Best of our wild blogs: 29 Dec 09

Intertidal sea stars of Singapore
from wonderful creation

New papers in Nature in Singapore

• Rediscovery of the white-spotted cat snake, Boiga drapiezii in Singapore (Reptilia: Serpentes: Colubridae). Tzi Ming Leong, Kelvin K. P. Lim and Nick Baker. Pp. 487–493.
• Records of the lantern bug, Laternaria oculata (Westwood, 1839), (Homoptera: Fulgoridae: Fulgorinae) in Singapore, with notes on Zanna nobilis (Westwood, 1839). Tzi Ming Leong, Dennis Hugh Murphy and Laurence Leong. Pp. 495–501.
• Final instar caterpillar and metamorphosis of the hawkmoth, Theretra nessus (Drury) in Singapore (Lepidoptera: Sphingidae: Macroglossinae). Tzi Ming Leong and Kelvin K. P. Lim. Pp. 503–510.

Kingfishers Raising a Family - Part I
from Life's Indulgences

Tanah Merah Beach
from encounters with nature

The long hard goodbye
from The annotated budak

Grey Heron swallows large Common Snakehead
from Bird Ecology Study Group

Another Exciting Singapore Botanic Garden Trip
from Manta Blog

Urgent Need in Malaysia For Enforcement Of Solid Waste Act?

Syed Azwan Syed Ali, Bernama 29 Dec 09;

The second feature from the series of two on garbage disposal

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 29 (Bernama) -- The climate changes and high-moisture waste were the factors that made garbage disposal dumps the sole method for efficient garbage disposal in the country.

The other method, the incinerator like that used in Langkawi was unable to meet the disposal of more than 19,000 tonnes of garbage generated daily by the nation apart from consuming a lot of power.

The cost for constructing an incinerator was also much higher when compared to that for constructing a garbage disposal dump. The former was also able to dispose garbage of much lesser amount.

The other factor was that incinerator was also not cost-effective when coming to garbage disposal.

"A RM1.5 billion incinerator can only dispose up to 1,200 tonnes of garbage daily, but a sanitary garbage disposal dump built at the cost of RM120 million like that at Bukit Tagar is able to dispose more than 3,000 tonnes of garbage daily", according to civil engineer Mohd Fatimi Said.

According to a source, the government will upgrade 30 of the 175 existing waste disposal dumps into sanitary facilities by the end of 2010. The move did not include the nine to be constructed sanitary garbage disposal sites to be constructed.

Among the locations marked for the construction of these sanitary garbage disposal dumps were Sungai Udang (Melaka, Lahat (Ipoh, Perak), Bukit Jembalang ( Kemaman, Terengganu) and Ladang Tanah Merah (Negeri Sembilan).

Plus the seven existing sanitary garbage disposal dumps, this will bring the number of such facilities nationwide by the end of the 9th malaysia Plan (9MP) to 46, said the source.

MANAGEMENT STRATEGY

For the Solid Waste Management and Public Cleansing Corporation (PPSPPA), the agency has initiated several measures to overcome the shortage of garbage dumpsites and existence of illegal dumps in the country.

Among them was the implementation of solid waste management strategy based on 'waste hierachy' to reduce the volume of garbage sent to disposal sites, as practised in many developed nations.

Among the measures undertaken were the reduction of wastes at the source at all premises, encouraging reuse and boosting the quality of items that can be recycled.

It was learnt that the approach was taken as it did not involve provisions of the Solid Waste Management and Public Cleansing Act 2007 (Act 672).

The government had encouraged the private sector to invest in green technology in the effort to boost efficiency of more environmental-friendly energy usage towards facing the changes in the global climate.

At the recent United nations Organisation Conference On climate Changes in Copenhagen, Denmark (COP 15, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak stated Malaysia's commitment to cut the percentage of carbon dioxide emissions by 40 percent by the year 2020 with assistance from the developed nations.

