NTU Alumni Club-Cycling Expedition
from Pulau Ubin Explorer
Ruddy Turnstone turns a stone
from Bird Ecology Study Group
Tail fanning as a foraging strategy
from Bird Ecology Study Group
Introducing “A Beary Wonderful World” by Tabin Wildlife Resort from Bornean Sun Bear Conservation
UN index ranks several in Asia high; China up 7 spots
Straits Times 6 Oct 09;
BANGKOK: Norway has retained its status as the world's most desirable country in which to live, according to United Nations data released yesterday which ranks sub-Saharan African states afflicted by war and HIV/Aids as the least attractive places.
Data collected prior to the global economic crisis showed people in Norway, Australia and Iceland had the best living standards, while Niger, Afghanistan and Sierra Leone scored worst in terms of human development.
Several Asian countries were ranked in the 'very high human development' category. Japan, staying in 10th, was the only Asian country in the top 10. Singapore ranked 23rd, swopping places with Hong Kong at 24th. South Korea and Brunei came in at 26th and 30th respectively, retaining their previous positions.
China made the biggest strides in improving the well-being of its citizens, moving up seven places on the list to rank as the 92nd most developed country.
The United States dropped one spot to 13th.
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) index was compiled using 2007 data on gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, education, and life expectancy, and showed marked differences between the developed and developing world. It was published as part of the UN's Human Development Report (HDR) 2009.
Singapore ranked highly in terms of life expectancy at birth and GDP per capita, coming in respectively at 13th and seventh place among all the nations with available data.
In 2007, a newborn could be expected to live up to 80.2 years and the probability of not surviving up to the age of 40 was 1.6per cent, the second lowest among all countries.
Singapore's 2007 GDP per capita stood at US$49,704 (S$70,143), after adjusting for purchasing power. Adult literacy was 94.4 per cent.
The UNDP, which has published the index annually since 1990, said human development had improved globally by 15 per cent since 1980, with China, Iran and Nepal the biggest climbers in the chart.
But it also noted that progress has been much more significant in education and health than on the income front.
'The persistent inequality in the distribution of world incomes should continue to be a source of concern for policy makers and international institutions,' said HDR author Jeni Klugman in the report.
The report also called on governments worldwide to look at changes to their immigration policies with a view to offering a 'new deal' to migrant workers whose skills can help spur economic recovery.
'This is not the time for anti-immigrant protectionism but for reforms which promote longer-term gains. Convincing the public of this will take courage,' said Dr Klugman.
Singapore ranked No. 10 in terms of the share of immigrants as part of total population, at 35 per cent. The emigration rate was 6.3 per cent, with 51.2 per cent of emigrants moving to another Asian country.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS
Most desirable countries to live in
1. Norway
2. Australia
3. Iceland
4. Canada
5. Ireland
6. Netherlands
7. Sweden
8. France
9. Switzerland
10. Japan
-
23. Singapore
Least desirable countries to live in
173. Guinea Bissau
174. Burundi
175. Chad
176. Democratic Republic of the Congo
177. Burkina Faso
178. Mali
179. Central African Republic
180. Sierra Leone
181. Afghanistan
182. Niger
Victoria Vaughan, Straits Times 6 Oct 09;
GARBAGE trucks could become a thing of the past if a new research centre at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) succeeds in one of its first projects.
The Residues and Resource Reclamation Centre (R3C), the latest facility to be launched under Nanyang Environment and Water Research Institute (NEWRI), has submitted a proposal to government agencies and industries for funding to look into the creation of community resource recovery centres to deal with household waste at a local level.
Such facilities would separate waste at source and convert into energy and useful nutrients on site to cut down on waste and save energy used in collection, explained Mr Wang Jing-Yuan, director of the centre.
The nutrients would be used to fertilise Singapore's soil and the energy to power homes in the vicinity, he added.
The project will also look at developing toilets which take as little water as possible to flush, to cut down on waste water and reclamation further along the process.
Mr Wang, allaying fears of bad odours in neighbourhood, assured: 'We have an expert on odour control and we can use a photo catalyst - a light - to remove odours.
NTU submits proposal to convert waste into energy
Byron Ho, Channel NewsAsia 5 Oct 09;
SINGAPORE: Waste collection could become a much simpler process if a new research centre at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) succeeds in one of its projects.
The Residues and Resource Reclamation Centre has submitted a proposal for government agencies and industries to fund community resource recovery centres.
Centre Director Wang Jing Yuan said Monday that such facilities will separate the waste at source, and convert it into energy and other useful materials such as fertilisers.
The energy obtained from the waste can also be used to power up homes in the community.
Associate Professor Wang said the team will embark on the project next year.
The project is part of a five-year programme to find a sustainable urban waste management solution for the future.
- CNA/yb
NTU studies new way of managing garbage
Victoria Vaughan, Straits Times 17 Oct 09;
GARBAGE trucks and their signature odour could become a less common sight in Singapore if a new research centre at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) is successful in one of its first projects.
The Residues and Resource Reclamation Centre (R3C) wants to establish community resource recovery centres to deal with household waste at a local level.
Such facilities will separate waste at its source and convert it into energy and useful fertiliser on site. This will cut down on waste collection and the energy used to collect it, explained Mr Wang Jing-Yuan, the centre's director.
Mr Wang allayed fears that such an innovation would create an unpleasant smell in the neighbourhood: 'We have an expert on odour control and we can use a photocatalyst - a light - to remove odours,' he said.
The R3C is the latest facility to be launched under the Nanyang Environment and Water Research Institute, and it has submitted a proposal to government agencies and industries for funding.
It is hoped that funding will be granted early next year to develop the technology and analyse the possible savings to both households and the Government, Mr Wang added.
Currently, it costs the Government $77 a tonne, and between $8 and $10 a month for each household's waste collection.
The R3C was launched last week at NTU alongside two other research facilities: the DIH-NTU Water and Environment Research Centre and Education Hub - a collaboration with a Danish waste water consulting firm, and the Singapore Membrane Technology Centre, which will look at more efficient waste water purification methods. Both these facilities have been active for a year.
Guest of honour Tan Yong Soon, permanent secretary at the Ministry of Environment and Water Resources, praised NTU's research for being 'relevant to the needs of industry'.
'Through R3C's research, Singapore could get a larger foothold in...recycling waste (which) is now seen as a profitable resource creation enterprise in its own right,' said Mr Tan.
The three research centres will receive a total of $95 million from the Economic Development Board, Environment and Water Industry Development Council, NTU and industry partners.
Jason Palmer, BBC News 5 Oct 09;
A system that generates energy from rubbish is being sent by defence firm Qinetiq to the US army.
The PyTEC system heats mixed waste, releasing a gas that can be burned to produce five times more energy than is required to drive the system.
Qinetiq say that the system, already in use on British navy ship HMS Ocean, has been "containerised" for US army use.
The approach could see use in urban areas, reducing municipal waste volume by 95% while producing energy.
The process hinges on pyrolysis, in which waste subjected to high temperatures releases combustible gases.
In essence it is the same process that happens above a match; heating of the wood releases gases that burn in the presence of oxygen, producing the visible flame.
In pyrolysis, the heating occurs in the absence of oxygen, and the released gases are gathered and stored for later use.
This is in contrast to simple incineration or gasification - another energy-from-waste approach that heats particular kinds of waste in the presence of oxygen to create combustible gases.
Typically, such systems require that the waste be of a singular type, and diced up before entering the gasification chamber.
Waste not
In the PyTEC system, a large screw-shaped column takes in up to 100kg per hour of untreated mixed waste - including glass and tin, particularly troublesome waste sources for thermal waste approaches.
The waste is heated, releasing gases that are removed and used to power a steam turbine.
What exits the system is a glassy substance just 5% the volume of the waste that entered, along with 400kW of power.
A similar system was installed on the UK navy ship HMS Ocean late last year.
"We've taken the plant that we developed for HMS Ocean and containerised it for the US army as a means to make it more mobile, more easily deployable and reducing their fossil fuel requirements," said Pat McGlead, waste management business development manager for Qinetiq.
