Crocodile seen @ Sungei Buloh
from The Green Volunteers
White-bellied Sea Eagle regurgitating fishing line?
from Bird Ecology Study Group
No Surprise @ Mount Faber Park
from Beauty of Fauna and Flora in Nature
Chek Jawa at high tide: animals
from wild shores of singapore and the colourful forest too
Housewife upset after foliage cleared for MRT site office; LTA to minimise tree removal
Shuli Sudderuddin, Straits Times 29 Nov 09;
Horrified to discover that the vegetation next to her condominium in Bukit Timah was being cleared, Ms Ginny Leow-Guerville launched a one-man mission to save it.
The 40-year-old housewife, who lives in The Sterling condo, woke up on Nov 21 to see birds flying wildly outside her seventh-floor window. She also heard the sound of chainsaws.
'We could see several workmen cutting down the foliage very rapidly in the forest from my windows over the weekend. My daughter and I got very upset,' said the former private banker.
Her family had moved into The Sterling a few months ago because of the greenery.
'We can observe several kinds of birds, spot squirrels on the trees, see monitor lizards sunning themselves and enjoy the sounds of the forest at night,' she said.
The Land Transport Authority (LTA) is having the area cleared for a site office for the King Albert Park MRT station, which is being built.
The station is part of the Downtown Line Stage 2, which is expected to be completed in 2015.
The vegetation being cleared is on state land next to the condo's perimeter wall.
Ms Leow- Guerville contacted the condo's management and a meeting with the LTA was arranged on Nov 23.
Said Mr Adrian Tan, 60, chairman of the condo's management committee: 'We wanted to ask them why they were cutting down the foliage without discussing it with us, and ask them if they could work around the forested area.
'We're also worried about the dust and noise that will be created if the trees are cut down. Without this buffer, it will be like the construction site is just outside your window.'
At the meeting, Ms Leow-Guerville, a couple of other residents and the management committee raised their concerns.
The LTA told them that it would look into the matter.
A spokesman told The Sunday Times that the LTA and other authorities have not carried out any massive clearing of undergrowth or cut any trees in the area.
Only 'minimal clearing of shrubs and bushes' was done to allow its contractor to do preliminary assessments of the place to build the station and site office, the spokesman said.
She added that the LTA was working with the relevant agencies to realign the site layout to minimise the removal of trees.
When The Sunday Times checked with the agencies involved, they could not confirm how many trees would be removed.
The Sterling management committee will meet tomorrow to discuss LTA's proposal to minimise the removal of trees.
Ms Leow-Guerville's efforts have drawn praise from fellow residents like Ms Elaine Phung. The 38-year-old financial consultant said: 'I'm very disappointed. I really appreciate nature and I don't understand why the LTA cannot consider another place.'
But Mr Kenneth Kwok, 43, a research scientist, takes a more pragmatic approach.
'I know that there must be a balance between conservation and development in today's world, but I still think that the authorities should make conservation a priority in the decisions that they make,' he said.
Ms Leow-Guerville is hoping for the best.
As she said: 'Every mature tree counts. Even though these trees do not have an economic value, they have an ecological value.'
Related article
Havoc on trees, animals: LTA must do more to save our rainforest Letter from Ginny Leow-Guerville, Today Online 23 Nov 09;
Green project in Shandong will feature creative industries in a Confucian-themed city
Grace Ng, Straits Times 29 Nov 09;
Jinan - Singapore is one step closer to creating a 'cultural eco-city' centred on the hometowns of Confucius and Mencius, two of China's greatest philosophers.
It will be located on a 27 sq km site in Qufu, Shandong province, close to cultural attractions such as the famed Confucius Temple - second in size only to the Forbidden City - and the birthplace of Mencius, as well as the tombs of Han Dynasty emperors.
Under a pact inked by the Singapore and Chinese authorities yesterday, the city is envisioned to feature creative industries related to design, film-making and video games. The tourism and entertainment sectors would also be developed, including theme parks and conventions on Confucian teachings.
In line with its name, the eco-city will have environmentally friendly features like energy-efficient buildings and transportation. Singapore companies will be invited to participate in the project.
Well-known Singapore architect Liu Thai Ker, director of RSP Architects Planners and Engineers, signed the agreement with the local government to start developing the masterplan for Qufu. He noted that the eco-city will be located near a station along the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway, which will be ready after 2013: 'This is an opportune time...to do a proper plan for the city so that it can meet the high international standards...(and) enjoy the same kind of status as other famous cultural cities such as Athens and Jerusalem.'
