Mysterious patch reefs of Singapore
on the wonderful creation blog
Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker taking a leaf bath
on the Bird Ecology Study Group blog
Birds of the Solstice: Starlings, orioles and a drongo
on the Bird Ecology Study Group blog
Remembering the 26 Dec 2004 tsunami
The people of the tsunami and mangroves trees won't shield from tsunamis on the wild shores of singapore blog
In praise of … Latin binomials
on the Raffles Museum News blog
Sin Chew Jit Poh 26 Dec 08;
BANGKOK, THAILAND: Indonesia's coral reefs damaged by the 2004 tsunami are recovering rapidly, helped by natural colonization and a drop in illegal fishing, scientists said Friday (26 Dec).
Surveys taken after the 26 Dec 2004 disaster showed up to a third of reefs were damaged and experts predicted it would take a decade for full recovery.
Scientists from the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society said their examination of 60 sites on 497 miles (800 kilometers) of coastline along Indonesia's Aceh province showed the reefs were bouncing back.
"On the 4th anniversary of the tsunami, this is a great story of ecosystem resilience and recovery," said Dr. Stuart Campbell, coordinator of the Wildlife Conservation Society's Indonesia Marine Program.
"Our scientific monitoring is showing rapid growth of young corals in areas where the tsunami caused damage, and also the return of new generations of corals in areas previously damaged by destructive fishing," Campbell said in a statement. "These findings provide new insights into coral recovery processes that can help us manage coral reefs in the face of climate change."
A massive earthquake off Sumatra in December 2004 triggered a tsunami that killed more than 230,000 people along the Indian Ocean coastline _ more than half in Indonesia.
Reef studies after the disaster found up to 30 percent of reefs were damaged in Indonesia, Thailand, India and Sri Lanka. The study predicted they would recover in 10 years, but much depended on efforts to control illegal fishing, pollution and coastal development.
In the case of Aceh, Campbell said communities have responded to the maritime conservation calls to protect the reefs. Fishermen have stopped using illegal techniques like dynamite and villagers have transplanted corals into areas that were hardest hit.
"The recovery, which is in part due to improved management and the direct assistance of local people, gives enormous hope that coral reefs in this remote region can return to their previous condition and provide local communities with the resources they need to prosper," Campbell said.
Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, a reef expert from the University of Queensland who did not take part in the study, said the findings were not surprising since corals typically will recover if not affected by fishing and coastal development.
"The mechanical damage from the tsunami left a whole bunch of shattered corals on the bottom of the sea," Hoegh-Guldberg said.
"Left alone, these things can quickly grow back into what looks like a coral reef in a short time," he said. "We are seeing similar things around the southern Great Barrier Reef where reefs that experience major catastrophe can bounce back quite quickly." (By MICHAEL CASEY/ AP)
On The Web:
Wildlife Conservation Society: http://www.wcs.org
Coral reefs survive tsunami, endangered by pollution
Asia News 9 Jul 08;
One of the most picturesque marine areas along Indonesia’s coastline could disappear as a result of indiscriminate fishing and pollution. An environmentalist with the country’s Wildlife Conservation Society calls for greater co-ordination between national and local authorities and tighter enforcement of conservation policies.
Jakarta (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Despite surviving the devastating 2004 tsunami, coral reefs around the Indonesian province of Aceh are facing a different threat from pollution and reef fishing. Human activities like unrestrained fishing and the dumping of toxic waste are threatening the survival one of the most picturesque nature reserve areas in the country.
Scientists and environmentalists have raised the alarm after analysing the state of the coral reefs in the wake of the 2004 tsunami. They found that there was no change in Aceh's coral cover directly following the tsunami; never the less, the province’s reefs were in poor shape from decades of net and blast fishing and from ocean pollution.
For Indonesia's Wildlife Conservation Society's Yudi Herdiana, damage to the reef is mainly man-made.
“The damage from the tsunami is quite patchy, the damaged reef in some particular areas is mainly caused by previous human activities such as dynamite fishing or net fishing,” he said.
Pollution from the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, is also another major factor.
Two management programmes, a province-run scheme and one managed by the central government, are in place, but for Dr Herdiana there is need for better co-ordination between Indonesia's national and local conservation authorities, the creation of more marine protected areas, and tighter enforcement of conservation policies.
The Jakarta Post 26 Dec 08;
On Wednesday, the central government and environmentalists launched the 2009 Green Hope program, aiming to mobilize public participation in global conservation efforts.
The national program will include a yearlong calendar of environmental activities involving residents.
"We have regular car restriction days in some main thoroughfares, but we need more activities that also involve non-governmental institutions as organizers," Jakarta Environment Management Board (BPLHD) chairman Budirama Natakusumah said.
"Environmental programs are a big issue in the country and the government cannot work on them alone."
Launched at the State Ministry for the Environment in Jakarta, 2009 Green Hope is a nationwide campaign to educate people about environmental issues.
The opening activity is scheduled for Dec. 28 at the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle, Central Jakarta, which will include a fun bike program, a photo exhibition on environmental issues, and performances.
The projects sponsors include World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Indonesia, Civil Society Forum, Science Esthetic Technology, Bike to Work and Pelangi Indonesia Foundation.
Hendry Bastaman, deputy minister of communication and people's empowerment said his office was still looking for the most effective way to communicate with the general public regarding environmental issues.
"We know it is not easy for people to digest environmental issues. We have tried for years. We are sure Green Hope will be effective in promoting the importance of protecting our natural world," Hendry said.
Both the government and activists in Jakarta say water shortages, lack of water catchment areas, pollution and environmental damage will remain serious problems next year.
"Jakartans are still smoking in forbidden places and disposing of garbage anywhere they please. They still waste water, electricity and fuel," Budirama said.
"Most residents are somehow reluctant to make the city cleaner and greener, even though they know and aware about it."
According to Elshinta of WWF, people were now trying to survive in this world by damaging the environment. Many environmental problems were man-made, she said.
