Best of our wild blogs: 26 Mar 09

Documented reports of Death-by-Balloon?
on the wild shores of singapore blog

Marriage Central turn a deaf ear
on the Dee Kay Dot As Gee blog

Greater Mouse Deer rediscovered on Pulau Ubin after 80 years on the Biodiversity crew @ NUS blog and pulau ubin stories blog

Seaweeds are NOT weeds!
on the wild shores of singapore blog

Let the stars do their job
on the Straits Times Blogs on Earth Hour

Extensive marine soil investigation off the East Coast until Sep 09
on the wild shores of singapore blog

Fungus beetles
on the annotated budak blog

Brown-throated Sunbird Bathing
on the Manta Blog

Yellow Bittern eating dragonfly
on the Bird Ecology Study Group blog

5th International Hornbill Conference, Singapore 2009
on the Bird Ecology Study Group blog

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Uproar over Penang tiger park plan

Along the Watchtower, Veera Pandiyan The Star 26 Mar 09;

The claws are out against Penang’s tiger park idea as it is unsuitable for the urban island and infringes the spirit of tiger conservation efforts.

THE response has been ferocious. Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng’s proposed plan to create a tiger park on 40ha of hilly terrain in Relau has been slammed by all and sundry.

With the fluster it has created among environmental organisations, including the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and locals, the Penang government should perhaps abide by the old Chinese saying: There can only be one tiger on one hill.

The hill here, of course, is the constituency of Bukit Gelugor. As for the tiger it can only mean Karpal Singh, “The Tiger of Jelutong”, although current MP Jeff Ooi, who has denied he is stepping down as the CM’s chief of staff, is also reputed to be “fierce” in discharging his duties.

I suppose one cannot fault the youthful chief minister for trying hard to bring back the “wow” factor to the island’s jaded tourism industry. But this is a case of biting off more than he can chew.

The plan is indeed ill-conceived. By no stretch of the imagination can such a park be considered an eco-tourism project. Surely, the CM cannot equate it to Taman Negara, Endau-Rompin or the Belum Forest.

To be fair, he has said that the state government will only go ahead with the plan after considering views from non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and the people of the state, in line with its Competency, Accountability and Transparency (CAT) principle. But one tends to wonder about his obsession with cats, though.

Wildlife conservationists are aghast at the idea because it contravenes the spirit of the National Tiger Action Plan aimed at protecting the Malayan tiger (Panthera tigris jacksoni / Panthera tigris malayensis) in the wild.

Previously regarded the same species as the Indo-Chinese tiger – Panthera tigris corbetti – the Malayan tiger was recognised as a new sub-species after extensive DNA studies in 2004.

It was classified Panthera tigris jacksoni, in honour of Peter Jackson, the former head of the cat specialist group of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) who spent four decades in tiger conservation work.

However, when Malaysian authorities insisted that the name should also reflect the place it is located, the alternate name of Panthera tigris malayensis was accepted, although it is used only within the country.

Current estimates place the big cat population at around 500 and the plan’s target is to boost the number to at least 1,000 by 2020.

The Department of Wildlife and National Parks and the Malaysian Conservation Alliance for Tigers (MyCat) – a partnership of the Malaysian Nature Society, Traffic (the international wildlife trade monitoring network) Southeast Asia, the Wildlife Conservation Society and WWF — are jointly implementing the plan.

MyCat was set up in September 2003 in response to the various challenges to tiger conservation that needed to be resolved in an integrated manner.

Setting up a tiger park in a densely-populated and largely urban island certainly flies in the face of what the action plan is all about, especially when elsewhere in the developed world, debates are raging over whether such parks and zoos are even ethical.

Influential groups against animal parks and zoos, including the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta), which uses wacky and outrageous means to highlight its cause, describe them as “pitiful prisons” providing meaningless amusement to humans.

Peta says such places teach children that it is acceptable to interfere with animals and keep them locked up in places where they can only be bored, cramped and deprived and away from their natural habitats.

On the opposite end, defenders of well-managed zoos and parks in the West feel they that they play a role in wildlife education, research and the preservation of the world’s endangered species.

As noted by MyCat in its statement denouncing the tiger park plan, Malaysia already has more than 40 zoos, and monitoring them has become a huge task for the authorities.

Several Malaysian zoos are poorly managed and a few have either been linked to the illegal wildlife trade or hauled up for possession of illegally acquired endangered species on numerous occasions.

Let’s not also forget that Malaysia gained much infamy through wildlife trafficker Anson Wong, who was arrested in Mexico in 1998. He was extradited to the US three years later where he was charged and sentenced to 71 months’ jail.

Wong’s capture is part of the recently launched book The Lizard King, written by Bryan Christy on the wildlife smuggling syndicate run by Mike Van Nostrand.

In the book, Wong is dubbed the “Pablo Escobar of wildlife trafficking.”

Conservationists and wildlife experts have also seen enough horror examples of tiger parks in China and Thailand to harbour copius doubts over the Penang plan.

The fact that it would be a privatised project makes it all the more risky, especially in these days of economic uncertainties.

* Associate Editor M. Veera Pandiyan wishes to share this Chinese proverb: A tiger cannot beat a crowd of monkeys.

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Greater Mouse Deer sighted in Pulau Ubin

Animal thought to be extinct in Singapore spotted for first time in 80 years
Ang Yiying, Straits Times 26 Mar 09;

SEPARATE sightings of mouse deer here and on Pulau Ubin have brought hope that native wildlife is making a comeback in Singapore.

The Greater Mouse Deer - one of the smallest hoofed animals in the world - was seen on Pulau Ubin during a survey by the National University of Singapore and National Parks Board (NParks) from last September to this month.

Photo courtesy of Arthur Chng

This is the first official sighting of the wild Greater Mouse Deer in more than 80 years, confirmed NParks.

The Lesser Mouse Deer, which has a browner coat, against the Greater's more orange colouring, was seen around the Lower Peirce Reservoir boardwalk, near Upper Thomson Road, on March 7.

Book distributor Ron Chan, 62, said he spotted the mouse deer when he was taking a walk with his family.

He said: 'It's a very beautiful animal and its eyes are sparkling black.'

He alerted a nearby nature photography enthusiast, Mr Arthur Chng, in his 30s, to take a photo of the creature.

The hobby photographer said it was the first time he had seen a mouse deer, and that it was a good sign that Singapore wildlife has not disappeared due to encroaching urbanisation.

NParks said that over the past two years, there have been four sightings of mouse deer around the Lower Peirce Reservoir boardwalk.

Three were of the Lesser Mouse Deer and the other of the Greater Mouse Deer, which could be one of seven such animals that NParks introduced into the Central Catchment Nature Reserve in 1998.

For NUS life sciences undergraduate Marcus Chua, 25, sighting the Greater Mouse Deer on Pulau Ubin was an unexpected discovery.

He was working with NParks and its volunteers on a survey of medium-sized mammals for his final-year project.

He said: 'At first, there was doubt because it was recorded as extinct in Singapore; that was the first time we saw it. When we got a clearer picture (of the mouse deer), we were very excited.'

On Pulau Ubin, the group has chalked up 100 sightings of the Greater Mouse Deer in more than one area, so it was unlikely that these are abandoned or escaped pets. The species is also not known to swim, so the animals there are unlikely to have come from those released in the catchment area.

'We were quite happy that a population thought to be extinct could have recovered, like bouncing back to life,' Mr Chua said.

Ms Celine Low, co-founder of environmental education group Cicada Tree Eco-Place, said one reason the Greater Mouse Deer was seen again on Pulau Ubin could be the decreased human population and activity there.

She said: 'It could be because the last quarry closed in the 1990s and there are fewer workers there and because of relocation of villagers to the mainland.'

Nature Society of Singapore president Shawn Lum said the presence of mouse deer was a good sign for not just native wildlife but also the eco-system. 'They play an important role in the ecology of the forest...It's great news for the long- term stability and regeneration of the rainforest,' he said.

NParks said it is conducting surveys to ascertain the population of these creatures.

Shy and nocturnal creatures
Straits Times 26 Mar 09;

MOUSE deer are native to Singapore and are known to exist in parts of Bukit Timah Nature Reserve and the Central Catchment Nature Reserve, the forested area that borders MacRitchie Reservoir, Lower Peirce Reservoir, Upper Peirce Reservoir and Upper Seletar Reservoir.

Mr Biswajit Guha, assistant director of zoology at the Singapore Zoo, said the Greater and Lesser Mouse Deer are fairly common throughout South-east Asia and not severely threatened.

