Price of Chinese herbs to increase by 10-20%

Channel NewsAsia 17 Mar 08;

SINGAPORE : The price of Chinese herbs is set to increase by 10-20 percent.

The main reason for this increase is the cold weather in China, which has affected the supply of herbs.

Other reasons for the price hike include increases in freight charges, the falling US dollar and the increasing popularity of Chinese herbs in Western countries.

As most Chinese medical stores have already stocked up, they will not be increasing their prices as yet.

Local stores are also going to make some changes to their processed medicine in a bid to lower costs.

Despite all these measures, the prices in popular medical stores are still expected to rise in future.

The cost of Chinese herbs is expected to stabilise within one month. - CNA/ms

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World sanitation goals slip; nature can help

Alister Doyle, Reuters 16 Mar 08;

OSLO (Reuters) - "The history of men is reflected in the history of sewers," French 19th century author Victor Hugo wrote in Les Miserables. "The sewer is the conscience of the city ... A sewer is a cynic. It tells everything."

Judged by its sewers, the world is not doing well. Only 3 in 10 people now have a connection to a public sewerage system.

And with the world's population expanding, a goal of improving sanitation by 2015 is slipping out of reach, despite progress in nations such as China and a few big contracts for firms such as Veolia or Suez to build waste treatment plants in cities from La Paz to Rabat.

Experts say a part of the solution, especially to cut water-borne diseases for the rural poor, may lie in renewed and smarter exploitation of nature -- for example through plants or soil bacteria that feed on waste.

Novel schemes include a plan to build an artificial wetland at a jail in Mombasa, Kenya, to process sewage from 4,000 inmates that now flows untreated into a creek, or ponds in South Africa where algae purify waste and are then used as fertilizer.

"About 90 percent of the sewage and 70 percent of the industrial waste in developing countries are being discharged untreated into water courses," said Achim Steiner, head of the U.N. Environment Program (UNEP).

"Understanding the ability of peatlands, of marshes, of wetlands, to play an integral part in filtering ... waste water is often overlooked," he said.

The U.N. set a millennium goal of halving the proportion of people with no access to sanitation -- even simple latrines rather than sewers -- by 2015 from 40 percent of humanity or 2.6 billion people now: "Africa is probably struggling the most," Steiner said.

600 MILLION

A 2007 scorecard showed the sanitation goal was likely to be missed by 600 million people worldwide on current trends. 2008 is the U.N.'s International Year of Sanitation.

France's Veolia, the world's biggest listed water supplier, says East Asia and the Pacific are progressing best. In Africa, the company's only big contract so far is to supply water and sanitation to three cities in Morocco, with investments totaling 2.2 billion euros ($3.38 billion).

"A lot of countries underestimate the effect of sanitation on health," said Pierre Victoria, head of International Institutional Relations at Veolia Water.

U.N. data show a child dies as a result of poor sanitation every 20 seconds -- that is 1.5 million preventable deaths a year from diseases such as diarrhea or cholera.

In many countries "we are disappointed by the lack of interest of the politicians about water issues," Victoria said. "We'd like to have new contracts in developing countries but we need contractual, legal and financial security."

Proper sewers, with pipelines and treatment plants, are prohibitively costly for many nations. As a sign of low ambitions, the logo of the International Year of Sanitation shows a latrine built above a hole in the ground.

Among lower-cost projects, prisoners at the Shimo La Tawa jail in Mombasa, Kenya, will soon start work on an artificial wetland where plants will act as a sewage processing plant in an experimental $117,000 scheme.

"This technology costs very little both for construction and maintenance," said Peter Scheren, manager of joint UNEP-Global Environment Facility projects in Africa.

The scheme will also include a fish farm -- fed by waste water purified by two artificial wetlands each 55 meters (180 ft) long, nine wide and two deep. If it works, the fish can be eaten by prisoners, or even sold.

BASKETS

Such wetlands can have other spin-offs. "There are experiments going on in Tanzania where types of grass for roof thatching and baskets weaving are grown on wetlands," he said.

Many scientists say natural systems, such as wetlands, forests or mangroves, are worth more left alone rather than cleared for farmland because they supply free services such as food, water purification or building materials.

"For sanitation it's much better to get nature on your side," said Dag Hessen, a biology professor at Oslo University.

UNEP's Steiner also said the world urgently needs a better understanding of the natural water cycle, under threat from climate change stoked by human use of fossil fuels, to help manage water from rains to drains.