"Ready or not people have to face water shortages, land shortages, deforestation and climate change as consequences.
"We have to do something because the condition of our environment is getting worse. Do something, because the earth can not wait," she said.
In tough times like these, every donation counts – cash or time
Alicia Wong, Today Online 26 Dec 08;
VOLUNTEERING is something I’ve always told myself I should do — but when push comes to shove, I get lazy.
Plenty of people, I bet, can identify with this. The difference being, I had a boss to force me to into action.
In tough times like these, with the news full of how charities were short of volunteers and donations, my mission was to find out what had become of the spirit of giving.
So I found myself, one weekday afternoon, standing in a red apron outside Wisma Atria and ringing a bell for all it was worth beside a Salvation Army kettle — one of three outreach projects I signed up for.
:In two hours, some 40 passers-by put in cash donations. The earnest sincerity of some givers put me to shame. They stood beside the kettle-stand and rummaged for their wallets; one struggled with the books she was carrying to take out a $2 note.
A young girl donated some coins with a grin saying “Wait, still got”, and searched in her little purse for more coins.
Others seemed awkward, like they didn’t want to draw attention to themselves. They dropped in coins and hurried away, barely even looking at us. Some parents gave the money to their children and walked ahead; the child would deposit the money and scurry to catch up.
They were not the only ones uncomfortable to be so blatantly caught out in an act of charity.I felt uneasy catching the eye of a passerby — did he think I was staring, compelling him to donate?
Fellow volunteer Matthew had no such silly reservations. He called out “Merry Christmas” to folks, most times ignored or rewarded with a strained smile. It’s okay, he told me, we’re spreading the Christmas cheer; why else do this?
I’m more of the view that the public could be more gracious. Instead of walking past like we volunteers don’t exist, a smile, if you happen to catch our eyes, would be nice.
The retiree who took the kettling shift before ours told us she volunteers every year. This year, she signed up for five shifts. In her two hours, she had “some $2, $5, but only two $10 notes”. Last year’s giving was more generous, she said, but considering the way things are, people still give now so “we can’t complain”.
The true spirit of giving
That was when people were expected to give something for nothing in return. What if they were instead offered a service for free, with a simple appeal to chip in a little something for charity if they could?
Make the setting a department store like Tangs, where customers had already blown money on the posh gifts we were offering to wrap.
:In the three hours I helped out one Tuesday morning, we had fewer than 10 customers at our gift-wrapping booth and maybe only half donated something. :Really, I thought, even a token 50 cents would have been a nice gesture to show some appreciation.
:Giving seemed slower this year, said Ruth, a staff of Focus on the Family which was organising the fund-raiser for the second year running.
But if the donations weren’t exactly forthcoming, I still enjoyed my time as a volunteer, mainly because the :organisation’s staff were sincere and welcoming, treating us as friends and not just helpers. They exuded the Christmas spirit.
After they patiently gave me a crash course in folding gift bags, the staff kindly commended my first stressful attempt to bag a salad bowl as a job “well done”, even though it really wasn’t.
As for my fellow volunteers, junior college students who were at the booth every alternate day for a school community service project, they didn’t behave like they were there because they had to.
They seemed to enthusiastically want to do their best. If that wasn’t a spirit of giving, I don’t know what is.
A humbling realisation
The picture wasn’t complete till I touched base with the most important people in this whole chain of giving.
That’s why, on a Saturday afternoon, I was on a minibus delivering food hampers to beneficiaries of the Boy:s’ Brigade (BB) Sharity Gift Box project. There were eight other volunteers and we were mostly first-timers doing our bit for charity.
:One veteran volunteer shared with us her experience of how some of the needy beneficiaries would refuse the hampers, maybe out of pride, while others sought you out for something more precious — conversation. For many of them, loneliness is a constant companion.
The folks in the 20 or so units we visited seemed affable enough. They asked us who we were, took the hampers, sign the forms and said goodbye. One old man gave us the thumbs-up sign.
I was feeling pretty good about all this “hard work” — until one volunteer remarked that the charity experience was probably more novel to us newbies than these seasoned beneficiaries used to regular infusions of aid.
I was struck by the humbling realisation that, in the big picture of year-long giving, I really wasn’t doing much.
In the final tally, every bit counts when it comes to giving — whether it is $10, or a couple of hours on a Saturday afternoon. Or just maybe, :giving means you keep trying to meet the needs of those you come across, all the time.
These dogs need a home; food, donations welcome, too
Esther Ng, Today Online 26 Dec 08;
IT WAS not quite your usual festive party: Three-legged Sugee scampered across the room as fast as her four-legged friends, while Cheryl, a sweet mongrel paralysed from the waist down, was happy to be the centre of attention at a Christmas party thrown by Action for Singapore Dogs (ASD) and Pet Lovers Centre.
The celebration for handicapped and homeless dogs last Saturday at Vivocity doubled up as a donation and adoption drive.
With the recession only just setting in, the ASD has seen a 20-per-cent drop in donations this year.
At the same time, there has been a 20- to 30-per-cent rise in the number of pets given up because of owners’ financial difficulties.
“All the animal shelters are very stretched. We’re struggling to cope with the bare necessities like the price of dog food, which has gone up by 30 per cent,” said ASD’s president Ricky Yeo.
And resources will be further squeezed with the number of abandoned pets expected to rise, when the economic crunch worsens. “The loss of job or income is not a good enough reason to give up a pet,” said Mr Yeo. “There are always solutions or alternatives. You could cut down on luxuries like grooming and treats.”
This coming year, the society hopes to raise $240,000. “We could do with manpower and food donation too,” saidMr Yeo, noting that fosterers — who take in rescued dogs for short periods — are urgently needed.
:There are already 70 dogs at ASD’s shelter in Lim Chu Kang, which costs $15,000 a month to run.
