Letters
Reader Commentary
RE: “TAKING ANIMAL TRAFFICKING OUT OF THE SHADOWS,”
BY DENER GIOVANINI
Dener Giovanini does an excellent job of describing the challenges—and risk—
faced not only by RENCTAS, but by all conservationists who seek to protect
wildlife from illegal take and trade. And like the illegal trade of drugs and guns,
wildlife smuggling is a global business—one that often goes hand in hand with
other criminal activities.
There is also no doubt that the smuggling of illegal wildlife products is a multi-
billion dollar business. Jedoch, Die $20 billion figure so often cited as an estimate
for the value of such trade does need to be re-examined. Using data from the early
1990S, TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network of World Wildlife Fund
and IUCN, originally generated that estimate for the value for all wildlife trade,
both legal and illegal, excluding commodities like timber and fish. The figure
gained wide currency and was frequently quoted—and ultimately misquoted—as
the value for illegal trade alone. The true value of illegal wildlife trade may, by now,
indeed be that much. But we really don’t know the exact number.
What we do know, Jedoch, is some of the same criminal syndicates dealing in
drugs and arms smuggling are also involved in the illegal wildlife trade. From Asia
to Africa to the Amazon, drugs, guns and animal parts are smuggled through the
same networks, down the same jungle trails and often by the same people. Der
profits from one activity may finance another in a criminal cycle that weakens legal
norms and saps the natural resource base. Drug cartels in Peru, zum Beispiel, Sind
involved in mahogany smuggling.
There is one difference between the drug trade and the trade in wildlife: You
can’t buy heroin on e-Bay. Aber, as our TRAFFIC investigators found out a few years
ago, you can buy animal products like ivory—much of it from sources that are
believed to have obtained it illegally.
Therein lies the challenge. The Internet has transformed the world of wildlife
smuggling in ways both good and bad. Conservationists have become cyber
sleuths, with dedicated groups like RENCTAS creatively using the Internet for both
investigative and informational purposes. Giovanini notes that the Internet has
also helped in another way—offering a higher degree of anonymity, and therefore
personal safety, to people passing along tips about instances of illegal animal traf-
ficking. Yet this anonymity is double-sided, for equally cyber savvy smuggling net-
works also use it to create and expand their markets.
WWF began using the net as an investigative tool in the early 1990s, when our
“Eyes and Ears” Campaign, a pilot project in the U.K., set up a web-based report-
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ing system to receive tips and keep track of suspicious activity related to wildlife.
Anfänglich, most of the “tips” we received concerned common species that could be
traded legally. But as both the Internet grew and public awareness increased as a
result of our efforts, we began to see a profound change. On the one hand, Die
quantity and the quality of the information we received grew enormously. Auf der
andererseits, we soon discovered that the trade itself had also moved online.
The change, since the early days of the Internet, has been staggering. Heute,
much of the trade in wildlife is initiated on websites and negotiated via email and
instant messaging. As the battle lines shift from the jungle to the chat room, Die
challenge moving forward lies in figuring out how to stay a step ahead of the
traders.
Our own conviction is that the Internet may help us to win some battles but
will not win the war. What else must we do?
It is generally acknowledged, among conservationists and law enforcement
officials, that the best way to combat the wildlife trade is by following it from
source to consumer and by putting intervention points in place along the way to
impede it. If a shipment is missed at export it may be caught upon import. Der Schlüssel
here lies in establishing and strengthening wildlife enforcement networks.
A good example is the Association of South East Asian Nations Wildlife
Enforcement Network (ASEAN-WEN). Established little more than a year ago, Es
is already showing how working together within a region can achieve real results
and deter wildlife criminals through cross border initiatives. It is a model that
South America could easily adopt.
Conservation groups also need to network better. The models developed by
national and regional groups like RENCTAS, and international ones like WWF,
should be better integrated so that we can share information and coordinate our
efforts across country and regional boundaries. This is what we’ve been asking
governments and law enforcement agencies to do for years.
Let’s stop asking and show them how to do it.
Carter Roberts
President and CEO
World Wildlife Fund-US
Washington D.C, USA
RE: “WINNING CITIZEN TRUST: THE SITING OF A NUCLEAR WASTE
FACILITY IN EURAJOKI, FINLAND” BY JUHANI VIRA
In his article on siting the Finnish repository at Eurajoki, Juhani Vira does an excel-
lent job of describing of the elements that led to a major success, on which the
Posiva staff are to be congratulated. The key components that he identifies can be
summarized in the following points:
• Technology transfer from Sweden put the Finns in a good position to concen-
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trate early on the non-technical aspects of siting. (Modestly, he does not
emphasize that this transfer developed into a full and balanced bilateral coop-
eration between the two countries.)
