Butterfly of the Month - January 2012
from Butterflies of Singapore
Reliving CNY moments at Big Sisters Island
from wonderful creation
Yellow-vented Bulbul: Food for the chicks
from Bird Ecology Study Group
“What lies under” by Ferdi Rizkiyanto, a statement about marine pollution
from News from the International Coastal Cleanup Singapore
KL ranks 25 in world environ management
New Straits Times 28 Jan 12;
JOHOR BARU: Malaysia has improved its ranking in a worldwide performance index for environmental management, thanks to government initiatives which give focus on sustainability under the New Economic Model.
In figures released on Thursday night from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Malaysia now ranks 25th among 132 nations under the Environmental Performance Index (EPI).
Malaysian EPI team chief Prof Datuk Dr Zaini Ujang said the latest ranking made Malaysia the best among other Southeast Asian countries, and third best among Asia Pacific nations, after New Zealand and Japan.
"In 2010, Malaysia stood at number 54 out of 163 countries worldwide, as compared with Singapore which was at number 28 the same year. Singapore now stands at number 52 in the index.
"We are now in the same group of high performance nations such as Germany, Iceland, Finland, Denmark, Japan and Belgium," said Zaini.
"This was possible through government initiatives under Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak's administration which gives weight to sustainability through the New Economic Model," said Zaini, who is also Universiti Teknologi Malaysia vice-chancellor.
The EPI was developed by Yale University and Columbia University, both in the United States, with the cooperation of the European Commission and World Economic Forum. It is used to evaluate the sustainability of a country through two main objectives: environmental wellbeing and effects of pollution on people's wellbeing.
The EPI is intended for policy makers to place importance on a target of providing transparent data, based on 25 environmental performance indicators, including climate change, agriculture, fisheries, forestry, water and air pollution that could affect life on the earth's surface.
Zaini said the cabinet had last year approved the usage of EPI on composite data gathered in relation to the country's environmental and natural resources management.
A 20-man panel from UTM spearheaded the collection of data with the help of 10 ministries.
Brunei ranked 26th in 'green' index
Brunei Online 28 Jan 12;
Brunei Darussalam has been ranked a credible 26th in the world in Environmental Performance Index (EPI) and only second behind Malaysia in the region and fourth in Asia. The environmental performance index was developed in 2002 by Yale University and Columbia University in collaboration with the European Commission and the World Economic Forum.
One-hundred-and-thirty countries were ranked on environmental health, air (effects on human health), water (effects on human health), air (ecosystem effects), water resources (ecosystem effects), biodiversity and habitat, agriculture, forests, fisheries and climate change and energy.
With a score of 62.5, Brunei has been ranked 26th out of 132 countries.
Brunei has been ranked No 1 in air, two in fisheries and three in water resources and 17 in biodiversity and habitat. The rest of the points are: environmental burden of disease - 39, water (effects on human health) - 91, ecosystem vitality - 35, agriculture - 91, air (ecosystem effects) - 79, climate change - 128 and forests - 92.
Brunei has scored high in growing stock (1), indoor air pollution (1), biome protection (1), water use (2), trawling intensity (5), marine protected areas (34) and child mortality (39).
To put Brunei's ranking in perspective, in Asean only Malaysia (25) is higher than the Sultanate. Thailand has been ranked at 34, Philippines 42, Singapore 52 and Indonesia 74.
In Asia, New Zealand tops at 14 and Japan at 23.
The latest EPI rankings reveal a wide range of environmental sustainability results.
Many countries are making progress on at least some of the challenges they face. At the indicator level, the analysis suggests that some issues are being successfully addressed at a worldwide scale, although performance on some other challenges, notably climate change, has declined globally.
Dennis D. Estopace Business Mirror 28 Jan 12;
ECONOMIES this side of Asia may be growing but fail to reflect the value of the resources backstopping such growth and, ironically, what keeps the region unique: its diverse ecosystem.
“Policy-makers should internalize that there is a cost on the impact of export activities in the environment, in the ecosystem, and that’s not sustainable,” said Pushpam Kumar, chief of the Ecosystem Services Economics unit of the United Nations Environment Programme (Unep).
Kumar spoke during the first Southeast Asia Regional Policy Dialogue on the Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity on Friday at a hotel in Makati. It was keynoted by British Ambassador Stephen Lillie.
Organized by the Asean Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) and the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, results of the dialogue were expected to be echoed to policy-makers in the governments of the attending representatives of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and, of course, the Philippines, ACB Executive Director Rodrigo Fuentes said.
Kumar’s presentation emphasized on the inability of Asian countries to evaluate that the growth in gross domestic product (GDP) excludes the poor farmers and fisherfolk who are “most seriously impacted by ecosystem losses.”
According to Kumar, these are 540 million people in the region who are engaged in farming, animal husbandry, informal forestry and fisheries.
Sure, there was GDP growth in the region in the last two decades and, indeed, contributed to the strength of the economies, Kumar said.
