Environment
Sea of plastic: Med pollution under spotlight at conservation meet
Plastic packaging and discarded fishing nets bob in the tranquil waters of the Mediterranean, signs of the choking pollution that has stirred strong feelings at the world conservation congress in the French port city Marseille this week.
“The Mediterranean is the most beautiful sea in the world… and one of the most polluted,” said Danielle Milon, vice-president of the Calanques National Park on the edge of the city, where the International Union for Conservation of Nature is holding its congress.
While the quantity of rubbish in the sea is well documented — the IUCN released a report on the issue last year entitled “Mare plasticum” — it is driving growing alarm among countries whose economies rely on tourism drawn to pristine beaches and sparkling waters.
At the opening of the IUCN Congress, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and French President Emmanuel Macron pledged to greatly increase the size of conservation areas off their Mediterranean coasts — as well as the rigour with which they are preserved.
“Marine protected areas must no longer be paper parks but must have defined conservation measures,” Mitsotakis said at the opening ceremony.
“We must promote sustainable tourism (and) put biodiversity at the heart of tourist coastal planning.”
‘Noah’s Ark’
Near the coasts the main types of plastic pollution in the almost closed sea are packaging and fishing debris, said Francois Galgani, a specialist on maritime waste at Ifremer, a top marine research centre in France.
“Turtles confuse the packaging with jellyfish and in some areas in the Mediterranean 80 percent of turtles have ingested plastic,” he said.
Meanwhile, nets can kill long after the fishing boats leaves them behind.
Plastic waste can alter life cycles and the floating debris can even transport some species far from their habitats.
“A Noah’s ark”, said Galgani, adding there are “no other examples of species transport of this magnitude”.
To change the situation, everyone needs to play their part, Philippos Drousiotis head of the Cyprus sustainable tourism initiative.
“I was in the tourism trade and very much liked the idea of being sustainable (but) environmentalists didn’t care about people,” he said, adding that he was driven by economic realism.
With initiatives like the “keep our sand and sea plastic free” project, his organisation tries to steer tour organisers, boat rental firms and hotels to stop using single use plastics.
It has also installed water fountains on beaches to make it easier for holidaymakers to give up their plastic bottles.
“The solutions are on land and not at sea,” said Romy Hentinger of the Tara Ocean Foundation.
It is also necessary to increase knowledge of the sources of pollution and how it circulates.
The Tara Oceans schooner led an expedition in 2019 to trace plastic pollution in the major European rivers.
According to Nathalie Van Den Broeck, oceanographer and vice-president of Surfrider Europe, some “80 percent of waste on beaches and in the seas comes from rivers”.
The French NGO has also launched a study using artificial intelligence to find waste in images taken on mobile phones by citizen scientists.
Volunteers have recently travelled along the banks of the Rhine, in the six countries crossed by the river.
There are a host of initiatives looking to use the Marseille congress to develop networks and partnerships.
Although Middle Eastern and North African countries from the southern shores of the Mediterranean — which often have far fewer resources — are conspicuous by their absence.
But more needs to be done, said Mercedes Munoz Canas, from the IUCN Centre for Mediterranean Cooperation, who wants to bring in business interests.
We must “build a community”, she said.
— AFP
Civil Society
EU urged to designate Sarawak as ‘high risk‘ under anti-deforestation law
A coalition of environmental and Indigenous groups has called on the EU to designate Sarawak as high risk under its anti-deforestation law. Sarawak’s extensive deforestation and Indigenous rights violations pose serious risks, prompting calls for stricter EU import checks on timber and palm oil products from the region.
A coalition of environmental, human rights, and Indigenous organizations is urging the European Union (EU) to classify Malaysia’s Sarawak state as “high risk” under its new anti-deforestation regulation. Sarawak, home to millions of hectares of ancient rainforests, faces severe deforestation risks and violations of Indigenous peoples’ rights, according to a joint assessment by groups including Human Rights Watch, RimbaWatch, and SAVE Rivers.
The call to action comes ahead of the EU’s pending decision to categorize regions based on their deforestation risks under the new law.
The EU Deforestation-Free Products Regulation (EUDR), set to be enforced from January 2025, aims to curb the import of commodities like timber and palm oil linked to deforestation and human rights violations.
Sarawak’s history of deforestation, especially for timber and oil palm plantations, makes it a significant concern. A high-risk designation under the EUDR would lead to stricter import checks and increased due diligence requirements for EU companies dealing with products from Sarawak.
Land Rights Violations and Deforestation Concerns
The coalition’s analysis highlights Sarawak’s controversial land laws, which undermine Indigenous land rights while promoting commercial exploitation of the state’s forests.
According to Luciana Téllez Chávez, senior environment and human rights researcher at Human Rights Watch, Sarawak’s land code places “insurmountable obstacles” on Indigenous communities’ ability to gain legal recognition for their ancestral lands.
These laws allow companies to operate with impunity, often disregarding Indigenous land claims. The coalition argues that Sarawak’s record justifies a “high risk” classification, which would necessitate increased oversight of timber and palm oil imports into the EU.
Sarawak’s ambitious plans to expand industrial timber plantations, aiming to establish one million hectares by 2025, are another point of concern.
