Songs for gods, music for men
Kusu Island temple performance on the annotated budak blog
Southern Ground Hornbill sighted in Singapore
on the Bird Ecology Study Group blog
Sisters Island
on the urban forest blog and manta blog
Anemone and Kite butterflyfish
a video clip of interesting behaviour on the sgbeachbum blog
Semakau intertidal walk
on the discovery blog
Fish or jellyfish?
our pomfret has a neat disguise on the wild shores of singapore blog
Switch from oil to natural gas to generate electricity means big cut in carbon emissions
Tania Tan, Straits Times 20 Oct 08;
ONE of the winners of Singapore's top green award comes from an industry generally vilified worldwide for being among the least environmentally-friendly.
Senoko Power in Woodlands, the biggest of Singapore's power stations, has been named as one of the three winners of the President's Award for the Environment this year.
It earned the accolade by burning natural gas instead of oil to produce electricity for the country's grid. The switch, made in 2004, means it belches 2.5 million tonnes less carbon into the air every year, about the same as taking all Singapore vehicles off the road for a year.
Senoko president and chief executive officer Roy Adair said of the country's highest environmental accolade: 'This is the blue ribbon of environmental awards. Needless to say, we're very honoured.'
The other two winners are Alexandra Hospital and the South West Community Development Council. The awards will be presented in a ceremony at the Istana this evening.
Launched in 2006, the award goes to three recipients every year - individuals, organisations or companies which have made green contributions and built an excellent track record.
Mr Tan Gee Paw, who chaired the award selection committee, said the winners' 'commitment to the environment' distinguished them from the 25 other nominees.
Senoko spent $650 million in 2000 to upgrade three of its oil-fire power stations to run more efficiently on natural gas. It will put another $750 million into converting three more plants by 2011.
The company produces about a third or 3,300MW of the country's total annual electricity consumption, alongside the two other power Big Boys here, PowerSeraya and Tuas Power.
Senoko has two other green initiatives going: It has pumped $7 million into building its own desalination plant in 2004, which provides up to 80 per cent of the plant's water needs.
It has also, since 2005, sponsored the National Weather Study Project, an annual competition among secondary and pre-university students conducting research on climate change.
The United Nations has noted that power- generation activity churns out about a quarter of the world's carbon emissions, which cause climate change.
But power generators here are trying to be part of the solution instead of the problem.
PowerSeraya's managing director Neil McGregor remarked that the industry, which burns fossil fuels and lacks viable alternatives, faces 'significant impediments' in becoming green.
Both PowerSeraya and Tuas Power believe that their investments in green technology and research into sustainable energy will point the way forward for electricity producers.
THE other winners of the President's Award for the Environment 2008 are:
# Alexandra Hospital
It replaced leaky pipes to conserve water and installed solar panels to power lights along walkways and driveways.
And when the nearly 40-year-old hospital's ageing structures needed to be hidden from sight, the hospital used plants.
The move proved popular, though the idea was a 'cheapskate way' to spruce up the facade, said chief executive officer Liak Teng Lit.
The hospital pharmacy is now using recyclable bags.
# South West Community Development Council
The housing estates under it have at least quadrupled the amount of throwaways offered for recycling in the past seven years.
It has taken a community of volunteers, grassroots leaders, corporations and government agencies to encourage residents to go green, including trading their rubbish for groceries like rice, noodles and eggs.
TANIA TAN
Green thumbs lead to green award
Alexandra Hospital, Senoko Power and South West CDC win environmental accolade
Esther Ng, Today Online 20 Oct 08;
THEY didn’t deliberately set out to be green. Alexandra Hospital’s green movement started when staff wanted to plant flowers to beautify the premises and create a warmer and more pleasant environment to help patients recover.
Six years on, their enthusiasm for gardening and patient care has blossomed into something bigger, turning the staff of the hospital into the most passionate adopters of environmentally-friendly practices.
To conserve water, they have fixed all the leaking pipes in the hospital. To conserve energy, they make it a point to switch off lights and appliances on standby mode long before a national campaign popped up. To top it off, the hospital composts its food waste and dried leaves, which they use to fertilise its beautifully maintained gardens.
For its achievements, Alexandra Hospital is one of three winners of this year’s President’s Award for the Environment (PAE) — the country’s highest environmental accolade. The other two winners are Senoko Power and South West Community Development Council (CDC).
The PAE recognises individuals, organisations and companies that have contributed significantly to Singapore’s efforts in achieving environmental and water sustainabililty. Three winners are selected each year.
This year’s winners were chosen from a field of 28 nominees. Unlike in the past two years, this year’s awards did not go to any individual.
Mr Tan Gee Paw, chairperson of the evaluation committee, said: “All the nominations we received were outstanding. However, we chose to focus on organisations this year because we felt that their contribution to the environment would be far wider. That is not to say individuals can’t be winners of the award in the future.”
Alexandra Hospital won for its best green practices and energy and water conservation.
