Worldlog Semana 16 – 2012

El presente Worldlog fue escrito por una colaboradora de Marianne Thieme ya que ella esta aun con licencia de maternidad.

La semana pasada, los científicos de todo el mundo se juntaron en Amberes para discutir “animal politics & political animals”. Karen Soeters, director científico de nuestra oficina también estuvo presente. Consideramos que es un gran avance que tantos científicos se reúnen para discutir la nueva "emancipación" que se veía más allá de los intereses de su propia especie.

Mundialmente en la actualidad hay 14 partidos políticos que consideran el bienestar animal como sus principales prioridades, entre ellos Alemania, Australia, Canadá y España. Sigamos adelante hacia más partidos que representan los intereses de los animales, la naturaleza y el medio ambiente como primero! Para obtener una lista de todos los partidos para los animales véanse http://www.partyfortheanimals.nl/content/view/492

En el Parlamento Esther Ouwehand abogo por una prohibición del libre comercio de animales en la Internet. La venta de animales a través de Internet es una cosa difícil que tiene que terminar cuanto antes. Es muy fácil comprar una mascota a través de Internet. Con un clic usted puede comprar un animal, que luego llega en su sala de estar. A menudo, también se trata de animales que son totalmente inadecuados para tenerlos como mascotas, tales como serpientes, lagartos, lechuzas y loros.

Además, la venta de animales a través de internet favorece la cría y el comercio ilegal. Ignorando la cría y el comercio de estas especies el Secretario de de Asuntos Económicos Bleker mantiene activo tal problema. Además, el sistema es extremadamente susceptible al fraude: el comercio si está prohibido para los animales del medio silvestre, pero no para los animales nacidos en cautiverio. Eso es difícil de verificar, teniendo como consecuencia una gran cantidad de comercio ilícito.

El Partido para los Animales abrió de nuevo campo al debate acerca del tener animales silvestres como mascotas. Una moción nuestra de nosotros que conto con el apoyo de una mayoría parlamentaria, se asegura de que estamos un paso más cerca de una lista llamada positiva positiva para tener mascotas. Ya se ha estado hablando durante veinte años de tal lista para la reducción del número de especies que se pueden mantener como mascota… Esperamos que esta lista llegara rápido!

En la semana nueve del Worldlog Marianne indico que existe un aumento significativo en el número de cazadores furtivos de elefantes en África. Un aumento alarmante, donde los elefantes son brutalmente asesinados por sus colmillos. Afortunadamente, la Interpol ahora ha comenzado una importante operación contra estas prácticas ilegales. El objetivo de la operación Worthy es reducir el comercio de marfil. Digno de la reducción del comercio de marfil. El comercio se concentra principalmente en los países de Asia, donde el marfil se utiliza en la medicina.

La operación Worthy ha comenzado llena de energía para trabajar. Se han hecho redadas en catorce países africanos y se han detenido comerciantes. Además, el servicio de investigación ha detenido a varias personas habiendo confiscado cantidades significativas de productos ilegales.

Un ap. atractivo para quienes quieren conocer cada hoja de una naturaleza volviéndose cada día mas escasa: para descarga leafsnap en tu Smartphone!

Hasta la semana entrante!

This Worldlog was written by one of Marianne Thieme's staff, as Marianne is away on maternal leave.
Last week the Lower House paid a lot of attention to foreign animal welfare and environmental problems. Esther Ouwehand asked the cabinet to do such things as halt the stimulation of palm oil production. It would be better if the government would focus on growing oil-producing crops such as flax, rapeseed and sunflowers organically in the Netherlands.

Palm oil is a cheap raw material for the foodstuff industry and it is found in numerous products such as biscuits, ice cream, chocolate, margarine and fat for deep frying. In order to create palm oil plantations, people turned to large scale felling of the tropical rainforest. Forests in Indonesia and Malaysia are disappearing at a frightening rate to be replaced with fields of oil palms, with disastrous results. The already seriously endangered orang-utan is losing the only place left it has to live, the local population are being pushed from their land and the highly toxic agricultural poison used on the plantations dirty the rivers to such an extent that both animals and people are becoming sick.

We can't believe the Dutch government still supports the production of palm oil through such actions as investing tax money in the Round Table for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). This is a voluntary initiative aimed at reducing the problems that palm oil creates. The RSPO keeps proving that it only appears to work on sustainability, and leaves the larger problems surrounding palm oil production untouched. The deforestation continues unabated, as does the pollution and the violation of human rights. Hopefully the Dutch government will see that the serious problem of palm oil production is a serious one for them too.

We also spent a lot of time on Antarctica last week. Increasing numbers of tourists and climate change and putting the South Pole under enormous pressure. We're pleased the Dutch government is listening to our call to step in and protect this area. The cabinet is using four new measures in the Protection of Antarctica Act to steer them towards protecting the South Pole's vulnerable ecosystem. Even though the measures need serious expansion and refining, it's still a step in the right direction!

Climate change makes Antarctica's ecosystem increasingly vulnerable, plus more and more people are visiting the area, thanks to increased tourism. The Party for the Animals wants the South Pole's wilderness to stay as untouched as possible. This means the number of ships that sail to Antarctica should be limited to only that which is strictly necessary. If you would like to see some incredible images to do with Antarctica's climate, click here.

Saturday 31 March was Earth Hour 2012. Many places in the Netherlands turned out their lights to call attention to the earth's future. An hour is actually far too little to show the consequences of how humans treat how liveable the earth is. The Big Picture by the Boston Globe shows what an enormous difference created between light and dark when big buildings kill their lights.

The European Football Championship to be held in Poland and the Ukraine is approaching and the Ukrainian government wants clean cities without any stray dogs. In 2011 and at the start of 2012, they undertook huge 'clean-up operations' in which they killed stray animals, sometimes in highly cruel ways. In order to call attention tot he stray animal problem, hundreds of people in Kiev took to the streets last week to protest against this cruel way of dealing with the issue. At the start of February, the international animal welfare organisation "Four Footers" signed an agreement with the Ukrainian Minister for the Environment. This organisation has gained permission to catch the stray animals, take care of them, vaccinate them and have them castrated in a mobile clinic. They will then be released in their original habitat. The Four Footers project can be found at www.facebook.com/fourpaws.org and they welcome any help you care to give!

See you next week.