“[But] the productive base of the economy continues to be eroded without being reported and accounted. Indicators like GDP are distorted and does not reflect the changes in the level of welfare; growth accounting does not incorporate ESS, leading to erroneous sense of gain and/or losses; and, drivers like trade and investment impacting the ecosystems have far reaching impact for society.”
In Unep’s computation, ecosystem services, or ESS, add “only 7.3 percent” to conventional GDP, but 57 percent to what Kumar said is the “GDP of the poor.”
“The replacement of those ESS is beyond the capacity of the poor: they would need to spend twice their incomes.”
“We are also reviewing climate change and biodiversity action plans, and identifying approaches to integrate TEEB [The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity] and PES [payments for ecosystem services] into such plans,” Fuentes said in his speech at the opening of the dialogue.
“In addition, the project is developing a training module on TEEB and PES for continued capacity building in the Asean region.”
Fuentes explained that the TEEB is a landmark study that assesses the economic impacts associated with losing natural capital.
“The TEEB outlines the cost of policy inaction and finds that under a ‘business as usual’ scenario, an average year’s natural capital loss would lead to a loss of ecosystem services worth around $2 trillion to $4.5 trillion over a 50-year period.”
He added that if economies fail to account for the value of these losses, it “would lead to wrong choices and decisions in addressing sustainable development challenges.”
Fuentes told the BusinessMirror at the sidelines of the dialogue that the representatives would have to go back to their respective governments to lobby for the adoption of policy recommendations raised during the dialogue.
“At the end of the day, it would have to be the governments to decide if they seriously want to pursue a brighter future for all Asians. For the Philippines, it’s high time since we’ve been given several wake-up calls, the latest of which was the tragedy in Cagayan de Oro [and Iligan City].”
He added in Filipino: “We need to wake up those in the LGUs [local government units] that it is not enough to just do politics; the lives of many people are at stake.”
Ted P. Torres The Philippine Star 29 Jan 12;
MANILA, Philippines - Eighty-percent of the efforts to save the country’s coral reefs, known worldwide as “the center of the center of the marine shorefish diversity” are still private sector-initiated.
In a presentation at the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) conference yesterday, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) lamented that efforts to restore the biodiversity of the coastal and marine ecosystem are dispersed and uncoordinated.
Government has extensive programs to save the country’s rich biodiversity.
DENR Protected Area and Wildlife Bureau (PAWB) director Dr. Theresa Mundita Lim said that while the efforts are laudable, it is prone to errors that may negate whatever gains were achieved.
“For example, the mangrove species being planted may not be suitable to the specific restoration areas,” Lim said.
Private sector initiatives also to restore the coral reefs were numerous but without coordination with relevant government agencies.
She said that the improper development activities would in fact result to further destruction of the coastal resources.
The DENR official said others have resorted to creating artificial reefs. However, the use of tires, junk, concrete reef balls and the like, are not the proper materials.
Lim said that the country’s coasts and seas have suffered heavy degradation over half a century of destructive practices. In fact, the Philippines is one of the nine countries in the world with high to very high exposure to coral reef threats, but low to medium adaptive capacity.
Studies show that only four percent of the country’s coral reef is healthy. Twenty-seven percent was classified as poor, another 27 percent classified as good, and 42 percent classified as fair. Officials lamented that the trend has not yet been reversed.
Since the coral reefs are the most critical element in the sea and coastal biodiversity, the country’s fish catch have been declining since the early 1980s.
Fish kill in Taal Lake last year and the jellyfish dominance in the fishing nets of fisherfolk in Pangasinan are just a few signs of the negative impact of a deteriorating coastal and marine biosystem.
Meanwhile, DENR data indicate that the areas covered by mangrove forests had declines from 450,000 ha in 1918 to 288,000 ha in 1970. In 1988, it was reduced further to 140,000 ha and down to 138,000 ha in 1993.
Lim said that the downward trend has stopped as government and the private-sector initiated efforts has picked up.
But the positive results of the newly-planted mangrove forest will take decades to make an impact.
UNEP officials said that what must be attained in the near term is to stop the destruction of the coastal and marine biodiversity. “Avoiding more losses is the order of the day, rather than wait for further deterioration,” Jerker Tamelander, UNEP head for coral reef unit, said.
It will cost $2,000 to restore a 13,000 ha coral reef. But it will only amount to P40,000 to manage a marine protected area.
Phoebe Jen Indino Manila Bulletin 28 Jan 12;
CEBU CITY, Cebu, Philippines — Due to illegal fishing activities and corals extraction, among other harmful practices within the Danajon seascape, an official from the Coastal Conservation and Education Foundation (CCEF) said a huge portion of the only double barrier reef in the country is vastly degraded.
“About 77 percent of the external portion of the reef is already degraded,” said Rizaller Amolo, CCEF Danajon Bank project director.
Amolo disclosed that if the Danajon bank will be left unprotected, lesser live corals are expected which will result to the decrease of fish population, thus not only affecting fishermen’s income but food security as well.