RECYCLE

The media has reported that the government had carried out a pilot project on waste separation at source in Putrajaya with the aim of improving public awareness on recycling to reduce the volume of wastes needed to be disposed.

The joint-venture effort by the PPSPPA, Solid Waste Management Department, Putrajaya corporation, Alam Flora and Konsortium SSI-Schaefer was aimed to reduce by 40 percent the volume of garbage sent for disposal.

"The Solid Waste Management and Public Cleansing Act focuses on recycling and has a special allocation for separation of wastes at the source", Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Seri Kong Cho Ha was quoted as saying in the media.

The pilot project that began last Aug 29 involved 170 apartments at Precint 8, 276 houses (Precint 9) and 105 houses (Precint 10) where each household was provided with two garbage bins of different types, one for organic waste and the other for non-organic waste that can be recycled.

This way, the respondent would be able to recycle and reduce the amount of rubbish sent to disposal sites and at the same time the organic waste can be turned into compost and used for other purposes.

In other words, the separation of garbage at source will assist to lengthen the lifespan of a garbage disposal dump.

SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT CORPORATION

Chief Executive Officer of PPSPPA, Datuk Zaini Md Nor said the corporation viewed the issue based in the overall context and not limited to collection of garbage and construction of dumps.

He said the PPSPPA, established under Act 673 - the Solid waste Management and Public Cleansing Corporation Act 2007 that began operations on June 1, 2008, was responsble to monitor, supervise and enforce solid waste management and public cleansing in the country.

Among its roles was to enforce Act 672 and made improvisation recommendations whenever necessary.

PPSPPA was also responsible to inculcate public awareness and encourage public participation for sustainable management of public waste and cleansing such as reduction in waste and lodging reports on illegal dumping.

The corporation was also responsible for new technology research related, among else, to recycling technology, 'waste to energy' technology, and waste treatment facilitating technology.

According to Zaini, in the short run the corporation would manage the implementation of closing non-operating garbage disposal dumps, upgrading and construction of new disposal sites as planned by the Solid Waste Management Department in 9MP.

"The corporation is the implementor of policies determined by the department", he said.

The PPSPPA also collaborated with the concessionaires to improve the garbage collection schedule that frequently received complaints from the public apart from providing feedback to the local authorities.

The garbage collection issue should be dealt first before the public's mentality on recycling is changed.



The corporation, with the staff count of 900 at 52 district and state offices nationwide, was optimistic towards implementing its responsibilities in making malaydia a clean country as required by its vision.

"To make the vision a success, we need the support of the society", said Zaini, adding that PPSPPA was conducting a survey on public awareness for recycling that involved more than 45,000 respondents nationwide since last August.

"The study is expected to be completed by end of this month. Through it, we will know the level of public awareness, problems and their suggestions in this issue", said Zaini.

-- BERNAMA

Environmental group Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM) could face deregistration

ROS may act against SAM
The Star 29 Dec 09;

MIRI: Environmental group Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM) could face deregistration if there is proof that it is involved in activities which could threaten the nation’s interests, the Registrar of Societies Datuk Mohd Alias Kalil said.

Mohd Alias said the ROS office was closely monitoring SAM and other non-governmental organisation which acted extremely in fighting for their cause.

SAM has been actively involved in activities against commercial logging, plantation development and the building of dams in the country.

Mohd Alias however said he had not received any official complaint against SAM over the matter.

He added that more information was required before they could take action against the organisation.

Mohd Alias said the relevant agencies under the Home Ministry should also take follow-up action to ensure that the organisations did not operate illegally after their registration with ROS is cancelled.

He said this year, 705 organisations were deregistered, although only a small number were because they flouted regulations.

“Most of the organisations were deregistered because they failed to submit their annual reports.”

SAM president S.M. Mohd Idris said the organisation would not be deterred from continuing to raise issues concerning the environment.

He said issues related to the protection of the environment should not be considered anti-national.

“Moreover, we have not heard from the ROS. We have been functioning effectively for the last 30 years without any problem.

