Best of our wild blogs: 29 Oct 09

Green Drinks: All about food, permaculture
and applying what we know about it to business! from Green Drinks Singapore

Two Blues Make it 290
from Butterflies of Singapore

Butterfly Garden Along Pang Sua Park Connector
from Beauty of Fauna and Flora in Nature

Puffballs
from Life's Indulgences

Yellow-vented Bulbul feeding on neem fruits
from Bird Ecology Study Group

Why we shouldn't pick up sea stars
from wild shores of singapore

October 24: International Day of Climate Change Action
from Green Drinks Singapore

Kuala Gula Teeming with Birds and Wildlife
from Nature Is Awesome

Green Porno Season 3: sexy shrimp, squid and more!
from wild shores of singapore

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Ubin for inspiration

No TV, no Internet, but plenty of creative energy when writers get together on a five-day island retreat
stephanie yap, Straits Times 29 Oct 09;

On a sweltering Monday afternoon, while the rest of Singapore was cooped up in air-conditioned offices battling food comas, a dozen of us were herded to a quiet offshore island. Among our number on the bumboat bound for Pulau Ubin were winners of the Singapore Literature Prize and other assorted literary awards, prolific authors with double-digit bibliographies, Singapore literary pioneers and one Straits Times journalist.

We were the guinea pigs of the first Catalyst Creative Writing Residential Retreat, organised by non-profit organisation The Literary Centre in collaboration with the British Council and supported by the National Arts Council. The pilot for what is intended to be a continuing series of writing retreats open to anyone interested, last week's camp was modelled on Britain's renowned Arvon Foundation creative writing courses.

But where Arvon's courses are held in the majestic Scottish highlands or the bucolic English countryside, this retreat saw us sequestered at a solar-powered Ubin chalet compound, beside a beach strewn with litter thrown up by the busy Johor Straits.

With no TV, Internet access or - gasp - air-conditioning, for five days we were freed from all distractions so that we could get cracking on the Great Singapore Novel. Nudging us on our literary way were daily group writing workshops and personal sessions conducted by our intrepid and patient tutors, British writer Courttia Newland and Singaporean writer Suchen Christine Lim.

This will seem odd coming from a journalist, but one of the things the workshops taught me is how much you can actually write when facing a deadline.

During the workshops, conducted in an open-air pondok or hut, we were tasked to write short pieces based on various stimuli, ranging from something as intangible as a childhood memory to the physical prop of an empty chair placed in the middle of the pondok.

In one memorable exercise, we paired up and took turns walking around blindfolded so that we would be forced to experience our surroundings with our other senses. (We were kind to each other: Newland said that when he does the exercise with kids, they usually end up making the blindfolded ones fight each other.)

Though what we wrote was ostensibly fiction, naturally some personal details crept into our works, which is why we, the self-proclaimed Ubin 12, have this pledge: What happens on Ubin stays on Ubin.

In between our daily activities of writing, swatting mosquitoes and making illegal phone calls home, we were also expected to take turns cooking for the group.

You have not supped unless you have tasted instant noodles made by three poets and a novelist. My guess is that none of them will be coming out with a cookbook anytime soon.

And during the long afternoons, the scorching sun having dried up what little creative juices we had to begin with, we would sneak out of the compound to explore the rest of the island.

Salvation from each other's cooking came from the nearby village and its motley assortment of restaurants, including a seller of ice-cold Thai coconuts and a former opium den-turned-coffee shop.

The more adventurous among us even rented bicycles and ventured into the jungle, which holds enough histories, secrets and wild boar to fill several epic novels.

Once, three of us stumbled upon a Taoist shrine devoted to a German girl who died after World War I, when she fell into a quarry while fleeing the British soldiers who wanted to imprison her family.

Now a deity with the power to bestow 4-D numbers on her loyal worshippers, she is represented by a blonde Barbie doll in a glass case, who smiles beatifically amid offerings of pressed powder, face creams and lipsticks.

Another day, a group of us checked out Chek Jawa, one of Singapore's last wetlands. As planes from all over the world flew overhead on their descent into Changi Airport, we cast our eyes downwards and spotted jellyfish, mudskippers and fiddler crabs with monstrously giant claws which they wave to attract females and intimidate rivals.

But in truth, we did not even have to venture far from our beds to encounter wildlife. Back at the chalets, the compound was ruled by a pack of stray dogs, led by an alpha male and his favourite companion, a female who managed to coax chunks of our dinner from our plates, thanks to her heart-meltingly liquid eyes.

But it is the nights around the barbecue pit that I remember most fondly. With the sun down and a breeze coming in from the sea, we would stuff ourselves with roasted meat and alcohol, then sit around and read each other our stories.

In Singapore, few writers are full-time wordsmiths, most having to hold day jobs to make a living. Among us on the island were practitioners in the fields of law, finance, education, arts management and the media.

Our varied experiences came to play in our stories, which featured student riots, school bullies, flashers, courtroom dramas, gerontophiles, army days, magic stones and tigers roaming HDB corridors.

Some works were in a raw state, others already highly polished. But in the diversity of offerings, it was clear how much the Singapore literary scene has to offer, if only writers are given the time and opportunity to write.

At the ongoing Singapore Writers Festival, alongside a host of international and regional stars, I look forward to home-grown literature being celebrated in symposiums, readings and book launches.

But I am also grateful for programmes such as Catalyst, which recognise that before audiences can be grown, writers must be nurtured. And there is no better way to help them develop their craft than by giving them some space, time and good company.

ysteph@sph.com.sg

Some of the participating writers will talk about their experiences at the retreat in The Creative Writing Experience at The Arts House, The Hall, on Saturday at 6pm. Admission is free.

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Singapore Strait can handle 75% growth in traffic

Straits Times 29 Oct 09;

A STUDY has found that the busy and narrow Strait of Singapore can safely take a 75 per cent increase in shipping traffic without needing any changes to its infrastructure or operations.

But should the volume of traffic double, as it is expected to by 2024, it will take vessels an extra hour - eight hours instead of seven - to get through the waterway. It will also become less safe.

This was one of the preliminary findings of the six-month study which the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) completed last month.

It assessed the potential impact of the doubling of vessel traffic on travelling time and safety in the Strait of Singapore and the Strait of Malacca north of it.

In 2007, there were 257,000 vessel movements through the strait, which washes Singapore's southern shore.

The study noted the waterway's numerous anchorages and pilot boarding points, and that its narrowest point, 2.2km wide, lay south of St John's island.

MPA's group director for policy and planning Yee Cheok Hong said of the first-of-its-kind study here: 'It will give us a clear and accurate picture of the carriage capacity and enable us to enhance capacity while maintaining safety.'

Safety in the maritime world is sometimes measured by the number of 'interactions', that is, the number of manoeuvres or adjustments a vessel has to make every 10 nautical miles.

At the moment, vessels have one interaction over that distance in the strait. If shipping traffic doubles, the number of interactions will go up to 15.

'These projections are still acceptable but we will look at how we can improve these numbers,' said Mr Yee, noting that collisions in the strait happened mostly due to human error, not congestion.

Industry players - including shipping lines, shipping associations and academics - voiced concern when they were presented the findings yesterday.

Shipping line APL's vice-president of technical services Tey Yoh Huat said vessels plying the strait are getting larger and this needs to be factored into the equation.

MPA said it would note their concerns as it continues with the rest of the study, which will examine how navigational safety in the strait can be improved through physical, operational and technological adjustments.

Malacca, Singapore straits can handle rise in vessel traffic
Singapore Strait traffic could be boosted by at least 75%: study
Vincent Wee, Business Times 29 Oct 09;

(SINGAPORE) The critical straits of Malacca and Singapore have sufficient capacity to handle the projected increase in vessel traffic for the next 15-20 years, a study commissioned by the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) has found.

The preliminary finding from the straits of Malacca and Singapore capacity study done by SimPlus showed that there is still substantial room for vessel traffic growth in the straits without affecting either efficiency or navigational safety.

The study used a computer simulation model and, based on 2007 data of 257,000 ship movements a year in the Singapore Strait, found that a doubling of vessel traffic movements would increase transit time by 13 per cent and raise the number of interactions by 15 times through the Singapore sector of the straits, which is the busiest part.

MPA said that the current traffic level in the Singapore Strait could be increased by at least 75 per cent based on the safety and efficiency indicators, assuming that the existing processes and operations remain unchanged and there are no advances in technology. The capacity of the straits can be expected to be further enhanced over time with improved traffic management measures and technological advances, MPA added.

The second phase of the study will examine possible measures that can enhance the carriage capacity of the Singapore Strait while at the same time maintaining navigational safety. These include electronic navigation and the Marine Electronic Highway (MEH).

The Traffic Separation Scheme (TSS) that runs along the straits of Malacca and Singapore, between One Fathom Bank off Port Klang in the west and Horsburgh Lighthouse in the east, is about 250 nautical miles long.

