Best of our wild blogs: 23 Mar 09

Casque offs: Hornbills in Singapore
on the annotated budak blog

Free Chek Jawa boardwalk tour
on the Adventures with the Naked Hermit Crabs blog

Macro @ Pulau Ubin
on the colourful clouds blog and manta blog.

Pleasant Surprises @ Seletar
on the Beauty of Fauna and Flora in Nature blog

Kalak Kambing at Kranji
from wild shores of singapore blog

Moray eels (Muraenidae)
on the Lazy Lizard's Tales blog with more posts about other kinds of eels as well as NOT eels.

Cooperative breeding
on the Bird Ecology Study Group blog

Of sani-sentry duties and Coppersmith Barbets (Part 6)
on the Bird Ecology Study Group blog

Another octopod
on the annotated budak blog and babbling bather.

Visit to KK Asia Plastic Recycling
from News from the International Coastal Cleanup Singapore

Monday Morgue: 23rd March 2009
on the Lazy Lizard's Tales blog

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MacRitchie-Upper Peirce path closed?

Popular path closed?
Lin Yanqin, Today Online 23 Mar 09;

HE HAD been running there since 1992, but marathoner Elangovan Ganesan and other running enthusiasts will no longer be able to return to one of their favourite routes in Singapore.

Since last week, joggers who regularly use a path linking MacRitchie and Upper Peirce reservoirs have found themselves being turned away by Singapore Island Country Club security guards.

The reason? According to PUB and SICC, the path lies on the club’s golf course and within range of flying golf balls.

“In consideration for public safety, SICC and PUB decided to close the path,” they told Today.

Besides security guards stationed temporarily at various entry points to the path, SICC will be planting hedges with signage to advise the public not to enter. A fence has also been erected at the Upper Peirce Reservoir dam, the main entry point.

Mr Elangovan, like many of his peers, was disappointed when he heard the news. “It’s a bit sad, especially since interest in distance running is really picking up in Singapore, and if you want to promote it as a sport you should have the venues,” said the 34-year-old, who has been hit by a golf ball once in his 18 years running there.

“But safety is an issue no matter where you run, on the streets or in a park. Runners basically run at their own risk.”

Some runners felt that the club was thinking more about the safety of its members, especially after a brawl broke out last month between SICC members and a group of youth at the golf course off Sime Road, after the youth had allegedly trespassed onto the course.

Jogger June Chia, 29, who uses the path once a month, said: “I’ve seen people run onto the course and security trying to stop them. Maybe (SICC members) had enough.”

Running club MacRitchie Runners 25 president Mark Dyson believes the public could have been consulted first. “Perhaps the path could be open during certain hours, such as early morning, where there are few golfers anyway,” he said.

Now, his club’s plans to hold its annual race, covering trails through MacRitchie and beyond, have been thrown into disarray with the closure. “Our members are quite upset, we’re trying to meet with the management to discuss any compromises,” said Mr Dyson.

The path is apparently so popular because of its challenging terrain, peaceful forested setting and the fact that it avoids the road.

“There are other venues, but this one is really unique,” saidMr Elangovan.

“It benefits runners because it’s a mix of terrain.”

According to PUB, MacRitchie Reservoir offers “several alternative scenic routes” and nature trails that serve as connectors to other parts of the reservoir. It also welcomed feedback on its 24-hour Call Centre (1800-284 6600).

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Really Really Free Market in Singapore

The spirit of giving
Haircuts, toys and clothes at no cost at the Really Really Free Market
Esther Ng Today Online 23 Mar 09;

THERE may be no such thing as a free lunch, but yesterday, books, toys and designer togs, as well as services such as tarot reading and haircuts, were given away for free at the Really Really Free Market Singapore at Post Museum.

The people who gave away their services and belongings for free and those who took what was on offer subscribe to a philosophy of giving and helping the community.

“Why spend $30 on a haircut when all the stylist does is just trim off the length?” said Ms Biddy Low, who gave away free haircuts. The 29-year-old full-time musician taught herself hairstyling after her unsatisfactory experience with hairdressers.

Ms Harlina Samat, 23, who picked up Vera Wang and Bulgari perfumes at the first market on Jan 18, decided she would do some giving this time round.

“I think this whole idea of giving without expecting anything in return is great, especially during these recessionary times,” she said as she gave away her books and clothes.

“What you don’t want, someone else might need. Most people have too many material goods that they have no use for, so ... we can re-cycle and re-use.”

Some foreign workers in the neighbourhood popped in to have a look.

Mr Farooq Qasim, 26, was pleased with his finds. The Bangladeshi got himself a pair of jeans, a T-shirt and a short-sleeved shirt from a neat pile of clothing that was laid out on a mat. “I was surprised to learn that everything here was free. Not every day you can get things for free,” he said.

