Sea turtles almost gone from Andaman coast

MCOT News 4 May 08;

Scenes of releasing young sea turtles back into the sea are common. However, whether these little creatures will be able to survive or not also depends on the environment.

According to the Marine and Coastal Resources Development and Research Center, statistics showed the number of sea turtles coming to Thailand’s Andaman shores to lay their eggs has dropped dramatically. There were only 10-20 nests per year, decreasing from up to 1,000 nests in the past.

“The situation is worrying. In the past five decades, the number of sea turtles has dropped five fold. Beaches in Phangna and Phuket used to be places for sea turtles to lay eggs. Now, there are only 20 or so nests per year.”, said Kongkiert Kitiwatcharawong, academic.

The Olive Ridley turtle is at risk of extinction and are now rarely seen coming ashore to lay eggs. The major cause is the over- development of coastal areas for tourism. Leatherback sea turtles also used to be found on Phuket’s Mai Khao beach.

Human influence affects coastal areas where sea turtles live for six months before landing ashore shore to lay eggs. In the near future, sea turtles might disappear from Thailand’s Andaman coast.

“Naturally, sea turtles will return to the same place they usually come to lay eggs. But they will not return if the place is not safe for them anymore. They will find a new, better place.”, said Kongkiert.

More sea turtles are choosing to lay their eggs on beaches in Myanmar and Malaysia as there is little human intrusion. As a result, sea turtle conservation efforts are not only increasing their numbers but also providing them with a good environment suitable for their living and reproduction.

Read more!

Malaysian palm oil struggles to promote 'green' image

Ivy Sam, Yahoo News 4 May 08;

Malaysia is promoting its controversial palm oil industry as a model of eco-friendliness, but activists warn forests are still being destroyed to make way for vast plantations.

As palm oil prices boom, Malaysia has mounted a campaign to counter allegations that the crop is responsible for habitat destruction, air pollution from slash-and-burn farming, and pushing orangutans towards extinction.

It insists palm oil is only grown on legal agricultural land and that criticisms are an attempt by competitors in Europe and the United States to undermine growing demand for the commodity.

But environmentalists say that while virgin rainforests are now off-limits, tracts designated as "secondary forests", which are also valuable habitats teeming with wildlife, are not being spared.

Junaidi Payne from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) said the government's stance is misleading and that the race to fulfil demand for palm oil risks causing further deforestation, both legal and illegal.

"It is actually a red herring to say that Malaysia does not convert rainforests to oil palm plantations," Payne said at a recent conference on palm oil sustainability in Sabah state on Borneo island.

Payne said that in the past 25 years, previously virgin forests which have been partially logged were downgraded to secondary forests, which are then deemed to be legal agriculture land.

"What bothers me is the current sustained price of crude palm oil," he said. "The success of palm oil production will have an impact on forest conservation as more land is set aside to cultivate the crop."

The charismatic orangutan, the flagship species for the forest conservation drive, is found only in Borneo -- which is shared between Indonesia and Malaysia -- and Indonesia's Sumatra island.

An estimated 41,000 orangutans live on Borneo, including Indonesia's Kalimantan and Malaysia's Sabah and Sarawak states, while Sumatra is home to 7,500 Sumatran orangutans, a sub-species of the red-haired ape.

The gentle animal is now threatened with extinction due to a loss of natural habitat, say experts who point out that most of Malaysia's orangutans live in secondary forests.

The Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC) has vigorously fended off the allegations, pointing out that 60 percent of Malaysia's land mass is forested, while agriculture occupies just 19 percent.

"Every country has the right to develop 30 percent of their forest land to agriculture. So what is the issue?" MPOC chief executive officer Yusof Basiron told AFP.

"Records show that the UK has knowingly developed 70 percent of its land for agriculture, leaving less than 12 percent under forest," he said.

"Nobody asks the UK government to reverse the situation even though over-developed agricultural land can be easily reforested to help reduce global warming."

As palm oil prices spiral, driven by demand for clean-burning biofuels as well as for an ingredient in food and cosmetics, Malaysia and Indonesia are jockeying for top-dog status as the world's largest producer.

Malaysia says Indonesia likely seized its mantle as the world's biggest palm oil producer in 2007, due to dramatically increased planting. The two countries combined supply 85 percent of the world's palm oil.

Environmental campaigners Friends of the Earth in 2005 called for a boycott of palm oil products, predicting that orangutans would be wiped out within 12 years if forest destruction were to continue at current levels.

The adverse public opinion poses a threat to an industry which last year earned Malaysia 14.1 billion dollars in exports, a whopping 42 percent jump from 2006. That figure is tipped to rise to 15.7 billion dollars this year.

Indonesia and Malaysia have pledged to carry out joint research to counter anti-palm oil "propaganda" that jeopardises the lucrative industry.

"We will present accurate facts to all those who are against palm oil, whether for economic reasons, or due to concerns over global warming or because they are agents to palm oil competitors," said Malaysian Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Peter Chin.

WWF's Borneo-based researcher Darrel Webber said the situation is much more serious in Indonesia, where deforestation is rampant.

"In Malaysia there is more awareness and cooperation between planters and conservation groups. The situation is much more acute in Kalimantan and Sumatra," he said.

Webber said Malaysian palm oil can be sustainable if industry players are willing to conserve animal habitats and work around indigenous communities, instead of fragmenting forested areas.

"It is important to note that palm oil is the only commodity that is going for such a thing as sustainable production. It is a real challenge but it is viable," he said.

Read more!

Farmers face climate challenge in quest for more food

David Fogarty, Reuters 3 May 08;

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - If farmers think they have a tough time producing enough rice, wheat and other grain crops, global warming is going to present a whole new world of challenges in the race to produce more food, scientists say.

In a warmer world beset by greater extremes of droughts and floods, farmers will have to change crop management practices, grow tougher plant varieties and be prepared for constant change in the way they operate, scientists say.

"There certainly are going to be lots of challenges in the future. Temperature is one of them, water is another," said Lisa Ainsworth, a molecular biologist with the United States Department of Agriculture.

Spiraling grain prices in recent months have startled governments long used to affordable rice, wheat, soy and maize.

But rising demand and likely greater climate variability and more fluctuations in crop output could mean even more uncertainty for prices.

Current estimates suggest demand for cereals will jump by more than 50 percent by 2050 as the world's population rises from 6.6 billion to about 9 billion.

The world has already warmed by about 0.7 degrees Celsius on average since the 1800s and studies show higher temperatures can cut yields, particularly in the tropics where a lot of rice is grown.

"In Northeastern China, low temperatures, a short growing season and lack of water limit production, so rising temperatures in the future may have beneficial impacts there," said Ainsworth.

"However, in the southern parts of the country, higher temperatures will likely cause yield losses," she told Reuters.

Pollution is another threat. Ozone, which is produced at ground-level by sunlight interacting with pollution from burning fossil fuels, can cut plant productivity. The higher the ozone levels, the worse the damage.

In the northern hemisphere, ozone is a growing problem and is estimated to cost farmers billions of dollars in lost production.

"In the major rice-growing regions, which are India and China, ground-level ozone concentrations even today are very high and certainly exceed the threshold for damage. Ozone is already decreasing yield potential in many areas," Ainsworth said.

Rice is grown in more than 100 countries. More than half the world's population rely on it as their main food source.

