Madagascar slows destruction of forests

Ed Harris, Reuters 10 Mar 08;

PORT LOUIS (Reuters) - The Indian Ocean island of Madagascar has reduced the destruction of its protected forests eight-fold as it tries to preserve its unique wildlife and earn more from tourists, conservation officials say.

Home to hundreds of species from chameleons and lemurs to magnificent baobab trees, the world's fourth largest island aims to keep 6 million hectares (15 million acres), or about 10 percent of its surface area, as nature reserves.

Satellite images show deforestation has fallen in those areas to 0.1 percent per year of existing forest from 0.8 percent in the 1990s, conservation groups and the government say.

"We need to do a lot. But the important thing is that the trend is in the right direction, which is not the case for every country in the world," James MacKinnon, who works for Conservation International in Madagascar, told Reuters.

Deforestation across Madagascar has come down to 0.5 percent, MacKinnon added. The main causes of forest destruction in Madagascar are clearing trees for farms and burning wood to make charcoal.

Since President Marc Ravalomanana vowed to ramp up environmental protection in 2003, a combination of tree-planting, community involvement and the extension of reserves have all contributed to less deforestation.

More than 90 percent of the mammals which inhabit Madagascar are found nowhere else while all but one of its 217 species of amphibians are endemic.

"We have a unique biodiversity. Eighty percent of our species are endemic. Our neighboring countries like Mauritius, the Seychelles or even Reunion cannot compete with us in this respect," the environment and tourism minister, Harison Edmond Randriarimanana said.

"We are going to sell this to tourists."

Conservationist MacKinnon said protection of the forests would also help to combat climate change.

Scientists say deforestation in the tropics causes about 20 percent of all man-made carbon dioxide emissions and preserving what is left of them is crucial because they soak up enormous amounts of the gas responsible for the bulk of global warming.

"We think deforestation has been too neglected in the climate change debate," MacKinnon said.

Madagascar's forests are small by comparison with those of Brazil or Indonesia, but have almost as much variety in their animals and plants.

"In terms of biodiversity, Madagascar is up there with both of those countries," MacKinnon said.

Madagascar broke away from the rest of Africa around 160 million years ago, leaving its flora and fauna to evolve in isolation.

(Additional reporting by Alain Iloniaina; Editing by Alastair Sharp)

Read more!

India culls poultry to contain new bird flu outbreak

Bappa Majumdar, Yahoo News 10 Mar 08;

Only a month after authorities declared bird flu was under control in eastern India, veterinary workers began culling thousands of chickens on Monday to contain a fresh outbreak in poultry.

The outbreak was reported from West Bengal's Murshidabad district where 900 chickens and ducks died over the last two weeks, officials said.

In January, the H5N1 virus had hit 13 of the state's 19 districts, including Murshidabad, bringing down poultry sales by more than 70 percent in the state, but it had a limited impact in rest of the country.

Authorities in West Bengal then culled more than 3.4 million birds in the state after the World Health Organization (WHO) described January's outbreak as the worst-ever in India.

There have been no reported human cases of the bird flu. Experts fear the H5N1 strain could one day mutate into a form easily transmitted from person to person, leading to a pandemic that could kill millions worldwide.

Officials in eastern India say bird flu among poultry could spread to new areas.

"We do not know how many chickens and ducks escaped culling during the earlier exercise, but we are now trying our best to find them," Anisur Rahaman, the state's animal resources minister told Reuters from the state capital, Kolkata.

Bird deaths were also reported from neighboring Birbhum district, the epicenter of the original outbreak in January.

"We don't think it is bird flu, but we are collecting samples from Birbhum for testing," Rahaman said.

SMUGGLED POULTRY

The minister said smuggled poultry from bird-flu hit Bangladesh could have triggered the latest outbreak.

Bird flu spread to another district in Bangladesh last week, affecting 47 out of 64 districts in the country, struggling to contain the outbreak.

In India's bordering district of Murshidabad, over 350 veterinary workers were catching chickens and ducks on Monday from homes and slaughtering them by wringing their necks, officials and witnesses said.

Trade associations in New Delhi said the latest outbreak could impact on the demand for maize and oilmeal from the poultry industry.

"The demand of maize may go down. Possibly the prices may soften to an extent," said Amol Sheth, president of the All India Starch Manufacturers Association.

At least 50,000 chickens and ducks will be slaughtered in the next few days to contain the latest outbreak, a senior district official said.

Earlier culling efforts had been hampered when villagers refused to hand over their chickens and even let them loose to avoid getting caught.

"We are determined to cull all backyard poultry in a 5 km (3 miles) radius and ensure a better job this time," Subir Bhadra, a senior official said.

While India has so far not reported any human infection, but health workers were moving in villages to look for people with flu-like symptoms.

"We are well-prepared and a strict surveillance is in place now," Rahaman said.

The WHO said recently the virus was firmly entrenched in Asia and a pandemic among humans was possible.

