34-year-old engineer chosen as Singapore's happiest person

Channel NewsAsia 17 Apr 08;

SINGAPORE: A 34-year-old engineer, Andy Goh, has been chosen as Singapore's happiest person in a search that saw more than 200 people nominated.

"The idea was actually hatched by my wife and sister-in-law about three weeks ago when they first saw the article. They thought it'd be funny to put my name in, and one thing led to another," said Mr Goh.

The engineer was chosen over 207 nominees in a search by local consulting firm, Global Leadership Academy, which is preparing to organise a well-being conference.

What clinched it for Mr Goh was his attitude about the little things in life.

He said: "Happiness is not just about money and stuff. You've got to count your little blessings – health, family, friends, good support group. These are the things that I have a lot of and that makes me feel like a really happy person."

Nominees were judged based on their smile, ability to bring happiness to others and how he or she remains positive. They also need to have a strong sense of belonging to the community.

Philip Merry, Founder of Global Leadership Academy, said: "He had many, many people who actually voted for him and in terms of the characteristics we looked for, he epitomises all of those."

Along with the title of being the happiest person in Singapore, Mr Goh also won a two-night hotel stay in Phuket, Thailand.- CNA/so

The secret of being happy? It's all in the laugh
Manager's infectious cheer helps him clinch title of S'pore's Happiest Person
Hong Xinyi, Straits Times 18 Apr 08;

A 34-YEAR-OLD manager of an engineering company with a booming laugh and a love of cooking has been named Singapore's Happiest Person.

Mr Andy Goh scored that title yesterday, beating out over 200 other nominees in the first islandwide search for Singapore's jolliest resident.

Described by friends and family as a laugh riot, Mr Goh is certainly not the strong, silent type.

'Talking is underrated,' said Mr Goh, who won a two-night stay in Phuket worth over $2,000. 'I always make the effort to hang out and catch up with friends and family. They are what keep me going.'

A panel of four judges chose Mr Goh ahead of 206 other contenders, most of whom were nominated by friends and family.

The judges were looking for qualities such as a consistently cheerful disposition even in the face of adversity and an ability to bring happiness to others.

The search was run by local management consultancy Global Leadership Academy (GLA).

Mr Goh's friends and colleagues sent in a total of five nominations for him.

'There is no gathering where he is present where you do not hear the sound of his laughter,' wrote a friend in his nomination. 'It's hard to be sad with Andy present.'

Although he gets peeved when he sees 'waste and inefficiency', Mr Goh cannot really recall ever getting boiling mad.

'I usually just think about how to solve the problem instead of getting angry, which sometimes annoys my wife. She says women don't always need problems solved; they just need someone to listen to them,' he said.

Nominees for the Happiest Person title were all smiles yesterday at the Singapore Expo, where the results were announced at a conference on the science of happiness. Organised by the GLA, it saw psychologists and educators talking about issues such as making workplaces and classrooms more positive environments.

Coming in second in the Happiest Person contest was Mr Ng Chai Lee, 61, a polyclinic records searcher. Ms Zaibun Siraj, 61, a polytechnic consultant, and Ms Stella Fernandez, 43, a hospital porter, tied for third.

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Swedish researchers find world's oldest living tree

Yahoo News 17 Apr 08;

The world's oldest living tree on record is a nearly 10,000 year-old spruce that has been discovered in central Sweden, Umeaa University said on Thursday.

Researchers had discovered a spruce with genetic material dating back 9,550 years in the Fulu mountain in Dalarna, according to Leif Kullmann, a professor of Physical Geography at the university in northwestern Sweden.

That would mean it had taken root in roughly the year 7,542 BC.

"It was a big surprise because we thought until (now) that this kind of spruce grew much later in those regions," he said.

Scientists had previously believed the world's oldest trees were 4,000 to 5,000 year-old pine trees found in North America.

The new record-breaking tree was discovered in Dalarna in 2004 when Swedish researchers were carrying out a census of tree species in the region, Kullman said.

The tree's genetic material age had been calculated using carbon dating at a laboratory in Miami, Florida.

Spruces, which according to Kullmann offer rich insight into climate change, had long been regarded as relatively newcomers in the Swedish mountain region.

The discovery of the ancient tree had therefore led to "a big change in our way of thinking," he said.

World's oldest tree discovered in Sweden
Roger Highfield, Science Editor The Telegraph 17 Apr 08;

The world's oldest tree has been found in Sweden, a tenacious spruce that first took root just after the end of the last ice age, more than 9,500 years ago.

The tree has rewritten the history of the climate in the region, revealing that it was much warmer at that time and the ice had disappeared earlier than thought.

Previously, pine trees in North America were thought to be the oldest, at around 5,000 years old.

But Swedish scientists report that in the mountains, from Lapland in the north to Dalarna in central Sweden, there are much more ancient spruce trees (Picea abies).

Prof Leif Kullman at Umeå University and colleagues found a cluster of around 20 spruces that are over 8,000 years old.

The oldest tree, in Fulu Mountain, Dalarna (“the dales”), was dated by carbon dating at a laboratory in Miami, Florida to 9,550 years old and underneath the crown in the soil there were another three generations of wood from the same clone, dating 375, 5,660 and 9,000 years old that have the same genetic makeup.

The clones take root each winter as snow pushes low lying branches of the mother tree down to ground level, explains Prof Kullman.

“A new erect stem emerges, and it may lose contact with the mother tree over time.”

The trunks of the mother tree would survive only around 600 years but the trees are able to grow a new one, he adds.

The finding is surprising because the spruce tree has been regarded as a relative newcomer in the Swedish mountain region and is thought to have originated 600 miles away in the east.

"Our results migration in the complete opposite direction has be considered, because the spruce is one of the oldest known trees in the mountain range,” says Prof Kullman.

Ten millennia ago, a spruce would have been extremely rare and it is conceivable that the ancient humans who lived there imported the tree, he says.

“Man immigrated close to the receding ice front. We have also found fossil acorns in this area, and people may have taken them with them as they moved over the landscape.”

It had been thought that this region was still in the grip of the ice age but the tree shows it was much warmer, even than today, he says.

“Spruces are the species that can best give us insight about climate change,” he says.

The summers 9,500 years ago were warmer than today, though there has been a rapid recent rise as a result of climate change that means modern climate is rapidly catching up.

The tree probably survived as a result of several factors: the generally cold and dry climate, few forest fires and relatively few humans.

Today, however, the nature conservancy authorities are considering putting a fence around the record breaking tree to protect it from trophy hunters.

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Gorilla Vaccine Urgently Needed

Clara Moskowitz, LiveScience.com Yahoo News 17 Apr 08;

NEW YORK - If the usual threats of poaching and habitat loss weren't enough, gorillas face the added danger of a deadly disease that has been surging through their ranks. The highly-infectious Ebola virus has decimated huge swaths of the already diminished western lowland gorilla population. Scientists are in a race against time to protect these animals from the disease.

Western lowland gorillas are the most common type of gorilla, but there are probably only between 50,000 and 100,000 left in the wild, all of them in the forests of the Congo basin in central Africa. All other types of gorilla, including the cross river gorilla, the mountain gorilla, and the eastern lowland gorilla, total only a few thousand, and are also found in Africa.

Over the past 20 to 25 years, hunting and disease alone have reduced the numbers of western lowland gorilla by 60 percent, according to the World Conservation Union (IUCN).

"Throughout their range the great apes in central Africa are being hammered by those triple threats: loss of habitat, hunting for the bush meat trade, and disease," said Kenneth Cameron, a field veterinarian with the Wildlife Conservation Society in the Republic of the Congo, at the Gateways to Conservation 2008: The State of the Wild conference here this week. "At their current rate of population decline, we stand to lose 80 percent of the population of [the western lowland gorilla] over the next ten years."

Because of the decimation Ebola has caused, the IUCN elevated the status of the western gorilla from endangered to critically endangered in September 2007.

Scientists say their only chance to save the species is to combat Ebola, which kills about 95 percent of the gorillas it infects. The virus causes massive internal bleeding in its victims, and has no known cure.

There is hope, however, of a vaccination.

"These animals obviously need help," Cameron said. "And were hoping that being able to vaccinate them against one of their major threats will be something that is possible, but it is too early to tell. We don't know for sure that it's going to work, but we do feel we need to try."

Scientists hope to use a vaccine that's been developed for humans on the animals, which share many of our genes.

Even if researchers find the vaccine effective in preliminary trials, it will be tough to vaccinate enough gorillas to make a difference. The gorillas are spread out throughout the Republic of Congo, Gaban, Cameroon, and the Central African Republic, and they are notoriously difficult to find. For those reasons, shooting large numbers of them with dart injections of the vaccine could be a challenge. But if scientists try to hide oral vaccines in some of their favorite fruits, individuals could hoard them or other animals may get to them first.

"I think we're going to be able to protect particular populations, but not every gorilla," said William Karesh, the vice president and director of wildlife health services at the Wildlife Conservation Society. "The urgent thing is to make sure we get some animals protected. That might buy us time to figure out some other strategies and mechanisms to protect them from going extinct."