The narrowest point in the TSS, along which international shipping travels through the straits, lies just south of St John's Island within the Singapore Strait and measures 530m westbound, 1,617m eastbound and 2,150m overall in width.

The study also found that there would be minimal impact in the Strait of Malacca sector of the TSS from a doubling of traffic. Since the biggest gains can be made in improving the Singapore sector as it has the narrowest point in the whole system, efforts will be focused on this area.

'As part of our long-term planning, MPA regularly conducts studies on various maritime issues and trends. In line with this, we felt it was timely to conduct a study of the traffic levels and utilisation, including the potential carriage capacity, of the straits of Malacca and Singapore. A clear and accurate picture of the carriage capacity of the straits of Malacca and Singapore will allow MPA to work with the littoral states as well as other interested stakeholders to identify strategies to enhance capacity while maintaining navigational safety,' said MPA policy and planning group director Yee Cheok Hong.

Concerns were, however, raised about the assumptions about acceptable levels of interactions and types of vessels using the TSS. Intertanko Asia-Pacific regional manager Tim Wilkins highlighted the fact that even the five interactions per 10 nautical miles deemed as acceptable by the MPA might not be considered so by mariners.

Meanwhile, APL technical services vice-president Tey Yoh Huat questioned whether in order to enhance performance of the TSS, it needs to be revamped in the first place to take into account the difference between newer, bigger deeply laden vessels with draft and manoeuvrability constraints and smaller vessels.

The findings were shared with MPA's counterparts in Indonesia and Malaysia at a meeting in Singapore earlier this month, which was also attended by a number of user states and the International Maritime Organization (IMO). Singapore has also offered to work with the two states through the Tripartite Technical Experts Group and, where appropriate, the Co-operative Mechanism, as well as the IMO on further aspects of the study, in particular, traffic management measures.

Sufficient capacity in Singapore Strait to handle growth in traffic: MPA
Channel NewsAsia 28 Oct 09;

SINGAPORE: A study commissioned by the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) said the Singapore Strait has sufficient capacity to handle growth in maritime traffic.

All things being equal, the current traffic level in the strait could be increased by at least 75 per cent without comprising safety and efficiency.

The finding from the Straits of Malacca and Singapore capacity study was presented to the shipping industry on Wednesday.

MPA shared the finding with their counterparts in Indonesia and Malaysia earlier this month.

The second phase of the study will examine possible measures that can enhance the capacity of the Singapore Strait while at the same time maintaining navigational safety.

The waterway is used for international navigation and supports the bulk of the maritime trade between Europe, the Middle East and East Asia. - CNA/vm

Safer Strait transit
Marcus Hand, Llyods List 28 Oct 09;

WITH growing concerns over congestion in one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, the Singapore authorities have come out and said traffic could grow by 75% in the Singapore Strait under current systems.

These conclusions are somewhat at odds with a Maritime Institute of Malaysia study, which found the Malacca Strait — which is wider and connects into the Singapore Strait — would reach capacity 2024.

Whichever is the case there can be no doubt these key sealanes are set to get ever busier as a result of the growth of Asian trade.

While technically the number of vessels transiting the two straits may remain at a safe level it will undoubtedly become more difficult for mariners, with more vessels meaning more incidents to be avoided. More incidents to be avoided will translate into a greater chance for human error – the main cause of marine accidents.

At present movements in the strait are co-ordinated by vessel traffic information systems, which advise ships on the courses they should take. But at the end of the day these systems are just advisory and the coastal authorities have no responsibility should something go wrong.

Maybe as traffic volumes do grow it is time for this system to change and become more mandatory in nature, much like air traffic control. No system will ever completely eliminate problems but by providing greater structure at key choke points it could help to cut down the number of incidents and near misses.

WORKING PAPER FOR “CARRIAGE CAPACITY OF THE STRAITS OF MALACCA AND SINGAPORE”
Full paper by SimPlus Pte. Ltd., Singapore, Commissioned by the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore on the SG Press Centre website.

Related posts
Shipping congestion in Singapore waters? on the wild shores of singapore blog.

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New council set up to speed up development of green buildings in Singapore

Asha Popatlal, Channel NewsAsia 28 Oct 09;

SINGAPORE : Singapore has set up a new council to help accelerate the "greening" of buildings in Singapore.

Buildings in the city-state are the second largest guzzlers of electricity - after the industrial sector. But this is also the area where energy use can be easily reduced.

A UN study has concluded that energy consumption in new and old buildings can be lowered by 30 to 50 per cent without significantly increasing investment costs.

Trane, an exhibiting company that cools about half of the buildings fronting Orchard Road said an average investment of S$2 million to reduce energy use in buildings is usually recouped within eight months to three years.

Speaking at the inaugural International Green Building Conference on Wednesday, Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Teo Chee Hean said: "This is not rocket science but it does require steady and consistent policies and effort.

"We plan to 'green' 80 per cent of our buildings by 2030 to reduce energy intensity by more than 30 per cent. Government and public buildings will also have to achieve higher green building standards."

For now, the new Singapore Green Building Council will lead and coordinate the efforts of the industry, hand-in-hand with the government, to speed up the development of green buildings in Singapore.

For a start, it plans to set up a system for certification within the next six to 12 months.

Lee Chuan Seng, president, Singapore Green Building Council, said: "One of the things that hold back the development of green buildings in Singapore is that we don't (have certification) - we have some green labelling system for products but it is not comprehensive now, so what we are trying to do now is start up some product directory. That product listing will then move into certification."

The industry has already raised 10 times the S$100,000 seed funding it received from the government to get on with its work. Still, the council feels it has its work cut out.

Mr Lee said: "(This involves) getting the owners and end users of existing buildings to take it up early enough. Everyone says it is a tough job, and it is because in buildings, you upgrade the building and change the equipment only once in 15-20 years."

In the long term, the council also hopes to work with authorities to develop Singapore as a hub for green buildings in the tropics, as most of the designs today have been developed for temperate climates.

Mr Teo said: "In the longer term, we plan to establish a Centre of Excellence in sustainable buildings and construction in Singapore - a regional hub to share experiences in green buildings in the tropics." - CNA/ms

Making Singapore a green building hub
New council to boost green construction; deal with UN unit to promote best practices
Jessica Cheam, Straits Times 29 Oct 09;

SINGAPORE took two major steps yesterday in its drive to position itself at the forefront of the increasingly vital field of 'green' construction practices and technologies.

A Singapore Green Building Council (SGBC) has been set up to promote sustainable construction. This includes driving efforts to green at least 80 per cent of buildings here by 2030.

And the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the United Nations Environment Programme to collaborate on promoting best building practices across Asia.

The move fits in with the Government's aim to set up a Centre of Excellence in sustainable building and construction in the future to cement Singapore's ambition to be the green building hub of the tropics. Details will be released later, said the BCA.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence Teo Chee Hean announced the new council at the opening ceremony of the inaugural three-day International Green Building Conference held at Suntec convention centre yesterday.

Mr Teo noted that even as the world tackles the global economic downturn, 'we are faced with a policy imperative... that of ensuring sustainable development for our current generation, so that our future generations will have a future'.

Economic growth can go hand in hand with environmental sustainability, but the right structures have to be put in place to encourage sustainable growth, he added.

The minister cited the example of retrofitting existing buildings. This can be a growth area where investments in new technology will bring benefits such as green jobs, reducing energy use and increasing savings for building owners and occupiers.

Greening existing buildings in Singapore is the most immediate challenge for the local industry.

The target of 80 per cent of buildings achieving a minimum Green Mark standard - a building rating system - by 2030 was outlined earlier in April.

A $600 million incentive fund has been set aside by the Government to spur owners into making the changes.

The new council, which is made up of industry members, will also play a key role. Its first task is to set up a directory of green products for the building industry and a certification system in the next 12 months, said its president, Mr Lee Chuan Seng.

Funds have been raised from founding members and the Government to carry out its work, but its greatest challenge will be getting building owners to adopt green practices early, said Mr Lee.

National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan, who was also at yesterday's event, is the council's patron.

The World Green Building Council awarded the SGBC 'emerging status', with full status likely in a few months.

Mr Tony Arnel, chair of the world body, commended the local industry for its speed in embracing green construction: 'There's a lot of momentum in the Asia-Pacific region for green buildings at the moment, and there are a lot of low-hanging fruits for energy efficiency in existing buildings across the region.'

The conference attracted 1,000 delegates from 23 countries.

New council set up to promote green buildings
Private-public sector initiative will help spearhead building industry's efforts
Uma Shankari, Business Times 29 Oct 09;

(SINGAPORE) Singapore has set up a new council to speed up the development of 'green' buildings in Singapore.

