Sentosa IR cutting it a little too close?

Its recruitment tour is cut short and it may face licence issues even as opening date nears
Lim Wei Chean, Straits Times 30 May 09;

WITH just months to go before it is scheduled to open its doors, Resorts World at Sentosa may be finding itself in a bit of a pickle.

First, its much-publicised world tour to recruit 200 performers for its Universal Studios theme park had to be cut short because of fears over the Influenza A (H1N1) virus.

Second, its holding company, Genting Singapore, has introduced new shareholders into the fold, which may well complicate the process of getting a casino licence for the integrated resort.

When contacted, a spokesman for the resort said it would open its four hotels and Universal Studios as planned by the end of March next year.

Its audition team toured Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong and Manila and had six more cities to go before it returned on May 17. It had aimed to get all performers here in October for rehearsals. Its spokesman said that the team was recalled because of travel health alerts issued in the light of the contagious H1N1 virus. Another factor was 'the large crowds that will gather at the auditions', raising the chances of infection.

A bigger step is obtaining a licence from the Casino Regulatory Authority to operate the casino. It can apply for the licence only when 50 per cent of the resort is completed and 50 per cent of the funds spent.

The Straits Times understands it has yet to apply for a licence. The casino-resort declined to say when it would do so.

Its spokesman said: 'We will apply for the licence only when the criteria are fulfilled.'

The authority can be expected to do what is known as 'probity checks' to ascertain the company's owners, background, accounts and business links to other operations before awarding the licence. However, it has given no indication of how long this will take.

On Wednesday, Genting's Lim family sold its entire 9 per cent stake in Genting Singapore for $615 million. But even after the sale, they will remain in control of Genting Singapore through its Kuala Lumpur-listed parent company, Genting.

The concern is not only over who the new shareholders are but also whether Genting will have links to other individuals and groups which might be beyond the pale.

One theory is that the family pulled out of Genting Singapore so that it could invest in MGM Mirage's Macau casino.

Given that MGM Mirage is connected to the family of gaming magnate Stanley Ho, who is alleged to have links with organised crime, the Singapore Government might not look too kindly at a party with interests in both the Singapore and Macau gaming houses.

Gaming analyst Jonathan Galaviz said the Singapore Government has 'a very significant responsibility to ensure that the owners and executives of the integrated resorts have absolutely no unfavourable linkages'.

It is no surprise that a casino company would have an interest in Macau, he said, as it is 'still a very lucrative strategic play for the next 10 to 20 years'.

Genting is the holding company for the Genting Group, which runs the Genting Highlands Resort, Sentosa's integrated resort and palm oil producer Asiatic Development.

The last time Genting's sister company, Star Cruises - then a partner in the IR - offered to sell Mr Ho a stake in 2007, the company was questioned by the Singapore Government. The possibility of a casino licence being denied was also thrown up then.

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The hook on sustainable seafood

Straits Times 30 May 09;

WORLD Wildlife Fund (WWF) ecologist Katherine Short was in Singapore recently to raise awareness of the charity's Marine Network Initiative, and the release of Singapore's first sustainable seafood guide next year.

She tells Victoria Vaughan what Singaporeans can do to help make sure the seafood they eat is sustainable.

# What is sustainable seafood?

Sustainable seafood refers to fish and other marine species that are caught or farmed in a responsible way. With wild fish, this means there is responsible management that allows species to continue to thrive as part of the ecosystem.

There are specific programmes, such as the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) - an independent organisation set up by WWF and Unilever - that defines responsible management.

# Which seafood should consumers avoid?

The WWF has published guides all over the world. It recommends seafood which comes from responsibly managed fisheries as well as listing fish to avoid and where they are caught.

While the Singapore guide will be out early next year, preliminary research here shows that the species to avoid are bluefin tuna, and leopard coral grouper from South-east Asia.

# How do consumers know which species of fish they are eating and where it is from?

Ask and look for the MSC logo found on products sold in supermarkets such as Cold Storage. If the person serving you does not know, ask the manager. If people begin to ask about what fish they are eating and where it was caught, retailers, restaurants and food service companies will start paying attention.

The MSC's label is the only one which complies with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation's fisheries eco-labelling guidelines. Products with the MSC stamp of approval available in Singapore are listed on the MSC website at www.msc.org

# What if people do not do anything?

Scientists predict that the world will run out of seafood by 2048 if the decline in fish stocks continues at the current rate. There are not enough fish to go around.

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Time Singapore started tapping into clean energy: NMP

‘Grow clean energy sector’
Neo Chai Chin, Today Online 30 May 09;

IT IS a win-win proposition for the environment and Singapore’s economy — and answers some pressing challenges faced by the country, as outlined by the Prime Minister earlier this week.

Singapore needs to grow its economic capabilities, create high-value jobs and make good use of its finite resources. So, why not take decisive steps to grow the clean energy sector and achieve all three goals, asked Nominated Member of Parliament and clean energy advocate Edwin Khew on Friday.

Although the Republic already has a dozen major players as well as the Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore, it is not enough to become a global leader in clean energy. For solar energy, for example, what we need is a “whole value chain” of support companies from the electronics, semi-conductor and precision engineering sectors.

As for the conversion of waste to energy resource, Singapore could set up a solid waste research centre to delve into bio-processes to recover energy from organic residues, for instance.

Mr Khew noted the potential windfall for Singapore: Solar energy is worth US$100 billion ($144.55 billion) and is growing at 66 per cent yearly, while the waste-to-resource market is worth US$350 billion a year.

He also urged the Government to lend a helping hand. For starters, the Ministry of Trade and Industry could consider the concept of “feed-in tariffs” — where producers of clean energy are paid an above-market rate for the energy they produce. These tariffs have worked in countries like Germany, and would give a “strong push” for the industry to develop the best technology. The only drawback would be a slight increase in electricity bills for consumers, he said.

“There appears to exist in Singapore a gap between environmental awareness and action. We need to close that gap,” he said.

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Coral protection pact faces uphill struggle

Straits Times 30 May 09;

A PLEDGE by six countries in the region to protect the iconic Coral Triangle sounds promising on paper but may not work well in practice, experts say.

Earlier this month, the prime ministers of Indonesia, Timor Leste, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Malaysia and the Solomon Islands signed up to progressively protect some 20 per cent of the vast area.

The Coral Triangle is home to around 75 per cent of the world's coral species, as well as seagrass beds, mangroves and deep sea fish such as tuna.

The area is a globally significant repository of marine biodiversity and spawning ground for fish, against a background of seriously depleted seas and oceans. �

Thus, the leaders of those countries met in Manado on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi to try to agree on a way to save it.

Most agree that the Coral Triangle Initiative (CTI) is overdue and necessary but the effort has run into criticism.�

At Manado, small or 'artisanal' fishermen from the Philippines, worried about being deprived of their fishing rights, arrived to present demands and were prevented from doing so. �

'The fishermen were forced to leave,' Mr Ephraim Patrick Batungbacal of the Filipino non-government organisation, Tambuyog, told The Straits Times. �

He said their message was 'don't grab fishers' rights; coastal communities should manage their own waters'. �

Scientists and environmentalists acknowledge a possible turning point in the first-ever involvement of prime ministers of the six countries in the CTI. Besides establishing protected areas, it addresses a range of issues, including coastal ecosystem management and adaptation to climate change.

The CTI has reportedly drawn funding pledges of US$5 million (S$7.2million) from Indonesia and the Philippines, US$2 million from Papua New Guinea and US$1 million from Malaysia. �

The United States has pledged US$41.6 million and Australia, US$1.5 million - a figure Canberra is under pressure to raise. The Global Environment Facility will provide US$63 million.

The CTI is backed by three major international non-governmental organisations - the World Wide Fund for Nature, Conservation International and The Nature Conservancy.

This week in Brussels, European fisheries ministers also began work and negotiations on the European Union's fishing Green Paper. The EU has until 2012 to draw up a new Common Fisheries Policy, and looks set to discard the failed quota system.

There is talk of decentralisation, and the involvement of the fishing community and industry itself.

In Asia, the CTI has been hailed but experts involved in the field in marine resources and conservation are not quite breaking out the champagne.

Mr Simon Funge-Smith, a senior fisheries officer with the Food and Agriculture Organisation in Bangkok, said the issue was how to reconcile resource protection with resource use.

'The problem starts when you declare colossal protected areas,' he told The Straits Times in an interview.

The CTI creates meaningfully large protected areas which have a definite role in giving respite to marine species. But legal protection can also exclude a large number of people from their livelihoods.

Trawlers can go somewhere else but locals are not mobile. And an enormous number of people depend on the marine resources of the Coral Triangle.