Global warming may aggravate water shortages for hundreds of millions of people, for instance by disrupting Africa's monsoons or by thawing Himalayan glaciers whose seasonal meltwater now feeds crops from China to India.

U.N. estimates show it would cost only about $10 billion a year to reach the 2015 sanitation target. And every dollar spent on sanitation creates spin-offs worth $7 on average, largely because of less disease.

A 2006 U.N. Human Development Report said rich donor nations gave about 5 percent of total overseas aid, or between $3-4 billion a year, to water and sanitation. Excluding big investments in Iraq, the recent trend was down.

Many donors view water investments as too risky, partly because of problems of accountable financing, it said, adding that sanitation progress since the 1970s had been "glacial".

Yet many firms stand to benefit from a focus on water and sanitation.

Goldman Sachs sees prospects for growth in the water sector -- from drinking water to processing waste.

In rich nations such as the United States, upgrading water and wastewater infrastructure should bring 4-5 percent growth and in markets such as China, new infrastructure should mean 10-15 percent growth over 5-10 years, it said in a December 2007 report.

"Longer term, we expect the global water sector to surge towards a global water oligopoly, where the market for water equipment and services will be dominated by a few multi-industry companies, including General Electric, ITT Industries, Danaher and Siemens," it said.

Suez says it has had successes in cities such as Buenos Aires, Casablanca, Jakarta, and La Paz. In the 13 years to 2006, it estimates it has helped connect 5.3 million people to a sanitation network.

RICH BENEFIT

One headache is how to pass on the cost of upgrades.

"New systems are often under-funded. So the connections go often to the rich or medium-income households and the poor do not get it," said Helen Mountford, head of the Environmental Outlooks division at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

With the world's population growing, any advances in improving sanitation may be only helping the world stand still.

The OECD said this month that more than five billion people -- or 67 percent of the world's population -- are expected to be without a connection to public sewerage in 2030.

That is up by 1.1 billion from 2000, when 71 percent of a smaller world population had no connection.

About 1.1 billion people lack drinking water -- another millennium goal is to halve that proportion by 2015.

"Investments in sanitation if anything have to be more urgent than for water because the deficit is double," said Angel Gurria, Secretary-General of the OECD.

(Editing by Sara Ledwith)

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South East Asia's first food recycling plant generates biogas, fertilizers

Channel NewsAsia 16 Mar 08;

SINGAPORE: Food waste gets a whole new meaning when food is no longer just thrown into incinerators – now, food is recycled for a good cause.

Chinatown Hawker Centre is the first hawker centre to participate in the segregate food waste project launched by the National Environment Agency (NEA) and Southeast Asia's first food waste recycling plant, IUT Singapore.

After collection, food waste is brought to the plant where the conversion of organic waste to biogas begins.

Leon Khew, Assistant Plant Manager, IUT Singapore, said: "We're producing renewable energy, so we're using food waste to produce biogas. From this biogas, we run it into gas engines, and from there we actually produce green energy."

At full capacity, the plant is estimated to be able to produce more than 6MW of electrical energy per hour – enough power for over 10,000 households.

The recycling plant also ensures that nothing goes to waste.

"We are able to produce compost, which actually goes back to planting trees and flowers etc, so this is what we call 'closing the carbon loop'," said Mr Khew.

The Singapore Green Plan aims to raise the recycling rate of food waste from the current 8 percent to 30 percent by the year 2012.


- CNA/so

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Best of our wild blogs: 17 Mar 08

Introducing our nudibranchs!
a fabulous feature on the ashira blog

A brief modern history of environmentalism in Singapore
some fascinating insights from the Singaporean Attitudes to Biological Conservation blog plus an interesting snippet on how Corners stopped illegal logging.

Singapore
a brand new blog by Dr Stan Rule who is here with Dr Dan and US students for a field trip to Singapore on the 240 kids blog

Budak in the forest
rock gecko and bat lily and unfortunate car accident on the budak blog

By the eco-lake
on the budak blog

Bathing chick
The baby mynah has a bath on the bird ecology blog

Mobbing of White Bellied Sea Eagle
on the manta blog

Worm baiting
a curious technique and the impact of fishing on the urban forest blog

Green tip #10: Keep your handphone for a while
on the Asia Is Green blog

Pretty Nymphs
and the answer to whether stink bugs really stink on the budak blog and also about the spines and stings of ants.