(Additional reporting by Biman Mukherji; Editing by Alistair Scrutton and David Fox)

Read more!

Liberia's pygmy hippos survive two civil wars

Yahoo News 9 Mar 08;

Rare pygmy hippos are surviving hidden in Liberia's forests against all the odds, despite two civil wars that have ravaged their habitat, British scientists said on Monday.

The creatures, which are almost never seen in the wild, were spotted in Liberia' Sapo National Park using special camera traps.

The West African country is one of the last refuges of the endangered pygmy hippopotamus but conservationists had feared recent forest destruction and poaching might have wiped them out.

In fact, a team led by Ben Collen of the Zoological Society of London recorded images of pygmy hippos just three days after setting up their camera traps among the trees.

"We were delighted to discover that a population still persists there, but remain highly concerned for the species, which continues to face significant threats from poaching and habitat degradation," Collen said in a statement.

The animals -- whose closest living relatives, besides the common hippopotamus, are whales -- hide themselves away in the rapidly shrinking Upper Guinean forest ecosystem.

The forest has been hit by unsustainable logging and mining operations, which were especially devastating during the civil wars. Pygmy hippos are also targeted by bushmeat hunters.

Only 10 percent of the original Upper Guinean forest is left, of which Liberia accounts for about 40 percent.

(Reporting by Ben Hirschler)

Read more!

British Government Pulls Plug On Bottled Water

PlanetArk 10 Mar 08;

LONDON - Bottles of water will no longer be served at British government meetings under a "tap water only" policy announced on Thursday to protect the environment.

Britain's top civil servant, Cabinet Secretary Gus O'Donnell, sent the order to all government departments, saying the policy would come into effect by the summer.

Britain has seen the stirrings of a public backlash against bottled drinking water, with politicians and public figures saying they never order it and newspapers calling on restaurants to stop serving it.

The Treasury has already announced that Chancellor Alistair Darling will be sipping only tap water during the gruelling ritual of reading out his first budget in parliament next week. Gordon Brown, his predecessor and now prime minister, drank the bottled stuff.

"A number of departments have already stopped using bottled water for official meetings but the proposal is to extend the 'tap water only policy' throughout government departments," the cabinet office said in a statement.

"The government is committed to sustainable operations across its estate and I have made this issue one of my key priorities for the civil service," O'Donnell said. "Today's announcement is a small part of a much bigger programme of action in this area."

A cabinet office spokeswoman said there was no central figure for how much bottled water would now no longer be drunk across all the departments of Britain's government.

But as an example, caterers supplied 12,600 bottles of water for meetings at the environment and farming ministry in 2006, before it switched to tap water last year.

(Editing by Charles Dick)

Read more!

Singapore says has enough land to meet office demand

Reuters 9 Mar 08;

SINGAPORE, March 10 (Reuters) - Singapore will provide more land for offices as part of a strategy to strengthen its position as an Asian financial centre, the government's real estate planning agency said on Monday.

"The new growth area set aside for the seamless extension of the existing financial district ... will be more than twice the size of London's Canary Wharf," the city-state's Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) said in a statement.

"Over a span of more than 15 years, the development of the 85 hectare site identified for extension of the existing financial district will see the addition of around 2.82 million square metres of office space," it added.

Demand for office space in Singapore has grown strongly in the past three years, spurred by the growth in financial services, in particular private banking.

According to URA data, office rents soared 56 percent last year as demand for office space rose by an average of 260,000 square meters per annum over the last three years -- a 60 percent increase from the historical average of 160,000 square meters a year.

Foreign direct investment in Singapore's real estate was S$14.4 billion ($10.40 billion) in 2007, compared to S$6.7 billion in 2006, the agency said.

Singapore is currently developing the Marina Bay Financial Centre on reclaimed land south of the existing central business district. It has also offered sites to the east and west of the business district.

The city-state, with a population of 4.6 million, has expanded its land area by more than 10 percent since independence in 1965 through reclamation from the sea.

Developers involved in the Marina Bay project include Hong Kong developers Cheung Kong (0001.HK: Quote, Profile, Research) and Hongkong Land (HKLD.SI: Quote, Profile, Research), as well as Singapore-based Keppel Land (KLAN.SI: Quote, Profile, Research). (Reporting by Kevin Lim, editing by Neil Chatterjee)

CBD – Twice as big in 15 years
Today Online 11 Mar 08;

Singapore will double the size of its financial district over the next 15 years, after demand for offices surged last year with the city-state seeking to become a centre for business in Asia.

The city will add 2.82 million sq m of office space, the equivalent of Hong Kong's Central district, the government's Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) said in an e-mailed statement yesterday.

Occupancy of Singapore offices rose to a record last year, as banks including Standard Chartered and Deutsche Bank added staff. Demand for offices increased to 260,000 sq m a year between 2005 and 2007, exceeding the average of 160,000 sq m between 1995 and 2004, the URA said today.

