URL: http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Patagonian_Glacier_Yields_Clues_Of_Global_Climate_Change_999.html Posted Date: 11 August 2008
A better understanding of climate variations at planetary scale is one of climate scientists' crucial concerns. Stable water isotope analysis, the chemistry of ice cores taken from the Arctic and Antarctic polar ice caps and of air bubbles trapped in them now allow a chronology to be drawn up of the climate changes that took place over the past 800 000 years.
However, those data, collected at extreme latitudes, are not enough for understanding climatic interactions operating at the scale of the whole Earth or of the most densely populated regions. Similar investigations are needed on glaciers located at lower latitudes.
Scientists have therefore since the 1990s been undertaking borehole surveys in the Andean glaciers. The Andes are particularly suited for sampling climate data concerning the whole of the Southern Hemisphere owing to their high altitudes and N-S orientation.
Boreholes on six glaciers of the Andean Cordillera at tropical latitudes have already yielded information on South America's past climate variability (up to 25 000 years). However, no study of this type had yet been conducted in Patagonia, at mid-latitudes of the Southern Hemisphere.
During a 2005 expedition by an IRD team and its Chilean partners on the San Valentin glacier (Patagonia, 47 degrees S, 4032 m), a 16 m shallow firn core was extracted in order to evaluate this site's potential as a record of our climate.
A borehole at this latitude should provide the element still missing from ice field documentation on the Southern Hemisphere's climate. Geographically, it is at the interface between the tropics and the South Pole and should contain clues as to how tropical and polar atmospheric circulations influence this region's climate.
Preliminary ice core analysis revealed that the isotopic and chemical tracers are remarkably well preserved owing to a sufficiently cold ice temperature (-11 degreesC). Dating combining determination of radioactive element levels (tritium, cesium, americium, lead 210) and the number of seasonal cycles of chemical species gave an estimated annual snow accumulation of about 35 cm.
With just 16 m of ice the hope was to obtain a climate record for a period of at best a few years, but dating showed that the record in fact went back to the early 1960s. Combination of oxygen isotope ratio determinations with those of hydrogen was then used to estimate the precipitations that feed the San Valentin glacier.
The difference between the isotopic ratios - the deuterium excess - is linked essentially to the temperature of the oceanic source of the precipitation, making it possible to differentiate the air masses coming from the pole, formed above a cold ocean, from those arising over a more temperate ocean like the Pacific.
Similarly, a high marine salt concentration in ice means that the precipitation that feeds the glacier arrives with marine air masses, formed over the Pacific. Conversely, a low sodium concentration characterizes continental air masses, which have travelled for a longer time.
Patagonia was hitherto thought to be subjected mainly to westerly winds off the Pacific, but this dual ice core analysis yielded the first evidence that this region also comes under the influence of meteorological regimes that arise further south, in the Antarctic (see Figure).
A second drilling expedition conducted on San Valentin in 2007 gave the team the opportunity to drill through the entire 122 m thickness of the glacier. The first investigations on this second ice core suggest that it contains a climate record of several thousand years.
By cross-referring the information contained in this unique core with those already obtained for the glaciers lying further North on the Cordillera, it could therefore be possible to trace the climate changes in all the whole of the Southern Hemisphere during the past few thousand years and thus better anticipate its reactions to global climate variations.
by Rebecca Lindsey • design by Robert Simmon • September 7, 2007
If we had the time and knew how to listen, Nature could tell us thousands of stories about how climate change is affecting life on Earth. Every tree, every insect, every bird has something important to say on the subject. From every forest, every wetland, every ocean come more stories than there are scientists to listen. Several years ago, NASA oceanographer and amateur beekeeper Wayne Esaias realized he was overhearing one of those stories. The talk of climate change was coming from his bees.
Much of the science we hear about—brought to us by schoolbooks or 10-second blurbs on the radio or TV news—are stories whose end is already known. Knowledge itself may be provisional, but the stories we hear about science often focus on what's finished: an experiment is complete, the data are in, a result is known.
But when you're a scientist, you know that between the moment when you think "I wonder why...?" and the moment when you finally understand can lie a long stretch of time where the significance of your idea, your ability to collect the data you need to test it, and the ultimate outcome of your effort is uncertain. Biological oceanographer Wayne Esaias has been passing through one of those uncertain stretches.
The 25-year NASA veteran has made a career studying patterns of plant growth in the world's oceans and how they relate to climate and ecosystem change, first from ships, then from aircraft, and finally from satellites. But for the past year, he's been preoccupied with his bee hives, which started as a family project around 1990 when his son was in the Boy Scouts. According to his honeybees, big changes are underway in Maryland forests. The most important event in the life of flowering plants and their pollinators—flowering itself—is happening much earlier in the year than it used to.
Wayne Esaias, a NASA scientist, records the weight of his beehives. Once a hobby, his beekeeping has developed into a scientific pursuit. Esaias believes that a beehive's seasonal cycle of weight gain and loss is a sensitive indicator of the impact of climate change on flowering plants. (Photograph courtesy Elaine Esaias.)
The discovery has driven Esaias to completely remodel his ocean-centric career. He is now trying to rally financial support and scientific enthusiasm for the development of a national network of beekeepers whose hive observations can give scientists direct evidence of how climate change is affecting flowering plants and their pollinators. The information could refine predictions of the productivity of agricultural and natural ecosystems, help predict the spread of invasive species, and provide a tangible, missing link between satellite-based indicators of seasonal patterns of vegetation and the real world.
Esaias' honeybees are starting honey production earlier in the spring than they did when he began keeping bees in the early 1990s. In Maryland, flowering trees are the biggest nectar source for honeybees. Changes in the timing of honey production are a sign that climate change is affecting flowering trees. (NASA graph by Wayne Esaias.)
