www.herald.co.zw Herald Reporter THE southern African region will today start a four-day workshop in South Africa to prepare for the Fifth World Parks Congress to be held in the same country later in the year.

Organisers of the workshop, Africa Resources Trust (ART), said yesterday the workshop would synthesise the experience of the region on community based conservation of natural resources.

"The workshop will look at pre-colonial conservation practices in southern Africa region," said ART.

"Emphasis will be on community-based conservation, conservation systems and practices developed under the colonial regime and the legacies of the pre-colonial and colonial systems."

The workshop would be held under the theme: Communities and Protected Areas in Southern Africa: Key Issues and Challe-nges Towards a More Equitable and Sustainable Future.

Organisations involved in the hosting of the workshop include the Programme on Land and Agrarian Studies, the School of Government University of the Western Cape and the Theme on Indigenous and Local Communi-ties.

"The purpose of the workshop is to review lessons learned in the relationship between southern African communities and protected areas such as national parks," said ART.

"The workshop will explore what can be done, feasibly and concretely, to promote more equitable and effective ways of managing natural resources and protected areas in southern Africa."

The Fifth World Parks Congress to be held in September, where the region would present the outcomes of the workshop, would examine challenges and opportunities that protected areas face in the coming decade.

The congress is held after every 10 years, with the first having been held in Seattle, USA in 1962.

The subsequent three congresses took place in Yellowstone, USA, in 1972, in Indonesia in 1982 and in Venezuela in 1992.

Rural communities settled next to protected areas such as national parks would view the Fifth World Parks Congress as a means to bring benefits that have been alluding them for a long time.

Research has shown that as one moves closer to resource-rich protected areas such as national parks, the degree of poverty gets sharper.

This shows that communities settled around these natural resource-rich areas are being denied benefits from resources that are only a stone’s throw away.

The congress comes at an appropriate time in southern Africa, with the launching of the vast Great Limpopo Transfron-tier Park last year by Zimbabwe, Mozambique and South Africa.

www.petroleumnewsalaska.com Steve Sutherlin, PNA associate editor

U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski said if a provision to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas exploration is added to a budget reconciliation bill as expected, the “first major floor fight” on the issue might take place as early as the end of March.

Murkowski said in remarks to Commonwealth North Feb. 19 that she expects a huge battle in the Senate in the next six months over ANWR and a proposed North Slope natural gas pipeline, but there are reasons for optimism on both.

“It’s cold back east, and there’s lots of snow back east,” she said.

The economy is being hurt by high energy prices, and by concerns about stability of supplies, she said, adding that consumers are spending $100 million more per day for energy than one year ago.

Murkowski said reliance on supplies from political hot spots such as Venezuela and Iraq are winning converts to the cause of domestic production.

“Do you think these are islands of political stability?” she said. “I think not.

“If there was ever a time for a rational energy policy, it’s now.”

Murkowski said she recently had a face-to-face conversation with President Bush about ANWR, and he assured her the administration is committed to do whatever it takes to get the refuge opened this year.

Just say no to “either/or” The North Slope gas pipeline issue will likely be addressed in an energy bill this summer, Murkowski said. Her Democratic colleagues tend to favor the idea of a gas line, while opposing ANWR drilling. Republicans from gas producing states generally support ANWR drilling, but are concerned about the effect on prices if price supports are used to encourage the building of the gas line.

Murkowski said she is standing firm against the idea that Alaska should be happy to get a gas line instead of ANWR drilling, or vice versa, because the nation needs the energy from both.

“Demand is going to outstrip supply,” she said. “Alaska gas has got to be there.”

Another misconception Murkowski said she is encountering is the idea that renewable energy sources and alternative energy sources can take the place of ANWR or the North Slope gas line.

“It’s not an either/or debate, we have to have an interim, a bridge,” she said.

www.vheadline.com Posted: Monday, February 24, 2003 By: Dawn Gable

Date: Mon, 24 Feb 2003 04:52:16 +0000 From: Dawn Gable morning_ucsc@hotmail.com To: Editor@VHeadline.com Subject: recycling

Dear Editor: I just read Jorge Marin's letter at VHeadline.  I am an environmentalist and biologist by profession and I spent a couple years in Venezuela where I too was appalled by the litter and disregard for it. I had ecology students who would litter right in front of me, because they didn't get the connection.

It seemed so curious to me, but then I started understanding some things about their culture and their reality that made it make a little sense.