Its chief executive officer Liak Teng Lit said: “All the credit goes to my staff. Their passion to beautify and improve the workplace took on a momentum on its own. But the real reason we cut down on energy and water consumption was purely to save money.”
Environmentally-friendly practices are not usually associated with power generation companies, but Senoko Power won for its investment in clean technology and its efforts to promote green habits.
Over the last six years, Senoko has been converting its oil-fired plants into gas-fired plants that emit less carbon. It recently spent $750 million converting three oil-fired steam plants to two combined-cycle plants, reducing its annual carbon emission by about 2.5 million tonnes.
“That’s like taking off all the cars in Singapore off the roads,” said Senoko Power’s chief executive Roy Adair.
In addition, Senoko Power spent$7 million building a desalination plant — allowing the company to meet up to80 per cent of its industrial water needs without tapping the potable water source.
However, the programme that givesMr Adair greatest satisfaction is its National Weather Study Project. Launched in March 2005 with a $1-million sponsorship to promote climate-change awareness among students, the programme has attracted 240 schools, or two-thirds of all schools in Singapore.
Said Mr Adair: “I get really stoked when I see the children all fired up about the environment. Early this year, we’ve adopted Sungei Sembawang and got10 schools in the area to participate in regular voluntary riverside clean-ups. ”
The PAE is another feather in the cap for South West CDC, which recently won the inaugural regional Asean Environmentally Sustainable Cities Award for Singapore.
South West CDC was lauded for raising the level of public awareness of the environment and for encouraging participation in green community programmes, including urging its 700,000 residents to recycle more and use less electricity and water.
Said its mayor Amy Khor: “Our success boils down to the passion and drive of our volunteers who are really very passionate about the environment. We see these projects as a great way to strengthen community bonding.”
Three recipients picked for President's Award for the Environment 2008
Lynda Hong, Channel NewsAsia 20 Oct 08;
SINGAPORE: One winner of the President's Award for the Environment 2008 spent S$600 million to go green, while another spent S$200.
Senoko Power may not look environmentally friendly, but it is one of the three recipients of the President's Award for the Environment 2008.
It has spent S$600 million to go green - using cleaner LNG and building a desalination plant.
By using the cleaner LNG, instead of fossil fuel, Senoko Power has reduced its annual carbon emission by 250 million tonnes. This is the same amount produced by all cars in Singapore.
It also built a S$7 million desalination plant.
Senoko Power said the expenditure is necessary in a market that is becoming more aware of its impact on the environment.
President of Senoko Power, Roy Adair, said: "We now operate in a contestable market for electricity...where customers have the right to make the decision where they buy their electricity from.
"So we are keen to state our case to these buyers of electricity that we are a triple bottomline company - financial, environment and community."
And growing the community's awareness about the environment is the South West Community Development Council (CDC), which is encouraging its 700,000 residents to recycle more, and use less electricity and water.
Mayor of South West CDC Amy Khor said: "The man in the street may not be able to relate to some of these messages, like climate change (and) helping to reduce carbon emissions.
"But when we simplify the message and say that if you pick up energy-efficient habits, reduce your electricity consumption, you will not just help the environment, but it (also) helps your pockets and reduces your expenses."
Alexandra Hospital is also prudent in its green efforts.
A garden in the hospital only costs S$200, but the hospital won votes for its energy-efficient lighting and solar panels.
The building was already built with novel environmental features during the colonial times.
CEO of Alexandra Hospital, Liak Teng Lit, said: "Many of the older buildings are actually environmental friendly, they require very little energy to cool down because most of it is non-aircon anyway."
The three recipients were picked out of 28 nominees for the President's Award for the Environment, which is in its third year.
Going green reaps rewards for Alexandra Hospital
It uses solar panels and even has a butterfly garden
Jamie Lee, Business Times 21 Oct 08;
UTILITIES might make up less than 2 per cent of Alexandra Hospital's expenses, but the savings from being energy efficient could still help to lower patients' bills, said the hospital's chief executive Liak Teng Lit.
'If we add it all up, we could lower bills by as much as 3 per cent,' said Mr Liak, whose hospital was awarded the President's award for the environment this year.
He noted that the architects of the new hospital that is being built in Yishun - to be completed by early 2010 - have paid attention to the design, such as creating narrow corridors for non-air-conditioned wards to create a wind tunnelling effect.
'The trick is in the details,' he told reporters at a recent press conference, adding that he expects the new hospital to be 40 per cent more energy efficient than other hospitals.
He said the hospital's green movement was a case of happenstance.
'We were just trying to save some money,' he said, adding that this frugality led the hospital to fix leaking pipes which were pushing up the water bills, and to plant flowers that would hide ugly cracks on the walls.
Today, the current hospital not only boasts of solar panels and rain-harvesting equipment, it also has its own butterfly garden - supported by the hospital's own compost machine that converts dead leaves and food waste into fertiliser.