"To continue attracting investments, we are planning to ensure we have sufficient land and infrastructure to support our robust economic growth," URA director of land administration Choy Chan Pong said in the statement.

New developments to be added over the next few years include the Marina Bay Financial Centre, located in an area that will include Singapore's first casino-resort built by Las Vegas Sands, the world's biggest gaming operator.

The government will sell more land in the Marina Bay area over the next five to six years to meet demand, the URA said today. — Bloomberg

Read more!

Best of our wild blogs: 10 Mar 08

Dr. Yacob Ibrahim’s visit to Semakau
on the raffles museum news blog and nature scouter blog with a separate post on critters seen. Also on the discovery blog and manta blog and tidechaser blog and justin dive adventure blog and wonderful creations blog.

Toddycats explore Labrador
on the toddycats blog and budak blog

Spiders at Labrador
fabulous photos on the budak blog

Hornbills are nesting again at Changi
on the bird ecology blog

Green tip #9 Participate in recycling programmes
on the AsiaIsGreen blog

Littering stories
on the champions of the environment blog

Electric blue hermit crab
but not from Singapore :-( on the budak blog

Read more!

Why we're disappointed with nature: "Nature is often very boring"

Danny Heitman, Yahoo News 29 Feb 08;

If we need to get more people interested in nature, as a recent national report suggests, then maybe it's time we acknowledge a truth that few observers, even those of us who consider ourselves devoted naturalists, seem willing to admit:

Nature is often very boring.

What I mean to say is that nature can often be boring when measured against our longstanding human desire for compelling narrative and catchy endings – a cultural impulse that drives everything from books to movies to TV shows to video games.

Which is why, one gathers, Mother Nature isn't the most popular girl on the block these days, as evidenced by the latest findings of The Nature Conservancy.

In a new study, the conservancy concluded that people across the United States and in other developed nations are spending far less time outdoors than recent generations.

After tracking such benchmarks as camping, fishing, hiking, hunting, and visits to national and state parks and forests, the conservancy concluded that the typical drop in these activities since 1981 has been between 18 and 25 percent.

That grim news has led to numerous calls to engage more of us, especially young people, in the wonders of nature.

But nature's magic, while deep and enduring, is not the kind that promises to pull a rabbit from every hat at any given moment.

Or so I was reminded a few years ago, when my young daughter's elementary school class followed the metamorphosis of some larva into beetles over the course of several days.

"How are the mealworms doing?" I asked after the first day of her class experiment.

"Doing?" she responded with a heavy sigh. "The mealworms aren't really doing anything."

The time-lapse techniques of television, which can fast-forward a cocoon to a butterfly before the station break, had conditioned my daughter to expect an equally speedy costume change in the glass jar holding her worms. Modern childhood could not prepare her for the glacial pace at which nature so often moves.

The experience reminded me that the nature documentary actually predated so-called reality TV in its artful editing of the prosaic to promote a daring story line. On the nature shows, as on popular reality series such as "Survivor" and "Big Brother," we get days distilled to dramatic confrontations between rivals, eventful mating rituals, and a passion for score-keeping that would rival the NFL's.

Meanwhile, when both kids and grown-ups encounter nature away from a TV screen, they're often surprised – and more than a little disappointed – to discover long, quiet stretches in which the sparrow does not fall prey to the hawk, the fawn does not nuzzle the doe, and the gopher does not, as if reading a Disney synopsis, emerge from its hole for a snapshot.

If we want kids to appreciate nature, we'd do best to provide them with realistic expectations, but also open them to new possibilities, as a trail guide did last year when I took our kindergartener son on a night hike through a local swamp as part of a youth nature program.

"You might see some very big owls," the guide told an expectant group of youngsters, "but then again, you might not see a single one. It all depends on the owls."

The lesson here, one often lost on children and adults alike, is that nature isn't an amusement ride of guaranteed spectacles. It operates on its own schedule, answering impulses that usually have little to do with our personal agendas and desires.

On our night hike, we marveled at glow-worms winking in the swamp, tiny lights of a distant city, but we saw no owls. We didn't find what we were looking for, and that's what made the evening so special. After all, if nature were merely an exercise in the expected, it would not have the power to renew and expand our imagination, as it has done since the dawn of time.

To truly savor creation, the next generation must learn that nature doesn't follow the scripts we'd like to write for it, and that its own plot line, despite vast advances in science, remains profoundly inscrutable.

In confronting that mystery, we find humility, which is, after all, the beginning of true wonder.

Read more!

Singapore: too many construction jobs, too little time?

Youth Olympics 2010: Can S'pore deliver?
Elysa Chen, The New Paper 10 Mar 08;

WITH many big projects underway, will our construction resources be strained?

That possibility is worrying some in the industry.

By 2009, stage three of the Circle Line and the Marina Bay Sands integrated resort have to be up and running.

By 2010, the Youth Olympic Village at the National University of Singapore has to be ready, as well as the second integrated resort in Sentosa.