“We will continue to function and raise issues concerning our environment for the good of the nation,” he said.

Mohd Idris said SAM regretted that the logging issue had not been understood well.

“At the Climate Change Confe­rence in Copenhagen, our Prime Minister pledged that Malaysia would reduce up to 40% in terms of emissions per GDP by 2020 compared to the 2005 level,” he said.

ROS urged to be more civil and friendly to NGOs
The Sun Daily Sun2Surf 29 Dec 09;

GEORGE TOWN (Dec 29, 2009) : The registrar of societies’ threat to deregister Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM) has prompted Gerakan to urge it to be more civil and friendly towards NGOs that raise issues in the interest of the public and nation.

Dr Cheah Soon Hai, head of Gerakan’s central bureau on environment, safety and quality of life, said NGOs and environmental groups are only playing their roles on matters relevant to their establishment.

ROS director Mohd Alias Kalil had reportedly said yesterday that SAM could face deregistration if there was proof it was involved in activities that could threaten the nation’s interest.

However, he said ROS had yet to receive any official complaint against SAM, which has been involved in activities against commercial logging and plantation development and the building of dams.

Alias also said ROS would closely monitor SAM and any NGO that acted in an "extreme manner" in fighting for their cause.

In a statement, Cheah said groups like SAM and Malaysian Nature Society (MNS) "by their very orientation, would raise issues related to protecting the environment".

"In a number of environmental issues, the position of NGOs will inevitably differ from the official stand but both sides should seek win-win solutions," he said.

He said ROS should not send the wrong signal to people that the government was trying to put pressure on NGOs to conform with official views on certain issues.

Cheah, who is also the state assemblyman for Derga in Kedah, said democracy and the rule of law must be able to accept different opinions.

"The results of democratic decision-making are likely to contrast with individual’s own views and we must learn to accept. We should not be biased or prejudiced," he said.

He said there should be "a level of conciliation" with the NGOs when views or opinions were unacceptable.

Copenhagen summit offers fresh hope: Euston Quah

Euston Quah & Qiyan Ong, For The Straits Times 29 Dec 09;

Among its successes, the Copenhagen Accord recognises the need to limit the rise in global temperatures to no more than 2 deg C above pre-industrial levels. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

WHAT was achieved at the Copenhagen summit?

Plenty. Just getting 193 nations and 130 leaders together for the United Nations climate change summit was no small feat. It not only raised global awareness of climate change to an unprecedented level but also forced world leaders to confront the issue.

That the final outcome of the talks did not satisfy everyone is not surprising, given the differences in priorities between developed and developing nations. For the latter, bread and butter issues come first. But countries facing immediate danger from the effects of climate change, such as small islands and those with low-lying areas near the coast, would of course make demands quite different from those of nations not at similar risk.

Still, a lot was achieved at the summit. The Copenhagen Accord recognises the need to limit the rise in global temperatures to no more than 2 deg C above pre- industrial levels. Though not a binding target, the accord gave official recognition to the widely held scientific view that the rise in global temperatures should be kept to this level. With this agreement on temperature, it is expected that countries will devise measures to cut carbon emissions accordingly.

In addition, under the accord, countries are asked to review their pledges for curbing carbon emissions by 2020. Although no country would be penalised for failing to keep to its pledge, the accord would encourage government policies to tackle carbon emissions. This would remove the business-as-usual attitude and the world may witness the beginning of a new social norm. If the countries that have made pledges remain committed to them, other countries would come under peer pressure to follow suit.

Another breakthrough was the pledge by rich nations to jointly mobilise US$30 billion (S$42.2 billion) over the next three years, and US$100 billion a year by 2020, to help poor nations adapt to and mitigate the impact of climate change. This should be great news for developing nations as they have long asked rich nations for such funding.

