San Francisco oil spill: migratory birds hit hard

Bay Area spill takes toll on diving duck

Terence Chea, Associated Press, Yahoo News 23 Nov 07;

Thousands of birds have been found dead or blackened since an oil spill two weeks ago, but no species has been hit harder than the surf scoter, a migratory sea duck that had already seen a precipitous population decline in recent decades.

The spill occurred when a cargo ship struck the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, releasing nearly 60,000 gallons of toxic shipping fuel into one of North America's most important estuaries. It came during the fall arrival of hundreds of thousands of migratory birds to San Francisco Bay, where a mild climate and abundant food make it a key wintering ground for shorebirds, seabirds and waterfowl.

At least 1,365 birds have been found dead, and more than 1,000 oiled birds have been captured alive and taken to a wildlife care center in Solano County to be cleaned and rehabilitated.

Although 27 different species are represented, surf scoters make up about 40 percent of the captured birds and more than 25 percent of the dead ones, said Michael Ziccardi, who heads the Oiled Wildlife Care Network that has been leading the bird rescue effort.

Scoters, which live on the bay and dive for clams, mussels and sand crabs below, have been disproportionately affected because they spend almost all their time in the areas hit hardest by the spill, scientists say.

The stout sea duck breeds in the remote lakes and wetlands of Canada's northern boreal forests and migrates south to spend winters in San Francisco Bay and other points along the Pacific Coast. A smaller population winters on the Atlantic Coast.

Though not listed as a threatened or endangered, their population — now estimated at 500,000 worldwide — has declined 50 to 70 percent in the past four decades, experts say. About 25,000 to 30,000 are killed each year by sport hunters in the U.S. and Canada, mostly on the Atlantic Coast.

"This oil spill just adds insult to injury and creates greater stress on these birds," said Elizabeth Murdock, who heads the Golden Gate Audubon Society, which has recruited hundreds of volunteers to help recover oiled birds.

Scientists are trying to understand the surf scoter's steep and steady decline. They believe it might be linked to ecological changes caused by global warming in their breeding grounds in Canada's Northwest Territories, as well as by industrial contaminants in their wintering grounds in urbanized areas like San Francisco Bay.

"They're being hit on both sides of their life cycle," said Jeff Wells, a biologist with the Boreal Songbird Initiative and author of "Birder's Conservation Handbook." "It's a major cause for concern. When you see something that drastic, it's telling you something about changes in the environment."

When the oil gets on the birds' feathers, it impairs their ability to keep dry and warm, forcing many to shore — away from their food supply. Some birds become sick when they ingest the fuel while trying to clean their feathers.

In winter, San Francisco Bay is home to around 10 percent of the world's surf scoters, and biologists worry the spill could hurt its future breeding since the oiled scoters were mostly healthy adults.

"It definitely could have an effect on overall populations," said John Takekawa, a wildlife biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey who helped track scoters from the bay to their Canadian breeding grounds. "There could be a lasting effect over time."

Other bird species suffering from the spill include waterfowl such as scaup and ruddy ducks, seabirds like the common murre and shorebirds such as western and eared grebes. Several brown pelicans and marbled murrelets — both federally protected species — were found oiled but alive.

Wildlife workers and volunteers combing the shores continue to find a dwindling number of live and dead birds, but most of the oiled animals will never be found, scientists say. In other spills, only about one in 10 affected birds is recovered.

"We're only seeing a relatively small portion of the overall number of animals impacted," Ziccardi said. "Within two weeks, most of the animals that were initially oiled have been collected or unfortunately have already died."

Biologists say the so-called bunker fuel, which is loaded with pollutants and slow to break down, has entered the food chain. They worry the spill could threaten the bay's ecosystem and wildlife for years.

"Based on other oil spills," said John Bradley, a biologist with the San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge, "it will be months before the cleanup has ended and it will be five or more years before things will be somewhat back to normal."

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Indonesian lawyers call for unity against illegal logging

The Jakarta Post 23 Nov 07

It is actually possible to indict license holders with the existing criminal laws

Bewildering Indonesian forestry regulations and chaotic inter-departmental coordination have contributed to the government's inability to handle illegal logging cases, experts say.

Lawyer Bambang Widjojanto said there were at least three core issues related to illegal logging; a lack of political will, unclear licensing procedures and insufficient control measures.

He said the government's political will was needed in order to harmonize the laws and coordinate the institutions related to forestry.

"The conflicting Indonesian laws on forestry should be resolved. Some of the laws on deforestation and illegal logging include the Forestry Law, the Conservation Law and the Corruption Law," Bambang said in a discussion Thursday on illegal logging cases in Indonesia.

The conflict among these laws has resulted in the controversy surrounding how a license to utilize forest areas should be issued, thus providing a loophole for illegal loggers.

"The main grounds for almost every court decision to release illegal logging suspects has been because the suspects already had licenses to manage particular forest areas, including taking timber from those areas. Or, they had already applied for licenses but had not received them," Bambang said.

He added, however, it was actually possible to indict license holders with the existing criminal laws.

"Even though they have licenses, they can still be charged under criminal laws, especially if they cause environmental damage."

Bambang said license violations were only seen as procedural or administrative breaches, not criminal acts, even though the violations caused negative impacts, such as triggering floods, landslides or other disasters.

Commenting on this issue, two other law experts -- Sulaiman Sembiring and Rudy Satrio -- agreed the inability of Indonesian law enforcers to effectively apply the law provided opportunities for illegal loggers in the country.

"No matter how many laws a country has, the conditions will never change if law enforcement is weak," said Sulaiman, an environmental law expert.

He said the factors that needed improvement included the quality of the state apparatus, the culture of society and law enforcement infrastructure.

Rudy said in this era of autonomy, it has become harder for the central government to control its apparatus in the regions, particularly those with forest-based economies.

"Thus, the Forestry Ministry needs to strengthen its local offices in the regions," said Rudy, a criminal law expert from the University of Indonesia.

Both experts agreed there was a need to categorize forestry crime as a transnational crime.

"Usually, the demand for timber comes from foreign buyers. Almost all illegal timber is sold outside of Indonesia," Bambang said.

"Still, in this case, we first need to resolve the conflicting regulations and strengthen our inter-departmental coordination. Only then will we be ready to bring this case to the international level."

Customs office seizes illegal ebony, rattan
The Jakarta Post 23 Nov 07

The Tanjung Priok customs and excise office announced Thursday it had seized approximately Rp 22.275 billion (US$2.376 million) worth of illegal ebony and rattan wood due to be exported to China.

The office's head of investigation, Heru Sulastyono, said 17 containers of ebony and nine containers of rattan had entered the port in North Jakarta on Tuesday.

Heru said the exporters the wood was disguised as other products, and was sent through several different companies.

"Smugglers loaded the containers after (dock) closing time, making them harder to detect," he said.

The customs office is still investigating the suspected smugglers, Heru said, but refused to elaborate further.

The suspects could be charged under article 103(a) of law No. 17/2006 on customs, which has a maximum sentence of eight years in prison and a maximum fine of Rp 5 billion ($533,333).

Tanjung Priok customs and excise office head Agung Kuswandono said most of the wood came from Sulawesi and Kalimantan.

"Aside from the financial loss, wood smuggling also damages the environment.

"Domestic industries also suffer because of wood smuggling because of the trade of raw material," he said.

Agung said the office's intelligence unit would continue pursuing the wood-smuggling ring to combat the illegal export of forest products.

In response to the wood smuggling, Forest Industry Revitalization Body chairwoman Soewarni told The Jakarta Post the government should fight the illegal forest product trade because it made local forest industries suffer.

"If the government, through the Directorate General of Customs and Excise (at the Finance Ministry), can eradicate, or at least decrease, the illegal trade (in wood), forest industries won't be short of raw materials," she said.

She added that wood smuggling and illegal logging made the industrial climate for forest products uncertain.

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REDD: Indonesia's forests, a precious resource in climate change fight?

by Aubrey Belford, Yahoo News 23 Nov 07

"We used to hear the term 'marginal land' for this kind of ecosystem, but our awareness (of its importance) is increasing,"

Indonesia's vast forests have long been seen by governments and businesses alike as a resource to be exploited for massive profit.

But as worldwide climate negotiations approach in Bali next month, keeping the nation's forests just as they are could become a new multi-billion-dollar industry.

A drive to do just that is called Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD), which in its simplest form proposes to transform the carbon saved by not cutting down trees into a tradeable commodity.

The proposal is especially pressing in Indonesia, where the clearing and burning of peatlands -- ecosystems comprising swamps of semi-decomposed plantlife -- account for four percent of total global greenhouse gas emissions, according to Greenpeace.

Swathes of peatland are being cleared to make way for pulp and paper plantations, and the booming palm oil industry.

