Komputer for Alle 1998 #6/1998 CD 6 (Gul).iso/web/ffa/wwwenv~1.org/arrs/digest/news45~2.htm/text0004.txt

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>From The Greenpeace Media Server

1996: GREENPEACE GOES EAST !

Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 4 July 1997 --- " In 1996 we took another step
in becoming a truly environmental organisation and achieved major results
outside Western countries", said Thilo Bode, Executive Director of
Greenpeace International (GPI), during a press conference in Amsterdam,
where the environmental organisation presented its annual report 1996.

In 1996, after years of sustained campaigning, Greenpeace's efforts have
lead to the signature of the Comprehensive (Nuclear) Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).
Other major achievements for the environmental organisation have been the
fuel-efficient SMiLE car, which was unveiled as a challenge to the motor
industry, and the approval of the Greenfreeze refrigerator by the European
Union. In 1996, China manufactured 140,000 units of
the Greenfreeze and has planned to produce 800,000 in 1997.

Greenpeace has been successfully campaigning in a number of countries,
including Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Czech Republic, Japan and the
Mediterranean region, in particular Tunisia, by finding the right approach
to the specific cultures of those countries.

The financial results in the audited statements show a slight decrease in
worldwide donations from 138.3 million US dollars in 1995 to 136.8 million
US dollars in 1996. However most Greenpeace donations are in Dutch guilders
and deutschmark which
suffered from appreciation of the US dollar. Using constant end of year
exchange rate, donations actually increased from 138.3 million US dollars in
1995 to 141.8 million US dollars in 1996. Strategic investments like opening
an office in Hong Kong, and the move of the Communication Department to
Amsterdam are being financed from reserves.

Last year Greenpeace began increasing its presence in the rapidly developing
regions of Asia. At the beginning of this year Greenpeace opened a national
office in Hong Kong, now part of China. The organisation is at present
investigating a presence in Thailand and other possibilities in India,
Philippines and Indonesia, where it has already been successfully
campaigning against waste trade.

"The importance of Asia is obvious: economic expansion will put extreme
pressure on resources and the environment" said Thilo Bode. " This will
present us with a new challenge: how to implement environmental protection
in those countries without making the mistake of presuming we always know best".

In the coming months, Greenpeace will concentrate its campaign efforts on
climate/ oil and forests. The organisation will focus on helping people
understand that the existing resources cannot be used without jeopardizing
the ecological balance of the planet. "We must stop oil exploration" said
John Hinck of Greenpeace International."We can't afford to burn all the
coal, oil and gas that we have already found without dangerously
escalating the speed of climate change."


For information:
- Luisa Colasimone, Greenpeace International Press Desk, T [phone]

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------
Annual Report 96, Press Conference summary


INTRODUCTION

In this era of globalisation, increased worldwide competition, employment
issues, and the reform of the social welfare state have all threatened to
push the environment aside. The outcome of the recent Earth Summit in New
York is proof that progress towards protection of the environment has been
insufficient in the last five years, and that governments are not serious
enough about fighting environmental destruction.

Instead, commercial interests are prevailing. For example, the oil and car
industries -- in particular in the United States -- are preventing progress
towards a climate convention with
legally binding reduction targets of CO2, to be concluded in Tokyo at the
end of this year.


INTERNAL REVIEW 96

Internally, Greenpeace has made progress in improving its international
performance on the way to becoming a even stronger international campaigning
and environmental pressure group.

In 1996, Greenpeace adopted its Program of Reform, the basis of which had
been decided upon in 1995.  The organisation has now a clear separation of
power between constitutional and executive levels, combined with a fair
voting rights system which gives
the overwhelming majority (25) of its 33 offices a vote.  This will help to
coordinate activities better and to more effectively monitor the performance
of national offices, without
becoming too centralised.  The organisation consists of legally independent
national entities obliged to work together according to certain rules within
the framework of Greenpeace
constitution.

FINANCE

In terms of finance, Greenpeace offices in some European countries such as
the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, and Spain have made noticeable
improvement, with donations considerably higher in 1996. In others, such as
Germany, Greenpeace has experienced a slight decrease of donations. However,
given the economic situation facing Germany at the moment, Greenpeace
Germany can be considered to be doing extremely well. The organisation also
experienced a slight decrease in donations in the US, but this is mainly due
to a change in fundraising techniques. The net income there actually
increased.

In Argentina and Japan, after years of hard work, Greenpeace believes it has
found the right approach to the specific cultures of those countries, where
the total income has increased. Greenpeace national offices strategy is
based on strategic management in priority areas. The organisation
concentrates its efforts on fewer countries with quicker and more visible
results.

The financial results in the audited statements show a decrease in worldwide
donations from 138.3 million US dollars in 1995 to 136.8 million US dollars
in 1996. However most of Greenpeace donations are in Dutch guilders and
deutschmark which suffered from appreciation of the US dollar. In constant
end of year exchange rate, donations have actually increased from 138.3
million US dollars in 1995 to 141.8 million US dollars in 1996.