Who will miss Asia’s awkward elephants?
on the reuters environment blog

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South Seas dolphins face slaughter for their teeth - or life in captivity

Islanders who turned sea red with blood now helping controversial sea lion tamer put dolphins on planes bound for Middle East

Barbara McMahon, The Observer The Guardian 16 Mar 08;

In a ramshackle fishing village on the outskirts of Honiara, Robert Satu holds up a necklace made of dolphin teeth. Up to 20 dolphins were killed to make it, he estimates, draping the heavy ceremonial jewellery around his neck.

'We cut them like this,' he says, drawing his hand across his throat, indicating how the animals are decapitated and the teeth prised out. During the slaughter, he says, the sea turns crimson.

While the rest of the world sees dolphins as spirited creatures to be admired and cherished, the people of the Solomon Islands, an impoverished nation in the South Pacific, are not so sentimental. Every year, from December to March, men living in remote villages in Malaita province use dug-out canoes and boats to hunt dolphins.

Far out to sea, they attract the creatures by banging stones under water. Pods - as many as 200 dolphins - are herded towards the shore where the animals panic, driving their muzzles into the sand and suffocating. Villagers eat the meat but it is the teeth of certain species, particularly the spinner, that are most prized, used for special financial transactions such as paying dowries or 'bride price'.

The Malaitans are not the only people who see dolphins as a valuable commodity. Two hours by boat from the capital Honiara, on Gavutu Island, one man controversially claims to be working to save dolphins from the traditional hunts by selling them to aquariums.

The 40-acre island, surrounded by coral reefs teeming with life, has been leased by Chris Porter, 37, a former sea lion trainer from Vancouver, who established a dolphin export business in 2003. There was such an outcry over his first shipment of dolphins to a theme park in Mexico - nine of the mammals died soon after arrival - that Porter's activities were suspended amid fears that international condemnation of the trade would bring a boycott on the Solomon Islands' tuna fishing industry.

Last year the islands' government overturned the ban and he is back in business, employing 37 islanders in his burgeoning empire. Last October he sent a second shipment of 28 wild dolphins to Dubai. The animals were put on a barge, settled on mattress-like material, draped with wet cloths and transported from Gavutu to Honiara's domestic air terminal - closed for the occasion in case animal rights protesters tried to get near.

The dolphins were put into tanks on two chartered DC-10s for the 30-hour trip to Dubai. In September they are due to go on show in an aquarium.

Sitting in the sunshine on a floating wooden pontoon criss-crossing the pens containing his latest batch of captured dolphins - three adults and a calf - Porter is unperturbed by the criticism. He says: 'If I opened the pens and took them out to the open sea, they'd want to come back again. They're fed, they're happy and they are treated respectfully.'

He says he is showing islanders a way to use dolphins that is better for the animals and for the economy. His partner, Robert Satu, has certainly embraced the message. He has just bought a large fishing boat with his share of the proceeds of the Dubai shipment and says he will never kill another dolphin again. 'For me and my family, this is very good fortune,' says Satu, a father of three.

The Solomon Islands' government is unrepentant about the dolphin trade. Anyone querying its policy is handed a four-page memorandum that explains the government's stance - only 80 dolphins a year will be permitted to be exported from a plentiful population of two unendangered species - the Indian Ocean bottlenose dolphin and the bottlenose dolphin.

At his Honiara office, Dr Christian Ramofafia, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources, says he is aware of the outrage of animal welfare groups. 'This is a relatively poor country and the export of dolphins contributes to the revenue that is important to supplement the livelihood of many of our rural people,' he says. He says a government delegation went to Dubai to check on the health of the 28 dolphins and insists that they are all in good shape.

Such backing has given Porter a certain swagger and he has grandiose plans for Gavutu. He wants to build a resort where tourists can have 'unlimited time' with the dolphins. He walks around the former Second World War Japanese seaplane base, describing overwater bungalows he will build on one side, a dive centre and backpacker resort on the other and a luxury hotel in the middle.

At present, there is only a half-finished bar and dining hall and a few huts for the workers who feed the dolphins and acclimatise them to human touch. Porter says Gavutu will become an education and research centre.

Animal activists claim dozens of dolphins have died since Porter's Marine Mammal Education Centre first began operating, some because they were fed bad fish, others through hunger when a cyclone prevented anyone getting to the island to feed them. Some spotted dolphins apparently pined to death.

