Government to spend S$30m on Punggol Waterfront Town

Channel NewsAsia 21 May 08;

SINGAPORE : The government will spend about S$30 million to develop key features of the new Punggol Waterfront Town.

Most of that amount - S$25 million - will go towards the man-made Punggol Waterway, which will be constructed next year. The waterway will be the focal point of activities, according to plans by the Housing and Development Board (HDB).

Professional planners have been invited to submit designs and concepts to develop the areas along the waterway.

Punggol residents have a lot to look forward to. They will soon have plenty of activities that are centred around a new 4.2-kilometre waterway.

The waterway will connect Sungei Serangoon and Sungei Punggol. It will snake through various areas, including the proposed Town Centre - bringing water and water activities closer to residents.

Dr Johnny Wong, Deputy Director, Building Technology Department, HDB, said: "We are hoping that it will promote activities like canoeing, some passive walking along the waterways, and even alfresco dining. So we are quite excited about this project."

Architects, engineers and landscape planners have been invited to enter the Punggol Waterway Landscape Masterplan Design Competition. Interested groups were brought to the sites of some of the developments - including the waterway - on Wednesday.

The waterway will be built mostly on vacant land, so that there will be minimal disruption to the surrounding areas.

Mabel Goh, Director, Design Link Architects, said: "We have done quite a fair bit of public housing and it's not new to us. The exciting thing is to redesign public housing with spaces, balconies overlooking the waterways and even private space to integrate with the waterways..."

Leonard Ng, Landscape Architect, Atelier Dreiseitl Asia, said: "It has to be considered in the urban context. We have to relate it to the buildings around it, to the open spaces, the parks around, and how the edge of the river can connect the people and engage the people.

"And so the challenge would be how to carry that out while still being mindful about the safety and security aspects."

The winner of the competition will be announced in November and stands to win S$300,000 and will work with the HDB to develop the Punggol area.

Punggol Town will have 21,000 housing units eventually, with 60 percent allocated for public housing and the rest for private housing.

The residential areas will also house eco-friendly features and be a showcase for green technology. - CNA/ms

Landscape design contest for Punggol waterway
Competition includes design of Punggol Town Park
Charmian Kok, Business Times 22 May 08;

FOLLOWING its announcement to develop Punggol into a modern waterfront town, HDB is also engaging with the private sector to design the landscaping of the Punggol waterway through a Landscape Masterplan Design Competition for the Waterway.

The competition aims to draw on fresh and innovative ideas for the landscaping of the 4.2 km waterway, and also includes the designing of the Punggol Town Park - a 10.6 ha land that will provide a range of water-based activities and facilities.

Besides proposing the landscape design development direction of the waterway, entrants to the competition can also actively participate in creating the communal and commercial spatial typologies along the waterway.

Proposals for the competition are expected to introduce new sustainable development concepts and features, in line with HDB's concept of 'green living by the waters'.

According to HDB, response to the competition has been good, with 17 firms registered as of yesterday.

Design Link Architects is one such company, and its director Mabel Goh said: 'We feel that this project is quite innovative. So far, waterfront housing has been largely limited to the East Coast side, but this is an innovative attempt to integrate the water body with public housing.'

Another firm, Atelier Dreiseitl Asia, which has years of experience in landscape architecture and urban hydrology, is evaluating the competition brief and its director Leonard Ng has expressed interest in the project.

'Right now, it's a clean slate and it gives you the potential to work out a complete approach to design, being sensitive to all the aspects of an urban environment. If that's taken into consideration, it can have a cutting edge design that integrates the urban fabric with the waterway.'

The winner of the competition will receive $300,000, which will form part of the professional fee to be paid to the appointed firm or team. The professional fee will be fixed at 3.68 per cent of the total construction costs of the landscape development. In addition, two merit prizes of $50,000 each will be awarded.

The competition is opened to urban planners, architects and landscape architects from May 17 to September 16 and registration closes on July 16.

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Green practices can cut utility bills by over S$1,000

Channel NewsAsia 21 May 08;

SINGAPORE: The Building and Construction Authority (BCA) said implementing environmentally friendly practices at home can help families cut utility bills by over S$1,000 a year.

BCA said the number of green homes has increased in Singapore after the Green Mark Scheme was introduced in 2005.

About 100 green buildings were certified last year – five times more than the numbers in 2005 and 2006.

Over 60 of these buildings are residential projects with various green features. Another 18,000 units of green homes are expected to be made available soon.

According to a BCA study, savings from the use of energy efficient air-conditioners could be between S$1,000 and S$1,800 per household per year.

The authority will step up public education to raise awareness about the economic and environmental benefits of green living.- CNA/so

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Green Plants Boost Job Satisfaction

Clara Moskowitz, LiveScience.com Yahoo News 21 May 08;

If employers want to increase job satisfaction, a little shrubbery apparently goes a long way. Workers are happier when offices have plants and windows, a new study found.

American office workers spend an average of 52 hours a week at their desks, according to the 2000 U.S. Census. Some might argue that not all that time is spent working, but still, all those hours in windowless offices with artificial light can take their toll.

A few green additions could have a large effect on worker happiness, according to the study led by Tina Cade, an associate professor of horticulture at Texas State University, and Andrea Dravigne of the San Marcos Nature Center.

"We pretty much found out that if you had windows and plants or even if you just had plants in your office, you were more satisfied with your job," Cade told LiveScience. "We thought it was important for offices because a lot of times people are looking for ways to keep employees happy and do all these expensive things like put in a daycare or a workout room. Maybe for less investment they could put in a few plants in strategic places."

The team surveyed 450 office workers in Texas and the Midwest, asking questions about job satisfaction and work environments. They found that people who toiled in offices with plants and window views reported they felt better about their job and the work they performed compared to those in windowless offices without shrubbery around.

When asked about their overall life quality, 82 percent of people who work with plants and windows around said they felt "content" or "very happy." Only 69 percent of those who work with plants but without windows, and 60 percent of those who have windows but no plants, said they felt this way.

The group of people who work without plants or windows were the most dissatisfied, with only 58 percent of them saying that overall they were "content" or "very happy." While no one who works with plants, windows, or both reported they felt "miserable," 0.8 percent of those who work in offices devoid of either said they were "miserable."

"I was really surprised that having a plant in your office appeared to be more beneficial than having a window in your office," Cade said. "Everybody says, 'I need a window!' but actually it seemed like a plant could be a suitable alternative."

The researchers said they controlled against the influence of salary, position, age, and ethnicity, so they don't think those factors can account for their results. The differences they found in job satisfaction and overall quality of life were statistically significant, they said.

Somewhat surprisingly, the surveys showed men to be more affected than women by the presence or lack of plants and windows.

"People will say that women react more to flowers and green stuff, but we actually saw the biggest differences in the guys," Cade said.

The scientists hope their research may influence employers, architects and urban planners to remember to keep flora around.

"Based on what we've found, it needs to be considered in planning," Cade said. "A lot of times these things are seen as luxury items, but this speaks to the importance of trying to keep spaces green, both inside and outside."

The researchers detailed their findings in the February 2008 issue of the journal HortScience.

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Eritrea's mangroves show way to fight hunger

Andrew Cawthorne, Reuters 21 May 08;

HIRGIGO, Eritrea, May 21 (Reuters) - Fisherman Ali Osman grins as he hauls a large, yellow-and-silver emperor fish out of the shallow Red Sea waters off Eritrea.

A minute later, his friend pulls out a baby shark, sweating in the heat as he chucks it on the rocks.

Other fish flop on the sea's flat surface as four young fishermen wade through the high tide to take back an impressive haul to their village, Hirgigo.

"If it wasn't for the mangroves, there wouldn't be so many fish," Ali says, pointing at a thick tree-line marking the border of desert and sea.

The forest of newly planted mangrove trees has given fish, crabs and oysters vital shelter to feed and breed in an area where there were previously only arid mud flats.

Marine life, and their human hunters, are not the only beneficiaries of an eco-project in this Horn of Africa village that has won global awards as a model for reducing poverty and feeding the hungry.

Led by U.S. scientist and humanitarian Gordon Sato, the project has transformed the landscape in an area where there is not enough fresh water to support conventional agriculture.

