Petition against captive whale sharks at Resorts World Sentosa
on the wild shores of singapore blog
Lively Merawang beacon
on the wonderful creation blog
Horseshoe Crab Survey needs your help!
on the Midnight Monkey Monitor
Paddyfield Pipit catching centipede
on the Bird Ecology Study Group blog
Lessons in bed
on the annotated budak blog
Guestpost: In defense of Sea Shepherd by Craig Nazor
on the Southern Fried Science blog
Sea Shepherd, good or bad for oceans?
on blogfish
Oil slick spreads to Sunshine Coast
Annie Guest, ABC 12 Mar 09;
ELEANOR HALL: Queensland's environmental disaster has worsened with the oil slick spreading to the Sunshine Coast.
The fuel leaked from a ship that was damaged in cyclonic conditions early yesterday and there is still no sign of the 31 containers of a potentially dangerous chemical which was lost overboard.
As Annie Guest reports, wildlife experts are now scrambling to save threatened animals, including turtles.
ANNIE GUEST: As the hours go by, this story goes from bad to worse. At Marcoola on one of the Sunshine Coast's longest strips of white sandy beach, Sherrida is among the volunteers saving turtles.
SHERRIDA: We've actually dug in. We've got quite a few eggs out of the nest that have been unhatched. There are a few turtles that have hatched, or they're very close to hatching, so we are going to relocate the nest to a safer spot. There was one that had oil all over the top of it, so we'll just have to have a look at it and see what we should do with that one.
ANNIE GUEST: Birds are also affected, according to Clive Cook from the Queensland Government's Environmental Protection Agency.
CLIVE COOK: We've had one confirmed report of a seabird with oil on it and two others unconfirmed.
ANNIE GUEST: Authorities expect there'll be more and earlier today surf lifesaver Dave McLaine told ABC Radio the Marcoola slick is spread in patches across the beach.
DAVE MCLAINE: We do have a lot of oil washed up onto the beach and it's quite heavy in some spots. It's caked all over my thongs and all over my feet. I've just spent about 15 minutes in the shower trying to get it all off.
ANNIE GUEST: It's part of a slick of up to 20 tonnes of heavy shipping fuel spreading from the dugong and dolphin populated waters of the Moreton Bay Marine Park north to the Sunshine Coast.
It came from the damaged cargo ship Pacific Adventurer that also lost 31 containers of the potentially dangerous ammonium nitrate overboard when it got into trouble during cyclonic weather early yesterday.
On Moreton Island across from Brisbane witnesses have been reporting since late yesterday that a slick 10 kilometres long had washed up on the national park-dominated island.
But the State Government has been slow to confirm it. This was the Sustainability Minister Andrew McNamara at 9.30 this morning.
ANDREW MCNAMARA: The oil spill trajectory model that we have suggests that oil will come ashore this morning on Bribie Island and at Caloundra. The EPA has shoreline clean-up assessment crews now on Moreton and on the Caloundra and Bribie Island waiting for that to happen and we will get stuck into the clean-up.
ANNIE GUEST: But he's defended the Government's handling of the episode.
ANDREW MCNAMARA: We're talking about you know within 24 hours having people on the ground looking to contain and clean up as the oil comes ashore. There's little that can be done during that sort of weather event.
ANNIE GUEST: Meantime, Australian Marine Conservation Society's Craig Bohm is unsure how much faith to put in authorities.
CRAIG BOHM: We would like to have seen greater action given the long time between we knew there was going to be an oil slick and we've actually had reports from non-government people that the oil is on the shores of Moreton Island and possibly on the Sunshine Coast. We just really need people to get on with this today and deal with it.
ANNIE GUEST: How would you characterise the flow of information from authorities about this event?
CRAIG BOHM: It has actually been very difficult to know whether it has been that the severe weather that has hampered the flow of information or lethargic response.
ELEANOR HALL: That's Craig Bohm from the Australian Marine Conservation Society ending that report from Annie Guest.
Oil spill spreads off south-east Queensland
Anna Hipsley, ABC 12 Mar 09;
MARK COLVIN: Yesterday's oil spill off Queensland is today's environmental disaster for the sun and surf tourist coastline from Brisbane to the Sunshine Coast.
The problem is about 20 tonnes of leaked fuel oil, from a cargo ship which lost part of its load in rough seas off Stradbroke Island.
The northern end of Moreton Island is drenched in a black slick and oil's now washing up on beaches up to 50 kilometres away.
Anna Hipsley prepared this report.
TREVOR HASSARD: It's a really, really pristine area and now you've got this oil slick that's basically spread over 10 kilometres of beach and quite thick.
ANNA HIPSLEY: Trevor Hassard is director of Tangalooma Island Resort on the west coast of Moreton Island.
His resort has managed to avoid the effects of the spill so far, but the northern tip of the island hasn't been so lucky.
TREVOR HASSARD: People that have seen Honeymoon Bay are telling me that you can't see any white beach; it's a black wasteland.
ANNA HIPSLEY: The oil has also washed into a bird rookery on the island.
TREVOR HASSARD: We had three pelican arrive this morning at Tangalooma covered in oil. It's really quite sad because you can see a pristine white Australian pelican standing right beside this ugly brown bird, and the bird yesterday was a beautiful white Australian pelican.
ANNA HIPSLEY: Queensland's Sustainability Minister Andrew McNamara says the spill will likely reach Bribie Island.
ANDREW MCNAMARA: More oil will come ashore and unfortunately some birds will be caught up in that.
ANNA HIPSLEY: But so far the impact on wildlife has been minimal. Simon Baltais is president of Wildlife Queensland. He says it's incredibly lucky the oil hasn't washed into Moreton Bay.
SIMON BALTAIS: Moreton Bay is a biological hot spot. Its noted for its healthy dugong population; one of the healthiest in the southern Queensland waters.
The largest population of green turtles; one of the world largest populations of resident bottlenose dolphins; supports something like 60,000 migratory birds. So it's a massive amount of wildlife in this area and if the it was to move into Moreton Bay, it would be an absolute catastrophe.
ANNA HIPSLEY: Are there any indications at this stage that it may?
SIMON BALTAIS: Not at this stage. What we're hearing is that it's pretty much travelling in a northerly direction.
ANNA HIPSLEY: The slick has now reached beaches on the Sunshine Coast, up to 50 kilometres further north.
David McLean is from the Surf Life Saving Club at Marcoola.
DAVID MCLEAN: We're on the beach now with the tide down to low tide, where it currently is now. There's a lot of the oil contaminant on the beach. It looks like pumice, where the waves have washed it in.
ANNA HIPSLEY: The Sunshine Coast Regional Council is helping to clean-up part of the spill. Andrew Ryan from the council says two trucks, an excavator and a front-end loader have begun the massive task.
ANDREW RYAN: The loader and the excavator are basically skimming up the sand that's got the oil in it and taking that with trucks, the large articulated trucks, to a stockpile site just in Mudjimba.
ANNA HIPSLEY: The main clean-up will take about a week at a cost around $700,000. The bill will be covered by the insurers of the ship, the Pacific Adventure.
But what's still of concern to authorities is the 30 missing containers of ammonium nitrate, which fell overboard in the rough seas early yesterday morning.
Maritime Safety Queensland has been doing aerial flyovers of the area where they were lost. But Captain John Watkinson from Maritime Safety Queensland says the containers are still missing.
JOHN WATKINSON: Some of them can float but I think in the sea conditions that in all likelihood they've found their way to the bottom.
ANNA HIPSLEY: The Greens leader Bob Brown says Commonwealth authorities need to explain how the ship was allowed to travel into cyclone affected areas.
BOB BROWN: There are big questions to be answered here about how a chemical cargo on a ship which was, like all ships, prone to oil spills given the storm that overtook them, could have been steaming into that storm on the environmentally sensitive southern coastline of Queensland. Something went seriously wrong there.
ANNA HIPSLEY: An investigation will be launched into the incident. The shipping company could face fines up to $1.5-million.
MARK COLVIN: Anna Hipsley.
Channel NewsAsia 12 Mar 09;
also on the Straits Times Breaking News 12 Mar 09; and Today Online 13 Mar 09; and Sydney Morning Herald 13 Mar 09;
SINGAPORE: Seven local and international animal welfare groups have launched an online campaign opposing plans by a Singapore integrated resort developer to import whale sharks for its planned oceanarium.
The groups on Wednesday launched a website, www.whalesharkpetition.com, on calling on the public to "voice their opinions" on the plans to import the whale sharks, described as the largest living fish species.
Resorts World at Sentosa is building one of Singapore's two integrated resorts which will feature a Marine Life Park set to become the world's biggest oceanarium upon completion.
The oceanarium will have 700,000 fish in 20 million gallons of water, Resorts World at Sentosa said on its website.
But the seven organisations, including the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, oppose having whale sharks in the facility.
The animals, which can grow up to 20 metres (66 feet), are listed as "vulnerable" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, the groups said.
"No man-made environment, no matter how large, could accommodate the needs of a whale shark," they said in a statement.
"Whale sharks can dive up to 980 metres (3,234 feet) and migrate over 13,000 kilometres (8,060 miles) and evidence has shown that they fare poorly in captivity."
They cited the case of two whale sharks which died within five months of each other in a "state-of-the-art" aquarium in the United States.
Resorts World at Sentosa defended plans to include whale sharks in the oceanarium, saying the threat the animals faced "makes the role of aquariums in their conservation all the more crucial".
The Marine Life Park's goal is to "help protect the species' wild population from disappearing" and it has worked closely with marine experts to give the animals "top-class care", it said.