Porter is remarkably honest about these disasters - fish that had been partially defrosted because of electricity blackouts were refrozen and fed to the dolphins, with tragic results. 'We did have spotted dolphins and they didn't adapt to captivity.' During the Dubai transfer, carcasses of dead dolphins photographed by the side of the road near Honiara airport were printed in the media, alleged to have come from his shipment. Porter says it was part of a dirty tricks campaign against him. 'Those were not our dolphins. All of our dolphins are microchipped so they are easily identifiable.' He says he ploughs profits - a live dolphin can fetch up to £50,000 - back into his business.

But some, such as activist Lawrence Maliki, say he exploits locals. Maliki has teamed up with the Earth Island Institute of San Francisco, an animal welfare group, to fight Porter's operation. 'He's paying hunters a pittance for the dolphins and then selling them on at big prices. These animals are being kept in prisons for the entertainment of rich people instead of being free. I'd like to see Porter exported from the Solomons, the way he's exporting our dolphins.'

Sue Arnold, of Australians for Animals, claims the mammals that survive capture are kept in unhygienic and unnatural conditions in sea pens on Gavutu where it is hard for people to check on their health before they are transported abroad. 'The tragedy is that the Solomons desperately need sustainable industries to help the islanders economically and bring them respect, not international condemnation,' she says.

'Porter is exploiting this situation, pure and simple,' she adds. Referring to the dolphin hunts, she says: 'Nobody wants dead dolphins and nobody wants a trade in dolphins. They belong in the ocean, that's the bottom line.'

Back on Gavutu the dolphins are being put through another training session. They brush playfully against Porter and his staff, getting fish as treats, unaware that they are at the centre of a continuing controversy.

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Mutilated dolphins washing up on UK coasts

The Telegraph 16 Mar 08;

An increasing number of mutilated dolphins are washing up dead on British coasts, conservationists have warned.

The corpses of 29 dolphins and porpoises have been found on the beaches of south-west England since the beginning of the year, compared with 80 for the whole of 2007.

Experts suspect that most have drowned after being caught up in fishing nets, and have criticised the Government for delays in the introduction of a sonar device designed to deter the creatures from swimming in fishing areas.

Some of the dolphins' bellies have been sliced open after death to try to make them sink. Others have had their tails amputated to free them from the nets, or have sustained deep cuts on their beaks and bodies from the fine threads. Ten recent "strandings" occurred in a 10-day period, including three on Cornwall's south coast.

But marine mammal specialists believe "bycatch" incidents, when fishermen catch them in their nets while fishing for other species, could be responsible for killing far more dolphins than those washed ashore.

Mark Simmonds, science director at the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, said: "It is a horrid way for these dolphins to die and you can see that when they come ashore. Fishermen are getting more adept at hiding the evidence and what we see on land is only a proportion of the problem."

Under the 1981 Wildlife and Countryside Act, porpoises, dolphins and whales are protected species. Anyone convicted of ill-treating them faces a six-month prison sentence or a £5,000 fine. But the Act does not apply to bycatch.

In April 2004, the EU passed legislation requiring £60 "pingers" (sonic devices) to be fitted, but the Government has yet to force fishermen to use them.

Andy Wheeler, of the Cornish Fish Producers' Organisation, said: "Every reasonable effort is made by fishermen to avoid bycatch of dolphins. The jury is still out on whether the level of bycatch is a threat to the population."

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South Korea to build world’s largest tidal power scheme

British company to build world’s largest tidal power scheme
Charles Clover, The Telegraph 16 Mar 08;

A British firm has agreed to build a giant tidal power scheme - the world’s largest - in South Korea, using underwater turbines that experts say could make the proposed £15 billion Severn Barrage obsolete.

The £500 million scheme proposed off the South Korean coast will use power from fast-moving tidal streams, caused by rising and falling tides, to turn a field of 300 60ft-high tidal turbines on the sea floor.
The turbines are dropped into deep water, so they are not a danger to ships, and the ecological impacts are less than tidal barrages which take away mudflats important to birds and impede the passage of migratory fish such as salmon, shad and eels.

The joint venture between Lunar Energy, a British tidal power company, and Korean Midland Power Company, in the Wando Hoenggan waterway is expected to power 200,000 homes by 2015.

Tests on a 1 megawatt pilot turbine by the Korean authorities will start early next year to assess the environmental impacts before permission is given for the full scheme. The turbines designed by Lunar Energy will be built by Hyundai Heavy Industries and Rotech Engineering, the other partners in the scheme.