Equally pleased was Filipina expatriate housewife Sherlina Vasquez, who picked up two soft toys for her six-year-old son and three-year-old daughter. Ms Vasquez, who found out about the event through Facebook, told Today that she gave away a box of VCDs at the first event.

Asked if people might take advantage of the market, Ms Lai Chin Yun, 31, one of the givers said: “Well, no system is perfect. Even if 20 per cent are freeloaders, this is still helping 80 per cent — the majority.”

It’s this need to help and share that prompted Post Museum to start the market.

“Not everything is based on monetary value. People have the skills or the goods and they want to help. It’s also about getting people to think about alternatives to consumerism,” said organiser Jennifer Teo.

At 4pm, an hour after the market opened, there were not many people at the event. “It’s still early. People start coming in at around 5pm onwards,” saidMs Teo. Indeed, as the afternoon progressed, various people trooped in with bags and unpacked their stuff.

The next free market will be held in May. There is no need to pay for a spot. Just turn up at Post Museum, located at Rowell Road, between 3pm and 9pm. For more information, call Post Museum at 6396 3598.

The Really Really Free Market movement started in 2004 in the United States as a protest against globalisation and consumerism.

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Catch your own prawns at prawn ponds

Don't want to get overcharged for prawns at Newton?
The New Paper 23 March 09

WHY spend $239 on eight prawns - as some tourists did recently - when you can enjoy hooking and barbecuing them yourself, all for a lot less?

After the furore over overpriced prawns at the Newton Food Centre, fishing facilities such as the Hai Bin U Enterprise in Bishan are hoping more people will visit them for a taste of big prawns.

For $15 an hour, their customers have a chance to reel in fresh prawns, some of which can be as long as a soft drink bottle.

The company provides you with a rod and bait, and you can sit by a pond waiting for the prawns to bite.

Mr Edward Ng, 35, who does marketing for Hai Bin U, said that some of the customers - known as 'prawnsters' - are so crazy about 'prawning' that they have even done it for 24 hours at a stretch.

Customers can cook the prawns right there as barbecue pits are also available.

On weekends, an average of 1,000 people flock to the pond, which is open round the clock, Mr Ng said.

The pond is refilled with about 10kg of live prawns every hour.

Various locations

There are more than 10 such prawn fishing facilities in various locations around the island, said Mr Daryl Chan, owner of Punggol Prawning.

'The price of $15 an hour is more or less standard at these places,' he said.

Mr Ng of Hai Bin U said: 'The pricing is 20 over years old, but we're trying to remain competitive with the other prawn fishing facilities.'

When The New Paper on Sunday visited Hai Bin U this week, the two main ponds had several 'prawnsters' around the perimeter, hoping to reel in the big head - or 'Tua Tau' as many call it - fresh water prawns.

Hai Bin U orders six to eight tonnes of prawns monthly, and this can go up to 10 tonnes during the school holidays. The monthly bill: about $250,000.

Primary school pupil Low Kai Yi, 10, was among those spotted at the pond.

'I asked my mum to bring me here today,' he said. 'It's more likely that I'll catch a prawn here, rather than out in open waters.'

One of his first few catches included a large 'Tua Tau'. He caught it in less than half an hour.

He said: 'We usually take them home to cook and eat.'

Kai Yi's mother, Dr H H Lee, 46, a dental surgeon, helps her son with unhooking the prawns each time he pulls one out of the pond.

'When they get to catch the prawn, it makes the experience more rewarding,' Dr Lee said. 'It's the excitement of the bite.'

Mr James Tan, 19, a full-time NSman, has been to Hai Bin U more than 10 times, staying for two to three hours each time.

He said: 'The number of prawns you catch depends on your luck.'

He catches eight or nine prawns each visit. His biggest catch was about 20.

His friend and fellow NSman, Mr Desmond Lim, 19, was on his second visit to the ponds.

'Here, we can relax, chit chat with friends, and break away from what we usually do,' he said. 'We'll grill the prawns to eat later too.'

- Han Su-Ying, newsroom intern

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Desalinating water: Call to cut energy use

Business Times 21 Mar 09;

SINGAPORE needs to manage the higher amount of energy required to produce desalinated water compared with taking water from conventional sources, Environment and Water Resources Minister Yaacob Ibrahim said yesterday.

'Although desalinated water and Newater have afforded enhanced water security, they are more energy intensive than conventional water sources,' he said at the 5th World Water Forum in Istanbul.

'Energy consumption in desalination and reclamation technologies has to be reduced to ease the trade-off between water and energy,' he added.

Singapore is looking at ways to reduce the energy cost through research and development. Examples include the use of membrane distillation and a variable salinity plant which could treat feed water of different salinity.

Singapore had to improve water management due to scarcity, said Dr Yaacob. 'To support the right attitudes, we do not subsidise it, and instead price it to reflect its scarcity.'

