Kuala Lumpur – As the infrastructure growth in the “Asian Century” shows no signs of slowing down, Malaysia has taken a first bold step in addressing how this growth will affect tigers and tiger habitats by holding a leadership forum on including priority tiger habitats into land and infrastructure planning. The meeting, entitled Cross-Sectoral Executive Leadership Forum on Mainstreaming Priority Tiger Habitats, is being held in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur on February 20 – 22. At the forum, the Government of Malaysia is announcing the construction of viaducts that will promote safe passage for tigers and other wildlife along a busy East-West Highway.

“Smart Green Infrastructure is a vital component of any initiative to save tigers and recover their numbers,” said Mike Baltzer, Head of WWF’s Tigers Alive Initiative (TAI). “As we strive towards TX2 – doubling the number of wild tigers by 2022 – we must immediately engage governments, international institutions and our partners on the ground to ensure that Asia’s rapid growth leads to opportunities, as opposed to increasing pressure, for tigers and their habitat.” At the forum, the TAI will present Designing a Conservation Landscape for Tigers in a Human Dominated Environment.

Malaysia plans to take its viaduct project one step further by integrating an ambitious forest plan, the Central Forest Spine (CFS) Master Plan, into its national spatial plan. The CFS plan will use smart green infrastructure such as viaducts to create forest linkages, which will lead to a contiguous network of forest through the country’s backbone, or spine. Malaysia’s implementation of the CFS plan and its National Tiger Conservation Action Plan will lead to further integration with plans at the state and local levels.

In addition to poaching and the illegal tiger trade, habitat loss and degradation represents the most serious threat to tigers. The pressures on the pockets of habitat where tigers are still holding on will only increase as the growth boom in Asia continues push outward, reaching formerly pristine tiger and wildlife habitat. As wildlife and park authorities look to stem the rising tide, they will need new solutions backed by robust government participation.

Northern Peninsular Malaysia’s Banjaran Titiwangsa Landscape, which includes the Belum-Temengor Priority Tiger Landscape, is one of the Tigers Alive Initiative’s 12 priority landscapes, and where some of the viaducts will be built. The area, which includes Peninsular Malaysia’s longest mountain range and largest national park, also harbors the country’s largest tiger population. Of the 3,200 wild tigers remaining in 13 countries in Asia and the Russian Far East, Malaysia contains a significant percentage of the population, currently standing at approximately 500.

The forum is hosted by Malaysia’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, WWF partners the Global Tiger Initiative and the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, and will also include presentations from the tiger range countries of Indonesia and India.

Gland, Switzerland: WWF has deplored the mass slaughter of elephants in northern Cameroon, and has called on governments in the region to address the issue of cross border raids by heavily armed poaching gangs.

Estimates of the number of elephants killed in Bouba Ndjida National Park by a gang crossing the border from Chad and believed to be supplying Sudan ivory markets that service ivory trafficking to Asia range commonly exceed 200.

“"WWF strongly condemns the brutal slaughter of 200 elephants in Cameroon,” said Jim Leape, Director General of WWF International.

“We call on President Paul Biya to launch a full response to assure the global community that he takes this criminal act seriously and will work with Chad and Sudan to bring these criminals to justice."

"This is one of the most horrific case of wildlife slaughter that has emerged in a long while, that only goes to highlight the urgent need for local and global action to protect these vulnerable animals."

A 2008 survey showed the park to be home to an estimated 350 elephants. About 120 fresh elephant carcasses, with tusks removed have been found in just the northern section of the park.

“The large scale of elephants killed in Bouba Jdjida requires a strong intervention of the Cameroon government to avoid similar disasters in other protected areas,” said Lamine Sebogo, WWF’s African Elephant Programme Coordinator.

The park is poorly resourced to deal with the scale of the assault it experienced this year – according to its conservator “the park is 220,000 hectares with only six game rangers very poorly equipped, whereas the poachers used Kalishnikovs”.

 Sanya, China - Volvo Construction Equipment and Volvo Buses have joined the Volvo Group’s cooperation with WWF´s Climate Savers program, pledging to reduce CO2 emissions by 30 million tons from construction equipment, buses and trucks through 2014.

“By expanding the partnership with WWF to include our buses and construction equipment, the Volvo Group will demonstrate that it is serious about continuously raising our targets in terms of reducing carbon-dioxide emissions from our products, by complying with our vision for sustainable and carbon-neutral future transportation,” said Volvo’s CEO Olof Persson.

The Volvo Group became the world’s first auto manufacturer to join WWF Climate Savers in November 2010 with a commitment to reduce the lifetime CO2 emissions of its trucks sold from 2009 to 2014 by 13 million tons compared to 2008 models.

Thanks to improved fuel efficiency, the goal has now been increased to 30 million tons, and will include the company’s buses and construction equipment. Thirty million tons is the same amount of carbon dioxide emitted by Sweden in its entirety in seven months.

Volvo’s joint-venture company, SDLG, will also become the first leading Chinese construction equipment company to be a member of Climate Savers family.

“Emissions in the transport sector have a major impact on the climate and must be met with vigorous initiatives. It is therefore very encouraging that the Volvo Group now wants to broaden their cooperation with WWF by expanding to new business areas” said Håkan Wirtén, Secretary General of WWF Sweden.

Climate Savers and the Volvo Group

WWF’s Climate Savers program involves multinational companies in the battle to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions. The companies that are included in Climate Savers pledge to reduce their carbon-dioxide emissions pursuant to an agreement between the WWF and the company. Independent technical experts review the results, and agreed targets must be more ambitious than the company originally planned. Meanwhile, it Climate Savers are also required to play a leading role in its industry in terms of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The agreement between Volvo and the WWF applies for AB Volvo and the Volvo Group’s brands, Volvo Construction Equipment, Volvo Buses, Volvo Trucks, Mack Trucks, Renault Trucks, UD Trucks and SDLG. SDLG manufactures construction equipment in China, and will be the leading Chinese company in handling climate change towards low carbon economy.

Gland, Switzerland: WWF has welcomed a “black carbon” initiative announced today by the US, Canada, Mexico, Ghana, Sweden and Bangladesh – but warned that the primary effort in reducing dangerous climate changing emissions has to remain on achieving rapid and deep cuts to carbon dioxide emissions.

The substances highlighted in the initiative – black carbon or soot, methane and hydrofluorocarbons – are known as short-lived climate forcers since they do not stay in the atmosphere as long as CO2. Major sources of black carbon include burning of biomass in traditional cookstoves and fires in some developing countries, as well as diesel exhaust.
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‘The fact is that the big emitters like the US and Canada that are advancing this initiative have done very little to reduce CO2 emissions, the primary cause of global warming’ said Samantha Smith, Leader of the WWF Climate and Energy Initiative.

“‘Now they have developed a plan that shifts the focus to others - developing countries in particular. While support for poorer countries is important, their primary responsibility should be to cut their own emissions and address the global challenges posed by climate change.”’

“Cutting black carbon emissions by ensuring adequate access to energy and cleaner cookstoves is in principle good, but we should not assume that this new initiative will deliver quick results”, said Smith.
“There are many practical challenges to this and the other measures in the initiative, including the very large number of sources of pollution, financing, and cultural barriers to adoption of new cooking methods. Success will depend on good mechanisms for finance, accounting and delivery.”

In short, while short-lived forcers provide a window of opportunity it should not distract us from addressing the biggest cause of climate change: CO2 emissions.