Leaves from the trees -- there are around a million mangroves in a six km (four mile) swathe from Hirgigo -- provide fodder for livestock. That means villagers no longer have to trek into distant highlands to feed their sheep and goats.

In a further benefit of the decade-old "Manzanar" project's low-tech, self-sustaining cycle, ground fishmeal and dried mangrove seeds are also fed to protein-hungry animals.

"I was given three sheep, now I have 15. I was a poor man, now I am rich," said Salih Mohamud, a 60-year-old father of four, contentedly watching his animals eat.



SATO'S SCHEME

Now 80, Sato first came to Eritrea in the 1980s, when war and hunger were devastating its people.

Wondering how agriculture could be stimulated on the barren coastline, Sato noted that mangroves would grow in thin bands along some sections of the shore.

He and his team established that the mangroves were growing in areas where rain water was washing into the sea. The rain was providing nitrogen, phosphorous and iron -- elements lacking in sea water.

By burying the seeds with a piece of iron and a punctured bag of fertiliser rich in nitrogen and phosphorous, the mangroves flourished. Desertification was reversed, and the life of the community was transformed.

"With simple experiments we are able to produce food and money for poor people where it did not seem possible. We can convert barren mud flats into mangrove forests and use these to provide the bulk of food for livestock," Sato said.

"In a few short years, poverty should be eradicated in this village," he told a newspaper.

The project was named Manzanar after the California desert internment camp where Sato and his family spent World War Two with thousands of other Japanese Americans. Then a young teenager, Sato created his own garden in the dusty earth.

"RAINFORESTS" OF THE SEA

The Eritrean project has attracted attention abroad, picking up several development awards. Its proponents believe it can be a model for other poor nations with similar coastal geography -- such as Mauritania, Somalia, Peru or Haiti.

"This is a low-tech solution to hunger and poverty. In these times of food price rises and global warming, it is just what the world needs," Manzanar project manager Ammanuel Yemane, of Eritrea's Fisheries Ministry, said at the site.

"Ours is a small and little-known country, but we have a unique project here that can serve as a model to the world."

The majority of workers on the project, planting trees and collecting the leaves, are women, who draw a monthly salary of 600 nakfa ($40), for the first time in their lives.

Hirgigo was chosen due to its extreme poverty, exacerbated by two devastating attacks by the Ethiopian army. In one of the world's hottest areas, rain seldom falls, temperatures pass 40 degrees Celsius, and the humidity drains visitors.

Its coastline, once stripped bare to provide leaves for camels and firewood, now has a profusion of vegetation and is teeming with sea-life: no wonder mangrove plantations are known as the "rainforests" of the sea.

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Wave of Predatory Starfish Decimate Palawan’s Reefs

Gregg Yan, WWF website 21 May 08;

Locusts of the sea, they come by the thousands – and leave behind a watery graveyard of coral skeletons.

An enormous wave of coral-eating crown-of-thorns starfish (Acanthaster planci) is wreaking havoc on Palawan’s Green Island Bay, famed for harbouring one of the country’s few remaining populations of Dugong.

“The damage wrought by this year’s outbreak is very alarming,” said Sheila Albasin, WWF Roxas Population, Health & Environment Project Manager. “Live coral cover in one marine protected area dropped from last year’s 70% to a mere 10% - due mostly to starfish predation.”

Largest of its kind, the crown-of-thorns starfish or “cots” is a robust and voracious echinoderm that feeds exclusively on the tissue of living coral. A single adult can obliterate 10 square meters of healthy reef annually.

Unchecked, they pose a major threat to national food security - since a healthy square kilometre of coral reef can produce up to 30-tonnes of fish - or more importantly, food - yearly.

Cleanups Yield Thousands

Cots populations swell each summer, when the ocean is at its warmest. Outbreaks can reach plague proportions, with adults capable of laying up to 60 million eggs per batch.

To save remaining coral cover, a series of cleanup operations are being implemented by WWF-Philippines, the Local Government of Roxas and the Bantay Dagat, with help from the Western Philippines University, Community Environment&Natural Resources Office of DENR and a growing army of local volunteers and fishermen.

Over 30,000 of the poisonous starfish have been collected since late March, a painstaking process in which divers armed with hooks literally gaff individual starfish which are then disposed of on land. In comparison, cleanups in Apo Reef, the country's largest, yielded just 6,000 last year.

Cots cleanup efforts continue in the seven Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) of Roxas, covering the barangays of Tumarbong, Johnson Island, Malcampo, Rizal and Caramay.

Perfect Coral Predators

Growing to 40 cm, its sheer bulk, coupled with a dense coat of stinging spines up to 5 cm long, prove an effective deterrent against most cots predators. Predation of adults mainly falls to the Napoleon Wrasse (Mameng), Harlequin Shrimp, Giant Triton (Budyong) and larger types of pufferfish. Larval and juvenile cots are eaten by filter-feeders such as corals and tube worms. Sadly, much of the 25,000 square kilometers covered by Philippine reefs has been overfished: most of the predators that provide a natural control mechanism for the starfish are long gone.

WWF has been working for years to steward the rich marine resources of Green Island Bay in North Palawan, a critical component of the earth's Coral Triangle - an incredibly productive region that feeds a half-billion people yearly.
Whilst cleanups continue, locals are starting to report smaller outbreaks in adjacent Honda Bay, near the famed Dos Palmas Resort. (30)

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Therapy needed for medicinal plants

WWF website 20 May 08;

Cambridge, UK, 20 May 2008: It is well known that there are plants that save lives; the question now is who saves these plants from over- exploitation, habitat loss and a host of other threats.

Every year, about half a million tonnes of dried medicinal and aromatic plants (MAP) are traded internationally, and an unknown but substantial quantity is traded on national and local markets.

More than 50% of the plants are harvested from the wild, and the demand for MAPs is increasing world-wide. Coupled with land conversion and habitat degradation in many regions, it means around a quarter of such species are under threat.

“About 15,000 of the estimated 50,000 – 70,000 plant species used for medicine, cosmetics or dietary supplements are threatened,” says Susanne Honnef, Head of TRAFFIC’s Medicinal Plant Programme.

WWF, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and their joint affiliate, the wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC have set up an initiative directed to "Saving Plants that Save Lives and Livelihoods". The initiative was highlighted at the Ninth Conference of the Parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) with the release of a new film on the issue

In many developing countries, wild-collected plants provide the only effective medicine for the majority of the rural population, because other forms of medication are either unavailable or unaffordable. In richer countries, many people have rediscovered the benefits of natural medicine.

New guidance on harvesting

Adding consumer demand to traditional demand, however, is a key factor behind over-exploitation and illegal harvest and trade in wild plants. Teaming up with the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN), the three groups began work in 2004 on an International Standard for Sustainable Wild Collection of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (ISSC-MAP).

“Published in early 2007, this standard now provides companies, governments, resource managers and other stakeholders in the MAP sector a specific guidance tool to develop sustainable use management systems for MAP collected from the wild,” said Uwe Schippmann, Head of the Plant Conservation Section of BfN.

Traditional plants, traditional peoples

Central to ISSC-MAP are the customary rights of local communities and indigenous peoples, and the establishment of benefit sharing agreements over genetic resources and management responsibility, reinforced by adherence to such concepts as prior informed consent (PIC) and mutually agreed terms (MAT).

The “Saving Plants that Save Lives and Livelihoods”, supported by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), has started implementing ISSC-MAP in projects world-wide. Projects, operating under a variety of conditions and organizational structures, are underway in Brazil, Cambodia, India, Lesotho, Nepal and Bosnia-Herzegovina, and with alternative funding, in China and the Ukraine.

“We are happy to see the ISSC-MAP being adapted to local contexts and used on the ground. Several governments, communities, forestry departments and companies have shown a keen interest to support the ISSC-MAP and promote its uptake in their countries” says Frank Fass-Metz, Head of Division Environment and Sustainable Use of Natural Resources of BMZ.

“This will help the development of capacity-building, technology transfer, and financial support programmes to assist developing countries with the implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).”