First, they are still a relatively sparsely-populated country in most areas. Therefore there are still plenty of places to "dump" your garbage where it will never be seen. Second, the climate and weather tends to break materials down quicker in the tropics.

• But most importantly Venezuelans (and many other countries) do twp things better than recycling ... they reuse all their soda and beer bottles and they use less resources to begin with (notice the lack of toilet paper everywhere, ever see shrink wrapped tomatoes there?).

Besides, for many of them, they are actually being rather realistic. Instead of having the "not in my back yard" syndrome or the "out of sight out of mind" attitude, and shipping their waste to some giant landfill or to poorer countries etc., they just live with the consequences of their consumption facing them everyday.

There are many, many things that Venezuela lacks ... many, many ways in which Venezuela could invest in itself to create jobs and raise living standards.

• Recycling is still very far down on the list and it is, in the end, missing the point ... which is to reduce and reuse which they seem to be doing and which the USA has completely abandoned doing ... maybe we should be taking a lesson from them.

None of these revelations however, make it any easier to see someone chuck a used plastic cup out the window of a bus.

Dawn Gable morning_ucsc@hotmail.com

santafenewmexican.com By JOSEPH B. FRAZIER | Associated Press 02/23/2003 Fishermen drop their lines near an oil pump in Maracaibo lake in western Maracaibo, Venezuela, Jan. 31, 2003. AP | Ana Maria Otero MARACAIBO, Venezuela - Under the scorching sun on Lake Maracaibo, oil wells by the thousands suck up natural gas and crude oil, the wealth of Venezuela, for home use and for export. But much more crude than usual has been ending up in the water since oil workers joined a national strike against President Hugo Chavez in December, environmentalists and government critics contend. Although the walkout against Chavez has fizzled, many oil workers remain off the job, and the critics say the shortage of employees and lack of know-how among those who are working is causing severe environmental damage. The state-owned oil monopoly, Petroleos de Venezuela SA, denies that. It insists spills are small and rare and that they are quickly controlled. It also blames many of the spills on striker sabotage. The situation is difficult to check independently. The oil fields have been sealed off by army and National Guard troops who enforce a no-fly zone over the lake and turn back boats carrying journalists trying to get a firsthand look. "They won't let us overfly the lake to look for oil slicks anymore," said Eddie Ramirez, a former executive for the oil monopoly. "It's all militarized now. We still have people working in the oil fields who give us information. But it is getting harder to get." Norberto Robodello, who directs the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources' environmental quality program, complains there are areas even his ministry isn't allowed to see. Crude is critical in Venezuela, the world's fifth-largest exporter and a major supplier to the United States. Lake Maracaibo, 325 miles west of Caracas, is a major producer. Since World War I, about 14,000 wells have been drilled in the lake. About 8,000 are active. Estimates vary, but between 15,000 and 28,000 miles of pipes and tubes snake along the bottom. "There is no operation in the world like this," said Felix Rodriguez, recently named by Chavez's government to head oil operations in western Venezuela. Oil operations are spread over 60 percent of the lake's 5,200 square miles. Latticed derricks poke skyward from platforms. Black pumping units bob up and down relentlessly. More modern wells extend only a few feet above the water and are driven by electric pumps. During a boat trip supervised by oil monopoly officials, a reporter was shown purported sabotaged at an electrical platform that powered 24 wells. Heavy cables appeared to have been cut in several places. "Someone knew how to do it," said Luis Graterol, one of the officials. "You don't just do that with a pair of pliers. It takes a skilled electrician." About 35,000 of the monopoly's 40,000 employees went on strike Dec. 2, joining the opposition general strike aimed at forcing out Chavez, whom they blame for the country's political and economic strife. The general strike failed, but the oil walkout continues. Chavez has fired more than 11,000 oil strikers and split the oil monopoly into eastern and western divisions to tighten government control over operations. Production is creeping back to pre-strike levels. But the government claims it's hampered by sabotage. The private Venezuelan Environmental Foundation said it flew over the lake on Dec. 11 - before the flight ban - and spotted 17 spills. The foundation said one well was spewing oil and water more than 30 feet in the air and experts estimated it was spilling 1,100 barrels a day. Rodriguez, who blamed that spill on saboteurs, acknowledged there is government pressure to increase production. "We need the money," he said. "But we do it with safety. We are working to diminish the risk. If we aren't sure, we won't open a well." Lenin Herrera, a chemical engineer and former head of the Institute for the Conservation and Control of Lake Maracaibo, said spills of petroleum and production chemicals are a major source of contamination. "There have been unjustifiable spills since the strike. There was a spill in January that went three or four days without being fixed. Later a well spilled for two or three days," he said. Herrera said the oil work force is only 10 percent to 15 percent of normal levels and many of those workers are not trained. "Yet they contend the petroleum operation is safe," he said. Figures compiled by Zulia State's Maracaibo Lake Commission show that before the strike there had been a steady drop in spills in recent years - to a rate of about four barrels for every million produced in the lake. Now the rate is equal to 40 barrels per million, the panel says. "We didn't worry before. The government used international norms and standards," said Gonzalo Godoy, who heads the commission. "Now, with (the strike) a series of spills has begun." His agency counted 67 spills in the first seven weeks of the strike, 15 of them in the lake, even though production was down substantially. "The packing on those wells has to be checked and adjusted every day," Godoy said. "With so few people working, they just can't do it." Industry specialists say that if the packings are not kept in order, they can begin to leak and leaks can grow into full-blown spills. People are also worried about chemical contamination. "We suspect they are using dispersants to break up the slicks," Godoy said, noting that Venezuela and many other countries forbid their use. Dispersants don't really clean up oil but rather cause it to sink to the bottom, where both crude and dispersant can enter the food chain. "The government says they aren't using them, that they use special boats to pick up the oil, but fishermen say they have seen it," Godoy said. Zulia State Gov. Manuel Rosales, one of Chavez's staunchest opponents, declared a state of emergency in January because of reports of oil spills. He contended there have been 79 spills, about 40 percent of them in the lake and the rest on platforms or surrounding fields. "The spills have affected the flora and fauna of the lake," he said. "After days of this they had not implemented a contingency plan." The Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources said it had reports of 96 spills between Dec. 6 and Jan. 28. Of the 84 it had investigated, only four were in the lake, it said. Critics also warn of natural gas leaks. Ramirez, the former oil executive, said the accepted standard for the escape of natural gas from wells into the atmosphere is 2 percent. Some of the rest is fed back into wells to keep pressure up while the remainder goes to domestic and industrial use. "But now we hear that 30 percent is escaping," he said. "Most of that gas is high sulfur and it comes back as acid rain." Oil monopoly officials insist gas leakage is nearly nil. Herrera, the chemical engineer, is urging the strikers and oil monopoly to accept a truce and work together to fix the spills. "The political crisis will end. The economic crisis will end. But what is contaminating the lake will stay there," he said. But the lake has problems beyond oil spills, others warn. Raw sewage flows into it. There is significant runoff of pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers, organic materials and other matter from the farms of Zulia State, the country's major agricultural producer. "The lake is aging prematurely," Herrera said.

