In partnership with other Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs)
© WWF-Canon / Hélène PETIT
Virtually every African country has stockpiles of obsolete pesticides, with at least 50,000 tonnes having accumulated across the continent over the past 40 years or more.
Many of these chemicals and their containers are badly deteriorated and threaten local environments, endangering the health of both rural and urban populations and contributing to land and water degradation. In December 2000, WWF proposed a continent-wide project to clean up and safely dispose of these pesticides and to prevent future accumulations.
Since then, the Africa Stockpiles Programme (ASP) has grown into a partnership of around 15 members, including the GEF, World Bank, UN agencies FAO and UNEP, the African Union, and the Pesticide Action Network (which itself comprises over 600 organizations and individuals in more than 90 countries).
By reducing and removing long-standing toxic threats throughout the continent, ASP promotes public health, environmental safety, and poverty reduction – critical elements of sustainable development.
In the latter part of 2005, the FAO, GEF, and World Bank signed off on the project's first phase, enabling operational activities to begin in 7 countries (Ethiopia, Mali, Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, and Tunisia). An additional US$170-200 million was estimated to be required – on top of the US$60 million raised for the first phase – to address this challenge in other African countries over the next 10 to 12 years.
Clean energy now!
In November 2005, WWF, along with the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Department of Energy, and Renewable Energy Coalition launched a Clean Energy campaign to push for the passage of the Renewable Energy bill in the Philippines.
The bill supports the development of wind, biomass, hydro, solar, and geothermal energy production.
By the end of December 2005 more than 92,000 people had signed up to express their support.
WWF's PowerSwitch! scenario, a roadmap for sustainable energy, showed that there's more than enough renewable energy potential in the country.
Increasing the share of renewable energy in the the Philippines' power mix will reduce dependence on imported fossil fuels such as coal and oil, and will result in savings amounting to US$2.3 billion for a 10-year period.
Tracking turtles by satellite
Leatherback turtles are critically endangered and it is estimated that some 60,000 are caught each year in long-line fisheries alone. An unknown proportion drowns. This incidental capture in fishing gear is known as bycatch.
Little is known about leatherbacks’ migration habits, but they do travel extensively across the Atlantic, and their routes seem highly individualistic, rather than clustered in distinct corridors.
To try to tackle the problem of bycatch mortality in the central and southern Atlantic, WWF – together with IUCN, le Centre d’écologie et physiologie, le Centre national de la recherche scientifique, the Caribbean Conservation Corporation, Proyecto Karumba, and several other concerned organizations – began carrying out a project to fit up to 25 individual leatherbacks with satellite transmitters to track their movements.
In this way it is hoped to identify areas of potential conflict with fisheries and design measures to reduce bycatch.
This high-tech tracking system is expensive, and the partners therefore offer US$10,000 sponsorships of individual turtles. Sponsors can suggest a name for “their” turtle, and can track its route in close to real-time on the Internet.
As of January 2006 the routes of 11 turtles from Panama, French Guiana, Uruguay, and Gabon – sponsored by companies such as Sky Television and Nokia – are being tracked.