According to Jane Smart, Head of IUCN’s Species Programme: “ISSC-MAP is an excellent toolkit that can help contribute to national, subregional and regional implementation of the CBD’s Global Strategy for Plant Conservation.”

The CBD meeting is expected to review the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation, following recommendations made at the Convention’s Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice meeting in Paris in 2007.

“We all profit from the unique therapeutic effects of medicine from nature’s pharmacy”, says Sue Lieberman, Director of the Species Programme of WWF International “but it is high time for an effective therapy for natural plant populations under pressure.

“We welcome governments, and committed companies and NGOs to join the initiative, and work to ensure products from wild plants are harvested in compliance with the ISSC-MAP,” adds Susanne Honnef of TRAFFIC.

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Garbage is dirty, but is it a clean fuel?

Nichola Groom, Reuters 20 May 08;

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - About 45 minutes north of downtown Los Angeles, a machine the size of a small truck flattens tons of food scraps, paper towels and other household trash into the side of a growing 300-foot pile.

To Waste Management, which operates the landfill, this is more than just a mountain of garbage. Pipes tunneled deep into the mound extract gas from the rotting waste and send it to a plant that turns it into electricity.

Apart from the huge-wheeled compactor driving over garbage on its surface, it looks like an ordinary hillside. And it doesn't even smell. Yet it produces enough energy to power 2,500 homes in Southern California.

Trash, rubbish, whatever you call it, the 1.6 billion tonnes of stuff the world throws away each year -- 250 kilograms per person -- is being touted as a big potential source of clean energy.

As concerns about climate change escalate and prices on fossil fuels like oil and natural gas soar to record levels, more companies are investing in ways to use methane gas to power homes and vehicles.

Around the world, landfills where municipal waste is collected and buried are one of the biggest producers of methane, a gas whose greenhouse effect is 21 times worse than carbon dioxide. If instead that gas is collected and burned to generate electricity, proponents say the resulting emissions of carbon dioxide are less harmful to the environment than the original methane.

In the United States, trash haulers like Waste Management and Allied Waste Industries Inc are rapidly expanding the number of gas-to-energy projects at their landfills, while start-up companies are developing the latest technologies to transform garbage into ethanol, gas and electricity.

"We are able to take that resource and turn it into real value financially for us. In a very basic sense it helps improve our earnings," said Ted Neura, senior director of renewable energy development for Phoenix-based Allied Waste, which is turning waste into energy at 54 of its 169 U.S. landfills, with 16 more projects in the works.

The "green" credentials that go along with the waste-to-energy projects are an added benefit, Neura said.

"You begin to look at landfills a little differently when you couple them with a renewable energy project," he said.

Environmentalists aren't quite as enthusiastic. Nathanael Greene, director of renewable energy policy for the Natural Resources Defense Council, said touting the benefits of landfills was akin to putting "lipstick on a pig." Instead, we should be trying harder to reduce waste.

BIOGAS AROUND THE GLOBE

Biogas, another name for methane produced from waste, manure or other organic matter, is most developed in Europe, where Germany has 70 percent of the global market. In Britain, landfill gas makes up a quarter of the country's renewable energy, giving electricity to some 900,000 homes.

Waste-to-energy projects are also being expanded in the developing world, where rapid economic growth has led to a surge in municipal waste, but efforts to collect the methane emitted by rotting garbage have been slower.

Last year, the World Bank announced a deal to install a gas collection and electricity generation system at a landfill in Tianjin, China, saying the opportunities for other such projects in the world's most populous nation was enormous.

In less developed countries than China, however, a waste infrastructure needs to be installed before energy projects from landfills or garbage incinerators will make sense.

"Some of the developing countries are fascinated by the possibilities of introducing incineration," said Henrik Harjula, principal administrator for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. "The problem is normally that it is like putting a modern facility in the jungle. There is nobody to take care of the maintenance."

In the United States, technology to produce electricity from waste has existed since the 1970s, according to Waste Management's vice president of renewable energy, Paul Pabor, who said federal tax incentives introduced in 2005 and state mandates to produce a percentage of their power from renewable sources has fueled the recent growth in such projects.

Environmentalists recognize that turning methane into power is preferable to releasing it into the air, but quibble with the characterization of landfill gas as renewable.

"This is an environmentally preferable option, but it's not renewable in the sense that it's not something we can do forever," said the NRDC's Greene. "Before we go adding incentives for energy production from garbage, we need to first get the incentives right so that we are maximizing the amount of recycling we do."

RUBBISH TO REVENUE

Despite the arguments about how "green" landfill gas really is, Waste Management and Allied Waste are benefiting from their growing new revenue streams. Allied Waste's Neura said the company generates less than 5 percent of its revenue from sales of electricity, but is evaluating all of its landfills to determine how best to develop them.

Landfill energy projects are much smaller than gas or coal-fired power plants, producing about 5 megawatts (MW) of electricity each, on average, Neura said. That's about enough power for 4,000 homes.

Houston-based Waste Management, which already produces energy at 100 of its 280 U.S. landfills, plans to spend $400 million over the next five years to build an additional 60 landfill gas-to-energy plants.

To produce enough gas to make a power plant financially viable, landfills must contain a large amount of organic waste and have been in operation for several years, Pabor said. At the moment, they also have to be located in states where power prices are high enough that electricity from the landfill will be competitive with energy from the grid. Finally, they also need to be close enough to transmission lines that the interconnection costs do not get out of hand.

"As a public company, of course, we've got to invest our fund in projects that do make a return for the investors," Pabor said in an interview. He declined to say how much of the company's revenue comes from its energy projects.

TRASH TO TRUCKS

In its latest effort, Waste Management last month joined a growing number of companies that are using waste to power vehicles. In California, the company is building the largest-ever facility to turn landfill gas into liquefied natural gas to fuel its heavy-duty garbage collection trucks.

But big, established companies aren't the only ones using waste to replace fossil fuels.

One start-up company, Boston-based Ze-gen Inc, is creating what it says is a zero-emissions process for producing electricity from construction waste that it is diverting from landfills. Ze-gen, which is backed by venture capital firms Pinnacle Ventures LLC, Flagship Ventures and VantagePoint Venture Partners, through a gasification project turns waste into syngas, a combination of hydrogen and carbon monoxide.

Bill Davis, the company's chief executive, said Ze-gen's syngas is able to produce more energy than competing gases without the waste having to be buried. Ze-gen hopes to attract industrial customers that will be able to power their factories with both their own waste and Ze-gen's technology.

"We are talking to large companies who are really worried about the escalating price of oil or natural gas," Davis said.

General Electric Co is also working to adapt its gasification technology, which today is used to burn coal more cleanly, to turn municipal waste into a cleaner-burning gas.

Solena Group, which is backed by Spanish conglomerate Acciona SA, is developing a facility in California to make renewable jet fuel from municipal waste, and BlueFire Ethanol Fuels Inc is building its first cellulosic ethanol plant adjacent to a landfill in Lancaster, California, so it can use municipal waste as its feedstock.

"It was the lowest risk feedstock," said Arnold Klann, president and chief executive of BlueFire Ethanol. "By putting this inside the landfill we totally avoid the creation of a new infrastructure, because the infrastructure already exists to bring (waste) into the landfill every day and bury it. We are taking the material that society values the least and converting it into a transportation fuel."

(Reporting by Nichola Groom; Editing by Eddie Evans)

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Best of our wild blogs: 21 May 08

Raffles Museum open house on 24 May (Sat)
for Faculty of Science open house at NUS, on the rmbr news blog

Dollar that moves
clip on the manta blog

Laced Woodpecker crashed into balcony glass door
on the bird ecology blog

Silver-breasted Broadbill building nest
on the bird ecology blog

Invasion of the biofuel species
biofuel plants are exotics on the New Scientist Environment Blog

Read more!

Feel the heat in Singapore? No let-up this week

Mercury hits a high for second time this month; light winds likely next week
Tania Tan, Straits Times 21 May 08;

TEMPERATURES here hit a scorching 34 deg C yesterday, and the heat is not likely to let up until well into next week when light winds may provide some relief.

