Governments are set to miss a self-imposed goal of slowing the rate of extinctions by 2010 and as a result are putting long-term food supplies at risk, a top environmentalist said before a UN biodiversity conference. Jim Leape, Director General of the WWF, told Reuters that countries at the May 19-30 UN Convention on Biological Diversity meeting in the German city of Bonn must admit they are doing too little and step up their commitments.

The Sindh livestock and fisheries department has singed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the WWF-Pakistan for a long-term technical and institutional support with regard to conservation of natural resources in the Indus eco-region under the "Indus for All Programme'. Speaking at the signing ceremony, Sindh Minister for Livestock and Fisheries Shoaib Siddiqui said food security was a major challenge and required long-term measures in a country like Pakistan. He said his department would extend full cooperation to the WWF-Pakistan to achieve the objectives.

Food security is a major challenge and requires long term measures in a country like Pakistan. This was stated by the Secretary, Livestock and Fisheries Department, Government of Sindh, Shoaib Ahmed Siddiqui at the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signing ceremony between the Department and WWF-Pakistan's Indus for All Programme. Speaking on the occasion, he further said that the Department would extend full cooperation to WWF-Pakistan to achieve the objectives of the MoU.

Arctic ice is melting fast and the area covered by ice sheets in ocean could shrink this summer to the smallest since 1978 when satellite observation first started, Japanese scientists warned in a report. Ice sheets in the Arctic Ocean shrank to the smallest area on record in late summer in 2007, researchers at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said in a report on the website (http://www.eorc.jaxa.jp/imgdata/topics/2008/tp080430.html).

Residents who are sensitive to the problems of global warming will shut down electric supply for an hour between 7.30 pm and 8.30 pm on Saturday. The "Hyderabad Unplug' event is being organised by World Wide Fund, India, to create awareness about global warming and its adverse impact on environment and the health of people.

The Royal Bengal Tiger, the pride of Bengal is fast heading towards extinction owing to po-aching and encroachment on its habitats. In a show of solidarity to the campaign to save the tiger, WWF India and Center For Ecological Movement, are organising a walk tomorrow in the city. The rally will be led by eminent conservationist Mr Fateh Singh Rathore.

Arctic ice may be melting faster than most climate change science has concluded, the conservation group WWF said in a report published on Thursday. It found that ice in Greenland and across the Arctic region was retreating "at rates significantly faster than predicted in previous expert assessments". The Greenland Ice Sheet -- with an ice volume of about 2.9 million cubic kilometres -- is shrinking at a fast pace and "could contribute much more than previously estimated to global sea-level rise during the 21st century," the WWF said.

Painting messages on paper bags , clay-modelling workshops, film screenings and seminars have been planned to sensitise people towards environment on Earth Day tomorrow. The World Wild Life Fund(WWF)India has invited entries from schoolchildren to paint on paper bags that will be distributed in commercial areas to passersby. "The best three entries from each of the participating seven schools in Delhi will be awarded. But all bags that the kids make will be distributed as part of the sensitisation programme on Earth Day tomorrow,' Rashmi Asthana of the WWF India told IANS.

BOKAKHAT, April 18

Bolstered by the success of translocating the first batch of one-horned rhinos to Manas National Park under the Indian Rhino Vision Plan 2020, the Assam Forest Department is now preparing for sending two more rhinos to the park. While the first two rhinos released on April 12 were males from Pobitora Sanctuary, the next rhinos selected for translocation would be two females, also from Pobitora.