Nine-month-old Sugee was found in Sungei Kadut with her left hind leg shredded and tendons exposed, while Cheryl was found with a broken spine in Tuas. “We get many of these hit-and-run cases,” said Mr Yeo.
Though a dog like Cheryl is incontinent and semi-paralysed, “she’s very sociable” and would not cost more money to look after, said Mr Yeo — “just time and attention”.
Donors who want to help can buy food for the ASD’s shelter dogs at highly discounted rates at P:et Lovers Centre’s Vivocity branch, in a donation drive which ends on Jan 3.
:So far, 90 kg of dog food has been donated and the store is aiming for 130 kg more.
A Christmas tree, for that reassuring feeling
Trees snapped up despite higher prices and economic storm
Teh Shi Ning, Business Times 26 Dec 08;
(SINGAPORE) Live Christmas trees are weathering the economic storm; sales have stayed evergreen despite greatly reduced retail spending this holiday season.
Within three weeks, IKEA Singapore sold out all 2,000 real Christmas trees it brought in this year - in contrast to last year, when the same number of trees were brought in while the economy was booming, but prices had to be marked down.
Far East Flora sold out all its stock of live Christmas trees too, even though it had a greater number on sale this year. Similarly, Island Landscape & Nursery said its 400 Noble Firs, imported from Oregon, USA, were snapped up in two weeks.
IKEA also saw a larger number of first-time buyers this year, as evidenced by more customers having to purchase tree stands along with their trees.
'People need to celebrate Christmas even if times are bad, and certain symbols, like the Christmas tree, are considered essential to celebrating Christmas. These are things people aren't prepared to cut back on,' said Lars Svensson, IKEA Singapore's marketing manager.
All around the world, Christmas tree sellers are cheering their better-than- usual business, which some say reflects a longing for a sense of normalcy in turbulent economic times.
America's National Christmas Tree Association (NCTA) estimated that 31.3 million American households bought real Christmas trees at an estimated cost of around US$1.3 billion in 2007, 9 per cent up from 28.6 million households in 2006, Reuters reported.
NCTA spokesman Rick Dungey said: 'Over the years, we've found the economy doesn't impact tree sales that much at all. As a family tradition, it's way too important.'
Some argue that it is not merely despite the financial turmoil, but because of it, that Christmas tree sales have been strong.
Catherine Howard, editor of trade publication Christmas Trees Magazine, was quoted by Reuters as saying: 'When times are tough, people like to cling to these traditions because they make them feel comfortable.'
Increased demand and a Christmas tree shortage have also driven up prices. Denmark, leading grower of the much coveted Nordmann firs, produced 8.5 million trees for export mainly to Germany, Britain and France this year. But supply is expected to fall short of demand by some 300,000 trees, AFP reported.
According to Reuters, producers expect this shortage of Christmas trees in Denmark to push up prices in a trend likely to last till 2012.
In Singapore, Island Landscape said prices for its Christmas trees had risen by 10 per cent this year mainly due to increased freight costs. Prices for the trees sold by the various retailers here ranged from S$45 for a 5-foot tree to S$5,000 for a 20ft tree.
As for why real Christmas trees seem to be gaining in popularity over artificial ones despite their cost, IKEA's Mr Svensson suggested: 'Perhaps authentic Christmas trees, with their scent and falling needles, represent something genuine in times like these.'
Hugo Dixon, Business Times 25 Dec 08;
THE 12 days of Christmas: The deepening economic gloom will undoubtedly lead to much misery. But the crisis also has silver linings. Here's one cheery thought for each of the 12 days of Christmas.
On the first day of Christmas, my true love sent to me Barack Obama. Fingers crossed that will give a boost to world peace. If it hadn't been for the crisis, John McCain might well be the US president - and Sarah Palin vice-president.
On the second day, my true love sent to me less global warming. As the economy takes a dive, fewer noxious gases will be spewed out into the atmosphere. That should delay the climate crisis for a year or two. The time shouldn't be wasted.
On the third day, she sent me three chastened dictators. When oil was nearly US$150 a barrel, Vladimir Putin, Hugo Chavez and Mahmud Ahmadinejad bestrode the world like colossi. With crude at US$50, the leaders of Russia, Venezuela and Iran will have more worries at home and less means to swagger abroad.
On the fourth day, she sent me more home cooking. As people have less money to spend eating out, they will eat in. People may even grow more of their own vegetables. This is good for family living and rootedness. On the fifth day, she sent me more teachers, entrepreneurs and scientists. During the bubble, too many smart people from around the world were sucked into Wall Street and the City. Following the bust, bright youngsters will look to more noble ways of deploying their energies.
On the sixth day, she gave me cheaper homes. That's obviously bad for people who need to sell their houses. But buying a house shouldn't be a way to make money - and cheaper houses will make life easier for the next generation.
On the seventh day, she sent me less conspicuous consumption. In the boom times, some people were embarrassed if they didn't go for the vintage Krug, the Prada handbag, the private jet. Now, even those who still have money to burn may not feel it's fit and proper to show off.
On the eighth day, she sent me a saner financial system. The world ran amok because bankers were allowed to engage in massive 'heads-I-win, tails-you-lose'-style bets. Now politicians and regulators are going to make Wall Street and the City less like giant casinos.
On the ninth day, she gave me more time. In the boom, everybody was frantic. The leitmotif was the banker checking his Blackberry in the middle of the night. In future, people could have more time to reflect - although the unemployed will have too much time.
On the tenth day, she sent me a bonfire of oligarchs. The modern-day barons created by the bubble often lorded it over their less ruthless or lucky brethren. But many were so greedy that they tried to multiply their fortunes with borrowed billions. Margin calls have cut them down to size.
On the eleventh day, she sent me more equality. In the upswing, the rich got richer and the super-rich got super-richer. The inequality got grotesque. In the downswing, the poor will get poorer - but the gap between them and the super-rich will narrow.