The systems will be deployed to one of 55 "forward operating bases" in Iraq and Afghanistan - temporary outposts of 600 front-line soldiers that, until now, had no formal arrangements for waste disposal.
"That means they're going to have to have trucks on the roads (to carry the waste), and that means people are going to be exposed to land mines and so on - and it increases the use of fossil fuels," Mr McGlead told BBC News.
"By providing them with a self-contained waste management capability, we're reducing their logistical footprint, reducing the number of body bags, and reducing their fossil fuel usage."
In addition, the size and complexity reduction of the system for US army use means the approach could see application outside the military.
"We're finding more and more people in the commercial sector want to take ownership of their waste, and they want to reduce their carbon footprint, so they see energy from waste as a good way to go," Mr McGlead said.
"There are people that are interested in it for blocks of flats - it has a number of different applications."
South-east Asia's first such lab, in Bukit Batok, set to test first vehicle on Oct 23
Christopher Tan, Straits Times 6 Oct 09;
JUST eight months after the word go, South-east Asia's first and only vehicle emission testing laboratory is up and almost ready for business.
The $5.8 million centre, built by vehicle inspection company Vicom and half-financed by the Government, is slated to test its first vehicle on Oct 23.
Vicom chief executive Heng Chye Kiou told The Straits Times the 6,000 sq ft facility at Vicom Bukit Batok is now undergoing final tests before accreditation by German standards body TUV.
The centre will be a boon especially to parallel importers, many of which have had difficulty meeting a new fuel-efficiency labelling scheme that became mandatory in April.
Parallel importers do not have access to certification from vehicle manufacturers. Testing must be done at independent labs in Japan or Hong Kong, the nearest places with such testing facilities.
Vicom's state-of-the-art facility will be able to measure the emission level as well as the energy efficiency of cars, motorcycles and light commercial vehicles - regardless of engine type.
Mr Heng said besides petrol and diesel cars, the lab can test vehicles that run on compressed natural gas, liquefied petroleum gas and even electricity. 'For electric cars, we can measure the amount of power they consume per km,' he noted.
He added that the centre, which can test four to six cars a day, will cater to a wide clientele. Besides parallel importers, they include motor traders wanting to verify a competitor's claims, oil companies studying fuel qualities, car accessory suppliers and car re-exporters.
'For instance, cars going to New Zealand need to meet Euro III emission standards, and cars going to Thailand have to meet Euro IV,' Mr Heng said.
In Singapore, petrol cars have to meet Euro II standards, while diesel vehicles have to be Euro IV. The higher the number, the cleaner the engine.
Vicom, a subsidiary of transport giant ComfortDelGro, has not yet confirmed testing fees, but Mr Heng said they will have to be competitive.
'A parallel importer spends around $4,000 to send a car to Hong Kong for certification,' he said.
Fees for diesel models are likely to be higher than those for petrol ones due to the extra steps required, such as testing the amount of soot emitted. Vicom's centre is among the few worldwide equipped to measure PM2.5, a health hazard.
PM2.5 refers to particulate matter of no more than 2.5 microns each. The air in Singapore has more PM2.5 than recommended by the US Environmental Protection Agency, and the Government says diesel vehicles are the single biggest culprit.
Mr Heng expects the centre to contribute to Vicom's revenue, but is not able to say by how much: 'We are targeting the international market. We cannot survive by just serving local clients.'
New cars imported into Singapore have had to display a fuel economy label since April. Parallel imports were given up to Oct 1 to meet the ruling.
But the Singapore Vehicle Traders Association, which represents used car dealers and parallel importers, has appealed for the reprieve to be extended by two more months.
Test your car at a state-of-the-art lab
Esther Ng, Today Online 9 Oct 09;
Singapore's first state-of-the-art vehicle emission and fuel efficiency test laboratory opened yesterday in Bukit Batok.
The $5.8-million Vicom Emission Test Laboratory is equipped to test vehicles according to stringent Euro V exhaust emission standards or better. Car owners and traders can now have their vehicles tested at the 6,000-sq-ft facility instead of having to send them to test centres overseas. These include passenger cars, light goods vehicles as well as motorcycles running on diesel, petrol and compressed natural gas. The centre is also able to test hybrid and electric vehicles. "We believe that in the not-so-distant future, car owners and dealers will submit their cars for the tests not just because they have to, but because they want to," said Vicom's chief, Mr Heng Chye Kiou. ESTHER NG
A primary school has become the first building in the country to have a Local Nature Reserve on its roof, Natural England said.
The Telegraph 5 Oct 09;
The 2,000 square metre ''green roof'' on Sharrow School in Sheffield is designed to reflect the different habitats surrounding the city and includes wildflower meadow and grassland plants as well as a wetland area with a small pond.
The roof even has a dead tree to provide shelter for birds and insects and small hills and valleys - while areas which have been left to grow on their own are sprouting small trees.
According to the Government's conservation body Natural England, the green roof - which has grown in the two years since it was completed - attracts local wildlife including butterflies and bees.
It has been declared as a Local Nature Reserve by Sheffield City Council with the support of Natural England, in recognition of the importance of the roof to wildlife and educating the school's pupils about nature and the environment.
The school's head teacher Lynne Ley said: ''The staff and pupils really value the green roof and it's a great resource to get children out of the classroom to learn about wildlife and our local environment.
''They also learn how important it is to look after the environment, not just on our doorstep, but worldwide.''
While there are 1,400 Local Nature Reserves around the country, the school's is the first roof to be declared one, giving it protection to ensure it remains a site for local wildlife.
It is one of 120 green roofs in Sheffield, which claims to be the ''green roof capital'' of the UK, and was designed by the Green Roof Centre which was founded by Sheffield University and Groundwork Sheffield.
Paul Scriven, leader of Sheffield City Council, said: ''The Local Nature Reserve designation will protect the roof to ensure it remains a haven for local wildlife as well as a wonderful educational resource for the school and its pupils.
''We have worked closely with the university and Groundwork Sheffield to encourage the use of more green roofs right across the city, whether on schools, office blocks or even bus shelters.''
Green roofs can soak up heavy rainfall and helping avert flooding, insulate buildings and keep cities cool, as well as providing habitat for wildlife.
Natural England's regional director Peter Nottage said: ''In our changing climate, we need to find new ways of supporting our wildlife and managing extreme weather - something that residents and businesses in Sheffield are only too aware of.
''This is a superb example of how we can also involve our future generations in looking after our environment.''
Liam Creedon, Press Association The Independent 5 Oct 09;
Global warming will threaten London's wildlife habitats by increasing the risk of flooding in the winter and drought in the summer, according to a report published today.
Despite being one of the world's largest and most densely populated cities, the capital boasts a wide diversity of habitats that are hugely important to the wildlife that depend on them.
The report by the London Climate Change Partnership warned that a global increase in temperature could expose London's scarce wetland areas to drought and fire in the summer months.
Warmer, wetter winters could also increase pressure on rivers, which in turn could flood and wash out important nesting and breeding sites.
The report suggests the best way to combat the increase in temperature is by adopting "urban greening" schemes.
These would include river restoration, incorporating grass roofs and walls into building designs and increasing the number of trees planted in the capital.
Alison Barnes from the Government's countryside watchdog Natural England, said: "Climate change is going to affect us all - both Londoners and the city's wildlife.
"We know that more habitat will increase the chances of vulnerable species being able to cope with the peaks of heat, drought and flood that the climate change predictions suggest.
"However, there is also growing evidence that greening London can protect people too, by helping to keep the city cool and by soaking up storm water thus reducing the incidence of flooding."
The report was released to coincide with United Nations World Habitat Day.
Gerry Archer, chairman of the London Climate Change Partnership added: "We need to find ways to accommodate a rich and changing biodiversity which is vital for our future and this report shows how our adaptations to climate change can benefit Londoners directly whilst also being friendly to wildlife."
Melissa Goh Channel NewsAsia 5 Oct 09'
KUALA LUMPUR: Even as world attention focuses on earthquake and typhoon victims in Southeast Asia, there is grim reminder of another threat to the region - scientists and environmentalists are warning of a return of the choking haze due to an extended dry season in Indonesia.
