Minutes - Council - 07/26/1994 - Laserfiche WebLink

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action be taken to save such life before it is.' too late? Or wiIl men remain deaf to these. cries, with ears open only to the wails of the The Attack Is Worldwide ~. '.~"'"' At the opening' of a w~)rldw~de campaign:, promoted by the United Nations to save wet-: lands, threats to Brazil's Pantanal ecosystem'd.' were cited. It is one of the ~vorld's largest wet- lands. The magazine BioScience stated: "The Pantanal, with its extraordinary diversity and-- abundance of wildlife, is a threatened region. Deforestation; expanding agriculture; illegal- hunting and fishing; and pollution of the: water with herbicides, pesticides, and by- products of fuel alcohol production have caused a progressive deterioration of the nat- ural environment, placing at risk one of Bra- zil's most important ecosystems." .,. The New York Times pointed out the threat to the wetlands along the coast of th,e Med- iterranean. "The loss of wetlands ha.5 quick- ened in the last three decades as the Mediter- ranean coasts have become more covaed than ever and large stretches of coastline have been covered with concrete in the name of sun' worship, comfort and-profits. United Nations studies cite major losses in Italy, Egypt, Tur- key and Greece." The wetlands of Spain's' fabulous 125,000- acre Dofiana National Park become an avian airport in spring as hundreds of thousands of -birds en route from Africa to Europe stop off at its swamps and woodlands to nest and breed' and feed. But the rash of hotels,, golf courses, and farmlands surrounding the park are siphoning off so much of the water that the park'S survival is threatened. In the past I5 years, such projects have already pumped so much-water-that the Water table has dropped 6 to 30 feet, and several lagoons have dried up. "Any more growth here," the park's research director says," will be the death sen- tence for Dofiana.' State of the Worm 1992 reports: ."Mangroves, one of the most threatened and valuable types of wetlands, have suffered heavy losses in Asia, Latin America, and west Africa. Nearly half of these protective swamp forests in Ecuador, for exam- ple, have been cleared, mostly for shrimp ponds, and plans call for the conversion of a like propor- tion of the remaining areas. India, Pakistan, and Thailand have alI. lost at least three fourths of their mangroves: Indonesia seems determined to follow suit: in Kalimantan; its largest province, 95 percent of all mangroves are to be cleared for pulpwood production." The value of mangroves is highlighted in Thai- land's Bangkok Post of August 25, 1992: "Man- grove forests are made up. of diverse tree species which thrive in upper tidal zones along flat, shel- tered tropical shores. The trees have [thrived] in the harsh environment of: brackish water and changing tides. Their special adaptive aerial roots and salt-filtering tap roots have established rich and complex ecosystems.. Besides protecting vast areas of coastline from erosion, they are vital to inshore fisheries, wood-products industries, and wildlife. Awaket January 22,.3.994