The roughly 400 western lowland gorillas in captivity around the world are doing fine, Karesh said, so the species will likely survive in zoos at least.

"We're just concerned about them going extinct in the wild," he said. "They play an important role in the ecology of the forest. They distribute the seeds of the trees - they're basically gardening the forest. That will all change if they're gone."

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Bad policy, not biofuel, drive food prices: Merkel

Reuters 17 Apr 08;

BERLIN (Reuters) - Bad agricultural policies and changing eating habits in developing nations are primarily to blame for rising food prices, not biofuel production as some critics claim, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Thursday.

Environmentalists and humanitarian groups have stepped up campaigning against biofuels, arguing they divert production away from food and animal feed while contributing to sharp rises in the price of cereals and milk products.

But Merkel, whose country is Europe's largest biofuel producer, said the rise in food prices was not mainly due to biofuels but to "inadequate agricultural policies in developing countries" as well as "insufficient forecasts of changes in nutritional habits" in emerging markets.

"If you travel to India these days, then a main part of the debate is about the 'second meal'," Merkel said.

"People are eating twice a day, and if a third of one billion people in India do that, it adds up to 300 million people. That's a large part of the European Union," she said.

"And if they suddenly consume twice as much food as before and if 100 million Chinese start drinking milk too, then of course our milk quotas become skewed, and much else too," she said referring to EU limits on dairy production.

Biofuels, which are seen by supporters as a way to increase energy security and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, are made mainly from food crops such as grains, oilseeds and sugar.

Critics argue there are few, if any, environmental benefits for so-called first generation biofuels. They have also been blamed for increasing grain demand and pushing up prices at a time of growing threat of famine in some parts of the world.

The FAO and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) have said biofuels were "one of the main drivers" for forecasts of food price increases of 20 percent to 50 percent by 2016.

(Reporting by Gernot Heller, editing by Kerstin Gehmlich and Mary Gabriel)

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Wild fires likely to spread due to global warming

Sylvia Westall, Reuters 17 Apr 08;

VIENNA (Reuters) - Wild fires are likely to be bigger, more frequent and burn for longer as the world gets hotter, in turn speeding up global warming to create a dangerous vicious circle, scientists say.

The process is being studied as part of work to develop a detailed map of global fire patterns which will be used with climate models to predict future fire trends.

The scientists told a geoscience conference in Vienna they already predict fires will increase and could spread to previously fire-free parts of the world as the climate changes.

"An increase in fire may be the greatest early impact of climate change on forests," Brian Amiro from the University of Manitoba said late on Wednesday.

"Our forests are more likely to become a victim of climate change than a savior," he added.

Last year more than 200 wild fires swept across parts of southeastern Europe, destroying homes and devouring woodland. In Greece 65 people died.

Amiro said global warming will cause more fires which as they burn contribute to global warming by producing greenhouse gases.

"Fire avoids environmental extremes, like the deserts, tundra and rainforests," said Max Moritz from the University of California, Berkley.

"But there are some predictions which show there could be fires in deserts and there are worries they may occur in tropical rainforests if they were drier," he said.

Forests are natural carbon stores, some built up over millions of years, but as they burn they release the carbon quickly in the form of carbon dioxide.

Scientists already estimate that Canadian wild fires will double in area by the end of the century and that the fire season will be longer.

(Editing by Matthew Jones)

Mediterranean forest fires set to become 'norm': green group
Yahoo News 17 Apr 08;

Greece's lethal forest fires of last year are set to become the norm across the Mediterranean thanks to climate change, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) warned Thursday.

Nearly 70 people were killed and 150,000 hectares (370,000 acres) of forest burnt to the ground in last August's fires, which were exacerbated by failings in the Greek firefighting emergency services.

"The most immediate and obvious repercussion of climate change for the Mediterranean forests is an increase in fires, which will also become more intense and widespread," a regional official from the WWF, Nora Berahmouni, said at an Athens conference.

The meeting of more than 30 experts on the subject agreed unanimously that higher temperatures, prolonged droughts and fierce storms would leave the forests more combustible.

Berahmouni called for action before it was too late to halt a "vicious circle" where less forest coverage due to climate change risks exacerbating the effects of global warming.

"Protecting forests must also now mean allowing them to adapt to global warming," said Greek forester Aristotle Papageorgiou, pleading for both more money and a root-and-branch reorganisation of the entire system of fighting forest fires.

Serious failings in the Greek system were blamed for not extinguishing the fires sooner, although a dry winter and a succession of heatwaves were contributing factors.

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Philippines population climbs, food problems loom

Raju Gopalakrishnan, Reuters 17 Apr 08;

MANILA (Reuters) - The Philippines' population has grown over two percent each year since 2000, the government said on Thursday, but experts said Asia's biggest Catholic nation was unlikely to change policies to slow the increase.

The country has one of the highest population growth rates in the region, with at least three babies born every minute. Its population reached 88.57 million at a census in August last year, up from 76.5 million in 2000, the government said on Thursday.

The figures come as the government grapples with soaring prices of rice, due at least partly to the inability of the country to grow enough of the staple to feed its rapidly growing population.

As a measure of the seriousness of the problem, Manila has temporarily halted conversion of agricultural land for property development, hoping to ring-fence paddy fields to meet the food needs of the country.

Soldiers armed with M-16 automatic rifles guard the sale of subsidized rice and hoarders are being prosecuted.

The country's top economic planner said population control policies needed to be reviewed, but promoting artificial birth control, anathema to the Church, is not a likely option.

"The population is increasing and it means that government has to more vigorously implement its population policy, which is responsible parenthood and the advocacy for natural family planning," Economic Planning Secretary Augusto Santos told Reuters. "I think the population commission will have to review its policies," he added. "We really need greater efforts. It means we have to work harder to make the economy function more properly and more smoothly."

At least one-third of the country's population are poor and the number of poor is growing faster than the population.

Last month, government data showed that 28 million people were subsisting on less than $1 per day in 2006, up 16 percent from 2003.

But Santos said artificial birth control remained a sensitive issue.

In a nod to the Church, the government emphasizes natural family planning over artificial methods, and experts said there was not likely to be any change in this in the immediate future.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who came to power in 2001 with the backing of the Church, has consistently emphasized natural family planning. Government booklets on responsible parenting make no mention of condoms, pills or intrauterine devices.

MADE IT CLEAR

"She has made it very clear she will not purchase contraceptives, she will not promote any other method except what the Church approves and she has very strong links with the most conservative elements of the Church," said Alberto Romualdez, a former health secretary.

Still, the National Statistics Office said the annual population growth rate was 2.04 percent between 2000 and 2007.

Although that fell short of the aim of bringing the growth rate below 2 percent, it was a drop from the average annual growth of 2.34 percent between 1990 and 2000, officials said.

Romualdez said it was not good enough.

"For me, 2.04 percent is well within the normal variation of population growth rates with or without intervention by government. For me, 2.04 means that the government has not done anything."

Other experts, however, said it was a beginning.

"I think it is a significant drop," said Benjamin de Leon, President of the Forum for Family Planning and Development Inc. "But I still have to see in this administration a policy that informs people of the need to space their children, the need to plan their families."

According to the United Nations Population Fund, the average population growth rate in Asia is 1.1 percent.

Solita Monsod, professor of economics at the University of the Philippines, said the problem did not lie with the Church.

She said most Filipinos wanted to regulate their families and providing access to information and funding for civil service groups involved in family planning was key.

"Survey after survey has shown that when it comes to family planning, the Church does not make a difference," Monsod said. "The people don't have access. Give them what they want and then the population problem will take care of itself."

(Additional reporting by Karen Lema; Editing by Valerie Lee)

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China says farmland down close to 'critical' level

Yahoo News 17 Apr 08;

The amount of farmland in China shrank closer to critical levels last year, state press reported Thursday, amid concerns in the world's most populous country over how to contain food costs.

The rush in modern China to turn traditional farming areas into industrial zones or residential areas for expanding cities was again one of the factors behind the decline in 2007, the China Daily said, citing the land ministry.

However, the ministry said the pace of decline was slower than in previous years thanks to government efforts to curb the problem, such as cracking down on illegal land grabs by developers and local officials.

Last year, the amount of arable land fell by 40,700 hectares (100,500 acres) to 121.73 million hectares, according to the ministry.

The government has for many years warned of a critical situation when the amount of farming land fell to 120 million hectares, and it is now trying to devise ways to use what is left more efficiently.

"The aim of the plan is to better protect the limited arable land and make more efficient use of areas designated for development," the head of the ministry's planning commission, Hu Cunzhi, was quoted as saying.

Hu said 120 million hectares would continue to be regarded as the critical level, unless there was a "biological revolution" that boosted farm yields.

Declining farmland has coincided with a sharp increase in food prices in China over the past year, which has been one of the main factors behind soaring inflation.