The mercury peaked at about 3pm yesterday, the second time this month that temperatures have hit that high. It hit 34.1 deg C in the first week of the month.

While the National Environment Agency (NEA) could not give details, checks on international weather websites, including the United Nations' World Meteorological Organisation, confirmed that May has been the hottest month of the year so far.

The United States-based Weather Underground - an offshoot of the University of Michigan's Internet weather database - said the average temperature this month has been 31 deg C.

May is traditionally the second hottest month of the year, with average temperatures falling between 24.7 deg C and 31.6 deg C.

More hot days with intermittent showers are expected until the final week of this month, NEA stated in its fortnightly forecast.

Whether this month will set a new record for the highest extreme monthly temperature

remains to be seen. That record was set in May 2005 when temperatures hit 35.4 deg C.

But even without setting records, the current heat has sent thermostat settings down, and while takings for many alfresco businesses have not dipped, complaints have been streaming in.

Owners of some restaurants and bars along the Singapore River, for example, have had to provide more fans to keep their customers cool.

Robertson Quay restaurant Brussels Sprouts, where 60 per cent of the dining space is outdoors, has seen complaints increase tenfold since March, with customers asking to be seated indoors instead.

In response, it added six more fans to its eight standing fans and 14 ceiling fans last month, said Ms Monique Kwok, operating partner of the Belgian restaurant.

People are also looking for more ways to keep cool. At a grocery stall in Toa Payoh, ice cream and cold drinks sales are up 20 per cent, said minimart owner Ong Liang Eng.

And some even headed for their hairdressers' for heat relief.

Secondary school teacher Chen Ai-lian, 31, who has had long hair for two years, traded her locks for a short crop last week.

'It felt like I was walking around in an oven, with hair sticking to my back. It's amazing what a difference a haircut makes,' she said.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY TESSA WONG

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Haze returns with hot spots in Riau and Kalimantan

Easterly winds keep haze for now in Indonesia, where dry weather is forecast
Salim Osman, Straits Times 21 May 08;

JAKARTA - THE haze has returned to Riau and Kalimantan and could threaten Singapore if the winds change direction.

Many hot spots have popped up in several Indonesian provinces.

Poor visibility in Pontianak in Kalimantan forced the authorities to close the airport there for about an hour on Monday, but it reopened yesterday as the skies cleared somewhat.

In Riau's capital, Pekan Baru, visibility was moderate and the airport stayed open yesterday.

Forest fires, which had been confined to West Kalimantan, spread to South Kalimantan yesterday.

The wind was blowing from the west to east, and the haze had enveloped many parts of Riau, including Pekan Baru.

Meteorological and Geophysics Centre analyst Slamet Riyadi said in Pekan Baru that the winds would continue to be easterly today, and the haze would affect mainly areas in the province.

'But if the wind direction changes to the north, the haze will be blown towards Singapore and Malaysia,' he added.

The region has been hit by haze from forest fires in Sumatra and Borneo almost yearly since 1997.

The problem prompted Asean member countries affected by it to help Indonesia fight illegal burning. A meeting was held in Kuala Lumpur just last month to step up those efforts, as dry weather is forecast for the months ahead.

The weather station in Riau's capital said the dry season had already started in Sumatra, with hundreds of hot spots appearing in recent days.

Officials and environmentalists say the forest and land fires in Riau and Kalimantan are the result of plantations and farms using the banned slash-and-

burn method to clear land. This usually goes on until August.

'No rain has been predicted for the next five days in Riau as the dry weather is expected to continue,' said Mr Slamet.

The number of hot spots in Riau yesterday was 75, down from 96 a day earlier as firefighters rushed to douse the fires.

The National Oceanographic Atmospheric Administration had recorded as many as 181 hot spots on Saturday.

Visibility was reported to be good in Pekan Baru at 4km, while it was about 500m in Rokan Hilir, the site of the forest fires.

Mr Nahrowi, a state environment officer in Rokan Hilir district, about 200km from the Riau capital, said the fires that had raged there had been put out by the local fire brigade and firefighters from the forestry department.

But thick smoke continued to rise from the forest as Rokan Hilir is located in an area of peat soil in which burning embers continued to smoulder deep down in the earth.

'The thick smoke is affecting the environment, producing haze in our region,' he said.

The haze has also engulfed many parts of West Kalimantan. Visibility in Pontianak, the capital, was down to 300m.

There were 28 hot spots in West Kalimantan on Monday, according to reports.

Its governor, Mr Cornelius, has ordered the authorities to fight the fires and stop those responsible for them.

'This method of clearing land is affecting the environment,' he was quoted as saying by the Pontianak Post online yesterday.

South Kalimantan yesterday reported the start of some forest fires. There were 20 hot spots in the province.

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NUS team to compete in European eco-car marathon

Channel NewsAsia 20 May 08;

SINGAPORE: Southeast Asia's first eco-car is all set to compete at an Eco-Marathon in France from 22 May to 24 May.

The ‘NUS-ECO1’ was built by six students from the National University of Singapore (NUS) from scratch. Measuring three-metres long and one metre high, the eco-car is significantly smaller than the usual sedan.

It's the first of its kind in Singapore and runs on a special ‘gas-to-liquids’ fuel which is derived from natural gas and is cleaner than normal fuel.

The car is able to run 100 kilometres on one litre of fuel, roughly the distance from Changi to Tuas.

This is an important statistic since it will be tested on the distance it can travel and not its speed.

Yeo Yicong, Assistant Team Leader, Mechanical Engineering, NUS, said: "We have set ourselves a target of achieving 100km per litre using this car and I believe that's a very reasonable expectation to ask for, given that it's the first time we're going at this category.

“So hopefully, we can outdo the current result that we have which is 100, because when we did the testing, there are a lot of other things such as the body shell which is not in. And with that, we can improve on the aerodynamics. So hopefully, we will bring back some results for the school as well as for Singapore."

The NUS team will be competing against 53 teams from 15 countries in the category for urban eco-cars. - CNA/vm

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Price of Cooking Fuel Threatens Papua New Guinea Mangroves

RedOrbit News 20 May 08;

The soaring price of cooking fuels is forcing many households to turn to mangrove trees for firewood, leading to their further destruction. As a result, future catch from coastal fishing grounds could drastically decline, marine biologist Thomas Maniwavie said recently. He is attached to Motupure Biology Unit of the University of Papua New Guinea based on Motupore Island in Tahira Bay just outside of Port Moresby.

Mr Maniwavie said mangrove areas are the natural breeding grounds of fish, bivalve shells, prawns, lobsters and crabs. When mangrove forests decline, fish population in coastal fishing grounds also tends to decrease, leading to fewer catch for coastal fishermen, he said.

"They (mangrove trees) have become a saleable commodity," Mr Maniwavie said in an interview with a Port Moresby-based representative of www.batasnews.com, a website operated by free- legal aid lawyers in the Philippines.

"The villagers along the coastal areas of Central Province harvest the trees, cut them to size, dry them up and sell them as firewood in bundles," he said. "With the rising price of cooking fuel, they started selling firewood in big volumes to city dwellers who can no longer afford kerosene or LPG (liquefied petroleum gas)," he added.

Mr Maniwavie said that villagers along the coast of Tahira Bay in Central can now encroach into bigger areas inside the mangrove forests even during high tide using banana boats which they use to haul off to cut mangrove trees.

"Aside from being used as cooking fuel, mangrove trees are being used as firewood to dry sea cucumber," he said.

Mr Maniwavie is working on the protection and conservation through replanting of denuded mangrove areas along the coastline of Central Province, using funds from World Wildlife Foundation (WWF).

Originally published by The National website, Port Moresby, in English 20 May 08.

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Wonders of Matang mangrove forest

Jaspal Singh, New Straits Times 17 May 08;

Students from 28 schools throughout Malaysia attended a recent environmental awareness programme at Matang mangrove forest in Perak. JASPAL SINGH writes on the importance of learning about the subject from young.

"MANGROVES are the first line of defence when tsunami strikes our shores," says Ahmad Naufal Basri, a 17-year-old student of Kolej Islam Sultan Alam Shah, Selangor.