And in 2011, the $1.87 billion Sports Hub in Kallang is expected to be completed.

On top of these big projects, public housing upgrading and road widening works will be on-going.

Former secretary general of the Singapore Contractors Association Ltd (SCAL) Chan Shelt Tsong said: 'We all share in the euphoria of Singapore hosting the Youth Olympic Games, but I wonder how is it going to be built?

An indication of the red-hot construction sector, Mr Chan said, is that developers are more willing to reduce the imposition of penalties should a contractor fail to complete a project on time.

Mr Chan, also a general manager at a multi-national construction company, said that 20 people would submit tenders for a project previously, compared to an average of only three bids now.

A deputy general manager in another major construction firm, who did not want to be identified, said: 'For projects like the integrated resorts and the Youth Olympic Village, you are setting a deadline which you have to meet, whether or not you can achieve it.

'This is different from designing the project first, then working forward to estimate your deadline.'

He added that the situation might have worsened with the current market situation, where manpower supply cannot be increased on short notice.

He said: 'Everybody is hard pressed. In order to attract and retain workers, we need to offer higher wages and more in variable bonuses.'

Mr Lim Pik Sim, a project director with Smatra Engineering, said: 'The whole of Singapore has become a construction site.'

Citigroup economist Kit Wei Zheng feels that the construction industry is 'already at maximum capacity'.

'How much faster can we grow? We've hit our limit and this will translate into potential pressure on cost,' he said.

A check with several construction companies and suppliers confirmed that prices of materials used in construction have increased due to higher demand.

Concrete prices have gone up from $60 per cubic m in 2006 to $130 per cubic m.

Prices of steel are also on the rise, from $800 in 2006 to $1,400 per ton now.

Mr Nicholas Mak, director of the consultancy and research department at Knight Frank, said that construction costs for a medium-quality development has increased 15 to 20 per cent.

Even equipment suppliers are finding it difficult to meet the surge in demand over the last two years.

A director of a equipment rental and supply company, who wanted to be known only as Mr Wong, has already spent $10 million importing more cranes and hoists since 2006.

He has bought 10 cranes and 30 hoists within the last two months.

And it is still not enough.

He said: 'A lot of customers are asking for quotations, but we don't even dare to quote because, if we have no cranes, how can we supply?'

Mr Wong said that rental prices of equipment have increased by 20 to 30 per cent, and the rental volume has increased by at least 50 per cent.

Manpower is similarly stretched.

A clerk at a construction consultation company, who gave his name only as Mr Chiu, said that crane operators can clock up to 10 hours a day in overtime.

Speaking in Mandarin, he said: 'They end work at 3am or 4am, so that companies can catch up on delays. Including overtime pay, their pay has increased from $3,000 to almost $10,000 a month.'

Member of Parliament Lee Bee Wah, who has been in the construction industry for more than 20years, feels that we should further relax the foreign labour quota in certain sectors, especially if employers can prove that they have tried their best to get manpower.

She said: 'We should not impede growth because of these restrictions.'

Manpower Minister Ng Eng Hen had said in Parliament last week that the ministry will continue to monitor the situation.

Ms Lee told The New Paper on Sunday that there was not only a shortage of labourers, but also of professionals such as architects and engineers.

She described how her friends had to go to China, India and the Philippines to recruit employees, and how she had to hire skilled labour from Malaysia.

Mr Wee Teck Han, the secretary general of the Asian Concrete Construction Institute, a non-governmental organisation, added that the supply of skilled workers is also tight regionally because many other countries are experiencing construction booms.

Referring to big train projects in Thailand and the Iskandar Development Region in Malaysia, MrWee, who has been in the industry for over 30 years, said: 'The region is busy, and this will impact on our ability to deliver.'

But despite these problems, MsLee remains confident that the industry will be able to deliver the projects on time, provided the Ministry of Manpower can help to balance the demand for manpower.

Agreeing, SCAL executive director Simon Lee said: 'We just need to increase the necessary resources to increase our capacity. We also need to be even more precise in our planning.

'We need to get it right the first time.'

Read more!

Singapore Punggol River to be dammed next year to create reservoir

One feature that will make the Anchorvale CC stand out is a floating island on the Punggol River, which will be dammed up by next year to turn it into a freshwater reservoir.

Punggol River set for big change
Work starts on $7.13m project to create reservoir park with man-made island by 2010
Tania Tan, Straits Times 10 Mar 08;

WORK to transform the Punggol River into a scenic reservoir park, complete with a man-made island, got off the ground yesterday.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who was at the official opening of the adjoining Anchorvale Community Club in Sengkang, symbolically released the first piece of the floating island - a clump of soil and grass - into the water.

For its design, the $7.13 million project will draw inspiration from a nearby fruit park being developed by the National Parks Board. Its pavilions will be shaped like mangosteens and its benches, like limes.

Work will be completed by 2010.

Punggol River is the first of five sites to be improved this year under the Active, Beautiful, Clean (ABC) Waters programme.