According to the Asia Pacific Water Forum, the region is the most vulnerable to water-related disasters. And with extreme events such as droughts and floods expected to increase, Dr Yaacob pointed out that Singapore is vulnerable. This is why almost 20 years ago new reclamation projects had to be built to a level of 1.25m above the highest recorded tide level, he said.

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Tuberculosis rate in Singapore up for first time in 10 years

Lynda Hong, Channel NewsAsia 22 Mar 09;

SINGAPORE: The incidence rate of tuberculosis or TB among Singapore residents has risen for the first time in 10 years.

According to the Health Ministry, the incidence rate last year was 39.8 per 100,000 residents, higher than the 35.1 in 2007.

The actual number of patients also grew by 15.5 per cent to 1,451 last year, up from 1,256 in 2007.

The incidence rate last rose in 1998 when it hit 57 per 100,000 residents, higher than the 55 per 100,000 in the previous year.

After 1998, the rate had been declining until last year.

The Health Ministry says the rise is likely due to more cases of people who are carriers of the TB bacteria developing the disease subsequently as well as increased transmission of TB in the community.

Of the new TB cases, 59.3 per cent or 860 cases were residents aged 50 years and above and 70.4 per cent or 1,022 cases were males.

The Health Ministry says the stigma attached to TB patients and the prolonged treatment required (between six and nine months) are barriers that prevent people from coming forward for diagnosis and treatment.

It says that with the increase in TB incidence, everyone should play their part in controlling TB and keeping the community safe.

Anyone with symptoms such as prolonged cough, fever, night sweats, unexplained weight loss and tiredness,
should seek medical treatment as soon as possible.

Those who fail to adhere to the TB treatment may continue to be infectious and have a higher risk of developing drug-resistant TB and relapse of the disease.

Under the Infectious Diseases Act, TB patients who persistently default treatment may be detained at the Communicable Diseases Centre at Tan Tock Seng Hospital till they are cured.- CNA/ir

TB cases on the rise in Singapore
Today Online 23 Mar 09;

TUBERCULOSIS, or TB, is rearing its ugly head once again, with the rate of new infections in Singapore last year rising for the first time in a decade, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said yesterday.

In an update ahead of World Tuberculosis Day tomorrow, the MOH said there were a total of 1,451 new cases of TB among Singapore residents last year, up from 1,256 in 2007. The incidence rate of 39.8 per 100,000 residents last year is higher than the 35.1 in 2007.

The rise in new cases is likely due to the increased reactivation of latent TB infection and increased transmission of the disease within the community, the MOH said. The older age groups and males account for a larger proportion of the new cases. Among these, nearly 60 per cent were aged 50 years and above, and over 70 per cent were males.

TB, caused by bacteria, usually attacks the lungs, but other parts of the body can also be affected, such as the brain, kidneys and bones. While it is potentially fatal if not treated properly, TB is curable and the spread of the disease is preventable, the MOH said.

Patients suffering from prolonged cough, fever, night sweats, unexplained loss of weight and appetite and tiredness — symptoms that suggest TB infection — should seek medical attention as soon as possible.

With early diagnosis and treatment, transmission of TB within the community can be curbed, the MOH said. Patients with TB must complete the full course of treatment over six to nine months to ensure they are fully cured.

The MOH warned that it would take enforcement action against those who persistently default treatment and thus pose a public health risk. It will ensure that these patients comply with treatment under the Infectious Diseases Act.

TB rates up for first time in 10 years
Lee Hui Chieh, Straits Times 23 Mar 09;

THAT prolonged coughing spasm is being heard a lot more these days.

For the first time in more than a decade, the rate at which residents here are contracting tuberculosis is on the rise.

And more younger people aged below 30 are being hit - a worrying trend that hints at greater spread of the infectious respiratory disease in the community.

Last year, 39.8 in every 100,000 Singaporeans and permanent residents contracted it, up from 35.1 in 2007.

The number of TB patients grew by 15 per cent to 1,451 last year, up from 1,256 in the previous year.

The last time the tuberculosis rate grew was in 1998, when it hit 57 per 100,000 residents. It had been declining since - until last year.

The Health Ministry released the update ahead of World Tuberculosis Day tomorrow.

The disease hit 9.2 million people and killed 1.7 million globally in 2006.

It spreads through droplets exhaled by infected people, over a prolonged period.

About one in 10 of those who catch it develops the active form of the disease. Tuberculosis remains latent in the rest, but may be activated later when the immune system is weakened by ageing or other diseases like diabetes.

The surge here could be due to more people with the latent form developing the active one, the Health Ministry said.

As the population is ageing, more older people - who could have caught latent tuberculosis in the 1960s and 1970s when the disease was rampant - may have developed the active form as their immune defences began crumbling.

Transmission in the community could also be increasing, it added.