Strategic investments like opening an office in Hong Kong, and the move of
the Communication Department to Amsterdam are being financed from reserves.
The decrease of the fund balance is due to the strong US dollar.


CAMPAIGN REVIEW 1996

This annual report looks for the first time in more detail at Greenpeace
activities outside the United States and Western Europe.  Greenpeace is
currently represented in 33 countries and has campaigners, if not offices,
in the Mediterranean area, India, the Philippines, Indonesia, Russia, and
Latin America. There were major achievements outside Western countries, for
example in Russia, where Greenpeace has secured World Heritage status for
Lake Baikal and the Karelia forest, and in Brazil, where a massive media
campaign forced the city government to adopt new policies on urban transport
and air quality management.

The campaign year 1996 was perhaps not as dramatic as 1995, but progress was
achieved in important areas.  For example, the signing of the Comprehensive
(nuclear) Test Ban Treaty, the presentation of the fuel-saving SmILE car and
the EU labelling of the environmentally friendly Greenfreeze fridge and its
production in China.

In addition, the Brent Spar issue continued to move towards a solution.

CAMPAIGNS 97

Greenpeace future campaign priorities will be climate and forest. It is no
coincidence that these were also key issues at the Earth Summit.  They are
the areas where the world has to act fast and where strong commercial
interests are preventing progress. The organisation will have to draw
attention to the United States in particular, where Greenpeace will attempt
through its campaigning  to provoke a change of public opinion.

One of Greenpeace's most important campaigns will be climate/oil. According
to the carbon logic argument, only one-quarter of the known oil, gas and
coal reserves can be burned.
The organisation will focus on making people understand that the existing
resources can not be used without jeopardizing the ecological balance of the
planet. The endgame of the fossil fuel industry has begun as solar and other
renewable energies start to prove themselves to be viable alternatives.
Greenpeace believes that the solar age is beginning.

MOVING EAST

Last year Greenpeace took another step in becoming a truly international
organisation. The organisation opened a national office in Hong Kong,  now a
part of China. Greenpeace will start campaigning in Hong Kong, and then
slowly widen those campaigns to China itself. The organisation is also
investigating a presence in Thailand as a suitable location for a presence
in Southeast Asia, and  exploring possibilities such as India, where
Greenpeace already has campaigners working particularly on the waste trade
issue, as in Indonesia and the Philippines.

The importance of Asia is obvious. The fast rate of growth in Asia will
incur major environmental problems. It is an area where economic and
technological expansion will put severe pressure and demand on resources and
the environment. This presents Greenpeace with a new challenge: how to
export its environmental message to such regions, without appearing to be
arrogant or patronising.

Nevertheless, Greenpeace knows that, when striving for change, conflict is
almost always inherently involved. It remains an organisation which names
parties responsible, discloses
polluters, and reveals independent information to the public.

The organisation work in these new areas will involve new approaches,
different to those Greenpeace is already familiar with. Some of these areas
enjoy neither a free press nor an open democracy. This will mean that
Greenpeace will have to find new tactics and new ways of confronting
environmental wrongs.

It is a challenge the organisation looks forward to.

ENDS


Date: Fri, 4 Jul 1997 23:54:49 -0700 (PDT)
From: David J Knowles <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: [CA] Arctic Sunrise sets sail
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

VANCOUVER, BC - The Greenpeace vessels Arctic Sunrise and Moby DIck finally
set sail at 9:30 PM tonight after being held in port since Wednesday after a
blockade was set up by the IWA.

The vessels made the break after Port of Vancouver Police became concerned
the escalating levels of pressure being applied by the IWA would lead to
problems. Port police and the Vancouver Harbour Master assisted with the
sailing.

The Arctic Sunrise is believed to have left port without a pilot on board,
and no waiver releasing them from the requirement to carry one to safely
navigate the harbour. Greenpeace could face a penalty of $5,000 for breaking
Candian maritime regulations.

The Moby Dick is a smaller vessel, and does not require a pilot.

Members of IWA tonight they would catch up with the environmental group at a
later time.

Interviewed on BCTV, one IWA picketer called the ship's crew "terrorists and
whackos masquarding as environmentalists."

The Arctic Sunrise is now en route to Prince William Sound, and the Moby
Dick will remain stationed on the BC Coast, acting as a support vessel for
any future anti-logging protests.

David Knowles
Animal Voices News

Date: Sat, 5 Jul 1997 00:41:56 -0700 (PDT)
From: David J Knowles <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: [UK] Gene switch strawberry to be picked
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"


>From The Electronic Telegraph - Saturday, July 5th, 1997

Gene switch strawberry to be picked
By David Brown, Agriculture Editor

EUROPE'S first crop of transgenic strawberries will be harvested from a
field near Dundee next week.

The strawberries, which are close to ripening, have been genetically altered
by scientists using material from cowpeas to make them resistant to pests.

