Indonesia may allow more mining in forest areas

Reuters 14 Mar 08;

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia may relax rules to allow more mining companies to operate in forest areas, a government official said, in a move that will alarm green groups worried about rapid deforestation.

Dozens of mining companies could benefit from a decision to allow firms that previously held exploration permits in forest areas to develop mines, Simon Sembiring, director general of mineral resources at the energy and mines ministry, told Reuters.

The plan would still require a presidential decree and individual firms would also need to be reviewed on a case-by-case basis, he said late on Thursday.

Indonesia's conflicting mining and forestry regulations have resulted in considerable confusion over which areas are protected and which may be opened for exploitation.

The government issued a decree in February, which allows mining firms, including open-pit miners, to pay between 1.8 million rupiah and 2.4 million rupiah ($195-$260) per hectare for forest land used for housing, roads, mine sites and waste dumps.

The decree applies to 13 mining firms that four years ago were allowed to resume mining operations including exploration, development and production in forest areas after proving that their projects were economically viable and had mining reserves.

The 13 firms include Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold, which operates the massive Grasberg mine in Indonesia's remote Papua province that has been a frequent source of controversy over its environmental impact.

But Sembiring said that other mining companies, which had mining permits before a forestry law was issued in 1999, could also be eligible for similar permits.

Indonesia's forestry law prohibited open-pit mining in protected forest areas. But in 2004, President Megawati Sukarnoputri issued a decree allowing 13 companies to resume mining activities in these areas.

"Many mining companies got permits to mine in the areas a long time ago before the forestry law was issued, so why should they be stopped?" said M. S. Marpaung, director of coal and minerals at the energy and mining ministry.

The government decree allowing mining firms to pay what is regarded as a pittance by some environmentalists to exploit protected forest areas has sparked anger among green groups.

Indonesia had the fastest pace of deforestation in the world between 2000-2005, according to Greenpeace, with an area of forest equivalent to 300 soccer pitches destroyed every hour.

Last week, Siti Maemunah, an official at the Mining Advocacy Network, a conservation group, said the government should be ashamed of approving the decree and called for it to be revoked.

(Reporting by Mita Valina Liem, Writing by Fitri Wulandari, editing by Ed Davies and Sanjeev Miglani)

Related articles

Outcry over cheap rents for forests in Indonesia
Govt is offering mining companies land to collect rent for state coffers
Salim Osman, Straits Times 7 Mar 08;

More protected Indonesian forests up for grabs
Ika Krismantari, The Jakarta Post 1 Mar 08;

Indonesian government seeks fees on forest use
Agustina Wayansari, The Jakarta Post 15 Feb 08;

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Kangaroos have image problem as dinner meat

James Grubel, Reuters 14 Mar 08;

CANBERRA (Reuters) - As protesters prepare to disrupt a planned cull of kangaroos, an Australian government report on Friday found kangaroos have an image problem when it comes to marketing them as a source of meat.

The report said the kangaroo industry needed to do more to explain how wild kangaroo "harvesting" was humane, sustainable and good for the environment and not related to pest control.

"It needs to separate itself from the culling for pest management that often attracts strong emotional responses from the community and creates images of poor quality control," it said.

The report by the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation comes as protesters prepare to blockade a planned cull of about 500 kangaroos from a military base on the outskirts of Australia's capital, Canberra.

Authorities say the cull is humane, and needed because the kangaroos are threatening other species due to over grazing. But animal rights activists want authorities to catch the kangaroos and move them to another state.

Australia has about 60 million wild kangaroos, and has allowed the sale of kangaroo meat for about 30 years. The industry generates about A$200 million ($190 million) a year and employs more than 4,000 people.

About 3.5 million wild kangaroos are shot each year for their meat, although the government has set a quota which would allow that to increase to up to 6.9 million kangaroos.

Kangaroo consumption has increased over the past decade, with 58.5 percent of Australians saying they have tried prime kangaroo cuts at least once and 14.5 percent saying they eat it four times a year or more. Other cuts are used widely in pet food.

Kangaroo meat remains in demand in Europe, particularly in Germany, where it is used as a low-fat component of smallgoods, but smallgoods manufacturers in Australia have shied away from using the meat.

The government report said while kangaroo meat was lean and healthy, the public, meat manufacturers and retailers had little knowledge that kangaroos were harvested from the wild and kangaroo meat did not come from farms.

The report said none of the respondents to its latest survey new that kangaroo meat came from wild kangaroos.

"I assume that ... obviously it is farmed (although you would need a pretty high fence to stop the buggers jumping over it!) and transported to a slaughter house, then vacuum packed," one respondent told the survey.

(Editing by Jeremy Laurence)

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Lions speared to death near Kenyan park

Reuters 14 Mar 08;

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Three lions have been speared to death close to Kenya's Amboseli national park, a senior Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) official said on Friday, raising concerns about the country's dwindling population of big cats.

Five suspects have been arrested over the killings, which occurred over a one month period, said Patrick Omondi, head of Species, Conservation and Management for the KWS.

He said Maasai herdsmen were suspected of killing the lions after the predators attacked their cows outside the park.

"People purported that two lionesses had killed two cows," Omondi told Reuters, but added that poachers may have been involved.

"Rangers were immediately deployed to the area, given that the skin and teeth of one of the lions was missing," he said. "It leads us to believe that illegal traders, using the Maasai morans (warriors), are involved in this."

Rapid population growth not only in Kenya but across Africa has increased pressure on scarce water resources and grazing land, stoking conflict between humans and wildlife.

The latest killings have alarmed conservationists in the east African country. The lion population has diminished by 75 percent to some 2,500 compared to 10,000 in the 1970s.

"The retaliatory killing of predators is now so widespread that it constitutes the greatest threat to Africa's big cats and scavengers, quickly driving some species like lions closer to extinction," said Paula Kahumbu of the WildlifeDirect conservation group in a statement.

Kenya's tourism sector, which was the country's top foreign currency earner last year, depends on its teeming wildlife.

(Reporting by Lisa Ntungicimpaye; Editing by Peter Murphy)

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Beer bottles, plastic cleared from Mt. Everest trail

Gopal Sharma, Reuters 14 Mar 08;

KATHMANDU (Reuters) - A Nepali airline cleared 17 tons of empty beer bottles and cans on Friday from around Lukla village, the main gateway for trekkers and climbers heading to Mount Everest base camp, a company official said.

Thousands of trekkers and mountain climbers from around the world go to the scenic Khumbhu region every year, towered by the 8,850 meter (29,035 feet) mountain.

The trekkers scatter tons of empty beer bottles, plastic packets and cans in Lukla.

On Friday, a private airline completed a huge clean up operation.

"This is the last cargo in a series we began carrying in January," said Vinaya Shakya, a senior official of the Yeti Airlines, a private carrier which volunteered to do the clean up job.

The bottles will be handed over to breweries for reuse, he added.

The airline said they were hoping the campaign would create more awareness among both the tourists and the locals about preserving and improving the ecological balance in the high Himalayas.

Foreign and Nepali climbers in the recent years have cleared many empty oxygen bottles, plastics, cans, ropes and broken ladders from the slopes of Everest.

But the trekking trail from Lukla to the base camp was littered with garbage.

Ang Tshiring Sherpa, a member of the Himalaya Club, a local environmental group in Lukla, explained that garbage like paper, plastic and aluminum cans was disposed of locally, but the bottles had to be brought to the capital.

"We ran short of space to bury empty bottles," Sherpa, who was involved in the drive said.

Last month, Nepal named the trail from Lukla to the Everest base camp after Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa, who first climbed the Everest summit in 1953.

A small airstrip constructed in Lukla in the 1960s with the help of Hillary has also been named after the pioneering mountaineers.

Tenzing died in 1986 and Hillary passed away this year in New Zealand.

