The Raffles Bulletin of Zoology Supplement No. 22 (30 December 2009) check out this awesome issue packed with tons of interesting papers! from Raffles Museum News
Singapore Green Landscape 2010
from Green Business Times
Why are there so many dead fish on Pasir Ris?
from wild shores of singapore with a closer look at the dead fishes, also on wonderful creations and singapore nature.
Vocal communication in White-crested Laughingthrush
from Bird Ecology Study Group
Help... there's a snake in my room
Teh Joo Lin, Straits Times 31 Dec 09;
SNAKES are making themselves at home - in people's homes.
So Canadian housewife Ali Marino, 40, found out one Saturday morning when she saw the family's pet golden retriever nosing around some cushions on the second floor of her Changi home.
What was worrying the dog? A 3m-long python.
Ms Marino, who was at home with her six-year-old daughter, called the police. They told her to call a pest controller. The python was removed at a cost of more than $500.
'I was in shock with the snake, and then I was in shock with the bill,' she said.
An encounter with a snake in urbanised Singapore is becoming commonplace. The police, pest control companies and members of the public handed almost 300 snakes to the Singapore Zoo and the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) last year.
So far this year, more than 250 snakes have been caught. That figure does not include those which might have been killed on sight or released to the wild.
In July, service engineer Dennis Fabila spotted a snake crawling on the street in Eunos Avenue 1, before it was caught by police officers. The 31-year-old Filipino found the wildlife sighting in a concrete jungle so incongruous, he shot a video and posted it on the Internet.
'I was wondering where the snake came from because around here, there's no jungle,' he said.
Ironically, that may be the reason.
Snakes slip into the urban environment to find food and shelter when their habitats are cleared for development, said Mr Biswajit Guha, the zoo's assistant director of zoology.
Most snakes found here are reticulated pythons, which are non-poisonous, muscular reptiles that can grow up to 10m. They kill their prey - usually rodents - by constricting them in their coils. They are seldom as dangerous as they look, though they can be vicious biters if provoked.
Zoo curator Francis Lim has never come across a case of a python killing a human being in his 35 years of handling snakes. They have attacked dogs and cats but, even then, 'very rarely'.
But with 53 recorded snake species here, including eight which are venomous, Mr Lim does not advise people to take matters into their own hands. 'They'll not know whether the snake is venomous or not. If they are catching them on their own, they might risk getting bitten.'
For example, the equatorial spitting cobra can accurately spit venom into the eye and cause temporary blindness. Its bite can cause death.
Mr Lim said that if a snake strays into places where it can easily return to the bushes, 'I'd say leave it. You can just shoo it off. Let it go back'.
But the sight of snakes still sends people scrambling to call the police. Like Ms Marino, not all succeed in getting an officer to turn up at their doorsteps.
Police spokesman Tham Yee Lin said the police get fewer than 10 calls of wildlife sightings a month. They will respond to cases of wild animals found in public areas if there is imminent danger to the public. But if the snake appears in a private compound, the police will respond only when there is an 'immediate danger to life'. Otherwise, home owners are advised to call pest control companies.
Pest control companies contacted said their staff are trained to respond round- the-clock to any snake situation.
They treat snake calls as emergencies. Staff visit the scene with special snake-catching devices - long rods with clamps to grip the reptile from a distance.
Prices vary, but charges of $300 to $600 are common. Rates differ depending on the situation, said PestBusters chief executive Thomas Fernandez. He cited factors such as the size, species and aggression of the snake, and the amount of manpower and effort needed to catch it.
He said: 'I had one snake that was behind a kitchen cabinet. There was only a small gap, so we had to wait until a carpenter came. We had to spend four to five hours there.'
The customer paid $800.
Before customers baulk at the prices for catching snakes, they should understand that pest controllers put themselves in harm's way to remove the danger, said Mr G. Surajan, managing director of Major's Pest Management.
Snake catchers are getting better at the job, as zoo staff can attest.
Mr Lim, who started work at the zoo in 1975, said: 'In the beginning, the police were not trained, so they used whatever equipment they had in hand...and even shot them, which is not advisable. Now, they are in a better position. The welfare of the snake is a concern.'
Police officers now use gunny sacks to transport snakes so that they have enough oxygen.
In the past, police officers have run over snakes several times with their patrol cars to kill them.
Mr Guha said: 'Some snakes arrived in extremely poor condition due to inappropriate handling and restraint.'
Some suffocated and suffered brain damage because they were tied up in air- tight bags. Others had fractures and organ damage after being trampled on by frightened people. The zoo also received snakes that were starved and badly dehydrated.
Such cases are rare now.
When The Straits Times visited the zoo recently, its Wildlife Healthcare and Research Centre had just received a fresh batch of pythons, each coiled up inside a gunny sack. They were sedated, measured, weighed, inspected and treated for injuries and health problems.
Snakes in good health have microchips inserted before they are released into the wild with the help of the National Parks Board (NParks). It is against the law for people to release animals into the parks and nature reserves on their own.
An NParks spokesman said it releases healthy native species of snakes, such as the python and the bronzeback snake, back into the nature reserves. The trouble is, 7 per cent of them usually end up back in the zoo, having strayed into urban areas via the drain network.
Experts preach tolerance, especially if people encounter snakes in nature and in semi-wild areas. Mr Guha said: 'They do not pose a threat to humans and will usually avoid any unnecessary contact with people.'
Moreover, they play a useful part in nature by controlling the rodent population.
He said: 'They're also part of our natural heritage and as much as people are afraid of encountering them, snakes and other reptiles are integral animals of our rainforests.'
Ms Marino was told by the pest control company that the python was capable of harming her daughter, two dogs and two cats. She has since taken some precautions. 'We assume the snake entered the second level of our home by means of a tree branch and we have since trimmed back the branches.'
Group: ROS threat mars country’s image
The Star 31 Dec 09;
MIRI: It is very foolish of the Registrar of Societies (ROS) to threaten to deregister Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM) as the move has attracted the media spotlight.
The Sarawak Conservation Alliance Network for the Environment (Scane) said making threats against NGOs which were merely trying to highlight and protect the interests of the people had put Malaysia in a bad light.
Its director Raymond Abin said threatening environmental watchdog groups and community rights organisations was not going to bring any benefit to anyone.
“How can SAM be considered a threat to national security or national interests simply because it highlights the problems faced by natives in the logging concession zones and plantations in the interior of Sarawak?” he asked yesterday.
Scane is a coalition of community rights groups, environmental bodies, native customary land rights activists and lawyer associations.
It was earlier reported that ROS director Datuk Mohd Alias Kalil had said SAM could face deregistration if its activities were found to be against the interests of the country.
He, however, said there had not been any formal complaints against the organisation.
Abin said SAM and other NGOs were concerned about the rights of the people and the environment and were not instigating people against the Government.
Citing the anti-logging blockades and protests against timber operators by natives such as the Penans as an example, Abin said NGOs were concerned about the welfare of these indigenous people who were losing their land, livelihood and homes.
Former Baram MP Harrison Ngau said Mohd Alias’s threat sounded very political in nature.
“He has no business trying to talk like a politician.
“Why is he targeting SAM when it has done no wrong?
“That threatening statement has made the country look bad in the eyes of the international community,” he said.
Sulok Tawie, New Straits Times 30 Dec 09;
MIRI: Enforcement officers from the Sarawak Forestry Corporation have detained four men for alleged poaching and hunting at Lambir Hills National Park near here yesterday.
The suspects, three Malaysians and an Indonesian, were handed to the police for further investigations.
SFC chief executive officer Datuk Len Talif Salleh said the officers also seized a homemade shotgun and three parang from the suspects.
None of the men had a licence to own the shotgun.
Len said no carcasses of animals were found in their possession.
He said hunting in the national park was prohibited as it was a totally protected area.
"It is a complex and diverse forest eco-system, with an area of 6,952ha, and experts believe there is a high level of plant bio-diversity.
"There are 237 different species of birds, the flying squirrels, wild pigs, gibbons, many types of monkeys, various species of deer, and untold insects and other invertebrates at the park."
He said the arrest of the four men came about following a public tip-off.
Journal Watch Online 30 Dec 09;
Tropical fish are a common sight in home aquariums. But owners are increasingly interested in furnishing their tanks with small reef ecosystems as well, including invertebrates that perform services such as grazing and pest control. That trend could be leading a Florida fishery toward collapse, scientists warn in PLoS ONE.
The team studied records from the Florida Marine Life Fishery, a primary supplier for aquariums. Since 1994, the number of specimens collected annually has risen by about 13 percent per year, reaching 9 million specimens in 2007. Species that provide ecosystem services, such as grazers, showed the biggest increases in landings, the team found.