In compliance with strict Government controls, the experimental crop will be
destroyed after scientists have examined the results of the field trials.
Under a project to increase yields by reducing losses from pests, two
varieties - symphony, a dessert strawberry, and melody, which is grown for
processing - have been modified to include a cowpea gene to make them
resistant to vine weevils. Tim Heilbronn, spokesman for the Scottish
Research Institute at Invergowrie, near Dundee, said "We are very pleased
with the results. The genetic modification has worked against vine weevils.
But we are about three to four years away from seeing these strawberries on
sale."

Picking will coincide with European Plant Biotechnology Week.

⌐ Copyright Telegraph Group Limited 1997.

Date: Sat, 5 Jul 1997 00:41:58 -0700 (PDT)
From: David J Knowles <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: [HK] Hong Kong 'will not restrict Greenpeace'
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"


[Is this the right designation for Konk Kong, or should it noe be counted
the same as China? Also, does anyone know if the classification of
"non-political" would also be applied to animal-rights/welfare groups? David]

>From The Electronic Telegraph - Saturday, July 5th, 1997

Hong Kong 'will not restrict Greenpeace'

GREENPEACE International is to be allowed to campaign in Hong Kong under the
new administration, despite restrictions on public protest. But it said
yesterday it had no immediate plans to do so.

Greenpeace opened an office in Hong Kong this year in the hope of increasing
its influence in the area. Thilo Bode, its director, said: "We've had some
positive feedback from the new Hong Kong government which said explicitly
that environmental organisations such as Greenpeace are not political
organisations." He added: "Obviously we will need to think carefully about
our confrontational tactics in a country like China."

⌐ Copyright Telegraph Group Limited 1997.

Date: Sat, 5 Jul 1997 00:42:00 -0700 (PDT)
From: David J Knowles <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: [BE] Firms in beef smuggling raid
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"


>From The Electronic Telegraph - Saturday, July 5th, 1997

Firms in beef smuggling raid
By Helen Cranford, Brussels

POLICE and European Union inspectors have raided two Belgian companies
suspected of involvement in a beef smuggling ring. The raids followed a
two-month investigation by British, Dutch and EU authorities after 700 tons
of British beef, labelled as Belgian, was seized in Holland.

⌐ Copyright Telegraph Group Limited 1997.

Date: Sat, 5 Jul 1997 00:42:02 -0700 (PDT)
From: David J Knowles <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: [UK] A doctor blabs - how medicine created the superbugs
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"


>From The Electronic Telegraph - Saturday, July 5th, 1997

A doctor blabs

Every week our resident consultant Hippocrates Spratt reveals what
physicians really get up to. This  week: how medicine created the superbugs

The secret is out. I wouldn't say there has been a deliberate attempt at a
cover-up, more a case of information released on a need-to-know basis. Yes,
dear reader, the fact is that hospitals are breeding grounds for some
increasingly horrible infections. If you go to hospital you stand a chance
of being infected - simply by being there.

Infection-control teams patrol the hospital looking under sinks and behind
toilets with unrelenting interest. They have an absolute mandate to evacuate
any area which has become colonised by the so-called superbugs. Their
searching extends to the staff, who have to go to a secluded spot and stick
cotton wool buds up their nose, in their ears and down their underpants. The
buds must then be delivered to the hospital laboratory. If you are found to
be  "unclean", you are suspended on full antibiotics.

In recent years countless hospital wards have closed and planned admissions
have been cancelled because of a mighty microbe dubbed MRSA. It doesn't
matter what the letters stand for (OK, methicillin-resistant staphylococcus
aureus); suffice to say it began as a fairly ordinary bacteria but has been
honed to near perfection by doctors sloshing antibiotics around willy-nilly.

MRSA can now only be killed by one available antibiotic, and some varieties
are becoming resistant to it. In most hospitals the problem is so serious
that doctors have begun to concede defeat. Wards are being kept open and
infected patients are merely moved to the end farthest from the door (to
reduce the number of people they come into contact with). We doctors wash
our hands, wear rubber gloves and silly plastic aprons - none of which does
much good, but it makes a theatrical show of things at least.

Surgeons no longer sit around for weeks twiddling their thumbs while waiting
for their wards to be given the all-clear - they just keep cutting and
accept the risks. One surgeon has half-jokingly suggested that it would be
safer to operate on patients in the middle of Piccadilly Circus.

This glum acceptance is a recent development. I recall a female anaesthetist
who was beside herself with rage at having been asked by the (male) surgeon
to take off the dress she was wearing and put on some trousers instead. He
justified himself by declaring that infection was less likely if all
operating theatre staff wore trousers, as "perineal fall-out" would be
prevented. The workings of such an imagination are almost unfathomable.
Nevertheless, his diligence was characteristic of the spirit in which we all
sought to fight hospital-acquired infections.