The clue: A growing number of younger patients, who are likely to have been infected recently, said Dr Cynthia Chee, senior consultant at Tan Tock Seng Hospital's (TTSH) tuberculosis control unit.

Last year, 191 patients were aged 15 to 29, up from 135 in 2006.

The rising number of medical travellers, foreign workers and new immigrants here, many from tuberculosis-burdened countries like India and China, could have added to rising rates, Dr Chee said.

Before foreigners can work or live here, they are tested for active, but not latent, tuberculosis.

The number of foreigners who were reported with tuberculosis here has risen from 758 in 2007, to 993 last year.

Dr Chee thinks that the rise could also be due to patients' delaying treatment, leading to more being infected.

Some see a doctor a few months after developing a cough, she said, adding: 'People think tuberculosis is not a problem here...It could be due to complacency on everyone's part.'

Others fear losing their jobs after telling their employers they are infected, which has happened to some of her patients, she added.

Singaporean Abdul Rahim Mahmood, 44, paid a high price for complacency.

He had been diagnosed with tuberculosis in 2005, but stopped taking his pills after a few weeks, instead of six months, because he thought he had recovered.

Last August, after six months of coughing, he vomited blood and was warded.

Doctors found that the bacteria had damaged his spine, and he had to have surgery to repair it with a metal implant.

He said: 'The doctor said if I didn't go for surgery, I would be paralysed within two months. Of course I was scared.'

Now, his back still aches, but he has retained the use of his legs. And he takes his medicines faithfully, under the supervision of nurses.

The Health Ministry urged tuberculosis patients to seek treatment early and stick to it, and for their employers, families and friends not to stigmatise them.

It said that it would force patients to take medicines or detain them at TTSH, if they persistently skipped treatment.

Last December, it listed tuberculosis as a disease to be treated like Sars: Patients can be barred from travel, forced to take their medicines and have their illness disclosed to other authorities.

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Carbon Price Slump: Question marks over emission trading

Michael Richardson, Straits Times 23 Mar 09;

FIRST, came the credit crunch and recession. Now there is a carbon price slump that may undermine one of the main ways governments have chosen to combat global warming.

In 2005, the European Union (EU) pioneered a trading scheme for greenhouse gas emissions from industries. The scheme imposes a cap on emissions from factories and power plants that rely on fossil fuels in the 27-nation bloc. It uses a fixed quota of emission permits.

Firms that lower their emissions by saving energy or turning to non-fossil fuel sources like solar and wind power can sell their permits to less efficient companies. The programme was designed to be a major component of Europe's plan to deliver a 20 per cent cut in emissions by 2020 over 1990 levels, making it the global leader in fighting climate change.

Earlier this month, Australia confirmed that it would follow the EU when it unveiled legislation that it hopes to pass establishing a carbon pollution reduction scheme that in some respects is more comprehensive than Europe's.

Energy-intensive Australia committed itself to reducing emissions by 5 per cent of 2000 levels by 2020, but has said it will back a 15 per cent cut if other rich nations promise to make similar moves at a United Nations climate change summit in Copenhagen in December.

Meanwhile, the United States, which rejected carbon-capping under the Bush administration, now aims to pass a cap-and-trade law later this year.

Whether these initiatives become an effective global mechanism for reducing emissions depends on the willingness of other big energy users and industrial polluters to adopt similar schemes. Among them are China, Japan, India and South Korea. Most developing countries oppose measures that would impose extra costs on their economies.

However, some critics assert that developed economy carbon trading is fundamentally flawed and that although it was intended to cut emissions by making polluters pay, it is now removing this incentive.

The EU's emission trading scheme got off to a controversial start when prices plummeted after some governments issued too many permits. No sooner had this problem been fixed, the economic slowdown struck. With industrial output and exports falling, there are less emissions.

Cash-strapped firms have been selling their permits to raise funds. As a result, prices on Europe's six carbon exchanges hit a low of ¥8.05 (S$16.60) per metric tonne last month, a drop of nearly 75 per cent from the level of ¥31 last July.

Declining emissions are good for the climate. However, Europe's trading scheme was not intended to deliver a 20 per cut in emissions on its own. It was supposed to have raised large amounts of revenue for the government, which would then have used the money to help pay for renewable energy development, carbon capture and storage, and measures to ease the cost impact on business and consumers of the change to a lower carbon economy.

The Australian and US cap-and-trade schemes are similarly designed. All the schemes allow the market to set the basic price of carbon. Canberra has forecast an initial price of around A$23 (S$24) per tonne when it starts auctioning permits to the country's biggest companies, covering 75 per cent of national greenhouse gas emissions, from July 2010.

Based on this estimate, the government expects to raise around A$11.5 billion in the financial year that starts in mid-2010 and over A$23 billion in each of the following two years. Of course, economic recovery may be underway by then and drive carbon prices higher.