However, in Singapore, the Greater Mouse Deer is thought to be extinct while the Lesser Mouse Deer is said to be critically endangered.

Said Mr Guha: 'The Greater Mouse Deer sports a more orange coat, while the Lesser has a browner coat.'

GREATER MOUSE DEER (Tragulus napu)
# Head-body length: 520mm to 572mm
# Shoulder height: 300mm to 350mm
# Weight: 3.5kg to 4.5kg

LESSER MOUSE DEER (Tragulus kanchil)
# Head-body length: 400mm to 550mm
# Shoulder height: 200mm to 230mm
# Weight: 1.4kg to 2.5 kg

NParks says sightings of mouse deer are rare, especially during the day. It advises the public to keep quiet when encountering such animals, which are shy and nocturnal by nature.

More links
Greater Mouse Deer rediscovered on Pulau Ubin after 80 years on the Biodiversity crew @ NUS blog

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NEA removes seaweed from Pasir Ris beach

'Green carpet' from the sea
Teh Jen Lee, The New Paper 26 Mar 09;

WHAT comes in with the tide and is green in colour?

Answer: Sea lettuce.

Seasonally, there is an explosive growth or bloom of this seaweed, which is called Ulva. It is so abundant that a thick soft green carpet will blanket the beach.

The National Environment Agency (NEA) has found large patches of sea lettuce in the coastal waters off Pasir Ris. A spokesman for NEA said: 'It is not uncommon to see seaweed growing in our coastal waters. NEA has removed the seaweed on the beach as part of our daily beach cleansing operations.

'NEA has also collected water samples for testing and the tests have shown that the sea water is normal. NEA will continue to monitor the situation.'

Is the sea lettuce edible?

Certain species like Ulva lactuca, Ulva pertusa and Ulva reticulata, can be eaten by humans as a salad or mixed with other vegetables.

But it's not known whether sea lettuce washed up at Pasir Ris is edible.

Some edible forms of seaweed are said to have anti-bacterial properties. They can be used to treat goitre, gout, burns and other irritants.

In some places, sea lettuce is collected or cultivated as animal feed.

On the sea lettuce, the Wild Singapore website writes: 'It can be slippery and conceal rocks and other things that might trip you or poke you. Also, many animals hide under this seaweed. Try not to step on this green carpet.'

Ms Ria Tan, who set up the website and who frequents Singapore's shores, said: 'I've encountered sea lettuce blooms mostly on northern shores which include Pasir Ris, Changi, Pulau Ubin and Chek Jawa.

'It seems to coincide with freshwater input, for example, when there's a lot of rain from the monsoon.

'It's a natural cycle and the seaweed is part of a larger food chain that involves species of fish, crabs, and creatures like that.'

Sea lettuce can grow rapidly in nutrient-rich water because it is only two cells thick.

Compared to most other seaweeds or sea algae, sea lettuce species can better tolerate being exposed during low tide, so it grows near the shore.

According to AlgaeBase, there are more than 120 current Ulva species, but it's very difficult to tell them apart because their features can change with age, reproductive state and environmental factors such as whether they are being eaten up by predators.

Sea lettuce is one of the seaweeds eaten by the green turtle, an endangered species.

More links
Seaweeds are NOT weeds! on the wild shores of singapore blog with more about the marine food chain supported by seaweeds, marine life at Pasir Ris and some other issues that impact this shore.

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Earth hour = Happy hour

Neo Chai Chin, Today Online 26 Mar 09;

THIS Saturday, check into a five-star hotel and “sleep naked” ... without air-conditioning. Dine by candlelight for discounts. Get free beer. Trek to Mount Faber for a view of the city lights going out. Or check on your Blackberry how the rest of the globe is celebrating Earth Hour, which takes place at 8.30pm in Singapore.

Although it’s just the second time Earth Hour is being observed here, businesses and organisations are taking a creative approach to get the public abuzz about saving energy.

Five hotels under Hong Leong Group’s Millennium and Copthorne (M&C) umbrella —including :Grand Copthorne Waterfront and M Hotel — are going beyond just switching off their facade lights. Guests and staff are encouraged to do without airconditioning for the night.

“The idea for ‘Sleep Naked’ came from the fact that many South-east Asians living in rural areas sleep with little else but a sarong,” said M&C International Limited’s chief operating officer Yim Choong Hing.

“On very hot days, much of the sarong would come off.”

And to save paper, M&C staff are promoting the cause among guests largely by old-fashioned word-of-mouth.

Elsewhere, discounts, food and the promise of fun are being rolled out — mainly to get the buzz going for a good cause, establishments told Today, since business is already typically brisk on Saturday nights.

Making Earth Hour “happy hour”, Marriott Hotel’s Crossroads Café is giving a free half-pint of beer for every order of a pint, while Peranakan Place’s Alley Bar, Outdoors Café and Bar and Acid Bar are offering “green” drinks like apple martinis at $12 (usual price $16 to $18) all night long.

At Wisma Atria, retailers and F&B operators will offer candlelight dinners, star-gazing and acoustic music.

CANDLELIGHT DINNERS, A SPARKLER PARTY

Guests of the InterContinental Hotels Group — the stable includes Crowne Plaza Changi Airport and Holiday Inn Atrium — will have their bills halved at some in-house restaurants during Earth Hour, provided they turn off their room lights.

But “we’re not going to go into their rooms (to check), because it has to be based on trust and environmental awareness,” said Crowne Plaza Changi Airport’s sales and marketing director Bryan Gabriel.

Diners at Four Seasons Hotel’s One-Ninety restaurant will be part of a 21-hour vigil, as 35 of its sister properties spanning Sydney to Hawaii, hold candlelight dinners. A dinner menu from $48 will feature organic and local produce.

At Concorde Hotel (the former Le Meridien), fresh fruit, cookies and non-alcoholic drinks will be on-the-house at the hotel’s poolside, and guests will be given sparklers and entertained by a violinist and an accordionist.

“If guests stay in their rooms, they’ll have the lights, air-con and television on — how does that then support Earth Hour? So we thought, let’s have a party, let’s meet them and chat with them,” said Ms Evelyn Neo, its director of marketing communications.

IT’S IN THE STARS...

For those not up to shelling out money for dinner or a hotel room, there are other fun (and innocent) things to do in the dark.

Besides the official Earth Hour events at the Botanic Gardens and the Esplanade Park, there are activities catering to nature lovers, heartlanders, students, even virtual world fans.

For the latter, Blackberry manufacturer Research in Motion has set up a dedicated mobile site for users to connect with others around the world, and to receive Earth Hourupdates.

Environmental group ECO Singapore is reaching out to 30,000 households with the help of 1,200 student volunteers, with community events at five locations — the Esplanade, Zheng Hua Community Club, Hong Kah North Community Club, Bedok Community Centre and Damai Secondary School. On the cards are cultural performances and movie screenings.

Fellow eco group Nature Trekker Singapore will conduct a night walk to Mount Faber for a bird’s eye view of the city lights going out at 8.30pm.

The number of participants will be capped at 50, so as not to “disturb the lovers there”, quipped founder Ben Lee.

Fortune telling, palm-reading and star gazing will be held at the Singapore Management University’s Campus Green for students and the public, even as exams loom for some in two weeks.

SMU wanted to support the World Wide Fund for Nature and “take students’ minds off the exams” for an hour, said senior corporate communications manager Kim May.

With so much going on, there is little reason not to “switch off” at 8.30pm on Saturday. “It’s sexy, its fun and it’s the right thing to do,” said M&C’s Mr Yim.

Get officially involved
Today Online 26 Mar 09;

Official events this Saturday will take place at the Botanic Gardens and Esplanade Park, courtesy of Earth Hour organiser the World Wide Fund (WWF) for Nature.

Pack a picnic basket and head down to the Esplanade Park for the carnival from 5pm, before counting down to the big “switch off” with WWF Singapore’s managing director Amy Ho. Local bands and DJs will continue to entertain celebrants during the hour of darkness.

At the Botanic Gardens, The Climate Project’s Singapore-based director Tony Boatman will give a presentation — based on Al Gore’s 2007 documentary An Inconvenient Truth — at the Botany Centre’s Function Hall, at 2pm. You’ll need to register as seats are limited.

The official events will be powered with biodiesel, thanks to Alpha Bio Fuel.