While how the funds will be disbursed remains an issue, another equally important issue is how rich countries will raise the funds. Will the funds come from increased taxes or from cutting foreign aid for education and infrastructure development? Higher domestic taxes will cause immense unhappiness, and dampen the political will of rich countries to contribute funds. But reducing support for foreign aid will not help poor countries either.

Ideally, the Copenhagen Accord should have included a provision that the rich countries pledge not to cut other areas of foreign aid while creating a global fund for climate change.

Another success of the Copenhagen Accord lies in the recognition of the need for transparency in efforts to curb carbon emissions. The rich countries pledged to be scrutinised through procedures of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Though many are disappointed that developing nations will submit only national reports on their emission pledges, it is important to note that many of these countries are unable to collect and analyse data accurately. Let them report whatever they can until their data collection and analysis capacity is improved.

What should be done before next year's climate change summit in Mexico?

# Countries need to stay committed to whatever has been agreed at Copenhagen. They should also submit meaningful emission targets and hold deeper discussions on how to mitigate and adapt to climate change.

# Estimates of the damage from global warming and climate change need to be better defined and some agreement has to be reached on the methodologies to measure such damage.

# Countries such as China and India that have announced their pledges to cut national emissions should be monitored and encouraged, perhaps through a reward system. This would go a long way to meeting the demands of both economic growth and quality of life.

Euston Quah is Professor of Environmental Economics at Nanyang Technological University. Qiyan Ong is pursuing her PhD at NTU.

Dead fish on Pasir Ris beach

Straits Times 29 Dec 09;

PHOTO: SHIN MIN

More than 1,000 dead fish were found washed up on Pasir Ris beach on Saturday. The Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) said the fish are likely to have died due to high levels of plankton, the result of heavy rain.

Decomposing plankton can lead to oxygen starvation in the water. The AVA said the fish, mostly tiger garoupas, were from nearby fish farms. The National Environment Agency has conducted checks in the vicinity and found no trace of an oil spill or chemical discharge into the sea. It has collected water samples for further analysis.

For more details see:
Why are there so many dead fish on Pasir Ris? from wild shores of singapore with a closer look at the dead fishes, also on wonderful creations and singapore nature.

Jambi ready for reforestation efforts, gubernatorial election

Irawaty Wardany, The Jakarta Post 28 Dec 09;

Jambi is one of Indonesia’s vast forest provinces, with about 1.2 million hectares of forest. As concerns about the effects of climate change and global warming increase, Jambi is formulating reforestation efforts. The Jakarta Post’s Irawaty Wardany recently spoke to Jambi Governor Zulkifli Nurdin about the issues as well as preparations for the 2010 gubernatorial election, as Zulkifli will end his tenure in August.

Question: As one of main issues in Jambi is forestry, what is the provincial policy on forestry?

Answer: I’ve just returned from Copenhagen (the United Nations Convention on Climate Change) where I accompanied President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. At the meeting we could see there was much interest from various countries. We knew that China did not agree with policies made by other countries. That meant there was no agreement made by countries throughout the world to reduce emissions, which is a really serious problem.

In Jambi we want to maintain our existing forest. We have decided to allocate 100,000 hectares of land to be included in the restoration forest program (including the Harapan Rainforest project).

In the era of Pak Kaban (former forestry minister) the program did not materialize, but with Pak Zulkifli Hasan (current forestry minister), we are in the process of making 100,000 hectares for the forest restoration program available. We will preserve elephants, tigers and much more.

There will also be another 120,000 hectares provided for restoration, but we do not know yet who will back up the program. There are many (countries) that are interested in the program because they all realize that forests are the key to filtering greenhouse effect and reducing emissions.

We spoke to the Forestry Minister in Copenhagen and we agreed that no matter what the result of the Copenhagen meeting, we would not change our plans to maintain our forest even though we lack funds.

So our goal is how to reduce emissions and Jambi’s policy is how to restore the forest without disturbing local residential areas because the main goal of the administration is how to make the people prosper.

What is your total target for the reforestation programs? How many hectares of forest will be restored and for how long? How much financial support will be provided by the Jambi administration?

