CEA sets 2010 objectives

A message from Paul Sanchez-Navarro, executive director of Centro Ecológico Akumal (CEA):

CEA continues to work on three main conservation program fronts---marine and coastal protection, sea turtle protection and water quality, in the Akumal region.

This year, our programs are focused on the following objectives:

Marine and Coastal Program:
•Strengthen and improve the Akumal Bays Management Program; improve tour operator participation; increase federal authority participation; expand program actions from Yal Ku to Aventuras Akumal, as designed in the original program
•Continue reef monitoring activities; increase marine research.

Sea Turtle Program:
•Strengthen nesting monitoring and protection activities
•Implement juvenile turtle protection measures in Akumal Bay
•Improve awareness-raising information on sea turtles in local hotels
•Carry out 8th Annual Tulúm Sea Turtle Festival in Akumal
•Successfully participate as president of the Regional Sea Turtle Committee

Water Quality Program:
•Carry out connection program in Akumal Pueblo
•Improve tourism sector management of wastewater
•Carry out water quality testing in Akumal
•Review at least 25% of Akumal's artificial wetlands
•Map contaminants in Akumal region
•Obtain funding for lab renovation

Environmental Sustainability Program:
•Formally protect jungle and mangrove land around Akumal
•Ensure adequate ecological zoning of Tulúm municipality
•Increase local hotel participation in CEA Eco-certification and Recycling project

Environmental Education Program:
•Improve classroom activities for Akumal Pueblo, including teacher training
•Implement recycling program for Akumal
•Improve educational materials for visitors

Communications Program:
•Increase conservation program information on Web site
•Publish informative brochures
•Improve information dissemination through all media
•Organize university group visits

We thank everyone for their support in helping us to achieve our goals. We will report on the results of these objectives throughout the year.

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Help fund turtle director's trip to international symposium

From the home page of Centro Ecológico Akumal (CEA):

In April 2010, the International Sea Turtle Symposium will take place at Goa, India. Our Sea Turtle Program will present information on our conservation efforts to protect Akumal's turtles.

We have registered Armando, our "Turtle Man," to participate but a trip to India costs more than our budget allows. We need you! We raise 1,200USD and we still need about 1,800 USD.

CEA's Sea Turtle Program and Armando have worked for many years for our turtles, and we have a chance to share our experience and results internationally, as well as to learn from so many other programs from around the world.

Want to help? Special donations.

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Financial Support Sought for Care of Florida's Cold-Stunned Sea Turtles

From an article on Environmental News Service:

GAINSVILLE, Florida, February 3, 2010 (ENS) - Chilly ocean waters during Florida's recent cold snap posed a survival threat to thousands of endangered sea turtles in Florida waters that persists although the waters have warmed somewhat.

In winter, sea turtles usually swim to Florida for its warm waters and rich food sources, but this January Florida temperatures hit a 20 year low, and the National Weather Service forecasts "below normal temperatures" in February.

Thousands of cold-stunned sea turtles were found floating listlessly in the water or washing up on shore. In the worst cases, turtles become catatonic and cannot even lift their heads out of the water to breathe.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, FWC, conservation groups, rehabilitation facilities and aquariums responded but now are struggling with financial shortfalls.

The FWC, with its partners, worked together to pick up turtles disabled by the cold. If left unaided, most of these turtles would not have survived. Many would have been attacked by predators, hit by boats or simply drowned, the state wildlife agency said.

The sea turtles were taken to staging areas, where biologists assessed their conditions and to triage areas and rehabilitation facilities. Each animal was examined for injuries, measured, weighed and a tissue sample taken. Metal tags with a unique identification numbers were placed on the sea turtles' front flippers. The tags will provide biologists with useful information in the future, including where the turtles travel and their rate of survival. . . .

The world's oldest sea turtle conservation group, Caribbean Conservation Corporation, responded along with other rescue organizations in what is being called the largest turtle rescue effort in history.

"We've never seen anything like this before," said CCC Executive Director David Godfrey. "I can't say enough about the heroic efforts of volunteers, conservation groups and agency staff around Florida who responded swiftly to this crisis. . . ."

CCC is raising emergency funds to help pay for veterinary care and medical supplies to treat hundreds of sea turtles struggling to survive. Some emergency funds are being provided through Florida's Sea Turtle Grants Program, which raises money through the sale of Florida's sea turtle license plate. About $20,000 is available from this source, but Godfrey estimates that four times that much will be needed to adequately care for all the turtles.

For more information on this emergency fund, please visit www.cccturtle.org or call 1-800-678-7853. To see the sea turtle recovery effort in action click here.