Resorts World at Sentosa has said its casino project is on track for a phased opening from early 2010. It will feature hotels and a host of family-friendly attractions including the first Universal Studios theme park in Southeast Asia.- AFP/so
More background and links on Petition against captive whale sharks at Resorts World Sentosa on the wild shores of singapore blog.
Groups Against Whale Shark Import
Zakaria Abdul Wahab, Bernama 11 Mar 09;
SINGAPORE, March 11 (Bernama) -- Several local and international animal rights and conservation groups have launched an online campaign to prevent an upcoming Singapore resort centre from importing whale sharks for its marine life park.
The groups yesterday launched website www.whalesharkpetition.com for the public to voice their concerns over the resort's plan to import the threatened species of shark for its marine life park on Sentosa Island.
Resorts World at Sentosa (RWS), a casino-cum-theme park that is still under construction, will boast the world's biggest oceanarium with 700,000 fishes, including dolphins and whale sharks when it is completed next year.
RWS says on its website that the acquisition of animals for its marine park will be done in full compliance with international standards, such as the one set by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
The international groups that are against RWS's move are Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (SSCS) and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and the local ones, The Green Volunteers, lovesharks.sg, Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (ACRES), Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) and Cicada Tree Eco-Place.
In a statement here, the groups said although the local authorities would ensure that wild animals kept in captivity followed strict international standards of animal husbandry, there was "no man-made environment, no matter how large, to accommodate the needs of a whale shark."
They said whale sharks could dive up to 980 metres and migrate over 13,000km, and evidence had shown that they fared poorly in captivity, citing two cases of whale sharks, which died within five months of each other at the state-of-the-art Georgia aquarium in the United States.
The organisations said, as whale sharks were a species vulnerable to extinction, efforts must be made to protect the remaining wild population and that there was no merit to remove them from the wild breeding population, especially with such poor captive survival rates.
The groups urged the Singapore Government to take the lead in Southeast Asian ecotourism by "creating a uniquely Singaporean Marine Life Park that would promote native flora and fauna, instead of putting vulnerable species in harm's way."-- BERNAMA
Animal welfare groups oppose casino whale sharks
AFP 12 Mar 09;
SINGAPORE (AFP) — Seven local and international animal welfare groups have launched an online campaign opposing plans by a Singapore casino developer to import whale sharks for its planned aquarium.
The campaign's website on Wednesday called on the public to "voice their opinions" on plans to buy in the whale sharks, described as the largest living fish species.
Resorts World at Sentosa is building a casino that will feature a Marine Life Park set to become the world's biggest sea water aquarium.
The oceanarium will have 700,000 fish in 20 million gallons (76 million litres) of water, Resorts World at Sentosa said on its website.
But the seven organisations, including the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, oppose having whale sharks in the facility.
The sharks, which are commonly found to be more than 10 metres (33 feet) long, but are thought to grow much longer, are listed as "vulnerable" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, the groups said.
"No man-made environment, no matter how large, could accommodate the needs of a whale shark," they said in a statement.
"Whale sharks can dive up to 980 metres (3,234 feet) and migrate over 13,000 kilometres (8,060 miles) and evidence has shown that they fare poorly in captivity."
They cited the case of two whale sharks that died within five months of each other in a "state-of-the-art" aquarium in the United States.
Campaign coordinator Jaki Teo told AFP they have received more than 100 emails overnight.
"We hope government organisations will support us on this because this concerns Singapore's international image. It's not just a tourist attraction, people will come and say 'what's a whale shark doing in Singapore?'" she said.
Resorts World at Sentosa defended plans to include whale sharks in the oceanarium, saying the threat the animals faced "makes the role of aquariums in their conservation all the more crucial".
The Marine Life Park's goal is to "help protect the species' wild population from disappearing" and it has worked closely with marine experts to give the animals "top-class care," it said.
Resorts World at Sentosa has said its casino project is on track for a phased opening from early 2010.
It will also feature hotels and a Universal Studios theme park.
More about the issues with lots of links on the wild shores of singapore blog.
Today Online 12 Mar 09;
FIRST, there was one for Bintan. Now, a second integrated resort will be built in the Riau islands close to Singapore — this one on Batam.
The Jakarta Post has reported that a 15-hectare integrated tourism and business resort that is worth 1.5 trillion rupiah($193 million) will be completed in 2011, with construction set to begin next month.
According to the company behind the project, PT Grand Uway Development, the tourism development will have an international water park, a condominium hotel and a convention centre with capacity for 6,000 people.
The resort is considerably smaller than the 49-hectare Resorts World at Sentosa being built by Genting International, which will also have a water park with rides, but appears to be pitched for the Meetings,Incentive, Convention and Exhibition (Mice) trade that the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore is targeting.
According to the Jakarta Post, Indonesia’s Culture and Tourism Ministry has designated Batam as the Mice city.
In comparison, the Sands is situated on a 20.6-hectare site with a convention area that can host 45,000 people.
Talk of competition for Singapore’s IRs from Bintan and Batam began after the authorities here awarded two licences in 2005. Malaysian developer Landmarks, whose biggest shareholder is Genting, is already building Bintan Treasure Bay, a huge 343-hectare IR.
But while the Bintan IR is still seeking approval for a casino element, there was no mention of gambling at the latest one in Batam, which will be located in the Batam Center area and will be run by international property management Aston International, the Jakarta Post reported.
In case of fire, land buffer can save lives
Grass patches prevent bush fires in forested areas from spreading to nearby buildings
Yeo Sam Jo, Straits Times 12 Mar 09;
A balance needs to be struck between maintaining the natural ecosystem and the prevention of bush fires. Apart from fire-breaking, land buffers are also useful for general land maintenance, such as preventing pest breeding and facilitating snake sightings.
BETWEEN a row of flats in Bukit Batok and a forested hill lies a wide patch of neatly trimmed grass.
To the average passer-by, it looks like any other open field, except this verge could end up saving lives. It is one of 123 land buffers created to control the spread of bush fires, said the Singapore Land Authority (SLA). The short grass ensures that any fire in the dense vegetation will not spread to the adjacent residential area.
Mr Chia Hwee Boon, SLA's senior manager of Land Asset Management Services, explained that because the grass is so short, the fire can 'burn only a bit before dying off'.
He added: 'SLA regularly trims and clears the vegetation on these land buffers, especially lallang, which easily catches fire during dry spells.'
The grass is trimmed at least twice a month and kept at no more than 7.5cm in height.
Such land buffers are found islandwide, including hot spots like Bukit Batok, Lim Chu Kang and Punggol where fires have been recurrent. More than one-third of SLA-managed sites have fire buffers. The buffers range from 2m to more than 30m in depth (the distance between an adjoining property and the existing natural terrain) and have proven effective.
When a fire raged in a field along Punggol Seventeenth Avenue last month, it stopped short upon reaching the 10m grass verge in place.
This year, the number of bush fires here has been on the rise. There were 339 blazes in the past two months alone, compared to 426 bush fires over the whole of last year.
Of these 339 bush fires, 77 of them occurred on SLA-managed state land.
Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) has attributed most of these fires to careless acts such as the littering of cigarette butts and the lighting of candles at makeshift altars.
SLA plans to re-examine each fire site, especially hot spots, and work with SCDF and the Housing Board (HDB) to determine if land buffers need to be created or widened.
About 70 per cent of hot spots on state land managed by SLA and its HDB agents have buffers already.
But buffers cannot be created everywhere. Mr Chia said that factors such as the cause of the fire, its location, and accessibility all have to be considered.
The hill on Bukit Batok West Avenue 3, for example, was the site of a series of bush fires last month, but widening the current land buffer of 2m might result in soil erosion, given the steep incline of the hill, he explained.
Instead, other measures such as paving access paths between the vegetation and installing dry hydrants to facilitate fire rescue efforts might be more appropriate. These measures are currently in the pipeline for other hot spots like Changi Coast Road.
A balance needs to be struck between maintaining the natural ecosystem and the prevention of bush fires. Said Mr Chia: 'Ultimately, we have to bear in mind not only safety, but also cost, practicality and the environment.'
Apart from fire-breaking, land buffers are also useful for general land maintenance, such as preventing pest breeding and facilitating snake sightings.
Letter from Moh Wung Hee, Director, Best Sourcing, PUB
Today Online 12 Mar 09
PUB, the national water agency, thanks Ms Mel-issa Koh for her letter “Leave my green spot alone” (Feb 27).
To augment our Newater supply system, PUB is laying a new pipeline which includes a section along Toh Tuck Road, on the opposite side of Burgundy Hill Estate. We are mindful to maintain the greenery in the area and have restricted the works to a narrow corridor of approximately 8m in width. The affected area will be returfed and the trees replanted once works are completed.
Members of the public can provide feedback to PUB’s 24-hour hotline at 1800-284 6600.
Good infrastructure and healthcareamong the reasons
Teo Xuanwei, Today Online 12 Mar 09;
THE economy and currency fluctuations are one thing, but when it comes to the intangibles that make life pleasant, Singapore is still the favourite posting — for the 10th year running — of Asian expatriates given the choice of any country in the world.
A day after a different survey reported that :Singapore had jumped five places to become the 10th costliest city in the world to live in, human resources consultancy ECA International released its ranking that takes into account quality of life.
ECA International’s regional director Lee Quane said: “Good infrastructure and healthcare facilities, low crime and health risks, and decent air quality contribute to Singapore providing the best quality of living for Asian assignees.”
Sydney was ranked second and Kobe third, for Asian expatriates. The annual survey, done in the third quarter last year, is based on data collected from 1,800 people on how 400 locations worldwide fare in categories including air quality, housing and leisure facilities.
Companies use these results to establish a hardship element, where relevant, in the pay packages of their expatriate staff.