We have lived through the antibiotic era. Its end is nigh and outside the
bright citadel await some truly terrifying diseases. Drug companies have
wanted the widest possible use of their products - easy access,
over-the-counter sales in some countries and indiscriminate use in farming.
This, coupled with an explosion in international travel, has caused the
global spread of the superbugs. From its first outbreak in a south London
hospital we have now
given MRSA to the world. But you can't just blame the drug companies. No,
doctors' ill-informed prescribing habits and patients' insistence on having
antibiotics for anything and everything are equally responsible.

The result is that we rely less on our immune systems and more on medicines
that have been responsible for creating a microbial master-race, against
which our flabby immunity has no answer. There is a form of  tuberculosis,
probably from Asia, that cannot be cured. We have enjoyed a 50-year holiday
from infectious scourges of this kind and the holiday is about to end.

So what can be done? Well, in the hospitals we will continue to wash our
hands, wear rubber gloves and put on silly aprons. You can help by not
whingeing to your GP about how you really need antibiotics when all you've
got is a bit of flu. You can grin and bear it, take a few aspirin and wait.
Out there are several bacteria which are on the point of being resistant to
all known antibiotics - and they are coming to a street near you.

⌐ Copyright Telegraph Group Limited 1997.

Date: Sat, 5 Jul 1997 00:42:10 -0700 (PDT)
From: David J Knowles <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: [TZ] What the witchdoctor ordered
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"


>From The Electronic Telegraph - Saturday, July 5th, 1997

What the witchdoctor ordered

Africa should benefit from a project to tap its wealth of healing plants.
Aisling Irwin reports

THE witchdoctor unwound six feet of beads from his magic doll and pushed one
end into his ear to make contact with his spiritual father hundreds of miles
away in Zaire.

I sat in his dark hut and studied the array of plants and powders while he
chatted on the bead line, a medical consultation of a type I had not
experienced before. My mind drifted as I waited. Then I woke up: "I'm in a
mud hut in a Tanzanian village with no electricity, happily listening to
this man with manic eyes using a piece of string for a telephone." I'd only
popped
in to get something for a stomach bug.

Tanzania is rich in diverse plants and in people who say they can use them
to cure a multitude of diseases. The country's scientists want to study the
remedies and isolate the beneficial ones - though they often have
insufficient resources with which to do it.

In the West, on the other hand, there is panic that the African repository
of potential future drugs will disappear as agriculture spreads across the
continent.

>From next week, a pioneering project will try to document this plant world
before it's too late. An army of barefoot botanists, plucked from villages
across Tanzania and trained in the rudiments of the science will record its
flora. The project, run by the Missouri Botanical Garden in the United
States, is training local people in science and trying to quell the fears of
African scientists, who are increasingly wary of the drug company scientists
who they say fly in, whip some exciting looking plants from the bush, and
jet home again without benefiting the host country.

The village collectors will be the base of a pyramid. Further up, the
National Herbarium of Tanzania and other bodies, such as Dar es Salaam
University's botany department, will analyse the collected plants and
accumulate training, equipment and plant samples as they go.

When the project is finished, Tanzanians should be better equipped to study
the country's biodiversity and to argue with their government over
ecological issues. In the US, the Missouri garden will have a wealth of new
specimens to store away. Among them could be the precursors of some powerful
new drugs.

Researchers at the herbarium and the university already work with
traditional healers on a small scale, searching for active substances. They
avoid witchdoctors, however. "We do not get involved with them," said
Boniface Mhoro, a botanist at Dar es Salaam University. "They pretend they
are treating people but they are fake and it goes bad."

Professor Rogasian Mahunnah, director of the Institute of Traditional
Medicine, affiliated to the university, said: "We go to the villages, live
with the traditional healers and they tell us what they use. We establish a
rapport, collect the material, bring it to the institution and do a
botanical identification." It is this painstaking work that the scientists
hope will be boosted by the new project.

In hot and busy Dar es Salaam, Mr Mhoro took me to a corner of the market
where the healers sell their exotic wares. The good ones have learnt their
wisdom from their great grandfathers, he said, as he walked past booth after
wooden booth, each with shelves and tables piled high with twisted roots and
barks.

There were smooth cone shells; little cowrie shells waiting to be ground up
with lemon juice; big brown seeds from a tree with huge pods - you graze
your skin and rub in the seed powder to get it into the blood from where it
can treat the liver, one of the healers said. In a basket were seaweed and
other white stringy offerings from the ocean floor. Under a table lay a pile
of elephant dung - its smoke treats children's fits, a healer said.

On one table lay a pile of gnarled ebony roots, each with a core of black
running through it (take it to relieve pain). I caught sight of a single jar
of clear liquid. "Lion oil," the healer said. It relieves an inflamed leg.

At the university, Prof Mahunnah has the task of isolating a substance from
the ritual that surrounds it. "There is a treatment for epilepsy," he said.
"They might say, 'Put a coin on the ground, pick the root, cut both ends,
don't talk to anyone before you go back home'."

