Best of our wild blogs: 1 Jan 09

Jabiru’s Prayer
on the Bird Ecology Study Group blog

Happy New Year from Sisters Island
on the wild shores of singapore blog

Another Exotic Visitor Reaches Singapore's Shores
on the Butterflies of Singapore blog

Let’s Split Up!
on the Garden Voices blog

Roosting of the Grey Nightjar
on the Bird Ecology Study Group blog

Who gets the trash?
on the blooooooooooo blog

Are we doing enough to slow down global warming?
on the Psychedelic Nature blog

Great fireworks - what about the fallout?
on the wild shores of singapore blog

Marine soil investigation at Changi East
on the wild shores of singapore blog

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Report on climate change effects on Singapore expected in 2009

Julia Ng, Channel NewsAsia 31 Dec 08;

SINGAPORE: A team of local and foreign experts is studying possible long-term effects of climate change on Singapore and the findings are expected to be out next year.

Even though there is no melting iceberg or severe drought in Singapore, experts said the tropical island can still be vulnerable to climate changes such as coastal erosion, water scarcity, and higher energy demand. That is why the government is making sustainable development a priority.

Sustainable development for Singapore means being able to support future economic and population growth, while maintaining a clean and green environment.

Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Environment and Water Resources, Amy Khor, said: "For individuals and households, all they need to do is to make simple changes in their everyday lifestyle in order to do their part for the environment.

"Making simple adjustments in their lifestyle to save energy will not only help to mitigate green house gas emissions and address climate change issues, but also save in terms of cutting down on electricity expenses."

The Inter-Ministerial Committee on Sustainable Development (IMCSD) is launching a blueprint in early 2009. It will provide a comprehensive road map of initiatives to sustain Singapore's development for the next ten years and beyond.

A slew of measures have been rolled out to get more individuals and companies on the bandwagon to help sustain the environment. The Green Mark recognition and monetary incentives were also given to developers with eco-friendly buildings.

Singaporeans were encouraged to adopt green practices as well. A "10% Energy Challenge" was launched to get households to cut their energy usage by at least 10 per cent, just by adopting simple measures such as keeping their air-conditioners at 25 degree Celsius.

The IMCSD said energy is the most critical resource for Singapore.

Mah Bow Tan, co-chairman, IMCSD, said: "The more resource-efficient we are, the more efficient and competitive we can be."

The committee has also asked Singaporeans to suggest ways on how to make the city more eco-friendly.

Over 1,300 suggestions were received - among them were ideas to develop chargers that switch off automatically when no devices are plugged in and solar panels to power up water heaters in homes.

Moving from sun to wind and water, Singapore said there are huge economic benefits in the research and development of clean energy.

The Environment and Water Industry Development Council plans to increase the value-added contribution from the water sector to S$1.7 billion by 2015 and jobs in this sector are expected to double to about 11,000 by 2015.

To share its expertise in water resource management and facilitate water solutions, a Singapore International Water Week was held in June this year.

It culminated in the presentation of the Lee Kuan Yew Water Prize – a prestigious international award to recognise outstanding contributions in solving global water issues.

The inaugural event also saw deals that are worth over US$270 million and international initiatives to boost water research and investment.

The Singapore International Water Week will return in June 2009, buoyed by the fact that environmental challenges like water resources will continue to be a hot topic worldwide as nations grapple with climate change and sustainability issues.- CNA/so

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Creating Chingay floats with ap-peel

NUS students use discarded household items and orange peel
IN a time when cheap and good is the way to go, these students from the National University of Singapore have come up with just the right idea for a Chingay float.
Genevieve Jiang, The New Paper 1 Jan 09;

IN a time when cheap and good is the way to go, these students from the National University of Singapore have come up with just the right idea for a Chingay float.

One team of students spent three months collecting discarded orange peel from their campus canteen. Another team spent weeks going door to door at HDB estates near their campus, seeking unwanted materials such as old clothes, blankets, newspapers and household items.

And with a little creativity, the two groups have turned the junk into colourful floats that emerged winners at the university's Rag and Flag Day in August.