A little over a decade ago, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and to a lesser extent - Thailand, were reeling from thick smog from raging forest fires in Indonesia's Kalimantan and Sumatra.
Billions of dollars in economic losses were incurred and there was unaccountable damage done to people's health and the environment.
Since then, various programmes and initiatives have been implemented to combat the perennial menace.
Singapore has embarked on a joint initiative programme with Indonesia in Jambi province, while Malaysia has signed a bilateral memorandum of understanding with the province of Riau.
However, more needs to be done, according to more than 40 experts attending a regional haze conference jointly organised by the Singapore Institute of International Affairs and and the institute of Strategic and International Studies in Malaysia.
Said Faizal Parish, director of the Global Environment Center: "More people die from the haze than from earthquakes, but it's not immediate death. In many villages in haze prone areas, 30 per cent of the children have stunted growth. For many of us as adults breathing in the haze, there are many carcinogens."
An estimated 50 million people are at risk of respiratory problems in the region, and some environmentalists have blamed climate change on the worsening haze situation.
"We don't need more bad news about Southeast Asia (SEA)," said Simon Tay, chairman of the Singapore Institute of International Affairs. "As the world is... trying to get an agreement on climate change in Copenhagen, the last thing we need is for SEA to be among the culprits releasing more carbon into the air."
Most nations have signed and ratified the ASEAN agreement on transboundary haze pollution in 2002.
However, Indonesia continues to block the agreement as many of its lawmakers feel that the country is being unfairly blamed.
Said Laode M Syarif, senior researcher with the Indonesia Center for Environmental Law: "But, there's hope because we've just elected (new members of parliaments)... 70 per cent entirely new, (and) I really, really hope these new MPs will agree to ratify the agreement."
With regional economies still struggling with slow growth, a return to the hazy and gloomy days is probably the last thing the region needs.
Therefore, experts have urged countries to strengthen their political will and keep up with integrated responses in order to beat the haze.
- CNA/yb
Indonesia Serious In Reducing Forest Fires In Sumatra And Kalimantan
Bernama 5 Oct 09;
KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 5 (Bernama) -- Indonesia is serious and committed in reducing forest fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan to address the crossborder haze problem and El Nino phenomenon in South-east Asia.
Sumatra World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) deputy director Dr Erwin Widodo said four Indonesian ministries - Forestry, Public Works, Home Affairs and Environment were cooperating to control the forest fires.
"We are aware that burning of forest in Sumatra and Kalimantan are happening annually, causing negative effects on the environment, economy and health of people in South-east Asia.
"We have managed to reduce forest fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan by 50 percent," he said at the 3rd Dialogue on Transboundary Haze Pollution here Monday.
Widodo said to reduce forest fires, Indonesia cooperated with 20 non-governmental organisations (NGO) in Sumatra and 15 NGO in Kalimantan.
-- BERNAMA
Tapping riches of biodiversity
New Straits Times 5 Oct 09;
TAMBUNAN: A technology park will be proposed for Sabah under the 10th Malaysia Plan to protect and tap its rich biodiversity.
Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Datuk Dr Maximus Ongkili said the Sabah Technology Park would be a medium-sized set-up with a cost of RM30 million. It would serve as a centre for research and development, and processing of natural products.
"Sabah is rich with biodiversity which is largely untapped through domestic research yet foreign researchers are illegally collecting and exporting samples of our biodiversity resources without approval and to the benefit of their own industry," he said at a gathering held in conjunction with Parti Bersatu Sabah Tambunan division AGM on Saturday.
Ongkili added that the park would be a centre for researchers to undertake study of biodiversity, especially of natural products as well as provide facilities for small entrepreneurs to conduct incubation.
"The initiative will be concentrated in rural areas where biodiversity resources are in abundance, at the Crocker Range areas, including Trusmadi, the second highest mountain in Sabah."
Ongkili said that the ideal location for the setting up of the proposed Sabah Technology Park was either in Tambunan or Keningau and subject to the availability of land to be provided by the government.
On examples of the rich biodiversity resources, he said Sabah had many types of herbal plants, fauna and flora as well as insects that could be utilised for various purposes, including cosmetics, nutraceutical and pharmaceutical uses.
Muguntan Vanar, The Star 5 Oct 09;
KOTA KINABALU: The ambitious tri-nation rainforest conservation initiative is taking shape two years after Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei signed a declaration for the “Heart of Borneo” project.
The three nations are now discussing possible common positions as they propose to take another step forward towards institutionalising protection and conservation arrangements in the 220 sq km area that covers nearly a third of Borneo island.
Deputy Natural Resources and Environment Minister Tan Sri Joseph Kurup said there was a need for officials of the three nations to revise possible approaches and mechanisms.
Kurup, who opened the Third Trilateral Heart of Borneo meeting here on Monday, said that Malaysia remained committed to the project that would not only benefit the three participating countries, but also the world at large.
“Forests are like the proverbial goose that lays the gold eggs and we must therefore ... protect them,” he said in reference to Borneo’s rich biodiversity.
He said the Federal Government had allocated RM10.8mil to Sabah and Sarawak to implement various projects, including inventories and a survey of baseline information, in Heart of Borneo areas.
He said that Malaysia was also strengthening its existing transboundary conservation efforts with neighbouring countries under the International Tropical Timber Organisation (ITTO) in ensuring the protection and conservation of highland forests.
Representatives from Indonesia and Brunei also spoke of action plans taken in their respective areas towards the Heart of Borneo project.
All three countries have worked out their strategic plans of action in the core areas in Borneo, the third largest island in the world.
The trilateral meeting here will be a platform for officials and experts to discuss and exchange information on the management and biological conservation of natural resources.
Pulse still strong at Heart of Borneo’s third annual Tri-national meeting
WWF 9 Oct 09;
Kota Kinabalu, Sabah – Agreements and resolutions announced at the third annual Heart of Borneo (HoB).
Tri-national meeting which concluded on 6/10/2009 proved that the ‘pulse’ of conservation and sustainable development - the lifeblood of the HoB Initiative - is still strong.
Opening the meeting, Malaysia’s Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment, the honourable Tan Sri Datuk Seri Panglima Joseh Kurup, stressed the important role played by the HoB Initiative in establishing protected areas, maintaining productive forests and ensuring sustainable land use.
He said the HoB was a crucial part of South East Asia’s natural heritage and it provided tremendous value in terms of ‘goods and services’ vital for livelihood development. However, he warned that the task was far from complete and looked to the three governments of Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia and Malaysia to agree on methods of effective implementation of agreements reached at the meeting.
Following the summit’s conclusion, a paper released by summit officials highlighted the importance of sustainable financing to make the HoB vision a reality. It also stressed the need to promote HoB as a priority area for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) and the opportunity to showcase this initiative during a side event at the climate change talks in Copenhagen later this year.
WWF’s Heart of Borneo Initiative Leader, Adam Tomasek, said he was encouraged by the development of individual national country plans and their on ground implementation, which would be the foundation of success for this three country initiative.
“Whilst the progress during this summit was encouraging, it must be tempered by the fact that the HoB still faces some enormous threats. Forest fires, deforestation, wildlife trade and rampant resource extraction pose real challenges that must be addressed if the governments are to achieve their shared objectives, as agreed under the HoB Declaration in 2007.1
“As the world struggles with global climate change, it is vital for the governments of Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia and Malaysia to position the HoB Initiative as part of the solution,” he said.
International police, politicians and conservationists warn that the UN's programme to cut carbon emissions by paying poor countries to preserve their forests is 'open to wide abuse'
John Vidal, guardian.co.uk 5 Oct 09;
A revolutionary UN scheme to cut carbon emissions by paying poorer countries to preserve their forests is a recipe for corruption and will be hijacked by organised crime without safeguards, a Guardian investigation has found.
The UN, the World Bank, the UK and individuals including Prince Charles have strongly backed UN plans to expand the global carbon market to allow countries to trade the carbon stored in forests.
If, as expected, this is agreed at crucial UN climate change talks taking place in Bangkok this week and concluding in Copenhagen in December, up to $30bn a year could be transferred from rich countries to the owners of endangered forests.