But at present the price is more than 25 per cent below the budgeted level. Unless it rises, governments in Australia, Europe and the US will be short of money to fund their side of the cleaner energy bargain with companies and consumers. Worse still, the low carbon price makes it relatively cheap for industry to keep polluting.

Emission trading schemes allow firms either to buy domestic permits from the government or import them under a UN programme known as the Clean Development Mechanism. Project developers who establish clean energy projects in the developing world, mainly China and India, sell the emission credits to companies that buy them to comply with environmental regulations at home. But UN carbon permits, called certified emission reductions or CERs, are also at record-low prices. As a result investor interest in clean-energy projects in the developing world is being stifled.

Some argue that if governments are serious about climate change, they should tax carbon pollution. This would provide business and consumers with cost certainty, and governments with assured revenue. However, imposing such taxes would be very unpopular.

Emission trading raises objections at a time of deepening recession and rising unemployment. But at least in the initial phase, it is a relatively low-cost option. Whether it is an effective mechanism for ushering in sustainable economic growth over the long term remains to be seen.

The writer is a visiting senior research fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.

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Lost whale in Hong Kong a victim of youth and inexperience

Timothy Chui, The Standard 23 Mar 09;

Experts believe the lost humpback whale still trying to find its way out of Hong Kong waters is a youngster of the species and prone to confusion.

The whale - the first of its kind seen in waters off Hong Kong - has lurched from East Lamma Channel last Monday to Po Toi Islands yesterday.

Experts believe that, although this species is capable of covering hundreds of kilometers a day, the 10-meter-long visitor may be a confused juvenile.

According to Ocean Park Conservation Foundation director Suzanne Gendron, the young giant is trying to join other migrating whales.

Gendron, who is also executive director of Ocean Park's zoological operations, said the visitor was initially believed to be an adult, although experts have not been able to get close enough to determine its age and gender.

Leszek Karczmarski, head of the Cetacean Unit of South Africa's University of Pretoria, thinks it is only a sub-adult aged about five years.

He attributed its slow eastward crawl to inexperience and confusion.

He said the territory's unfamiliar shallow waters and sea traffic would have made the creature lose its sense of direction. He added it is too early to tell if it is ill, since wild animals are careful to hide all signs of weakness.

The foundation is asking people to observe the distressed whale from a distance as approaching the creature could increase pressure on it.

Images of the whale's predicament have been sent to US Cetacean bodies to see if they match those taken by marine-life monitors.

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Save the dugong: Thai fishermen urge

Methee Moungkaew, The Nation 23 Mar 09;

Trang's fishermen have asked the government to strictly control the illegal dugong trade after they found many foreign mariners hunting the animals and smuggling them out to Singapore for Bt50,000 each, villager leader IsmaAnn Ben SaArd said.

The illegal hunt is being carried out by foreign fishermen especially from Satun province. They throw bombs into cairns or near coral reefs, with the resulting explosion thowing up many fish, he added.

IsmaAnn explained that some wayward local fishermen have pointed out the area to foreign fishermen.

25 killed in a month

Moreover, they also use seine and large fishing nets to hunt stingray and other kinds of fish two kilometers from

the coast. They use a local fishhook called "Rawai" to hunt dugong, killing more than 25 of the creatures during the past month alone.

Trang authorities have announced that Rawai is an illegal piece of fishing equipment for it endangers dugong and sea turtles.

He said each dugong commands a price of Bt50,000 on the black market, with its bones and teeth going for Bt30,000. Singapore is the biggest market for this trade. The country uses the dead dugong to produce medicine and amulets.

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Rattan program protects Greater Mekong forests, boosts local economies

WWF 23 Mar 09;

A new sustainable rattan program recently launched by WWF will help save the remaining forests of the Greater Mekong Region – while benefiting communities and pumping up local economies.

Rattan is widely used for food, furniture and other products and traded extensively across the region, in the European Union and worldwide markets.

Tonginn Keomany, a 70-year-old Lao woman who lives in the village of Sopphouan on the Vietnamese border is already counting the benefits from the first trial phase of the innovative program.

Like other farmers in the area, she depends mainly on family-based rice production and other small-scale crops to feed her family.

“Rattan is good for food and handicrafts,” said Tonginn, who added that she hopes the project will continue to be a success. “I weave lots of useful things for the household.”

The program, A switch to sustainable harvest rattan production and supply launched on 5 March in Hanoi, Vietnam, and will benefit many more villagers.

The program aims to achieve cleaner and more efficient production of rattan by reducing the use of pollutants in its production, making the supply chain of rattan more efficient so less is wasted, and encouraging its sustainable use in Greater Mekong forests.

This in turn will improve the production of rattan and give communities, governments and industries an economic incentive to conserve forests.