On the twelfth day, my true love gave me better role models. Popular culture in the boom was dominated by inane reality television such as Big Brother and the shallow celebrity of Paris Hilton, Posh Spice and the cast of Hello magazine. With luck, in the new sober world, our children will be offered something more ethical and substantial.
ARC Centre of Excellence 26 Dec 08;
Claims that coastal tree barriers can halt the might of a tsunami are false and dangerous, a team of international marine scientists said today.
There are many reasons for preserving the world’s dwindling stocks of mangroves, but protecting people from tsunamis is not one of them, they say.
On the eve of anniversary of the devastating 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami, which claimed nearly a quarter of a million lives around the eastern Indian Ocean, researchers have issued a strong warning against coastal communities and governments putting their trust in mangrove and tree barriers erected as a means of protection from earthquake-driven tidal waves.
“Following the Boxing Day Tsunami scientific studies were released which claimed that the damage to coastal communities had been less in places where there was a barrier of trees or coastal vegetation,” explains Dr Andrew Baird of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and James Cook University.
“As a result there has been a lot of tree planting in coastal areas affected by the tsunami, in the hope it will protect coastal communities in future from such events.
“However these studies looked only at the presence or absence of vegetation and the extent of damage – and did not take account of other important variables, like the distance of a village from the shore, the height of the village above sea level or the shape of the seabed in concentrating the tsunami’s power.”
The study by Dr Alexander Kerr of the University of Guam, Dr Baird, Ravi Bhalla and V. Srinivas of the Foundation for Ecological Research, Advocacy and Learning India concludes there is, as yet, no evidence that coastal tree belts can provide meaningful protection against a tsunami or, for that matter storm surges produced by cyclones, such as the surge that followed Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar early this year which killed over 150,000 people.
As a result it would be extremely dangerous to rely on tree planting alone to shield coastal communities in the event of future tsunami or storm surges, they warn – and doing so could lead to further tragedies.
The team’s analysis of the pattern of damage of the Boxing Day 2004 tsunami shows that many variables were at work in determining how the force of the water affected people and structures on land, and these all need to be taken into account – not just a few of them.
The findings have major implications for civil defence and emergency planning, the cost of restoring affected regions and in minimizing the death and destruction suffered by some of the poorest communities in the world, the team says.
“The idea that planting ‘green belts’ can both protect coastal communities and enhance their environment has been widely accepted,” Dr Baird explains. “As a result a number of governments, aid agencies and scientists have been promoting it enthusiastically.
“However this could place the communities shielded in this way at future risk. Mangroves should be protected for their conservation value, and for the goods and services they provide to people even if they don’t protect coastal dwellers from extreme events.”
“In my own visits to the tsunami-ravaged areas, I saw places where quite heavy vegetation had provided absolutely no protection at all against the force of the ocean, and this led us to investigate the assumption more deeply. It turns out it was not well founded.”
To fully explore what drives the flooding following tsunami like the Boxing Day Tsunami, and storm surges, like those that could accompany any of the many cyclones that hit northern Australia each year, an extensive, statistically-sound analysis needs to be carried out of all the factors which may act on the force of the waves driving inland.
These include the height of the settlement above the sea, its distance, the shape of the sea bottom and local land uses. These make the difficulty of accurately predicting tsunami damage much harder – and a problem requiring rigorous analysis for multiple factors and their interaction.
In the meantime, there is much that can be done to limit the loss of life in future tsunami, in particular, early warning systems need to be installed, the population must be educated to recognise the signs of an imminent tsunami and evacuation plans need to put in place and practised. All these preparations are current in Japan, and should serve as an example to the rest of the world.
Their research report Roles of coastal bio-shields and their putative role in protecting coasts from large weather related disturbance events is soon to be published by the United Nations Environment Program.
Tsunami anniversary highlights need for evacuation plans
ABC News 26 Dec 08;
A team of international marine scientists is warning that planting trees will not protect vulnerable coastlines from a future tsunami.
Today marks the fourth anniversary of the Boxing Day tsunami, which killed nearly a quarter of a million people across 12 countries.
Since then, there have been large-scale efforts to plant coastal vegetation in affected areas like Sumatra in Indonesia and Tamil Nadu in India as a way to reduce the impact of any future tsunamis.
But Dr Andrew Baird from James Cook University says the only way to prevent deaths during a tsunami is to move people out of the way.
"The tsunami that hit Aceh [in Indonesia] was estimated to be about 12 kilometres thick and so the Ocean just pushed in for about an hour," he said.
"And when you've got that much water, nothing's going to stop it, apart from once it hits the side of a mountain and it's got nowhere else to go."
Dr Baird says it would be better to spend money on early warning systems.
"In India, for example, where they have been planting lots of trees, they haven't been putting in early warning systems or educating the public," he said.
"And so to me it's four years after the event, the necessary things just haven't been done, and I think that's shocking."
Chalid Muhammad, The Jakarta Post 22 Dec 08;
Indonesia lost 24 islets during 2005-2007 as a result of climate change, as reported in the Indonesian State of the Environment Report published by the State Ministry for the Environment in 2007. According to the report, Indonesia has, in the past few years, registered worrying increases in the intensity and frequency of climate change.
Indonesia has continued to record a very high rate of deforestation, with a total 1.09 million hectares felled a year between 2000 and 2006. This serious deforestation has so far rendered more than 77 million hectares of land in the country critical.
The annual report from the environment ministry indicates the grave state of Indonesia's environment, as supported by the empirical evidence. Most of the country's major rivers are in a critical condition because of the destruction and contamination of water basins. Still there are floods, landslides, droughts, forest fires, harvest and crop failures, and air pollution, as well as a growing list of other ecological disasters.
Sadly, however, the state has made a very inadequate response, inasmuch as it has made any at all. The state has never seriously made an effort to overcome the crisis, even tending to speed up the environmental deterioration through its licensing and legislation. Evidence of this is that the extent of environmental damage and the number of ecological disasters escalates year after year.
