By Gregory McCann

Source: Mongabay

Ecotourism is a popular growing trend, and this is especially true in tropical countries that have a wealth of biodiversity to offer the interested trekker. Cambodia is no exception. I have been visiting Virachey National Park in northeastern Cambodia for the past five years, but my most recent trip involved a special purpose: setting up 14 motion-triggered camera-traps throughout the park. Without giving away the GPS coordinates, let me say that they are strategically placed in areas where we have a great chance of capturing wildlife images. Sounds like a wonderful plan, right? But there is a problem –how do we check up on the cameras, change memory cards, batteries, clear away foliage that threatens to block the sensors and lenses? Send in the rangers, right? Not so simple.

In Cambodia—and in other countries throughout Southeast Asia—national park rangers are in many cases given no budget to go on a multi-day patrol in the forest to fight poachers, let alone to check cameras. These patrols and camera-checks usually have to be paid for by someone else, like a wildlife conservation NGO.

The new NGO that I helped start, Habitat ID, sets up camera-traps in neglected “paper parks” in an attempt to prove—using photographs of wildlife—that these parks deserve being treated like “real” parks that receive adequate protection. However, even NGOs have limited budgets, as we do as a new organization. And so we must find a creative way to have the cameras maintained on a sustainable basis. Our answer: ecotourism.

We would like to have ecotourists who trek to Virachey’s beautiful and popular Veal Thom Grasslands essentially pay for the camera-checks. These hearty trekkers (it’s a 6-7 night trek, depending on one’s fitness level and the amount of time they have) would trek to the tourist camp as usual, but with the added bonus of being taken to our camera-trap sites to service the cameras. Not only will these camera-trap ecotourists be able to have a look at what kind of animals are roaming the park when no one is around, but they would also be allowed to download some of the camera-trap photos to keep for themselves and share with friends and family. Best of all, they will know that their participation in this activity furthered the conservation cause in the park, because if it wasn’t for them, those cameras wouldn’t be getting checked for some time.

Having serviced camera-traps in Thailand and Cambodia, I can tell you that checking on these devices in the middle of the jungle is thrilling. Keys come out, camera comes down, memory card is slipped into a device with a monitor, and everyone—rangers, porters, and NGO workers— huddles around brimming with excitement. Except it’s not a group of school kids crowding around the guy with a new comic book but people who have been to the forest many times yet still feel excited to see what kind of animals are prowling around.

We want ecotourists to experience this feeling, and they can do it in the Veal Thom Grasslands and also at the D’darr Poom Chop waterfall camp in the forests north of the grasslands, a location that offers spectacular swimming and the chance to service yet another camera on the upper Gan Yu River. To my knowledge only three Western people have ever seen this place (D’darr), myself included.

Ecotourists who trek to the Veal Thom Grasslands will therefore be helping the conservation cause in Virachey. There are other cameras that have been placed in a highly remote area near the Laos border and those take extra days to reach, but we imagine that ecotourists, as hearty as some are, probably don’t want to spend 2 weeks in the jungle. To get those distant cameras checked Habitat ID will raise the money to pay for the ranger’s Daily Supply Allowance (DSA) for the long trek to the international border, a very wild area of spirit mountains, carnivores, and, so they say, the Annamite Mountain Yeti, known locally as the “tek-tek.”

If we obtain photos of tigers or rhinoceros these will be deemed sensitive images and publicity will not be possible. Instead, other NGOs and the Ministry of Environment will be notified. However, we feel that sharing pictures of more common—but equally exciting—animals such as elephants, leopards, clouded leopards, sun bears, and other species is permissible. The fact is that local people know (and have long known) what kind of animals live in the park, approximately where they are, and about how many are still there. NGOs may like to think that they have insider knowledge with their camera-trap images, but the fact is that local people who are in the forest all year round have an excellent idea of what is still out there in terms of wildlife, and we aren’t really telling them something they don’t already know (as much as we might like to think so).

Camera-trap Ecotourism is not something we are trying to patent (indeed, maybe people elsewhere are already doing it). On the contrary, we hope that this can be something that under-funded national parks all around the world can replicate. Creative ways are desperately needed to fund conservation in today’s world, and we hope that ecotourism can be used to pay for various initiatives.

On a final note, not only are the cameras being checked with this ecotourism scheme, but ecotourists are simultaneously paying for rangers to patrol deep into the jungle, which, due to budget constraints, rarely happens. We hope to be reporting back with good news in the future –satisfied ecotourists, serviced cameras, patrolling rangers, and wild animals smiling for the camera.