By 2010 it is expected that up to 100 villages in Cambodia, Lao PDR and Vietnam will be working towards a greener and sustainable management of rattan production.

The sustainable rattan program is part of ongoing WWF efforts during the last three years to establish a community based network for sustainable rattan harvesting in six villages in Laos and Cambodia.

Many villages in the Greater Mekong Region rely on the rattan trade which accounts for 50 percent of their total cash income, making this a major contributor to poverty alleviation in rural areas.
“We have successfully identified key species of rattan and are now in the process of developing a viable model for sustainable rattan management,” said Bouaphet Bounsourath, the rattan project manager in Laos. “This model includes the creation of seedling nurseries, plantations, pilot research plots as well as hands-on training in handicraft manufacture

“We have helped the villagers to organise themselves and also established protected areas in the forest.

“This makes a big difference. Previously there was no control and poorly implemented forest management.”

Under the new program, 70 percent of rattan sales go to a village fund which contributes to improving the local school and health services. Thirty percent goes to the individual villagers, who also can take out micro loans at a 2 percent interest rate from the fund.

“Last year our village earned 8,500,000 kip (approximately 1,000 USD) in additional income from rattan seedlings and rattan cane,” said 43-year-old Sonephet Keomany, the head of Sopphouan village.

Over the last three years, the pilot WWF-IKEA Sustainable Rattan Harvesting and Production Project (2006-2009) has worked in two countries and among six villages, demonstrating that community management can result in sustainable production and marketing of rattan.

The second phase of the program is being funded by the European Union with co-financing from the international furnishings company IKEA and the German development finance institution DEG.

“Another big win will be that an increased number of rattan processing companies will deliver environmentally friendly products to Europe and other worldwide markets,” said Thibault Ledecq, regional rattan program manager.

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Hundreds of animals flee Kenyan wildfire

Yahoo News 22 Mar 09;

NAIROBI (AFP) – Hundreds of zebras, buffalos and gazelles are fleeing a fast-spreading wildfire in a national park in Kenya's Rift Valley, park authorities said Sunday.

Mount Logonot National Park head Peter Muthusi told AFP the fire, which started Saturday, was now under control, but small animals remained at risk.

"The fire is burning from inside the crater (of Mount Logonot, a dormant volcano), and there is nothing we can do but watch and wait until it dies down," he said.

The fire has ravaged larges swathe of the parched and arid park, fanned by strong winds, and its cause has yet to be determined, Muthusi said.

But local resident Charles Mburu speculated that illegal charcoal burners could have started the fire, which he described as "the biggest I have ever seen in the last 10 years."

Park fires occur frequently and are difficult to contain during the dry season, which runs from January through March.

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Barrier Reef disaster status 'will hurt tourism'

ABC News 22 Mar 09;

The Queensland Tourism Industry Council says declaring part of the Great Barrier Reef a natural disaster zone would be disastrous for reef tourism.

The Seafood Industry Association wants the State Government to declare half the Great Barrier Reef a natural disaster area because of damage caused by Tropical Cyclone Hamish.

The association says the category five storm destroyed parts of the reef from Bowen south to the Wide Bay and jobs are at risk because the fish have gone.

But Daniel Gschwind from the Queensland Tourism Industry Council says declaring the reef a disaster area is not a good move.

"It would be very unhelpful for the tourism operators up and down the coast," he said.

He says the negative publicity would further hurt tourism operators.

"We recognise that Cyclone Hamish was a significant natural event but to take the step now and seek a declaration for a natural disaster would certainly not be helpful," he said.

"It would be inappropriate and probably misleading for the public as well.

"We're very keen to make sure that the public is not driven into believing that it's no longer worth going to see the reef."

The Department of Primary Industries says a disaster declaration over half the reef would be a first.

But the Queensland Fisheries Department says it could take up to a year before fish numbers return to normal in the southern section of the Great Barrier Reef.

Department director-general Jim Groves says fishing operations cannot continue as normal.

"Coral will recover in time. The advice we've been given is it could take 12 months for the fish to reappear," he said.

"There are fish further north so some operators have moved up to off the Townsville region, but there's a limit to how many operators can operate in the smaller area that's now available."

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Lethal air pollution booms in emerging nations

Yahoo News 22 Mar 09;

GENEVA (AFP) – International experts are warning that potentially lethal air pollution has boomed in fast-growing big cities in Asia and South America in recent decades.

While Europe has managed to drastically cut some, but not all, of the most noxious pollutants over the past 20 years, emerging nations experienced the opposite trend with their fast economic growth, scientists at the UN's meteorological agency said.

Their comments came ahead of World Meteorological Day on Monday, which this year has the theme "The Air We Breathe".

The World Health Organization estimates that about two million people die prematurely every year as a result of air pollution, while many more suffer from breathing ailments, heart disease, lung infections and even cancer.

