Best of our wild blogs: 10 May 09

Photo of oil spill at Sentosa on 4 May
shared by Joseph Lai on the wild shores of singapore blog

Back to Big Sisters
on the wonderful creation blog and wild shores of singapore and nature calls blog.

Trekking In Central Catchment Area On 2 May
on the Beauty of Fauna and Flora in Nature blog

Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker picking spider’s web
on the Bird Ecology Study Group blog

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Nations gather for oceans talks in Indonesia

Aubrey Belford Yahoo News 9 May 09;

MANADO, Indonesia (AFP) – Ministers and officials from 70 nations will gather in Indonesia on Monday for talks on protecting the world's oceans and to help set the stage for climate change talks in December.

The five-day World Ocean Conference in Manado city is being touted as a first-of-a-kind meeting on the oceans' role in mitigating climate change and on the consequences of higher temperatures such as rising seas, extinctions and food shortages.

Environment, fisheries and resources ministers are expected to agree a declaration aimed at influencing the direction of the Copenhagen talks scheduled for year end, where nations will gather to hammer out the successor to the expiring Kyoto protocol.

Organisers say they hope to expand the scope of any future climate change agreement to encompass marine environments, on which hundreds of millions of people rely for their livelihoods.

"The conference will be non-binding but it is the highest political level ocean conference done so far," said Indroyono Soesilo, the Indonesian official in charge of organising the event on Sulawesi island.

"If we are able to put oceans into world climate change policies it will be a success for us because it has never happened before.

"Because of global warming we will have sea level rises that will make some island nations disappear, so let's do something about that."

The sidelines of the conference will also see the launch of an international plan to save the Coral Triangle, an underwater ecosystem in Southeast Asia that is half the size of the United States and has been compared to the Amazon rainforest in its biodiversity.

Leaders from the six Coral Triangle Initiative nations -- Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, East Timor, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands -- will sign a joint plan to protect the region, home to more than half the world's coral reefs.

But while organisers express optimism over the meeting, scientists say knowledge about the oceans is so limited that not much is known about how they will behave under the influence of climate change or the role they can play in absorbing carbon.

The boosting of ocean research and agreements on international sharing of data are expected to be a part of any conference declaration.

"If you talk about marine carbon issues it's still a long way to go," The Nature Conservancy's Coral Triangle Centre head Abdul Halim said.

"Unless you have at least basic scientific evidence to support your argument it's really difficult for people to argue about."

The conference comes amid a slew of gloomy studies on the possible effects of global warming.

A report in the science journal Nature last month found catastrophic sea level rises of up to three metres are a "distinct possibility" within the next century.

The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicted in 2007 that sea levels could rise by up to 59 centimetres (23 inches) by 2100, drowning low-lying island nations.

Studies predict conference host Indonesia, an archipelago of roughly 17,000 islands, is set to lose many outlying islands, threatening its sea borders with neighbouring countries.

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Fight to save the 'Amazon of the oceans'

mysinchew.com 10 May 09;

NUSA LEMBONGAN (AFP) - With its pleasure boats dipping on the horizon and clustered tourist restaurants, the Indonesian island of Nusa Lembongan looks little like the edge of a great wilderness.

But according to scientists, this small and scrubby island off Bali is one corner of a huge marine ecosystem touted as the most diverse on earth -- and a key environmental battleground for a planet grappling with climate change.

The area is known as the Coral Triangle, and stretching across six nations between the Indian and Pacific oceans -- Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, East Timor, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands -- it is impressive in scale.

About half the size of the continental United States, the triangle is home to more than half the world's coral reefs, three-quarters of its coral species and key stocks of fish that help feed the world.

"People have compared the Coral Triangle's biodiversity richness to the Amazon," said Abdul Halim, the head of The Nature Conservancy's (TNC) Coral Triangle Centre.

But, as in the Amazon, the area's huge biodiversity is matched by a daunting set of challenges.

Overfishing, climate change and impoverished communities are all taking their toll on the region.

As nations meet in the Indonesian city of Manado in the coming week for the World Oceans Conference, the Coral Triangle is being touted as a key target in efforts to conserve the health of the oceans, to both battle climate change and adapt to its consequences.