Nature has always been issuing warnings, much harsher than those contained in the reports of NGOs engaged in environment protection. Annually recurring ecological calamities serve as natural alarms that should raise our awareness. Repeated floods and landslides prove there has been very serious and systematic destruction of the environment.
The Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) has noted that in 2006-2007, 840 ecological disasters took place, in which 7,303 people lost their lives and 1,140 others were declared missing. At least 3 million people were forced to become refugees and 750,000 houses were damaged or submerged.
At the beginning of 2008, we were faced with a landslide in Tawangmangu and flash floods in Ngawi, Kediri, Madiun, Bojonegoro, Lamongan and Kudus, all in Java, which inundated hundreds of thousands of houses and caused harvest failures or loss of property. The misfortune was mainly attributed to destruction of the forest and ecosystem along the river basin areas of the Solo river.
Toward the end of 2008 we were again saddened by the news of floods and landslides, tidal waves and forest fires. Ecological destruction kills hundreds of people every year. The Health Ministry, as quoted by Antara news agency, puts the number of lives lost to environmental disasters in Indonesia at 8,638 from 2006 to August 2008 - 7,770 in 2006, 675 in 2007 and 263 in January-August 2008. This is a considerable death toll resulting from environmental mismanagement.
Legalized destruction of natural resources for economic interests has been underway since 1967. It started with the introduction of the Foreign Investment Law, the Forestry Law and the Mining Law. Since then, Indonesia has systematically turned to selling all its natural assets at low prices on a large scale.
Consequently, there has been large-scale conversion of forests into extensive private estates and mining areas and for industrial needs. In downstream regions, the mangrove ecosystem has also been reduced due to conversion into luxury housing, fish ponds and industries. Today, mangrove forests along Indonesian coastal areas cover less than 1.9 million hectares.
The government has made some headway in eradicating illegal logging, illegal mining and illegal fishing. But that is not the case with legal logging, legal mining and legal fishing, which evidently destroy the environment. The state gives the impression that it is protecting companies that have allegedly committed crimes against the environment for their own economic ends. These methods prove that the state has for a long time been leading the destruction of nature through its legislation and licensing.
Attempts to make the state fundamentally amend its natural resources and environmental management policies have not yet succeeded. We even have laws that potentially speed up environmental damage. In 2007 three laws were turned out that supported natural exploitation: the Investment Law, the Spatial Planning Law and the Small Island and Coastal Region Management Law. The three serve as the basis for natural exploitation licenses in 2008 and the coming years.
In early 2008, the state again issued a controversial policy. Government Regulation No. 2/2008 on the types and rates of non-tax income from forestry has been met with public rejection. In the rule, the state allows protected forest zones to be utilized for mining operations as long as mining companies pay a maximum rent of Rp 300 (2 US cents) per square meter a year.
The policy has been welcomed by mining firms and regional administrations desirous of converting protected zones for mining. Some regency administrations have even gone beyond their authority by granting licenses to firms for such conversion, such as those in Morowali, Central Sulawesi, and Manggarai, East Nusa Tenggara.
Now a large number of mining, estate and agricultural companies are queuing up to obtain licenses for the conversion of protected zones or areas that should be protected. The government has even definitely determined the conversion of 400,000 hectares of forests a year for oil palm plantations until 2011. This shows that forest areas have for a long time been undergoing planned deforestation. Put simply, it is deforestation guided by the state.
On the eve of the 2009 general elections, it is least likely that the state will take stern action against environmental criminals, let alone those already licensed by the state. The forestry industry devastating the peat zone in Riau is almost certain to escape prosecution even though the police investigation has long been completed.
The case of pollution and rights violations in the gas drilling location of Lapindo Brantas will also stay stuck in limbo. The likelihood of the prosecutor's office bringing the case to the criminal court in 2009 is remote, despite its long-finished police investigation.
In the absence of choice in 2009, alternative political forces should be established to determine Indonesia's new path peacefully and democratically. Otherwise, ecological catastrophes will surely expand, threatening the future of Indonesia.
The writer is chairman of The Green Institute and former director of Walhi.
Antara 24 Dec 08;
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - At least 23 small island in Indonesia are on the brink of total destruction due to mining activities, a non-governmental organization said.
"Based on our studies, more than 23 small islands in the country are now on the brink of total destruction due to mining activities," the People`s Coalition for Justice Fisheries (KIARA), said in a press statement on Tuesday.
It said that the small islands were facing the threat of destruction because the mining activities did not take into account the islands` supporting capacity, environmental conditions and the livelihood of local residents.
KIARA said it was ironical to see the fact that the mining activities in the country`s coastal and sea areas had been taken as a model for development which gave an emphasis on economic targets.
Some 2,000 Indonesia small islands may disappear soon
Antara 29 Nov 08;
Malang (ANTARA News) - At least 2,000 small islands across archipelagic Indonesia may disappear sooner or later as a consequence of excessive mining and other environment-damaging activities, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Freddy Numberi said here on Saturday.
"Uncontrolled mining activities continue to threaten the existence of those small islands but I wonder why nobody, including the hundreds of state and private institutes of higher leaning in the country, speaks up and does something to stop those activities," Numberi said.
The minister made the statement after delivering a scientific speech before hundreds of students at a graduation ceremony at Malang`s Muhammadiyah University.
Numberi said more than 24 small islands in the country had already disappeared so far and eight of them used to be part of the Seribu (Thousand) Islands in the Jakarta Bay. Most of the islands that had vanished were uninhabited.
He said to ensure the legitimacy of Indonesia`s ownership over the scattered islands, his ministry had conducted expeditions to to inventorize them, and was registering them with the United Nations in phases.
So far, his ministry had registered a total of 4,000 islands with the United Nations and would do the same on 6,000 more in the near future.