The government said on Wednesday that food prices jumped 21 percent in the first quarter of this year, with overall inflation at 8.0 percent.

In a cabinet meeting on the same day, Chinese Premier Wen Jiaobao called for stronger efforts to rein in soaring food prices, state press reported on Thursday.

Wen said more must be done to boost the nation's farm output and warned often disobedient local governments that they must more closely follow the economic directives of the central authorities in Beijing.

"The most prominent problem in the domestic economy is that prices are still running at high levels," Wen said.

"Curbing price rises... should be put into an even more outstanding position."

Wen said boosting agricultural and grain production was one of the most pressing priorities, but did not give specifics on how this would be done.

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Australian state to ban plastic bags

Yahoo News 17 Apr 08;

South Australia state said Thursday it would ban plastic bags from next year after a meeting of environment ministers failed to agree on a national programme to address the issue.

The state announced it would go it alone after federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett ruled out imposing a levy on plastic bags and set up a working group on the matter instead.

"After six years ... we're still unable to come to a nationally consistent approach," state environment minister Gail Gogo said.

"But South Australia can hold its head high. We will bring about a ban."

The federal government in Canberra announced in January that it hoped to phase out plastic bags from shopping centres by the end of the year.

It has not said how it will do that, and Garrett on Thursday reiterated the government's opposition to a levy.

"But we do want to see increased action to reduce plastic bag use in the community," Garrett told reporters.

"We've identified the need for an urgent working group to be established between government and industry to look at making sure retailers are exploring all the options."

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Extinct Javan elephants may have been found again - in Borneo

WWF website 17 Apr 08;

Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia: The Borneo pygmy elephant may not be native to Borneo after all. Instead, the population could be the last survivors of the Javan elephant race – accidentally saved from extinction by the Sultan of Sulu centuries ago, a new publication suggests.

The origins of the pygmy elephants, found in a range extending from the north-east of the island into the Heart of Borneo, have long been shrouded in mystery. Their looks and behaviour differ from other Asian elephants and scientists have questioned why they never dispersed to other parts of the island.

But a new paper published today supports a long-held local belief that the elephants were brought to Borneo centuries ago by the Sultan of Sulu, now in the Philippines, and later abandoned in the jungle. The Sulu elephants, in turn, are thought to have originated in Java.

Javan elephants became extinct some time in the period after Europeans arrived in South-East Asia. Elephants on Sulu, never considered native to the island, were hunted out in the 1800s.

“Elephants were shipped from place to place across Asia many hundreds of years ago, usually as gifts between rulers,” said Mr Shim Phyau Soon, a retired Malaysian forester whose ideas on the origins of the elephants partly inspired the current research. “It’s exciting to consider that the forest-dwelling Borneo elephants may be the last vestiges of a subspecies that went extinct on its native Java Island, in Indonesia, centuries ago.”

If the Borneo pygmy elephants are in fact elephants from Java, an island more than 1,200 km (800 miles) south of their current range, it could be the first known elephant translocation in history that has survived to modern times, providing scientists with critical data from a centuries-long experiment.

Scientists solved part of the mystery in 2003, when DNA testing by Columbia University and WWF ruled out the possibility that the Borneo elephants were from Sumatra or mainland Asia, where the other Asian subspecies are found, leaving either Borneo or Java as the most probable source.

The new paper, “Origins of the Elephants Elephas Maximus L. of Borneo,” published in this month’s Sarawak Museum Journal shows that there is no archaeological evidence of a long-term elephant presence on Borneo.

“Just one fertile female and one fertile male elephant, if left undisturbed in enough good habitat, could in theory end up as a population of 2,000 elephants within less than 300 years,” said Junaidi Payne of WWF, one of the paper’s co-authors. “And that may be what happened in practice here.”

There are perhaps just 1,000 of the elephants in the wild, mostly in the Malaysian state of Sabah. WWF satellite tracking has shown they prefer the same lowland habitat that is being increasingly cleared for timber rubber and palm oil plantations. Their possible origins in Java make them even more a conservation priority.

“If they came from Java, this fascinating story demonstrates the value of efforts to save even small populations of certain species, often thought to be doomed,” said Dr Christy Williams, coordinator of WWF’s Asian elephant and rhino programme. “It gives us the courage to propose such undertakings with the small remaining populations of critically endangered Sumatran rhinos and Javan rhinos, by translocating a few to better habitats to increase their numbers. It has worked for Africa’s southern white rhinos and Indian rhinos, and now we have seen it may have worked for the Javan elephant, too.”

Borneo pygmy elephants may be extinction survivors: WWF
Yahoo News 17 Apr 08;

Borneo's mysterious pygmy elephants may be the last survivors of Javan elephants thought to have become extinct centuries ago, the environmental group WWF said Thursday.

Researchers believe the pygmy elephants, which are much smaller and more docile than their cousins found elsewhere in Asia, were brought to Borneo by royalty long ago, and then abandoned in the jungle.

"It's exciting to consider that the forest-dwelling Borneo elephants may be the last vestiges of a subspecies that went extinct on its native Java Island, in Indonesia, centuries ago," said retired Malaysian forester Shim Phyau Soon.

"Elephants were shipped from place to place across Asia many hundreds of years ago, usually as gifts between rulers," said Shim, whose ideas on the origins of the elephants WWF said had inspired the latest research.

Scientists have long wondered about the origins of the pygmy elephant, and why they are found only in a section of Borneo. There are perhaps just 1,000 of them in the wild, mostly in the Malaysian state of Sabah.

WWF said the new study found no archaeological evidence of a long-term elephant presence on Borneo, reinforcing the theory that they were brought there centuries ago by the Sultan of Sulu, which is now in the Philippines.

"Just one fertile female and one fertile male elephant, if left undisturbed in enough good habitat, could in theory end up as a population of 2,000 elephants within less than 300 years," said WWF's Junaidi Payne who co-authored the paper.

"And that may be what happened in practice here."

The pygmy elephant has an appealing rounded appearance, and males stand only about 2.5 metres tall, compared to about 3.0 metres for mainland Asian elephants.

Their faces are smaller and squarer, their tails are longer, reaching almost to the ground, and their tusks are straighter.

Another major difference is their good temperament, calmer even than the Asian elephant which is famously cooperative and hardworking compared to the larger, more aggressive African subspecies which is rarely tamed.

It was only in 2003 that the pygmy elephants were identified as a new subspecies after DNA testing found they were genetically distinct.

WWF said satellite tracking has shown the animals prefer the same lowland habitat that is being increasingly cleared for timber rubber and palm oil plantations.

"If they came from Java, this fascinating story demonstrates the value of efforts to save even small populations of certain species, often thought to be doomed," said Christy Williams, coordinator of its Asian elephant and rhino programme.

"It gives us the courage to propose such undertakings with the small remaining populations of critically endangered Sumatran rhinos and Javan rhinos, by translocating a few to better habitats to increase their numbers.

"It has worked for Africa's southern white rhinos and Indian rhinos, and now we have seen it may have worked for the Javan elephant, too."

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Best of our wild blogs: 17 Apr 08

Naked on TV this Sunday!
on the adventures of the naked hermit crabs blog

Status update on Singapore's coral nursery
on the wildfilms blog

6 million pounds of trash on world’s beaches
ICC 2007 Report on the News from the International Coastal Cleanup Singapore blog as well as link to the ICC 2007 report

Think about systemic actions this Earth Day
on the AsiaIsGreen blog

Stunning Sisters Islands
on the singapore celebrates our reefs blog

Melibe melody
on the budak blog

Rule of claw
and other snappy stories on the budak blog and do seahorses eat seagrass?

Oriental Pied Hornbill and a hairy caterpillar
on the Bird Ecology Study Group blog

Read more!

Singapore Integrated Resort rivals, north and south

Tan Hui Leng, Today Online 17 Apr 08;

A YEAR before Singapore's first Integrated Resort (IR) at Marina Bay is due to open, potential competition is already brewing to the immediate north and south.

In Malaysia, the government yesterday confirmed it is in talks with not just Walt Disney, but also other theme park operators. The discussions are "preliminary", said spokesman for Malaysia's sovereign wealth fund, Khazanah Nasional, Mr Mohd Asuki Abas. Some 890 hectares have been set aside for theme park use.

The park in Johor would compete with Universal Studios at Resorts World at Sentosa. Buzz of a theme park began as far back as 2005 when Malaysia toyed with the idea of wooing Mickey Mouse.

In the south, Malaysia's Landmarks is hoping to set up Indonesia's first legalised casino on Bintan island — details of which were revealed by chief operating officer Lim Boon Soon in a Bloomberg report yesterday. The US$3.1-billion ($4.2-billion) resort aims to compete with the one at Marina Bay here.

With Singapore planning to double the number of overseas visitors to 17 million annually and triple tourism receipts to $30 billion by 2015, Landmarks aims to capture the spill over.

"It could work, though the execution risks are there," said Mr Keith Wee, an analyst at OSK Research. With casinos in Malaysia as well as Singapore, "competition will be tough".