Donderdag 27 februari is het  International Polar Bear Day, een dag in het teken van de ijsbeer. Polar Bears International is initiatiefnemer en vraagt  aandacht voor de ijsbeer, die de gevolgen van de snelle opwarming van de aarde aan den lijve ondervindt. Het pakijs smelt. Zonder ijs overleven ijsberen niet. Met gerichte acties kunnen wij  de ijsbeer helpen. Dit kan bijvoorbeeld door de verwarming een paar graden lager te zetten (en een trui aan te trekken), door lichten uit te doen als er niemand in de kamer is, maar ook door de oplader van je mobiele telefoon uit het stopcontact te halen als je niet oplaadt.  Hierdoor gebruik je minder energie, beperk je de uitstoot van CO₂, waardoor de aarde minder snel opwarmt. Als je dit in je eentje doet scheelt het  niet zoveel, maar als iedereen meedoet levert het bij elkaar opgeteld een grote vermindering van de CO₂ uitstoot op!

Doe je mee? Zet dan de thermostaat op donderdag 27 februari lager (of helemaal uit!) Trek die lijn door en zet je  verwarming het hele jaar  lager. Goed voor de ijsbeer en het bespaart je ook nog eens geld! Deel dit bericht met anderen en zorg ervoor dat zoveel mogelijk mensen die verwarming lager zetten.

27 februari: International Polar Bear Day. Een dag waar je voor warm loopt!

As world leaders arrive for this week’s London Conference on Illegal Wildlife Trade, TRAFFIC has called for serious action to reduce consumer demand for illegal products from elephants, rhinos, tigers and other endangered species. The current poaching epidemic impacts the world’s most iconic species. The number of rhinos poached in South Africa alone increased to over 1,000 last year from only 13 six years ago. There are as few as 3,200 tigers remaining in the wild, and over 20,000 African elephants were illegally killed in 2012.

"Law enforcement efforts must continue to be at the front line in the battle to protect species in their range countries and in efforts to shut down markets for illegal wildlife products," said TRAFFIC's Director of Policy, Sabri Zain. "However, without a complementary effort to effectively address the persistent market demand that drives this trade, enforcement action alone may sometimes be futile." "While the desire for these products remains persistently high, and consumers continue to be willing to pay high prices for them, criminals will always find a way to evade the long arm of the law," he warned.

Priority issues to be discussed at the London Conference include strengthening law enforcement and criminal justice, supporting sustainable livelihoods for communities that live alongside wildlife and reducing demand for illegal wildlife products.

"The continuing escalation in poaching and record levels of illegal trafficking in ivory and rhino horn in Africa is being driven by resurgent demand for these products in Asia," said Tom Milliken.  "Governments must use the London Conference to ensure much more is done to understand the underlying drivers of poaching and consumption. These would be key to affecting meaningful solutions in terms of anti-poaching and demand reduction strategies in both source and consumer countries around the world."

Naomi Doak called for new approaches to understanding and influencing the drivers behind consumer demand for these products. "We must go beyong just awareness raising campaigns and implement approaches that are grounded in consumer research and social science approach. This includes identifying and involving individuals, international and local, who best influence the opinions, actions and behaviour of the target consumer groups."

Milliken and Doak will both speaking on demand reduction at the United for Wildlife Symposium taking place on the eve of the London Conference.

The London Conference takes place from 12-13 February. The event is being hosted by UK Prime Minister David Cameron, Foreign Secretary William Hague and Secretary of State for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Owen Paterson. WWF-UK president, HRH The Prince of Wales and his son HRH The Duke of Cambridge will also attend London Conference events.

Source: http://www.traffic.org Photo © TRAFFIC

Interesting news from our project partner, Iranian Cheetah Society, in their latest news letter. CEO Morteza Eslami proudly presents the fact that the Iran Football Federation has decided to put an Asiatic Cheetah image on the National Football team's T-shirt for the FIFA World Cup 2014 in Brazil. A great opportunity to let the world know about the status of this critically endangered species.

Alertis has supported Iranian Cheetah Society to gain insight into the brown bear population in Iran. More information abouth this project can be found on the website: http://www.bearsinmind.org/Project/Bear-research-Iran 

Interessant nieuws van onze project partner Iranian Cheetah Society in hun meest recente nieuwsbrief. CEO Morteza Eslami meldt vol trots dat de Iran Football Federation heeft besloten een afbeelding van een Aziatische cheetah te plaatsen op het T-shirt van het Iraanse voetbalteam dat in actie komt op het WK in Brazilië. Een geweldige mogelijkheid om de status van deze ernstig bedreigde diersoort onder de aandacht te brengen.