Power generation company Senoko Power also received an award for spending more than $1 billion to convert a handful of its oil-fired steam plants into gas-fired plants, as well as building its own desalination plant.
With the plant conversions, Senoko Power saved about 2.5 million tonnes per annum of carbon emissions, said chief executive Roy Adair. 'That's broadly equivalent to taking all the cars of Singapore off the road,' he said. The third award recipient, South West Community Development Council (CDC), was praised for their green initiatives such as its trash-for- groceries programme that attracted residents to exchange recyclable materials for eggs and rice.
'There were jokes that we were trying to put the karang guni man out of business,' said Amy Khor mayor of South West CDC.
University of Otago, ScienceAlert 20 Oct 08;
The number of Hector's Dolphins caught in commercial gillnets is above 10 times sustainable levels, according to a new analysis by Otago University's Associate Professors Liz Slooten and Steve Dawson.
Their study used the Potential Biological Removal (PBR) method, developed by the US National Marine Fisheries Service. This is a commonly used standard for determining a level of human impact on marine mammal populations which, if exceeded, is likely to cause population decline.
The results of this analysis are consistent with population viability analyses carried out by scientists from NIWA, the fishing industry and the University of Otago. Associate Professor Slooten says this means the death toll exceeds sustainable impact by more than 10 times.
"It is highly significant that all of these analyses indicate that Hector's dolphin populations are declining so rapidly," says Associate Professor Slooten.
If the recent level of bycatch were to continue, says Associate Professor Slooten, Hector's dolphins are expected to decline to around 5,000 individuals over the next 50 years.
"On the other hand, if they were protected from fisheries mortality throughout their range they could recover to some 15,000 individuals over that same time," she says.
Hector's dolphins are of particular significance, as they are only found in New Zealand. The main threat to the species is entanglement in fishing gear, in particular gillnets.
NIWA estimate that 110-150 Hector's dolphins have been killed each year during 2000-2006. Hector's dolphin populations have been seriously depleted as a result of fishing, to less than a third of original population size, with the North Island population worst affected at less than 10 percent of its original size.
The new analysis is the most recent addition to a large body of scientific data, published in the peer-reviewed scientific literature, including New Zealand and international journals. Several international scientific agencies (including the Society for Marine Mammalogy, Scientific Committee of the International Whaling Commission and IUCN) have pointed out that there is ample evidence on which to base effective protection measures for Hector's dolphin.
"It's important to emphasise that the PBR for Hector's dolphins is a maximum level of total human impact which, if exceeded, would likely cause further population depletion. Fisheries mortality needs to be kept well below these levels, given that there are other human impacts on the species - including pollution, marine mining and proposed tidal energy generation," according to Associate Professor Slooten.
She recommends that dolphins be protected from fisheries mortality by changing to more selective, sustainable fishing methods.
"This would have benefits not only for Hector's dolphin conservation but also for other dolphin species and seabirds caught in these fisheries, and in the long term for the fishing industry itself," she says.
The Minister of Fisheries, Jim Anderton announced new protection measures in May this year, which were to be enacted on 1 October. These protection measures are a long way from total protection and likely to slow rather than halt population declines. The proposal resulted from a two-year consultation process with the fishing industry and other stakeholders, including recreational fishers, iwi, conservation groups and government departments.
"Just two weeks before the 1 October deadline, the fishing industry took the Minister to Court. This means that dolphin protection has been delayed again, this time by a court case and an election," says Associate Professor Slooten.
ScienceDaily 20 Oct 08;
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) World Conservation Congress this week adopted a resolution urging nations to protect the leatherback sea turtle and sharks from the world's industrial fisheries by identifying and creating marine protected areas along the Pacific leatherback's migratory routes.
More than 8,000 scientists, government officials and environmental organizations from over 250 nations overwhelmingly supported the resolution, which includes the "Cocos Ridge Marine Wildlife Corridor," designed to shield the critically endangered Pacific leatherback and the hammerhead shark from longline and gillnet fisheries. Recent satellite tracking data from Stanford University researchers shows that after nesting on the beaches in Playa Grande, Costa Rica, Pacific leatherbacks swim toward the Galapagos Islands.
Randall Arauz, President of Costa Rican-based PRETOMA that sponsored the resolution explained, "Our plan allows one of the largest reptiles on Earth to continue its 100-million-year-old existence by opening and closing portions of the migration corridor to fishing as turtles enter and exit the area." He added, "We believe this corridor is also used by other endangered species, such as hammerhead sharks and would benefit many other threatened marine species."
The resolution employs scientific recommendations based upon fieldwork and analyses by Stanford researcher, George Shillinger and an international team of co-authors who believe their work may make "adaptive" closures a realistic conservation approach, "These models will consider areas of highest risk/interaction with fisheries and provide governments and fisheries with the opportunity to protect leatherbacks as they move in real-time."