The healer sometimes instructs patients to pick a plant only early in the
morning, said Prof Mahunnah. Now the scientists have found that there is a
family of healing plants whose active ingredients dissipate during the day -
so they must be picked in the morning.

Up the street, away from the profusion of roots, barks and plants, a Muslim
traditional healer in a blue boiler suit was sitting watching over his
treasures. He works with spices and powders. The university learns from him
as well. A table covered in yellowing newspaper carried neat rows of wooden
boxes filled with powders, resins and seeds.

The healer said that some of the seeds contain quinine, the old enemy of
malaria. There were tortoise shells, starfish, sea horses and chunks of coral.

One bottle contained water from the Seven Seas, said the healer. He can
produce another medicine by writing a message on a sacred piece of paper and
dropping it into a bottle of water. The scientists confine themselves to his
plant matter. Mr Mhoro said: "He will give us medicine for doing research
but the rest of it - we leave it to him."

The new project, whose Tanzanian leader is Dr William Mziray, curator of the
national herbarium, should provide a boost to Tanzanian researchers'
resources in several ways. The local people, who will be known as
parataxonomists, will be chosen because they live in places where it is
believed there are plants of interest and where there are conservation or
research programmes into which they can slot. They will be sufficiently
literate to take field notes.

The barefoot botanists will be trained to interview healers and scour the
areas in which they live to record what they find. They will be paid and
when the project is finished they will be guaranteed three years' work with
conservation organisations and reserves throughout the country, after which
they should be sufficiently experienced to be employable.

"It has happened far too often in the past that you train people to do
something that you need and then afterwards they can do nothing with it,"
said Roy Gereau, curatorial assistant in the Africa and Madagascar
department at the Missouri Botanical Garden. The result is that programmes
give no lasting benefits to a country.

The approach, funded by the MacArthur Foundation and the Ortenberg
Foundation, has been tried once before, in Madagascar, and the long-term
employment rate there is around 70 per cent.

Working above the collectors will be regional coordinators - also Tanzanian.
Above them, cataloguing and studying the results, will be graduate students
at the university.

But despite all the benefits to Tanzania, the Missouri Botanical Garden has
a lot to gain. "We are a museum," said Mr Gereau. "We are frankly and
unapologetically acquisitive. We are doing a basic scientific inventory and
taxonomic status. But we want to do this in the support of building up the
scientific capacity of the country."

⌐ Copyright Telegraph Group Limited 1997.

Date: Sat, 5 Jul 1997 10:52:01 -0700 (PDT)
From: [e-mail]
To: [e-mail]
Subject: 4 ARRESTED TRYING TO STOP PRAIRIE DOG SLAUGHTER
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Early this morning (Saturday) 4 activists from Rocky Mountain Animal Defense
(RMAD) were arrested after they went onto the killing fields in Burlington,
CO  to intervene and stop the gunshot slaughter of hundreds of prairie dogs
by the "Varmint Militia."

More arrests are expected at the "Prairie Dog Shooting Contest."

Greg Litus of RMAD is desperately seeking support. He's in the field, and
RMAD is not being allowed in the jail.

Call the Kit Carson County Jail at 719/346 7006 or 719 346 8934 and tell
them you're concerned about Scott Keating, Nicole Rosamarino, Loren McCain
and Jay Manows.

Beginning Monday, if they are still in (we will keep you posted), you can
call the clerk's office at 719/346 5524 and the county commissiner at 917
346 8133.

More later.

cres

Date: Sat, 05 Jul 1997 19:13:09 -0400
From: allen schubert <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: Updated Page for VSCP
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Posted for VSCP:
-----------------------------
Feel Free to forward to other lists!

Vegan Standards and Certification Project, Inc.'s website is newly
updated.....check it out!

http://www.veganstandards.org

Hillary Morris
Vegan Standards and Certification Project, Inc.
91 Joralemon Street
Suite 4
Brooklyn, NY 11201
718-246-0014
F: 718-246-5912
email: [e-mail]
http://www.veganstandards.org


Date: Sat, 5 Jul 1997 17:48:15 -0700 (PDT)
From: [e-mail]
To: [e-mail]
Subject: UPDATE: 7 ARRESTED AT PRAIRIE DOG PROTEST (US)
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

UPDATE....Ellie and Greg have called in from RMAD, and the total now stands
at 7 arrested trying to stop the gunshot slaughter -- otherwise known as the
"Prairie Dog Shooting Contest" by the Varmint Militia in Burlington, Colorado.

The first four jailed -- Scott Keating, Nicole Rosamarino, Loren McCain
and Jay Manows -- are being held on $3,500 bail EACH for trespassing,
resisting, hunter harassment and conspiracy. The other three -- Chris
Atencio, Betina Rosamarino and Jill ____ (sorry for misspellings) -- are
being held on $1,500 bail EACH for trespassing and hunter harassment.

Police at the Kit Carson Jail have locked supporters out, and are being
difficult. You might try to contact them AGAIN at 719/346 7006 and tell
them you're concerned about the jailed activists.

