New York, Mar 14 2011 1:10PM
The dugong, the reputed mermaid of seafarers' lore, was today thrown a
lifeline by a United Nations pilot project that uses financial
incentives to curb direct hunting or incidental by-catch of the large
marine mammal amid concerns it could become extinct within 40 years.
The project, launched in the small Pacific island State of Palau by
the country's President Johnson Toribiong, is one of several
undertaken by the UN Convention on the Conservation of Migratory
Species of Wild Animals (CMS) and the inter-governmental South Pacific
Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) to protect the creature, which
plays a significant ecological role in the functioning of coastal
habitats.
Promoted under the Pacific Year of the Dugong 2011, the projects seek
to reduce hunting and by-catch of the creature, which sailors once
took for a mermaid when spotted from afar, by providing incentives for
behavioural change in local communities with loans or payments for
ecosystem services, lessening their catches or changing to more
dugong-friendly fishing gear.
"Financial incentives will be promoted to make sure that conservation
needs and sustainable development are reconciled at the community
level," <"http://www.unep.org/Documents.Multilingual/Default.asp?DocumentID=664&ArticleID=8662&l=en">said
Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, Executive Secretary of CMS, whose Secretariat
is provided by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).
Also known as the sea cow, the dugong, the world's only herbivorous
marine mammal, lives in warm coastal and island waters from East
Africa to Vanuatu in the Pacific. The major causes of mortality are
poaching, unsustainable hunting, entanglement in fishing gear, vessel
strikes and habitat degradation.
The action plan developed under a UNEP/CMS Memorandum of Understanding
on the Conservation and Management of Dugongs and their Habitats
provides the framework for regional cooperation for long-term
protection in the Indian Ocean, South-East Asia, South Asia, Australia
and the Pacific Islands.
Most of the world's remaining dugong populations outside of Australia
and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are at serious risk of disappearing
without effective and timely conservation action. Governments,
international and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) were warned at
a gathering convened by CMS in Abu Dhabi, UAE, last October that the
mammal was threatened with extinction within 40 years.
Gillnets, used in almost 90 per cent of the dugong's habitat, threaten
its survival, and reducing mortality in fisheries remains the greatest
challenge. Providing financial incentives to encourage the fishing
community to replace harmful gillnets with alternative equipment such
as line-fishing gear to reduce by-catch is one option being considered
in the pilot projects.
Under conservation agreements with the communities, the ecological and
economic value of sea-grass habitats would be protected and livelihood
incentives for coastal communities would be guaranteed, many of whom
rely on sustainable small-scale fisheries.
In some parts of the Pacific Islands, such as the Torres Strait
between Papua New Guinea and Australia, hunting for direct consumption
is the legal right of traditional inhabitants and sustainable hunting
levels need to be agreed as part of the action plan.
Two other pilot projects are currently being developed in Daru, Papua
New Guinea, and Bazaruto Bay in Mozambique. At least five initiatives
in all will be tested in sites across the Indian Ocean, South-East
Asia, South Asia, and Pacific Islands regions over the 2011-2013
period under the UNEP/CMS memorandum, which has so far garnered 18
signatories, who have agreed to fund the projects.
These are: Australia, Bahrain, Comoros, Eritrea, France, India, Kenya,
Madagascar, Myanmar, Philippines, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Solomon
Islands, Seychelles, Vanuatu, UAE, Tanzania and Yemen.
Dugong conservation efforts will have other benefits as they can have
positive impacts across a wide range of habitats, in turn protecting
other coastal marine species such as turtles, whales, dolphins and
sharks.
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