But Indonesia is slowly waking up to the hidden cost of releasing the huge stores of carbon kept in peatland, said Daniel Mudiyarso, an expert at Indonesia's Centre for International Forestry Research.

"We used to hear the term 'marginal land' for this kind of ecosystem, but our awareness (of its importance) is increasing," Mudiyarso said.

The December 3-14 UN summit will bring together delegates from around the world -- including more than 100 ministers -- to work on a framework for talks on a global regime to combat climate change after the current phase of the Kyoto Protocol ends in 2012.

Under the protocol as it now stands, nations that replant destroyed forests or plant new trees can gain climate credits, which can be bought and sold on the global market.

But there are still no significant financial incentives for countries such as Indonesia to not cut their forests in the first place, said Fitrian Ardiansyah, the head of WWF Indonesia's climate change campaign.

Indonesia is spearheading the charge to get REDD recognised. It has helped put together the so-called F11 grouping, made up of developing nations with the largest remaining tropical forests.

If REDD becomes a part of a global agreement after 2012 -- when the current phase of Kyoto expires -- it would mean avoided deforestation credits would be part of a global carbon market with a global carbon price, as opposed to the ad hoc voluntary schemes that now exist.

The potential worldwide market for REDD credits could be 15 billion dollars a year, estimates Rizaldi Boer, an academic from Indonesia's Bogor Agricultural University. He estimated Indonesia's share at around two billion dollars.

A recent meeting between the Indonesian government, non-government organisations and foreign donors in Jakarta at the start of November aimed to set the wheels in motion for Indonesia's REDD push at Bali.

But not all signs are good that Indonesia's leaders are pursuing REDD with a single-minded focus.

The nation's environment minister Rachmat Witoelar was a no-show at the conference. The forestry minister Malem Sambat Kaban did turn up to address the conference, but spent much of the week under attack for writing a letter of recommendation for businessman Adelin Lis, who was acquitted of illegal logging charges in early November, triggering an outcry from environmentalists, the media and politicians.

"My principle is everything should be beneficial for Indonesia, everything should have advantages for Indonesia," Kaban told the conference.

"Like it or not, we have to create initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and realise we have to do it with other nations."

Kaban stressed however that the government was not out to freeze landclearing altogether, saying: "The REDD scheme will not be something counterproductive to plantations."

Indonesia seeks international help to protect forests
Yahoo News 23 Nov 07

Indonesia's environment minister said Thursday his country needed about six billion dollars a year from rich nations to preserve dwindling forests, a key step in fighting climate change.

"We need financial assistance for the conservation of our forests. Developed countries must give their support by providing financial assistance to developing countries," Rachmat Witoelar said.

Indonesia is gearing up to host a global UN summit on climate change next month in which nations will attempt to lay the groundwork for an agreement on reducing greenhouse gas emissions after the current phase of the Kyoto protocol expires in 2012.

Witoelar said that direct funding from foreign governments was a more efficient way of financing his country's climate change fight than the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) agreed under the Kyoto Protocol.

"The CDM is too complicated and bureaucratic. We need direct funding from developed countries in an effort to protect human beings from disasters caused by global warming," he said.

The CDM allows developing nations to sell carbon credits to rich countries earned through development projects that reduce carbon emissions.

The CDM lets countries earn credits by planting or restoring forests -- which are key absorbers of carbon -- but does not provide financial incentives for preserving existing forests.

Nicholas Stern, author of a key climate change report, said during a visit to the Indonesian capital Jakarta in March that the world should invest 10 billion dollars annually to halve deforestation in Indonesia, Brazil and other countries.

Rapid deforestation of Indonesia's equatorial forests, which include carbon-rich peatland swamps, has pushed the country to the unenviable rank of third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world, behind the United States and China.

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Best of our wild blogs: 23 Nov 07

Burning ambition for growth
What should fast-growing Asian nations do now before the costs of climate change become too great to ignore? on the reuters environment blog

Daily Green Action 22 Nov
styrofoam stir on the leafmonkey blog

Daily Green Action 21 Nov
on the leafmonkey blog

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Punggol: Preserve natural features of areas to be developed

Letter from Tan Jiaqi, Straits Times Forum 23 Nov 07

I REFER to the article, 'Walk along coast, golf in Punggol' (ST, Nov 19).

I would like to urge the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) to take the utmost care to preserve the unique, natural features of areas such as Punggol, for which redevelopment plans have been announced recently.

Developing and increasing the recreational amenities in various parts of the island would better serve the needs of our growing population, and I fully support the development of these recreational areas, such as Punggol Beach.

However, Punggol Point is a tranquil and picturesque spot, with the rock formations off the beach being the subject of many a beautiful photograph that elicited the response, 'Wow, where was that taken? Surely not in Singapore?'

I urge the URA to preserve this unique geographical feature of Punggol Beach when drawing up and carrying out its development plans.

While the smooth, round rocks along the beach may not be as grand, or of as epic proportions as famous wonders such as the Grand Canyon in the United States or Guilin in China, they are still a part of our natural heritage.

At the same time, the attention garnered by the URA's redevelopment plans could be used to turn the spotlight on the natural beauty of lesser-known spots, such as the rock formations along Punggol Beach and the beach front along Labrador Park, or the reservoir parks.

This would attract more visitors to these areas and boost businesses there, and even create new tourist activities.

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Sidr sends a grim signal from Mother Earth

Put portion that appears in summary here
Nirmal Ghosh, Straits Times 23 Nov 07

IN BANGKOK - BELIEVE it or not, Bangladesh was lucky this time, says Dr Ainun Nishat.

It may be a strange thing to say, given the destruction that Cyclone Sidr visited on the country last weekend.

In outlying islands, howling 240kmh winds blew houses and trees away like matchsticks. Most of the people who died were killed by collapsing houses and trees. A storm surge brought sea water rushing inland, swamping fields and freshwater sources.

The result: Ruined livelihoods, ruined land, shattered families and an international aid effort under way to reach scattered communities marooned without shelter, clothes, food and fresh water.

But Dr Nishat, a climate change expert and Bangladesh's representative in the World Conservation Union (IUCN), figures things would have been much worse if the storm had coincided with the high tide.

That the cyclone happened was not unusual. Cyclone season in the Bay of Bengal occurs roughly between March 15 and May 15, and between Oct 15 and Dec 15, each year.

But in key respects Cyclone Sidr was unusual: Its size and behaviour, for one thing.

The depression covered the whole of Bangladesh, which has never happened before. The unusually high winds and heavy rain covered almost the entire country. Even in Dhaka, the wind speed hit 150kmh.

The grim lesson of Cyclone Sidr underlined the potential of global warming-driven events to wipe out growth and development.

A report released this week by a group of leading development agencies in Britain said many Asian countries risk a reversal of economic growth from the effects of climate change.

'The human drama of climate change will largely be played out in Asia, where almost two-thirds of the world's population live, effectively on the front line of climate change,' said the report, titled Up In Smoke: Asia And The Pacific.

That the cyclone's size and energy were clearly related to global warming is beyond doubt, says Dr Nishat.

He told The Straits Times over the phone from Dhaka: 'This year, we have had rough seas virtually all year.

'This has already seriously affected the livelihood of fishermen, and a few thousand - nobody knows exactly how many - have already died in rough seas because they ignored warnings, or the warnings came when they were already out at sea.'

He added that temperatures on the surface of the sea up to a certain depth have risen; shrimp farmers have reported finding mother shrimp further inland and have had to apply for government permission to trawl further inland.

He said: 'The almost continually rough sea is definitely global warming-related. With rising sea temperature, a depression will immediately gather more energy.'

Bangladesh's dykes, built to protect some of its coast, are between 3m and 5m high.

Last weekend's storm surge reached around 2.5m. If the cyclone had coincided with the high tide, the surge would have been too much for the dykes.

So Bangladesh was lucky - not just because of the early warning and the dykes.

Whether it and other vulnerable countries will continue being this lucky in the future is in grave doubt.

The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (Escap) said in a study - ahead of the cyclone and a regional meeting last weekend in Bangkok on climate change - that as of last year, the Asia-Pacific region accounted for 74 per cent of over 21,000 casualties from natural disasters worldwide.

Coastal areas, especially the densely populated mega-delta regions in South, East and South-east Asia, will be at greatest risk of global warming-driven phenomena, owing to increased flooding from the sea and, in some mega-deltas, flooding from rivers, the study warned.

The Up In Smoke report cited Vietnam as an example of a country which would experience some of the worst impacts of a rise in sea level, a process which is already under way.

A 1m sea-level rise would trigger losses totalling US$17 billion (S$24.6 billion) a year, with Vietnam losing more than 12 per cent of its most fertile land, the report said.

Across the low-lying Mekong delta, some 14 million people could be displaced.