HEAT STRESS

A major U.N. climate panel report last year said in low-latitude regions, even moderate temperature rises of between 1 and 2 degrees Celsius could trim crop yields.

In cooler mid to high-latitude regions, localized increases up to 3 degrees Celsius plus higher amounts of carbon dioxide in the air could be beneficial to yields, provided there was enough water.

But anything beyond 3 degrees locally would be bad for crop yields, said the panel's Fourth Assessment Report on the impacts of climate change, which drew on the expertise of hundreds of scientists from around the world.

Studies show that higher carbon dioxide levels, on their own, can boost rice and wheat production but any benefit is negated by the stress caused by higher temperatures, lack of water from changes in rainfall patterns and pollution.

Plants breathe in CO2 to make sugars and other complex compounds grow. Carbon dioxide levels from burning fossil fuels are rising rapidly and are now the highest than at any time in the past 650,000 years.

Last year, they reached near 390 parts per million from about 280 ppm at the start of the Industrial Revolution. Unless nations drastically rein in their carbon emissions, the level could reach 550 ppm by 2050, the climate panel says, leading to sharp increases in temperatures, particularly at higher latitudes.

The trick for farmers is to adapt, and scientists say the crops of the coming decades will have to be very different.

"We will see a suite of new traits that are integrated into the varieties that are planted in the future," said Ainsworth.

"This is something we do need to start soon because anything that we hope to develop today probably won't be in the field until 2018 and the climate then will be very different."

In the Philippines, the International Rice Research Institute has a long history of developing rice varieties. But the pace of climate change in the future is a big worry.

NEED TO BREED

"There is still a lot of uncertainty in the climate modeling when it comes to the regional level," said Reiner Wassmann of IRRI. But it was clear temperatures would rise.

"The other mega trend we see is that we will have more climate extremes. In some places there might be more drought, in others it may be submergence, from floods, in some places it might be both," said Wassmann, coordinator of the Rice and Climate Change Consortium at IRRI.

"That is really a new challenge for development of cropping systems and I don't want to limit it to only plant breeding. We have to be clear that this is no silver bullet and that if we speed-up plant breeding everything will be fine. Certainly not.

"We also have to improve crop management and water saving techniques have come into the picture to cope with drought," he said.

In major wheat grower Australia, higher temperatures will threaten crop yields, depending on the location. But it will be changes in rainfall that are likely to have the biggest impact.

"A rise of up to 2 degrees Celsius, that by itself could be coped with. The much bigger problem is what happens to rainfall," said Mark Howden, a senior scientist with Australia's state-backed research body the CSIRO.

"Once we get above a 10-15 percent reduction in rainfall we start to get into negative conditions for everything," he said.

"Under those circumstances we would see major declines in wheat production even allowing for the technological improvements that we've got under our belts that we could use," said Howden, theme leader of the CSIRO's climate adaptation program.

If the world keeps on emitting greenhouse gases at the present rate, computer models suggest southern Australia will become much drier.

"We will need to think about smart ways of feeding the world," said Howden, who called for more investment for research by government and industry.

"We are looking at a requirement to double agricultural production by 2050, so this isn't the time when we have the luxury of cutting back our agriculture. We're on a treadmill (and) we need to keeping running faster and faster."

(Editing by Megan Goldin)

Read more!

Africa's biggest oil producer goes green

Jacques Lhuillery, Yahoo News 4 May 08;

In his office in Lagos, Alain Salleras, a Frenchman of about 50 for whom biofuels are something of a crusade, is working away at his pet project -- producing ethanol from sweet sorghum in Nigeria.

Salleras, executive director of Global Biofuels Ltd, which has partnered with India's Praj Industries and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) for its project, is at pains to pre-empt any questions on the growing controversy over the alleged impact of biofuels on agriculture.

"Contrary to manioc, sorghum, of which Nigeria is the world's leading producer, has no impact on food supply," Salleras emphasised.

Indeed, if he is to be believed, sweet sorghum has only advantages over sugar cane, another crop often grown for biofuels.

He says sorghum requires one quarter of the water that sugar cane needs, it produces two or three harvests a year, you get far more ethanol per hectare under cultivation -- nearly four times as much in fact -- and there is no wastage.

"To make the ethanol we only take the stalks, which are rich in sugar. The grains go for food and the rest for animal fodder," he says.

Even the fibrous residue from the crushed stalks, known as "bagasse," is recycled. This biomass is boiled to produce steam to make electricity.

Global Biofuels has taken on a Nigerian specialist Babatunde Obilana, who spent 20 years with the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), working notably on Zimbabwe and Kenya.

Salleras, a former executive with French construction company Vinci, the former Société Générale d'Entreprises, and compatriot Jean Lamoliatte aim to be producing their first litre of sorghum-based Nigerian ethanol next summer.

In Ondo state to the west of Lagos the sorghum seeds have been sown at Arigidi Akoko and the processing plant will be built by Praj Industries, a biofuels technology company.

Initally Salleras is expecting daily production of 9,000 litres. That is estimated to rise to 240,000 litres a day when the full 10,000 hectares of sweet sorghum are ready for harvest.

By this summer 300 hectares will be ready for harvest and by April or May of next year between 3,000 and 6,000 will be ready.

This is still a far cry from the 30 million litres of fuel consumed every day in Nigeria, but the boss of Global Biofuels has big ambitions.

In three to five years' time he is aiming to produce five percent of Nigeria's total consumption, that is around 1.5 million litres a day.

Global Biofuels plans to establish seven ethanol refineries, each with an associated plant for livestock feed production, in various parts of Nigeria. Each refinery/feed plant will jointly employ 8,000 Nigerians and create an additional 40,000 indirect jobs, the company says.

"It's the first in a long series of projects, in line with the Kyoto Protocol engagements which stipulate that by 2020 10 percent of energy consumed must be of non-fossile origin," Salleras explained.

Construction work on the second of the seven plants will start in June in Ekiti, a state sharing a common border with Ondo.

The Ondo state project alone represents an investment of some 70 million dollars, 65 percent of which is from private investors. The rest will be financed by credits.

NNPC has undertaken to buy all Global Biofuels' production in Nigeria and plans to use it for automobile fuel and for powering breweries and pharmaceuticals plants.

Nigeria, which despite being Africa's biggest oil producer, suffers from a chronic fuel shortage, is counting on biofuels to help solve the problem.

NNPC in 2005 created a Renewable Energy Division (RED) tasked with developping biofuels from manioc or sugar cane, two crops that are abundant in Nigeria.

The unit aims to have a prosperous national biofuels industry up and running by the middle of 2012.

Read more!

Best of our wild blogs: 4 May 08

Young blogger shares about Dugong Ambassador event
an exciting walk and painting session on shanil's blog

Cyrene clips
clip of mating common sea stars and the New Star Pentaceraster mammillatus and unidentified sea anemone and stars on collision course on the sgbeachbum blog

Banded woodpecker antics
on the bird ecology blog

The Fallen Shall Thrive
lessons in resilience on the art in the wetlands blog

Secret Shores for the Biodiversity Talk Series
a wonderful audience at the talk on the wildfilms blog

Read more!

Is a cat killer on the loose in Pasir Ris?