The collection of these invertebrates could pose a threat to natural reefs, the authors say. A reef without enough grazers, which keep algae levels down, might be less resilient. But the economic downturn could check the demand for expensive aquariums, the team notes, giving managers time to institute new regulations. – Roberta Kwok
Source: Rhyne, A., Rotjan, R., Bruckner, A., & Tlusty, M. (2009). Crawling to Collapse: Ecologically Unsound Ornamental Invertebrate Fisheries PLoS ONE, 4 (12) DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0008413
Reuters 30 Dec 09;
JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia will allow some infrastructure projects deemed in the public interest such as toll roads and geothermal energy plants to operate in protected forests, the chief economics minister said on Wednesday.
Under Indonesian law it is currently forbidden to undertake any kind of activity that could impact on a forest conservation area.
But chief economics minister Hatta Rajasa told reporters that the government would issue a new rule to allow some development in forests after discussions between relevant ministers.
"For the public interest such infrastructure projects and geothermal projects can use protected forests," Rajasa said.
The users of protected forests would have to compensate by setting aside twice as much land within another part of the province for use as forested land, he added.
The minister said the regulation would give investors certainty and denied it would disturb forest conservation.
"We know that there are many geothermal projects located in protected areas. That's why this regulation is part of the government's 100-day programme," he said.
The administration of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who started a second term in October, has set 100-day programmes focused on removing bottlenecks that have stalled investment and infrastructure development in Southeast Asia's biggest economy.
Overlapping regulations on the environment and resource development frequently complicate plans to develop projects in Indonesia, although green groups also complain that firms are sometimes wrongly given permission to exploit forests.
Indonesia also currently has one of the fastest rates of deforestation in the world that threatens to swiftly erode its dwindling untouched tracts of tropical forests.
At the same time, the developing nation desperately wants to speed up spending on airports, roads, ports and other infrastructure to help reduce inefficiencies and speed up economic growth in order to reduce poverty and unemployment.
On energy, Indonesia has established two crash programmes to increase power generation by 10,000 megawatts (MW) in a bid to resolve chronic power shortages in the country.
The first programme, which is due to be 40 percent complete by the middle of next year, relies on coal-fired power stations, while a second programme, due to start next year, has nearly half, or 4,733 MW, of power slated to come from geothermal sources.
Abadi Poernomo, president director of Pertamina Geothermal Energy (PHE), said previously the company planned to increase its geothermal capacity but had been blocked by the conservation law.
PHE, which is a unit of the country's state oil and gas firm Pertamina, planned to increase its geothermal capacity to 1,342 MW in 2014 from 272 MW currently. Pertamina already operates geothermal projects in West Java and North Sulawesi.
Indonesia is hoping to tap alternative sources of energy to meet rising power demand and cut consumption of expensive crude oil as its own reserves dwindle.
The vast archipelago, with hundreds of active and extinct volcanoes, has the potential to produce an estimated 27,000 MW of electricity from geothermal sources.
However, most of the potential remains largely untapped because the high cost of geothermal energy makes the price of electricity generated this way expensive.
(Reporting by Muklis Ali; Editing by Ed Davies)
Rizal Harahap and Slamet Susanto, The Jakarta Post 30 Dec 09;
Executive director of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment’s (Walhi) Riau branch, Hariansyah Usman said the floods were caused by forest damage in the region.
Heavy downpour for the last week in Riau has inundated the province’s three main rivers, Kampar, Rokan and Indragiri, flooding at least five regencies in the region.
Kampar River, which flooded the region on Tuesday morning, has isolated 18 subdistricts in Kampar regency, five of which are in the Kampar Kiri district, while the remaining 13 are in the Kampar Kiri Hulu district.
Riau Deputy Governor Mambang Mit said the overflowing river and strong stream had cut off the only access road.
“The water level reportedly started increasing and inundating people’s houses last night. We are now documenting the number of survivors,” he said in Pekanbaru on Tuesday.
The overflowing Kampar River reportedly isolated over 370 families in Ukui and Langgam districts, Pelalawan regency, forcing them to use rafts to go out.
Similarly, in Indragiri Hulu regency, the overflowing Indragiri River inundated six districts and damaged hundreds of hectares of agricultural field.
“So far no residents are reported to have taken refuge as their houses are built on stilts. What we are more concerned about is the possibility the flood will cause harvest failures for farmers,” Mambang said.
He added that floods had also hit Rokan Hulu and Rokan Hilir regencies due to the overflowing Rokan River. In Pujud district, Rokan Hilir, the floods inundated 500 houses some 60 centimeters deep, while 400 other houses experienced similar woes in Rambah district, Rokan Hulu.
“The houses are mostly located on lower ground so water just flows into those regions,” said Mambang.
He also said the floods in Riau were mainly due to the high intensity of rain in the upper stream regions, while the regions below were unable to accommodate the water debit due to the continued heavy downpour.
A different opinion was expressed by the executive director of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment’s (Walhi) Riau branch, Hariansyah Usman, who said the floods were caused by forest damage in the region.
He said industrial exploitation had reduced the forest by 200,000 hectares annually.
“The government has to stop blaming nature as the floods are due to uncontrolled forest damage,” Hariansyah told The Jakarta Post.
He added the only solution to deal with the annual floods was to stop issuing new concession licenses, while evaluating existing palm plantations and other industrial forests in the upper stream regions.
Separately in Yogyakarta, researcher Muh Aris Marfai from Gadjah Mada University’s Center for Natural Disaster Studies (PSBA) said that Indonesia was the third-worst hit country by floods after China and India.
Speaking at a seminar on disaster risk reduction in Jakarta, Aris said the problems related to floods in Indonesia would become more complicated in the future as they would no longer be mostly caused by overflowing rivers, but also by an increase in sea levels, such as recent floods in Semarang and Jakarta as a result of climate change.
“So far, heavy downpours and saturated soil that can no longer absorb the rainwater have accounted for floods in the country,” he said.
Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post 30 Dec 09;
Indonesia should move faster to resolve contentious issues related to forestry, environmentalists say.
The comment comes after the Copenhagen accord recognized the importance of reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) to cap climate emissions.
Among the long-standing issues are forest governance, land ownership, inventory emission data, forest fires and illegal logging.
“The government should not hesitate to take strict action on contentious issues if Indonesia wants to implement the REDD,” former environment minister Sarwono Kusumaatmadja said Tuesday.
The Copenhagen accord recognized the crucial role of the forest in emission reduction through the REDD plus scheme. Developed nations agreed to mobilize financial resources to support the forest countries.
The accord stipulates developed countries will provide US$30 billion for the period between 2010 and 2012, including for forestry.
The idea behind the REDD plus is to award governments, companies and forest owners for maintaining forests.
However, the Copenhagen accord failed to set legally binding targets on emission reduction for developed nations, which many said could make the REDD scheme become ineffective.
Local activists have blasted President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and his entourage for failing to do much during the conference despite having high hopes.
A legally binding treaty on emission cuts, however, was expected to be agreed in Mexico City next year.
Indonesia, the world’s third largest forestry country, with 120 million hectares, has put high hopes on the REDD to reap more money from climate funding.
Sarwono said that the government needed to focus on improving forest governance once the REDD was implemented in the country.
He said that the government should also convert forest plots with idle permits into conservation areas.
“But, the government must ensure the public that conservation is not anti-economy. Otherwise there will be strong opposition,” he said.
Director of energy and climate change at the WWF Indonesia Fitrian Ardiansyah said that the Forestry Ministry should calculate emissions in forests for a baseline if the country wanted to cut emissions in them.
“We need to know the amount of forest emissions if business is to run as usual,” he said.
Another contentious issue was sharing the financial benefits between the government, local administration and people, and project hosts.
The government earlier warned local authorities to carefully review all carbon brokerage firms offering incentives, such as huge financial benefits from the forestry sector for engaging in carbon trading.
Forestry Ministry official Wandojo Siswanto said many carbon brokers were directly approaching regents and mayors, asking them to sign memorandums of understanding to develop projects under the REDD.
Indonesia was the first country to issue a regulation on the REDD, allowing indigenous people, local authorities, private organizations and businesspeople — both local and foreign — to run REDD projects.
Under the regulation, the REDD project permits will only be granted to those who are certified to control forests.
Fidelis E Satriastanti, Jakarta Globe 31 Dec 09;
While the recent Copenhagen climate talks have been criticized for failing to produce a concrete agreement on emissions cuts, local activists are now turning their attention to the government for its failure to protect the environment.
Berry Nahdian Furqon, executive director of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), said the State Ministry for the Environment had failed to make significant progress this year, particularly in engaging the private sector and industries.