Experts believe that Bangladesh will lose around 15 per cent of its land area to the sea.

Cyclone Sidr was only the first of many extreme weather episodes which will push that process.

It proved the point of the Up In Smoke report.

Mr Junaid Kamal Ahmad, the sector manager for social development at the World Bank in Washington notes that Bangladesh has had 5 per cent growth in gross domestic product over the last decade, and has cut poverty by 9 per cent; and several 'Millennium Development Goals', such as gender equality in education, for instance, will be reached by 2015.

The country's ability to respond to crises and emergencies has also vastly improved, he told The Straits Times.

Still, Sidr was a shock to the system.

'It hits the system on several layers of vulnerability, from the macro-economic effects like the destruction of the winter rice crop and the loss of livelihood for fishermen and shrimp farms, to the destruction of infrastructure.'

If the country is unable to deal with repeated episodes driven by global warming, 'a couple of decades worth of growth and progress can be pushed aside', he said.

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Singapore needs more energy-efficient buildings: Expert

Cambridge don and architects want more demand for this at design stage
By Jessica Cheam, Straits Times 23 Nov 07;

ARCHITECTS yesterday said homes and buildings in Singapore could be much better designed for the steamy climate, but developers are just not asking for that type of architecture.

Cambridge University architecture professor Koen Steemers told an architectural conference in Singapore that local buildings are not built to minimise energy consumption.

He cited the example of single-glazed glass panels. These are used in many buildings in Singapore, but they absorb heat quickly while failing to maximise natural ventilation.

Professor Steemers found plenty of support among architects around town as well as those attending the international conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture (Plea). Those who follow this discipline factor in climatic and environmental conditions when seeking to keep buildings comfortable.

RDC Architects director Rita Soh told The Straits Times that this type of architecture was once common in Singapore; it can be seen in older bungalows and shophouses that maximise the use of light and ventilation to fit the hot, humid conditions here. As Singapore grew more affluent, Western-looking buildings with glass facades and full air-conditioning became more popular.

Parliamentary Secretary for National Development Mohamad Maliki Osman told the conference, organised by the architecture department of the National University of Singapore (NUS), that maximising a building's efficiency has become even more important, given rising demand for energy and the soaring costs.

'Often, the most cost-effective strategy is to incorporate energy efficiency measures at the design stage of a facility. This is where incorporation of passive and low energy architecture is essential,' said Dr Maliki.

At Singapore's AIM & Associates, principal architect John Ting said it was 'timely' to revisit the passive architecture concept. Local architects are well-equipped to design such buildings, but developers have to commission them first, added Mr Ting.

Consumers are part of the equation as well: Developers build what homebuyers want, said Mr Chia Hock Jin, the executive director of the Real Estate Developers' Association of Singapore (Redas).

'We do realise that sustainability is becoming increasingly important,' said Mr Chia, adding that Redas recently formed a design committee to examine sustainability issues from the developers' perspective.

The Building and Construction Authority (BCA), which sponsored the conference, said about 70 buildings in Singapore have been awarded the Green Mark certification; 40 are awaiting assessment. The scheme, launched in 2005, rates buildings based on their environmental impact and energy efficiency.

Dr Stephen Wittkopf, an assistant professor at NUS' architecture department and the conference chairman, said the university plans to hold public seminars for construction industry players to promote the Plea concept, starting next year.

Mr Tai Lee Siang - the president of the Singapore Institute of Architects and a speaker at the three-day event, which is being held in South-east Asia for the first time - noted an encouraging trend where food and beverage outlets are making greater use of outdoor space.

'The momentum is only just about to kick in. We have to get rid of the mindset that sustainable architecture costs more. This is something that's got to change,' said Mr Tai.

The conference ends tomorrow.

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Asean can tap EU's know-how on environmental issues, says PM

Keith Lin, Straits Times 23 Nov 07;

ONE grouping has the expertise and experience in dealing with the issue of climate change.

The other has just made a strong commitment to deal with environmental challenges such as pollution and the protection of forests.

Yesterday the European Union and Asean pledged to make a difference at next month's climate change conference in Bali.

There, negotiations will begin on a new pact to deal with greenhouse gases which contribute to global warming, when the present Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.

Speaking after a meeting of Asean and EU leaders, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong noted the leading role that the EU has played on the issue of climate change.

Asean can benefit from the EU's experience and expertise and welcomes its help and support to protect and manage forests in the region, he said.

Both sides have agreed on key principles, including the need to set goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This requires everyone to play their part.

But, as Mr Lee pointed out, this also means there is a need 'to reconcile very different views of this problem between the developing and developed countries'.

While developing countries acknowledge their responsibilities, they have expressed concern that adherence and strict targets could put the brakes on their economic growth.

EU president Jose Socrates, who is Portugal's Prime Minister, agreed yesterday that climate change was an issue where Asean and Europe could do more about together - especially in preparing a roadmap for a new international post-Kyoto protocol.

Signalling the EU's intent to push for progress on the issue, Mr Socrates called for concrete targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to be set at the Bali meeting.

Referring to a declaration that East Asian leaders signed at their summit this week to curb greenhouse gas emissions, he said he was glad that Asean has placed the issue on top of its agenda.

But beyond working out clear targets to reduce emissions, Mr Lee pointed to other ways in which Asean and the EU could work to achieve a greener global environment.

These include spurring global participation in the issue, and getting developing and developed countries to come to a consensus on how the problem should be tackled.

Responding to a question on the skyrocketing oil prices, Mr Lee said it was a manifestation of how fluctuations of markets can have major implications for the lives of ordinary men and women.

Its impact was 'on the poor, the not-so-poor, the cost of living, public transport, utilities, electricity'.

'Many adjustments will have to take place in the economies and there's a lot of significant social hardship which is inflicted, particularly in Asian countries, which governments have to worry about and do something about,' he said.

Agreeing, Mr Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, said that was precisely why the EU was giving so much attention to the issue of climate change.

'That is another reason, from our point of view, to accelerate the transition to a low-carbon economy. This is one of the reasons why we should not be so dependent on fossil energies,' he said.

'We should invest in renewable energy and should also try to accelerate the transition to a low-carbon economy.'

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Korea wetlands face new life as industrial zone

Straits Times 23 Nov 07

SEOUL - SOUTH Korea's Parliament yesterday approved a plan to turn a huge coastal wetlands area into an industrial zone, signalling approval for a project that has been fiercely criticised by environmentalists.

The government created the Saemangeum mud flat in 2005 by building a massive seawall, envisaging its transformation into farmland.

However, the decline of the farming industry caused the government to change course.

It now wants to turn the 40,000ha site into an industrial zone attracting foreign investment.

The Bill approved yesterday authorises the use of the land for industry rather than farmland by easing restrictions and providing incentives for foreign investors.

Environmentalists and some local residents fear potentially irreversible environmental damage to the district on the west coast.

Last year, the Supreme Court ruled in favour of the government, enabling it to build the 33km-long seawall.

Conservationists say the project will destroy South Korea's most important wetlands area for shore birds and waterfowl and erase a rich fishery and aquaculture resource and a irreplaceable natural asset.

The project was conceived in 1986 when the need to boost food production was treated as a national priority.

Large swathes of farmland are now unused as the rural population falls with more people preferring to live and work in the cities. AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

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South Korean city to focus on climate change in Expo bid

Channel NewsAsia 23 Nov 07;

SEOUL : Backed by a 30 million dollar pledge from the South Korean government, the city of Yeosu promises an international campaign on climate change as the centrepiece of its bid to host the 2012 World Expo.

The south coast city of 321,000 people is competing against Tangiers in Morocco and the Polish city of Wroclaw for an event it believes will deliver a multi-billion dollar boost to the local economy.

Members of the Bureau International des Expositions (International Exhibitions Bureau) vote next Monday evening Paris time to select the winner.

South Korea, ever eager to raise its global profile, is pulling out all the stops to support the bid.

It will mobilise "all levels of national support and endeavour to organise a world class global festival," said Prime Minister Han Duck-Soo, who headed a delegation which left this week for Paris for last-minute lobbying.

Yeosu is pinning its hopes on South Korea's proven record in hosting world events and on its theme: "The Living Ocean and Coast: Diversity of Resources and Sustainable Activities."

Amid rising concern over the dangers of global warming, many BIE members see the theme as timely, said bid committee chairman Kim Jae-Chul.

"The Expo 2012 Yeosu Korea will seek solutions to common issues which the international community is faced with, such as climate change and rising sea levels," Prime Minister Han said.

The central government plans to donate 10 million dollars to get a "Yeosu Project" under way, and another 20 million for a five-year programme starting in 2008 to help developing countries cope with global warming.

Yeosu has also bolstered its bid by offering more than 500,000 dollars in financial support to help poor countries join the expo.