(Editing by Bappa Majumdar and Sanjeev Miglani)

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EU says climate plan mustn't cost the earth

Paul Taylor and Ingrid Melander, Reuters 14 Mar 08;

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union leaders reaffirmed ambitious goals to combat climate change on Friday but stressed they must be affordable for governments and industry at a time of economic downturn and market turmoil.

A draft final statement at a two-day summit, obtained by Reuters, called for cost-effective and flexible mechanisms to reach energy and climate policy objectives, adding the tell-tale phrase "so as to avoid excessive costs for member states".

The leaders pledged to enact the necessary laws within a year to meet their goals of slashing greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 and increasing the share of wind, solar, hydro and wave power and biofuels in their energy mix by the same date.

But they stressed the need to ensure that the high cost of carbon trading, the EU's central instrument in the fight against global warming, should not drive sectors like steel, cement, paper and aluminum out of Europe or out of business.

"We're not calling the reduction targets into question, but even if we have a common European goal, we can still discuss the way to achieve it, and what can be imposed on each industry," German Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters.

She said she was pressing for a commitment as early as 2009 to give special treatment to energy-intensive industries if there is no global agreement to curb carbon dioxide emissions. Companies needed legal certainty to make investments, she said.

European Commission Vice-President Guenter Verheugen told Germany's Deutschlandfunk radio measures would have to be taken to ensure European industries were protected against competition from countries with lower environmental standards.

Brussels did not rule out "some sort of compensation for our industries" but a green tariff would not work, he said.

Instead, importers might be included in the EU's Emissions Trading Scheme to make them bear a share of the cost.

GREEN TARIFF?

After chairing the first day of a two-day summit, Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa told a news conference all 27 leaders agreed to adopt a liberalization of the European energy market in June and a package of measures to fight global warming and promote green energy in December.

"We must reach agreement in the first months of 2009 at the latest," said Jansa.

Failure to agree on the details by this time next year would delay EU laws and weaken the bloc in United Nations talks on curbing emissions with other countries, including the United States, in Copenhagen in November 2009.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said he was hopeful of reaching a package deal on climate change under France's presidency of the EU in the second half of this year.

But several leaders said a deal would be difficult because of conflicting national priorities.

However Britain, Sweden and the Netherlands opposed Merkel's demand that the EU agree in 2009 on special conditions for big energy users, saying it would weaken the EU's hand in the U.N. negotiations.

Sarkozy told reporters: "The main concern is implementing a mechanism that will hit imports from those countries that don't play the game."

But Verheugen said Sarkozy was alone in calling for green import tariffs and had not pressed the issue at the summit.

Leaders also approved a watered-down Franco-German plan for a Union for the Mediterranean to boost ties with the EU's southern neighbors after months of bitter wrangling.

Highlighting threats to European economic growth, the euro hit another record high above $1.56 on Thursday and oil prices hovered near a peak of $110 a barrel. Jansa said the euro's rise was a "serious issue" but that the summit would not discuss in detail any possible steps to halt the trend.

Aside from cutting emissions by at least one-fifth by 2020 from 1990 levels, EU states have agreed to use 20 percent of renewable energy sources in power production and 10 percent of biofuels from crops in transport by the same date.

Jansa acknowledged growing debate among scientists and economists about the desirability of the biofuels target, saying: "We're not excluding the possibility that we'll have to amend or revise our goals."

(Additional reporting by Markus Krah in Berlin, Darren Ennis, Ilona Wissenbach and Marcin Grajewski in Brussels; editing by Ralph Boulton)

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Almost half of Thailand's coral reefs damaged

MCOT News 14 Mar 08;

PHUKET, March 14 (TNA) – About 40 per cent of the coral reefs in Thailand's coastal waters have sustained significant damage and have deteriorated, according to a senior natural resources official, raising concern that more must be done to protect the kingdom's once abundant varieties of marine life.

Department of Marine and Coastal Resources director-general Nisakorn Kositrat said that the International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI) resolution designated 2008 as the International Year of the Coral Reef (IYOR) to raise awareness of the value and importance of coral reefs in the marine ecology system and threats to their sustainability so that people will take action to protect them.

Thailand encompasses about 36,000 acres of coral reefs and about 40 per cent of the reefs have been damaged both by natural action and human activity, she said.

Global warming has caused coral bleaching, Ms. Nisakorn indicated.

A research plan has been laid out to cushion the effects on coral reefs, marine resources, and the communities along Thailand's coastal areas.

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More of Africa urged to boost rhino numbers

WWF 14 Mar 08;

KwaZulu Natal, South Africa – After bringing Africa’s black rhinos spectacularly back from the brink of extinction one of the world’s most successful conservation programmes is to celebrate its first decade by seeking to extend its operations to more of Africa.

Representatives of the governments of Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia are expected to join in WWF’s African Rhino Programme (ARP) 10th anniversary celebration in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa, today. They will join government and wildlife representatives, community representatives and eco-tourism operators from the current ARP participating States of in South Africa, Namibia, Kenya and Zimbabwe.

“What we have shown is that in partnership with governments and communities and business it is possible to stave off extinction for the rhino in some of its former range,” said WWF International’s Species Programme Director Dr Susan Lieberman. “The task now is to secure a future for the rhino in the rest of its range, where threats from poaching and development urgently need to be addressed.”

Africa’s savannas once teemed with more than a million white and black rhinos. However, relentless hunting by European settlers saw rhino numbers and distribution quickly decline. The southern white rhino was close to extinction by the late 19th century but concerted conservation efforts by KwaZulu Natal and others has led to a significantly larger population.

Added to hunting and habitat loss, trade in rhino horn peaked in the 1970s and 1980s, when huge quantities were shipped to the lucrative markets of the Middle East and Asia.

Responding to the crisis, both species of African rhino were listed in 1977 in Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which prohibited all international trade of rhino parts and products. Despite this international legal protection, the black rhino population at its lowest point dipped to 2,400 in 1995.

In 1997, there were 8,466 white rhinos and 2,599 black rhinos remaining in the wild. Today, there are 14,500 white rhinos and nearly 4,000 of the more endangered black rhinos.

Today, most of Africa’s black rhinos are found in South Africa, Namibia, Kenya and Zimbabwe, where the species’ decline has been stopped through effective security monitoring, better biological management, wildlife-based tourism and extensive assistance to enable communities to benefit from rather than be in conflict with wildlife.

According to the African Rhino Specialist Group of the IUCN Species Survival Commission, Africa’s white and black rhino numbers have shown annual growth rates of 6.8 per cent and 4.5 per cent, respectively, since 1995.

“What we know from looking back at the last ten years is that sustained conservation can and does work,” says George Kampamba, WWF International’s African Rhino Programme Coordinator.

Although WWF has worked on Rhino conservation throughout its 45-year history, the ARP was notable for its overall approach. Working through field projects, it combined action at every level from local communities to global policy.

One striking, if unanticipated, indicator of the success of the programme is that land prices immediately increase in areas where rhinos are re-introduced through a range expansion program. The ARP, which has had experience reintroducing rhinos to national parks, also passed a milestone last year when a KwaZulu Natal community received black rhinos for community-owned land dedicated to wildlife and ecotourism uses.

“Rhino conservation in Africa is going from strength to strength,” said Dr Susan Lieberman, Director of WWF’s Global Species Programme. “But poaching, illegal trade, and unplanned development remain significant problems across the rhinos’ range and there is no room for complacency.”

In celebration of a decade of rhino conservation, WWF honoured six leaders as “rhino champions” today at Pongola Game Reserve in KwaZulu Natal. "These rhino champions have made extraordinary contributions to rhino conservation," Dr Lieberman said.

The champions are:.

Emmanuel-Cebo Gumbi (known as “Nathi Gumbi”) director Somkhanda Game Reserve and member of the Gumbi royal family

Kevin John Pretorius, regional director for Phinda Game Reserve

Clive Vivier, owner Leopold Mountain Game Reserve

Manfred Kohrs, former chairman Pongola Game Reserve Association

Dr Jacques Flammand, project leader WWF/Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife Black Rhino Range Expansion Project.

