas of the Amazon rainforest and many fresh water lakes. Continue reading World’s plants and animals at risk of collapse
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