In the recent study, Persistent Leatherback Turtle Migrations Present Opportunities for Conservation, Shillinger used satellite tracking and remote sensing to describe the effects of oceanography, such as ocean currents, phytoplankton distribution and sea-floor topography, on Pacific leatherbacks' distribution and movement; and then developed a model that could predict the presence or absence of the sea turtles. His work is part of the Census of Marine Life's (CoML) Tagging of Pacific Pelagics (TOPP) initiative, a multidisciplinary, international research program utilizing electronic tags to track the migrations of a variety of open ocean animals. Shillinger adds, "Now it's time to turn the high-tech science into political will and conservation action for critically endangered leatherbacks."
The last members of an ancient lineage that has outlived the dinosaurs, leatherback sea turtles are ocean giants that grow to the size of small automobiles, dive more than half a mile deep, and migrate across the entire Ocean basins to feed in the jellyfish-rich waters off the west coast of North and South AmericaLeatherbacks swim over 6,000 miles within a single year - the largest geographic range of any living marine reptile, and one of the longest known migrations for any marine species in the world.
"Leatherback sea turtles survived the asteroid that killed off the dinosaurs, but they are unlikely to survive our unsustainable appetite for swordfish and tuna," said Todd Steiner, Executive Director of the U.S.-based Turtle Island Restoration Network and a member of the IUCN Marine Turtle Specialist Group. "If leatherbacks are to survive the coming decades, we must convert talk to action; otherwise we will lose one of the most ancient creatures on the planet, in the next ten to thirty years."
Leatherback sea turtles in the Pacific Ocean have declined by more than 90% over the past three decades as a result of drowning in industrial longline and gillnet fisheries targeting swordfish, sharks, and tunas. Egg harvesting, marine plastic debris and loss of nesting beaches due to global warming-induced sea level rise also threaten the leatherback. If current trends continue, Pacific leatherbacks are predicted to go extinct within the next few decades.
Bernama 20 Oct 08;
DUNGUN, Oct 20 (Bernama) -- The Fisheries Department will soon make it compulsory for trawl fishermen to use nets which are installed with a turtle excluder device (TED) to prevent turtles from becoming trapped or entangled in them.
Fisheries deputy director-general (operations) Suhaili Lee said such trawl nets were being used in countries like Mexico and the United States of America.
He said the nets were introduced to fishermen in the country five years ago.
TED is a specialised device that allows a captured turtle to escape when caught in a fisherman's net.
Speaking to reporters after launching the e-Turtle Information at the Rantau Abang Turtle Information Centre near here today, he said turtles which were caught in trawl nets would die when they became entangled in them.
Suhaili said based on records gathered by the Terengganu Fisheries Department, only three leatherback turtles landed to lay their eggs at Rantau Abang this year.
He said there were currently seven types of turtles in the world with four of them -- leatherback turtle (Dermochelys), green turtle (Chelonia Mydas), ridley turtle (Lepidochelys Olivacea) and Hawksbill turtle (Eretmochelys Imbricita)-- taking between 20 and 50 years to mature.
-- BERNAMA
WWF website 20 Oct 08;
Pekanbaru, Indonesia – Indonesia's newly announced commitment to saving Sumatra is facing an early test, following revelations that Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) had pushed a 45-kilometer, legally questionable logging highway through prime Sumatran tiger habitat.
The latest road, passing through protected areas, proposed protected areas and deep peat areas banned from clearing due to massive carbon stores, is the third new controversial logging road associated with APP, under the umbrella of its holding group Sinar Mas Group (SMG) and affiliates, to come to light in the past year.
The existence of the road, servicing two equally controversial APP and affiliate-owned concessions in the Senepis lowland forest, was revealed in an investigative report issued today by the Eyes on the Forest group of NGOs battling deforestation in Raui Province. The group, including WWF-Indonesia and local NGOs Jikalahari and Walhi Riau, has highlighted previous instances of illegal clearing by APP and other companies in the central Sumatran province which has recorded some of the world's highest deforestation rates.
“Unfortunately, this logging project is just the latest in a continuing pattern of wholesale natural forest destruction by APP and its associates in Sumatra,” said Johny Setiawan Mundung, Director Executive of Walhi Riau.
“Our field investigators found that APP has completed a 45-kilometer highway through the Senepis peat forest and paved nearly half of it already, even though we could find no permit for the road.”
The revelations come just over a week after the Indonesian ministers of Forestry, Environment, Interior and Public Works were joined by all 10 provincial governors from Sumatra at the World Conservation Congress in Barcelona, Spain to announce a commitment to protect the natural forests and ecosystems of the world's sixth largest island.
Draining or disturbance of the deep peat soils under forests such as Senepis results in globally significant emissions. Global discussions on financial mechanisms for avoided deforestation could soon result in countries like Indonesia receiving more from investors for forest preservation than forest destruction.