We have not discussed the amount of hectares of forest that will be restored, or the exact budget, but I’ve spoken to the President about that and I said that it was impossible for us to finance the program, so we need (financial) aid both from the central government as well as from foreign sources.

This is our forest, so we must maintain it together.

I have reported to the President that if this program is fully handled by the provincial administration, it will not be effective because we have to provide infrastructure that will absorb a large amount of our provincial budget.

We have to focus on infrastructure development to support Jambi’s economic development.

Sometimes we even have to allocate our budget for other programs and infrastructure programs.

Take for example the fertile area of Cilangkap. Crops and harvests from the area cannot be sold due to infrastructure problems. That is why we need to focus on infrastructure.

We have developed a port in Samudera Muara sabak as well as a 2.3-kilometer bridge to
the pier from the city (of Jambi) and 155 kilometers of road. We built them to increase our economic growth.

Jambi’s growth during 2008-2009 was 7.16 percent. That’s the highest growth rate in Sumatra and we are ranked third nationally.

How will Jambi balance reforestation and infrastructure programs?

We have spatial design plans that designate which areas can be developed and those that cannot. We will stick to that to ensure well-designed development.

Jambi’s branch of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) said that deforestation in the province reaches 24,000 hectares annually, how can you catch up with the rate of deforestation with your restoration program?

Deforestation is mostly caused by outsiders who go into the woods,cut the trees and establish fields in the area. If they can’t sell the wood, they just work on the fields, but mostly those people are not from Jambi.

So deforestation is mostly caused by humans, beside of course, fires that occur during dry season, which always cause forest fires, especially in peat land. If we have a long dry season, the peat land usually becomes really dry. So there are two main causes of forest fires, some are caused by people, while others arise form natural causes.

Peat land burns easily because it consists of rotten wood and tree roots that create hollow spaces beneath the earth, as well as dry bushes that can be set alight by strong rays from the sun.

We haven’t found a way to extinguish them yet. All we can do is spray water into the earth, but we never succeed because the fire is always below the earth’s surface. Often it only emits an excess of smoke.

In 2006, we had really bad smoke from forest fires that both Malaysia and Singapore complained about. I explained to them that we could maintain the forest together, rather than just complain, but we all must learn how to maintain the forest on a limited budget.

How can we finance the Manggala Agni (forest firefighters) and how can we finance the fire extinguisher equipment?

Now we have 340 Manggala Agni officers, but they cannot handle 1.2 million hectares of forest. I estimated that we would need up to 1,000 firefighters throughout Jambi province, but it all depends on how much money we have.

Jambi, with its 1.2 million hectares of forest must also face illegal logging, how do you deal with that matter?

Currently, the Forest Concession Rights (HPH) are issued under strict regulations.

Even if we issue the HPH, the holders must provide some reforestation funds that are distributed to the province where the forest was utilized. However, according to my experience, no reforestation funds have been received by the province or regions even though hundreds of hectares of our forest has been utilized. Most of the funds for reforestation flow to the central government and have not yet benefited our region.

Jambi is one of the provinces that will have a gubernatorial election in 2010, how are the preparations so far?

The preparations have been quite settled, we have not had any problems as yet. The general elections in 2004 and 2009 and the regional elections all went well. We haven’t had any riots or anything like that. Therefore we expect the upcoming gubernatorial election will go smoothly also.

You’ve been the governor since 1999, will you participate in the upcoming gubernatorial election?

No. I can’t and I won’t.

During your period, what do you consider as your achievements and failures?

As I said earlier, the economic growth rate this year was 7.16 percent, which is the highest in Sumatra and the third nationally. Secondly, income per capita has improved from Rp 450,000 (US$47) to Rp 2 million.

In trade, there are many mining companies that are now investing in Jambi. I hope my successor will continue to serve the people’s basic economic and development needs that I started.