The new unit, the Singapore Green Building Council, is expected to increase collaboration between the private and public sectors in Singapore and push the building and construction industries towards environmental sustainability.

The council was set up with seed funding from Building and Construction Authority (BCA), but has also raised more than 10 times that amount from its private sector sponsors and members. The council has 141 founding members, including 'diamond' sponsors City Developments, CapitaLand and Keppel Land.

It aims to promote green building design as well as green practices and technologies, said its president Lee Chuan Seng.

Targets set out in the Singapore Sustainable Blueprint, which was released earlier this year, call for 80 per cent of all buildings in Singapore to achieve at least the basic Green Mark Certification by 2030. This is expected to reduce energy intensity by more than 30 per cent.

Buildings in Singapore are the second largest users of electricity after the industrial sector

'The 'greening' of buildings will require concerted effort,' said Singapore's Deputy Prime Minister & Minister for Defence Teo Chee Hean yesterday. Mr Teo announced the formation of the Singapore Green Building Council at the launch of a green building conference and exhibition.

He added that the government will work in partnership with building owners to raise awareness on the energy efficiency of their buildings, and achieve savings in their electricity bills.

On its part, the Singapore Green Building Council will help lead and co-ordinate the industry's efforts, in collaboration with the government, to accelerate the development of green buildings and improve energy efficiency in Singapore's built environment.

It will also tap into an international community of green building experts through the World Green Building Council. The World Council has granted 'emerging member' status to the new Singapore Council.

The Green Building Council also aims to become a leader in exploring how tropical countries can embrace sustainable development. Mr Lee told reporters that most of the designs today have been developed for temperate climates.

But for a start, the Council plans to set up a system for certification within the next six to 12 months.

'One of the things that hold back the development of green buildings in Singapore is that we don't have certification; we have some green labelling system for products but it is not comprehensive,' said Mr Lee. 'So what we are trying to do now is start up some product directory. That will then move into certification.'

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Singapore in joint varsity studies to build better cities

Jermyn Chow, Straits Times 29 Oct 09;

SINGAPORE will study how to improve city living and transport in two research agreements the Republic has signed with two universities.

The first area of research, agreed by the National Research Foundation (NRF) with ETH Zurich, a top Swiss university, will look at how to plan and build cities conducive for growing urban populations.

The second, also announced yesterday by the NRF, is with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and will focus on planning, designing and operating future transportation systems.

The new areas of focus would be valuable for Singapore, as the city-state's population approaches five million.

Announcing them yesterday, NRF chairman Tony Tan called the projects 'valuable building blocks to address these issues'.

He said: 'We are forced, within a small area with a population of over four million, to create a condition under which we can live comfortably here and not be overwhelmed by cars, pollution and energy needs.'

Singapore's tie-up with the Swiss university, after three years of talks, will also involve the National University of Singapore and Nanyang Technological University.

It will begin with the Future Cities Laboratory - to be based here - where researchers will come up with solutions and tools to build environmentally friendly cities, even as urban populations soar.

'Cities must now be seen as systems instead of silos, where we learn to break down and integrate everything from communication systems, water, energy and transport providers,' said Professor Gerhard Schmitt, ETH Zurich's senior vice-president for international relations and institutional affairs.

The Future Urban Mobility study by the NRF-MIT partnership will test and roll out innovations that can improve transport services.

The aim is for cities not to have to spend more money to build new roads or railways when space runs out, said the MIT engineering school's associate dean for academic affairs, Professor Cynthia Barnhart.

MIT already has three research groups here working with Singapore scientists on infectious disease, environmental sensing and modelling, and biosystems and micromechanics.

The two studies to improve the lives of urbanites are useful and relevant to Singapore, said Permanent Secretary (National Research and Development) Teo Ming Kian.

Besides solving Singapore's problems, the knowledge and expertise built up will be useful to the world, added Dr Tan. Home-grown companies have exported clean water technologies and solutions to China and the Middle East, for example.

He said: 'That is how we make our living...We develop solutions for our own needs, but we also have scalable solutions and turn them into an industry.'

NRF, Swiss university set up global environmental sustainability centre
Channel NewsAsia 29 Oct 09;

SINGAPORE : The National Research Foundation (NRF) has partnered a top university from Switzerland to set up a global environmental sustainability centre in Singapore.

The collaboration with the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology is the third under the NRF research centre initiative.

It will undertake cutting-edge research in disciplines ranging from environmental technology to developing new materials, with the aim of developing solutions and guidelines towards sustainable developments of buildings, districts and regions.

Professor Gerhard Schmitt, senior vice president for International Relations and Institutional Affairs at the Swiss university, said: "The knowledge that can be gained and the different materials that are developed, they can then be produced and exported in Singapore and in Switzerland to other countries, where an even greater need is for developing new cities.

"There are probably more than a billion people moving into cities in the next 30 years that do not even exist yet, and this is a real challenge."

At the same time, NRF has also started a fourth research programme with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The cooperation on Future Urban Mobility will enhance research on network computing, transportation control and urban studies.

Professor Cynthia Barnhart, Associate Dean of Engineering at MIT, explains some of the practical solutions the programme hopes to develop: "We can develop personalised real time transportation services for individuals.

"So if you travel to work every morning and you take the bus followed by the train, we can provide you alerts saying that today, there is a problem with the bus. We will provide guidance with what is the optimal trajectory for you."

The new collaborations were announced by NRF's chairman, Dr Tony Tan, on Wednesday.

He said the NRF is on the right track to building up Singapore's capability for cutting-edge research and establishing Singapore as a vibrant centre for research and development.

Dr Tan said: "With these and other initiatives that are already underway, we can expect to see in the years ahead many research breakthroughs and innovative technologies that will make Singapore a hotbed for innovation and enterprise." - CNA/ms

Swiss university setting up research centre here

Together with NUS, NTU, it will focus on growing challenges of urbanisation
Teh Shi Ning, Business Times 29 Oct 09;

A TOP Swiss university has agreed to set up a centre under the National Research Foundation's (NRF) Create initiative - the Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise.

Focusing on global environmental sustainability, the new Singapore-ETH Centre (SEC) will see the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology at Zurich (ETH Zurich) partner the National University of Singapore (NUS) and Nanyang Technological University (NTU) to develop solutions to the growing challenges of urbanisation, NRF said yesterday.

SEC will start with a Future Cities Laboratory programme that will develop solutions and guidelines for the sustainable development of buildings, districts and regions.

Before ETH Zurich, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology were the first two to set up centres at Create. Create's $360 million complex at NUS's new University Town is currently being built and is expected to be ready in 2011.

Yesterday, NRF also announced a new research programme to examine ways to make urban transport sustainable without continually scaling up infrastructure. It is the fourth of five inter-disciplinary research groups MIT proposed to set up at the Smart Centre.

The first three were on infectious diseases, environmental sensing and modelling and the development of new technologies for critical medical and biological problems.

NRF chairman Tony Tan said: 'With the addition of these two significant programmes, we are on the right track to establish Singapore as a global player in the research and innovation landscape.'

New technologies developed by SEC's Future Cities Lab, for instance, could provide solutions to urban challenges such as maintaining a clean and reliable water supply and clean air, or meeting energy demands.

These are expected to be in demand and hugely marketable as Asia's cities undergo unprecedented urbanisation in coming years, representatives from the universities said.

A Swiss, Singapore tie-up
Global research centre set up; another project with MIT
Today Online 29 Oct 09;

SINGAPORE - The National Research Foundation (NRF) has partnered a top university from Switzerland to set up a global environmental sustainability centre in Singapore.

The collaboration with the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology is the third under the NRF research centre initiative.

It will undertake cutting-edge research in disciplines ranging from environmental technology to developing new materials.

This, with the aim of developing solutions and guidelines towards sustainable developments of buildings, districts and regions.

"The knowledge that can be gained and the different materials that are developed can then be produced and exported in Singapore and in Switzerland to other countries where an even greater need is for developing new cities," said Professor Gerhard Schmitt, senior vice-president for International Relations and Institutional Affairs at the Swiss university.

At the same time, NRF has started a fourth research programme with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).The cooperation on Future Urban Mobility will boost research on network computing, transportation control and urban studies.

Professor Cynthia Barnhart, Associate Dean of Engineering at MIT said practical solutions the programme hopes to develop include "personalised real-time transportation services". "So if you travel to work every morning and you take the bus followed by the train, we can provide you alerts saying that today there's a problem with the bus," she added.

The tie-ups were announced by NRF's chairman Tony Tan. 938LIVE

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JTC going green with plants on roof trellises

Uma Shankari, Business Times 29 Oct 09;

(SINGAPORE) JTC Corp is pushing the idea of sky-rise greenery even further. The industrial landlord is looking at constructing roof trellises between adjacent buildings and covering them with plants.

Among other things, the project, which is set to be tested next year, could cut energy consumption in buildings by reducing heat radiation.