A meeting of leaders from the six nations of the Coral Triangle Initiative, which was formed in 2007, is set to launch a plan to save the region, which has already been pledged hundreds of millions of dollars by international donors.

However, those involved in conserving the region say it will be a hard fight.

-- 'The Nursery of the Seas' --

Slipping under the clear waters off Lembongan, the threat of destruction can seem distant. Fish from across the colour spectrum flit among bright corals in a concentration of life unthinkable on land.

Scientists say the area has withstood the pressures of human misuse and nature better than most, and that is precisely what makes it so important.

"It has the highest diversity anywhere on the planet, if you talk about marine life," said Lida Pet Soede, the head of environmental group WWF's Coral Triangle Initiative Network.

"It has the most species of corals, the most species of fish, every other marine organism.... All sorts of stuff, it has the most of it," she said.

The Coral Triangle's variety of species means life here has an in-built coping mechanism to deal with outside stresses, and serves as the "nursery of the seas" for species facing collapse elsewhere, Soede said.

About 30 percent of the world's tuna is caught here and populations are relatively healthy but by no means beyond threat.

Unlike other massive coral reefs, such as Australia's threatened Great Barrier Reef, the area has also proved resistant to the effects of climate change, thanks to a constant welling of water between the Pacific and Indian oceans that keeps temperatures relatively stable.

But as temperatures rise and industrial fishing fleets in other parts of the world are forced to ever more obscure and deep corners for dwindling catches, the stresses on the Coral Triangle are likely to prove too much, Soede said.

"As reserves everywhere else are going down the pressure is on, everyone is going to want to come here," she said.

"It's very likely that this will be one of the last areas where you still have significant production of seafood, but this area will not be able to feed the world.

"It's not just about fish and food but the very fact of certain species that we don't even know exist... that may be the cure for HIV.

"If that particular organism or particular ecosystem is gone before we figure it out, it's a big loss."

-- Local approaches --

About 120 million people living in the Coral Triangle depend on the seas for their livelihoods, and although they are among the greatest potential victims of the collapse of local ecosystems, they also often play the role of vandals.

Spread out on thousands of islands across porous national borders, many living in impoverished communities have turned to poisoning fish with cyanide or blowing them up with dynamite, said Marthen Welly, who runs a TNC programme at Nusa Lembongan and its neighbouring islands.

"Middlemen tie up the fishermen with debt for life. The fishermen have to pay back their debts by selling fish every day, but it's the middlemen who set the price and they set it as low as possible," he said.

"Sometimes fishermen know that using bombs and cyanide breaks the law and wrecks the reefs, but they're also squeezed."

The approach of non-governmental organisations and governments has been to try to introduce alternative livelihoods and get communities on board in protecting the environment through so-called Marine Protected Areas (MPAs).

If everything goes to plan, Nusa Lembongan will soon be covered by one of the MPAs, which already spread over about 10,000 hectares (24,750 acres) in Indonesia.

The area has been a relative success without outside help. Tourist dollars and the introduction of seaweed farming in the 1980s have lifted local farmers and fishermen out of desperate poverty, and put conservation on the agenda.

"Before there was seaweed we could count with our hands who could eat. They were the ones with big plots of land that could plant trees, corn, coconuts," said 37-year-old seaweed farmer Wayan Suwarbawa, who is working with the TNC.

"Even though we're just farmers, we're obliged to spread the importance of preserving sea ecosystems," he said.

But even if other areas -- which in most Coral Triangle countries tend to be much poorer -- can replicate the successes of Nusa Lembongan, the root of the problem remains with climate change and a growing global population hungry for fish, WWF's Soede said.

"If you don't take away the drivers like unsustainable consumption patterns or other influences then your conservation dollar on the ground is not going to be very effective. It's pretty much a waste," she said. (By AUBREY BELFORD)

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Indonesia forest CO2 rules need finance clarity: experts

David Fogarty, Reuters 8 May 09;

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - The world's first rules for generating tradeable carbon credits from protecting forests were a good start but Indonesia needed to clear up doubts over the government's share of the revenues, analysts and industry said Friday.

Indonesia's forestry minister signed the rules last Friday, making Indonesia the first nation to formally enact regulations governing a U.N.-backed scheme called reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD).