Launched by national water agency PUB in 2006, the $200 million programme is an ambitious island-wide revamp of 28 waterways.

The aim is to rejuvenate Singapore's drainage and water-supply infrastructure, including the canals and reservoirs, and turn it into a scenic network of streams, rivers and lakes where people can enjoy water activities and even commute.

Giving a preview of the projects during the Budget debate a fortnight ago, Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Yaacob Ibrahim said, for example, that the Lower Seletar Reservoir would sport a heritage bridge, featuring story panels which will tell of the area's kampung history.

Work on the pilot projects of Kolam Ayer and the Bedok and MacRitchie reservoirs is in its final phases and will be unveiled this year.

'With these projects, we hope to bring waterfront living to the heartland, improve the quality of our living environment and enhance property values,' said Dr Yaacob.

PM Lee says important to focus on long-term investments
Channel NewsAsia 9 Mar 08;

SINGAPORE: Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said he is worried over the thinking among some Singaporeans that since the country was rich, it could afford to give away more.

He said one dominant question in this year's Budget debate was "how much" - as people zoomed in on the giveaways. And he felt this was a dangerous way of thinking.

Mr Lee said Singapore is a country that has gotten to where it is because it has been frugal, with Singaporeans working hard and living within their means.

He said he gets worried when people talk about more and more giveaways and place much less focus on the longer-term investments in the country's future to make Singapore grow and prepare the city-state for the challenges ahead.

While the country will continue to help its people, the prime minister said it must never forget that it has to keep itself strong to be in the position to give away those surpluses in the first place.

"If you change your mindset - we used to save, now that we have money, we don't need to save anymore, then the growth will stop. Singapore will go down and we will all be in serious trouble. We must maintain our basic philosophy - work together to grow the economy, to grow the pie so that everybody gets a lager slice instead of just redistributing a smaller pie," he said at the opening of the new Anchorvale Community Club (CC) on Sunday.

The first community club to be co-located with a sports and recreation centre, the Anchorvale CC provides more facilities for residents, including four swimming pools, indoor sports hall, football field, shops and riverfront cafe.

Mr Lee mentioned that some CCs which can serve a whole new town can replicate the Anchorvale model. And the People's Association said it is studying the idea.

One feature that will make the Anchorvale CC stand out is a floating island on the Punggol River, which will be dammed up by next year to turn it into a freshwater reservoir.

When ready, the floating island, which is about half the size of a football field, will also have a wetland - a natural habitat for fishes and birds.

A footbridge and floating board walk will also connect the CC to the new Sengkang Park.

The S$7.13 million project is part of PUB's long-term initiative known as the Active, Beautiful, Clean Waters (or ABC Waters) programme which aims to transform bodies of water into beautiful streams, rivers and lakes.

It is expected to be completed by 2010. - CNA/ac

Read more!

Singapore youth essays about the budget feature eco issues

Budget contest throws up variety of ideas
Straits Times 10 Mar 08;

Winning essays include one on renewable energy and another on Singapore as an eco-city.

Young writers think out of the box for the Ministry of Finance's competition on the Budget

DESPITE Singapore's finite resources, youth essays about the Budget highlighted infinite possibilities.

Junior Category (13 to 17)

First prize winner, Wong Yong Sheng (Raffles Institution), on dealing with poverty

THE dandelion is seen by many as a ruthless weed.

The Government's current approach to poverty (the weed) is mainly adding herbicide which kills the weed, but has a limited effective time span.

Herbicide acts like a bandage that needs to be repeatedly applied. Although the Government is prudent when doing so, Singapore cannot be a welfare state, nor can it afford to have this mentality develop. Therefore, I suggest these two government-funded schemes:

# Utilities and Devices Savings Scheme, where official income statements are issued to employees with a lower income range. These 'income certificates' entitle the holder to government-approved subsidies and rebates where household utilities and items apply.

To prolong the benefits, this scheme can make energy-saving devices cheaper to defray future electricity bill costs.

# 1% Minimum Medisave Contribution Scheme, allowing the economically disadvantaged to pay just 1 per cent to Medisave every month, and postpone repayment of the remaining 2 per cent (for example, withdrawal from bonuses).

While medical care is important, one's family's immediate financial needs are more vital.

Second prize winner, Benjamin Mak Jia Ming (Raffles Institution), on alternative energy

IN ACCELERATING renewable energy development, I advocate an approach fronted by strengthened incentives and taxes where the Government facilitates the shift to an eco-economy, without sacrificing major funding for other critical areas like health and education.

My core extension objectives are to increase the prevalence and use of alternative energy in Singapore society and hence reduce our economic vulnerability to external energy volatility; and to cement Singapore's competitive advantage in a world where environmental obligations are increasingly quantitative.

Singapore, having no natural resources, is severely vulnerable to external geopolitical tensions in the Middle East for oil, and even with natural gas, is subject largely to Malaysia and Indonesia's bidding.