The pact was signed on the sidelines of the 14th Singapore-Shandong Business Council (SSBC) meeting in Shandong's capital city of Jinan.
Minister of State for Trade and Industry and Manpower Lee Yi Shyan, who was on the first day of a two-day trip to Shandong with a 40-strong business delegation, co-chaired the meeting with Shandong Vice-Governor Cai Limin. Mr Lee noted that Shandong is seeking more investments from Singapore in various areas, including tourism and green energy.
Singapore was the third-largest investor in Shandong last year with US$810 million (S$1.12 billion) worth of projects - an 88 per cent rise from the previous year.
Singapore is also building an eco-city in the northern port city of Tianjin. However, the one in Qufu is Singapore's first green project with a cultural theme in China.
While Mr Liu estimated that it may take 50 to 70 years to build a Confucian-themed city of international stature, Shandong's growing tourism and cultural sectors offer no lack of opportunities for Singapore companies. For instance, Prime International - a pig farmer turned supermarket operator - is embarking on a 2 sq km, $100 million project featuring a golf course and a winery near the Penglai economic development zone.
Two other Singapore companies sealed deals with Shandong partners yesterday: Luye Pharmaceutical will co-develop and operate a bioscience park with the Yantai authorities, while the Singapore Food Manufacturers Association will partner the Rushan foreign trade bureau in food sourcing and trade promotion.
Ary Adji, Jakarta Globe 28 Nov 09;
Hikayah Esia steps out of her car and her two children quickly join her at the vehicle’s trunk. Large plastic bags, containing everything from used coffee packets to a broken printer, are lifted out and placed on a desk that has a scale sitting on it. Behind the desk a girl welcomes the visitors to Bank Sampah, or the Garbage Bank.
Hikayah says she drives 10 kilometers from her home to deposit the garbage bags at Bank Sampah, located on Jalan Urip Sumohardjo in Bantul, Yogyakarta, because she knows the trip will be worth her trouble.
“I’ve been doing this for a month now,” said Hikayah, who works for a state university in Yogyakarta. Yuni, the girl behind the desk, weighs the garbage, logs the entry in a book and issues a receipt.
“The garbage is first recycled and then used to make products. Once the products are sold, part of the money goes to the client and part to the bank,” Yuni said.
Clients receive different percentages of the money depending on the kind of garbage they drop at the bank. Plastic packaging for detergent, foods and beverages is recycled and converted by a group of housewives into purses and shopping bags for sale. The proceeds are distributed equally between the client who dropped the garbage at the bank, those who recycled it and turned it into products and the bank.
“We offer full disclosure on how much we make from the processed waste,” Yuni said.
The money is normally distributed after two months, once the recycling process is completed.
“The client simply has to show the receipt indicating how much garbage they dropped off,” Yuni said.
Bank Sampah opened in February 2008 in response to health and safety concerns over the growing amount of refuse in the community and fears over the spread of dengue fever.
Residents of 12 neighborhood units in Bantul established the sanitation workshop led by Bambang Suwirda, who is a health lecturer in Yogyakarta.
The workshop was divided into units focusing on differing kinds of refuse. Three months later, the bank became fully operational. Located at a house that was destroyed in the 2006 earthquake, the facility does not have rooms like a regular bank.
Instead there are open spaces, some used for serving clients and others where carts and bags are stacked. The warehouse at the back of the house is where garbage bags are stored.
For a location dedicated to the collection of trash, Bank Sampah is remarkably clean. There is a desk with a scale for weighing garbage, plus benches where customers can wait to be served.
“We want to create a healthy neighborhood and convert garbage into valuable products,” said the bank’s director, Panut Susanto.
But it wasn’t easy to convince people that garbage could be turned into money.
“Initially we campaigned in village meetings, and with posters,” Panut said, adding that he and other founders had to pay for the organization’s overhead costs from their own pockets.
The bank, which opens on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., is manned by volunteers. Residents take turns recording, weighing and processing the garbage dropped at the center.
Every two weeks, the center collects 500 kilograms of garbage, most of which is paper and plastic bottles.
“That is bought by waste-processing companies that work with us. They pick up the garbage themselves,” said Panut. “Other kinds of waste we process ourselves.”
The center also processes powdered drink sachets, detergent and fabric softener packaging, and similar kinds of waste, which Panut said went to a group of housewives.