It is widely accepted that protected areas on land or at sea must have support from local stakeholders if their objectives are to be met.

'We expect the sea to produce but our stewardship is weak and questionable,' said Mr Funge-Smith. 'There is no doubt that some action has to be taken to give fisheries a rest.'

In an e-mail message to The Straits Times from a research station on Heron Island on Australia's Great Barrier Reef, Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, director of the University of Queensland's Centre for Marine Studies, wrote: 'The CTI itself is an extremely important first step in dealing with the enormous problems that the region faces.'

The need to stop the downward spiral of marine resources has sunk in at the level of scientists and governments and even the fishing industry, but only up to a point with the populace.

In one glaring irony, the hosts of the Manado conference served up shark's fin soup for dinner one night.

NIRMAL GHOSH

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Fishing for trouble

South-east Asia's unique coral reefs are under serious threat from pollution and over-fishing
Lim Tse Yang, Straits Times 30 May 09;

WE ARE cooking up trouble in paradise.

The live seafood trade, driven by growing demand in an increasingly affluent China, poses the latest of many threats to South-east Asia's coral reefs.

These reefs are the most diverse, productive and beautiful ecosystems in the world, and they desperately need help.

Improved regulation and education are the keys to saving them before it is too late.

The reefs of the region have long been under threat from all sides.

Pollution from a growing coastal population is degrading them.

Increased carbon dioxide levels are making the waters inhospitably warm and acidic, bleaching and dissolving corals.

And now fishermen threaten to eliminate the fish that hold the whole reef ecosystem together.

Without immediate regulatory action, these magnificent natural wonders will be irrevocably lost.

Consider the Wakatobi Marine National Park off Sulawesi in Indonesia.

The park is home to sun- drenched beaches and sapphire waters, and some of the world's most spectacular reefs.

In a month of surveying reefs there last year, however, I saw not a single grouper larger than 20cm.

Grouper can grow to between 60cm and 2.5m; the largest one I surveyed was reproductively equivalent to a human seven- year-old.

Anything larger had been caught by local fishermen, destined for a dinner plate - and the local grouper populations had been all but extinguished.

Their loss is a harbinger of the total collapse of the reef ecosystems towards which we are hurtling at breakneck speed.

What exactly will we be losing if the South-east Asian reefs collapse? More biodiversity than the entire Amazon rainforest holds.

The region's Coral Triangle has the most concentrated biodiversity in the world, with about 10 times more species than Caribbean reefs. We would also lose what may be the most important source of natural medicines in the 21st century.

Coral skeletons are already being used as human bone grafts, and about 1,000 reef species are tested annually by the United States National Cancer Institute for potential cancer treatments.

All this diversity and potential may well be lost within 20 years.

Interestingly, much of the Coral Triangle is already officially protected.

The problem lies in an utter lack of effective enforcement.

Professor Chou Loke Ming, an expert on marine conservation at the National University of Singapore, has pointed out how in parts of Indonesia, one locally employed ranger, in one dinghy with an outboard, often has to patrol vast swathes of ocean alone - if he patrols at all.

With so little logistical support for rangers on the ground, illegal fishermen often have free rein to do as they please - just as illegal loggers did in 1997 when they burnt huge tracts of Indonesian jungle, blanketing the region in a miasma of haze for months.

Even where the resources to enforce regulations are available, the rampant corruption endemic to much of South-east Asia poses additional difficulties.

To make matters worse, recent research has shown that even mild fishing pressure can dramatically alter the structure of reef ecosystems.

Scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in the United States studied the Northern Line islands in the central Pacific, which include some of the last remaining pristine reefs in the world.

Reefs fished by islanders had drastically different fish communities, and were far less healthy.

These reefs support a mere 2,000 to 5,000 people each.

Sulawesi alone has a population of more than 16 million people.

At such numbers, even the subsistence-level fishing permitted in most of the region's protected areas may prove too much for reefs to withstand.

Stopping locals from fishing for a living will require education and monitoring. But more importantly, a viable alternative livelihood is needed.

While nature tourism has its own problems, it is an obvious option, currently generating over US$1 billion (S$1.45 billion) a year.

Developing this valuable and potentially sustainable use of the reef is insufficient, though.

Consider the case of the Maldives, a chain of atolls in the Indian Ocean, where shark-diving tourism makes each live grey reef shark worth about US$60,000 over its 18-year lifespan.

In contrast, a shark's fins sold for consumption brings a fisherman a mere US$32. Yet shark finning is still rampant.

Market demand and problems of wealth distribution perpetuate this problem in the Maldives, as they do in South-east Asia.

We need to bring a combination of international support and pressure to bear on all parties involved, and quickly.

China, the largest market for live seafood, is notoriously recalcitrant about environmental regulation. Among other things, China regularly misreports its fisheries production statistics, and also remains a hub of illegal trade in endangered species.

It will take effort to implement tight controls on the import, often illegal, of exotic reef fish species such as grouper.

Similar effort is needed to establish effective monitoring and regulation to make protected areas in the Coral Triangle more than just lines on a map.

For the sake of the reefs and for ourselves, we must act.

Singapore, a major regional consumer and distributor of seafood, and a gateway for tourists to South-east Asia, is strongly positioned to take the lead in this.

Individuals can also play their part.

For starters, reducing our own consumption of unsustainable or live seafood would be an easy and crucial first step towards safeguarding our oceans - before we lose our last traces of paradise.

The writer is a student in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Yale University

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Trawling the seas for catastrophe

Marine world faces collapse due to unbridled and destructive fishing
Nirmal Ghosh, Straits Times 30 May 09;

BANGKOK: - In the humid tropical dawn, the boats begin to arrive, unloading their plastic baskets of fish, shrimp, squid and crabs.

Wiry tattooed men sort them, working among slabs of gleaming ice. Many of the fish are still flipping about; the crabs are tightly bound with plastic string. They have been caught by the fishermen - or have come from trawlers lying offshore. �

Steel hooks are used to drag the baskets up to the Mahachai market, where they join fat prawns from farms along the coast. Much of the landed catch is bought by seafood processors and restaurant owners; Mahachai feeds Thailand's seafood industry and the voracious Bangkok market. Thailand is the world's largest producer of canned seafood.�

Sitting on his boat after unloading two baskets of fish, squid and shrimp - the product of two whole days at sea - 46-year-old father of four Sayan Taengpoo, a fisherman for more than 20 years, says industrial development in the region has worsened water quality, and catches are down from 10 years ago.

An increase in market prices of seafood had been offset by higher increases in the cost of fuel and maintenance. It all combined to make his job harder, he said.

Mr Viroj Limsnit, managing director of major exporter Narong Seafood, whose office is near the market, said the catch has been declining.�

'The simple reason is overcatching in the past and lack of control over natural resources in Thai waters,' he said.

The relatively shallow Gulf of Thailand is one of the most heavily fished seas in the world. Thai fishermen have, over the last 15 years, had to venture to Oman, India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Indonesia and Vietnam under fishing rights licences.

'Fees keep on increasing, and implementation of strict rules and regulation makes our foreign fishing more difficult,' said Mr Viroj. 'In 2007, Indonesia stopped issuing fishing licences to foreign vessels.'

The problem cuts across the region - and indeed the world. Across the planet's seas, mechanised fishing vessels are now estimated to number about 2.1 million, the nationality of many thousands of them listed by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) as 'unknown'.

Industrial-scale trawlers have devastated the seas, severely affecting the livelihood of tens of millions of local small-scale fishermen.

In parts of the Philippines whose seas have been overfished by both Filipinos and foreigners, these fishermen bring in a paltry 3,000 pesos (S$92) a month.

Across the world, trawlers are chasing fewer and fewer fish. And as the large in-demand marketable fish disappear, sea creatures lower down the food chain initially thrive because of fewer predators.

But long lines and nets, often hauled by several ships, rake the seabed indiscriminately, scooping up every living creature.

For every kilo that reaches markets like Thailand's Mahachai, more than 10kg - and sometimes up to 100kg - has been thrown away as unmarketable 'bycatch'.

'The sea bottom has probably suffered considerable damage, made even worse by the disposal of large quantities of unwanted catch,' a recently released report on Indonesia's Arafura sea noted.

Shallow tropical waters suffer from the twin pressures of a large and growing population of local fishermen, and industrial-scale fishing, much of it unregulated.

Indonesia loses an estimated US$2 billion (S$3 billion) a year to illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing. �

The most recent State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture report of the FAO estimates that over half a billion people are involved in the fishing and aquaculture industries, mostly in Asia.