It is thus critical for Singapore to significantly increase its energy independence in the coming years to at least build up a sizeable sustainable capacity, similar to our approach to water supplies, so in case of any eventuality, we have a strategic reserve to survive at least temporarily.

By implementing alternative energy technologies, we approach current economic challenges with a long-term view of improving our economic and social fundamentals.

Third prize winner, Ng Li Hui (Raffles Girls' School), on building an eco-city

BECOMING an eco-city does not merely open up environmental conservation possibilities, it heralds economic possibilities. Singapore is already regarded as a technology-transfer destination and a base from which solar energy companies can tap South-east Asia's market potential.

There is a marked difference between simply being a provider of solar energy and truly epitomising the ideal greenenergy city.

The added edge brought about by the latter will push Singapore ahead in the global solar power market, estimated to be worth between $15 billion and $20 billion a year.

Therefore, by moving towards becoming an eco-city, Singapore is driving her fiscal policy's conduct principle of pushing the private sector and providing a stable and conducive environment for the energy private sector to thrive. Singapore's fiscal policy is directed primarily at promoting long-term economic growth and by investing in the area of solar energy, we are building a strong foundation for this future economic niche.

Senior Category (18 to 25)

First prize winner, Joanne Tang (Singapore Management University), on technological investment

THE Government should invest in and promote the use of workflow software (WS) and Business Process Applications (BPA).

WS enables work to be disaggregated and outsourced to lower-cost countries. An easy example would be the Virtual Private Network (VPN).

VPN provides a secure network and can be configured on any computer. Once configured, it enables the computer to receive files from other computers. Thus, a project can be dissected into various parts, and worked on by different people across continents, before being pieced together to form a final project. Productivity is enhanced as the entire project is worked on by different teams around the clock.

Just as WS enables outsourcing, it can enable 'home sourcing' as well.

Using WS, individuals can work from home, thus achieving greater work-life balance.

BPAs are Web-based applications. For a small fee, businesses can store their information with their service providers and run the companies from there. Using BPAs helps trim costs as business data is stored online, thus eliminating the need for office rental and administrative staff for small companies.

BPAs and WS show that the costs of businesses need not always entail rental costs. This is certainly good news for land-scarce Singapore.

Our growth need no longer be constrained by limited land. Thus WS and BPAs not only increase our competitiveness by shaving costs, they provide potential growth as well.

Second prize winner, Kwan Bo Wen (National University of Singapore), on creating an 'Entropolis'

I PROPOSE that the Government prepares a one-stop centre that facilitates discussion of entrepreneurial ideas.

This centre would bring together people with an interest in finding out more about entrepreneurship. It would feature inspirational seminars delivered by successful entrepreneurs.

This new forum should ideally cater to a wide base of people, designed to inspire potential entrepreneurs into action. It should also host workshops that would impart the essential entrepreneurial skills such as basic financial accounting, business plan writing, innovative thinking, basic logistics and supply chain management, basic human resource management and basic business law.

I am proposing that the Government centralise existing entrepreneurial support into one single integrated and comprehensive framework...that we pool the resources that are already in use for running Spring Singapore, International Enterprise Singapore, HOTSpots and various other entrepreneurial support platforms.

Breeding entrepreneurs is part of globalisation, which is in turn part of sustaining our economic vibrancy and standard of living. Even if it is not the topmost concern in the Budget, it should rank as the first few.

Third prize winner, Ko Zhihong (University College London), on using the Post-Secondary Education Account

I NOW propose an alternative use of the $400 million earmarked for the Post-Secondary Education Account (PSEA).

Instead of disbursing handouts to all youths, consider using that money to set up a public institution that disburses loans for students doing post-secondary studies in private institutions.

Such an establishment would lend money only to means-tested individuals who are unable to pay for their tuition fees or meet their living expenses, and only to students studying in reputable private institutions with a high standard of teaching.

Funds will go only to those who need it most and ensure, as far as possible, that the money is financing a quality education.

In handing an individual a loan rather than a handout, that person is less likely to over-invest in tertiary education, as he knows he is liable to pay it back eventually.

An individual who is deciding on whether to take up a study loan will be aware that investing in a course which he will likely fail to pass is risky, and failure would mean he would be financially worse off than before - whereas the individual who is able to pay for that course using a handout will be more willing to take that risk, in order to utilise the full value of the handout.

Winning entries for The Budget 2008 Essay Competition, the Ministry of Finance's (MOF) second, received as many as 133 submissions for its junior and senior categories addressing the theme - Infinite Possibilities; Finite Resources.

In the junior category (ages 13 to 17), Wong Yong Sheng from Raffles Institution won the first prize of $1,500; Benjamin Mak Jia Ming of Raffles Institution won the second prize of $600; and third prize of $300 went to Ng Li Hui of Raffles Girls' School.

In the senior category (ages 18 to 25), Joanne Tang of the Singapore Management University took the first prize of $2,500; Kwan Bo Wen of the National University of Singapore claimed the second prize of $1,200; and Ko Zhihong of the University College London won the third prize of $500 cash.