“The building of this road has resulted in a massive, 50-meter-wide gash of opened forest along the 45 kilometers,” said Hariansyah Usman, deputy coordinator of Jikalahari. “The road splits the Senepis peat forest in two, releasing significant amounts of climate-altering carbon emissions from the clearing and drainage canals on both sides.”
Clearing and road building in the area have also been linked with an upsurge in human tiger conflict. NGOs report that at least eight people have been killed by tigers since the APP started clearing the forest block for its pulpwood plantations in 1999.
The Eyes on the Forest report notes that large areas of both concessions were at one point listed for inclusion in a proposed Tiger National Park and subsequent unexplained changes to the proposal saw it expanded to a larger area offering much less protection to the critically endangered tigers and including only very small areas of the logging concessions.
The two APP-affiliated logging concession holders in Senepis, PT Ruas Utama Jaya and PT Suntara Gajapati, are among 14 timber and pulp companies currently being prosecuted by Riau Police for alleged environmental and forest crimes, following revelations by Jikalahari and Walhi Riau.
There is a province-wide de facto logging moratorium in place as Riau Police conduct an illegal logging investigation involving APP and other companies. NGOs charge the company with using the moratorium to put in place infrastructure such as roads for a renewed assault on Sumatra's forests.
Previous reports by NGOs this year found that APP and its affiliated companies were opening new logging roads and clearing natural forest in the Kampar peatland forest, a high emission risk area, and the Bukit Tigapuluh dry lowland forest block, critical habitat for orangutans, tigers, elephants and the Orang Rimba indigenous peoples.
“Major paper customers all over the globe have cut ties with APP because of its unsustainable and likely illegal activities,” said Nazir Foead, director of corporate engagement WWF-Indonesia. “We call on APP to stop this unsustainable clearing of our forests and to start behaving as a responsible corporate citizen. We recommend current and future buyers and investors of APP not to have any business with APP until that time.”
Among the companies that have stopped buying from APP because of its business practices in Sumatra are Staples Inc., the largest office retailer in the United States; the Ricoh and Fuji Xerox Groups, both headquartered in Japan; the Metro Group in Germany and Woolworths of Australia.
The Telegraph 20 Oct 08;
Ian Wood reports on the loss of vitally important swamp forests in Sumatra
Sumatra has had more than its fair share of natural disasters over the last decade including the 2004 tsunami that killed over 190,000 people in the northern province of Aceh.
Now a man made disaster is threatening to add to the misery that this region has endured.The Tripa area of peat swamp forest is being logged to make way for new palm oil plantations and the effects will have dire consequences for the people and wildlife that live there.
The Tripa forests are located in north western Sumatra and provided effective coastal protection for communities in the tsunami. Behind them, very few casualties were recorded and they also serve to protect against floods as the peat swamp regulates water flow.
Their importance for both biodiversity and carbon stores cannot be over stated.
They are home to one of just six remaining viable populations of the critically endangered Sumatran orangutan and contain millions of tons of carbon dioxide that is being released into the atmosphere as they are destroyed.
A recent study commissioned by the Swiss NGO PanEco has shown the peat is more than 3 metres deep over much of the area.
There are already laws in Indonesia that forbid the destruction of peat more than 3 metres deep but the local government seem powerless to protect this area.
The effects are threefold.
1) CO2 is released into the atmosphere as the larger trees are cut and the remaining land is burnt.
2) Subsequent drainage causes further degradation of the peat releasing even more CO2.
3) This then results in subsidence of the land itself of approx 5 cm per year. The area of Tripa is already at about sea level, or only slightly above, so within a very short space of time the sea will claim huge swathes of this region and inland communities will have no protection against future tsunamis.
The recent agreement to protect forests in Sumatra between the Indonesian government and a number of conservation groups including WWF and Fauna and Flora International is a step in the right direction. However to save Tripa from the unfolding disaster there needs to be urgent action immediately.
Irwandi Yusuf, the governor of Aceh called for a moratorium on all logging in Aceh in June 2007 but it is being largely ignored on the ground.
Pak Adnan, one of four of Aceh's Senators agreed to meet me in Tripa and together we witnessed scenes of total devastation. His concern seemed genuine as he explained the problems this region is facing.
"I have not seen any goodwill from central government to act to protect Tripa. Already I have discussed it with the executive but they have not taken any action" Pak Adnan told me.
"If necessary it must come from the President himself who has the power to stop the destruction of Tripa. The status of Tripa must be raised to that of protected forest and then it will be immortal forever. To achieve this it needs continued pressure from both local people and the international community.
"In my heart I believe the ecosystem of Tripa must be saved, it's vital. The most important problem is the palm oil concessions on areas of peat forest. It needs a firm statement from central government and an urgent review of these existing concessions." he said.
There are five palm oil concessions that have been granted by the Indonesian central government with leases that expire in 2020. Such is the scale of logging here that the remaining tracts of forest will be long gone before then.
"Local people do not destroy the peat swamp forest as they do not have access to heavy machines but the palm oil companies have vast amounts of money," Pak Adnan told me.