Taye Teferi, conservation director of WWF’s East Africa Regional Program

Jackson Kamwi, Senior Rhino Monitor at the Lowveld Conservancy Project, Zimbabwe

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Arowana threatened by demand by Asian super-rich

Prized fish the latest liquid asset for Asia's super-rich
AFP 14 Mar 08;

JAKARTA (AFP) — Gingerly removing a black cloth from his aquarium, Erfin Hongdoyo beams as he unveils one of his most treasured possessions -- a large red, and very rare, arowana fish.

The ethnic Chinese Indonesian is proud owner of a 45-centimetre (18-inch) "scleropages formosus," a freshwater fish native to the wilds of Indonesian Borneo which is nearing extinction.

While the so-called "super red" arowana is disappearing in nature, demand for the undulating fish is booming in the tanks of Asia's rich.

And although breeding is only permitted in three countries -- Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore -- the arowana's growing popularity as a symbol of new-found wealth could be what saves it from extinction.

"I think it looks like a dragon," says Hongdoyo, adding he would not part with the fish for less than 30-40 million rupiah (3,300-4,400 dollars).

That's nowhere near the top of the price scale as speculation has seen some arowanas change hands for as much as 55,000 dollars.

A recent fair dedicated to arowanas in Indonesia's capital ended with sales equivalent to 20,000 dollars for one fish and 22,100 dollars for another, said Stephen Suryaatmadja, founder and chairman of the Indonesian Arowana Club.

The fair had a special room with around 50 "super red" contestants, kept under 24-hour guard and with a total estimated value of more than one million dollars.

Breeders say demand for arowanas, which appear on the World Conservation Union's (IUCN) red list of threatened species, is on the rise in China, Japan, Taiwan and India.

Its popularity is all about looks as the Chinese believe it resembles a dragon and symbolises good health, luck, prosperity, family harmony and protection against evil. Others believe the arowana has supernatural powers, or that it is a symbol of wealth and refinement, much like a work of art.

It's not just Chinese who are shelling out huge sums for the fish.

The arowana's appeal has led to the establishment of specialised fish farms, some of which are publicly listed and run by powerful businessmen.

"There is more and more competition," says Jap Khiat Bun, director of Jakarta's CV Maju Aquarium, adding that there are now more than 200 breeders in Pontianak, on Borneo island, alone.

Arowana are difficult to breed and breeders must register with the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. Each captive-bred fish must be sold with an accompanying certificate showing it to be at least a second generation captive fish. Each is also implanted with a microchip so it can be identified all times.

Despite these precautions, the fever for arowanas is generating a "very high level of smuggling," says Chris Shepherd, a regional programme officer with TRAFFIC Southeast Asia, a group which monitors the wildlife trade.

"The profit margins are really high and therefore there are a lot of illegal captures to sustain the illegal trade," he says. "The populations are rapidly declining. It's a very urgent situation and I don't see any sign of the trade getting smaller."

Laurent Pouyaud, a Jakarta-based genetic expert from the French Institute of Research for Development, agrees the red arowana is nearly extinct in Indonesia, and says it has probably already been wiped out in Thailand.

"There are almost no more (in the wild)," says Pouyaud, adding that the remaining habitat in Borneo covers less than 100 hectares (247 acres).

Arowanas, which are insect-eaters, are able to jump to a height of 1.5 metres and can be easily captured, explains Pouyaud. "Their eyes glow not far from the surface and they can be caught with a net."

According to one of the five international judges at the fair, Hendri Leong, discerning which arowana is best is a subtle process.

Colour and body shape each account for 30 percent of the final mark, while the remaining 40 percent is worked out on the tail, fins and mouth.

A prime arowana's eyes must naturally look upwards, because it is supposed to be on the lookout for insects. The two barbels -- whiskery protrusions from the front of the jaw -- must run parallel to each other and the fins must be well-shaped and intact.

An arowana that has a single row of scales along the crest of its back, rather than splitting in two at the gills, is declared "I Thiaw Long," or "dragon in the dark," and its value immediatley doubles.

According to arowana club chairman Suryaatmadja, famous fish are starting to generate reputations similar to racehorses.

The "grand champion Singapore 2007" was named Oscar de la Hoya, after the famous American boxer. Its owner was offered the price of a new Mercedes-Benz for the fish but turned it down.

The craze for arowanas means rarity is sought out in all its forms. A Siamese-twin arowana fry, its two bodies joined on one side which prevents it from swimming, is kept alive by an owner who hand feeds it.

Some albino or "platinum" arowanas have also gone at times for higher prices than the "super red" variety, as they are much more rare.

Arowana-mania has also been a boon for fraudsters, with some feeding non-red arowanas with hormone-injected grasshoppers to give the fish the valuable hue.

The fish is also associated with power. Suryaatmadja said that Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had just bought a "super red".

The late former dictator Suharto was also reputed to own one which he called "the thinking arowana". The fish, according to legend, was a silent consultant for the strongman when it came time to make difficult decisions.

Read more!

Hundreds flee from Johor floods

The Star 14 Mar 08;

JOHOR BARU: Floods in three districts in Johor have forced the evacuation of a total of 710 people.

State Traffic and Public Order chief Supt T. Raveendran said the districts involved were Johor Baru, Kluang and Batu Pahat.

He explained that the evacuees from 167 families were placed in relief six centres.

He said in Johor Baru, a total of 439 victims, mostly from Kampung Laut, Skudai, were placed in one centre.

“In Kluang, 218 people were evacuated to three centres and in Batu Pahat, 53 victims were placed in two centres.

“Water is about 3m deep in most of the areas,” he said, adding that the floods were caused by incessant rain since Wednesday.

Supt Raveendran said no casualties or injuries were reported so far and the state police headquarters operation room was opened here at 8pm yesterday.

He urged anyone with information or problems to contact the police hotline at 07-2212999 or the nearest police station


710 Evacuated Due To Floods
Bernama 13 Mar 08;

JOHOR BAHARU, March 13 (Bernama) -- More than 710 residents in three districts in the state have been evacuated following floods due to heavy rain since yesterday.

The districts affected by the floods are Johor Baharu, Kluang and Batu Pahat.

State Traffic and Public Order Chief, Supt T. Raveendran when contacted said the victims from 167 families had been evacuated to six relief centres.

He said 439 of the victims were from Johor Baharu, mostly from Kampung Laut, Skudai which was a flood-prone area, who were evacuated to a relief centre.

He also said that 218 victims were evacuated to three relief centres in Kluang, and 53 others to two centres in Batu Pahat.

"The water level in most areas had reached three metres," he said.

There were no injuries or loss of lives reported.

Meanwhile, police had opened the flood operations room at 8pm tonight.

Members of the public can contact the operations room at telephone number 07-2212999 for information on the floods.

-- BERNAMA

Flood victim numbers decrease
Mohd Faizal Hassan, Bernama 14 Mar 08;

JOHOR BARU, Fri.: The number of flood victims in five districts in Johor dropped to 666 this morning from 710 last night as the flood waters started to recede in several places.
A spokesman of the state police flood operations room told Bernama that the Kluang district had the highest number at 316, followed by Segamat (139), Johor Baru (129), Batu Pahat (71), and Kota Tinggi (11).

“The victims from 133 families are housed at 16 evacuation centres in the state. The water level remains at the warning level in many areas,” he said.

The public can call the flood operations room at 07-2212999 for information.

Evacuees go home
The Star 15 Mar 08;

JOHOR BARU: Flood evacuation centres in Kota Tinggi and here have closed, and the evacuees have returned home.

Johor traffic and public order police chief Supt T. Raveendran said the 11 centres in three northern districts of the state however remained open.

At 3pm yesterday, there were 380 evacuees in Kluang, 157 in Segamat and six in Batu Pahat.

Most had headed to the nearest schools and multipurpose halls when the water began to rise in the evening.

