wildsingapore news: Dec 29, 2007

Indonesian President urges better forest management amid floods

Channel NewsAsia 29 Dec 07;

TAWANGMANGU, Indonesia : Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono urged better forest management across the nation Saturday as he toured an area stricken by deadly landslides and floods this week.

"That would be a brilliant way to take care of the Earth," he said, according to the state-run news agency Antara, adding that it would help prevent further disasters in the world's fourth most populous nation.

The landslides and floods have killed at least 65 people in heavily populated Central and East Java after torrential rains lashed the region.

While activists blame such disasters on the disappearance of trees that stabilise soil and help absorb rain, local officials have insisted the unusually heavy downfalls have destabilised already vulnerable hilly areas.

"We don't need to blame the mistakes of the past. What we need now is better care for forests," Yudhoyono said during a visit to Central Java's Wonogiri district.

Local disaster management official Sri Mubadi said rescuers were still hunting for nine missing people in the district.

In adjacent Karanganyar district, the number of missing has fallen to seven after it was revealed that some people were found to have been out of town, said district official Heru Aji Pratomo.

He said rescuers were continuing their search, which has been hindered by a lack of heavy equipment, amid rainfall.

"I hope all the bodies will be retrieved today (Saturday) as their families have been waiting too long for certainty," he said, adding that two of the missing were children.

In East Java, the bodies of two children were recovered on Friday after a bridge was swept away by swelling flood waters.

Police initially feared 50 people were missing based on witness accounts of who was on the bridge when it was swamped.

Landslides and flooding are common in Indonesia during the rainy season, which hits a peak from December to February. - AFP/ch

Deep-sea species' loss could lead to oceans' collapse, study suggests

EurekAlert 27 Dec 07;

The loss of deep-sea species poses a severe threat to the future of the oceans, suggests a new report publishing early online on December 27th and in the January 8th issue of Current Biology, a publication of Cell Press.

In a global-scale study, the researchers found some of the first evidence that the health of the deep sea, as measured by the rate of critical ecosystem processes, increases exponentially with the diversity of species living there.

“For the first time, we have demonstrated that deep-sea ecosystem functioning is closely dependent upon the number of species inhabiting the ocean floor,” said Roberto Danovaro of the Polytechnic University of Marche, in Italy.

“This shows that we need to preserve biodiversity, and especially deep-sea biodiversity, because otherwise the negative consequences could be unprecedented. We must care about species that are far from us and [essentially] invisible.”

Ecosystem functioning involves several processes, which can be summarized as the production, consumption, and transfer of organic matter to higher levels of the food chain, the decomposition of organic matter, and the regeneration of nutrients, he explained.

Recent investigations on land have suggested that biodiversity loss might impair the functioning and sustainability of ecosystems, Danovaro said. However, the data needed to evaluate the consequences of biodiversity loss on the ocean floor had been completely lacking, despite the fact that the deep sea covers 65% of the Earth and is “by far the most important ecosystem for the cycling of carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus of the biosphere.” The deep sea also supports the largest “biomass” of living things, including a large proportion of undiscovered species.

In the new study, Danovaro’s team examined the biodiversity of nematode worms and several independent indicators of ecosystem functioning and efficiency at 116 deep-sea sites. Nematodes are the most abundant animals on earth and account for more than 90% of all life at the bottom of the sea. Earlier studies have also suggested that nematode diversity is a good proxy for the diversity of other deep-sea species.

They found that sites with a higher diversity of nematodes support exponentially higher rates of ecosystem processes and an increased efficiency with which those processes are performed. Efficiency reflects the ability of an ecosystem to exploit the available energy in the form of food sources, the researchers said. Overall, they added, “our results suggest that a higher biodiversity can enhance the ability of deep-sea benthic systems to perform the key biological and biogeochemical processes that are crucial for their sustainable functioning.”

The sharp increase in ecosystem functioning as species numbers rise further suggests that individual species in the deep sea make way for more species or facilitate one another, Danovaro said. That’s in contrast to terrestrial-system findings, which have generally shown a linear relationship between diversity and ecosystem functioning, he noted, suggesting complementary relationships among species.

“Deep-sea ecosystems provide goods (including biomass, bioactive molecules, oil, gas, and minerals) and services (climate regulation, nutrient regeneration and supply to the [upper ocean], and food) and, for their profound involvement in global biogeochemical and ecological processes, are essential for the sustainable functioning of our biosphere and for human wellbeing,” the researchers concluded. “Our results suggest that the conservation of deep-sea biodiversity can be crucial for the sustainability of the functions of the largest ecosystem” on the planet.

Photos document annihilation of thousands-year-old coral forest off Florida

John Nielsen, National Public Radio 26 Dec 07;

Scientists are trying to reseed and re-grow them. But oculina corals grow extremely slowly, and for that reason alone it is unlikely that anyone alive today will live long enough to see the reefs return.

Morning Edition, December 26, 2007 · When ancient forests are cut down, there's usually a big public uproar — unless it's a coral forest at the bottom of an ocean. In those cases, hardly anybody sees what's being lost. As a result, it's easy to forget what's gone.

But that's not what has happened to a set of ruined coral reefs found off the coast of Florida, thanks to 70,000 underwater photos taken back in the 1970s and 1980s. For decades these pictures have been sitting in the office of John Reed, a senior scientist of the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution. He and the late Robert Avent found and mapped these deep water reefs 30 years ago.

"I was (swimming) at about 300 feet, and the water was grey and blue," Reed said. "And all of a sudden, I saw this giant white structure looming up off the bottom, 60 to 80 feet tall."

It was a ridge made up of several thousand years' worth of white deep-water corals, known to scientists as oculina. At the time, these kinds of ridges stretched for roughly 90 miles through deep waters off the east coast of Florida. Reed says all these ridges were covered with corals that looked like bright white leafless fruit trees. Fish and other sea life buzzed around them like a cloud.

Thrilled by their discovery, Reed and Avent photographed "every square foot" of the deep-water coral forest. Those photos helped convince government officials to ban fishing near a few of the reefs. Unfortunately all the other reefs were vulnerable to shrimp trawlers that dragged giant nets with steel doors on them through the fragile coral forests.

"One pass would destroy several thousand years' worth of growth," said Reed.

By the late 1990s, it was clear that the reefs had been badly damaged by the trawlers. But nobody knew what the damage looked like or what exactly had been lost. Then, in 2001, Reed climbed into a tiny submarine, went back to the spots where he had helped take all those pictures in the '70s and took a second set of photos. Then he hauled the "before" and "after" pictures into his lab.

