The IPS UN Terra Viva will take its customary holidays beginning Monday August 30. We will resume publication Monday September 13, just prior to the opening of the 65th session of the General Assembly.

Friday, 27 August 2010

Newsbriefss

Threat To Polar Bears Worries Russian Experts

MOSCOW, Aug 26 (IPS) - - Environmental experts in Russia have warned that unless urgent steps are taken internationally, climatic changes combined with man-made factors could reduce the world's population of polar bears by as much as 70 percent by 2060. The polar region -- which includes the Arctic Ocean and parts of Alaska, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Russia, Norway and Sweden -- has experienced unpredictable climatic changes over the last few years. As a result, polar bears and their natural habitat are seriously threatened.

"The climate changes seem to be caused partly by natural factors about which we can do nothing, such as anomalous solar activity," said Vyacheslav V. Pankov, director for the Guild of Russian Ecologists. The guild was created to unite Russian ecologists and experts on the environment. "But the environmental effects of human activities -- pollution, destruction of natural migration routes, a reduction of food sources -- create additional problems for the conservation of biodiversity," he added.

Other experts agree. Vladimir Tchouprov, a Greenpeace researcher in Russia, said the arctic region is especially vulnerable to the effects of global warming. But he said Russian officials also feel concerned because the U.S. seems to be deviating from a plan worked out by the Moscow office of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). He said the WWF had categorically told the U.S. to impose a moratorium on the hunting of polar bears, since experts believe that poaching and illegal trading have severely reduced the population. Though the plan was worked out in collaboration with experts in other countries, the U.S. still allows indigenous peoples to hunt polar bear.

The bear mainly inhabits Alaska and the neighbouring Russian Chukotka peninsula. Of the worldwide population of 25,000, an estimated 6,000 are to be found in Russia. Polar bear hunting has been banned in Russia since 1956, and in 2008 the animals were deemed an endangered species. "A bilateral agreement between the U.S. and Russia came into effect in 2007, which obliges (the two countries) to reinforce the protection of the polar bear," a WWF report said. The first Russian-U.S. commission on polar bears met last year to discuss ways of complying with the agreement.

"We believe the commission should use all its efforts to introduce a moratorium on polar bear hunting in Alaska until there is evidence that the population has increased," the report quoted the head of the WWF in Russia, Viktor Nikiforov, as saying. Another factor threatening the largest predator on earth is the melting ice in the Chukchi Sea which depletes the animal's main hunting ground. According to Russian scientists, the polar bear population could decrease by 50-70 percent over the next 50 years, unless immediate steps are taken to protect them.

Russia needs to thrash out a conservation strategy, particularly by reducing man-made negative influences, said Evgeny Shvarts, WWF representative, in an interview on Russian radio. "We want to ensure that each species is registered in the red book, and to make certain that the Russian Natural Resources and Ecology Ministry, along with scientists, academic institutions, the WWF and other non-governmental organisations, work out a combined strategy to protect polar bears. This could be approved by the ministry on behalf of Russia," Shvarts said.

"Already two strategies for the protection of the polar bear and the Amur tiger have been approved. These explain the steps to be taken to understand what is happening to the polar bear and what should be done to prevent its extinction. The white bear serves as an indicator of the health of the arctic ecosystem and, at the same time, is one of the most vulnerable of species," he stressed. In April this year, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin gave Russian scientists a hand by putting a satellite collar on a polar bear. Putin was visiting Alexandra Land, an island in the Franz Josef Land archipelago in the far north of Russia, where scientists are studying the bears.

Peru Tries to Track Down Millions from Convicted Officials

LIMA, Aug 26 (IPS) - The Peruvian government will try to track down funds hidden away by former officials of the Alberto Fujimori regime (1990-2000) and others sentenced for corruption. The aim is to recover 323 million dollars -- the total amount that the courts ordered the roughly 90 people in question (including a former prime minister and former ministers) to pay the state in reparations.

That amount would finance for nearly four years the Glass of Milk Programme, the government's main food assistance plan for the poor. "Many of those convicted for corruption transferred their property to other people's names or front men, to keep their accounts and other assets from being impounded," sources at the State Legal Defence Council told IPS. "A special prosecutor has been named and given expanded powers to investigate, track down and locate the assets of those sentenced for serious crimes of corruption," the sources said.

The list is headed by imprisoned former president Fujimori himself, who owes 2.8 million dollars in damages in connection with sentences for wiretapping, bribes paid to opposition lawmakers, and the use of public funds for his 2000 reelection campaign and a 15 million dollar payment to his former intelligence chief Vladimiro Montesinos (who is also in prison). Fujimori has not paid off one single cent of the reparations he owes, the sources at the State Legal Defence Council said.