"For local people we can create better sustainable sources of income such as fish breeding and livestock that fit in with the ecosystem. We could also create ecotourism opportunities and then at last the people that live in Tripa could have income from both palm oil and these other sources."
Surely this is preferable to increasing vulnerability to rising sea levels, which threatens not only communities and their livelihoods, but also the very palm oil estates themselves in the long run.
The palm oil company PT Astra Agro Lestari who are one of the main suppliers to Unilever, are running one of the legal concessions in Tripa. It covers nearly 13,000 hectares of which around 6000 hectares is still virgin rain forest, all located on peat swamp with an average depth of about 3m but reaching over 5m in places.
Unilever announced last month that they have committed to only purchasing 100 per cent sustainably produced palm oil by 2015. However, by then this important area of forest will have already been lost forever.
Regina Frey, president of PanEco, a conservation groups which campaigns for the sustainable use of natural resources in Indonesia, said: "I call on Unilever to take action to help to save these last areas of Sumatran peat swamp forest. If they refuse to buy oil palm from this concession it would send out a firm message to PT Astra Agro Lestari to stop logging primary peat forests for palm oil, thereby damaging the image of the palm oil industry"
After cutting the larger trees in the peat swamp forest the remaining trees are set on fire. The palm oil companies then cut drainage canals across the site as the land is too wet for oil palm cultivation. The peat then starts to subside as it dries out and results in very poor conditions for palm oil trees to grow in.
We saw lots of palm oil trees that are now falling over and will be useless as future crops. When the peat has degraded and subsided to below sea level the whole area will be flooded with seawater and nothing will grow here again. There is also proof that the surrounding areas of non peat swamp provide far better conditions for palm oil.
"There is plenty of non-forested land on mineral soil in the surroundings of Tripa which is available and produces excellent conditions for oil palm cultivation. In fact some of the highest palm oil yields in the world are recorded in that region. Consequently the Tripa concessions could be relocated there." said Regina Frey.
The simple truth is that the palm oil companies want to sell the timber from the large trees they fell when they clear the land. In fact there are vast areas of already cleared land in Tripa that have not even been planted with palm oil.
Now is the time for action not words here in Tripa. To destroy one of the last great areas of peat swamp forest in Sumatra is an act of criminal vandalism. Along with orangutans these forests also contain two other rare ape species, the Siamang and the White Handed Gibbon along with Sumatran tigers, clouded leopards and sun bears.
Conflicts have developed between villagers and the palm oil companies. Such is the sensitivity that PT Astra Agro Lestari's concession is now guarded by the Indonesian police and army.
I managed to get into the village of Pulo Kruet where I met one of the leaders of the community. He told me that the palm oil companies are now taking the land that belongs to his village and they are powerless to prevent it.
We walked for several kilometres together through the palm oil plantations that now surround his home. Eventually we arrived at the border of the remaining forest and saw freshly made orangutan nests in the trees right on the edge of the destruction.
Here in Tripa the fight to save this critically endangered species is one with far reaching consequences for the human population.
Bonnie Malkin, The Telegraph 20 Oct 08;
Australia's iconic Tasmanian devil could be extinct within a decade if a vaccine against the rare cancer that is devastating their population is not developed, zoologists have warned.
Scientists are so concerned about the future of the animals that they have asked the public to help fund a breeding program for 500 disease-free devils in zoos and wildlife parks on the Australian mainland.
They hope the program, known as the Noah's Ark option, will provide "an insurance policy" for the species in case a vaccine can't be found.
The fierce black-furred mammals are under threat from Devil Facial Tumour Disease. The highly-contagious cancer results in a painful death for devils, as the malignant tumours prevent the animals from eating, sometimes pushing out teeth and invading eye sockets. They eventually starve to death.
Guy Cooper, Taronga Zoo conservation society director, said the disease was spreading faster than expected. "The forecasts are now down to 10 years", he said. "Basically now it is too late for science to come up with the answer.
"The only way to safeguard this animal and guarantee its future is the insurance program."
There are already 115 devils in the program but the society hopes to raise $500,000 from the public to expand it. They also hope their work will help to identify a genetic group of devils that is resistant to the disease.
However, the animals breed only two or three times during their short lives and so far just one disease-resistant devil has been found.
The disfiguring cancer is transmitted when the devils bite each other during fights over food and while mating. The cancer has spread across most of Tasmania's east coast, where the devils are genetically very similar.
Taronga Zoo spokesman Mark Williams said the small gene pool was the root of the problem. "Because the devils are a close genetic line they think the devils' system doesn't recognise the cancer as a disease."
The disease emerged 10 years ago and since then it is estimated that the devils' original population of 150,000 has been cut by two thirds. In some parts of Tasmania 80 per cent of the populations have been wiped out.
The size of a small dog, Tasmanian devils are the world's largest marsupial carnivores. Scientists are determined that they are not allowed to follow the thylacine, or Tasmanian tiger, into extinction.