Numberi said there were 17,504 major and smaller islands in Indonesia. If there was no effort to stop massive sand mining activities on many of the small ones, more than 2,000 of them would disappear sooner or later. (*)
Sean Yoong, Associated Press Yahoo News 24 Dec 08;
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – He probably hasn't dated in two decades, but the survival of a species may depend on whether Tam can get lucky soon.
A male rhinoceros recently rescued on the edge of Borneo's rain forest is expected to become the first participant of a Malaysian breeding program for his critically endangered ilk, a wildlife expert said Wednesday.
The roughly 20-year-old Borneo Sumatran rhino, nicknamed "Tam," was found wandering in an oil palm plantation in August with an infected leg likely caused by a poacher trap.
Tam, whose species is known for its solitary nature, has been resettled in a wildlife reserve in Malaysia's Sabah state, the last preserve of the Borneo Sumatran rhino — a subspecies of the bristly, snub-nosed Sumatran rhino.
Authorities hope to bring at least five male and female rhinos into the reserve over the next few years so that they can mate and produce offspring, said Junaidi Payne, the senior technical adviser for the World Wildlife Fund's Malaysian Borneo chapter.
"Their numbers are so low that they might drift into extinction if no one does anything," Payne told The Associated Press.
Experts cannot confirm how many Borneo Sumatran rhinos remain in the wild, but estimates range from 10 to 30 individuals, many of them isolated from others in their species.
Borneo Sumatran rhinos have rapidly vanished in recent decades as their habitat has been lost to logging, plantations and other development. Poachers have hunted them for their horns, which are used in traditional medicines.
The rhinos in Sabah's 300,000-acre (120,000-hectare) reserve will probably be able to find each other through their scent and mate without human interference, Payne said.
"If they are not stressed out by people, the chances of success should be better," he said.
Hope for the subspecies was boosted after Malaysian government officials and WWF experts found new evidence of them in the wild in May 2005. Rhino protection units have since launched patrols to deter poaching.
Conservationists have warned the rhinos could face extinction in the next 10 years.
M. Azis Tunny, The Jakarta Post 26 Dec 08;
The Seram cockatoo (Cacatua moluccensis), an endemic bird species found mainly on the islands of Seram, Haruku, Saparua and Ambon, Maluku, is on the verge of extinction due to widespread poaching and forest clearing, a conservationist says.
In the 1990s there were more than 1,000 Seram cockatoos in the wild on Seram island, but now this number has dwindled to 400, and the bird is increasingly endangered on the other three islands, Manusela National Park chief Supriyanto said.
"Besides poaching, the bird is threatened because of a loss of habitat from forest clearing. It not only lives in national park areas but also in farmland which were once forested," he told The Jakarta Post recently at his office in Masohi, Central Maluku.
Supriyatno said it was difficult to differentiate between private land and national parks in Seram because many forested areas were privately owned.
"Many farm owners have felled large trees to make way for cacao, nutmeg and clove farms. The condition has had an adverse impact on the population of the cockatoo, not to mention poaching," he said.
While it is protected by the 1990 law on the conservation of natural resources and ecosystems, the rare orange-crested cockatoo remains subject to poaching for illegal trade.
According to ProFauna Indonesia conservation group, at least 1,000 Seram cockatoos were poached and traded in Jakarta between December 2003 and May 2004.
"The poaching rate has dropped now because we have rebuilt three of the five observation posts that were destroyed by fire in the Maluku riots. We have also empowered local communities as rangers for the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center (PRS) to reduce poaching in the area.
"There are still instances of poaching, but the frequency has declined," Supriyanto said.
The 1990 law clearly stipulates that those involved in the trade of protected wildlife, such as the Seram cockatoo, are liable to a 5-year prison sentence and a Rp 100 million (US$9,132) fine.
"We at the national park, are committed to reducing the poaching rate of this bird species," Supriyanto said.
To overcome the poaching and forest clearing, Manusela National Park has developed an effective strategy by involving traditional communities -- who once hunt down cockatoos and other wildlife for meat -- as PRS rangers in and around the park.
"We will maintain the large trees that serve as cockatoo habitat by involving villagers and farm owners as wardens.
"Besides receiving salaries, they can also earn extra income by serving visitors as guides for tracking and bird observation in the park," Supriyatno said, adding that the activities would have a positive impact on the wildlife in and around the park.
Manusela National Park, which covers some 189,000 hectares, is also home to a number of other endemic wildlife species, including a variety of rodents, the slow loris (Spilocuccuc maculates), black-crested parrots (Lorius domicella), Raja or king parrot (Alisterus amboinensis), the casuary (Casusricus casuarius) and Seram gecko.
The park also contains 24 tree, 120 fern, 100 moss and 96 orchid species.
Supriyanto said the park, which presents the Seram cockatoo as its mascot, receives around 150 visitors annually, mostly from the Netherlands and the United States.
The foreign visitors usually come for tracking and bird watching which they can do from atop a number of towers (up to 30 meters high) around the park, from where they can watch more than 20 bird species daily.
Visitors arriving at the Pattimura Airport in Ambon must take a two-hour speedboat ride from Tulehu village (east of Ambon island) to Masohi, Central Maluku, and then another four-hour overland journey by car to reach Manusela's front gates in North Seram.
Don Lee and Tiffany Hsu, LA Times 24 Dec 08;
Industry experts and businesspeople in China say that the industrial chemical has been routinely added to fish and animal feed to artificially boost protein readings.
Reporting from Los Angeles and Shanghai -- Melamine in Chinese-produced milk powder has sickened hundreds of thousands of children and added to a growing list of made-in-China foods banned across the globe. Now, some scientists and consumer advocates are raising concerns that fish from China may also be contaminated with the industrial chemical.
China is the world's largest producer of farm-raised seafood, exporting billions of dollars worth of shrimp, catfish, tilapia, salmon and other fish. The U.S. imported about $2 billion of seafood products from China in 2007, almost double the volume of four years earlier, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
But industry experts and businesspeople in China say that melamine has been routinely added to fish and animal feed to artificially boost protein readings. And new research suggests that, unlike in cows and pigs, the edible flesh in fish that have been fed melamine contains residues of the nitrogen-rich substance.