Beginning Monday, Greg says you can call the clerk's office at 719/346 5524
and the county commissioner at 917 346 8133.

More later.

cres
National Activist Network/Activist Civil Liberties Committee


Date: Sun, 6 Jul 1997 12:16:56 +0859 (JST)
From: [e-mail] (Aki Nagao)
To: [e-mail]
 Subject: [ISAHAYA BAYUPDATE]
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>

------ Forwarded Message
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-2022-jp

ISAHAYA BAY UPDATE
3rd JULY 1997
By Maggie Suzuki
Japan Environment Monitor

They have not opened the gates. The Bay is getting dead fast. The
cracked and drying-out tidal flats are littered with dead shellfish.
Occasionally a crab or "tobi-haze" goby can be seen deep in the
cracks but, as noted by Hanawa Shinichi of WWF-Japan on June
14, "Their bodies no longer glisten, instead they're covered with a
thick layer of dull mud." As predicted, two months later it's a
nasty mess. Hopes now are for restoration of tidal flows in time to
bring the ecosystem back enough to provide at least some
sustenance for the fall migration of shorebirds.

GOVERNMENT REPLIES HYSTERICAL

The authorities have not altered their stance, but have started to
react, issuing letters, statements, and replies. I received a reply
from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries which
told me I don't have to worry about the impact on the
environment because they are "performing monitoring surveys"
and have planted some of the endangered saltwater plant Suadea
japonica "in planters." The largest colony in the country of this
plant used to be found on the uppermost edges of Isahaya's tidal
flats. I guess they water the planters with salt water twice a day...

Most of these official replies emphasize the dangers to local
people, in an attempt to make it look like poorly-informed bunny-
huggers are trying to force disaster-plagued salt-of-the-earth
farmers to die and lose crops for the sake of not-even-very
endangered wildlife. As evidence for the project's necessity,
statistics from all sorts of disasters, including a volcanic eruption
of neighboring Mt. Unzen 200 years ago, are being added to a
mysteriously growing number of casualties from the great 1957
Isahaya flood. This number, originally recorded as 539, has lately
been upped to 760, or even "over 800."

Ironically, when questioned about the Isahaya issue at his press
conference following the Denver G-8 Summit on June 22nd, Prime
Minister Hashimoto huffily attempted to browbeat the reporter,
saying "How much have you studied this issue? Do you know the
number of people killed or missing in the great Isahaya flood?" It
appears, however, that authorities are having considerable
difficulty making up their minds about this number and have
refused to answer questions about the basis for their recent
revisions.

PROJECT NOT DELIVERING

Meantime, the local people who have been supporting the project
hoping for relief from flooding of paddy fields on low-lying
formerly reclaimed land adjacent to the bay have had to continue
using pumps to clear out water from Typhoon No. 8 and other
recent heavy rainfalls. The project was supposed to improve
drainage by lowering the level of water caught behind the new
seawall by one meter. Authorities have blamed the lack of
improvement in drainage on "garbage accumulated in drainage
gates."

However, what the authorities fail to mention is that local people,
have for decades been asking them to shoulder the costs and
improve pumping facilities, to no avail. This did not prevent MAFF
from sending me a photo of local people engaged in the difficult
and dangerous work of maintaining drainage channels in the mud.

The most important un-mentioned fact, however, is noted by local
activist Yoshida Yukio in an email message posted on the ever-
growing "wetland" mailing list which has sprung up to facilitate
communications about the Isahaya issue: "Standing on the old
seawall between the bay and the paddy fields reclaimed in former
years, even a child can see that lowering the water level in the
bay behind the new seawall is not going to help because the level
of the old reclaimed land is three meters lower than the level of
the now drying-out tidal flats. Obviously rain water is going to
seek the lower level."

WATER QUALITY PROVING A PROBLEM

When the environmental impact assessment for the project was
approved by the Environment Agency in 1987, one of the items in
the opinion statement was an injunction to take measures to
prevent eutrophication of the reservoir. Naturally, with the
stoppage of tidal flows and large-scale dying of shellfish and other
tidal flat organisms, the water quality of this area is deteriorating
fast.

Both the MAFF's Isahaya Project Office and Nagasaki Prefecture
have carried on monitoring surveys of water quality at least since
the project was commenced in 1989, and this data is being
supplied to the Environment Agency. Since the wall closing, the
number of survey points has been increased from three to five,
and these points are surveyed once a week.

Data apparently shows considerable worsening in water quality.
However, the Environment Agency has yet to call on MAFF to take
substantive measures, for example to open sluice gates in the wall,
saying they can't comment because the water quality has not
"stabilized" yet, partly due to heavy rains. It also notes that the
desalinization process is progressing more slowly than expected.

The MAFF refuses to consider opening the gates in answer to
public appeals on the grounds that it would "negate the purposes
of the project," and, ironically, "negatively affect fishing areas
adjacent to the sluice gates."