Other events include a candlelight reception and talk by social media groups at Tangs’ Island Café; Sacred Funk’s yoga and meditation session at Stamford Green in Fort Canning Park; and 400 volunteers lighting candles to form the phrase “We Vote Earth!” on the Formula One track adjacent to the Singapore Flyer.

A slew of corporates will do their part by switching off lights on parts of their premises, include their facades and signage, such as Cathay cineplexes, HSBC Building, Marina and Meritus Mandarin Singapore, Suntec Singapore and 29 CapitaLand Singapore properties.

More events and details on the Singapore Earth Hour blog and on the wildsingapore happenings blog

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Camping permits required for weekends from 15 Apr

A new pitch control
They must apply beforehand at AXS machines forpermits, even for weekends
Leong Wee Keat, Today Online 26 Mar 09;

CAMPING has become so popular that permits now have to be applied for on weekends as well, with a quota imposed on the number being given out.

From April 15, campers at five parks — Changi, East Coast, Pasir Ris, Sembawang and West Coast — need to get permits at AXS machines before they can pitch their tents. Permits will be needed for weekdays and weekends.

Currently, permits are required only on weekdays, issued manually by rangers who scan identity cards and then print them. There are 10 rangers who work across the five locations.

But National Parks Board (NParks) director Kong Yit San said this has “become increasingly challenging with the growing popularity of camping”.

Last year, more than 12,000 campers used the parks.

“Furthermore, campers often have to jostle for space ... especially on weekends, public holidays and school holidays,” said Mr Kong.

Mr Mohammed Khalid, who heads to East Coast Park with his family during holidays, welcomed the new system.

“The park gets really crowded and (this) spoils the atmosphere. The new system will, hopefully, help monitor whether there are too many campers,” said the39-year-old store assistant.

The number of permits issued is dependent on the size of the camping area at each park. For example, the quota for East Coast Park is 100 on weekdays and 200 for weekends.

Permits were introduced in November 2005 to further prevent people from living at the parks in tents for months or even years. At that time, 70 “overstayers” were asked to leave during a two-month period.

NParks said the new registration system, via the AXS machines, would provide an easy, one-stop centralised platform for the board to better manage campingactivities.

Changes will also be made regarding the permit’s use.

From April 15, the permit will be valid for a day and each camper can apply for a maximum of eight days per month. Currently, the same identity card cannot be used to register for more than one permit a day, and for more than five consecutive days.

NParks said that as the use of AXSmachines to book NParks’ barbeque pits has “proven very popular”, campers would findthe system equally accessible and easy to use.

Any of the 500 AXS machines island-wide can be used. Online applications are also allowed, but campers must do so at least a day in advance. Because of the downturn, the $1 administrative fee of using an AXS machine will be waived.

NParks introduces new permit system to cater to growing popularity of camping
NParks website 25 Mar 09

National Parks Board (NParks) will be introducing a new camping permit system to cater to the growing popularity of camping as a recreational activity particularly at coastal parks.

From 15 April 2009, campers will be able to apply for permits via AXS to camp at any of the five parks where camping is permitted[1] - Changi Beach Park (between Carpark 1 and Carpark 4; between Carpark 6 and Carpark 7), East Coast Park (Area D and Area G), Pasir Ris Park (Area 1 and 3), Sembawang Park (Area A), and West Coast Park (Area 3). Camping permits will be required on weekdays and weekends, including public holidays and school holidays. A permit is valid for one day. Each camper will be able to apply for a maximum of 8 days per month.

On this latest move, Mr Kong Yit San, Director, Parks, explained, "Camping permits are currently required only on weekdays and are issued manually by rangers who approach campers, scan their identity cards, and print out a permit. This, however, has become increasingly challenging with the growing popularity of camping. Furthermore, campers often have to jostle for space to pitch their tents, especially on weekends, public holidays and school holidays."

"We recognise that camping is a popular and affordable activity for many people. The new system will enable NParks to better manage camping activities to enhance the recreational experience of campers without inconveniencing other park users. The use of AXS to book BBQ pits has proven very popular and we believe that campers would find this system equally accessible and easy to use."

Those who wish to apply for camping permits can do so conveniently from any of the 500 over AXS machines island-wide. AXS machines are also located in Changi Beach Park (i-kiosk near Carpark 1), East Coast Park (Area C3), Pasir Ris Park (Carpark E), Sembawang Park (Carpark 1), and West Coast Park (McDonald's restaurant in Area 3). Campers can also apply online via www.axs.com.sg (at least one day in advance). In view of the current economic downturn, NParks will cover the cost of transaction over AXS by absorbing the administrative fee of $1 per permit per day.

[1] Apart from the parks mentioned above, camping is also allowed at Jelutong, Noordin and Mamam Beaches at Pulau Ubin. Permits are not required to camp at these sites. However, campers are advised to inform the officers at the Pulau Ubin Police Post on the day that they are camping for safety reasons.

More links on the wild shores of singapore blog.

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Electric scooters to hit Singapore roads from April

Lynda Hong, Channel NewsAsia 25 Mar 09;

SINGAPORE: The first batch of electric scooters will hit the roads in April. The vehicles will have special "Greenlots" in various public buildings to recharge their batteries.

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) has given the scooters the green light to ply the roads, but they will not be allowed on major expressways just yet. The LTA will review the ban one year down the road.

The scooter's distributor said it has received eight orders for the electric vehicle so far.

With a maximum speed of 50 kilometres per hour, the scooter does not have gears, and this reduces vibration and noise.

It costs only S$60 to charge the scooter every year, making it 85 per cent cheaper than owning a conventional scooter. On top of that, owners will receive a one-time green vehicle rebate of between S$250 and S$500.

The distributor hopes this will make the scooter more appealing to cost-conscious motorists.

Jan Croeni, managing director, Zeco Scooters, said: "It's a small island, but it's a huge market. If we have more electric vehicles here, the awareness here will be raised faster, which means there will be a higher adoption of green vehicles. "

The company expects to sell between 500 and 1,000 green scooters in the next two years.

For now, owners can charge their electric scooters at "Greenlots" found in IKEA Singapore's two stores at Alexandra Road and Tampines.

Two more "Greenlots" will be launched at Republic Polytechnic and INSEAD. More "Greenlots" are expected to be launched in the central business district soon. - CNA/vm

Electric scooters get green light
Maria Almenoar, Straits Times 26 Mar 09;

NON-POLLUTING electric scooters have been given the green light to run on roads in Singapore.

And three organisations have shown their support for this 'green' mode of transport by designating 'Greenlots' for users of these scooters to park, plug in and charge their vehicles for free.

Swedish furniture store Ikea Singapore has converted one lot at each of its outlets in Alexandra Road and Tampines; education institutions Republic Polytechnic and Insead will soon set up theirs.

Mr Jan Croeni, managing director of Zeco Scooters which brings in these vehicles, said he has sold eight machines so far, each costing about $7,000. They will be delivered in the coming week.

They can run for 90km on each full charge, which takes 2-1/2 to five hours.

The top speed: 50kmh.

Mr Croeni said: 'It was a bit of a chicken-and-egg situation: When there is no infrastructure for charging, people are reluctant to buy the scooters. When there are no scooters on the road, organisations are reluctant to set up charging points.'

He is looking into setting up solar-powered charging stations by the end of the year.

Not only are the scooters a cleaner mode of transport, they are more economical to run too. Zeco's model costs 70 cents for every 100km, a steal compared to a petrol scooter, which costs 10 times more - $7 per 100km - to run.

These scooters have to keep off the expressways for now, but the authorities will review the ban in a year.

Going green gets a lift from greenlots for electric vehicles
Business Times 26 Mar 09;

ZECO Scooters and Ikea Singapore yesterday launched Singapore's first 'greenlots' for electric vehicles.

Greenlot is the term for the charging infrastructure needed to operate electric vehicles.

Zeco's scooters, which were launched here in January, can be fully charged in two-and-a-half to five hours.

Ikea will introduce greenlots at its Tampines and Alexandra Road stores. The lots will be designated for electric vehicles only and will have a socket for charging.

This is the first part of a roadmap for the island-wide implementation of greenlots this year.

Zeco is in talks with Republic Polytechnic and Insead to install lots on campus grounds in the coming weeks.

Ikea is working with Zeco to help boost environmental sustainability efforts. Country marketing manager Lars Svensson said: 'We are just trying to facilitate a good initiative. The greenlot installation may be small, but every effort counts.'

Said Jan Croeni, managing director of Zeco Scooters: 'We are confident we will move further now that Ikea Singapore is joining us.

'The most important part is being on the way.'