Only five out of 49 Asian locations in the survey figured in the top 50 of Asian expatriates’ choices — but Chinese cities are climbing up the ranks.
Beijing, for instance, has moved up 13 places to 99th, a knock-on effect of improvements in infrastructure because of last year’s Olympic Games.
But poor air quality continues to be a drawback in many Asian locations, such as Hong Kong (11), Taipei (56), Kuala Lumpur (61) and Shanghai (75). Indian destinations, as a whole, have also fallen in the rankings this year for the same reason.
Among European expatriates, Singapore also emerged as their top Asian city to be posted to, ahead of Kobe and Yokohama. On the global ranks, however, Singapore was only the 54th choice of European expats.
Singapore is tops again among Asian expats
It retains No. 1 spot in poll for 10th straight year, beating 253 cities
Fiona Chan, Straits Times 12 Mar 09;
SINGAPORE has beaten the rest of the world for the 10th year running to be named the city that offers Asian expatriates the best quality of life.
According to a survey released yesterday, the city state's quality of air, infrastructure and health-care facilities kept it at No. 1. Its low crime rate also helped it retain pole position in the annual ranking by human resource consultancy ECA International.
As far as Asian expats were concerned, Singapore beat 253 other cities - including big names such as San Francisco, New York, London and Paris.
Only five Asian cities made it to the top 50 among Asian expats. Apart from Singapore, these were Japan's Tokyo, Yokohama and Kobe, along with Hong Kong, which came in 11th due to its poor air quality and inferior health facilities.
But expats from other regions appeared to be less impressed by Singapore. The city slipped in favour for all non-Asian expats, as other cities became more desirable places to live.
Expats from the Middle East ranked Singapore 25th in terms of quality of life, down from 23rd last year. Australian and New Zealand expats put Singapore in 44th spot, down from last year's 42nd.
Americans named Singapore their 54th favourite city, a drop from 50th place last year, while Europeans also ranked it 54th, down a notch from the previous 53rd.
ECA regional director Lee Quane stressed that the lower rankings were not caused by a deterioration in Singapore's quality of life.
'Basically, it is not due to any detriment on Singapore's part,' he told The Straits Times.
While Singapore's scores in all categories have remained the same as last year's, other locations have improved their scorecards, he said.
Categories looked at included climate, health services, social networks and leisure facilities.
'You need to look at where the person is coming from,' Mr Quane added. 'From a European or American perspective, there may be other cities that are more attractive. But from an Asian person's perspective, Singapore comes in at No. 1.'
Indeed, for Filipina Ditas Lopez, Singapore ranks as one of the best cities in the world.
'The transportation system is very efficient, doing business is easy and, most importantly, the quality of air is very good,' said Ms Lopez, 38, a media professional who has lived here for three years.
Bringing up the rear for Asian expats were war-torn cities such as Baghdad in Iraq and Kabul in Afghanistan. These were the least desirable locations for expatriates due to a lack of suitable facilities and high personal security risks.
Despite Singapore's relatively low global ranking among European expats, the city was their top choice in Asia, followed by Kobe, Yokohama, Hong Kong and Tokyo.
Some of the biggest improvements in quality of life were seen in Chinese cities, where facilities for visitors have improved.
Beijing, for instance, shot up 13 places to 99th spot after it upgraded its infrastructure, recreational facilities and security for the Olympic Games last year.
Conversely, Indian locations have fallen on average in this year's rankings, largely due to poorer air quality. New Delhi - ranked 187th - saw the largest deterioration in quality of living within Asia.
ECA's survey is designed to help companies establish expat allowances, which compensate staff for adapting to life in their assigned locations.
Move crucial given global calls for a new world order following crisis
Lee U-Wen, Business Times 12 Mar 09;
THE global financial crisis has sparked calls for a new world order from countries such as France, Italy, the United Kingdom and China. And Singapore too must re-evaluate its priorities - and re-order them if need be - to respond to the crisis, Education Minister Ng Eng Hen said yesterday.
While major economies such as the US, China and India will continue to wield substantial power, other nations on Singapore's radar must include resource-rich states such as those in the Middle East and Russia, Dr Ng said.
'Resource-rich states will gain prominence in the new world order,' he said at a ministerial forum hosted by Singapore Management University (SMU). 'Natural resources such as oil, gas, minerals and commodities will continue to be in great demand as the world population becomes more urbanised.'
Noting how oil prices have plunged from US$145 a barrel in July last year to just US$47 today, he said that while some oil-rich states may face a deficit in their external accounts, demand for limited energy and resources will rise in the medium term.
Singapore has to 'exploit these new realities' to put itself in a position of strength, Dr Ng, who is also Second Defence Minister, told an audience of 200 people. 'We must leverage on our reliability, trustworthiness and stability as brands.'
The role of Singapore post-crisis can take different, overlapping forms, he said, painting images of four kinds of city that Singapore can aspire to as a 'growth city' for the future.
As an 'intellectual and information' city, Singapore can be a hub for those who want to exploit new technologies, solutions and services, protect intellectual property or store valuable information. This would ensure Singapore is attractive to foreign investors, Dr Ng said.
As a 'talent city', Singapore can be a place where locals develop their potential alongside foreigners who can help produce a creative and innovative work force, he said. 'Our people need to have deep knowledge, and yet be flexible, to navigate across disciplines and fields, finding new ways of doing things.'
Singapore can also be a 'future model city' where people want to live because they seek a better and more sustainable future. And finally, it can a 'connectivity city' from which Singaporeans can easily venture overseas to expand their knowledge. 'We should also expand opportunities for groups of Singaporeans to learn different languages. This will help us service the world,' Dr Ng said.
One student observed during an hour-long dialogue that followed Dr Ng's speech that Singapore still seems to be experiencing a 'brain drain', even though it is supposed to be a magnet for talented people.
Dr Ng replied: 'It's brain circulation. We lose some but we get others coming in. On a net basis, we're a plus. But we are greedy, we want our unfair share. We try to hold on to all Singaporeans.'
He said that bright Singaporeans who the state has invested in continue to go abroad after completing their education, partly because the government has gone to great lengths to globalise them to be able to seize such opportunities.
'But we don't mind, and hope they will come back home eventually. This is all part of the system to encourage people to gain more exposure.'
Singapore must be ready for post-crisis order
Satish Cheney, Channel NewsAsia 11 Mar 09;
SINGAPORE: Singapore must be ready when the economic slump ends and when the post-crisis order takes over.
And to remain competitive, Education Minister Dr Ng Eng Hen said, the country must be known as an Intellectual and Information City, a Talent City and Global Node, a Future Model City and a Connectivity City.
Dr Ng was speaking at the second ministerial forum at the Singapore Management University (SMU).
Due to the financial crisis, Dr Ng said Singapore must re-evaluate its strategic priorities and if need be, re-order them to maintain its strength.
The minister added that the basic fundamentals that give Singapore the edge must be focused on as well. He said Singapore must be known as a place for new discoveries and an environment that is suitable for talent.
But Dr Ng warned that if the recession is prolonged, it will be a litmus test for the current generation.
He also addressed concerns about job prospects, especially for undergraduates studying financial-related courses.
He said: "What I've tried to do is to share with you where the growth areas are, where our economic strategies must be placed and you make your calculations and decide. I think you've been taught well. SMU has trained you well. You ought to be able to make the best of your opportunities."
Asked about the brain drain problem, the minister said Singapore must constantly develop opportunities to retain talent.
Dr Ng said: "For a long while, traditionally, we're just looking at maths and science and we still want to be strong in that. But we also want to layer it with different capabilities.
"I think in five to ten years, when the IRs (integrated resorts) are up and when Marina City is built, it will be a very interesting Singapore where there are more opportunities for diverse types of talents."
The minister added that over the next decade, Singapore's education system will have to evolve, as students become more articulate and become part of a generation that is more questioning.- CNA/ir
SMU MINISTERIAL FORUM
Some must-haves for Singapore to woo and retain talent
Crucial to develop new technologies, intellectual property: Ng Eng Hen
Yen Feng, Straits Times 12 Mar 09;
THE global financial crisis is a world-changing event, and Singapore has to adopt several strategies to emerge at the head of the pack when the dust clears, Education Minister Ng Eng Hen said yesterday.
He told an audience of 150 students of the Singapore Management University (SMU): 'We should be forewarned, alert and prepared. The effect on individual countries, including that on Singapore and Singaporeans, may not always be immediately apparent or easily projected.'
Dr Ng, who is also the Second Defence Minister, was speaking on what needed to be done to tackle the current crisis at the university's Ministerial Forum last evening. This was the second time the event has been held. The first, with Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan, was in 2006.
Top on the to-do list is to develop new technologies and intellectual property, which will make the Republic a draw for the best scientists and for talent from multinational companies.
Dr Ng said: 'We can strive to be a centre where information dissemination is valued, because information from Singapore can be trusted and understood as it is packaged and presented well.'
Keeping talent here is also important.
The key to doing so, he said, is to build for the nation's residents a safe, clean and comfortable environment.
High net-worth individuals are relocating out of Hong Kong because they do not like the air quality there, he noted.
'For Singapore, clean air, pure water, safe streets are must-haves.'
Two other tacks are to develop Singapore's sustainable resources - such as energy and water - and to expose its citizens to the world.
It is important to remain competitive in these areas as countries become more dependent on renewable energy, and as the world becomes increasingly connected.
The minister added that these challenges would be well-met by students of SMU, who have 'skills of adaptability and the attitude of resilience'.
His speech, 'Singapore and SMU in the New World Order', set the tone for the evening's forum, as students of the downtown university peppered him with questions ranging from the lack of campus space to how schools will meet new challenges in a flailing economy.
