Shri Jairam Ramesh Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9G U

Environment Minister Telephone 020-3353 2000

Ministry of Environment and Forests guardian.co.uk
Government of India
Paryavaran Bhavan
CGO Complex, Lodhi Road
New Delhi - 110 003
INDIA

October 5, 2010

Dear Minister of Environment,

I am writing on behalf of the Guardian newspaper in the United Kingdom and our readers
worldwide to ask you to consider a proposal for protecting India’s biodiversity.

The action has been proposed by our online readers and developed by professional scientists. It
is based by scientific evidence.

We believe it will both protect an important species and habitat and send a clear signal to the
negotiations at the UN Convention on Biological Diversity COP10 in Nagoya later this month
that the decisive, concrete actions can and must be taken to halt the alarming decline in global
biodiversity.

Our campaign, Biodiversity 100, has identified 26 achievable actions in a number of countries
and has the support of the international scientific community. We are sharing our proposals with
journalists around the world, who will be able to measure the success of their national and local
governments in implementing the actions we have put forward. For more details of the
campaign please go to guardian.co.uk/biodiversity100.

The specific proposals we request that you consider are stopping forest destruction to protect
the lion-tailed macaque and banning shark “finning” at sea (more details below).

We kindly request you to react publicly to our recommendation, both through national media
and through your statements to the CBD COP10 plenary. We also urge you to consider
including our proposed action when you revise your National Biodiversity Strategy and Action
Plan after COP10.

As a major international media outlet with a global audience, the Guardian takes seriously its
responsibility to report on the planet’s biodiversity crisis. We would be very keen to hear back
from you about your country’s efforts to protect the natural environment and, especially, to hear
of your reaction to our proposal.
Yours Sincerely,

Alan Rusbridger
Editor-in-Chief
The Guardian
CC: Mr. Hem Pande, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Environment & Forests
Ahmed Djoghlaf, Executive secretary, CBD

Lion-tailed Macaque
Action: Stop forest destruction to protect the lion-tailed macaque

Description: Forest fragmentation is threatening populations of the lion-tailed macaque

(Macaca silenus) by separating sub-populations and restricting them to small fragments with
high population densities. The fragmentation has occurred due to the continuing encroachment
of tea plantations into the forests of the Valparai plateau of Anamalai Hills and the Western Ghats
in the state of Tamil Nadu. As well as lobbying for greater expansion, tea plantation companies
hold the misconception that forest fragments near or on their plantations increase human-
animal conflict. The Indian government and the Tamil Nadu state government have the power to
stop the further destruction of the forest immediately and also create links between the forest
fragments to aid the migration of the endangered lion-tailed macaque in the long-run – but have
so far not done so.

Evidence: Numbers of lion-tailed macaques are decreasing rapidly due to forest

fragmentation. Conservationists recommend the creation of corridors between forest fragments
for the migration of male lion-tailed macaque. The behaviour of this tree-dwelling macaque has
also been affected: it is spending more time on the ground and are forced to eat different foods
due to logging and new plantations.

Shark “finning”
Action: Ban shark “finning” at sea

Description: Finning is the wasteful practice of cutting off a shark’s fins and discarding its
carcass at sea. This happens because shark meat is generally of low value but shark fins can
fetch US $100/kg as part of a gourmet dish in China. An estimated 26 to 73 million shark fins
enter the global trade each year from all oceans of the world. India and Indonesia are the top
two shark fishing countries and have not banned shark finning. The International Union for the
Conservation of Nature and the IUCN Shark Specialist Group recommend that shark finning is
banned in all national waters and international waters through the requirement that all sharks be
landed with their fins naturally attached. This measure will improve the ability to enforce finning
bans and collect species-specific catch data. While this is the most straightforward and reliable
method for ending finning, it is not mandated in most countries’ finning bans or on the high
seas. Legislation in all the shark fishing powers that have banned finning (Spain, Argentina,
Mexico, Japan, Portugal, New Zealand and Brazil) include loopholes and exceptions. Taiwan
has no ban on shark finning but is not a signatory to the CBD.

Evidence: The World Food and Agriculture Organisation’s global database of fish capture
records data for shark landings by country. A statistical analysis published in the journal Ecology
Letters found that “shark biomass in the fin trade is three- to four-times higher than shark catch
figures reported in the global database.” The researchers extrapolated that blue sharks, one of
the most commonly-traded species are “close to or possibly exceeding the maximum
sustainable yield levels”, meaning they are close to being over fished. Approximately one-third of
the shark fins traded each year are taken from pelagic sharks (meaning they live in the open
water and not on the sea bed). Of the 21 oceanic pelagic sharks, 11 species are considered
threatened with extinction under the IUCN Red List criteria.

For the full version of this text with links to scientific papers, please visit the Biodiversity 100 site:
guardian.co.uk/biodiversity100