Worldwide, fish provides around 15 per cent of average per capita animal protein intake. In many small developing nations as well as in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Equatorial Guinea, French Guiana, the Gambia, Ghana, Sierra Leone and Indonesia, it is as high as 50 per cent. �

But scientific studies have determined that the marine environment is in a state of collapse. If immediate measures are not taken, within about 50 years - the lifetime of today's children and teenagers - the seafood spreads we are used to will be reduced to a few artificially farmed species and lots of jellyfish. �

In 2006, Dr Sylvia Earle, who this month won the coveted Rachel Carson award honouring pioneering conservationists, warned of an unfolding 'conservation tragedy of epic proportions'.

'We have turned to the deep oceans in our increasingly relentless and destructive pursuit of the dwindling supply of seafood,' she wrote. �

In February this year, she said: 'In 50 years, we have eaten more than 90 per cent of the big fish in the sea. Nearly half of the coral reefs have disappeared.'�

European seas are worse off than those in Asia. And just as Taiwanese, Japanese and Chinese trawlers plunder the open ocean as their own seas lie empty, Europe has been exporting the destruction of bottom-trawling fishing to African waters.��

Stockholm-based Isabella Loevin, author of the book Silent Sea - who is running for election to the European Parliament next month under the Green Party banner, told The Straits Times on the phone: 'Twenty per cent of the European Union's subsidies for fishermen goes to buying fishing rights in Third World countries, for instance in Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania and Senegal.

'We used to have a fisheries agreement with Senegal up to 2006, and stopped because the waters were overfished, there was no fish left to catch.

'The root of the fisheries agreements is the fact that we have been overfishing our own waters for decades. At the same time, you have a growing appetite for fish in Europe. Now, one quarter of the fish that comes to Europe, comes from these agreements.

'There is legal fishing, but who knows how many are fishing illegally, because these countries have no capacity in terms of coast guard or surveillance.'

Bangkok-based coastal ecologist Gaya Sriskanthan said: 'It's all down to governments, enforcement and political will; we need some sort of rigorous global fisheries mechanism.'

It is not just an overfishing catastrophe. The oceans are littered with discarded nets and garbage; in one place in the Pacific floats a mass of plastic waste 10m deep and larger than France.

Pollution and global warming are acidifying the sea, killing corals. �

And as the fish die out, the seafood industry, in an increasingly vicious circle, turns to the coast to cultivate prawns - in the process destroying mangroves which, together with coral reefs, are among the most productive ecosystems on Earth.

'Our fate and (that of) the ocean, are one,' said Dr Earle.

'Nothing else will matter if we fail to protect the ocean. For the children of today, for tomorrow's child, as never again, now is the time.'

Read more!

Huge undersea mountain found off Indonesia: scientists

Yahoo News 29 May 09;

JAKARTA (AFP) – A massive underwater mountain discovered off the Indonesian island of Sumatra could be a volcano with potentially catastrophic power, a scientist said Friday.

Indonesian government marine geologist Yusuf Surachman said the mountain was discovered earlier this month about 330 kilometres (205 miles) west of Bengkulu city during research to map the seabed's seismic faultlines.

The cone-shaped mountain is 4,600 metres (15,100 feet) high, 50 kilometres in diameter at its base and its summit is 1,300 metres below the surface, he said.

"It looks like a volcano because of its conical shape but it might not be. We have to conduct further investigations," he told AFP.

He denied reports that researchers had confirmed the discovery of a new volcano, insisting that at this stage it could only be described as a "seamount" of the sort commonly found around the world.

"Whether it's active or dangerous, who knows?" he added.

The ultra-deep geological survey was conducted with the help of French scientists and international geophysical company CGGVeritas.

The scientists hope to gain a clearer picture of the undersea lithospheric plate boundaries and seafloor displacement in the area, the epicentre of the catastrophic Asian quake and tsunami of 2004.

The tsunami killed more than 220,000 people across Asia, including 168,000 people in Aceh province on the northern tip of Sumatra.

Indonesia is on the so-called Pacific "Ring of Fire," where the meeting of continental plates causes high volcanic and seismic activity.

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Reclaiming lives: Thai mangrove restored from shrimp farming

The Khlong Khon community's inspirational battle over two decades to breathe life back into the local mangrove forests, once decimated by shrimp farming, has started to reap its rewards.
Chaiwat Satyaem, Bangkok Post 30 May 09;

Communities in tambon Khlong Khon in Samut Songkhram's Muang district have finally been rewarded for their efforts in restoring the mangrove forests there.

More than two decades ago, vast areas of mangrove forests in the area were cleared to make way for shrimp farms.

As a result, various forms of marine life that once thrived among the mangrove trees gradually disappeared. At the same time local people lost an important means of earning a livelihood.

Paiboon Rattanapongthara, 76, is a dedicated conservationist who vigorously campaigned to revive the dying forests.

Samut Songkhram used to have about 80,000 rai of mangroves until 1984, when shrimp farming was introduced locally, he said.

But shrimp farming proved a highly profitable business at that time.

This attracted companies from Bangkok and other provinces who bought up, or took possession of, about 20,000 rai of mangrove around Ban Khlong Khon and turned them into shrimp farms.

Within a few years only 800 rai of mangroves were left standing.

Mr Paiboon said villagers rushed to sell their land to businessmen who offered them between 100,000 and 200,000 baht per rai. Before that, land would sell for only about 2,000 baht per rai.

Some villagers even set up their own shrimp farms in the hope of profiting from the booming trade.

But many people squandered the money they earned from selling their land. And before long they found themselves financially worse off than before, Mr Paiboon said.

By that time the mangrove forests, which were their main source of livelihood, had already been destroyed.

"Abundant stocks of marine life - fish, shrimps, shellfish and crabs - were severely depleted. Our livelihoods were ruined," the septuagenarian said.

On top of that, the three canals serving tambon Khlong Khon were badly polluted by the poorly-managed shrimp farms.

Late in 1988, outbreaks of shrimp diseases struck, which gradually forced many of the farmers out of business.

A year later, shrimp farming had died out in the area.

But it was the villagers who paid the heaviest price as the mangrove forests were all gone by then, taking away their primary source of livelihood.

"They began to migrate to the cities to look for jobs. Women mostly became factory hands in Samut Sakhon while the men served on deep-sea fishing trawlers.

"Most houses in the area were left empty," Mr Paiboon said.

This prompted community leaders to come together to find ways to restore the mangrove forests, and to enable local residents to once again earn a living.

They were fortunate that in Khlong Khon, new stretches of soft ground emerged every year as a result of the build-up of sediment along the shorelines.

Community leaders agreed on a plan to re-plant young mangrove trees in the newly-emerging patches of land.

Initially, Mr Paiboon said it was very difficult to convince the locals to give away some of their land along the coastline to the public, so that it could be used for planting the new mangrove trees.

The inaugural reforestation ceremony for the scheme took place on Aug 12, 1991.

Progress was not trouble-free as the young mangrove trees were vulnerable to seasonal monsoons and high waves. They could also be destroyed by large vessels passing through the forested areas.

However, with a strong determination, local people managed to overcome the obstacles and their efforts began to bear fruit.

"Late in 1993, about 300 rai of mangrove forests were recovered," he said. "Everyone involved was delighted."

The new provincial governor also tried to do all he could to raise money to support the reforestation effort, Mr Paiboon said.

In 1996, Land Department officials surveyed the area in Khlong Khong and confirmed that about 1,880 rai of mangroves had been restored.

Before long, marine life reappeared, while the villagers who migrated to other provinces returned home and rebuilt their lives.

Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn has visited Khlong Khon and planted mangrove trees five times, Mr Paiboon said.

About 6,000 rai of mangrove forests have now been planted and stocks of marine life are as plentiful as before, he said.

The community has also become an eco-tourism attraction. This provides additional help for the local economy by pulling extra income for the locals, he said.

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Dirty secret of Vietnamese wildlife farms revealed

New Scientist 29 May 09;

WILDLIFE farms are supposed to promote conservation by providing a sustainable alternative to hunting animals in the wild. But those in Vietnam are having exactly the opposite effect, says a study by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in New York.

Over the past two decades, dozens of commercial wildlife farms have sprung up in Vietnam. WCS investigators and Vietnamese officials who visited 78 farms undercover found that half had taken original breeding stock from wild populations, and 42 per cent were still doing so.

Animals farmed include snakes, turtles, crocodiles and monkeys. Worst affected are species such as tigers and bears, whose body parts or secretions are valued in traditional medicine. Not only are they slow to breed, but farms can also be used to launder products from animals killed in the wild.

Wildlife farmers should have to prove the source of their animals, and penalties for breaching wildlife laws should be increased, the WCS concludes.