Rag and Flag Day is an annual event at NUS. Funds are raised for charity and there is a parade of floats on campus.

The floats produced by the top two teams from the Kent Ridge and Eusoff Halls will be showcased in the Chingay parade on 30 and 31 Jan.

This is the third time NUS teams are taking part in Chingay, the theme for which is 'Wonderland' next year.

The process of building the floats was not easy.

Said Mr Gui Ming Wayne, 22, a third-year bio-engineering student from Eusoff Hall: 'We approached the fruit stall at our canteen to keep their orange peel, which we would collect every week because we wanted to create an orange tree-like structure that spelt out EH, for Eusoff Hall.

'But as we were doing it, we realised that the orange peel would turn black after every month or so, and we would have to re-do everything.

'We eventually learnt our lesson and decided to stick them on only at the last minute.'

Mr Gui and his team of 11 committee members started work on the float in May. It took more than three months to complete.

Apart from orange peel, they also collected thousands of used cans, cardboard boxes, plastic straws, styrofoam boxes, unwanted plastic plates, brushes and cotton from recycling companies.

Their float, made in the shape of a toy-producing factory, involves another 64 students, who will perform as elves during the parade.

Toilet seats

At Kent Ridge Hall, students used materials such as old clothes, blankets, newspapers, toilet seats, pots, and plates which they had collected from residents near campus.

For some students, it meant digging up old items from home almost every week.

Said Miss Chang Zhao Yuan, 22, a third-year business student: 'My father would help me by clearing out his old stuff. Every week, he would hand me some old CDs, CD boxes, unwanted magazines and old clothes.

'What we would otherwise have thrown away became precious to us.'

Part of the Kent Ridge Hall's float, made in the shape of a shoe house, was a windmill with broken plates stuck onto it.

Another part of the float was made with used chocolate wrappers.

Said Miss Chang: 'It's a challenge to use recycled materials entirely. It forces you to think how you can make use of certain colours and textures creatively.

'But this project proves that there is no such thing as junk. Every piece of material can be put to good use if you think out of the box.'

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Call to conserve seagrasses in Johor

Seagrass site of great value
The Star 1 Jan 09;

JOHOR is endowed with amazing biodiversity and has much to offer everyone, be it the tourist, naturalist or researcher.

It has the Panti bird sanctuary, the fabled Mt Ledang, Endau Rompin, several beautiful islands and now the amazing Merambong sea grass located close to the estuary of Sungai Pulai (Gelang Patah), which is the biggest in Malaysia and boasts a rich assortment of biota, including the sea cow or dugong and sea horse (hippocampus). These are species vulnerable to extinction.

The sea grass beds are the nursery of many fishes, shrimps and shellfish, which provide a perfect natural sanctuary for them to thrive and grow.

But sadly, we Malaysians only know about migration of birds when there is so much of migratory fishes plying between the Malacca Straits and the Riau Archipelago which we are ignorant of. This is unpublished research which needs to be pursued further.

I sincerely urge the Fisheries Department to play a proactive role in conserving this valuable site along with the neighbouring sea grasses and work with Taman Laut and other statutory bodies to gazette this site.

They have a good overview of the sea grass community, having done several similar studies in the South China Sea.

Presently, it is perceived that the Fisheries Department is only interested in commercial farming and aqua culture.

Its role is supposed to be much wider and diverse. A balance is imperative as this would be vital to long-term conservation and promulgation efforts.

Without preservation of such habitats, we would not have enough of fish, which is a source of valuable protein.

I strongly urge the Fisheries Department to act fast before our natural resources are depleted beyond sustainability.

Besides the gazetting of the valuable sea grass, more research and crucial work need to be undertaken on habitat preservation and fish migration in collaboration with our universities and also our Asean partner nations which has a stake in this migratory flow of fishes.

Understanding their flow cycle and habitats would assist us in conserving their nurseries more professionally.

Perhaps the Fisheries Department should immediately take an inventory of the area and determine the extent of pollution where these sea grasses are located and establish buffer zones in view of the rapid development of the adjacent areas earmarked for industrial development.

An integrated plan is needed to integrate the coral reefs of Pulau Merambong, the mangroves and sea grass holistically as they form a vital ecosystem in the conservation process.