How much of a threat will both developments pose to Singapore?

Industry players Today spoke to said issues of accessibility stand in the way of the upstarts. While Johor has an airport, those in Singapore wanting to cross over may face traffic jams on the Causeway; Bintan has no airport yet and the ferry ride from Singapore takes 55 minutes.

And travellers will likely drop by Singapore before visiting the other two. "It's very unlikely that they will give Singapore a skip as we are a hub and they have to come through," noted Mr Robert Khoo, chief executive officer of National Association of Travel Agents Singapore.

For tourists looking for a complete getaway, Landmarks' Bintan resort will bank on the island's current tourist offerings. The developer will also offer private luxury villas with berthing facilities, condominiums and health spas. Said Mr Lim: "Five years down the road, having a casino won't be special."

Indeed, Resorts World at Sentosa — slated to open in 2010 — features wholesome family treats like Universal Studios' theme park, a maritime museum and a luxury spa.

Such distinguishing features mean that the two resorts are complementary, said an in-bound tour operator.

Tour East's group vice-president for sales and marketing, Ms Judy Lum, said Bintan can be marketed as an adult getaway and Sentosa a family destination.

As for the IR downtown, Marina Bay Sands told Today it will be a "world-class destination not available anywhere else in the region".

A Disneyland across the Causeway could rival Universal Studios as it "would have the domestic mass to support it and it would probably attract Middle Eastern tourists", said Ms Lum.

"But it needs to be well-managed and well-maintained consistently," she qualified, noting that many theme parks there are not.

Concerns about competition may well prove moot. In 2006, when the Malaysian authorities said they had discussed the project with Disney, the American company denied it.

In Indonesia, Landmarks has yet to finalise the terms and conditions of the gaming business with the authorities.

Regional tourism projects can complement offerings in Singapore
Channel NewsAsia 20 Apr 08;

SINGAPORE: Tourism developments in the neighbouring regions need not be seen as competition for Singapore, said Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry S Iswaran on Sunday.

He was referring to plans for Iskandar Malaysia in Johor and an upcoming integrated resort on Indonesia's Bintan island.

Mr Iswaran added that what Singapore needs to do is to ensure that it remains a compelling destination for visitors.

"Yes, there may be some competitive component, but at the same time, they're complementary because they enhance the offerings in the region and we wish them luck," he said.

Mr Iswaran was speaking on the sidelines of an Indian community event – Narpani Family Day – which saw the creation of Singapore's largest laddu, a popular Indian snack that is usually the size of a golf ball.

Ladies from PA Narpani Pearavai Ladies' Sub-Committee managed to win an entry in the Singapore Book of Records with their 16.9kg laddu.

In another record-making attempt at the same event, over 500 people joined in an Indian mass aerobic workout called the Aarokkia Aattam.

The event was organised by the People's Association and is part of the three-week long Tamil Language Festival which ends on 27 April.

Organisers hope the festivities will give other racial communities a better understanding of local Indian culture.- CNA/so

Mickey offers competition and benefits
Alicia Wong Today Online 21 Apr 08;

MICKEY Mouse will not be taken lightly if he goes to Johor.

But the possible arrival of Disneyland or another theme park at Singapore's doorstep — which would rival the Universal Studios park in Sentosa — could be beneficial too, said Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry S Iswaran (picture).

"There may be some competitive elements to those developments but at the same time, they are complementary because they enhance the offerings in the region, and we wish them well," he said in reply to reporters' queries.

Media reports last week highlighted the scramble for the tourism pie both north and south of the Republic, with Malaysia in talks with theme park operators and a developer hoping to build an integrated resort (IR) and Indonesia's first legalised casino on Bintan island.

While Indonesia may or may not change its laws, the Riau island already has Bintan International Resorts, and Mr Iswaran, who was speaking at community event, cited this as an example of a complementary attraction.

The Republic will "need to just track" the developments in the region and more importantly, "what we need to ensure is that Singapore continues to be a compelling and competitive attraction for tourists".

Would that include bringing Mickey Mouse to Singapore, given that the operator of Tokyo Disneyland said last week it was considering opening a new facility in South-east Asia?

Mr Iswaran was non-committal. "We're open to more ideas from different potential investors or proponents on how we can add to our tourism offerings which will complement what we already have," he said.

As part of Singapore's tourism target for 2015 — 17 million overseas visitors and $30 billion in tourism receipts — there are already "a number of initiatives in Singapore", he added, and listed the IRs, Universal Studios and the plans to "significantly enhance Mandai as a nature-based theme attraction".

If the possibility for a second theme park in Singapore arises, he said "we can always find ways to accommodate the appropriate investment venture".

Read more!

Biodiversity Studies: What price wild things?

Andy Ho, Straits Times 17 Apr 08;

IN THE environmentalist classic A Sand County Almanac, its author Aldo Leopold declared: 'There are some who can live without wild things, and some who cannot.'

Actually, because the webs of life are so intimately woven together, none of us can live without the wild things. Take just insects and microbes that break down organic matter. If they stopped working, we would soon be up to our necks in waste.

When Europeans took their non-indigenous cows Down Under in the 1780s, cow dung patties quickly came to pose a problem in the landscape. While the native dung beetle gobbled up the kangaroo's dry pellet droppings quickly, it was not adapted to tackle the big, moist cow patties. Besides fouling pastures, the patties were also breeding ground for the buffalo fly inadvertently introduced with the cattle. Hence, the patties had to be buried.

In 1968, African cattle dung beetles were imported to deal with this problem. One variety, the ball roller, detaches small bits of dung and rolls them away to be buried. Another variety, the tunneller, burrows into the soil and fills its tunnels with dung balls. In this way, they remove the patties efficiently.

The beetle activity also reduces water contamination, increases air and water infiltration into the soil and returns nutrients to the earth. And it can reduce flies breeding in dung by 80 per cent.

Converting land for farming and husbandry, forestry, mineral or fossil fuel extraction as well as urbanisation are now recognised as the main forces degrading the environment, destroying ecosystems in the process and causing losses in biodiversity.

That biodiversity matters was made abundantly clear during the Irish Potato Famine. Because of overpopulation, people moved to less fertile areas to farm, where only the potato - originally from the Andes mountains - could grow. By 1800, 90 per cent of the Irish population was dependent on the potato for food.

Since only a single variety was grown, when the late blight fungus struck in the 1840s, Ireland's entire potato crop was decimated. From 1845 to 1947, a million people died of starvation and two million emigrated to Europe and America.

The economic and human costs of biodiversity losses are usually less dramatic than this if only because this sorry episode in history has taught many about the dangers of monoculture. According to Lord Nicholas Stern, who spoke at the Civil Service College last week, the British government has a report in the works on the economic impact of biodiversity declines around the world.

Many economists had found much to agree and disagree with his 2006 Stern Report on the economic impact of global climate change. It is also likely that the upcoming biodiversity report will evoke as much controversy worldwide. One area of contention will likely pivot on the models of biodiversity that these British economists will rely upon to price biodiversity.

Up to now, most such economic studies tended to, for simplicity's sake, rely on counting discrete species to see if the numbers are rising or falling. But counting species may not be the best way to measure the impact of biodiversity change because how species interact with one another - and their interactions with their environments - also matter. Ecologists now say these interactions and interdependencies may matter more than raw species numbers.

If counting species is not the best way to model the significance of biodiversity change, putting a price tag based on whether species are becoming more abundant or less may not be the most accurate way of going about things. However, being the most convenient way, most economic studies of biodiversity resort to it by default.

For example, a 2007 econometric study done for Resources for the Future, a well-known Washington-based environmental NGO, roped in the expertise of paleo-ecologists to look for pollen remains in peat in Scotland. These were carbon-dated to the 1600-2000 period.

The study aimed to show that the more intensive the land use was, the greater was the biodiversity decline. Though the numbers of livestock would be a good proxy for intensity of land use, only post-1860 data was available. Even then, the early data was patchy.

So, instead, the study's authors assumed that higher meat and wool prices would get farmers to raise more livestock. Thus meat and wool prices as proxies for land use intensity were tracked against plant species diversity, measured as the number of plant species per period as detected in the pollen remains.

The researchers concluded that more intensive grazing led to greater declines in biodiversity. But this would be a valid conclusion only if counting pollen species measured adequately the significance of changes in biodiversity. The researchers acknowledged that biodiversity includes not just species abundance but also 'the interactions between them, and the natural systems that support them'. Yet the last two items were not priced because of technical difficulties.

Indeed, most economic studies of biodiversity tend to resort to this bits-and-pieces approach and focus on taking an inventory of discrete species. A more holistic modelling would include the interaction processes too. However, such processes are continually changing in unpredictable ways that ecologists cannot yet identify comprehensively - especially in complex ecosystems like tropical forests. If so, ecologists do not know for sure at what point biodiversity decline will matter. Thus, pricing such changes would involve many orders of guesswork.