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Nuclear power – are we ready?

Cecilia Kok, The Star 30 May 09;

MOST of us will remember how nuclear power has always been associated with bandits in our favourite cartoon series. So powerful is that technology that they tend to use it as a threat to conquer the whole world.

In real life, the devastating effects of nuclear technology have been recorded in history when Japanese cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki were atom-bombed during World War II.

As dangerous as it is, however, this powerful technology has been the most sought-after solution for energy security in many countries, particularly those in Europe.

According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, the top 10 countries with the highest nuclear share of total electricity generation are all located in the European region. France, for instance, generates 76% of its electricity from nuclear.

The idea of having a nuclear power plant in Malaysia sounds great, isn’t it? The advantages of nuclear-generated electricity have been much touted.

The nuclear plant can generate a stable flow of electricity to users at low prices (rates are presumably cheaper than power generated from other sources such as coal and gas) and it does not emit carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

It also seems to be the answer to our concerns over the depletion of fossil fuel, which is currently the main source of electricity generation in Malaysia, and the volatile prices of raw materials such as coal and crude oil.

Presently, the major components of Malaysia’s electricity generation mix are natural gas (60%), coal (24%), hydro (8%) and biomass (4.2%).

Malaysia’s nuclear ambition is apparent when Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) announced over the week that it would sign an agreement with Korea Electric Power Corp next month to engage the latter’s assistance in conducting a preliminary study for developing a nuclear power plant in Malaysia.

TNB’s view is that nuclear-generated electricity is the most viable long-term option to address the growing demand for power in the country. Hence, its plan for the country’s first nuclear power plant to begin operations in 2025.

The head of TNB’s nuclear unit Mohd Zamzam Jaafar was quoted as saying that the state-owned utility company is currently scouting for suitable sites for the nuclear plant.

The question is ... do we really need to pursue nuclear energy?

There are many implications of having a nuclear power plant in the country. Of utmost concern is the safety issue, and whether we have the technological capability to deal with any unforeseen incidences that could arise from nuclear energy development.

Former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, in his blog, raised his concerns about the danger of pursuing nuclear energy and urged the authorities to give this option a second thought, citing we do not know enough about nuclear energy to be able to manage it well.

Risky pursuit

Like any other technology, nuclear power has its own risks and rewards, says Ravi Krishnaswamy, director of energy and power systems practice at Frost & Sullivan Asia-Pacific in Singapore.

In his e-mail to StarBizWeek, Ravi says he believes that the safety features of nuclear power plants have increased multi-fold over the last several decades, especially after some major nuclear power plants accidents such as the Three Miles Island in the US in the late 1970s and Chernobyl in Ukraine in 1986.

He cites the examples of countries in high seismic zones such as Japan and Taiwan that have successfully operated nuclear power plants for several years without major incidents.

To date, the nuclear share of total electricity generation in Japan and Taiwan is 25% and 20%, respectively.

However, Ravi points out some of the shortcomings that Malaysia faces in the pursuit of nuclear energy option.

These include the lack of trained human resources and capability in handling the technology, the risk of mishandling and theft of radioactive nuclear material, the problem with radioactive waste disposal and the health hazards that could arise from exposure to radioactive nuclear material such as cancer and birth defects.

When it comes to nuclear energy, it takes just one accident to leave an adverse effect that could last for multiple generations, says an officer at the Centre for Environment, Technology and Development Malaysia (Cetdem).

Citing the case of the Chernobyl disaster, he says there are still ongoing health effects from the incident to this day.

He also points out that the severe release of radioactivity not only affected people living in Ukraine, but also those living in other countries in Europe as the radioactive dust clouds were blown to the region.

Radioactive particles can be easily carried by water and wind. So, even if the nuclear power plant is located offshore, the radioactive effects can still reach people living on the mainland, and neighbouring countries, the officer at Cetdem says.

At what cost?

According to Frost & Sullivan’s Ravi, the viability of nuclear power cannot be seen only in the context of capital expenditure or potential dangers.

He explains that the viability of the initiative is normally evaluated in relation to the country’s energy mix, domestic resources availability, electricity demand growth, fluctuations in supply and cost of other fuels, and whether the country’s economic and industrial growth can justify the creation of an elaborate nuclear power infrastructure.

However, while most of the factors seem to support the development of a nuclear power plant in Malaysia in the long term, the Government still has to consider whether a nuclear initiative is justified in terms of the economies of scale, Ravi says.

“Countries like India and China have huge populations and limited domestic energy resources, hence could easily justify the development of an expensive and elaborate infrastructure for nuclear power ... and not just nuclear power generation plants, but also fuel and spent fuel processing, fuel mining and heavy water plants, among others,” he explains.

These countries, he adds, could potentially obtain at least a quarter of their electricity generation from nuclear and still have sufficient demand to build and replace nuclear reactors every 10 years. Not so for Malaysia. So, in terms of economies of scale, Ravi thinks having a nuclear power plant does not work in the favour of the country.

(The nuclear share of total electricity generation in India and China at present is 3% and 2%, respectively.)

Meanwhile, the officer at Cetdem says there are huge hidden costs involved in the development of nuclear power plants. These include costs of decommissioning, storage of spent fuel and handling of radioactive leakages, as well as the environmental cost.

“Vast amount of resources will have to be diverted towards the maintenance of nuclear power plants, and such costs could be expensive,” he says.

In terms of human resources, he believes there is a need to train a generation of nuclear scientists who know enough about dealing with nuclear waste and accidents.

He argues that nuclear is not a sustainable energy, as the sector requires the mining of uranium, which is a very polluting industry.

He adds that if there is a rush by countries to build nuclear energy, it could result in a sudden increase in demand for uranium, and hence the spike in the price of the commodity.

The debate on whether Malaysia should pursue its nuclear ambition is likely going to continue. But pundits say there are other renewable energy sources such as solar PV, biomass, wind and hydro systems that Malaysia could harness. And these, instead of attracting criticisms, will draw much support from many quarters.

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British girl names coral reef in Maldives

A 10-year-old British girl has won the right to name a threatened coral reef in the Maldives in a competition to highlight the plight of the islands due to climate change.

Stephen Adams, The Telegraph 29 May 09;

Zsuzsa Magyar chose the winning name of Stingray Reef for the currently unnamed coral reef off the Indian Ocean island of Nakatcha Fushi.

The name was given the approval of the country’s recently-elected president, Mohamed Nasheed.

Stingray Reef, as it has now been called, is home to one of the world’s first coral ‘cultivation’ programmes, a process described as ‘underwater gardening’.

The hope is that by implanting nursery-grown corals into the 12 hectare reef, known as ‘nubbins’, the structure will eventually establish itself as an island. More than 1,000 ‘nubbins’ have been implanted since the project started there in 2007.

Zsuzsa, from Notting Hill in west London, won the competition, which was being run at the Hay Festival in Wales.

She said: “It's amazing, I can't explain it. I'd be so amazed and so happy if it made an island. It seems such a big thing that from this competition there might be a Stingray Island!"

One of the advantages of the name was that it could easily be translated into the local language, Divehi, in which it will be called Madi Faru.

President Nasheed said: “I hope this competition has helped to draw people's attention towards the plight of the world's coral reefs, which are under grave danger from climate change.

“Names are important because they allow us to visualise a particular place."

Reefs throughout the world are facing a battle for survival due to threats such as high sea temperatures, which can cause coral bleaching; higher sea acidity due to the increased concentration of carbon in the atmosphere; the presence of too many nutrients in the water and overfishing.

The low-lying Maldives, a string of 1,200 coral islands south of India, are at the forefront of this battle.

The competition was run over five days as part of children’s activities at the Hay Festival in Wales. Although it is primarily a literary festival it has a strong environmental programme.

Peter Florence, festival director, said: “Hay is dedicated to bringing to light some of the lesser known but equally grave impacts of climate change, via whatever means possible.”

He hoped the project would “bring the reality of the plight of the word’s oceans further to children’s attention.”

The naming came after Dr Farah Faizal, High Commissioner of the Maldives, spoke at Hay on Thursday night in a talk about climate change.

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New bonobos sanctuary created in DR Congo

Yahoo News 29 May 09;

KINSHASA (AFP) – A new nature reserve to protect indigenous bonobos, apes threatened with extinction who use sex to deflate tension, has been built in the Democratic Republic of Congo, conservationists said Friday.

The environment ministry "has created the Kokolopori Bonobos reserve in the Equator province across 4,800 square kilometres (1,853 square miles) of land" in the north-west, said Cosma Wilungula, director general of the Congolese Institute for Nature Conservation (ICCN).