Whether he can pull it off is far from guaranteed. That he is willing to accept the challenges and risks of venturing outside his specialty—failing to get funding, having colleagues challenge his expertise, or discovering that the honeybee hive network doesn't turn into the goldmine of ecological information he predicts—shows just how important he thinks the bees' story is.
Europeans imported the honeybee along with most of our food crops when they came to America more than 400 years ago. As generalist pollinators that can feed from almost any flowering plant, honeybees are adaptable. Many escaped from their caretakers and set up residence in woods across the country. Whether the imports have been good or bad for native plants and pollinators in natural ecosystems isn't settled, but when it comes to America's agricultural productivity, it's almost impossible to underestimate how dependent we have become on honeybees.
Agriculture depends on managed honeybees not only because some crops, such as the 700,000 acres of almonds in California, can only be pollinated by honeybees, but also because our industrial-scale system of crop production hinges on huge numbers of pollinators being available in a very limited window of time, sometimes as short as a few days.
"When you grow a large crop for agriculture, you might have hundreds acres of, say, cucumbers all being managed to bloom at the same time, to be harvested at the same time, for efficiency," Esaias explains. That kind of uniformity isn't natural for native pollinators, which need a diverse and season-long food supply.
Scientists have shown that at farms surrounded by adequate natural vegetation, native pollinators alone seem to be able to provide pollination services even for "heavy demand" species such as watermelon. At most conventional farms, however, natural vegetation is too scarce and broad-spectrum insecticide use is too common to support populations of native pollinators that are large enough to service crops. "The only way for growers to ensure pollination is to have somebody bring in a colony of bees, 1 to 2 colonies per acre, and put them out in the field," says Esaias.
A few stints pollinating watermelons over the course of a summer, however, isn't enough to support a hive. From spring until fall, worker bees forage from dawn until twilight over a radius of up to about 5 kilometers from the hive, bringing back pollen and nectar from plants that are blooming. They turn the nectar into honey, which feeds the colony in the winter or when nectar and pollen are scarce. As the bees stockpile honey, the hive weight goes up. In Maryland, the primary nectar source for honeybees is flowering trees, namely tulip poplar, black locust, basswood, and holly.
"During the peak of the nectar flow, a good, strong colony can gain 10 to 20 pounds in one day," he says. "In Maryland, that goes on for a few weeks in late spring, and then, suddenly, it's over." For the remainder of the year, the weight of the hive dwindles as bees sustain themselves on the honey and pollen they have stockpiled during their three-to-four-week feeding frenzy. It was through this annual yo-yoing of weight gain and loss that Esaias' bees began to tell him their story of climate change.
"In about 1990, my son was in Scouts," he explained, "and the assistant scout master came to a meeting one night and said he's leaving for a job out of state. He said, 'I've got a problem. I've got three hives of bees, and I need somebody to take them. Who wants them?' And my son said, 'We'll take 'em. Right, Dad?'"
When they went to pick up the hives, the scout master pointed out a large rectangular scale, like the one a veterinarian would use for weighing your pet. "'You better take that, too, he said,'" Esaias recalls. "Of course, at the time, I knew nothing about bees, so I didn't really know what you want it for, but I took it." It wasn't until he was up to his ears in books on beekeeping that he realized what an important tool the scale was for keeping tabs on the health of the colony.
In Maryalnd, honey production in a typical beehive ramps up for a few weeks in late spring when flowering trees such as Tulip poplar and Black locust start to bloom. The hive weight increases as bees produce honey then tails off during the summer. (NASA graph by Robert Simmon, based on data from Wayne Esaias.)
"Based on the weight of the hive you can tell if you need to give them supplemental food, when the nectar is coming in the area, when to add supers [stackable chambers added to the top of the hive where the bees store extra honey], and when to harvest the honey," he explains. Tending the bees and selling the honey became a family activity. Everyone took turns weighing the hive.
As a field biologist who over the course of his career had found himself spending less and less time in the field, and more and more time in front of a computer analyzing satellite data, the hive monitoring was a real outlet for him.
"Nearly every night in the spring and summer someone would go out weigh the hives," he said. "And I guess just because I am a scientist, I started writing these things down. Even after my kids graduated and went off to school, I still kept the records. One day, I just decided to plot it all up [on a graph], just out of curiosity. And what I saw was that although you do see a lot of variability from year to year due to climate events, there was a very noticeable long-term trend, with flowering and nectar flows getting earlier and earlier in the year."
"Once I saw this trend, I wondered, well, how does what I see in my back yard compare with what other people have seen in this area? I found basically two datasets for comparison: one from 1922-23 in what is now downtown Chevy Chase, when it used to be a USDA agricultural research center; another study with hive weights was done by a researcher at the University of Maryland."
To compare his data to older records, he had to adjust for the difference in elevation; his home near Clarksville is in Maryland's Piedmont, while the other locations were down on the coastal plain. "But once I adjusted for these regional differences based on elevation," he said, "you see this dramatic advance in peak flowering time of almost a month."
Esaias scoured scientific books and papers for observations that could corroborate the story his bees were telling about how flowering times were changing in Maryland. He discovered that for several decades, Smithsonian botanist Stan Shetler had been keeping tracks of flowering dates for trees in and around Washington, D.C., based on calls from city residents that their backyard trees—including tulip popular and black locust, two of the most important nectar producers in the state—were in bloom. Those records showed an advance in flowering (earlier blooming) beginning as far back as 1970.
"My hive records don't go back that far. They start in 1992," says Esaias. "But what's interesting is that when I project the trend I see in my data back in time, it seems like the changes in my area could have started in the mid-1980s, which is about 15 years later than the changes began in D.C. I wondered, why is that?"