The city "envisions the harmonious co-existence of industrial development and the environment," Kim told AFP.

It boasts clean seas despite the presence of the country's second largest container terminal, a steel plant and industrial complexes in the region.

The city lost the 2010 expo to Shanghai. "With full support from government officials and businessmen, we have done our best. We should not fail again," Kim said.

If it secures the three-month event, South Korea hopes to attract nearly eight million tourists from home and abroad.

Kim said the expo would create 90,000 jobs and bring an estimated 14 trillion won (15.3 billion dollars) in long-term direct and indirect economic benefits.

Apart from the environmental message, he cited the nation's past experience in hosting high-profile international events such as the 1988 Olympics and the 2002 World Cup.

Earlier this year the city of Daegu won the right to host the 2011 world outdoor athletics championships and Incheon was picked to host the 2014 Asian Games.

But organisers still forecast a close race with Tangiers.

Yeosu has been backed by countries in the Asia-Pacific region and Latin America, while Morocco has capitalised on its geographical advantage to win support from European and Islamic countries, Kim said.

President Roh Moo-Hyun has said Yeosu's successful bid would contribute to peace and stability on the Korean peninsula and in Northeast Asia.

Reinforcing that message, Yonhap news agency said Wednesday that North Korea has been accepted as a BIE member and can take part in Monday's vote.

The North is likely to support Yeosu's bid and boost its chance of securing the event, the agency quoted a foreign ministry official as saying.- AFP/ir

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Green Challenges: How can asean cope?

Climate change, energy and environment are issues high on security agenda
Mely Caballero-Anthony, Today Online 23 Nov 07;

Amid the mixed emotions at Asean's highly eventful 13th Summit — with Myanmar's intransigence the mood dampener — significant agreements and declarations were announced at the end of the meeting and the related gatherings.

Their respective agendas should prompt us to examine the issues and initiatives these regional security frameworks have identified to respond to pressing security challenges confronting the region today.

The salient question is whether these regional structures are prepared and equipped to respond to the host of security threats that have emerged on the horizon.

Three key issues dominated the meeting this week: Climate change, energy and the environment. At the end of the Asean Summit, the leaders adopted the "Asean Declaration on Environmental Sustainability".

Similarly, at the 3rd East Asian Summit (EAS), the "Singapore Declaration on the Climate Change, Energy and the Environment" was adopted.

There are obviously many more issues that can be added to the list of security challenges facing Asean and the wider East Asia. But, to be sure, these declarations are clearly reflective of the kinds of challenges that are high on the security agenda.

Climate change is emerging as a major security issue. In fact, climate change had already featured in the agenda of the 2nd East Asian Summit in January.

There is now a flood of information from scientific studies like the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change on the security implications of climate change on state and human security.

Despite this and the resulting publicity, there has yet to be a clear regional strategy to deal with the number of cross-cutting security risks from climate change, be it at the Asean or the wider East Asian region, at least until the release of these statements.

The inclusion of climate change in the agenda for cooperation is therefore highly significant given the urgency this issue commands.

Nevertheless, while discussions are very much at an early stage, the grave security implications of the effects of climate change should propel Asean and the EAS to craft more defined strategies in mitigating the multiple risks and threats emerging.

Thus, while the EAS declaration is a positive step forward, the decision not to include numerical targets on carbon emission reductions raises questions as to the capacity of this region — which has two of the largest emitting countries — to respond decisively to a very serious emerging threat.

The issue of energy security is not new, although this has now gained currency. Much of the security forecasting in the region has, for some time, identified energy security as Asia's key security risk.

So far, much of the framing of energy security risks had focused on security of supply, security of access to resources and sustainable pricing.

Yet, Asean has not had a clear energy policy until very recently. The Asean Plan of Action for Energy Cooperation (2004-2009) outlined, among others, plans to establish interconnecting agreements in the field of energy through the Asean Power Grid and Trans-Asean Gas Pipeline.

This and the development of new and renewable energy resources notwithstanding, not much has been heard of about the progress of these plans, except for information available by the Asean Secretariat.

It may be timely to examine the problems that have held up the implementation of these projects.

Aside from ideas about having a regional power grid and gas pipeline, several issues need to be further explored.

Based on the European Union experience, these issues include the possibility of stockpiling energy reserves, infrastructure investments and sharing of technology, particularly in areas of energy efficiency and conservation.

Given the enormous task of dealing with energy security, inter-Asean cooperation needs to be synergised with the other regional frameworks that deal with this issue, be it at the Asean Plus Three or the East Asian level.

The strategies to mitigate the harmful effects of climate change, as well as to address the challenges of energy security, must take into account their environmental impact.

This triangular relationship obviously complicates decisions on how the respective issues are to be efficiently tackled and how regional cooperation can proceed. More importantly, crafting regional responses would need to consider the larger political, economic and social conditions of the states and societies in the region.

This is no mean task to handle for any regional framework — be it Asean, Asean Plus Three or EAS. This is where sustainable development as a possible framework for intra and inter-regional cooperation can be useful.

The bringing together of 'Energy, Environment, Climate Change and Sustainable Development' as one broad yet inter-related theme this week is, therefore, positive and reflects the multi-sectoral impact of these issues.

Despite the potential disagreements that could emerge in mapping out regional responses, the shared vulnerabilities of the regional states should be enough impetus for the regional leaders, as well the relevant state and non-state actors, to navigate through contentious waters to urgently address these security threats.

As with many non-traditional threats which are transboundary, regional multilateral approaches are critical given the limited resources of individual states.

This is why, despite their weaknesses and limitations, it is still worth pinning our hopes on the strengthening of regional frameworks to help ensure the security of states and societies in the region.

Associate Professor Mely Caballero-Anthony is Coordinator of the Non-Traditional Security Studies in Asia programme at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University.

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Singapore plan to import LNG moves full steam ahead

Put portion that appears in summary here
Ronnie Lim, Business Times 23 Nov 07;
Industry expects about half dozen groups to bid to be sole LNG buyer

SINGAPORE is moving full steam ahead with its plan to import LNG by 2012 to cater to the fast-increasing natural gas demand from power stations and industries here, especially those on Jurong Island.

About half a dozen groups, comprising local and foreign players, are expected to bid to be the sole liquefied natural gas buyer, or 'aggregator', when the first, December 4, deadline of a two-stage Request for Proposal (RFP) closes, industry sources speculate.

At the same time, the Energy Market Authority this week also sent out a request to end-users, such as power stations, to indicate how much LNG they are interested in buying.

This 'Request for End-Users to Express Interest', closing Dec 14, will help the aggregator in contacting identified end-users as well as get a better idea of total demand for re-gasified LNG here, EMA said.

Industry sources said that as far as the bid to be the sole LNG buyer is concerned, local conglomerates like Gas Supply Pte Ltd (GSPL) and SembCorp - which are already buying piped natural gas from Indonesia - will most likely throw their hat in the ring. Keppel Corp, which is buying piped natural gas from Malaysia, is another strong possibility.

They could tie up with foreign players including Korean and Japanese gas importers, like Tokyo Gas, as well as oil giants like Shell, British Petroleum and British Gas, the sources said.

While most declined revealing their hand at the moment, GSPL CEO Tan Chin Tung confirmed that it was definitely submitting a bid to be the aggregator, although he declined to say whether it will do so as part of a consortium.

Singapore's move to import LNG, which can be shipped in from anywhere worldwide, will help it diversify its energy supply sources - given that Indonesia and Malaysia will increasingly need natural gas for their own domestic use.

This is critical given that currently over 80 per cent of electricity demand here is met by piped gas imports from the neighbours.

Currently, Singapore imports about six million tonnes per annum (tpa) of piped natural gas, with the planned LNG terminal expected to initially bring in 0.8-1.2 million tpa in 2012, with this building up to 3 million tpa by 2018.

PowerGas is leading the building of the S$1 billion LNG receiving terminal - construction, as well as detailed engineering, which is expected to start soon for the project to be ready by 2012.

On the appointment of the LNG buyer, the first stage RFP is meant to give the potential aggregator a better understanding of the market before it submits its final plan.

In the second stage RFP - expected to be announced in early January next year - the EMA will appoint the aggregator from shortlisted candidates by April, 2008.

Under the latest indicative time lines from EMA, the LNG aggregator and end-users will then begin negotiations for regasified LNG supply between Q2 and Q4 next year.

They are expected to enter into Memoranda of Understanding by December 2008, followed by final Gas Purchase Agreements by end-2009.

There are plans to launch a website to provide near real-time information when natural disasters occur, he added.

Several industry players have expressed interest in working with the centre by providing technological assistance or data.

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Singapore: Are our buildings safe?