“They have a lot on their agenda, such as the Proper [Corporate Environmental Performance Ratings] list, among other things,” he said. “However, these have never been integrated into other sectors in order to cover the problems caused by development.
“The state ministry is too detached from other sectors. We can see it clearly from the condition of our forests, coastal areas, air and water, and the condition of our water catchment areas.”
Berry said the Proper list, which catalogs the country’s worst polluters and most environmentally conscious companies, has never been able to cover the bigger corporations and often passed many polluters as environmentally compliant.
This year’s annual list covered 627 companies. Fifty-six companies were put on the “black list” of worst offenders, including 10 state-owned enterprises and 12 foreign companies.
The companies on the black list operate across a range of industries, including oil and gas, coal mining, pulp and paper, textiles, fish processing, plywood and palm oil, and include an oil and gas joint venture involving PT Pertamina in South Sumatra, six state-owned plantations, nine plywood companies, 10 palm oil concerns and a leading milk producer.
Mas Achmad Santosa, an environmental law expert, said the ministry’s poor performance was illustrated by the low number of environmentally compliant companies on the list.
“We can actually see how [the ministry] did this year through the Proper list, and also from the SLHI [Indonesian State of the Environment Report], which still shows no improvement for the environment,” he said.
The 2007 SLHI said the country’s waterways had been adversely altered by human activity and spatial changes, resulting in flooding and droughts.
The latest available data from the report showed that between 2000 and 2005, 1.09 million hectares of forest were lost each year — down from 2.83 million hectares over the preceding five-year period.
The government was accused of failing to promote the national agenda to protect the country’s forests at the UN climate change talks in Copenhagen earlier this month, and criticized for accepting the resulting agreement that was neither binding nor adopted by all parties.
“There were never any concrete steps on how to deal with the impact of climate change,” Mas Achmad said. “We’ve been aggressively announcing that Indonesia is going to lead in this campaign, but look at the facts: We still can’t even manage to protect our own forests from illegal logging or forest fires.”
Mas Achmad also said there was no consistency between what the Environment Ministry had said it wanted to achieve and what was actually being implemented across the country.
“Yes, they are very eager to stop illegal logging in the country, however, they can’t do anything when big illegal logging cases are dropped,” he said, citing 13 cases of alleged illegal logging by major companies in Riau that came to nothing.
The new environment minister, Gusti Muhammad Hatta, also came under fire from Mas Achmad for having approved the operations of a gold mining company, Meares Soputan Mining, in South Sulawesi despite it having been rejected by the regional government and the previous environment minister.
However, both Berry and Mas Achmad agreed that there was still hope for progress after the 2009 Law on Environmental Protection and Management was passed in September by the House of Representatives.
“There is plenty of hope for the new law because its content is excellent, with the state ministry being given new powers and public involvement also being promoted,” Mas Achmad said. “But then again, it is still just policy on paper.”
Berry said the ministry would have no excuses for failing to advance its agenda in 2010. “There should be new breakthroughs because this new law is allowing that to happen,” he said. “There should be changes.”
Jakarta Globe 31 Dec 09;
The government says that it will seek compensation from Australia for environmental damage in the Timor Sea caused by a leak at the Montara well.
“We have finished calculating our material loss due to the Timor Sea’s contamination and will ask the Australian government for compensation soon,” Environment Minister Gusti Muhammad Hatta said on Wednesday.
The well is said to have spewed at least 500 million liters of oil into the sea over a 10-week period before it was successfully plugged last month.
Hatta said he recently informed his Australian counterpart that Indonesia was calculating its material losses as a result of the pollution. Hatta added that he expected the Australian government to be serious about resolving the matter to prevent further damage in the affected area.
The minister credited Canberra with taking steps to try and resolve the issue, but said Indonesia needed to take firm action by seeking compensation based on international law.
It is claimed that the leak, which first began on Aug. 20, has contaminated thousands of square kilometers of ocean and killed vast amounts of wildlife.
World Wildlife Fund Australia warned that the spill — the worst in Australia for 40 years — and chemicals used to disperse it, could affect fish stocks and other marine life for generations. The group has described the disaster as an overwhelming environmental tragedy.
Antara
Suherdjoko, The Jakarta Post 31 Dec 09;
More than 30 students from the SDN 1 Bedono state elementary school in Demak, Central Java, 15 students from the SMK Demak fishery school and 15 university students have planted 5,000 mangroves in a former shrimp farm in Bedono village, Sayung district in Demak, Central Java.
They expect the flourishing mangrove trees will prevent coastal erosion, which has continuously eroded the coastline and damaged residents’ homes.
“The mangrove planting drive is a routine program carried out annually. We have been doing it for the past five years and have grown mangrove trees in a 260-hectare plot of land along the Demak coast.
However, around 20 hectares of the young trees have been swept away by the waves.
“Now, in the second year of the 5-year program we will grow mangroves in a 50 hectare area,” Karis, a member of the Demak Bahari Mangrove Group, told The Jakarta Post.
The elementary school and Japanese students from the Organization for Industry, Spiritual and Cultural Advancement (OISCA) in Japan, immediately jumped into the pond that was filled with waist-high mud, while a number of the Demak students crawled adeptly from one point to another while planting the mangrove seedlings.
Many of the mangrove forests along the north coast of Demak have been damaged due to huge waves and people felling the trees to make space for shrimp farms.
“There are many land certificates here, but the plots of land are no longer visible because they have been submerged by the sea. In 1990, I owned a 4-hectare shrimp farm, but now it has vanished. I had to move from Senik hamlet to Tambaksari Baru, because it was swallowed by the sea,” said Nurohman, 40.
Nurohman is also aware of rising sea levels due to the impact of global warming from his environmentalist friends.
“The reclamation project in the Tanjung Emas Port area in Semarang has exacerbated the condition.
Its impacts have immediately affected our area because the sea water has engulfed and will eventually submerge our village,” he said.
Nurohman, who was born and raised in Bedono village, is clearly aware of coastal erosion in his area.
Now, the entire village floods during major high tides.
“But where would we move to? I’m old and don’t have money to buy land and build a house. This is the only house that I can live in with my two children. When high tide comes, we are forced to get wet.
So we are used to this condition,” said Abdul Muin, 62.
Bedono village chief Mualipin said that most of the 1,250 families, or 4,500 residents, were familiar with the high tides.
“Only a few of the houses are not affected by the high tides because they are built up high. A number of residents of hamlets located along the coast had to move to new areas because their villages have been swamped,” he said.
Cong Thanh, Vietnam News 30 Dec 09;
Taking flight: Birds in Xuan Thuy National Wetlands Park in Nam Dinh Province are at risk due to climate change. — VNA/VNS Photo Truong Vi
Xuan Thuy National Park has been struggling with rising sea levels, which have been attributed to climate change.
Last year, 8ha of casuarina forest was flooded by sea water, which caused losses estimated at over VND400 million (US$21,000).
The 7,100ha forested wetlands in Nam Dinh Province, about 150km south of Ha Noi, are home to a wide range of migratory waterfowl and other species. It is as a Ramsar Convention site – a wetland area recognised internationally for its ecological importance. The only such site in Southeast Asia.
"We are aware of the problem that has been getting worse over the last two years. Last year we were forced to replant 6ha of casuarina trees," said Nguyen Viet Cach, the park director.
"However, we are seeking bigger and higher plants from the south to replace current mangrove forest, which will be devastated in one or two years," Cach said.
Mangrove trees are abundant on the 7,100ha wetland park, which affords it some protection against storms and floods – but there numbers are also decreasing.
Hundreds of shrimp and oyster farmers in the park face losing their incomes.
Annually, income from the park generates a revenue of VND30 billion to VND40 billion ($1,500-$2,000).
As a result of rising sea levels, dams need to be built and roads raised by between 15cm and 20cm park officials said.
"Roads in the park, which cost about VND3 billion ($158,000) last year, have to raise at an additional cost of VND6 billion ($316,000)," Cach said.
Doan Van Trieu, who farms a 16ha part of the farm, said he had seen his income dwindle over the last few years.
"I earned VND100 million ($5,200) this year from my farm, just half what it used to generate in previous years. Aquaculture is very vulnerable to rising sea levels," Trieu said.
He added that he farmed just one tonne of prawns this year – the worst for five years.
"Shrimp breeding, which is easily affected by polluted water, has been badly impacted by sewage from villages around the park. Chemicals have grown increasingly popular over the last two decades," the 44-year-old farmer said.
Trieu, who is from Giao An Village, said he had to fork out VND20 million ($1,000) a year on building embankments against rising water levels.