Three cats die from suspected thinner dousing
Straits Times 4 May 08;

On Friday night, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) received a call about a mother cat and two kittens. They could have been doused with either thinner or acid. One of them had died.

By the time the SPCA staff reached Block 253 in Pasir Ris Street 21 half an hour later, another cat had died and the third one was struggling violently. Both the cats that died had blood in their mouths and nostrils. The third cat was rushed to a veterinarian and had to be put down.

A broken bottle labelled thinner was found nearby.

A Sunday Times check with residents yesterday revealed that this was the first time they had come across such an incident.

The SPCA is offering a $1,000 reward for information that will lead to the arrest and prosecution of anyone involved in the incident. Call 6287-5355, extention 9.

Read more!

41 hot spots in detected in southern Sumatra

BMG detects 41 spots in southern part of Sumatra
Antara 2 May 08;

Medan, North Sumatra (ANTARA News) - The southern part of Sumatra now has 41 hot spots with the potential of triggering forest fires, the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMG) station in Medan said.

"Therefore, we call on the public there to be alert to the possibility of forest fires breaking out," a BMG analyst, Agus Syafril, told ANTARA News here on Friday.

Through monitoring via the NOA 41 satellite, it had been established that the hot spots were located in the provinces of Jambi, Bengkulu and Lampung.

He said, the number of hot spots had increased because the southern part of Sumatra was entering the dry season which was estimated to last until October this year.

"At present, the southern part of Sumatra which lies just south of the equator has entered the dry season so that it is having very little rain. This has caused more hot spots to appear," he said.

In view of the increased risk of forest fires, the BMG called on companies and local people in the three provinces intending to burn bushes for whatever purpose to take extra measures to localize the resulting fires so that they would not spread to nearby forests.

In addition, relevant government agencies in the three provinces were expected to keep a tighter watch over local forests to minimize the possibilty of fires breaking out in them, he said. (*)

Read more!

Volvo Ocean Race's organisers hope to double global viewership

Channel NewsAsia 3 May 08;

While in Singapore, the boats will also have two In-port races, off the East Coast.

SINGAPORE : The Volvo Ocean race will be headed to Asia for the first time this season, and the yachts competing will stop in China, India and Singapore.

The organisers are planning to double the global viewership from two billion in the previous race, to four billion this year.

The Volvo Ocean Race is one of the toughest races in the open waters. And for the first time, organisers have decided to include Asia for the new season starting in October.

They are also planning a host of new initiatives. More programmes are also being included this season to raise awareness of how exciting the race is, which is on par with the Formula One race, in terms of size.

And with new media, the race and its latest adventures will be brought right into the homes of audiences all over the world. There will be a website and for the first time, a broadband TV site, which is accessible to all.

Reg Gratton, Communications Director, Volvo Ocean Race, said: "It's almost real time now and we can get video conference calls, blogging... the communication from the boats will be (on) high definition cameras. So I think the feeling that the race disappears after it leaves, say Singapore, to go to Qingdao, is just not the case any more."

MediaCorp will also be showing 39 weekly documentary programmes, which will give an update of the race as it progresses.

Organisers are also looking at getting educational institutions involved in the race when it comes to Singapore in December.

There are plans to recruit some 30 media studies students to help run the media centre. And hopefully these students will consider sports journalism as a future career.

Organisers said preparations for the Singapore stopover are on track. The boats will be here for more than three weeks, as they are due for repairs, after arriving from India and before heading to China.

While in Singapore, the boats will also have two In-port races, off the East Coast.

Rob Turnbull, Chief Operating Officer, One15 Singapore Ocean Race, said: "If we can get anywhere between 3,000 to 4,000 people... maybe not so much on water, they can be at viewing points near the water, I think will be... good."

The seven boats that are competing will leave Alicante in Spain in October and are due to arrive in Singapore a few days before Christmas. - CNA/ms

Read more!

New residential buildings in Singapore must now meet minimum standards for energy efficiency

Channel NewsAsia 3 May 08;

SINGAPORE: New residential properties must now include basic environment-friendly features before the building plans are approved.

This is a requirement introduced on 15 April by the Building and Construction Authority (BCA).

Under the new guidelines, BCA has set a limit on the amount of heat that can enter a residential building through its facade. This limit is called the Residential Envelope Transmittance Value. Such a criterion already exists for commercial properties.

A house with floor-to-ceiling glass designs and little concrete all around. Such a look has become increasingly popular among private residential properties in Singapore.

The full-height window design exudes an air of elegance and makes the rooms look larger. But such a design is not environmentally-friendly.

".....because during the day, a lot of heat will be trapped inside the unit and when you turn on the air-conditioning, it'll work harder than normal," said BCA's deputy director for technology development, Ang Kian Seng.

This is why the BCA hopes that designers will incorporate 'green' features at the planning stage.

Today, more than 30 residential properties in Singapore have floor-to-ceiling glass designs. The BCA says such architecture is not suitable for a tropical country like Singapore.

In fact, if architects use less glass in their designs, they could actually save more money in overall construction costs. Consumers would then stand to benefit.

BCA's Mr Ang said: "Typically in a residential unit, 60 percent of the electricity bills will have to be used for air-conditioning. So with this (heat limit) requirement, typically you're looking at 10-20 percent kind of savings for the home owner....With our buildings properly designed....that can go a long way to delay the construction of a power plant, for example......instead of wasting energy and the load goes up, you may need a plant earlier than before."

So a 'greener' home now is a practical step towards a healthier environment in future. - CNA/ir

Read more!

New warnings sought in Taiwan for shark fin dishes

The China Post 3 May 08;

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Legislators urged the Department of Health (DOH) to require that restaurants serving dishes with shark fins provide warnings cautioning pregnant women not to eat the prized ingredient, which can contain dangerous levels of mercury.

Ruling Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Tien Chiu-chin said at a news conference attended by lawmakers from across the political spectrum that shark finning is not only cruel, but also a main cause of the rapid decline of global shark populations.

According to Tien, it is common practice for many foreign fishing vessels to remove the fins from captured sharks and then throw the sharks back into the sea because their meat is worth little and the fishermen want to leave room on board for more of the valuable fins.

When returned to the ocean, the finless sharks, unable to move, either die gradually or are consumed by other sharks, Tien added.

The lawmaker warned that sharks are at the top of the ocean food chain and their consumption of tainted small fish and organisms has left a number of them contaminated by mercury.

As a result, Tien said, random surveys conducted by local environmental groups show that some shark fins sold on the market contain mercury, which could pose a health hazard to consumers.

She therefore called on local residents not to order shark fin dishes when hosting banquets to avoid endangering their own health and the health of their guests and prevent ecological destruction.

Meanwhile, Tien said the DOH should stipulate that shark fin restaurants add warnings reminding pregnant women, women trying to have a baby and breast-feeding women not to eat dishes with shark fins in them.

Tien said she was happy to receive confirmation that shark fin dishes will not be served at the Presidential Inauguration state banquet on May 20.

In response to the lawmakers' suggestion, DOH official Hsieh Tien-hung said once a consensus is reached at the agency, it will instruct restaurants throughout the country in writing to add warnings for dishes with shark fins.

He added, however, that details, such as what the warnings should say, are still being discussed.

DPP Legislator Twu Shiing-jer also suggested that the DOH print posters to inform people that eating shark fins could possibly have a negative influence on their intelligence.