'Singapore is trying to do more sustainable developments and JTC is trying to play its part,' said the director of JTC's engineering planning division Koh Chwee.

There will be benefits all round, he said. The shaded ground will make it cooler to walk in the area and the plants will help improve air quality and be aesthetically pleasing.

Selected buildings will have their columns extended one storey higher.

Steel cables will then be tied to the columns and steel wire mesh will be suspended from the cables, forming an overhead canopy.

After this, climbing plants will be grown from planter boxes along a building's roof edges to the mesh structure. Over time, the plants will cover the mesh and provide shade.

JTC aims to test the idea in the second half of next year between two buildings at its upcoming Clean Tech Park in Jurong. It hopes to be ready to roll out the idea on a larger scale in 2011.

If all goes well, other kinds of developments, such as residential and commercial buildings, could also adopt green roof trellises, Mr Koh said.

A creepy cool idea
Esther Ng, Today Online 29 Oct 09;

SINGAPORE - Forest canopies keep temperatures in our nature reserves cooler, so could a similar concept have the same effect in our business parks?

Singapore's leading industrial landlord intends to find out, and if it works, industrial clusters here are set to turn a shade of green.

The Green Roof Trellis concept by JTC Corporation aims to lower temperatures in these parks by 2-3°C - which would reduce energy consumption and, hence, electricity bills.

"Climber plants will grow from planter boxes along roof edges of buildings, to a wire mesh structure supported by cables from columns across the rooftops of two buildings," explained JTC senior planner Mr Yio Yang Huat, who came up with the idea. "Over time, plants will grow to cover the entire mesh and provide shade."

This trellis will provide better coverage than conventional awnings or eaves, he added. Besides less power needed for air-conditioning, the benefits include improved air and aesthetics, and a more pedestrian-friendly industrial park.

JTC will pilot the project at its Clean Tech Park in mid-2010. If successful, "there are plans to extend the concept to all buildings," said JTC director of engineering planning Koh Chwee, adding that it will work with the National Parks Board and the Urban Redevelopment Authority.

Ms Valerie Teo, chief executive of car retailer Pinnacle Motors which is located in industrial parks in Sin Ming and Ubi, said:

"Everyone is going in the green direction, so if this saves business cost and reduced carbon emission, it's a win-win. But if it's going to cost tenants, I'm not so sure." The project's cost is still being worked out, said Mr Koh.

Standard Chartered, a tenant of JTC's Changi Business Park, told MediaCorp the green project will transform the operating landscape for firms.

"Having a green building will become a way of doing business and companies will need to look into efficient and sustainable buildings in their portfolio," it said.

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Research facility set up to test for hardier grass species

Quest for green, green grass of home
Research facility set up to test for hardier species to be used here
April Chong, Straits Times 29 Oct 09;

THE grass may be greener on this side if the National Parks Board's (NParks) plan to develop new lawns takes root.

The ubiquitous cow grass that covers about half the Republic's green spaces gets trampled too easily and does not tolerate shade well, said Dr Kenneth Marcum, a senior researcher at NPark's Centre for Urban Greenery and Ecology (Cuge). The high rainfall here also adds to waterlogging woes.

But a new $100,000 research facility is set to find a green solution to the bare muddy patches that commonly turn up in grassy areas.

The 1,200 sq m facility located at HortPark, off Alexandra Road, will study a dozen species of grasses and different soil types.

The grasses will be subjected to all manner of tests, simulating conditions such as being trampled on, their response to light and shade and how well they deal with being waterlogged from heavy downpours.

Research results are expected within a year.

Said Dr Tan Puay Yok, deputy director of Cuge Research: 'We want to encourage the use of lawns in parks...Instead of sitting on a lawn that is wet or worn out, the landscape will be more inviting to use.'

Dr Marcum said that aesthetics and usability aside, grass has been shown to clean the air, absorb dust, filter water runoff and reduce ambient temperature.

While typical cow grass is easy to maintain and has been in use here since colonial times, it thins out easily after being trampled upon and forms muddy patches, he said.

Said 22-year-old student Jane Lee, who often goes on picnics: 'Sometimes when you want to put your mat under the tree, you find that there is no grass there and it is wet.'

A Landscape Industry Association spokesman said: 'If the species of grass is more hardy and can withstand different conditions, it will definitely be beneficial. If the grass dies too fast, we will have to spend more money replacing it and it is not cost-efficient.'

Besides improving the turf areas under its management, Cuge will share the findings with town councils and the Singapore Sports Council.

There is no plan to replace every blade of cow grass here, but new construction projects or turf grass due for replacement can adopt the new grass varieties, said Dr Tan.

The board is also organising a two-day international turf grass seminar, which starts today. Sixty participants from eight countries will share information on current trends and innovations in managing green spaces.

A memorandum of understanding will be signed with the Queensland Primary Industries and Fisheries in Australia to work on projects involving urban landscapes and turf management in both places.

A tougher turf breed?
Today Online 29 Oct 09;

SINGAPORE - The grass will get greener, and sturdier.

Twelve different varieties of turfgrass (picture) are being studied at the HortPark - in the first such research programme here by the Centre for Urban Greenery and Ecology - to see if they are suitable for our climate.

Almost all parks and streetscapes here are currently planted with cowgrass, which is easily maintained but does not stand up to extensive foot traffic and trampling. High rainfall and temperatures have also led to barren patches and waterlogging.

The new varieties being tested are lusher in colour and have greater trampling tolerance.

The National Parks Board will share the findings with the likes of Town Councils and the Singapore Sports Council. 938LIVE

Greener, lusher species of turfgrasses being tested - NParks sets up new turfgrass research facility at HortPark
NParks media release 28 Oct 09;

Singapore, 28 October 2009 - Twelve different species and new varieties of turfgrasses are undergoing research at a new facility at HortPark, the gardening hub. The first such research programme in Singapore, this aims to investigate new types of turfgrasses and their planting conditions to assess if they could be implemented in our tropical climate.

This research programme is carried out by the Centre for Urban Greenery and Ecology (CUGE), an initiative by the National Parks Board (NParks), as a regional centre of excellence to advance urban and green living environment. CUGE is also a one-stop training and knowledge hub in urban greenery and ecology, offering a comprehensive range of skills training programmes for all levels of the landscape industry workforce

Turfgrass is a key component of our Garden City since it is the most extensive plant type used in Singapore. It also has many environmental benefits as it reduces ambient temperatures, controls soil erosion, and cleans water run-off.

Currently, almost all parks and streetscapes in Singapore are planted with cowgrass (Axonopus compressus) as it is easily maintained. However, cowgrass does not stand up to extensive foot traffic and trampling. In addition, Singapore's high rainfall and high temperature have posed challenges such as wet soils, which result in soil compaction, barren areas, loss of drainage and waterlogging. Another issue is shade, as turfgrasses are generally planted beneath trees and buildings. This results in thin turf, which is further exacerbated by trampling.

Besides using the results for turf areas under its management, NParks will be sharing research findings with other organisations, such as Town Councils and Singapore Sports Council so as to improve the quality of green spaces in parks and other public areas.

Mr P Teva Raj, Director (Industry/CUGE) of NParks, said, "This research programme is part of ongoing efforts by NParks to develop new and sustainable frontiers in urban greenery and ecology. Currently, turfgrass research has been underway for a number of years in temperate regions of the world, but not in tropical areas such as Singapore. With our living environment becoming denser, it is essential for us to embark on such research programmes so that we can realise Singapore's vision of being a 'City in a Garden'."

A new generation of turfgrass varieties will be tested for adaptability to Singapore's tropical climate. They are native to Southeast Asia and may be more suited to local use because they have dense, fine leaves, lusher colour and greater trampling tolerance. They include the native Zoysias, which include species Matrella, Tenuifolia, and Japonica. Other important species tested include Paspalum, Stenotaphrum (St. Augustine grass), Eremochloa (centipede grass), native Digitaria (serangoon grass), and Axonopus (carpet grasses and cowgrasses).

First international Turfgrass Seminar

In line with above efforts, NParks is organising the first international turfgrass seminar on 29-30 October at HortPark, in line with Clean and Green Singapore this year. About 60 participants from eight countries will be participating. Speakers from Australia, New Zealand, Thailand and United States will also be sharing their knowledge of current trends and innovations, and challenges involved in managing community green spaces with participants.

Among the speakers is Professor M.C. Engelke, a leading authority in the world on tropical grass research. His contributions to turfgrass breeding, development and management are well known internationally. He has published hundreds of publications and developed numerous new turfgrass cultivars (a particular kind of a plant that is being cultivated) worldwide.

NParks signs MOU with QPIF Centre in Australia

NParks has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Queensland Primary Industries and Fisheries (QPIF) of Brisbane, Australia to work in closer collaboration on research and development pertaining to urban greening and sustainable turf management.