In Kampung Laut where floodwaters had risen to over one metre, security guard Kosnan Rakiman, 56, was busy cleaning his muddied wooden house.

Kosnan said he did not suffer any loss this time because he had nothing else to lose.

“I lost everything in the two major floods two years ago. I don’t have money to buy replacements, so the house is still empty,” he said.

Kosnan, who has 12 children, said his five school-going children were depending on his salary of barely RM800 a month.

Half of his house was leaking after some tree branches fell onto the roof and damaged it in the previous flood.

Kosnan said the family had been living in such conditions for more than six months.

“I am worried that the tree may collapse and injure my children one day,” he said. He hoped the relevant authorities would remove the tree.

Read more!

Best of our wild blogs: 14 Mar 08

Reclamation off Cyrene Reef
Sand mining at Changi, MPA notices, more on the wildfilms blog

Sexy Singapore Scientists
“Women who make microscopes look sexy” on The Biodiversity crew @ NUS blog

Living sculptures: our amazing hard corals!
an unscientific intro on the singapore celebrates our reefs blog

Before the sun sets on these bears
a plea for the sun bear on the budak blog

Animal welfare vs conservation: the case of China’s tigers
save the tiger and kill the antelope? SPCA protests. on the reuters environment blog

"Interactions with humans tend to be a nightmare"
no therapy for the dolphin, on the wildfilms blog

Help Create A United Nations Youth Climate Change Publication and Video Project
a call for youth content on the It's Getting Hot In Here blog

Birds and window panes
on the bird ecology blog

Mites on Opilionid
there's such a thing as having legs that are too long, on the budak blog

Read more!

Shop to Save the Planet? at Compass Point

Is this really green?

Full poster on the Fraser Centrepoint Malls website

To send your comments, use the email form on their website

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Recent heavy rain not caused by global warming

Channel NewsAsia 13 Mar 08;

SINGAPORE : Singapore has been pounded by heavy thunderstorms over the past few days, which is an unusual sight in the month of March.

But rest assured, as weather forecasters said the cause is not due to global warming.

A phenomenon known as Equinox occurs when the centre of the Sun is directly above the Earth's equator. This happens twice a year during March and October, and Singapore always experiences hot weather during these two months.

Wednesday saw the heaviest rainfall so far this month, accounting for 65% (124 mm) of rain in March so far.

The main culprit is the natural climate cycle, La Nina. It is stronger this year due to a 2-degree Celsius drop in sea surface temperature, causing the wind to bring rain clouds to Southeast Asia.

"Usually, you have a strong flow of easterly wind blowing from east to the west, and that means from the Eastern Pacific towards Southeast Asia region. A long easterly wind across the ocean brings a lot of moisture, and that's causing the rainfall that we've experienced in the last few days," said Chief Meteorological Officer Lam Keng Gaik.

While the La Nina effect could last several months, the Meteorological Services does not expect it to bring rain throughout the period. Still, the next few days are expected to be rainy. - CNA /ls

Read more!

Air-conditioners with more ticks get more picks

Tania Tan, Straits Times 14 Mar 08;

SALES of energy-efficient air-conditioners are going up, as consumers warm up to the prospect of savings on their electricity bills.

Electronics retailers such as Gain City Best-Electric and Courts have seen an increase in sales of such models. They declined to cite exact sales figures, but Gain City estimates that 10per cent more such air-conditioners were sold in the first two months of the year.

One possible reason for the jump in sales: Energy labels, introduced for voluntary use by retailers of household appliances in 2002, became compulsory from January.

'It tells customers at one glance how much they stand to save if they buy a particular model,' said Ms Lily Teo, a merchandising manager at Gain City Best-Electric.

Armed with a calculator, consumers can figure out how much they will save, by looking at the energy label.

On it, the appliance is rated for energy efficiency by a number of ticks, which are awarded by the National Environment Agency (NEA). The maximum four ticks means the appliance is 'excellent' in energy efficiency.

The label also declares the amount of energy the appliance gobbles up in an hour.

An air-conditioner which uses 1.2 kilowatts per hour (kWh) would thus cost $2,100 to run every year if it is on for eight hours a day, based on the current tariff of 22.62 cents per kWh; a unit which uses 4.1 kWh would cost $2,700 to run for that length of time.

Ms Teo noted that although the more energy-efficient models cost at least 30per cent more, the cost savings will usually offset the initial price difference.

A check with three major brands - Mitsubishi Electric, Daikin Airconditioning and LG Electronics - indicated that consumers have been going for the more efficient models. They, too, declined to reveal sales figures.

But boosted sales do not necessarily mean consumers are 'greener', said the companies.

'People could be spending on more efficient models simply because the economy's better and they can afford it,' said Mr Liu Shaw Jiun, the general manager of Daikin.

Singapore Environment Council executive director Howard Shaw agreed with him that public education is needed on the benefits of using efficient appliances.

The Mandatory Energy Labelling Scheme will be extended to clothes dryers by April next year. These appliances are second to air-conditioners as high consumers of electricity.

The NEA will also look into imposing minimum energy performance standards on household appliances, which could lead to a phasing out of energy-inefficient ones.

What is the Energy Labelling Scheme?
Straits Times 14 Mar 08;

FIRST introduced on a voluntary basis in 2002, the scheme was made mandatory in January this year.

Air-conditioners and refrigerators were the first appliances to come under the scheme, because they make up about 50 per cent of a household's total electricity bill.

Next to be included are clothes dryers, which will sport energy labels from April next year.

Issued by the National Environment Agency, the yellow and blue labels tell would-be buyers how much electricity an appliance uses per hour, with details of the brand name and model number.

An appliance with a poor efficiency rating carries zero tick, while one with an 'excellent' rating has the maximum of four ticks.

Under the Environmental Protection and Management Act, suppliers who do not label their products can be fined up to $2,000.

What the ticks mean

AN AIR-CONDITIONER with four ticks and which uses 1.2 kilowatts per hour (kWh) would cost $2,100 to run every year if it is on for eight hours a day, based on the current electricity tariff of 22.62 cents per kWh.

In contrast, a unit not awarded any tick and which uses 4.1kWh would cost $2,700 to operate every year for that length of time each day.

Read more!

Do SIngaporeans know how much of their food is genetically modified?

Jessica Lim, Straits Times 14 Mar 08;

Half of corn, canola oil and soya bean sold here are genetically modified. But most Singaporeans don't know as the law here does not require manufacturers and retailers to label GM foods

THAT soya bean milk drink you had for breakfast could have been made from genetically modified (GM) beans.

Lots of food in your larder - from nachos to poultry to baby food and soya milk - could also contain ingredients whose genetic make-up has been altered in a bid to make them plumper, tastier or resistant to disease.

But it is unlikely that you will ever know.

The reason: Unlike dozens of developed countries around the world, Singapore does not require manufacturers and retailers to label GM foods.

While the foods have not proven to be unsafe, their sale has sparked protests from Indonesia to the United States, driven largely by fears about >the long-term effects of tinkering with Mother Nature.

According to Singapore's Genetic Modification Advisory Committee, about half of the corn, canola oil and soya bean sold in Singapore are genetically modified.

Dr Wong Kwok Onn, head of the survey and safety review branch at the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA), said that Singapore's reliance on imported food means GM foods 'could be anywhere on the market now'.

Consumers, though, have little way of knowing what they are buying.

Singapore laws allow manufacturers and importers to leave out or even remove labels that would inform consumers they are buying GM foods.

Many companies, Dr Wong said, do just that because they are 'worried that Singaporeans might not accept them'.

While the issue is a major one around the globe, it is only just gaining steam here.

No one has complained to Singapore's consumer watchdog about the lack of labelling, but some shoppers The Straits Times spoke to were concerned when told that they might be buying GM foods.

Mrs Khairina Mohd, 45, a mother of two, wants labels on such items.