Achieving this goal would require converting over 400,000 hectares of naturally regenerating forests between 2022 and 2025. This trend poses a significant threat to biodiversity and the rights of Indigenous peoples.
Deficiencies in Certification and Transparency
Despite Sarawak’s reliance on the Malaysian Timber Certification Scheme (MTCS), civil society organizations have flagged significant flaws in the program.
Local activists argue that MTCS does not adequately protect Indigenous rights or prevent deforestation. Celine Lim, managing director of SAVE Rivers, emphasizes that logging continues on Indigenous lands without proper consultation or consent, further eroding trust in certification standards.
Additionally, Sarawak’s opaque land management practices hinder transparency. The state has not made available comprehensive data on Indigenous lands or disclosed the locations of leases granted to logging and palm oil companies.
This lack of transparency prevents Indigenous communities and civil society from holding companies and the government accountable.
EU’s Role in Enforcing Sustainable Practices
Under the EUDR, the European Commission will classify regions as “low, standard, or high risk” by the end of 2024.
A high-risk designation for Sarawak would mandate EU member states to triple their customs checks on imports of wood and palm oil products from the region.
EU-based companies would also need to conduct more rigorous checks to mitigate environmental and human rights violations linked to these products. This process would require close collaboration between the EU and Malaysian authorities to reduce risks and ensure compliance with the new regulation.
Sarawak’s timber and palm oil exports to the EU have been significant in recent years. According to a Sarawak government report, the state exported at least MYR 37.3 million (€7.8 million) worth of timber to EU countries like the Netherlands, France, and Greece in 2023.
The EU remains the third-largest market for Malaysian palm oil exports, underscoring the importance of Sarawak’s compliance with international sustainability standards.
Challenges in Malaysian Government Response
The Malaysian government has pushed back against the EUDR, criticizing its definitions and monitoring processes.
The government contends that industrial timber plantations, which involve replacing natural forests with single-species plantations, should not be classified as deforestation. Critics argue that this stance overlooks the environmental degradation and loss of biodiversity associated with such practices.
Adam Farhan, director of RimbaWatch, warns that Malaysia may be attempting to bypass EU restrictions by downplaying the scale of deforestation in timber plantations. Farhan stresses the need for stringent due diligence on Malaysian forest-risk commodities.
The federal government has mandated that palm oil plantations established after 31 December 2019, on deforested land, cannot receive sustainable certification under the Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO) standard.
However, enforcement remains uncertain, as states hold jurisdiction over land and forest administration. Civil society groups are urging the Malaysian government to strengthen its oversight mechanisms and improve its sustainability certification programs to meet EU requirements.
International and Local Advocacy for Reform
In May 2024, the coalition of civil society organizations submitted recommendations to Malaysia’s federal Plantation and Commodities Ministry, urging reforms to align with international human rights and environmental standards.
Key recommendations include incorporating the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples into federal legislation and introducing laws to prevent strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs), which are often used to silence critics of deforestation practices. The government has not yet responded to these calls.
As the EU moves forward with its anti-deforestation law, the decision to designate Sarawak as high risk could have far-reaching implications for Malaysia’s timber and palm oil industries. Environmental groups argue that strong enforcement of the EUDR is necessary to prevent further forest loss and protect Indigenous communities’ rights in Sarawak.
Environment
Japanese scientists find microplastics are present in clouds
In Japan, researchers confirm microplastics in clouds, impacting climate. Airborne microplastics, 7.1 to 94.6 micrometers in size, found in cloud water, potentially affecting rapid cloud formation and climate systems.
WASHINGTON, UNITED STATES — Researchers in Japan have confirmed microplastics are present in clouds, where they are likely affecting the climate in ways that aren’t yet fully understood.
In a study published in Environmental Chemistry Letters, scientists climbed Mount Fuji and Mount Oyama in order to collect water from the mists that shroud their peaks, then applied advanced imaging techniques to the samples to determine their physical and chemical properties.
The team identified nine different types of polymers and one type of rubber in the airborne microplastics — ranging in size from 7.1 to 94.6 micrometers.
Each liter of cloud water contained between 6.7 to 13.9 pieces of the plastics.
What’s more, “hydrophilic” or water-loving polymers were abundant, suggesting the particles play a significant role in rapid cloud formation and thus climate systems.
“If the issue of ‘plastic air pollution’ is not addressed proactively, climate change and ecological risks may become a reality, causing irreversible and serious environmental damage in the future,” lead author Hiroshi Okochi of Waseda University warned in a statement Wednesday.
When microplastics reach the upper atmosphere and are exposed to ultraviolet radiation from sunlight, they degrade, contributing to greenhouse gasses, added Okochi.
Microplastics — defined as plastic particles under 5 millimeters — come from industrial effluent, textiles, synthetic car tires, personal care products and much more.
These tiny fragments have been discovered inside fish in the deepest recesses of the ocean peppering Arctic sea ice and blanketing the snows on the Pyrenees mountains between France and Spain.
But the mechanisms of their transport have remained unclear, with research on airborne microplastic transport in particular limited.
“To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on airborne microplastics in cloud water,” the authors wrote in their paper.
Emerging evidence has linked microplastics to a range of impacts on heart and lung health, as well as cancers, in addition to widespread environmental harm.
— AFP
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