• The relatively homogeneous geology in the Baltic Shield (and the low popula-
tion densities) simplified the siting process to some extent.
• It was recognized early that a staged approach was appropriate and that open
dialogue with stakeholders was crucial.
• The political system was favorable in that local communities had a powerful
voice—including an absolute right of veto—and were not able to be overrid-
den by larger but still sub-national political forces. The well known “donut
effect” in which a State can prevent locally agreed developments (as is the case
in Federal systems such as in the USA and Switzerland) did not occur.
• Siting options included existing nuclear communities, with a history of good
relations to the power stations that they host.
This last point is related to another positive aspect that Vira does not empha-
size—namely that, both nationally and also in the potential siting communities,
the implementing organization had built up a sufficient level of trust. The com-
mitment of Posiva to fostering local relations was underscored by their communi-
ty actions at Eurojoki and also by the decision that the company should be domi-
ciled at the site.
Juhani Vira points out himself very clearly that one should not assume that all
of the Finnish experience can be transferred to other repository programs. Some
of it can, Jedoch, and there are also some important lessons that can be learned.
One important message is that repository implementation is a process that takes
decades. In an article commenting on the Finnish paper, Alison Macfarlane criti-
cizes the fact that after decades of nuclear power, no country has a repository for
high level waste or spent fuel. This is no great surprise to most disposal programs,
since they have realized for a long time that decades are in fact the right timescales
for repository development. If geological repositories had been available 20 Jahre
ago, then most countries would have had no wastes to put in them. This is because
small nuclear programs had not built up a significant inventory and also because
most programs planned from the beginning to have around 40 years of surface
storage to allow the decay of heat generation by the waste. The USA is a double
exception here—lots of waste existed and disposal of relatively fresh spent fuel was
planned. These are two reasons why the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) aimed
originally for 1998 as a deadline for starting disposal. The other reason was that the
DOE was from the beginning over-optimistic about the duration of a siting
Verfahren.
Finland laid out its current Program in 1983. At that date it fixed the year 2000
as the deadline for selection of a site. This subsequently proved to be the sole exam-
ple of a national Program being able to achieve its siting goal in the time estimat-
Hrsg. Darüber hinaus, the Finnish implementers also acknowledged already back in 1983
that operation of the repository would start only around 20 years after the site had
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Letters
been selected. It may, Natürlich, be feasible in other countries to shorten these
timescales; In der Tat, given increased global security concerns about spent fuel in
many surface locations, acceleration of the process should be a common goal. Der
from-the-outset realistic estimates of the Finns (and the revised, extended
timescales of many other countries) do, Jedoch, illustrate the recurring over-opti-
mism in the U.S. Programm.
A further key point that is not discussed in the article on the Finnish reposito-
ry concerns costs. Posiva has achieved another pioneering result in that it has
shown that even a small nuclear Program of two to three power reactors appears
able to finance a national repository without pricing nuclear electricity out of the
Markt. In other very small nuclear programs (e.g. in the Netherlands or Slovenia)
or in countries contemplating introducing nuclear plants, the impact of an expen-
sive national repository on economic viability has been questioned. Entsprechend,
interest has been shown in concepts for multinational disposal that would benefit
from economies of scale. Es ist interessant, daher, to consider whether this favor-
able economic case in Finland is something that can be extrapolated to other pro-
Gramm. The estimated total deep repository costs for the Finnish geological repos-
itory are around one billion US dollars. This contrasts strongly with the big
spenders such as the USA (which has already spent several billions just on Yucca
Mountain, and will spend tens of billions on the whole geological disposal
Programm) or Japan, with estimated disposal costs of around 20 Milliarde. The Finnish
costs are also 2 Zu 5 times lower than those of programs such as those of Sweden,
Belgium or Switzerland. The relatively modest Finnish costs are probably due to a
combination of cost sharing in technological developments, focussed site investi-
gations, good construction conditions in hard rock, highly trained specialists in all
key disciplines, and long experience in underground excavations of this type.