Hive weight is an important indicator of hive health. It tells a beekeeper when nectar is available in the area, when the bees need supplemental food, and when the keeper can harvest the honey. The seasonal pattern of weight gain and loss in a hive is different from ecosystem to ecosystem, but changes in the pattern in a particular location over time can be a sign that long-term climate change is influencing the plants in the region. (Photograph courtesy Wayne Esaias.)
Esaias thinks that urbanization is mostly responsible for the changes in flowering. Urbanization would also explain why flowering seems to have been affected earlier in D.C. than in his "backyard." Urbanization creates a heat island, an area where surface temperatures are much higher than surrounding rural areas. Pavement, less soil moisture, air pollution, and heat generated by energy use conspire to raise the city temperatures as much as 10 degrees Fahrenheit (6 degrees Celsius) over surrounding areas. As cities get bigger, the urban heat island expands, too. As temperatures rise, spring comes earlier. Earlier leaf emergence and flowering have been observed in numerous cities across the world.
"I am farther out from the city, and it took 15 years for the urban heat island effect to get here," he concludes. Between urbanization and global warming from greenhouse gases, temperatures will continue to rise in coming years; the acceleration in flowering times that Esaias' honeybees have documented so far may not be the end of the changes.
Since the 1970s, Smithsonian botanists have kept track of Washington, D.C., residents' reports of when their backyard trees first bloomed each spring. The dates vary from year to year depending on the weather, but on average, blooming is starting earlier. Dark purple diamonds represent overlapping flowering dates. (Graph by Robert Simmon, based on data from Abu-Asab et al.)
Will Plants and Pollinators Get Out of Sync?
According to Esaias, the changes aren't just dramatic, they're also kind of scary. The fertility of most flowering plants, including nearly all fruits and vegetables, depends on animal-mediated pollination. As the pollinators move from flower to flower for nectar--a high-energy, sugary enticement—the plants dust them with pollen, which the animals transfer from flower to flower.
"Flowering plants and pollinators co-evolved. Pollination is the key event for a plant and for the pollinators in the year. That's where pollinators get their food, and that's what determines whether the plant will set fruit. Some species of pollinators have co-evolved with one species of plant, and the two species time their cycles to coincide, for example, insects maturing from larva to adult precisely when nectar flows begin," says Esaias.
The concern is that in thousands upon thousands of cases, we don't really know what environmental and genetic cues plants and pollinators use to manage this synchrony. According to ecologist David Inouye of the University of Maryland, some plant-pollinator pairs in a particular area likely do respond to the same environmental cues, and it's reasonable to expect they will react similarly to climate change. But other pairs use different cues, the pollinator emerging in response to air temperature, for example, while the plant flowers in response to snow melt. Migratory pollinators, like hummingbirds, seem to be particularly at risk, since climate change will almost certainly affect different latitudes differently. There is no guarantee that the thousands of plant-pollinator interactions that sustain the productivity of our crops and natural ecosystems won't be disrupted by climate change.
As an example of how environmental cues for the timing of significant life cycle events might become uncoupled, Esaias points out that you don't have to look any further than his bees. "What limits the growth of my honeybees in the spring are those coldest of the cold nights, because what is happening in their colony is that they are in a cluster, and they have to keep the queen and the larvae at 93 degrees. They do that by eating lots of honey, and tensing their muscles, and generating heat."
When it gets warm enough outside for them to maintain a temperature of 93 degrees, they start laying eggs around the edges of the cluster, and the cluster begins to expand. As long as the workers can keep the brood temperatures at 93 degrees, the eggs will grow into adult bees in about 3 weeks. But if a single cold, cold night in March intervenes, says Esaias, then eggs at the edges that the workers can't keep warm will die. The cluster shrinks, and the colony must begin again.
"Trees, on the other hand, may not feel those cold temperatures in the same way because their roots are well insulated," Esaias suggests. The sun-warmed ground is slower to chill than the air, so trees may not be feeling the cold snaps in the same way that the bee colony does. Thus, flowering may occur before the bee colony has built up enough workers to take advantage of it, which means the hive will struggle to stockpile enough honey to sustain them through the next winter.
"I am not saying they are definitely different," Esaias stresses, "I am just saying there are good reasons to think that their response to climate change would not be identical. The truth is we don't know what the relationships are between weather and climate, pollinators, and plants for thousands of species."
Since crops alone can't sustain the pollen and nectar requirements of honeybee colonies, the potential for honeybees and other pollinators to become out of sync with their most important natural food sources is something that concerns Esaias. A national network of scale-equipped honeybee hives, Esaias believes, would reveal when flowering occurs now and help us better predict how plants and pollinators in both natural and agricultural ecosystems will—or won't—adapt to climate change in the future.
Perhaps the best part of the whole idea, according to Esaias, is that 1-to-5-kilometer-radius area in which a hive's worker bees forage is the same spatial scale that many ecological and climate models use to predict ecosystems' responses to climate change. It also matches the spatial scale of satellite images of vegetation collected by NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites. This similarity of scale means that all these ways of studying ecosystems could be integrated into a more sophisticated picture of how plant and animal communities will respond to climate change than any one method alone could provide.
Esaias is particularly interested in comparing the hive data to satellite-based maps of vegetation "greenness," a scale that remote-sensing scientists commonly use to map the health and density of Earth's vegetation. Scientists have been making these types of maps for decades, and they have used them to document how warming temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere are causing vegetation to green up earlier in the spring than it did in the 1980s. Such maps are an excellent general indicator of seasonal changes in vegetation, says Esaias, but by themselves, they won't tell you something as tangible as when plants are flowering.
