An international sailing event, Sail Banda 2010, has yielded to an agreement, called the Ambon Statement, among world countries in managing and maintaining small islands and coral reefs, an official says in a statement.

The Ambon statement, declared by Maluku deputy governor S. Assegaf on Thursday in a symposium, comprises of seven points of agreement.

First, an island territory, which consists of small islands and sea areas including coral reefs, must have a specific policy, planning and requirements, for development. Small islands and coral reef areas, which have a unique ecosystem, are considered cultural heritage. Small islands and coral reefs are prone to global weather changing and discontinuity of their usage by humans.

Local governments must acknowledge and take involvement of local people to contribute in the management of shorelines. Partnership with all stakeholders is needed to rehabilitate, recover and preserve ecosystems of coastal areas and small islands.

The yacht “Convergence” skippered by Randolph Kent Repass of the US, has been declared the champion of the international marine event Sail Banda 2010.

Randolph was therefore on Tuesday night presented with the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister`s trophy by Maluku Vice Governor Said Assagaff at a ceremony held at Tantui Nusantara Fish Port as the mooring location of the yachts participating in Sail Banda.

Convergence, a multi-hull yacht from the US, was the first to arrive at Banda Island on Monday, July 26, 2010 at 4.45 p.m. Eastern Indonesia Standard Time (WIT) after being flagged off at Darwin`s Cullen Bay, Australia, on July 24.

The second yacht to arrive in Banda was “Pegasus” of England, skippered by Jason Charles Lawrence, who was eligible to receive the Maluku Governor`s trophy.

While “First Light III” of Australia, skippered by Bernard John McGoldrick, came in third as it arrived in Banda at 8 on Tuesday morning, July 27. Bernard received the Sail Banda Committee`s trophy.

The first three yachts were followed by six others, namely “Catspaw” of England which was skippered by Peter Richard Whitby, “Magnetic” of New Zealand by Trevor Clifford Clark, “Erica” of New Zealand by Erick Frederik Gray, “Umbra Luna” of Australia by Dale Lynn Clemons, and “Miranda I” of Australia by Goyffrey Philip Rawlins Birch.

Article by M. Azis Tunny, The Jakarta Post, Ambon | Wed, 08/04/2010 9:04 AM | Headlines

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said he hoped that the 2010 Sail Banda festival would create momentum for Indonesia to improve its maritime resource management.

Show of force: Several warships sail in formation during the main event of the Sail Banda 2010 maritime festival at Yos Sudarso Port in Ambon, Maluku, on Tuesday. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono attended the parade on Tuesday. JP/Nurhayati

“I’ve requested the maritime affairs and fisheries minister boost productivity in the marine and fishery sectors to ensure that we emerge as one of the world’s leading fish producers in the near future,” Yudhoyono said Tuesday in a speech to mark the festival’s peak at the Yos Sudarso port in Ambon.

Global climate talks appear to have slipped backward after five days of negotiations in Bonn, the chief U.S. delegate said Friday, adding that some countries were reneging on promises they made last year to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Poor countries agreed with the grim assessment made by U.S. negotiator Jonathan Pershing, saying the latest round of talks on how to fight global warming have been frustrating.

The sharp divide between rich and poor nations over how best to fight climate change – a clash that torpedoed a summit in Copenhagen last December – remains, and bodes ill for any deal at the next climate convention in Cancun, Mexico, which begins in November.

“At this point, I am very concerned,” Pershing said. “Unfortunately, what we have seen over and over this week is that some countries are walking back from progress made in Copenhagen, and what was agreed there.”

Christiana Figueres, the top U.N. climate official, put a positive face on the negotiating session. Delegates may feel let down if their issues of interest had not advanced, “but if you see the bigger picture, we have progress.”

Ambon. The heavy downpours may have battered the port of Ambon during Tuesday’s peak event of Sail Banda 2010, but it failed to temper the excitement felt by thousands of Ambonese residents. The port was crowded with people trying to catch a glimpse of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and his wife, First Lady Ani Yudhoyono.

In great anticipation, the crowds lined both sides of the streets, including schoolchildren, who were dismissed early to join the throngs of people, waiting patiently in the rain.

“I have been standing here since 7:30. It was raining even then,” said eighth-grader Viel Latupono. “I’m tired but I want to see the president.”

Mother of three Ima Ode was also excited by the prospect of seeing “President Yudhoyono’s face.” The 32-year-old woman waited just outside the gate of the port with her children.

“Although I’m not a Maluku native, I’m very proud that Maluku is hosting this Sail Banda,” she said. “I am positive this can help develop the province.”

In his speech Yudhoyono said that with Sail Banda 2010 the country would use the momentum to promote Indonesian marine diversity and to help develop remote islands.