Alertis heeft Iranian Cheetah Society gesteund bij het inzicht krijgen in de populatie bruine beren in Iran. Meer informatie over dit project staat op de website: http://www.bearsinmind.org/Project/Berenonderzoek-Iran

In de jungle van Belum-Temengor in het noorden van Maleisië zijn eind januari de resten van een honingbeer in een illegale val gevonden. Vlakbij zijn ook diverse andere strikken aangetroffen, zeer waarschijnlijk uitgezet om bedreigde dieren te vangen. Dit geeft aan dat de druk op soorten als de honingbeer, tijger en pangolin in Zuidoost Azië alleen maar toeneemt. Het uitgestrekte gebied, grenzend aan Thailand, is één van de belangrijkste gebieden voor tijgers in Maleisië.

Medewerkers van TRAFFIC (het onderzoeksbureau naar handel in bedreigde diersoorten) en WWF-Malaysia hebben de ontdekking inmiddels bij de autoriteiten aangegeven. Enkele weken eerder was er in dit gebied ook al een honingbeer uit een val bevrijd. Tussen 2008 en 2010 zijn er in het gebied meer dan 140 strikken verwijderd en deze recente vondst geeft aan dat overheidsinstanties en NGO’s nog intensiever moeten samenwerken om illegale handel in wilde (bedreigde) dieren tegen te gaan. Dit keer was het een honingbeer, de volgende keer misschien wel een tijger…

Alertis ondersteunt Dr. Chris Shepherd, directeur van TRAFFIC Zuidoost-Azië, en zijn team op diverse manieren. Onlangs nog gaf Shepherd een lezing in Ouwehands Dierenpark over de omvang en ernst van de illegale handel in wilde dieren in Zuidoost Azië: http://www.bearsinmind.org/Nieuwsbericht/Illegale-handel-in-dieren 

Het originele artikel over de vondst van de honingbeer staat op de TRAFFIC website: http://www.traffic.org/home/2014/1/28/discovery-of-snared-sun-bear-indicative-of-relentless-poachi.html

Perak, Malaysia, 28th January 2014—The carcass of a Malayan Sun Bear and several snares have been found in jungles near the Belum-Temengor Forest Complex in northern Malaysia, underscoring poaching’s incessant pressure on endangered species in the area.

On Thursday a WWF-Malaysia researcher stumbled upon the rotting Sun Bear carcass and four snares close by after checking the jungle trail close to the Gerik-Jeli Highway, from which several men on motorcycles had been seen emerging earlier. WWF-Malaysia and TRAFFIC reported the matter to authorities for further investigation and action. This is the third discovery involving Sun Bears in recent years in the area. Four weeks ago, researchers found another Sun Bear in a snare just 250 metres off the Gerik-Jeli highway and it was freed in a two-hour operation by Perhilitan. In 2011, a camera trap in the area captured the image of a Sun Bear without a forelimb, likely lost to a snare.

Bordering Thailand in northern Peninsular Malaysia, the Belum-Temengor Forest Complex (BTFC) is a global Tiger Conservation Landscape and one of three Tiger Priority Landscapes in the country; a vast area some four times the size of Singapore. Home to Malaysia’s megafauna, BTFC is under immense pressure from illegal poaching and trade of Tigers, pangolins, Sun Bears and others. From 2008 to 2010, 142 snares were discovered and de-activated in the BTFC by a WWF-Malaysia wildlife monitoring unit working with authorities. In the same period TRAFFIC recorded the loss of over 400 animals including Tigers; one of which was famously rescued after several days in a snare in 2009, but later died from its injuries. WWF-Malaysia and TRAFFIC have continued to make such finds in the area including one case in August 2011 involving a dozen snares targeted at large mammals. The most recent discovery is clear proof that the poaching and illegal wildlife trade in the BTFC has not abated and demands a stronger, more consistent and better co-ordinated response from all authorities in the area.

“A snare does not discriminate in its choice of victim. This time it was a sun bear. Next, it could be a tiger. This does not bode well for BTFC which is one of three priority sites for tigers in Malaysia. It is why we strongly advocate for a National Tiger Task Force that will ensure better coordinated enforcement nationwide. If no urgency is shown in this matter, we will soon have empty forests,” said WWF-Malaysia's Executive Director/CEO, Dato' Dr Dionysius Sharma. 