It would be most interesting to see how the British economists deal with these uncertainties in their pricing models. But this difficult work needs to be done if parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity - which Singapore ratified in 1995 - are to begin working towards their target of conserving at least 10 per cent of each of the world's ecological regions by 2010.

Pricing biodiversity accurately and fairly may enable the signatories to begin acting in concert. And they should too. After all, none of us can live without the wild things.

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Pulau Ubin to host Youth Olympic Games delegates

All YOG athletes to spend a day at Outward Bound Singapore
Channel NewsAsia 17 Apr 08;

SINGAPORE : When 4,000 athletes from all over the world convene in Singapore for the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) in 2010, all of them will need to attend a full-day programme at the Outward Bound Singapore (OBS) on Pulau Ubin. This is part of the YOG's culture and education programme.

Details of the outdoor activities for the athletes were revealed when members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) made an on-site visit on Wednesday.

Members of the IOC made a stop at Pulau Ubin, as the island will also host the delegates of the YOG.

During their 12-day stay in Singapore, the young athletes will spend one day at the OBS, which can take up to 450 participants at any one time.

Nicholas Conceicao, Director, Outward Bound Singapore, said: "There are several cultural and educational programmes to complement the actual games event.

"And the OBS component is going to be the adventure component that's going to be (held) in Pulau Ubin. We are tentatively looking at possibly a series of one-day adventure events, on and around the island."

And that includes some adventure on land and at sea.

Mr Conceicao said, "It's a bit of a shift for them, because when they are here during the Games, it's a lot about competition. But during the actual event on Pulau Ubin, we are really looking at fostering teamwork and friendship, and I think that is one of the key tenets of the Olympic Games as well."

That objective behind the planned events, as well as the facilities, impressed the visiting IOC officials. They are part of a delegation which is in Singapore for a six-day seminar to share knowledge with local officials on how to organise the YOG. - CNA/ms

Read more!

Singapore and Tianjin Eco-city

This eco-city to show the way
Zul Othman, Today Online 17 Apr 08;

COULD Singapore spark the green revolution in China, a country recently named in a University of California report as the world's "biggest polluter"?

This possibility is being raised as the Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City — the first collaboration of its kind between Singapore and Beijing since the Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP) in 1994 — takes off.

Using the lessons from the Housing and Development Board's 48 years of experience, the planners have opted for a practical approach in the quest to convert the wetlands and rivers of the site — 150 km from Beijing — into a city that is the model of sustainable development.

The best ideas of both countries will go into developing the 30-sq-km site into a living space for 350,000 residents in 10 to 15 years' time, with schools, housing areas, commercial and industrial services.

"We don't want it to be a laboratory experiment because 'cutting edge' suggests that it cannot be replicated elsewhere," said Minister for National Development Mah Bow Tan as he unveiled the key features of the draft master plan on Tuesday.

Indeed, the experiment will in turn provide lessons for Singapore. "We are learning from each other but will take the higher of the two standards and try to implement it here," said Mr Mah.

The plan is spearheaded by the China Academy of Urban Planning and Design, Tianjin Urban Planning and Design Institute, and a Singapore planning team led by the Urban Redevelopment Authority. Development will be headed by a joint venture between a Singapore group led by Keppel Corporation and Chinese companies.

Said Mr Mah: "It's a major challenge and all of us involved are under no illusions that this is something easy to achieve."

Maintaining the area's greenery while setting aside sufficient land for institutional, commercial and residential use was just one of the challenges.

When completed circa 2023, each block in the eco-city will conform to green building standards to ensure efficient energy use. Renewable energy sources such as solar power will be available, while an efficient public transport network of light rail trains and buses will be in place, alongside extensive cycling and footpaths to discourage motorised transportation.

Like the SIP project, the Tianjin Eco-City is expected to deepen bilateral ties and "provide new platforms for leaders, officials and business people to engage each other", said Mr Mah.

The Tianjin Municipal Government will release the master plan for public consultation next week. Work has commenced on the 3-sq-km start-up area to be completed in three to five years' time.

Tianjin Eco-city draft master plan unveiled
It will guide land use, development of 30 sq km site
Emilyn Yap, Business Times 17 Apr 08;

IN Mandarin, the description is almost poetic. Translated into English, it goes: 'One chain surrounds one core; six wedges to the river and sea; one spine connecting four districts.'

The phrase paints an overall picture of the proposed Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-city, the most significant collaboration between the governments of Singapore and China since the Suzhou Industrial Park project.

Unveiled by the Ministry of National Development, the draft master plan will guide land use and development of the 30 sq km site, located 40 km from Tianjin city centre.

Drafted with three principles in mind, the master plan aims to make the eco-city a practical, scalable and replicable model that promotes green living, economic development and social harmony for cities in China and elsewhere.

The heart of the green city will consist of an eco-core and eco-chain, conserved wetlands and rehabilitated water bodies. Connecting this core to surrounding rivers and the sea will be six waterways or eco-corridors.

Four main districts will encircle the ecological core, and a light rail will run through the city along an eco-valley, connecting major transit nodes, residential areas, community facilities and commercial centres.

To minimise commuting, residential areas, workplaces, education institutions and recreational spots will be close to the core, a 400m by 400m basic grid called an eco-cell. Various eco-cells will form neighbourhoods, districts, and urban centres.

The eco-city may house 350,000 residents when it is completed in 10 to 15 years.

A three sq km start-up area close to the Tianjin Economic-Technological Development Area has been marked for completion in the next three to five years.

Keppel Corporation is leading Singapore's effort in the joint venture. 'Keppel is looking at various other international partners and companies - Europeans, Americans and others,' said National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan.

The Qatar Investment Authority has already been roped in, and according to Mr Mah, has announced that it will 'take 10 per cent of the part of the Singapore joint venture.'

Asked if Singapore companies stand to benefit from the eco-city project, Mr Mah said: 'I believe that many companies from Singapore have the expertise, so I think this will be a wonderful opportunity for them to be able to offer that expertise' - in areas such as waste-water treatment and energy development.

The Tianjin municipal government will put up the draft master plan for public consultation in Tianjin next week.

The plan may be refined before it is submitted for approval by the Chinese authorities.

HDB-style living in Tianjin eco-city
The $5.8b project is the biggest S'pore-China venture in 15 years
Jessica Cheam, Straits Times 17 Apr 08;

A LANDMARK project to build an ecologically sustainable city from scratch in Tianjin will see a touch of HDB living in northern China.

It will feature an LRT station within walking distance of flats, which will also be close to amenities such as eateries and schools - all familiar sights in HDB estates here - to cut down on the need for transportation.

Many other Singapore touches are likely as the flagship Tianjin eco-city is being modelled on some of Singapore's HDB new towns.

A bold masterplan for the eco-city is being made public today by the National Development Ministry.

China news reports say investments of at least 30 billion yuan (S$5.8 billion) will be pumped into the project.

It is the most significant cooperative project between the two nations in about 15 years. And leaders in both Singapore and China believe that it could serve as an important blueprint for similar future eco-friendly projects.

Speaking to reporters earlier this week, National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan said the eco-city would have a 'clear Singapore imprint' and would reflect 'a lot of the experience that we have gathered for many years'.

It would pave the way for the further adoption of green features and technologies here, he added. It would also allow government leaders and businessmen from both nations 'to interact...broaden and deepen the engagement and relationship'.

The eco-city, 40km from the port city of Tianjin and 150km south-east of Beijing, will tackle the growing problems of pollution by providing a 'green lung' and eco-corridors with extensive greenery for 110,000 energy-efficient homes.

Singapore's Green Mark scheme - which sets environmental standards for buildings - will also be used.

Green technologies such as water recycling and harnessing waste heat from power stations will be adopted. The LRT will link four major districts, cutting the need for cars. The city will derive 15 per cent of its energy from renewable sources as an initial target.

The masterplan will see 30 sq km of marshland transformed into a mini-metropolis. Construction of an initial 3 sq km will begin after a ground-breaking ceremony in Tianjin in July.

The eco-city, first mooted by Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong during a meeting with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in Beijing last April, is the most significant cooperation between the two countries since the Suzhou Industrial Park in the early 1990s.

A boon to Singapore firms, the project will provide opportunities for those with products and services, such as waste and water treatment, to expand into China, said Mr Mah.

About 20 per cent of the eco-city's homes will be public, subsidised housing - an idea put forward by Singapore to ensure the city is made up of residents 'from all walks of life', he said.

He said the project resonates now as 'countries all over the world are facing serious challenges in trying to grow but to do so without damaging the environment'.

The eco-city will be set apart because 'economic development will be balanced with sustainable development that is holistic and pragmatic...and it has to be practical, scaleable, replicable' .

It will be built by a joint venture - a Singapore consortium led by Keppel Corp and a Chinese consortium led by Tianjin TEDA Investment Holdings, with equal stakes.

Mr Mah acknowledged the project as a major challenge:

'We're under no illusions that this is...easy to achieve. but looking at the goodwill, amount of effort and commitment that's going in, I think there is every chance that we will achieve what we set out to do within the timeframe.'

