Global Interflyway Network

Global Interflyway Network

Global Flyway Initiatives Workshop in South Korea Establishes a “Global Interflyway Network” (GIN) [ français ] Gland/Bonn, 2 November 2011 - With the generous support of Seosan City (Republic of Korea), the Government of Switzerland and the Secretariat of the East Asian-Australasian Flyway Partnership (EAAFP), an international workshop to review good practice in international initiatives for the conservation of migratory waterbirds and other migratory birds was convened by the Secretariats of the Ramsar Convention, the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS), the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA), the EAAFP and BirdLife International as well as Wetlands International. The workshop, held from 17 - 20 October 2011 and attended by 35 representatives and observers from 14 international organizations and seven Korean organizations, was hosted by Seosan City at Hanseo University in the Republic of Korea. An increasing number of flyway-scale initiatives for migratory bird conservation and wise use have been established around the globe, with varied approaches and status, and with considerable and valuable experiences to share. However, the experiences of these initiatives, while often well publicized within their own flyway, are often poorly known elsewhere. This has led to independent evolution of approaches in different flyways and relatively little exchange of experience between flyways, or between flyway initiatives for different groups of birds e.g. waterbirds, landbirds, soaring birds and seabirds. While many of the challenges faced are similar, different approaches have been taken to tackle them. This workshop was the first to bring together practitioners from all these flyway initiatives to share lessons learned from the different approaches, assess their strengths and weaknesses, and so provide a more global view of our flyway conservation efforts thus far. This first workshop focussed largely on waterbirds, the taxa for which the flyway approach is most widely developed, but also included representatives from raptor, landbird and seabird flyway initiatives. Flyway-relevant initiatives examined during the Workshop were: A. Statutory intergovernmental initiatives • The Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) and its Memoranda of Understanding • The African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbird Agreement (AEWA) • The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands B. Public/Private Sector Partnerships • East Asian-Australasian Flyway Partnership C. Voluntary Initiatives • Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network (WHSRN) (Americas) • Partners in Flight (North American landbirds) • Western Hemisphere Migratory Species Initiative (WHMSI) • Siberian Crane flyway initiatives (Asia) • Raptor flyway initiatives • BirdLife International’s Global Seabird Programme • Wings Over Wetlands (WOW) partnership (Africa-Eurasia) Contracting Parties to both the Ramsar Convention and CMS have recognized the need for this inter-flyway approach, and have called for such a workshop process. The workshop was called specifically in response to the request made by Ramsar Contracting Parties at their 10th Conference (Changwon, Republic of Korea, 2008) Resolution X.22, which urged “the governing bodies of flyway initiatives to take steps to share knowledge and expertise on best practices in the development and implementation of flyway-scale waterbird conservation policies and practices, including successful means of disseminating critical supporting data and information to stakeholders and others” and encouraged the Secretariats of Ramsar, CMS, AEWA and the biodiversity programme of the Arctic Council “to work together with their governance and scientific subsidiary bodies and other interested organizations to establish a mechanism for such sharing of knowledge and experience”. The workshop was designed also to respond to CMS COP9 Resolution 9.2 which urged Ramsar, CMS, AEWA and the Arctic Council “to establish a mechanism for sharing knowledge, expertise and experience of best practices across the various ‘north-south’ migratory waterbird flyway initiatives and Agreement" and to contribute to, and be complementary to the other work of, the CMS Working Groups on Flyways and on Future Shape, which are reporting to CMS COP10 in Bergen, Norway (20 – 25 November 2011). The workshop began with an open session which outlined how each of the flyway initiatives operates, and described some of the main pressures being faced worldwide by migratory birds, and opportunities for enhancing their conservation status. Workshop presentations and discussions were then organized under a) the objectives, operations and experiences of a range of statutory and voluntary flyway initiatives, and b) seven common and cross-cutting themes: 1. National engagement and implementation 2. Species conservation 3. Site/habitat conservation 4. Role of science 5. Innovative approaches 6. Developing capacity 7. Partnerships and stakeholder involvement The workshop participants were unanimous in their recognition of the value of knowledge and information sharing across flyway initiatives, and agreed to establish an open and inclusive network of flyway-scale initiatives, so as to facilitate future networking, collaboration and information-sharing between initiatives and their personnel, to be entitled the “Global Interflyway Network” (GIN). A summary report of the workshop’s conclusions and recommendations is being prepared for consideration by the CMS Scientific Council (17 – 18 November 2011), and a full workshop report is in preparation for publication as a joint Ramsar//CMS/AEWA Technical Report. Prof Nick Davidson Deputy Secretary General Ramsar Convention on Wetlands