Reed spent a good part of the next several years putting before and after photos under a microscope, trying to figure out exactly how many corals had been lost since the 1970s.

"And what I saw devastated me," he says. "Instead of 60-foot reefs, I saw 60-foot mounds of rubble. Nearly every coral reef had been crushed to little pieces the size of his finger.

"I almost cried," he said.

Reed discovered that the only reefs still standing were the ones that were put under protection in the 1980s. His findings were reported in the Bulletin of Marine Science. Coral reef experts say the findings are depressing, but not surprising. They're aware that trawlers have done huge amounts of damage to deep-water reefs in most of the world's oceans.

What's different here is the fantastic trove of photographs that show how quickly reefs like these can be erased. They also show exactly what gets lost when that happens.

"When you look at the untrawled areas, there are lots of little fish sticking their heads out of the corals," said biologist Margot Stiles of the nonprofit group Oceana. "And there are these cute mini-lobsters that are clicking their claws at the camera.

But in the trawled photos, all you can see are "little bits of coral laying flat on the muddy bottom that stretches out of your field of view into the darkness," she said.

Stiles says it's now illegal to fish near the oculina reefs. Scientists are trying to reseed and re-grow them. But oculina corals grow extremely slowly, and for that reason alone it is unlikely that anyone alive today will live long enough to see the reefs return.

Best of our wild blogs: 29 Dec 07

Echinoderms of Changi
amazing finds on our mainland shore on the tidechaser blog and discovery blog

Plan B
first hand account of travails and travel through flooded Malaysia by Calamity Joe and Disaster Duck on the budak blog

Coral flourescence and other attributes
lessons learnt during the coral id workshop on the mountain and sea blog

More coral ID at Semakau
with lots of background on corals on the urban forest blog

Legislation on dumping stuff on our shores
and on the Labrador intertidal zone on the reddot blog

Artificial reefs: do they help or harm?
highlights of some recent articles on the wildfilms blog

Kingfisher Coughing it up
pellet casting on the bird ecology blog

Pretty gecko
on the urban forest blog

Creatures small and smaller: the marine food chain

Studying the lives and threats to life of those at the bottom of the food chain
Bangkok Post 29 Dec 07;

"Deterioration of the water quality will stop only if land development in coastal areas stops," she added. "All that the developers and investors think about is how to make more money, they don't care about the quality of life of the people - and many of the investors who destroy our natural resources are not even Thais, but foreigners."

For 18 years, marine biologist Dr Suree Satapoomin has been studying organisms so tiny they cannot be seen with the naked eye. Her subjects? Plankton.

"If you take a glass of water from the sea, the water may look clear but it is certain to contain plankton, which are so tiny they can be seen only under a powerful microscope," she said.

Suree specialises in copepods, or microscopic crustaceans, a type of plankton that serve as food for aquatic animals. "Whether it's freshwater, brackish water or saltwater, you will find copepods," Suree said.

Plankton are waterbound animals or plants that possess such limited powers of movement that they drift about on currents. One characteristic that defines different types of plankton is whether they remain plankton all their life (holoplankton) or whether they grow into other animals (meroplankton). Many marine creatures, including types of coral, fish, prawns, crabs, molluscs, starfish, sea-urchins and worms, start their lives as meroplankton.

The copepods that Suree studies are holoplankton and are the most important type of plankton found in the surface waters of the sea.

Copepods are a form of zooplankton, which are generally larger than other forms of plankton, such as viruses, bacteria and phytoplankton (plankton capable of photosynthesis), which they tend to eat.

"Viruses, and especially bacteria in this case, do not cause disease but are the primary ring in the food chain," Suree explained.

"They turn inorganic matter into energy through chemosynthesis, or chemical elements, instead of light, while phytoplankton are microscopic plant life that absorb nutrient elements like phosphorous, nitrogen and silicon and process these into food with the help of light, or photosynthesis."

The survival of marine life depends on the survival of plankton. Different types of plankton live at different depths in the water where the animals that feed on them know to seek them out.

The sea is essentially divided into two layers, which represent totally different environments for life, the marine biologist explained. The surface waters constitute the warm and illuminated upper layer known as the troposphere, while the cold, dark recesses that extend to the ocean floor are called the stratosphere.

"People see the importance of the big fish, prawn and crab, which they can eat, but they don't look after water quality," said Suree, who is head of the Marine and Coastal Resource Assessment and Production Unit at the Phuket Marine Biological Centre (PMBC).

Suree's unit investigates the community structure of marine and coastal resources, does laboratory and field work on enhancing production and assesses the changes in various types of marine organisms, food chains and algal blooms, including "red tides".

When the water is polluted, light needed to develop food through photosynthesis cannot penetrate the water, Suree said. Even bacteria, which process food by chemosynthesis so do not need light, cannot survive because there are no nutrients in the water.

"Only if the water is of high quality, where viruses, bacteria and phytoplankton could exist, will there be bigger marine animals for man to eat. If the water is so polluted that the primary food producers could not exist, then there would be no food for the zooplankton, which in turn serve as food for bigger animals, so the link in the chain is broken and humans at the upper end will be affected."

However, Suree said that in her 18 years of research she hasn't observed any major changes in the sea.

"There's a great diversity of plankton in tropical waters, especially in the Andaman Sea where the tide rises and recedes twice a day. The only visible problem is in coastal areas that are heavily populated, such as popular tourist spots," she said.

"In Phuket, hotel and road construction, tourists getting in and out of the water and improperly treated wastewater that flows into the sea all have destroyed the water quality in Patong. This can be seen from the plankton bloom that occurs in Patong every year.

"The year before the tsunami was the worst I've ever seen, when algal bloom turned all the sea green."

Algal or plankton bloom, also known as green or red tides depending on the colour the algal pigment makes the water, is caused by an influx of nutrients from increased nitrogen and/or phosphorus in the water as a result of agricultural fertiliser or sewage draining into the sea, especially washing detergents. The bloom often results in bacterial decomposition, which may reduce the level of oxygen in the water thereby reducing its quality and making it unfit for marine life.

A more dangerous form of plankton bloom is the one caused by algae that spread poison, which is then passed up the food chain to humans. Mussels made toxic through such a bloom could cause diarrhoea or worse, Suree said.

The worst form of algal bloom is the red tide, as the plankton that cause it produce a deadly neurotoxic substance called saxitoxin, which depresses sodium transport in the human body and affects the nervous system. Within 12 hours of ingestion of mussels contaminated with saxitoxin, breathing becomes inhibited and cardiac arrest may follow. Luckily for Patong's tourism industry, no tourist has yet died from eating toxic mussels.