New NUS centre to study effects of natural disasters
Teo Xuanwei, Today Online 23 Nov 07;

OUR buildings may shake when earthquakes occur in the region, but it is "highly unlikely" they will fall. But would they be safe years down the road?

That is what the new Centre for Hazards Research at the National University of Singapore aims to find out.

Launched yesterday, the centre will study the short- and long-term effects of natural disasters on structures and infrastructure.

The centre's director, Associate Professor Lee Fook Hou, said: "I am pretty sure our buildings are safe now, but I can't assure you they will always be. The aim of our research is to reduce that margin of uncertainty."

Comprising 20 local and three foreign academics and researchers, the centre will start work on the impact of earth tremors because that is something "closest to our hearts", noted Assoc Prof Lee.

Through experiments and the investigation of data collected, the centre aims to develop new technologies to counter potential risks to the safety of structures.

"While natural hazards are inevitable, we can focus on using good science to prevent them from becoming disasters," said Assoc Prof Lee. "The idea is to find new ways to improve structures."

This would prove especially useful to companies looking to venture into earthquake-prone areas, he added. The centre will eventually move into research on other dangers such as typhoons and floods.

Another goal of the centre: To become an information and resource hub on natural disasters for Singapore and the region.

By providing "accurate and reliable answers" on why buildings behave the way they do during earthquakes, people here will be more knowledgeable about the effects of natural disasters and be in "a calmer state of mind because they know they are safe", said Assoc Prof Lee.

NUS opens Centre for Hazards Research
Tania Tan, Straits Times 23 Nov 07

SPECIALISTS in geography and engineering will come together under one roof here for combined research into earthquakes.

They want to find out, for example, why tremors radiating from Indonesia's September quake shook Singapore as far west as the National University of Singapore (NUS).

They will also research into early detection, how tremors travel over long distances and their impact on buildings and structures here.

Yesterday, NUS launched its Centre for Hazards Research, which is housed in the engineering faculty. The centre will have 12 academic staff and about 15 students.

Associate Professor Lee Fook Hou of the civil engineering department, who heads the new centre, said he hoped the centre's research will shed new light on earthquakes.

Its findings will have a practical purpose.

For example, ways can be found to make buildings here safer without unnecessary reinforcement, which only go towards busting construction budgets.

The centre hopes to work with several government agencies, including the Building and Construction Authority, the Housing Board and construction companies to develop better building designs.

Prof Lee said: 'Existing building standards are overkill, because they assume that earthquakes happen just a few kilometres away.

'It makes construction impractical and costs, at times, unrealistic.'

The tremors felt here and in Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok come from several hundred kilometres away, and could have very different effects on buildings and structures than if quake epicentres are nearby, he explained.

Not enough is known now about the effects of such tremors from so far away, especially when these tremors come up against underground road and rail network structures, he added.

Prof Lee said he hoped that the centre's research will also benefit Singapore's earthquake prone neighbours.

'While natural hazards are inevitable, we can focus on using good science to prevent them from becoming disasters,' he said.

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Fishing methods affecting evolution of fishes: producing smaller and less fertile fish

Evolution Impact Key to Save Fish Stocks - Scientists
PlanetArk 23 Nov 07

VIENNA - Industrial-scale fisheries have not only sapped the world's fish stocks but also changed the species' evolutionary course, exacerbating the effect of overfishing by producing smaller and less fertile fish.

Scientist Ulf Dieckmann also said that overfishing and the practice of throwing lower quality fish back into the sea to raise the value of fishing quotas might explain the massive drop in population.

"Human activity had a possibly irreversible evolutionary effect in just a few generations," said Dieckmann, a member of a group of scientists who wrote a comment in the journal Science on managing fish stocks published on Thursday.

"We are running up a Darwinian debt that future generations will have to pay back."

Some 15 years ago, cod stocks in the Canadian Grand Banks in the north-west Atlantic collapsed, bringing down the fishing industry in the region. The same species is now under threat in the north-east Atlantic off Norway and Russia, he said.

In the Canadian Grand Banks fish stocks still show little sign of recovery, Dieckmann said, adding that evidence suggested humans were also responsible for this.

Looking at fishery data from the past few decades, the scientists found that increased mortality due to overfishing had favoured fish that matured smaller and earlier, yet also carried far fewer eggs at their first reproduction.

Older data showed that a typical cod caught in Norway might have taken ten years to mature, while the same fish now would only take six years or even less, said Dieckmann.

"The question is not whether such evolution will occur, but how fast fishing practices bring about evolutionary changes and what the consequences will be," scientists wrote in their comment in Science, warning that such evolution may even be irreversible.

Dieckmann expected that a change coming about in 40 years might take up to 250 years to reverse -- if it happened at all.

"Upsetting the dynamics of predators and prey may cause other changes that block this," he said.

Assessing the evolutionary impact could become an essential tool in managing fish stocks, said Dieckmann.

Fishing policymakers could have helped avoid the collapse of cod stocks in the Atlantic by taking into account the fishing industry's impact on evolution in the oceans, and that might help prevent future catastrophes.

Dieckmann said recommendations for future fishing policy based on the research included: less fishing overall; avoiding catching small fish by using wider-meshed nets; and banning fishing in areas where fish spawn.

"Based on data that were available 7-10 years before the collapse of the Grand Banks cod fisheries, an evolutionary impact assessment could have been used to send an early warning signal to policy makers," said Dieckmann.

"(Such assessments) applied now can thus help us avoid future catastrophes unfolding elsewhere," he added. (Reporting by Karin Strohecker; Editing by Elisabeth O'Leary)

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Food crisis from climate change: scientists warn

Scientists warn of agrarian crisis from climate change
Anil PennaThu, Yahoo News 22 Nov 07;

An agrarian crisis is brewing because of climate change that could jeopardise global food supplies and increase the risk of hunger for a billion poorest of the poor, scientists warned Thursday.

South Asia and Africa would be hardest hit by the crisis, which would shift the world's priorities away from boosting food output year after year to bolstering the resilience of crops to cope with warm weather, they said.

Rice, the staple for billions of people, is most vulnerable to global warming, said Dyno Keatinge, deputy director general of research at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics.

"It is the world's most consumed crop and it makes everything else pale in comparison," Keatinge told reporters in Hyderabad, southern India, where the research institute has organised a conference on the impact of climate change on farming.

"We have the opportunity to grow other crops that are more resistant to higher temperatures such as sorgum and millet, but changing people's food habits is very difficult, he said.

The rice yield could fall "very quickly in a warmer world" unless researchers find alternative varieties or ways to shift the time of rice flowering, he added, demanding governments allocate more money to research.

Environmentalists and agricultural scientists are mounting pressure on governments to act quickly to stem carbon emissions responsible for climate change, ahead of next month's global summit in Bali, Indonesia.

They also want bigger budgets to combat damage already done and cope with risks into the future.

According to the crop research institute, one billion of the world's poorest are vulnerable to the impact of climate change on agriculture -- from desertification and land degradation to loss of biodiversity and water scarcity.

India accounts for about 26 percent of this population, China more than 16 percent, with other Asian countries making up 18 percent and sub-Saharan Africa the remainder.

"Climate change will generally reduce production potential and increase the risk of hunger," said Martin Parry, co-chair of the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change that shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with former US vice president Al Gore.

"Where crops are grown near their maximum temperature tolerance and where dry land, non-irrigated agriculture predominates, the challenge of climate change could be overwhelming, especially on subsistence farmers," he said.

Developed economies have systems in place to fight the stresses that the poor lack, posing the risk of wider disparities between the haves and have-nots.

Parry said researchers would have to concentrate on "drought-proofing" crops and developing heat-resistant varieties to cope with the problems, warning that the world was rapidly nearing its tolerance threshold for rising temperatures.

"The challenge will no longer be producing the maximum amounts of food but to meet the increasing variability of climate from time to time," he said.

Experts from 15 international agricultural research institutions are attending the three-day Hyderabad conference in the run-up to the Bali summit, demanding action by governments before it is too late.

"We continue to wait for crises to stimulate change," said Simon Best, chairman of the crop research institute. "We are already facing the beginning of a crisis, let's not wait longer."

But the precedent set by governments in developing alternative energy resources was "not particularly encouraging" for scientists, given that oil was inching towards 100 dollars a barrel and concerns on the energy front have been rife for decades, Best said.

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Unprecedented food shortage forecast as oil runs out: scientist

Apocalyptic vision of a post-fossil fuel world
Paul Eccleston, Telegraph 22 Nov 07;

An apocalyptic vision of how the world will look after the oil runs out has been given by a top scientist.

Richard Heinberg, one of the world's leading experts on oil reserves, warned that the lives of billions of people were threatened by a food crisis caused by our dependence on dwindling supplies of fossil fuels.