Other collaborations include management of greenery in public open spaces, development of skyrise greenery such as green roofs and green walls; and investigating into the benefits of urban greening, such as reducing the build-up of heat in urbanised areas and improvement in air quality.

Through this MOU, NParks and QPIF aim to develop close collaboration and leverage each other's strengths, expertise and resources to develop applications that are relevant and useful to both parties. This will shorten the learning process, and also help achieve the aim of CUGE as the regional platform for the development and exchange of knowledge on urban greenery and ecology.

New landscape standards for industry

CUGE is also rolling out a series of written guidelines for adoption in the landscape and horticulture industry, in areas such as planting media, skyrise greenery and landscape design and turfgrass. The first two standards to be launched are specifications on Soils for General Landscaping Use and Specifications for Composts and Mulches.

They are crafted through consultation with relevant bodies such as Singapore Institute of Landscape Architect, Landscape Industry Association of Singapore, and Workplace Safety and Health Council and part of NParks' efforts to further professionalise Singapore's landscape industry. These standards would be incorporated into NParks' landscaping contracts.

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China, Singapore may beat Sydney in carbon-hub race

Bruce Hextall, Reuters 28 Oct 09;

GOLD COAST, Australia (Reuters) - Asian cities are likely to beat Australia in the race to become a carbon-trading hub, despite Australian plans to set up the region's first cap-and-trade market, industry experts said on Wednesday.

Sydney believes it is on pole position to become a hub, but the experts said Australia's most populous city was likely to be brushed aside as Hong Kong, Beijing and Singapore also staked claims to be Asia's main center for carbon trading.

So far, Europe is home to the world's only major carbon exchange and it dominates the $118 billion annual trade in carbon. Australia aims to become the second market, provided its lawmakers approve plans to usher in carbon-trading by mid-2011.

But China is likely to overtake Sydney as a base for trading carbon futures and other environmental products, as Beijing moves to greener policies, according to industry executives and experts attending a carbon-trading conference on Australia's Gold Coast.

Even Australian carbon banker John Marlow, global head of environmental financial products for Macquarie Group, said many firms would prefer to put staff into China rather than Sydney.

"The question is, where would my headcount be? Sydney has an advantage for me as Macquarie is headquartered there, but if I was coming in blind I would be scratching my head to set up there," Marlow told Reuters on the sidelines of the conference.

"I think in another two or three years you will probably see Hong Kong or Beijing as a hub."

China is already a major international source of carbon offsets -- tradeable credits that are used as a hedge by carbon polluters -- and is destined to play an even bigger role as more and more countries force their polluters to pay for emissions.

Typically, foreign investors plough money into green projects in China, then sell off the carbon offsets that are produced.

Singapore is also seen as a contender to become an Asian hub as it is near and has easy access to these Clean Development Mechanism projects, the main source of Certified Emission Reduction certificates that can used as carbon credits.

It is already a top Asian financial and oil trading hub, which offers complementary infrastructure to carbon trading.

Martijn Wilder, a partner in legal firm Baker & McKenzie, said Australia might use tax incentives to attract firms to set up carbon-trading businesses, but this was unlikely to succeed.

The European Climate Exchange, the world's dominant carbon market, voiced some skepticism on Wednesday about Asian ambitions to develop an international hub, saying the region was an important source of supply for carbon credits but not demand.

Asian centers would continue in Europe's shadow until they developed major cap-and-trade markets in their own right, which was still a way off, European Climate Exchange Chief Executive Patrick Birley told Reuters on the conference sidelines.

"Markets exist where the buyers are, not where the supply side is. Farmers always take their produce to market, the market doesn't come to them," he said.

In terms of cap-and-trade systems, Sydney might even find itself overtaken by Japan if Australia's planned scheme continued to suffer delays and political opposition, Birley added.

Japan's new government wants to introduce a compulsory cap-and-trade system for greenhouse gas emissions as early as the year to March 2012, the Nikkei business daily said last month.

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has outlined a goal to cut such emissions by 25 percent from 1990 levels by 2020.

(Editing by Mark Bendeich)

Hong Kong, Beijing May Become Asia-Pacific Carbon Trading Hubs
Ben Sharples, Bloomberg 28 Oct 09;

Oct. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Hong Kong or Beijing may become the hub for carbon trading in the Asia-Pacific region within the next three years, with Australia needing to pass climate change laws to be a potential contender.

“I think in another two or three years we will see either Hong Kong or Beijing as the hub,” John Marlow, London-based global head of environmental financial products for Macquarie Bank, told the CarbonExpo Australasia conference on Queensland state’s Gold Coast today. Australian states are competing against each other to be the hub, rather than working together, he said.

Governments from around the world will meet in Copenhagen starting Dec. 7 for the final round of talks on a climate accord to replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012. The negotiations are being run by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. Australia’s houses of parliament are expected to vote on domestic carbon legislation by the end of November.

“I think if Australia really wants to be a leader or a hub, then it better get its act together and do something quickly, including passing” the climate change bill, Geoff Sinclair, London-based global head of carbon sales and trading for Standard Bank, said today. Singapore and Hong Kong are working aggressively to become the regional center, he said.

China already has several carbon trading exchanges which have started up, said Mina Guli, Beijing-based vice chairman of Peony Capital. There is involvement from the U.S. to help them grow and expand, she said.

“I think you will see China become increasingly involved in this space,” Guli said.

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Hitting the target and missing the point: Biodiversity

Are biodiversity targets just an excuse for society to destroy portions of a species
over the target amount?
Josie Carwardine, Science Alert 28 Oct 09;

Lots of decisions in life are based on targets, and conservation is no exception. When we want to decide how to invest in saving biodiversity, we set targets like how many populations of each species should be protected in a reserve system; or how many hectares of each vegetation type we should protect from cattle grazing? These targets help to control how we divide our efforts amongst all the features of biodiversity that we care about, and provide us with a benchmark for measuring our achievements.

But can setting a target have bad impacts for biodiversity? Some scientists and conservationists argue that targets give society a license to destroy the proportions of species and habitats that are above a target amount (eg, Soulé & Sanjayan 1998, Woinarski et al. 2007).

So if we set a goal of protecting 30 per cent of each vegetation type, does this mean 70 per cent of it can be destroyed? And to make matters worse, is 30 per cent protected enough to make a difference – is it enough to sustain a species in the first place?

I work in the area of spatial priority setting, and targets are part and parcel of the conservation planning I’m involved in. To me, target-based conservation planning seems like a sensible, practical and transparent approach to protecting biodiversity, but I know it is important to understand the potential limitations of the approach you are working with. Consequently I’m very interested in understanding the strengths and weaknesses of targets as a means of securing the conservation of our precious biodiversity.

Over the last year I’ve been discussing the perceived problems with conservation targets with a group of AEDA researchers including Carissa Klein, Hugh Possingham, Bob Pressey and Kerrie Wilson, and the results of our discussions are now presented in the journal Conservation Letters (Carwardine et al, 2009). In this paper we argue that targets are actually good for conservation, but our communication of them could do with some serious improvement. So, if you’ve ever been in a debate where the value of conservation targets was under question, it wouldn’t hurt to be familiar with the arguments.

Six common concerns

We found six commonly reported ‘limitations’ of targets in conservation planning:

1. setting conservation targets results in perverse outcomes;

2. conservation plans based on targets will be inadequate;

3. conservation plans based on targets will be inflexible and over-ride expert judgement;

4. conservation plans based on targets will be unachievable;

5. the approach fails in intact landscapes; and

6. the approach cannot consider complex factors such as climate change, ecological processes, threats and socioeconomic criteria.

We came to the conclusion that most of these concerns are misconceived, and have arisen from poor communication about the nature and intentions of conservation targets. Consider for example:

1. The concern that targets give license to destroy the untargeted proportions of a feature has arisen through confusion about the role of conservation targets.

Conservation targets are often used to protect minimum amounts of each biodiversity feature in a reserve (eg, Commonwealth of Australia 2005), but they actually say nothing about the remainder of the landscape. Regardless of reserve selection approach, the fate of biodiversity outside reserves must be protected by clearing laws and policies, fishery quotas, and best-practice farming. It is a perverse interpretation of conservation targets to suggest they give license to destroy biodiversity - a bit like saying that nobody should get more than the minimum wage!

2. Concerns that target amounts are inadequate have arisen because we haven’t articulated clearly that targets are sometimes defined by socio-political feasibility, rather than by persistence requirements.

The purpose of socio-political targets – such as protecting 10 per cent to 30 per cent of the historical extent of major vegetation types as recommended by the World Conservation Union – is to ensure equity of protection, where previously ecosystems with value for productive or extraction were overlooked. More “adequate” targets are often set by accounting for factors that affect species persistence. Scientists need to communicate that both types of targets are adaptive, and can be revised with increased biological knowledge and changing social and ecological conditions.