Many feel that present Environment Agency Director-General Ishii
has shown a remarkable absence of backbone, and mourn the
vigorous leadership of the Agency's last Director, in the Murayama
Cabinet, Iwatare Sukio.

OPPOSITION MOVEMENT DIGS IN

The Dietmembers Association to Consider Isahaya Bay now has
over 90 members, and on June 18th submitted a comprehensive
list of questions to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and
Fisheries and the Environment Agency about the project. The
authorities will be less able to evade answering when these
Dietmembers invite their response in a series of meetings planned
for this month.

As a lead-up to this process, a seminar involving representatives
of the Dietmembers Association together with well-known
experts, such as Professor Ui Jun of Okinawa University, a
renowned water-quality expert, and Professor Katayose Toshihide
of the Nagasaki Institute of Applied Science, coordinator of the
alternative "Mutsugoro Road" development plan, will join JAWAN
and the Isahaya Bay Emergency Rescue Task Force
representatives in Isahaya on July 6th.

The Emergency Rescue Task Force, which operates offices in Tokyo
and Isahaya, has in the meantime gathered well over 40,000
signatures on a petition calling for the gates to be opened and the
project reviewed (see English version attached below). It also
organized a mass demonstration in which about 500 people,
including Dietmembers as well as children and one large dog,
demonstrated and marched through Shibuya on June 14th, waving
home-made mud skipper banners.

The Task Force published in time for this event a concise 94-page
booklet explaining the issue and what has happened since the wall
was closed. (This Japanese-language booklet can be purchased for
700 yen or as a set with a ceramic mud skipper for 1500 yen; see
contact below). Funds gathered at this event enabled a
representative to take the issue to New York.

INTERNATIONAL PRESSURE ESCALATES, TRAILS PM HASHIMOTO
THROUGH U.S.

Prime Minister Hashimoto was not allowed to forget about
Isahaya Bay while he was in the United States; not only was he
questioned in Denver, but at the United Nations General Assembly
Special Session "Earth Summit + 5," paid opinion advertisements
about Isahaya Bay asking "Is this what you call sustainable
development Mr. Hashimoto?" in the Earth Times newsletter, and
a demonstration on the steps of the United Nations led to Japanese
newspaper coverage headlining "In America Too, Isahaya." A
comprehensive article on the issue appeared in the June 23rd Los
Angeles Times, the same day PM Hashimoto gave his talk at the
ultimately indecisive UNGASS.

Meantime, letters were sent in mid-June both by the American
NGO Alliance to Save Isahaya Bay and by JAWAN, WWF-J and the
Wild Bird Society of Japan to PM Hashimoto, the US Secretary of
State, and other appropriate governments and convention
secretariats alleging that the project violates international treaties
and agreements, such as the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of
International Importance, the Biodiversity Convention, and
bilateral migratory bird agreements which Japan shares with the
United States, Australia, the Russian Federation, and the People's
Republic of China.

WWF-Japan, which has actively pursued the Isahaya issue, took
out a paid advertisement in the Japanese-language July issue of
the National Geographic, has set up a special Isahaya Bay fund. It
also revealed that His Royal Highness Prince Philip Duke of
Edinburgh sent a letter to PM Hashimoto May 26th which asked
him to take measures to prevent damage to Isahaya's tidal flat
ecosystem.

The Emergency Task Force is also planning a demonstration at the
Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries on July 14th.
Please call them for details (see below).

TO NAGASAKI JULY 27, TOKYO AUGUST 8

Japan Wetland Action Network, WWF-Japan and the Emergency
Task Force are sponsoring a "Tidal Flat Summit" to be held in
Nagasaki July 27th at Nagasaki-shi Heiwa Kaikan from 13:00-
17:00 (1:00-5:00 pm); a donation of 1500 yen (800 for students)
will be requested.

Speakers will include Yamashita Hirofumi of JAWAN, Hobo
Takehiko, professor of political science at Shimane University, and
one Dietmember from each of the political parties represented in
the Dietmembers Association to Consider Isahaya Bay. JAWAN
Steering Committee members will also be on hand to deliver
reports about the many other tidal flat ecosystems throughout
Japan similarly threatened by public works. There may be other
speakers, but the need for haste in organizing this event means
confirmation for some participants is still pending.

EVENT CONTACTS

For information on the Nagasaki July 27th event, please contact:
Mr. Matsumoto at 092-542-5515
Ms. Itoh (English OK) at 092-43-0374 (email: [e-mail])

The program handed out at this event will have space for paid
advertisements. Individuals are invited to purchase a 9 cm x 5.5
cm space for 5,000 yen, while organizations and companies are
asked to pay 10,000 for the same, or multiples thereof (i.e., 18 cm
x 11 cm for 10,000 individual, 20,000 organization or company).
Ad copy should be mailed or faxed in by July 22nd and paid for
by post office transfer.
Mailing address: Matchbox (attn: Matsumoto)
3-17-12-205 Shiohara Minami-ku Fukuoka-shi
Fax: [phone] (Tel: [phone])
Post office transfer (NB: because this account is a personal, not an
organization account, the form is different from, for example, the
JEM account. Don't worry, it will work.)
Account code ("kigo") 17420 Account no. ("bango") 15067151
Account name: Itoh Yoshino (Nihon Higata Summit)

Meantime, another meeting, in Tokyo, is now in the planning
phases with the date initially set for August 8th. Please contact
the Task Force Tokyo Office for information (in Japanese).