They could also provide information on international regulations related to shark finning and data on levels of contamination in shark products, he said.

Read more!

Thailand's elephants: Someone Isn't Enjoying the Ride

Mike Snow, The Washington Post 4 May 08;

GOLDEN TRIANGLE, Thailand

At Anantara elephant camp, I met Boon Rot, all 10 feet and three or so tons of her, as she breakfasted on bamboo stalks. I'd come to the resort to take part in mahout, or elephant handler, training, and Boon Rot was my assigned animal. Until recently, she'd had the misfortune of roaming Bangkok's red-light districts, exploited for novelty value by her mahout, who sold tourists and other amused onlookers bananas to feed her.

Her rescue by Anantara's "director of elephants," John Roberts, meant that she'd be riding tourists around instead. Not the perfect solution, former elephant conservationist Roberts acknowledged, but a big improvement for this 17-year-old tusker, who would no longer have to face down cars, drunks and other dangers of the concrete jungle.

Long revered for their intelligence and sensitivity, elephants are Thailand's national animal. Elephant Day is celebrated on March 13. A white elephant appeared on the country's flag until 1917. The animals once paraded members of the royal family, served as super-weapons in Southeast Asian armies and worked in the forests, hauling logs for the Thai lumber trade.

But encroaching civilization and a 1989 ban on logging sent the pachyderm population into a tailspin. From about 100,000 at the turn of the 20th century, its numbers have steadily dwindled to a meager head count, as of last June, of 3,456 domesticated animals and another 1,000 or so in the wild. These latter face an increasingly bleak future, hunted both by vengeful farmers whose crops they sometimes ruin and by ivory hunters who covet their tusks.

Though about 300 elephants still live on the streets of Thai cities, Boon Rot and the more fortunate of her peers have found a way station at trekking camps such as Anantara. These camps are highly popular with tourists, but many are notorious among animal rights groups, which say that they are maltreating the creatures. This was something I didn't learn until after my camp experience, but it left me with a decidedly mixed feeling about the whole thing.

Boon Rot seemed impossibly huge, and the thought of mounting her gave me the heebie-jeebies. But after hoisting myself up and coiling my legs around her massive neck, I realized that she was something of a pussycat. Riding her turned out to be easier than it looked. As we plodded along the trail, I gradually lost my fear of falling off. Class ended on a high note when we students removed our tennis shoes and waded into a river on our elephants for a refreshing swim. After climbing back onto the riverbank, the animals returned our shoes, one at a time, with their trunks. We rewarded them with bananas and then posed for a final round of picture-taking. Marj, a British tourist who suffered from multiple sclerosis, called the experience "one of the best things I ever did."

The riding was certainly exhilarating. But is it the best thing for the elephants? A look into the crinkly, soulful eyes of Boon Rot and her peers leaves little doubt that serving tourists at Anantara, a kind of halfway house for elephants attached to a five-star resort, beats sleeping beneath garbage-strewn highway underpasses. But the elephant camps aren't all equal.

Anantara, run by the Golden Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation, appears to offer one of the better elephant programs, promoting wildlife conservation and the preservation of rural life, and offering mahouts and their families a chance to earn a living wage. It also caters to high-end tourists and is therefore well funded. But elephants eat 10 percent of their body weight daily, so many camps that operate on the margin feel pressured to work their pachyderms hard to cover the cost of their upkeep.

Most complaints of elephant abuse focus on the way the animals are tamed. Anantara employs a humane but time-consuming "tickling" method, but many camps still use phaajaan (the Thai word for "crush"), a method of domesticating baby elephants that has been practiced in Thailand for thousands of years. This ceremony involves separating youngsters from their mothers, tying them up in a confined space, jabbing them with knives, heated irons, burning cigarettes and bamboo sticks embedded with nails, pummeling them with stones and other projectiles and depriving them of food, water and sleep. It lasts for up to six days, until a shaman senses that the elephant's spirit is broken. Afterward, the animal is never again permitted to see its mother.

Animal rights groups condemn not only the phaajaans but also "imprisoning" the animals and training them to perform tricks. "Elephants don't have to dance, paint pictures or roll logs," says Ashley Furno, senior campaign coordinator for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). "We're interested in protecting them so that they can remain in the wild, free to spend their days foraging for food, bathing and interacting with their families and other elephants." In 2003, PETA mounted an ongoing Asia-wide ad campaign protesting elephant abuse that has garnered attention in Germany, Sweden, Singapore, the United Kingdom and other countries that have traditionally contributed to Thai tourism.

But because the elephant camps are privately run, Thai officials find it difficult to address abuses. Moreover, repeated turnover in governments -- there have been three in 20 months -- means that any high-level directives don't stick for long, and interest in the issue waxes and wanes. Officials have focused for the most part on providing limited veterinary care. A project sponsored by the queen to send elephants back into the wild has had measured success, but Soraida Salwala, founder of the private group Friends of the Asian Elephant, charges that government support for the sale of other elephants to Australian zoos for a scientific breeding program helps promote the wildlife trade.

The best hope for Thailand's elephants would be government backing for sanctuaries such as Elephant Nature Park and Elephant Haven, two private, nonprofit sanctuaries near the Burmese border that were established by animal rights activist Sangduen "Lek" Chailert to allow elephants to live in a protected natural setting. Their exemplary work has riled those unhappy at the prospect of replacing phaajaans with more time-consuming breaking methods and has earned Chailert death threats, but also recognition by Time magazine as a "hero of Asia." Similar sanctuaries have long operated in Africa.

A system of national parks could provide Thailand and its tourist industry another valuable revenue stream. But the biggest payoff would be helping replenish the once robust population of Asian elephants, now only about one-tenth the size of Africa's (which numbers between 470,000 and 690,000, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources).

Without sufficient funding and official support, though, this seems unlikely to happen anytime soon. So most of the burden of easing the pachyderm population's decline falls on elephant camps, which need better oversight and improvements to make sure that they operate humanely.

On my final night at Anantara camp, as we sent giant candle-powered paper lanterns known as kum loys floating upward toward a star-filled sky, I sent up with them my wishes that the once stately elephant's run of bad luck might finally come to an end.

Read more!

The Freaky Fish of the Congo

Melanie Stiassny, American Museum of Natural History
LiveScience.com Yahoo News 3 May 08;

This Behind the Scenes article was provided to LiveScience in partnership with the National Science Foundation.

In his classic novella "Heart of Darkness," Joseph Conrad's protagonist, Marlow, describes the Congo River as an immense snake "... uncoiled, with its head in the sea, its body at rest curving afar over a vast country, and its tail lost in the depths of the land." A description that, while wonderfully evocative, is also a bit menacing. I am happy to report that my own experiences conducting research in the Congo have been nothing so menacing nor so dark.

On the contrary. For the past three years I have - with support from the National Science Foundation and a team of U.S. and Congolese students and colleagues - been exploring and documenting the fish biodiversity of the lower Congo River, which is the head and neck of Conrad's imaginary snake.

What we have found there is an extraordinarily beautiful place that is redolent in history, new discoveries, and amazingly rich in aquatic biodiversity.

