DOC is risking sea lions slide to extinction

Press Release: Environmental Defence Society

The Environmental Defence Society (EDS) has responded to the announcement by the Department of Conservation that it is releasing a Species Management Plan for the New Zealand Sea Lion.

“This so-called Species Management Plan is a disgrace,” said EDS Chairman Gary Taylor.

“The Species Management Plan is non-statutory, has no teeth, covers too short a time frame (5 years) to make any difference and is full of waffle. It is a clear sign that DOC is prepared to risk the extinction of the New Zealand Sea Lion.

“What is required is a Population Management Plan (PMP) under the Marine Mammals Act 1978. This would address one of the main threats to population recovery, the impacts of fishing activity. But DOC has abandoned that approach allegedly because “significant new information” has become available. But that information – whatever it is – has not been made public.

“A PMP has teeth. Its prime role is to set the maximum number of sea lions which can be killed by the fishing industry each year. By law, this number must allow the species to achieve non-threatened status within 20 years.

“The New Zealand Sea Lion is the rarest sea lion species in the world. It was hunted to near extinction during the early 1800s and has only made a slow recovery since.

“By refusing to use the key statutory tool available for managing the species back to sustainable population levels, DOC is either being negligent or is acknowledging deficiencies in the existing law and underlining the need for reform.

“EDS considers that the Minister of Conservation needs to intervene and provide some much-needed leadership in this matter. We either need a PMP, or legal reform to provide other effective statutory tools to ensure the recovery of this unique, endemic species,” Gary Taylor concluded.

Rare species face extinction in Vietnam

UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL

HANOI, Vietnam, Aug. 14 (UPI) — Several rare species in Vietnam including the white-handed gibbon and tapir face extinction because of a growing appetite for wild meat, experts say. 

The protection and preservation of wildlife in Vietnam should become a priority, experts told an international conference in Ninh Binh Province’s Van Long Wetland Nature Reserve, the Thanh Nien News reported.

Dang Huy Huynh, chairman of the Vietnam Zoology Association, said in the past poaching of wildlife met the demand of those living in mountainous regions. However, since then the market for wild meat has spread across the nation with such meat being served in restaurants and resorts, the newspaper quoted him as saying.

The report said about 200 species of wildlife, about 80 of them rare, are currently traded in the country. They include snakes, monitor lizards, turtles, wild cats, tigers, leopards, bears, elephants, wild boars, deer, monkeys, white-handed gibbon, civet and tapir.

Nguyen Dang Vang, who chairs the National Assembly’s Science, Technology and Environment Committee, estimated 18 percent of the 3,400 tons of wild meat currently consumed annually in Vietnam is illegally sold.

Vietnam has laws for the preservation of wildlife but they have not been strictly enforced.