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WWF New Global Health Check

Long Version | Short Version | B-Roll Footage

Title: New Global Health Check VNR
Embargo: 1st October 1998

NEWS-IN-BRIEF

For the first time ever, a measure of the damage being done to the natural world has been produced. WWF's Living Planet Index will assess the change, for better or worse, of the planet's health.

LONG VERSION

All along the coast of Thailand, these mangrove forests - which once provided the very lifeblood of the marine environment - have been torn down to make way for kilometre after kilometre of shrimp farms.

This is just one example of the destruction highlighted in a new global health check on the environment launched today by the international conservation organization WWF.

The Living Planet Index is a new measure of just how much the pressures of human consumption have hurt the natural environment over the last twenty five years.

Dr Jorgen Randers is the Deputy Director of WWF International.

I/V Dr Jorgen Randers, Deputy Director of WWF International

"It tells the very sad fact that not only is nature disappearing, but it's actually disappearing much faster than we believed. The numbers actually say that roughly one third of nature has disappeared since 1970 and that's only over the last generation."

Directly accessible on the Internet, anyone can see how forest, freshwater and marine ecosystems have been under attack. The Living Planet Index will constantly measure the change, for better or worse, of the planet's health.

The index shows that, over the last 30 years, populations of freshwater species have halved on average - a clear sign of the drastic decline in the health of freshwater ecosystems.

Figures like these will quantify the ongoing health of the environment says Jonathan Loh of WWF, one of the originators of the Living Planet Index.

I/V Jonathan Loh, WWF International

"Essentially, the fact that it is an index is what's new. That we've tried to put a number on it in exactly the same way as the Dow Jones Index tries to track the New York stock exchange, this it trying to track the state of the global environment."

Thailand is just one example of a country whose natural forest, freshwater and marine ecosystems have been severely degraded.

The mangrove forests of Thailand's coastline are being attacked from all sides - by shrimp farming, by tourist development and by pollution.

A life-support system for the entire coastal environment and home to much of the region's wildlife such as the crab-eating Macaques, the mangrove has been left deadened and black, threatening to undermine the area's whole marine ecosystem.

Half of all the world's forests have been lost and, according to WWF's Living Planet Index, 13% of the remaining forest has disappeared in the last 30 years alone - an acceleration driven by human consumption, which puts natural resources under immense pressure.

The enormous, sprawling cities of south east Asia display many of the problems identified in WWF's Living Planet Index. Immense population pressure and a drive towards western lifestyles have left the region's cities choked and gridlocked.

But it's western world's consumption patterns which have hit the global environment hardest. Resource use and pollution are more than twice as high per person in developed countries, compared with the developing world - a key message highlighted by the Index which many experts believe will play a major role in guiding decision makers.

Professor Ghillean Prance is the Director of Kew Gardens in London.

I/V Prof. Ghillean Prance, Director of Kew Gardens

"The Living Planet Index at last gives us something like that we can show to the politicians, that we can show to the conservation planners. We can see the areas that are particularly threatened and begin to take action. I hope that the Living Planet Index will really frighten the world into action about rain forests, about oceans and about our freshwater eco systems."

To halt the destruction of the natural environment in countries like Thailand, urgent action is required by governments and industry everywhere.

WWF hopes that by providing decision makers and ordinary people the world over with a measure of the planet's changing health they can stimulate a shift to more sustainable consumption patterns.

ENDS

SHORT VERSION

All along the coast of Thailand, these mangrove forests - which once provided the very lifeblood of the marine environment - have been torn down to make way for kilometre after kilometre of shrimp farms.

This is just one example of the destruction highlighted in a new global health check on the environment launched today by the international conservation organization WWF.

The Living Planet Index is a new measure of just how much the pressures of human consumption have hurt the natural environment over the last twenty five years.

Dr Jorgen Randers is the Deputy Director of WWF International.

I/V Dr Jorgen Randers, Deputy Director of WWF International

"It tells the very sad fact that not only is nature disappearing, but it's actually disappearing much faster than we believed. The numbers actually say that roughly one third of nature has disappeared since 1970 and that's only over the last generation."

Thailand is just one example of a country whose natural forest, freshwater and marine ecosystems have been severely degraded.

The mangrove forests of Thailand's coastline are being attacked from all sides - by shrimp farming, by tourist development and by pollution.