Lunar Energy is already working with the energy company E.ON on a proposal for an eight turbine tidal power scheme off the Welsh coast.

The design of turbine chosen by the company is based on existing technology used in the oil industry. It has a 2,500 ton frame into which a “cassette” containing a pump, generator, motor and electronics are dropped. William Law, chairman of Lunar Energy, said that there was the potential around the British coast for tidal stream turbines to generate up to 20 per cent of Britain’s energy needs.

This compares with the proposed £15 billion Severn estuary barrage – which it is estimated could produce five per cent of Britain’s electricity after a 15-year construction period.

Mr Law added: “The ideal place is the Pentland Firth in Scotland where there is a huge resource of at least 10,000 megawatts – equivalent three large coal-fired power stations or enough to power a million homes – in deep water.

“There is also a lot of potential in the Irish Channel, the George Channel, off the Isle of Wight and off the Channel Islands.”

John Hutton, the Business Secretary, set up a feasibility study to look at the potential, and the ecological pitfalls of tidal power earlier this year and this is taking evidence from experts with experience in both technologies.

After the Government announced the feasibility study, it has emerged that countries who relied on tidal barrages in the past, such as Canada, are moving towards tidal stream turbines which are more unobtrusive and have a lower environmental impact.

A tidal barrage across the Bay of Fundy in Canada has been blamed for riverbank erosion upstream and downstream and last year a young hump-back whale was found dead after trying to follow fish through the sluice gates.

Prof Simon Haslett, of Bath Spa University, said Canadian experts believed that a barrage would be inefficient because it would only work on the ebb tide, would pose flooding and silting dangers and would endanger marine wildlife.

He added: "The Canadians have been experimenting with tidal power for many years. The consequences have convinced them that building a barrage is inefficient, has many environmental impacts and is unsightly. For the Canadians, the idea of a barrage is now history and doesn't even get raised as an option during tidal power debates. It's so old hat they are amazed that the UK is even considering it."

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More cars, less pollution in Singapore?

Possible, but only if 1 in 2 are hybrid vehicles
Sheralyn Tay, Today Online 17 Mar 08;

IT'S A tall order, but if one in two cars on our roads were swapped with a hybrid car, we could, theoretically, slow the rate of greenhouse gas emissions — even as the car population increases at present rates.

It is a scenario that gives even more reason to push for greener transport, said Professor S K Chou, executive director of the Energy Studies Institute, at a recent roundtable on clean and sustainable land transport organised by the Singapore Environment Council.

Transportation contributes to almost a quarter of carbon emissions now, noted Prof Chou, who is also the head of the Energy and Bio-Thermal Systems Group at the National University of Singapore's Department of Mechanical Engineering. "Based on present trends, we can expect carbon emissions to double in 50 years," he added.

However, one way to reverse the upward trend and "flatten carbon emissions" is to look at green vehicle alternatives, said Prof Chou, who did a study on the hybrid car, a vehicle powered by internal combustion engine and an electric motor.

Prof Chou conducted a study to calculate the social cost — calculated as the total cost to the country and not just the individual — of the dual-powered car reaching critical mass here. "We wanted to study certain scenarios to show that if we impose certain improvements in vehicle efficiency, we can show that we can slow or reverse carbon dioxide emissions," he explained.

Factoring assumptions on the car replacement rate, the premium cost of owning a hybrid, fuel consumption and price of petrol, Prof Chou worked out that if 50 per cent of the cars here were hybrids, it would still be possible to have gains in fuel efficiency and even see carbon emissions level off.

And if the "ambitious" rate of 95 per cent is reached in 2020, fuel efficiency can be expected to increase to 126 per cent — based on a projected 132 per cent increase in car population. All of Prof Chou's calculations were based on 2006 data on costs and conventional cars.

Even more striking, carbon emissions would increase only about 104 per cent. As for the so-called "return on investment" on the purchase of a hybrid car, financial gains will be even more evident if petrol prices go up, he added.

"For hybrid cars to reach a financially neutral position, all it takes is an increase of 2 per cent in petrol prices," he said, as higher petrol prices makes energy efficient technology more feasible.

The study is still "work in progress", said Prof Chou. He is quite certain the day will come when green technologies become mainstream. "Five, 10 years from now, you never know, there may be so many impositions and taxes on hydrocarbon fuels that we have no choice but to buy hybrid cars," he said.