Miss Eng Pingni, 19, a first-year business student, wanted to know more about the Government's plan to stop the 'brain drain'. How will Singapore attract foreign talent even as it is losing local talent to countries like the United States and the United Kingdom, she asked.
Dr Ng replied: 'I think it's more of a 'brain circulation',' and added that the net result was still a plus for Singapore.
Final-year information systems student Okkar Kyaw, 23, wanted to know whether the minister would build more hostels in SMU's campus.
The minister's reply, which drew a few chuckles from the audience: 'You know, because this is a prime area, any condo built next to your school will cost a lot.
'But I take your point. Where we can find the opportunity, we shall.'
Becoming a city of four faces
Dr Ng on how Singapore can thrive in a new world order
Loh Chee Kong, Today Online 12 Mar 09;
WHILE no one knows for sure how long the recession will last, Education Minister Ng Eng Hen agrees on this: As several global figures have proclaimed in recent weeks, a New World Order is in the making.
But with history teaching the harsh lesson that small city-states often fade, when they fail to rise to the challenge of such upheavals, what must Singapore do?
One major change, for instance, is how the era of “high-spending” countries like the United States providing demand for “high-savings” countries like China is past — at least for the next decade or so, in Dr Ng’s view. The three-way dominance of the US, European Union and Japan, which has fuelled growth in Singapore and the region, is expected to shrink.
And don’t expect China to pick up the slack in demand — it could take “some 30 to 40 years” to match America’s level of consumption today.
In this new operating environment, Dr Ng said, Singapore can still prosper if it exploits the new possibilities, and strives to emerge from the crisis as a city of four faces.
Intellectual and information Mecca
Speaking at the Singapore Management University ministerial forum yesterday, he said that first, to thrive, Singapore “must be known as a place for new discoveries and innovative value-add outputs”.
Already, it is making strides in this direction: An Earth observatory has been set up at the Nanyang Technological University to study environmental threats and natural disasters, while the Republic has also become a “broadcast hub” with top names such as CNBC Asia, Discovery Channel and Disney headquartered here.
“We can build on our initial successes to become an intellectual and information Mecca,” Dr Ng said.
Some SMU students, however, were not convinced Singapore could be a hotbed of innovative ideas. During the question-and-answer session, one law undergraduate cited the People’s Action Party’s “monopoly on power” and the dominance of Government-linkedcompanies in the private sector. This impedes innovation because, the student said, “once you don’t fit into the system, you migrate”.
Dr Ng said there was “no denying” the party’s dominance, but “whether that has increased the migration figures, that’s not borne out”. The pertinent question to ask, is whether education standards have risen — and the facts are, not only are Singaporean students held in high regard by foreign universities, bright foreigners also desire to study here.
This, Dr Ng said, shows a “disjunct” in the theory that “good government stifles”.
He accepted, however, that the Government will “increasingly have to give space to citizens”, and it is in the hands of younger Singaporeans to “decide the terms of engagement”.
Talent and connectivity city
Singapore will also have to stay ahead in its bid to retain and attract talent. Here, Dr Ng gave updates on how the higher education and research scene is expanding, and how the lifestyle and environment remains attractive to foreigners.
The Republic can also remain relevant as a “future model city” to others — such as how it has set the pace with Newater, eGovernment and renewable energy.
And finally, as “connectivity city”, it can link people, regions, systems and ideas. But even as Dr Ng reiterated the Republic’s role as a bridge between East and West, another SMU student argued that Singaporeans’ competitive advantage of bilingualism is in danger of being usurped by citizens in China and Vietnam, which are fast developing a populace fluent in English.
For now, responded Dr Ng, Singapore retains the edge and must push on quicker, “be smart about what we can offer”.
He concluded: “No one can reliably predict how long this recession will last or the ramifications after the crisis. But if this recession is prolonged, it will represent the litmus test for this generation ... I am optimistic that Singaporeans as one people have the wherewithal to fight the odds.”
Straits Times 12 Mar 09;
Most of the additional 2.3b people will be from the developing countries
UNITED NATIONS: The world population is projected to exceed nine billion in 2050, up from 6.8 billion this year, according to United Nations estimates released yesterday.
Most of the additional 2.3 billion people will swell the population of the developing world, estimated to soar from 5.6 billion this year to 7.9 billion in 2050.
The 2008 Revision of the official UN population projections, however, forecasted minimal change in the population of the more developed nations, which should rise from 1.23 billion to 1.28 billion during the same period.
That figure would have in fact dipped to 1.15 billion without the projected net migration from developing countries, expected to average 2.4 million people annually from this year to 2050, it noted. The United States, Canada, Britain, Spain, Italy, Germany, Australia and France are likely to be the major net receivers of foreign migrants during this period.
Major countries of net emigration are expected to be Mexico, China, India, the Philippines and Pakistan.
Already, from 2005 to 2010, net migration will have more than doubled the contribution of natural increase (births minus deaths) to population growth in Singapore and seven other countries and regions: Belgium, Macau, Czech Republic, Luxembourg, Qatar, Slovenia and Spain.
The population of the 49 least developed nations is meanwhile slated to double from 0.84 billion this year to 1.7 billion in 2050. Growth in the rest of the Third World is estimated to be less rapid, from 4.8 billion to 6.2 billion.
But the increase in population will coincide with reduced fertility, the report said. From 2.56 children per woman in 2005 to 2010, fertility rates will fall to 2.02 children per woman in 2045 to 2050.
The data, prepared by the Population Division of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, also shows a corresponding trend of population ageing.
In the more developed countries, 22 per cent of people are already 60 and over and that proportion is expected to reach 33 per cent in 2050. By then, the number of older people in the developed world is expected to be more than twice that of children.
By contrast, just 9 per cent of the population of developing countries today is aged 60 or over but the proportion will more than double by 2050 to reach 20 per cent.
The study incorporated findings of the most up-to-date national population censuses and of several specialised population surveys conducted around the world.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Full press release with key findings (PDF) and online data on the UN website
Rachel Nowak, New Scientist 11 Mar 09;
IT IS probably the most influential barometer of extinction risk, yet the Red List is unscientific and frequently wrong. So claim a growing number of conservation scientists, including several who help compile it. While no one wants to see an end to the Red List, which covers 45,000 species, many fear that the sometimes shaky methods behind the creation of the listings are downplayed, meaning time, money and effort can be misdirected trying to save "safe" species while others creep towards extinction.
The Red List - flagship of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) - not only raises awareness and millions in conservation dollars, it provides data for environmental impact studies, and is used as a lobbying tool for new policies and to encourage governments to stick to international agreements. Its influence is continually expanding. Next year, the Convention on Biological Diversity will invoke the list to help gauge how close it is to its goal of reducing biodiversity loss.
Yet many are now questioning the list's quality. "The Red List wants to be a high standard, scientifically based, transparent system, but in reality it hasn't been," says Matthew Godfrey of the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission in Beaufort, who serves on one of the specialist groups that compiles the list.
Criticism recently came to a head in a series of articles in the journal Endangered Species Research.
Red List information is collated by around 7500 volunteers, usually linked with conservation organisations or universities, using anything from museum maps to records of the sale of animal by-products. From this, extinction risks are calculated according to IUCN criteria, such as whether the rate of decline in species numbers has passed certain thresholds.
These criteria can throw up oddball results. The green turtle, for example, is listed as endangered despite a global population of over 2 million. "Green turtles are not going to disappear," says Brendan Godley of the University of Exeter, UK, and the Marine Turtle Specialist Group. That doesn't mean we should ignore them - some populations are at serious risk from egg harvesting, for instance. "It's just not the same level of risk as a population of 50 parrots living on a small island that is being deforested."
Similar doubts hang over the listings for many other species, including the sperm whale and five other species of sea turtle, which are categorised as at risk of extinction. Their assessment is based on "decline" criteria, yet while total numbers may have plummeted, global populations remain large and viable.
This is a fundamental weakness of the Red List, says Grahame Webb of Charles Darwin University in Darwin, Australia, who suggests an additional "critically declined" category, which would act as an alert without making judgements about extinction risk.
Another problem is that the Red List criteria are difficult to apply to some species. "Thresholds are geared towards mammals," says Atte Komonen of the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Uppsala. "A thousand elephants might well be viable, but 1000 beetles is very unlikely to be, not least because they might occupy a single tree that could go up in smoke." The solution would be to tailor risk to specific taxonomic groups, Komonen suggests, in this case measuring the number of occupied trees rather than individuals.
On these points, the IUCN is standing its ground, however. "We know there are some problems that at the moment have no solution, but that's because we're working at the cutting edge of conservation science," says Craig Hilton-Taylor of the IUCN Red List Unit in Cambridge, UK. "No one has been able to come up with an alternative system that can be applied to all taxonomic groups," he points out. One argument against tailoring methods to individual species is that it would make it difficult to compare relative extinction risks.
But the problems may run deeper. Some scientists claim that a tendency to abide by the "precautionary principle" - encouraged by Red List guidelines - means that specialist groups end up demanding higher levels of proof for an increase in numbers than a decrease, ultimately exaggerating extinction risks. "There's a tension between following scientific principles or precautionary conservation principles," says Webb.
Good field data can also be hard to come by, and the fact that the list is "cobbled together" by volunteers only exacerbates this problem, says Adrian Newton of the Centre for Conservation Ecology and Environmental Change at Bournemouth University in Poole, UK. For many species, a lack of data means no assessment at all or relegation to the "data deficient" category. The Amazon river dolphin, for example, recently shifted from "vulnerable" to "data deficient". The IUCN emphasises that this does not mean a species is in the clear, but the listing might not be helpful. "Data deficient species tend to be neglected in terms of conservation management," says Steven Garnett, also at Charles Darwin University in Darwin.