The Congo River is a place of superlatives; it is the world's second largest river basin, draining an area the size of Europe; so immense that its source waters in the highlands of east Africa take more than six months to exit into the Atlantic Ocean, some 2,900 miles (4,670 km) to the west. The river and its tributaries represent over 9,000 miles (14,500 km) of navigable passage across central Africa, and provide food and livelihoods for the 30 million people who live in this vast region.

Big barrier

This massive river also forms one of the largest biogeographical barriers in Africa.

For example, our closest relatives, the chimps (Pan troglodytes) and the bonobos (Pan paniscus) are separated by the Congo River; chimps are found only to the north and bonobos only to the south.

Many other animals show a similar pattern of distribution; the Congo River has clearly played an important role in sorting African biogeography. Nevertheless, we know surprisingly little about its history.

But we do know that the river has not always looked the way it does today. Geologists estimate that perhaps as recently as half a million years ago, the Congo was a large lake or series of lakes with no outflow to the Atlantic Ocean. At some point the Congo breached a high plateau in the region of present day Malebo Pool - a peculiar place where the river expands into an enormous 14-mile-wide (22.5 km-wide) pool. In Conrad's day this strange place was known as Stanley Pool, after the explorer and emissary of the now infamous Belgian King Leopold II.

Most of the great inland lake was drained and a "new" river cascaded down through the gorges of the Crystal Mountain region, dropping about 920 feet (280 m) over 220 miles (350 km) to reach the Atlantic. Today, some of the most spectacular rapids on Earth and a rich endemic fish fauna are found in the river as it flows between Pool Malebo and the Atlantic. These fishes are termed lower Congo "endemics" because they occur only in this short stretch of the river. It is this region, called the lower Congo River rapids, with its spectacular array of rapids, pools and runs, that is our study area.

Isolated stretch

The extraordinary hydrology of the lower Congo appears to have isolated it from the remainder of the river basin and this short stretch represents a model system for exploring patterns of species richness and local endemism, while perhaps also holding the key to understanding the origin and age of the entire Congo River itself. The fishes found only in the lower Congo rapids can only have evolved after the formation of the rapids themselves, and those rapids formed when the proto-lake Congo drained to the Atlantic.

By studying those fishes we hope to get a handle on when the Congo took its present-day form.

But studying those fishes is no easy task; the area is remote and rugged, roads are few and far between and when present are often impassible. What's more, few reliable maps are available to aid our search for access to the river. But unlike Stanley and other earlier travelers in the region, we have the luxury of remotely sensed satellite imagery to help us locate possible access points by road and by foot that can take us to river collecting sites and places to set up camp - large sand banks and bars that are scattered between huge rocky outcrops along the river, make idyllic camp sites from where we can cautiously venture out in local piroges (huge canoes carved out of tree trunks).

Analysis of remotely sensed data also gives us an invaluable birds-eye view of the numerous macrohabitats and channel features that characterize this hydrologically complex stretch of river. Using the latest remote sensing technologies, and with much on-the-ground sampling and analysis, we are beginning to get a much clearer picture of just how the hydrology of the river has played a major role in isolating fish populations. We have mapped rapids and can begin to measure their power, we have found evidence of extremely deep underwater canyons, we have found blind fishes and fishes with bizarre anatomical features and adaptations to life in fast waters, and we have discovered numerous species new to science.

Yet working in this region is difficult. Catching fish in such turbulent water flowing at extreme velocities over treacherous rocks is a bit like trying to "catch" a needle in a haystack - we rely heavily on the experience and ingenious skill of the local people who have been fishing these difficult waters for millennia.

But despite how much we are learning and documenting, our project has only begun to scratch the surface of this extraordinary place - we are certainly leaving a great deal for our Congolese colleagues and students to continue to explore.
101 Amazing Earth Facts More Info: Stiassny's Website The 7 Ancient Wonders of the World

Editor's Note: This research was supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the federal agency charged with funding basic research and education across all fields of science and engineering. See the Behind the Scenes Archive.

Read more!

Government figures show decline of UK bees

Paul Eccleston, The Telegraph 2 May 08;

More than one in four honeybee colonies didn't survive the winter, new Government figures have revealed.

Beekeepers expect to lose a proportion of their bees every year but far bigger losses than expected have been reported across the country.

Inspectors from the National Bee Unit found 25.9 per cent of colonies dead compared to 18.2 per cent at the same point last year.

In 2007 27,303 colonies were inspected and 3,191 (11.7 per cent) were found dead. In 2006, 24,979 colonies were inspected and 2,764 (11.1 per cent) were dead.

The British Beekeepers Association (BBKA) which has 11,000 members, has been warning the Government that bee numbers have been falling dramatically and that a potential economic and ecological disaster was unfolding.

The latest figures will renew fears that the mysterious Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) which has decimated bee colonies in America may now be affecting British bees.

Bees play a vital role in pollinating crops, particularly soft fruit and the BBKA estimates they are worth £165m a year to the agricultural economy.

The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has rejected appeals for the £200,000 per year set aside for research into bee diseases, particularly the Varoa mite, to be increased.

In the United States the government is spending $80m (£40m) on research into CCD.

But Defra have admitted there were now early signs of "significant colony losses across the country" and that an investigation into the possible causes was being stepped up.

"While it is not unusual to see some losses over winter, there are early signs of significant colony losses across the country, which are being investigated. A more complete understanding will emerge in the coming weeks as the NBU's Bee Inspectors complete their initial inspections," Defra said.

Samples taken from stricken hives, where losses could not be put down to varroa or poor care, would be given top priority for testing and investigation. Defra urged beekeepers experiencing significant losses should contact their local Bee Inspector to arrange a visit.

High losses last year were put down to either inadequate management of varroa or the high level of another parasite, Nosema spp, coupled with chronic bee paralysis virus.

The wet summer of 2007 had confined bees to their hives for long periods leaving them insufficient time to forage for enough nectar to see them through the winter. This had been compounded by this year's wet Spring adding to the stress in hives and providing ideal conditions for the spread of disease.

The BBKA is conducting its own nationwide survey to find out how hard colonies have been hit and the results should be known later this month.

President Tim Lovett said: "There can be no doubt that we are losing colonies at a faster rate than we are used to seeing and it is right that Defra is taking a far greater interest in what is going on.

"No doubt the poor weather has had a lot to do with it but it is about time Defra woke up the fact that we have a major problem on our hands."

Many beekeepers believe that CCD is not one particular disorder but caused a combination of factors - diseases, stress, pesticides and even climate change - which result in bees dying or deserting their hives.

Read more!

Boy dies in China as govt tries curb diseases before Olympics

Channel NewsAsia 4 May 08;

BEIJING : The death of a child in south China has raised fears that a virus that has already killed 22 is spreading, as authorities called Saturday for better controls of infectious diseases before the Olympics.

The 18-month-old boy died Friday in Foshan city bordering Hong Kong, from what was probably hand, foot and mouth disease, triggered by the intestinal virus enterovirus 71, or EV71, the health department there said.

"The test results are not out yet, but that's what we suspect," said an official at the department, identifying himself by his surname Yu.

He told AFP another death in the same area in late April was less likely to have been caused by EV71.

Alerted by the new risk, the Ministry of Health on Saturday urged local health bureaus to step up the prevention and control of infectious diseases ahead of the Olympics, the state-controlled Xinhua news agency said.

Epidemics have broken out repeatedly in some regions, especially after unusual weather and population movements, the circular said.