Managers of the park, which is recognised by UNESCO as a Red River Biosphere Reserve, plan to plant new trees such as avicenniaceae and cypress on an 80ha area at a cost of around VND128 billion ($6.7 million) over a three- to five-year period.
The park’s wildlife, which include as estimated 215 bird species – such as black-faced spoonbills, western white pelicans, black-headed gulls and redheaded egrets – are listed as endangered.
However, the number of bird species has declined over recent years, a fact attributed to global warming.
Park staff Vu Xuan Anh said there were still about 50 black-faced spoonbills visiting the park in winter but that many other species were dwindling in number. — VNS
Kitiphong Thaichareon, Reuters 29 Dec 09;
BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand on Tuesday approved regulations on health and environment assessments for industrial projects, a step toward allowing suspended operations to go ahead at the world's eighth-biggest petrochemical hub.
A court has suspended 65 new plants at Map Ta Phut, Thailand's biggest industrial estate, for their owners' failure to carry out health impact assessments (HIA). The government was blamed because it had not set up a body to oversee the HIAs.
The ruling stoked concern about legal uncertainty and government competence in a country once seen as a safe haven for investment but now mired in five years of political strife.
"The cabinet has approved the draft regulations ... about guidelines to comply with environment and health impact assessments," a deputy government spokesman told reporters.
The government's move at least clarifies what companies need to do to get health impact clearance, but an independent commission to carry out the assessments has still not been set up and some companies fear this could be the main sticking point.
A panel chaired by former premier Anand Panyarachun has agreed to form that body but there are concerns about delays if parties in the dispute challenge who sits on the commission.
Analysts say the credibility of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva's embattled pro-business government and its economic revival efforts could be hurt if it fails to resolve the dispute quickly.
DELAYS COSTLY
The central bank says the suspensions could cut GDP growth by up to 0.5 percentage point next year, while an industry ministry estimate last week said a protracted legal standoff could cost as much as $18 billion.
According to the new regulations, companies building plants are now required to hold public hearings into the environmental and health impact. Local people were not previously consulted.
The court injunction followed complaints from local people and environmentalists that state agencies and ministers had failed to issue proper operating licenses at the 6.5 sq km (4,086 acre) estate in eastern Thailand. A local lobby group says some 2,000 cancer deaths were caused by pollution from the estate.
On December 2, a court allowed 11 of 76 suspended projects at Map Ta Phut to proceed, but the other 65 projects worth an estimated $8 billion remained frozen.
Last week the court allowed a venture partly owned by Siam Cement, Thailand's top industrial conglomerate, to resume operations because its license had been granted prior to the promulgation of the 2007 constitution.
Companies at the estate include top energy firm PTT, PTT Chemical and utility Glow Energy. Among the foreign companies are a Thai unit of Germany's Bayer and Australia's BlueScope Steel Ltd.
The government agreed last week to back court appeals on 19 projects it deems safe enough to resume operations, while state-controlled PTT will seek the go-ahead for its nine suspended projects, given that they, too, received operating licenses before the 2007 constitution.
(For a Q+A on the Map Ta Phut dispute:)
(Writing by Khettiya Jittapong; Editing by Martin Petty)
Reuters 29 Dec 09;
BEIJING (Reuters) - China will use stimulus spending to speed up shifting 330,000 people slated to be displaced for a vast water transfer project, accelerating work on the troubled scheme, an official newspaper said on Tuesday.
The displaced residents, mostly poor farmers in central China's Henan and Hubei provinces, are being moved for the South-North Water Transfer Project, which will draw water from southern rivers for the country's dry north.
The construction of two long canals in central and eastern China has been troubled by chronic pollution, troubles relocating displaced residents and engineering hitches.
But now Zhang Jiyao, the official in charge of the project, has "urged local authorities to complete all migrant displacement by the end of 2011," the China Daily reported, citing an official meeting on Monday. The earlier deadline was 2014.
Half the residents will be relocated by the end of 2010, when 48 billion yuan ($7.03 billion) will be spent on the project, boosted by funding from China's blitz of stimulus spending to counter the financial crisis, said Zhang.
Big dams and hydro projects have been a lightning rod for discontent in China. Around the Three Gorges Dam, the nation's other mighty hydro project, clashes dogged the move of 1.4 million residents.
The South-North Project is the latest of these ambitious efforts, and the push to speed up resettlement could stir more complaints from farmers, especially near the Danjiangkou Dam that will feed the main central route.
Most of the people displaced by its rising waters will be sent to less fertile farmland. Resettlement there began earlier this year.
"Nobody really wants to move," said Ma Feng, a villager from Machuan Village near the dam, who was moved earlier this year to a new home hundreds of kilometers away.
"We were forced to accept it in the end, because the officials and police made us," she told Reuters by telephone. "But if they move all the dam residents, that will be much more difficult."
The central route will wind along 1,421 km (883 miles) of canals and tunnels from Danjiangkou to Beijing, as well as the nearby port city of Tianjin and surrounding areas. The separate eastern route cuts through coastal provinces up to Tianjin.
The planned completion for the first stage of the central route was pushed back to 2014 after it became clear that earlier deadlines of 2010 and 2008 could not be met.
A proposed western route, which would tap rivers on the Tibetan highlands to feed northwest areas, is still being examined by experts.
($1=6.829 Yuan)
(Editing by Dean Yates)
Evelyn Nieves, Associated Press Yahoo News 30 Dec 09;
SAN FRANCISCO – Two mysteries surround a huge herd of sea lions that were hanging out on a pier in San Francisco Bay: Why did so many show up, and why did so many leave at once?
Just last month, Pier 39, famous in San Francisco for its sea lions and the throngs of tourists they attract, was groaning under the weight of more than 1,500 of the animals. The record number delighted tourists and baffled experts.
Marine experts suspect the sea lions came and stayed for the food, then left largely for the same reason.
"Most likely, they left chasing a food source," said Jeff Boehm, executive director of the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, which runs an information center and gift shop at Pier 39. "It's probably what kept them here in the first place."
The animals began leaving in droves the day after Thanksgiving, almost as if someone had issued an order. But Boehm said the fact that so many sea lions stayed for so long is even stranger than their disappearance.
"They do move off," Boehm said, adding that in the fall, older sea lions head to breeding colonies in the Channel Islands, off the coast of Southern California along the Santa Barbara Channel. Younger sea lions, he said, "don't mind those rules and tend to travel far and wide."
On Tuesday, 10 sea lions lounged and swam and dove from the docks, spreading themselves out where the animals were stacked three and four deep just a month ago. The bulk of the herd probably followed their favorite foods, sardines and anchovies, Boehm said.
The younger ones still sticking around Pier 39 were enough to satisfy hordes of visitors huddled against the wind to watch them. The sea lions huddled together, dove off the docks, and honked and barked.
"We're happy with what we see," said Carmen Fernandez of Miami Beach, Fla., who was watching the sea lions with her husband Carlos.
Despite the sea lions' abrupt disappearance, Boehm said the Marine Mammal Center is not concerned that they have departed for good. While more than the usual number have left — usually about 40 remain — it is very unlikely, Boehm said, that they won't come back. By spring, the herd will probably be back, as usual, he said.
Reuters 30 Dec 09;
SYDNEY (Reuters) - A major bushfire in the west Australian outback has destroyed almost 40 homes, officials said on Wednesday, as firefighters end a third month of fighting bushfires across the country.
Fire officials say the Australian summer could be one of the worst bushfire seasons, with a series of catastrophic warnings already issued for big fires in at least three states.
Australia's most deadly bushfires occurred last February, when the "Black Saturday" infernos killed 173 people and destroyed thousands of homes in the southern Victoria state.
As a result of the "Black Saturday" fires, officials adopted a "catastrophic" warning which advises residents to evacuate homes in the face of major bushfires.
Until the west Australian fire this week, property losses had been few. No one has died in the fires this summer.
Three firefighters and a woman from the wheat-belt town of Toodyay, in Western Australian state, suffered minor injuries in the latest bushfire, which burned 3,000 hectares (7,400 acres).
"It's a devastating fire with great destruction," Western Australian state Premier Colin Barnett told reporters.
Bushfires are a natural phenomenon in Australia, due to its hot, dry environment. Lightning strikes over dry land are the most common cause, followed by human intervention such as fires that get out of control.
Australia's bushfire danger period is from October to March, covering the end of spring, all of summer and the start of autumn, when temperatures are highest and humidity lowest.
A decade-long drought and hot, dry interior outback winds have left much of Australia a tinderbox.
(Reporting by Michael Perry; Editing by Bill Tarrant)
Cho Mee-Young, PlanetArk 31 Dec 09;
SEOUL - South Korea will launch a pilot carbon emissions trading scheme from January after the environment ministry received applications from 641 public and private organizations, the ministry said on Wednesday.