Ahmad Naufal, who is also the college's Unesco Club president, admits that he and his fellow students had learnt about the importance of mangroves in college.

"I arrived at Matang mangrove forest complex on my first field trip with that on my mind.

"I believe it's the same with the others," he says during a short lunch break at Matang Mangrove Forest's Eco-Tourism Centre in Kuala Sepetang, near Taiping, Perak.

Just one day at the complex and Ahmad Naufal soon realises that the mangrove trees serve more than that one purpose.

Ahmad Naufal and 62 students from 28 schools all over Malaysia, together with Unesco Club members of the University of Malaya, had a wonderful opportunity discovering the importance of preserving mangrove forests during their recent three-day study tour of the site.

Not only did they learn about the complex ecosystem of mangrove forests at the 40,466ha jungle reserve, but they also found out that this type of forests is important in generating revenue.

Professor Dr Zulkifli Yusop, director of the Institute Of Environmental and Water Resources at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (IPASA-UTM), is one of the coordinators of this year's environmental campaign which also included a three-day visit to Langkawi Geopark.

He says nearly 98 per cent of the students selected for the seven-day Matang Mangrove Forest and Langkawi Geopark study tour under the Environmental Awareness Programme 2008 were Unesco Club members of their schools and university.

Thanks to the combined efforts of the Malaysian National Commission for United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (MNCU), Malaysia International Hydrological Programme, IPASA-UTM and the Education Ministry, among others, these lucky students got the chance to closely observe the beauty of nature and learn the importance of preserving mangrove mudflats and forests.

The Matang Mangrove Forest and Langkawi Geopark study tour is the third organised by MNCU; the first two programmes were held at Endau-Rompin National Park and Mulu National Park in 2005 and 2007 respectively.

Forming a crescent-like strip along the coast of Perak, the Matang mangrove forest stretches about 54km from Kuala Gula in the north to Bagan Panchor in the south.

With a maximum width of 13.5km, the forest is also home to various animal species and a major feeding ground for more than 100 types of migratory bird species which make their stop at Kuala Gula Bird Sanctuary during the August-April migratory cycle to escape the harsh northern winter and then fly back north to roost.

Mangroves are among the world's most productive wetlands. These trees grow by adapting to the harsh saline environment. They anchor the shoreline, slow down tidal currents and provide a natural buffer against erosion and tropical storms.

This type of coastal forest also protects freshwater sources by preventing salt water from intruding inland, as well as slows down sedimentation from inland thereby protecting coral reefs and seagrass vital to marine ecology.

And, the students gathered that mangroves too contribute immensely to human existence and quality of life.

Besides providing timber for construction, wood for fuel and charcoal, mangrove ecosystem is responsible for the maintenance of coastal capture fisheries which provide the bulk of shellfish caught off the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia.

Mangroves and the surrounding wetlands provide a host of natural resources such as honey from hives of honey bees, food and thatch from the nipah palm, tannin to "cure" leather and wood for carving as well as medicinal needs for the coastal communities.

The Matang mangrove forest's calm brackish waters are a favoured habitat for various types of animals.

The unique structure of mangrove prop roots can sometimes discourage larger predatory animals from venturing into the mangroves.

A high diversity of insects, crustaceans, molluscs, reptiles, small mammals and birds make mangroves their home. These include otters and civets which prey on the fish and crustaceans.

Silver-leaf monkeys and long-tailed macaques find shelter and survive on crabs, cockles, selected young shoots and fruits while reptiles such as water monitor and mangrove snakes feed on birds, eggs and rodents.

Many waterbird species, either local or migratory, feed along the mudflats on different types of snails, shellfishes, molluscs and worms.

"It is a rare opportunity to learn about the complex biodiversity of mangrove forests," says Associate Professor Dr Ismail Abustan, head of Water Management Cluster at Universiti Sains Malaysia.

Ismail, who is one of the programme coordinators, says more Unesco Clubs mean more students taking part in ongoing environmental programmes organised by MNCU.

MNCU executive secretary Haslinda Alias says there are 26 such clubs in Malaysia and these were set up as early as the 1970s.

Though the idea of setting up a Unesco Club in every school is an attractive one, Haslinda is quick to say that this may take time to materialise as it requires effort to ensure that the clubs are active at all times. Besides, schools need to arrange finances for the clubs on their own.

Although MNCU is given an annual grant of about RM1 million a year by the government, the sum is considerably small compared to the number of schools nationwide.

"That is why MNCU prefers to spend funds on choice environmental awareness programmes. Even then we try to source expertise and funds from government agencies and professional bodies."

That explains the limited number of students selected for MNCU's environmental programmes, says MNCU senior programme officer Norfaliza Ismail.

Zulkifli and Ismail offer a three-step proposal to help students understand their natural surroundings:

- creating more environmental awareness programmes for students in more schools;

- introducing a dedicated curriculum on the environment in schools; and

- channelling special allocation to every student in the country to enable them to discover nature through personal observation

"Expose students to environmental issues from the time they are young; perhaps in the first three or five years of primary school with a follow-up programme during their secondary years," says Zulkifli.

As for the immediate future, Ismail believes that schools or district education offices can take the lead by organising environmental awareness programmes at the district level.

"You can find educational environmental attractions in every state and in almost every district," he says.

"The other thing is for more non-governmental organisations and professional bodies to spare time and money towards arranging this type of extra-curricular activities for students."

As Zulkifli takes a long look at some of the students getting excited at the sight of an oversized mudskipper feeding on the mudflats, he remarks that it is crucial to nurture environment-friendly citizens, starting with the young.

"As the saying melentur buluh biarlah dari rebung goes, it is best to mould a person when he is still young.

"There is simply no better alternative to starting them young."

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Philippine rice crisis due to bad policies, not shortage, says economist

Channel NewsAsia 21 May 08;

MANILA - The rice crisis affecting the Philippines is not caused by a shortage of rice but due to bad policies that have hurt the agriculture sector, a leading economist said in a report released Wednesday.

"The so-called rice crisis is really an income crisis," said Rolando Dy, executive director of the food division of the Manila-based University of Asia and the Pacific.

He blamed "under-investment in agriculture and infrastructure, a poor record in eliminating poverty (and) poor infrastructure quality," for the crisis which has forced thousands of poor Filipinos to line up for hours for subsidised rice.

"We cannot reap what we did not sow. We failed in reducing rural poverty compared to other countries," like China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, he said.

The Philippines is one of the world's biggest rice importers and does not enjoy large contiguous land areas with large river systems that allow China, India, Vietnam and Thailand to grow huge amounts of rice, Dy conceded.

But he said other countries which are more dependent on imported rice, like Malaysia and Singapore did not have long queues for rice and were not suffering from the crisis as badly as the Philippines.

Dy said that rice consumption in the Philippines was so high because much of its population was still poor and could afford to eat nothing else.

"There are so many poor people here, the only food they can afford is a mound of rice and some catsup (tomato sauce)," he said.

The Philippines could raise productivity but it had not properly invested in agriculture or its support infrastructure like irrigation and farm-to-market roads, Dy said.

He said the government was investing little in research and development, building sub-standard rural roads and not putting enough irrigation into potential growth areas like the southern region of Mindanao.

Dy also complained that an agriculture modernisation law that took effect in 2000 was not getting adequate funding.

Graft and corruption also hurt the agriculture sector with rural infrastructure being built to poor standards.

The rice crisis might even be a blessing in disguise because it "will spur production and even investments," in agriculture which will have a positive effect in the long run, Dy said.

But he said the rice issue is "a problem not just of the executive branch... it is a problem of the legislative and judiciary," as well.

Dy said that there is likely to be "some correction in rice prices in the next 12 months but not dramatically," remarking that world rice prices will not return to levels seen in 2006.

- AFP /ls

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Time for cities to leave the comfort zone

Sir John Sorrell, BBC Green Room 20 May 08;

There are precious few examples of cities that are attempting to reduce energy and resource consumption and improve the quality of life for their citizens, says Sir John Sorrell. But nothing is going to happen, he argues, until politicians accept that they have a mandate to make the tough choices needed.

Some people think that cutting carbon means denying ourselves the things that make life enjoyable - no shopping, no fun - but I see it differently.