"But if we compare flowering times based on the bee hives to the satellite data, it's possible we will see some correlated signal or pattern that we didn't notice before," he says. "If we can establish a relationship between the hive data in a particular ecosystem and satellite data, then we could use our global satellite data from Terra and Aqua to map flowering times for similar ecosystems. We could make predictions about what is happening to nectar flows and the species that depend on them in places where we don't have scale hives."
That sort of ground-truth data from scale hives could also be used to evaluate ecosystem models. According to Hank Shugart, a scientist at the University of Virginia who specializes in forest ecosystem modeling, the timing of seasonal events like leaf emergence and flowering are usually related to the accumulated time an area spends above a plant's minimum growth temperature, a biological benchmark known as "growing degree days."
"It turns out that these heat-sum type approaches are pretty good at predicting the timing of these seasonal events," says Shugart. In general, a plant will put out leaves or flower after the number of growing degrees days that species requires has passed. "What that means," he says, "is that the greening-up that the satellites can see is probably also related, for most plants, to their flowering time," which satellites cannot see. Honeybee hive data would be "a marvelous idea" for verifying the connections, says Shugart.
"In my mind, the data from a network of hive scales would be an essential addition to ecosystem models," Esaias concludes. "If we want to relate models and satellite data to something as tangible as food for people and wildlife, if we want to be able to predict where the thousands of species that occupy ecosystems today will survive in the future, we need to monitor when that plant-pollinator interaction is occurring."
"The best part," Esaias says excitedly, "is that the observers we need are already out there! The bees are already collecting these data for us." About half of the approximately 6 million honeybee colonies in the United States are kept by individual or family-scale beekeepers. Esaias' vision is to develop a how-to guide, an automatic data recorder, and the computer and networking resources at Goddard Space Flight Center that would be needed to collect and preserve the data. Ideally, a hive data recorder would be hooked up to the Internet so that volunteers' hive weights could appear on a Website hosted at Goddard. His goal is to get the cost per kit below $200 and then to get NASA funding to outfit a network of volunteers—HoneybeeNet—and analyze their data.
"Ultimately, what we'd like to have is thousands of these across the country. Even if we can get the cost down to $200 a piece, that is still a lot of money to ask for until you have a test data set that proves it is valuable," admits Esaias. He's been working with local bee clubs in Maryland, rounding up some 20 volunteers who already have or are willing to purchase their own scales. He hopes that the data collected during the 2007 spring-summer season will be a prototype that will convince NASA to fund a pilot project.
In the meantime, he and several colleagues at NASA, the Department of Agriculture, and several U.S. universities submitted a proposal to NASA to integrate satellite, hive data, and the results from ecological models into an early-detection system operated by the U.S. Geological Survey that monitors the spread of invasive species. By using satellite data on landscape and vegetation type along with honeybee hive data, they hope to improve predictions of the spread of the African honeybee, an aggressive and unpredictable species of bee that is colonizing the southern United States.
In addition, satellite and ecological model information on vegetation could help scientists pin down the cause or causes of colony collapse disorder. Beginning in the winter of 2006-07, hive keepers across the country began to report wintertime losses of 30 to 90 percent of their colonies. The adult worker bees seem to simply abandon the hive, including a seemingly healthy queen, immature bees, and remaining honey. As of summer 2007, scientists were still investigating numerous possible causes, including pesticides and diseases. Added stress on colonies from climate-related environmental change may be contributing, too.
"I have no idea how it's all going to turn out, but we'll see," he says. "I don't know if I'll ever go back to ocean studies. Honestly, I'm having a lot more fun. And, really it's not that different from what I was doing before. Of course, terrestrial ecosystems are very different from marine ecosystems, but conceptually, my focus hasn't changed—I'm still interested in the factors that influence the abundance and distribution of organisms, only now it's bees and plants instead of phytoplankton."
He feels a sense of urgency about getting the HoneybeeNet going now. "All I can say right now is that much of what is in the [scientific] literature about the dates of the Maryland nectar flow is wrong; it's obsolete data. We are headed into an era of global change across the country, and we don't even know where we are starting from! How are we possibly going to predict change? If we don't get on board quick, we're gonna miss the boat."
References
Abu-Asab, M. S., Peterson, P. M. Shetler, S. G. and Orli, S. S. (2001). Earlier plant flowering in spring as a response to global warming in the Washington, DC, area. Biodiversity and Conservation 10:597-612. doi:10.1023/A:1016667125469
Committee on the Status of Pollinators in America, National Research Council. (2007). Status of Pollinators in North America. Washington, D.C .: National Academies Press. Accessed August 24, 2007.
Gould, J., and Gould, C. (1995). The Life of the Bee: The Colony Cycle. In The Honeybee, 25-29. New York: W.H. Freeman & Co.
Kremen, C., Williams, N., and Thorp, R. (2002). Crop pollination from native bees at risk from agricultural intensification. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 99(26), 16812-16816. doi:10.1073/pnas.262413599
Nemani, R., Keeling, C., Hashimoto, H., Jolly, W., Piper, S., Tucker, C., Myneni, R., and Running, S. (2003). Climate driven increases in global terrestrial net primary production from 1982 to 1999. Science, 300(5625), 1560-1563. doi:10.1126/science.1082750
Introduced to South America several decades ago, the African honeybee is more aggressive than the European honeybee. Esaias hopes that hive data on nectar flows will improve predictions of where the African honeybee and "Africanized" hybrids will spread in the United States. (Photograph courtesy Scott Bauer, Agricultural Research Service.)
