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Non-Government Organisations




What is a conservation easement?

A conservation easement is a voluntary legal agreement that permanently restricts specified activities on a piece of property, in order to protect conservation values such as forest ecosystems, wildlife habitat, biodiversity, water quality, open space and carbon sequestration. The conservation easement is granted by the property owner to a conservation organization or government agency. The restriction stays with the property and is binding on all future owners. Conservation easements are site-specific documents that help landowners ensure that important natural values are protected forever, while keeping the property in private ownership and use.

Why do landowners put conservation easements on their property?
What are the benefits?

The conservation easement is a tool that allows individuals, families or businesses to retain ownership of their property while protecting its natural landscape and establishing long-term management goals. Because the easement is perpetual and runs with the land, it assures future conservation after the current owner’s death or if the property needs to be sold. Therefore, the easement can protect the carefully stewarded natural capital of the property from future liquidation. A conservation easement can also yield often substantial tax savings or revenue.

Mission Statement
The Pacific Forest Trust (PFT) mission is to restore, enhance and preserve the private, productive forestlands of the Pacific Northwest, with a primary focus on California, Oregon and Washington. The continued existence and health of this most productive forest region in North America contributes to both the environmental and the economic well-being of the communities who depend on this forest ecosystem. The shared forest economies, infrastructure, ownership patterns, culture and ecologies make ours a logical, cohesive regional focus.




Working in close partnership with the public, Sea Watch is a national marine conservation research charity dedicated to the protection of whales, dolphins and porpoises (cetaceans) around the UK.
Sea Watch scientists regularly monitor and study whale and dolphin populations, gaining knowledge and understanding of their status, numbers and distribution as well as the condition of their marine habitats. This enables Sea Watch to alert government, industry and environmental organisations to any problems, and prompt practical measures to help protect them from existing and impending threats.

Incidental Catches

Every year, more than ten thousand porpoises die in British waters, entangled in fishing gear, particularly bottom set gill nets. In 1993 and 1994, an observer programme estimated that approximately 2,000 harbour porpoises were taken annually as by-catches in the Irish and UK bottom set gillnet fisheries for hake on the Celtic Shelf to the southwest of Britain and Ireland. In 1993, an estimated 7,000 harbour porpoises were taken as a by-catch in the total Danish North Sea gillnet fleet.


Large numbers of common dolphins also drown in trawl fisheries southwest of Britain. In particular, the bass fisheries in the Western Approaches to the English Channel pose a significant threat to the common dolphin population in the area. Between January and April 1992, at least 131 individuals were washed ashore in Cornwall and Devon. This amounts to 3-6 times the total number of common dolphins annually recorded throughout the UK in the previous two years. Post-mortems of several animals indicated that they had died from suffocation thought to be from net entanglement. In March 1997, more than six hundred dolphins of this species came ashore along the Atlantic coasts of France; most of those examined also showed signs of entanglement in fishing nets. During the 2003-04 fishing season in the Southwest, 169 common dolphins were recorded to have died in the bass fishery alone, with an additional mortality from other fisheries (WDCS/Greenpeace 2004).

Overfishing


Fisheries themselves can have a major impact upon the status and distribution of various UK cetaceans. Local stocks of sprats, sand eels, herring, whiting, mackerel and haddock have all shown marked changes in population in recent years, associated at least in part with fishing pressure. The over-exploitation of fish stocks and their subsequent dramatic declines impose major pressures upon those marine mammals dependant upon them for food.
North Sea herring stocks were once the mainstay of the economy of several European countries. Accelerated exploitation during this century led to a collapse in numbers to about 5% of post-war levels by 1977. In the 1980s, sand-eel stocks in Shetland declined dramatically and the local industrial fishery was closed following public pressure from local Shetlanders. Over a period of 8 years, local seabirds suffered repeated and widespread breeding failure with thousands of chicks starving to death, and porpoises became scarce in the area.










Pollution



As industrial activities continue to develop along European seaboards, pollutants enter the sea and build up in the marine ecosystem. Organochlorine chemicals and heavy metals can persist in the food chain for long periods of time, often stored in an inert state in the fat of marine mammals. Concentrations build up as large predators like whales and dolphins feed upon contaminated prey, and pollutants are passed directly from one generation to the next through the placenta or within the mother’s milk.
Some chemicals like polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), a by-product of the plastics industry, persist for very long periods in the environment where on uptake they can affect reproduction and resistance to disease. During 1989-1990, several hundred striped dolphins died in the Mediterranean. On autopsy, they were found to have a morbilli virus infection but also contained extremely high levels of PCB’s. More than 30,000 tonnes of PCBs are in use by countries bordering the North Sea, and elevated concentrations of PCBs have been detected in marine wildlife (shellfish, fishes, and seals) in the vicinity of Liverpool Bay, northeast Irish Sea where PCBs and other pollutants such as mercury are continually being released into the marine environment from local industrial activities. In Cardigan Bay, West Wales, pollutant levels of some bottlenose dolphins stranding between 1988 and 1991 have been amongst the highest ever recorded.