The scheme aims to generate billions of dollars in carbon credit revenue for developing nations in return for long-term protection of forests or rehabilitation of forest land.

Forests soak up vast amounts of carbon dioxide and reversing the rate of deforestation is seen as crucial to braking the pace of climate change.

About 20 percent of mankind's greenhouse gas emissions come from clearing and burning forests and Indonesia has been a large contributor of that pollution through logging and clearing for palm oil plantations.

Under the Indonesian rules, a foreign party can join up with an local entity to develop a REDD project and the credits could be used to offset emissions in the developed world.

The rules also spell out what types of forests are eligible and the licensing requirements. A national REDD commission would vet projects, which could run 30 years and possibly be extended.

"What is clear is who can do a REDD project and where a REDD project can be carried out -- who the REDD proponents are, who can be the national and international entities," Jakarta-based lawyer Luke Devine told Reuters Friday.

"It's a bit like a CDM scheme framework of pairing a national project developer with an international carbon buyer," said Devine, head of the climate change practice at Baker & McKenzie member firm Hadiputranto, Hadinoto & Partners.

The U.N.'s Clean Development Mechanism allows rich nations to invest in clean-energy projects in the developing world in return for U.N. backed carbon credits.

The world body wants to extend the same idea to REDD and aims to have the scheme formally included in a broader climate pact to replace the Kyoto Protocol from 2013.

For the moment, early REDD projects fall under the voluntary carbon market and a U.N.-backed REDD credit trading scheme won't be operating until at least 2013 and probably later.

TAX OR LEVY?

Devine said the government had not announced how REDD revenue would be handled or what the government's share would be.

"The earlier draft talked about a 30 percent share of the REDD entitlements going to the central government. The signed regulation just says it will be separately regulated."

He said the finance ministry was studying how to treat REDD credits, whether they should be taxed, whether the government should impose a levy on the value of the credit as with, say, timber, or whether the government should take a physical share of the credits as with oil and gas.

The rules have been more than a year in the making and investors have been waiting for clarity. The World Bank said earlier this year there were about 20 REDD projects in Indonesia at various stages of development.

"From a private sector perspective, these new REDD regulations are really encouraging as they provide more certainty on process and procedure to implement a project," Dorjee Sun, CEO of Carbon Conservation, told Reuters.

"Investors are still missing one key piece of information which is the state revenue share requirement in Article 20 but this is a challenge that is being met by the Ministries of Finance and Forestry," said Sun.

Carbon Conservation is working with the Aceh government in Indonesia on Ulu Masen, the world's first independently validated REDD project covering 750,000 ha (1.87 million acres).

The United States and Australia see REDD schemes as a viable way of offsetting domestic emissions, although some green groups say REDD will help rich nations dodge carbon-cutting measures.

A draft climate bill by U.S. Congressmen Henry Waxman and Edward Markey proposed incentives that would help cut deforestation in developing countries between 2012 and 2025.

Earlier this week, Australia said it would raise its 2020 emissions reduction target to 25 percent from 2000 levels if other rich nations pledged equally ambitious cuts. It said a fifth of that target could be met through overseas offsets, including future U.N.-backed REDD credits.

For the moment, Indonesia needed to spell out how credits from early REDD projects could be traded, said Fitrian Ardiansyah, program director for climate and energy for WWF-Indonesia.

"Some of the groups at the international level are talking about whether they can bank the credits that are generated from today till 2012 and then try to sell after 2012," he said, adding investors wanted clarity on how to fund early REDD projects.

"The parts affecting economic viability of the project have yet to be laid out," said Devine.

"We may therefore be looking at donor money for the early REDD projects, with investor money to follow once the full picture is presented."

(Editing by Michael Urquhart)

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UK cities to sizzle as islands of heat

Jonathan Leake, Times Online 10 May 09;

LONDON and other cities could see summer temperatures rise to more than 10C above those in the surrounding countryside, according to Met Office research being used to help devise the first official climate change map of Britain.

Scientists have been studying a phenomenon known as the urban heat island effect, in which cities become significantly hotter than the areas around them because of the heat they generate themselves.