He added that the rainforest reserve is currently home to 1,000 bonobos, including five families who are monitored by experts, three of whom are "comfortable with human contact." Trained locals will help manage the apes.

A species found only in DR Congo's humid forests, the bonobos population has fallen to around 20,000 today from 100,000 in 1980 due to years of civil war and poaching in the area.

According to a copy of the May 12 ministry decree, seen by AFP, the reserve will ensure biodiversity protection and carbon storage with profits from the latter used to benefit local people through community development projects.

It added that introducing new species, hunting or mining in the reserve's specially marked conservation area is forbidden.

In 2007, the government opened another nature reserve covering 30,570 square kilometres in the central Kasai province to shelter bonobos.

Wilungula said DR Congo has 71 protected areas, including seven national parks and 63 nature reserves and hunting areas.

He added that the government wants to designate 15 percent of the country to become nature reserves, up from the current 11 percent.

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Stingrays suffering from contact with wildlife tourists, study finds

Blood tests show that the animals at 'Stingray City' in the Cayman Islands have weaker immune systems and are in poorer health than those left undisturbed

David Adam, guardian.co.uk 29 May 09;

It features regularly on lists of things people want to do before they die, but swimming with stingray may not be the life-enhancing experience expected – at least not for the animals.

A new study has revealed that stingray at a tourist hotspot in the Cayman Islands are suffering because of all the human attention. The Grand Cayman sandbank, dubbed Stingray City, is regularly swamped with up to 2,500 visitors at a time, most of whom have paid handsomely for the chance to feed, stroke and swim with the creatures.

The study highlights the risks to animals posed by the growing "wildlife tourism" industry. Experts say wild populations of creatures such as dolphins, penguins and sharks are also affected by increased contact with curious people.

The study was one of the first to investigate direct effects on the physiology of animals involved in such tourism. Blood tests showed that the stingrays at Stingray City had weaker immune systems and were in poorer health than animals not disturbed by tourists, perhaps making them more vulnerable to disease and storms.

The experts warn that the "long-term health and survival of tourist stingrays have a significant probability of being affected" and they call for tighter regulation of the industry. Similar crowded tourist sites across the world will be doing similar damage to stingray, they say.

Christina Semeniuk, an ecologist at Simon Fraser University in Canada, who led the research, said: "Our study is the first to definitively show negative physiological impacts that indicate long-term costs to the animals' health."

She added: "The implications of these findings will not only affect the wildlife. Reduced stingray numbers, or injured, unhealthy-looking stingrays can cause the visitor site to become less attractive and may cause a decline in tourist numbers and have an economic impact."

The stingray at the site are regularly injured by boats, the scientists found, while the crowded conditions encourage parasites. The creatures have also come to rely on hand-fed squid, which stingray do not usually eat. "These impacts can have long-term health effects, in terms of reduced longevity and reduced reproductive effort," Semeniuk said. The results will be published in the journal Biological Conservation.

Other studies have looked at the impact of wildlife tourism on grizzly bears, penguins, dolphins, sharks and lizards. "The majority of these studies have looked at changes in the animals' behaviours or their stress responses," Semeniuk said. "Each has suggested that wildlife tourism should be both continually researched and managed."

Vincent Janik of the Sea Mammal Research Unit at St Andrews University said: "It's an important issue, and there doesn't need to be physical contact. Even just watching animals can sometimes bring problems." Studies have shown that dolphins regularly targeted by tourist boats are more likely to be injured and to abandon their young, he said.

Swimming with wild dolphins is banned in many places because of the likely impact on the animals.

Courtney Vail of the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society said the treatment of captive dolphins was to blame for the way people treated the animals they encountered in the wild. "You get people trying to ride on their backs and holding on to the dorsal fin. They are trying to recreate the Sea World experience with wild dolphins."

Janik said efforts to control wildlife tourism, such as the stingray experience in the Caymans, need to be handled carefully. "If the tourists aren't there then these animals could just be hunted or eaten. The best way is to educate the operators and the customers." Many of the negative effects of wildlife tourism are likely to be restricted to local populations of animals, he said.

Semeniuk said new legislation in the Cayman Islands has recently been introduced to address the impact of tourists on wildlife. New Wildlife Interaction Zones, including the North Sound of Grand Cayman where Stingray City is located, forbid people taking marine life out of the water. Feeding wildlife will also be more strictly regulated.

But not all of the recorded impacts of wildlife tourism on animals are bad. While most wild creatures react as if the humans are predators, some see tourists as beneficial, either because they reduce the risks of predation by others, or because they supply food. This can allow the animals to dedicate more valuable energy supplies to rest and reproduction.

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Environmental groups sue to save turtles

UPI 29 May 09;

SAN FRANCISCO, May 29 (UPI) -- The world's oldest sea turtles -- leatherbacks and loggerheads -- will become extinct unless U.S. agencies do more to protect them, a lawsuit says.

To save the turtles, the Obama administration must alter the policies set by former President George W. Bush, said Todd Steiner, executive director of the California-based Turtle Island Restoration Network.

"Otherwise, we will lose these magnificent animals in our life," Steiner said.

The western Pacific leatherbacks swim from Indonesia to California to forage for food, while the North Pacific loggerheads swim from the Japanese archipelago to feed from Alaska to Baja, Mexico, Steiner said.

The turtles are at risk of capture and injury off California and Oregon, a lawsuit filed Thursday in federal court in San Francisco said.

Oceana, the Center for Biological Diversity and Turtle Island Restoration want the National Marine Fisheries Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to restrict gillnet and longline fishing, oil drilling and under-water energy turbines, The San Francisco Chronicle reported Friday.

An estimated 1,000 nesting female North Pacific loggerheads remain in the world while the nesting female population of western Pacific leatherbacks is estimated at between 2,000 to 5,700, the Chronicle reported.

In response to the lawsuit, the fisheries agency said more time was needed to determine what must be done to protect the turtles.

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US state mows with goats to go gently on environment

Yahoo News 29 May 09;

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Officials in the eastern US state of Maryland have come up with an innovative, cost-saving way to protect the environment: they use goats to mow the grass.

The State Highway Administration came up with the novel idea while building an 85-million-dollar road bypass near the town of Hampstead, northwest of Baltimore, after it found that the construction site was home to bog turtles, the smallest turtle in the United States and a threatened species.

The traditional method of keeping grass at the side of a highway in trim -- lawn mowers -- was considered but discarded because it could severely disrupt the bog turtles' habitat and possibly even injure or kill the tiny reptiles, whose shells measure between three and 4.5 inches (7.6-11.5 centimeters) in length.

"Even though these turtles can burrow down, many times they're above the ground this time of year and not in the mud," said David Buck, spokesman for the State Highway Administration.

"Lawnmowers would have been more expensive than using goats and any time we find a solution that helps the environment, we're going to take a look at it," he said.

Grazing cattle on the land was also pondered, but that idea was ruled out because cows are heavy and might have crushed the tiny turtles.

Then, someone thought of the goat option.

"We found a local farmer who has 40 goats that we rent," said Buck.

"The goats will be out there through the mowing season until the end of September. We'll evaluate at the end of the year to see if we were able to keep the turtle population the way it was," Buck said.

The goats have been happily grazing on eight acres (3.2 hectares) of meadow and bogland near Hampstead for slightly more than a week, and all is well, said Buck.

If the two-year, 10,000-dollar pilot project is deemed a success, it will be expanded to other environmentally sensitive regions across Maryland.

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Indonesia to double palm oil production by 2020

AFP 28 May 09;

JAKARTA (AFP) — Indonesia aims to more than double its crude palm oil output to 40 million tonnes by 2020 through increased yields and more plantations, officials said Wednesday.

Average oil palm plantation yields would increase from 3.5 tonnes to 4.5 tonnes a hectare while land under plantation would expand from 7.9 million hectares (19.5 million acres) to about 10 million, they said.

Plans to expand palm oil plantations have been opposed by environmental groups, who say Indonesia's forests are vital carbon sinks in the fight against climate change and an irreplaceable source of biodiversity.

But officials say another 3.4 million hectares of carbon-rich peatlands have been set aside for future plantations, while forest land available for development stands at 10.1 million hectares.

That is around the size of Greece, or 20 times the size of neighbour Singapore.

Companies will be able to develop plantations on peatland areas this year after the government lifted a one-year freeze on peatland conversion imposed after protests from environmental groups.

Indonesian Palm Oil Board chairman Franky Widjaja told Dow Jones Newswires on the sidelines of a palm oil conference in Jakarta that higher yields meant fewer plantations would be required.

"Around 40 percent of our plantations are run by smallholders whose yields fall below three tonnes (a hectare). There's much room for improvement when it comes to such plantations," he said.