Fine particles or microscopic dust from coal or wood fires and unfiltered diesel engines are rated as one of the most lethal forms or air pollution caused by industry, transport, household heating, cooking and ageing coal or oil-fired power stations.

In 2005, the WHO estimated that deaths rates in cities with higher particle pollution were 15 to 20 percent above those found in cleaner cities.

"Particulate matter is of great concern in cities," said Liisa Jalkanen, atmospheric environment research chief at the World Meteorological Organisation.

"In Asia many cities such as Karachi, New Delhi, Kathmandu, Dacca, Shanghai, Beijing, and Mumbai they exceed all the limits."

"Also several cities in South America such as Lima, Santiago, Bogota. The worst city in Africa is Cairo," she told journalists.

Half of the world?s population now live in urban areas, and the proportion is expected to grow to two-thirds by 2030, according to the United Nations.

The WMO says more resources are needed for a global air monitoring network it runs with national weather offices.

Len Barrie, director of WMO research, said restrictions set up in Europe after concern about acid rain emerged in the 1980s have cut concentrations of another pollutant, sulphur dioxide, there "by a factor of 20".

"In other areas where economic growth has leapt forward, such as Asia, China, India, the opposite is true," he added. In North America levels were largely kept in check.

But Barrie told AFP that such pollution in China appeared to be reaching its peak.

"There?s a real awakening in China on the economic benefits of reducing air pollution," he added.

Attempts are being made to bring developing and emerging nations, as well as the United States, into a new global warming pact in Copenhagen in December.

While such curbs on carbon emissions can have a substantial impact on overall air pollution, they may not tackle it completely.

Levels of another harmful pollutant, nitrogen dioxide, from vehicle traffic have not decreased in Europe by as much as the WMO expected, while the impact of weather patterns on pollution is also a concern.

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Province supplying Beijing water drying up: state

Yahoo News 22 Mar 09;

BEIJING (AFP) – A province in north China that supplies Beijing with much needed water is itself facing serious shortages of the resource, state media reported ahead of World Water Day on Sunday.

Li Qinglin, director of Hebei's water conservation department, said water shortages had become a big problem for the province's social and economic development, the official Xinhua news agency reported late Saturday.

"Water resources in Hebei have dwindled by nearly 50 percent in recent years," Li was quoted as saying.

Hebei, part of China's parched north, is one of the major suppliers of water to neighbouring Beijing and Tianjin -- two sprawling cities that together group at least 28 million people and are running out of the resource.

China's rapid economic expansion has helped deplete its water supplies and has long been one of the country's major concerns.

Probe International, a leading development policy group, has warned that the city of Beijing faces economic collapse and will need to resettle part of its population in coming decades, as it could run out of water in five to 10 years.

According to previous Xinhua reports, Beijing and the surrounding region, including most of Hebei, has suffered droughts every year since 1999.

Li said that Hebei was consuming around 21 billion cubic metres (735 billion cubic feet) of water annually with only 17 billion cubic metres of surface water, leaving groundwater to supply the rest, according to Xinhua.

He urged the government to take steps to reduce water consumption for the sake of sustainable economic and social development.

China is in the process of building the multi-billion dollar North-South Water Diversion Project to bring water from the nation's longest river, the Yangtze, to the parched north.

Xinhua has said that by 2010, when a lot of the north-south water diversion project is completed, up to one billion cubic metres of water will be diverted to Beijing annually, mostly from the Yangtze.

World Water Day has been held every year on March 22 since 1993 as a means of focusing attention on the importance of freshwater.

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As climate changes, is water the new oil?

Deborah Zabarenko, Reuters 22 Mar 09;

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - If water is the new oil, is blue the new green?

Translation: if water is now the kind of precious commodity that oil became in the 20th century, can delivery of clean water to those who need it be the same sort of powerful force as the environmental movement in an age of climate change?

And, in another sense of green, is there money to be made in a time of water scarcity?

The answer to both questions, according to environmental activists watching a global forum on water, is yes.

The week-long meeting in Istanbul ends Sunday, which is International World Water Day, an annual United Nations event that began in 1993 to focus attention on sustainable management of fresh water resources.

The yearly observance recognizes water as an absolute human need: people can live as much as 30 days without food but only seven without water. How long can a person live without oil?

More than a billion people lack access to clean water, and 2.5 billion are without water for sanitation, with 80 percent of all disease borne by dirty water.

This may seem ironic, since Earth is literally a blue planet when seen from space -- most of it is covered in water. But what humans need is water that is fresh and clean, and most of Earth's water is salty or dirty.

What was clear at this year's World Water Forum in Turkey was the notion that clean, fresh water supplies are waning due to a warming world.