The future of this rich biodiversity legacy and living heritage (sea grass meadows) of Johor needs urgent attention, more so as this area is close to the Iskandar Development region.

Perhaps the Iskandar Develop­ment authorities should also take an interest in this area as it is part of the natural green lungs of this integrated development region and will be scrutinised by the investors on how much we really care for our environment.

MAH HONG SENG,
Kuala Lumpur.

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Global whale "hot spot" discovered off East Timor

Rob Taylor, Reuters 31 Dec 08;

CANBERRA (Reuters) - One of the world's highest concentrations of dolphins and whales -- many of them protected species -- has been discovered off the coast of East Timor, local and Australian researchers said on Wednesday.

A "hot spot" of marine cetaceans migrating through deep channels off the Timor coast, including blue and beaked whales, short-finned pilot whales, melon headed whales and six dolphin species was uncovered in a study for the Timor government.

"We were all amazed to see such an abundance, diversity and density of cetaceans. Most of them are actually protected," principal scientist Karen Edyvane told Reuters.

"It's among the world's hot spots for cetaceans," she said.

The survey was done by East Timorese researchers and experts from the Australian Institute of Marine Science, working from a traditional 20-meter wooden Indonesian vessel.

Deep ocean channels of the Wetar and Ombai straits, which plummet more than 3,000 meters (9,800 ft), were a major migratory route for marine wildlife moving between the Pacific and Indian oceans, including large sharks and turtles, the study found.

The channels are also used by U.S. nuclear and Australian navy submarines traveling through the Indonesian islands.

The research highlighted the threat posed by unregulated fishing in the region as cash-strapped East Timor looks to develop its fishing industry while searching out potentially lucrative eco-tourism opportunities like whale-watching.

"We are committed to ensuring that this marine biodiversity is protected," said Celestino Barreto de Cunha, director of fisheries management for East Timor's government.

In just one day, more than 1,000 individuals and possibly as many as 2,000 whales in eight separate pods -- each one containing up to 400 mammals -- were spotted over a 50-kilometer (31-mile) stretch of coast, Edyvane said.

Concentrations were similar to those near Antarctica, where Japan's whaling fleet is currently carrying out its yearly five-month research hunt, chased by anti-whaling activists.

(Editing by Miral Fahmy)

Whale, dolphin hot spot near East Timor
The Age 31 Dec 08;

Thousands of dolphins and whales have been sighted in the deep waters off East Timor, with scientists hoping the migratory corridor will jump-start the tiny country's tourism sector.

The Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) has conducted the country's first major boat-based survey of cetaceans in a joint project with the Timor-Leste government.

"The dolphins and small whales were literally jumping out of the water all around us, it was hard to know which animal to photograph," said Timorese researcher Jose Monteiro.

Working on board a traditional 20-metre wooden Indonesian vessel, the scientists were surprised to uncover a global hot spot of whale and dolphin activity.

They identified about 10 species of cetaceans, including blue whales, beaked whales, short-finned pilot whales, melon headed whales and six species of dolphins.

In one day alone, more than 1,000 individuals in eight separate pods were spotted over a 50-kilometre stretch of coast.

"This is among the highest level of cetacean abundance ever recorded," said principal scientist Karen Edyvane.

"We were all amazed to see such an abundance, diversity and density of cetaceans."

Prof Edyvane said the findings confirmed that the deep oceanic waters off East Timor - along the Wetar and Ombai straits - were a major migratory route for marine wildlife moving between the Pacific and Indian oceans.

Celestino Barreto de Cunha, director of fisheries management within East Timor's Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, said the marine hot spot could hold the key to the developing nation's tourism industry.

"The government recognises the enormous potential for marine ecotourism along its coast and will proceed very carefully in the development of this industry," he said.

"We are committed to ensuring that this marine biodiversity is protected and we will continue to look to Australia to provide good scientific advice on developing a sustainable marine ecotourism industry."

AIMS project leader Dr Mark Meekan said ecotourism had become one of the world's fastest growing marine industries and could provide a much needed boost to East Timor's economy.