www.guardian.co.uk Angelique Chrisafis Wednesday February 19, 2003 The Guardian

The prawn sandwich, gourmet staple of Manchester United fans and office lunchers, has joined the list of environmentally taboo foods such as endangered cod and battery chicken.

A London-based campaign group is urging British consumers to boycott prawns because farming methods are endangering marine life and impoverishing African and Asian communities.

The Environmental Justice Foundation has released a report cataloguing the devastation caused by prawn trawling, in which fine nets are dragged along the seabed, catching 3m tonnes of prawns a year.

The nets, which catch 70% of global prawn stocks, ensnare other marine life and dent the business of local fishermen in countries such as Mozambique, Greenland and Venezuela.

For every 1kg (2lb) of prawns caught, nets entangle 10kg-20kg of sealife. Up to 25% of seabed life can be removed in one trawl and 150,000 sea turtles are killed by the nets each year. Trawling is the biggest single threat to seahorses.

Prawns account for 20% of the international seafood trade. Britain is one of the world's largest importers, trading mainly with Iceland, India, Thailand, Bangladesh, Norway and Indonesia. In 2000 Britain imported 77,900 tonnes and landed 2,100 tonnes from its own trawlers.

Steve Trent, director of the Environmental Justice Foundation, said: "The waste to feed a luxury market is totally unacceptable. Prawn fisheries are responsible for one third of world's discarded catch despite producing less than 2% of world's seafood."

He said prawn farming, which accounts for 30% of the industry, was not the solution. "We want British supermarkets to make clear where their prawns come from and whether they are committed to using only environmentally and socially sustainable sources."