For an untold number, though, gaps are filled in myriad ways, including extrapolation and using guesstimates. Take the African elephant, which was moved off the high-risk list last year. Though elephants are well studied, and far more information is available to assess their extinction risk than for most species, much of it is poor quality. Yet if only the robust data had been used, "we would have recorded a massive and spurious increase" says Julian Blanc, former manager of the African elephant database, who is based in Nairobi, Kenya. Instead, he and his colleagues opted to pool all the data they had no matter how shaky.
Those who run and helped design the Red List do not see this as a problem, pointing out that the system is designed to gauge extinction risk quickly. "There's a perception that lots of guesstimates are going on. That may be true, but it's not unreasonable," says Georgina Mace of Imperial College London, who defined the methodology with Russell Lande, also at Imperial. The list "does what a triage nurse does - look for symptoms that there is a problem. The next cut is to look and see whether you need to do anything."
In reality, "the best thing that can happen to a species is to be listed. People pay attention, and the species does better," says Jon Paul Rodriguez at the Venezuelan Institute of Scientific Investigations in Caracas, who is deputy chair of the IUCN Species Survival Commission.
Yet even though the IUCN frequently points out that the Red List should not be used alone to set conservation priorities, it often is, and this means money can be wasted on species that could be better spent elsewhere (see "Deciding what to save"). "The Red List is a framework to make the best guess you can. The process is supposed to capture that uncertainty, but the uncertainty is not transmitted when the results are published, or used to inform policy," says Newton, who argues that the Red List should not be used to judge the success of the 2010 goal of the Convention on Biological Diversity next year.
"The Red List is an unbelievably powerful, innovative conservation tool that has captured the world's imagination," says Webb. "But it needs to continue to improve, to become more accurate."
Deciding what to save
The Red List is often used to decide how best to spend conservation dollars, but is there a better way?
Previous attempts to make such decisions more rational, by using a scoring system, for example, have all failed to take two vital factors adequately into account, says Hugh Possingham of the University of Queensland in St Lucia, Australia. These are the likelihood of success and the limiting role of money.
To get around that, Possingham and his team developed what they call the Project Prioritization Protocol, which works in the same way as a business cost-effectiveness analysis (Conservation Biology, DOI: 10.1111/j.1523-1739.2008.01124.x).
The team tested the PPP on 32 threatened species, with a fixed budget. When species were classified only by their evolutionary uniqueness, or "worth", there was money to save 11 species. When they were prioritised according to worth, cost of saving, probability of success and expected benefit, 16 could be saved. "The formula allows you to rationally trade off different factors and mathematically optimise the allocation of funds," says Possingham.
In the last two years, New Zealand's Department of Conservation has used the PPP to prioritise which of its 649 most-threatened species to save.
Red List of endangered species 'inaccurate' claim conservationists
A high-profile list of endangered species is inaccurate and could be hampering efforts to protect other animals, conservationists have warned.
Patricia Resende and Kate Devlin, The Telegraph 11 Mar 09;
The annual Red List is wrongly directing time and money to save "safe" species, while others move towards extinction, they claim.
They criticised the designation of green turtles as "at risk", when they have a global population of more than two million.
"The Red List should be a high standard, scientifically based, transparent system, but in reality it hasn't been," Matthew Godfrey, of the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission in Beaufort, told New Scientist magazine.
"Green turtles are not going to disappear", said Dr Brendan Godley of the University of Exeter and the Marine Turtle Specialist Group.
Although some populations of green turtle are at serious risk from egg harvesting, "it's just not the same level of risk as a population of 50 parrots living on a small island that are being deforested," he added.
Similar doubts surround the sperm whale and five other species of sea turtle, categorised as at risk of extinction because numbers are falling, even though overall populations remain large.
Data for the list is collected by around 7,500 volunteers, usually linked with conservation organizations or universities.
From this, extinction risks are calculated by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
Species are placed "at risk" if their numbers fall below set thresholds.
But these can throw up inconsistencies and some conservationists claim they are biased towards mammals.
Scientists also condemned the "precaution principle" encouraged by the Red List.
This results in groups demanding stronger proof that species numbers have risen than fallen, potentially exaggerating extinction risks.
"There is a tension between following scientific principles or precautionary conservation principles", said Grahame Webb of Charles Darwin University in Darwin, Australia.
The Red List, which covers 45,000 species, raises millions of pounds to protect wildlife across the world.
Craig Hilton-Taylor, who manages the IUCN red list in Cambridge, said: "We know there are some problems that at the moment have no solution but that's because we're working at the cutting edge of conservation science.
"No one has been able to come up with an alternative system that can be applied to all taxonomic groups."
The Star 12 Mar 09;
I REFER to the report “Tioman Airport Extension off” (The Star, March 8) and the letter from MNS “It’s good to know Tioman will not be spoilt after all” (The Star, March 10).
It is indeed great news and a major advancement in Malaysia’s awareness for the preservation of the environment.
Good on you, Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat! Thank you for personally going through the pros and cons of the project in the various reports, and you were correct in being concerned about the negative impact on the corals and marine life in Pulau Tioman Marine Park.
The Malaysian Nature Society is to be commended for its tireless efforts in promoting marine awareness and conservation.
Others who deserve the same recognition are the environmentally-concerned locals of Pulau Tioman, the short-handed but dedicated staff of the Marine Parks Department of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, all the marine scientists involved, Seabuds, and of course, all passionate marine nature-loving Malaysians who have contributed in their own way towards the conservation of Pulau Tioman.
We need detailed on-site information of future development to be able to make informed decisions.
We must remember that only seven per cent of our Malaysian reefs are protected because they lie within Marine Parks (Status of Coral Reefs of the World, 2008). Why then should we think of destroying even that little portion of protected reefs which contribute so much to the wellbeing and livelihood of our people?
Malaysian reefs are highly diverse in species, especially in Sabah which forms part of the “Coral Triangle” of the world. The question now is: what of the planned Mabul Oceanarium project in Sabah?
AFFENDI YANG AMRI,
Universiti Malaya,
Kuala Lumpur.
Solomon Times 12 Mar 09;
Pacific Regional Environment Programme
Press Release - Marine turtle conservation efforts throughout the Pacific region are driven by the sad fact that all marine turtle species are now experiencing serious threats to their survival.
When over 30 Marine turtle conservationists and specialists from the Pacific Islands region came together to "talk turtle" in February, it led to outcomes to enhance the work of saving our marine turtles.
The Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), in collaboration with WWF South Pacific Programme and the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), coordinated the two-day Pacific islands region marine turtle meeting in Australia prior to the International Sea Turtle Society's 29th Symposium on Sea Turtle Biology and Conservation.
It was an opportunity for members of government, non-governmental organisations (NGO's) and marine turtle specialists to meet and update on implementation of the regional Marine Turtle Action Plan (MTAP) 2008 - 2012. Bringing everyone together to discuss this, also allowed for opportunities with donor organisations to understand and learn more about the different turtle conservation developments on the ground.
"An important action in the MTAP 2008-2012 concerns reporting and in 2008 a questionnaire was sent to member countries so we could be updated on turtle conservation work in the region. However there are quite a lot of activities that we are not aware of, as the driver behind a lot of the work are NGO's." said SPREP's Marine Species Officer, Lui Bell.
"It was at this meeting we could sit and discuss what is being done for turtle conservation around the region, now that one year has elapsed since the start of the revised MTAP 2008-2012."
The meeting also stressed the need for more Pacific-wide collaboration and information sharing with research on nesting populations, as well as on other initiatives including collection of turtle tissue samples to help in the identification of turtle stocks in the region. Countries committed to improving data with assistance from SPREP and other collaborators. Important too, was the need to standardise method of monitoring turtle nesting for comparable analysis of data.
"We'll do a form as a template to share out with all the countries, although some of those who attended were of a policy level. We will also send all presentations to the technical people we normally work with as well so we have a consistency in turtle data collection and analysis."
Most recent data collected by SPREP involved the Leatherback turtle nest survey in Bouganville with SPREP staff assisting with a ground survey - http://www.sprep.org/article/news_detail.asp?id=610. It was during this survey that 46 nests were found in all with 12 determined to belong to green and hawskbill species.
For the last four years SPREP has been working to initiate the development of a Memorandum of Understanding under the Convention of Migratory Species (CMS) for marine turtles. Thhis was approved by the CMS Conference of the Parties in 2005 and also by the two subsequent SPREP Annual meetings. However, to date very little progress has been made toward developing the MOU.
At the two-day meeting in Australia, some felt that it might be necessary to conduct an analysis of existing agreements or other form of arrangements to determine whether such an MoU was necessary. It was also recommended that another meeting be held to discuss the matter and encourage further development.
Bell is keen to see an MoU established for marine turtles in the Pacific, under the Convention of Migratory species.
"We perceive there to be a huge gap in the region for marine turtles. The East has the Inter-America Convention for the Protection and Conservation of Sea Turtles (IAC) and the West has the Indian Ocean-South-east Asian sea Turtle MoU (IOSEA), but the middle of the Pacific does not have any specific agreement to help conserve marine turtles, despite all the endorsement given for one. We still need to work on it with CMS and CMS Oceania Parties; we just have to move ahead."
The Pacific regional meeting was scheduled before the International sea turtle symposium in Australia this year. The international event staged by the International Marine Turtle Society was an opportunity to meet, as well as to have a large Pacific islands delegation at the symposium.
Anne Patricia Trevor, SPREP's Associate Turtles Database Officer believes the symposium was an eye opener for a lot of the Pacific islanders that attended.