The competition, organised with partners, the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKY-SPP) and The Straits Times, also included a new portion this year - a video contest with the theme, What the Budget Means To Me - which received 14 entries from local and international schools.

Commendation prize winner Cheng Wen Long of Nanyang Polytechnic took home $600 in cash for his effort.

Excerpts from the six winning essays appear below.

To view these essays online, go to http://www.singaporebudget.gov.sg/essay_winners.html

Read more!

Climate change = immigration headache in Europe

Straits Times 10 Mar 08;

Europe faces big migrant flows from neighbours hit by food, water woes

BRUSSELS - EUROPE'S leaders have been warned to prepare for big new flows of migration by 2020 as climate change puts strains on food and water supplies, provokes natural disasters and undermines political stability in poorer neighbouring countries.

A report prepared for the European Union heads of government, who will meet on Thursday in Brussels, said the rest of the world could not insulate itself from the impact of changes that could overwhelm regions that already suffer from poverty and conflict.

So serious are the threats that the multilateral system of global governance could be at risk if the international community failed to address them, the document said.

Because of Europe's proximity to North Africa and the Middle East, both of which are vulnerable to the pressures caused by climate change, 'migratory pressure at the EU's borders and political instability and conflict could increase in the future', the document said.

In North Africa and the sub-Sahara, drought and overfarming could lead to a loss of 75 per cent of arable land.

The Nile Delta could be threatened by both rising sea levels and salinisation of agricultural land.

Between 12 and 15 per cent of arable land could be lost to rising seas in this century, with five million people affected by 2050.

Meanwhile, both the Horn of Africa and southern Africa are vulnerable to reduced rainfall and higher temperatures.

'Migration in this region, but also migration from other regions through northern Africa to reach Europe, is likely to intensify,' the report said.

The document, which will be presented by the EU's foreign policy chief Javier Solana, listed a series of phenomena that could destabilise poor nations, including rising sea levels, a reduction in arable land, droughts, flooding, water shortages and diminishing food and fish stocks.

Such pressures could also lead to more disputes over territory and water supplies.

The document argued that even if the world managed to reduce carbon emissions to below half of 1990 levels by 2050, a temperature rise of 2 deg C would be difficult to avoid.

'Climate change and its impact on security is already a reality,' said a senior EU official who works on the issue.

'It is best viewed as a stress or threat multiplier which will worsen the existing tensions and threats.'

The document suggested that climate change could trigger migration, including internal population shifts, in countries where health care is poor, unemployment is high and social exclusion is widely prevalent.

'The United Nations predicts that there will be millions of 'environmental' migrants by 2020, with climate change as one of the major drivers of this phenomenon,' the document noted.

Migration may increase conflicts in 'transit' and destination countries, the report said, adding: 'Europe must expect substantially increased migratory pressure.'

In the Middle East, water systems are already under huge stress, with significant reductions in crop yields predicted.

Climate change could also have a dramatic impact in South Asia, with serious consequences in Europe because of trading and financial links. Higher sea levels could threaten almost two billion people because four out of 10 people in Asia live within 60km of a coast.

INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE

Read more!

Canada says seals to be killed more humanely

David Ljunggren, Reuters 9 Mar 08;

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada's government, heavily criticized for allowing hunters to shoot and club to death hundreds of thousands of seals each year, says it is imposing new rules to ensure the animals are killed more humanely.

Pictures of burly men smashing the skulls of young seals on ice floes off Canada's Atlantic coast are a huge black eye for Ottawa and a boon for animal rights campaigners, who say the seals often suffer a prolonged, painful death.

Hunters are usually permitted to kill around 325,000 harp seals in March and April. The furs are made into coats and other clothes and there is a growing market for seal oil, which is high in omega 3 fatty acids.

Although hunters are obliged to ensure the seals die quickly, officials acknowledge this does not always happen.

From now on, hunters will have to follow a three-step process recommended by an independent panel of veterinarians. After clubbing or shooting the seal, a hunter must check its eyes to ensure it is dead and if not, the animal's main arteries have to be cut.

"They (the vets) think the three-step process provides more certainty around humaneness ... We do really need to move ahead with this," said Kevin Stringer of the federal department of fisheries and oceans.

Current regulations say that if the hunter discovers a seal is still alive, he has to hit it again on the head, an act that in some cases might not ensure death. Cutting the animal's arteries leaves nothing up to chance.

"One (method) ensures unconsciousness and one ensures a quick death," Stringer told Reuters.

Official estimates say there are just under 6 million harp seals off Canada's east coast, almost triple the number in the 1970s. This does not dissuade protesters -- supported by rock star Paul McCartney and former French actress Brigitte Bardot -- who say killing the animals is barbaric.

Animal rights protesters said the new rules would make little difference since there were not enough inspectors monitoring the hunt and conditions could be difficult.