Danajon, which covers Bohol’s northern coast, extending from mid-Cebu islands to the shores of Southern Leyt, is considered as one of the country’s most important sources for biodiversity and a large breeding area for many species of finfish, shellfish and invertebrates. It is also a critical pathway of the Asian southward bird migratory route.
To highlight such abuses as illegal fishing inflicted on Danajon over the years, the CCEF hosted a three-day summit to come up with a manifesto calling for protection of the critical seascape.
The summit, which started last January 18, was attended by local chief executives and representatives of various concerned sectors that hope to address issues in Danajon, with emphasis on the problem of overfishing, population pressure, and serious degradation of marine habitat in the reef’s system that have caused serious threats to food security, conservation and economic growth in this critical marine eco-region.
Some 19 local governments units from the provinces of Cebu, Leyte, Southern Leyte and Bohol have jurisdiction over this marine habitat and about 28,000 fishermen are directly dependent on Danajon’s marine resources.
Meanwhile, summit participant, Mayor William Jao of Tubigon, Bohol admitted that there is a need for “strong political will” to stop illegal fishing that has caused the serious degradation of said marine habitat.
“A politician unafraid of losing in the next election will play a big role to address such illegal fishing problem,” he said.
Jao said that during his first term of office, he was able to apprehend 90 individuals engaged in illegal fishing activities and confiscated over a hundred pair of compressors used in illegal fishing.
During said summit, the Tubigon mayor also urged other public officials to strictly implement the provisions of Republic Act. 8550 of the Philippine Fisheries Code of 1998 to combat aforesaid problems.
Mark Kinver BBC News 27 Jan 12;
Microscopic plastic debris from washing clothes is accumulating in the marine environment and could be entering the food chain, a study has warned.
Researchers traced the "microplastic" back to synthetic clothes, which released up to 1,900 tiny fibres per garment every time they were washed.
Earlier research showed plastic smaller than 1mm were being eaten by animals and getting into the food chain.
The findings appeared in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.
"Research we had done before... showed that when we looked at all the bits of plastic in the environment, about 80% was made up from smaller bits of plastic," said co-author Mark Browne, an ecologist now based at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
"This really led us to the idea of what sorts of plastic are there and where did they come from."
Dr Browne, a member of the US-based research network National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, said the tiny plastic was a concern because evidence showed that it was making its way into the food chain.
"Once the plastics had been eaten, it transferred from [the animals'] stomachs to their circulation system and actually accumulated in their cells," he told BBC News.
In order to identify how widespread the presence of microplastic was on shorelines, the team took samples from 18 beaches around the globe, including the UK, India and Singapore.
"We found that there was no sample from around the world that did not contain pieces of microplastic."
Dr Browne added: "Most of the plastic seemed to be fibrous.
"When we looked at the different types of polymers we were finding, we were finding that polyester, acrylic and polyamides (nylon) were the major ones that we were finding."
The data also showed that the concentration of microplastic was greatest in areas near large urban centres.
In order to test the idea that sewerage discharges were the source of the plastic discharges, the team worked with a local authority in New South Wales, Australia.
"We found exactly the same proportion of plastics," Dr Browne revealed, which led the team to conclude that their suspicions had been correct.
As a result, Dr Browne his colleague Professor Richard Thompson from the University of Plymouth, UK carried out a number of experiments to see what fibres were contained in the water discharge from washing machines.
"We were quite surprised. Some polyester garments released more than 1,900 fibres per garment, per wash," Dr Browne observed.
"It may not sound like an awful lot, but if that is from a single item from a single wash, it shows how things can build up.
"It suggests to us that a large proportion of the fibres we were finding in the environment, in the strongest evidence yet, was derived from the sewerage as a consequence from washing clothes."
Jay Lindsay Associated Press MSNBC 28 Jan 12;
BOSTON — Whether they got lost, sick or swam astray chasing food, 77 dolphins that beached on Cape Cod in recent weeks have died, the second time in three months New England has seen a mass of marine mammal deaths.
Now, scientists are trying to figure out why.
They're also researching whether there's any connection to a die-off this fall of 162 harbor seals, whose carcasses were found between northern Massachusetts and Maine.
Scientists later determined the seal deaths were linked to an influenza virus similar to one found in birds but never before seen in seals. In a letter earlier this month, Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry and Rep. William Keating asked Jane Lubchenco, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, to investigate "any common cause" between the dolphin and seal deaths.
"That is a big question," said Mendy Garron, regional marine mammal stranding coordinator for the National Marine Fisheries Service, part of NOAA. The initial indications are that there is no link, she said, but it's too early for a definitive answer. Necropsies are under way to determine the causes of death, and that can take a few weeks.
The strandings stretch along 25-mile stretch of Cape Cod from Wellfleet, approaching the tip of the cape, south around the curve of Cape Cod Bay to Dennis.
The first was reported in Wellfleet on Jan. 12. Five more reports followed the next day. On Jan. 14, 30 more animals got stuck on Wellfeet and reports remained steady, then trailed off in the past week.