She said: 'Like most other educated Singaporeans, I want to know what I am putting into my mouth. It's a basic right.'

Mr Daniel Koh, 36, a psychologist, said: 'Just browsing online, I can tell the issue is getting out of hand globally and there are more GM foods around.

'We are consumers too, and I would like to know more about the food I am eating and the long-term effects, if any.'

Although no side effects from eating GM foods have emerged, the long-term effects of bioengineering have not been completely evaluated, said Mr Peter Droge, head of genomics and genetics at Nanyang Technological University.

Still, some Singaporeans couldn't care less if GM foods are labelled.

Businessman Goh Keng Wee, 53, is among them.

He said: 'It does not matter much to me. If it is safe and tastes good, why should I care?'

Proponents of genetic modification view it as the answer to food shortages. Yields are higher and less water, energy and fertiliser are used in the production process, Mr Droge explained.

Currently, 51 countries - including China, Canada and the United States - produce GM foods.

More than two-thirds of modified American corn, for example, is exported to Asia and Africa.

Labelling of these foods is compulsory only in the European Union and in about 30 countries, including Japan and Australia.

It is not compulsory here because of the lack of international consensus on the labelling of GM foods, said Dr Wong.

However, that could change following a meeting next month of an international body that sets standards for the food industry, according to government officials.

All food here, including GM food, safe to eat: AVA

Goh Shih Yong, Straits Times Forum, 25 Mar 08

IN RESPONSE to the article, 'Do you know how much of your food is genetically modified?' (March 14), we would like to clarify the issues of safety and labelling of genetically modified (GM) food.

Safety of GM food

The international consensus is that GM food is safe for consumption. This follows extensive reviews of the safety of GM food by various international scientific organisations over many years. All GM food must pass rigorous risk assessments to ensure it is safe for human consumption before it is allowed to be sold in the international market. GM food is governed by guidelines at both international and country levels. The international guidelines for assessing the safety of food derived from GM organisms are issued by the Codex Alimentarius Commission, which is the international reference body for food standards.

In Singapore, the Genetic Modification Advisory Committee (GMAC) sets guidelines for the import, release and use of GM products here. GMAC was established in 1999 to oversee and advise on research and development, production, use, handling and release of GM organisms in Singapore. In assessing and approving GM foods for consumption in Singapore, the Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority (AVA) follows the guidelines of both Codex and GMAC.

Labelling of GM food

Labelling of GM food is a complex issue and a consensus has yet to be reached at the international level. Where practised, labelling of GM food is done to give consumers choice, and not for food safety reasons.

Singapore's position on GM food labelling is in line with international trends and practices. As mandatory labelling of GM food is currently not an international practice, making it compulsory might curtail our sources of supply and increase food prices.

Nevertheless, AVA and GMAC will continue to monitor international developments closely to ensure labelling requirements are up to date. Singapore is working closely with the Codex Committee on Food Labelling to develop acceptable guidelines on labelling of GM food. The Codex guidelines on GM food labelling are expected to take several years to finalise.

Although our current food regulations do not require GM food to be specially labelled, GM food, like all other food products, must meet existing food labelling requirements with regard to ingredient listing and information to facilitate tracing and recall. We assure consumers that food available in Singapore, including GM food, is safe for consumption.

Goh Shih Yong
Assistant Director, Corporate Communications
for Chief Executive Officer
Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority

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Fast-growing corals key to Caribbean reef -study

Michael Kahn, Reuters 13 Mar 08;

LONDON (Reuters) - Two dominant coral species have built a good chunk of the Caribbean reef, and their ability to grow quickly may help the region's coral reefs keep pace with rising sea levels caused by global warming, researchers say.

The endangered staghorn and elkhorn corals grow about 10 times faster than any other in the Caribbean and reproduce in part by breaking into bits for easy ocean spread.

Ken Johnson, who led the study published in the journal Science, said researchers had found that the staghorn and elkhorn coral were not that important until about 1 million years ago, when half the Caribbean coral species went extinct.

Today about 60 coral species remain.

Johnson said one reason they quickly became dominant was they may have been able to keep up with rapid sea level rise by growing quickly, Johnson said.

And if sea levels rise as predicted in the coming centuries, they may have to reprise this role.

"These are the species that are going to help coral reefs keep up with sea level change," Johnson, a paleontologist at the Natural History Museum in London, said in a telephone interview.

Coral reefs, delicate undersea structures resembling rocky gardens that are made by animals called coral polyps, are important nurseries and shelters for fish and other sea life.

They are also considered valuable protection for coastlines from high seas, a critical source of food, important for tourism and a potential storehouse of medicines for cancer and other diseases.

But researchers say overfishing, climate change and human development are threatening reefs worldwide. Even the dominant staghorn and elkhorn species are considered threatened under the U.S. Endangered Species Act.

In the Caribbean, an added concern is that the reefs are especially sensitive because they are dominated by just two species, Johnson said.

"If these two species die out and become extinct, the Caribbean is in trouble," he said.

The researchers produced their conclusions by using fossils to compare changes in coral diversity and reef development in the Caribbean over the past 28 million years.

They showed that the characteristics of a dominant species were more important than the simple number of species, a finding that can better direct conservation efforts, Johnson said.

(Editing by Maggie Fox and Catherine Evans)

Read more!

Iceland whaling go-ahead 'likely'

Richard Black, BBC News 13 Mar 08;

Iceland is likely to approve the commercial hunting of whales for this summer, the BBC has learned.

Its whaling industry is asking for a quota of about 100 minke whales and a number of fin whales too.

A government official confirmed it is "likely" that quotas will be issued soon, with the season starting in May.

Iceland resumed commercial whaling in 2006, but said last year that quotas would only be issued if there was a demand for the meat.

This was interpreted in some quarters as spelling an end to the Icelandic hunt; but the minke whaling industry says it has sold all the meat from the last two years' catch, which shows there is an appetite for whale products.

"We're hoping for a quota for minke - we've been talking about taking 100 whales," the head of Iceland's minke whaling association, Gunnar Bergmann Jonsson, told BBC News.

"We caught 45 last summer, and we've sold it all. The minister says he's basing his decision on whether there's a market, so we hope he would give us a quota."

Sustainable question

Stefan Asmundsson, a senior official in Iceland's fisheries ministry and its commissioner to the International Whaling Commission (IWC), confirmed that the hunt was likely to go ahead.

"We are not expecting any big quotas, but we are likely to see in the relatively near future some quotas for minke whales.

"The most important factor is to ensure the quotas are within sustainable limits."

The IWC estimates there are about 175,000 minke whales in the North Atlantic, and Icelandic scientists say a quota of 100 easily fits within the definition of "sustainable".

In 2006, Iceland also issued a quota for fin whales, a species currently categorised as Endangered.

The fin whaling company, Hvalur hf, is hoping that it will receive a quota again, perhaps as large as 150 whales.

"There are 25,000 fin whales in the area where we hunt," said the owner of Hvalur, Kristjan Loftsson.

"If a farmer had 25,000 cattle in his field, I don't think he would agree to a zero take. If this (150 whales) is not sustainable, I don't know what is."

Mr Asmundsson did not rule out issuing a fin quota, although 150 appears unlikely. There is a very small domestic market for fin meat, and most of the 2006 catch is still in cold storage.

Hvalur is hoping eventually to set up an export trade to Japan.

'Useless, futile'

Environmental groups greeted the news with dismay.

"It's meaningless, it's useless, it's futile, it's against the spirit of the whaling regime that Iceland says it wants internationally," said Arni Finnsson of the Iceland Nature Conservation Association (Inca).

"There is little domestic market, the export route to Japan is closed; is Iceland just trying to make a point?"

His feelings were echoed by Robbie Marsland, head of the UK office of the International Fund for Animal Welfare (Ifaw).

"We feel this would be an extremely damaging step for Iceland's international reputation, for its tourism and its wider economy," he said.