Sino-Singapore Tianjin eco-city to be ready in 10 to 15 years
Channel NewsAsia 17 Apr 08;

SINGAPORE: The mega eco-city project in Tianjin, which is jointly planned by China and Singapore, will be completed in 10 to 15 years.

But a glimpse of the whole city can be seen in as early as three years when a start-up area is completed, according to National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan, who is leading the Singapore team in the project.

This urban development will not take place at the expense of the environment as buildings in the Sino-Singapore Tianjin eco-city will be energy efficient.

Ninety percent of its over 300,000 residents will also be making 'green trips' by walking, cycling or using public transport to reduce carbon emissions.

Moreover, green technologies will be adopted to ensure effective and efficient recycling of refuse, sewage and wastewater.

The eco-city is located just 40 kilometres from Tianjin city and 150 kilometres from Beijing.

Mr Mah said Singapore hopes to incorporate some of its experience in environment-friendly practices to the eco-city. At the same time, Singapore wants to glean some lessons from the joint project.

The minister said: "Some of the ideas are derived from what we are already doing here. For example, we are specifying that all the buildings in the eco-city will be 'Green Marked'. We will take some of the Green Mark (certified) buildings, adapt it to the rules in China and implement a Green Mark in China.

"But in the process of doing it, I'm sure we will adapt and improve, and marry the best practices from both sides. I would expect that we will take the improved version and bring it back to Singapore. That's why I say that it's an interactive process - we are learning from each other."

Mr Mah said successful features in the eco-city will be implemented in new developments such as those in Jurong.

The eco-city will be built based on a concept very much like Singapore's town centres, so the new city will have educational institutions, medical centres, commercial and residential areas within walking distances.

A total of 20 percent of its residential area will also be allocated for public housing.

Singapore plans to share its expertise in wastewater management, urban planning and transportation as well.

"At the end of the day, there will be a clear Singapore imprint in this... it will reflect a lot of the experiences we have gathered in Singapore over many, many years," said Mr Mah.

The first development, which is expected to be ready in three years' time, is an area that covers over three square kilometres in the south of the eco-city. Facilities in this area include a business park and a university.

The masterplan for the eco-city will be released for public consultation in Tianjin sometime next week. But before that, work has already started on detailed plans for the start-up area.

When completed, the eco-city is expected to be a model for other cities in China, as well as other parts of the world.

It is the second joint project by the Singapore and Chinese governments after the Suzhou Industrial Park.

The Chinese government has identified the project as the third most important development in China after the Pearl River Delta and the Yangtze River Delta projects.- CNA/so

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Have separate bin to recycle batteries

Letter from Andrew Wee Kien Han, Straits Times Forum 17 Apr 08;

IT IS heartening that every so often, we read about increasing efforts to recycle.

Of real concern, however, is the rise in use of hand-held electric components and hence rechargeable batteries. I follow in the footsteps of those who have voiced this concern before.

Any new pack of batteries invariably warns against discarding them in conventional trash. From my understanding in Singapore, our trash is either placed in a southern sea-fill or incinerated within breathing distance of where people live or work.

A quick check on the Internet or an authoritative textbook of biochemistry tells you the following.

# Nickel is a well-documented carcinogen, especially when inhaled as insoluble particulates;

# Cobalt, a component of NiMH batteries, is a suspected carcinogen in high doses;

# Cadmium is a highly toxic metal and a known carcinogen. When inhaled, it can cause flu-like symptoms and loss of productivity at the very least, as well as loss of smell, osteoporosis and renal damage; and

# Some old components also use lead-acid batteries.

I have a sizeable collection of expended nickel metal hydride and nickel cadmium batteries at home. I wouldn't dare bury or burn them, but I am open to suggestions on how to dispose of them.

I suggest we have separate bins so batteries can be disposed of properly.

Read more!

Sembcorp plans cogen plant on Jurong Island

Business Times 17 Apr 08;

IN what promises to be its first major new project on Jurong Island in a while, Sembcorp Industries is planning to build a second cogeneration plant to supply mainly steam to new petrochemical plants in the Tembusu sector.

Significantly, apart from some gas-firing, the company aims to use innovative, alternative fuels like refuse-derived fuel and heavier fuel oils for the new plant.

It will be unlike its current 815-MW cogen plant in Sakra which is 100 per cent gas-firing.

Sembcorp president and CEO Tang Kin Fei, who disclosed this in an interview, said that it is talking to petrochemical investors there who will need steam and other utilities for their new plants.

Germany's Lanxess, which is building an $845 million synthetic rubber plant, is, for instance, one of the newcomers in Tembusu.

'We will make a decision within six months,' he said of its alternative-fuels, cogen investment through which it hopes to be able to sell cheaper steam to customers there.

The new plant - of an undisclosed capacity - will make use of some of the additional Indonesian natural gas which Sembcorp has just contracted to buy.

Under its latest US$5.5 billion gas deal yesterday, Sembcorp contracted to buy an extra 86 million standard cubic feet of gas daily, with delivery starting in 2010/2011.

Still, as gas prices are pegged to high sulphur fuel oil prices - which have also risen in line with sky-high crude oil prices - Sembcorp's long-term plan is to try to use more alternative fuels instead, Mr Tang stressed.

'From a 50 per cent cost component when we built our first cogen plant, today, about 80 per cent of a cogen plant's cost is fuel. And if you ask an investor whether the price of steam produced by gas-firing plants is competitive, they tell you no,' he said.

That is why Sembcorp, which is currently 100 per cent reliant on gas-firing, hopes to eventually reduce this by half through use of other cheaper, innovative alternative fuels, Mr Tang said.

One way will be to backward-integrate.

As Sembcorp is big in waste-disposal and recovery - 'we collect over 2,000 tonnes of municipal solid waste daily,' Mr Tang said - it is now looking to use refuse-derived fuels to fire its new cogen plant. It could also consider collecting waste fuels, he added.

Another alternative it is considering is heavier fuel oils, including off-specification products from the oil refineries and not unlike the orimulsion - or bitumen mixed with water - used by Power Seraya.

But he declined to give more details of the alternative fuels it is eyeing at this time.

On this, Sembcorp can also tap on its UK experience where it just opened a $193 million wood-fuelled biomass power station - the first such large-scale industrial power plant there to be fuelled entirely by renewable wood.

On liquefied natural gas - with Singapore expected to name the successful LNG aggregator anytime now - Mr Tang said, 'We are a significant gas importer with a 45 per cent share of Singapore's gas imports, so naturally we are interested in LNG.'

'We are keen to work with the LNG buyer,' he added, saying Sembcorp was open to all options, including taking a stake in the LNG aggregator to give it additional flexibility in its gas business.

Read more!

11,000 trees to be nurtured at tree banks islandwide

Channel NewsAsia 16 Apr 08;

SINGAPORE : Singaporeans can look forward to having more trees around the island in a few years' time.

The National Parks Board and the Singapore Land Authority have turned four state land sites, almost the size of 50 football fields, into tree banks. The four sites are being used to nurture young trees to meet future demands for landscaping in Singapore.

Three sites are located at Sungei Tengah and one in the West Coast area. The Sungei Tengah (Lorong Pasu) sites measure a total of 24 hectares and the West Coast site provides seven hectares of tree-bank space.

One such site at Sungei Tengah will nurture the young trees before they are transplanted in a nursery in Pasir Panjang.

To maximise land use, the trees are planted using a root control bag. The bags will also help contain the root structure of the saplings which will help make it easier to transplant the trees.

A total of 11,000 trees, including the popular 'Jelutong' and 'Katong Laut' trees, has been planted on the four land sites.

Simon Longman, Director, National Parks Board, said: "We have this big demand for semi-mature trees for maximum impact in our projects. We have a lot of parks projects and street scape projects, which are projects along the roads... Gardens by the Bay is one example of a project which is coming up." - CNA/ms

Four new tree banks - for a greener future
Shobana Kesava, Straits Times 17 Apr 08;

FOUR new banks have been set up by the Government, but they are not designed to help investors save for the future. Instead, they will satisfy Singapore's growing demand for trees.

The National Parks Board (NParks) has so far spent $800,000 on four new nurseries that are home to 72 species of saplings. Many are rare here, including the Jelutong with its pagoda-like branches and the Katong Laut, which is normally restricted to coastal forests.

NParks says that eventually, the trees will be transplanted to roadsides, gardens, parks and other places in need of a visual pick-me-up.

Located on the western side of the island, the tree banks cover just over 30ha, enough land for about 48 football fields. The nurseries are expected to pay out in semi-mature trees in the next three to five years.

'Within five years they will be large enough to make an impact in their new environment and people can appreciate them better,' said NParks streetscape director Simon Longman.

The tree-planting drive is part of an NParks plan to turn Singapore greener.

In particular, many of the trees are expected to go into the Gardens By The Bay project in Marina South which will be ready in late 2010. A series of waterfront parks, they will include a conservatory and serve as Singapore's second botanical garden.