"There are absolutely huge numbers of cetaceans, that is whales and dolphins," he said.

"It is probably a global hot spot for biodiversity of these animals - it's really quite striking."

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U.S. researchers find wintering ground for rare right whales

CBC News 31 Dec 08;

U.S. researchers believe they have identified a wintering ground for the North Atlantic right whale, an endangered species.

The Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSCA ) announced Wednesday that air searches had spotted many more of the whales than usual in the Gulf of Maine, about 110 to 130 kilometres from the coasts of Maine and Massachusetts.

A plane crew spotted 44 in one location on Dec. 3 and 41 at another area on Dec. 14, the centre said in a news release.

“We’re excited because seeing 44 right whales together in the Gulf of Maine is a record for the winter months, when daily observations of three or five animals are much more common,” said Tim Cole, who heads the NEFSCA team.

The total North Atlantic right whale population is estimated at just 325 animals. There are two other groups, one in the the North Pacific and one in the southern hemisphere.

Where the whales go in winter is a mystery because of the difficulties facing aerial surveys covering huge areas in bad weather.

While about 100 females and calves are typically counted and recognized each year on their only known calving grounds, off Florida and Georgia, the location of the rest of the whales has been a mystery.

"We don’t know much about where these other whales spend the winter or breed, but we have recently started to look in the Gulf of Maine in winter,” said team member Pete Duley.

The NEFSCA team developed an aerial grid system to allow consistent surveys. They now know that the whales tend to congregate in certain areas, and follow the circulation system of the Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank, said Cole. They move north as the weather warms, reaching the Bay of Fundy in mid-summer.

New Breeding Ground For Endangered Whales? High Numbers Of Right Whales Seen In Gulf Of Maine
ScienceDaily 31 Dec 08;

A large number of North Atlantic right whales have been seen in the Gulf of Maine in recent days, leading right whale researchers at NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center to believe they have identified a wintering ground and potentially a breeding ground for this endangered species.

NEFSCA, part of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, does scientific research.The NEFSC’s aerial survey team saw 44 individual right whales on Dec. 3 in the Jordan Basin area, located about 70 miles south of Bar Harbor, Maine. Weather permitting, the team regularly surveys the waters from Maine to Long Island and offshore 150 miles to the Hague Line (the U.S.-Canadian border), an area about 25,000 square nautical miles.

“We’re excited because seeing 44 right whales together in the Gulf of Maine is a record for the winter months, when daily observations of three to five animals are much more common,” said Tim Cole, who heads the team. “Right whales are baleen whales, and in the winter spend a lot of time diving for food deep in the water column. Seeing so many of them at the surface when we are flying over an area is a bit of luck.”

Just a few days later, on Dec. 6, the team observed only three right whales on Cashes Ledge, about 80 miles east of Gloucester, Mass. Cole says the whales are known to be in the region, but actually seeing them on any given aerial survey is unpredictable. On Dec. 14, the team saw 41 right whales just west of Jordan Basin.

An estimated 100 female North Atlantic right whales head south in winter to give birth in the waters off Florida and Georgia, but little is known about where other individual right whales in the population go in winter, largely due to difficult surveying conditions.

Given the large geographical area over which North Atlantic right whales can occur, Cole and NEFSC colleagues developed an aerial grid system a few years ago for the Gulf of Maine and waters around Cape Cod to ensure complete coverage of the region. The grid resulted in consistent surveys of areas infrequently surveyed in the past, like Jordan Basin and the Great South Channel, and have shown that whales congregate in certain areas at certain times.

With a population estimated to be about 325 whales, knowing where the whales are at any time is critical to protect them. Finding an aggregation of whales can trigger a management action affording protection, such as slowing ship speeds in the vicinity of the whales. On Dec. 9, new federal speed rules for large ships went into effect to reduce ship strikes, to which North Atlantic right whales are particularly vulnerable.

NOAA understands and predicts changes in the Earth's environment, from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun, and conserves and manages our coastal and marine resources.