The authorities will try to track down the nearly 670,000 dollars that Fujimori received when he sold a building in 1998, in a business deal that was deemed illegal by the public prosecutor's office. Of that amount, Fujimori wrote a check for 150,000 dollars to his sister Rosa, who is living in Japan and is wanted in Peru. He later wrote four checks for 83,688 dollars for each one of his children: Keiko, Hiro, Sachi and Kenyi, supposedly to finance their studies in the United States.

But the money transferred to his sons and daughters ended up in bank accounts in several countries, including Japan, according to investigations by the office of the inspector general. The former president also kept 214,000 dollars in cash from the property sale. The final location of these funds is unknown. Julio Roca was appointed Tuesday as the special prosecutor in charge of recovering reparations in corruption cases.

That task was originally in the hands of prosecutor Pedro Gamarra, but President Alan García decided to create a new team headed by Roca. Carlos Rivera, a researcher and lawyer with the non-governmental Legal Defence Institute (IDL) who has followed the corruption cases, criticised Roca's designation.

'McCarthyism' Rises in Israel

Analysis by Jerrold Kessel and Pierre Klochendler

JERUSALEM, Aug 26 (IPS) - Rightwing Israeli groups financially supported by Jewish and fundamentalist Christian groups from abroad are on a campaign to undermine free thought in Israeli universities. Collaterally, a move is under way by right-wing parties in the Knesset, Israel's parliament, to limit the freedom of action of civil and human rights-minded NGOs.

Under the semblance of seeking "no more than balance", the right-wingers are pressuring hard for a clampdown on professors and lecturers who are deemed to have an "anti-Zionist tilt". The first target was Tel Aviv University with the country's largest student body. An organisation called the Institute for Zionist Strategies is demanding that the TA University president survey the reading material proposed by a number of sociology lecturers with a view to balancing them with other lecturers who hold stridently opposing views.

The Institute which alleges that most prominent Israeli universities have "a post-Zionist bias" in their sociology, history and political science departments defines post-Zionism in its own published documents as "the pretence to undermine the foundations of the Zionist ethos and an affinity with the radical leftist dream." Another ultra-rightist group, Im Tirtzu, has taken the lead in a widespread campaign against the Ben-Gurion University based in Beersheba. It said in a letter to university President Prof. Rivka Karmi that if the "anti-Zionist tilt does not end", it will persuade donors, both in Israel and abroad, to stop contributing to the University.

Climate-related Security Predictions Coming True in Pakistan

Matthew O. Berger

WASHINGTON, Aug 26 (IPS) - Analysts have been warning for several years that the impacts of climate change directly relate to the national security of the U.S. and other countries, but the link has never been so clear as it is today in northwest Pakistan. The security implications of climate change first got official U.S. government attention this February, in the Quadrennial Defence Review, a four-yearly report from the Pentagon on the direction of national security strategy.

Noting rising sea levels, water shortages, melting Arctic ice, and extreme weather events, the review said that "while climate change alone does not cause conflict, it may act as an accelerant of instability or conflict, placing a burden to respond on civilian institutions and militaries around the world." These implications had been discussed by other experts much earlier. Most notable was a 2007 report from the think tank Center for a New American Security (CNAS), which found that, when compared to other national security challenge, climate change "may represent a great or a greater" test. Their conclusions, however, were based on scenarios and exercises.

In Pakistan, where unprecedented floods have killed 1,500 people and displaced millions more, those scenarios are now reality. When floods swept through the country in late July, they pushed some desperate refugees right into the arms of militant groups in the northern regions of the country, where government aid was too slow or too little. The same phenomena occurred in the wake of the 2005 earthquake in Pakistan, leading to greater legitimacy for militant groups. This might happen again, with implications for not only Karachi but the security interests of every country with interests in the region.

Four Years On, Debate Rages On India'S Forest Rights Law

Keya Acharya

BANGALORE, Aug 26 (IPS) - It was supposed to help right old wrongs as well as protect India's forests, but four years after it took effect, a landmark law recognising the forest rights of scheduled tribes remains the subject of acrimonious debates among the country's government officials, environmentalists, and rights advocates.

Just last February, the environment and tribal affairs ministries, which had been bickering over the 'right' implementation of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, held talks in an effort to come to an agreement on forest sustainability. One result was the setting up of a committee that would to look at sustainable forest management and protection, as well as the settlement of forest dwellers' rights.