But experts on all sides of the debate, from international police to politicians to conservationists, have warned this week that the scheme, called Reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (Redd), may be impossible to monitor and may already be leading to fraud. The UN itself accepts there are "high risks".
Interpol, the world's leading policing agency, said this week that the chances were very high that criminal gangs would seek to take advantage of Redd schemes, which will be largely be based in corruption-prone African and Asian countries.
"Alarm bells are ringing. It is simply too big to monitor. The potential for criminality is vast and has not been taken into account by the people who set it up," said Peter Younger, Interpol environment crimes specialist and author of a new report for the World Bank on illegal forestry.
"Organised crime syndicates are eyeing the nascent forest carbon market. I will report to the bank that Redd schemes are open to wide abuse," he said.
The significance of the felling of forests across great swaths of the world cannot be overstated - it is are responsible for about 20% of the globe's entire carbon emissions. With governments anxious to find new ways to meet increasingly stringent national emission targets, a scheme which promises to benefit poor countries, cut emissions cheaply and not require any new technology is highly attractive.
But most of the countries rich in forests are also home to some of the world's most corrupt politicians and uncontrolled logging companies, who stand to make billions of dollars if they can get Redd projects approved.
"Fraud could include claiming credits for forests that do not exist or were not protected or by land grabs. It starts with bribery or intimidation of officials, then there's threats and violence against those people. There's forged documents too," said Younger. "Carbon trading transcends borders. I do not see any input from any law enforcement agency in planning Redd."
Hans Brattskar, director of Norway's forest and climate programme, whose country is financially backing the UN Redd programme, said last night: "It will be extremely difficult to make it work. Law enforcement is vital because the corruption issued are very real. But we have to put in safeguards and we have to try. Redd can save up to 20% of all the world's emissions. Without it, I believe it will be impossible to reach the target of stemming climate change and holding global temperatures to 2C," the level judged acceptable by the European Union.
Last month, Papua New Guinea, one of the countries pushing hardest for Redd to be accepted in the UN climate talks, suspended their climate change minister after allegations that $100m of fake carbon credits had been handed to communities to persuade them to sign up to forest protection schemes.
Last night the UN admitted that Redd schemes were dangerously open to abuse. "Where countries are corrupt the potential for Redd corruption is dangerous. [In Papua New Guinea], people have tried to take advantage of the market in an unacceptable way and carbon cowboys are trying to get the benefits. We can expect more of this as Redd develops," said Tiina Vahanen, a senior officer at UN-Redd.
People setting up Redd schemes also fear that they may be discredited by fraudsters aiming to profit from public money. "The potential for Redd rape and pillage is staggering. Logging companies may turn into carbon companies. All they have to do is count, not cut. It's like giving a mass murderer money," said Rob Dodwell, a British conservationist setting up schemes in Kenya and Cameroon.
The UN estimates that 25% of the world's forestry emissions, or nearly 5% of total global carbon emissions, could be saved by 2015 if rich countries invest $15bn to set up Redd schemes.
So far rich countries have put up $52m to establish nine official pilot Redd schemes in Asia, Latin America and Africa. In addition several hundred private schemes are being set up by bankers, conservation groups, and businesses who plan to offer carbon credits on the voluntary market.
But academics and environment groups with long experience working with the logging industry and indigenous communities said that both government and private schemes are being set up with no guarantees to protect communities who depend on the forests. "Decisions are being rushed, communities are not consulted or compensated and the lure of money from cutting emissions is overiding everything," says Rosalind Reeve of forestry watchdog group Global Witness.
Bernama 5 Oct 09;
KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 5 (Bernama) -- The recent announcement by a group called the Straits of Malacca Partners Sdn Bhd to build a RM44 billion bridge linking Peninsular Malaysia and Sumatra has set the maritime community abuzz.
Touted to be the biggest infrastructure project ever in Malaysia, the 50-kilometre bridge between Melaka and Dumai is envisioned to enhance socio-economic ties between the two areas.
The big scope of the project warrants close inspection from a maritime perspective, according to the Maritime Institute of Malaysia (MIMA).
The proposed bridge will arch above the Straits of Malacca, a key passageway that facilitates a significant volume of global maritime trade, said MIMA.
"It is certain that the bridge would generate significant impact on the environment and activities in the surrounding area," it said in a commentary by Dr Ibrahim Mohamed, Mohd Nizam Basiron, Nazery Khalid and Capt Rakish Suppiah.
According to MIMA, construction of the bridge will hamper the safe movement of ships in the Straits of Malacca.
Traffic flow in the Straits, one of the world's busiest sealanes, will be adversely affected, it said.
"The dense Straits is not only used by merchant ships and huge tankers traversing its length but also a big number of cross-traffic barter vessels and fishing boats," the institute said.
"It is expected that the presence of the bridge would present an obstacle for the smooth flow of shipping traffic in the narrow waterway," it said.
MIMA said the presence of the bridge is likely to generate significant impact to maritime trade, ports, shipping traffic and infrastructure developments in and along the busy waterway.
"A project of this magnitude would surely alter the landscape of maritime trade in the surrounding areas and would reshape the dynamics of the economy in the area, including shipping, port operations and other related activities," it said.
MIMA called for a thorough and comprehensive study of the potential cost-benefit, legal, environmental, strategic and socio-economic impact of the project to be conducted before any decision is made.
"Until then, the proposed bridge across the Straits of Malacca will remain a bridge too far," it said.
-- BERNAMA
Chisa Fujioka, Reuters 5 Oct 09;
BANGKOK (Reuters) - Changing weather patterns and rising seas are already affecting many people in Southeast Asia's Greater Mekong Basin and climate change threatens the livelihoods of millions more, a report released on Monday shows.
Intense floods and droughts, coastal erosion, higher seas and heat waves in coming decades threaten rice, fruit and coffee crops and fisheries on which many of the basin's 65 million people depend, says the report by global conservation group WWF.
"Across the region, temperatures are rising and have risen by 0.5 to 1.5 degrees Celsius in the past 50 years," says the report issued on the sidelines of U.N. climate talks in the Thai capital.
"While rainy seasons may contract over parts of the region, overall rainfall is expected to rise. This means more intense rain events when they occur," it says, threatening crops and triggering floods and landslides.
The basin runs from the Tibetan plateau in China, to Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, where the Mekong empties into the South China Sea.
The delta produces about half Vietnam's rice crop and 60 percent of its shrimp harvest. But rising seas and salt water intrusion threaten harvests and would likely displace farmers.
"Large human populations living in low-lying coastal areas and floodplains make the region highly vulnerable to floods, saltwater intrusion, and rising sea levels," the report said, referring to Ho Chi Minh City, Bangkok and Hanoi.
Delegates from about 180 nations are meeting in Bangkok to try to agree on steps to expand a global effort to fight climate change. The officials are trying to refine a negotiating text that will form the basis of a new climate pact the United Nations hopes will be agreed in December.
Trying to help poorer nations adapt to the impacts of climate change is a key part of the puzzle.
"CLIMATE JUSTICE"
In the Thai capital about 2,000 farmers, fishermen and indigenous people protested in front of the U.N. conference center on Monday demanding rich nations step up efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions.
"Climate justice now," the crowd chanted, as some beat bamboo drums attached with posters reading: "Protect mother earth, no to corporate greed."
Indigenous people from countries including the Philippines, Malaysia and Nepal joined the protest.
"We've come to bring the farmers' voice to the U.N.," shouted a representative from a farmers' group in Indonesia as farmers in green shirts milled around the gate of the U.N. building.
Developing countries accuse the rich of failing to take the initiative in agreeing to deep emissions cuts and want them to pledge billions in funds to help them adapt to climate change and to green their economies.
Eight protesters in black suits marched with masks of each of the G8 leaders, including U.S. President Barack Obama. On the back of the masks were pictures of demons.
The WWF report said more frequent and damaging droughts and floods would lead to major damage to property and loss of life. Access to water would also become tougher in the dry season.
"Warmer temperatures have contributed to declining crop yields. Storms, floods and droughts are destroying entire harvests in the Mekong basin.
"Water scarcity will constrain agricultural production and threaten food security," it added.
(Additional reporting by David Fogarty; Editing by Jerry Norton)
Mekong countries need to ready themselves for climate impacts
WWF 2 Oct 09;
Temperatures are predicted to rise between 2ºC to 4ºC in the Greater Mekong region by the end of the century negatively affecting the area which is one of the most biologically diverse in the world.
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Bangkok, Thailand - The Greater Mekong region is already strongly affected by climate change and a lack of immediate action will come at great cost to the region, states a new WWF report released during the UN climate change talks in Bangkok.
Average daily temperatures across Southeast Asia have already increased between 0.5 and 1.5ºC over the last 50 years, and temperatures are predicted to rise between 2ºC to 4ºC in the Greater Mekong region by the end of the century. These changes have negatively affected the area, which is one of the most biologically diverse in the world.
“Greater regional cooperation and coordination among Mekong nations is necessary to best cope with the impacts of climate change,” said Geoffrey Blate, Climate Change Coordinator for the WWF Greater Mekong Programme. “Maintaining ecosystem health across borders and over a larger areas is likely the most cost efficient and effective long term adaptation strategy available.”
Already sea level rise is threatening the region’s coastal communities and changes to the climate are stressing ecosystems. Land is being lost in coastal zones, glacial melting in the Himalayas may impact the region’s major river flows, and wetlands will either dry up or flood out.
Such climate changes exacerbate current regional pressures such as habitat loss, poorly planned infrastructure and unsustainable natural resource extraction, further degrading the ecosystems upon which the region’s social and economic future depends.
In its report, WWF recommends three key climate change adaptation strategies to reduce vulnerability across the region, which comprises Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, and southwest provinces of China. These strategies include the protection of regional ecosystems, a reduction in non-climate stresses such as unsustainable infrastructure and over extraction of natural resources, and the implementation of a regional climate change adaptation agreement.
“There is a leadership opportunity here to champion what would be Asia’s first regional climate change adaptation agreement to help Greater Mekong nations prepare for the inevitable impacts of climate change,” said Blate.
But the report stresses that without decisive action on a global scale it would be very hard to avoid the worst impacts. It urges politicians to strike an ambitious and fair agreement on a climate treaty at upcoming talks in Copenhagen.
“Rich and developed nations must make deep emission cuts and commit to significant financial help to assist vulnerable regions such as the Greater Mekong,” said Kim Carstensen, Leader, WWF Global Climate Initiative.
Greater Mekong Climate Report 3.12 MB pdf
ScienceDaily 5 Oct 09;
Seven new glow-in-the-dark mushroom species have been discovered, increasing the number of known luminescent fungi species from 64 to 71. Reported in the journal Mycologia, the new finds include two new species named after movements in Mozart's Requiem. The discoveries also shed light on the evolution of luminescence, adding to the number of known lineages in the fungi 'family tree' where luminescence has been reported.
San Francisco State University Biology Professor Dennis Desjardin and colleagues discovered the fungi in Belize, Brazil, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Japan, Malaysia and Puerto Rico. The discoveries include four species new to science and three new reports of luminescence in known species. Three quarters of glowing mushrooms, including the species described in the study, belong to the Mycena genus, a group of mushrooms that feed off and decompose organic matter as a source of nutrients to sustain their growth.
"What interests us is that within Mycena, the luminescent species come from 16 different lineages, which suggests that luminescence evolved at a single point and some species later lost the ability to glow," said Desjardin, lead author of the study. He believes that some fungi glow in order to attract nocturnal animals that aid in the dispersal of the mushroom's spores which are similar to seeds and are capable of growing into new organisms.
"It's pretty unusual to find this many luminescent species, typically only two to five percent of the species we collect in the field glow," Desjardin said. "I'm certain there are more out there."
The newly discovered fungi glow constantly, emitting a bright, yellowish-green light, and are tiny, with caps smaller than one centimeter across.
Desjardin has named two of the new species Mycena luxaeterna (eternal light) and Mycena luxperpetua (perpetual light), names inspired by Mozart's Requiem and the fact that these mushrooms glow 24 hours a day. To date, Desjardin has discovered more than 200 new fungi species and together with these latest findings, has discovered nearly a quarter of all known luminescent fungi.
"Luminescent Mycena: new and noteworthy species" was published online in the journal Mycologia on Oct. 5 and will appear in the March/April 2010 print issue. Co-authors include Brian A. Perry, former graduate student at San Francisco State University and currently of the University of Hawaii, D. Jean Lodge of the U.S. Forest Service, Cassius V. Stevani of the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil and Eiji Nagasawa of the Tottori Mycological Institute, Japan.
This research was supported by the National Science Foundation and the National Geographic Society.
Adapted from materials provided by San Francisco State University, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
Flashy Fungi: Researchers Still in the Dark over Glowing Jungle Mushrooms
If you stumble upon strange lights in the jungle, it might just be glimmering mushrooms
Katherine Harmon, Scientific American 5 Oct 09;
It might sound like the opening to a trippy fairy tale, but there are now 71 known species of bioluminescent mushrooms that glow night and day amidst the leaf litter of tropical jungles across the globe.
Seven new species of these fungi are described in an early online report from the journal Mycologia's March/April 2010 issue, four new to science and three previously described—sans the shimmer. This news was published online today.
It was a surprise to find so many new mushrooms that give off this glow, says lead paper author Dennis Desjardin, a professor of biology at San Francisco State University, given the tens of thousands of fungi species that do not gleam. Hunting for these tiny beacons can be treacherous, too, as researchers tromp out into tropical forests in disorienting darkness. Indeed, "some environments are a little too dangerous to [collect] them in," Desjardin says. In those locations, he notes, mushrooms are gathered in the daylight and taken back to the lab to observe in darkness and test for light with a photometer.
Joining the 64 previously known glowing fungi species are: Mycena silvaelucens, which glows a yellow-green; Mycena luxaeterna, whose name, meaning "eternal light," was inspired by Mozart's Requiem; Mycena luxperpetua, similar to M. luxaeterna; Mycena luxarboricola, just three to five millimeters in diameter; Mycena abieticola, which had previously been misreported as a different species by the group in 2007; Mycena aspratilis, previously described in 1997 without a glow; and Mycena margarita, which had been known to science since 1916 and grows in the U.S., among other places, but had never been reported to incandesce.
The glowing mushrooms do not signal danger; unlike some other visually distinguishable species, they are not poisonous. "It's not saying, 'Don't eat me because you're going to get really sick,'" Desjardin says of the glowing fungi. So why then do these humble mushrooms go through the trouble?
There are a number of theories floating around: The glow has been found to attract insects, which could pick up spores on their bodies—akin to pollen on a bee—and spread the spores over a wider area than they might otherwise have traveled in a relatively windless forest. Such an explanation, however, may not explain its purpose in species whose mycelium (the digestive rather than spore-releasing parts) glow instead. In that case, Desjardin says, the glowing might attract predators of the bugs that feed on the mushroom, "attracting the enemy of the enemy." A final explanation is that there may not be any evolutionary advantage at all. "They glow 24 hours a day," he says, which means that it "probably has to do with their metabolism of decomposition." So the glow may just be a release of energy—rather than heat—as a waste product.
The answers to these questions may only come with a better understanding of exactly how the glow occurs. Although other bioluminescent creatures, such as fireflies and some plankton, are better understood, researchers have yet to uncover the precise pathways and compounds that make these 'shrooms shine.
Desjardin and his team have been able to extract the two key bioluminescence actors—the luciferin, which produces the light, and the luciferase, which starts the glowing reaction—and mix them in the laboratory to generate a glow. They have even been able to mix them between species and still make a glow, which "is giving us an indication that there's one pathway for luminescence in fungi—or at least they're producing similar luciferin and luciferase across the board," Desjardin says.
These luminescent mushrooms also hail from more than a dozen genetic lineages, leaving Desjardin to wonder if this glow in fact evolved once and most other mushrooms just lost the ability. He and his team are hoping to undertake a genome sequencing project that would compare the genetic makeup of a glowing mushroom with that of a closely related mushroom that does not, which should shed some light on how the process works and when it might have evolved.