As of Saturday, 63 of the dolphins have been found dead and 11 died later, included at least one that was euthanized. Another 24 were released into the ocean, though three of those have died, said A.J. Cady of the International Fund for Animal Welfare. The group is leading the rescue efforts.
Image: Volunteer monitors breathing of stranded dolphin
Julia Cumes / AP
Patty Walsh, a volunteer with International Fund for Animal Welfare, monitors the breathing of a stranded common dolphin.
The total strandings are unprecedented, and two and half times the annual average of 37 common dolphin strandings over the past 12 years, Cady said.
Wellfleet harbormaster Michael Flanagan said he's seen several pods of more than 100 animals in his 14 years on the job. "But you never really see that many strandings," he said.
The affected dolphins appear to be linked by little besides their species. Their conditions range from healthy to sick, and they aren't all a particular age or sex.
"Nobody really knows for sure yet whether it's one particular thing," Cady said.
There are several possibilities. For instance, the dolphins are social animals, and some could be following a sick fellow animal to shore, researchers theorize. Changes in water temperature are a possible factor leading them into the bay, but it's unclear how.
Some dolphins could be chasing prey into Cape Cod Bay, and essentially getting lost in the geographic features of Cape Cod's inner coastline. For instance, dolphins headed north along the inner Cape's coastline looking for open ocean can get trapped in Wellfleet, which juts out like a tiny hook. Then, the area's quickly receding tides can beach them in local marshes.
Rescuers try to guide lost animals to open water, either by keeping a boat between them and the coastline, or repelling them from land with unpleasant sounds, Cady said.
Once stranded, a dolphin's own weight can damage its organs. Hypothermia and sunburn are also a danger, and Flanagan said seagulls looking for a meal turn savage and pick at the mammal's eyes and organs.
After rescuers reach a dolphin, often through major muck, they quickly assess whether it's strong enough to be moved. If so, workers slip a stretcher underneath and carry the 8-foot-long, 300-pound animals into rescue trailers for a trip to the Cape's outer coastline for release. On the way, scientists perform tests to better assess the health of the animals.
Just a few years ago, it was commonly believed to be too risky to move the stranded animals, Cady said. But, he said, tracking devices placed on some rescued dolphins have shown them moving far from where they were released.
The effort and expense is considerable — the dolphin strandings have cost between $50,000 and $60,000, Cady said. But it's well worth the cost on several levels, he added. Their health tells us about the health of the ocean, which affects everyone, Cady said. It's also simply the humane things to do, he said.
People don't have to be prodded to assist dolphins. Flanagan said he gets "a million" volunteers every time an animal is stranded.
"People can relate to these mammals, because they go and see them at Sea World. ... They can see how intelligent they are," he said. "They're such gentle animals, you can't help but feel sorry for them when they're stranded and they're out of their element and there's nothing you can really do for them."
Chestnut Discoveries
from Macro Photography in Singapore
Sinar Mas Group seeks 'backdoor' public listing in Singapore
from Mongabay.com news by Rhett Butler
David Fogarty Reuters 27 Jan 12;
* Low-lying Singapore preparing for rising sea levels
* Takes climate "insurance" by raising height of new land
* Will make tougher CO2 curbs if global climate pact agreed
SINGAPORE, Jan 27 (Reuters) - A 15-km (10 mile) stretch of crisp white beach is one of the key battlegrounds in Singapore's campaign to defend its hard-won territory against rising sea levels linked to climate change.
Stone breakwaters are being enlarged on the low-lying island state's man-made east coast and their heights raised. Barges carrying imported sand top up the beach, which is regularly breached by high tides.
Singapore, the world's second most densely populated country after Monaco, covers 715 square km (276 sq miles). It has already reclaimed large areas to expand its economy and population -- boosting its land area by more than 20 percent since 1960.
But the new land is now the frontline in a long-term battle against the sea.
Every square metre is precious in Singapore.
One of the world's wealthiest nations in per-capita terms, it is also among the most vulnerable to climate change that is heating up the planet, changing weather patterns and causing seas to rise as the oceans warm and glaciers and icecaps melt.
Late last year, the government decided the height of all new reclamations must be 2.25 metres (7.5 feet) above the highest recorded tide level -- a rise of a metre over the previous mandated minimum height.
The additional buffer was costly but necessary, Environment Minister Vivian Balakrishnan told Reuters in a recent interview.
"You are buying insurance for the future," he said during a visit to a large flood control barrier that separates the sea from a reservoir in the central business area.
The decision underscores the government's renowned long-term planning and the dilemma the country faces in fighting climate change while still trying to grow. It also highlights the problem facing other low-lying island states and coastal cities and the need to prepare.
A major climate change review for the Chinese government last week said China's efforts to protect vulnerable coastal areas with embankments were inadequate. It said in the 30 years up to 2009, the sea level off Shanghai rose 11.5 centimeters (4.5 inches); in the next 30 years, it will probably rise another 10 to 15 centimeters.
POCKET POWERHOUSE
Since it was created by the British as a trading port in the early 19th century, Singapore has turned to the sea to expand and has become one of the world's fastest-growing countries in terms of new land area. More land is being regularly reclaimed.