Japanese scientists have been collecting data for more than 50 years, but they still cannot predict when an algal bloom will occur, Suree said. "All they can do is warn people not to eat shellfish at the first sign of the bloom.

"Deterioration of the water quality will stop only if land development in coastal areas stops," she added. "All that the developers and investors think about is how to make more money, they don't care about the quality of life of the people - and many of the investors who destroy our natural resources are not even Thais, but foreigners."

As Suree spoke, a new resort was being built right by the beach at Cape Panwa in Phuket where the PMBC is located.

Global warming has started to melt polar ice caps, which scientists say will result in a gradual rise in sea levels and changes to global currents.

"The effects of warmer waters on plankton is not yet clear," Suree said, "but a sudden change in water temperature by 2C would certainly change the marine community. Marine life that can adapt to warmer waters will survive, and that which cannot will become extinct. Whether this will have a positive or negative effect on the ecosystem remains to be seen.

"That's why there's a need for research," she added, "so that we know what the marine community is like before and after the change, and what impact the change will have on the productivity of Thai waters. But in Thailand there's very little money for research, unlike in developed countries where they have been collecting data for the past 50 years or more."

A graduate of the University of Copenhagen, where she obtained her doctorate, Suree has participated in an international educational and scientific marine expedition financed by the Danish government. She has also observed the importance the Danish people place on research.

"There was a web site where teachers, students and journalists [from the expedition] wrote about their experiences during the day, and it was closely followed by the people of Denmark," she said.

Suree admits that when studying for her bachelor's and master's degrees at Chulalongkorn University, she "did not like the subject of plankton. Like other young people, I loved diving in coral reefs to observe coral, prawns and fish, as you could see them clearly and admire their beauty.

"But the seawater is not just about coral reefs or sea grass beds, which the dugong inhabit. We have to look at the whole ecosystem and understand where the dugong stands in that ecosystem. Without the microorganisms that are the primary producers of food, the link will be cut off, the whole ecosystem will collapse and man at the upper end of the food chain will suffer."

The word I want banned in 2008

Christie Loh, Today Online 29 Dec 07;

You "switched off" each time it appeared in the media or bristled at the way it was mangled and misused.

What is the one word you would like to be rid of as you bid farewell to 2007?

Weekend Today asked several people for their pick of not-so-hot words.

Global warming

"The news has been all about flooding and disasters and the phrase 'global warming' has been heard a lot this year. When I'm out at sea, it sickens me to see plastic bags and rubbish and it's not just in Singapore. But I think we should try to look on the bright side, like getting people to appreciate nature more, rather than scaring people with images and facts."

National sailor Roy Tay, who won a gold medal in the 2007 SEA Games, on the skewed presentation of the effects of carbon dioxide on the environment.

Climate change

"The benefits of controlling global warming lie far off into the future. Why should the far-off generation always get priority over the immediate generation? Presently, poverty is still very high. There should be priority towards the present generation."

Professor Euston Quah, Nanyang Technological University head of economics, on how governmental talks and media reports tend to stress the long-term aspect of climate change and inevitably dull the average Joe's interest in the topic because he feels less connection with the far-off future. The global debate should also deliver "less rhetoric, more action", added Prof Quah.

Win-win

"It's used a bit too often in any context or line of argument, where people need to convince you of something."

Filmmaker Tan Pin Pin, whose latest screened work is documentary Invisible City, on the term that has been used to describe things such as the staging of the Formula One race here and Singapore's support for Malaysia's Iskandar Development Region.

P65

"It started out nice and fresh, but after a while, it got kind of boring and mainstream. I was a bit disappointed because I thought they would come up with alternative viewpoints reflective of the young."

Veteran Member of Parliament Charles Chong (born in 1953) on www.P65.sg, the blog set up by 12 younger MPs born after the nation's independence. The People's Action Party coined 'P65' after last year's elections, to describe the 12 newbies tasked with connecting with their peers, who will form the majority of voters by the 2011 polls.

KPI

"In our area, we all know there must be some form of measurement. But this KPI sometimes gets stretched to that point that it's misused and ends up being a numbers game. Some things, you can't measure."

Mr Henry Quake, executive director of Council for Third Age, a public-funded body tasked with promoting active ageing. What, for instance, should be the key performance indicator (KPI) for whether the council is successful in changing mindsets, he asked? Attendance of events?

Medical tourism

"Beyond the casual tourist coming here for executive screenings, there are many serious patients coming; they're not tourists. Many are looking for better care, at the terminal end, desperate or even quite poor. The news keeps focusing on the rich individuals, but don't forget the bottom of the pyramid, which is heavier."

Associate Professor Phua Kai Hong, who teaches health policy at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, on how public understanding of "medical tourism" here needs to be expanded.

Governance

"The governance issue arose with NKF (National Kidney Foundation) and this emphasis is taking away attention from the fact that there's a lot of good work going on out there by charities that do good well. The real challenge is to find more good people to come and work in the sector. Then governance should not be so much of an issue."

Mrs Tan Chee Koon, CEO of the National Volunteer and Philanthropy Centre, believes the structures are already in place for good governance and hopes the negative spotlight currently on the charity sector will soon dissipate.

Local

"Today's audiences are increasingly exposed to a wide variety of artistic influences and productions from around the world. So, when artists create works, there needs to be a less parochial mindset. We need to be conditioned to think beyond our shores and develop artistic standards that can transcend boundaries and be enjoyed by audiences everywhere."

Mr Benson Puah, CEO of The Esplanade Company, hopes artistic works and mindsets here will become less "local".

Medals

"It's the spillover effect from last year's Asian Games and during this year's SEA Games, performances were gauged in terms of medal prospects and wins. It is the most overused word in sports ... In Singapore, there is too much focus on medals and winning. Sometimes, you learn far better lessons from losing than winning."

Ms Annabel Pennefather, International Hockey Federation vice-president and Singapore National Hockey Federation president, would like to see the nation measure sporting success in different ways.

Costs

"From the very beginning of the year, we started to hear about rising property costs and business rentals … Next year, we hope to see more stable growth without the big spikes we have seen this year."

Mr Phillip Overmyer, chief executive of the Singapore International Chamber of Commerce, on how businesses are feeling the heat from rising costs. He listed factors such as Indonesia's ban of sand and granite exports to Singapore, the GST hike and growing wages.