A ministry official said trading mainly among local municipalities will be done online next year, and from 2011 at Korea Exchange, the country's bourse.
The ministry has not yet decided its price for emissions per ton, she said.
A statement released from the ministry on Tuesday said the scheme will provide a base for the country's voluntary 2020 emissions reduction target. South Korea has pledged to cut emissions by 30 percent from its forecast under a "business as usual" scenario.
"The scheme is designed to meet the country's mid-term emission reduction target and connect with international carbon markets," the statement said.
South Korea, one of the world's fastest growing polluters, said in August it hopes to become Asia's trading hub for carbon emission certificates and related products under its plan for a new carbon exchange from 2011.
(Editing by Bill Tarrant)
Reuters 28 Dec 09;
BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil will make its ambitious 2020 greenhouse gas emissions targets legally binding even though global climate talks failed this month, the country's environment minister said on Monday.
"We will fully comply with the targets. It doesn't matter that Copenhagen didn't go as well as we had hoped," Environment Minister Carlos Minc told reporters after meeting with President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Lula will veto three items from a climate bill approved by Congress last month but would maintain the emissions targets, Minc said.
"The targets were maintained, which is the most important. Brazil will have a strong climate change policy," he said.
Brazil aims to reduce its projected 2020 greenhouse gas emissions by as much 39 percent. That amounts roughly to a 20 percent reduction from 2005 levels.
According to the bill Lula is expected to sign into law later on Monday, those targets will be quantifiable and verifiable.
Latin America's largest country had tried to prod other developing and industrialized countries into adopting bold targets at the U.N. climate summit in Copenhagen earlier this month. But the meeting failed to produce a new framework agreement on climate to follow the Kyoto Protocol which expires in 2012.
Brazil is one of the largest carbon emitters, largely due to the destruction of the Amazon rain forest. Deforestation, which has fallen sharply in recent years, releases carbon as trees burn or decompose.
Among the items Lula will veto were proposals to limit the construction of small hydroelectric plants and reduce the use of fossil fuels.
(Reporting by Fernando Exman; Writing by Raymond Colitt; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
Brazil's Lula signs law cutting CO2 emissions
Yahoo News 29 Dec 09;
BRASILIA (AFP) – President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva Tuesday signed a law requiring that Brazil cut greenhouse gas emissions by 39 percent by 2020, meeting a commitment made at the Copenhagen climate change summit.
Brazil announced at the summit a "voluntary commitment" to reduce CO2 emissions by between 36.1 and 38.9 percent in the next ten years.
The new law, however, is subject to several decrees setting out responsibilities and regulations for the farming, industrial, energy and environmental sectors.
Lula is expected to sign the decrees in January after consulting scientists and other experts, officials said.
Despite its ambitious targets, Greenpeace's top representative in Brazil, Sergio Leitao, called it merely a list of good intentions and accused Lula of using double standards in environmental issues.
"Brazil usually makes good speeches on the international stage, as in Copenhagen, but in practice it doesn't keep its word," he told reporters.
Before signing the new law, in fact, Lula vetoed three of its provisions, including a reference to "promoting the development of clean energy sources and the gradual phasing out of energy from fossil fuels."
Environment Minister Carlos Minc said he was was pleased with the new law because it showed Brazil's determination to respect the pledges it made in Copenhagen.
"It doesn't matter if the Copenhagen summit didn't get the results we wanted. We will still meet our goals," he told reporters.
The climate change conference held in the Danish capital ended last week with a non-binding agreement that exposed the stark divide between rich and developing nations.
A total of 30 billion dollars was pledged from 2010-2012 to help poor countries in the firing line of climate change, and rich nations set a goal of providing 100 billion dollars annually in aid by 2020.
It established a goal of limiting warming to two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), but did not impose binding targets to reduce the emissions of gases that scientists say are heating up the world's atmosphere to dangerous levels.
The Copenhagen agreement was put together by leaders of the United States, China, India, Brazil, South Africa and major European nations, after it became clear the 194-nation summit was in danger of failure.
Thoughts after the EAS Congress
from Psychedelic Nature
2010 TeamSeagrass monitoring dates
from teamseagrass
Ugly Side of Langkawi Mangroves Tours Part I
from Nature Is Awesome
A Visitor With Aplomb
from Life's Indulgences
Nesting behaviour of Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker
from Bird Ecology Study Group
Kung Fu monkey fights off crows in tree
from The Lazy Lizard's Tales
How Algal Biofuels Lost a Decade in the Race to Replace Oil
from Wired: Wired Science
Antara 29 Dec 09;
Bengkulu (ANTARA News) - Poachers still continue to hunt the remaining Sumatran tigers (Panthera tigris) in the Bengkulu forest, conservationist Radius Nursidi of the Profauna nature conservation organization said.
"Based on its survey in March, Profauna found at least 12 tiger traps in the Seblat Elephant Conservation Center (PKG) in North Bengkulu," Radius said here on Tuesday.
He said that Profauna conducted the survey only in one area, namely around the PKG forest park where it found at least 12 tiger traps." he said.Poachers also hunt elephants in the Seblat forest park, he said.
Due to the illegal hunting of elephants and tigers in the Seblat PKG forest park in Putri Hijau subdistrict, North Bengkulu, the population of the protected species was increasingly threatened.
"Since 2004, Profauna has recorded that at least eight elephants have been killed," he said.Tiger and elephant poaching in the Bengkulu forest was a serious threat to the population of the protected animals, he said.(*)
Dessy Sagita, The Jakarta Globe 29 Dec 09;
The avian and swine flu strains may have caused the most panic, but combating tuberculosis, dengue fever and malnutrition should top the Ministry of Health’s priorities for 2010, a lawmaker said on Tuesday.
“Our government is sometimes too preoccupied in handling imported diseases such as bird flu or swine flu, they neglect the other diseases that have caused far more fatalities in Indonesia,” said Ribka Tjiptaning from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P).
The H1N1 swine flu scare most likely distracted health workers from dealing with outbreaks of dengue fever, which continued to be a serious threat across the country, she added.
The ministry’s records show that from January through to July this year, there were 585 deaths from dengue from a total of 77,000 cases. The data also shows that on average, 88,000 people die of tuberculosis every year across the archipelago.
In comparison, the bird flu virus has only claimed 119 lives throughout the country since 2003. About 1,000 people were infected by swine flu, which reportedly claimed 10 lives.
Dr. Kartono Muhammad, a noted public health expert and former chairman of the Indonesian Medical Association, said on Tuesday that Health Minister Endang Rahayu Sedyaningsih had done nothing significant in her first 100 days in office, outside of her plans to broaden the coverage of a health insurance scheme for the poor, known as Jamkesmas.
“The scheme, however, is giving the public an unrealistic view about our health services,” Kartono said. “In the end, I won’t be surprised if the public will be disappointed when expectations fall short.”
The government wants to expand Jamkesmas to include victims of natural disasters and people at social institutions such as orphanages, nursing homes, disabled care centers, drug rehabilitation centers and in prisons.
Kartono said that during her first 100 days in office, Endang could have focused on a number of health issues, including setting pricing limits on generic medicines, issuing regulations to assist the implementation of the recently endorsed Health Law and the aggressive promotion of family planning programs.
Ribka said Endang could have also better handled last month’s filariasis incident in West Java, in which nine people died allegedly from consuming anti-filariasis medication as part of the ministry’s mass treatment program, a charge Endang has dismissed.
“She should have settled the filariasis issue first before she made her ministerial visit to another province,” Ribka said.
Geetha Krishnan, The Star 29 Dec 09;
THE price to pay for development is steep and evidence is slowly emerging in the South Klang Valley of the sacrifices needed to spur growth.
Over a year ago, verdant hills dotted the landscape near the Sepang-Putrajaya border. The construction of a golf course has since decimated the natural greenery, to the horror of motorists used to the pleasant drive prior to the devastation.
As the land bank belongs to a commercial entity, such a trade can be expected as there are dollar signs in the equation. However, what if the administration joins the foray?
The Sungai Jelok Forest Reserve near the Kajang Prison simply exists in name as 80% of the lowland diptocarp jungle has been ravaged under the pretence of reforestation. The clandestine plundering activities involved bartering precious timber for rubber timber clone saplings.
The law states that a permanent forest reserve cannot be logged yet the Selangor Forestry Department issued logging permits to two private companies in 2007. Only 4% of the profits from the lopsided timber sale went into the state coffers.
It does not require environmentalists to point out that clearing a forest has repercussions. Flood waters rise swiftly these days in Kajang and one of the causes is said to be random forest clearing.