“Poaching for trade is clearly a chronic threat to Malaysia’s wildlife. BTFC’s wildlife is being lost from right under the noses of the authorities. Poachers are gaining easy access to the forests along highways, with little risk of detection,” said TRAFFIC's Regional Director in South-East Asia, Dr Chris R. Shepherd. “The effectiveness of the Belum-Temengor Joint Enforcement Task Force, set-up in 2010 to tackle poaching and trafficking here, has been questionable. More frequent joint enforcement patrols alone could have an impact on the poaching rate, yet these have not been put in place. We urge the Perak Chief Minister and other State officials to step up patrols and other measures to address the problem,” said Shepherd.

Source: www.traffic.org

By Stephanie Pappas, on http://www.livescience.com/41915-scientists-contest-grizzly-bear-delisting.html

Yellowstone National Park grizzly bears could be removed from the Endangered Species list after a new federal report revealed that the bears are not threatened by the loss of one of their main foods, whitebark pine nuts. But outside scientists are criticizing the report, calling it incomplete, politically motivated and flawed.

"It does not take into account the situation, the realities of the conditions on the ground in whitebark pine forests," said Jesse Logan, the retired head of the U.S. Forest Service's bark beetle research unit. Whitebark pines are increasingly falling victim to mountain pine beetles, which kill trees in the process of laying their eggs under the bark. Climate change has made the high-elevation whitebark pines more accessible to the destructive beetles.

Bear battle

The fight over the delisting of the Yellowstone grizzly population is a years-long saga. The bears were temporarily removed from the Endangered Species list in 2007, after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) declared that the animals' numbers had recovered sufficiently not to need federal protection. In 2009, a federal district court in Montana overturned the delisting, bumping the grizzlies back to protected status. The judge cited concerns that the USFWS had failed to consider the decline in whitebark pine in its decision. In recent years, the growth of Yellowstone's grizzly population has slowed or possibly declined. Part of the challenge of tracking the population's health is figuring out if this slowing is because bears are so crowded in their habitat that older bears are killing cubs, or if the slow-down is related to food scarcity. 

Bears rely on four major food sources in the Yellowstone region, said David Mattson, a visiting senior research scientist and lecturer at Yale University who studied the grizzlies for more than a decade as a U.S. Geological Survey scientist. One is calorie-rich whitebark pine nuts. Yellowstone bears also eat cutthroat trout, meat from elk and bison, and a fatty, high-elevation insect called the army cutworm moth. Pine nuts in particular are linked to birth and death rates, Mattson said in a press conference organized by the Union of Concerned Scientists, an advocacy group for science in public politicy.

"When female bears, in particular, eat more pine seeds, they give birth to more cubs, and they die at a lesser rate," Mattson said.

The new recommendations to delist come to the USFWS from the Yellowstone Ecosystem Subcommittee of the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee. According to a new federal report presented to the committee this week, bear health is not linked to the availability of whitebark pine nuts. 

Whitebark controversy

Mattson and other outside scientists strongly contest those findings. The report downplays a published decline in grizzly bear fat composition dating to about 2006, when the impact of the loss of the whitebark pine started to be felt, Logan said. The USFWS was ill-prepared to track the outbreak of the beetle infestation, Logan told reporters during a press briefing on Dec. 12. When the agency first delisted the grizzly bear from the Endangered Species list in 2007, it estimated that 16 percent of the whitebark pine in the habitat had been affected by beetles. The sea of dead trees along ridgelines called that number into serious doubt, Logan said.

"We were able to launch a study in the summer of 2009 to measure the impact of mountain pine beetles in whitebark pine," he said. "What we found was, rather than 16 percent had been impacted at some level, 95 percent had been impacted."

The new report continues to paint a too-rosy picture, Logan said. The central habitat of the grizzlies is among the hardest-hit in the beetle epidemic, he said. And contrary to implications in the report, the infestation does not appear to be waning. The interagency committee "has a history of first denying what was occurring in whitebark and then underestimating, or in fact, misleading, the impact of the loss," Logan said.

Habitat trouble

Mattson and Logan further criticized the bear report for downplaying the links between pine nuts and grizzly health. Nor did the federal scientists expand their study beyond pine nuts, Mattson said. Evidence suggests that bears, especially females, are eating more meat to compensate for the loss of whitebark pine nuts. Meat provides plenty of calories, but it comes with a side of danger. Cubs and yearlings at a kill site are more likely to be killed by wolves or older bears than are cubs and yearlings snuffling for pine nuts. And meat-eating puts adult bears into closer contact with human hunters – and ranchers, should they go after livestock. The result has been an increase both in total number of bear deaths and in the proportion of bears killed by humans, Mattson said. Meanwhile, cutthroat trout are in decline, because of predation by a non-native fish.