The ministry ordered health officials to keep to watch out for not only on hand, foot and mouth disease, but also cholera, hepatitis A, typhoid fever, diarrhoea, pneumonia, malaria and meningitis.

The earlier 22 deaths among children from EV71 were in Anhui province in eastern China, where another 3,300 have also been infected.

EV71, which can cause hand, foot and mouth disease, is highly contagious and spreads through direct contact with the mucus, saliva or faeces of an infected person. Young children are most susceptible because of lower immune systems.

The disease -- which begins with fever, blisters, mouth ulcers and rashes -- has spread in Anhui since early March, amid accusations by the Chinese media of a government-led cover-up of the epidemic.

Five other cases of EV71 have been confirmed in the city of Hangzhou in eastern Zhejiang province, while 16 children were earlier reported to have fallen ill in Henan province, which borders Anhui.

In central Hubei province, 340 children were confirmed to have hand, foot and mouth disease, and local officials were testing them for EV71, state media said earlier.- AFP

Fears of virus spread as boy dies in south China
Channel NewsAsia 3 May 08;

BEIJING - A young boy has died in southern China from what was "probably" hand, foot and mouth disease, state media said Saturday, raising fears the virus had spread from its epicentre further north.

The 18-month-old boy died Friday morning in Foshan city, Guangdong province just north of Hong Kong, the Xinhua news agency reported, citing local health officials.

The case was probably caused by the intestinal virus known as enterovirus 71, or EV71, Xinhua said, citing preliminary examinations from the provincial disease prevention control center.

A further 22 children have already died of the virus in Anhui province in eastern China, and another 3,300 there have been infected. - AFP/vm

Read more!

Asean countries to 'work together on rice crisis'

Straits Times 4 May 08;

No concrete measures agreed on but proposal for cartel is shot down
Nusa Dua (Bali) - Asean nations agreed yesterday to cooperate over the rice market, but stopped short of concrete measures to deal with rocketing prices of the region's staple.

A proposal for a South-east Asian rice cartel also came in for criticism by Philippine officials and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), as countries continued to seek ways to keep rice prices stable and supplies secure.

Trade ministers from the 10 Asean countries had met on the Indonesian resort island over the weekend to discuss topics such as freeing up trade in Asean, but the issue of food security hijacked discussions.

'The ministers affirmed that access to adequate and reliable supply of rice and stable prices are fundamental to the region's economic and social well-being,' they said in a statement.

They added that they recognised the need to improve productivity through technology transfers, research and development as well as making more land available for agriculture and lifting spending.

Indonesian Trade Minister Mari Pangestu told a news conference that while Asean stopped short of 'concrete actions', the group 'did agree very strongly to communicate and cooperate among ourselves'.

Asean already has an emergency reserve with about 87,000 tonnes of rice committed, she added.

The agreement to cooperate over the looming rice crisis came as Thailand, the world's largest importer, yesterday said it planned to stick to its policy of not curbing rice exports.

Countries including India, Vietnam, Indonesia and Brazil have restricted food exports in a bid to secure domestic supplies and limit inflation, but Thai Commerce Minister Mingkwan Sangsuwan stressed yesterday that Thailand would not follow suit.

'For Thailand, as the No. 1 leader in rice exports, we still keep the policy of free exports,' he said. 'I will try my best not to do an export ban.'

Thailand had earlier mooted forming an Opec-style rice cartel with other South-east Asian producers, but this drew flak from senior Philippine officials as well as the ADB.

Setting up an Organisation of Rice Exporting Countries would only cause greater problems as it is 'anti-poor and will only exacerbate hunger and poverty rather than ease it', Philippine Senate majority leader Francis Pangilinan said yesterday.

ADB president Haruhiko Kuroda also opposed such a cartel, saying: 'Agricultural markets should be market- oriented. It would not be good for exporters and it certainly would not be good for importers.'

The threat of a food crisis could hit more than 100 million people on every continent, and has prompted a response from global aid providers.

Yesterday, the ADB announced emergency funding in the form of soft loans for the governments of countries hardest hit by the global food crisis, such as Bangladesh.

Mr Kuroda declined to give a figure, saying it would depend on requests made by governments. He said the amount would be 'sizeable, but not enormous'.

'We believe targeted interventions to protect food entitlements of the most vulnerable and poor are more effective to mitigate the immediate impact of rising food prices,' he said.

Earlier last week, US President George W. Bush proposed US$770 million (S$1 billion) in new US food aid to stave off a global food crisis. He pledged that Washington would take the lead in combating global hunger.

Reuters, AFP, AP

Read more!

Asian Development Bank promises food relief

Channel NewsAsia 3 Apr 08;

MADRID - The Asian Development Bank on Saturday promised financial help for nations fighting the global food price crisis and attacked plans for a rice cartel.

Loans will help countries subsidise the price of food staples for the poor, ADB president Haruhiko Kuroda said on the first day of the banks four-day annual general meeting in Madrid.

"The amount depends on the requests from the affected countries," he told a news conference. "Possible total lending could be sizeable but not enormous."

The multinational lender will also provide two billion dollars (1.3 billion euros) in loans in 2008 and 2009 to finance agriculture infrastructure projects such as rural roads and irrigation systems to help boost farm output.

"Asia has a huge population with limited land for farming and a limited water supply so agriculture yields must be increased over time," Kuroda said.

Prices for the benchmark Thai variety of rice, a food stable across much of Asia, are at about 1,000 dollars a tonne, up threefold from the last ADB annual meeting in Japan one year ago.

The jump in food prices is fuelling inflation globally and the ADB predicted it would hit 5.1 percent across Asia this year, its highest level since the Asian financial crisis a decade ago and is raising concerns of popular unrest.

Asian nations will see their fiscal deficits worsen because of the need to provide subsidies to offset rising food and energy costs for the poor, the ADB said in a report issued at the gathering.

The problem will be more severe in countries that already have a large deficit like Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, it said.

Global food prices have nearly doubled in three years, sparking riots last month in Egypt and Haiti, protests in other countries and restrictions on food exports in Brazil, Vietnam, India and Egypt.

Rising use of biofuels, trade restrictions, increased demand from Asia to serve changing diets, poor harvests and increasing transport costs have all been blamed for the price rise.

World Bank President Robert Zoellick has estimated that high food prices affect some two billion people across the world and threaten to push 100 million poor people further into poverty.

Karuda said the jump in prices for staples like rice was leading people to hoard food items, causing a vicious circle that leads to even higher prices.

"There is a kind of panic buying," he said.

Some major Asian rice exporters, such as India and Vietnam, have imposed restrictions on exports in a bid to secure domestic supplies which "affects prices elsewhere", he added.

Kuroda criticised plans by Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia to set up an OPEC-style rice cartel.

"Agricultural markets should be market oriented. It would not be good for exporters and it certainly would not be good for importers," the ADB president said.

"What is most important is that we increase agricultural productivity in the medium and long term," he added.

Thailand's Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej said Wednesday the five countries had agreed in principle to form a rice price-fixing group which would be called the Organisation of Rice Exporting Countries (OREC).

On the eve of the meeting, donors pledged 11.3 billion dollars to the bank's Asian Development Fund, its key poverty alleviation mechanism, for the 2009-2012, a 60 percent increase over the last four-year period.