"You often have very broken-up ice, people shooting at seals from distances of 50 or 60 meters (yards)," said Rebecca Aldworth of the Humane Society of the United States.

"There is a huge time lag between actually striking the animal with the bullet and then getting the boat into place to test for unconsciousness," she told Reuters.

Protest groups in the United States have tried in the past to persuade major restaurant chains to boycott Canadian seafood until the seal hunt is scrapped. They are also confident the European Union will ban the import of seal furs and oil.

One major hunters' group, no friend of the activists, said it backed the new three-step process.

"It's very good. As for the question of suffering, it really ensures the animal is dead and people won't be able to question that any more," said Jean-Claude Lapierre, head of the seal hunters' association on the Magdalen Islands off Quebec.

Ottawa is due to announce by the end of March how many seals can be killed this year. Last year's quota was cut to 270,000 from 335,000 in 2006 because of poor ice but both Aldworth and Lapierre said conditions this year were better.

(Editing by Eric Beech)

Read more!

Gourmet demand revives Central America cocoa farms

Brian Harris, Reuters 10 Mar 08;

Indigenous people grew cocoa here more than 2,000 years ago. Now, their descendants are reviving the crop to meet world demand for high-quality chocolate.

Throughout Central America, farmers like Manuel Abrigo are planting cocoa, taking advantage of high world cocoa prices and the premium their cocoa commands.

"I sowed cocoa because I saw my neighbor had it and I wanted more income, too," Abrigo, an Ngobe Indian, said in broken Spanish. His hillside farm, near the port of Almirante in western Panama, overlooks a glistening bay where Christopher Columbus dropped anchor in 1502.

Grown by the ancient Maya in Mexico and Central America long before the arrival of the Spanish, cocoa also has a long tradition with the Ngobe people, native to the Panama-Costa Rica border region, as well as indigenous communities in Belize, Guatemala and Nicaragua.

Spanish explorers recorded that indigenous people used cocoa beans as currency. Ten could buy a night with a prostitute, 100 could buy a slave, according to archeologist Michael Coe, joint author of a book called "The True History of Chocolate."

In the 1990s Abrigo and other farmers abandoned the crop when the trees were hit by fungus and world prices were low.

Now gourmet chocolate companies are turning to growers in Central America to supply cocoa that can be labeled organic and "fair trade," under which companies pledge to pay third-world farmers more for their crops.

The bulk of the world's cocoa is grown in Africa, where cacao trees were imported by Portuguese colonizers in the 1800s. But human rights groups accuse producers in Ivory Coast, the world's No. 1 supplier, of using the labor of child slaves.

Abrigo belongs to a 1,500-farmer cooperative that sells most of its bean to a small Swiss company called Pronatec AG, which markets organic products to independent candy makers.

In southern Belize, near the border with Guatemala, a group of Mayan farmers produce cocoa beans for Green & Black's, a division of Cadbury Schweppes.

Their cocoa is shipped to Italy and mixed with orange flavor and spices to make "Maya Gold" chocolate, sold in Europe and the United States for $3 a bar.

Between 2002 and 2006, global sales of organic chocolate grew 120 percent to $401.3 million, less than 0.5 percent of the world chocolate market. But demand is enough to convince small farmers from Belize to Panama to produce more.

"People calculate they could easily double their output and not have any problems with finding a market," said Eduardo Somarriba, a cocoa expert at the Costa Rica-based tropical research center CATIE.

UPWARD TREND

Somarriba estimates Central America's cocoa output rose 40 percent over the last three years to between 4,000 and 5,000 tonnes in the 2006/2007 harvest.

Planted area reached 21,000 hectares (52,000 acres), and another 2,000 hectares are expected to be planted this year, Somarriba said.

"Cocoa is one of the few cash crop alternatives in poor, indigenous areas," he said.

U.S. cocoa futures on the ICE exchange recently soared to a 28-year high as investment funds pour money into commodities.

Higher prices help farmers boost output by investing in methods to improve crop quality and avoid fungus outbreaks.

A fungus known as "frosty pod" wiped out much of Central America's crop in the 1990s.

Despite efforts to plant more cocoa, the scale of operations is still tiny on most Central American plots.

Abrigo's cooperative produced just over 600 tonnes of mostly organic cocoa in 2007, one of their biggest harvests in decades.

By comparison, the Ivory Coast produces more than 1 million tonnes of cocoa a year.

Central American farmers hand ferment their cocoa beans -- the seed of a fleshy fruit -- under banana leaves in hardwood boxes and dry them in the sun, a process that Green & Black's documents in its marketing.

Gregor Hargrove, Green & Black's project manager in Belize, said consumers like to know about the lives of the cocoa farmers. But taste comes first, he said.

"Our business is not to make some feelgood chocolate -- people will always buy the 'taste-good' stuff."

(Reporting by Brian Harris; Additional reporting by Mica Rosenberg in Belize; Editing by Eddie Evans)

Read more!