A number of assessments are now identifying climate change as the new great threat to biodiversity. As a result of climate change, up to 88% of reefs in Southeast Asia may be lost over the next 30 years while in the Amazon Basin, more than 40% of plant species studied could face extinction. If the projected rise in sea level occurs, American Samoa could lose 50% of their mangroves and an additional 15 Pacific islands could face a 12% reduction in mangrove cover. A projected 0.5 m sea-level rise in the Caribbean could cause a 35% decrease in turtle nesting habitat.
Biodiversity contributes to many of the essential goods and services upon which humans heavily rely, including the provision of food and water, the control of climate, and pollination. However, the role of biodiversity in sheltering us from the many projected impacts of climate change is often taken for granted. Unfortunately as biodiversity is being lost, we are seeing the consequences through increased losses from droughts and floods, higher damage from storm surges and less resilient livelihoods. As such, maintaining biodiversity and associated ecosystem functions is an important component of adaptation to climate change.
Biodiversity resources such as land races of common crops, mangroves and other wetlands and vegetative cover can form an integral part of adaptation plans. For example, coastal wetlands can provide coastal protection against storms and are an important habitat for fish and birds. Adaptation linked to agricultural biodiversity, such as changing varieties in cereal cropping systems, is expected to avoid 10-15% of the projected reductions in yield under changing climatic conditions.
Biodiversity also contributes to climate change mitigation. Forest ecosystems account for as much as 80% of the total above-ground terrestrial carbon while peatland ecosystems, which only cover 3% of the world's terrestrial surface, store 30% of all global soil carbon or the equivalent of 75% of all atmospheric carbon. As such, healthy forests and wetland systems have the potential to capture a significant portion of projected emissions. Inversely, unsustainable use of biodiversity, through deforestation and degradation, can contribute to greenhouse gas emissions.
Therefore, the links between biodiversity and climate change run both ways: biodiversity is threatened by climate change, but the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity can reduce the impacts of climate change.
However, mitigation and adaptation measures taken in the context of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) may have negative impacts on biodiversity. Hence, there is a need to link the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the UNFCCC.
In response to the emerging links between biodiversity and climate change, the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, at the ninth meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP), identified a number of priorities, such as the further consolidation of scientific and technical information on these links as a pre-condition for appropriate decision making and the identification of opportunities to achieve co-benefits for climate change mitigation and adaptation through implementation of the CBD.
In this regard, the COP requested the establishment of an Ad Hoc Technical Expert Group (AHTEG) on Biodiversity and Climate Change with a mandate to develop scientific and technical advice on biodiversity, as it relates to climate change, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Bali Action Plan and Nairobi work programme on impacts, vulnerability and adaptation to climate change. The first meeting of the AHTEG will be held from 17-21 November 2008 in London, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
The work of this AHTEG, based on the participation of some of the world's foremost experts, will fill the gaps that currently exist with regards to identifying and maximizing co-benefits. The AHTEG is expected to provide up-to-date scientific information on methods and tools to enhance mitigation through biodiversity management. It will also make available key information on the consequences of climate change responses on biodiversity and associated ecosystem services.
In recognizing the importance of achieving synergies between activities addressing biodiversity, combating desertification/land degradation and climate change, the Parties also adopted options for mutually supportive actions addressing climate change within the three Rio Conventions.
In addition, the Convention is embarking on a renewed effort to ensure that both the risks and opportunities from climate change are integrated into National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plans (NBSAPs). As the principle planning tool for implementation of the Convention and with a strong focus on stakeholder participation and mainstreaming, strengthening NBSAPs through integrating climate change considerations will serve to yield significant cross-sector benefits for sustainable development.
Through mobilizing experts, building capacity and enhancing synergies with related processes, Parties to the CBD are taking concrete steps to ensure that implementation of the Convention captures as many co-benefits as possible for climate change mitigation and adaptation.
The fifteenth Summit meeting of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), held from 2-3 August 2008, in Colombo, Sri Lanka, concluded with the adoption of the Colombo Declaration and the Colombo Statement on Food Security. In the Declaration, entitled “Partnership for Growth for Our People,” the Heads of State and Government reiterate the need for increased regional cooperation in tackling climate change, in particular for capacity building, the development of Clean Development Mechanism projects, and awareness raising.
Welcoming the adoption of the SAARC Declaration on Climate Change for the UNFCCC by the twenty-ninth Session of the Council of Ministers, held in New Delhi, India, from 7-8 December 2007, SAARC leaders stressed the urgency to take action jointly, assess and manage its risks and impacts, and call for a study on the human dimension of climate change. Moreover, as an equitable basis for tackling climate change, they endorse per capita emissions targets for developing and developed countries, taking into account historical responsibility and country capabilities. On energy, the Heads of State and Government recognize the need to: develop and conserve conventional sources of energy; build up renewable energy resources; and introduce energy reforms, energy efficiency and the trade and sharing of technology. While they note current efforts to strengthen regional cooperation in this sector, they direct that the recommendations of the Energy Dialogue, held on 5 March 2007 in New Delhi, India, be implemented through a work plan. In the Colombo Statement on Food Security, the Heads of State and Government affirm their resolve to ensure region-wide food security, make South Asia the granary of the world once again, and direct the convening of an Extraordinary Meeting of the Agriculture Ministers of the SAARC Member States in New Delhi, India, in November 2008, to develop a people-centered short to medium term regional strategy and collaborative projects. They also direct that the SAARC Food Bank be urgently operationalized.