Disturbance



Coastal marine mammal species are being exposed to an increasing amount of noise pollution around UK shores. Marine traffic around the British Isles is amongst the most intense of anywhere in the world, and the North Sea alone receives more than 400,000 ship movements a year. By the end of 1988, over 3,000 miles of major pipelines had been installed in the North Sea with as many as 1,137 exploration surveys taking place. Seismic exploration for oil and gas has now extended to cetacean rich waters west of Scotland where intense low frequency sounds pose a threat particularly to baleen whales. Most recently, the use of mid-frequency long-range active sonar by the military has been shown to be responsible for a number of mass-strandings of beaked whales in the North Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea.
In the last two decades, the coastal zone has received sharply increased public attention for recreational purposes with the inevitable consequences of greater exposure to disturbance from speedboat and other pleasure craft, and the very real possibility of physical damage from collisions.

Climate change

Climate change due to anthropogenic causes poses several possible threats to cetaceans. Obvious consequences will be the increase in sea temperature and the subsequent melting of polar ice and drowning of coastal plains, along with changes in levels of primary productivity, which could severely affect the prey distribution of marine mammals. Other less direct implications include an increase in the frequency and velocity of storms; severe storm events could cause substantial physical damage to habitats and species.


The distribution of many marine mammal species may be affected by the shifts in areas of primary productivity and prey distribution caused by climate change. Some species, such as land-breeding pinnipeds, and coastal cetaceans and sirenians, may find it difficult to adjust to the loss of important feeding or breeding habitat due to changing temperatures. On a global scale, predictions state that cold-water species will shift towards the poles and therefore result in the reduction of their global range.
The possible shifts in prey distribution and habitat loss will have potentially grave consequences, influencing mating and breeding success and calf survival rates.

Hunting

Most of the great whales of the world’s oceans were reduced to near extinction by centuries of hunting, with Britain one of the countries leading the way in causing the demise of these animals. As recently as the 1920s, there were active whaling stations in Shetland and the Outer Hebrides, and on the west coast of Ireland. Collectively, they killed nearly 10,000 whales over a period of fifteen years. Now, species like the northern right whale, humpback whale and blue whale are very rare in UK waters, although, after thirty years of protection in the North Atlantic, there are some signs of recovery at least for blue whales and humpbacks. The 1990s saw the resumption of hunting in the guise of scientific whaling, with Norway taking around 800 minke whales in waters north of Shetland. Iceland has now joined in and this has become a commercial activity once more.




Pandas International is a non-profit organization formed to ensure the preservation and propagation of the Giant Panda. The mission of Pandas International is to raise and provide monies for research, breeding programs, veterinary care and medicines, exchange programs with zoological foundations around the world, habitat preservation and enhancement and education programs to increase public awareness of the Panda as a highly endangered species, in order to prevent the extinction and ensure the continuing existence of the Giant Panda.



The Effectiveness of Pandas International
Pandas International strives to achieve its mission statement on a continuous basis. Annually the Board Members review the accomplishments of the past year, assess the results of those accomplishments, and determine their level of effectiveness in accomplishing our mission.

The Board also sets defined, measurable goals and objectives for the next calendar year in conjunction with the approval of the annual budget. The annual evaluation shall also identify and address deficiencies, successes, and impacts in all aspects of the foundation's program, including but not limited to finances, marketing, and the species' and their caretakers' needs.

Since part of our program is implemented at the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda in Sichuan Province, China, one of the foundation's goals is to do on- site inspections yearly. All Board members are volunteers who donate their time, expertise, and travel while serving Pandas International and when visiting panda reserve locations. Board members incur no expense to Pandas International on their annual site inspection visits.

Panda Parties
A mother recently contacted Pandas International to say her daughter was having a birthday party. The young lady was asking her friends who were invited, not to buy a present, but bring whatever money they would have spent on a birthday gift to be donated to Pandas International, to Help Save the Panda. Obviously, they were impressed and inspired by this young personês concern and commitment. What better way to raise compassionate, concerned young people than to involve children early in caring actions. The future of the panda is in the hands of the young. Due to this Pandas International now assist in any way possible to help people focus there party on the environment, endangered species, and of course, the Giant Panda.

The International Canopy Network
ICAN is devoted to facilitating the continuing interaction of people concerned with forest canopies and forest ecosystems around the world.
ICAN is a non-profit organization supported by a global community of scientists, conservation advocates, canopy educators, and environmental professionals. The organization is funded by subscriber dues, donations, and grants.

Deforestation
Forests are an integral part of Earth's life-support system. They play an important role in regulating climate and water cycles, as well as in maintaining and conserving soil. Because of the unique nature of rainforests, the environmental effects of clearing them are much more severe compared to temperate forests.
Deforesting hillsides allows heavy rains to wash away the existing soil. A study in Cote d'Ivoire showed that the annual loss of soil on a forested slope was 30 kilograms per hectare (160 pounds per acre); in contrast, a similar deforested slope lost a staggering 183 tons (121 US tons) of soil annually.
Deforestation is also responsible for flooding and droughts in many countries with tropical rainforests. Rainforests, with their thick foliage and complex root systems, regulate water supplies. Typically, in a well-forested watershed, 95% of the annual rainfall is detained in the sponge-like network of roots. Much of this water is released back into the atmosphere by evaporation and transpiration (the process by which water is drawn up from the roots of a plant and evaporated from its leaves), thus reducing the total water run-off. The remainder is released slowly throughout the year, keeping streams and rivers flowing even during the dry seasons. Globally, more than one billion people depend on water from tropical forests for drinking and crop irrigation. Without the regulatory function of the rainforests, heavy rains lead to floods and landslides, whereas rivers dry up if the rains are poor.



BY ALEX AND LUKE