"If we can achieve at least a yield of four tonnes a hectare we would only need total plantation land of 10 million hectares."

Indonesia, the world's largest producer of crude palm oil (CPO), is expected to produce 19 to 20 million tonnes of the commodity this year.

Palm oil is used in everything from biscuits to soups, cosmetics and biofuel.

Bayu Krisnamurthi, a deputy to the coordinating minister for the economy, said there was a danger that large increases in CPO output might result in oversupply.

"The rising price of CPO over recent years has prompted more smallholder farmers to switch to planting oil palm from other crops such as coffee and rubber," he said.

He said a balance had to be struck between production and demand, and industries such as biodiesel should be encouraged to ensure there was a market for expanded CPO production.

The biodiesel industry has been lobbying the government for a subsidy on the low-pollution fuel in order to cut production costs and make the industry viable in the face of falling crude oil prices and rising feedstock prices.

Krisnamurthi said Indonesia aimed to use 40 percent of its CPO for energy production, 30 percent for food and the remainder for other purposes such as cosmetics by 2020.

-- Dow Jones Newswires contributed to this story --

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Rabobank luring Malaysian palm planters to Brazil

Laalitha Hunt, The Star 30 May 09;

SUBANG: Netherlands-based Rabobank, a leading financial specialist in food and agribusiness, sees palm oil as an emerging industry in Brazil with growth and investment potential for Malaysian companies.

Rabobank International Brazil head of corporate finance Gustavo Barreiro said there were good production fundamentals along with available arable land.

“The industry is dominated by a single large local player, Agropalma,” he told StarBizWeek in an interview. Agropalma is a leading oil palm producer in Brazil with 43,000ha, or 62%, of the country’s total planted area.

Last year, Brazil produced 186,000 tonnes of palm oil compared with Indonesia (22 million tonnes) and Malaysia (17.75 million tonnes).

Barreiro said besides favourable temperature, rainfall as well as soil conditions, Brazil offered cheaper transportation to international markets such as Europe and the United States.

“There are also strong fundamentals for large scale farming such as high water reserves, fertilisers and machinery,” he said.

He added that although the main production region for palm oil was within the Amazon forest, there were also pasture or deforested areas in the vicinity that could be used to expand the industry.

“Rabobank in Brazil has a strong corporate social and environmental responsibility policy in place applicable to all its commercial activities,” Barreiro said.

Besides palm oil, Brazil also offers businesses the opportunity to invest in the animal protein sector such as poultry and beef.

“If Malaysian companies venture to Brazil, local chicken prices could come down as the cost of rearing chickens is much lower there due to the cheap cost of grain,” he said.

Barreiro said Malaysian businesses could also benefit by entering new markets such as the Middle East, which widely imports animal protein from Brazil.

Brazil, which is one of the world’s top producers and exporters of agriculture commodities such as soybean, sugar, coffee and corn, recorded a gross domestic product growth of 5% in 2008 despite the global economic slowdown.

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Fears for new malaria drug resistance

Jill McGivering, BBC News 28 May 09;

In a small community in Western Cambodia, scientists are puzzling over why malaria parasites seem to be developing a resistance to drugs - and fearing the consequences.

Ten days ago, Chhem Bunchhin, a teacher in Battambang Province, became ill with chills, fever, headache and vomiting.

At a nearby health centre he was treated with drugs considered a "silver bullet" in the battle against falciparum malaria.

This treatment with artesunate drugs was part of a clinical study being carried out by the US Armed Forces Research Institute of Medical Science (AFRIMS).

In the past, artesunates have always cleared malaria parasites from the blood in two or three days. But after four days of monitored treatment, Chhem Bunchhin was still testing positive for parasites.

Dr Delia Bethell, an investigator working on the clinical trials, said he wasn't alone. Out of about 90 patients included in the study so far, roughly a third to half were still positive for malaria parasites after three days, some even after four or five days.

"It appears that the artesunate is working more slowly than previously," she said.

"It appears that the parasite probably is developing some kind of tolerance or is somehow less sensitive to the effects of the drug. But nobody knows why that might be."

These early results need to be more thoroughly investigated, she said.

The concern is that this could be the start of emerging resistance to the artemesinin family of drugs. If full-blown resistance did develop, it would be extremely dire.

"This is by far the most effective drug we have," explained Dr Bethell.

"And there are no new drugs coming through the system in the next few years."

Scientists are particularly concerned because the last two generations of anti-malarial drugs were undermined by resistance.

And in those earlier cases, resistance also started in Western Cambodia, and in a similar way.

No-one is sure why this area seems to have become a nursery for anti-malaria drug resistance.

One factor could be the inappropriate use of drugs, related to a lack of medical supervision.

The public health system is weak. Government clinics often run out of drugs or may be closed when patients want access to them.

Instead, many patients visit private pharmacies to buy anti-malarial drugs there.

Coloured tablets

I visited one small drugs stall in Pailin's general market, sandwiched between a clothes outlet and a general grocery store.

All pharmacies are supposed to be licensed. But the stallholder told me he didn't have a licence. He'd applied for one, he said, but the paperwork had never been processed.

Many others running pharmacies, he said, were in the same position.

I watched him and his wife make up their own packets of drugs on the glass-topped counter, shaking a variety of coloured tablets into unlabelled plastic bags.

In many such private pharmacies, the customers choose what they want, deciding partly by price.

The quality of the advice they get varies enormously. If, as a result, they end up taking the wrong drugs in the wrong combinations, this too can fuel drug resistance.

The availability of many counterfeit drugs on the market only compounds the problem.

Professor Nick Day, director of the Mahidol-Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit, is also running clinical trials in the region.

He and his team have also found that artesunate-type drugs are starting to become less effective.

This resistance must be contained urgently, because its spread would be a global health disaster, he said.

Resistance to previous malaria drugs caused major loss of life in Africa, he said.

"If the same thing happens again, the spread of a resistant parasite from Asia to Africa, then that will have devastating consequences for malaria control."

In a clearing in the jungle, about one and a half hours drive from Pailin along rough dirt roads, I watched health workers distribute mosquito nets to about 200 villagers.

It's one of a series of measures being rushed through to stop the spread of resistant parasites.

If they're not contained, history may repeat itself - and the fear is that many millions of people worldwide will lose their protection against this deadly disease.

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ADB calls for low-carbon transport systems

Yahoo News 30 May 09;

MANILA (AFP) – The Asian Development Bank Saturday called on its Asian government borrowers to design mass transport systems in a way that would slow the rapid growth of their greenhouse gas emissions.

While developed countries still account for the largest share, transport sector emissions from developing countries, particularly in Asia, were growing rapidly, the Manila-based lender said in a statement.

Transport-related carbon dioxide emissions are expected to rise 57 percent over the 25 years to 2030, the ADB said. Those from developing countries were expected to contribute about 80 percent of this increase as car and truck ownership becomes more widespread.

The bank's borrowers include China and India, which together account for nearly half the world's population.

Governments must reduce the need for travel through better integration of land use and transport and more effective use of carbon-finance mechanisms to fund environment-friendly transport policies, it said.

They should also convince their peoples to recognise the benefits of low-carbon transport in reducing air pollution, noise, congestion and road accidents, it added.

The bank earlier sponsored a May 12-16 meeting in Bellagio, Italy, to help build consensus on transport sector policies ahead of the United Nations climate change meetings in Copenhagen in December.

"The Bellagio meeting will greatly help ADB to develop its Sustainable Transport Initiative, which aims to help Asian countries change their transport investment patterns and secure a low-carbon, sustainable transport future," said Um Woo Chong, director of the bank's energy, transport and water division. cgm/bsk

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El Nino odds rising with warming Pacific

Michael Perry, Reuters 28 May 09;

SYDNEY (Reuters) - The chances of a 2009 El Nino, a warming of eastern Pacific waters that often brings drought to Australia's farmlands, has risen and is above a 20 percent probability, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology said on Thursday.

International climate models are now predicting a warming of the Pacific Ocean," said the bureau.

"The average of the forecasts from each of these five models predict El Nino conditions being established by the southern spring, and by mid-winter in four of them," said the bureau in its latest report.

"With this higher predictability and better agreement between the forecasts, the probability of the development of an El Nino event in 2009 is now much higher than one month ago and it is significantly higher than the climatological probability of about 20 percent."

The possibility of a drier spring could reduce estimates of Australia's 2009/10 wheat crop, now being planted.

Current estimates range from 21 million to 23 million tonnes, little changed from the 21.4 million tonnes harvested in 2008/09, which was the best crop in four years following drought-breaking rains in some parts of eastern Australia.