In the meantime, the mycologists continue their hunt—and even have a few new species up their sleeves that will soon be described, as well. "We will continue to find a number more, which is always fun," Desjardin says. "And when they end up being completely different lineages, it's always exciting and brings up new questions."
Yahoo News 5 Oct 09;
NAIROBI (AFP) – One of the world's most endangered primates, the greater bamboo lemur, a species endemic to Madagascar, has been found in an area where it was feared extinct, environmental organisations said Monday.
The species, "prolemur simus", has been found at 11 sites in a swathe of forest in the east of the island.
This finding opens "a new chapter for the species and for the places we can protect it by preserving the forest as the main problem is loss of habitat," Mahaoly Ravaloharimanitra, a research assistant at the Aspinall Foundation, told AFP.
Illegal logging and slash-and-burn agriculture are among the practices that threaten the survival of this species. Primate specialists say that while this type of lemur was once found throughout this Indian Ocean island, now no more than 300 individuals are still in existence.
As its common name suggests, prolemur simus feeds mainly on bamboo, which limits its habitat options.
"They are very secretive, which makes it difficult to approach them and protect them. Most of the time we don't see the animal, just traces of food or droppings," Tovanahary Rasolofoharivelo from Conservation International told AFP.
The greater bamboo lemur was thought to be extinct until it was rediscovered in the 1980s, the two associations said in a statement.
Meat companies sign a moratorium on cattle products linked to rainforest destruction
David Adam, guardian.co.uk 5 Oct 09;
Four of the biggest companies involved in Brazilian cattle farming have joined forces to stop the purchase of cattle from newly deforested areas of the Amazon.
Meat companies Marfrig, Bertin, JBS-Friboi and Minerva yesterday signed a formal moratorium in which they pledge better protection for the rainforest.
The move follows a three-year Greenpeace investigation, reported extensively in the Guardian in June, which exposed the link between forest destruction and the expansion of cattle ranching in the Amazon. The investigation prompted calls for action from key international companies, including food group Princes and footwear manufacturers Clarkes, Adidas, Nike, and Timberland, which threatened to cancel contracts unless their beef and leather products were guaranteed free from raw materials linked to Amazon destruction.
John Sauven, head of Greenpeace, said: "Today's announcement is a significant victory in the fight to protect the Amazon. Cattle ranching is the single biggest cause of deforestation globally, and the fact that these multibillion dollar companies have committed to cleaning up their supply chains will lead to real change in the Amazon."
He added: "British companies have helped make this happen by getting tough with their suppliers, but this is not the end of the story. We now need to make sure that this agreement is properly enforced and extended to the entire cattle industry in Brazil."
Blairo Maggi, governor of the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso, which has the highest rate of deforestation in the Amazon and the largest cattle herd in Brazil, attended the signing in São Paulo. Maggi has announced the state will support efforts to protect the Amazon and will provide high-resolution satellite images to monitor the area.
Clearing tropical forests for agriculture is estimated to produce 17% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions – more than the global transport system.
The Greenpeace investigation compiled government records, company documents and trade data from Brazil, China, Europe, Vietnam and the US to piece together the global movement of meat, leather and cosmetics ingredients made from Brazilian cattle.
Yahoo News 5 Oct 09;
APIA (AFP) – When Sister Doris Barbero heard the church bells ringing after a frightening earthquake near her seaside school in Samoa, she knew to gather her young students and run for higher ground.
"We have done this drill before. We knew what we had to do, we had to leave the premises and go up to the hills," the nun told AFP from her school in Leava'a in the devastated southwest of the Pacific nation.
Samoans had only minutes to react after a 8.0-magnitude undersea quake rocked the nation early Tuesday before the terrifying tsunami waves swept away coastal villages and holiday resorts, killing at least 176 people in the region.
But despite improved education programs about the dangers of giant waves since the catastrophic Asian tsunami of 2004, experts said many people still failed to heed the lessons of the Indian Ocean disaster.
"There's no apparent reduction in the number of people killed in earthquakes and tsunamis with time and it's just getting worse because there are more people and people want to live by the sea," said Kevin McCue, president of the Australian Earthquake Engineering Society.
"I don't think we've learnt anything to be quite honest."
McCue said it was only human nature that people who lived close to the sea, particularly in idyllic holiday spots, refused to believe that the water could one day sweep them away.
"People don't think it's going to happen to them," he told AFP.
"It's human nature. They don't want to remember the bad things and they want to think they are one-offs and won't happen again."
Professor Bill McGuire, of the Aon Benfield UCL Hazard Research Centre in Britain, said the Samoan disaster showed there needed to be more education about the nature and power of tsunamis almost five years on from the 2004 event which killed some 220,000 people around the Indian Ocean.
"Most critically, populations living close to faults capable of producing earthquakes that trigger tsunamis must be taught to self-evacuate when the ground shakes or the sea recedes," he said.
"Waiting for a warning from a central monitoring station could mean the difference between life and death."
Associate Professor Dale Dominey-Howes, co-director of the Australian Tsunami Research Centre and Natural Hazards Research Laboratory at Sydney's University of New South Wales, said some people clearly knew to evacuate.
"Unconfirmed reports suggest that in some places people recognised the natural warning signs for the tsunami and evacuated to higher ground," he said.
But he added: "In other areas this does not seem to have happened."
Ray Canterford, from Australia's Tsunami Warning Centre at the Bureau of Meteorology, said Pacific nations had improved education about the dangers of tsunamis since 2004 while alert systems had also been upgraded.
Many Pacific islands also now regularly practised evacuation drills while improved instrumentation allowed scientists to predict accurately the site and magnitude of quakes and the time any tsunamis might hit land, he told AFP.
"I think there's probably a fallacy somewhere where people say, 'Oh, they couldn't have done very much' and I don't think that's true. I think a lot was done at the time," Canterford said.
"This is going to be a very educational, informative experience to assess... countries, how they react and where they got their information."
Christian Fraser, BBC News 5 Oct 09;
Legend has it that Alexander the Great spent nine days searching for the miracle of Siwa.
Four days into the journey his men had run out of water. By the time they eventually stumbled across the oasis it must have appeared - as it still does - like a mirage out of the sand.
Today Siwa is a nine-hour drive from Cairo, across some of the most barren desert anywhere on the planet. It sits 18 metres below sea level, the main oasis surrounded by green desert islands where water naturally springs to the surface.
Beneath the sandstone is the Nubian aquifer an enormous - yet finite - supply of fossilised water that has flowed for thousands of years.
It fills the turquoise bathing pools in Siwa; one of them, "the spring of Juba", is so old it was mentioned by the Greek historian Herodotus who lived in the 5th Century BC.
So abundant is the water that within the oasis they grow over 120 different types of dates, some considered the best in Egypt. But the ancient caravan routes on which they once transferred their produce to market have now been replaced by a tarmac road.
It brings tourists, technology, growth and the sort of development that threatens delicate eco-systems. In the past 20 years the water, that once flowed naturally from beneath the rocks, has been sucked at alarming rate from hundreds of man-made wells.
Mounir Neamatalla runs an eco lodge in Siwa, a hotel complex built with mud brick, a model of sustainable development. He is now fighting a lonely battle to preserve the unique Berber culture and the precious water reserves on which the oasis survives.
"Unfortunately the whole industry of well drilling is now very active in the oasis," he said, "to feed our greed and appetite for more.
"As a result the rate of natural replenishment of the springs is lower than it ought to be. We are competing with a natural phenomenon that has existed for thousands of years."
Abandoned fields
There are said to be five water companies bottling in Siwa, who use the remoteness of the oasis as a marketing tool. But they are only part of the problem.
The farmers, who had traditionally flooded their land with the water that flowed naturally from the springs, are also drilling for water from deep underground. It is estimated that are some 2,000 wells in an area of 35 sq km.
Suddenly there is too much water. The salt lake in the middle of the oasis - parts of which dried out in the summer - is slowly filling with fresh water pumped from man-made channels that border the farms.
The water emptied into the lake is drainage water that has run off the fields - it is wasted and once it has reached the lake is no longer usable.