Phobos Grunt stuck circling the Earth

Little hope for stuck Phobos Grunt probe

The Russian space agency has conceded there is now little chance of reviving its Mars mission, Phobos-Grunt.Continue reading the main story

Phobos-Grunt - Mishap sequence

• 9 Nov: The probe launches successfully on its Zenit rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome
• It is dropped off 11 minutes later in an elliptical orbit some 345km above the Earth
• Two firings from the probe's hydrazine-fuelled cruise stage were planed over South America
• The first, lasting 11.5 minutes, should have raised the orbit of Phobos-Grunt to 4,000km
• A second burn, four hours into the mission, was to have sent the probe on a path to Mars
• Russian space agency officials say neither burn on the big cruise stage took place
• The probe remains in a low-Earth orbit while the anomaly is investigated by engineers
• After two weeks, contact is still impossible; but the probe maintains its orbit
• Eventually, it would fall back to Earth. Roscosmos says perhaps between December and February

• What would Mars probe failure mean for Russian space?

The probe has been stuck circling the Earth since its launch on 9 November, unable to fire the engine that would take it on to the Red Planet.

Engineers have tried in vain to contact the spacecraft, and Roscosmos deputy head Vitaliy Davydov said the situation now looked very grim.

"One should be a realist," he was quoted as saying by RIA Novosti.

"If we've been unable to establish communication with [Phobos-Grunt] for such a long time, there are few chances that we shall fulfil the expedition now," were his comments reported by the Russian news agency at a press conference in mission control centre at Korolev on the outskirts of Moscow.

"If we establish contact [with the probe] and begin to understand what's wrong with it, then we shall be able to draw some conclusions," Davydov said.

Later, another Russian news agency, Interfax, quoted Davydov as saying that Phobos-Grunt might fall from orbit anytime between late December 2011 and February 2012.

"It is an interesting question how [the probe] will behave. There is fuel on board. If there is an explosion, it is one thing, but if it simply starts falling apart with no explosion, then it is another thing," Interfax reported the deputy head as saying.

The spacecraft weighed some 13 tonnes at launch - double the mass of Nasa's recently re-entered UARS satellite.

What is more, most of the 13 tonnes is made up by the propellants unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine (UDMH) and dinitrogen tetroxide (DTO), both of which are toxic.

If the Phobos-Grunt mission is truly lost, then professional and amateur groups will be modelling its orbit in an attempt to determine precisely where and when it might come down.

As with UARS, much of the spacecraft will burn up in the atmosphere; but any parts made of high-temperature metals, such as titanium or stainless steel, stand a chance of making it all the way to the surface.

Indeed, it is the fuel tanks that often survive the fall because their spherical shapes enable them to spin up and dissipate heat more easily.

However, the probability is that any debris would hit the ocean, given that more than 70% of the Earth's surface is covered by water. This was the case with UARS and the German Rosat X-Ray telescope that returned to Earth last month.

To date, Phobos-Grunt has been maintaining its orbit, but trackers will be monitoring the spacecraft closely to catch any change in its behaviour.

The probe was built to land on the Martian moon Phobos and scoop up rock for return to Earth. Such a venture would yield fascinating new insights into the origin of the 27km-wide moon and the planet it circles.

The mission was also notable because China's first Mars satellite, Yinghuo-1, was launched piggy-back on the main Russian spacecraft.

Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk

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• What would Mars probe failure mean for Russian space? 21 NOVEMBER 2011, SCIENCE & ENVIRONMENT
• Stricken Mars probe stays silent 11 NOVEMBER 2011, SCIENCE & ENVIRONMENT
• Mood grim over Mars probe fault 10 NOVEMBER 2011, SCIENCE & ENVIRONMENT
• Probe fails to set course to Mars 09 NOVEMBER 2011, SCIENCE & ENVIRONMENT
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Nigeria to file class action suit against BA, Virgin

Nigeria's federal government is to file a class action suit against British Airways (BA) and Virgin Atlantic Airways (VAA), after both indicated unwillingness to pay a fine of US$235 imposed on them by the regulatory Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) for alleged price-fixing on the Nigeria-UK route

The private Punch newspaper reported Friday that the class action suit is aimed at compelling the airlines to pay the fine.

Following the report of an investigation panel by NCAA, which found that the airlines engaged in price-fixing on the route between 2004 and 2006, NCAA fined BA US$135 million and VAA US$100 million as compensation to the country and Nigerian travellers.

'The ministry is perfecting some technicalities on the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority’s report. We are working on the papers. The office of the Attorney-General of the Federation will be filing a class action suit on behalf of Nigerians against the BA and VAA very soon.

'Government has decided that there is no going back on the matter. The government knows they will not agree to pay just like that,' the Punch quoted an unnamed top official of the Ministry of Aviation as saying.

The airlines have rejected the allegation and vowed to defend themselves, in an indication they are not willing to pay the fine.

In a statement issued here Thursday, BA said: 'We reject the allegations made by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority and we are vigorously defending our position.'

On his part, VAA's representative in Nigeria, Chief John Adebanjo, told journalists here: 'I don’t think we have violated Nigerian law in any way. We hold the Director-General of NCAA and the agency in high esteem. We respect the laws of the land. A full response will be coming from our
head office later.'

The Nigerian government believes the airlines, especially BA, have continued to charge Nigerian travellers along the route higher fares.

On Tuesday, following talks between Nigerian and British aviation authorities, BA offered a 20% cut in fares on the route, but the Nigerian government rejected the offer, saying it is too low.

PANA reports that a one-way, first class fare along the Lagos-London route is US$5,408, whereas the same booking for a passenger on the Accra-London route is US$2,399.

Also, a one-way, business class fare on the Lagos-London route is US$3,685, compared to the US$2,049 fare on the same booking on the Accra-London route.

China's unmanned Shenzhou 8 capsule returns to Earth

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A Chinese spacecraft has returned to Earth after completing the nation's first docking manoeuvres in orbit.

The Shenzhou 8 capsule landed in the Gobi desert late on Thursday (Beijing time), the final moments of its descent having being slowed by parachute.

While in orbit, the unmanned Shenzhou mission had rendezvoused with China's mini spacelab, Tiangong-1.

The success of the venture paves the way for astronauts to visit the lab next year.

Officials have indicated their desire to launch one, or perhaps two, manned missions in 2012. They have also said that 2012 might even see the country's first female astronaut.

Ultimately, China hopes the technological progress it is making in orbit will lead to the development of a fully fledged space station at the end of the decade.

Shenzhou 8 spent just under 17 days in orbit in total, the longest Shenzhou mission to date.

Its goal had been to chase down and join with Tiangong-1, to demonstrate the technologies that will be essential if larger structures are to be assembled in space.

Although there were no astronauts - yuhangyuans - on the flight, Shenzhou 8 was carrying biological experiments featuring fish, plants, worms, bacteria and even human cancer cells.

These studies, designed jointly by Chinese and German scientists, were retrieved from the capsule after its return to the grasslands of Siziwang Banner in the north of China at about 19:30 CST (11:30 GMT).

Beijing sees the Tiangong and Shenzhou dockings as the next phase in its step-by-step approach to acquiring the skills of human spaceflight operations.

It is a learning curve China hopes will culminate in the construction of a space station. This could start taking shape before 2020.