Year of the Tiger Dawns With Just 3,200 Wild Tigers Left

Environmental News Service 28 Dec 09;

KATHMANDU, Nepal, December 28, 2009 (ENS) - To mark 2010 as Year of the Tiger, the government of Nepal has announced the expansion of Bardia National Park in the Terai Arc landscape by 900 square kilometers (347 square miles), which will increase critical habitat for wild tigers.

Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal says the government will establish a National Tiger Conservation Authority as well as a Wildlife Crime Control Committee.

"The solutions will be area specific, but the future of conservation will depend upon how we act now and how we make tiger conservation and overall biodiversity much more valuable to the livelihoods of local communities," the Prime Minister said.

"This is indeed a great conservation initiative, which will certainly help in curbing illegal wildlife trade and poaching in Nepal," said Anil Manandhar, country representative of WWF Nepal. "We are confident that by embracing innovative conservation strategies Nepal will succeed in doubling its number of endangered tigers."

Earlier this year, the first ever nationwide estimate of Nepal's tiger population revealed the presence of 121 breeding tigers in the wild within four protected areas of Nepal.

In the early 1900s, tigers roamed throughout Asia and numbered over 100,000, according to the Secretariat of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, which points to current estimates indicating that less than 3,500 of these tigers remain in the wild.

Tigers are today primarily poached for their skins but almost every part of a tiger's body can be used for decorative or traditional medicinal purposes. Most tigers are now restricted to small pockets of habitat, with several geographical populations literally teetering on the brink of extinction.

In order to ensure that these tiger numbers remain stable and start to increase, WWF and its partners called on the government of Nepal to increase anti-poaching activities and habitat protection.

"In making these commitments at a global forum before the 12 other tiger range countries, the government of Nepal has set an important precedent for others to follow," said Mike Baltzer, leader of WWF's Tiger Initiative.

The Bardia Park announcement came at the inaugural session of the Kathmandu Global Tiger Workshop on October 27, the first in a series of political negotiation meetings occurring throughout the year leading up to a Tiger Summit in 2010, which is the Year of the Tiger.

This technical workshop preceded a Thailand ministerial meeting planned for January 2010, and will ultimately lead to a Summit of Tiger Range State Leaders during the Year of the Tiger planned for next October.

At the Kathmandu meeting, Prime Minister Nepal said threats to tigers in the wild are increasing. "We are only beginning to learn about the consequences of global threats from climate change on our fragile environment. The dwindling tiger populations and, high rate of loss of historic habitat range warrant immediate strategic and bold actions at landscape level."

" Despite our efforts in last three decades or so, tigers still face many threats. The primary threat in tiger conservation is poaching and habitat loss. Our efforts in environmental conservation have further been challenged by extreme poverty," he said.

The recommendations of the Kathmandu Global Tiger Workshop will be discussed in the Fifth General Assembly of the Global Tiger Forum in early 2010.

Russia will host a tiger preservation summit in Vladivostok in 2010, according to the Russian branch of WWF.

Scientists decided to use Oriental calendar and the coming Year of the Tiger to promote public awareness of the situation with Amur tigers, said Igor Chestin, director of the Russian branch of WWF.

The conservation group estimates that Russia's Khabarovsk and Primorye regions are inhabited by 500 Amur tigers at present.

Chestin said that the Russian government, WWF and World Bank initiated the Tiger Summit, in which the heads of 13 states are expected to participate.

The Natural Resources Ministry will draft a tiger preservation program for the summit, which along with anti-poaching measures will urge for measures to stop cutting cedar forests, the natural habitat of tigers, and expand the territory of wildlife reserves.

In an attempt to boost law enforcement's worldwide operational capability against the poaching of wild tigers and wildlife crime, CITES and INTERPOL jointly held a law enforcement course in Jakarta, from November 30 to December 4.

The 5-day course was attended by 16 law enforcement officials from tiger range states, including Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Nepal, Russia, Thailand and Vietnam. Its goal was to facilitate and coordinate law enforcement action between wildlife enforcement officers, Customs and police.