"There is not a single positive trend afoot in Yellowstone's grizzly bear habitat," Mattson said.

Compounding the problem, Mattson said, is the fact that many of the studies in the federal report recommending delisting have not undergone review by outside scientists or have not been published in scientific journals, a crucial step in validating scientific research.

What's next for grizzlies

Keeping the grizzly bear on the endangered species list would provide one ray of hope in a bad situation, Mattson said: It would keep states from opening up hunting season on the bear.

"One of the first things the states are going to do is, in fact, institute a sports hunt," Mattson said. "They've said so."

Delisting grizzlies would also allow states more freely to kill bears that became a nuisance to livestock — a real concern in a time when bears and ranchers are clashing more frequently. Federal protection "makes it more likely that bears can continue to spread out into areas we know are suitable for bears," Mattson said. A wider range could bring the Yellowstone population in contact with other grizzly populations, making all of the populations less vulnerable in the long haul. The USFWS is not mandated to follow the committee recommendations, but it is likely to do so, said Kristin Carden, an attorney with Earthjustice, an environmental advocacy group. The next step in the process is for the agency to draft a delisting plan, with input from the Department of the Interior and the Department of Justice. Next, the plan would be open to public comment. Review of the studies used in the report or public outcry could alter the trajectory toward delisting, Carden told reporters. The final option is for organizations such as Earthjustice to file a lawsuit against the USFWS to prevent the delisting. Whatever happens, Yellowstone grizzlies face extraordinary challenges as climate change drives the loss of habitat and food sources.

"What we have is a habitat fabric that is simply unraveling," Mattson said.

Photo: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

December 6, 2013 – Two northern California men have been sentenced to fines and jail time for unlawfully killing bears and selling their gall bladders and other parts for profit. Peter George Vitali, 56, of Pioneer and Arthur Martin Blake, 59, of River Pines, pleaded no contest to misdemeanor charges of illegally taking wildlife for profit in an El Dorado County courtroom last month.

The court ordered Vitali to pay a $12,500 fine and Blake to pay a $5,000 fine. Both men will be required to serve 30 days in jail and were sentenced to an additional 36 month probationary period.

“This case is an example of the challenges our officers face,” said California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) Lt. Stacey LaFave. “Heavy fines and jail time send a strong message to poachers who unlawfully take and profit from California’s natural resources.”

Vitali and Blake were arrested by CDFW wildlife officers in April 2013, after they were found to be in possession of 20 large bear claws and three bear gall bladders in the El Dorado National Forest.

Evidence developed during the investigation suggested the suspects recently killed three bears, likely a sow and two cubs. The claws, liver and gall bladder had been removed from the sow and only the liver and gall bladder were removed from the younger two bears.

California Fish and Game laws forbid the sale, purchase or possession for sale of any bear part, including claws and gall bladders. The bile contained inside bear gall bladders is believed by some to have medicinal properties and is sold on the black market. Under California law, possession of more than one bear gall bladder is prima facie evidence that the bear gall bladders are possessed for sale.
 

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Source: http://goldrushcam.com/sierrasuntimes/index.php/news/mariposa-daily-news-2013/167-december/11168-bear-poachers-receive-stiff-sentences-in-el-dorado-court

Please read this urgent call made by Geeta Seshamani, one of the founders of Wildlife SOS. Wildlife SOS has been an Alertis project partner for many years. You can help to save the dancing bears in Nepal. And if you donate, Wildlife SOS can win a substantal prize that can kick start the new project to save all the dancing bears in Nepal.

”The Holiday Challenge is still on and we are raising money to save every last one of Nepal's 'dancing bears!'  This is something we can accomplish if we unite together. We did it in India… now it is time to help the bears that await their freedom in Nepal. There is an extra incentive to donate today to help Wildlife SOS win one of the top three prizes of either $100,000, $40,000 or $20,000.

If you haven't yet made your gift, please donate today to help bears like the one pictured here.  Barely alive, he was still forced to dance until the day of his rescue.

If you have already donated, thank you! Please consider sharing the contest on Facebook or Twitter so we can inspire more people to help. Just post this link – http://www.crowdrise.com/Savebearcubs – and a note about why this cause means something to you.

Winning one of the monetary prizes would help us kick start our new project to save all of the 'dancing bears' in Nepal, just as we did in India. 

Click here for more details on the contest.

Thank you for caring about the bears suffering in Nepal.

Sincerely, Geeta Seshamani
Co-founder Wildlife SOS”