Isahaya Bay Emergency Rescue Task Force
Tokyo Office: tel: [phone] fax: [phone]
Isahaya Office: tel: [phone] fax: [phone]

Japan Wetlands Action Network (International Liaison)
tel/fax: [phone] (international: [phone])
email: [e-mail]


COMMENTARY FROM JAPANESE ENVIRONMENTAL COMMUNITY

Of course the big environmental topic in Japan this year is global
warming, with the Third Conference of the Parties to the
International Convention on Climate Change coming up in Kyoto in
November. However, the implications for the climate change
situation of government inaction on the Isahaya issue are not
being lost on Japan's environmental community.

>From the June 1997 Earth Day News Japan editorial: "I have a
volume here before me, 'Report from Isahaya Bay in the Ariake
Sea,' published April 1977, 20 years ago... by Yamashita Hirofumi.
... It gives a precise analysis of the problems being raised about
Isahaya Bay today -- the history of reclamation, the importance of
the tidal flat ecosystem, fishery and agricultural issues, water
quality, disaster prevention, etc. And in those 20 years, no review
of the project was initiated...

"For over 30 years, some people have been working hard to
protect Isahaya Bay. But, at the same time, there have been how
many tens or hundreds more people throwing their weight behind
the development. In a case like this, what is needed from
government is not action based on reactions to images and
impressions, but the power to predict consequences and to
conceptualize and put into place necessary policy changes. This
should be the underlying basis for decision-making. Politicians are
remarkably poor at this, mere grandstanders.

"How can we expect politicians and society at large to react,
therefore, to global warming? Climatologists... started issuing their
warnings about 10 years ago... and nothing has really been done.
The Denver Summit too resulted in nothing more than skin-deep
commitments. I do not think that the conceptualizing ability and
decision-making processes of present-day politicians will be
anywhere near sufficient to prevent global warming."

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-

To:
The Honorable Ryutaro Hashimoto, Prime Minister of Japan
The Honorable Takao Fujimoto, Minister of Agriculture, Forestry
and Fisheries

PETITION:
- OPEN THE SLUICE GATES IN THE SEAWALL CUTTING OFF
ISAHAYA BAY
- THOROUGHLY REVIEW THE ISAHAYA BAY LAND RECLAMATION
PROJECT

On April 14th, 1997, the seawall cutting off upper Isahaya Bay
from the tides was closed. If tidal flows are not restored, great
numbers of creatures which are particularly adapted to the tidal
flat environment will be exterminated, migratory birds will lose
an important stopover and wintering site, and the water
purification functions previously performed by the tidal flats will
be lost. The putrid stench of dying shellfish already pervades the
drying-out bay. Please open gates in the sea wall to preserve the
ecology of this internationally important tidal flat ecosystem.

The aims of the Isahaya Bay Land Reclamation Project are
supposed to be "disaster prevention and creation of high-quality
farmland," but the "Isahaya Bay Disaster Prevention Advisory
Council" established by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and
Fisheries concluded in its interim report that the project could not
prevent large floods, while the Ministry itself pursues a policy of
large-scale cutbacks in rice production. Thus we can see no real
reasons for the land reclamation project. Costs have already
escalated from 135 billion yen to 237 billion yen, threatening to
waste ever larger amounts of taxpayer's money.

Destruction of the tidal flats will also hasten the destruction of
local culture, based from antiquity on the rich and diverse
resource of the tidal flats, as well as severely impacting the
productivity of near-shore fisheries. The national government
must initiate and carry through a thorough re-examination of the
project, which is being paid for by national government funds, and
protect the tidal flats of Isahaya Bay, a heritage common to all
humanity, while taking appropriate measures for disaster
prevention along the coast of the Bay.

We the undersigned, petition for the following:

- Open the two sluice gates in the seawall across Isahaya Bay
without further delay.
- Undertake a thorough review of the tax-wasting Isahaya Land
Reclamation Project.

Name                       Address





Please send the completed petitions to:
The Isahaya Bay Emergency Rescue Task Force
1100-13 Ono-cho Isahaya-shi Nagasaki-ken 854 Japan
tel: [phone]   fax: [phone]

Initial goal date: September 30, 1997


     *     *     *     *     *
The full text of this update will be available on the Japan
Environment Monitor web site:
http://www.yin.or.jp/user/greenstar/


------ End of Forwarded Message
  :+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:
           $B"v(B NAGAO AKi $B"v(B
   Graduate student,Faculty of Law
   [e-mail]
  +:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+

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