Inflation

"The Government will probably have to do more to help. But it isn't just about that. It's about having everybody see that we're part of the circle of life, so that employers see that if they hire the auntie or the uncle — as opposed to the three other foreign people — he's doing much more for the community than just paying a wage to somebody."

Dr Gillian Koh, senior research fellow at the Institute of Policy Studies, on how the issue of the rising cost of living – and with it, inflation – has dominated 2007. While Dr Koh hopes to hear less of the I-word in 2008, she says rising costs will continue to be a major issue in the New Year.

Vegetable prices up in rain-soaked Malaysia

Hazlin Hassan, Straits Times 29 Dec 07;

KUALA LUMPUR - THE heavy rains that flooded parts of Malaysia may have subsided, but the bad news remains - prices of vegetables are likely to stay high in the run-up to Chinese New Year.

The reasons: increased demand, along with a drop in supply due to bad weather and flooding.

While floodwaters in the main vegetable-producing states of Johor and Pahang have gone down, Mr Chay Ee Mong, secretary-general of the Federation of Malaysian Vegetable Growers Association, told The Straits Times that prices are not expected to follow suit.

'This is based on weather forecasts which predict another wave of heavy rains,' he said.

Meteorological officials expect more rain to pound the north-eastern Malaysian states during the monsoon season, which occurs between November and February every year.

Mr Chay added that farmers also have to factor in recent increases in the cost of chemical fertilisers, pesticides and seeds into their prices.

Prices of vegetables are now between 40 per cent and 50 per cent higher than normal, said Mr Chay. In addition, production has dropped about 20 per cent.

Previously, round cabbages were sold at RM1.20 (50 Singapore cents) per kg, but they now cost RM1.70 per kg, said Mr Chay.

And leafy vegetables such as spinach now cost RM3 per kg, compared with RM2.20 previously.

But the Malaysian government said the raised prices are temporary.

Deputy Minister for Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs S. Veerasingam said: 'Supply is still sufficient. If not, then we will take measures, including importing from China and Indonesia or other suitable countries.'

In Singapore, vegetable prices are coming down.

At the peak of the price surge, which occurred during the worst of the Malaysian floods in mid-December, prices went up by almost 50 per cent. The cost of kailan, for instance, rose from $1 per kg to up to $1.40. The current price is about $1.20.

Prices should return to normal in about a week, said Mr Tay Khiam Back, president of the Fruits and Vegetables Importers and Exporters Association in Singapore.

'There are five main vegetables affected, including kangkong, spinach and xiao bai cai,' he told The Straits Times.

'But these leafy vegetables also mature fast...it takes at most two to three weeks to grow and harvest, so although production is affected now, this can be recovered quite rapidly.'

According to Singapore's Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority, Malaysia usually supplies the Republic with 300 tonnes of vegetables each day.

While there has been a recent drop of about a quarter of this amount, much of the impact has been buffered because stocks are flowing in from local farms and other countries such as China, Thailand, Australia and Indonesia.

hazlinh@sph.com.sg

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION FROM TARA TAN, REUTERS

A secret garden in Seletar

Business Times 29 Dec 07

The residents of Seletar Camp have recently been living with the knowledge that progress has finally caught up with their suburb, reports GEOFFREY EU

WITH its narrow country lanes, quaint English road names, simple single-storey colonial-era houses and verdant scenery with not a single high-rise in sight, Seletar Camp is the antithesis of modern Singapore - a leafy northern suburb caught in a time warp and a throwback to an age where the relaxed pace allows residents to sit back and enjoy the ordinary things in life.

For Singaporeans of a certain vintage, a drive through this former Royal Air Force base-turned-military camp will trigger fond childhood memories and lead to a greater understanding of why the residents who occupy over 200 houses in the estate are so passionate about protecting that way of life.

Many other properties are either empty as leases end or occupied by aerospace companies that service the adjoining Seletar Airport.

For the past year and a half, the residents of Seletar Camp - which was first built in the 1920s to house Royal Air Force personnel - have been living with the knowledge that progress has finally caught up with their part of the world, and just like the Dempsey Road and Portsdown Road camps before it, the rhythm of life as they know it will eventually be very different.

The government-owned area is due to be turned into an aerospace hub within the next several years - complete with F&B outlets, of course - and infrastructure work has already commenced, with the roads around Seletar heavy with daily lorry traffic.

The nine-hole public golf course in the estate has already been closed, its fairways slated to make way for a runway extension project.

Like a sleepy village

Residents like G Gobinathan represent the last pockets of resistance at Seletar Camp, where the residential community is akin to a sleepy village where everyone knows each other. Although he is relatively new to the estate - some residents have been there for two decades or more - he is vociferous in support of the lifestyle it represents.

His tidy three-bedroom semi-detached house, complete with spacious back garden, is located on a small lane with the atypical name of Regent Street - Hay Market, Edgeware Road and yes, Oxford Street are all nearby - and the area resembles nothing so much as a quiet English suburb, with dogs in the yard and children playing in the street.

Mr Gobinathan, his wife Annie and three children - Anthony, 14; Harry, 11; and Geoffrey, 7 - moved here from his family home in Upper Thompson Road just over a year ago, and they couldn't be happier.

'I used to have cousins living around here and I always wanted to live here because it's rather quaint,' says Mr Gobinathan, a qualified accountant who spent 15 years working in Europe and who is now the chief operating officer of a Singapore-based company that manufactures shelving for supermarkets.

'Here, you can hear the birds singing. It's also a fact that my kids don't fall ill so frequently because there's so much nature and greenery around,' he says. 'The neighbours are very friendly and our front doors are always open - it's very village-like.'

Despite the proximity to the airport, the air traffic is minimal, he says, especially since the activity is restricted to small jets and single-engine private planes.

Vanishing scenery

'Within the next five years, massive change is going to happen here, with many houses slated to be demolished, while some will be converted to restaurants and bars and workshops for the aircraft industry,' says Mr Gobinathan. 'All this beautiful scenery is going to disappear - of course there will be landscaping of whatever is left, but the whole area will still be more industrialised.'

Not surprisingly, Mr Gobinathan and his fellow residents are not too happy about the impending changes.

A loose-knit residents' committee met government representatives about preserving the area - to no avail - earlier this year, and even non-residents were moved to support. A short documentary by Li Xiuqi, titled Seletar Airbase: Singapore's Secret Garden, also helped to publicise the plight of the people living there.

At present, the rural atmosphere is akin to living in the countryside, notes Mr Gobinathan. 'Too much change is not good,' he feels. 'This place reminds us of the history of Singapore and gives people an opportunity for people to experience living with nature - modernising this place is not really necessary.'