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eBay bans sale of ivory products

Investigation found 63 per cent of online sales went through auction site

Jerome Taylor, The Independent 1 Jan 09;

The internet auction site eBay has finally banned the sale of virtually all ivory products from its website after coming under intense pressure from conservationists who accused the site of acting as a major black market source for forbidden elephant tusks.

The ban comes into effect today, and will also cover antique jewellery created before the international trade ban came into effect in 1989. Only pianos with ivory keys and wood furniture with small amounts of ivory inlay made before 1900 will be allowed to be sold.

The online auctioneer instigated a limited ban on ivory sales in 2007, stopping all cross-border sales, but it suffered a major consumer backlash in October when it emerged that two-thirds of all online ivory sales in the US were made through its website.

An investigation by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) revealed that over a period of six weeks, more than 7,000 items of ivory were being sold online, with 63 per cent of the items sold through eBay. The US had a 70 per cent market share, 10 times that of the UK, the next largest market. In America, the transactions had an advertised value of $3.8m (£2.6m), and sales of about $460,000 on eBay provided the site with commission of at least $20,000.

In Britain, 551 items of ivory were found online, 289 of which came from eBay. China was the next largest online market although it remains the biggest importer of both black market and legitimate ivory bought at recent one-off sales held under UN auspices in Africa.

Last night, bidding was under way for a number of ivory items on the UK eBay website. A seller in Bournemouth, who has an eBay "shop" site called Ragged Tiger Antiques, was selling a pair of 19th-century elephant tusks carved with Meiji Japanese drawings for more than £150. There were 24 bidders in an auction timed to end shortly before midnight. Another antiques dealer based in Salisbury was selling a 1920s Japanese carving of five geishas for £250. From today onwards neither of these sales would be permitted on the website.

A spokesman for eBay said: "Due to the unique nature of eBay's global online marketplace and the complexity surrounding the sale of ivory, we decided to ban the sale of ivory on eBay. We appreciate the support from the IFAW and we look forward to continuing to work with them on the implementation of the global ban." Conservationists estimate up to 20,000 elephants are slaughtered for their tusks every year despite the international trade ban on ivory products introduced in 1989.

Robbie Marsland, director of IFAW UK, said: "internet dealers need to take responsibility for their impact on endangered species by enacting and enforcing a ban on all online wildlife trade."

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Rainforest's chewing gum tappers go organic to get out of a sticky situation

Threatened industry hopes new product to be sold by Waitrose will be its saviour

Jo Tuckman, The Guardian 31 Dec 08;

Porfirio Baños takes the measure of the chicozapote tree that he is about to tap for its resin. He winds a rope around himself and the tall, straight trunk that stretches towards a glimpse of sky through the foliage above. He starts to climb.

"I started following my dad around the rainforest when I was 10 and working when I was 12," the 50-year-old says as he cuts through the bark with a razor-sharp machete. A bright white sap called chicle runs down the wound in the wood, prompting a smile. "I am a chiclero to my core."

The location is remote, the practice old, the tools rudimentary, and the chances to chat with spider monkeys high. But this is no world apart. Men like Baños were at the root of one of the great consumer phenomena of our time: chewing gum.

Produced only in the jungle that straddles the southern part of Mexico's Yucatán peninsula, northern Guatemala and Belize, chicle was the basis of chewing gum, from the little balls first sold in New York 140 years ago to the sticks included in GI rations during the second world war. Then in the 1950s came synthetic substitutes that shrank the industry to a shadow of its former self.

Biodegradable

But just as it was beginning to look as if the chicle industry would fade away altogether, Mexico's chicleros may be on the threshold of a comeback: they are about to launch their own brand of certified organic chewing gum, which is expected to go on sale shortly in Waitrose.

A bonus of the new gum for Britain's local authorities is that it will be biodegradable and start to break down almost immediately after use, potentially saving councils millions in pavement cleaning bills.

The epic tale of chicle goes back to 1869 when a Mexican general called Antonio López de Santa Anna was living in exile on Staten Island trying to raise money. He enlisted a local inventor called Thomas Adams to test out his idea that chicle, long chewed by Mexican soldiers in unprocessed form, could be transformed into a lucrative rubber substitute.