Mr Marsland was speaking from Iceland where Ifaw is holding a conference on whale-watching, which it argues is an ethically and economically superior way of using cetaceans.

Internationally, an Icelandic decision to continue its commercial hunt would offer renewed support for Japan's position, which maintains that whales can and should be regarded like any other living marine resource, and harvested sustainably.

Fisheries minister Einar Gudfinnsson is likely to make the final announcement within a month.

Read more!

Canada Says 275,000 Seals Can Be Killed This Year

David Ljunggren, PlanetArk 14 Mar 08;

OTTAWA - Hunters will be allowed to kill 275,000 young harp seals on the ice floes off eastern Canada this year, the government said on Monday, a number that animal rights activists said was totally unsustainable.

The quota is slightly more than last year's 270,000, when ice conditions were poor, but considerably below the 335,000 set in 2006.

Phil Jenkins, a spokesman for the Fisheries and Oceans Department, dismissed suggestions that the harp seal herd was in danger of shrinking.

"The seal herd is healthy and abundant right now at about 5.5 million animals. We want to see it continue to be healthy and so over the years we have brought back the total allowable catch," he said.

The animals are either shot or clubbed to death in a hunt that takes place in March and April each year. The furs are turned into clothes and there is a growing market for seal oil, which is rich in omega 3 fatty acids.

Activists complain the hunt is cruel and say they often catch sealers killing animals in an inhumane way. Ottawa says that from this year hunters will be obliged to take extra steps to ensure the seals die humanely.

Sheryl Fink of the International Fund for Animal Welfare said she was stunned at the quota, which she described as unsustainable.

"There is absolutely no way this increase in quota can possibly be justified," she said in a statement.

"It's a national embarrassment ... is killing baby seals really what Canadians want to be known for?

The government's official plan calls for the herd to be kept at 4.1 million animals or above.

"We have a conservative approach to dealing with this herd ... 275,000 is at a level where we think we are not anywhere near in danger of bringing it down to 4.1 million," said Jenkins. The hunt is set to start in the second half of March.

Activists, who since 2005 have been urging US restaurant chains to boycott Canadian seafood until the seal hunt is stopped, say they are optimistic the European Union will soon impose a ban on the import of all seal products from Canada.

"The seal hunt is an economic mainstay for numerous rural communities in Atlantic Canada, Quebec and the North. It's with these people in mind we make decisions based on science," said federal Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn.

Activists say the minority Conservative government is in fact subsidizing the hunt in a bid to gain votes in Eastern Canada at the next federal election, which is set for October 2009.

"We believe this quota is reckless and it's far more about conserving votes than it is about conserving seals, said Rebecca Aldworth of the Humane Society of the United States.

(Reporting by David Ljunggren; editing by Rob Wilson)

Read more!

Water in Dams, Reservoirs Preventing Sea-Level Rise

Mason Inman, National Geographic News 13 Mar 08;

Dams and reservoirs have stored so much water over the past several decades that they have masked surging sea levels, a new study says.

But dam building has slowed, meaning sea levels could rise more quickly than researchers predicted in a 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report.

Sea levels have been rising for decades, due mostly to global warming caused by greenhouse gases.

The oceans are on average about 6.3 inches (16 centimeters) higher now than in 1930, when they started a noticeable upward climb. Melting glaciers and ice caps, along with ocean warming—water expands as it heats up—are the main culprits behind the increase.

But the new study shows that reservoirs are also an important factor. Rather than adding to sea-level rise, however, they have counteracted it by storing more water on land.

Since 1930 the storage of water has prevented a total of about 1.2 inches (3 centimeters) of sea-level rise.

Without dams, sea levels would have risen 30 percent more than they already have, according to research led by Benjamin Chao of National Central University in Taiwan.

Chao and colleagues report their findings in tomorrow's issue of the journal Science.

Better Estimate

The latest IPCC report on climate change did not factor in the water stored in reservoirs when examining the causes of sea-level rise, Chao said.

"The reason [this was left out] is the big uncertainty and incompleteness of earlier estimates," he said. So Chao and colleagues set out to make a better estimate.

The researchers tallied up the water stored behind nearly 30,000 dams built worldwide since 1900.

Dam building took off in the 1950s and reached a peak in the 1970s. Today few dams are being built and the amount of water being stored in reservoirs is leveling off.

However some megadams, such as China's Three Gorges Dam and Malaysia's Bakun Dam, have been recently built.

The study estimates that human-made reservoirs worldwide store about 2,600 cubic miles (10,800 cubic kilometers) of water—nearly as much as is found in Lake Superior, one of the world's largest lakes.

Water stored in a multitude of smaller reservoirs also adds up, the researchers said. Lots of water also soaks into the ground underneath reservoirs, adding to the amount of water locked up on land.

Fooled?

Vivien Gornitz, of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York City, was not involved in the research.

"The study provides the latest, more accurate estimate of water impoundment by reservoirs," she said.

Dork Sahagian, of Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, said "we've fooled our own measurements."

A spate of dam building began at about the same time scientists began accurately measuring sea-level rise, he pointed out.

Sahagian also said that the new study may underestimate the effect of reservoirs. It's hard to gauge the amount of water stored in and underneath innumerable small reservoirs, but these figures could be larger than the estimates used in the new study, he said.

"It looks like we will not continue building dams at the same rate, so we will not mask [sea-level rise] anymore," Sahagian said.

In that case "the rate of sea-level rise could double just on account of our stopping building dams."

Dams Lower Global Sea Level
Andrea Thompson, LiveScience Staff Yahoo News 13 Mar 08;

Global sea levels would be higher and rising faster, if not for reservoir water trapped behind dams around the world, a new study suggests.

But the conclusion does not fully account for other human-caused changes to the water cycle, another researcher cautions.

Sea level rise caused by global warming has the potential to severely impact coastal and island communities by encroaching on populations there and increasing storm damage.

Most of the sea level rise in recent decades has been attributed to the thermal expansion of the oceans (water expands as it heats up) and ice melt from the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets.

Scientists have known for some time that changes in land water storage, including the amount of water locked behind dams, was an important element in the sea level rise equation, but just how important was uncertain, said study leader Ben Chao of the National Central University in Taiwan.

Chao and his colleagues investigated this question by doing a comprehensive tally of all the world's dams constructed since 1900 (about 29,484) and estimating the amount of water they hold. The data was taken from the International Commission on Large Dams' World Register of Dams.

Chao and his team found that altogether these dams hold about 2,600 cubic miles (10,800 cubic kilometers) of water. This corresponds to a drop in global sea levels of about 1.2 inches (30 millimeters). Meaning ocean levels today would be that much higher if some river water wasn't trapped behind dams and prevented from flowing back into the ocean.

"If you look in just the past half century, the observed sea level rise is about 10 centimeters, and the negative effect of the reservoirs in total has been as much 3 centimeters, so in other words, the sea level could have risen 13 centimeters," Chao told LiveScience.

The study's findings are detailed in the March 14 issue of the journal Science.

Accounting for the drop from dams means that the average sea level rise over the 20th century estimated by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (about 1.7 millimeters per year over the last century) would actually be higher than thought, Chao said.

But other scientists caution against making the leap from the amount of sea level rise to the rate at which it has risen. "That may be one step too far," said Vivien Gornitz of Columbia University's Center for Climate Systems Research, who was not involved with Chao's study.

All of the ways in which humans manipulate water on land must be considered, Gornitz says, from groundwater pumping to the increased runoff from cities covered in concrete, which isn't as permeable as soil.

"You have to consider all of these aspects together," Gornitz said, and some scientists think these effects may cancel each other out in terms of their impact on sea level. This view was noted in the last IPCC report.

Read more!