“They wash and sort them, then sew them into purses. A bag sells for Rp 30,000 [$3.20]. The bags are collected by vendors who come here,” he said. The housewives are paid a third of the proceeds of the bag sales.
“We’re developing a number of product designs and recruiting more housewives,” Panut said.
Polystyrene waste is mixed with cement and sand and molded into flagpole stands and planters.
The bank earns Rp 300,000 every month, taking in a total of Rp 2 million in capital since it started, an amount too small to justify paying salaries
Though the bank barely makes any money, interest is beginning to grow. There are now 12 garbage drop points in the area, where drums are provided for people to deposit bags of rubbish. A bank staffer goes around to collect the bags.
Bank Sampah has also begun accepting old car batteries, and within months will have its own building. Proof that garbage can be turned into money.
The Jakarta Post 28 Nov 09;
PEKANBARU: A group of wild elephants have demolished hectares of plantations of palm oil and rubber and paddy fields in Pekan Tebih village, Kepenuhan Hulu district, Rokan Hulu regency, Riau province in the past three months, an official said Friday.
The district chief Damri Poti revealed that the elephants have destroyed 10 hectares of the plantations, including two hectares of paddy fields.
"No residents dare to attempt to disperse the elephants as they are protected animals," Damri said.
He said the regency's forestry and plantation agency had deployed forest rangers to the village but had found nothing as the elephants had gone.
To prevent the elephants' destruction, Damri said the residents were staying awake at night and making bonfires around the village.
The regency's rangers chief Idris admitted that the rangers were overwhelmed by the elephants as they would come again and again.
"The village located in a thoroughfare for elephants. The only way to tackle the problem is to catch the elephants and place them in a training center,"Idris said.
He said placing the elephants in the center would require a lot of money since sheltering an elephant cost about Rp 25 million (US$2,500). - JP
Paul J. Weber, Associated Press Yahoo News 28 Nov 09;
SAN ANTONIO – Naked mole rats don't get cancer. They shrug off brushes with acid and age so well, some are older than the college-aged researchers handling them.
"They really are from Mars, I think," said Thomas Park, a professor of biological sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Actually, they're from the horn of Africa. But naked mole rats are becoming more popular in research laboratories, where the seemingly invulnerable rodents have surprised scientists with their ability to live up to 30 years and their potential to offer insights into human health. They're being used to study everything from aging to cancer to strokes.
About 1,500 naked mole rats live in clear tanks connected by long tubes at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, where researcher Rochelle Buffenstein nurtures the largest colony in the U.S. At least a half-dozen other universities also have colonies.
Nearly blind and hairless, the rodents resemble wrinkled spring rolls with tiny legs and buck teeth. They normally live in underground tunnels with a social structure comparable to bees. Buffenstein is studying their longevity.
Whereas laboratory mice live an average two years, naked mole rats can live up 30 years with little creaking in old age. Buffenstein said their bone quality doesn't start to diminish until they're about 24 years old.
They look fragile — several can fit into a palm, and it's possible to see beneath their pinkish skin — but naked mole rats are like tough, tube-shaped stuntmen.
Squirting lemon juice on a cut would sting anyone, but Park said naked mole rats don't feel pain because they lack a neurotransmitter known as substance P. The discovery has opened up ideas for pain research.
Park and researcher John Larson report in next month's journal NeuroReport that the brains of adult naked mole rats can withstand oxygen depravation for a half-hour or more. That knowledge could eventually help in stroke research, Park said.
Cancer? Buffenstein said the disease has never been found in the rodent.
A study published in October found their resistance may come from a gene called p16 that prevents cells from crowding together. Cancer occurs when cells grow uncontrollably.
Vera Gorbunova, an associate professor of biology at the University of Rochester who published the findings, said she hopes to have her own colony of mole rats to study by next summer.
"We shouldn't just be looking where it's easy to look," Gorbunova said. "We should be looking in species where we can find something ... instead of studying mice, which live relatively short lives."
As recently as the 1990s, Buffenstein said only she and one other group were really studying naked mole rats. Now she expects them to be common in laboratories by 2020.
"It takes time for people to realize that an animal has got a lot going for it," Buffenstein said.
* China approves pest-resistant Bt strain as safe
* Large scale production could start in 2-3 years
* China also approved first GMO strain of corn (Adds background, detail, quotes)
Niu Shuping and Tom Miles, Reuters 27 Nov 09;
BEIJING, Nov 27 (Reuters) - China has approved its first strain of genetically modified rice for commercial production, two scientists involved in the approval process told Reuters on Friday, potentially easing the way for other major producers to adopt the controversial technology.