And in line with the focus on green transport, the third Regional Environment Sustainable Transport Forum, organised by the Land Transport Authority and National Environment Agency will start today.

Related article

NUS prof works out the cost of turning Singapore's car population hybrid
If cars go hybrid, the math holds up
Matthew Phan, Business Times 13 Mar 08;

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SolarTec shelves plan for photovoltaic plant in Singapore

It finds gap in raw materials supply chain; opts for solar glass plant in M'sia
Chen Huifen, Business Times 17 Mar 08;

SOLARTEC is shelving its plan to build to build a S$100 million photovoltaic power plant in Singapore. The German solar company is setting up a US$140 million solar glass-making facility in the town of Kulim in the Malaysian state of Kedah instead.

In town for its pre-IPO fund-raising recently, SolarTec CEO Erich Merkle said his company had identified a gap in the supply chain while sourcing for raw materials for the production of photovoltaic (PV) panels in Germany.

'We were looking into the market and we found out there was not one company that was able to supply the glass totally,' said Dr Merkle. 'So you would have a patchwork of different suppliers. And we think this is not a very good situation, because we would have different glass quality every time. We thought, 'well, wouldn't it be better to go into glass production?' '

While there are many glass makers in the market, Dr Merkle reckons there is none that specialises in producing the totally flat, float glass types solely for the thin-film PV industry. Many are traditional manufacturers focused on supplying to the booming construction and automotive sectors. They may occasionally produce small quantities of solar glass at the request of customers.

The situation is posing a challenge because the type of glass required thin-film PV panels is different from conventional glass. Glass used for buildings, for example, would keep the light transmittance rate low to keep heat and glare out of the building. However, the glass used in PV panels would have to be ultraclear, with a high transmittance rate and low iron content to extract as much solar energy as possible.

'Before the market really exploded, there was always a way to get enough glass,' said Dr Merkle. 'The solar glass that was used in the market was the capacity of one float glass line in 2006. But now with the market growing at a rate of 50 per cent every year, we will need the capacity of 80 lines in 2020. So this is a huge increase in demand.'

Generally, one production line can produce about 16 million square metres (in surface area) of float glass (glass sheets made by floating molten glass on tin) per year - enough to fill roughly 25-30 containers a day. SolarTec said it will start its glass plant in Malaysia with an initial production line, and bump it up to two as demand grows.

The company has already started its first dedicated solar glass manufacturing factory in the town of Forst in Germany. Apart from the location being close to raw materials such as sand, sodium carbonate and natural gas, the choice of Malaysia for the second site is also driven by the prospect of a ready customer in First Solar Inc, which is building a 100MW solar module factory scheduled to start operations this year.

'In Singapore, there is no market at present,' said Dr Merkle. 'There may be a market in 2-3 years, when REC (Renewable Energy Corp) has started their investment. We may start the next line in Singapore - but then, it's no problem either to deliver from Kulim to Singapore.'

But SolarTec is not giving up on its original plans to build a PV power plant in Singapore either. It will look into setting up a plant to make next-generation thin-film solar panels after the Kulim factory is operational. Solar glass production has become a priority partly because it constitutes more than 50-60 per cent of the material cost for making thin-film PV modules.

'If you can get good- quality solar glass, you can make highly efficient thin- film modules,' explained Dr Merkle. 'So the price of solar electricity may drop. And with bigger production volumes, the prices may come down even further.'

Headquartered in Munich, SolarTec posted revenue of 42 million euros (S$90 million) last year, with a net profit of 6.3 million euros.

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Philippines fishers to establish seafood restaurant, turning area into ecotourism location

Jonathan Mayuga, Business Mirror ABS-CBN 17 Mar 08;

KABASALAN, Zamboanga Sibugay—A small group of municipal fishermen-turned-fish-cage operators in this town are going big time with their innovative livelihood projects, transforming their community into an ecotourism destination with the support of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR).

Members of the Kalugpungan sa Gagmay Mangingisda sa Concepcion (KGMC) are planning to put up a seafood restaurant soon to promote their barangay as an eco-tourism destination. Besides creating additional employment, the initiative will also empower people in the community.

Roberto A. Ballon, KGMC chairman, said the restaurant will serve cultured grouper fish, oyster or talaba and freshwater crabs.