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Riviera Maya turtle trip, July 25 - August 1, 2010

From a trip announcement from Maya Riviera Vacation:

This trip is designed for families with all ages. It is during the height of Turtle Season when you will see juveniles swimming and feeding in the bay, mothers nesting and babies hatching. In addition to a great vacation it will also be an eco-trip that will benefit Centro Ecologico Akumal.

What's included:
Accommodations at either Hotel Akumal Caribe or at Casa Romero's Complex.
Turtle Talk by Centro Ecologico Akumal
Turtle Walk by CEA
Eco-Beach Walk by CEA
Snorkeling Tour of Akumal Bay by CEA
Entrance into Yal Ku Lagoon
Sunset Sail
Admission to Xcaret
Entrance to Xel Ha
Picnic at Xcacel
Welcome Dinner at Lolha
Ground Transportation
Spa Credit for Adults

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Responding to climate change -- training for trainers, June 21-25

From an announcement on Reef Resilience:

We are pleased to announce that the Nature Conservancy, in partnership with NOAA, and with support from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, will offer a workshop for Trainers from throughout Florida and the Caribbean to learn about building resilience into reef management and the tools available for addressing the impacts of climate change. The meeting will bring together managers/trainers from throughout Florida and the Caribbean to learn and share ideas that will lead to more effective long‐term coral reef management. The workshop is designed to provide an atmosphere of exchange and creative problem solving so that participants leave with a specific training plan for their locale. Resources recently developed through major international collaborations will be highlighted and distributed to participants (e.g., Resilience Toolkit, Reef Managers Guide to Bleaching, etc.) The workshop will be facilitated by regional and global experts in coral reef management.

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Quiet hurricane seasons run counter to computer predictions

From an article in The New York Times by Evan Lehmann of Climate Wire:

Recent computer models predicting that more hurricanes will strike U.S. shorelines have vastly overestimated the financial losses suffered by insurance companies, according to a new analysis.

The simulations, called "near-term models" because they predict storm strikes over five years, were launched in 2006 after two vicious seasons of landfall hurricanes, including Katrina, crushed homes and businesses along much of the Gulf Coast and Florida. The models emphasize rising storm risk caused by warmer ocean water.

Now, with only one year left in those first forecasts, the models issued by three different firms have so far overshot the level of damage by tens of billions of dollars. A string of relatively benign hurricane seasons began just as the models were introduced.

Storms caused $13.3 billion in damages between 2006 and 2009, far below even conservative expectations. Near-term models predicted much deeper devastation, ranging from $48.8 billion to $54.6 billion during that same period.

"Four years into the five year projection period, the near term models have not performed well as predictive tools. Hurricane activity changes markedly from year to year, and the active hurricane seasons of 2004 and 2005 have not proven to be harbingers of a continuing trend for 2006 through 2009," says a report by Karen Clark & Co., a risk management firm operated by an early architect of catastrophe models.

Near-term models are something of an experiment. Unlike traditional models, they don't use a century's worth of hurricane data related to frequency, landfall and wind speed. Instead, modelers input information from the warmest -- and most dangerous -- periods of the past. That's when hurricanes tend to strike with a fist.

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Rage and the economics of the environment

From an interview of British economist Tim Jackson by Stephen Leahy posted on Tierramerica.info:

"The continued pursuit of growth endangers the ecosystems on which we depend for long-term survival," says the British economist, ferocious critic of the Copenhagen Accord on climate change.

TORONTO, Canada, Jan 25 (Tierramérica).- "Rage is sometimes the appropriate response" to the failure of the world's leaders to craft a new climate treaty in Copenhagen, says British economist Tim Jackson.

The Copenhagen Accord, the outcome of the 15th Conference of Parties (COP15) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in December, not only revealed global environmental governance as a fiction, but also demonstrated a continuing blind adherence to the mantra of economic growth, says Jackson

Professor of sustainable development and director of the Research Group on Lifestyles, Values and Environment at Surrey University in Britain, Jackson is also a British government advisor and economics commissioner for the Sustainable Development Commission.

Jackson is also a professional playwright with numerous radio-writing credits for the BBC, based in London.

Tierramérica's Stephen Leahy spoke with Jackson by phone about his new, controversial book "Prosperity without Growth: Economics for a Finite Planet", the Copenhagen Accord and prospects for a real climate treaty, continuing a conversation they began last month in Copenhagen.

TIERRAMÉRICA: Your book "Prosperity without Growth" argues that economic growth in developed countries is making people less happy and destroying the Earth itself.

TIM JACKSON: It's clear the continued pursuit of growth endangers the ecosystems on which we depend for long-term survival.

There is also ample evidence that increasing material wealth in developed countries is not making people any happier, but just the opposite in some countries. Beyond a certain level of income, there is no correlation of greater income with greater happiness.

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