A life-support system for the entire coastal environment and home to much of the region's wildlife such as the crab-eating Macaques, the mangrove has been left deadened and black, threatening to undermine the areas whole marine ecosystem.

Half of all the world's forests have been lost and, according to WWF's Living Planet Index, 13% of the remaining forest has disappeared in the last 30 years alone - an acceleration driven by human consumption, which puts natural resources under immense pressure.

Professor Ghillean Prance is the Director of Kew Gardens in London.

I/V Prof. Ghillean Prance, Director of Kew Gardens

"The Living Planet Index at last gives us something like that we can show to the politicians, that we can show to the conservation planners. We can see the areas that are particularly threatened and begin to take action. I hope that the Living Planet Index will really frighten the world into action about rain forests, about oceans and about our freshwater eco systems."

To halt the destruction of the natural environment in countries like Thailand, urgent action is required by governments and industry everywhere.

WWF hopes that by providing decision makers and ordinary people the world over with a measure of the planet's changing health they can stimulate a shift to more sustainable consumption patterns.

ENDS

B ROLL

1. Graphic (Duration: 48 secs)

2. Forest Fires, Amazon Rainforest, Brazil (Duration: 1 min 54 secs)

3. Marine Environments: Florida Keys; Fishing (Duration: 2 min 22 secs)

4. Freshwater Environments, Thailand (Duration: 1 min 38 secs)

5. Population Pressure: Thailand and Helsinki (Duration: 1 min 6 secs)

6. Pollution (Duration: 2 min 29 secs)

7. Shrimp Farms (Duration: 1 min 13 secs)

8. Mangrove Forests and Macaques (Duration: 3 min 2 secs)

9. Interview: Jorgen Sanders, Assistant Director, WWF International (Duration 21 secs) ENGLISH LANGUAGE

"What we would really like to happen is for many more people to become aware of the fact that not only is nature disappearing so fast that strong action in necessary, not only from themselves, but from governments, corporations, everyone else that can do something to reduce the pressure on Earth."

10. Interview: Jorgen Sanders, Assistant Director, WWF International (Duration 18 secs) NORWEGIAN LANGUAGE

"Det vikstigste rapporten sier er at vi har mistet saa mye som 30 prosent av verdens natur i loeopet av de siste 25 aarene, og det er jo et voldsomt hoeyt tall gitt at det bare er en generasjon siden 1970."

"The most important thing the report says is that we have lost as much as 30 per cent of the world's nature during the last 25 years. And that is an incredibly high number given that there is only one generation since 1970."

11. Interview: Jerry Tupacz, Conservationist, Wildlife Fund Thailand (Duration: 28 secs) ENGLISH LANGUAGE

"In general, Thailand has undergone severe destruction over the last 20 to 30 years. In the north, the forests of northern Thailand have really undergone severe destruction. And, down here in the south, the rapid uncontrolled expansion of the tourism industry, industry in general and, more recently, the uncontrolled expansion of shrimp farms in the mangrove areas has really taken their toll on the coastal and marine environments in south Thailand as well."

12. Interview: Jerry Tupacz, Conservationist, Wildlife Fund Thailand (Duration: 38 secs) ENGLISH LANGUAGE

"The mangrove forests of southern Thailand are very important as primary producers of nutrients for the whole ecosystem. They're also very important hiding place and shelter for juvenile species and over the years they've undergone severe destruction from charcoal production and tin mining and expansion of the tourism industry and , most recently the rapid and uncontrolled expansion of shrimp farms in southern Thailand have really, really taken their toll on the mangrove habitat."

13. Interview: Jonathan Loh, Policy Unit, WWF International (Duration: 37 secs) ENGLISH LANGUAGE

"What came out of it quite strongly and was surprising was that the decline of freshwater ecosystems was far worse that we anticipated. It's been apparent over the last few years from biologists who are studying freshwater species such as freshwater fish or frogs or amphibians that there is a problem there and we've seen a very marked decline in the freshwater component of the index which is very worrying - much stronger than the decline in forest or marine ecosystems."

14. Interview: Prof. Ghillean Prance, Director, Kew Gardens, London (Duration: 24 secs) ENGLISH LANGUAGE

"The Living Planet Index will certainly be quite understandable by everybody. It can be used in schools, it can be used by journalists to tell people what is actually happening because it states everything simply. It's got nice simple tables in it and that is what we need, something that the layman can understand. And certainly this shows the declining nature of our environment over years in an absolutely clear way."