Higher oil prices, the loss of farmland to biofuel crops, climate change and the loss of natural resources would combine with population growth to create an unprecedented food shortage, he claimed.

The only way to avoid a world food crisis was a planned and rapid reduction of fossil fuel use - oil, coal and gas - and a switch to more organic methods in the growing and delivery of food. It would mean a return to living off the land not seen for 150 years.

The stark predictions were made by Heinberg in a lecture to the Soil Association in London.

Heinberg, an author and former advisor to the National Petroleum Council, specialises in 'Peak Oil' - the point where oil production reaches its maximum and begins to decline - and the implications it has for climate change and food security.

He said for thousands of years, until the 19th century and the onset of the Industrial Revolution, all food production had been local. In good years there was enough to eat and to store and in bad years there was starvation.

The invention of the petrol engine increased the amount of arable land available to grow food, the size and efficiency of farm machinery improved, and better pesticides were developed - all of which contributed to a better food supply.

As food became more plentiful and cheap, the threat of famine disappeared and obesity became more widespread than hunger. Food, grain, meat and vegetables began to be exported around the world and the world population increased six-fold.

By the 1960s industrial-chemical practices had been exported to the third world and in the next half century food production tripled - but at an unrecognised cost of water and soil pollution and enormous environmental damage.

Heinberg said that, unfortunately, it was all unsustainable and the abundance of food depended on depleting, non-renewable fossil fuels whose burning produced climate-altering carbon dioxide.

The depletion of oil stocks, the demand for biofuels as an alternative, environmental degradation and extreme weather caused by climate change, were coming together to pose massive problems for world food production.

The situation would be made worse by a shortage of fresh drinking water. According to UN estimates, one third of the world's population lived in areas with water shortages and 1.1 billion people lack access to safe drinking water. The situation was expected to worsen dramatically over the next few decades.

While the human population had tripled in the 20th century, the use of renewable water resources had grown six-fold.

The UN Environment Program had concluded that the planet's water, land, air, plants, animals and fish stocks were all in "inexorable decline" much of it due to agriculture, which constituted the greatest single source of human impact on the biosphere.

Heinberg said that to get to the heart of the crisis a comprehensive transformation of world agriculture was needed - greater than anything seen in many decades - which would produce a system that was not reliant on fossil fuels.

He cited Cuba as an example of what could be achieved. In the 1980s it had become reliant on cheap fuel supplied by Russia and was using more agrochemicals per acre than even the US. But after the fall of communism, supplies dried up. The average Cuban lost 20lbs in weight, living standards collapsed and malnutrition became widespread.

Cuban authorities responded by redesigning the food supply system. Large state-owned farms were broken up and given to families and they were encouraged to form co-operatives, biological methods were used for pest control, oxen replaced tractors, urban vegetable gardens flourished and people began to keep chickens and rabbits for food. Twenty years later food production was 90 per cent of its former levels.

Heinberg said what was needed was a return to ecological organic farming methods which would require the transformation of societies.

And with oil supplies rapidly running out the full resources of national governments would be needed to achieve it.

The amount of food transportation would have to be reduced, food would need to be grown in and around cities, and producers and consumers would need to live closer together.

The use of pesticides would have to be reduced in packaging and processing, draft animals would be reintroduced and governments would have to provide incentives for people to return to an agricultural life. Land reform would be needed to enable smallholders and farming co-ops to work their own plots and population growth would have to be curbed.

"All of this constitutes a gargantuan task, but the alternatives - doing nothing or attempting to solve our food-production problems simply by applying mere techno-fixes - will almost certainly lead to dire consequences," he said.

" All of the worrisome trends mentioned earlier would intensify to the point that the human carrying capacity of Earth would be degraded significantly, and perhaps to a large degree permanently."

Heinberg added: "The transition to a fossil-fuel-free food system does not constitute a distant utopian proposal. It is an unavoidable, immediate, and immense challenge that will call for unprecedented levels of creativity at all levels of society.

"A hundred years from now, everyone will be eating what we today would define as organic food, whether or not we act.

"But what we do now will determine how many will be eating, what state of health will be enjoyed by those future generations, and whether they will live in a ruined cinder of a world, or one that is in the process of being renewed and replenished."

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Laos plans a water-powered future

Lawrence Ong, BBC News 21 Nov 07;

Non-profit organisations including International Rivers say other hydro-electric power projects in Laos have left a legacy of destroyed livelihoods, and seriously damaged the local environment.

For an Asian capital, Vientiane in the People's Democratic Republic of Lao is a sleepy place.

The pace of life in the former French colony is slow, and time often feels as if it is standing still. The closest thing to rush hour is the morning market with every other stall selling baguette sandwiches.

Just minutes away from the capital, there is even a greater sense of serenity.

Like Cambodia, Laos is known for its tragic past. During the Vietnam War it became the most bombed country in history - and that has left a legacy of poverty and underdevelopment.

Four out of five people in this mountainous, landlocked country are subsistence farmers living hand to mouth.

According to the United Nations Development Programme, Laos is currently ranked 133rd out of 177 countries on the Human Development Index.

Natural benefits

But Laos is blessed with a long stretch of the Mekong river, and the river's tributaries and the country's mountainous landscape offer huge potential for generating hydro-electric power.

The Lao government now dreams of becoming the "battery of South-East Asia", utilising the country's powerful natural resource to boost its development.

And with its neighbours such as China, Vietnam, and Thailand all craving energy supplies to fuel their surging economies, finding a buyer for the power is not a big worry.

Already under construction, the Nam Theun 2 dam is one of the biggest and most controversial projects in the region.

Located in the central Lao provinces of Khammuane and Bolikhamzy, the $1.45bn (£705m) project is being built by a consortium of companies including Electricite de France (EDF) and the Electricity Generating Company of Thailand.

The World Bank and the Asian Development Bank are among the international agencies providing the funding and support to the project.

When the project is completed at the end of 2009, neighbour Thailand plans to import more than 90% of the power, earning the Lao government about $1.9bn over the next 25 years.

'Lot of thought'

The World Bank sees this as a model project, and it says that every step has been taken to minimise the environmental and social impact.

Peter Stephens, spokesperson at the World Bank, says Nam Theun 2 is a great opportunity for Laos to make a lot of money over a long period of time and use it to help alleviate poverty.

"It's a project that has seen a lot of thought put into its side-effects on the environment and the local communities," he explains.

Mr Sor and his family are amongst the 6,200 indigenous peoples who have been forced to move home in order to make way for the dam's reservoir which stretches 450-square kilometres (281 square miles).

Their house in Sopia Village is brand new, and the village now has access to better roads and cleaner water.

"We are settling down nicely now. When the new land is ready, I will grow fruit or vegetables," says Mr Sor.

Powerful problems?

But some critics argue that these villagers are among the luckier ones. They say that many more families are not getting the compensation they deserve, and that question marks remain over their long-term livelihoods.

Non-profit organisations including International Rivers say other hydro-electric power projects in Laos have left a legacy of destroyed livelihoods, and seriously damaged the local environment.

"What Laos needs is a development strategy to reduce poverty without destroying the rivers and resources upon which Lao people depend," says Shannon Lawrence of International Rivers.

"That is the type of initiative the World Bank should be supporting," she added.

For Laos, hydro-electric power is a highly lucrative venture, and it is already constructing another 10 dams and considering building up to 70 more.

The government promises to use the money to alleviate poverty.

But with the country consistently rated as one of the world's most corrupt, there are serious questions as to whether hydro-electric power projects will truly benefit the locals, or simply help make their government richer.

Laos dam hurting villagers: environmentalists
Frank Zeller, Yahoo News 27 Nov 07;

As Laos plans to turn itself into the "battery" of Southeast Asia through hydropower, environmental groups warned Tuesday that a nearly decade-old dam had harmed tens of thousands of villagers.

The Association for International Water Studies (FIVAS) said the Theun-Hinboun project in central Laos had led to dangerous river surges and damaged farms and fisheries by creating higher, faster and muddier water flows.

The Norwegian group, in a report published Tuesday, cautioned against a planned expansion of the project, saying it would only do more harm and require mass resettlements of people living along the tributaries of the Mekong river.

FIVAS also warned that Laos' "growing predilection for large trans-basin diversion projects ... is essentially a journey into the unknown, which could have grave consequences for the region well into the future."

Laos, a rural economy and one of Asia's poorest countries, is now constructing about 10 new dams and considering plans for some 70 more, to sell the electricity to power-hungry neighbours Thailand, Vietnam and China.

The largest project so far, the World Bank-backed, French-built 1.45-billion-dollar Nam Theun 2 dam, is set for completion in late 2009 and will sell 90 percent of its generated electricity to Thailand.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has argued that dams allow Laos to earn foreign exchange and that "economic development in Lao PDR will inevitably involve development of the hydropower potential of some of its rivers."