Please find below the text of the Declaration:
The Colombo Declaration Introduction:The President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, His Excellency Mr. Hamid Karzai; the Chief Adviser of the Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, His Excellency Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed; the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Bhutan, His Excellency Lyonchhen Jigmi Y. Thinley; the Prime Minister of the Republic of India, His Excellency Dr. Manmohan Singh; the President of the Republic of Maldives, His Excellency Mr. Maumoon Abdul Gayoom; the Prime Minister of the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, the Rt. Hon’ble Girija Prasad Koirala; the Prime Minister of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, His Excellency Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani; and the President of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, His Excellency Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa, met at the Fifteenth Summit meeting of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) held in Colombo, Sri Lanka on August 2-3, 2008.
Regional cooperation 2. The Heads of State or Government reaffirmed their commitment to the principles and objectives enshrined in the SAARC Charter. They renewed their resolve for collective regional efforts to accelerate economic growth, social progress and cultural development which would promote the welfare of the peoples of South Asia and improve their quality of life, thereby contributing to peace, stability, amity and progress in the region.
3. The Heads of State or Government recognized that SAARC has been making steady and incremental progress over the years, in particular since the last Summit held in New Delhi in April 2007, towards realizing the objectives of the Charter. They accordingly emphasized the importance of maintaining the momentum, through clear links of continuity between the work already underway and future activities. The Heads of State or Government recognized the need for SAARC to further strengthen its focus on developing and implementing regional and sub-regional projects in the agreed areas on a priority basis. Each Member State may consider taking up at least one regional/ sub-regional SAARC project as the lead country.
4. The Leaders noted with satisfaction the considerable progress made in various domains of partnership among SAARC Member States and emphasized the need to consolidate and ensure effective implementation of all SAARC programs and mechanisms by rationalization and performance evaluation on a regular basis.
A Partnership for Growth for the Peoples of South Asia 5. The Heads of State or Government were convinced that the process of regional cooperation must be truly people-centered, so that SAARC continues to strengthen in keeping with expectations as a robust partnership for growth for the peoples of South Asia. They accordingly directed all SAARC mechanisms to abide by the Charter objective of promoting the welfare of the people and improving their quality of life. In this regard they directed the Council of Ministers to ensure that SAARC mechanisms identify further areas of cooperation where people-centric partnership projects could be initiated.
6. The Heads of State or Government observed that an effective and economical regional tele-communication regime is an essential factor of connectivity, encouraging the growth of people-centric partnerships. They stressed the need for the Member States to endeavour to move towards a uniformly applicable low tariff, for international direct dial calls within the region.
Connectivity 7. The Heads of State or Government recognized the importance of connectivity for realizing the objectives of SAARC. They accordingly directed the SAARC mechanisms to continue to embody in their programs and projects a strong focus on better connectivity not only within South Asia, but also between the region and the rest of the world. They further stressed the necessity of fast-tracking projects for improving intra-regional connectivity and facilitating economic, social and people-to-people contacts.
Energy 8. The Heads of State or Government noted that increased access to energy is critical for fulfilling the legitimate expectations of growth and development in South Asia. They observed in this regard that the escalation of oil prices threatens both the energy security of the region, as well as the economic growth witnessed in South Asia. In this context, they recognized the need to expeditiously develop and conserve the conventional sources of energy and to build up renewable alternative energy resources including indigenous hydro power, solar, wind and bio, while introducing energy reforms, energy efficiency and the trade and sharing of technology and expertise. They also noted that there is tremendous potential for developing regional and sub-regional energy resources in an integrated manner and noted the efforts being made to strengthen regional cooperation in capacity development, technology transfer and the trade in energy. While expressing satisfaction at the progress over the recent years to strengthen energy cooperation, the Leaders directed that the recommendations of the Energy Dialogue be implemented through an appropriate work plan.
9. The Heads of State or Government stressed the urgent need to develop the regional hydro potential, grid connectivity and gas pipelines. They noted that the possibility of evolving an appropriate regional inter-governmental framework may be explored to facilitate such an endeavour. They welcomed Sri Lanka’s offer to host the Third Meeting of SAARC Energy Ministers in Colombo in 2009.
Environment 10. Being increasingly aware of global warming, climate change and environmental challenges facing the region, which mainly include sea-level rise, deforestation, soil erosion, siltation, droughts, storms, cyclones, floods, glacier melt and resultant glacial lake outburst floods and urban pollution, the Heads of State or Government reiterated the need to intensify cooperation within an expanded regional environmental protection framework, to deal in particular with climate change issues. They were of the view that SAARC should contribute to restoring harmony with nature, drawing on the ancient South Asian cultural values and traditions of environmental responsibility and sustainability.
11. The Leaders expressed satisfaction at the adoption of SAARC Action Plan and Dhaka Declaration on Climate Change by the SAARC Environment Ministers at the SAARC Ministerial Meeting on Climate Change held at Dhaka on 3 July 2008. In this context they stressed the need for close cooperation for capacity building, development of CDM projects and promotion of programs for advocacy and mass awareness raising on climate change. They also expressed satisfaction at the adoption of a SAARC Declaration on Climate Change for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) by the Twenty-ninth Session of the Council of Ministers.
12. The Heads of State or Government expressed deep concern over global climate change and its impact on the lives and livelihoods in the region. They also noted the urgency of the immediate need for dealing with the onslaught of climate change including sea level rise, on meeting food, water and energy needs, and taking measures to ensure the livelihood security of the peoples in the SAARC region. They resolved to work together to prevent and address the threats to the livelihoods of the peoples and to provide access to remedies when these rights are violated and also to find an equitable distribution of responsibilities and rights among the Member States. They also emphasised the need for assessing and managing its risks and impacts. In this regard, they called for an in-depth study on “Climate Justice: The Human Dimension of Climate Change,” to come up with a rights-based approach that would highlight the human impact when responding to the impacts of climate change.