This is the kind of neighbourhood where sitting on the patio and greeting people as they walk past is a daily ritual.

At one time, there were even no fences between houses. Residents include retired professionals, businessmen and expatriates keen for a reminder of the home country.

Mr Gobinathan, whose wife is from Ajaccio, a small town in Corsica, says there are hints of Europe in Seletar Camp.

'The place where she comes from is as quaint as this,' he points out. 'We both love the countryside and working in the garden.'

'Living here, there is a sense of security, even though all the doors are always open. There's a feeling of extended community, and my friends drop by unannounced for a drink because they look forward to coming here for a feel of nature and the environment. You just feel happy over here,' he says.

'It's rare that this kind of living is available to the average person - not many people can sit out on the patio and enjoy this kind of view,' he adds.

As a young boy, Mr Gobinathan had a fascination for flying, but his father refused to allow him to fly. 'Now, I tell my kids that at least daddy lives next to an airport,' he says.

The greenery, low-rise housing and being in a rural environment help to make Seletar Camp the ultimate countryside estate - a rare instance of true suburbia in Singapore. It's a place where living extends well beyond the walls of your house.

Mr Gobinathan waves an arm at the green expanse beyond his front gate. 'These old trees are the lungs of the earth - but they're all going to go.'

Monkey mayhem at MacRitchie Reservoir

Monkey feeders to blame, says NParks
15 primates grabbed food from picnicking mum and toddler
Tracy Sua, Straits Times 29 Dec 07;

FINES could be upped for those who feed monkeys, in the wake of a recent incident where a horde of 15 primates grabbed food from a pregnant woman and her toddler at MacRitchie Reservoir Park.

The National Parks Board (NParks), which caught 151 people red-handed and fined them this year, could also increase its raids by roping in security companies to nab offenders, it said.

Such people are the prime reason monkeys get so used to humans that they approach, expecting to be fed, said assistant director, Central Nature Reserve, Ms Sharon Chan.

In the latest incident on Dec 15, housewife Petrina Chan and her 19-month-old daughter Carys were sitting at a gazebo in the park that morning when Mrs Chan pulled out a white styrofoam box of pancakes from her bag.

The long-tailed macaques, about 30m away, charged.

'They snatched at the box and tore a hole in it,' said Mrs Chan, 35, who was three months pregnant.

Undaunted by her efforts to shoo them away, they jumped on her and snatched a packet of drinks and tissues from her bag.

They retreated only when two passers-by, a jogger in his 40s and a girl in her teens, helped hide the food in a baby carrier and fended them off.

There have been at least four reports of people injured by monkeys in Singapore since 1991.

But the problem would not exist if people stopped feeding them, said NParks' Ms Chan.

'By now, the monkeys have lost their fear of people, associate vehicles with getting fed, and they know plastic bags often contain food.

'It has come to the stage where they expect food, so if they don't get it, they may approach and snatch a bag.'

So, visitors to parks and reservoirs where monkeys live should keep their distance, not eat in front of monkeys, and put away all food in containers or backpacks. If approached, they should keep calm and try to walk away, she advised.

Regular parkgoers like Mr Alvin Lee, 33, said he has occasionally eaten snacks at the reservoir, but is careful to keep food out of sight when there are monkeys around.

'They have always ignored me,' said the engineer.

NParks staff conduct regular raids or patrols to catch monkey feeders, as well as monitor areas along Upper Thomson Road with security cameras installed last year.

It has ensured that dustbins in the nature reserves are monkey-proof with lids that close automatically. Numerous signs warn parkgoers against feeding the primates, and pamphlets are given out to visitors as well.

'Despite these measures, the problem persists because some members of the public continue to feed the monkeys,' said Ms Chan.

In May, NParks increased fines for feeding monkeys from $200 to $250. Five people who did not pay up and were taken to court had to pay up to $2,000.

'We are looking into raising composition fines further and increasing raids on monkey feeders with the assistance of security companies to supplement our staff's efforts.'

Monkeys which are too aggressive are trapped and culled.

Between January and September, 164 monkeys were culled, up from the 138 last year.

However, added Ms Chan: 'We are the ones encroaching on the monkeys' homes. We should not be looking at getting rid of them just because of a problem we ourselves have caused.

'If we just culled all the monkeys, we would be robbing people of a precious opportunity to see some of Singapore's original citizens in action.'

To report monkey feeders, the public can call NParks' 24-hour hotline on 1800-471-7300.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY CHANG AI-LIEN

RELATED LINKS

Please do not feed the monkeys
more about the harm caused by feeding monkeys, on the wildsingapore website

US cities take the lead in going green

They offer residents rebates for being environmentally friendly
Straits Times 29 Dec 07;

PARKLAND (FLORIDA) - FREE hybrid-car parking. Cash rebates for installing solar panels. Low-interest loans for energy-saving home renovations.

Frustrated by what they see as insufficient action by state and federal government, municipalities around the country are offering financial incentives to get people to go green.

'A lot of localities recognise they are going to get a lot more done using carrots and incentives rather than regulatory means,' said Mr Jason Hartke, director of advocacy for the US Green Building Council.

In Parkland, Florida, where the motto is 'Environmentally Proud', the city plans to begin dispensing cash rebates to its 25,000 residents next year for being more environmentally friendly.

'We will literally issue them a cheque,' said Vice-Mayor Jared Moskowitz.

'We are sick of waiting for the federal government to do something, so we have got to do what we can.'

Residents who install low-flow toilets or shower heads will get US$150 (S$220). Replacing an old air-conditioner with a more energy-efficient one brings US$100.

Buying a hybrid car? An additional US$200 cash back. And the list goes on.

Based on an estimate of 1,000 residents participating in the rebate programme during the first year, the city predicts it will cost up to US$100,000.

'Could this bankrupt the city if the programme grows by leaps and bounds?' Mr Moskowitz asked.

'I can only wish that so many residents want to go green that that becomes an issue.'

Many states already offer similar rebates and incentives through tax breaks, loans and perks such as allowing hybrid-car drivers to use car-pool lanes.

Utilities have long provided incentives to buy energy-efficient appliances, solar panels and toilets that use less water. The federal government also offers tax incentives for the purchases of many hybrid vehicles and energy-saving products.

Still, for many cities, it is just not enough.

'In terms of waiting for the federal government, we have waited a long time, and frankly, we have not gotten very much,' said Mr Jared Blumenfeld, director of San Francisco's Department of Environment.