The approval of the locally-developed rice, as well as China's first GMO corn, shifts the global balance of power in food trade and could prompt other countries to follow suit, experts said.
It will also enable China, the world's top producer and consumer of rice, to grow more of its staple food amid shrinking land and water resources.
The Chinese Ministry of Agriculture's Biosafety Committee issued biosafety certificates to pest-resistant Bt rice, two committee members told Reuters on Friday, with large-scale production to start in 2-3 years.
"We expect that with the Chinese approval of Bt rice it will be much easier for other countries to do this," said Robert Zeigler, director general at the Philippines-based International Rice Research Institute, which is developing a number of GMO strains of rice.
But Greenpeace called the move a "dangerous genetic experiment" and said it had previously exposed illegal cases of genetically engineered (GE) rice in China.
"If the Ministry of Agriculture cannot even control the illegal cultivation of GE rice, how can they manage the risks of large scale cultivation?" Lorena Luo, Greenpeace's food and agriculture campaigner in China, asked in an emailed statement.
China, which wants to raise grain production 8 percent to 540 million tonnes a year by 2020, has splashed out on GMO research, with $3.5 billion going on rice, corn and wheat. [ID:nPEK321208]
The phytase corn was also locally developed by China's Academy of Agricultural Science and Nadaq-listed Origin Agritech Ltd which has seen its share price double since shareholders were notified of the approval on Saturday.
Phytase corn will help pigs digest more phosphorus, enhancing growth and reducing pollution from animal waste and fertiliser runoff.
The rice and corn strains are China's first GMO grains approved for commercial production, although it already permits GMO papaya, cotton and tomatoes.
The strains still need to undergo registration and production trials before commercial production can begin in restricted areas, which may take 2-3 years, the scientists said.
The scientists declined to be identified as the government has not officially published the information. Officials at the Agricultural Ministry's biosafety office declined to comment.
"According to our sources, our information is yes, there was a meeting of the Biosafety Committe on GE rice and corn and the meeting has granted certification," said Greenpeace's Luo.
"NO FEAR OF SHORTAGE"
China is the world's top producer of rice, growing 60 million tonnes in the 12 months to October, but it exports only around 50,000 tonnes a month as most is consumed domestically.
"China is trying to ensure food security for its people and it will show a direction to many countries, such as India, that this is one of the ways of increasing productivity and ensuring adequate food supplies," said one Singapore-based rice trader with an international trading company.
For a graphic showing China's rice output, please click: here
Exports of GMO rice would be likely to face tough scrutiny abroad. Most of China's rice exports go to South Korea and West Africa, although there are buyers globally, including the United States, South America and Europe. China exports much more rice in prepared food, such as rice pasta or baby food.
The European Union's executive body, the European Commission, said in July that China needed to tighten export controls on rice products because shipments might contain traces of the Bt-63 strain, which is not authorised in the European Union.
While China is not yet growing GMO rice commercially, there are numerous field trials going on around the country.
Bt rice, developed by Huazhong Agricultural University, would help reduce the use of pesticide by 80 percent while raising yields by as much as 8 percent, said Huang Jikun, the chief scientist with the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
"We believe more genetically-modified technology will be used in agriculture production in future to increase production and reduce inputs," said Huang.
The IRRI's Zeigler said India and Iran were also developing Bt rice and the Philippines could approve the IRRI-developed Vitamin A-enriched GM Golden Rice by late 2011 or early 2012.
The advent of commercial GMO production in China could affect global prices for rice, which rocketed in early 2008, sparking fears that the bedrock of Asian cuisine might be in short supply.
"This news signals that there will be no fear of food shortage as we can produce as much as we want and China itself will not have to import any more," said Kiattisak Kanlayasirivat of Thailand's Novel Agritrade Co Ltd.
"Prices of white rice would get back to $200-$300 per tonne again and supply should rise significantly," he said.
Benchmark 100 percent B grade white rice RI-THWHB-P1 in Thailand, the world's top exporter and supplier of almost all of China's imports, was quoted at $565 per tonne this week.
But lower prices could also slow the spread of GMO rice.
"Suppose rice prices remain low in the next few years, countries will be reluctant to take in technology if they have some concerns about it," said Samarendu Mohanty, a senior economist at IRRI.
"If rice prices remain high, then countries will be more willing to consider Bt or any other technology to boost production," he said. "So the market has a role to play."
(Additional reporting by Manolo Serapio in MANILA, Naveen Thukral in SINGAPORE and Apornrath Phoonphongphiphat in BANGKOK; Editing by Michael Urquhart)
China's OK on GMO rice, corn seen boosting yields
Allison Jackson Yahoo News 2 Dec 09;
BEIJING (AFP) – China has approved genetically modified strains of rice and corn in a move experts say could dramatically boost crop yields and help the world's most populous nation avoid food shortages.
The Ministry of Agriculture said it had issued initial production licences for genetically modified rice and corn, paving the way for commercial cultivation of high-yielding and pest-resistant grain and cereal crops.
In a fax to AFP this week, the ministry said the decision was "an important outcome of China's research on genetic engineering technology".
"It lays a good foundation for commercial production," the ministry said.
Further approvals are required before the genetically modified rice and corn can be grown commercially, it added.
Huang Dejun, chief analyst with Beijing Orient Agribusiness Consultant, said the government wanted the agricultural industry "to be prepared" for a potential grain shortage.
"China's grain security is guaranteed now... but it is hard to rule out the possibility (of a shortage) as living standards improve or yields slump because of a sharp decrease in the area of farming land or serious impacts of climate change," Huang said.
The technology could increase rice and corn yields by about 30 percent, Huang estimated.
Beijing said in July 2008 that it aimed to cultivate high-yielding and pest-resistant genetically modified grains as it faces the challenge of feeding its 1.3 billion people and battles shrinking arable land and climate change.
China is a major producer of genetically modified cotton and vegetables such as peppers and tomatoes.
But Greenpeace China said the commercialisation of genetically modified rice was a "dangerous genetic experiment" and called on Beijing to make public the health and environmental studies used in the certification process.
"Rice is the most important staple food for Chinese people and our babies grow up on rice," said Lorena Luo, Greenpeace China?s food and agriculture campaigner.
"People have the right to know whether the rice they eat has any health risk. Who are these... scientists in the committee to make the decision for 1.3 billion people?"
No varieties of genetically modified rice are currently grown commercially in the world although several have been approved, according to the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines.
China produces about 20 percent of the world's corn and 30 percent of its rice, according to the US Department of Agriculture website.
China's cabinet in July 2008 approved a mid- and long-term grain security plan that aims to keep annual output above 500 million tonnes by 2010 and increase production to more than 540 million tonnes a year by 2020.
Premier Wen Jiabao said at the time that China faces serious challenges in ensuring it will have enough grain to feed its population in the decades to come, citing urbanisation and climate change as two major problems.
But at a conference on world food security in Rome last month, Chinese Vice Premier Hui Liangyu said China now has a "favourable food security situation" with abundant grain reserves and sufficient supply of staple crops, according to the China Daily.
Richard Lough, Reuters 28 Nov 09;
ANTANANARIVO (Reuters) - Criminal gangs are stripping Madagascar's poorly-protected national parks every day of precious hardwood worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, two environmental campaign groups have said.
In a report issued this week, Global Witness and the Environmental Investigation Agency said between 100 and 200 rare rosewood trees were cut down each day with only a fraction, about 1,000 cubic meters, being exported each month.
Much of the wood was being stored until further export authorizations were granted for illegally cut timber, the report said.
"Timber traders have effectively bought the right to pillage the country's parks with impunity. They are extracting up to $800,000 a day worth of timber," said Reiner Tegtmeyer of Global Witness.
In September, the government authorized the export of 325 containers of timber. Conservation groups say the order legalized the sale of illegally cut wood and collected wood. The government denies legitimizing the plunder of the forests.
Conservationists say Madagascar's biodiversity is being wiped out at an alarming pace as gangs profit from a security vacuum to pillage rosewood and ebony from supposedly protected forests and trap exotic animals, mainly for Asia's pet market.
Eco-tourism has become the backbone of the Indian Ocean island's $390 million-a-year tourism industry, but months of political turmoil this year have devastated the sector.
The report accused members of the forestry administration, the police and the authorities of complicity with the traffickers.
Rosewood furniture sells for tens of thousands of dollars in Europe and Asia, with local communities seeing few benefits.
"Some of the world's unique forests, and the communities that rely on them, are being degraded beyond repair to feed our demand for luxury goods," said Andrea Johnson, director of Forest Campaigns at EIA.
