Countryside Management Association News

Representatives attending a recent CITES meeting have turned down requests from Zambia and Tanzania to permit international sales of ivory from government stockpiles. The action is considered a big victory for threatened elephant populations. An expert report released on the eve of the CITES conference raised concerns about the extent to which organized crime rings are involved in Tanzania's poaching and smuggling operations. Although commending the national wildlife services for their "professional" approach, it noted signs of a declining commitment to law enforcement and a lack of coordination between wildlife and customs services. It was noted that almost half of the ivory in the government's stockpiles – which would have been the source for the ivory sales – was of unknown origin. As a result of this, it recommended rejecting Tanzania's bid. Similar misgivings also led to a recommendation to reject the Zambian proposal.

The CITES meeting in Doha, Qatar, also turned down a bid to ban trade in red and pink corals from the Mediterranean Sea. Conservation groups say the corals - which are used in jewellery - are threatened with local extinction if extraction continues. The proposal to ban international trade in the Atlantic blue fin tuna, tabled by Monaco and backed by all of the important conservation organizations working on the issue around the Mediterranean, also fell by a substantial majority.

An attempted robbery at Puerto Rico's Department of Natural Resources led to a shootout that killed two park rangers who were serving as guards on Tuesday, March 23rd. Police said the rangers apparently confronted attackers who jumped a fence at the government building shortly after midnight, leading to the shootout in which one of the invaders also was wounded. A witness' telephone call led police to arrest three suspects, one of whom was hospitalized with a gunshot wound. Officers said they found the gun of one of the slain guards in the suspects' car. Union leaders who represent park rangers blamed the department's secretary for their deaths, saying layoffs of thousands of government workers had led the agency to use rangers in a job they are not trained for.

Mark Stone, chief executive of Parks Victoria and patron of IRF, has committed to providing a Parks Victoria employee to IRF for three years to build IRF capacity. This generous offer will help provide IRF with a secure foundation. The position has been offered to Elaine Thomas, a Parks Victoria employee who was elected to serve a second term as IRF secretary at the recent IRF Congress in Bolivia.
IRF’s International Executive Committee (IEC) has voted enthusiastically to accept this offer from Parks Victoria for support of Elaine for three years. Elaine will continue her secretary role while expanding her IRF work under the guidance of the president and the IEC.

There were 50 nominations for this annual award, with the judges selecting Alasdair Harris of UK as winner. Alasdair (age 24) established Blue Ventures, a marine conservation organization dedicated to promoting conservation efforts to safeguard the Madagascar marine biodiversity, as well as the livelihoods of its indigenous, semi-nomadic fishing communities, who are entirely dependent on marine resources for subsistence, income, and cultural identity. Since its start with one community in 2003, Blue Ventures has expanded to 23 neighboring communities and is now working with other non-governmental organizations to replicate this model for resource management along an ambitious 400 km of coastline.

Other finalists were Krissie Clark, Tanzania; Arthur Omondi Tuda, Kenya; Florin Stoican, Romania; Heng Sokrith, Cambodia and Satya Priya Gautam Bhalla, India.

The Young Conservationist Award was founded by IRF and IUCN Program on Protected Areas. The awards have been sponsored by Parks Victoria, Australia, which pays the expenses for the award recipient to travel to the ceremony. This year, there will be a special ceremony at the first Healthy Parks Healthy People Congress in Melbourne Australia, which is being hosted by Parks Victoria.

Those younger members of CMA and others under age 35 might like to consider applying for the 2010 Alfred Toepfer Scholarship (managed by EUROPARC).

Participation in the Alfred Toepfer Scholarship programme is open to all those under age 35 who are employed by any European protected area or a nature conversation institution as well as students and graduates of higher educational institutions. The objective is for awardees to travel to other European protected areas gathering experience which will be both of benefit for their future career and to the EUROPARC Federation and its members. Awards are of 3,000 Euros.

Applicants can apply for the following themes:

Biodiversity
Climate Change
Integrated Management of Natural Resources
(water,forest, etc.)
Rural Development (interaction between rural
and urban landscapes)
Renewable Energy
Sustainable Tourism
Food and Agriculture
Health and Protected Areas
Environmental Education and Communication
International / Transboundary Cooperation

For detailed information about applying for the scholarships please see the 2010 scholarship guidelines at http://www.europarc.org/uploaded/documents/280.pdf
Registration for 2010 will open on February 15th. when the online registration form will become available. Applications will remain open until 16th May 2010.

Previous winners from UK are Rachel Danneman in 2008 (Peak District NP) and Saira Sheldrake (New Forest NP) and Naomi Scuffil (Dartmoor NP) in 2009.
Rachel spent time touring the Greek National Parks looking at management of fire and water issues.
Saira hopes to develop a tool to predict disturbance distances of the recreational sport of Kite-surfing on wintering and wading birds in protected areas with coastlines
Naomi plans to study landscape-scale nature conservation projects in two German National Parks.

Roger Cole
CMA International Adviser