"The good thing about this symposium is that it helped Pacific islanders learn more about the different turtle conservation work that is happening around the world. It was a chance for us to see all the many things that are being carried out worldwide; that the endangered marine turtle is not just a Pacific issue - its happening everywhere."
The Pacific island region marine turtle meeting was held on February 14 and 15, with the International Sea Turtle Symposium held from 17-19 February.
Participation of Pacific Island countries and territories was supported by financial assistance from the Western Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Council, AusAID, Department of Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts (DEWHA-Australia), WWF SPP, IFAW and SPREP.
Ben Block, World Watch 10 Mar 09;
Cargo vessels carry 10 billion tons of ballast water across the globe each year and transfer more than 3,000 plant species daily.
A partnership between the United Nations and global shipping companies will attempt to control the overseas travel of unwelcome invasive species, the international agency announced last week.
The collaboration, known as the Global Industry Alliance, will encourage the shipping industry to share approaches on limiting the number of invasive species transferred in ballast water, the leading cause of introducing a marine alien species.
The International Maritime Organization (IMO), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Global Environment Facility (GEF), and four private shipping corporations form the alliance. The groups hope to develop cost-effective ballast water treatment technologies, such as new efforts to create a "ballast-free" ship, a joint statement said.
"Without a doubt, this is the first of its type [for marine invasive species control]," said Andrew Hudson, the UNDP principal technical adviser on international water issues. "It's a unique public-private partnership. For the IMO, there's hope in principle for replication along other shipping issues."
Unloaded cargo vessels fill up with ballast water to provide stability on the high seas. The process enables plants and animals to enter the ship, where they are stored until the vessel deposits the ballast water at its destination.
The IMO estimates that cargo vessels carry 10 billion tons of ballast water across the globe each year and transfer more than 3,000 plant species daily.
Harmful non-native species, such as the comb jelly in the Black Sea and zebra mussel in the U.S. Great Lakes, have overtaken habitats and fundamentally altered the marine areas' ecological balance. Once established, alien species are often impossible to remove.
"We should look at this innovative alliance and its expected outcomes as a development that sends an optimistic message to the global community that, while the challenges appear to be significant, they are not insurmountable," said IMO Secretary-General Efthimios Mitropoulos in a press release
The alliance noted that the shipping industry currently manages "very little" ballast water specifically to limit the spread of foreign marine species.
Four major shipping corporations joined the alliance's launch: APL, BP Shipping, Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering, and Vela Marine International. More companies have expressed interest in joining, the IMO said.
Several new technologies are being developed to remove invasive species from ballast water, including the use of heat treatment, biodegradable chemicals, and electrochemical control.
At a ballast water treatment conference in Singapore last year, Hudson said he came across at least 12 different processes. "A blossoming multi-million dollar market is being developed to respond to this issue," he said.
The IMO announcement singled out ballast-free ships, also known as flow-thru ballast tanks, as a possible cost-effective option. A University of Michigan-designed ballast-free ship continuously runs local seawater through a network of large pipes below the vessel's waterline, rather than haul the same water between regions.
A new oceangoing bulk carrier costs about $70 million. Without the costs of conventional filtration systems or ballast tanks, however, a ballast-free design could save about $540,000 per ship, according to a university press release.
In recent years, the IMO has also developed legislative mechanisms to control marine invasive species. The international community agreed that shipping industries would treat the outside of ships, where invasive species such as barnacles often attach themselves, in a treaty that came into force last year.
A separate treaty that focuses specifically on the management of ballast water has not been supported by the 30 countries needed for it to enter into force. Still, Hudson said key nations such as Panama and Liberia are expressing interest. "There's very little perceptible private sector resistance or opposition or lobbying," Hudson said. "There's generally strong support."
Researchers from The Nature Conservancy published the first global assessment of marine invasive species last year in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. The review counted 329 marine invasive species, with 84 percent of the world's 232 marine ecoregions having at least one species present.
The highest levels of invasion were found along the Northern California coast and Hawaiian Islands, and in the North Sea and eastern Mediterranean Sea. An estimated 16 percent of marine regions had no reported invasions, but the study warned that research is lagging in many areas of the world.
The study found the shipping industry to be the most common pathway for invasive marine species. An estimated 228 marine species are transported through ballast water or on a vessel's exterior, and about 57 percent of those species are considered harmful when introduced into non-native ecosystems.
Ben Block is a staff writer with the Worldwatch Institute. He can be reached at bblock@worldwatch.org.
This article is a product of Eye on Earth, Worldwatch Institute's online news service. For permission to reprint Eye on Earth content, please contact Juli Diamond at jdiamond@worldwatch.org.
Yahoo News 11 Mar 09;
MONTREAL (AFP) – A Quebec environmental group on Wednesday called on the European Parliament not to ban seal products, saying it would hurt the Gulf of Saint Lawrence ecosystem and local communities.
Nature Quebec, part of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), said in a letter to EU parliamentarians that a proposed ban "could have grave consequences" for residents of the Magdalen Islands and Newfoundland province.
If the 350-year-old seal hunt were stopped now it also would damage the "ecological balance" of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, it said.
The group cites studies which found that the seal population, if unchecked, would boom and threaten North Atlantic cod stocks.
It also notes that the annual cull does not threaten the local seal population, estimated at 5.5 million in 2006.
Last week, the European Union's legislative branch voted to ban products derived from seals from being imported into the EU, exported from it, or even transported through EU territory.
The Canadian government responded with an ardent defense of the "humaneness" of seal-hunting and rejected efforts to outlaw the practice.
The full European Parliament is to vote on the ban at a April 1 plenary session in Brussels. The measure also has to be approved by EU governments before it can be implemented.
Each year, animal rights groups clash with sealers and Canadian fisheries officials on Canada's Atlantic coast, denouncing the hunt as cruel.
"In our opinion, the international campaign against (the hunt) has no scientific foundation and has nothing to do with the way the animals are treated," Nature Quebec said.
The group's director Christian Simard told AFP: "From an ecological standpoint, widespread opposition to the seal hunt is due to the graphic nature of bloody images of seals being clubbed to death."
Seals are hunted mainly for their pelts, but also for meat and fat, which is used in beauty products.
According to the European Commission, Canada, Greenland, and Namibia account for about 60 percent of the 900,000 seals hunted each year, with Canada being the biggest source.
Seals are also hunted in Iceland, Norway, Russia, and the United States as well as in EU member states Britain, Finland and Sweden.
Stephen Brown, Reuters 11 Mar 09;
ROME (Reuters) - Anti-whaling groups fear South Korea and other countries will try to resume whaling if Japan gets permission for limited catches on its coasts in return for stopping so-called "scientific" whaling in Antarctica.
Lobby groups following an International Whaling Commission (IWC) panel meeting in Rome ending on Wednesday said diplomatic efforts for a compromise with Japan could, by creating a new "coastal" catch category, open up a new loophole for whaling.
IWC Chairman Bill Hogarth said in a statement after the Rome talks that "opinions differ among the members" but that he hoped for agreement by the IWC's annual meeting in Madeira in June.
Japan officially observes the 1986 global moratorium on whaling -- unlike Iceland and Norway, which ignore it and carry out commercial whaling. But Japan still catches about 900 whales a year in Antarctic waters for what it calls research purposes.
Japan, which defends its right to scientific catches and says killing whales is no different from slaughtering any other animal, has also long sought a quota of 150 minke whales for coastal areas it says have been impoverished by the moratorium.
Most of the meat from scientific catches still ends up on dinner tables, angering animal welfare groups around the world who argue that many species face extinction and that explosive harpoons used by whalers can cause horrific suffering.
"DANGEROUS PRECEDENT"
A panel of the IWC -- set up in 1946 to conserve stocks -- is seeking a compromise deal for its annual meeting in Madeira in June to let Japan hunt minkes off its coast in return for ending Antarctic whaling or limiting it to sustainable levels.
"This sets a really dangerous precedent which South Korea underlined by saying that 'if Japan has impoverished coastal communities and wants a quota, then so have we'," said Claire Bass of the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA).
"This would open the floodgates for commercial whaling," the WSPA marine mammal programme manager told Reuters in Rome.
Nicolas Entrup, spokesman for the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS), said minke whales in Korean waters already faced extinction because of "by-catching" -- when whales are accidentally caught in fishing nets, then sold for eating -- and would face an accelerated threat if Korea resumes whaling.
"We should be closing the loopholes that permit whaling rather than creating new loopholes," Entrup told Reuters.
Korean whaling helped supply the Japanese market for much of the 20th century, especially during Japanese occupation. It had a "scientific" catch of about 69 whales in 1986 but has since mostly abided by the global moratorium declared that year.
(Editing by Jon Boyle)
Whaling opponents slam commission over Japan talks
Gina Doggett Yahoo News 11 Mar 09;
ROME (AFP) – Whale campaigners on Wednesday slammed the International Whaling Commission over negotiations that may allow Japan to conduct commercial whaling near its coast while scaling down its activities in the Antarctic.
During three days of talks in Rome, South Korea said it may start commercial whaling if Japan wins the controversial compromise.
Conservationists slammed the development, while saying it was not unexpected.
"We've been warning all along that if Japan gets a deal other countries are going to want part of the action," Sue Fisher, policy director for North America for the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS), told AFP.
Japan hunts hundreds of whales a year in the Pacific and Antarctic using a loophole in a 1986 IWC moratorium that allows "lethal scientific research" on the ocean giants.
Norway hunts whales on the strength of a formal reservation to the moratorium, while Iceland has set its own quota in defiance of the ban.