Development banks and the Lao communist government say dam revenues will help alleviate poverty -- but activists have stressed their ecological impacts and voiced fears that much of the money will be squandered.

The FIVAS report on the Theun-Hinboun project, based on field visits earlier this year, said researchers found that, despite remediation efforts, the dam had hurt villagers' livelihoods in a variety of ways:

-- Fish stocks, a key source of protein, had declined and some aquatic resources such as molluscs, shrimp and edible weed had disappeared, while fish ponds built as mitigation measures had had no measurable impact.

-- Fluctuating water levels and stronger flows had eroded the banks of the Nam Hai and Hinboun rivers, leading to the loss of fertile agricultural land, riverbank gardens, fruit trees and other vegetation.

-- Flooding and higher sediment load downstream from the dam had worsened and villagers had repeatedly lost wet season rice crops, leading many to abandon their paddy fields.

-- Increased flooding from sometimes unannounced water releases had also drowned livestock, swept away boats and fishing gear, and made river crossings more dangerous for school children and people visiting relatives.

The FIVAS report asserted that a mitigation and compensation programme for villagers had "not lived up to expectations and is failing to restore peopleÂ’s livelihoods."

Projects to promote irrigated dry season rice cultivation, build fish ponds and introduce new livestock had failed or were insufficient, and residents had not been compensated for their economic losses, it said.

The US-based International Rivers Network (IRN) also criticised the Theun-Hinboun dam and warned against plans to expand it, which it said would double the downstream water volume and exacerbate existing damage.

"It is irresponsible for the Theun-Hinboun Power Company to proceed with this expansion project when thousands of people are still waiting for compensation from the existing project," said the IRN's Aviva Imhof.

The Theun-Hinboun Power Company is co-owned by Norway's state-owned power utility Statkraft, a Thai firm and the Lao government, and received funding from the ADB and the Nordic Development Fund.

Green Group Urges Laos to Stop Dam Expansion Plan
Darren Schuettler, PlanetArk 28 Nov 07;

BANGKOK - A major expansion of a hydropower dam in communist Laos will cause serious flooding, ruin fisheries and displace thousands of people living downstream, a Norwegian environmental group said on Tuesday.

Water releases from the Theun-Hinboun dam had already ruined the ecology of two rivers and damaged fisheries and farms since it was built a decade ago to supply electricity to neighbouring Thailand, the group said in a new report.

"In a cruel irony, many of the people to be affected by the expansion project have already been seriously affected by the existing Theun-Hinboun Hydropower Project," the report by the Association for International Water Studies (FIVAS) said.

The Theun-Hinboun Power Co, owned jointly by Norwegian state power utility Statkraft, a Thai power firm and the Lao government, had so far failed to pay compensation to people living downstream, it said.

The company should shelve the plan "until it has proven that it is capable of restoring the livelihoods of communities affected by the existing project," FIVAS director Andrew Preston said in a statement.

Statkraft, which owns 20 percent of the joint venture, said US$45 million had been set aside in the project to address the problems mentioned in the report such as by building houses, schools, infrastructure and health stations.

But Statkraft brushed off FIVAS' demands to back out of the project, which will double power production from the dam.

"We think this is a sustainable and a right project in a region experiencing strong growth and strong demand for energy," said Statkraft's spokesman Knut Fjerdingstad.

The expansion involves the construction of a 65-metre (213-ft) high dam on the Nam Gnouang river and a water diversion to the Nam Hai and Nam Hinboun rivers.

The report estimated it would "affect over 50,000 people who will suffer flooding, displacement, erosion and loss of livelihood if the project is approved", of whom 4,200 would be forced to move to higher ground.

Fjerdingstad said the challenges cited in the report were known to Statkraft, and the company would take seriously any input that could contribute to improving the project.

"This project will happen whether Statkraft is in on it or not. We can contribute to making this a better project," he said. The start-up is planned for 2008, though the final decision has not been made, he said.


WESTERN INVESTMENTS

The report was released ahead of a workshop on the expansion plan being held this week in the Lao capital, Vientiane.

The study was conducted by a research team that interviewed people in five villages along the Hai and Hinboun rivers in May.

Landlocked Laos says it wants to become "a battery for the region" by building a series of dams with funds mainly coming from neighbouring Thailand, China and Vietnam.

Western companies are also investing heavily in Laos, led by French electricity group EDF, which is involved in the massive Nam Theun 2 project.

Lao Prime Minister Bouasone Bouphavanh told Reuters last week his country was committed to supply 7,000 megawatts to Thailand, 5,000 megawatts to Vietnam and 1,500 megawatts to Cambodia by 2015.

The government has said it will use the profits from hydropower sales to fight poverty in the country of 6.5 million people, where the average monthly income is less than US$2 a day. (Additional reporting by Aasa Christine Stoltz in Oslo; Editing by Michael Battye and Roger Crabb/James Jukwey)

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China's multi-billion-dollar north-south water project facing delays

Robert J. Saiget, Yahoo News 23 Nov 07;

Wang Weiyang beams with pride as he watches one of his work teams digging a canal by the Yellow River, part of China's most spectacular water diversion scheme ever.

But when asked if the multi-billion-dollar project will be completed on time -- that is, by the first starting gun of the 2008 Beijing Olympics -- he scratches his head.

For two years he has helped dig an approach to a pair of 4,200-metre (14,000-feet) tunnels to go under the river as part of the nation's ambitious effort to bring water from the Yangtze River to the drought-stricken north.

"The deadline is going to be very tight," said Wang, an electrical engineer with Sino-Hydro, a leading Chinese dam builder. "We are facing some unforeseen problems."

The project is one of the most awe-inspiring undertaken by China -- similar in vision to, say, the Great Wall -- and Wang and his team are just a small part of the huge machinery making it all possible.

It will take nearly half a century to complete, but those involved fear it may not be enough. Meanwhile the arid north that was supposed to benefit is becoming more parched by the year.

"Time is urgent and the task set out by our nation is arduous," the Hebei Water Bureau, one of the key organisations involved in the project, said on its website.

It is a 60-billion-dollar project that could eventually divert northward an amount of water almost equal to the annual flow of the Yellow River, China's second-largest.

It was approved in 2002 to remedy dire water shortages before the Olympics and called for diverting up to 4.5 billion cubic metres (158 billion cubic feet) of water annually to the Beijing region along an "eastern route" by 2008.

By 2010, another nine billion cubic metres are to be diverted each year along the "central route" that Wang is working on, while the carrying capacity of both lines will significantly increase by 2020.

A "western route" built along the Himalayan plateau to be completed in 2050 makes this one of the longest-term construction projects ever devised by man.

Much can go wrong within such a long time span, and much has already gone wrong.

Wang knows this only too well.

Engineers, he explained, need to ensure that the two tunnels dug into layers of unstable sediment about 15 metres below the Yellow River will be able to withstand a major earthquake.

A short section of the canal leading to the tunnels, located just west of the Henan provincial capital of Zhengzhou, has been built but the tunnelling has been delayed.

"Originally the plan was to tunnel 10 metres per day, but so far we have only dug about 30 metres since tunnelling began in July," Wang told AFP.

Wang's crew are toiling on a canal route that will be a 1,200-kilometre (750-mile) man-made river stretching from the Danjiangkou reservoir, on a major tributary of the Yangtze, to Beijing by way of Henan and Hebei provinces.

A 400-kilometre-long section of canal in Henan has not yet broken ground, and other parts of the ambitious project are also falling behind schedule due to technological difficulties and funding delays.

Hundreds of kilometres east of Wang's site in neighbouring Shandong province groundbreaking for another set of Yellow River tunnels on the project's 1,050-kilometre-long eastern route only got under way last month.

The 3.4-billion-dollar eastern line, which is largely being built along China's historic Grand Canal, was originally scheduled to start bringing water to the Beijing-Tianjin area by the end of the year.

But according to Shandong's Jilu Evening Post, the water along the 1,400-year-old Grand Canal route is far too polluted to divert, while funding for water treatment plants along the line has been slow in coming.

At the earliest, water along the eastern route will not arrive in the Beijing area until around 2010, two years behind schedule, it said.

Officials say delays on the eastern route forced the government to order the emergency completion of a long central route section between the city of Shijiazhuang and Beijing to supply water in time for the 2008 Olympics.

According to Dai Yuhua, a manager with the Beijing Water Department, the section will begin diverting up to 300 million cubic metres of water to the capital as early as April next year, the Beijing News recently reported.

Up to a third of this will be squeezed from farmers through a rural water conservation plan, while the rest will come from Hebei reservoirs, many of which are already at historic lows, state press reports said.

Ironically so, since Hebei, where more than half a million people have difficulties finding drinking water, was originally to be a major beneficiary of the diversion project.