The saplings are expected to increase the number of trees planted in Singapore to 80,000 or so each year, up from the current 60,000.

Most of the trees in Singapore are imported from neighbouring countries which is slightly more expensive than raising them here, said Mr Longman.

More importantly, he said, there would be greater certainty in being ready for major projects like Gardens By The Bay.

The Singapore Land Authority's (SLA) deputy director of land asset management services division, Mr Lewis Koh, said the use of these sites as tree banks is scheduled to be reconsidered in 2013.

By that time, the 72 species of trees being planted this year are expected to be lush.

Among the more unusual species that could line roads here are the seashore mangosteen, mangrove trumpet tree and Katong Laut. These are now being tested for their hardiness at the tree banks.

Mr Longman said NParks will be working with the SLA to identify three more nursery sites by August.

NParks will be investing in about 30,000 tree saplings in all.

31ha of land for tree nurseries
Singapore snippets Today Online 17 Apr 08;

About 31 hectares of state land will serve as nursery or tree banks to meet Singapore's future landscaping needs under a joint project undertaken by the National Parks Board (NParks) and the Singapore Land Authority.

Comprising four sites – three in Sungei Tengah and one in West Coast – the bank has 11,000 trees comprising 72 different species. The Sungei Tengah site measures 24ha and the West Coast one is 7ha in size. The tree banks will also serve as temporary homes for trees salvaged from other sites.

To maximise the land space and simplify the inventory process, NParks planted the trees plantation-style, using a patented system of root-control bags from the United States that will ease the transplanting process in three to five years' time. The bags help contain the roots of the plants, making harvesting easier and quicker.

Said NParks director Simon Longman: "The tree banks allow us to pre-grow quality trees, and provide lush greenery and better shade at a faster rate. And we can make available trees of more diverse species."

NParks & SLA create more than 30ha of space for tree banks
Inter-agency project sees more than 11,000 trees nurtured on State land for future use
NParks press release 15 Apr 08;

15 April 2008 – In a few years’ time, Singaporeans passing along Sungei Tengah and West Coast would be treated to a visual spectacle of lush, green young trees sprawling across more than 30 hectares of State land.

The National Parks Board (NParks) and Singapore Land Authority (SLA) – tapping on each other’s resources and expertise - have embarked on their biggest tree-banks project. Four sites in Sungei Tengah and the West Coast area are being used to nurture young trees to meet future demands for landscaping in Singapore. These trees will liven up Singapore’s streetscape and add more than a touch of greenery in upcoming significant NParks projects such as Gardens by the Bay, the Streetscape Greenery Masterplan and new park developments.

SLA is known for its role as the central land bank of Singapore’s 14,000 hectares of State land. It is now also the tree bank of some 11,000 trees planted on four State land sites. There are 3 sites in Sungei Tengah and 1 in West Coast. The Sungei Tengah (Lorong Pasu) sites measure a total of 24 ha and the West Coast site provides 7ha of tree-bank space.

Several factors go into site selection, such as accessibility, size, location and the suitability of the ground for tree banks. More than two months of planning, sourcing and surveying work were done before the project was implemented in June 2007.

The 11,000 trees that have been planted so far comprises 72 different species of trees, with 75% being species found in the region. The tree banks also serve as temporary holding areas for trees salvaged from various sites before they are transplanted in other parts of Singapore.

SLA’s Deputy Director of Land Asset Management Services, Mr Lewis Koh, said: “This joint initiative by SLA and NParks to create tree banks effectively optimises the use of vacant State land, and provides a long-term supply of trees for landscaping needs in Singapore. Our State lands are beautified aesthetically and this enhances the value of our land as green lungs for the community. We will continue to identify and study sites with the potential for tree banks on more State land.”

NParks’ Director of Streetscape, Mr Simon Longman, said: “SLA has shown great spirit of collaboration as a fellow government agency to help NParks in our overall efforts to make Singapore a ‘City in a Garden’. The tree banks allow us to pre-grow quality trees, and provide lush greenery and better shade at a faster rate. We are also able to make available trees of more diverse species. Many of these tree species are native to the forests of this region. By planting them in various parts of Singapore, we are introducing a greater biodiverse mix of trees in urban areas and enhancing our natural heritage”

To maximise the land space at the current sites and simplify inventory process of the stocks, NParks planted the trees plantation-style using a patented system of root control bag from the United States which will ease the transplanting process in about 3 to 5 years’ time. The bags help contain the root structure of the plants, making harvesting easier and quicker.

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Cleveland zoo researchers find rare giant turtle in Vietnam

Yahoo News 17 Apr 08;

Researchers from the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo have discovered a rare giant turtle in northern Vietnam — a find that carries great scientific and cultural significance. Swinhoe's soft-shell turtle was previously thought to be extinct in the wild. Three other turtles of the species are in captivity, said experts from the Zoo's Asian turtle program.

The discovery represents hope for the species, said Doug Hendrie, the Vietnam-based coordinator of the zoo program.


Turtle expert Peter Pritchard, president of the Chelonian Research Institute, confirmed the find based on a photo Hendrie showed him.

"It looked like pretty solid evidence. The animal has a pretty distinctive head," Pritchard said.

There have been rumors for years of a mythical creature living deep in the waters of a northern Vietnam lake. Some in a village west of Hanoi claimed to be blessed by catching a glimpse of it's concave shell as it crested above the surface of their lake.

A national legend tells of a giant golden turtle that bestowed upon the Vietnamese people a magic sword and victory over Chinese invaders in the 16th century. Whether that sacred turtle has materialized in the 21st century will be a matter of cultural debate among the Vietnamese.

"This is one of those mythical species that people always talked about but no one ever saw," said Geoff Hall, zoo general curator.

Of the other three Swinhoe's soft-shell turtles in captivity, two are in Chinese zoos and the other is cared for in the Hoan Kiem ("Returned Sword") Lake in downtown Hanoi — the lake in which the legendary turtle appeared to reclaim the sword from the emperor.

Pritchard said an amateur photographed a Swinhoe's soft-shell turtle in southern China about six months ago that he believes was legitimate.

"It's on the very brink of extinction, so every one counts," Pritchard said.

The Cleveland Metroparks Zoo began its effort to preserve and protect Asian turtles in 2003 amid reports of increased killings for food or to make traditional medicine from their bones. Development and pollution also led to loss of nesting habitats along rivers, zoo officials said.

The zoo has put more than $275,000 into Asian turtle conservation efforts since 2000 and has supported Hendrie since 2003, officials said.

His team and scientists from Education for Nature-Vietnam had searched lakes and wetlands along the Red River for three years before hearing about the creature living outside Hanoi.

The turtle remains in the lake and researchers have notified the Vietnamese government of its existence, Hendrie said.

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Euro MPs urged to save tigers

BBC News 16 Apr 08;

MEPs are being urged to use their influence to force nations with wild tiger populations to halt poaching and the illegal trade in tiger parts.

The European Parliament's first Tiger Day is being held to focus attention on the plight of the endangered animals.

Scientists estimate that only 2,500 breeding adults are left in the wild.

However, campaigners say tiger numbers could reach 10,000 within a decade if attempts to protect the animals receive additional support and resources.

'Tiger farms'

There are growing fears among campaign groups that some nations, such as China, could soon legalise the trade in farmed tiger parts.

"A few Chinese businessmen who invest in industrialised tiger farming are petitioning the government to lift a 15-year trade ban that has successfully reduced the market for tiger parts used in traditional Chinese medicine," said Grace Ge Gabriel from the International Fund for Animal Welfare (Ifaw).



"Overturning the trade ban would open the floodgates of consumption, and stimulate more poaching of wild tigers."

Dirk Sterckx, a Belgian MEP and chairman of the Parliament's Delegation to China, said it was "absolutely essential" for China to support the international efforts to save wild tigers.

"I would urge the Chinese authorities to fulfill their international obligations by declaring their commitment to the 1993 ban on the trade in tiger parts," he commented, "and by destroying existing stockpiles of tiger parts."

Alasdair Cameron, from the London-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), called for the phasing out of China's tiger farms.

"It is essential that all parties, including the European Parliament, do all that they can to prevent the extinction of the wild tiger and other Asian big cats," he said.

During the course of Brussels Tiger Day, which is being hosted by UK MEP Neena Gill, politicians are being invted to a range of events, including a meeting with a number of the world's leading experts on tigers.

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Ancient Ginkgoes, Redwoods Threatened in China

John Roach, National Geographic Magazine 16 Apr 08;

Forty million years ago the dawn redwood was among the most abundant tree species growing in the Northern Hemisphere. Today about 6,000 trees remain in the wild, and all of them are in south-central China.

Dozens of modern plant and animal species share a similar history—once widespread, they are now restricted to the booming Asian country.

China is home to more than 31,500 plant species, about 10 percent of the world's total. Several species, including the dawn redwood and the maidenhair tree—also called ginkgo—are as old as the dinosaurs.