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Solmon dolphin exporter comments on dolphin forum

Dolphin Forum a farce
The Solomon Star 26 Mar 09;

DEAR EDITOR – I would like to respond to Mark Berman’s article in the Solomon Star No. 3891, dated 24/03/09 to clarify my part on certain issues raised so that the public are not misled.

According to the tone of Berman’s article, both the Solomon Islands Government and the two Dolphin Exporting companies were critically criticised.

I was so surprised that even though Mark was not present at the forum, he seemed to hear and see things as it was broadcasted live on TV ONE NEWS. Anyway, he has an advocator in Solomon Islands.

Firstly, as a Solomon Islander operating my business in Solomon Islands, I have satisfied the requirements desired by CITES and MFMR on dolphin exports.

The present government policy of Solomon Islands focus on the livelihoods and food security through and by the harvesting of the marine resources of the country sustainably thus the Total Allowable Catch (TAC) of dolphins was set at 100 dolphins per annum by the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources (MFMR), and not by Dr Defran.

However, he is respected as one of the qualified cetaceans internationally.

Since the establishment of my Company I paid millions of dollars in custom duties directly to the Solomon Islands Government on exports and the purchases of equipment and materials.

Additionally the employment of Solomon Islanders and providing market to fishermen to support immediate family’s livelihood.

The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Meteorology (MECM), who was also the Chairman of the forum, allocated five minutes for each speaker to address their concerns or make points during the forum, therefore, there was no imbalance or biased time given to Mr Makili rather than the local exporters, as claimed by Mark.

On the issue of dolphin feeds, for sure, the dolphins were fed with dead fish that are well stored in freezers but are of high quality.

Any fish that meant for dolphins were usually checked and approved by a qualified veterinary, you yourself even eat dead fish and worse still human beings at times chose between a rotten fish and a fresh fish for consumption.

The sale of Premier Park SeaWorld in the US, as stated by Mark was not due to dry up business but was meant to continue the business by any interested person who wants to make profits let alone their own explanation.

Dolphin is exploited by other countries as well, why are Mark Berman and his associates not paying attention to countries like Peru and Sweden, who are his neighbours that also hunt dolphins for food, but then so concerned about the traditional practices and rural livelihoods of the people of Solomon Islands?

Japan on the other hand, as we all know hunts whales and exports dolphins.

They are now saying stuff anti–whaling we are going back to tradition and culture.
Japan is still a major player in markets around the world regardless of what Earth Islands thinks.

I do not see what effect the mentioned movie will have on Japan. Earth Island is just out of Japan’s league. Tell the world not to buy products from Japan, make it fair on all of us.

What alternative livelihoods can Earth Island Institute suggest or give to the people to supplement and support their daily living?

Secondly, who are they to intervene and blocked the export of tuna from a proposed tuna factory in Malaita?

Thirdly, how about Earth Island’s experience in taking care of KEIKO, the most famous killer-whale in history that ended up dying in their care by not feeding him and get him released faster?

Are you (Mr. Mark Berman) aware that the dolphin count caught on Drift-net fishing in USA alone adds up to approximately 60,000+ in a year?

This is USA alone and yet Mr Berman chose to ignore this. USA is also one of the major players in the tuna industry.

Remember, we need to conserve and protect our fisheries and marine resources but more importantly, we must benefit from using them through sustainable practices.

To me it is better to support one another through dialogue rather than continuous attacking under unknown agenda.

Finally with the above explanation on my part, I call this subject to rest.

So to sum things up, I suggest Mr Berman and his posse please clean up your own backyard first before anyone else’s.

Francis Chow
Honiara

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Papaua New Guinea forests reveal 56 new species

Yahoo News 25 Mar 09;

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Scientists said Wednesday they have uncovered 56 new species in the teaming virgin tropical forests of Papua New Guinea including jumping spiders and a tiny chirping frog.

The 2008 two-month expedition by British, Canadian and PNG scientists to the Pacific islands found a wealth of treasures and documented some 600 species, said Conservation International (CI) which organized the trip.
Among them were 50 spider species, two plants, three frogs and an elegant striped gecko which are believed to completely new to science.

"The vast Kaijende Uplands and nearby valleys represent one of Papua New Guinea's largest undeveloped highlands wilderness areas, and all of it is under the tenure of local clan landowners. These forests are essential to their traditional lifestyles," said CI scientist Steve Richards, who led the expedition.

The three new frogs include a tiny brown one with a sharp chirping call, a bright green tree frog with enormous eyes and a torrent-dwelling frog that has a loud ringing call.

Much of PNG's forests remain unexplored, and have been kept in pristine condition thanks to the care of the local tribes who inhabit them.

"Their intimate knowledge of and stewardship over a large tract of this vast upland wilderness has led to conservation of their wildlife and environment," said Bruce Beehler from Conservation International.

The tribes rely on the wilderness for hunting as well as gathering forest products, and the region provides fresh drinking water to thousands of people living in the Enga Southern Highlands as well as Western and Saudaun provinces.

The group, based in Arlington, Virginia, also highlighted that the vast forested wilderness played a critical role in helping slow climate change as it sucks in large amounts of greenhouse gas carbon dioxide.

Since 1990, Conservation International, which is a private organization, has led more than 60 expeditions to different parts of the globe, discovering more than 700 new species.

Scientists find new species in Papua New Guinea
Kristen Gelineau, Associated Press Yahoo News 25 Mar 09;

SYDNEY – A brilliant green tree frog with huge black eyes, jumping spiders and a striped gecko are among more than 50 new animal species scientists have discovered in a remote, mountainous region of Papua New Guinea.

The discoveries were announced Wednesday by Washington D.C.-based Conservation International, which spent the past several months analyzing more than 600 animal species the group found during its expedition to the South Pacific island nation in July and August.

Of the animals discovered, 50 spider species, three frogs and a gecko appear to have never been described in scientific literature before, the conservation group said. The new frogs include a tiny brown animal with a sharp chirp, a bug-eyed bright green tree frog and another frog with a loud ringing call. One of the jumping spiders is shiny and pale green, while another is furry and brown.

"If you're finding things that are that big and that spectacular that are new, that's really an indication that there's a lot out there that we don't know about," said expedition leader Steve Richards. "It never ceases to amaze me the spectacular things that are turning up from that island."

The findings are significant, particularly the discovery of the new frog species, said Craig Franklin, a zoology professor at The University of Queensland in Australia who studies frogs.

"They're often regarded as a great bioindicator of environmental health," said Franklin, who was not involved in the expedition. "Often we see declines in frogs as a direct pointer to an affected environment."

Researchers from Conservation International explored the region with scientists from the University of British Columbia in Canada and Montclair State University in New Jersey, as well as local scientists from Papua New Guinea.

The area the researchers explored provides a critical source of clean drinking water to tens of thousands of people living in surrounding communities and local clans rely on the region for hunting.

Montclair State University anthropologist William Thomas worked with the local Hewa clan to document the area's resources during the expedition as part of a project he started with scientist Bruce Beehler of Conservation International.

"In a place like PNG, the local communities, the traditional communities, are so close to their environment," Beehler said. "By working with local communities, you actually get a leg up — you learn a lot more because they already know so much."

Conservation International plans to conduct three more expeditions to Papua New Guinea this year, in the hopes of turning up even more new animals.

"Most of us live in urban worlds where we think everything's totally well known," Beehler said. "It's a little bit of a reminder, just a wake up call, that we really need to know our world better so we can manage it better."

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Nine rescued whales beach again in Australia

Yahoo News 25 Mar 09;

PERTH, Australia, (AFP) – All but one of the 10 whales that survived a mass beaching on Australia's west coast were Wednesday believed to have come back ashore and were unlikely to survive, authorities said.

Rescuers used trucks and cranes fitted with giant slings to move 11 long-finned pilot whales by road to sheltered waters for release, after they beached with about 80 others on Monday at Hamelin Bay, south of Perth city.

One of those moved was put to death by specialists after straggling in poor health near to shore, and an aerial patrol spotted nine others again stranded along an impassable coastal area Wednesday.

"As well as the six whales east of Augusta three other whales have been sighted stranded in the Hamelin Bay area," said the environment department's Jason Foster.

"One has been attacked by sharks," he told Australian Associated Press.

Two of the whales were already dead and the rest were in such poor condition they would need to be put down, he said.

"The location is along a rugged stretch of coastline and it is impossible to bring in the machinery necessary to attempt a further rescue," he added.

Four-wheel drive motorcycles would have to be used to access the site, with no safe place for a helicopter to land, he said.