At about 60 tonnes in mass, this future station would be considerably smaller than the 400-tonne international platform operated by the US, Russia, Europe, Canada and Japan, but its mere presence in the sky would nonetheless represent a remarkable achievement.

Concept drawings describe a core module weighing some 20-22 tonnes, flanked by two slightly smaller laboratory vessels.

Officials say it would be supplied by freighters in exactly the same way that robotic cargo ships keep the International Space Station (ISS) today stocked with fuel, food, water, air, and spare parts.

• Tiangong-1 was launched in September on a Long March 2F rocket
• The unmanned laboratory unit was first put in a 350km-high orbit
• Shenzhou 8 was sent up to rendezvous and dock with Tiangong-1
• The project tested key technologies such as life-support systems
• China aims to start building a 60-tonne space station by about 2020

Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk

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• China launch betrays its earthly ambitions 29 SEPTEMBER 2011, ASIA-PACIFIC
• China launches Moon mission 01 OCTOBER 2010, SCIENCE & ENVIRONMENT
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• China puts its first man in space 15 OCTOBER 2003, ASIA-PACIFIC

Related Internet links

• China National Space Administration

Comtel Air probe after passengers 'told to buy fuel'

Police were called after angry customers and relatives turned up at a travel agency

An airline is set to investigate reports that it asked passengers to pay £20,000 towards the cost of fuel to complete their journey to the UK.

Passengers said they were asked for the money when a flight with Austrian airline Comtel Air from Amritsar in India stopped in Vienna to refuel.

Other passengers have been stuck in India after flights were cancelled.

The airline said it would investigate the claims and hoped to swiftly return people to the UK from India.

Bhunpinder Kandra, director of passenger services for Comtel Air, said: "I have heard what happened, it shouldn't have happened, and I will investigate why it happened.

"The people who had to pay the money will receive a refund."

Police called

Reena Rindi, who was on the plane with her two-year-old daughter, told Channel 4 News: "We wanted to go home. We'd been stranded for about three to four days. Who was going to take us home?"

She said passengers agreed to pay in order to fly to Birmingham.

"If we didn't have the money they were making us go one by one outside in Vienna to get the cash out," she added.

Another woman who flew from Amritsar to Birmingham via Vienna told the BBC: "We had to pay 150 euros last night in Vienna to get back to Birmingham and then they wouldn't fly us back to Birmingham so we had to pay ourselves to come back."

Comtel Air introduced cheap flights from Birmingham to Amritsar in the Punjab, via Vienna, last month.

Birmingham Airport, which said the airline had been operating successfully to Amritsar, expressed concern and added that it had started an investigation.

Mr Kandra said he hoped the situation would be resolved "within the week" and that a flight would be leaving Amritsar for the UK on Friday.

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

Our current advice to anyone affected is to contact their tour operator, travel agent or the airline for further information”

Foreign Office spokesman

Amarjit Duggal, from Great Barr in Birmingham, flew from Amritsar last week after scattering her mother's ashes.

She said her father, sister and uncle were still there and did not know when they would be able to return home. She said it was very distressing as they were still in mourning.

"They were due to leave Amritsar on Sunday at 10:30 in the morning," she said. "They did not get the information as to what's happening with the airline."

Police called

Some airline customers who booked through Takhar Travel, in Smethwick in the West Midlands, told BBC News that they were concerned as they did not know if their flights would go ahead.

About 30 of the passengers who experienced problems in Vienna along with relatives of people stranded in India, went to the travel agent on Wednesday but said they were told the manager was not available. Police were called after staff became overwhelmed by concerned customers.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: "We are aware that a number of British nationals have been affected by difficulties with Comtel airlines flights from Amritsar to Birmingham via Vienna.

"We have been, and remain, in touch with the relevant authorities including the airline for clarification on how British nationals due to fly in the coming days will be affected.

"Our current advice to anyone affected is to contact their tour operator, travel agent or the airline for further information and about possible alternative arrangements. We would also advise that they monitor our travel advice for India for any updates.

"We took a number of calls from distressed British nationals in relation to this issue and we have provided consular assistance to those who have sought it."