But 20 percent of these plants are at risk of extinction due to human pressures, according to Peter Raven, director of the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis.


"By the end of the century, over half the species in China could be extinct or at the verge of extinction," he said. "That's a very serious problem."

Raven chairs the National Geographic Society's Committee for Research and Exploration. (The National Geographic Society owns National Geographic News.)

The committee has funded more than a dozen grantees, many of them Chinese, to perform botanical studies in China.

Survivors

Changing climates over the past 15 million years failed to wipe out China's rich flora, said Jun Wen, a botanist and expert on Chinese flora at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

In China, plants could migrate south to survive. But in Europe, the Mediterranean blocked a southern migration. And in North America, plants were squeezed by the bottleneck going into Mexico.

China's complex topography—folded mountain chains run across the country, for example—also creates niches that allowed plants to evolve in isolation, Wen added.

"In that regard, it's not only a very interesting 'museum' that preserves a lot of ancient survivors, but at the same time many new things get created," she said.

Crucial Plants

As many as a sixth of Chinese plant species are used in traditional medicines, and many more are vital to Chinese diet and culture.

Scientists have derived an anti-malarial medication, artemisinin, from the shrub Artemisia annua. And a recent trial found the herb Houttuynia cordata is an effective treatment for severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).

Many plants, such as rice and soybeans, are staple food crops around the world. Others are familiar ornamentals such as lilacs, magnolias, forsythia, many kinds of roses, and rhododendrons.

But this crucial flora is threatened by a swelling Chinese population and higher rates of pollution, Raven, of the Missouri Botanical Garden, said.

In 2002 the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation was adopted under the Convention on Biological Diversity, and in February 2008 China officially unveiled its own plant conservation strategy.

Raven is cautiously optimistic the plan will meet some success.

"China is becoming a relatively rich country and the government and people there are trying to do what they can to save what they have," he said.

Major Undertaking

James Wong is an ethnobotanist with the London-based Botanic Gardens Conservation International, which helped China develop its plant-conservation strategy.

The plan is the first on this scale anywhere in the world that is aimed at plant conservation, he said.

For example, within three years China hopes to revert nearly 37 million acres (15 million hectares) of farmland to forest. That's an area bigger than England, Wong noted.

"The amount of money and human labor they can put behind these initiatives is something that other governments simply could never hope to achieve," he said.

Other facets of the plan include a sweeping inventory and analysis of the country's plants, increased protection both in the wild and in botanic gardens, and a nationwide public-awareness campaign.

"Once it has decided on something, [China will] really go all out and do it in a big, big way," Wong said.

Early Days

Still the task at hand is tremendous, Raven said.

For example, air in 97 of the 100 largest cities in China is among the most polluted in the world.

Over the next 20 years, these metropolises are expected to add another 250 million people.

The growth threatens to eat up more farmland and further pollute the air, rivers, and streams.

Meanwhile, wild plants are being overharvested to supply the constant need for popular Chinese traditional medicine, as well as a burgeoning demand for medicines distributed around the world.

And while the conservation plan may look good on paper, "it's [the] early days," Raven said.

China's national park and nature reserve system is currently one of the most poorly funded per unit of land of any developing country, he pointed out.

"That leads to a situation—especially if [the parks] are not well integrated with the needs of the local populations—where the forests and natural resources of the area can disappear more rapidly than you would think," he said.

Wen said increasing public awareness about the value of these plants is critical to the success of the plant conservation strategy.

"The public, for the most part, does not recognize the importance of conservation in China," she added.

"People continue to cut firewood and dig medicinal plants without consideration for the next generation."

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Japan May Raise Antarctic Whale Meat Prices

Teruaki Ueno, PlanetArk 17 Apr 08;

TOKYO - Japan may raise prices of whale meat to finance the next round of its annual Antarctic hunt after activists stopped it whaling fleet from killing their target number of animals, a government official said on Tuesday.

This season's hunt saw a series of skirmishes between the Japanese fleet and anti-whaling protesters. The fleet caught only 551 minke whales, compared with the planned catch of 850. No fin whales were caught, although it had set a target of 50, a Fisheries Ministry official said on Monday.

A Fisheries Agency official said the fleet's failure to meet its target could affect the overall financing of Japan's whaling programme.

"Because we failed to meet the target, I believe the impact will be great," Fisheries Ministry official Takahide Naruko told reporters.

Asked whether prices of whale meat from the Antarctic would be raised to help finance the whale hunt in the next season, he said: "That is one of the options we can think of."

The whaling fleet's factory ship, the Nisshin Maru, returned to Tokyo port earlier on Tuesday and five other ships were set to return home soon.

An official of the Institute of Cetacean Research, which conducts annual whale hunt, said about 6.5 billion yen ($64.12 million) was spent for the whaling programme in the year to September 2007, and about 5.2 billion yen was financed by selling the meat.

Greenpeace Japan, which carried out activities aimed at obstructing the hunt, condemned the plans to sell whale meat to fund more hunts.

"There can be no other cases elsewhere in the world of conducting research by killing animals," said Junichi Sato of Greenpeace.

Japan stopped commercial whaling in 1986 in line with a moratorium imposed by the International Whaling Commission (IWC), but began its research whaling the next year. Most of the meat ends up on store shelves and restaurant tables.

Japan has made numerous attempts, all futile, to reinstate commercial whaling in the last two decades.

Whale was an important protein source for an impoverished Japan after World War Two, but has become an expensive, gourmet food that rarely appears on family dinner tables and can usually be eaten in just a handful of speciality restaurants.

(Editing by Alex Richardson)

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Throw the big ones back, fishing study suggests

Yahoo News 17 Apr 08;

Commercial and sport fishing destabilizes fish populations by targeting the biggest, oldest fish and leaving younger fish to proliferate too wildly, U.S. researchers said on Wednesday.

They said fisheries should in fact encourage the taking of smaller, younger fish instead of requiring that they be thrown back.

"That type of regulation, which we see in many sport fisheries, is exactly wrong," George Sugihara of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego said in a statement.

"It's not the young ones that should be thrown back, but the larger, older fish that should be spared. Not only do the older fish provide stability ... to the population, they provide more and better quality offspring."

Writing in the journal Nature, Sugihara said that current policies that manage according to biomass targets instead of individual fish size can also destabilize the population.

A single large fish will simply grow a little when it gets more food, or lose a little weight when food is scarce. A population of many young, small fish, however, may explode in number or collapse depending on food availability.

This is especially important to know when trying to rebuild fish stocks, Sugihara said.

"A high harvest target may be set after an especially abundant period when the population may be poised to decline on its own," he said.

His team analyzed 50 years worth of records of fished and unfished species from a study set up by the California sardine fishery after its collapse in the 1940s.

Nils Stenseth of the University of Oslo said fishing practices that stress taking only the oldest and biggest fish can actually force quick evolutionary changes in the fish populations.

"Many recent studies have provided evidence for this ... effect, and show that the ecological-evolutionary consequences of harvesting can occur at a much faster rate than previously thought," he wrote in a commentary.

(Reporting by Maggie Fox, Editing by Sandra Maler)

Over-fished species go into evolutionary overdrive: study
Yahoo News 16 Apr 08;

Relentless commercial fishing can trigger rapid evolutionary changes when only smaller, younger fish are left behind, a study released Wednesday shows.

Moreover, those changes among fish populations -- a desperate bid to adapt -- may be difficult or impossible to reverse.

Boom-and-bust cycles in over-fished species can wreak economic havoc on fishing communities, and can trigger a downward spiral toward extinction.

The study, experts say, could provide important clues on how to restore fish populations that have, in many cases, been reduced by 90 percent due to decades of industrial-scale fishing.

Scientists have long puzzled over the fact that populations of heavily harvested fish, from sardines to tuna, fluctuate in size more erratically than species that are not plucked from the sea for food.

To find out why, a team of researchers led by George Sugihara at the University of California in San Diego poured over a rare set of data tracking both fished and unfished species off the coast of California over a period of five decades.

In considering three possible explanations, they found no evidence for the first: that fluctuations in population simply mirrored the intensity of commercial fishing.

They did find that the young fish left behind as too small to bring to market were somewhat more vulnerable to the vagaries of the sea, whether changing sea surface temperatures, currents or winds.

The critical factor, however, was not the impact of environmental conditions on these age-imbalanced populations, but an intrinsic lack of stability caused by such "juvenescence," as scientists call it.

The disappearance of older, bigger fish from the population induced early maturation in the survivors in two ways, the study found.

In some cases the smaller fish actually adapted physically to new conditions, changes that could be reversed.

But the researchers also found evidence for a genetic impact, adding weight to a recent body of evidence suggesting that environmentally-driven evolutionary changes can occur far more quickly than once believed.

"The implication is that fisheries management need to give priority to precautionary measures," said Nils Stenseth and Tristan Rouyer, both from the University of Oslo, in a commentary, also published in Nature.

"When the ecological effects of fishing a particular population are observed, the evolutionary consequences may have already set it, and may be irreversible."

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