"Coastal whaling (for Japan) would legitimise what Iceland and Norway are doing," WDCS spokesman Nicolas Entrup told AFP. "The reputation of an international treaty needs to be held up."
Greenpeace issued a terse statement saying "no whales were saved" at the IWC meeting, which it described as "disturbingly uneventful" while calling for "an urgent plan of action that would stop whaling in Antarctic waters and begin the modernisation of the IWC."
The head of the 63-year-old IWC, which is to hold its annual meeting in Madeira, Portugal, June 22-26, voiced "cautious optimism" after the Rome talks.
"I am heartened at ... the general commitment to continue to further develop a set of proposals that can command broad agreement," said IWC chairman William Hogarth of the United States in a statement.
The IWC also "deplored acts of violence against ships and once again unanimously called for action to be taken by the relevant authorities," the statement said, referring to alleged attacks by anti-whaling campaigners on Japanese research vessels.
Ahead of the Rome meeting, US President Barack Obama's administration stated its firm opposition to commercial whaling.
"It is our view that any package, to be acceptable, must result in a significant improvement in the conservation status of whales," said Nancy Sutley, chair of the White House's Council on Environmental Quality.
Hogarth, who was appointed by former president George W. Bush, crafted the planned compromise with Japan in a bid to salvage the the 84-member IWC from collapse.
Japan has repeatedly threatened to leave the IWC if the body does not shift to what Tokyo believes is its original purpose -- managing a sustainable kill of whales.
Japan defends whaling as a tradition and accuses Westerners of disrespecting its culture.
Tokyo also asserts that the treaty requires that the "by-products" of the research are not wasted, and that the income from the sale of the meat partially offsets the cost of the research.
Japan's "political will is far greater than the combined political will of the pro-conservation governments," Fisher told AFP. "The whaling issue could be resolved very quickly if the right people paid attention to it."
Human impacts on whales have skyrocketed since the IWC was created, she said, citing climate change, pollution and fishing.
"Of all the threats to whales the one that's the simplest to fix is whaling," she said, adding that the commission "needs to reflect the reality of the situation now."
For Sara Holden of Greenpeace International, the irony is that there is "virtually no market for whale meat in Japan. It's not economically viable, and the science is neither needed nor wanted."
Greenpeace has conducted opinion polls among 15-to-59-year-olds in Japan finding that 90 percent of respondents "either never or very rarely eat" whale meat, said Holden, Greenpeace's international whales campaign coordinator.
Simon Gardner, PlanetArk 12 Mar 09;
PUERTO CHACABUCO - A deadly fish virus and scarce credit have clobbered the salmon sector in Chile, the world's No. 2 producer, and industry workers like Cecilia Leue are panicked.
Packing choice cuts of bright orange Atlantic salmon at a plant in the town of Puerto Chacabuco in Chilean Patagonia, dressed from head to toe in white plastic overalls, Leue has watched the industry shed 6,000 jobs since infectious salmon anemia (ISA) emerged in 2007. She worries she could be next
"Fish is the only industry here. The issue of the ISA virus worries us a lot," the 20-year-old said through a mask.
"Scarce work because of the ISA virus affects us all," she added, stacking packets of salmon destined for a supermarket in Germany. "We are all worried how the market will react."
Leue and a team of around 650 workers wash, decapitate, gut, section and pack around 110 tonnes of Atlantic salmon a day.
Chile exported a record 445,000 tonnes of salmon and trout in 2008, worth just under $2.4 billion, up sharply from 2007 levels of 397,000 tonnes as salmon farmers harvested fish early to avoid ISA, which is like a deadly flu or cold for the most common Salar species, or Atlantic salmon.
But Chile's leading industry association, SalmonChile, expects output to fall around 30 percent in 2009 to around 320,000 tonnes because early harvesting will mean production gaps this year and sees similar output levels in 2010.
It expects to see a recovery in 2011. Salmon is one of Chile's main exports after copper, fruit and wood pulp.
Demand for salmon is firm on international markets and prices are near record highs despite the impact of the global crisis, industry officials say, but the crisis is closing avenues to financing needed to combat the virus.
DOUBLE-WHAMMY
"We call it the perfect storm," said Emilio Rodriguez, who heads operations for Acuinova Chile in the Chacabuco area, part of the Pescanova group which is one of Chile's top 10 producers. "The industry is being pounded on two sides."
"You have the outside world, which will not finance you in times of (global) crisis ... and to that you have to add the sanitary crisis affecting the industry."
Atlantic salmon takes three years to grow from egg to adult, so early harvest means producers miss out on harvesting fully-grown fish later in the cycle.
"We know it is a crisis which is going to last all of 2009 and part of 2010," said Rodriguez, whose company has turned increasingly from Atlantic salmon to other species like Cojo salmon favored in Japan and trout, to which ISA is not fatal.
World No. 1 seafood producer, Norway's Marine Harvest, the biggest industry player in Chile, said last month a "dramatic" deterioration in Chile meant it would no longer be able to break even in that market this year. It expects sales volumes will fall to 30,000 tonnes in 2009.
Chile's salmon industry has faced a series of fish diseases in recent years, as well as algae.
Multiexport Foods, a leading Chilean salmon producer, said on Wednesday it had been hit by an algae bloom in southern Chile that can kill fish via asphyxia. Its shares fell nearly 7 percent after the news.
Chile's salmon industry is implementing a series of reforms to try and combat ISA, taking lessons from other producers like Norway, Canada, Scotland and the Faroe Islands, who have all fought the virus.
Environmental groups accuse Chile's salmon industry of poor sanitary conditions. They complain that submerged cages are overcrowded with salmon, and that producers use too many chemicals and antibiotics.
Producers are trying to spread fish out more to avoid virus contagion and isolate affected populations. They also are taking steps to improve plant cleaning and water treatment. But they are struggling to raise the $250 million it will cost to carry out those measures.
"(The global crisis) has an impact, not on the demand side ... but on the financing side for all the changes that need to be implemented," said Rodrigo Infante, CEO of SalmonChile.
However ISA is deemed not harmful to humans and producers say they can continue to export even affected fish.
"You can't tell if a fish has ISA or not, but it is important to make clear there is no health problem for humans," said Victor Soto, who manages the production floor of Acuinova's plant in Puerto Chacabuco, which lies 1,010 miles south of the capital, Santiago.
(Editing by David Gregorio)
Richard Ingham Yahoo News 11 Mar 09;
PARIS (AFP) – Surging population growth, climate change, reckless irrigation and chronic waste are placing the world's water supplies at threat, a landmark UN report said on Wednesday.
Compiled by 24 UN agencies, the 348-page document gave a grim assessment of the state of the planet's freshwater, especially in developing countries, and described the outlook for coming generations as deeply worrying.
Water is part of the complex web of factors that determine prosperity and stability, it said.
Lack of access to water helps drive poverty and deprivation and breeds the potential for unrest and conflict, it warned.
"Water is linked to the crises of climate change, energy and food supplies and prices, and troubled financial markets," the third World Water Development Report said.
"Unless their links with water are addressed and water crises around the world are resolved, these other crises may intensify and local water crises may worsen, converging into a global water crisis and leading to political insecurity at various levels."
The report pointed to a double squeeze on fresh water.
On one side was human impact. There were six billion humans in 2000, a tally that has already risen to 6.5 billion and could scale nine billion by 2050.
Population growth, especially in cities in poor countries, is driving explosive demand for water, prompting rivers in thirsty countries to be tapped for nearly every drop and driving governments to pump out so-called fossil water, the report said.
These are aquifers that are hundreds of thousands of years old and whose extraction is not being replenished by rainfall. Mining them for water today means depriving future generations of liquid treasure.
Fuelling this is misuse or abuse of water, through pollution, unbridled irrigation, pipe leakage and growing of water-craving crops in deserts.
Applying pressure from the other side is climate change, said the report.
Shifts to weather systems, unleashed by man-made global warming, will alter rainfall patterns and reduce snow melt, scientists say.
The water report was first issued in 2003 and is updated every three years. The latest issue, entitled "Water in a Changing World," is published ahead of the fifth World Water Forum, taking place in Istanbul from March 16 to 22.
The mammoth document made these points:
-- DEMOGRAPHIC GROWTH is boosting water stress in developing countries, where hydrological resources are often meagre. The global population is growing by 80 million people a year, 90 percent of it in poorer countries. Demand for water is growing by 64 billion cubic metres (2.2 trillion cubic feet) per year, roughly equivalent to Egypt's annual water demand today.
-- In the past 50 years, EXTRACTION from rivers, lakes and aquifers has tripled to help meet population growth and demands for water-intensive food such as rice, cotton, dairy and meat products. Agriculture accounts for 70 percent of the withdrawals, a figure that reaches more than 90 percent in some developing countries.
-- ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION from water pollution and excessive extraction now costs many billions of dollars. Damage in the Middle East and North Africa, the world's most water-stressed region, amounts to some nine billion dollars a year, or between 2.1-7.4 percent of GDP.
-- The outlook is mixed for key UN MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS, which in 2000 set the deadline of 2015 for halving the number of people without access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation. The target on drinking water is on track but the tally of people without improved sanitation will have decreased only slightly by 2015, from 2.5 billion to 2.4 billion.
-- Water stress, amplified by climate change, will pose a mounting SECURITY CHALLENGE. The struggle for water could threaten fragile states and drive regional rivalry.
"Conflicts about water can occur at all scales," the report warned, adding: "Hydrologic shocks that may occur through climate change increase the risk of major national and international security threats, especially in unstable areas."
-- Between 92.4 billion and 148 billion dollars are needed annually in INVESTMENT to build and maintain water supply systems, sanitation and irrigation. China and developed countries in Asia alone face financial needs of 38.2-51.4 billion dollars each year.