On the eastern edge of the oasis we were shown abandoned fields and water storage tanks now full of saline water. It kills the land. Farmers say the water from the wells is deteriorating as the underground channels are drained faster than they are naturally replenished.
"This water was perfect some years ago. Now it is far too salty," says Omar Mohamed Abulesm, a local farmer.
"I am not allowed to drill for my own water but the government water which comes from the well in my field is killing my trees."
But in Omar's fields we discovered a makeshift pump hidden behind a bush. He has dug for his own water - his is one of hundreds of private wells that have been dug all over the oasis, that the government says are to blame.
Not too late
They have tried to limit private well drilling, replacing them with government wells that serve a number of farms. But the water that is pumped round the clock into the salt lake suggests their efforts are wasted.
They have tampered with a naturally balanced system - and they now require hulking great machinery to move water artificially into the lake.
"I don't say things are rosy," said Egypt's Fatma Abdel Rahman Attia who heads the Groundwater Sector in the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation. "But there are signs we are making progress.
"Remember that when you plug a well the water still finds a way to the surface through the limestone fissures," she added. "It is not always so straightforward.
"We are trying to control the drilling, it takes time, especially with the resistance of the local population. The best solution, we tell them, is to re-use that water that is feeding into the drains - so that what reaches the lake is the minimum."
But the local population blame the government for the problems and say they have offered solutions that are ignored.
The experts say it is not too late - but attitudes have to change.
Some believe Siwa could still be the example to the rest of the world on how to use and preserve a non-renewable resource.
"We should be revising our entire water management policy," said Mounir Neamatalla. "That requires research, to establish what level of development the aquifer will sustain, and it requires engagement and commitment at all levels."
Most known oases on the planet have long since vanished. Today Siwa might look like the bountiful paradise, there is water wherever you look, but who really knows how much of it is left below the surface?
From Siwa to Libya the Nubian aquifer is being drained at an increasing rate. And some believe without a more concerted effort by all parties, these green dots in the desert might suddenly and irrevocably disappear from the map.
Wendell Roelf, Reuters 5 Oct 09;
CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - African farmers said on Monday floods and droughts expected to worsen with climate change have already brought poor harvests, and women workers are turning to prostitution and falling victim to HIV/AIDS.
Testifying at the first pan-African climate hearings, the farmers' stories will be relayed at December's climate talks in Copenhagen, where Western countries and poorer nations are expected to adopt new carbon emission targets to curb global warming.
Caroline Malema, a smallholder farmer and mother of six from Malawi, said increased cycles of floods and drought meant she was struggling to feed her family and pay for her children to attend school.
Malema said hunger and poverty caused by global warming were leading many women in her village to resort to prostitution out of desperation.
"Women are suffering because they don't harvest more, so women are going about selling their bodies ... These women at the end of the day are infected with HIV and AIDS," she said of her village in Karonga.
Besides AIDS, which has already killed more than 800,000 people in Malawi since 1985 and left more than one million orphans, experts fear an increase in diseases such as malaria and cholera should temperatures rise.
Pastoralist Omar Jibril, from Wajir district in northern Kenya, explained how prolonged droughts had decimated his herd of cattle and goats, while Ugandan farmer Constance Okollet Achom cried as she described the effects of heavy rains and excessive heat.
"The rich, rich countries who are doing this just have to stop because they are living on our lives, we are dying for them," Achom said.
Mary Robinson, honorary president of aid group Oxfam International, said hearing directly from poor African farmers was vital to December's deliberations.
"That is the case we have to make -- that climate change is about the poorest people being made poorer by our conduct and our carbon-rich environment and lifestyle," she told Reuters.
The U.N. climate panel says rich nations, blamed by poorer countries for emitting most of the harmful greenhouse gases, should cut emissions between 25-40 percent from 1990 levels by 2020 to avoid dangerous climate change.
However, preliminary talks meant to narrow differences over ways to deepen the fight against climate change have stalled on efforts to convince rich nations to make tough emissions cuts and fund the efforts of developing countries.
Africa, the world's poorest continent mainly dependent on subsistence agriculture, is expected to bear the brunt of unpredictable weather patterns that could ruin crops, entrenching poverty and malnourishment.
(Reporting by Wendell Roelf; Editing by Charles Dick)
AFP Google News 5 Oct 09
COLOMBO — Ministers in the Maldives have taken diving lessons ahead of an underwater cabinet meeting that will highlight the threat global warming and rising sea levels pose to the low-lying atoll nation.
President Mohamed Nasheed will chair the meeting on October 17 ahead of the world climate change summit in Copenhagen in December, a spokesman told AFP from the islands' capital, Male.
He said the 14-member cabinet were taught scuba-diving basics over the weekend. Nasheed was not present as he is already a certified diver.
"The cabinet will don wet suits and scuba equipment and dive to a depth of six metres (20 feet), where a special meeting of the cabinet will be convened," the spokesman, who declined to be named, said.
"They will then ratify a pledge calling on other nations to slash greenhouse gas emissions ahead of the Copenhagen meeting."
Cabinet members will communicate using whiteboards and hand signals.
The Maldivian archipelago, located south west of Sri Lanka, is on the front line of climate change and has become a vocal campaigner in the battle to halt rising sea levels.
In 2007, the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned that a rise in sea levels of 18 to 59 centimetres (7 to 23 inches) by 2100 would be enough to make the Maldives virtually uninhabitable.
More than 80 percent of the country's land, composed of coral islands scattered some 850 kilometres (530 miles) across the equator, is less than one metre (3.3 feet) above mean sea level.
The danger for the Maldives is so acute that Nasheed has raised the possibility of buying a new "homeland" in Australia, India or Sri Lanka for the nation's 330,000 citizens.
IRIN 5 Oct 09;
BANGKOK, 5 October 2009 (IRIN) - Up to half a million people in the Pacific will lose their homes and their countries to rising sea levels because small island nations cannot persuade the rest of the world to reduce greenhouse gas emissions sufficiently, campaigners say.
The Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) is calling for a significant reduction in global emissions so the world's temperature does not rise more than 1.5 degrees centigrade above pre-industrial levels.
But after a week of negotiations in Bangkok before the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December, developed and developing world countries have been unable to agree anything at all on emissions cuts, AOSIS said.
“We are not working through the options as negotiations, we are simply restating our positions. So we may arrive in Copenhagen with the parties still very far apart. It's really setting up Copenhagen for failure or an inadequate result,” Leon Charles, chairman of the AOSIS negotiating team, who is from the Caribbean island of Grenada, told IRIN.
AOSIS, whose members are among the most vulnerable to climate change, “can't live with” global temperature rises of two degrees, a possible target mentioned in the Bangkok talks, Charles said.
“We want 1.5 degrees centigrade in terms of mitigation and significant scaled-up and easily accessible finance. It's about our survival,” he said.
An AOSIS statement issued after a preliminary meeting in New York in September said members were “profoundly disappointed” by the lack of will in the negotiations to protect small island developing states from climate change impacts.
Relocation issues
Campaigners said AOSIS's prospects were dim, calling instead for more attention on how and where people from submerged countries would be relocated.
“Copenhagen won't be enough. The islands will sink. In the Pacific region, we are looking at about 500,000 people who will need to move. But the islands aren't talking about the migration issue,” said Marstella Jack, a Micronesian former attorney-general, who was in Bangkok with observers from the Climate Action Network.
Jack said leaders were "too chicken" to address the issue. "They don't have the leverage to fight the issue with the developed world. Migration will hit us in the face before we realise it. But what happens to the sovereign country of Tuvalu, for example, if the land is gone?”
Tuvalu, with a population of less than 12,000, is heavily flooded every spring by ever more destructive tides. The total land surface of Tuvalu, which comprises nine small coral atolls, is 26 sqkm and on average, it is less than 2m above sea level.
“We are just waiting, and when the time comes, we won't be Tuvalans any more, just climate change refugees,” said Taukiei Kitara, of the Tuvalu Association of NGOs.
So far, only Mohamed Nasheed, president of the Maldives, has spoken openly about moving all 370,000 residents to another country if, as looks likely, rising waters cover the islands, most of which are less than 1.5m above sea level.