When vulcanisation failed the general moved on, but Adams, left with a tonne of the stuff to shift, came up with what turned out to be a brilliant idea. He added sugar and flavouring, and chewing gum was born. Within a few decades the sap once used by the ancient Maya to clean their teeth had become a symbol of modernity. Michael Redclift, author of Chicle: Fortunes of Taste, calls it "the American product for the American century".

Alfonso Valdez caught the tail end of the chicle fever that invaded the still largely virgin jungle during the boom years. "The chiclero camps were like small towns and there were dances every weekend," the 69-year-old says, reminiscing about the communities accessible only by small plane and lots of walking. "Nobody dared leave before the season was over, and if they tried to walk out alone we would find their torn-up clothes and assume they'd been eaten by a jaguar." Valdez now runs a much more modest camp at the end of a logging track on the edge of the Calakmul rainforest reserve where Baños and another nine veteran chicleros have lived since July and will stay until February.

The job itself has changed little, with each chiclero fanning out into the forest at dawn alone and earning according to how much chicle they bring back to camp at night.

The price for the raw material is too low to attract local youths who prefer to look for dishwashing jobs in Cancún or New York. These may be the last of the chicleros.

The administrators of the chiclero co-operative developed Chicza Rainforest Gum as a last-ditch attempt to save the industry. They struck a deal with Waitrose last year, they say, after touting their product around European organic food fairs. They hope it will be in 100 stores early next year.

Waitrose says it is excited about the product. "We are extremely interested in the Chicza chewing gum," said confectionery buyer Matthew Jones. "It is a great product that is organic and sustainable so we are very excited about its potential in our stores."

Valdez, an ageing chain-smoking toothless charmer who says he has fathered 42 children, is optimistic despite the global recession: chewing gum was one of the few consumer goods to thrive in the Depression. There is the added incentive that it eventually turns to dust. The annual bill for cleaning pavements of gum in the UK is more than £150m.

Chicza's packaging, meanwhile, pushes the new gum as a saviour of a rainforest in danger. The chicleros see preserving the forest as part of their job. "We don't kill the trees like farmers do when they clear land to grow corn or graze cattle," says Roberto Aguilar, 60. "We leave a wound, it's true, but eight years after it is healed and producing chicle again."

Deadly fears

But these workers of the jungle do harbour two fears, and harbour them deeply: the poisonous snakes whose bite kills in hours, and the slip of a machete that can cut the rope holding them above ground. All have lost friends and family to both.

"He just said: 'I'm finished, look after yourselves'," Baños says, recalling his father's last words at the foot of the chicozapote tree he fell from six years ago. The hardened old chiclero allows himself a moment of pathos - but then he's off again, looking for another tree to climb.

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Beijing's New Year resolution: scrap polluting cars

Reuters 31 Dec 08;

BEIJING (Reuters) - Beijing, beset by choking traffic and heavy air pollution, will take more than 350,000 high-polluting vehicles off inner city streets from Thursday, local media reported.

China's capital has banned cars from the roads on one out of five weekdays based on the number of license plates as part of a six-month trial in the wake of broader restrictions during the Olympic Games in August that cleared skies and eased congestion.

Drivers of high-emissions vehicles, known as "yellow-label" cars, would be fined 100 yuan ($15) if found to be driving within the city's Fifth Ring Road, a highway on Beijing's outskirts, after a three-month grace period, the Beijing News said.

The measure stands to take about 10 percent of the city's cars off the road. Beijing currently has about 3.5 million registered cars.

The government had also drafted a compensation scheme that will give drivers up to 25,000 yuan ($3,600) if they proactively give up their cars during 2009, the paper said.

The city would also provide preferential loans to shipping and transport companies to upgrade their vehicle fleets to meet low-emission standards, the paper said, citing the city's traffic bureau.

Beijing authorities have credited cleaner skies above the capital in recent months in part due to the traffic restrictions, as well as decreased emissions from shuttered factories in the city's outskirts.

Car ownership along with rising incomes has skyrocketed in Chinese cities in recent years, posing head-aches for town planners already struggling to build roads and public transport to meet burgeoning urban populations.

(Reporting by Beijing newsroom; Editing by Ian Ransom)

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