HK flu outbreak 'seasonal': WHO

No evidence so far to link it to bird flu or Sars; half a million children stay home
Chua Chin Hon, Straits Times 14 Mar 08;

BEIJING - ABOUT half a million schoolchildren in Hong Kong stayed home yesterday as the city's health authorities took no chances with a flu outbreak that has killed four youngsters so far.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) said yesterday the current outbreak was 'seasonal influenza' and health experts saw no evidence so far to suggest that the cases were linked to bird flu or the deadly severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) outbreak in 2003.

Late on Wednesday night, Hong Kong ordered all kindergartens and primary schools closed for two weeks after officials reported flu outbreaks in 23 schools involving 184 people.

Defending the action to close schools, Hong Kong Health Secretary York Chow told reporters yesterday it was a difficult decision, but the authorities were looking at a rising number of infections.

The government action might have been 'a little drastic', but he also said: 'We cannot wait for the figures to get bigger before we make any decision. We have to make certain assumptions that if there are now deaths related to influenza, then we need to do something.'

On Tuesday, a seven-year-old boy died and tested positive for a flu strain known as Type A or H1N1, a virus also found in a 21-month-old toddler who died last month.

Two other children have also died after falling ill with flu-like symptoms.

Mainland cities near Hong Kong, such as Shenzhen and Guangzhou, were watching the situation closely as well. Southern China has just entered its annual flu season, which falls between March and July.

The WHO's Manila-based spokesman Peter Cordingley said the agency was monitoring the situation.

'What Hong Kong's dealing with is just basically seasonal influenza, but it's happening in a city which is always on the alert for infectious disease,' he told The Straits Times.

'The Hong Kong government, by closing the schools, can hope to break the line of transmission of the virus and clean the schools.

'They are showing they are responding to public concern and that is important when you're trying to handle something like this.'

The WHO estimates that between 250,000 and 500,000 die from flu worldwide each year.

Read more!

Bird Flu Kills Four Civets In Vietnam National Park

PlanetArk 13 Mar 08;

HANOI - Bird flu killed four civets in a Vietnamese national park, the second time the rare type of mammal was reported to have died there of the H5N1 virus since 2005, a park official said on Tuesday.

Four endangered Owston's palm civets died early last month at Cuc Phuong park and tests of their samples found they had the H5N1 virus, the official said.

"Visitors are not allowed to come near the civet's area now," the official said by telephone from the park about 90 km (55 miles) south of Hanoi in Ninh Binh province.

In June 2005 three civets, born in captivity and raised in the same cage, died at the park and tests later confirmed they had been infected by bird flu, park officials said. The park has eight of the rare cat-like civets left.

Civets eat pork, worms and fruit, but not poultry.

However, Ninh Binh is one of nine locations where outbreaks have been detected among poultry in the past month, including a farm outside Hanoi, the Animal Health Department said.

It is not the first time that bird flu has killed exotic animals. The H5N1 virus has infected ostriches in South Africa, a clouded leopard and tigers in Thailand.

One of China's top doctors has said that the H5N1 virus has shown signs of mutation and can kill humans more easily if treatment is not given early enough, newspapers reported on Tuesday.

The H5N1 virus has infected 368 people around the world since 2003, killing 234 of them, including 51 in Vietnam.

Experts fear it could trigger a pandemic killing millions if it ever transmits efficiently among people.

(Reporting by Ho Binh Minh; editing by Grant McCool and Sanjeev Miglani)

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Half of Humanity Will Live in Cities by Year's End

Brian Handwerk, National Geographic News 13 Mar 08;

"I get annoyed by people looking at urbanization negatively. What we should look at negatively is the incompetence of governments to actually manage it,"

Humans are about to become a majority urban species for the first time. Does this trend mean poverty or prosperity for the world's urban dwellers?

A UN forecast released last week reports that half of all humans will live in urban areas by the end of the year—and 70 percent by 2050—even though cities occupy only about 3 percent of Earth's land surface.

Urban growth is driven by the developing world, where African and Asian cities grow by a million people a week, according to the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) report.

Cities are growing, in part, because their large young populations are in their reproductive prime. But observers note that much urban growth also stems from large migrations of rural dwellers looking for economic opportunity.

Surging cities in economically challenged nations can present a host of problems.

About a billion people currently live in sprawling city slums with inadequate access to clean water, proper sanitation, or legitimate housing, the report states. That number could double in three decades.

But some experts, including the report's lead author, say urbanization provides valuable economic opportunities.

The historically wealthy nations in Europe and North America, for example, are more than 70 percent urbanized.

"Contrary to what most policy makers have been saying, urban growth can be extremely positive for economic growth, social development, demographic stabilization, and even for environmental issues," said George Martine, a demographer who wrote the UNFPA's recent State of World Population 2007 report.

"But in order for that to happen, we'll need to take a completely different approach from the one that people are taking now."

Economic Engines

Martine notes that cities generate most of the world's income from goods and services.

"So to try to prevent urban growth is like shooting yourself in the foot from an economic standpoint," he said.

"If you have better chances for economic growth, this also has implications for social development—you need resources to provide social services."

"Education, health care, any type of social service costs less in cities per capita than it does in rural areas."

Unfortunately, many cities are failing to provide such services to their quickly growing populations, observers say.

David Satterthwaite, a senior fellow with the International Institute for Environment and Development in London, says the blame falls squarely on governments.

"I get annoyed by people looking at urbanization negatively. What we should look at negatively is the incompetence of governments to actually manage it," he said.

Much urban growth is unregulated because some authorities don't want to encourage the trend toward urbanization, Martine added.

"They would like urbanization to stop because they see it concentrating poverty," he said.

"It's a very visible and negative manifestation in terms of politics."

"Rightsizing" Cities?

By 2050, there may be as many as 27 megacities—cities with populations of ten million or more—up from 19 megacities today.

But such huge centers won't represent most urban growth, experts say.

Instead, global urbanization will largely occur in smaller cities that are part of broader, growing urban areas, they note.

"In general as cities get very large, you get a pattern of a very urbanized region, but a lot of production is decentralized," Satterthwaite said.

He notes that many big cities, like Buenos Aires, Argentina; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; and Kolkata (Calcutta), India, actually have more people moving out than coming in.

Smaller cities may offer the chance at better governance—and thus greater success—because their developing governments are more transparent, while some big cities have already become too cumbersome, according to Kamla Gupta of the International Institute for Population Sciences in Mumbai (Bombay).

"There is a need to limit the physical and population size of cities that have expanded too much … and have achieved inordinately large population size," she said.

"It is extremely difficult to manage overgrown cities, in spite of huge investments."

One Size Doesn't Fit All

Geographer Nigel Thrift, vice chancellor of the U.K's University of Warwick, stresses that the urbanization trend is anything but homogenous across the globe.

"You shouldn't infer that the same solutions would work in different parts of the world," he said.

"There are many Asian cities where, though there are many people living in difficult circumstances, the figures on economic growth suggest that it may be possible to do something about it. In other cities that's not the case."

He suggests that a kind of global Marshall Plan, the economic aid package that helped rebuild postwar Europe, could be implemented to address the needs of growing cities.

Such aid would need to be flexible to accommodate the unique needs of different locales, he said.

"[In] cities with more potential, what you're doing there is investing in growth," he said. "With the others, that's not enough."

In those most desperate cities, according to Martine, the author of the UN report, turning urban growth into a positive begins with planning for decent housing.

"What really determines whether or not people are going to have access to what the city has to offer is to have a home, an address, a place they can keep their stuff, lock the door, or set up a little business," he said.

"It may be precarious at the beginning, but it's really the starting point for accessing what the city has to offer."

Read more!

'Green' buildings could slash North American CO2 emissions: report

Deborah Jones, Yahoo News 13 Mar 08;

Basic changes in building design and construction could slash greenhouse gas emissions by 35 percent in North America, said a joint Canada-US-Mexico report Thursday.

The report, "Green Building in North America: Opportunities and Challenges," was released by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation at an environmental trade fair in this western Canadian city.

Politicians and businesses on the continent have focused on the role of transportation and the oil and gas sector in climate change and ignored buildings, said Jonathan Westeinde.

