The award of South Africa's highest honour for a non-South African to WWF President Chief Emeka Anyaoku is a well-deserved recognition of an outstanding international leader, WWF said yesterday.

South African President Thabo Mbeki's decision to confer the Order of the Supreme Companions of O.R.Tambo:Gold on Chief Emeka Anyaoku was announced today.

“The award is in recognition of Emeka Anyaoku’s great contribution to the ending of apartheid and enthronement of democracy in South Africa,” the statement says. It cites Chief Anyaoku's early involvement with African National Congress leader Oliver Tambo and colleagues including Nelson Mandela, and his key role as Commonwealth Secretary-General in crucial negotiations in 1991-93 that produced the agreement leading to South Africa's first multi-racial elections.

Chief Anyaoku has served as the President of the global conservation organization WWF since 2002.

“We give Chief Anyaoku our heartfelt congratulations,” said James Leape, Director General of WWF International. “We also find it particularly appropriate that Chief Anyaoku, a great leader for conservation, is to receive this honour on Earth Day, April 22.”

“This award recognises Chief Anyaoku as a man who has made a great difference in bringing about a better world, something he continues to do in his advocacy for a better environment.

“Chief Anyaoku is one of those rare leaders whose reach extends from the local to the global, as Ichie Adazie of Obosi, leader of his own people, to his roles as Commonwealth Secretary-General and WWF President.”

“It has been and it continues to be a great privilege for us to work with Chief Anyaoku.”

WWF  

Forget Facebook, MySpace or You Tube: here comes connect2earth, a new online community where young people can upload videos, pictures and comments about the environment.

On www.connect2earth.org, users and visitors will be able to write, speak, illustrate and video present their concerns on subjects important to them, and share environmental ideas and solutions.

Each month, users will vote for a winner who will receive a Nokia mobile phone.

“Connect2earth is a truly global space for young people to connect, share, express their concerns and hopes about the environment online – and win some prizes in the process”, said James Leape, Director General of WWF International.

“This new community allows them to tell the world why they care about the environment and why it should be protected.”

Julia Marton-Lefèvre, Director General of the World Conservation Union (IUCN) said: “We live on an amazing planet – we need to protect it. We want to encourage young people to be involved in environmental issues and take action.”

A panel of prominent conservationists will elect an overall winner who will get the chance to participate in the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Barcelona next October.

She or he will have the opportunity to present some ideas directly to leaders from around the world.

“Young people feel increasingly strongly about protecting the environment because, for them, it represents their future”, said Kirsi Sormunen, Vice President of Environmental Affairs at Nokia.

And how do you connect to earth through connect2earth? The site, not surprisingly, is particularly suited to uploading short films, photos and comments from mobile phones.

European countries meeting here at an international maritime treaty meeting have agreed to allow greenhouse gases to be buried beneath the north-east Atlantic Ocean as a way to cut CO2 emissions, a major contributing factor to global warming.

WWF welcomes the amendment made to the Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic, or OSPAR Convention, to enable carbon capture and storage in the sub-seabed geological formations of the north-east Atlantic.

“We believe that carbon capture and storage, if properly regulated, could be an important weapon in the battle against climate change,” said Stephan Lutter with WWF's North-East Atlantic Marine Ecoregion Programme.

“This could help to keep global warming below 2ºC and help cut global CO2 emissions by more than 50 per cent by mid-century.”

According to scientists, increasing concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere are affecting ocean chemistry — half the CO2 released since the industrial revolution has been absorbed into the sea and has resulted in the formation of carbonic acid. It is predicted that the seas will become more acidic this century than at any time in the past 20 million years.

Corals around the UK and in warmer tropical waters are especially vulnerable, as are many plankton communities, which form the basis of the food chain.

“The impacts to the marine environment from carbon capture and storage will be less than those of climate change and ocean acidification,” added Lutter.

“Nonetheless, strict environmental regulation control and monitoring is necessary. There must be internationally agreed procedures for independent verification and monitoring of storage and related activities before such technologies count against greenhouse gas reduction targets.”

END NOTES:

• The work under the convention is managed by the OSPAR Commission, made up of the European Commission and 15 countries: Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK.