SPICE up your life!
from Garden Voices
How I Tricked A Sea Lion
from Tony Wu's Underwater Photography
Blue-throated Bee-eater casting pellet
from Bird Ecology Study Group
#58, SBG
from NaturallYours
Large-tailed Nightjar’s failed nesting
from Bird Ecology Study Group
The Jakarta Post 20 Jun 09;
Irregular rain patterns, more thunderstorms and higher temperatures are heralding the advent of global warming that Riau is now experiencing, says the provincial Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG).
“Our analysis over the past 25 years, between 1980 and 2005, shows that Riau has experienced a rise in the minimum temperature, from 21.5 to 23.5 degrees Celsius, as well as irregularities in rainfall patterns in the past five years,” BMKG head Blucher Doloksaribu said Monday at a press conference in Jakarta.
Increases in the minimum temperature are closely related to the greenhouse effect. The temperature is measured when there is no direct solar radiation, according to the BMKG.
Blucher also pointed out the significant irregularities in rainfall of more than 100 millimeters in the area over the past 20 years.
“There were four rains of this kind between 1986 and 1990, three between 1991 and 1995, seven between 1996 and 2000, and 12 between 2001 and 2005,” he said.
Such showers are not common in Indonesia, he said.
“For this kind of rainfall, many large cumulonimbus clouds are needed, and clouds of this type are linked to higher temperatures.”
Riau has also seen an increase in high temperatures, Blucher went on. At the height of haze caused by forest fires between May 1 and June 11 this year, high temperatures in Riau ranged from 33.2 to 34 degrees, peaking at 36 degrees on two days.
“Despite May and June being the hottest months in year in the region, we’ve never gone above 33 degrees Celsius,” he said.
“The smoke from forest fires caused by deforestation helped push the temperature higher.”
Blucher added the more frequent and unpredictable heavy showers had directly impacted agriculture, with farmers unable to predict the weather, thus affecting harvests.
“Irrigation systems can no longer retain rain water as previously; farmers will experience more failed harvests,” he said.
He added the only easy way to counter this was to plant more trees.
“Only trees can absorb the carbon dioxide in the air,” he said.
Greenpeace Southeast Asia forest campaigner Bustar Maitar said, “Deforestation is the largest contributor to the greenhouse effect in the country, whose gas emissions are the third-highest in the world.”
Data from the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) shows there are currently 2,643 hotspots nationwide. Many of these forest fires are set illegally to clear-cut forests for oil palm or pulp and paper plantations, Bustar said.
Deforestation occurs all over the country, but the condition in Riau is worse because it has the deepest peatlands in the world, he said.
Peatlands are rich in CO2. Setting them on fire releases huge amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere.
“Deforestation also leads to community violence,” Bustar said.
Also at the press conference was National Commission on Human Rights member Nurkholis, who revealed 5 percent of the 4,900 cases reported to the commission last year were related to conflicts between communities and corporations in plantation areas.
Last April, Greenpeace questioned the new pulpwood concessions for 2009-2014 granted by the Forestry Ministry to companies suspected of illegal logging.
In January, the government issued a policy extending the pulp and paper industry’s period to use natural forest timber until 2014, while in March, the ministry, through a decree, took over the authority to issue logging permits from the Riau administration. (iwp)
Ron Gluckman, Far Eastern Economic Review
The Wall Street Journal 19 Jun 09;
Cambodia's shoreline rapidly recedes behind waves of white foam as our boat roars out of Sihanoukville port, bound for what have long been uncharted waters. Across the border in Thailand, the coast long ago shifted from Robinson Crusoe retreats to a grand esplanade of beach huts, banana pancakes and Jack Johnson music. Yet Cambodia's palm-fringed beaches still look like a sepia photograph from half a century ago.
Credit, if you call it that, belongs to decades of war and the world's worst genocide. But growth and stability has swept these shores in recent years, bringing adventurous investors to this longtime Asian backwater, like Rory and Mel Hunter, an Australian couple guiding me to a pair of islands where they are building a small, upscale resort.
At least, that was the plan before the meltdown burst Cambodia's bubble; in recent years growth had been among the heartiest in the region, reaching 13% per annum. Now, it's reeling, and investors have fled or melted away, like Hong Kong's Millennium Group, which trumpeted a $10 billion development on Koh Rung, Cambodia's largest island. Millennium wanted to add roads, resorts, residential estates and an airport in a scheme modeled on Thailand's Phuket. The Hunters have modest plans for Koh Ouen and Bong, two tiny isles near Koh Rung, cuddled so close together locals call them Song Saa -- the Sweetheart Islands. But as boom became bust, Millennium closed its Cambodian offices leaving Koh Rung in the raw. Longtime Cambodian residents, the Hunters will stay and scale down from $1,000-per-night villas to a more ecological and affordable resort.
"In some ways, this may be a good thing," Mr. Hunter reflects on the slowdown. Many with a stake in Cambodia's tourism growth feel much the same, that the boom was too sudden, threatening the pristine environment. As we pass a Koh Rung beach, stretching for miles without a single footprint, Mr. Hunter adds: "Now, we all have a chance to rethink things, and maybe plan better."
Better planning would not only help a tourism industry that topped two million visitors for the first time in 2007 -- an astonishing 50-fold increase in 15 years -- it could benefit every sector. Transparency International ranks Cambodia among Asia's most corrupt countries; only Burma gets worse grades. It's also among Asia's poorest nations, and wealth disparity has widened despite the boom. Land evictions have become epidemic -- greedy developers partnered with corrupt officials have swept aside entire villages in real-estate scams. All of Cambodia's islands have been leased to foreign investors in the last few years. "Country for Sale," was the title of a scathing report from watchdog Global Witness, detailing rampant corruption that reached across every sector.
The response was typically Cambodian. The report was banned, and Global Witness barred from returning. "If they come to Cambodia, I will hit them until their heads are broken," said Hun Neng, a provincial governor and brother of Prime Minister Hun Sen.
Originally welcomed to Cambodia to help monitor its resources, London-based Global Witness has become a recurrent thorn in the side of the administration, detailing illegal exploitation of forests, gems and, invariably, people. So the latest news from Cambodia comes as a complete shocker. Global Witness and the government agree on an issue.
In May, Cambodia banned the export of sea sand. Sucked from the seabed by massive dredgers, it has increasingly filled the cement and landfill needs of expanding countries-mainly Singapore. Already banned across Asia, dredging rips up reefs and destroys marine environments, as detailed by Global Witness. "The government hasn't exactly agreed with us, but this certainly draws a lot of attention to the problem," says researcher Eleanor Nichol. "We welcome the ban and hope it is effectively enforced."
Hailed as a rare victory by environmentalists, and welcomed by the fledgling resorts and dive shops that are starting to attract tourists to Cambodia's coast, the ban's biggest boost comes to a small and largely silent local population -- seahorses.
Harvested to the brink of extinction around the world, seahorses have surely benefited from Cambodia's decades of turmoil. As tourists flocked to Thailand and later Vietnam, Cambodia's lost coast was the scene of fierce fighting from the 1970s through the 1990s. Bullet and mortar holes are still visible in seaside villas in Kep, which was a charming coastal resort called La Perle de la C&GBP 244;te d'Agathe in the 1960s. Soon after, the only idyll in these parts was underwater, among the thick grasses filled with seahorses around Koh Rung.
"We have seen groups of 50 together at one time," says Paul Ferber, a British dive instructor who moved from Phuket to the more remote and rich waters around Koh Rung. Such sightings are exceedingly rare, only reported in a handful of sites around the world, according to the international group Project Seahorse.
There are 33 known species of seahorses, which are actually fish, akin to tuna and salmon, all listed as endangered by international treaty or believed threatened. America is the largest market for seahorse tropical pets, but this is a sliver of sales. Some 20 to 24 million seahorses are taken from the seas each year, mainly by exporters from India, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam. Practically all are shipped to China, and ground up for medicine. Chinese believe the tiny creatures help male virility. Seahorse activists say consumption in China is still growing by about 10% per year.
Some believe global seahorse stocks have declined by 50% or more in recent decades, despite the almost universal appeal of the unique creatures. They mate for life, and the female impregnates the male, injecting eggs into his pouch, where they are incubated, kangaroo-style. Seahorses are incredibly fragile -- life spans range to four years and few reach adulthood. Death results from practically any disruption to their environment. Mr. Ferber reports that they have been decimated by dredging, dynamite and net fishing. Sightings are down to about 10 per dive, he says.
The sand wars swept into Cambodia in 2007, after Indonesia enacted its own ban on dredging due to disastrous impacts on islands where fisheries were destroyed and sinking reported. Most of that sand was shipped to Singapore, which has expanded almost 15% in size since 1960. To serve its growing population, the island state plans to add another 100 square kilometers to its borders by 2030. "They don't have much coast, so they have been taking ours," a resident of Sihanoukville quips.
Singapore isn't the only recipient of Cambodia's sand, prized for its coarseness and purity. "It's from coral reefs," notes Mr. Ferber, "so it's high grade." China has also mined and traded the sand. "Cambodian coast for sale," read one posting on Alibaba.com, China's leading business-to-business e-commerce Web site. Even after the ban, sellers still tout Cambodian sand. Under a listing for "700 millions [sic] cubic meters of Sea Sand from Cambodia" a current vendor notes: "We are looking for a serious buy from Singapore or other countries. We have more than 700 millions [sic] cubic meters of sea sand for exploiting."
Global Witness estimated that the sand exports on the southern coast might total $35 million annually, based on exhaustive undercover investigations and a lot of extrapolation. Even to a poor country, that is shortsighted, as Cambodia is essentially selling its pristine shoreline for low-value landfill.
The hope, from the main beaches of Sihanoukville to the quiet cove of Kep, where a new sailing club recently opened at the stylish Knai Bang Chatt resort, is that the ban can slow growth to the peaceful pace that brought Europeans to this Riviera of Asia.
Cambodia's coastal growth is central to government plans to shift tourism from the temples of Angkor Wat in the north to promote longer stays in the country. The old Chinese-built airstrip at Sihanoukville was expanded two years ago into an international airport, but no regional carrier has added the route. Operators note that there are still too few hotels and tourist services in the area to make flights viable.
Seahorses could help put the area on the map, and perhaps convince Cambodia to make protection permanent. Environmentalists fret that the ban remains temporary and doesn't apply to domestic dredging. Divers report that Chinese and Vietnamese ships continue to operate while Global Witness worries that enforcement will be lax.
Still, Mr. Hunter is optimistic, noting the enthusiastic local support for his resort's privately funded marine preserve. When the resort opens next year, a resident marine biologist will be on hand to suggest ecological trips. "Imagine Thailand from 40 years ago," he says, "and you get an idea of the potential of Cambodia's islands."
For seahorses, the odds seem long the world over. But one bright spot on the horizon glimmers near Bohol, in the Philippines, another nation known for bad governance. A rare luminous variety of seahorses are protected in the Handumon marine sanctuary, which draws divers and tourists from around the globe. It's proof that with planning and the right protection, this needn't be the last roundup for seahorses.
---
Mr. Gluckman is a free-lance writer. He divides his time between Bangkok and Phnom Penh.
New facility to access high-resolution data for research projects
Amresh Gunasingham, Straits Times 20 Jun 09;
Professor Peter Ng, the director of TMSI, said the institutes are working together on a study on the state of the marine environment in Pulau Semakau. He said researchers will work on a long-term conservation plan for the island, using the razor-sharp satellite imaging to study the growth patterns of mangrove and coral reefs there.
A SATELLITE dish at the top of a new $9 million building at the National University of Singapore (NUS) can allow scientists to pick up satellite images of objects as small as 50cm in size.
This level of precision means that the satellite can pick out a man walking, although he will appear as only a speck. For bigger objects, such as a car, the satellite can keep track of where the vehicle is heading.
Researchers in Singapore have previously depended on satellite imagery with a resolution of 1m.
The Sea-to-Space centre, which was opened by Environment and Water Resources Minister Yaacob Ibrahim yesterday, will tap data from the US$500 million (S$730 million) GeoEye-1 satellite - the world's highest-resolution remote sensing satellite available for civilian use.
More than $5 million worth of state-of-the-art equipment is currently housed at the 1,830 sq m facility, where over 80 researchers from two research institutes - the Centre for Remote Imaging, Sensing and Processing (Crisp) and the Tropical Marine Science Institute (TMSI) - will come together to engage in projects covering a range of disciplines.
Established 17 years ago, Crisp currently operates a ground station which tracks, receives and processes data from remote sensing satellites. It monitors hot spot regions over parts of Indonesia during the haze season.
TMSI has a large portfolio of projects in the field of environmental science.
At the opening ceremony, Professor Barry Halliwell, deputy president (research and technology) at NUS, said: 'The coming together of these two research bodies under one roof is in tandem with the university's drive towards high quality research over a broad range of cross-disciplinary projects.'
Professor Peter Ng, the director of TMSI, said the institutes are working together on a study on the state of the marine environment in Pulau Semakau. He said researchers will work on a long-term conservation plan for the island, using the razor-sharp satellite imaging to study the growth patterns of mangrove and coral reefs there.
'This will be a test site where we can bring our different skills together,' he said.
Mr Kwoh Leong Keong, director of Crisp, said: 'The new technology really provides a close-up view...We can now see intricate details such as the lines along a tennis court on top of a building.'
The new satellite imaging system also has a part to play in the humanitarian relief operations that Singapore participates in. 'With this technology, we can see the actual activity on the ground - the layout of roads, canals, and even trees,' he said.
The ability to see very fine features improves mapping capabilities.
'This is important in conducting relief operations during disasters such as typhoons,' said Mr Kwoh. 'We need to know such details to know exactly where to go.'
He highlighted the example of Crisp's role during the 2004 tsunami in providing high resolution imagery of areas in Indonesia's Aceh province stricken by the disaster as something that can be improved upon. 'The roads were broken, so evacuation teams needed to map out alternative paths to rescue people. Previous satellite imaging could not provide such detail,' said Mr Kwoh.
The centre is the only ground station in the region to be able to receive and process data from the GeoEye-1 satellite.
The facility's capabilities will be further boosted later this year when it gains access to another 0.5m resolution satellite - the WorldView.
This will make Crisp the first station in the world to receive data from two 0.5m resolution satellites at the same facility, said Prof Halliwell. This means satellite images can be received in a shorter amount of time.
Desmond Wong, Channel NewsAsia 19 Jun 09;
SINGAPORE: Drier conditions as a result of possible El Nino effects later this year could see the haze returning to Singapore.
The best way for Singapore to mitigate this danger is to work with its partners in Indonesia, said Environment and Water Resources Minister Yaacob Ibrahim.
He said: "This year, for example, we're a bit worried, because there are indications...you could see El Nino coming back. El Nino conditions are drier than usual, and that is a cause for concern for us because the haze situation could worsen."
Singapore has been working with Indonesia's Jambi province to reduce slash-and-burn activities by farmers there.
The minister also said that the sharing of information and co-operation across governments is critical to avoid disrupting events like the Formula One (F1) race as the dry season heats up.
Dr Yaacob said: "The dry season is starting now - July, August, September. If you look back at 1997 and 2006...September, October...was really the peak. I do not know if that will happen, but if it does, it will affect our (hosting of) F1. So there are many things we should be concerned about and we have informed the Indonesians that they have to do something about it."
The minister was speaking at the opening of the Sea to Space building, home of the Centre for Remote Imaging, Sensing and Processing or CRISP.
The National Environment Agency (NEA) is on its guard against the increase of forest fires in Indonesia, and CRISP will be lending the abilities of its new GeoEye ground station to help NEA monitor hot spots.
- CNA/ir
Back to the hazy days of 2006?
by Lin Yan Qin, Today Online 20 Jun 09;
THE winds have been in Singapore’s favour so far, but that luck may not hold.
With Malaysia already feeling the effects of the haze from forest fires in Indonesia, the likely return of El Nino - which brings dry weather to the region - and a change in wind direction could mean a return for Singaporeans to the hot, haze-filled days of 2006.
And that is especially a cause for concern, with the Formula 1 SingTel Singapore Grand Prix in September - one of the worst months during the 2006 haze - and a H1N1 community outbreak threatening.
Noting that thus far, winds have kept the smoke at bay, the Minister for the Environment and Water Resources warned Singaporeans to nonetheless “prepare for the worst”.
“This year, we are a bit worried because you could see El Nino coming back, and El Nino conditions are dryer than usual,” said Dr Yaacob Ibrahim. “This is a cause of concern for us because that means the haze situation could worsen.” Looking back at 1997 and 2006, he added, “September, October was really the peak” and should the same scenario recur, “it will affect our (hosting of) F1”.
Experts agree the signs are there - the region is now in the “neutral” period that follows last year’s La Nina and usually precedes the El Nino, said Associate Professor Matthias Roth from the National University of Singapore’s (NUS) Department of Geography.
And if El Nino brings dry weather here, the lack of rain to wash haze particles away means they will accumulate.
Doctors said they would expect to see an increase in the number of patients seeking treatment for respiratory problems exacerbated by the haze. Could those stricken with H1N1 have their condition worsened? “Certainly they would feel more irritated and cough more, but I don’t think there is a clear link to pace of recovery. The cause of H1N1 is viral and the treatment is targeted as such,” said Dr Chong Yeh Woei, president of the Singapore Medical Association.
Political will vs the weather
On the political front, Singapore will be meeting with its neighbours to discuss the situation. Said Dr Yaacob: “We may need to have a meeting ahead of time to gather the ministers and make this point to our Indonesian colleagues.”
He was speaking at the opening of the Sea-to-Space building at NUS, where the Centre for Remote Imaging, Sensing and Processing (Crisp) - which provides images of hotspots in Indonesia to the Government - is located. The number of such forest fire zones has not gone up, and it is important that Singapore had engaged Indonesia early.
The situation in 2006
Today Online 20 Jun 09;
For over two months in 2006, Singaporeans woke up to hazy skies, as forest fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan made worse by dry weather pushed the haze situation to its worst since 1997.
Pollutant Standards Index levels hit the unhealthy range of 101 and above for three days in October, and those with existing heart or respiratory ailments were advised to reduce physical exertion and outdoor activity. The public was told to reduce vigorous outdoor activity.
The haze had been exacerbated due to a weak El Nino effect that year which prolonged the dry season, causing forest fires to further burn and spread. The monsoon that year was also delayed as a result; hence there was little rainfall to ease the situation until November.
Severe haze likely to hit Singapore
El Nino set to return this year, bringing hotter and drier weather
Amresh Gunasingham, Straits Times 20 Jun 09;
SMOKE haze from Indonesia could make an unwanted comeback this year as an El Nino weather phenomenon develops, bringing hotter and drier weather, Minister for the Environment & Water Resources Yaacob Ibrahim said yesterday.
Though slight now, the haze could worsen in the coming months, and peak in September, deep into the dry season.
Yesterday, 32 hot spots were detected in Sumatra, and 50 in Borneo. Meteorologists are watching as an early-stage El Nino develops over the Pacific Ocean.
'It is cause for concern because it means the haze situation could worsen,' said Dr Yaacob. 'We are already seeing some signs of it.'
In fact, all it would take now for haze to blow by is for the wind to change, said experts. It has already blanketed parts of neighbouring Malaysia.
The pollution standards index (PSI) peaked at an unhealthy 136 in areas such as Port Klang, Shah Alam and Cheras last week, as visibility and air quality deteriorated rapidly.
In Singapore the PSI is in the good range for now.
But similar hot and dry weather in 1997 and 2006 fuelled fires in Indonesia, and south-westerly winds sent the smoke onwards.
The haze lasted three months in 1997, with the PSI reaching an all time high of 226 in September. People stayed indoors, health-care costs soared and tourism was disrupted.
According to a World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) report published in 1998, Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia suffered losses of more than $2.1 billion in the toll to their economies.
A bad haze year would also have a worrying impact on the prize event in the tourism calendar, the F1 Grand Prix race held in September, the minister said yesterday.
'These are things we should be concerned about and we have informed Indonesia that they need to do something about it,' he said.
Singapore will continue to work with Indonesia by providing it with the latest up-to-date information of where hot spots are, so that it can do its part, said Dr Yaacob.
He was speaking to reporters at the launch of a new $9 million satellite ground station, which will assist Indonesia in the haze fight by providing more razor-sharp satellite imaging of hot spot areas.
Indonesia has managed to reduce the number of hot spots but has yet to meet its target of 50 per cent this year, he said.
At a meeting in April for the Asean Ministerial Steering Committee (MSC) on Transboundary Haze Pollution, it assured its neighbours it would step up efforts to meet the target.
Dr Yaacob said officials from the National Environment Agency (NEA) and his ministry are due to travel to Jambi province next week and would impress upon government officials there of 'the need to do more'.
The next ministerial committee meeting, set for October, may also have to be brought forward to before September, he said.
'Let's plan for the worst and hope for the best.'
But Dr Yaacob also paid tribute to a collaboration between Singapore and Jambi province as evidence of progress on Indonesia's part in tackling the problem.
Singapore has committed $1 million to help the provincial government implement various programmes designed to prevent or mitigate the incidence of fires.
Air quality monitoring stations set up in the province now feed information about what is going on there. The hope is for such a network of monitoring stations to be extended throughout Indonesia.
NEA's Meteorological Services Division said a 'marked warming in this part of the Pacific Ocean in recent months points to the early stage of a potential El Nino'. Warming conditions need to be sustained over the coming months for a full-fledged El Nino to develop.
Associate Professor Matthias Roth, from the department of geography at the National University of Singapore (NUS), said the odds for haze in Singapore are high, as the south-west monsoon season, which has just begun and lasts till end-October, would blow any smoke this way.
Early start to El Nino this year
Warmer waters in Pacific herald trouble for region
Michael Wilner, Straits Times 20 Jun 09;
EL NINO is back, and much earlier than expected.
Occurring once every two to seven years, the weather phenomenon almost always begins in September. But experts are saying that unusually high Pacific Ocean surface temperatures this year could mean the risk of it hitting next month has increased substantially.
The Australian Bureau of Meteorology has calculated the risk at nearly double the average probability - with the likelihood of it forming now put above 50 per cent.
'However, it is still possible, though increasingly less likely, that the recent trends may stall without El Nino thresholds being reached,' it said in a fortnightly update.
US weather forecasters agree that surface temperatures in the ocean are rising, and this might be related to the strong El Nino effect forming for the first time in more than five years.
It has happened unusually quickly, Mr Kelly Redmond of the Western Regional Climate Centre in Reno, Nevada, was quoted as saying.
'It is kind of impressive,' he told the Reno Nevada Gazette. 'It formed quickly. It kind of took me by surprise.'
Mr Redmond also said the fact that it would be an early El Nino could mean that it could be a strong one.
The Pacific Ocean waters began to warm last month, with conditions shifting towards an El Nino this month - a trend projected to continue at least into August, say US weather forecasters.
A strong El Nino event would be cause for concern in this region for several reasons.
The temperature rise would hurt crop production and likely increase the likelihood of a worsening haze situation, particularly for Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia.
Crops will suffer because rainfall will decline during the critical monsoon season, said Mr Drew Lerner, the president of Kansas City-based World Weather Inc. Monsoon rains are pivotal for farm production in India, the world's fifth-biggest grower of soyabeans and third-largest producer of rapeseed.
'Rainfall in India is going to be poor,' Mr Lerner told Bloomberg. 'The oilseeds are all in the reproductive states in September and October, and if they don't have rain in those two months, there could be some problems.'
Australia, which will also suffer from drier weather, is the world's fourth-largest wheat exporter.
Furthermore, officials fear the phenomenon is likely to worsen the haze situation in South-east Asia, bearing in mind that during the 1997-98 period, drought caused by El Nino led to major fires in Indonesia.
Forest fires are a regular occurrence during the dry season in areas such as Sumatra and Borneo, but the situation has been aggravated in recent decades as timber and plantation estates, as well as farmers, start fires to clear land.
The fires in turn cause smoke that, because of regional weather patterns, often blows into nearby countries, particularly Singapore and Malaysia.
Some areas in Sumatra and Malaysia have already been affected by haze.
A top official in Sarawak yesterday said the state government would begin cloud seeding operations next week, in view of the long dry spell.
Letter from John Lucas, Today Online 19 Jun 09;
With the 5.5 per cent increase in population for 2008, the population density of Singapore is now 17,650 people per square mile -- making it the third most densely populated country in the world.
In comparison, the United States has a population density of 80 people per square mile. If the US had the same population density as Singapore, its population would be 65.6 billion people.
I’m sure I am not alone when I say Singapore’s malls, parks, highways, carparks, trains, buses, and restaurants are already overcrowded during weekends.
Will adding more people improve the quality of life? I just can’t imagine what life in Singapore will be like when the population is pushed another 23.96 per cent from 4.84 million to 6 million.
The next time you are waiting in a long queue, or crammed into a train, think about being there with an additional 24 more people. It will help pass the time.
Heiner Markhoff, Straits Times 20 Jun 09;
IT IS often said that an economy runs on oil, but it could just as easily run on water. Simply put, electricity is needed to power the economy, and power cannot be generated without water. Conversely, electricity is needed to treat water.
It is therefore critical that we consider the nexus between water and power.
A large amount of water - up to 90 per cent - is used in any power plant for cooling purposes. This water can be recycled. Water is also used to produce steam for power generation.
In a world where water is an increasingly scarce resource, policies supporting its conservation and recycling for power generation must be an urgent priority.
It is estimated that 15 per cent of freshwater worldwide is used for industrial purposes. And as this sector grows, so will demand for power and water.
In the United States, water demands related to electricity production have almost tripled since 1995, and nearly 90 per cent of all industrial water is used for the generation of power.
In France, power generation has become the largest water guzzler.
Singapore's non-domestic sector uses about half the treated water supply. The country has become a champion of water conservation and recycling to support its industrial growth and other water uses.
The Republic is already reusing 15 per cent of its waste water and plans on doubling this to 30 per cent by next year.
Australia reuses about 8 per cent of its waste water and has set a national target of 30 per cent by 2015. The US reuses only about 6 per cent. In many other parts of the world, the ratio is even smaller.
It is clear that water reuse is not as prevalent as it is should be.
One effective way to achieve water savings is to co-locate water-treatment facilities and power plants.
A US Department of Energy-sponsored study looked at 110 new proposed power plants in 2007. It found that municipal waste-water treatment plants located within a 40km radius of the proposed power plants could satisfy 97 per cent of the power plants' cooling-water needs.
Incentives to co-locate municipal waste-water treatment plants and power generation plants would go a long way towards reducing freshwater withdrawal.
Moreover, reusing water often reduces energy consumption in and of itself. A 1,000MW power plant with a water-reuse system for cooling-tower water recovery will reduce the energy otherwise needed to produce, distribute and treat fresh water by a net 15 per cent - enough to power some 350 homes for a year.
However, while advanced water reclamation technologies already exist, the motivation to deploy them often does not.
Today, it is often less expensive for plant operators to get water from a river or well, or even use potable water, than to treat and reuse it.
Policy incentives have been primary drivers for growth in renewable energy capacity. Similar legislation and incentives to jump-start the widespread use of new water recycling technologies are needed.
Incentives are particularly important since new technologies are often more expensive compared with current technologies that have developed infrastructure and economies of scale.
Singapore, for example, has already established a water efficiency fund to provide up to half of the capital costs of water recycling facilities for companies.
The Singapore International Water Week that begins on Monday will be a meeting of minds and a good platform for global leaders to consider such forward looking strategies.
The proposed federal Energy and Water Integration Act of 2009 in the US calls for a study on how energy development affects the nation's water supplies.
It would also be beneficial for the federal government to identify best available technologies to minimise the use of water in the production of electricity.
There are significant energy and water savings to be gained in the area.
The opportunity to achieve these goals is within reach: The cost of new technologies has fallen. Also, new generation membranes and better management practices have contributed to reducing the energy cost of seawater desalination to one- third of what it was a decade ago.
Global water use is expected to rise by up to 30 per cent in developing countries and more than 10 per cent in industrialised countries by 2025.
By 2030, two-thirds of the world's population may experience moderate to high water-supply concerns. And global electricity demand is expected to double.
Energy and water truly are co-dependent resources, critical to the functioning of modern economies and to life itself.
We must respect this inter-dependent relationship so that we can better manage the ways we acquire and use these resources. Only then can there be sustainable growth in the years ahead.
The writer is president and chief executive officer of water technologies developer GE Water.
But many others still not tapping incentives, notes Amy Khor
Amresh Gunasingham, Straits Times 20 Jun 09;
MORE companies are taking advantage of green incentives such as subsidised energy audits, which allow them to save energy and cut costs.
The National Environment Agency (NEA) is giving out $4 million to 143 companies under such a scheme.
These companies can expect to save $35 million by investing in measures such as more efficient chillers and lighting systems, said the NEA.
Dr Amy Khor, Senior Parliamentary Secretary (Environment and Water Resources), highlighted the example of Causeway Point shopping centre, which had achieved savings of $82,000 a year simply by making its air-handling and cooling units more energy-efficient.
She was speaking at a symposium this week organised by the Singaporean-German Chamber of Industry and Commerce. It attracted 250 researchers, government officials and industry representatives who came together to discuss collaboration between Germany and Singapore in developing energy-efficient technology.
The industry and building sectors are Singapore's top two energy-guzzling sectors, accounting for three-quarters of national energy consumption here, noted Dr Khor.
'The prudent use of energy is particularly pertinent during this period of economic uncertainty,' she said, adding that many companies were still not capitalising on opportunities due to a lack of incentives, capabilities and awareness.
Germany is well placed to work with Singapore in the field.
Its renewable energy sector was the fastest growing sector in its economy last year, generating around €30 billion (S$61 billion) in revenue and creating 280,000 jobs. This figure is expected to swell to 500,000 by 2020.
In Singapore, the Government hopes a green economy will pay off by creating 18,000 more jobs and adding $3.4 billion to the nation's gross domestic product by 2015.
Germany is also Singapore's largest trading partner in the European Union, with bilateral trade topping $21.2 billion last year.
Said Professor Rolf Buschmann, director of EnEd Asia, a company offering clean tech solutions for buildings here: 'Singapore is ideally positioned to serve as a platform for the provision of expertise and technologies to feed the growing demand for energy-saving facilities in the region.'
Other companies here are already enjoying the benefits of going green.
Last week, Ascendas, Asia's leading provider of business-space solutions, announced that it had invested $3.5 million in installing power-saving chiller systems at its headquarters in the Singapore Science Park in Buona Vista.
The project is expected to save about 5,300 megawatt-hours of electricity and reduce emissions of carbon dioxide by 2,500 tonnes a year.
This is equivalent to the amount of carbon dioxide absorbed by 200,000 trees in a year. Ascendas expects the new chiller systems to save the company up to $1 million a year.
Pearl Forss and Ng Kheng Siong, Channel NewsAsia 20 Jun 09;
SINGAPORE: Six bicycle rental kiosks have been set up in four parks along the 42-kilometre Eastern Coastal Park Connector Network.
Bicycles can be rented from one of these kiosks and returned at any of the other five pitstops.
The kiosks or pitstops are located in East Coast Park, Telok Kurau Park, Sun Plaza Park and Changi Beach Park.
Bicycle rental rates range from S$5 per hour for an adult bicycle to S$10 for a tandem bicycle, comparable to charges at other bicycle rental kiosks.
Depending on the popularity of this service, two more pitstops may be set up at Bedok Town Park and Pasir Ris Town Park.
The National Parks Board said it may provide similar facilities in Singapore's six other park connectors when they are completed.
- CNA/so
ScienceDaily 19 Jun 09;
There are cynics who see only catastrophic answers to Earth’s population explosion: War and pestilence come to mind.
Then there are those who look a little deeper. Not even two feet deep, to be precise, into the placid tidal pools dotting the world’s coastlines. Like homesteads nibbling at the wilderness, coastal flats represent humanity’s creeping advance into the great, undomesticated Blue. It is on a coastal flat in the Pacific Northwest, along the quiet eastern edge of the Olympic Peninsula, that marine biologists from USC are pinning their hopes on the quest for bigger and faster-growing oysters.
Oysters? Oyster breeding is just one example of research projects at the USC Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies in USC’s College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, all related in some way to the pressing dietary needs of our crowded planet.
But oysters? For the masses? Is this not the same elite delicacy served iced on the half shell in fine restaurants, or proffered to cuddly couples on Valentine’s Day? (Scientists, by the way, have not found any unusual stimulating substance in oysters: as with other alleged aphrodisiacs, the effects are in the mind.)
Unlike humans, Mother Nature takes oysters seriously. They pack huge amounts of protein, along with an alphabet soup of vitamins, lots of omega-3 fatty acids and hefty doses of minerals: calcium, iodine, iron, potassium, copper, sodium, zinc, phosphorous, manganese and sulfur.
All in one low-calorie package. It’s enough to arouse a nutritionist.
For marine biologists who wonder where humanity will find the next great meal, the oyster ranks high on the list of prospects.
“It’s not going to be krill,” deadpans Donal Manahan, director of the Wrigley Institute. Having tasted krill, he deems the small crustacean best left to a whale’s undiscriminating palate, along with smelt, phytoplankton and other floating detritus of the sea.
Oysters are not only more flavorful; they also exhibit a remarkable property known as hybrid vigor - possibly unique in the animal world - that could turn them into the Corn of the Sea.
And oysters are only the start, says Manahan. He calls for a Blue Revolution in all kinds of seafood to follow the Green one that boosted crop yields over the last century.
“We’re going to have to make future decisions as a society regarding how to provide enough food for a growing population,” he says. United Nations experts estimate that humans will number almost 9 billion by 2050.
“If you look globally, the untapped potential of producing more food from the oceans is enormous,” adds Hauke Kite-Powell, a research specialist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution who sat with Manahan on a National Academies committee studying the issue.
Yes, they are talking about farming the oceans: aquaculture, or mariculture - by either name, still a sliver of the world’s farming output, and a dirty word to those who like their fish wild.
But as Manahan points out, how many of us insist on eating only wild game? These days we are happy if the chicken was allowed to strut. Most people do not even like meat with a “gamey” flavor.
In a few years, says Manahan, the world catch of farmed fish will surpass the wild-caught total for the first time in history. The most recent statistics show that in 2007, aquaculture supplied 42 percent of fish consumed worldwide. In the next year or two, that should hit 50 percent.
Prices bear out the trend. Even high-end farmed species such as oysters have come down since 1997 when compared to lowly wild Arctic fish like haddock and pollock - once staples of cheap cafeteria food, and still major ingredients in fish sticks and McDonald’s Filet-O-Fish® sandwiches.
Experiments performed by David Hutchins, another marine biologist in USC College, predict that ocean warming will shift the food web in the Arctic toward smaller organisms, reducing the food supply for the major commercial fish.
“It doesn’t look good up there,” Hutchins says. “It looks like the food chain is changing in a way that is not supporting these top predators, of which of course we’re the biggest top predator. There is some question as to how much of that is due to over-fishing and how much of that is due to climate shifts; probably they’re both involved.”
Manahan's and fellow USC Wrigley Professor Dennis Hedgecock's interest in oysters was prompted by a curious observation: Unlike any farmed animal, oysters exhibit hybrid vigor.
Consumers do not know or care about hybrid vigor. But we would if corn and wheat did not have it, because then a box of cereal might cost $20. (If we were still alive to buy it, after the food wars that would have erupted in the late 20th century as an exploding population ran out of food.)
Hybrid vigor, along with expanded use of nitrogen fertilizer, greatly boosted crop yields during the 20th century, increasing the average yield of corn per acre across the United States sevenfold.
It works like this (though still, no one understands why): If different strains of corn are inbred - forced to cross with themselves - the offspring look predictably small and withered.
But cross two different inbred strains, and their offspring sometimes explode in size, outgrowing not just their inbred parents, but also their vigorous grandparents.
By trying thousands of different crosses, seed companies have developed healthy varieties that dwarf the corn farmed during the early part of the last century. And every year, new and slightly bigger or faster-growing varieties come to market.
The process has an obvious limit: No amount of hybridization can extract more than the soil’s available energy. As crop improvements approach the land’s maximum yield, the world’s population continues to grow exponentially.
Maybe it’s time to look beyond the land.
Hedgecock is sure that oysters have hybrid vigor. He has bred some to grow twice as fast as their wild ancestors.
In a 2007 paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, he and Manahan, along with scientists at biotech giant Solexa, identified 350 genes involved in oyster growth.
Yet even now, Hedgecock knows of no other lab working on hybrid vigor in oysters. He attributes this scientific incuriosity to the challenge of actually demonstrating hybrid vigor. To do so, a researcher must be able to breed hundreds of millions of baby oysters, and then find a commercial farm willing to grow them outside the lab.
Hedgecock has done both. His lab’s research caught the eye of Joth Davis, head of research and development at Taylor Shellfish Farms, located on the bays and inlets of Washington’s Puget Sound.
Few farms have their own R&D department. But Taylor, one of the world’s largest growers of shellfish, is also one of the most progressive. At a December 2007 meeting with Hedgecock and Davis, owner Paul Taylor agreed to commit time and space for growing Hedgecock’s hybrids.
Currently the operation is testing three varieties and focusing on one. “This particular hybrid cross is great,” Davis says. Having watched the lab specimens grow bigger faster, he expects the harvest, due in 2011, to fulfill its promise.
Taylor plans to sell the 5 to 8 million mature oysters that result from the project, keep 90 percent of the seed for in-house breeding, and offer the rest to other growers.
And there’s better stuff to come.
“Almost any time we make an inbred line and we cross them, their offspring are better than their inbred parents … and often they’re better than wild,” Hedgecock says.
Oysters even pack an attractive bonus for those worried about toxic algal blooms. Research on algae points to nutrient runoff from urban areas - mostly sewage and lawn fertilizer - as a possible cause.
It turns out oysters are especially good at recycling such nutrients, says Kite-Powell, Manahan’s colleague on the National Academies mariculture committee.
“This is a natural filtration process that is reasonably well understood,” he says, adding that “it’s a piece of the answer; it’s not by any means a silver bullet.”
But in some cases, it seems that oyster farming “is actually an activity that pays for itself while performing this ecosystem service.”
More controversial is the farming of so-called fin fish like salmon.
“They’re like floating pig farms,” Daniel Pauly of the University of British Columbia told the Los Angeles Times. “They consume a tremendous amount of highly concentrated protein pellets and they make a terrific mess.”
But even that type of farming should not be dismissed out of hand, Kite-Powell says. It is true that farmed salmon require several times their weight in animal feed over their lifetime. On paper, that makes farming salmon wasteful. If one thinks of fish as energy-storage vehicles, every transfer of energy from a plant to the fish that eats it, or from that fish to a bigger predator, entails some loss. It would be more energy efficient to go straight to the source.
But if we are going to eat salmon, the farmed variety may be on aggregate less energy intensive. As Kite-Powell points out, “The alternative to farming it is to catch the wild salmon, and wild salmon consume a lot more animal meat proportionately.”
We may find ways to grow food from the oceans “less destructive than many of the practices we employ on land,” he suggests. Some have even proposed giant floating cage systems that would drift with the currents.
Granted, the most ecologically friendly approach would be to eat only shellfish and vegetarian fish. But that would require certain adjustments in the American diet.
Carp, anyone?
The notion of farming the sea takes some getting used to. The National Academies committee that Manahan and Kite-Powell served on studied, among other things, a conflict between an oyster farm, visitors and residents in a wilderness area in Northern California’s Marin County. The committe's final report exonerated the oyster farm from charges it harmed the environment, but acknowledged the aesthetic issues raised by ocean farming.
Similar conflicts might occur among residents of Malibu if sea pens were proposed for the waters off their beachfront homes.
Manahan is not unsympathetic. The crashing waves of the sea were the soundtrack to his childhood in Dublin, Ireland, where his family lived in a fort built on a rocky point during Napoleonic times, a lookout against French invasion. The world was less crowded then, the seas more bountiful. Everything has changed, but at least the ocean outside his ancestral home seems the same.
How would it feel to look out of the stone casement and discover a domesticated bay? How would a nation whose poets rhapsodized about the ocean, but which lost millions to a potato famine, react to large-scale farming of the coastline? How would this nation?
But, Manahan says, “We can’t just sit here and do nothing. What’s going on now is an infinitesimal drop in the ocean of what will happen if there’s a climate shift. You think the cost of food is expensive now? Wait until rainfall patterns in the Midwest change.”
Manahan, who became director of the USC Wrigley Institute in 2008, plans to focus to a large degree on “food, energy and water.”
“And don’t think they’re not linked,” he warns.
He believes the generation growing up today will hear politicians talk about food the way they now talk about oil. “We need to grow our own” may replace slogans about drilling for oil, he says. “Because when it comes to aquatic foods, we have no policy.”
Manahan recalls a quote by Arthur C. Clarke, the great science-fiction writer, who wondered why we call this Planet Earth. The better name would be Planet Ocean, since seawater makes up 99 percent of the biosphere.
Someday, our descendants will wonder how we got by on 1 percent.
Adapted from materials provided by University of Southern California, via Newswise.
Rose Yasim Karim, The Star 20 Jun 09
Lofty mountains and gushing streams have their allure, but so do the wetlands.
Who gives a hoot if swamps get drained and filled up? It’s a breeding ground for mosquitoes. A waste of good space if you ask me,” dismissed a friend.
Sensing that I was about to rebut, he delivered the knockout blow: “And wetlands are dead boring.”
That was a while back. Now, after crossing a short boardwalk, I’m in the magical waterscape of Sedili Kechil wetlands in southeast of Johor. But to really feel the pulse of the flooded chambers and to test out my friend’s theory, I take a boat out from the Belukar Durian jetty and find myself weaving through Sedili Kechil River, a brackish creek and a bewildering place with its tangled and featureless terrains.
But, really, no entertainment compares with the free shows that you get here every day. Just about anyone with an eye for wildlife or an ear for a bird song will find it impossible to be bored in a swamp.
“From the sandy and rocky coastline, the landscape here changes seamlessly and with distinct gradation to saltwater mangrove forest at the inter-tidal zone, nipah palm in brackish water swamps, pandanus vegetation in the riverine forest and freshwater swamp forest upstream,” notes Lee Shin Shin, 34, senior technical officer of Wetlands International,
Wetlands International is working closely with Johor National Park Corporation (JNPC) to get Sedili Kechil sanctioned as a Ramsar site. The Ramsar List of Wetlands of International Importance to date includes 1,801 sites, and any wetlands that has obtained the recognition would be able to obtain assistance from the Ramsar Fund for implementation of bio-diversity conservation programmes.
“We are also building the community’s awareness towards the conservation of the wetlands. By promoting eco-tourism, we are encouraging the villagers to be responsible towards preserving the upstream and downstream areas,” she explains.
“Sedili Kechil is a fishing village, and before the villagers here came to realise the wealth of the wetlands, going out to sea was our source of livelihood. Before, we were earning merely RM600 a month; now, with tourist money coming in, we take home RM1,000 to RM1,500 by taking them on guided trips, and are better able to provide for our families. This in itself is an incentive to preserve our wetlands,” says Mahdan Mansor, chief of the tourism project in Sedili Kechil, 38, as we take a breather and savour raw lokan, a sweet bivalve dug from the mud.
“Our womenfolk used to be full-time homemakers, but now they are also able to contribute to the household through earnings made from selling handicraft,” Mahdan says, splitting open the husk of a nipah fruit or atap chee and passing it around for us to nibble on its sweet flesh.
Although it tastes best soaked in syrup and served in ais kacang, we have no complaints.
So what’s next on Wetland International’s agenda?
“We plan to extend our presence here to carry out scientific studies, riverine vegetation rehabilitation, and research on freshwater swamp and bio-diversity,” says Lee.
The wetlands, according to her, are also nursery grounds for aquatic life and resting areas for migratory birds and wader species that travel along the East Asian-Australasian Flyway.
“The mangrove forest and mudflats of Sedili Kechil are particularly important for more than 40 species of waterbirds, including egrets, herons, storks, rails, shorebirds, terns and gulls, as well as several threatened and near-threatened birds like the Chinese Egret, Malaysian Plover, Asian Dowitcher, the Red Junglefowl, Greater Coucal, Collared Kingfisher, Blue-throated Bee Eater, Dollarbird, different species of sandpipers and plovers, sea eagles, the Brahminy Kite and the Oriental Pied Hornbill.”
A flash of colours between the treetops wouldn’t have registered on my conscious mind if Supari Sutari, 59, a Singaporean nature guide and hardcore birder, hadn’t pointed it out.
Later, he gestures excitedly at a warbler, a dizzying galaxy of feathers. The warblers are tiny and love to hide, so they simply escape the attention of the uninitiated.
Giant river prawns are abundant in Sedili Kechil River, and a couple of times, our boat crosses paths with fisherfolk spreading dragnets to catch these tasty treats.
“The waters are also teeming with fish like the giant snakehead or toman (Betta tomi), a species of fighting fish listed as threatened by IUCN, and the croaking gourami (Trichopsis vittata),” says Lee.
The bottom line? With so much to see, only the boring are bored in a swamp!
But as fascinating as it is, the wetlands can snare the careless with its oppressive heat, treacherous mud, bacteria-infested waters and hungry critters that bite in the night. The sand flies and leeches do not share our high regard for our place in the greater scheme of things, and to the many mosquitoes at Sedili Kechil, we’re nothing more than walking blood banks.
Maybe we’d all be better off if every swamp was drained?
“Where wetlands have been bulldozed away or simply allowed to wither, coastal communities become defenceless against severe food and drought,” cautions Lee.
“Wetlands store water during the wet season and release it during the dry season. They filter water of pollutants and sediments, improving its quality for use downstream. No engineered barrier, no matter how costly, can equal the protection afforded by a natural barrier and coastal wetland complex.”
But sadly, what’s left of Sedili Kechil today are the survivors of what was once a much larger distribution of wetlands that have been completely destroyed by draining, logging and filling.
“Almost the entire area of the Sedili Kechil basin is affected by logging, but thankfully, a substantial area remains untouched,” she reveals.
“Some parts have been drained and converted to orchards, vegetable farms and oil palm plantations. Antibiotics and pesticides that leech from aquaculture ponds and sand mining activities are also damaging to the surrounds.”
“There has been a proposal to develop 19,020ha of Sedili Kechil, which include parts of the wetlands, and this project was strongly opposed by the community,” says Najib Hussein, headsman of the Sedili Kechil territorial division.
“I attribute this to the increased awareness following the education and information disbursed to us by Wetlands International.”
So, what can the rest of us do to safeguard the wetlands?
“Learn more about the wetlands and the creatures that live in them, and join a wetlands protection group,” urges Lee.
Brian Williams couriermail 20 Jun 09;
SCIENTISTS fear pollution may have killed off up to 6000ha of mangroves in Moreton Bay _ trees vital in maintaining fish and healthy foreshore areas.
One theory was that cancerous pollution or chemical spraying for mosquitoes was killing tiny fauna such as crabs, molluscs and worms that lived in the soil around the trees. Mangroves need the creatures to aerate the soil and transfer nutrients.
The loss over five years equates to as much as 20 per cent of the bay's mangroves.
Stark forests of dead mangroves range from North Stradbroke Island in the south to Redcliffe in the north and the city's edge at the Port of Brisbane.
As trees die, the soil sinks around them, causing foul ponds in which nothing regenerates.
University of Queensland wetlands specialist Norm Duke said yesterday it was first thought drought was the issue but it appeared the cause was farmore complex.
One theory was that cancerous pollution or chemical spraying for mosquitoes was killing tiny fauna such as crabs, molluscs and worms that lived in the soil around the trees. Mangroves need the creatures to aerate the soil and transfer nutrients.
"As a result of this change, we might be getting faster breakdown of root material," Dr Duke said.
"There are lots of air spaces around the roots and these are collapsing. Dieback is normal but what is abnormal are these ponds forming. We're getting sediments sinking 20cm to 30cm. Affected areas have expanded rapidly, in some cases from less than 1m wide to many now in the last year that exceed 1km or morein diameter."
Primary Industries Minister Tim Mulherin said the die-back appeared to be caused by a mix of natural and man-induced events. DPI experts did not believe it was related to mosquito spraying, as the insecticide did not affect mangroves.
"We're working with the Port of Brisbane to identify causes and come up with response plans," he said. "Areas of concern include Whyte Island and Cobby Cobby Island. We are promoting natural colonisation where possible and looking at alternative solutions such as improving drainage."
But Dr Duke said mosquito spray could not be discounted.
"After all, you use it to kill things," he said.
Wildlife Preservation Society president Simon Baltais urged the Government to boost research.
"The sad fact is you can't manage what you don't understand and the Government doesn't have a clue about what is going on," he said.
"It rabbits on about how healthy the bay is while up to 20 per cent of mangroves are gone. Without mangroves you don't have fisheries. If we've lost about 15 per cent of mangroves then you'll find we've lost about 15 per cent of fish resources.
"There is no issue more important to commercial fisheries, recreational fishers and all the boating and bait industries. Without fish, they have nothing."
Mangroves nurture 75 per cent of Queensland's commercial and amateur fish catch and are known as "coastal kidneys" for the job they do in filtering run-off and protecting coral reefs.
Dr Duke is setting up coastal MangroveWatch organisations which are aimed at raising awareness and understanding changes taking place.
He said dieback had occurred at other places but in those cases, mangrove marshes had been replaced with other natural wetland systems such as saltpans and saltmarsh vegetation.
"Mangroves not only support fisheries but protect coastal margins from things such as storm surges and erosion," Dr Duke said.
He is seeking evidence of changes to work out where and when sinkage began.
Henry Fountain, The New York Times 19 Jun 09;
Controlling the mosquito that’s largely responsible for infecting people with the dengue fever virus isn’t easy. That’s because the bug, Aedes aegypti, has evolved in parallel with humans, living around them and breeding in even the smallest puddles of water — rainwater in a discarded can, say, or the saucer under a flower pot.
With so many potential breeding sites, spreading pesticide can be a painstaking, door-to-door activity. But Gregor J. Devine of Rothamsted Research, an agricultural institute in Britain, had a different idea: why not let the mosquitoes do the work?
Building on laboratory studies that showed that adult mosquitoes could pick up an insecticide and transfer it, he and his colleagues conducted field experiments in Iquitos, Peru, using pyriproxyfen, a compound that kills larvae but is not harmful to adult mosquitoes (or to people, either, in the amounts used).
After getting a meal of blood from a human, a female A. aegypti likes to find a dark, damp spot to rest while its eggs develop, buzzing off later to find water to deposit the eggs in. Dr. Devine said their work, described in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, took advantage of this routine.
He and his team set up “dissemination stations,” consisting of dark, damp cloths dusted with pyriproxyfen, in the nooks and crannies of above-ground tombs in a cemetery. When a female rested on the cloth, its legs picked up some of the pesticide, which came off when it later landed in a breeding pool. The researchers found that putting stations in as little as 3 percent of the available spots in the cemetery resulted in coverage of almost all the breeding habitats in the immediate area, and mortality of up to 98 percent of the mosquito larvae.
Dr. Devine said the technique may be useful for controlling A. aegypti in conjunction with other eradication methods and may also help control mosquito species that spread other diseases, like malaria.
Yahoo News 19 Jun 09;
NAIVASHA, Kenya (AFP) – Trafficking in ivory and game meat has become one of the most lucrative illegal trades in Africa due to rising demand in Asia, experts said on Friday.
"In terms of monetary value, ivory trade has surpassed drugs and is now one of the most thriving illegal trade in the continent," said Karl Karugaba, the head of a panel from the Lusaka Agreement Task Force.
He told reporters in Naivasha that the large amount of contraband nabbed at various African airports pointed to rising demand, but did not cite any figures.
He spoke at the end of a conference of monitors drawn from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia, Lesotho and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The Lusaka Agreement, which came into force in 1992, is designed to help African law enforcement agencies tackle wildlife smuggling.
A global wildlife trade monitoring group, TRAFFIC, on Friday said Thailand is Asia's largest illegal elephant ivory market and shows few signs of addressing the problem.
Europeans are killing whales in increasing numbers as Norway, Denmark and Iceland propose to hunt 1,478 whales compared to Japan's 1,280 in 2009
John Vidal, guardian.co.uk 19 Jun 09;
Europe plans to hunt more whales than Japan for the first time in many years, dividing EU countries and dismaying conservationists who say that whaling is escalating in response to the worldwide recession.
Figures seen by the Guardian before a meeting of more than 80 countries next week, show that Norway, Denmark and Iceland propose to hunt 1,478 whales compared to Japan's 1,280 in 2009. This would be an increase of nearly 20% by Europe on last year.
"Europe likes to point the finger at Japan as a rogue whaling nation but Europeans are killing whales in increasing numbers in their own waters. Europe has become whale enemy number one", said Kate O'Connell, campaigner for the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS).
Iceland – which today began its 2009 hunt by killing the first two of 150 fin whales – and Norway, are the only two countries to hunt whales commercially. This breaches a 23-year-old worldwide moratorium introduced to preserve critically endangered whale populations.
This year, Norway proposes to kill 885 minke whales, and Iceland 350 whales in total. Denmark will apply to hunt 245 on behalf of indigenous Inuit hunters in its semi-autonomous territory Greenland. Most of the whale meat caught in European waters will be sold to Japan.
Japan, which practises thinly disguised commercial whaling under the guise of scientific research, plans to kill 850 whales in Antarctic waters this season, as well as more than 400 in the Pacific. It wants to kill fewer whales than last year but is seeking permission to hunt more in its coastal waters.
Britain today increased diplomatic pressure on Iceland to stop its whaling, warning that it intended to make it a condition of the country's expected application to join the EU that it abandon commercial whaling. Fisheries minister Huw Irranca-Davies said: "If Iceland were to join Europe then Britain would expect they would be obliged to end their whaling operation. We would urge renegotiation."
A spokesman for the new Iceland government said: "The government has said it will honour this year's quota but will reassess the whaling situation by the end of the year. A study is being done by the economic institute of the University of Iceland. Whaling will obviously be part of the talks when Iceland negotiates its entry to the EU."
An independent economic report commissioned by conservation groups WWF and WDCS released today in advance of the International whaling commission (IWC) summit in Madeira, concludes that whaling is no longer economically viable.
Japan, it claimed, has spent $164m (£100m) backing its whaling industry since 1988, and Norwegian subsidies equal almost half of the gross value of all whale-meat landings. Sales of whale meat, blubber, and other whale products in Japan "have made financial losses for most of the last 20 years", it said.
The research says that killing more whales will only hurt the growing whale-watching industry, and damage the international image of Norway and Japan. "Norway and Japan are hurting tourism, a potential growth industry in both countries in order to spend millions of dollars obtaining whale meat, the sale of which makes no profit. How much longer are they going to keep wasting their taxpayer's money?" said a spokeswoman for WWF.
Earlier this year more than 115,000 people pledged to visit Iceland as soon as the government announced an end to whaling.
The number of pro- and anti-whaling countries are finely balanced within the IWC, with both sides continuing to recruit as many countries as possible to boost their positions. Japan in the past has offered many small countries development aid to vote with them, but Britain and other countries have also leaned on eastern European countries to join.
Australia and New Zealand said this week that they would mount a non-lethal whale research expedition to the Antarctic, as a direct challenge to Japan's research programme, which maintains it must kill whales to study them. The six-week expedition aims to prove that whales needn't be killed for study, the two governments said in a joint statement.
The IWC meeting is being held amidst are fears that environment groups are stepping up campaigns to stop whaling. A previously unknown Norwegian group called Agenda 21 attacked a whaling ship in April, bringing to six the number of whaling boats sabotaged in Norway.
Sea Shepherd, a radical California-based group which has admitted sabotaging whalers in Iceland and elsewhere, has also threatened to return to Europe.
Today , the Icelandic whaling ship Hvalur 9 returned to the Hvalfjord whaling station to process its first catch.
FLASHPOINTS
GREENLAND: The semi-autonomous Danish territory wants to hunt 50 endangered fin whales for indigenous consumption, but most of the meat will be sold to Japan
RUSSIA: Oil companies on the Sakhalin peninsular in the far east of Russia threaten feeding grounds of critically endangered whales
NORWAY: The Lofoten islands are the centre of Norwegian whaling, but also target of anti-whaling groups
ANTARCTICA: The entire sea around Antarctica has been declared a whale sanctuary but Japan regularly hunts whales there
ICELAND: Government may be forced to stop whaling if it wants to joins EU
EU membership will kill whale hunting in Iceland: CEO
Yahoo News 19 Jun 09:
REYKJAVIK (AFP) – Iceland would probably be forced to end its controversial whale hunting tradition in its bid to join the European Union, the head of a leading Icelandic whaling company said.
Kristjan Loftsson, the 66-year-old chief executive of Hvalur, fears Brussels would clamp down on whaling in Iceland due to widespread opposition by European countries.
"I would not be surprised if whale hunting has to be stopped," Loftsson told AFP.
Iceland and Norway are the only two countries in the world that authorise commercial whaling despite a 23-year-old moratorium set by the International Whaling Commission, which opens its annual meeting Monday in Portugal's Madeira island.
Iceland, which pulled out of the moratorium in 2006, launched its annual whaling season on May 26 with a larger hunting quota, sparking protests from EU powerhouses Britain, France and Germany as well as the United States.
Loftsson said Iceland should stay out of the EU, not in the interests of whale hunters but in the interest of the country's fishing industry as a whole.
Iceland's Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir campaigned in the country's recent elections on a promise to let Icelandic voters have the final say on joining the EU.
But Loftsson questioned whether many support membership.
"I am very sceptical that Iceland will join the European Union in the near future," Loftsson said.
"I think the Icelandic people are sufficiently well-informed to say 'No' to Europe," he said.
In February, Iceland sparked an outcry amongst environmental groups when it increased its whaling quotas to 150 fin whales and 100 minke whales per year, up from the nine fin whales and 40 minke whales per year.
But Loftsson, who started hunting at the age of 13, is defiant on this point. He stressed that whaling "like any other industry creates jobs, income and foreign currency" and is an essential part of the Icelandic economy.
The Hvalur chief executive also rejected the fears of environmentalists, who argue the whale is an endangered species and must be protected.
"This is just a natural resource that people want to use. It's estimated there are some 20,000 fin whales around Iceland. With that in mind, 150 (hunted this year) is unlikely to make a big difference," Loftsson said.
He dismissed claims by Greenpeace that the popularity of whale meat was on the slide.
"Each whale's value depends on its size and age. I don't know anyone in business and aims to lose money," he said.
Hvalur has been hunting whales since 1948 and employees about 150 people, of which 30 people are deployed on its two fishing vessels. It is currently the only company which is allowed to hunt fin whales around the Icelandic coast.
Iceland's higher hunting quota may add fuel to the always heated debate at the annual International Whaling Commission meeting, where pro-hunting nations have been fighting for an end to the moratorium that was set in 1986.
While Iceland and Norway openly defy the ban, Japan uses a loophole that allows "lethal research" on the ocean giants, with the meat then heading to restaurants and supermarkets.
Last year, Iceland decided to resume whale meat exports to Japan after an 18-year hiatus.
Icelandic whalers bring in season's first big catches
Yahoo News 19 Jun 09;
AKRANES (AFP) – Icelandic whale hunters have brought in their first big catches of the season, two fin whales weighing around 35 tonnes each, an AFP photographer witnessed Friday.
The boat, Hvalur 9, arrived overnight Thursday to Friday at the port of Akranes, 20 kilometres (12 miles) north of capital Reykjavik, towing the bodies of the 20 metre (65 foot) long mammals.
The huge whales were swiftly carved up to separate the blubber from the meat, and a piece of meat was tasted by an inspector to check the quality.
Environmental campaign group Greenpeace condemned the catch, saying Iceland would pay a high price for continuing the controversial practice.
"What little profit (the whaler) may take from this fin whale hunt will come at a great cost to Iceland - economically and politically," warned Sara Holden, Greenpeace International's whale campaign coordinator.
Iceland's whaling season opened on May 26, amid fierce opposition from environmental groups angered by a sharp rise in quotas this year.
Iceland increased its quota to 100 minke whales and 150 fin whales, from a quota of 40 minke whales and nine fin whales last year.
Many species of whales are now endangered and hunting of the marine mammal was officially banned with a moratorium in 1986.
Iceland and Norway are the only two countries in the world that now authorise commercial whaling.
Iceland withdrew from the moratorium in 2006, and Norway in 1993, triggering an international outcry on both occasions.
Japan officially allows whaling for scientific purposes, but the meat is then sold to restaurants and supermarkets.
Emma Graham-Harrison, Reuters 19 Jun 09;
BEIJING (Reuters) - Rare fish squeezed by China's decades of frantic dam-building could be pushed over the brink into extinction if a hydropower project planned for a protected stretch of the Yangtze river goes ahead, experts say.
Scientists and activists have petitioned the government to veto the Xiaonanhai dam, which would block a critical stretch of China's longest river above the city of Chongqing, and create a reservoir stretching deep into a national-level reserve.
"This reserve is considered by many fish experts as the last habitat for some of the endangered and local fish species," said environmentalist Ma Jun, who signed a letter asking the government to protect rare Yangtze fish threatened by the construction of too many dams.
For fish that have evolved to migrate and breed along a free-flowing river, large reservoirs can be a death sentence.
"When a dam is built you effectively change everything from the point of view of a river fish," said David Dudgeon, professor of freshwater ecology at the University of Hong Kong.
"The water temperature and the oxygen content, movement and current speed change. You prevent them accessing breeding sites, and alter the characteristics of the river bottom."
The Yangtze, which rises in the Himalayas and is known in Chinese as "the long river," is rich with unique species including the Yangtze sturgeon, the Baiji or Yangtze river dolphin, and the Chinese paddlefish.
But cascades of dams now block large sections of the river as power-hungry China seeks to fuel its growth. One is the Three Gorges, the world's biggest hydropower project.
Yangtze fish also have to battle overfishing, pollution from breakneck industrialization, and heavy river traffic.
The Baiji is already believed to be functionally extinct, and the last chance of survival for other species may be the 400 km (250 miles) of river now threatened by the Xiaonanhai dam -- which would provide power to fast-growing Chongqing.
"My guess is that the paddlefish and the Yangtze sturgeon are on the way to extinction already but there are other species that the reserve may be critically important for," Dudgeon warned.
"The (Xiaonanhai) dam would probably finish off some of the more vulnerable species -- the last nail in the coffin."
POWER VS NATURE
A rare and endemic fish nature reserve was originally established on the Yangtze in the mid-1990s, but subsequently moved to make way for the giant Xiangjiaba and Xiluodu dams.
But the new reserve had been touted as a possible site for a dam before the reserve was moved and officials are exploiting this to push their plans, environmentalists fear.
Defenders of the dam say it will lie in an "experimental" zone where some construction is allowed. Opponents argue the reservoir will stretch into areas set aside for conservation.
"(Officials) just see it from an economic development angle ... this will be a big investment," said Guo Qiaoyu, Yangtze River Project Manager at The Nature Conservancy.
Water expert Ma said the dam will not be very economical, even if the spending boosts the local economy.
"This is not a tall dam, and so the installed capacity is limited and the number of people that need to be relocated is relatively high, with compensation due for that," he said.
Experts fear that pressure for growth means the fish they study may pay a price for strange looks and elusive habitats.
"The very fact that this dam may be going ahead in the center of a national-level reserve tells you how important people think the conservation of fish is compared to the cuddlier animals," Dudgeon said.
(Editing by Ken Wills)
Reuters 19 Jun 09;
BEIJING (Reuters) - Several dams on tributaries of China's Yellow River are near collapse shortly after being built, highlighting risks that parts of China's hastily built infrastructure may not be safe, media reported on Friday.
At least five newly built dams in Huan county, in Gansu province in arid northeast China, are "in very fragile condition," the China Daily said, citing a report from the China Youth Daily.
Reports blamed improper construction and embezzlement of funds.
"As flood season approaches in July, August and September, China's dam safety is coming under heavy pressure," Chen Lei, Minister of Water Resources, was cited by the China Daily as saying.
Inspections show many dams are not in good condition, Chen added.
A devastating earthquake in Sichuan province last year, near a river clogged with dams, turned the spotlight on the risks posed by China's thousands of dams.
Improper construction procedures, shoddy materials and diversion of funds by government departments have all contributed to fragile dams, the newspaper added.
A total of 59 dams nationwide were breached between 1999 and 2008, 20 caused by quality defects and the remainder by torrential rains, Chen said.
One dam in Huan county, 80 metres long and 20 meters wide, developed a breach more than 10 meters wide just two years after it was constructed in 2006, it said.
"There are many construction problems," the China Youth Daily cited local villagers as saying, when asked why many dams collapsed one or two years after being built.
One of the worse dam accidents ever occurred in China's Henan province in 1975, when a collapse at one dam triggered a domino effect, drowning 26,000 people. Over 100,000 more may have died in the subsequent famine and epidemics.
(Reporting by Beijing newsroom; Editing by Lucy Hornby)
Prime Sarmiento www.chinaview.cn news.xinhuanet.com 20 Jun 09;
MANILA, June 20 (Xinhua) -- Nuclear power is emerging as an option key source of "green energy" for most developing Asian countries, in order to stem the spike in greenhouse gas emission which came along way with the region's economic success, experts who participated in a Manila forum said.
The growing concern over climate change -- and how it will hurt the region's environment, human health and economy -- has forced economic planners, advocates and business leaders in Asia to search for a stable energy source that can moderate the carbon emissions, they said.
"Developing Asian countries -- whether they like it or not -- should take a look at nuclear power as a source of energy," said Piyasvasti Amranand, chief advisor of the Bangkok-based Energy for Environment Foundation and former Thai energy minister at Friday's closing of the Asia Clean Energy Forum.
The three-day forum was organized by the Asian Development Bank(ADB) and the United States Agency for International Development.
Piyasvasti said renewable energy sources -- such as wind power and biofuels -- are indeed environment-friendly, but they may not be enough to meet the needs of the fast-growing region.
In Thailand, for instance, Piyasvasti said it will be difficult to rely on biofuels for its energy requirements as it doesn't have enough land for fuel crops like oil palm.
"Nuclear power is proven technology and it won't contribute to greenhouse gas emissions," Piyasvasti said.
From 1990 to 2006, the average annual 3.5 percent GDP growth rate in Asia resulted to annual energy consumption growth rate of 3.2 percent. But the region's dependence on fossil fuels has also raised its greenhouse gas emissions, and now accounts for 30 percent of the world's nearly 30 billion metric tons carbon emissions, the Tokyo-based Asia Pacific Energy Research Centre (APERC) said in a report.
According to APERC, Asia consumed 2,558 million tons of oil equivalent (MTOE) in 2006, most of which were sourced from coal and oil. The threat of climate change won't stop Asian economies from using fossil fuels, but they will definitely include other energy sources that won't contribute to global warming.
Naoko Doi, senior economist at the Institute of Energy Economics in Japan, said that the trend is moving towards the development of low-carbon technology and diversifying of energy sources which include renewables and nuclear power.
China and India -- the twin biggest economies and largest energy consumers in Asia -- are actively developing nuclear power in line with their respective policies on energy security and clean energy.
China's top economic planning body -- the National Development and Reform Commission -- in May announced that it has developed an energy development plan that focuses on increasing the share of nuclear power and renewable energy such as wind and solar power totheir total energy sources.
Currently, coal accounts for 70 percent of the roughly 980 MTOE that China consumes each year, while renewables and nuclear energy only account for less than 10 percent.
The Indian government, on the other hand, plans to increase the production of nuclear power generation from its present capacity of 4,000 megawatts to 20,000 megawatts in the next decade, according to data issued by the Asian Development Bank.
Last year, the Indian government sealed a nuclear pact with the U.S. government. The pact will give India access to nuclear reactors, fuel and technologies from the U.S. and supported India's plan to develop its nuclear power capacity.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) had endorsed nuclear energy as one of the "commercially available climate change mitigating technologies," IPCC chairman Rajendra K.Pachauri, described nuclear energy as a "green technology" as it doesn't contribute to carbon emission that causes the global warming.
But not everyone agrees with this view. Environmental watchdog Greenpeace International has been actively campaigning against nuclear energy, arguing that it's not only expensive and inefficient but also harmful to the environment.
"When it comes to combating climate change, nuclear energy cannot deliver the necessary reductions in greenhouse gas emissions in time; any emissions reductions from nuclear power will be too little, too late and come at far too high a price," according to a paper issued by Greenpeace in April.
Greenpeace said that no one has yet found a solution to the hazards posed by nuclear wastes.
"Despite the billions already invested in research and development for dealing with radioactive waste, new experiments are still being presented as 'solutions'; methods that will not be ready for a long time, may never be commercially viable or do little to solve the long term waste problem," the group said.
For Pachauri, nuclear energy may be an option for those who want to develop green technology. But he admits that nuclear power isn't for everyone.
"Nuclear energy provides a solution (to our climate change problem), but its not a solution (fit) for every country in the world. You need a certain infrastructure, engineering skills and safety standards that are followed very strictly. Not every country can ensure that," he said.
WWF 19 Jun 09;
Waves around Australia and hot rocks beneath it have the capacity to power Australia into a clean energy future and provide tens of thousands of new jobs, according to new reports from WWF. “What we are seeing here is the birth of new industries," said WWF-Australia CEO Greg Bourne.
Waves around Australia and hot rocks beneath it have the capacity to power Australia into a clean energy future and provide thousands of new jobs, according to two new reports from WWF.
Power to Change: Australia’s Wave Energy Future estimates the the wave energy industry will create 3,210 jobs by 2020, including jobs in local manufacturing and maintenance. By 2050 this figure is expected to grow to 14,380 jobs.
The report was prepared with the assistance of the Carnegie Corporation, whose CETO wave energy demonstration plant in Western Australia is regarded as a world leader in harnessing the oceans to provide clean, baseload renewable energy.
“Australia has the largest and most consistent wave energy resource globally and at least 35 per cent of our current baseload power needs could be generated from the Southern Ocean," said Carnegie Corporation Managing Director Dr Michael Ottaviano.
Meanwhile, Power to Change: Australia’s Geothermal Future, a report prepared in collaboration with the Australian Geothermal Energy Association (AGEA), predicted that more than 17,000 Australians could be employed in the geothermal energy industry by 2050.
“When it comes to geothermal energy, we truly are the lucky country,” said Paul Toni, WWF Program Leader for Sustainable Development. “The energy stored in hot rocks near the Earth’s surface in Australia is a thousand fold what we use each and ever year.”
A key advantage of geothermal energy in the shift to a low carbon economy is the ability to take up some fo the employment slack from declining fossil fuel industries.
“The geothermal energy industry provides opportunities for workers to move from industries like coal, oil and gas into clean energy jobs, as much of the technology and expertise is transferable from one to the other,” said Susan Jeanes, Chief Executive of AGEA
Both technologies are expecting a boost from Australia’s so far fitful moves to putting a price on carbon emissions. They would also benefit from a freeing up of the Renewable Energy Target scheme to embrace more technologies.
“Renewable technologies are the nuts and bolts of Australia’s clean energy future,” said WWF-Australia CEO Greg Bourne.
“What we are seeing here is the birth of new industries that will provide tens of thousands of jobs and a technology and expertise that we can export around the world, as well as renewable energy to power Australia.”
One sixth of humanity undernourished - more than ever before
FAO 19 Jun 09;
19 June 2009, Rome - World hunger is projected to reach a historic high in 2009 with 1 020 million people going hungry every day, according to new estimates published by FAO today.
The most recent increase in hunger is not the consequence of poor global harvests but is caused by the world economic crisis that has resulted in lower incomes and increased unemployment. This has reduced access to food by the poor, the UN agency said.
"A dangerous mix of the global economic slowdown combined with stubbornly high food prices in many countries has pushed some 100 million more people than last year into chronic hunger and poverty," said FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf. "The silent hunger crisis — affecting one sixth of all of humanity — poses a serious risk for world peace and security. We urgently need to forge a broad consensus on the total and rapid eradication of hunger in the world and to take the necessary actions."
"The present situation of world food insecurity cannot leave us indifferent," he added.
Poor countries, Diouf stressed, "must be given the development, economic and policy tools required to boost their agricultural production and productivity. Investment in agriculture must be increased because for the majority of poor countries a healthy agricultural sector is essential to overcome poverty and hunger and is a pre-requisite for overall economic growth."
"Many of the world's poor and hungry are smallholder farmers in developing countries. Yet they have the potential not only to meet their own needs but to boost food security and catalyse broader economic growth. To unleash this potential and reduce the number of hungry people in the world, governments, supported by the international community, need to protect core investments in agriculture so that smallholder farmers have access not only to seeds and fertilisers but to tailored technologies, infrastructure, rural finance, and markets," said Kanayo F. Nwanze, President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
"For most developing countries there is little doubt that investing in smallholder agriculture is the most sustainable safety net, particularly during a time of global economic crisis," Nwanze added.
"The rapid march of urgent hunger continues to unleash an enormous humanitarian crisis. The world must pull together to ensure emergency needs are met as long term solutions are advanced," said Josette Sheeran, Executive Director of the UN World Food Programme.
Hunger on the rise
Whereas good progress was made in reducing chronic hunger in the 1980s and the first half of the 1990s, hunger has been slowly but steadily on the rise for the past decade, FAO said. The number of hungry people increased between 1995-97 and 2004-06 in all regions except Latin America and the Caribbean. But even in this region, gains in hunger reduction have been reversed as a result of high food prices and the current global economic downturn (see background note).
This year, mainly due to the shocks of the economic crisis combined with often high national food prices, the number of hungry people is expected to grow overall by about 11 percent, FAO projects, drawing on analysis by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Almost all of the world's undernourished live in developing countries. In Asia and the Pacific, an estimated 642 million people are suffering from chronic hunger; in Sub-Saharan Africa 265 million; in Latin America and the Caribbean 53 million; in the Near East and North Africa 42 million; and in developed countries 15 million in total.
In the grip of the crisis
The urban poor will probably face the most severe problems in coping with the global recession, because lower export demand and reduced foreign direct investment are more likely to hit urban jobs harder. But rural areas will not be spared. Millions of urban migrants will have to return to the countryside, forcing the rural poor to share the burden in many cases.
Some developing countries are also struggling with the fact that money transfers (remittances) sent from migrants back home have declined substantially this year, causing the loss of foreign exchange and household income. Reduced remittances and a projected decline in official development assistance will further limit the ability of countries to access capital for sustaining production and creating safety nets and social protection schemes for the poor.
Unlike previous crises, developing countries have less room to adjust to the deteriorating economic conditions, because the turmoil is affecting practically all parts of the world more or less simultaneously. The scope for remedial mechanisms, including exchange-rate depreciation and borrowing from international capital markets for example, to adjust to macroeconomic shocks, is more limited in a global crisis.
The economic crisis also comes on the heel of the food and fuel crisis of 2006-08. While food prices in world markets declined over the past months, domestic prices in developing countries came down more slowly. They remained on average 24 percent higher in real terms by the end of 2008 compared to 2006. For poor consumers, who spend up to 60 percent of their incomes on staple foods, this means a strong reduction in their effective purchasing power. It should also be noted that while they declined, international food commodity prices are still 24 percent higher than in 2006 and 33 percent higher than in 2005.
The 2009 hunger report (The State of Food Insecurity in the World, SOFI) will be presented in October.
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