But such issues pale when it comes to the water shortages facing the capital, it added.

"The Beijing-Shijiazhuang section of the north-south water diversion project is directly linked to supplying water for the Beijing Olympics and has become a large and serious political undertaking," the bureau said.

Mammoth Beijing Canal to be Completed This Year
PlanetArk 27 Nov 07;

BEIJING - Work on a 300-km (190-mile) canal to bolster Beijing's scarce water supplies for the 2008 Olympic Games is expected to be "basically completed" by the end of this year, the Beijing News reported on Monday.

The canal, linking Shijiazhuang in neighbouring Hebei province to the capital, would divert 300-500 million cubic metres of water from four Hebei reservoirs next year, the newspaper said, citing project officials.

The 17.4 billion yuan (US$2.35 billion) aqueduct, eventually to be criss-crossed by 118 road bridges, was needed to guarantee supplies to the drought-stricken capital where reservoirs had dried up and water tables sunk dramatically, the paper said.

"By 2010 Beijing will face a deficit of 1 billion cubic metres of water," the Beijing News quoted Li Dawei as saying.

"Currently Beijing is over-exploiting its underground water. In 1999, water could be extracted at 12 metres below the surface. Now we need to dig down to 23 metres," said Li, who is deputy director of the project's construction and management office.

Over the same period, water in Beijing's Miyun reservoir had shrunk from 2.8 billion cubic metres to less than 1 billion, and its Guanting reservoir had contracted by 80 percent, Li said.

Beijing has pledged to ensure adequate drinking supplies for the 2.5 million visitors expected during the Olympics, but environmental officials have questioned the efficacy of pumping water from Hebei, itself suffering from dwindling supplies.

The Beijing-Shijiazhuang canal forms part of the middle route of the mammoth US$25 billion South-to-North Water Diversion scheme, which aims to bring water from southern rivers to the arid north.

The quest to ensure the Hebei reservoirs remained flush for the Olympics had seen adjoining fishing lakes drained and local farmers ordered to stop sowing crops, the paper said.

"Before, 80 percent of the village's residents farmed fish and 10 percent worked in other places. Now, given the difficulty of sowing crops for Beijing's water supply, 90 percent of the labour force have left to work in other places," said Chen Erguo, chief of Zhengjiazhuang village.

The newspaper said heritage experts were worried that time was running out to save relics along the route of the pipeline.

Funding and time constraints meant few construction areas had been properly excavated, sparking fears that some relics would be damaged or lost forever, it quoted experts as saying. (Editing by Roger Crabb)

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China Wants Rich Nations to Take Lead in Climate Talks

Yahoo News 23 Nov 07

BEIJING - China wants next month's international talks on global warming to focus on future greenhouse gas cuts by rich countries and moving more "clean" technology to poor countries, an official said on Thursday.

China is emerging as the world's biggest emitter of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas from factories, farms and vehicles that traps more heat in the atmosphere, threatening to bring dangerous, even catastrophic, climate change.

Next month in Bali, countries will start what are sure to be tough negotiations over how to fight global warming. The United Nations hopes to launch two years of talks to find a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, whose initial phase ends in 2012.

The United States, the world's biggest greenhouse gas emitter, has refused to ratify the protocol, which the Bush administration has called unfair and ineffective.

With China's greenhouse gas output set to soar, many Western politicians want Beijing to spell out its goals for limiting emissions growth -- something developing countries are not obliged to do under Kyoto.

But Song Dong, an official in the Chinese Foreign Ministry's section preparing for the Bali talks, said negotiations should focus on developed countries' responsibilities, not China.

"Now I think the most crucial task is to complete negotiations for emissions reductions by developed countries after 2012," Song told a news conference.

He said rich countries also needed to "do better in transferring (emissions reducing) technology so developing countries can afford it. That's one of our fundamental claims in the climate change sphere."

Song spoke at a briefing on China's response to a UN panel report summing up forecasts for global warming.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao repeated China's position that developing countries should not be required to adhere to specific targets on emissions.

"The critical principle is that developed countries and developing countries should have common but differentiated responsibilities," Liu told a news conference.

"We don't believe developed countries should impose compulsory objectives on developing countries."


TURBULENCE

Chinese experts say climate change could badly damage the country's coastlines, water resources and farms.

The country's pattern of abundant rains in the south and drought in the north could be reversed, bringing turbulent changes to farming, said Luo Yong, a deputy director of the national meteorological centre.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said on Wednesday that Beijing would hold a meeting next year for Asian countries to discuss climate change.

But China also remains committed to rapid economic growth that will lift greenhouse gas emissions for decades to come.

China's contribution to global carbon emissions by 2030 would rise to more than a quarter from a fifth now, while its per-capita contribution would still be less than half the United States, the International Energy Agency said this month.

Song said the Bali talks had to focus on adapting to inevitable climate change as well as cutting rich countries' emissions.

"Because developing countries are extremely vulnerable in the face of climate change, so for them the issue of adaptation is more prominent," he said. (Reporting by Chris Buckley, editing by Nick Macfie and David Fogarty)

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Monkeys invade Indonesian village: report

Yahoo News 23 Nov 07;

Hundreds of monkeys have invaded houses and accosted villagers in Indonesia's East Java province after their habitat was cleared for commercial development, a report said Thursday.

Sudarsono, a resident of Mangliawan village, told news website Detikcom that hundreds of macaques began swarming into the village from the nearby Wendit recreational park three months ago in search of food.

"They entered my house by breaking the roof and stole food," he said, adding that the monkeys often turned violent and attacked people.

Another witness, identified as Prayitno, said between 25 and 30 macaques broke through his roof everyday to look for food.

The 10-hectare Wendit park, which is home to hundreds of macaques, has been partially cleared to make way for the construction of cottages and commercial buildings.

Local district official Bambang Istiawan told AFP that a regional administration started the construction project eight month ago.

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International Herald Tribune, Straits Times 11 Nov 07

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Mangroves are best defence against cyclones: researcher

Jatindra Dash, Indo-Asian News Service, Hindustan Times 5 Nov 07

Mangroves are a natural defence against cyclones and would have helped prevent many of the deaths in the 1999 super cyclone besides having several economic uses as well, says a Delhi University researcher urging that such forests be re-established.

According to Saudamini Das, a researcher and economics lecturer at the Swami Shradhanand College of Delhi University, "if we leave a hectare of mangrove forests intact, then the value we get from it is twice of what we would get if we cleared and sold the site for building houses or hotels."

The super cyclone of October 1999 claimed the lives of almost 10,000 people as well as 400,000 livestock. Almost two million houses and over 1.8 million hectares of crop were destroyed in 12 of the state's 30 districts.

Das re-constructed the situation in coastal Kendrapada district, about 150 kms from Bhubaneswar, in order to get a true picture of the importance of mangroves in protection from storms.

She says fewer lives would have been lost in the super cyclone if much of the mangrove forests had not been cut down.

In 1950, 80 per cent of the district's coastline was covered with over 300 sq km of mangroves, which had a width of nearly 10 km.

However, at the time of the cyclone, mangroves covered only 50 per cent of the coastline. It was noticed that areas protected by mangroves suffered fewer losses than other parts of the district.

Mangroves trap sediment in their roots, creating shallow shorelines that slow oncoming waves and dissipate wave surge. Their leafy canopies shelter land from high cyclonic winds. Although widely recognised, these protective functions have not been well researched. Even less is known about the extent of the economic benefits provided by these functions.

The super cyclone had its landfall 20 kms southwest of Kendrapada and the entire district was battered by cyclonic wind and rain.

If the mangrove forests that had existed in 1950 were still in place, only 31 people would have died in the district as opposed to 392 who actually lost their lives in the 1999 disaster, according to findings of the study sponsored by the South Asian Network for Development and Environmental Economics (SANDEE).

"If the present mangrove forests hadn't been there at all, the death toll would have been 54 per cent higher than it actually was - an additional 211 people would have died," she said.

Vast stretches of mangroves have been lost due to degradation, coastal development and shrimp farming.

"Kendrapada, which is poor and a predominantly agricultural region, has seen significant loss of mangroves in the last half century like other coastal regions of the state," she said.

In addition to offering protection from cyclones, mangroves provide other benefits too - they are a source of firewood and forest products to local communities and act as breeding places for fish.

Saudamini's study has found that a hectare of mangrove forestland could have prevented damage worth Rs 1.8 million in the area she studied during the super cyclone.

Since severe storms don't occur all the time, she multiplied this number by the probability of occurrence of severe storms in Orissa over the last three decades to estimate the value of mangroves.

"Based on this, the value of a hectare of land with intact mangrove forests is Rs 360,000. Currently, a hectare of land after mangroves are cleared sells at Rs 200,000 in the market," she said.

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