But the building industry has "a much greater potential to have an impact on climate change," he said.

Westeinde is a Canadian developer who chairs an advisory group for the commission, which has the mandate of environmental cooperation under the North American Free Trade Agreement.

The report recommended that engineers and architects abandon old, proven designs in favor of emerging building technologies, and also called for urban planning with increased population density and access to public transit.

It touted basic measures such as thicker insulation and more energy efficient windows, minimizing energy-intensive heating and air-conditioning and avoiding use of some synthetic building materials that cause indoor air pollution by releasing volatile compounds.

The report noted that North America's buildings release more than 2,200 megatons of carbon dioxide each year, some 35 percent of the continent's total. "The carbon savings, if we started building all buildings to a higher standard by 2030, would be equivalent to all carbon emissions of the transportation sector in the United States," said Westeinde.

But the industry has a long way to go. Less than four percent of new buildings meet stringent new environmental, health and energy-saving goals under the continent's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standard.

Many of the ideas in the report, from urban design to boosting insulation, are not new. "What's different with this report is there is science behind it," said Westeinde.

Evidence for the possible energy savings is contained in technical background papers based on laboratory tests, and show that the targets in the report are achievable, he said.

The report shows that the goal of making all American buildings completely carbon-neutral by 2030, set by the American Institute of Architecture, can be achieved, he said.

Yet, North America lags Europe in sustainable construction.

"The North American building industry has the lowest research and development budget, as a percentage of revenues, of any industry in North America ... (and) of its peers anywhere in the world," explained Westeinde.

"It shows how much of a laggard we are."

"If I wanted to be critical, I'd say North America has no vision about what it's trying to achieve from a climate change point of view."

In North America another barrier to sustainable buildings is the way new residential and commercial construction is financed, said Westeinde.

Environmentally friendly buildings are not more costly in the long run, because they save money on energy and maintenance many years after construction.

But loans for construction are based on the short-term costs of developers, rather than the long-term savings for buyers.

The result is the "lowest possible capital cost construction ... even though the life cycle of a building is 50 to 75 years," lamented Westeinde. "It's a stupid way."

Read more!

Wal-Mart pushing Chinese suppliers to go green

Reuters 13 Mar 08;

GOLETA, California (Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc will meet with its thousands of Chinese suppliers this fall as part of a big push to reduce waste and emissions at factories that make its products, Chief Executive Lee Scott said on Thursday.

"We started a very aggressive program in China that is not only going to deal with environmental sustainability, but is also going to deal more aggressively with the issues of sourcing in China," Scott said during an appearance at the Wall Street Journal ECO:nomics conference in Goleta, California.

As the world's largest retailer, Wal-Mart is considered one of the few companies that can use its heft to tackle environmental issues, like reducing energy consumption. It has already pushed its U.S. suppliers to cut back on packaging and has set a goal of one day producing no waste and using energy only from renewable sources.

But Wal-Mart has also stumbled with some of its "green" efforts. For instance, it has found that pushing suppliers to make electronics that use less energy or can easily be recycled is harder than it appears, and involves a great deal of re-engineering.

To help speed up its efforts in China, Wal-Mart has hired an outside consulting firm, Scott said at the conference. It will also work with non-governmental organizations to help its plant inspectors understand the company's sustainability initiatives.

"It will take a long time," Scott said of the initiative.

Scott told reporters at the conference that he would personally attend the meeting this fall.

The company's top priorities in China will be to address the appropriate disposal of waste as well as to make reductions in both waste and greenhouse gas emissions. It will also work on reducing packaging and boosting energy efficiency, much as it has in its U.S. business, Scott said.

Wal-Mart has pushed its suppliers to cut back on the amount of packaging they use by 5 percent by 2013.

Wal-Mart is also working with its suppliers to make the most "energy intensive" products in its stores 25 percent more energy efficient within three years. By 2010, the retailer also wants all its flat-panel TVs to be 30 percent more energy efficient.

(Reporting by Nichola Groom; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick)

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Ethanol industry in sunset? Not so fast

Russell Blinch and Ayesha Rascoe, Reuters 13 Mar 08;

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - With soaring food prices and mounting criticism, it might seem the nascent U.S. biofuel industry has seen its best days. But don't underestimate the determination of Washington, the farm lobby and science to keep it alive.

The corn-gobbling ethanol industry is under fire from all sides, blamed for everything from rising food prices to environmental damage.

Ethanol is also driving a wedge in the farm community with grain farmers celebrating record prices while livestock producers and bakers grumble about rising costs due to the green fuel craze.

The ethanol industry itself is struggling to maintain profitability in the face of record corn prices, while fighting to win back its street cred as producer of a miracle green fuel.

"People are sort of desperate for something that will ease our dependence on foreign volatile countries, but unfortunately ethanol from food is not the answer," said Janet Larsen, director of research at Earth Policy Institute in Washington.

Larsen said that when consumers realize they are being squeezed at both the pump and the grocery store, they will quickly sour on Washington's policy that calls for billions of dollars to be invested in ethanol.

"If they begin to make the connection that these higher food prices are the result of a misguided U.S. policy to turn more corn into ethanol, I think ethanol's popularity is likely to drop dramatically," she said.

FOOD, FUEL, FOLLY?

It is unlikely the Bush administration or even the next government will move quickly to spoil the party for the sector.

Providing home-grown fuels to wean the United States off Middle Eastern oil supplies is key to U.S. policy at present -- much to the delight of the Corn Belt in the American Midwest.

"Renewable energy presents a fantastic opportunity for agriculture, and we are already seeing the benefits of renewables here in the United States," U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer told a high-profile renewable energy conference in Washington this month.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is predicting that net cash farm income will reach $96 billion this year, fueled by the record prices for everything from corn to soybeans.

"Renewables have clearly boosted our farm economy and have spread positive effects across our broader economy as well," Schafer said.

The new U.S. energy bill signed into law in December calls for the production of 9 billion gallons of renewable fuel this year, up from 5 billion gallons in 2005, and quadrupling to 36 billion gallons in 14 years.

Corn use for ethanol tripled from 2001 to 2006 and the U.S. government estimates this year that one out of every four bushels of corn produced from the massive U.S. harvest will be diverted to the ethanol industry.

While many argue it is folly to use food for fuel with world food prices on the rise and millions threatened with starvation, ethanol proponents argue that using corn is only a first step in creating a green industry that will eventually include a variety of feedstocks.

"Ethanol demand is absolutely having an effect on corn prices around the country," said Bob Dinneen, president of the Renewable Fuels Association.

But he said a host of other issues is also causing prices to rise, such as high fuel prices, growing economies, and changes in diet. He maintains that less than 4 percent of the increase in food prices can be traced to ethanol.

BACKLASH NOW

He said his group has been arguing for years that innovations in corn ethanol will help spur cellulosic fuel, which involves using a variety of non-food feedstocks.

"It's not going to happen tomorrow," he said, but "it will absolutely happen."

Several international reports have cast doubts on the environmental benefits of biofuel, taking into account the energy and chemicals spent to grow the plants, and the water they consume.

Lester Brown of the Earth Policy Institute maintains the grain required for a one-time fill-up of a tank of a Sport Utility Vehicle with ethanol would be enough to feed a person for an entire year.

But Brent Erickson, executive vice president of the Biotechnology Industry Organization in Washington, said companies are developing a range of technologies, including techniques to grind the corn into finer particles to make it more efficient to use.

Besides cellulosic research, companies have also developed new enzymes that convert corn starch to sugar without using heat, which reduces energy costs and increases efficiency processing each bushel of corn.

With these advances and more in the offing, Erickson also sees the criticisms against the industry as misguided.

"I don't know why people have chosen to pick on biofuels right now. But I guess with every technology you go through the honeymoon phase, and you go through the backlash phase. We're kind of in the backlash phase right now."

(Editing by Matthew Lewis)

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