Tackling climate change isn't about self-denial, it's about reinvention; reinventing towns and cities, redesigning the way they work, and changing the way we all manage our lives.

As the government's design champion, the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) reviews proposals for 350 of the most significant new buildings and spaces every year.

Out of all those homes, schools and health centres, we have only seen a handful with any serious ambition for sustainability.

Things may be changing, but far too slowly, which is why we are organising a climate change festival, which is being held in Birmingham from 31 May.

It gives us nine days to show we can do something positive and surprising together about climate change, centred on the way we build and use our cities.

Living the dream

We are not just asking people to see their city through new eyes; we are asking them to dare to dream about the kind of place that could be created over the next 10 years through cutting carbon.

Which begs the question: how can you tell if you live in a sustainable city?

It currently costs a place like Birmingham, England's second largest city, up to £1bn a year to import its energy, yet only a tiny proportion of it is green.

The trick is to harness and capture the energy that is already there from the Sun, ground and air, and create decentralised energy distribution systems.

This is a lost art; the Royal Festival Hall was extracting energy from the River Thames to heat its building 50 years ago.

Buildings must change. For me, the glass tower of the Seagram Building in New York defines the time when energy was plentiful.

You effectively designed rows of desks in a sauna, and then simply added air conditioning.

Most of the buildings around us today will still be standing for decades to come, so it's their energy performance that must change.

Keeping an even temperature inside any building means serious insulation. Homes in an average large city produce more than two million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) each year. This is because the vast majority of older houses leak heat.

So if I were to suggest three tests for a sustainable city, this would be my first: are there grants or local tax incentives available to help people green their homes?

Car-free life

The second thing is about how we live our lives, not just how we live in our homes.

Our carbon footprints reflect how we get to work, how we shop, where our friends are.

It is interesting that the biggest carbon savings at BedZed, the UK's veteran eco-housing development, have been made as a result of establishing a car sharing scheme.

Cutting private car use generally means civic leaders being prepared to risk a few brave decisions.

For example, when a new suburb was built in the German city of Freiburg, they ran a tram service from the moment the first resident moved in.

This meant empty trams at first, but now nearly half of its residents are car free. Not so foolish after all.

So my second test for a sustainable city is whether you have a genuine transport choice.

Is it just as cheap and convenient to go by bus, tram and local train as it is by car?

Until it is, heavy traffic will continue to put most people off walking and cycling, which are the personal transport options that score best for fitness and protecting the planet.

Greening the city

My third test is about greenery. Are a lot more big trees being planted; are acres of new allotments coming on stream; are parks being properly maintained?

Greenery is critical to counterbalance the "urban heat island" effect from hotter, drier summers, when night-time temperatures remain high because of heat retained by brick and tarmac.

Plants only cool the air if they stay green, which means capturing heavy winter downpours instead of letting them just flood the drains.

Storage can be cunningly disguised as beautiful water features.

And greening a place properly includes the roofs. In the northern English city of Sheffield, even bus shelters now sport green roofs to filter pollution.

There will be something else common to all truly sustainable towns and cities: they will be more prosperous than unsustainable ones.

This is because carbon emissions are only one sign of the inefficient way in which natural resources are being used.

As all these resources dwindle, economic pressure is growing to use them more wisely.

Future-proofing a city means creating the markets for green businesses and green technologies, and designing the space and facilities to support them.

In a well-designed, sustainable city, most residents believe their future and their progress are linked to its future.

If you are on a low income, you may have little choice about where you live.

So with fuel prices soaring, you want to live somewhere served by affordable public transport. You want your local authority to help with home insulation, and invest in local green energy which will protect you from perennial price hikes.

Whether you are looking at London leading on congestion charging, or San Francisco leading on solar power (with a system the size of a football field on top of its convention centre), it is clear that strong civic leadership matters most of all.

We need that kind of vision, backed by serious investment, when it comes to planning and managing the towns and cities of tomorrow.

Why isn't it happening everywhere? Because politicians don't seem to know that they have a public mandate to make tough decisions.

We want the climate change festival to show them that they do have that mandate, and give them the confidence to do the right thing.

Sir John Sorrell is chairman of the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment, the government's design champion

The Green Room is a series of opinion pieces on environmental topics running weekly on the BBC News website

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'Mind-Blowing' New Creature Discovered

Charles Q. Choi, LiveScience.com Yahoo News 20 May 08;

Among the greatest mysteries in zoology for more than a century have been vaguely shrimp-like creatures known as y-larvae.

Although these microscopic beasts are clearly young crustaceans, no one knew what the adult forms looked like.

Now researchers may have solved this puzzle by dosing the y-larvae with a hormone that forced them to go through a growth spurt.

The result - simple, pulsing, slug-like masses of cells that were "mind-blowing" to the scientists. These surprisingly simple creatures - far simpler than their larval stage - may be parasites found worldwide.

Dizzying diversity

Y-larvae, or facetotectans, were first discovered in 1899. There were once x-larvae as well, the 'x' and 'y' both denoting something mysterious. Later on, the adult form of the x-larvae were found, but bafflingly, even after intense searches, no one knew what y-larvae grew up to be, so they kept their name.

These critters are just a few hundred microns large, or roughly the size of the period at the end of this sentence. They occur with dizzying diversity in coral reef areas, and are found in all oceans, from the poles to the tropics. Their commonplace nature suggests the adults play a major role in ecosystems around the globe.

To find out what these y-adults might be, an international team of scientists used nets to collect more than 40 species of y-larvae from a marine station at Sesoko Island near Okinawa, Japan. As they were gathering the creatures, a cyclone approached.

"It was predicted to hit the marine station five days after the arrival of our team," said researcher Henrik Glenner, a molecular biologist at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark. "This put us under substantial time pressure, because we knew that it was impossible to catch the y-larvae after the cyclone had passed. Therefore, we had to work during the nights."

Safe back in the lab

The researchers next exposed y-larvae to a crustacean hormone that encouraged them to mature. The creatures metamorphosized into a juvenile form, dubbed "ypsigons," unexpectedly shedding their exoskeletons to become wriggling, eyeless, limbless creatures that resemble parasitic crustaceans.

At first the researchers thought their eyes were tricking them, but eventually "the juvenile literally crawled out of the old larval carapace," Glenner recalled. "It was only after several repeated experiments we actually believed what we saw. That feeling was a mind-blowing experience."

The fact that ypsigons are vastly different and far simpler than y-larvae might help explain why the adult versions of these creatures have escaped detection for so long. These are so simple compared with y-larvae that they even lack digestive tracts and nervous systems.

Ypsigons could make do without a digestive tract by directly absorbing nutrients from their surroundings, They might develop a nervous system later on in life, "but not necessarily," Glenner said.

"I know it sounds strange, but in some adult parasitic barnacles - rhizocephalans, which parasitize other crustaceans - there are no traces of a nervous system either," Glenner told LiveScience. "This is possible because their behavior as adults is restricted to certain coordinated movements when they release their larvae."

Probably parasites

As the final adult stage of the y-larvae are probably parasites, future efforts to uncover these y-adults - to solve this mystery once and for all - will aim to identify their hosts by screening coral reef animals for y-larvae DNA.

"These parasites could play a very important role in the wild," said researcher Jens Høeg, a marine zoologist and invertebrate morphologist at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark. "They should not be seen as evil or bad. Wherever these parasites are, be they in sea urchins or sea stars or corals, they are probably important in making up what we consider a normal, healthy coral reef."

Høeg, Glenner and their colleagues Mark Grygier and Yoshihisa Fujita detailed their findings May 19 in the journal BMC Biology. They were supported by the Carlsberg Foundation in Denmark and the Lake Biwa Museum in Japan.

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Pacific islands act to save threatened tuna

Michael Perry, Reuters 21 May 08;

SYDNEY (Reuters) - South Pacific nations have taken steps to shore up dwindling tuna stocks, banning licensed tuna vessels from fishing in international waters between their islands and requiring them to always carry observers.

The new rules, agreed to at a fisheries meeting in Palau on Tuesday, will take effect from June 15, 2008.