For other small or new nuclear programs, it will be difficult or impossible to
simultaneously benefit from all these advantages. Entsprechend, the concept of
shared multinational repositories continues to be of wide interest, as acknowl-
edged by both the IAEA and the European Commission. Finding sites where such
facilities can be located with the consent of the national and local populations will
be a huge challenge—but a challenge that differs from national siting in its scale
rather than in its nature. daher, we can legitimately ask whether lessons can be
learned from the Finnish experience also for the case of siting multinational facil-
ities. I believe that they can. A trusted implementer is the starting point. There is
none at present. A single country may have problems in assuming this role, unless
it is judged as unusually trustworthy by the international community. Australia
might do; Russia would not, unless significant new oversight measures were intro-
duziert. A multinational organization with the strong support of the IAEA seems
more promising. Other aspects of the siting process used by Finland are transfer-
able. Volunteering is for multinational hosting a condition sine qua non. Dort
needs to be intensive dialogue in an extended staged process. Benefits have to be
apparent for both the host and the users. Endlich, the consequences of hosting a
geological repository must be acknowledged to be acceptable with regard to the
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short term environmental impacts and negligible with regard to long term radio-
logical safety.
The Finnish repository is a national facility that is strictly limited to accepting
only spent fuel from the Finland. Its successful implementation will provide a pos-
itive example to other countries, both large and small, that are aiming to have their
own repository. The facility itself and the process used to site it in a socially accept-
able way can also provide valuable input for initiatives tackling the further chal-
lenge of siting multinational repositories.
Charles McCombie
Director of Science &Technology ret.
National Co-operative for the Disposal of Radioactive Wastes
Wettingen, Schweiz
RE: “OPEN STANDARDS, OPEN SOURCE, AND OPEN INNOVATION,”
BY ELLIOT MAXWELL
Elliot Maxwell’s article on “Open Standards, Open Source, and Open Innovation,”
should be required reading for any government policy maker seeking to under-
stand the changing nature of software and innovation (particularly in the IT sec-
tor). His comprehensive tour of the horizon illustrates the interplay between open
Standards, open source software, and intellectual property policy—and the impact
that each is having on innovation. The trend towards openness is increasingly
important because: (1) it could accelerate the shift of software applications off of
the desktop and into the “cloud,” and (2) enable a new model for globally integrat-
ed corporations and the growth of virtual companies and institutions.
The Internet is no longer just a communication network—it has become a
platform for computing and collaboration—a vast, interconnected, virtual super-
computer. Many different terms have been used to describe this development:
Cloud computing, Netz 2.0, Software as a Service, Web Services, the Grid—but the
result is all the same. Internet users are able to use the Web to combine software,
Daten, and computing power scattered in multiple locations across the network.
The continued evolution of this new paradigm depends critically upon open
standards—truly open standards, implemented in open source software. Mit
open standards for Web Services, users will be able to combine thousands of pieces
of software and databases available on the Web to create millions of different cus-
tomized solutions—but only if the building blocks they use are truly interopera-
ble. It is not enough for companies to develop software that is “based on open stan-
dards”—and then add special proprietary features. IBM’s Robert Sutor has distin-
guished between true interoperability, where software is designed to work with all
similar products and intraoperability, where vendors use open standards, but only
in order to ensure their own products work together. In the evolving world of
cloud computing, there is going to be a continuing struggle between those of want
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to exert control through proprietary solutions and those of us who strive for true
interoperability. In the next two or three years, critical choices around the Open
Document Format, authentication and identity management standards, security
Standards, privacy-enhancing technologies, and network management tools will
define the next phase of the Internet and whether it continues to be an open, user-
centric platform for collaborative innovation.
This next phase of the Internet will also enable a major shift in the nature of
global corporations. As Sam Palmisano pointed out in his Foreign Affairs article,
“The Globally Integrated Enterprise,” the multinational corporation is evolving
from a collection of relatively independent national entities into a single, integrat-
ed enterprise in which virtual teams of employees, business partners, and contrac-
tors scattered around the globe are able to work across national boundaries almost
as easily as if they were in the same building. Thanks to the Internet, every team
member can get the computing power, the data, and the software he or she
needs—and use those tools to collaborate with their colleagues. By fostering col-
laborative innovation in this way, more powerful software applications, welche
meet a wider range of needs can be more quickly developed and deployed. A recent
Bericht
from Harvard’s Berkman Center on “open ICT Ecosystems”
(http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/epolicy/) highlights the opportunities and describes
how governments can help.