"As climate change accelerates and we see a changing hydrological cycle, diminishing access to resources, there are direct human impacts that are water-related," said Jonathan Greenblatt, a professor at the University of California-Los Angeles who advised the Obama transition team on civic engagement and national service.

If sea levels rise as scientists predict, coastal regions may see increased salination of aquifers -- natural underground reservoirs -- which will affect access to fresh water in those as sea levels rise, Greenblatt said.

BLUE AGENDA

In some areas, such as central China, desertification is occurring directly outside Beijing, with desert-like conditions coming to areas that were once fertile, he said.

"In the same way that climate change has become part of the conversation ... the agenda of legislators and policymakers, I think blue needs to be part of the agenda," Greenblatt said, using "blue" as shorthand for water.

There is a high return on investment in clean water projects, the World Health Organization reported: every $1 spent on water and sanitation can bring economic benefits averaging between $7 and $12.

Health care agencies could save $7 billion a year, employers could gain 320 million productive days a year for workers in the 15-to-59 age range, there could be an extra 272 million school attendance days annually and an added 1.5 billion healthy days for children under the age of five, WHO said.

In dollars and cents, an investment of $11.3 billion a year could yield a payback of $83 billion a year in increased productivity and health, the Natural Resources Defense Council said in its blog written from the forum, here

"As many have pointed out in this week's debates, this payback makes a very strong argument in favor of promoting safe water and sanitation in these difficult financial times," the council's Melanie Nakagawa wrote.

The water forum does not go far enough in making this a top agenda item, the conservation group WWF International said.

"...(I)t is the well-managed or restored river systems that cope best with climate change impacts we are seeing now and those that are yet to come," James Leape, the group's director general, said in a statement. "This is clearly an issue of water management, but the ministerial declaration flowing from the World Water Forum is more a collection of platitudes than a plan for action."

So does the world really need a water day?

Maybe not, said Susan Keane, a public health expert with the Natural Resources Defense Council.

"I don't know why anyone should need to be reminded of this, because it's so obviously important and so obviously solvable," Keane said by telephone. "The answer really is people are blind to the obvious. It's not sexy."

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Oslo city buses turn to sewage for 'clean' fuel

Pierre-henry Deshayes Yahoo News 22 Mar 09;

OSLO (AFP) – Can the key to "clean" energy be found down in the sewer? That's the idea in Oslo, where city officials soon plan to introduce buses that run on biofuels extracted from human waste.

As of 2010, the new buses are due to start plying the streets of the Norwegian capital.

"It's a win-win situation: It's carbon neutral, it hardly pollutes the environment, it's less noisy and its endlessly renewable," says Ole Jakob Johansen, one of the people in charge of the project at Oslo city hall.

The biofuel, which is methane generated by fermenting sludge, will come from the Bekkelaget sewage treatment plant which handles waste from 250,000 city dwellers.

"By going to the bathroom, a person produces the equivalent of eight litres (2.1 gallons) of diesel per year. That may not seem like a lot, but multiplied by 250,000 people, that is enough to operate 80 buses for 100,000 kilometres (62,000 miles) each," Johansen says.

Compared to diesel, biomethane is a giant green step forward.

In addition to being carbon neutral, it emits 78 percent less nitrogen oxide and 98 percent fewer fine particles -- two causes of respiratory illnesses -- and is 92 percent less noisy.

Even the price is advantageous, says Johansen.

All included, the cost of producing biofuel equivalent to one litre of diesel comes to 0.72 euros (98 cents), while diesel at the pump in Norway currently costs more than 1.0 euro.

"The fuel is less expensive but the cost of the new buses and their maintenance is higher. In total, it's about 15 percent more expensive," notes Anne-Merete Andersen of Ruter, the operator of Oslo's public transport system.

Contrary to first generation bio-ethanol, made from grains and plants, biomethane has the added advantage of not impacting food supplies, nor does it require fertilisation or deplete precious water resources.

Environmentalists are delighted.

"We've been waiting for this for a long time. It's extremely good for the climate and also for the quality of urban life," beams Olaf Brastad of the Bellona environmental organisation.

"I see absolutely no downsides. On the contrary, it is an optimal way of using a renewable energy that has always been there, just waiting to be exploited," he adds.

The initiative, if extended to Oslo's second waste treatment plant and complemented with biofuels made from food waste, could provide enough fuel for all of Oslo's 350 to 400 buses.

"If our entire fleet switched to biomethane, carbon dioxide emissions would be reduced by around 30,000 tonnes per year," according to Ruter.

Biofuel buses have already been introduced in several cities, including the French city of Lille and Stockholm, Sweden, where 70 such buses are already in service.

"There were some teething problems with the introduction, but now that those problems have been resolved we see that we have a fuel that works well," Sara Anderson, a biofuels specialist for Stockholm's public transport system SL, told AFP.

And, for those who remain sceptical, Johansen stressed that "there is absolutely no smell."

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