"This is an historic moment for the Pacific, its people, marine life and future food security," Lagi Toribau, Greenpeace Australia's Pacific Oceans campaigner said on Wednesday.

Toribau was speaking from the environmental group's ship Esperanza, which has pestered tuna vessels in the Pacific in recent weeks as part of a campaign against overfishing of tuna.

Worldwide stocks of bigeye tuna, a prime source for Japanese restaurants serving sushi and sashimi around the world, are on the verge of collapse from overfishing, say conservationists.

The 4th Forum Fisheries Ministerial Meeting said in a statement that South Pacific island states had agreed to take immediate steps to protect bigeye and yellowfin tuna stocks.

The ministers said "high seas enclaves or donut holes" between island nations would be declared off limits to commercial fishing. Japan, Taiwan, Korea and China are the main foreign tuna fishing nations operating in the South Pacific.

The ministers also agreed to prohibit the use of fish aggregating devices (FADs), or ocean buoys and floats which attract fish, for three months each year.

Tuna vessels will also have to continuously use automatic location communicators and vessel monitoring systems and carry fisheries observers at all times, the Forum said in a statement.

"Our region will achieve success if our countries band together to adopt and implement action plans to fight illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing, both on national levels and with respect to fishing on the high seas," Palau Vice President Elias Chin told the meeting.

But Chin said the island states needed to "balance the need to preserve the fish stocks for future generations with the need to develop our economies and feed our people".

"FISH TOMORROW?"

In February the island nation Kiribati created the world's largest protected marine reserve, a California-sized watery wilderness covering 410,500 square km (158,500 square miles), to preserve tuna spawning grounds and coral reef biodiversity.

Greenpeace said decades of over-exploitation has reduced some of tuna stocks in the Pacific to just 15 percent of what they once were and that European fishing firms are now chasing tuna in the Pacific after tuna stocks fell in the Atlantic.

"It is time for fishing nations to realize that if they want fish tomorrow, we need marine reserves today," said Sari Tolvanen of Greenpeace International.

Scientists warn THAT stocks of the Atlantic bluefin tuna are dangerously close to collapse after a decade of overfishing, which has been driven by growing Asian demand for sushi.

A decline in bluefin stocks has increased demand for the bigeye tuna, which is fished in the Indian and Atlantic oceans and the Western and Central Pacific.

Indian Ocean tuna fishermen landed their smallest catch for 11 years in 2007, citing overfishing and warmer sea surface temperatures sending tuna into deeper ocean.

(Editing by John Chalmers)

Tuna fishing ban for South Pacific zones
Nick Squires, The Telegraph 30 May 08;

Tuna fishing is to be banned in two huge areas of the South Pacific in an attempt to halt the chronic over-exploitation of the highly prized fish.

The new rules, agreed to at a fisheries meeting this month, will come into effect on June 15.

They will create two vast fishing-free zones, one between Papua New Guinea and Palau, and another bounded by PNG, the Marshall Islands, Kiribati, the Solomon Islands and the Federated States of Micronesia.

The two high seas enclaves, or 'donut holes', are outside the countries' respective exclusive economic zones.

The restrictions were drawn up by a group of eight South Pacific states, which despite being among the smallest nations in the world have some of the largest and richest fishing grounds.

Tuna vessels fishing within their exclusive economic zones will have to carry fisheries observers at all times.

And ocean floats used to attract huge numbers of fish, known as fish aggregating devices or FADs, will be banned for the third quarter of each year.

"This is an historic moment for the Pacific, its people, marine life and future food security," said Lagi Toribau, Greenpeace Australia's Pacific Ocean campaigner.

Toribau was speaking from the Greenpeace ship Esperanza, which in recent weeks has roamed the Pacific, hunting down tuna boats and protesting against the overfishing of two key tuna species: the yellowfin and the bigeye, a main source of sushi and sashimi.

The Pacific holds the last relatively robust populations of tuna and provides half the tuna consumed globally.

But the fish are under threat from Asian fishing fleets which have exhausted their own waters. European boats are also turning to the Pacific, as Atlantic bluefin tuna stocks dwindle as a result of a decade of over-fishing.

"A lot of the over-fishing is being done by boats from countries like China, Taiwan, Japan and Korea," said Seremaia Tuqiri, the Fiji-based South Pacific fisheries policy officer for WWF. "There are also pirate vessels coming in from South America."

Greenpeace says that unless "drastic action" is taken, yellowfin and bigeye tuna will be critically over-fished within three years. Some tuna stocks in the Pacific have been reduced to 15 per cent of what they once were.

While fisheries experts welcomed the announcement of the two protected enclaves, there was concern about how the new rules would be implemented.

Cash-strapped South Pacific nations' "navies" rarely amount to more than a handful of coastal patrol boats, often donated second hand by Australia or New Zealand.

"How on earth are they going to get compliance?" said Anissa Lawrence, head of Oceanwatch Australia, a marine sustainability NGO. "It's a brilliant idea but enforcement will be a real challenge for these small countries."

But Duncan Leadbitter, Asia-Pacific director of the Marine Stewardship Council, disagreed. "Papua New Guinea has a very sophisticated management regime and is more than capable of enforcing the rules," he said from Tuna 2008, the tuna industry's annual conference in Bangkok.

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Whale meat 'stolen' from Japan's science fleet

The Telegraph 20 May 08;

Prosecutors are to investigate allegations of large-scale theft of whale meat by sailors from Japan’s controversial "scientific" whaling fleet.

The investigation by the Tokyo district public prosecutor comes after allegations were made by Greenpeace that 23.5 kilos of whale meat was sent by a crew member to his home, disguised as personal effects.

The allegations have been taken seriously in Japan because "scientific" whaling under a loophole in the international moratorium is a subsidized activity with direct support from the Government.

A four-month investigation by Greenpeace highlighted claims by informers that government-appointed officials from the Institute of Cetacean Research (ICR) and the whaling fleet operators, Kyodo Senpaku are aware of the alleged theft of the meat and local pubs and meat traders expect to receive whale meat direct from the factory ship Nisshin Maru well in advance of the official government release of stocks at the end of June.
# Read more by Charles Clover

Junichi Sato, Greenpeace Japan whales campaign coordinator, said: "We are delighted that the public prosecutor has begun this investigation and we will cooperate in every way possible to ensure that it is a full investigation, to the highest levels and not simply the scapegoating of a few individual crew members.

"While the investigation is underway, the government has no option but to now immediately suspend any whaling permits to the ICR and Kyodo Senpaku, as well as stop the tax-payers subsidy to the programme."

Whaling fleet officers have claimed that the meat is simply "souvenirs" given to the crew by the company at the end of the expedition, but Greenpeace claims there is clear evidence that the meat is taken in addition to the free packages handed out by the company.

Japan to probe whale meat 'theft'
Justine Parker, BBC News 21 May 08;

Officials in Tokyo are to investigate claims that shipping crews stole a tonne of meat from Japan's whale hunt.

Documents seen by the BBC confirm that public prosecutors will examine corruption allegations lodged by the environmental group Greenpeace.

It says crew members posted boxes of stolen whale meat to their homes.

Whaling fleet operator Kyodo Senpaku says small amounts of whale meat are routinely given to the crew as a "souvenir" at the end of the hunt.

A Fisheries Agency official said it had ordered separate internal probes by Kyodo Senpaku and the government's whale research body the Institute of Cetacean Research (ICR), which are due within a week.

ICR declined to comment on the prosecutor's case, due to its own internal investigation.

Japan catches whales in the Southern Ocean around Antarctica under a clause in international whaling regulations permitting hunting for scientific purposes.

'Personal baggage'

The Tokyo District Public Prosecutor's office confirmed it would investigate 12 production workers from the whaling ship Nisshin Maru.

The workers are accused of stealing whale meat from the Southern Ocean hunt, in a criminal complaint filed by Greenpeace after it tracked 47 boxes sent from the Nisshin Maru.

The environmental group also claims that government-appointed officials at Kyodo Senpaku and ICR were aware of the theft, and that restaurants and traders buy meat directly from the whaling ship before the government officially releases it for sale.