In this pocket powerhouse, there is much to protect. Singapore's recipe for success is to be a city of superlatives to keep ahead of competitors. It is a major Asian centre for finance, shipping, trading, manufacturing, even gambling, with giant casinos as glitzy as those in Las Vegas or Macau.
Much of the city centre is on reclaimed land, including an expanding financial district, a new terminal for ocean liners and a $3.2 billion underground expressway, part of which runs under the sea.
The industrial west has one of Asia's largest petrochemical complexes, much of it on reclaimed islands.
The wealth generated from these sectors has created a $255 billion economy. Per-capita GDP stands on a par with the United States at nearly $50,000, though opposition politicians complain about growing wealth gaps within the island's society.
The U.N. climate panel says sea levels could rise between 18 and 59 centimetres (7 to 24 inches) this century and more if parts of Antarctica and Greenland melt faster. Some scientists say the rise is more likely to be in a range of 1 to 2 metres.
Singapore could cope with a rise of 50 cm to 1 m, coastal scientist Teh Tiong Sa told Reuters during a tour of the East Coast Park, the city's main recreation area.
"But a rise of two metres would turn Singapore into an island fortress," said Teh, a retired teacher from Singapore's National Institute for Education. That would mean constructing more and higher walls to protect against the sea.
Indeed, between 70 and 80 percent of Singapore already has some form of coastal protection, the government says.
The dilemma Singapore faces is mirrored by other coastal cities, such as Mumbai, Hong Kong, Bangkok and New York, though not all have Singapore's financial muscle.
The threat underscores the limits on Singapore's physical growth in terms of further reclamation, costs and managing long-term growth of its population, which has risen from 3 million in 1990 to nearly 5.2 million in 2011.
Topping up reclamation levels "does not fundamentally change the way we approach reclamation -- while we reclaim to meet our development needs, we are cognisant that there is a physical limit to how much more land we can reclaim," a spokesman for the National Climate Change Secretariat told Reuters.
To make more efficient use of existing land, a government agency floated the idea this month of building a science city 30 stories underground.
WINDS OF CHANGE
Climate change presents a host of other challenges.
More intense rainfall has caused embarrassing floods in the premier Orchard Road shopping area.
And the government says average daily temperature in tropical Singapore could increase by 2.7 to 4.2 degrees Celsius (4.9 to 7.6 degrees Fahrenheit) from the current average of 26.8 deg C (80.2 F) by 2100, which could raise energy use for cooling.
Here lies another dilemma. The country is already one of the most energy intensive in Asia to power its industries and fiercely airconditioned malls and glass office towers -- a paradox in a country at such risk from climate change.
The government has focused on energy efficiency, such as strict building codes and appliance labelling to curb the growth of planet-warming carbon emissions and has steadily switched its power stations to burn gas instead of fuel oil.
It has also invested heavily in slick subway lines and promoted investment and research in the clean-tech sector.
But electricity demand is still set to grow. Consumption doubled between 1995 and 2010, government figures show, and long-term reliance on fossil fuels for energy is unlikely to change, given limited space for green energy such as solar.
Balakrishnan said the government is keen to do its part in any global fight against climate change and that pushing for greater energy efficiency made sense anyway in a country with virtually no natural resources.
But there was a limit to how fast it would move, opening the way for criticism from some countries that Singapore was hiding behind its developing country status under the United Nations, which obliges it to take only voluntary steps to curb emissions.
"What we want is a level playing field and unilateral moves are not feasible, not possible, for a small, tiny island state that actually is not going to make a real difference at a global level to greenhouse gases," Balakrishnan said.
Singapore's emissions, though, are forecast to keep growing, having roughly doubled since 1990. The government is looking at putting a price on carbon emissions and perhaps setting up an emissions trading market.
"We're already half way there in the sense we are already pricing everything according to the market," said Tilak Doshi, head of energy economics at the Energy Studies Institute in Singapore.
He pointed to Singapore being the world's largest bunkering port.
"Bunkering is huge in terms of carbon emissions and Singapore can play a key role in how to handle global shipping emissions," he said. "How to handle bunker fuels -- do we tax it, do we cap-and-trade it, do we get bunkering companies to start trading emissions certificates?"
The government has a number of levers to adjust energy policies over time. Against rising sea levels, it is a campaign in progress to tame the tides.
In some cases, it might be better to let the sea reclaim the land in a managed retreat, said Teh, the coastal scientist.
"It's like robbing Peter to pay Paul. Some areas you keep, others you let go." For land-limited Singapore, that could prove a tough decision to make. (Editing by Ron Popeski and Sanjeev Miglani)
Channel NewsAsia 27 Jan 12;
SINGAPORE: It is now safe to swim at Pasir Ris beach.
The National Environment Agency has declared the water quality at Pasir Ris beach as "good", more than three years after it advised the public not to swim, wakeboard or waterski in the water there due to pollution.
NEA said the water quality at Pasir Ris beach has improved from "fair" to "good" according to the World Health Organisation's water quality guidelines for recreational use.