With much of the poaching and smuggling "highly organized," David Higgins of INTERPOL's Environmental Crime Programme said a multi-agency and multi-national response is needed and that coordinating this type of response is "second-nature" to INTERPOL.

India's Last "Dancing", Endangered Bear Set Free

Sunil Kataria, PlanetArk 29 Dec 09;

BANGALORE - Raju the bear will never have to smoke cigarettes or dance on his hind legs under the hot sun again thanks to a multinational project to save an endangered species and end a cruel centuries-old tradition in India.

Raju was the last endangered sloth bear that had to work for a living, but who now can roam free at the Bannerghatta bear sanctuary on the outskirts of the southern city of Bangalore.

The bear's freedom is the outcome of lengthy efforts by animal rescue organisations and the government that have taken the "dancing" bears off India's streets, where the animals were once as ubiquitous as snake charmers and their cobras.

"This is the very last bear that has been rescued from the roads of India, the actual last one and that is the end of the trade," Mary Hutton, Australia-based chairperson and founder of Free the Bears Fund, told Reuters Television.

Sloth bears are protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, but they often entertained crowds by playing imaginary guitars, smoking cigarettes and dancing to the pounding of drums, providing an income for their handlers.

The Bannerghatta bear rescue centre is one of the four that have been set up by India-based Wildlife SOS, Free the Bears Fund from Australia, Britain's International Animal Rescue and One Voice Association from France.

The animal welfare groups devised a holistic approach that involved setting up sanctuaries for the freed bears and giving rehabilitation packages for their handlers so that they have an incentive to give up the animals.

Raje Saab, Raju's handler, said he was looking forward to starting a new job with the money he has been given.

"I am happy that it is going to stay here, it will be looked after properly and will get proper food and care," said Saab of his bear, adding that he would probably start a small business with the 50,000 rupees ($1,069) given to him.

Once inside the sanctuary, the bears get special veterinary care to heal their multiple wounds and are quarantined for about 90 days before being allowed to socialise.

They are fed healthy food and gradually adjust to living in their large, forested enclosure, although they can never be returned to the wild because many lack basic survival techniques, as well as teeth and claws.

Activists say rampant poaching by an ancient tribe of gypsies known as Kalandars, who used the animals for their shows, had brought the sloth bears to the verge of extinction.

They say the Kalandars used to poach sloth bear cubs and then force them into submission by wrenching our their teeth and forcing a needle through their muzzle.

Wildlife SOS co-founder Geeta Seshmani said the Kalandars used to train the bears by putting them in a pan over a fire. They often castrated the bears to make them less aggressive.

As a result, many bears died, prompting more poaching, she said, and poaching still remains a pertinent threat.

"The most challenging part before us is to get the bears to be looked after at these sanctuaries," Seshmani said.

"Our anti-poaching unit works very hard and, because of the demand from South East Asia, there will always be demand for the bear cubs," she said, referring to countries were bear body parts are believed to have medicinal properties.

"There is still bear-bone soup and there is cold-blooded trade in countries outside India. And it will be our task to ensure that our cubs are not stolen from our forests and our wild bears are not stolen from our forests."

Seshmani said wildlife groups, with help from the police and other departments, have reduced poaching to a large extent. Overall, the programme has saved 600 sloth bears so far. ($1=46.78 Indian Rupee)

(Editing by Miral Fahmy)

Wild horse roundup to begin in Nevada amid protest

Oskar Garcia, Associated Press Yahoo News 20 Dec 09;

LAS VEGAS – A two-month capture of about 2,500 wild horses from public and private lands in northern Nevada began Monday amid protests that the roundups are unnecessary and inhumane.

Federal officials said the roundup is needed because the 850 square miles of land is overpopulated and could become unlivable to wildlife and livestock within four years.