3. We need to make it clearer that the quantitative phase of conservation planning is only one part of the process, so areas known to be important can be picked up by experts.

It is best practice for all quantitative conservation planning tools to be used in conjunction with expert knowledge and intuition, because many elements of biodiversity and socio-ecological systems cannot be captured with available data. Many people have probably been misled on this point because academic examples target-based planning often don’t involve expert input.

4. Ambitious targets are used to represent longerterm objectives in the face of short-term constraints, so it is OK if targets cannot all be achieved at once.

Due to a lack of resources, targets are often unachievable in the short term, but they are useful for influencing policy by highlighting current funding shortfalls. Conservation actions for meeting targets can be scheduled over time, using factors like irreplaceability and threat. While knowledge of the potential availability of conservation areas should be investigated prior to planning to determine the appropriate kinds of conservation actions, maps of the relative importance of areas for meeting targets can help determine whether to carry out an action (eg, purchase for a reserve) in an area if it becomes available in the future.

5. Target-based conservation planning is flexible and can work in all landscapes.

Target-based conservation planning has been used successfully for both intact and fragmented landscapes in both the land and sea. For example, the intact Great Barrier Marine Park was re-zoned using a target-based approach. However, targets may have different implications in different landscapes: In fragmented landscapes most remaining areas of remnant ecosystem plus some restoration may be needed to achieve targets, while in intact landscapes there is more flexibility and scope for accommodating larger targets, biodiversity processes and off-reserve actions.

6. Target-based conservation planning is not limited by complex factors more than by our ability to define and parameterise them.

The concern that target-based conservation planning cannot address complex factors has arisen because developments of the approach are not widely disseminated. Target-based conservation planning is continually evolving to address complex factors such as off-reserve conservation, multiple actions and benefits, ecological processes, climate change, threats, condition, dynamics and socio-economic issues. The main challenges are not in the development of new algorithms, but in defining the problem mathematically and parameterising it with relevant data.

Are there alternatives to target-based conservation planning?

Many proposed alternatives to target-based conservation planning do not solve any kind of quantifiable objective (something that is being maximised or minimised). For example the guiding principles laid out in Woinarski et al. (2007) in their discussion on the conservation of Australia’s north are:

1. The natural environments must be valued recognizing their national and international significance

2. The ecological integrity of the processes that support life must be maintained

3. The population viability of all native species must be protected

4. Thresholds defined by the limits to ecological integrity must be used to assess and guide development options

5. The contributions of all property holders and managers are needed to maintain the North’s natural values.

These are excellent principles for informing quantitative approaches. However, by themselves they are not enough to determine where, when and how to manage for conservation.

Targets are not the only quantitative way to prioritise conservation efforts over multiple biodiversity features. Alternative approaches include maximal covering problems, where the objective is to maximise the utility, or benefit, gained by spending a fixed budget. Figure 1 shows the different ways that target-based and non-target based problems measure the utility of protecting increasing amounts of a feature (Figure 1, Lines A-E).

Continuous utility functions have more biological meaning than target-based utility functions, but targets have some practical advantages for planners and policy-makers. They are simple to convey, politically tractable, and allow whole portfolios of potential conservation areas to be identified.

Most importantly, they provide a clear goal – many conservation planners need to know when their short-term goals have been achieved.



Figure 1: Target-based and alternative utility functions for a single vegetation type. The utility indicates the benefit of protecting increasing amounts of a single vegetation type. In simple target-based approaches, benefit is zero until the entire target – in this case 30 per cent of the extent of the vegetation type – is reached (A). Alternatively, utility is gained incrementally until the target is reached (B). In both A and B no utility is gained beyond the target amount. In continuous (non-target) utility functions some additional benefit is gained from each incremental area protected. The shape can be linear (C), where utility accrues in equal increments until the entire vegetation type is conserved, or can follow diminishing returns (D) or sigmoidal (E) curves.

More info: j.carwardine@qu.edu.auThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
istock_greatbarrierreefsmall.jpg

References

Carwardine J, CJ Klein, HP Possingham, RL Pressey, & KA Wilson (2009). Hitting the target and missing the point: conservation targets in context. Conservation Letters 2, 4-11.

Commonwealth of Australia (2005). Direction for the Australian National Reserve System

Soulé E & MA Sanjayan (1998). Conservation targets: do they help? Science 279, 2060-2061.

Woinarski J, B Mackey, H Nix, & BJ Traill (2007). The Nature of Northern Australia: its natural values, ecology, and future prospects. ANU Electronic Press, Canberra.

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Elephants rampage through Aceh village, destroying houses

The Jakarta Post 28 Oct 09;

A herd of wild elephants entered a village in Geumpang subdistrict, Aceh province recently, damaging three houses and ruining food crops, a local leader said Wednesday.

"For the past week, a herd of about 17 elephants have been rampaging through our village. They have destroyed three houses and they have eaten the rice plants in our fields," a local community chief, M Sabi, told Antara state news agency on Wednesday.

The three damaged houses belonged to Abdullah Saman, Yusri Yusuf and Ibnu Abbas. All three residents, along with their families, have moved to a safer place.

Sabi said, in fact, two villages in Geumpang subdistrict – Gampong Pulo and Bangkeh – had been terrorized by wild elephants for the past two months. They had destroyed the villagers' crops and chased anyone who came in sight.

So far, the authorities, such as the Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA), have taken no action to help the villagers overcome the problem.

"Local residents are now forced to try to drive the elephants away by their own means, like with bamboo cannons. Every night we strike the cannon to create sounds that scare the elephants away," Sabi said.

Material losses from the elephants' rampages have yet to be assessed. However, Muhammad Gapi, a local resident, said people in his area had to buy the carbide, a basic material used to fire up the bamboo cannons, with their own money.

"We have to spend Rp 100,000 [US$10] each night just to buy carbide for the cannons," Gapi said.

Last September, there was an elephant attack in Pauh Ranap village, Riau province, which killed one villager and injured another.

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To protect penguins, protect krill: marine experts

Deborah Zabarenko, Reuters 28 Oct 09;

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - To protect penguins on the rapidly warming Antarctic peninsula, regulators need to ensure the survival of shrimp-like krill, the base of the food chain at the bottom of the world, marine experts said on Wednesday.

Whales and seals also depend on krill for food, the experts said in a telephone news briefing.

The numbers of Chinstrap and Adelie penguins are declining steeply along the Antarctic peninsula, the part of the southern continent that stretches northward toward South America.

This is the most dramatically warming place on the planet and a location where huge miles-wide swarms of krill historically congregated, according to Wayne Trivelpiece, a penguin expert at the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Krill need winter ice to survive but because of rising temperatures on the peninsula and in the waters that surround it, the area is ice-free for about four months each year, Trivelpiece said. Probably as a result, he said, winter stocks of krill have declined 80 percent in the past 20 years.

Prized as a component of fish food and nutritional supplements for people, krill are commercially harvested by factory trawlers, and the annual catch of this species rose in 2008 to 150,000 tons, from about 100,000 tons in 2007, according to the Pew Environmental Group.

To protect krill and the Antarctic sea creatures that depend on them, the Pew Environmental Group urged regulators now meeting in Tasmania to require fishing vessels to spread out geographically and over time in the southern ocean.

"This would prevent the concentration of the fisher from significantly reducing the amount of krill available for key predators, including whales, penguins and seals," the group said in a statement.

The Antarctic krill fishery is regulated by the Commission of the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources, a group of 25 countries now meeting in Hobart, Tasmania.

The commission already has recognized that the current catch limits will not protect krill or its marine animal predators because the limits cover large swaths of ocean and do little to guard against concentrated krill fishing in small areas, the Pew statement said.

(Editing by Bill Trott)

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UK rare birds 'faring better' than common ones

BBC 28 Oct 09;

Rare birds in the UK have been faring far better than their more common counterparts over the last decade, according to a new assessment.

The research shows almost 60% of the 63 rare birds that breed in the UK have increased over the last 10 years.

By contrast, only about one third of common species have increased over the same period.

Just 28% of rare birds have decreased over the same period, compared with four out of every 10 common birds.

The rare birds described in the assessment with increasing populations include the osprey, corncrake, avocet, cirl bunting and stone-curlew. All of these birds are subject to conservation action.

The declining common birds include the linnet, nightingale, swift, guillemot, starling, house sparrow and red grouse. These are suffering declines for a variety of reasons, including changes in farming practices.

Dr David Noble, from the British Trust for Ornithology, said: "That some of our rarer birds have responded to targeted conservation action is great news. It shows just what can be achieved.

"What we need to do now is to continue the good work and use some of the lessons we have learned to help our more common birds."