The devils earned their name from early British settlers for their steel trap jaws and demonic nocturnal screeches.
Paul Eccleston, The Telegraph 20 Oct 08;
Climate change is happening much faster than the world's best scientists predicted and will wreak havoc unless action is taken on a global scale, a new report warns.
Extreme weather events such as the hot summer of 2003, which caused an extra 35,000 deaths across southern Europe from heat stress and poor air quality, will happen more frequently.
Britain and the North Sea area will be hit more often by violent cyclones and sea level rise predictions will double to more than a metre putting vast coastal areas at risk from flooding.
The bleak report from WWF - formerly the World Wildlife Fund - also predicts crops failures and the collapse of eco systems on both land and sea.
And it calls on the EU to set an example to the rest of the world by agreeing a package of challenging targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions to tackle the consequences of climate change and to keep any increase in global temperatures below 2ºC.
The report says that the 2007 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) - a study of global warming by 4,000 scientists from more than 150 countries which alerted the world to the possible consequences of global warming - is now out of date.
WWF's report, Climate Change: Faster, stronger, sooner, has updated all the scientific data and concluded that global warming is accelerating far beyond the IPCC's forecasts.
As an example it says the first tipping point may have already been reached in the Arctic where sea ice is disappearing up to 30 years ahead of IPCC predictions and may be gone completely within five years - something that hasn't occurred for 1m years. This could result in rapid and abrupt climate change rather than the gradual changes forecast by the IPCC.
The findings include:
* Global sea level rise could more than double from the IPCC's estimate of 0.59m by the end of the century.
* Natural carbon sinks, such as forests and oceans, are losing their ability to absorb CO2 from the atmosphere faster than expected.
* Rising temperatures have already led to a major reduction in food crops resulting in losses of 40m tonnes of grain per year.
* Marine ecosystems in the North and Baltic Sea are being exposed to the warmest temperatures measured since records began.
* The number and intensity of extreme cyclones over the UK and North Sea are projected to increase, leading to increased wind speeds and storm-related losses over Western and Central Europe.
The report was issued to coincide with a meeting of EU Environment Ministers today (mon) to discuss new laws aimed at tackling climate change. Some countries, including Italy and Poland, have already rejected proposals for higher cuts in emissions claiming they are unaffordable and unrealistic when many countries are facing recession.
The UK is the only country so far to commit to a legally binding 80 per cent cut in emissions by 2050 which the Government claims can be achieved by a switch to renewable energy sources - such as wind and wave - combined with a new generation of nuclear power stations.
In the report WWF urges the EU to commit to a reduction target of at least 30% below 1990 levels by 2020 without relying on offsetting overseas and to provide financial support so developing countries can cut their own emissions and prepare for unavoidable impacts of climate change.
WWF-UK's Head of Climate Change, Dr. Keith Allott, said: "Climate change is a major challenge to the future of mankind and the environment, and this sobering overview highlights just how critical it is that EU Environment Ministers, who are meeting today to discuss EU legislation to tackle climate change, commit to a strong climate and energy package, in order to ensure a low carbon future.
If the European Union wants to be seen as leader at UN talks in Copenhagen next year, and to help secure a strong global deal to tackle climate change after 2012, then it must stop shirking its responsibilities and commit to real emissions cuts within Europe."
The report has been endorsed by Professor Jean-Pascal van Ypersele, the newly elected Vice Chair of the IPCC, who said: "It is clear that climate change is already having a greater impact than most scientists had anticipated, so it's vital that international mitigation and adaptation responses become swifter and more ambitious."
The heat is on – climate change gathers pace faster than scientists expected
WWF website 20 Oct 08;
Brussels, Belgium – Global warming is accelerating at a faster rate than climate change experts had previously predicted, according to a new compendium of scientific research released today by WWF.
In 2007, the Nobel Prize winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released their Fourth Assessment Report – a study of global warming that involved nearly 4,000 scientists from more than 150 countries.
However, the science of climate change has moved on in the year since this respected report was published. WWF’s new report, “Climate change: faster, stronger, sooner” (download PDF file), amalgamates this new scientific data and reveals that global warming is accelerating beyond the IPCC’s forecasts.
The report has received the support of climate change experts including Professor Jean-Pascal van Ypersele, Professor of Climatology and Environmental Sciences at the Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium, and newly elected Vice Chair of the IPCC, who said: “It is clear that climate change is already having a greater impact than most scientists had anticipated, so it’s vital that international mitigation and adaptation responses become swifter and more ambitious. The last IPCC report has shown that the reasons for concern are now stronger, and this should lead the EU to plead for a lower temperature target than the 2°C they adopted in 1996. But even with a 2°C target, the IPCC says that emission reductions between 25 and 40% compared to 1990 are needed by 2020 from developed countries. Reductions by 20% are therefore insufficient."