This same activity is causing distress to Hulu Langat folk, many who are poor villagers dependent on the tourism or fish-rearing industries to feed their families.
Trees are being felled in the district for the RM8.2bil Pahang-Selangor interstate raw water transfer project under the Energy, Green Technology and Water Ministry. The RM3.9bil Langat 1 component involves the construction of a 44.6km tunnel from Pahang to Hulu Langat and will be completed in 2014.
The project is being blamed for polluting Sungai Congkak, a popular tourist spot while shallow retention ponds unable to hold large volumes of water have damaged fish-rearing ponds. No doubt the project will address Selangor’s future water needs but what of the long-term impact?
Meanwhile, high ammonia levels detected in Sungai Langat forced the closure of the Cheras 11th Mile water treatment plant in July, days after the Salak Tinggi water treatment plant shut down for a similar reason associated with Sungai Labu.
Bagan Lalang’s eco-tourism potential is under duress due to the Sungai Sepang Kecil river-deepening and widening activities by the authorities. The riverine mangroves lining the river have perished in the process. The Malaysian Nature Society has also voiced concerns about the sandbank built near the Jimah coal-fired power plant in Negri Sembilan encroaching into Selangor.
At least two municipalities were quoted in the media for facing critical solid waste management problems.
While the Kajang Municipal Council was put in a quandary when the Sungai Sedu dumpsite could no longer accept its refuse, the Sepang Municipal Council urged the state government to hasten the opening of the Tanjung 12 sanitary landfill in Kuala Langat due to issues with the Ampar Tenang dumpsite. Both dumpsites are operating beyond capacity.
A crisis of a different kind unfolded in Taman Cheras Awana on Nov 18 when a 50m-long gabion wall collapsed and flattened several cars and a motorcycle. Investigations revealed that the 4m-high wall was not built according to the design specified by the council’s engineering department.
On a positive note, Kajang is expected to benefit from several flood mitigation measures in place. Time will tell if the problem of several decades will finally be solved.
James Owen, National Geographic News 29 Dec 09
Vaccines being made to protect people from swine flu may not be so healthy for threatened species of sharks.
That's because millions of doses of the pandemic H1N1/09 vaccine contain a substance called squalene, which is extracted from shark livers.
More commonly found in beauty products such as skin creams, squalene can be used to make an adjuvant, a compound that boosts the body's immune response.
The World Health Organization recommends adjuvant-based vaccines, because they allow drug makers to create doses that use less of the active component, increasing available supplies.
Olive oil, wheat germ oil, and rice bran oil also naturally contain squalene, albeit in smaller amounts. But for now squalene is primarily harvested from sharks caught by commercial fishers, especially deepwater species. (Related: "Tomato, Tobacco Plants Produce SARS Vaccine.")
"There are several very disturbing issues associated with use of shark-liver-oil squalene," said Mary O'Malley, co-founder of the volunteer-run advocacy group Shark Safe Network.
"The deepwater sharks targeted have extremely low reproductive rates, and many are threatened species."
For example, one supplier has dubbed the gulper shark the Rolls-Royce of squalene-producing sharks—but the gulper is listed as vulnerable on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's (IUCN's) Red List of Threatened Species, meaning the species faces a high risk of extinction.
Shark Oil Demand
Although vaccines containing squalene have not yet been approved for use in the U.S., they are being distributed elsewhere, including Europe and Canada.
Novartis, a drug company that produces swine flu vaccines containing squalene, did not answer requests for information about the source of its squalene.
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), another major swine-flu vaccine producer, announced in October that it had received orders for 440 million doses of vaccine containing adjuvant.
And the adjuvant in GSK's vaccines—which have been administered in 26 countries so far—contains shark-liver squalene, company spokesperson Clare Eldred confirmed in a statement.
GSK wouldn't reveal the name of its supplier or the annual quantity of shark squalene it buys. But Eldred told National Geographic News that the drug company takes about 10 percent of its supplier's total output.
O'Malley, of the Shark Safe Network, estimates that GSK's 440 million doses would require at least 9,700 pounds (4,400 kilograms) of shark oil, based on the stated squalene content of 10.69 milligrams in a dose.
This estimate, however, assumes zero waste and no refining of the squalene once it's been extracted from the sharks, O'Malley said.
Slow-Growing Sharks
Found at depths of between 984 and 4,921 feet (300 and 1,500 meters), the deep-sea sharks that produce squalene are most frequently caught via bottom trawling, either deliberately or as bycatch.
"Bottom trawling is a horribly destructive fishing method that just bulldozes everything in its path and destroys enormous areas of the ocean floor," O'Malley said.
What's more, the already at-risk sharks are extremely slow growing and reproduce rarely.
A female gulper shark, for example, takes between 12 and 15 years to reach sexual maturity. A pregnant female gives birth to a single pup after a gestation period of about two years.
This means that the loss of a single female has a big impact on the population, said Hans Lassen, fisheries advisor for the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea, an intergovernmental organization.
In 2006 the European Union imposed deep-sea shark fishing limits in the Northeast Atlantic, and the amount of shark squalene available on the market has since been reduced.
Still, some squalene suppliers are actively soliciting fishers for these sharks, the Shark Safe Network's O'Malley said.
For instance, France-based suppler Sophim lists the species it seeks on its Web site, along with an offer to evaluate samples from shark livers that "are thrown away because fishermen don't know that the liver has a value."
Shark Liver Alternatives
Some cosmetics firms have stopped using shark squalene or are phasing it out following pressure from conservation groups.
A shark-squalene alternative isn't yet an option for adjuvant vaccine makers, according to GSK's Eldred.
The drug company is currently looking at non-animal squalene sources, including olive oil.
But at the moment, she said, "we are unable to find an alternative of high enough grade."
Yahoo News 29 Dec 09;
DHAKA (AFP) – Bangladesh has ordered a building freeze on its lone coral island in a bid to save its wildlife and natural beauty from a boom in construction fuelled by tourism, its environment minister said Tuesday.
Hasan Mahmud told AFP his government had declared the eight square kilometre (three square mile) St Martin's Island an ecologically critical area and had banned new buildings there.
"We have also ordered an inventory of the existing infrastructure that threatens the island's ecology," he said, adding that any buildings that harm the environment would be demolished.
St Martin's Island, situated 400 kilometres (250 miles) south of the capital Dhaka, is Bangladesh's lone coral island and attracts tens of thousands of tourists during holiday periods.
The island is home to some rare flora and fauna, including 182 wildlife species. In recent years, the island has witnessed a building boom due to a huge rush of tourists.
Journal Watch Online 29 Dec 09;
Regions with high carbon storage tend to be species-rich, according to a paper accepted for publication in Conservation Letters. Efforts to preserve carbon stocks, therefore, may also support biodiversity.
A team came to this conclusion after analyzing global data on 20,697 species of mammals, amphibians, and birds, as well as a recently published assessment of the world’s carbon storage. When the researchers compared the datasets, they found significant overlap between carbon and species richness. That’s not entirely surprising, they note, since one would expect tropical forests to have plenty of both, while neither are found in abundance in deserts or at the poles.
But not all regions with high biodiversity will be covered under purely carbon-focused conservation, the authors say. Species-rich areas with low carbon storage could “suffer from a double conservation jeopardy,” they write. Money may flow to the preservation of high-carbon regions instead, and development efforts might become concentrated in the low-carbon zones. These areas should get special attention, the team says, so they don’t fall through the cracks. – Roberta Kwok
Source: Strassburg, B., Kelly, A., Balmford, A., Davies, R., Gibbs, H., Lovett, A., Miles, L., Orme, C., Price, J., Turner, R., & Rodrigues, A. (2009). Global congruence of carbon storage and biodiversity in terrestrial ecosystems Conservation Letters Accepted Article DOI: 10.1111/j.1755-263X.2009.00092.x
Intertidal sea stars of Singapore
from wonderful creation
New papers in Nature in Singapore
Kingfishers Raising a Family - Part I
from Life's Indulgences
Tanah Merah Beach
from encounters with nature
The long hard goodbye
from The annotated budak
Grey Heron swallows large Common Snakehead
from Bird Ecology Study Group
Another Exciting Singapore Botanic Garden Trip
from Manta Blog
Syed Azwan Syed Ali, Bernama 29 Dec 09;
The second feature from the series of two on garbage disposal
KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 29 (Bernama) -- The climate changes and high-moisture waste were the factors that made garbage disposal dumps the sole method for efficient garbage disposal in the country.
The other method, the incinerator like that used in Langkawi was unable to meet the disposal of more than 19,000 tonnes of garbage generated daily by the nation apart from consuming a lot of power.