Last year entire ADB approved 10.1 billion dollars in loans.

Pakistan was the largest recipient of ADB aid last year followed by Vietnam, India, China and Indonesia.

Established in 1966, the ADB is owned by its 67 member countries -- 48 from the Asia-Pacific region, and 19 from elsewhere around the world.

Some 3,000 people -- business and government leaders, academics and representatives of non-governmental organisations -- are taking part in the ADB's annual meeting. - AFP/ir

Food security a major concern at ADB meet
Participants warn of hunger risks to large numbers in Asia
Anthony Rowley, Business Times 5 May 08;

THE Asian Development Bank was urged yesterday to make food security a top priority in order to prevent what Indian finance minister Palaniappan Chidam- baram said was the danger of 'one hundred million people in Asia being forced back into poverty' by the current crisis in supplies and prices.

Food security was the major issue dominating a governors' seminar where the ADB's new long-term strategic framework was presented at the bank's annual meeting in Madrid

ADB president Haruhiko Kuroda acknowledged that food and agriculture issues were not specifically-stated priorities in the bank's new strategic plan for the next 12 years. But he claimed that the ADB would address these issues through provision of rural infrastructure provision and via various forms of financial assistance.

Unctad secretary general Supatchai Panitchpakdi, head of an eminent persons group whose report guided the ADB's new Strategy 2020, said the bank would tackle food issues through its mandate to bring about 'inclusive growth' in Asia. 'We are trying to re-engage the Green Revolution in Asia,' he said, while calling for stepped up investment in agriculture.

China's vice-finance minister Li Yong called agriculture a 'top priority' for China. 'We have to think of how to feed 1.3 billion people,' he said. There is 'deep concern' about food security and what is happening to agriculture in Asia, said Rajendara Pachauri, chairman of the inter-governmental panel on climate change. Climate change is damaging grain production, adding to other problems that create food shortages, he added.

Expected good harvests for rice in Asia could send prices tumbling later this year and shift policy-makers' attention away from the current crisis, ADB chief economist Ifzal Ali said in an interview. But that would be a mistake, he emphasised, because the underlying problem of high food prices 'is here to stay and we had better learn to live with it', he said.

The food price issue, as a humanitarian problem and a major factor behind the high inflation now plaguing Asian countries, dominated debate at the annual meeting. What is riveting policymakers' attention is the dramatic - in some cases 100 per cent - surge in prices so far this year, but that is only the 'cyclical' side of the story, said Mr Ali.

Good harvests can take care of at least part of that but unless the underlying structural problems are dealt with, there will be recurring crises, Mr Ali warned. The ADB published a special report in the weekend (Food Prices and Inflation in Developing Asia) explaining the long and short-term factors involved.

In the case of rice, 'my expectation is that a new crop will be harvested in Indonesia over the next two months, and the prognosis is good,' said Mr Ali. 'In Vietnam the prognosis is also good. If the monsoon is normal in South Asia we will have a good supply response. Under this scenario, by September, the food price situation will improve considerably.'

But he added, 'Even if by September things really ease in terms of rice prices dropping back from their peaks of US$1000 (per metric tonne) they will not go back to US$200 but will stay at US$400 to US$500. This is an issue that has to be tackled over the next five to ten years. If not, we will have periodic episodes of this kind of volatility.'

The recent spike in food prices 'and the short-sighted policy responses that accentuate volatility in prices threaten to push large numbers of people back below the poverty line', the ADB special report said. 'Structural forces augmented by adverse cyclical events have put food prices on an upward trajectory that will not end soon.'

Asia fears rising poverty, social unrest from soaring food prices
Channel NewsAsia 5 May 08;


MADRID : Soaring food prices could push millions of people in Asia back into poverty and lead to social unrest, regional leaders warned Sunday at the Asian Development Bank's annual meeting in Spain.

"The recent hike in the price of rice will hit Asian countries particularly hard. The ones who are most affected are the poorest segment of the population including the urban poor," Japanese Finance Minister Fukushiro Nukaga said.

"It will have a negative impact on the living standards and also affect their nutrition. Such a situation may lead to social distrust and unrest and therefore safety nets addressing the immediate needs of the poorest are needed," he added.

Prices for the benchmark Thai variety of rice, a food stable across much of Asia, are at about 1,000 dollars a tonne, up threefold from the last ADB annual meeting held in Japan one year ago.

Meat prices have risen by 60 percent in Bangladesh in the year ending in March, and by 45 percent in Cambodia and 30 percent in the Philippines, according to a report issued Saturday by the ADB.

The rise in global food prices has sparked riots last month in Egypt and Haiti, protests in other countries and restrictions on food exports in Brazil, Vietnam, India and Egypt.

Indian Finance Secretary Subba Rao said a 20 percent rise in food prices could force 100 million people into extreme poverty.

"In many countries, including in Asia, that will mean the undoing of gains in poverty reduction achieved during the past years of growth," he said.

The Indian government, which is facing a general election by May 2009, has implemented a raft of measures, such as banning the export of staple foods like rice and lentils and cutting customs duties on other items, to try to ease price pressures.

It spends the equivalent of about 2.0 percent of gross domestic product per year on subsidies for food, fertilizer and energy to help offset the impact of rising prices on the poor, Rao said.

But Nukaga warned that export restrictions lead to higher prices while food subsidies to help the poor deal with surging prices could place a tremendous burden on state budgets.

"Export restrictions will not only distort the proper functioning of markets in price formation but further exacerbate the price hikes in international markets," he said.

"Subsidies that are intended to keep food prices under control have the risk of becoming a significant burden to budgets and are not sustainable over time," he added.

Food subsidies in Bangladesh, one of the poorest nations in Asia, are estimated to double in the current fiscal year and reach over 1.5 billion dollars (973 million euros) in the current fiscal year.

The ADB estimates one billion people in Asia are seriously affected by soaring food prices.

It announced Saturday on the opening day of its four-day annual meeting in Madrid that it would provide a sizeable amount in soft loans to help Asian countries subsidise the price of food staples for the poor.

It will also provide two billion dollars in 2008 and 2009 in loans to finance agriculture infrastructure projects such as irrigation systems and rural roads aimed at boosting farm output in the region.

Rising use of biofuels, trade restrictions, increased demand from Asia to serve changing diets, poor harvests and increasing transport costs have all been blamed for the price rise.

- AFP /ls

Read more!

Philippine senators worried about proposed SEA rice cartel

Channel NewsAsia 3 May 08;

MANILA : Senior Philippine officials expressed concern Saturday about a plan for a Southeast Asian rice cartel, saying it would cause greater problems than it would solve in the midst of a global food crisis.

The so-called Organization of Rice Exporting Countries (OREC) was "anti-poor and will only exacerbate hunger and poverty rather than ease it," Senate majority leader Francis Pangilinan said in a statement.

Modelled on the OPEC oil cartel, OREC would comprise Mekong countries and rice producers Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos.

Pangilinan appealed to them to "think twice for humanitarian reasons".

The proposed OREC members are also members of ASEAN, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, along with the Philippines which is one of the world's biggest rice importers.

Pangilinan called on the Mekong countries to reconsider the cartel plan.