Tests and measurements would be done to confirm the whales came from the beached pod, before they were put to death by wildlife officers.

The latest beaching takes the total number of whales stranded around southern Australia and Tasmania in the past four months to more than 400.

Earlier this month rescuers saved 54 pilot whales after nearly 200 of the giant creatures beached themselves on King Island off Australia's southern coast.

In November, more than 150 pilot whales died after beaching themselves on Tasmania's west coast and in January, 48 sperm whales died on a sandbar at the north of the island.

The phenomenon of whale strandings and the causes remain the subject of scientific debate.

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Spy in the sky confirms Hong Kong as turtle haven

Timothy Chui, The Standard 26 Mar 09;

Satellite-tracking tags have confirmed that the city's eastern waters are a vital transit route for the endangered green turtle.

Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department biologists tracked four female green turtles that came to nest in the territory.

"Our data showed they do migrate among feeding grounds in waters near Hong Kong, migrating from the Philippines to China to lay eggs," AFCD wetland and fauna conservation officer Cheung Ka-shing said.

Of the seven existing marine turtle species, four have been spotted in the territory.

The leatherback and hawkbill species are critically endangered while olive ridley and green turtles are on the endangered list.

To turn the tide, the AFCD has incubated roughly 910 eggs and has been caring for 22 baby turtles. Hatched in December, the baby turtles were from the seventh batch of eggs laid by the first recorded green turtle that returned to nest near Hong Kong.

On July 26 last year, AFCD wardens at Lamma Island's Sham Wan beach restricted area spotted a female green turtle dubbed "Hong Kong 2" that was last seen nesting in 2003.

With the mother laying seven clutches of eggs from July 26 to October 11, the AFCD decided to artificially incubate batches four to seven out of fear that temperatures would be too cold since the egg's 50-day hatching cycle would mean they would hatch in the middle of winter.

The incubation yielded more than 80 percent hatching rate versus nature's one in 1,000.

Hatchlings from batches four through six were introduced into the wild in October while batch seven and its 22 babies will remain on show at Tin Shui Wai's Hong Kong Wetland Park until July 31.

The green turtles have been listed on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources' Red List as endangered since 2004.

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China fights gerbil plague with 'the pill'

Yahoo News 25 Mar 09;

BEIJING (AFP) – Authorities in northwestern China have resorted to using a contraception-abortion pill to rein in a plague of gerbils which is threatening the local desert ecosystem, state media said Wednesday.

Forestry officials in the city of Changji in the vast Xinjiang region began distributing the pellets last May to curb the exploding gerbil population, Xinhua news agency said.
The gerbils' large burrow systems in the Gurbantunggut Desert had begun to damage the root systems of the few plants that can survive in the area, while also damaging local agriculture, it said.

The pellets contain a specially developed contraceptive and an abortion drug, the report quoted Du Yuefei, head of the epidemic prevention section of the city's forestry bureau, as saying.

"Besides pregnancy prevention, the drug can induce abortions and thus largely reduce their breeding rate," Du said.

"It's a good way to tackle the desert rodent plague."

The drug has "little effect" on other animals, the report said.

Previously, local authorities had set up perches for birds of prey, natural predators of the gerbils.

Du said the project could be extended to deal with rodent problems elsewhere in northwestern China.

About 200 kilograms (440 pounds) of pellets have been scattered near burrows across 49,000 hectares (121,000 acres) last year, causing a noticeable drop in gerbil population density, Du said.

However, the report gave no hard figures showing the population reduction.

It said a female can give birth to a new litter every three months.


Chinese try to curb 'plague of desert rats' in Tibet with contraceptives
Pika, relation of the rabbit, blamed for increasing desertification. But experts claim rodents help sustain biodiversity
Jonathan Watts, guardian.co.uk 25 Mar 09;

China's authorities have scattered 200kg of rodent contraceptive pellets across the Tibetan plateau to control what they describe as a "plague of desert rats".

The growing number of rodents have been blamed for destroying fragile high-altitude grasslands and accelerating the spread of deserts.

Biodiversity experts warn, however, that the extermination campaign could worsen the problem of soil degradation and the poisons could damage other parts of the plateau ecosystem.

China's chemists custom-designed the drugs to induce abortions and prevent pregnancy in "gerbils", according to the state-run Xinhua news agency. It is possible they are referring to pika, a small cousin of the rabbit with rounded ears and long whiskers that has long been the target of government eradication campaigns.

Government workers began spreading the contraceptive in the Gurbantunggut desert last May, leaving it in pellet form near the entrance of burrows. Since then they have reportedly distributed 200kg of the drug over 49,000 hectares in China's western region of Xinjiang. They say the drug will have a minimal impact on other animals.

"It's a good way to tackle the desert rat plague," local forestry official Du Yuefei was quoted as saying. He claimed populations of the pest have declined almost 10% as a result of the eradication campaign.

Pika and other rodents are accused of contributing to China's alarming desertification problem by over-eating grass and digging into the soil.

But foreign zoologists say the epidemic of the small mammals is a symptom rather than the cause of grassland degradation, which is mainly the result of human behaviour such as the exploitation of water resources and over-grazing.

"That the pellets have 'little effect' is highly debatable," said a conservationist who asked for anonymity. "All drugs have an effect when put into a system, on other rodents, on birds of prey that eat the rodents and so forth … It's business as usual — attack nature and hope for the best."

Conservationists say the small animals are an important source of food for bigger species such as bears, eagles and leopards, while their burrowing adds to the moisture of the soil.

Previous attempts to cull pika numbers, including mass poisoning campaigns and the construction of hundreds of perches for owls and eagles, have failed or had limited success.

Mass poisonings and the deliberate introduction of disease can hurt other wildlife and spread across borders, as was the case when Australia introduced myxomatosis to reduce the rabbit population in the 1950s.

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Turtles no longer turn to souvenirs in Dominican Republic

WWF 25 Mar 09;

Gland, Switzerland/Washington, US— Critically endangered hawksbill turtles are no longer being sold as tourist souvenirs in the Dominican Republic after a powerful government campaign cracked down on shops illegally trading such items. More than 99 percent of these souvenirs have been withdrawn or confiscated the wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC reports.

A 2006 survey carried out by TRAFFIC found more than 23,000 items made from hawksbill turtles for sale. A February revisit of the same locations revealed a dramatic reduction with only 135 shell items.

The success has been achieved thanks to a widespread government-led action launched in November 2008. The Dominican Republic has encouraged the trade of alternative products such as cow horn or bone to present an alternative to shops trading with these turtles.

“We warmly congratulate the Government of the Dominican Republic on their decisive action that has virtually eliminated the blatant illegal souvenir trade in hawksbill turtle shells,” said Adrian Reuter, TRAFFIC’s Representative in Mexico.

“This sets an important conservation example for the region, showing that there are solutions that benefit wildlife and people, especially local communities that rely on tourism.”

Hawksbills are one of three marine turtle species that nest on beaches in the Dominican Republic. Over the last century, millions have been killed for the tortoiseshell markets of Europe, the United States and Asia. Today they are preyed upon by poachers mainly for their shells, which are made into souvenirs and sold to tourists, millions of whom visit the country, mostly from North America and Europe.

Hawksbills are classified by IUCN as Critically Endangered and facing an extremely high risk of global extinction. They are listed in Appendix I of CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) along with other marine turtles, which prohibits their international trade.

“With marine turtles around the world being threatened with extinction, we need to maximize every effort to save these species, not least because they are worth infinitely more alive as tourist attractions than dead,” said Carlos Drews, WWF’s regional co-ordinator for marine turtle conservation in Latin America and the Caribbean.

“The good news from the Dominican Republic is that it demonstrates to fellow nations that a real difference can be made to reduce illegal trade.”

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Some concerned by jump in Iowa turtle trapping

Marco Santana, Associated Press Chicago Tribune 25 Mar 09;

DES MOINES, Iowa - Surging demand for turtle meat in southeast Asia has prompted a huge jump in trapping in Iowa ponds and streams, leading to concerns that populations of the reptiles could suffer permanent damage.

Between 1987 and 2007, harvests in Iowa increased from 29,000 pounds annually to 235,000 pounds. And during that period the number of licensed harvesters more than quadrupled to 175 people.

Fred Janzen, an Iowa State University professor who studies ecology, evolution and organismal biology, said he was alarmed by the increase.

"The biodiversity within this state will be so much poorer off for having these species essentially go extinct," Janzen said. "You lose an important component of your ecosystem. And you can have these unforeseen consequences when you lose an important component."