“There are tons of legal and sovereignty issues and we are negotiating aggressively. There are huge complications down the line and if we can avoid these through a strong climate change agreement, let’s do so,” said AOSIS's Charles.
Losing identity
Any kind of displacement is a big issue in Pacific island culture, which links identity to land, Jack said. It is estimated that Micronesia's low-lying islands, where most of the population lives, will be submerged by 2030.
“Our identity is tied to the tiny island we are from … So losing the land is losing our survival, because the very sense of survival is that piece of land,” she said.
“And once the island is gone, it's gone for ever and there's no identity left. That's the biggest problem that we have, and we would have it even if the Australian government were to carve out a chunk of Queensland and say we could have sovereignty over it, which they aren't likely to do.”
Some AOSIS members face different problems. The Caribbean island of Antigua and Barbuda has become so storm-wracked that 10 years from now, banks will cease insuring new projects, spelling an end to economic development, said Diann Black Layne, an ambassador in the islands' Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
But for the Pacific Islanders watching the water slowly rise around their homes, climate change is no longer about economics.
“The world is thinking about trade. But that's not what climate change is about – it's about us living, not drowning,” said Jack.
Chisa Fujioka and David Fogarty, Reuters 5 Oct 09;
BANGKOK (Reuters) - China and a top G77 official accused rich nations on Monday of trying to kill off the Kyoto Protocol, the U.N.'s main weapon in the fight against global warming, as nations try to craft a broader climate pact.
Delegates from about 180 nations are meeting in the Thai capital trying to bridge differences over a draft negotiating text that will allow all countries to deepen efforts to slow the pace of climate change.
The United Nations hopes a major climate meeting in Copenhagen in December will lead to a broader framework to expand or replace Kyoto, whose first phase ends in 2012.
The talks are deadlocked on rich nations toughening their commitments to cut emissions by 2020 and climate funds to help poorer nations adapt to the impacts of climate change, invest in clean energy and how to manage those funds.
"It has become self-evident and actually clear that the intention of the developed countries is to kill off the Kyoto Protocol," Lumumba D'Aping, who chairs the G77 plus China negotiating group, told reporters.
China's special envoy for climate change, Yu Qingtai, accused rich nations of trying to change the rules of the game at the last minute.
"I have yet to see a developed country or a group of developed countries coming up to say to the public, the international community and to their own people that they are not here to kill the Kyoto Protocol," Yu told reporters.
Talks in Bangkok have focused on the legal "architecture" of a new climate pact from 2013. Australia, the EU and the United States would like to see pledges by big developing nations to curb emissions become legally binding in some way in a new pact.
That would help level the playing field in terms of global actions to fight climate change, they say, and make it easier to assess what every one was willing to do.
The result could be a streamlined treaty for post-2012 that comprises the best pieces of Kyoto, or an amended Kyoto Protocol and another treaty.
HARD TARGETS
Kyoto currently binds 37 industrialized nations, except the United States, to greenhouse gas emissions targets during 2008-12 but developing nations are not obliged to meet hard, economy-wide targets and won't agree to such targets in any new agreement.
Instead, they fear a move by some rich nations to push for a post-2012 pact that allows more flexible emissions reduction steps based on national circumstances could lead to wealthy states wriggling out of meeting tough, binding emissions cuts.
"It's just like the final five minutes into a game and one side of the game putting forward a new set of rules, a new format, a new mandate and expect the other side to agree and make that as the precondition for making progress. That is not a fair way of conducting negotiations," Yu said.
Sweden's chief negotiator, Anders Turesson, said Europe was faithful to the Kyoto system. Sweden holds the present rotating EU presidency.
"We are going to ensure the Kyoto system can be revived and strengthened into the future," he told reporters. "It is a holistic system with commitments, with instruments, with compliance systems. We cannot pick and choose."
Greens pointed to an erosion of trust.
"The frustration of developing nations is all too clear -- they are tired of all the talk and with little concrete actions to back them up," Kim Carstensen, who heads conservation group WWF's global climate initiative, told Reuters.
(Editing by Sugita Katyal)
Tilak K. Doshi, For The Straits Times 5 Oct 09;
IN ABOUT 60 days, representatives from over 190 countries will meet in the Danish capital of Copenhagen to hammer out a wider global pact on tackling climate change to succeed the Kyoto Protocol.
But there is increasing scepticism about whether a successful agreement will emerge from the negotiations to replace Kyoto. The key players have adopted widely divergent positions and a host of basic issues remain unresolved.
The major developing countries with large greenhouse gas emissions will play a critical role. Heavyweights China, India and Brazil seek steep and binding emission cuts from developed countries as well as strong technical and financial support to help developing nations adapt to global warming. The industrialised West accounts for most of the stock of man-made carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, so it seems only natural to insist that they launch serious efforts to reduce their own emissions before calling on developing countries to do so.
Yet the rapid rise of carbon emissions from China and India makes it imperative that they and other large developing countries do their part, at least in the medium to long term. Despite low levels of per capita emissions, developing countries will account for over half of global carbon dioxide emissions by 2020, if not before. China overtook the United States as the world's largest carbon emitter in 2006.
The governments of developed countries will find it hard to channel significant resources to cutting greenhouse gases without clear commitments from large developing countries. After the US House of Representatives passed its version of a climate change Bill - a veritable dog's breakfast of exemptions, exceptions and pay-offs to special interests - Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid suggested that the passing of the Bill be delayed until 2010. This adds further uncertainty as to whether the US will have a comprehensive position on climate change in time for Copenhagen. Canada and Australia, both large energy producers, are also not expected to impose aggressive targets for emission cuts.
South Korea and Mexico, which are not obliged by the Kyoto Protocol to cut emissions but are among the world's top dozen carbon emitters, recently announced substantial reduction targets to be achieved by 2020. Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama pledged last month to slash Japan's greenhouse gas emissions by 25 per cent from 1990 levels by 2020, a substantially more aggressive target than that of the previous administration. This exceeds the target pledged by the European Union - a 20 per cent cut - and will probably be significantly more than the targets the US is likely to set.
Also among the nations jockeying for advantage at Copenhagen will be the smaller 'newly industrialising countries' or NICs. They were reclassified from their previous 'developing country' status to 'more advanced developing countries' by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in 1995, and to 'industrial countries' by the International Monetary Fund in 1997. Singapore, Kuwait and Israel are in this group, as is Hong Kong, which, though not a country, reports statistics as a Special Administrative Region of China. As affluent countries with relatively high per capita emissions, the NICs may come under pressure to do more to emit less.
Concerns over both equity and efficiency have led some policy analysts to propose 'graduation and deepening' scenarios to integrate developing countries into a post-Kyoto climate regime. This could be done by, for instance, requiring countries to achieve emission targets once they reach the wealth comparable to that of developed countries that already have binding commitments under the Kyoto Protocol. Various 'graduation indices' have been proposed, based on some combination of per capita income and emission thresholds, fulfilling both the ability to pay and the 'polluter pays' principles.
Asian countries such as Brunei, Singapore and South Korea and Middle Eastern states such as Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Bahrain would be among those 'graduating' to greater responsibility in curbing greenhouse gas emissions in this scenario.
Singapore has to be aware of how proposed cuts in carbon emissions will affect its key energy-intensive industries such as power generation, oil refining, petrochemicals, aviation and marine bunkering. Global climate policies targeted at aviation or marine bunkering, for example, could have far-reaching consequences for Singapore's role as an oil trading and transportation hub.
But in negotiating a post-Kyoto climate regime, the NICs may well choose to make a virtue out of necessity. Many of them are dynamic centres of finance, tourism and high-tech industry and serve as regional transportation and trading hubs. So going 'green' may be a chance to improve their image further. Abu Dhabi, for instance, has attracted global attention with its construction of a city - Masdar - that will emit zero carbon.
For its part, Singapore is already well known as a garden city. Innovative approaches by the public and private sectors to conserve energy while developing new sources will make this city-state a compelling story in a carbon-conscious 21st century.
The writer is a visiting principal fellow at the Energy Studies Institute, National University of Singapore.
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