Last week, Greenpeace revealed evidence of the alleged fraud, including a box containing 23.5kg of whale meat with an estimated value between 110,000 and 350,000 yen ($1,100 and $3,500).

The box, one of four sent by a crew member to his home, had been listed as personal baggage containing "cardboard". Instead, it contained prized "unesu" meat used to make whale bacon.

Greenpeace Japan whales campaign co-ordinator Junichi Sato said the prosecutor's investigation would show Japan's public "for the first time" how its scientific whaling programme is conducted.

"Now the Japanese public will be aware how taxpayers' money is misused on this programme," he said.

Fisheries Agency official Tsuyoshi Iwata rejected this claim, saying: "We don't believe that there is any misuse of taxpayers' money on this whale research programme."

Mr Sato called for the Japanese government to halt subsidies to the programme and suspend Kyodo Senpaku's whaling permit during the investigation.

But Mr Iwata said the government would "absolutely not" suspend any whaling permits before the investigation was complete, and all research hunts would go on as planned.

The Antarctic fleet has returned to port, but the north Pacific season opens at this time of year.

Cargo row

Meanwhile, police are also investigating a complaint by trucking company Seino Transportation, which accuses Greenpeace of stealing the box containing whale meat from its office in the northern city of Aomori.

Greenpeace admits it intercepted the box to prove its embezzlement claims, but says that under Japanese law, such usage does not constitute theft.

Mr Sato said he had written to Seino Transportation to apologise for taking the box.

"I have sent a letter of apology to the company headquarters," he said. "We asked the company to understand why this needed to be done."

Kyodo Senpaku collects, processes and sells whale meat for ICR, a non-profit organisation authorised by the Japanese government to carry out research whaling. It reports to the Fisheries Agency.

The company says it gives each crew member about 10kg of meat as a souvenir of the Antarctic hunt; but Greenpeace claims that the 47 packages it followed were additional to the staff gifts.

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French-US statellite set for June launch to track sea levels

Yahoo News 20 May 08;

A US-French observation satellite due to track ocean currents and the rises in sea levels to help improve weather forecasts should be ready for launch in mid-June, NASA officials said Tuesday.

"Jason 2 will help create the first multi-decadal global record for understanding the vital roles of the ocean in climate change," said scientist Lee-Lueng Fu, from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

"Data from the new mission will allow us to continue monitoring global sea-level change, a field of study where current predictive models have a large degree of uncertainty," he added.

Rising sea levels are one of the major consequences of global warming and one of the main indicators of climate change.

Data from previous missions showed that sea levels have risen on average by 0.3 centimeters since 1993, or two times more than they did in whole of the 20th century, according to marine measurements.

However, 15 years of data is not enough to draw long term conclusions, scientists said, hence the need for the new three-year mission by Jason 2 due to launch from California on June 15.

The Ocean Surface Topography Mission (OSTM)/Jason 2 mission is a partnership between the US space agency NASA, the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration, the French National Center of Space Studies (CNES) and the European satellite agency EUMETSAT.

"People in coastal areas will benefit from improved near-real-time data on ocean conditions, while people everywhere will benefit from better seasonal predictions resulting from the increased understanding of Earth system processes enabled by these measurements," said NASA's Michael Freilich, director of the Earth Science Division.

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Some biofuel crops could become invasive species: experts

Yahoo News 20 May 08;

Countries thinking of joining the rush for biofuels run the risk of planting invasive plant species that could wreak environmental and economic havoc, biologists warned on Tuesday.

In a report issued on the sidelines of a major UN conference on biodiversity, an alliance of four expert groups urged governments to select low-risk species of crops for biofuels and impose new controls to manage invasive plants.

"The dangers that invasive species pose to the world couldn't be more serious," said Sarah Simons, executive director of the Global Invasive Species Programme (GISP).

"They are one of the top causes of global species loss, they can threaten livelihoods and human health and they cost us billions in control and mitigation efforts. We simply cannot afford to stand by and do nothing."

The report, "Biofuel Crops and Non-Native Species: Mitigating the Risk of Invasion," points the finger in particular at the giant reed (Arundo donax), a native of West Asia that has become invasive in parts of North and Central America.

Proposed as a biofuel crop, the reed is naturally flammable and thus increases the likelihood of wildfires.

It is also very thirsty, sucking up 2,000 litres (500 gallons) of water for one metre (3.25 feet) of standing growth, which adds to stress in dry regions.

Another problem plant is the African oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacquin), which is grown for biodiesel. In parts of Brazil, it has turned areas of forest with mixed biodiversity in a homogenous layer of palm trees, the GISP said.

The GISP is a partnership gathering the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN); CABI, formerly known as the Commonwealth Agricultural Bureaux; the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) and the Nature Conservancy.

According to figures cited by a GISP press release, invasive species cost the world 1.4 trillion dollars annually, or five percent of the global economy.

The United States alone spends 120 billion dollars annually to tackle more than 800 kinds of invasive pests.

The report was issued on the second day of an 11-day meeting of the UN Convention on Biodiversity (CBD), established at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992.

Fuel crops 'pose invasion risk'
Mark Kinver, BBC News 20 May 08;

Nations should avoid planting biofuel crops that have a high risk of becoming invasive species, a report warns.

A study by the Global Invasive Species Programme (GISP) said only a few countries have systems in place to assess the risk or contain an outbreak.

It has listed all the crops used to produce biofuels, and urged governments to only select low-risk varieties.

The global cost of tackling invasive species costs $1.4 trillion (£700bn) each year, the report estimates.

"Many countries are currently looking at growing high-yielding crops for the production of biofuels to address imminent energy shortages and reduce the impact of climate change," the report's authors wrote.

"This usually involves the importation of foreign (alien) species of plants that are known for their fast and productive growth.

"If these initiatives are not carefully assessed, however, the cultivation of some popular species will increase two of the major causes of biodiversity loss: clearing and conversion of yet more natural areas for monocultures, and invasion by non-native species."

One step ahead

GISP, a partnership of four conservation organisations, including IUCN and the Nature Conservancy, fear the biofuels boom could expose gaps in nations' bio-security measures.

"Prevention is better than cure," said Geoffrey Howard, IUCN's global invasive species co-ordinator.

"We need to stop invasions before they occur. The biofuels industry is a relatively new concept so we have a unique opportunity to act early and get ahead of the game."

Stas Burgiel, a senior policy adviser for the Nature Conservancy and one of the study's co-authors, said the aim of the report was to offer practical guidance to those who needed it.

"A lot of the countries that we work with are developing nations that don't really have systems to evaluate deliberate introductions or the import of particular species for large-scale plantings," he told BBC News.

"The next step is to look at projects that are definitely going ahead and carry out more scientific studies in those regions."

He added that the crops which appear on the list would not be classified as invasive everywhere.

"For example, a crop like Arundo donax (giant reed), which would cause concern in North America, would not cause the same concern in its native habitat in places like Eurasia.

Giant reed, which is naturally flammable, increases the risk of wildfires in places such as California, threatening human settlements as well as native species.

It is also viewed as a problem species in water-scarce South Africa because it consumes 2,000 litres for every metre of growth.

"That sort of awareness is useful because it can help the consideration that a country uses in terms of crop selection," observed Dr Burgiel.

Risk mitigation

The ecology of potential sites for biofuels crops also affects the risk of invasion.

He explained that degraded land or areas that have been used for other purposes often increased the risk of an outbreak.

"Frequently, that provides the most suitable habitat for invasive species because there is little competition from native vegetation," he said.

The authors list a series of measures that they say can mitigate the risks, including:

* Risk assessments - use of formal risk assessment protocols to evaluate the risk of invasion
* Benefit/cost analysis - presenting business plans that can show real benefits before funds are made available
* Selection of native/low-risk species - creation of incentives for the use of species that pose the lowest risk
* Risk management - includes monitoring and contingency planning, such as control measures when an outbreak occurs

The publication of the study coincides with a key meeting of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), which is being held in Bonn, Germany.

GISP says the international gathering represents the "best opportunity in a decade to take global action against invasive species".

It is also calling on delegates to back the call for risk assessments to be carried out before biofuel crops can be planted.

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