Conservation groups last month accused the government of legalizing the sale of illegally cut timber and said it opened the door to the embezzlement of funds in the name of environmental protection.
The authorities have denied legitimizing the plundering of the forests. Decades of logging, mining and slash-and-burn farming have destroyed up to 90 percent of the ecology on the world's fourth largest island.
The report called on the government to place rosewood and ebony under the protection of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.
(Editing by David Clarke)
* Indian Ocean archipelago is on climate change front line
* Risks being swamped by sea rise through global warming
* Climate change damages island fisheries, spurs disease
Pascal Fletcher, Reuters 28 Nov 09;
PORT OF SPAIN, Nov 28 (Reuters) - For Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed, the cold scientific numbers of the climate debate add up to the very survival of his tropical Indian Ocean state.
If global temperatures rise just 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), "we won't be around, we will be underwater," he told Reuters in Trinidad and Tobago, where he and other leaders of the 53-nation Commonwealth pledged support for a definitive climate deal in Copenhagen next month.
World leaders seeking to thrash out a binding global treaty to curb greenhouse gas emissions and limit global warming cite an estimate by scientists that the world must limit average global warming to 2 degrees Celsius to avoid dangerous climate change, such as rising sea levels and flooding.
Nasheed tells his fellow heads of state that 2 degrees Celsius warming would risk swamping the sand-rimmed coral atolls and islets, dotted with palm trees and mangrove clumps, that form his small country.
If U.N. predictions are correct, most of the low-lying Maldives will be submerged by 2100. "Really, we are sandbanks, very precarious and delicate," Nasheed said.
The archipelago has a population of some 400,000 islanders, whose livelihood from fishing and tourism is already being hit by climate change.
"Ocean temperatures have risen and during the last four years we've had very bad fisheries," the president said.
"A number of islanders are having to relocate themselves because of erosion ... (and) of course, with sea water rise, the water table is being contaminated," he added.
This disruption of sewage and water systems was also causing outbreaks of disease like Chikungunya, a viral disease transmitted to humans by the bite of infected mosquitoes.
The Maldives and 41 other low-lying coastal and small island countries that form the Alliance of Small Island States are on the front line of the climate change threat that will occupy some 90 heads of state and government at Dec. 7-18 U.N. climate talks in Copenhagen.
UNDERWATER CABINET MEETING
Nasheed, 42, is pushing world leaders to set even more stringent curbs to limit greenhouse gas emissions -- the 2 degrees Celsius warming figure is associated with a concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere of 450 parts per million of CO2 equivalent.
"We want to see if we can get that down to 350 parts per million. But they're talking about, if anything, 450 ... . With 450, we've really lost it. It's really, really not enough for us and a number of other small island states," he said.
Nasheed said that even a rise of 70 centimeters (27.6 inches) in the ocean level in the next 40 years would wipe out 30 percent of the dry land area of his country.
At the Commonwealth summit in Port of Spain, the Maldives leader did receive a sympathetic response to his plea for "fast track money" to help small and vulnerable states counter the effects of global warming and sea level rise.
The Commonwealth, swinging its weight behind momentum for a climate deal in Denmark next month, backed a plan to establish a Copenhagen Launch Fund, starting next year and building to $10 billion annually by 2012.
Nasheed said this money could be used to create anti-flooding and sea-rise defenses like breakwaters.
He said the funds could also be used in poor states like the Maldives to finance the transfer of technology from rich nations. He mentioned biological engineering techniques aimed at shoring up coastlines, such as developing genetically modified coral to form barrier reefs. More mangroves could also be planted to secure soil from erosion.
"You have to understand local conditions, and consult with the people and see what is best for them," said the president, who last month donned scuba gear to hold the world's first underwater Cabinet meeting in a symbolic cry for help over rising sea levels.
Citing what he called island mentality -- "you are confined to this little space with horizon all around you" -- Nasheed said many Maldives inhabitants would oppose being relocated to avoid a potential climate change catastrophe.
"We have been there for the last ... 2,000 years, and it's very, very difficult for us to convince anyone to move," he said.
But people grasp the significance of climate change.
"Unlike evolution, which is hard to sell for traditional societies ... climate change is very much in line with what the Scripture is talking about, the End," Nasheed said. ((For stories on climate change, click on [ID:nLL527527])) (Editing by Xavier Briand)
Posts
visitors since Nov 07