Australia, the world's fourth largest wheat exporter, has been battling its worst drought in 100 years, but rains in 2008 and early 2009 along the northeast coast have eased conditions in parts of the country.

The bureau said the Southern Oscillation Index was neutral but in a "rapidly warming phase." The index measures atmospheric pressure differences between Darwin in northern Australia and Tahiti in the central Pacific.

Sea surface temperatures continued to warm right across the Pacific Ocean and were now about half a degree warmer than average, it said.

"Below the surface, equatorial Pacific Ocean temperatures are warmer than average by 2-3 degree Celsius across much of the basin," said the bureau.

Scientists have linked El Nino events in the Pacific Ocean with Australian droughts. El Nino occurs when the eastern Pacific Ocean heats up, with warmer, moist weather moving toward the east, leaving drier weather in the western Pacific and Australia.

La Nina occurs when the eastern Pacific Ocean cools, leaving the western Pacific warmer and increasing the chance of wetter conditions over Australia.

(Editing by Alex Richardson)

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Climate-change diasters kill 300,000 a year

Meera Selva, Associated Press Google News 29 May 09;

LONDON (AP) — Climate-change disasters kill around 300,000 people a year and cause about $125 billion in economic losses, mainly from agriculture, a think-tank led by former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan reported Friday.

The Global Humanitarian Forum also estimated that 325 million people are seriously affected by climate change — a number it says will double by 2030, as more people are hit by natural disasters or suffer environmental degradation caused by climate change.

"Climate change is a silent human crisis," Annan said in a statement. "Yet it is the greatest emerging humanitarian challenge of our time."

The report suggests that rising sea levels, desertification and changing rainfall patterns are reducing many people's access to safe drinking water and food. This in turn increases diarrhea, malaria and malnutrition.

The report said 99 percent of all people who die due to climate-change related causes live in developing countries, even though those countries generate less than 1 percent of total emissions of greenhouse gases responsible for global warming.

The report used existing data on weather-related disasters, population trends and economic forecasts to draw its conclusions. It was released ahead of climate change talks in Bonn, Germany, next week, that are to lead to a possible new global treaty on cutting greenhouse gas emissions in Copenhagen in December.

Climate change kills 300,000 a year: study
Yahoo News 29 May 09;

LONDON (AFP) – Climate change is responsible for the deaths of 300,000 people every year and costs 125 billion dollars (90 billion euros) annually, a new report said Friday.

The study, from the Global Humanitarian Forum, claims to be the first to measure the impact of climate change on people globally -- and says it is 325 million of the poorest who suffer most.

It highlights the plight of people in Bangladesh, where millions face regular flooding and cyclones, Uganda, where farmers are plagued by drought and some Caribbean and Pacific islands facing obliteration due to rising seas.

This is despite the world's 50 least developed countries contributing less than one percent of global carbon emissions.

Speaking at the report's launch in London, ex UN secretary-general Kofi Annan said it showed the need for a "bold, post-Kyoto agreement to protect the world" at crunch international climate change talks in Copenhagen in December.

"The alternative is mass starvation, mass migration, mass sickness and mass death," Annan, the forum's president, added.

"If political leaders cannot assume responsibility for Copenhagen, they choose instead responsibility for failing humanity."

Annan described climate change as "the greatest emerging humanitarian challenge of our time" and said the world was "at a crossroads" on how to tackle the issue.

The report projects that by 2030, deaths worldwide due to climate change will rise to nearly half a million a year and the cost will hit 300 billion dollars.

It urges developing countries, which account for 99 percent of climate change casualties, to scale up their efforts to adapt for climate change "by a factor of 100."

The vast majority of deaths are caused by gradual environmental degradation which causes problems like malnutrition rather than natural disasters, it said.

The Global Humanitarian Forum was founded in 2007 to work on issues including climate change. The report is also backed by British charity Oxfam.

Climate change causes 315,000 deaths a year
Megan Rowling, Reuters 29 May 09;

LONDON (Reuters) - Climate change kills about 315,000 people a year through hunger, sickness and weather disasters, and the annual death toll is expected to rise to half a million by 2030, a report said on Friday.

The study, commissioned by the Geneva-based Global Humanitarian Forum (GHF), estimates that climate change seriously affects 325 million people every year, a number that will more than double in 20 years to 10 percent of the world's population (now about 6.7 billion).

Economic losses due to global warming amount to over $125 billion annually -- more than the flow of aid from rich to poor nations -- and are expected to rise to $340 billion each year by 2030, according to the report.

"Climate change is the greatest emerging humanitarian challenge of our time, causing suffering to hundreds of millions of people worldwide," Kofi Annan, former U.N. secretary-general and GHF president, said in a statement.

"The first hit and worst affected are the world's poorest groups, and yet they have done least to cause the problem."

The report says developing countries bear more than nine-tenths of the human and economic burden of climate change, while the 50 poorest countries contribute less than 1 percent of the carbon emissions that are heating up the planet.

Annan urged governments due to meet at U.N. talks in Copenhagen in December to agree on an effective, fair and binding global pact to succeed the Kyoto Protocol, the world's main mechanism for tackling global warming.

"Copenhagen needs to be the most ambitious international agreement ever negotiated," he wrote in an introduction to the report. "The alternative is mass starvation, mass migration and mass sickness."

The study warns that the true human impact of global warming is likely to be far more severe than it predicts, because it uses conservative U.N. scenarios. New scientific evidence points to greater and more rapid climate change.

The report calls for a particular focus on the 500 million people it identifies as extremely vulnerable because they live in poor countries most prone to droughts, floods, storms, sea-level rise and creeping deserts.

Africa is the region most at risk from climate change, home to 15 of the 20 most vulnerable countries, the report says. Other areas also facing the highest level of threat include South Asia and small island developing states.

To avoid the worst outcomes, the report says efforts to adapt to the effects of climate change must be scaled up 100 times in developing countries. International funds pledged for this purpose amount to only $400 million, compared with an average estimated cost of $32 billion annually, it notes.

"Funding from rich countries to help the poor and vulnerable adapt to climate change is not even 1 percent of what is needed," said Barbara Stocking, chief executive of Oxfam in Britain and a GHF board member.

"This glaring injustice must be addressed at Copenhagen in December."

(Reporting by Megan Rowling, editing by Tim Pearce)

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Climate Change Hits Poor Hardest in U.S.

A new study finds that the poor will be disproportionally affected by global warming, even in the U.S

Douglas Fischer, Scientific American 29 May 09;

Climate change is disproportionately affecting the poor and minorities in the United States - a "climate gap" that will grow in coming decades unless policymakers intervene, according to a University of California study.

Everyone, the researchers say, is already starting to feel the effects of a warming planet, via heat waves, increased air pollution, drought, or more intense storms. But the impacts - on health, economics, and overall quality of life - are far more acute on society's disadvantaged, the researchers found.

"Climate change does not affect everyone equally in the United States," said Rachel Morello-Frosch, associate professor at the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley and lead author of The Climate Gap. "People of color and the poor will be hurt the most - unless elected officials and other policymakers intervene."

Watching this unfold is akin to watching a movie where disparate and seemingly unrelated storylines converge to denouement that is "decidedly tragic," the researchers wrote.

For instance, the report finds that African Americans living in Los Angeles are almost twice as likely to die as other Los Angelenos during a heat wave. Segregated in the inner city, they're more susceptible to the "heat island" effect, where temperatures are magnified by concrete and asphalt. Yet they're less likely to have access to air conditioning or cars.

Similarly, Latinos make up 77 percent of California's agricultural workforce and will likely see economic hardship as climate change reworks the state's highest-value farm products. The dairy industry brings in $3.8 billion of California's $30 billion agriculture income; grapes account for $3.2 billion. Yet climatic troubles are expected to decrease dairy production between 7 percent and 22 percent by century's end, while grapes will have trouble ripening, substantially reducing their value.

Other impacts, according to the researchers: Households in the lowest income bracket spend twice the proportion of their income on electricity than those in the highest income bracket. Any policy that increases the cost of energy will hurt the poor the most.

California industries considered heavy emitters of greenhouse gases have a workforce that is 60 percent minority. Any climate plan that fails to transition those workers to new "green energy" jobs threatens to widen the racial economic divide.

Minorities and the poor already breathe dirtier air than other Americans and are more likely to lack health insurance. As higher temperatures hasten the chemical interactions that produce smog, they're going to feel the most impact.

The findings, the researchers say, underscore the need for policymakers to consider environmental justice when addressing climate. Ignoring the climate gap, they warn, could reinforce and amplify current and future socioeconomic and racial disparities.