13. The Heads of State or Government affirmed that every citizen of this planet must have an equal share of the planetary atmospheric space. In this context, they endorsed the convergence of per capita emissions of developing and developed countries on an equitable basis for tackling climate change. They were of the view that any effort at addressing climate change should take into account historical responsibility, per capita emissions and respective country capabilities.
14. The Heads of State or Government expressed concern at the human loss suffered through natural disasters in the region and stressed the need for the timely provision of relief in humanitarian emergencies. In this regard they directed that a Natural Disaster Rapid Response Mechanism be created to adopt a coordinated and planned approach to meet such emergencies under the aegis of the SAARC Disaster Management Centre.
Water Resources 15. The Heads of State or Government expressing their deep concern at the looming global water crisis, recognized that South Asia must be at the forefront of bringing a new focus to the conservation of water resources. For this purpose they directed initiation of processes of capacity building and the encouragement of research, combining conservation practices such as rain water harvesting and river basin management, in order to ensure sustainability of water resources in South Asia.
Poverty Alleviation 16. The Heads of State or Government while acknowledging the significant steps taken to alleviate poverty in the region, resolved to continue to combat poverty through all available means, including especially through people’s empowerment. They committed themselves to continuing to share each other’s experiences and success stories of pro-poor poverty reduction strategies such as micro-credit systems, community-driven initiatives and the raising of the consciousness of the poor on their right to resources and development.
17. In this respect, they emphasized on undertaking sustained efforts, including developing and implementing regional and sub-regional projects towards the attainment of SAARC Development Goals (SDGs). They noted the decision by the Ministers on Poverty Alleviation to obtain an inter-governmental mid-term review of the attainment of the SDGs to be completed by 2009.
18. The Leaders welcomed the offer of Nepal to host next Ministerial Meeting on Poverty Alleviation.
SAARC Development Fund (SDF)
19. The Heads of State or Government expressed satisfaction at the signing of the Charter of the SAARC Development Fund (SDF), and finalization of its Bye-laws, and called for an early ratification of the SDF Charter. They also welcomed early operationalization of the Fund from the available funds. They expressed satisfaction at the launching and identification of the projects on women empowerment, maternal & child health and teachers’ training under the social window of the SDF, as directed by the Finance Ministers. They reiterated their commitment to expedite their financial contributions to the Fund. In this regard, the Heads of State or Government accepted with appreciation the offer of the Kingdom of Bhutan to host the SAARC Development Fund Secretariat in Thimphu.
Transport 20. The Heads of State or Government expressed satisfaction at the progress through the Meetings of the Ministers of Transport. They reiterated the critical importance of an efficient multi-modal transport system in the region for integration and for sustaining the region’s economic growth and competitiveness. They urged early implementation in a gradual and phased manner of the proposals of the SAARC Regional Multimodal Transport Study (SRMTS).
21. They noted the progress made in the consideration of the draft Motor Vehicle Agreement (MVA) by Member States. They also noted that technical inputs related to Regional Transport and Transit Agreement and Regional Multilateral Railway Agreement were being examined by the Member States. In this context, they directed the next Transport Ministers Meeting to expedite work in this regard. They appreciated the offer of Sri Lanka to hold the Second Meeting of SAARC Ministers of Transport in Colombo in 2008.
Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Development 22. The Heads of State or Government urged the need for even more expeditious and close regional cooperation in information and communication technology. They welcomed the enhanced digital connectivity among the Member States and the ongoing work to upgrade the regional telecommunication infrastructure. They directed that the arrangements needed to implement the proposed collaborative tele-projects such as those for health care and education, be expedited.
Science and Technology 23. The Heads of State or Government acknowledged the ongoing contribution of Science & Technology including cutting edge technology in information and bio-technology in improving the quality of life of the peoples of South Asia. They noted the offer of India to host the Ministerial Meeting on Science & Technology on September 15-16, 2008 for development of a roadmap on identifying implementable focused regional and sub-regional projects in SAARC.
Tourism 24. The Heads of State or Government underscored the vital contribution that tourism could afford to the economic development of the SAARC region. They agreed to make every effort to implement the comprehensive action plan adopted by the Second Ministerial Meeting held at Cox’s Bazaar, Bangladesh. These efforts would include facilitating the movement of people through improved travel infrastructure and air, sea and land connectivity among the SAARC countries, collaboration in human resource development and the promotion of SAARC as a common destination through public-private partnerships and joint campaigns.
Culture
25. The Heads of State or Government emphasized the role of cultural connectivity in bringing the peoples of South Asia closer, while reinforcing and projecting a distinct South Asian identity. They directed that the Agenda for Culture be implemented in full.
SAFTA and Trade Facilitation 26. The Heads of State or Government emphasized their commitment to implement SAFTA in letter and in spirit, thereby enabling SAARC to contribute as well to the dynamic process of Asia’s emergence as the power house of the world. Recognizing the need to continue to address the major barriers hindering effective trade liberalization in the region, which include sensitive lists of items and Non-Trade Barriers (NTBs), they directed that the decision to revise the sensitive lists by the SAFTA Ministerial Council (SMC) be implemented early. They also recommended that while revising the Sensitive Lists, special consideration be given to the LDCs. The Leaders directed that SAFTA Committee of Experts (SCoE) to expeditiously resolve the issue of Non Tariff Measures (NTMs) and Para Tariff Measures (PTMs) in order to facilitate and enhance the trade under SAFTA.
27. The Heads of State or Government underlined the need for taking concrete measures to improve trade facilitation in terms of the mutual recognition of standards, the adoption of common tariff nomenclatures, the harmonization of customs procedures. They directed the relevant SAARC bodies to expedite their work in these areas. They also recognized the importance of development of communication system and transport infrastructure and transit facilities specially for the landlocked countries to promote intra-SAARC trade.