Ambon. As thousands gather here this week in the lead-up to the main event of Sail Banda 2010, officials hope Maluku will finally be able to shed the shadow of its conflicted past.

Agung Laksono, coordinating minister for people’s welfare, said in a media conference on Sunday that Sail Banda — an international maritime event — would showcase how the province had overcome years of interethnic conflict.

“This is our way of telling the outside world that Maluku is safe and peaceful,” he said.

The region experienced one of the country’s longest ethnic-religious conflicts after the fall of former President Suharto.

The conflict between the area’s Christian and Muslim populations erupted in 1999, when a trivial dispute at a bus terminal in Ambon sparked violent clashes in the surrounding islands.

A government-brokered peace deal between the two sides was implemented in February 2002, but not before the ensuing violence left thousands dead.

The Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) was established by the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO) in 1966 primarily “to provide to the participating countries high quality graduate study in agriculture; promote, undertake, and coordinate research programs related to the needs and problems of the Southeast Asian region; and disseminate the findings of agricultural research and experimentation. ”  The Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) invites applications for its graduate scholarship (MS and PhD) in agriculture and related fields (including biological sciences, social sciences, economics and statistics, forestry and fisheries, environmental sciences, agro-industrial technology and engineering, biochemistry, and development management).

PhD Research Scholarship

Launched in November 2005, the SEARCA PhD Research Scholarship provides financial support to a limited number of qualified PhD students whose researches are relevant to the priority thrusts of SEARCA.

This scholarship program aims to:

1. Provide PhD students the opportunity to use the resources and facilities available at SEARCA and its network of universities for their research;
2. Produce quality research papers for publication; and
3. Enable them to work with SEARCA’s R&D personnel on mutually identified areas of concerns/interests in agriculture and rural development.

New Europe College (NEC) is an independent Romanian institute for advanced study in the humanities and social sciences founded in 1994 by Professor Andrei Pleşu (philosopher, art historian, writer, Romanian Minister of Culture, 1990–1991, Romanian Minister of Foreign Affairs, 1997-1999) within the framework of the New Europe Foundation, established in 1994 as a private foundation subject to Romanian law.

Its impetus was the New Europe Prize for Higher Education and Research, awarded in 1993 to Professor Pleşu by a group of six institutes for advanced study (the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford, the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, the National Humanities Center, Research Triangle Park, the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in Humanities and Social Sciences, Wassenaar, the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study in the Social Sciences, Uppsala, and the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin).

New Europe College – Institute for Advanced Study in Bucharest, Romania – announces the competition for Fellowships. The program targets young international researchers/academics working in the fields of humanities, social studies, and economics.

The United States still stands by its promise to slash global warming pollution despite the Senate’s decision to abandon climate legislation this year, U.S. Special Envoy for Climate Change Todd Stern said yesterday.

In an interview with ClimateWire, Stern said the Obama administration is “not backing away” from its Copenhagen pledge to cut greenhouse gas emissions 17 percent below 2005 levels in the coming decade and more than 80 percent by mid-century. He also laced into critics who say America’s failure to produce legislation this year will have dire consequences for treaty talks.

“People who frame this all around whether there is U.S. legislation or not, that if there’s legislation we’re in the end zone … I don’t believe that,” Stern said. “It’s not the magic bullet, and it’s also not the thing that sinks the ship.”

This week Stern’s negotiating team meets in Bonn, Germany, for a mid-year United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) session aimed at developing a new global treaty. And after months of recriminations and finger-pointing over the contentious Denmark conference that produced the Copenhagen Accord, leaders say most countries are finally ready to craft some practical agreements to help make the voluntary pledges in that document a reality.

Aug. 3 (Bloomberg) — Loopholes in the Kyoto Protocol climate treaty risk wiping out emissions reduction pledges made by developed nations for 2020, an alliance of island nations said at United Nations global warming talks in Bonn.

The pact’s rules mean current pledges by developed nations to reduce greenhouse gases by 12 percent to 18 percent by 2020 may end up leading to cuts amounting to just 1 percent to 7 percent from 1990 levels, Al Binger, a delegate from Grenada, told envoys at the meeting. That may wipe out the treaty’s goal of a 5 percent cut agreed from 2008 to 2012.

The loopholes arise from clauses in the protocol that give developed nations flexibility on how they account for greenhouse gases related to forestry and land use changes, as well as permitting countries to roll over unused pollution allowances from the first commitment period into the next one.

If the rules aren’t changed, “we basically will be running on a treadmill,” Binger said in the German city, where five days of talks are being held. “We gain nothing, and our extinction will be virtually assured.”