Yowazzup: A Directory of Happening Things

Next week delegates from 171 countries will be assembling in the Netherlands for a meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. This is the world’s biggest wildlife treaty, with nearly every country in the world a member.

Amongst the topics expected to be discussed is whether China will lift its successful ban on domestic trade of tiger parts.

Reopening even a limited legal trade would reignite a demand for wild tiger products and spark an open season on tigers in the wild. We need to send a strong, clear and powerful message to the world that this simply cannot happen.

Help End the Tiger Trade

Popularity: 1%

The tiger is one of the most revered, feared and yet popular species on Earth. It is perhaps the most powerful symbol for all of our planet’s endangered wildlife.

Take action now and help end the tiger trade

Despite international and domestic bans, a thriving black market for tiger skins and bones threatens to wipe out wild tigers. China, with its booming economy, burgeoning human population and ancient traditions of using tiger parts as medicine and clothing, is the world’s leading consumer of tiger products.

The good news is that the Chinese government has taken decisive action to help save the species, outlawing the trade of tiger products and running public awareness campaigns to curb the demand for tiger products.

But there now is a new threat that could put every last wild tiger at risk: the increasing population of captive-bred tigers on so-called “tiger farms”. Investors in these businesses are now pressuring the Chinese government to allow them to sell tiger products.

Reopening even limited legal trade in tiger products from farms would reignite a demand for wild tiger products and spark an open season on tigers in the wild. We need to send a strong, clear and powerful message to the world that this simply cannot happen.

Take action now and add your photo to WWF’s tiger photo mosaic and show your support for tiger conservation.

With your help we can end the tiger trade.

(Via WWF Passport)

Popularity: 1%

2007 could be the year that the magnificent bluefin tuna, the fish behind the finest sushi in the world, disappears from the Mediterranean.

Take action now to save bluefin

Over recent years, high-tech fishing fleets have hunted down, often illegally, ever declining numbers of these ocean giants. So much so that bluefin tuna could soon be commercially extinct.

In May, the bluefin tuna fishing season starts again. But rather than acting to stop this tragedy the European Union has set fishing quotas at a level more than twice as high as science recommends. As a result the fishery is likely to collapse.

Send an email to the governments of France, Spain and Italy – the main bluefin fishing countries in Europe – and ask them to take responsibility for their fishing fleets. Ask them to set aside or allocate half of their fishing quotas this year for conservation.

(Via WWF Passport)

Popularity: 1%

Barrow Island is the second largest island in Western Australia, and is one of Australia’s oldest nature reserves. But this remarkable place, described as Australia’s ‘Galapagos’ because of its rare and endangered species, now faces unprecedented threats.

Take action to now to protect Barrow Island

In December 2006, the Western Australian Government overruled the advice of its own Environmental Protection Authority and approved the development on the island of a huge gas plant by the energy companies, Chevron, Shell and ExxonMobil.

Risks to wildlife from the massive project include the introduction of invasive species and diseases in the thousands of tonnes of material and equipment needed to build the plant. The development would also require the construction of a port in a pristine tropical area previously earmarked for inclusion in the surrounding marine park and the dredging of deep shipping channels in coral reef habitat.

Barrow Island is a sanctuary for marsupials like the burrowing bettong (above), the golden bandicoot and many other threatened and endemic species.

You can help protect Barrow Island by signing our petition to the energy consortium (Chevron, Shell and ExxonMobil).

Tell them to halt plans to locate the gas plant on the island and instead look to alternative mainland locations.

(Via WWF Passport)

Popularity: 1%

One of my goals in life is to be able to contribute to the society by preserving the nature/environment and be involved in environmental campaigns. But in order to do that, I need to have either a lot of time or a lot of dough. And I have neither of those.

Somewhat when I found out about this program by WWF, I was really excited and joined almost immediately. It’s WWF Passport program and joining is FREE.

What is Passport?

No ordinary website because you can do extraordinary things! Passport is your licence to campaign for the environment, no matter where you are in the world, all over the world. It’s not a toy or an environmental internet game. It is for the genuinely concerned individual who takes action on-line for on-the-ground results.

Passport provides concise calls to action on important issues such as endangered species, global warming, and forest protection. The whole idea behind Passport is that it makes it easier for people who are short on time to have a big say on critical issues.

Passport Holders are committed. They are reasonable. They mean business. In joining them, you are joining a great team with a growing global reputation and proven track record in successful online campaigning.

At least, being a person who online 10-12 hours daily, I’m able to contribute towards the environment this way. And I just did my first contribution by signing a petition on a WWF project in Portugal. You can contribute too. JOIN NOW!

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