Senator Manuel Roxas, chairman of the trade and commerce committee, called on the Department of Foreign Affairs to formally propose an ASEAN Leaders' Summit on Rice and Food Security in light of the OREC proposal.

Roxas said in a statement that failure by ASEAN members to unite in efforts to build food security would "raise doubts in the minds of other world leaders on ASEAN's determination to pursue economic integration".

He said: "Before OREC is institutionalized, the ASEAN community must weigh in as a regional bloc to obtain trade privileges with its fellow members in keeping with the ASEAN spirit."

World rice prices have soared this year, a trend blamed on higher energy and fertiliser costs, greater global demand, drought, the loss of rice farmland to biofuel plantations, and price speculation.

The benchmark Thai variety was priced last Wednesday at 998 dollars per tonne for export, up from 512 dollars a tonne in January this year, the Thai Rice Exporters Association said in a price survey.

- AFP/ir

Read more!

Multinationals make billions in profit out of growing global food crisis

Speculators blamed for driving up price of basic foods as 100 million face severe hunger
Geoffrey Lean, The Independent 4 May 08;

Giant agribusinesses are enjoying soaring earnings and profits out of the world food crisis which is driving millions of people towards starvation, The Independent on Sunday can reveal. And speculation is helping to drive the prices of basic foodstuffs out of the reach of the hungry.

The prices of wheat, corn and rice have soared over the past year driving the world's poor – who already spend about 80 per cent of their income on food – into hunger and destitution.

The World Bank says that 100 million more people are facing severe hunger. Yet some of the world's richest food companies are making record profits. Monsanto last month reported that its net income for the three months up to the end of February this year had more than doubled over the same period in 2007, from $543m (£275m) to $1.12bn. Its profits increased from $1.44bn to $2.22bn.

Cargill's net earnings soared by 86 per cent from $553m to $1.030bn over the same three months. And Archer Daniels Midland, one of the world's largest agricultural processors of soy, corn and wheat, increased its net earnings by 42 per cent in the first three months of this year from $363m to $517m. The operating profit of its grains merchandising and handling operations jumped 16-fold from $21m to $341m.

Similarly, the Mosaic Company, one of the world's largest fertiliser companies, saw its income for the three months ending 29 February rise more than 12-fold, from $42.2m to $520.8m, on the back of a shortage of fertiliser. The prices of some kinds of fertiliser have more than tripled over the past year as demand has outstripped supply. As a result, plans to increase harvests in developing countries have been hit hard.

The Food and Agriculture Organisation reports that 37 developing countries are in urgent need of food. And food riots are breaking out across the globe from Bangladesh to Burkina Faso, from China to Cameroon, and from Uzbekistan to the United Arab Emirates.

Benedict Southworth, director of the World Development Movement, called the escalating earnings and profits "immoral" late last week. He said that the benefits of the food price increases were being kept by the big companies, and were not finding their way down to farmers in the developing world.

The soaring prices of food and fertilisers mainly come from increased demand. This has partly been caused by the boom in biofuels, which require vast amounts of grain, but even more by increasing appetites for meat, especially in India and China; producing 1lb of beef in a feedlot, for example, takes 7lbs of grain.

World food stocks at record lows, export bans and a drought in Australia have contributed to the crisis, but experts are also fingering food speculation. Professor Bob Watson – chief scientist at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, who led the giant International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development – last week identified it as a factor.

Index-fund investment in grain and meat has increased almost fivefold to over $47bn in the past year, concludes AgResource Co, a Chicago-based research firm. And the official US Commodity Futures Trading Commission held special hearings in Washington two weeks ago to examine how much speculators were helping to push up food prices.

Cargill says that its results "reflect the cumulative effect of having invested more than $18bn in fixed and working capital over the past seven years to expand our physical facilities, service capabilities, and knowledge around the world".

The revelations are bound to increase outrage over multinational companies following last week's disclosure that Shell and BP between them recorded profits of £14bn in the first three months of the year – or £3m an hour – on the back of rising oil prices. Shell promptly attracted even greater condemnation by announcing that it was pulling out of plans to build the world's biggest wind farm off the Kent coast.

World leaders are to meet next month at a special summit on the food crisis, and it will be high on the agenda of the G8 summit of the world's richest countries in Hokkaido, Japan, in July.

Additional research by Vandna Synghal

Read more!

High petrol prices see Americans ditch SUVs

Leonard Doyle, The Independent 3 May 08;

America's love affair with sports utility vehicles (SUVs) and pick-up trucks is finally over.

The gas-guzzlers that ply the country's freeways and clog its city streets and parking lots are falling victim to ever-rising petrol prices, rather than concern about the country's oversized carbon footprint. The fall-off in sales is dramatic however.

Even offers like that from a Denver showroom of a year's free petrol with each new SUV isn't shifting the pick-ups and 4x4s quickly enough to stave off financial ruin for the country's car manufacturers.

With petrol now selling for almost $4 (£2) a gallon, consumers are trading in their Humvees and Ford Explorers so fast that for the first time, one in five cars sold in the US is now a compact or subcompact. In another first, sales of six-cylinder vehicles were bypassed by smaller four-cylinder, mostly Japanese, cars in April.

In some cities sales of hybrid cars outnumber the lumbering vehicles that are still pouring off the assembly lines at Ford and General Motors in Detroit. The occasional Smart car can even be seen nipping through the traffic. "The era of the truck-based large SUVs is over," said Michael Jackson, boss of the country's largest car retailer Autonation. Another car executive called it the most dramatic shift in the market in 30 years.

There has been a gradual shift by car-buyers to smaller, European-style vehicles over the past few years, but high petrol prices have turned what was a trickle of buyers into a stampede. "It's really a great thing that's happening but four out of five cars sold are still too big," said Katie Alvord, the author of Divorce Your Car! Ending the Love Affair with the Automobile. "It's like the country is stuck in a bad marriage and needs to change."

The biggest victim of the changing times is the petrol-swilling Hummer, the civilian version of the military's transport vehicle which became a status symbol in America's suburbs in the 1990s. Hummer sales collapsed by more than a fifth last year to fewer than 56,000 vehicles and fell by more than 30 per cent in the first three months of 2008.

The switch to smaller cars comes as the ever-rising price of petrol has become a hot political issue during the presidential primary season with two of the hopefuls, the Democrat Hillary Clinton and the Republican John McCain seeking to appeal to voters by offering a petrol tax holiday over the summer months when Americans do most of their driving. Mrs Clinton's rival Barack Obama has refused to join them, saying the plan is pandering to voters. Instead he has proposed a windfall profits tax on the oil industry.

According to George Pipas, of Ford, sales of passenger cars have exceeded trucks and SUVs for the first time in at least 20 years and pick-ups are now on the list of the top 10 vehicles being traded in for every small car in the industry.

Large cars and SUVs have long been status symbols for Americans, but as economic reality bites, car showrooms are being turned over to fuel-efficient vehicles. The tiny Toyota Yaris has jumped in sales by 46 per cent, while the equally small Honda Fit is racing out of the showrooms as customers look for a vehicle that gets more than 30 miles to the gallon.

Dave Strom, who sold Chevrolets for 40 years, recently picked up a Smart which gets him 45 miles to the gallon. "I had to smile the other day when I filled my tank for $18 and change while the guy next to me was up to $80 and still clicking as he filled his Ford Explorer," he said.

Read more!