The cost for constructing an incinerator was also much higher when compared to that for constructing a garbage disposal dump. The former was also able to dispose garbage of much lesser amount.
The other factor was that incinerator was also not cost-effective when coming to garbage disposal.
"A RM1.5 billion incinerator can only dispose up to 1,200 tonnes of garbage daily, but a sanitary garbage disposal dump built at the cost of RM120 million like that at Bukit Tagar is able to dispose more than 3,000 tonnes of garbage daily", according to civil engineer Mohd Fatimi Said.
According to a source, the government will upgrade 30 of the 175 existing waste disposal dumps into sanitary facilities by the end of 2010. The move did not include the nine to be constructed sanitary garbage disposal sites to be constructed.
Among the locations marked for the construction of these sanitary garbage disposal dumps were Sungai Udang (Melaka, Lahat (Ipoh, Perak), Bukit Jembalang ( Kemaman, Terengganu) and Ladang Tanah Merah (Negeri Sembilan).
Plus the seven existing sanitary garbage disposal dumps, this will bring the number of such facilities nationwide by the end of the 9th malaysia Plan (9MP) to 46, said the source.
MANAGEMENT STRATEGY
For the Solid Waste Management and Public Cleansing Corporation (PPSPPA), the agency has initiated several measures to overcome the shortage of garbage dumpsites and existence of illegal dumps in the country.
Among them was the implementation of solid waste management strategy based on 'waste hierachy' to reduce the volume of garbage sent to disposal sites, as practised in many developed nations.
Among the measures undertaken were the reduction of wastes at the source at all premises, encouraging reuse and boosting the quality of items that can be recycled.
It was learnt that the approach was taken as it did not involve provisions of the Solid Waste Management and Public Cleansing Act 2007 (Act 672).
The government had encouraged the private sector to invest in green technology in the effort to boost efficiency of more environmental-friendly energy usage towards facing the changes in the global climate.
At the recent United nations Organisation Conference On climate Changes in Copenhagen, Denmark (COP 15, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak stated Malaysia's commitment to cut the percentage of carbon dioxide emissions by 40 percent by the year 2020 with assistance from the developed nations.
RECYCLE
The media has reported that the government had carried out a pilot project on waste separation at source in Putrajaya with the aim of improving public awareness on recycling to reduce the volume of wastes needed to be disposed.
The joint-venture effort by the PPSPPA, Solid Waste Management Department, Putrajaya corporation, Alam Flora and Konsortium SSI-Schaefer was aimed to reduce by 40 percent the volume of garbage sent for disposal.
"The Solid Waste Management and Public Cleansing Act focuses on recycling and has a special allocation for separation of wastes at the source", Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Seri Kong Cho Ha was quoted as saying in the media.
The pilot project that began last Aug 29 involved 170 apartments at Precint 8, 276 houses (Precint 9) and 105 houses (Precint 10) where each household was provided with two garbage bins of different types, one for organic waste and the other for non-organic waste that can be recycled.
This way, the respondent would be able to recycle and reduce the amount of rubbish sent to disposal sites and at the same time the organic waste can be turned into compost and used for other purposes.
In other words, the separation of garbage at source will assist to lengthen the lifespan of a garbage disposal dump.
SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT CORPORATION
Chief Executive Officer of PPSPPA, Datuk Zaini Md Nor said the corporation viewed the issue based in the overall context and not limited to collection of garbage and construction of dumps.
He said the PPSPPA, established under Act 673 - the Solid waste Management and Public Cleansing Corporation Act 2007 that began operations on June 1, 2008, was responsble to monitor, supervise and enforce solid waste management and public cleansing in the country.
Among its roles was to enforce Act 672 and made improvisation recommendations whenever necessary.
PPSPPA was also responsible to inculcate public awareness and encourage public participation for sustainable management of public waste and cleansing such as reduction in waste and lodging reports on illegal dumping.
The corporation was also responsible for new technology research related, among else, to recycling technology, 'waste to energy' technology, and waste treatment facilitating technology.
According to Zaini, in the short run the corporation would manage the implementation of closing non-operating garbage disposal dumps, upgrading and construction of new disposal sites as planned by the Solid Waste Management Department in 9MP.
"The corporation is the implementor of policies determined by the department", he said.
The PPSPPA also collaborated with the concessionaires to improve the garbage collection schedule that frequently received complaints from the public apart from providing feedback to the local authorities.
The garbage collection issue should be dealt first before the public's mentality on recycling is changed.
The corporation, with the staff count of 900 at 52 district and state offices nationwide, was optimistic towards implementing its responsibilities in making malaydia a clean country as required by its vision.
"To make the vision a success, we need the support of the society", said Zaini, adding that PPSPPA was conducting a survey on public awareness for recycling that involved more than 45,000 respondents nationwide since last August.
"The study is expected to be completed by end of this month. Through it, we will know the level of public awareness, problems and their suggestions in this issue", said Zaini.
-- BERNAMA
ROS may act against SAM
The Star 29 Dec 09;
MIRI: Environmental group Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM) could face deregistration if there is proof that it is involved in activities which could threaten the nation’s interests, the Registrar of Societies Datuk Mohd Alias Kalil said.
Mohd Alias said the ROS office was closely monitoring SAM and other non-governmental organisation which acted extremely in fighting for their cause.
SAM has been actively involved in activities against commercial logging, plantation development and the building of dams in the country.
Mohd Alias however said he had not received any official complaint against SAM over the matter.
He added that more information was required before they could take action against the organisation.
Mohd Alias said the relevant agencies under the Home Ministry should also take follow-up action to ensure that the organisations did not operate illegally after their registration with ROS is cancelled.
He said this year, 705 organisations were deregistered, although only a small number were because they flouted regulations.
“Most of the organisations were deregistered because they failed to submit their annual reports.”
SAM president S.M. Mohd Idris said the organisation would not be deterred from continuing to raise issues concerning the environment.
He said issues related to the protection of the environment should not be considered anti-national.
“Moreover, we have not heard from the ROS. We have been functioning effectively for the last 30 years without any problem.
“We will continue to function and raise issues concerning our environment for the good of the nation,” he said.
Mohd Idris said SAM regretted that the logging issue had not been understood well.
“At the Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, our Prime Minister pledged that Malaysia would reduce up to 40% in terms of emissions per GDP by 2020 compared to the 2005 level,” he said.
ROS urged to be more civil and friendly to NGOs
The Sun Daily Sun2Surf 29 Dec 09;
GEORGE TOWN (Dec 29, 2009) : The registrar of societies’ threat to deregister Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM) has prompted Gerakan to urge it to be more civil and friendly towards NGOs that raise issues in the interest of the public and nation.
Dr Cheah Soon Hai, head of Gerakan’s central bureau on environment, safety and quality of life, said NGOs and environmental groups are only playing their roles on matters relevant to their establishment.
ROS director Mohd Alias Kalil had reportedly said yesterday that SAM could face deregistration if there was proof it was involved in activities that could threaten the nation’s interest.
However, he said ROS had yet to receive any official complaint against SAM, which has been involved in activities against commercial logging and plantation development and the building of dams.
Alias also said ROS would closely monitor SAM and any NGO that acted in an "extreme manner" in fighting for their cause.
In a statement, Cheah said groups like SAM and Malaysian Nature Society (MNS) "by their very orientation, would raise issues related to protecting the environment".
"In a number of environmental issues, the position of NGOs will inevitably differ from the official stand but both sides should seek win-win solutions," he said.
He said ROS should not send the wrong signal to people that the government was trying to put pressure on NGOs to conform with official views on certain issues.
Cheah, who is also the state assemblyman for Derga in Kedah, said democracy and the rule of law must be able to accept different opinions.
"The results of democratic decision-making are likely to contrast with individual’s own views and we must learn to accept. We should not be biased or prejudiced," he said.
He said there should be "a level of conciliation" with the NGOs when views or opinions were unacceptable.
Euston Quah & Qiyan Ong, For The Straits Times 29 Dec 09;
Among its successes, the Copenhagen Accord recognises the need to limit the rise in global temperatures to no more than 2 deg C above pre-industrial levels. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
WHAT was achieved at the Copenhagen summit?
Plenty. Just getting 193 nations and 130 leaders together for the United Nations climate change summit was no small feat. It not only raised global awareness of climate change to an unprecedented level but also forced world leaders to confront the issue.
That the final outcome of the talks did not satisfy everyone is not surprising, given the differences in priorities between developed and developing nations. For the latter, bread and butter issues come first. But countries facing immediate danger from the effects of climate change, such as small islands and those with low-lying areas near the coast, would of course make demands quite different from those of nations not at similar risk.