"As America takes steps to prevent climate change, closing the climate gap must also be a top priority," said Manuel Pastor, a co-author and director of the Program for Environmental and Regional Equity at the University of Southern California's Center for Sustainable Cities. "If we protect those who are most vulnerable, we will protect all of us."

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Climate change huge challenge for Africa: minister

Wangui Kanina, Reuters 29 May 09;

NAIROBI (Reuters) - The challenges facing Africa to fight climate change are enormous and costs are huge though hard to quantify, South Africa's environment minister said on Friday.

Minister Buyelwa Sonjica said her peers from more than 30 African countries, meeting in Nairobi, had agreed a joint position on climate change, to be presented at negotiations in Copenhagen this December.

"Increased support to Africa should be based on priorities which include adaptation, capacity building, financing and technology development and transfer," she told a news conference.

The world's poorest continent is expected to be hardest hit by climate change, despite having the lowest emissions of greenhouse gases.

According to the United Nations, between 250 and 750 million people in Africa will face water shortages by 2020, while in some African countries, yields from rain-fed agriculture could be reduced by up to 50 percent by 2020.

"Most of the work remains to be done, particularly with the cost of adaptation in Africa estimated between $1 billion to $50 billion per year," Sonjica said.

Sonjica, who is the president of the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment, urged rich countries not to attach conditions on assistance given to developing countries.

"African governments must commit certain amounts from their budget, but you cannot commit what you don't have. I get a sense that there is a push for us to over-commit," she said.

COSTS

The United Nations has estimated the costs of adapting to rising seas in Africa could amount to at least 5-to-10 percent of gross domestic product toward the end of this century.

It also projects an increase of 5-to-8 percent of arid and semi-arid lands in Africa by 2080.

Africa advocates expansion of categories so that countries can benefit from carbon credits, and other international incentives to include agriculture and forest management.

Yvo de Boer, head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat, said bigger countries such as China and Korea had won more funds than Africa from rich nations to help cut greenhouse gases.

Africa has received relatively little aid because the projects available in the continent were much smaller, he told a news conference.

"Because many economies in Africa are very small, not a lot can be done to reduce emissions gases, so reducing emissions in Africa is not as big an opportunity as it is in Asian countries," he said.

(Editing by Michael Roddy)

African ministers take stand on climate change
Yahoo News 29 May 09;

NAIROBI (AFP) – African environment ministers on Friday demanded clear commitment from industrialised countries to fund projects to counter the effects of global warming.

They lamented lack of commitment by developed states to fund projects that will help Africa, the world's lowest polluter, to cope with the effects of climate change.

"There is no commitment that has been made to fund adapation and there are still conditionalities... being pegged," South Africa's Environemnt Minister Buyelwa Sonjica said.

"If anything we would have wanted a stronger leadership from the developed world and I am not sure if it's there. I haven't seen it yet," said Sonjika who heads the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment.

The ministers who gathered in Nairobi also agreed on a common stand on climate change to be presented at the United Nations climate conference in Copenhagen in December.

The agreement calls for more finances and clean energy technology transfer as well as significant carbon emission cuts by developed countries.

The ministers want industrialised nations to cut emissions by 25 to 40 percent by 2020 below the 1990 levels.

They also urged the G8 countries to implement a recommendation to establish a regional centre for climate change in Africa.

"Africa's environment ministers have today signaled their resolve to be part of the solution to the climate change challenge by forging a unified position," said Achim Steiner, the UN Environment Programme chief.

"It is now time for other continents and countries, especially the developed economies, to now seriously shoulder theirs."

French Minister of Environment Jean-Louis Borloo, who attended, pledged Europe's total support for Africa, warning against using the global financial crisis to delay action.

"Europe will do it. We know our American friends started late... but we have to stick to our 25 to 40 percent reduction.

"The (global) crisis should not be used as pretext by industrialised countries to delay," he told AFP.

The African Union commisioner for agriculture Rhoda Tumussime said the contintent has "moral right to demand for compensation from those countries that contribute most of the problem to global warming.

"It is grossly unfair for Africa to suffer from a problem for which it has contributed very minimally," she said.

Kenya's Environment Minister John Michuki said: "African should not be the first to pay the price."

According to UNEP's statistics, between 75 million and 250 million people in Africa may face water shortages by 2020.

It also estimates that up to 50 billion dollars would be needed every year to cope with the effects of climate change in Africa.

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EU carbon emissions tracked downwards in 2007

Yahoo News 29 May 09;

PARIS (AFP) – Europe's emissions of greenhouse-gas emissions fell in 2007 for the third year running as warmer weather cut into consumption of oil, coal and gas to heat homes, the European Environment Agency (EAA) said on Friday.

Domestic emissions of six greenhouse gases by the 27-nation European Union (EU) fell by 1.2 percent, or the equivalent of 59 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2), in 2007 over 2006, the Copenhagen-based agency said.

The EU-27 emitted 9.3 percent less gas than in 1990, the base year for the Kyoto Protocol.

The 15 older members of the EU saw a year-on-year decrease in emissions of 1.6 percent.

Under Kyoto, the EU-15 signed up to an overall reduction of eight percent according to a timeframe of 2008-2012.

By the end of 2007, the Fifteen were 5.0 percent below the 1990 benchmark, the EAA said. The big laggards are Spain, Denmark, Ireland, Austria and Finland.

These figures do not take into account "forest sinks," by which Kyoto signatures can include the carbon-absorbing capacity of woodlands in their emissions targets.

In a press release, EAA Executive Director Jacqueline McGlade said billions of euros (dollars) earmarked to ease the economic crisis in Europe would have a beneficial spin-off in carbon emissions.

The next step is agreement at UN talks in Copenhagen this year that will deepen commitments beyond 2012, when the Kyoto Protocol's provisions expire, McGlade said.

"The economic stimulus packages that governments are currently adopting represent a crucial opportunity to address the climate crisis and the financial crisis simultaneously," she said.

"A strong Copenhagen agreement later this year would drive forward investments vital to our future prosperity."

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U.S. says rich nations likely to miss carbon targets

Alister Doyle, Reuters 29 May 09;

OSLO (Reuters) - Rich nations as a group are unlikely to reach the deep 2020 cuts in greenhouse gas emissions urged by developing nations as part of a new U.N. climate treaty, the top U.S. climate envoy said on Friday.

China, India and other developing nations say the rich must do most to fight global warming to encourage developing countries to sign up for more action as part of a new U.N. climate pact due to be agreed in Copenhagen in December.

"We...have been engaged in conversations with our European friends about how you might express an aggregate kind of goal," U.S. Special Envoy for Climate Change Todd Stern said in a telephone briefing before a round of U.N. talks in Bonn from June 1-12.

"I don't think you are going to see a 25-to-40 percent aggregate number" for cuts by rich nations below 1990 levels by 2020, he said, adding: "It's possible when you add everything up that you won't be that far away from it."

In 2007, the U.N.'s Climate Panel outlined cuts by developed nations of between 25 and 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 as a scenario to avoid the worst of climate changes such as floods, droughts, more powerful storms and rising ocean levels.

France suggested this week that developed nations as a group should work out a way to guarantee overall cuts of 25-40 percent. Washington says such a goal is out of reach for its domestic emissions.

INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

But China, India and others say the rich have benefited from use of fossil fuels since the industrial revolution and should cut by at least 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020. They say the poor still need to use more energy to end poverty.

A key U.S. Congressional panel last week approved a plan that would cut U.S. emissions by 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020 and by 83 percent by 2050.

U.S. emissions have risen sharply in recent years so the 2020 goal works out as only a 4 percent cut relative to 1990. This week, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged the United States to do more.

The European Union has promised to cut emissions by 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, and by 30 percent if others rich nations follow suit.

EU emissions have fallen since 1990 so, expressed as cuts from 2005, the EU's 2020 goals work out as reductions of 14 and 24 percent respectively. Stern said that made the EU's planned effort comparable to that of the United States

He also said China, which has overtaken the United States as top emitter in recent years, and other developing antions would have to step up actions. "They are going to need to do more," he said.

(Editing by Michael Roddy)

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Best of our wild blogs: 30 May 09

300 entangled horseshoe crabs rescued at Mandai Besar mangrove
on the Habitatnews blog

First public intertidal walk at St. John's island
on the Urban Forest blog and the wonderful creation blog

Lush seagrass meadows of Paris Ris
on the wild shores of singapore blog and Bruguiera hainesii and other surprises

White-bellied Sea Eagle: Nesting
on the Bird Ecology Study Group blog

Chestnut-headed Bee-eater catching insects
on the Bird Ecology Study Group blog

Saving Gaia is Back
on AsiaIsGreen

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