Concerns over the increased turtle trapping prompted legislation that has been approved in the Iowa House and is now in a Senate subcommittee. The law would require commercial buyers and harvesters to record their names and addresses, as well as species, quantity, pound, sale information and harvesting location.

Separately, the Tucson, Ariz.-based Center for Biological Diversity has asked officials in Iowa and seven other states to consider banning the commercial harvest of freshwater turtles.

The Arizona organization worked with 24 other conservation and public health groups to send petitions to the eight states, raising questions about the safety of eating turtle meat and calling attention to the number of turtles being harvested.

"People in states where there's either no regulation or lax regulations are literally strip mining streams," said Jeff Miller, a spokesman for the center. "We're going to see some pretty catastrophic results in terms of the number of turtles being taken. It's way beyond anything that's sustainable."

Iowa law limits the harvesting of rare turtles but has no restriction on trapping common snapping, painted or softshell turtles.

Officials with the Department of Natural Resources have 60 days to respond to the center's petition, whether they choose to pursue a ban or not. Officials must let the center know the agency's intentions and can also ask for clarification of the center's data.

Trapping in Iowa and elsewhere has soared with increased demand from southeast Asia, where turtle meat is a delicacy. That demand has caused turtle populations to plunge in Asia, leading to increased payments and rising harvests in the United States, Janzen said.

In 2007, turtles in the U.S. sold for as high as $1.50 per pound of live turtles and $3.50 per pound for carcasses prepared for consumption.

Department of Natural Resources officials said they're concerned about overharvesting but are uneasy about seeking limits until they have a better handle on the turtle population. They said passage of the measure pending in the Legislature would help them understand what's happening to reptile numbers.

Martin Konrad, an executive officer in the Department of Natural Resources' fishing bureau, said the bill also would make it harder for harvesters to underreport their yields.

"There is a level of concern within our department on the harvest of turtles," Konrad said. "But we don't have defensible data available to tell us that the turtle populations are declining and they are in need of greater protection than what we provide now."

Janzen said he worries that once turtle populations are depleted, it could take decades for a recovery to take hold even if harvests were sharply limited.

The petition sent to Iowa and other states -- Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Ohio, South Carolina and Tennessee -- also raised health concerns about eating turtle meat. The groups noted that the sale of the meat was largely unregulated.

The Food and Drug Administration has no advisory against eating the meat, but Miller said that because turtles can live so long they can accumulate toxins such as mercury at a much higher rate than fish.

Snapping and softshell turtles, in particular, pose a greater danger as they often burrow into sediment and increase the risk of exposure, Miller said.

Janzen said if Iowans knew how much money commercial and private harvesters earned with very little overhead, they would be up in arms.

"The taxpayers in Iowa are getting basically nothing and these guys are making a mint, and destroying populations that may have extreme difficulty of ever coming back because of that slow life cycle," he said.

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Malaysia to open palm oil plantations in the Amazon

Felda to start oil palm JV in Brazil
The Star 25 Mar 09;

KUALA LUMPUR: Felda Group, via a joint venture with Brazilian parties, will soon cultivate about 30,000ha to 100,000ha of oil palm in Manaus and Tefe near the Amazon River in Brazil.

Brazil’s Ambassador to Malaysia, Sergio Arruda, said the joint venture would start with 30,000ha whereby some 3,000ha to 5,000ha of oil palm will be cultivated in a year.

“We hope to emulate the successful smallholders’ scheme by Felda in Malaysia for the designated oil palm planting area in Brazil,” he told reporters after the opening of the first Asian Biofuel Roundtable 2009.

Arruda said Felda and its Brazilian partners would also be setting up a bi-national oil palm plantation and production plant, which would lead to downstream activities including a state-of-the-art biodiesel facility.

Meanwhile, Neste Oil Corp senior vice-president on sustainability Simo Honkanen said crude palm oil (CPO) suppliers to the European Union should focus on getting their products certified for sustainability due to the strict requirements by the European Commission.

He said CPO comprised about 80% to 90% of its NExBTL diesel – touted to be the world’s cleanest diesel – produced at Neste’s 170,000-tonne a year biofuel plant in Provoo. Mineral oils and animal fats made up the balance components.

Honkanen said: “Due to the EC requirements, Neste will need to source its palm oil from certified producers. So far, we are satisfied with the quality palm oil from Malaysia.”

Neste will set up another 170,000-tonne biofuel plant in Provoo as well as an 800,000-tonne biofuel plant each in Rotterdam and Singapore.

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Australia issues warning on Hong Kong's dirty air

Yahoo News 24 Mar 09;

HONG KONG (AFP) – Australia has issued a new health alert to travellers, warning that Hong Kong's bad air could aggravate some medical conditions.

The updated advice on the Department of Foreign Affairs website said "levels of air pollution in Hong Kong may aggravate bronchial, sinus or asthma conditions".

"People with existing heart or respiratory illnesses should reduce physical exertion and outdoor activities on days when very high pollution levels are recorded."

The new advice was added Monday, a spokeswoman for the Australian consulate in Hong Kong told AFP.

Hong Kong's air quality has come under increasing scrutiny in recent years, as pollution belched out of factories in neighbouring southern China has regularly shrouded the city in a thick haze.

Business groups and campaigners have said the toxic air threatens the financial hub's ability to attract and retain top international talent.

The government is currently reviewing the city's air quality targets, which were last revised 20 years ago.

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'Crunch year' for world's forests

Mark Kinver, BBC News 25 Mar 09;

Efforts to mitigate climate change could be hampered if nations do not agree to protect the world's forests by the end of the year, warn researchers.

Earthwatch says it is vital for leaders attending a key UN summit in December to find a way to halt deforestation.

Deforestation accounts for about 20% of the greenhouse gas emissions resulting from human activities, UN data shows.

The environmental charity will outline its concerns during a public lecture in central London on Thursday evening.

"This year is the crunch time for forests and climate change," Earthwatch's head of climate change research Dan Bebber told BBC News.

"We are hoping for big things from the Copenhagen climate summit at the end of 2009," he added, referring to a much anticipated UN gathering.

"Unless we tackle the question of forests as a mitigation method for climate change, then we will really have lost the battle to keep greenhouse gas concentrations below levels that many people would consider to be dangerous."

Raising awareness

Despite the measures introduced by the UN's Kyoto Protocol on climate change, global emissions of CO2 have continued to rise as a result of increasing energy consumption and the loss of forest cover.

The reason why deforestation accounts for about 20% of CO2 emissions from human activities is primarily a result of old growth tropical forests being felled or burned in order to convert the fertile land into farmland.

The issue is one of the key topics on the agenda at the UN climate summit in Copenhagen, which will consider how the global climate strategy will look when Kyoto expires in 2012.

"This year is going to be critical and we feel we need to raise public awareness about this issue as much as possible," Dr Bebber said.

"There have been some very strong pressures to use forests in an unsustainable way, particularly in the tropics.

"You could probably make a thousand times more money by converting tropical forests to agricultural land to grow, for example, soya beans than you could managing it in a sustainable way.

"It is this imbalance that needs to be addressed at a global level."

Growing money on trees

Gro Harlem Brundtland, the UN secretary general's climate change envoy, said that emissions from deforestation were comparable to total annual CO2 emissions of the US or China.

"Deforestation therefore has to be included in the new climate change agreement," she told delegates at a UN Committee on Forestry meeting in Rome earlier this month.

"While forests were left out of the Kyoto Protocol, it must now find its place within the broader solution."

In order to tackle deforestation effectively, Dr Brundtland said it was necessary to develop a regime that "creates the necessary incentives for developing countries to act in the broader interest of... the planet".

In October 2008, the Eliasch Review - commissioned by UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown - concluded that an international deal to protect forests would reduce the cost of tackling climate change by up to 50% in 2030.

The report by Swedish businessman Johan Eliasch said cash put aside for carbon saving in rich countries could be transferred to nations with rainforests in need of protection.

Such a scheme could reduce deforestation rates by up to 75% in 2030, Mr Eliasch concluded.

The leading contender to cut the loss of tree cover is a scheme called Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD).

It first came to light during negotiations at the 2007 UN climate summit, hosted by the Indonesian island of Bali.

The resulting "Bali Action Plan" called for "policy approaches and positive incentives on issues relating to reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries".

This led to the formation of REDD, which states that nations "willing and able to reduce emissions from deforestation should be financially compensated for doing so".