'And how do you change someone's behaviour? The simple answer is cash.'

Starting next year, San Francisco will offer home owners rebates of up to US$5,000 for installing solar panels if they use a local contractor.

Coupled with state and federal incentives, that could cut in half the US$21,000 cost for an average household, Mr Blumenfeld said.

The city will also cover up to 90 per cent of the costs of making apartment buildings more energy-efficient, and will pay residents US$150 to replace old appliances.

Meanwhile, in Arizona, many cities pay residents to replace grass with artificial turf or plants that use less water. Scottsdale, outside Phoenix, will pay up to US$1,500.

'We are in the middle of a desert, and water is absolutely the most precious resource we have,' said city spokesman Mike Phillips.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Learning to give their riches away

Wealthy people pay a fortune to look at the world's poorest people
David Thomas, The Daily Telegraph Today Online 29 Dec 07;

Ms Julie Toskan-Casale has just spent £10,000 ($30,200) on what is arguably the world's most exclusive travel experience — one that is never advertised and is available only to a select group personally approved by the tour's organisers.

Known to insiders as TPW — The Philanthropy Workshop — it is a cross between a conventional educational tour and a self-improvement cult.

Yes, that's right. There's an organisation that makes the rich pay a fortune to travel the world to look at poor people.

But TPW's customers, or rather "alumni", aren't examining the lives of the poor out of idle curiosity.

They're spending time in shanty towns, village schools and Aids clinics because they want to change the world, with their own money.

The Philanthropy Workshop began life in 1995 as an offshoot of the Rockefeller Foundation in New York, which wanted to pass on the lessons learnt in more than 80 years of charitable activity since its own creation by John D Rockefeller, founder of Standard Oil.

A pattern was set in which TPW participants get first-hand experience of impoverished, marginalised communities in the developed and developing world.

They meet charity workers, the people they serve, single-issue activists, political lobbyists, lawyers and legislators — Ms Hillary Clinton is among prominent figures to have given audiences to TPW.

In a daily series of debates and seminars, they are taught to think strategically, look at root causes rather than symptoms, seek opportunities for action that are not already being served and leverage their giving so that it has benefits far beyond its initial cash value.

Ms Julie Toskan-Casale is a co-founder of MAC cosmetics who sold her business to Estée Lauder in 1998.

"We'd just sold MAC and I was thinking: Okay, now what? What will make me feel as inspired as I did at MAC?"

Her answer came from the Aids foundation her company had set up in response to the disease that had swept the ranks of the make-up artists who were its core customers.

"The MAC Aids Foundation was the most satisfying part of the business," she said. "I wanted to do more, but I thought I wouldn't be effective. I didn't just want to be in an office signing cheques. I needed some direction."

She was not prepared for the emotional impact TPW would have.

"When we went to Buenos Aires, there we were in a five-star hotel, filled with women in fur coats," Ms Toskan-Casale said.

"Then, we got on an air-conditioned executive coach to go to shanty towns where kids were drinking water out of ditches and people were living in tin huts.

"I thought: I am going to spend the rest of my life making a difference.

"I felt horrible. I thought all the people in those huts should come and stay in my hotel room.

"I was devastated, but I spoke to other people at the workshop and found they were going through the same thing. It was really helpful to know that and had I not had that experience I wouldn't be where I am now.

"I know how unfair things are and how much change needs to happen."

She also knows whom to call if she needs help with her charitable work, because TPW has evolved into a powerful social and philanthropic network.

That network increasingly covers people of every age and nationality.

Ms Cynthia Wu is a 28-year-old student at the London Business School.

"My London life is very simple. I'm a student and I go to class," she said.

Well, not quite that simple.

Ms Wu's father is Taiwanese billionaire Wu Tung-chin, whose massive Shinkong Life insurance business sponsors the Shinkong Life Foundation, one of Taiwan's largest philanthropic organisations.

When she was just 24, Ms Wu became its executive director. She attended TPW in 2003 to get the expertise she would need to run the Shinkong Life Foundation.

In her first module, Ms Wu found herself plunged into the law courts of New York.

"One judge thinks jail sentences do more damage than help," she said.

"He mentioned a case of a black girl who'd been badly neglected by her parents.

"When she was 11, she'd opened the front door and there was her father. He asked her to fetch her mother. When the mother arrived, the father spilled acid on her face and cut her up.

"The girl ended up in a gang and hooked on drugs. Now, she's a lap dancer, completely clean — a professional like any other, making a good income — a healthy, confident young lady.

"It's a hopeful story — in a strange and twisted way."

TPW has its own etiquette.

"We never actually talked about money," said Mr Hugh Davidson, 71, a native of the Isle of Man.

"People don't show off, saying: 'My foundation's bigger than yours or walk about in designer clothing. That's not the culture at all," said Mr Davidson, who founded a management consultancy and had written several textbooks on successful management.

He attended TPW in 2003 after he retired and wanted help in running his own, relatively modest foundation.

For him, the workshop is a perfect way to meet like-minded individuals.

All three mentioned have used their experiences at TPW in their own philanthropy.

Ms Toskan-Casale runs a Youth Philanthropy Initiative programme in Canada helping secondary-school pupils get actively involved in charity work in their own communities.

Ms Wu has radically reshaped the Shinkong Foundation and produced an award-winning documentary on Aids, which has generated more than US$1 million ($1.4 million) in donations and helped change attitudes in conservative Taiwanese society towards the disease.

Mr Davidson is running education programmes in both the UK and the developing world. For him, The Philanthropy Workshop represents the best possible use for the money he has earned.

"For some people, the TPW is a life-changing experience. It really does make you think about life: Whether you've got it right; whether you should change. It leads you to think about the real fundamentals, which is great," Mr Davidson said. — THE DAILY TELEGRAPH

Antarctica's Adelie Penguins Extinct in a Decade?

Anne Casselman, National Geographic News 28 Dec 07

Adélie penguins in Antarctica are in the midst of a major upheaval as climate change causes their icy habitat to warm up, experts say.

Some populations of the birds are thriving, but most are declining rapidly.

The penguins rely on winter sea ice as a platform for feeding on ocean krill.

But they also need the ice to shrink in the summer so they can access their breeding colonies on land.

The mid-latitudes of the Antarctic Peninsula once provided the perfect habitat for the penguins—but not anymore.

"That region has experienced the most rapid warming during winter on the planet," said Bill Fraser, an ecologist with the Polar Oceans Research Group in Sheridan, Montana.