Melamine, commonly used in plastics and dishware, can lead to urinary problems such as kidney stones and even renal failure.
Last year, pet foods made with melamine-laced ingredients from China sickened or killed thousands of dogs and cats in the U.S. This year, infant formula tainted with the chemical has been linked to illness in 294,000 small children and six deaths in China, according to China's Ministry of Health.
In the U.S., fish from China can be found in the frozen food aisle in supermarkets and is served in posh restaurants.
"China's a big place, and it does a lot of processing, and cheaply too," said Brian Dedmon, purchasing manager for the Fish King distribution plant in Burbank.
Fish King, which supplies hundreds of Southern California restaurants and has a store in Glendale, says it buys processed snow crab meat, squid and other seafood from China to meet market demand and because the price is competitive. Dedmon says the company relies on government inspections, its importers and its own experience to ensure the fish it buys is safe.
"We're definitely concerned about melamine, but by the time the fish gets to us, health issues should've been taken care of by the government agencies and brokers that we go through," he said.
Not on the checklist
But even though some U.S. fish importers are voluntarily testing for melamine, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which is responsible for ensuring the safety of imported fish, currently doesn't require seafood products to be screened for melamine. Yet research from its own scientists has raised a warning flag.
Laboratory studies of melamine-fed catfish, trout, tilapia and salmon by the FDA's Animal Drugs Research Center found that fish tissues had melamine concentrations of up to 200 parts per million. That's 80 times the maximum "tolerable" amount set by the FDA for safe consumption.
Iddya Karunasagar, a United Nations fish-product safety expert in Rome, said the FDA's research suggested fish would have to ingest large amounts of melamine to pose a health threat to humans, something that he considered unlikely. But he said there were no data on melamine levels in Chinese-produced fish and animal feed.
Other scientists said testing of melamine in farm-raised fish from China should be made mandatory because of the dearth of information about melamine levels in Chinese feed and fish.
"That's the problem; no one has a clue how much concentration and for how long" fish from China have ingested melamine, said Jim Riviere, director of chemical toxicology research at North Carolina State University in Raleigh. "There's an issue of relative human safety," he said. "It would be prudent to screen for melamine."
An FDA representative in Washington wouldn't comment on why Chinese-produced seafood didn't have to be analyzed for melamine when imported to the U.S. Nor were FDA researchers made available to comment on their agency's findings, reported recently in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.
Research undertaken by Riviere and others show that melamine in feed consumed by pigs and cows is excreted in the urine or otherwise flushed out, leaving virtually no trace of it in the muscle or meat of the animals. But fish appear to be different,toxicologists say.
Fang Shijun, who has monitored the melamine problem for several years, says he believes that the adulterated products are being supplied only by small operators, which abound in China.
Like those who added melamine to milk and diluted it with water to increase profit, feed businesses can sell more by substituting melamine for real protein sources, especially with the cost of corn and other raw materials having soared in the last couple of years.
"It is impossible to calculate how many of them have done that," said Fang, manager of feed research at Shanghai EFeedLink Information Technology, an agriculture consulting and research firm.
In the U.S., aqua-cultured seafood from China can be found in restaurants and in markets that sell frozen shrimp, catfish fillets and roasted eel, among other fish. U.S. importers such as Boston-based Stavis Seafoods, which sells products under the brand Foods From the Sea, are taking precautions and doing their own testing.
"It's our reputation behind it," company Chairman Richard Stavis said. Thus far, he said, the testing has not turned up melamine in the catfish and tilapia that Stavis buys from China.
U.S. importers have for some years been testing for a variety of antibiotics and substances, including the suspected carcinogen malachite green, which some Chinese fish farms use to control disease.
Since last year, the FDA has been restricting entry of shrimp, catfish, dace, eel and basa from China unless those shipments come with an independent lab report certifying the seafood is free of such additives. Melamine isn't included on that list of additives.
The Chinese government, facing increasing pressure from the public, has begun to crack down on melamine suppliers and has widened inspections to include feed. And many Chinese exporters of farmed fish say government inspectors are coming around more often and examining samples.
But shipments of filthy and contaminated fish from China continue to be detained at U.S. ports, exposing holes in a food-safety system that analysts say is undermined by a lack of resources, corruption and unscrupulous businesses that will sometimes mislabel or reroute goods through other countries.
Last month, 26 containers of shrimp, crawfish, tilapia and other fish from China were refused entry in Long Beach and other U.S. seaports. Inspectors cited a variety of reasons: salmonella, unsafe additives, unapproved drugs and labeling problems, according to FDA records on its website.
U.S. consumer advocates say the FDA has its own resource issues.
"They're so understaffed at the borders that despite whatever orders they have, we can't be sure that products aren't just coming through anyway," said Jean Halloran, food policy initiatives director for Consumers Union, the publisher of Consumer Reports. "We need much better testing," she said, including of melamine in fish.
FDA officials last month opened three offices in China, part of a strategy to deploy agency staff in countries where many U.S. foods now originate and where they can work with local inspectors and the industry.
"We cannot inspect our way to import safety; we have to roll our borders back and work with producers and have [their products] certified by people we trust," said Michael Leavitt, secretary of the U.S. Health and Human Services Department, under which the FDA operates, during a visit to China last month.
A food-source issue
Karunasagar, the U.N.'s fishery expert, said governments in China and elsewhere needed to tackle the problem at the source. "More than the fish, we should monitor melamine in the feed."
But that's easier said than done. In the U.S., commercial fish farms have to use feed from a handful of approved suppliers, but in China, there may be hundreds of thousands of sources for feed, said Steve Dickinson, an American attorney in China's coastal city of Qingdao who ran a salmon-farming business in Washington state.