Supporters of the scheme say it will offer the necessary financial incentive to halt large areas of tropical forests being felled.

However, critics of the scheme are sceptical about how the system of carbon credits will be regulated.

Whatever scheme is favoured, Dr Bebber, who will be one of the speakers at the Earthwatch Lecture on Thursday evening, says it is vital that delegates at the Copenhagen climate summit reach an agreement on a way to curb deforestation.

He warned: "If these types of schemes do not get up and running shortly, then we will have really missed the boat."

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'Too popular' UK green scheme closed

Sarah Mukherjee, BBC News 25 Mar 09;

Environmental campaigners say they are astonished at the government's decision to suspend a scheme which gave grants to schools, hospitals and other public buildings to switch to renewable energy.

The Low Carbon Buildings Programme has apparently been too popular - particularly with those hoping to install solar panels.

"Is it working?"

"Yes - I think so - the yellow one is."

Two young children pore over a rather unseasonal little cardboard Christmas tree, as the LED lights that adorn it glow rather dully under cloudy skies.

The flickering glow that the lights emit is coming not from a plug, but from the sky - in the shape of a small, palm-sized solar photovoltaic (PV) panel, held towards the lowering clouds.

And this might be as close as the Eco-club pupils of Great Missenden School in Buckinghamshire get to seeing solar PV in action.

Staff had hoped that their application for a grant to put up solar PV panels would be considered, but now they've been told they've missed out.

"They've run out of money - it's been very popular," says Margaret Dixon, the school's librarian, who's been heading up the application.

"It would obviously be lovely if we could get some money because it's such a wonderful technology and such an example to the local community to have it happening here at the school.

"We were also hoping for solar panels on the church as well, which would have been great for Great Missenden as a whole."

The school is hoping it might get some funding from the National Lottery, but, like many others, it now finds itself having to look for other forms of cash for its solar plans.

Those within the renewable energy industry say this state of affairs is no surprise.

The Renewable Energy Association says it warned the government in February that the money within the scheme was going to run out for PV.

They say cash allocated for other renewable technologies is likely to remain unspent, because nobody has applied for it.

But the government has not re-allocated this cash to the ultra-popular solar PV, so, the association says, it is likely that about £8m of funding will simply end up going back to the Treasury.

Raising awareness

Those who have managed to get funding for solar PV enthuse about the benefits.

Standing on the rooftop of Fulston Manor School in Sittingbourne in Kent, headmaster Alan Brookes proudly surveys his solar panels.

They have cut electricity bills by between five and 10%, but Mr Brookes says the educational benefits have been just as significant.

"Children were going home talking to their parents about it, parents got interested, community groups came, and you begin the dialogue," he says.

"If you can raise the awareness, then you've done a major job."

Mr Brookes and his staff are obviously very proactive in finding funding and the school has several pieces of equipment won through competitions.

For example, they are one of only two schools in the country to have their own seismograph for measuring earthquakes - they can pick up disturbances as far afield as Tonga and the Arctic.

Indeed, the solar PV panels were paid partly from a government grant and partly through a scheme run by the Co-op called Solar for Schools.

But the Co-op scheme was a match-funding project - they effectively doubled the cash from the government - and it is difficult to see how they will match-fund state grants if there are no grants to match.

'Defies belief'

A government spokeswoman says ministers are considering the future options for the scheme with industry representatives, but environmental campaigners say they are growing increasingly weary about the gap between political rhetoric and political action.

Ed Matthew, from Friends of the Earth, is in no doubt about just how fast we are moving towards the low carbon economy spoken of by Business Secretary Lord Mandelson and the prime minister.

"It almost defies belief," he says. "We have to almost completely decarbonise the energy system in the UK in the next 20 to 30 years to avoid catastrophic climate change.

"Meanwhile, the government appears to be taking the renewables industry apart."

And others point out that this is not the first time such grants have been over-subscribed.

In the past, the government's funding schemes for domestic renewable energy projects proved so popular that the money ran out within hours of it becoming available.

Renewable energy experts say it has all been disastrous and could leave the UK at a competitive disadvantage in the future.

Read more!

How our green technology may rest on bacterial skills

Colin Barras, New Scientist 25 Mar 09;

You may think that it is only human ingenuity that can lead us to a greener, cleaner future. But if we are to develop technologies that significantly reduce our impact on the planet, the humble bacteria may deserve as much recognition as any human engineers.

With many of the most advanced sustainable technologies still a long way from being viable on a large scale it is still unclear which approaches will succeed. But in areas from biofuels to fuel cells technologies based on the smarts of bacteria have the potential to win out.

The huge diversity of the bacterial portion of the biosphere is providing researchers with all kinds of tools and techniques.

Experiments with bacteria have provided some of the clearest views yet of evolution in action. That is good new for engineers as much as it is for evolutionists, because many bacteria have already evolved to live off the pollution created by humans.
Plastic alchemy

In 2008, Kevin O'Connor's team at University College Dublin, Ireland, was trying to find a way to convert cheap PET plastic bottles into something more valuable, because despite their ubiquity these bottles are rarely worth recycling commercially.

Cost-effective industrial processes that could "upcycle" PET were hard to find and so the team decided to try a bacterial approach. Although none were known that could perform a useful conversion, the researchers trusted that natural selection would have found a way. They went on the hunt for bacteria that had evolved to digest plastic bottles.

Sure enough, the team found strains of Pseudomonas soil bacteria near a PET bottle processing plant that feed on PET, and convert it into a more valuable polymer, PHA. Each bacterium gorges on PET to the point that it becomes 24% PHA plastic by volume. Further selection in the lab should produce an even more efficient bottle-eating bug.
Fuel production

As well as eating our waste, bacteria can provide our fuel. More than a decade ago Eugene Premuzic at Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, New York, was prospecting for and found bacteria able to clean the sulphur and nitrogen from crude oil. He demonstrated that bacteria could provide a way to meet tightening restrictions on fuel quality in the US and EU designed to reduce smog and acid rain.

Bacteria are also helping with the development of the cleaner successors to oil. Genetically engineered bacteria can ferment cellulose from plant waste to produce ethanol, Lee Lynd of Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, has shown.

It is also possible to pick the pockets of bacteria for their chemical skills. Last year a team from Michigan State University in East Lansing used genes from cow stomach bacteria to create a corn variety that digests its own cellulose after harvesting, facilitating the production of ethanol.
The hydrogen economy

Earlier this year a UK team showed that bacteria could even be used to produce hydrogen from water. This could potentially solving the key problem of the expense of generating the gas, which is holding back dreams of a hydrogen economy.

A decade ago, an enzyme that produces hydrogen from hydrogen ions in the environment was isolated from a bacterium that extracts energy from sulphur compounds. Fraser Armstrong and Erwin Reisner at the University of Oxford attached it to light-activated nanoparticles to create a light-powered, hydrogen-producing dust.

In the right chemical environment the dust absorbs light energy which allows the enzyme to convert hydrogen ions from water molecules into hydrogen gas. Although much work is still needed to improve the efficiency, results are "promising" according to Armstrong.
Bacterial catalysts

Bacteria may also help address another weakness of the hydrogen economy – the fact that fuel cells that make electricity from the gas rely on expensive platinum catalysts. The role of the precious metal could be performed by bacterial enzymes that are as active as platinum catalysts but more selective for hydrogen, Kylie Vincent at the University of Oxford told New Scientist in 2006. They could make fuel cells more compact into the bargain.

"With platinum electrodes, a special membrane has to be used to keep the two fuels separate, or you would get no power at all. If you have very specific catalysts like enzymes, you don't need a membrane."

But the enzymes are not without their own faults and at the moment they cost more than platinum. However, the price of enzyme-catalysed cells is more likely to drop than that of a precious metal subject to growing demand.

Hydrogen fuel cells can power transport like cars, trucks or boats, but less-power-hungry machines could use fuel cells that rely on bacteria alone.

Microbial fuel cells that harvest electrons from colonies of living bacteria were first developed in 2004, in the form of a cell that produces power from sewage. Since then they have been used to power seafloor sensors listening for turtles, and versions using bacteria that grow electrical connections among themselves have also been developed to boost a fuel cell's power.

Bioinspired technology drawing on "engineering" found in the natural world is increasingly common. But while octopus robotsMovie Camera might make better headlines, lowly bacteria are already contributing to an unrivalled range and depth of technologies.

Read more!