"The mid-winter temperatures are now around 10.8 degrees Fahrenheit [6 degrees Celsius] higher than they were 50 years ago."

If the trend continues, Fraser predicts that Adélie penguins will be locally extinct within five to ten years.

Global Mix Master

Adélies are the smallest penguin species, weighing in at roughly 8.5 to 12 pounds (4 to 5.5 kilograms).

Since Fraser began to study Antarctic penguins in 1974, he has seen the Adélie population in the western Antarctic Peninsula shrink by 80 percent.

Today there are 8,000 birds left from an original colony size of 40,000.

"They are the classic canaries in the coal mine, in that they are responding to changes that are occurring on an enormous scale," Fraser said.

"These are global scale changes; it's just not the [Antarctic] peninsula that's warming."

Doug Martinson is a physical oceanographer at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in Palisades, New York.

He noted that the peninsula's especially rapid warming must be tied to factors unique to the region.

"The peninsula is undergoing warming that in the wintertime is almost 5.5 times the global average," Martinson said.

"[There's] got to be some other source of heat that's melting the glaciers and raising the air temperature, and the most obvious source is the ocean."

Water has a much greater capacity to carry heat than air. As the air in equatorial regions gets warmer, this heat makes its way down into the deep ocean.

Deep ocean currents then bring this warmer water toward the South Pole, where it gets "hijacked" by the Antarctic circumpolar current—the "global mix master," as Martinson calls it.

As this current glances off the Antarctic Peninsula, some of its warmer water flows up onto the continental shelf, mixes its way to the surface, and sends heat into the atmosphere.

"The deep-ocean circulation is bringing water to our area of the Antarctic Peninsula that—just a little ways below the water's surface—is four degrees Celsius [seven degrees Fahrenheit] warmer than freezing," Martinson said.

"It's a freight train of hot coals that goes steaming by this frigid area."

In recent decades Martinson has found that the sea ice has started melting much earlier and freezing over much later.

"The summer season with no sea ice is now 85 days longer than it used to be just since the '80s," he said.

"It almost doubles the length of summer down there as far as sea ice goes."

Not All Bad?

But it's not all bad news for the Adélies, said Fraser of the Polar Oceans Research Group.

As the Antarctic Peninsula heats up, southern parts of Antarctica have become more hospitable homes for the species.

Adélie populations in the far southern peninsula have tripled in previous decades, Fraser said.

And ice-intolerant penguin species, such as chinstrap and gentoo penguins, are moving into the warmer Antarctic habitats once occupied by the Adélies.

Since 1974 gentoos have increased in number by 7,500 percent and chinstraps by 2,700 percent.

"We joke that gentoos are going to take over the world," Fraser said.

However the danger remains that all parts of Antarctica could warm past the Adélies' ideal temperature range.

"Pound for pound, an Adélie penguin can deal with just about anything," Fraser said.

"To see them being affected so dramatically by [human-induced] climate change, it's particularly hard to bear."

Pacific Salmon Invading Atlantic, Threatening Penguins

James Owen, National Geographic News 28 Dec 07

Ocean-swapping Pacific salmon are moving into Atlantic waters, scientists say.

The fish, native to the North Pacific, have started colonizing and breeding in rivers in southern Argentina, a new study shows (see map).

Although the sight of salmon leaping in Argentina's world-renowned trout rivers may be enticing to anglers, the silvery predators could become a nightmare for the region's marine life.

The invaders threaten to deprive penguins and sea mammals of food—an ever-increasing risk given the number of invasive salmon currently escaping from fish farms in neighboring Chile, researchers say.

The warning stems from the first study to show salmon swimming from the Pacific to the South Atlantic, where salmon don't naturally occur.

The study focused on chinook salmon, a Pacific species that has recently become established in the Santa Cruz River system in the Patagonia region of Argentina.

DNA analysis of the Santa Cruz salmon traced the fish back to failed salmon-ranching experiments on Chile's Pacific Coast during the 1980s.

Don Staniford, who was not involved in the new study, is the European representative for the Washington, D.C.-based environmental group Pure Salmon Campaign. He said the new findings could mean dire consequences for the region's marine habitat.

"Salmon have a very healthy appetite, so they're going to consume native fish and prey that other species are dependent on," he said.

"You've got a recipe for potential ecological disaster."

Threat to Penguins

Chinook salmon were first discovered accidentally in the headwaters of the Santa Cruz in 1998 as researchers surveyed trout spawning sites.

Another breeding population has recently been identified in a river in Tierra del Fuego, at the southern tip of Argentina.

Eastern-flowing ocean currents and fish-rich seas off southern Patagonia have likely allowed the salmon to spread to Atlantic waters, said study team member Miguel Pascual of the Centro Nacional Patagónico in Chubut, Argentina.

"Salmon can migrate long distances in the ocean, and they can be caught almost anywhere in the Southern Ocean," Pascual said, referring to the waters that surround Antarctica.

One salmon was recorded as far north as Uruguay, he added.

The cooler waters of southern Argentina make the region most vulnerable to invasion, Pascual said, and the area's trout rivers are likely targets for the invasive salmon.

While anglers have yet to hook any of the salmon, "[the fish] are creating a stir among sport fishermen who regard them as an addition to other valuable fisheries for steelhead and sea trout," Pascual said.

But the impact of these sea-feeding fish on the marine environment may prove severe, according to the latest research carried out by Pascual and his colleagues.

A new study, yet to be published, found that 96 percent of the chinook salmon's diet in Patagonian seas is made up of sprats, small herring-like fish that are key prey for Magellanic penguins, a species classified as "near threatened" by the World Conservation Union.

While the number of chinook salmon in the region isn't yet known, models indicate that a "medium-size population" could match the food consumption of the entire penguin population of southern Patagonia, Pascual said.

Chile's Escaping Fish

The team also warns that the number of salmon finding their way to Argentina is likely to grow "as Chile moves forward to become the largest [farmed] salmon producer in the world."

Staniford, of the Pure Salmon Campaign, said salmon escapes from Chilean farms are spiraling out of control.

Millions of fish reportedly escaped in a single incident last year, when an earthquake triggered a mini-tsunami that hit salmon farms in Chile's Aysen region, Staniford noted.

In addition to competing with penguins and sea mammals for prey, escapees can spread disease and parasitic sea lice that affect wild fish, Staniford added.

"Escaped farm salmon, unlike domesticated cows or sheep, can swim vast distances and are mobile pollutants," he said.