The latest science shows that the Arctic Ocean is losing sea ice up to 30 years ahead of IPCC predictions. It is now predicted that the summer sea ice could completely disappear between 2013 and 2040 – something that hasn’t occurred in more than a million years.
Based on recent scientific studies, the number and intensity of extreme cyclones over the British Isles and the North Sea are projected to increase, leading to increased wind speeds and storm-related losses over Western and Central Europe. The level of ozone, an air pollutant, is projected to be similar to that in the 2003 heat-wave, with major increases over England, Belgium, Germany and France. Annual maximum rainfall is also projected to increase in most parts of Europe, with associated flood risks and economic damages.
Marine ecosystems in the North and Baltic Sea are being exposed to the warmest temperatures measured since records began, while the Mediterranean is expected to experience increases in the frequency of long-term droughts. Glaciers in the Swiss Alps will continue to decrease, with reduction of hydropower production.
At a global level, sea level rise is expected to reach more than double the IPCC’s maximum estimate of 0.59m by the end of the century, putting vast coastal areas at risk. Rising temperatures have already led to a reduction in global yields of wheat, maize and barley.
“If the European Union wants to be seen as leader at UN talks in Copenhagen next year, and to help secure a strong global deal to tackle climate change after 2012, then it must stop shirking its responsibilities and commit to real emissions cuts within Europe,” says Dr. Tina Tin, Climate Scientist and author of the report.
WWF calls on the EU to adopt an emission reduction target of at least 30% below 1990 levels by 2020, to be delivered within the boundaries of the EU rather than relying heavily on offsetting overseas. The global conservation organisation also asks the EU to commit to providing substantial support and funding for developing countries, in order to help them tackle future climate change and adapt to those impacts that are already unavoidable.
“Climate change is a major challenge to the future of mankind and the environment, and this sobering overview highlights just how critical it is that EU Environment Ministers discussing the EU legislations against climate change today commit to a strong climate and energy package, in order to ensure a low carbon future,” said Dr. Tina Tin.
David Fogarty, PlanetArk 21 Oct 08;
SINGAPORE - Tradeable credits from saving forests, wetlands and endangered species is set to be a growth area for investors seeking to fight climate change, the head of a New Zealand-based carbon trading market says.
The world's growing carbon market, worth more than $60 billion a year, lets firms or nations buy and sell greenhouse gas emissions offsets to meet both voluntary and mandatory targets.
But demand is growing for projects that preserve or restore forests and their biodiversity and save rivers and water flows.
In return for protecting such environmental assets, developers sell credits, potentially a major growth area for emissions trading markets looking to sell new products.
"It's not just about the biodiversity credits in terms of plants," Mark Franklin, chief executive officer of TZ1, said on Thursday.
"Even species biodiversity and water will be big issues in the future, so we're looking at products in all of these areas."
TZ1 is closely linked with New Zealand stock exchange operator NZX Ltd. It plans to formally launch its own carbon exchange using NZX's infrastructure by the first quarter of next year for trading and settlement of carbon credits.
TZ1 also runs one of only four global registries for the voluntary carbon standard (VCS), set by international and environmental bodies to measure carbon emissions and convert them into tradeable units.
"A biodiversity credit is a little bit like an emissions offset but it's something somebody is willing to invest in for the purposes for the next generation," Franklin said.
"It's amazing how much of this stuff is actually happening right now with goodwill and giving money to good causes as opposed to being a commercial venture that has a pay back," he told Reuters from Auckland.
Conservation credit schemes should last for about 50 years to be attractive, Franklin added.
BIODIVERSITY REGISTRY
TZ1 has also launched a biodiversity registry and in August listed 1.36 million biodiversity conservation credits from a forest project in the Malaysian state of Sabah on Borneo island.
The Malua BioBank scheme involves the protection and restoration of 34,000 hectares (80,000 acres) of orangutan habitat and a US-backed fund has pledged $10 million to the project, which is to be preserved and managed for 50 years.
In return, investors can buy credits listed by TZ1, with each credit covering 100 square metres of forest. So far, 21,500 credits have been sold at US$10 each.
Franklin said there had been a jump in global interest since TZ1's involvement with the Malua BioBank and New Forests, one of the Sabah project's main backers.
"People are looking at wetlands conservation, moving of water rights, species conservation," he said. "These are things that may have sounded pretty weird about 10 to 20 years ago but there's a real momentum forming."
He said TZ1 was discussing projects with several developers.
"Over time, there will be more and more products than carbon on the registry but I don't think it will get up to 50 percent in the intermediate period. Carbon will be the major product listed on the registry," Franklin added.
Asked about the impact of the financial crisis and a looming global recession on carbon markets, he said players remained focused because carbon trading was simply the way of the world.
But he also pointed to the need for developing emissions trading schemes, such as Europe's, New Zealand's from next year and Australia's from 2010, to be open.
"My view is if most of the countries had open systems then there would be trading and offsetting where people could do it better. That was the whole point of having a global mechanism."
(Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
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