The beach will be reopened on Friday.
NEA said only 3 per cent of the collected water samples at Pasir Ris beach have enterococcus bacteria counts of greater than 200 per 100 ml in 2011, compared to 7 per cent in 2010.
This bacteria is found in human faeces.
NEA said the previous "fair" grading for the water quality at Pasir Ris beach was attributed to various possible sources, including minor leakage from older sewers, discharge from moored vessels, animals, as well as discharge from small-scale sewage treatment plants that serve the more remote areas in Pasir Ris.
NEA said PUB has extended the sewer network and diverted the used water from the 39 sewage treatment plants in the Tampines and Changi areas.
In March, PUB also completed the rehabilitation of 23 kilometres of aging sewers in the area under its sewer rehabilitation programme.
These measures have helped to improve the water quality at Pasir Ris beach.
The next annual review of water quality at Singapore's beaches will be in 2013.
- CNA/cc
Safe for swimming again
Water quality now good enough for aquatic activities, says NEA
Huang Lijie Straits Times 28 Jan 12;
AFTER a four-year wait, visitors to Pasir Ris beach can finally take a dip in the waters there without worry.
The National Environment Agency (NEA) announced yesterday that water quality at the beach has improved from 'fair' to 'good' and it is now suitable for swimming, water-skiing and other activities involving full-body contact or immersion.
The agency had been advising Pasir Ris beachgoers against water activities such as swimming since 2008, due to unsafe levels of enterococcus bacterium in the water.
The bacterium, found in animal and human faeces, can cause gastro-intestinal illnesses such as vomiting and diarrhoea if swimmers come into contact with it.
Under the World Health Organisation's guidelines for the quality of recreational waters, only beaches that are graded 'good' or 'very good' are suitable for full-body contact water activities.
Pasir Ris beach had been given a 'fair' rating in NEA's annual assessment of the water quality of beaches from 2008 to 2010.
At five other popular recreational beaches in Sentosa, Seletar Island, Sembawang Park, Changi and East Coast, where NEA also monitors the water quality, the ratings have been 'good' or 'very good'.
The water quality at Pasir Ris beach entered the 'good' range last year and it was closely monitored for a few more months to ensure that the improvement was sustained before the announcement was made yesterday.
The water quality at the beach was improved by tackling possible sources of water contamination, including minor leakage from older sewers and effluent discharge from smaller sewage treatment plants in the area.
With the help of the water treatment agency PUB, the public sewer network was extended to 39 sewage treatment plants in the Pasir Ris area so that the used water was diverted to waste water treatment plants first before being discharged into the sea.
PUB also finished repairing 23km of ageing sewers in the area last March under its sewer rehabilitation programme.
NEA said it would continue to monitor the water quality of the six beaches regularly and conduct the next annual review next year.
When The Straits Times visited the Pasir Ris beach yesterday, no one was swimming or taking part in water activities such as waterskiing.
Signs that used to warn beachgoers against swimming there, though, were gone.
Mrs Liao Mei Ling, 41, owner of a trading company who regularly visits the beach with her two nieces aged 10 and three, said: 'I never knew about the no-swimming advisory but I never allowed my nieces to swim because the water used to be filled with rubbish. Now that it is safe for swimming, I might reconsider.'
However, some beachgoers like Mr Gerard Pereira, 28, may not be taking a dip in the waters there soon.
Mr Pereira, who is between jobs and a frequent angler at Pasir Ris and East Coast, said: 'The water at East Coast beach looks cleaner and clearer so if I want to swim in the sea, I would rather swim there.'
Businesses at the beach welcomed the announcement that the waters are suitable for swimming and other water activities.
Madam Lillian Neo, 60, owner of a rental bike kiosk there, said its business dived by 20 per cent after NEA discouraged swimming at the beach.
She said: 'Now that swimming and other water activities are allowed at the beach, more people may come and we hope our business will also improve.'
Rating water quality at beaches
Straits Times 28 Jan 12;
UNDER the World Health Organisation's guidelines, there are five ratings for beach water quality - very good, good, fair, poor and very poor.
The grading depends on the level of enterococcus bacterium in the water at the beach, which is based on weekly sampling results collected over three years, and the degree of susceptibility of the beach to faecal contamination.
Beaches where not more than 5 per cent of the water samples contain more than 200 enterococcus bacteria per 100ml of water are rated 'good' or 'very good'.
Beaches with more than 5 per cent of such samples are graded 'fair', 'poor' or 'very poor'.
In 2009, Pasir Ris beach had 8 per cent of such water samples. It dropped to 7 per cent in 2010.
Last year, only 3 per cent of the water samples had more than 200 enterococcus bacteria per 100 ml, thus meeting the 'good' rating.
The water quality at East Coast Park, Sembawang Park and Changi Beach were also rated 'good' last year, while the beaches on Sentosa and Seletar Island were classified as 'very good'.