Antarctica May Contain "Oasis of Life"

Christine Dell'Amore, National Geographic News 27 Dec 07;

Antarctica is not a barren polar desert but a rich, complex environment that may contain a thriving "oasis of life," experts say.

Researchers have uncovered a complex subglacial system miles under the ice where rivers larger than the Amazon link a series of "lake districts," which may teem with mineral-hungry microbes.

This watery environment may be more than one-and-a-half times the size of the United States, scientists say, which would make it the world's largest wetland.

"This is essentially a whole new world that ten years ago we didn't know existed," said Michael Studinger, a geophysicist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University in New York.

"If you peel back the ice sheet, you would expect a watery landscape similar to what we would see on the surface of Earth."

Dramatic Development

Studinger's research focuses on "recovery lakes," part of a a series of cascading lakes found earlier this year under the ice sheet.

The lakes—isolated from the atmosphere for more than 30 million years—ebb and flow as they empty into the polar sea. They stay fluid because the ice sheet above acts like a gigantic down blanket, trapping heat rising from Earth's interior.

About 145 lakes have been found, under ice up to 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) thick.

Recovery lakes trigger ice streams that lubricate and drain parts of the ice sheet into the ocean, meaning they may provide surprising insights into the effects of global warming, Studinger said.

Because so much of Earth's freshwater is tied up in these ice sheets, warming trends may add to the lubricating effect and release more water than anticipated into the ocean, raising sea levels.

"Fifteen years ago people thought the east Antarctic ice sheet was frozen to bedrock, but now we know that's not the case," he said.

"This is a dramatic development in the way we look at Antarctica."

In 2008 Studinger plans to fly over Antarctica in an airplane equipped with new radar technology that can "see through" ice and detect new lakes.

"It's difficult to say how many more lakes, but what we know for sure is we will discover more," he said.

Only a very small portion of Antarctica's land mass has been surveyed, mostly because it is one of the most inaccessible places on Earth, Studinger added.

Untapped Resources

Mahlon C. Kennicutt II, a professor of oceanography at Texas A&M University, leads several Antarctic research groups.

Scientists who thought such underground lakes were mere anomalies in the late 1990s now realize the bodies of water are fundamental to several Earth processes, Kennicutt said.

"Our whole agenda has broadened," he said.

Outbursts from subglacial lakes, for example, may have a lot to do with how the continents are shaped and reshaped.

The lakes may also hold an untapped wealth of climate records that could improve our understanding of how life evolved, he added.

Some of these mysteries might be cracked within months, when Russian scientists drill down 2.3 miles (3.8 kilometers) to reach Lake Vostok. The giant lake, 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) beneath eastern Antarctica, was found in 1996 using satellite imagery and specialized radar technology.

If successful, the team will become the first to sample water from the lake.

"Pretty Big House"

Lakes are one thing—but not long ago, few suspected that life could survive in such extreme conditions.

John Priscu, an ecologist at Montana State University in Bozeman, for example, began studying organisms that live in frozen ice in 1992.

"That was a really big start—other scientists started jumping around and saying, Wow, we can have biology in solid ice," Priscu said.

Later Priscu began working on ice from Lake Vostok, and found evidence that microbes can live in the subglacial lake, deriving energy from minerals—as he put it, "eating rocks."

Priscu and his postdoctoral student, Brent Christner, took some lake water that was refrozen at the bottom of the ice sheet above Lake Vostok and compared DNA found in the ice with DNA of organisms listed in gene banks.

Several of the DNA sequences from the gene bank were similar to the DNA in the ice—suggesting comparable organisms live in the subglacial lake.

The microbes may survive in little veins wedged between frozen crystals of ice—"a pretty big house for microorganisms," Priscu said.

Could more advanced life-forms lurk under the ice sheet? "I'm not sure there is enough energy down there ... to make a Loch Ness monster," Priscu said.

But if hydrothermal vents are found in Lake Vostok that resemble energy-rich, biodiverse vents in the deep ocean, higher-order organisms could be possible, he added.

"To be honest I would be surprised if there's no microbial life in the lake," Studinger of Columbia University said.

"Pretty much wherever we have found water on this planet we find at least some sort of microbial life."

Life on Mars?

Antarctica's frigid remoteness has at least one benefit to science: it is a polar desert with similarities to Mars and the Jovian moon Europa, Priscu added.

These comparisons may help scientists who are studying the "emerging picture of life" on other icy worlds, he said.

For example, based on their study of Antarctica microbes, Priscu and colleagues have published research in the Journal of Astrobiology describing how life might exist in Mars's frozen ground.

"Slowly but surely, people are starting to realize this is a new frontier," he said.

"Antarctica has a lot of secrets that haven't been unlocked yet."

Singapore: This year's Christmas season the best retailers have seen in years

Channel NewsAsia 28 Dec 07;

IKEA also tries to marry consumerism with green practices, offering a S$10 voucher for every live Swedish Christmas tree that is returned to the store. The trees will be sent to a recycling company and processed as wood chips for the soil.

Last year, of the 1,500 trees sold, about 50 were returned.

SINGAPORE : The Christmas season is always associated with shopping, and retailers have said that this year's season is one of the best they have seen in recent years.

It is the season for shopping, and this year, retailers said shoppers seemed to have returned with a vengeance.

Isetan, for example, said that usual sales figures for the festive season can go up to twice its monthly earnings.

With its current post-Christmas sale, it is expecting more good tidings.

Gerard Soh, Sales Promotion Manager, Isetan Singapore, said, "Generally, (sales) have been improving for the entire year and we hope to see a better response next year. That is more challenging though. But with good economic growth, yes we are seeing good customer response".

IKEA said some 850,000 people have walked through its stores in Alexandra and Tampines since its Christmas campaign was launched on November 16.

That is a 25 percent increase compared to an average month.

Lars Svensson, Country Marketing Manager, IKEA, said, "We have the best traffic we have ever had, but this is also possibly due to the fact that we opened a new store last year on 30 November. So if we compare with only one store, definitely we have the best year ever."

The increase in traffic has translated to better sales for the store.

Its Swedish Food market too had better-than-expected demand, and many products were sold out before Christmas.

The home furnishing retailer also tries to marry consumerism with green practices, offering a S$10 voucher for every live Swedish Christmas tree that is returned to the store.

The trees will be sent to a recycling company and processed as wood chips for the soil.

Last year, of the 1,500 trees sold, about 50 were returned.

IKEA hopes to double the number of trees returned this year.

Retailers said the good year-end performance is on top of a 10 percent growth that they have seen so far this year, and the strong purchasing power is expected to continue till next year. - CNA/ms

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