28. The Heads of State or Government observed that the SAARC legal instruments on trade liberalization and the measures and initiatives for trade facilitation are increasingly affording significant openings for mutually beneficial trade, investments and economic co-operation within South Asia. These openings are complemented by the uniformly sound levels of national economic growth being attained by the Member States of SAARC. The Leaders accordingly noted the growing and urgent need for enhancing capacity within SAARC dedicated to encouraging national and regional strategies that would further maximize the positive trade, investments and economic cooperation climate in South Asia. In this regard they welcomed the offer of Sri Lanka to prepare a Concept Paper and a Working Paper on the subject and directed that the Paper be discussed at a Session of the Standing Committee specially convened for this purpose, to enable the adoption of appropriate follow-up measures.
29. The Heads of State or Government welcomed the signing of the text of the Agreement on the Establishment of the South Asian Regional Standards Organization. The Heads of State or Government welcomed the signing of the Protocol on Afghanistan for Accession to SAFTA.
Trade in Services
30. The Heads of State or Government expressed satisfaction at the conclusion of the Study on Trade in Services and welcomed the decision of SAFTA Ministerial Council to commence negotiation on the Framework Agreement on Trade in Services. Towards achieving further economic integration, they directed that the Draft Agreement on Investment Promotion and Protection be finalized early and the SAARC Arbitration Council be operationalized.
SAARC Social Charter
31. The Heads of State or Government underscored the imperative to make steady progress in the implementation of the SAARC Social Charter and directed the Member States to complete the National Plans of Action with a perspective of seeking to transform current challenges into opportunities. They further directed the National Coordination Committees (NCCs) to recommend activities in conformity with the Social Charter and to introduce an efficient and effective monitoring and evaluation mechanism for reviewing the progress in the implementation of the Social Charter. The Leaders emphasized the need to implement the selected regional and sub regional programs and projects to complement national implementation efforts. They urged that such activities be suitably accommodated in the SAARC Calendar. They called for people’s participation in strategy initiatives, planning and implementation to ensure people’s responsibility and ownership. The Leaders directed to develop a policy on the protection of rights of the senior citizens for their geriatric care taking into account existing national policies of the Member States.
Women and Children 32. The Heads of State or Government noted with satisfaction the increased cooperation in the region towards achieving the all important goal of bringing women fully into the mainstream of development, on the basis of gender equality. They called for focused attention on women’s economic empowerment and skills development, while addressing key health issues and violence against women. The Leaders directed to work for a regional cooperation for the elimination of all forms of discrimination and abuse against women in general and widows in particular and guarantee their rights to live in the society in a dignified manner.
Education 33. The Heads of State or Government welcomed the substantial progress made in the establishment of the South Asian University in New Delhi and directed that the University should begin its Session from 2010. They also directed that increased interaction between students should be encouraged through institutionalization of students, academics, teachers and youth exchange programs. They further directed early institutionalization of an elaborate SAARC Scholarship Scheme in ICT and related areas.
Combating Terrorism 34. The Heads of State or Government strongly condemned all forms of terrorist violence and expressed deep concern over the serious threat posed by terrorism to the peace, stability and security of the region.
35. They further recognized the growing linkages between the phenomenon of terrorism, illegal trafficking in narcotic and psychotropic substances, illegal trafficking of persons and firearms and underscored the need to address the problem in a comprehensive manner. They reiterated their commitment to strengthen the legal regime against terrorism, including by undertaking to implement all international conventions relating to combating terrorism to which Member States are parties, as well as the SAARC Regional Convention on Suppression of Terrorism and the Additional Protocol to the SAARC Regional Convention on the Suppression of Terrorism. The Head of States or Government while recalling United Nations Security Council Resolution 1373 (2001) emphasized the importance of criminalizing any act for the provision, collection and acquisition of funds for the purpose of committing terrorist acts.
36. The Heads of State or Government recognized in this regard the value of the proposed UN Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism. They noted the progress made during recent rounds of negotiations and called for an early conclusion of the Convention.
37. They emphasized the need for strongest possible cooperation in the fight against terrorism and transnational organized crime amongst the relevant agencies of the Member States especially in the area of information exchange. The Heads of State or Government further emphasized the importance of completing all legislative and other relevant measures to implement within Member States, the provisions of the Regional Convention on Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances. The Leaders noted the considerable work done to promote cooperation in Police matters. They appreciated the offer of Pakistan to host the Third Meeting of SAARC Ministers of Interior/Home in Islamabad during 2008.
38. The Heads of State or Government expressed satisfaction on the finalization of the text of the SAARC Convention on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters at the Fifteenth Summit and its signing. They expressed appreciation at the accommodating manner in which the negotiations were conducted by the Member States to provide each other the widest measures of mutual assistance in criminal matters to ensure a greater sense of security within the region, the Heads of State or Government urged for early ratification and implementation of the Convention.
Joint Positions 39. The Heads of State or Government resolved to encourage consultations among delegations of SAARC Member States at the appropriate international forums and agreed to cooperate accordingly.
Observers 40. The Heads of State or Government welcomed the Observers namely the People’s Republic of China, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Mauritius, the United States of America and the European Union and appreciated their participation in the Summit. They also welcomed Australia and Myanmar to be associated as Observers to SAARC. They approved the guidelines for cooperation with Observers and looked forward to working with them in the common pursuit of the partnership for growth for our people.
Sixteenth Summit 41. The Heads of State or Government welcomed with appreciation the offer of the Maldives to host the Sixteenth Summit Meeting of the Heads of State or Government of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC).