HUANG LIJIE
Pasir Ris Beach Now Open For Water Activities
NEA Media Release 27 Jan 12;
Singapore, 27 January 2012 – The National Environment Agency (NEA) is pleased to announce that Pasir Ris beach will be reopened today. The water quality at Pasir Ris beach has improved in 2011 and can now be reclassified from "Fair" to "Good" according to the World Health Organization (WHO)'s water quality guidelines for recreational use. Under these guidelines, only beaches that are graded "Good" or "Very Good" are suitable for whole body water contact activities such as swimming, water-skiing and wakeboarding (also known as primary contact activities). Pasir Ris beach will now join five other popular recreational beaches where the water quality is suitable for beach goers and water activities.
Water quality of Singapore beaches
For the past three years, five out of the six popular recreational beaches monitored by NEA were assessed to be suitable for primary contact activities as they were graded “Good” or “Very Good”. They are Sentosa Island, Seletar Island, Sembawang Park, Changi and East Coast Park. These 5 beaches continue to meet the WHO water quality guidelines for recreational use.
The water quality at Pasir Ris beach has improved in 2011, with only 3% of the collected samples having enterococcus counts greater than 200 per 100 ml, compared to 7% in 2010. The results of the water quality for recreational beaches are based on the weekly sampling results of water samples over three years.
Improvement in Pasir Ris beach water quality
The previous “Fair” grading for the water quality at Pasir Ris beach was attributed to various possible sources, including minor leakage from older sewers, discharges from moored vessels, animals, as well as discharges from small-scale Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs) that serve the more remote areas in Pasir Ris. The weak water currents in the concave part of Pasir Ris beach are not effective in diluting and dispersing the discharges.
To help improve the water quality at Pasir Ris beach, PUB has extended the sewer network and diverted the used water from the 39 STPs in the Halus/Tampines, Changi and Selarang areas. PUB has also, in March 2011, completed the rehabilitation of 23 kilometres (km) of aging sewers in the area under its sewer rehabilitation programme.
NEA will continue to monitor closely the water quality of the six beaches and conduct the next annual review in 2013.
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More people at Pasir Ris beach after water declared safe
Seet Sok Hwee Channel NewsAsia 28 Jan 12;
SINGAPORE: There were more people at Pasir Ris beach on Saturday, after the National Environment Agency (NEA) declared the water quality there as "good".
For over three years, the NEA had advised the public not to swim, wakeboard or waterski in the water due to pollution.
While the public had no qualms about splashing around at the beach on Saturday, litter could still be seen at various parts of the recreational area.
Businesses and the public are hopeful for a more enjoyable time now that the beach has been certified with a clean bill of health.
Ivan Teo, manager of Watercross, said: "It will definitely bring more crowds to the beach itself. Hopefully it will bring a better crowd to all businesses around here."
-CNA/ac
Conservation efforts deliver 1.4 million green turtle eggs, 14,220 nests, on priority Philippine beaches in 2011
Zambo Times 27 Jan 12;
January 27, 2012 (Manila, Philippines)– More than one million green turtle (Chelonia mydas) eggs were laid last year on Baguan Island of Turtle Islands, Tawi-Tawi, achieving an all-time high since recording of nesting started in 1984, Conservation International (CI) Philippines, citing figures obtained from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), announced.
A total of 14,220 green turtle nests were recorded in Baguan in 2011, breaking the previous record of 12,311 nests in 1995. The 2011 figures translate to some 2,844 nesting green turtles and over 1.44 million turtle eggs laid.
Green turtles are classified as Endangered under the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species.
“1.44 million green turtle eggs in one year is an astounding number for a nesting beach that’s only a little over one kilometer in length. This definitely presents great hope for boosting green turtle populations,” said Romeo Trono, CI Philippines Country Executive Director. “With an average of 90% hatching success and 1% survival rate up to sexual maturity, Baguan in 2011 alone could contribute up to 13,000 to the adult turtle population.”
Figures from the DENR show that since the previous high of 12,311 turtle nests recorded in 1995, Baguan’s nesting records have been declining and dropped to as low as just over 4,000 nests in 2003. Poaching by foreign fishermen, egg harvesting by local communities for food and trade, destruction and disturbance of habitats through illegal fishing methods and weak law enforcement were identified as the causes of the decline in the egg production and sea turtle population in the sanctuary.
“The increasing nest numbers show that when turtles are protected on their nesting beaches and in the water for long enough, they will recover,” said Dr. Bryan Wallace Director of Science for the Marine Flagship Species Program at CI. “The Turtle Islands are a globally important area for green turtles, especially for the West Pacific population, because of the relatively high abundance present and because of increasing protections for turtles in the area.”
Conservation partnerships
Since 2007, CI has been working with the Philippines’ DENR and the local government as well the Malaysian park management authority Sabah Parks to advise and implement marine conservation strategies in the region, including: setting up of the protected area management board, formulation of a ten-year management plan, and delineating 1,200 hectares around Baguan as strict protection zone or no take areas.
