UNEP in Europe marked World Wildlife Day by sending an alarm call to the world for better protection of the Caspian seal, while in Geneva and Brussels the general public were invited to watch an insightful documentary on the complex threats faced by African elephants.

The marine species - the only mammal living in the Caspian Sea and the smallest seal on Earth – is in danger of extinction: its population has declined by 90% over the last 100 years and only around 100,000 now exist.

Recent satellite images furthermore show that this winter has been one of the worst on record for Caspian Sea ice - meaning it is very likely that a high proportion of pups born this season will have perished.

The Caspian seal is more than a symbol for the region, it is one of the best indicators of healthy – or unhealthy – ecosystems of the entire Caspian.

“We all have a role to play in conserving wildlife so vital to our environment,” said Jan Dusik, Director of the UN Environment Programme’s Regional Office for Europe. “While their numbers face stark threats, each female Caspian seal only gives birth to one pup a year, making protection of this charismatic species especially urgent,” he underlined.

Under the Caspian Environment Program supported by UNEP, the Caspian countries developed a Conservation Action Plan for the seal. The plan acknowledges hunting, by-catch and poaching as the crucial threats to the Caspian seal population and foresees the setup of special protected areas for seals.

The countries in 2014 signed a legal treaty on biodiversity protection - the Ashgabat Protocol. This provides the legal basis to further this work and was negotiated under the Tehran Convention, which UNEP provides an interim Secretariat for.

Note

Caspian Seal data are from Leeds University (authoritative source of reference when it comes to the Caspian seal populations): ‘Inter-year variation in pup production of Caspian seals Pusa caspica 2005–2012 determined from aerial surveys,’ October 2015.

For more details please write to isabelle.valentiny@unep.org

UNEP last month launched the first ever nationwide efforts to identify and map industrial contamination of soil in the Republic of Serbia.

Locations linked to energy production and the chemical or metal industries are among those to undergo closer examination for evidence of soil pollution. A national map will then be produced of contaminated sites and officials trained on monitoring and reporting so that clean-up efforts can get underway.

Industrial production has been an economic driver in the Republic of Serbia, but has also been shown to be among the major causes of soil contamination. Among the various organic pollutants in the country are the heavy metals or potential carcinogens Zinc (Zn), Copper (Cu), Nickel (Ni), Chromium (Ch) and Cobalt (Co).

Locations close to industrial sites – generally on public or abandoned land - will be given priority in the investigation, which will take place between March and October this year. The list of locations will be drawn up based on an inventory of 359 potentially contaminated sites.

As a result of the investigation, mapping and capacity building, the Serbian government will be able to establish a baseline for clean-up efforts, which are a national priority.

The decision to establish a list of polluted locations in Serbia for further investigation was taken at a steering committee meeting by UNEP together with the Serbian Ministry of Agriculture and Environmental Protection and other national bodies. It comes under a project run by UNEP and the Global Environment Fund titled ‘Enhanced cross-sectoral land management through land use pressure reduction and planning’.

The project is in line with UN Sustainable Development Goal 15 ‘Life on land,’ which aims to halt and reverse land degradation. Work on assessing contaminated soil following conflict has also been carried out by UNEP across the entire Balkans region under its Post Conflict and Disaster Management branch.

The industrial sites initiative takes place thanks to the support of the Italian Ministry of Environment, Land and Sea, which is contributing USD 400,000 for capacity building as part of the project; and the Global Environment Fund, which is providing USD 780,000 to cover broader costs.

For more information, please click here or write to isabelle.valentiny@unep.org

The stark threats to African elephants have been highlighted during moving screenings of the ground-breaking documentary ‘Warlords of Ivory’ organised by the Geneva Environment Network in Geneva and with high-level participation from UNEP in Brussels.

The film, by investigative journalist Bryan Christy, follows a Global Positioning Service tracker placed inside false but highly realistic ivory, luring traffickers to reveal the route taken and transactions made by traffickers.

Following the screening at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, a rich discussion took place moderated by Jan Dusik, Director of UNEP’s Regional Office for Europe. A staggering 100,000 elephants were poached in Africa between 2010 and 2012, he reminded the audience.

Some species are in an extremely serious situation, said Juan Carlos Vasquez, Head of Legal Affairs and Compliance of the Convention on Illegal Trade in Endangered Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) Secretariat. Yet positive examples of species rehabilitation do exist, he explained - such as with the Andean vicuña which went from being almost extinct to numbering about half a million.

Mathias Lörtscher, Head of Switzerland’s CITES Management Authority, explained his countries’ techniques – including DNA analysis – aimed at fighting the illegal traders and preventing Switzerland from being a transit country.

The loss of elephants can meanwhile have highly widespread negative environmental impacts, explained Wendy Elliott, Global Species Conservation strategy lead for WWF International. The “gardeners of the forest” spread seeds and thus boost forests’ carbon storage capacity for example. Positive examples exist of local communities being given ownership of wildlife and successfully conserving it, she underlined.

Tackling demand is also an important aspect of fighting the illegal trade, reminded Alessandro Badalotti, Coordinator of the SOS-Save Our Species coalition at the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. Debunking the alleged health benefits of consuming manta rays has also been shown to boost local tourism where the species live, he revealed.

Brussels action

Ahead of World Wildlife Day 2016, over 120 participants attended a screening of the film held at the European Parliament in Brussels organised by ‘MEPs for Wildlife’ and led by MEP Catherine Bearder.

There, an EU action plan against illegal wildlife trafficking was presented by EU Environment Commissioner Karmenu Vella. The plan aims to tackle the demand and supply of illegal wildlife products, step up the fight against criminal activities both in the EU and globally, and build a global alliance of source, consumer and transit countries.

In her keynote speech, UNEP Director of the Division of Environmental Policy Implementation Mette Wilkie welcomed the plan which "aligns perfectly with the UN and UNEP work," and indicated that UNEP stands ready to support the EU in achieving it.

The UN and UNEP both recognize the intrinsic value of wildlife and its importance in contributing to the ecological, genetic, social, economic, scientific, educational, cultural, recreational and aesthetic aspects of sustainable development and human well-being.

For more details on the event in Geneva please click here or write to diana.rizzolio@unep.org. For more information on the Brussels screening please click here or get in touch with alexa.froger@unep.org

UNEP is among bodies providing technical advice for the overhaul of Belgrade’s district heating system, with the aim of securing major efficiency gains.

A wide range of stakeholders – including the private sector and finance institutions – were consulted in Belgrade on possible ways of rehabilitating and integrating renewables in the city’s district heating system.

The network is 86% powered by natural gas, but Belgrade is eager to explore other sources of energy, including possibilities of cogeneration.

“We are very happy that our determination to join the Global Initiative has brought concrete results,” said Ms. Stana Bozovic, State Secretary of Republic of Serbia, at the launch.

UNEP’s Global District Energy in Cities Initiative, of which Belgrade is one of the first pilot cities, aims to drive a switch to low-carbon, energy efficient heating by developing, retrofitting or scaling-up district energy systems.

The Serbian capital will be provided with best practice guidance and support and be linked with other district energy champions such as Paris, Helsinki, Warsaw and Tokyo.

The District Energy Initiative is one of five accelerators of the SE4All Energy Efficiency Accelerator Platform launched at the UN Climate Summit held in September 2014. The scheme aims to double the rate of energy efficiency improvements for heating and cooling in buildings by 2030 and quantify the corresponding decrease in GHGs.

The Initiative is funded by the Global Environment Fund and the Danish International Development Agency DANIDA.

For more information please click here or contact Sonja Malicevic at sonja.malicevic@unvienna.org