The kind of open innovation that Maxwell describes is not restricted to the
private sector. In der Tat, by harnessing the power of openness and the Internet, gov-
ernments and non-governmental organizations can better collaborate to develop
innovative policy and societal solutions. Zum Beispiel, in late 2005, in preparation
for the World Urban Forum, the United Nations held a three-day Habitat Jam in
which tens of thousands of people shared ideas on urban sustainability and out-
lined more than 70 specific proposals for action. Governments and international
organizations are actively exploring virtual worlds, chat rooms, and other collabo-
ration tools, many of which are based on open standards implemented in open
source software. The use of the Internet to enable more broad-based collaboration
among governments, the private sector, non-governmental organizations, acade-
mia, and the technical community is particularly crucial for international organi-
zations like the OECD, ICANN, and the Internet Governance Forum, welche sind
dealing with policy issues related to the global Internet, which cannot be addressed
on a solely national basis. So in addition to Maxwell’s excellent policy recommen-
dations on open innovation, I would suggest that governments can and should
become “early adopters” and embrace open collaborative innovation whether in
developing software for government use or in drafting policy proposals.
Michael R. Nelson
Director, Internet Technology and Strategy
IBM Corporation
Washington, DC USA
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RE: “SCIENCE AS SOCIAL ENTERPRISE: THE CAMBIA BIOS INITIATIVE,”
BY RICHARD JEFFERSON
One mechanism for improving human welfare in African countries is to expand
the amount of essential information that is in the public domain, das ist, to expand
the “knowledge commons.”
A remarkable example of the use of publicly available information was the so-
called Green Revolution that helped such countries as Mexico and India become
self-sufficient in food production. The Green Revolution relied heavily on pub-
licly-available knowledge. But the publicly available knowledge could be put to
practical use only through the creation of local research institutions.
The knowledge commons is thus a critical foundation from which innovation
develops. The well-established practice of providing an expiry date for intellectual
Eigentumsrechte, after which knowledge becomes publicly shared, is an illustration
of the importance that society has historically attached to the role of the knowl-
edge commons.
Every year, the expiration of thousands of patents brings into the public
domain new knowledge that had been available only on royalty payment. Das
knowledge constitutes an important reservoir of ideas that can be used to meet
development needs.
Scientific and medical research articles—a treasury of medical and scientific
knowledge—should surely be part of the knowledge commons. For the scientific
and technologic communities, open-access publishing unleashes full-text litera-
ture into a single information space (open-access articles are immediately archived
into full-text public repositories, such as PubMed Central).
Unrestricted access to repositories of scientific data, such as genetic and molec-
ular information, has revolutionized life-science research in recent years and has
helped to establish new fields, such as proteomics and genomics.
In the Fall 2006 issue of Innovations, Richard Jefferson describes in detail
another approach for directing science to the goals of development: the Canberra-
based Biological Innovation for Open Society (BiOS) Projekt. The BiOS project
extends the open-source software concept to the life sciences with an emphasis on
finding solutions for challenges of the developing world. It seeks to free up the
rights to patented DNA sequences and the methods needed to manipulate biolog-
ic material. Open-source biology users own the patents on their creations but can-
not hinder others from using the original shared information to develop similar
Produkte.
Another variant of the open access model is GenBank, a public database of
DNA sequences that is freely accessible to all scientists without restrictions.
Academic institutions and commercial companies worldwide are licensed to use
the database for product development. Open access to the broader scientific and
health literature will have equally profound benefits for research on challenges
faced by developing countries.
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Inventors and innovators are increasingly interested in making their ideas
available free of royalty for use in meeting the needs of developing countries. Der
Nairobi-based African Agricultural Technology Foundation, is focusing on making
proprietary technologies available royalty-free for developing new technologies for
small-scale farmers.
An equivalent revolution is taking place in medical and scientific publishing. A
growing number of open-access publishers not only make information free, Aber
publish it under innovative copyright licenses which allow readers to use the
results of research in innovative ways. With those licenses, authors grant the pub-
lic the right to use published work for any legal purpose, provided that they cite
the source and credit the author.
Such licenses maximize the usefulness, impact, and value of the literature. Für
Beispiel, African health ministers are licensed to make millions of copies of the
report of the first randomized trial of circumcision for HIV prevention, to give a
copy to every health professional in their country, to translate it into local lan-
guages without restrictions, or to create locally relevant derivative articles.
Those examples of “open access” and “open source” illustrate the growing
interest in expanding the space for creativity by promoting flexible intellectual
property systems that seek to balance public and private interests.
The main concerns of developing countries are related to having the capacity
to access knowledge and building institutions that convert knowledge into goods
and services, such as public-health care and education.
Once the entire scientific and medical literature becomes truly open, there will
be new opportunities for collaboration between developed and developing coun-
versucht. The challenge now is for African countries to provide the infrastructure and
incentives needed by their scientific community to join the global knowledge
economy.
Calestous Juma
Professor of the Practice of International Development
Kennedy School of Government
Harvard Universität
Cambridge, MA USA
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