The 36-hectare Baguan in southern Philippines is one of the nine islands of the Turtle Islands Heritage Protected Area (TIHPA), a unique protected area jointly managed by two countries: Malaysia and the Philippines. It is made up of six islands of the Philippines’ TIWS, where Baguan is located, and three islands of Sabah’s Turtle Islands Park (TIP).
Law enforcement in Baguan was also strengthened by providing trainings to park wardens, law enforcers and community volunteers and stepping up patrolling efforts. The Philippine Turtle Islands’ enforcement team also includes officers and personnel from the Philippine Coast Guard and the Philippine Marines deployed to the area.
“These partnerships with other agencies like the Coast Guard and Marines provide a big boost to law enforcement efforts in the Turtle Islands,” said Dr. Mundita Lim, director of DENR’s Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau. “We also enjoy a good working relationship with our Sabah counterparts in charge of managing their side of the Turtle Islands. Turtles nest throughout the entire area, regardless of political boundaries. That is also the approach we are using in managing these islands through productive partnerships.”
Small islands, huge regional importance
“The work that we are doing in Turtle Islands is an important contribution to the overall health of the Coral Triangle,” said DENR Secretary Ramon Paje, emphasizing the Turtle Islands as a conservation priority not only for the Philippines and Malaysia but for all the other countries in the region. “If the Turtles Islands are not protected, it can have serious implications to the whole region’s turtle population and marine ecosystem.”
Dr. Nicolas Pilcher, director of Sabah-based Marine Research Foundation and Co-Chair of the IUCN Marine Turtle Specialist Group, noted that bold protection measures such as the establishment of Baguan no-take zone and the complete protection status of the Turtle Islands Park in Sabah had been instrumental in ensuring a safe haven for turtles while other beaches in the region were being lost to coastal development.
“Indeed, the combined turtle stocks from the Philippine and Malaysian Turtle Islands, which share genetic similarities, is the single largest and most stable population of green turtles in all of Southeast Asia, and is of paramount importance in ensuring the long-term survival of the population," Pilcher added.
An average of 30 to 35 green turtles nest on Baguan’s shores every night, with totals increasing to as many as 140 during the peak nesting season of July to September. With each nesting, a sea turtle lays around 100 eggs and nests as many as five times within one nesting season. Only green turtles nest in Baguan though its surrounding reefs and water also serve as development and feeding habitats for hawksbill turtles (Eretmochelys imbricata, clasiffied as Critically Endangered by the IUCN).
Conservation initiatives in Baguan are partially supported by the Global Marine Division of Conservation International and the Coral Triangle Support Partnership funded by the United States Agency for International Development.
“The hatchlings that emerge from the Turtle Islands still face great risks throughout their lives as they journey through the ocean, but at least here in the Turtle Islands, we are determined to provide them with a good start,” CIP’s Trono added.
Thanyarat Doksone Associated Press Yahoo News 27 Jan 12;
BANGKOK (AP) — A new taste for eating elephant meat — everything from trunks to sex organs — has emerged in Thailand and could pose a new threat to the survival of the species.
Wildlife officials told The Associated Press that they were alerted to the practice after finding two elephants slaughtered last month in a national park in western Thailand.
"The poachers took away the elephants' sex organs and trunks ... for human consumption," Damrong Phidet, director-general of Thailand's wildlife agency, said in a telephone interview. Some meat was to be consumed without cooking, like "elephant sashimi," he said.
Poachers typically just remove tusks, which are most commonly found on Asian male elephants and fetch thousands of dollars on the black market. A market for elephant meat, however, could lead to killing of the wider elephant population, Damrong said.
"If you keep hunting elephants for this, then they'll become extinct," he said.
Consuming elephant meat is not common in Thailand, but some Asian cultures believe consuming animals' reproductive organs can boost sexual prowess.
Damrong said the elephant meat was ordered by restaurants in Phuket, a popular travel destination in the country's south. It wasn't clear if the diners were foreigners.
The accusation drew a quick rebuttal from Phuket Governor Tri Akradecha, who told Thai media that he had never heard of such restaurants but ordered officials to look into the matter.
Poaching elephants is banned, and trafficking or possessing poached animal parts also is illegal. Elephant tusks are sought in the illegal ivory trade, and baby wild elephants are sometimes poached to be trained for talent shows.
"The situation has come to a crisis point. The longer we allow these cruel acts to happen, the sooner they will become extinct," Damrong said.
The quest for ivory remains the top reason poachers kill elephants in Thailand, other environmentalists say.
Soraida Salwala, the founder of Friends of the Asian Elephant foundation, said a full grown pair of tusks could be sold from 1 million to 2 million baht ($31,600 to $63,300), while the estimated value of an elephant's penis is more than 30,000 baht ($950).
"There's only a handful of people who like to eat elephant meat, but once there's demand, poachers will find it hard to resist the big money," she cautioned.
Thailand has fewer than 3,000 wild elephants and about 4,000 domesticated elephants, according to the National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department.
The pachyderms were a mainstay of the logging industry in the northern and western parts of the country until logging contracts were revoked in the late 1980s.
Domesticated animals today are used mainly for heavy lifting and entertainment.
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