Dr Mark Avery, the RSPB's conservation director, said: "Over the last decade we've enjoyed some cracking conservation successes, including removing some threatened species from the Red List and increasing the populations of red kite, bittern, avocet, osprey, stone-curlew and cirl bunting.

"However, these triumphs are countered by continued declines of some widespread species, like the skylark, kestrel, willow warbler and grey partridge."

The overview of 210 native breeding birds has been produced by a coalition of conservation organisations, to mark the publication of the State of the UK's Birds report, which is in its 10th year.

The report is published by the RSPB for a coalition of conservation organisations.

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Promise of sex may save orchid

University of Western Australia, Science Alert 29 Oct 09;

A team of researchers from The University of Western Australia, Kings Park and Botanic Garden (KPBG) and the Australian National University is racing the clock to save an orchid unique to Western Australia’s south-west.

One of the nine species of Drakaea orchid is already extinct and others are endangered – and scientists are battling to save it, along with its specially adapted pollinator, the Zaspilothynnus wasp.

In a bizarre interaction, Drakaea orchids have evolved to look and smell more like female insects than plants. By offering male wasps the false promise of sex, the orchid is pollinated without having to produce ‘costly’ food as a lure for pollinators, as most plants do.

Each of the orchid species, which are different sizes, has its own amorous wasp species. Each orchid also has its own chemical brew with which to attract the corresponding wasp. And the difference between specific sexual pheromones, which comprise compounds new to science, can be as little as two hydrogen atoms.

The UWA team includes, from the School of Chemistry, Professor Emilio Ghisalberti and Dr Gavin Flematti, who identified karrikins, a family of compounds that stimulates seed germination in many plants.

ANU Professor Rod Peakall, a UWA Botany graduate, explained the orchids have everything to gain from the wasps’ misguided attempts at love-making and the wasps nothing.

By identifying the compounds involved in ensuring the orchids’ pollination – and knowing how to attract the vital pollinators – the team hopes to preserve the remaining Drakaea species.

UWA’s Professor Kingsley Dixon, also the Director, Science, KPBG, said a lack of knowledge about the importance of pollination in restoring native ecosystems was threatening the successful restoration of global biodiversity hotspots, one of which is the orchids’ habitat.

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Plastics, nails found inside dead whale shark in Manila Bay

Plastics, nails found inside ‘butanding’
Tina Santos, Alcuin Papa Philippine Daily Inquirer 29 Oct 09;

MANILA, Philippines—Plastic products and nails were found in the stomach of a dead female whale shark that fishermen found early Wednesday morning near the Manila Bay breakwater just a stone’s throw from the Manila Yacht Club.

These were the initial findings of a necropsy performed Wednesday afternoon on the whale shark (popularly known in the country as butanding), said Theresa Mundita Lim, director of the Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau.

Lim said her office would conduct laboratory tests and analysis on the blood and tissue of the fish to see if it was poisoned. The results would be available in two weeks.

The whale shark (Rhincodon typus), estimated to be at least 2 years old, was 17 ½-feet (5.2 meters) long and weighed more than a ton.

Eyes gouged out

Greg Yan, information officer of the World Wide Fund for Nature-Philippines (WWF-Philippines), said his group had named the whale shark “Bulag” (blind) after discovering strange injuries to both its eyes.

“The eyes were virtually gouged out,” he told the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

Yan said the whale shark was the third large sea creature to have died in Manila Bay in the past three years. In December 2008, the lifeless body of a baleen whale was found floating beside a passenger ship moored in Manila Bay. In August 2007, another baleen whale carcass was found floating at the mouth of the bay.

Joggers startled

The discovery of a dying whale shark near the Cultural Center of the Philippines startled joggers who frequented the area and caused heavy traffic on the south-bound lane of Roxas Boulevard as motorists slowed.

Melchor Cariño, a fisherman in the area, said he and three of his colleagues were about to go fishing when they saw the whale shark, which they initially mistook as a log.

“It appeared very weak, it was already floating on its side so we decided to tie a rope around it then towed it toward the shore so rescuers can revive it. But it died on our way to the shore,” Cariño said in Filipino.

He said that while he and the others were towing the whale shark, a fish which was about 2-feet long, was seen hovering around as if following them. It left eventually, Cariño said.

He said it took his group almost two hours towing the whale shark to the shore near the Manila Yacht Club.

“It was so heavy,” he said, adding he was surprised at his rare find. “It was my first time to see a fish as huge as that.”

Spotted couple of times

But another fisherman, Atom Hara, claimed to have seen the whale shark on the same spot a couple of times before.

“I saw it in the same area last Monday. But prior to that, I saw it hovering around a docked ship, as if it was playing,” Hara said.

Once on shore, Cariño said he immediately went to report the incident to a radio station located at the nearby Cultural Center of the Philippines.

The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG), informed of the find, towed the whale shark to their headquarters and called the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR).

Pollution

Edwin Alesna, chief of the fisheries, quarantine and wildlife regulations section of BFAR, said his office was looking at pollution in the bay as one of the possible causes of death of the whale shark.

“We have to conduct a necropsy to determine what really caused its death,” Alesna said. “We have to dissect its tummy to see if it was able to swallow trash, like plastics or heavy metals, which eventually caused its death,” he added.

Manila Bay is considered one of the most polluted bodies of water in the country.

City workers of Manila regularly haul off truckloads of refuse, consisting mostly of bamboo, wooden planks, food wrappers and drink containers, pieces of rubber and styrofoam from the bay.

“Unfortunately, we are the catch basin (of garbage). Manila is low lying, and trash from other cities accumulate here,” a city official said in previous interviews.

Alesna said it was also likely that the whale shark surfaced at the shallow part of Manila Bay because it was not feeling well or it was looking for food.

“The presence of whale sharks could indicate the return of a strong food base. The whale shark was probably attracted to the plankton abundant in the area. They go where their food is,” the BFAR official added.

Alesna said the whale shark was not a victim of a boat strike as no external injury was found on its body.

“It had superficial bruises, which could have been caused by the towing, but it had no external injury,” he said.

The whale shark will be buried at the bureau’s graveyard for marine animals in Dagupan, Pangasinan.

Climate change

Lim said she had been directed by Environment Secretary Lito Atienza to test the quality of water at Manila Bay.

“He wants a check at the quality of water Wednesday and Thursday to determine if it or the pollution of Manila Bay had an effect on the death of the whale shark,” Lim said.

“We’re also looking if its death was climate change-induced. We’re looking at trends because out-of-habitat sightings of marine animals could be an indication of the effect of the impending climate change,” she said.

More sightings

Whale sharks have been known to aggregate in Donsol, Sorsogon. But BFAR officials and the environment group World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) said more and more sightings of the giant fish are being reported in Batangas and Quezon.

She said this was the first time a whale shark was sighted in Manila Bay.

“Scenarios like beaching of whales are called out-of-habitat sightings. These are signs of climate change,” Lim said.

She said changes in sea temperature and water currents could be adversely affecting marine animals, leading them to erratic behavior like beaching.

Krill, plankton

Lim said it was likely the female whale shark followed krill and plankton, its primary food, until it wandered into Manila Bay.

“We have been noticing a high number of krill and plankton in Manila Tuesday and Wednesday,” Lim said.

Whale sharks are classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as “vulnerable” to extinction and are protected by Philippine law under Republic Act No. 8550 and Fisheries Administrative Order No. 193.

Since 1998, WWF has been spearheading whale shark conservation in the Philippines, working closely with coastal communities and the local government of Donsol in an ecotourism package to protect the whale sharks.

The biggest fish in the ocean
Philippine Daily Inquirer 29 Oct 09;

MANILA, Philippines—Whale sharks (rhincodon typus), popularly known in the country as butanding, are the biggest fish in the ocean. Contrary to popular belief, the butanding is not a whale.

Butandings measure up to 20 meters long and weigh up to 34 tons, but they are not dangerous to humans. Because they are usually indifferent to divers and because they swim slowly (no more than 5 kilometers per hour), they are top draws in the marine ecotourism program of the Philippines.

The generally solitary creatures are found in tropical and warm temperate seas. They have a wide, flat head with a wide mouth in front, a rounded snout, small eyes, five large gill slits and three ridges running along each side of the body. They have distinctive light markings on their dark gray skin.

Whale sharks spend most of their day feeding on plankton, krill, small fish and squid near the water surface. They have about 27,000 very tiny teeth but these are rarely used in feeding.

Butandings reach sexual maturity at 30 years old. It is speculated that they can live up to a century.

High risk of extinction

The International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources has classified whale sharks as vulnerable species, meaning they face high risk of extinction in the wild in the medium-term future.

Whale sharks have been legally protected in the Philippines since 1998, when the Philippine Fisheries Code (Republic Act No. 8550) was passed. The law bans the fishing or taking of rare, threatened or endangered species like whales sharks. Violators face imprisonment of 12 to 20 years and a P120,000 fine.