Still, a lot was achieved at the summit. The Copenhagen Accord recognises the need to limit the rise in global temperatures to no more than 2 deg C above pre- industrial levels. Though not a binding target, the accord gave official recognition to the widely held scientific view that the rise in global temperatures should be kept to this level. With this agreement on temperature, it is expected that countries will devise measures to cut carbon emissions accordingly.
In addition, under the accord, countries are asked to review their pledges for curbing carbon emissions by 2020. Although no country would be penalised for failing to keep to its pledge, the accord would encourage government policies to tackle carbon emissions. This would remove the business-as-usual attitude and the world may witness the beginning of a new social norm. If the countries that have made pledges remain committed to them, other countries would come under peer pressure to follow suit.
Another breakthrough was the pledge by rich nations to jointly mobilise US$30 billion (S$42.2 billion) over the next three years, and US$100 billion a year by 2020, to help poor nations adapt to and mitigate the impact of climate change. This should be great news for developing nations as they have long asked rich nations for such funding.
While how the funds will be disbursed remains an issue, another equally important issue is how rich countries will raise the funds. Will the funds come from increased taxes or from cutting foreign aid for education and infrastructure development? Higher domestic taxes will cause immense unhappiness, and dampen the political will of rich countries to contribute funds. But reducing support for foreign aid will not help poor countries either.
Ideally, the Copenhagen Accord should have included a provision that the rich countries pledge not to cut other areas of foreign aid while creating a global fund for climate change.
Another success of the Copenhagen Accord lies in the recognition of the need for transparency in efforts to curb carbon emissions. The rich countries pledged to be scrutinised through procedures of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Though many are disappointed that developing nations will submit only national reports on their emission pledges, it is important to note that many of these countries are unable to collect and analyse data accurately. Let them report whatever they can until their data collection and analysis capacity is improved.
What should be done before next year's climate change summit in Mexico?
# Countries need to stay committed to whatever has been agreed at Copenhagen. They should also submit meaningful emission targets and hold deeper discussions on how to mitigate and adapt to climate change.
# Estimates of the damage from global warming and climate change need to be better defined and some agreement has to be reached on the methodologies to measure such damage.
# Countries such as China and India that have announced their pledges to cut national emissions should be monitored and encouraged, perhaps through a reward system. This would go a long way to meeting the demands of both economic growth and quality of life.
Euston Quah is Professor of Environmental Economics at Nanyang Technological University. Qiyan Ong is pursuing her PhD at NTU.
Straits Times 29 Dec 09;
PHOTO: SHIN MIN
More than 1,000 dead fish were found washed up on Pasir Ris beach on Saturday. The Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) said the fish are likely to have died due to high levels of plankton, the result of heavy rain.
Decomposing plankton can lead to oxygen starvation in the water. The AVA said the fish, mostly tiger garoupas, were from nearby fish farms. The National Environment Agency has conducted checks in the vicinity and found no trace of an oil spill or chemical discharge into the sea. It has collected water samples for further analysis.
For more details see:
Why are there so many dead fish on Pasir Ris? from wild shores of singapore with a closer look at the dead fishes, also on wonderful creations and singapore nature.
Irawaty Wardany, The Jakarta Post 28 Dec 09;
Jambi is one of Indonesia’s vast forest provinces, with about 1.2 million hectares of forest. As concerns about the effects of climate change and global warming increase, Jambi is formulating reforestation efforts. The Jakarta Post’s Irawaty Wardany recently spoke to Jambi Governor Zulkifli Nurdin about the issues as well as preparations for the 2010 gubernatorial election, as Zulkifli will end his tenure in August.
Question: As one of main issues in Jambi is forestry, what is the provincial policy on forestry?
Answer: I’ve just returned from Copenhagen (the United Nations Convention on Climate Change) where I accompanied President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. At the meeting we could see there was much interest from various countries. We knew that China did not agree with policies made by other countries. That meant there was no agreement made by countries throughout the world to reduce emissions, which is a really serious problem.
In Jambi we want to maintain our existing forest. We have decided to allocate 100,000 hectares of land to be included in the restoration forest program (including the Harapan Rainforest project).
In the era of Pak Kaban (former forestry minister) the program did not materialize, but with Pak Zulkifli Hasan (current forestry minister), we are in the process of making 100,000 hectares for the forest restoration program available. We will preserve elephants, tigers and much more.
There will also be another 120,000 hectares provided for restoration, but we do not know yet who will back up the program. There are many (countries) that are interested in the program because they all realize that forests are the key to filtering greenhouse effect and reducing emissions.
We spoke to the Forestry Minister in Copenhagen and we agreed that no matter what the result of the Copenhagen meeting, we would not change our plans to maintain our forest even though we lack funds.
So our goal is how to reduce emissions and Jambi’s policy is how to restore the forest without disturbing local residential areas because the main goal of the administration is how to make the people prosper.
What is your total target for the reforestation programs? How many hectares of forest will be restored and for how long? How much financial support will be provided by the Jambi administration?
We have not discussed the amount of hectares of forest that will be restored, or the exact budget, but I’ve spoken to the President about that and I said that it was impossible for us to finance the program, so we need (financial) aid both from the central government as well as from foreign sources.
This is our forest, so we must maintain it together.
I have reported to the President that if this program is fully handled by the provincial administration, it will not be effective because we have to provide infrastructure that will absorb a large amount of our provincial budget.
We have to focus on infrastructure development to support Jambi’s economic development.
Sometimes we even have to allocate our budget for other programs and infrastructure programs.
Take for example the fertile area of Cilangkap. Crops and harvests from the area cannot be sold due to infrastructure problems. That is why we need to focus on infrastructure.
We have developed a port in Samudera Muara sabak as well as a 2.3-kilometer bridge to
the pier from the city (of Jambi) and 155 kilometers of road. We built them to increase our economic growth.
Jambi’s growth during 2008-2009 was 7.16 percent. That’s the highest growth rate in Sumatra and we are ranked third nationally.
How will Jambi balance reforestation and infrastructure programs?
We have spatial design plans that designate which areas can be developed and those that cannot. We will stick to that to ensure well-designed development.
Jambi’s branch of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) said that deforestation in the province reaches 24,000 hectares annually, how can you catch up with the rate of deforestation with your restoration program?
Deforestation is mostly caused by outsiders who go into the woods,cut the trees and establish fields in the area. If they can’t sell the wood, they just work on the fields, but mostly those people are not from Jambi.
So deforestation is mostly caused by humans, beside of course, fires that occur during dry season, which always cause forest fires, especially in peat land. If we have a long dry season, the peat land usually becomes really dry. So there are two main causes of forest fires, some are caused by people, while others arise form natural causes.
Peat land burns easily because it consists of rotten wood and tree roots that create hollow spaces beneath the earth, as well as dry bushes that can be set alight by strong rays from the sun.
We haven’t found a way to extinguish them yet. All we can do is spray water into the earth, but we never succeed because the fire is always below the earth’s surface. Often it only emits an excess of smoke.
In 2006, we had really bad smoke from forest fires that both Malaysia and Singapore complained about. I explained to them that we could maintain the forest together, rather than just complain, but we all must learn how to maintain the forest on a limited budget.
How can we finance the Manggala Agni (forest firefighters) and how can we finance the fire extinguisher equipment?
Now we have 340 Manggala Agni officers, but they cannot handle 1.2 million hectares of forest. I estimated that we would need up to 1,000 firefighters throughout Jambi province, but it all depends on how much money we have.
Jambi, with its 1.2 million hectares of forest must also face illegal logging, how do you deal with that matter?
Currently, the Forest Concession Rights (HPH) are issued under strict regulations.
Even if we issue the HPH, the holders must provide some reforestation funds that are distributed to the province where the forest was utilized. However, according to my experience, no reforestation funds have been received by the province or regions even though hundreds of hectares of our forest has been utilized. Most of the funds for reforestation flow to the central government and have not yet benefited our region.
Jambi is one of the provinces that will have a gubernatorial election in 2010, how are the preparations so far?
The preparations have been quite settled, we have not had any problems as yet. The general elections in 2004 and 2009 and the regional elections all went well. We haven’t had any riots or anything like that. Therefore we expect the upcoming gubernatorial election will go smoothly also.
You’ve been the governor since 1999, will you participate in the upcoming gubernatorial election?
No. I can’t and I won’t.
During your period, what do you consider as your achievements and failures?
As I said earlier, the economic growth rate this year was 7.16 percent, which is the highest in Sumatra and the third nationally. Secondly, income per capita has improved from Rp 450,000 (US$47) to Rp 2 million.
In trade, there are many mining companies that are now investing in Jambi. I hope my successor will continue to serve the people’s basic economic and development needs that I started.
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