Yet in August 2010, India's Tribal Affairs Minister, Kanti Lal Bhuria, was apparently agitated enough to write to Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh, complaining that the committee was "going beyond its purview to tell how the Forest Rights Act should be implemented" and was meant only to "study" the situation in the states it visits. Headed by former planning commission member N C Saxena, the committee has since replied that it has been working "well within its mandate" and suggested that Bhuria needed clarity in his understanding of its role.

Women Candidates Hard Hit by Election Postponement in Malawi

Claire Ngozo

LILONGWE, Aug 26 (IPS) - News that Malawi's November local government elections are to be postponed yet again has hit female candidates hard - and mostly in their pockets. And it could mean that the country will have less female candidates to vote for when they finally go to the polls. Many women candidates feel short-changed with the decision by the Malawi Election Commission (MEC) to postpone the Nov. 23 elections. On Aug. 23 the MEC announced the elections will now be held on Apr. 20, 2011.

But women candidates, just like their male contenders, have already started campaigning and spent money buying handouts for voters. In Malawi election campaigns are expensive; most potential voters expect candidates to give them handouts, such as T-Shirts, cloth, food items and even money during campaign rallies and door-to-door campaigning. The freebies are seen as a sign of 'compassion' and are an unofficial requirement when contesting elections in Malawi. Some female candidates have even invested their life savings into their campaigns and many fear they will not have the funds to continue until 2011.

Jane Wandidya, a female candidate who had set her eyes on contesting the local polls in Mkanda, Mulanje - a district in southern Malawi - expressed her disappointment over the postponement of the elections. Wandidya, a livestock farmer, has been campaigning since April. She told IPS that she has since sold 20 of her 28 goats and 54 of her 70 chickens to raise money for her campaign - especially for buying freebies for potentials voters. "I have spent all the money I raised from selling the livestock. I am running out of steam as well. I am not sure if indeed the elections will be held on the new date. All the zeal I had has faded. I am not sure if I will regain the energy to continue campaigning," she said.

Forestry Industry Sows Poverty in Chile, Study Says

Daniela Estrada

SANTIAGO, Aug 26 (IPS) - The poverty rate in the districts of southern Chile where the logging industry is the main economic activity is nearly twice the national average, a new study shows. "In our view, a mature industry like forestry that generates 26 percent poverty is unsustainable," Eduardo Ramírez, senior researcher at the non-governmental Latin American Centre for Rural Development (RIMISP) which has offices in Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador and Nicaragua, told IPS.

According to Ramírez, the situation could flare up in either of two directions: "local social conflicts, or economic vulnerability," because international customers for Chilean wood and paper pulp are becoming increasingly "sensitive to the environmental impact of the companies from which they purchase goods and services." The forestry industry, headed by Chilean firms Arauco and CMPC, is regarded as a spearhead of national development. Its main exports are cellulose, as well as paper and cardboard, board, veneers and lumber, and industry estimates put export earnings this year at around 4.6 billion dollars.

In the south of Chile, which has the highest poverty rates in the country, RIMISP compared four economic activities in municipalities in the Bíobío, Araucanía, Los Ríos and Los Lagos regions, more than 500 kilometres from the capital. These four economic activities -- forestry, livestock, salmon and rural tourism -- were selected and studied by cross-referencing data from the 2009 CASEN socioeconomic survey published last month, the 2007 agricultural and livestock census, and information from the National Tourism Service.

Now Showing in China - Independent Films

Mitch Moxley

BEIJING, Aug 27 (IPS) - While Hollywood blockbusters and state-funded historical epics continue to dominate China's box office, a vibrant independent film scene is quietly growing. Lacking distribution channels that lead to wide audiences, these films, which tend to focus on aspects of day-to-day life in China, are finding a home at the few independent cinemas that exist here and at film festivals dedicated to independent and documentary filmmaking at home and abroad.

"Although these kinds of films aren't allowed to be screened at most theatres, independent film is developing well in China," Cui Weiping, a film professor at the Beijing Film Academy, told IPS. "You can find people talking about them at university lectures, in art salons, etcetera. Independent film is an influential part of China's film industry." China's box office take is expected to hit 1.5 billion U.S. dollars this year, according to the state-run Xinhua News Agency. Hollywood films, 20 of which are allowed to play in China per year, continue to be the biggest money makers. 'Avatar', James Cameron's 3-D epic, pulled in 204 million dollars in China in 2010.

China's home-grown, big-budget film industry is also growing. 'Aftershock', which focuses on the 1976 Tangshan earthquake, recently became the highest-grossing Chinese film in history after it earned 79 million dollars in ticket sales as of early August, overtaking 'The Founding of a Republic', a 2009 film that depicts Mao Zedong's rise to power and pulled in 62 million dollars.