In September 2006, a female butanding caught in a fishing net in Sangay, Camarines Sur, was hacked with a bolo by a local before shocked onlookers. It died six hours later.

In the past few years, a number of butandings have been trapped in fish nets in the provinces of Albay, Batangas and Quezon. These were later released back to the sea.

A young butanding beached along the shoreline in Batangas City in November 2007 was not as lucky. Village people suspected the whale shark had been smashed by waves against rocks, leading to its death.

In March, a 15-inch-long butanding, considered by nature conservation group WWF-Philippines the smallest whale shark rescued in the country, was found in Sorsogon. It was released back into the sea. Cyril L. Bonabente, Inquirer Research

Sources: marinebio.org, www.iucnredlist.org, www.lawphil.net, Inquirer Archives

INQUIRER/REM ZAMORA

JONJON VICENCIO

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Dining Out In An Ocean Of Plastic: How Foraging Albatrosses Put Plastic On The Menu

ScienceDaily 27 Oct 09;

The North Pacific Ocean is now commonly referred to as the world's largest garbage dump with an area the size of the continental United States covered in plastic debris. The highly mobile Laysan albatross (Phoebastria immutabilis), which forages throughout the North Pacific, is quickly becoming the poster child for the effects of plastic ingestion on marine animals due to their tendency to ingest large amounts of plastic.

Reporting in the open-access journal PLoS One, Dr. Lindsay Young of the University of Hawaii and her colleagues examined whether Laysan albatrosses nesting on Kure Atoll and Oahu, Hawaii, 2,150 km away, ingested different amounts of plastic by putting miniaturized tracking devices on birds to follow them at sea and examining their regurgitated stomach contents.

Surprisingly, birds from Kure Atoll ingested almost ten times the amount of plastic compared to birds from Oahu.

Data from the tracking devices revealed that the birds were distributed over separate areas of the North Pacific during the breeding season and that birds from Kure overlapped considerably with the area of the 'western garbage patch' off of Asia which resulted in their greatly increased plastic ingestion.

"We were very surprised with the results," indicates lead author Lindsay Young. "We suspected that there may be some differences in the amount of plastic that was ingested, but to discover that birds on Kure Atoll ingested ten times the amount of plastic compared to birds on Oahu was shocking. Particularly since the colony on Oahu is less than an hour outside of urban Honolulu, and is much closer to the garbage patch in the Eastern Pacific between Hawaii and California that has received so much attention."

Young indicates that these results were further supported when the plastic items were examined -- virtually all of the plastic pieces recovered from birds on Kure Atoll had Asian characters on them indicating their likely origin, while none of the plastic pieces found in birds on Oahu had similar writing.

While sorting through the polluted stomach contents of albatross chicks was not a particularly pleasant task, the authors found humor in the situation. "We were sorting through these boluses right after Christmas, and there were so many small plastic toys in the birds from Kure Atoll that we joked that we could have assembled a complete nativity scene with them," says Young.

The most common identifiable items they found were paraphernalia from the fishing industry such as line, light sticks, oyster spacers, and lighters. The strangest item that they found? A sealed jar of face lotion with fresh smelling lotion still intact inside the jar. Unfortunately, while the albatross examined in this study were able to purge themselves of the plastic by regurgitating it, thousands of albatross die each year as a result of ingesting plastic debris. Plastic ingestion leads to blockage of the digestive tract, reduced food consumption, satiation of hunger, and potential exposure to toxic compounds to name but a few of its detrimental effects.

This study highlights that garbage generated by human activities on land clearly impacts ocean ecosystems thousands of miles away. And unfortunately there is no easy solution- each person must examine their footprint on the earth and how the lighter or bottle cap they toss into the trash can ultimately end up in the stomach of an albatross, thousands of miles away. Until we learn to do more with less, albatross and other marine animals will continue to dine on our garbage with as of yet unknown consequences.

Funding: LCY was funded by the Hawaii Conservation Alliance, the University of Hawaii Department of Zoology Jessie Kay Fellowship, and several Ecology, Evolution and Conservation Biology research awards as part of NSF grant DGE02-32016 to K.Y. Kaneshiro. SAS was supported in part by grants to the Tagging of Pacific Pelagics (TOPP) program from the Alfred P. Sloan, Gordon and Betty Moore, and David and Lucile Packard Foundations. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

High-Junk Diet
Some seabirds are eating much more plastic than others
Journal Watch Online 29 Oct 09;

The problem is a familiar one: birds are gobbling plastic trash from the ocean and feeding it to their chicks. But the amount of plastic ingested can vary drastically between seabird colonies, researchers report in PLoS ONE.

The team tracked adult Laysan albatrosses from the Kure Atoll and Oahu colonies, located more than 2,000 kilometers apart in the Hawaiian islands, and examined boluses regurgitated by each colony’s chicks. The Kure albatrosses foraged over the Western Garbage Patch, a huge swath of plastic floating near Japan, and their chicks received nearly 10 times more plastic than the Oahu chicks, the researchers found.

Although the Oahu colony is located near a similar plastic-filled area called the Eastern Garbage Patch, the birds largely avoided foraging there. It’s possible that the Oahu albatrosses can be more choosy about their food, the team says, because their colony contains only 75 pairs of birds. The Kure colony, on the other hand, has 3,900 pairs and may be competing for resources with birds from nearby Midway Atoll.

Much of the plastic eaten by the Kure birds is probably coming from Asia, says study leader Lindsay Young of Pacific Rim Conservation. While the Eastern Garbage Patch has gotten considerable attention, the team writes, the Western patch may be equally damaging. “We shouldn’t ignore it,” says Young. – Roberta Kwok

Source: Young, L., Vanderlip, C., Duffy, D., Afanasyev, V., & Shaffer, S. (2009). Bringing Home the Trash: Do Colony-Based Differences in Foraging Distribution Lead to Increased Plastic Ingestion in Laysan Albatrosses? PLoS ONE, 4 (10) DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0007623

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The true cost of cheap Christmas presents

Up to 80% of the world's toys are made in China - often by children. But there are beautiful and affordable alternatives
The Guardian 29 Oct 09;

With the festive countdown underway, the Toy Retailers Association has just released its "dream toys" list of this year's must-have Christmas gifts for kids, which they say won't break the bank

However, according to research recently carried out by Ethical Consumer magazine where I work, the price of many of these toys fail to reflect the hidden environmental and social costs of their production.

Take Hasbro. Its Transformer toys are made with PVC, a plastic that has come under fire from campaigners for its alleged carcinogenic properties and the dangerous byproducts, such as mercury, produced during its manufacture.

The campaigning organisation Centre for Health Environment and Justice says of PVC: "It is useless without the addition of a plethora of toxic additives including phthalates. These chemicals can evaporate or leach out of PVC, posing risks to children."

Hasbro defends the use of PVC, saying it has "carefully considered the science and believe that toys made from PVC and softened with phthalates pose no risk to children".

The EU attempted to remedy the situation in 2005 when it banned certain additives, but many still remain. In contrast to Hasbro, Lego – also on its Christmas list – banned the use of PVC in its products in 2003.

Hasbro has also been challenged over human rights abuses in its Chinese supplier factories. Up to 80% of the world's toys are made in China, where human rights are often overlooked. The report "Nightmare on Sesame Street" by the US-based National Labour Committee last year highlighted many of these problems.

It found that in the Kai Da factory in Shenzhen city, which supplies Hasbro, a hundred 16-year-old high-school children and several younger children were working. Conditions in the factory were said to be dangerous, with potentially toxic solvents and paints routinely handled by workers with only rudimentary protective gear. Shifts were allegedly routinely over 12 hours long, seven days a week, with no days off for many months, plus mandatory 19- and 23-hour shifts at busy times such as the pre-Christmas rush. Workers were also reported to be docked wages for room and board, leaving them receiving only 28 cents an hour. Little wonder, then, that Hasbro toys won't break the bank.

There are ethical alternatives. German manufacturer Holz Toys only uses European factories where labour rights are guaranteed while all its wooden products come from FSC-certified and sustainable forests. Maya Organic, which also produces wooden toys, is an umbrella organisation providing training, marketing and other support to a range of small worker-owned cooperatives in Karnataka, India and was established with the aim of alleviating poverty and empowering workers. Its toys are made from local wood, which is harvested by cutting branches rather than felling whole trees. Distributors include Greenshop.co.uk and Littlegreenagels.com.

Not all ethical toys are made of wood. The market has recently grown and a much wider range is now available – everything from recycled board games to science kits with an environmental theme can be found online.

The price of the toys produced by Holz, Maya Organic and other ethically-minded companies better reflects the true environmental and social costs of production. A quick glance at their websites reveals that their toys won't break the bank either.

• Tim Hunt is a researcher and writer at Ethical Consumer magazine

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