Big cities such as London, Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow already reach temperatures 2C - 3C above their surroundings in the summer. Scientists fear that difference could grow four to fivefold as hotter weather combines with soaring energy use and population growth, making such temperature gaps more frequent and more extreme.

The research is linked to a wider project aimed at helping scientists predict the impact rising temperatures will have on different parts of the country. The full results will be released next month by Hilary Benn, the environment secretary.

Vicky Pope, the head of climate change advice at the Met Office, said: “As the climate gets warmer, sweltering summer temperatures will combine with rising energy use, the heat-retaining properties of buildings, and the sheer volume of people, to push temperatures higher and higher.

“It may sometimes make life in the metropolis intolerable. Imagine the scorching conditions that commuters will face on London’s Tube network.”

The warning follows the disclosure by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that global temperatures have risen by almost 1C since preindustrial times.

The panel predicts global temperatures will have risen by 2C by 2050 with total warming of up to 5-6C possible by 2100.

Such findings are now widely accepted but questions remain, especially regarding the impact on cities, where more than half the world’s population live. New York – hotter in summer than British cities - is regularly 7C-8C hotter than nearby rural areas.

In Britain, 90% of the population lives in urban or suburban areas so the impact on people is potentially huge.

The research is based partly on data from heatwaves, such as the one in 2003, and on computer projections. It also looked at cities such as Athens and Beirut which suffer from the urban heat phenomenon.

The August 2003 heatwave saw England’s daytime temperatures top 30C for 10 days and exceed 35C in many places.

The same heatwave saw temperatures in the upper 30Cs in the centres of cities such as London, Birmingham and Manchester. This was often 6C-7C above those in rural areas.

Researchers fear central city temperatures may exceed 40C as the century progresses.

“The high temperatures of 2003 were extraordinary but may become common by 2050 and even be seen as relatively cool by 2100,” said Pope.

One of the factors that made London so hot was its inability to cool down. At night during the heatwave, the city centre was sometimes 9C warmer than its surrounding green belt.

This is because rural and suburban areas lose heat at night but in cities the materials used for hard surfaces store more solar energy and lose it more slowly. This effect is amplified by the heat from lights, electrical equipment and cars. Also, as cities get warmer, they consume more power trying to stay cool, because of air-condition-ers and fridges working harder.

Richard Betts, head of climate impacts at the Met Office, who oversaw the research, said Tokyo showed what British cities might face. Its tall, densely packed buildings and high energy use mean the Japanese capital is often 10C hotter than the surrounding countryside.

“We must change how we plan cities, to maximise green spaces and create structures that dissipate heat,” said Betts.

Urban heat islands have a serious impact on health. In 2003 there were 2,091 more deaths than normal between August 4 and 13 in Britain, most of them among elderly people in southeast England. For people aged over 75 there was a 33% increase in mortality.

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Nine toxic chemicals added to banned list: UN

Yahoo News 9 May 09;

GENEVA (AFP) – Nine chemicals, including headlice treatment lindane, have been added to a list of poisonous substances that are to be eliminated under the Stockholm Convention, the UN Environment Programme said on Saturday.

More than 160 signatory states of the convention targeting hazardous substances that can kill or are seriously harmful to health, added the chemicals to the existing list of 12 after a week-long meeting in Geneva.

"The tremendous impact of these substances on human health and the environment has been acknowledged today by adding nine new chemicals to the Convention," said UN Under-Secretary General Achim Steiner in a statement.

"This shift reflects international concern on the need to reduce and eventually eliminate such substances throughout the global community."

The nine chemicals that member states have now committed to eliminate are:

- Lindane -- used in treatment of headlice and scabies, and in insecticides

- Alpha hexachlorocyclohexane -- a by-product of lindane

- Beta hexachlorocyclohexane -- a by-product of lindane

- Hexabromodiphenyl ether and heptabromodiphenyl ether -- used in flame retardants

- Tetrabromodiphenyl ether and pentabromodiphenyl ether -- used in flame retardants

- Chlordecone -- used in agricultural pesticides

- Hexabromobiphenyl -- used in flame retardants

- Pentachlorobenzene -- used in fungicides, flame retardants

- Perfluorooctane sulfonic acid, its salts and perfluorooctane sulfonyl fluoride -- used in electric and electronic parts, photo imaging, textiles

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