-- CONSERVATION and reuse of water, including recycled sewage, are the watchwords of the future. The report also stressed sustainable water management, with realistic PRICING to curb waste. It gave the example of India where free or almost-free water had led to huge waste in irrigation, causing soils to be waterlogged and salt-ridden.
Action Needed To Avoid World Water Crisis, U.N. Says
Patrick Worsnip, PlanetArk 12 Mar 09;
UNITED NATIONS - The world needs to act urgently to avoid a global water crisis due to increased population, rising living standards, dietary changes and more biofuels production, the United Nations warned on Thursday.
By 2030, nearly half of the world's people will be living in areas of acute water shortage, said a report jointly produced by more than two dozen U.N. bodies and issued ahead of a major conference on water to be held in Istanbul next week.
The report, "Water in a Changing World," made "clear that urgent action is needed if we are to avoid a global water crisis," said a foreword by Koichiro Matsuura, head of the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
"Despite the vital importance of water to all aspects of human life, the sector has been plagued by a chronic lack of political support, poor governance and underinvestment."
"As a result, hundreds of millions of people around the world remain trapped in poverty and ill health and exposed to the risk of water-related disasters, environmental degradation and even political instability and conflict," Matsuura said.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has repeatedly identified water shortage as a major underlying cause of the conflict in Darfur, western Sudan, which began with a rebellion against the central government six years ago. Water is also a major issue between Israel and its Arab neighbors.
The world's population of 6.6 billion is forecast to rise by 2.5 billion by 2050, with most of the growth in developing countries, many in regions where water is already scarce.
The growth rate means demand for fresh water is increasing by 64 billion cubic meters a year, the report said. Authors told a news conference that most of North Africa and the Middle East had already reached the limits of their water resources.
BIOFUELS RISK
Migration from the countryside to cities was also increasing water use, the 318-page report said, as was growing consumption of meat -- the production of which requires more water than vegetables -- in China and elsewhere.
The report added to recent U.N. warnings about the downsides of developing biofuels to replace heavily polluting hydrocarbons as an energy source, because of the water needed to grow crops like corn and sugar cane to produce ethanol.
Saying about 2,500 liters of water is needed to make 1 liter of biofuel, it said implementing all current national biofuel policies and plans would take 180 cubic kilometers of extra irrigation water and 30 million hectares of cropland.
"The impact could be large for some countries, including China and India, and for some regions of large countries, such as the United States," it said. "There could also be significant implications for water resources, with possible feedback into global grain markets."
When oil prices peaked at over $140 a barrel last year, "the kneejerk reaction was 'well, we are going to grow our energy - biofuels.' But nobody took account of how much water it was going to require," William Cosgrove, coordinator of the report, told journalists.
On the positive side, the report pointed to successful water policies in Uganda and Turkey and said a U.N. goal of halving the population lacking access to safe drinking water by 2015 would be achieved except in sub-Saharan Africa.
But it said in many countries water policies failed to make any impact because key decisions affecting water were made in other sectors of the economy.
Government and business leaders needed to act now to boost investment in water infrastructure, it said, adding, "Unsustainable management and inequitable access to water resources cannot continue."
China's massive tree-planting scheme masks disastrous deforestation and damage to biodiversity thanks to the country's insatiable desire for wood
Jonathan Watts, guardian.co.uk 11 Mar 09;
Viewed from the snow-covered hills of Tangwanghe, the forests of China's Great Green Wall seem to stretch out endlessly towards the horizon.
The man-made ecological barrier is designed to halt sand and dust storms, just as the original 2,500-year-old Great Wall was built to keep out the Mongol hordes.
But today as millions of Chinese people seek to reinforce the barrier on National Tree-Planting Day, the greater threat comes from within, as a result of an unsustainable demand for wood.
Every March 12 an estimated 3m party members, civil servants, model workers, and state leaders take up shovels for the country's biggest green propaganda event. As well as raising awareness, they are fulfilling a legal duty for everyone over the age of eleven to plant at least three Poplar, Eucalyptus, Larch or other saplings every year.
Many are planted in the northern shelterbelt, also known as the Great Green Wall. Initiated in 1978, the tree belt is supposed to stretch 4,480 km from western Xinjiang to eastern Heilongjiang to protect cities and cropland from floods and the desert.
If the plan is completed as scheduled in 2050, trees will cover over 400m hectares or 42% of China's landmass, creating arguably the biggest man-made carbon sponge on the planet. China overtook the US as the largest carbon emitter in 2007, although its greenhouse gas emissions per capita are still much lower.
But the mind-boggling statistics mask a calamitous decline of China's forest quality, diminishing biodiversity and extra pressure on woodland overseas to satisfy an appetite for timber that has – until the economic crisis - grown enormously in the past 10 years.
At Yichun, a north-eastern city in Heilongjiang province close to the frozen river border with Siberia, the forests were once so dense that the area was known as the Great Northern Wilderness. But more than fifty years of unsustainable logging have taken their toll. Yichun was classified last year as one of China's 12 "resource-depleted cities."
"We are in a situation where we have no wood to cut. None of the forests are mature enough," Dong Zhiyong, former vice-minister in the forestry administration said.
The dire environmental consequences have been apparent for more than a decade now. The loss of forest and grass cover has exposed the soil to erosion and led to dust storms. With fewer trees to retain water, Heilongjiang has suffered devastating floods.
The government has tightened logging restrictions and increased reforestation efforts, including aerial seeding of remote areas. Lumberjacks in Yichun have been told that they must soon lay down their chainsaws.
Hou Zhengkuan accepted change was inevitable. "The forests are thinning. There are fewer and fewer trees. The whole mountain will be closed off in two years."
To create alternative jobs, the nearby town of Tangwanghe was named late last year as China's first national park, loosely modelled on Yellowstone in the United States.
"We are pioneers. The idea is to protect the ecosystem on a large scale, develop seven tourist sites and to help local people get rich," explains the town's young tourist chief, Ma Shengli. But apart from a few small birds, there is little sign of wildlife.
The main attractions of the park are granite formations with colourful names, such as Kissing Boulders, Drunken Tortoise and Pine Teasing Golden Toad.
The decline of biodiversity is a problem across China. Although tree coverage has increased from 12% to 18% of the nation's land area, many saplings are planted in semi-desert areas where they deplete water supplies. Even in Heilongjiang, the amount of life underneath the canopies is declining as a result of over-hunting, fungus-and-herb gathering and the tendency of foresters to replace old growth forests with blocks of fast-growing trees.
"China plants more trees than the rest of the world combined," says John McKinnon, the head of the EU-China Biodiversity Programme. "But the trouble is they tend to be monoculture plantations. They are not places where birds want to live."
The vulnerability of the new forest stock was evident last year when winter storms destroyed 10% of these thin barriers. The World Bank has advised China to concentrate more on quality than quantity.
But it will take decades. There is almost no old-growth left in China.
Until the economic crisis, the global demand for wood rose sharply. The biggest consumer was China. Since domestic logging was restricted in 1998, the volume of wood entering China has risen ninefold. Some is processed for overseas markets, but most logs are consumed domestically for construction timber. This demand has accelerated illegal deforestation in South America, Africa and Indonesia.
The biggest supplier by far is Russia, which provides 60% of the logs that come into China. As buildings go up in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chongqing, the vast Taiga boreal forests of Siberia are being flattened. At current harvesting rates, the Russian far east could be logged out in 20 years, according to a study by the Beijing Forestry University.
The economic crisis could help. Forestry officials and processing firms say demand for wood is plummeting though it is too early to say how far. In the meantime, China hopes to ease the sand storms and its carbon guilt by mass campaigns.
At Tangwanghe, the ground is still frozen too hard for locals to join in National Tree Planting Day, but they will catch up after the spring thaw. This year, the local governments plans to plant 750,000 trees in the mountains and 1,500 in the town to spruce up the streets for the hoped-for influx of tourists.
Although tree-planting is a civic duty, the new National Park will pay former loggers to do the job. "Forestry is our business," says the tourist chief Ma. "Voluntary tree planting doesn't really work. You see that every year. It's all for show."Biodiversity vs carbon absorbtion
Although it was initially conceived as a barrier against the desert, China's Great Green Wall is increasingly used as a defence against accusations of climate change irresponsibility.
The mass tree-planting required for this and other projects has given China the biggest artificial forest in the world, covering more than 500,000 square kilometres, or twice the size of Britain.
While blocks of monoculture tree plantations are criticised as a disaster for biodiversity, the country's forestry scientists argue they are far more effective at absorbing carbon than old, slow-growth forests.
Zhang Xudong, of the China Academy of Forestry, says fast-growing poplar and white birch capture as much as double the amount of carbon as Korean pine, larch and firs. He claims China's 175m hectares of forests more than offset the country's 1.6bn tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions each year.
The claim is likely to be contended given uncertainties about the amount of China's emissions and definitions of forested land. The government includes nurseries and shrubland with very few trees. The balance between forest sequestration capacity and carbon output is also likely to change if China meets its goal to more than double the size of its economy by 2020.
"Given that China has large areas of forest, and trees absorb CO2 from the atmosphere as they grow, forest preservation and reforestation can clearly play an important short-term role in climate change mitigation. Of course, forest carbon sinks are no longer-term substitute for reductions in fossil-fuel emissions as there is not enough land in China or elsewhere to plant enough trees to mitigate emissions and avoid danergous climate change," said Dr Simon Lewis, University of Leeds.
Chinese conservationists say the emphasis on forests as mere carbon sinks is wrong. "The west is too focused on carbon. People there have lost sight of the need to protect bio-diversity," warned a prominent environmentalist.
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