Search on for best climate biosolutions

WWF 25 Mar 09;

Global environment organization WWF and leading enzyme biotechnology company Novozymes today announced an initiative which will map how and where low carbon biosolutions can eliminate the first strategic billion tonnes of CO2.

“Low carbon biotech solutions are a good example of hidden or invisible climate solutions that are all around us already today but are easily overlooked by policymakers, investors and companies,” said Kim Carstensen, Director of WWF’s Global Climate Initiative.

The biotechnology industry is an important part of the climate solutions the world is in need of because the emissions reductions secured by biotech solutions are factors of magnitude greater than the emissions involved in creating them. Enzymes, for instance, save large amounts of energy when applied to the production of a variety of every day products, such as paper, washing powder and bioethanol.

Last year, Novozymes emitted about one million tonnes of CO2 eq in the production of raw materials and enzymes but helped eliminate around 28 million tonnes of CO2 eq emissions over enzyme free production.

“What we offer our customers is to produce more from less input, use less energy in their processes and generate less waste,” said Steen Riisgaard, CEO of Novozymes.

“Clearly, biotechnology is therefore an important route to securing big emissions cuts while creating succesful business models.”

With only a small portion of the potential of biotech so far realized, the joint Biosolutions Initiative – Eliminating the first billion tonnes of CO2 will seek out key and priority areas where biotechnology solutions can be applied to achieve emissions cuts.

Low carbon winners of future need support now

The partnership will also engage in dialogue with central policy makers and create low carbon business partnerships to ensure that low carbon bio tech solutions become an integrated part of all major climate projects and initiatives.

“So far, the main effort to combat climate change has focused on reducing the negative impact of the big emmitters,” said Carstensen. “While important, this neither secures all the reductions needed nor does it provide a sustainable economic model for creating jobs, growth and a prosperous society.”

The project aims to contribute to accelerating and exploring the further potential of biotechnology as a crucial part of overall climate solutions.

“Fighting climate change is also about innovation and finding smarter ways to do things, and biotechnology helps us do just that,” said Carstensen.

The project will also identify how to best deploy emerging bio-solutions .

In order to unlock the full potential of biotechnology, policy makers need to integrate low carbon biotech solutions as part of all major climate strategies," said Riisgaard.

"Together with WWF we want to inspire decision makers in building low carbon solutions for our society."

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Arctic meltdown is a threat to humanity

Fred Pearce, New Scientist 25 Mar 09;

"I AM shocked, truly shocked," says Katey Walter, an ecologist at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks. "I was in Siberia a few weeks ago, and I am now just back in from the field in Alaska. The permafrost is melting fast all over the Arctic, lakes are forming everywhere and methane is bubbling up out of them."

Back in 2006, in a paper in Nature, Walter warned that as the permafrost in Siberia melted, growing methane emissions could accelerate climate change. But even she was not expecting such a rapid change. "Lakes in Siberia are five times bigger than when I measured them in 2006. It's unprecedented. This is a global event now, and the inertia for more permafrost melt is increasing."

The dramatic changes in the Arctic Ocean have often been in the news in the past two years. There has been a huge increase in the amount of sea ice melting each summer, and some are now predicting that as early as 2030 there will be no summer ice in the Arctic at all.

Discussions about the consequences of the vanishing ice usually focus either on the opening up of new frontiers for shipping and mineral exploitation, or on the plight of polar bears, which rely on sea ice for hunting. The bigger picture has got much less attention: a warmer Arctic will change the entire planet, and some of the potential consequences are nothing short of catastrophic.

Changes in ocean currents, for instance, could disrupt the Asian monsoon, and nearly two billion people rely on those rains to grow their food. As if that wasn't bad enough, it is also possible that positive feedback from the release of methane from melting permafrost could lead to runaway warming.

The danger is that if too much methane is released, the world will get hotter no matter how drastically we slash our greenhouse gas emissions. Recent studies suggest that emissions from melting permafrost could be far greater than once thought. And, although it is too early to be sure, some suspect this scenario is already starting to unfold: after remaining static for the past decade, methane levels have begun to rise again, and the source could be Arctic permafrost.

What is certain is that the Arctic is warming faster than any other place on Earth. While the average global temperature has risen by less than 1 °C over the past three decades, there has been warming over much of the Arctic Ocean of around 3 °C. In some areas where the ice has been lost, temperatures have risen by 5 °C.

This intense warming is not confined to the Arctic Ocean. It extends south, deep into the land masses of Siberia, Alaska, Canada, Greenland and Scandinavia, and to their snowfields, ice sheets and permafrost. In 2007, the North American Arctic was more than 2 °C warmer than the average for 1951 to 1980, and parts of Siberia over 3 °C warmer. In 2008, most of Siberia was 2 °C warmer than average (see map).

Most of this is the result of positive feedbacks (see illustration) from lost ocean ice, says David Lawrence of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado. His modelling studies show that during periods of rapid sea-ice loss, warming extends some 1500 kilometres inland from the ice itself. "If sea-ice continues to contract rapidly over the next several years, Arctic land warming and permafrost thaw are likely to accelerate," he says.

Changes in wind patterns may accelerate the warming even further. "Loss of summer sea ice means more heat is absorbed in the ocean, which is given back to the atmosphere in early winter, which changes the wind patterns, which favours additional sea ice loss," says James Overland, an oceanographer at the Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Seattle. "The potential big deal is that we now may be having a positive feedback between atmospheric wind patterns and continued loss of sea ice."

Incidentally, the changing winds might also be to blame for some of the cold and snowy weather in North America and China in recent winters, Overland says. Unusual poleward flows of warm air over Siberia have displaced cold air southwards on either side.

The rapid warming in the Arctic means that a global temperature rise of 3 °C, likely this century, could translate into a 10 °C warming in the far north. Permafrost hundreds of metres deep will be at risk of thawing out.

This is where things go global. The Arctic is not just a reflective mirror that is cracking up. It is also a massive store of carbon and methane, locked into the frozen soils and buried in icy structures beneath the ocean bed.

A quarter of the land surface of the northern hemisphere contains permafrost, permanently frozen soil, water and rock. In places, deep permafrost that formed during the last ice age, when the sea level was much lower, extends far out under the ocean, beneath the seabed. Large areas of permafrost are already starting to melt, resulting in rapid erosion, buckled highways and pipelines, collapsing buildings and "drunken" forests.

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Global Warming 37 Percent To Blame For Droughts: Scientist

David Fogarty, PlanetArk 26 Mar 09;

SINGAPORE - Global warming is more than a third to blame for a major drop in rainfall that includes a decade-long drought in Australia and a lengthy dry spell in the United States, a scientist said on Wednesday.

Peter Baines of Melbourne University in Australia analyzed global rainfall observations, sea surface temperature data as well as a reconstruction of how the atmosphere has behaved over the past 50 years to reveal rainfall winners and losers.

What he found was an underlying trend where rainfall over the past 15 years or so has been steadily decreasing, with global warming 37 percent responsible for the drop.

"The 37 percent is probably going to increase if global warming continues," Baines told Reuters from Perth in Western Australia, where he presented his findings at a major climate change conference.

Baines' analysis revealed four regions where rainfall has been declining. The affected areas were the continental United States, southeastern Australia, a large region of equatorial Africa and the Altiplano in South America.

But there were two areas in the tropics where rainfall has been increasing -- northwestern Australia and the Amazon Basin.

"This is all part of a global pattern where the rainfall is generally increasing in the equatorial tropics and decreasing in the sub-tropics in mid-latitudes," Baines said.

"This is a little bit like the pattern that the (computer) models predict for global warming but this is coming out of the rainfall observations of the past 30 years," added Baines, of Melbourne University's civil and environmental engineering department.

The rainfall trend was also accompanied by a trend in global sea surface temperatures (SST), he said, adding he used temperature data going back to 1910.

Sea surface temperatures have been rising as the atmosphere warms.

"If you take the SST data and analyze that over a long period you can break that up into a variety of components, such a global warming component," he said.

He also looked at the influence on rainfall of major ocean circulation patterns that have a major impact on the world's weather such as the Atlantic conveyor belt that brings warm temperatures to northern Europe.

Two Pacific circulation patterns, including the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, were also studied for their influence on rainfall.

The key in the analysis was to strip out the influence of the El Nino ocean-climate pattern which causes drought in Southeast Asia and Australia and floods in Chile and Peru.

Baines, who also works for the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Bristol in England, said the Atlantic conveyor belt was 27 percent to blame for the decreased rainfall, while the two Pacific ocean circulation patterns were 30 percent responsible.

(Editing by Dean Yates)

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