New findings by the Wildlife Conservation Society and the Bangladesh Ministry of Environment and Forests indicates that biologists could be able to breathe a sigh of relief over the imperiled position of the Irrawaddy dolphin. The species, which lives primarily in sheltered bays in the Asia-Pacific region, was long feared by scientists to be a leading candidate for extinction, so much so it was placed on the IUCN Red List in 2008.

Working in Bangladesh’s Sunbardans mangroves, scientists counted a robust population estimated at 6000 Irrawaddy dolphins living throughout the region and neighboring Bay of Bengal. This is a sharp uptick from the previous assessment, which counted numbers barely in the hundreds. Lead researcher Brian D. Smith was effusive:

This discovery gives us great hope that there is a future for Irrawaddy dolphins. Bangladesh clearly serves as an important sanctuary for Irrawaddy dolphins, and conservation in this region should be a top priority.

Nevertheless, the scientists’ findings suggest a habitat that is growing increasingly hostile towards its aquatic inhabitants. Fishing pressure, lack of freshwater due to growing populations and rising sea levels, and growing human influence all conspire to make life for the Irrawaddy dolphin a sometimes difficult search for food and habitat.

Image: Irrawaddy dolphins

This week, announcements from around the globe offered possible solutions to two of Asia’s most intractable environmental problems: arsenic poisoning and wildlife trafficking.

With more than 140 million people consuming arsenic-laced water in Southern Asian nations like Cambodia, Bangladesh, and Myanmar, understanding what causes the mass poisonings and how to prevent further ingestion has always been a top priority for scientists. Thus the announcement by a group of Stanford University researchers that a cause may have been pinpointed comes as welcome news. According to their analysis, the naturally occurring arsenic that is leached from the Himalaya Mountains and carried into water basins relied upon by human settlements actually dissolves due to contact with bacteria in the riverbeds. This discovery runs counter to the prevailing logic that arsenic-tainted water came primarily from deep beneath the earth’s surface. The new findings will be used to find safe well sites, a process that one of the researchers said would be “extremely accurate” in avoiding arsenic tainted water.

In a battle against wildlife trafficking, the Thai and US governments are pairing up to hold seminars at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport to better teach employees how to spot and detain animal smugglers and traffickers. Trafficking profits are estimated to be close to $30 billion each year, and reportedly is the third largest illegal trade after drugs and guns. Largely overworked airport security patrols welcomed the conference as an opportunity to gain a better understanding of just what animals were vulnerable to illegal trafficking.

Image: Caged monkey, Thailand

Turkmenistan and Germany met last week to discuss environmental protection, reports the Central Asia News. The two countries have met several times in the recent months to discuss everything from energy security to economic assistance, with much of the focus on environmental issues central to Turkmenistan, such as reforestation and the spread of Central Asia’s desert regions.

Among the proposals suggested by German experts was a regrowth of forest cover in the vulnerable Amu Darya valley which would help to alleviate both the country’s carbon emissions and combat desertification. The two countries hope to establish planting programs that can be eventually turned over to local communities for management. Particularly important are the region’s ubiquitous tugai forests, which are common throughout the former Soviet republics and China. The thick, impenetrable forest cover of the tugai acts as a primary home for wildlife and helps to control seasonal flooding, and without them Central Asia can quickly turn to the image many have of the region: denuded landscapes and desert.

Of course no environmental meeting in the post-Kyoto Conference world would be complete without a serious discussion of climate change, especially in an oil and gas powerhouse like Turkmenistan. Building off of the work done by the United Nations Climate Change Dialogue in the country earlier this year, the German-Turkmen meeting produced an agreement that Turkmenistan will incorporate a national body that oversees clean energy projects.

The meeting was not without its share of controversy, however. Previous German development conferences have been closely watched by human rights monitors, who are leery of a prominent Western European nation having close ties to a regime known for its lax human rights record.

Image:An oil facility in Turkmenistan

China announced a 15 billion yuan/$2 billion investment in environmental protection in Tibet, which will be used to develop sustainable energy sources and protect the region’s fragile ecosystem. In a mountainous and high-altitude area, Tibet suffers from a multitude of global warming’s sins- receding glaciers, rising temperatures, and flooding lakes. Neighbor (and nominal owner) China produces some of the world’s greatest concentrations of greenhouse gases and is projected to be the dominant contributor to carbon emissions by 2020- and Tibet itself is rapidly industrializing. An editorial in the Indian Express highlights the recent boycott of Losar, the traditional Tibetan New Year’s festivities, by many Tibetans. The protest was a not very subtle reminder that despite the tripling of productivity and income experienced by the Tibetan economy, the political and environmental consequences from Chinese rule are not so easily ignored. Though an environmental bill may go a long way toward repairing the damage done by rapid industrialization, social scientist Nimmi Kurian warns:

If China is prepared to look in that mirror, Losar could be a metaphor for beginning a bold new conversation on change and sustainability while there is still time. If not, Rachel Carson’s chilling warning of “a spring without voices” will be a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Moving from one emissions-heavy capital to another, Jakarta’s politicians recently received a visit from United Nations Millennium Development Goals representatives urging female political candidates to get more involved in environmental campaigning, reports the Jakarta Post. The reasoning behind this new push is that environmental and public health issues will help to raise the profile of Indonesian women in politics, with the country hoping for 30% female membership in their House of Representatives.

Image: Jakarta at sunrise

The American film director James Cameron, after visiting India, called it home to “ten thousand civil servants” who all seemed to be moving at once. With a new push to better use the country’s National Rural Employment Guarantee Project (NREGP), there could be a few thousand more citizens on government payrolls.

In a report in The Times of India, a leading conservation official argues that NREGP employment- which , as Atanu Dey explains, pays for 100 days of employment for one rural unemployed family member per year- could be a way to jumpstart a ‘green economy’ in India.

Another country grappling with its responsibility to the rural poor- and maybe also positioning itself for a slice of the green pie- is West Africa’s oil giant, Nigeria. Nigeria’s Interview magazine offers a revealing transcription of an interview with Ebonyi State Governor Martins Elechi who pledged a new investment in countryside populations in his state:

We’re training the youth arm of this country. The first batch of 25 would be given loan by mid-February. The loan is to the tune of N70 million, apart from the micro-credit scheme. These well trained agriculturists will start projects on their own, assisted financially by the state government. By this month (March), another batch would come on stage in the same manner. The idea is to ensure that over time, we’ll have a pool of well trained, self reliant youth, able to stand on their own.

Columnist Michael Olugdobe at This Day is not so sure. He writes about workshops held by the German Agency for Technical Cooperation to help everyday Nigerians- both urban and rural- understand the responsibilities of their local government. Olugdobe says:

Political leaders at all levels, particularly at the local government level, are hardly held accountable by the people for their performances or otherwise. The citizenry only await the crumbs especially at the end of each month from their leaders especially the council leaders as if they were dogs waiting for the crumbs from their owners table, and the leaders and their families feed fat from the commonwealth.

Can a ‘green economy’ start from this?

Image: Man works in fields, India.