Melamine has "infected the whole system in China," he said.
More than 15 feed suppliers in various parts of China were contacted for this story. Most of them declined to comment or said they didn't add melamine. But some of them said the practice of spiking feed with it had been going on for at least the last six years, with inspectors checking some types of feed products more tightly than others.
"It is not so regulated, for example, in the fish powder industry," said Zhuge Fulai, manager of Lianfeng Protein Feed Plant in Shandong province.
Fang, the feed research manager in Shanghai, said adulterating feed was particularly rampant in 2003 and 2004. He doubts that many feed suppliers today are adding melamine, given the awareness and the government's publicized crackdown, but neither he nor anyone else thinks the problem has been eradicated.
"We still need more government supervision," Fang said. "We need to have more random checks and to fully execute regulations and standards."
Marcus Wohlsen, Associated Press Yahoo News 26 Dec 08;
SAN FRANCISCO – The Apple computer was invented in a garage. Same with the Google search engine. Now, tinkerers are working at home with the basic building blocks of life itself.
Using homemade lab equipment and the wealth of scientific knowledge available online, these hobbyists are trying to create new life forms through genetic engineering — a field long dominated by Ph.D.s toiling in university and corporate laboratories.
In her San Francisco dining room lab, for example, 31-year-old computer programmer Meredith L. Patterson is trying to develop genetically altered yogurt bacteria that will glow green to signal the presence of melamine, the chemical that turned Chinese-made baby formula and pet food deadly.
"People can really work on projects for the good of humanity while learning about something they want to learn about in the process," she said.
So far, no major gene-splicing discoveries have come out anybody's kitchen or garage.
But critics of the movement worry that these amateurs could one day unleash an environmental or medical disaster. Defenders say the future Bill Gates of biotech could be developing a cure for cancer in the garage.
Many of these amateurs may have studied biology in college but have no advanced degrees and are not earning a living in the biotechnology field. Some proudly call themselves "biohackers" — innovators who push technological boundaries and put the spread of knowledge before profits.
In Cambridge, Mass., a group called DIYbio is setting up a community lab where the public could use chemicals and lab equipment, including a used freezer, scored for free off Craigslist, that drops to 80 degrees below zero, the temperature needed to keep many kinds of bacteria alive.
Co-founder Mackenzie Cowell, a 24-year-old who majored in biology in college, said amateurs will probably pursue serious work such as new vaccines and super-efficient biofuels, but they might also try, for example, to use squid genes to create tattoos that glow.
Cowell said such unfettered creativity could produce important discoveries.
"We should try to make science more sexy and more fun and more like a game," he said.
Patterson, the computer programmer, wants to insert the gene for fluorescence into yogurt bacteria, applying techniques developed in the 1970s.
She learned about genetic engineering by reading scientific papers and getting tips from online forums. She ordered jellyfish DNA for a green fluorescent protein from a biological supply company for less than $100. And she built her own lab equipment, including a gel electrophoresis chamber, or DNA analyzer, which she constructed for less than $25, versus more than $200 for a low-end off-the-shelf model.
Jim Thomas of ETC Group, a biotechnology watchdog organization, warned that synthetic organisms in the hands of amateurs could escape and cause outbreaks of incurable diseases or unpredictable environmental damage.
"Once you move to people working in their garage or other informal location, there's no safety process in place," he said.
Some also fear that terrorists might attempt do-it-yourself genetic engineering. But Patterson said: "A terrorist doesn't need to go to the DIYbio community. They can just enroll in their local community college."
Ben Beaumont, Oxfam GB - UK on AlertNet 24 Dec 08;
It’s worth thinking about just why the delaying tactics of some countries at the UN climate change conference in early December is so damaging. Their inability to move discussions on is going to cost lives - it’s as simple as that.
And the people affected are those in the poorest countries of the world - countries like Bangladesh. I visited the south west of the country just before the Poland discussions, to see for myself the impact that climate change is already having on people there.
The future for people living in the south west corner of Bangladesh is bleak. If we don’t act quickly, it’s difficult to imagine what they will do. Rising sea levels (they’re projected to rise up to 1.5m by the end of century, putting 15 per cent of Bangladesh under water) are engulfing their land with salt water, which destroys their crops, not to mention their homes.
As a result, many small farmers sell their paddy fields to shrimp farmers, who create shrimp ponds for export. The trouble is, a shrimp farm employs far fewer people per hectare than paddy. So many find themselves out of work, and without food. What can they do?
They are faced with a choice, of sorts. They could go into the nearby Sundarbans mangrove forest in search of fish and honey. Sounds simple enough, but not when you consider that the forest is the home of the Bengali tiger, which is killing the husbands, fathers and sons of this region at an alarming rate.
Or they could wrench their whole family from their ancestral home to the slums of already overcrowded cities, in Bangladesh and over the border in India. If they’re lucky, they could find infrequent, underpaid work, maybe as a rickshaw wallah, or in a brick-making factory. And that’s only if they can save the bus fare out in the first place.
This is what faces heroic women like Farida Khatun, 35, a mother of four whose own husband was killed by a tiger six years ago. “He went fishing in the Sundarbans with his brothers,” she says. “When he was pulling the last net up, he told the others to go on ahead. A tiger came out of the grass and took him away to the forest. We never found his body.”
Farida reckons that the number of men being eaten by tigers is “increasing day by day. The population is growing and food prices are rising. To survive, we either have to migrate to India or go into the Sundarbans. My two oldest sons are in the Sundarbans fishing now. Of course I worry about them, but we have no alternative. There are no other jobs, and if they didn’t go, we wouldn’t eat.”
Farida’s stark choice is repeated by countless others here. It confirmed for me why conferences like that in Poland (and, next year, Copenhagen) are so important - and why developed countries need to show real leadership and act decisively to avert catastrophe.
Reuters and AlertNet are not responsible for the content of this article or for any external internet sites. The views expressed are the author's alone.
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