KGMC, or the Small Fisherfolks Association of Concepcion, is composed of 251 agrarian-reform beneficiaries belonging to the Greenfields agrarian reform community.

Through the help of the DAR-Western Mindanao Community Initiative Project (WMCIP), KGMC’s 251 members who used to be municipal fishermen made a complete turnaround, as they started to culture talaba, catch alimango, then later, invest in "high-end" fish-cage operation—culturing maya-maya and various species of grouper fish, legally.

"Before, we earned less than P100 a day. Our fishing methods were even illegal, considering we used nets that catch even the small fishes. We know it is illegal, but we have no choice. Through the DAR-WMCIP, we changed. Now, we are fish-cage operators," he said.

The fishing method, locally called sudsod, is destructive since it kills seagrass and the fishes’ natural habitat in the coastal areas.

Now, Ballon, who owns 12 floating fish cages, with his P50,000 investment now earns P8,000 to P10,000 net, on top of other sources of income such as culturing talaba and catching alimango.

Ballon boasts of receiving two national awards, including a Presidential Award for sharing his talaba culture technology to others. While others who culture talaba use bamboo pole as tulos, or rope that they hang underneath to allow talaba to grow, Ballon simply scatters them in the mud.

The talaba grow bigger and even taste better and juicier.

"I just tried it. To my surprise, it worked. So why need to invest to put up structures to culture them when they grow in the mud?" he said.

KGMC members have rights to a 17-hectare land situated in the coasts in barangay Concepcion.

In 2001, DAR, through the WMCIP, a United Nations-funded project under its International Fund for Agricultural Development Program, convinced them to help manage the marine coastal resources and start their own livelihood project, encouraging them to try fish-cage operation.

The group has undergone various seminars to strengthen their capacities, until members are confident enough to start their own livelihood projects. Recognizing the big demand for grouper fish, they agreed to culture the fish variety.

Ballon also organized KGMC, which now has more than two hundred members.

"From 10 members, we now have 251 members. We are doing good business," he said.

DAR-WMCIP provided KGMC financial support in the amount of P150,000 for the net and fingerlings, including payment for their training.

From six floating cages when they started in 2001, there are now a total of 42 fish cages in the area.

Fish-cage operations generate jobs, according to Ballon.

While some of their members operate fish cages, others catch fingerlings which they buy at P25 each. Within six months, the grouper fish can be sold from P75 to P250 each, depending on the size and variety of the fish.

Ordinary grouper fish, which weighs less than half a kilo each, costs P65 each. However, those that weigh up to a kilo cost P130 each.

A fish cage can accommodate 200 fishes, with a 90-percent survival rate, which is much higher than those that come from hatcheries, according to Ballon.

They also buy what he calls "scraps," or caught fish that cannot be sold because they are either too small or damaged, at P15 a kilo.

Normally, he said, it will cost a fish-cage operator P3,000 for every 10 feet by 10 feet fish floating cage for the entire season.

To protect their livelihood, KGMC volunteered to help protect the marine coastal resources, including the all-important bakawan or mangrove which they planted. The bakawan serve as natural habitat and protection from predator for young and small fishes.

"People used to laugh at me, because they saw me planting mangroves. They even teased me, saying they will be the ones to cut them later when they mature," he said.

Fortunately, the local government of Kabalasan passed a resolution that provides permanent protection to the mangrove forests in the coastal barangay, as well as the entire town.

"We have a tie-up with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, that’s why we can move freely. Otherwise, all our livelihood projects here will not be possible," he said.

Mangrove trees now thrive, resulting in other benefits, including breeding freshwater crabs that could guarantee a P3,000 monthly income for every hard-working member.

"Lazy people don’t get anything. But those who work hard earn more than enough to feed themselves," he said.

The freshwater crabs are caught using traps with dried fish as bait during high tide.

"It is easy to catch those crabs. You just put the trap, put some dried fish, and wait for the high tide. In the morning, when the water subsides, you’ll have your crabs," he said.

Ballon said since they have their own source of fresh seafood, they conducted a study regarding the feasibility of establishing their own restaurant to sustain their livelihood.

So far, KGMC has constructed 15 cottages which have started to attract local tourists, who gave them the idea of serving those fresh maya-maya or lapu-lapu that they grow in fish cages, the talaba and those delicious freshwater crabs.

"If other seafood restaurants are making good business out of the fish we sell to them, why can’t we? This way, we can also help provide jobs not only to our families, but other people in our barangay," he said.

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