Bureau of Land Management spokeswoman JoLynn Worley said the agency began gathering horses Monday in the eastern portion of the Black Rock Range, a stretch of mountains more than 100 miles north of Reno, Nev.

A contractor was using two helicopters under BLM supervision to move the horses to corrals, Worley said. The animals were then being trucked to Fallon, Nev., for immunizations and veterinary care, she said.

Worley said officials won't know how many horses were captured on Monday until early Tuesday. She said the agency would likely be in the range for one week to 10 days — with a goal of capturing 250 mustangs — before moving on to the next of five areas.

Long-term plans call for the mustangs to be placed for adoption or sent to holding facilities in the Midwest. The agency said a facility in Reno was full of adoptable horses, making it unclear when the animals gathered in the latest capture could be put up for adoption.

Horse defenders say the use of helicopters to drive horses to corrals is inhumane and risks their injury and death. Opponents also contend winter roundups expose horses to the risk of respiratory illness.

Program Director Suzanne Roy of In Defense of Animals said the group questions the timing of the roundup and methods that prevent public monitoring of the roundup.

"It just all smells bad," she said. The California-based group has had trouble getting White House and other federal officials to work through their complaints during the holidays, she added.

About 30 protesters gathered Sunday at the entrance to Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area west of Las Vegas, waving down motorists and holding placards.

The group also planned to demonstrate Wednesday outside the San Francisco office of U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who protesters hope will sympathize with their calls for a moratorium on wild horse roundups. Other protests were being planned for Wednesday in Chicago and Denver.

Worley said the agency planned to take reporters near the corralling sites on Wednesday and was working through details for public viewing areas as the roundup moves to different areas.

The roundup was to include horses from five federally managed areas in the Calico Mountains complex.

A September count showed more than 3,040 wild horses were living in the area, about three times the land's capacity, federal officials said.

Without the roundup, the horse population in the area would grow by 20 percent to 27 percent annually, passing 6,000 mustangs within four years, according to BLM. At that point, wildlife and livestock wouldn't have enough water or forage.

The roundup is part of the Bureau of Land Management's overall strategy to remove thousands of mustangs from public lands across the West to protect wild horse herds and the rangelands that support them. The bureau estimates about half of the nearly 37,000 wild mustangs live in Nevada, with others concentrated in Arizona, California, Oregon, Utah and Wyoming.

Africa-wide "Great Green Wall" to Halt Sahara's Spread?

Christine Dell'Amore, National Geographic News 28 Dec 09;

China built its famous Great Wall to keep out marauders. Now, millennia later, a "Great Green Wall" may rise in Africa to deter another, equally relentless invader: sand.

The proposed wall of trees would stretch from Senegal to Djibouti as part of a plan to thwart the southward spread of the Sahara, Senegalese officials said earlier this month at the UN's Copenhagen climate conference.

The trees are meant "to stop the advancement of the desert," Senegalese president and project leader Abdoulaye Wade told National Geographic News in Copenhagen.

In many central and West African countries surrounding the Sahara, climate change has slowed rainfall to a trickle, according to the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Crops have died and soils have eroded—crippling local agriculture. If the trend continues, the UN forecasts that two-thirds of Africa's farmland may be swallowed by Saharan sands by 2025 (explore an interactive Sahara map).

Trees are almost always formidable foes against encroaching deserts, said Patrick Gonzalez of the University of California, Berkeley's Center for Forestry.

That's because stands of trees act as natural windbreaks against sandstorms, and their roots improve soil health—especially by preventing erosion.

But choosing the right tree species to populate the wall will be crucial to the project's success, Gonzalez said via email.

Similar tree-planting efforts by outside agencies have failed, he said, in part because they planted foreign species that soon perished in the harsh desert.

"We Have to Do What We Have to Do"

Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo first proposed the idea of a desert-blocking wall in 2005, and it was approved by the African Union in 2007.

All 11 countries that would house the Great Green Wall have pledged to help fund the project.

But the wall has been slow to break ground: Of the 4,350 miles (7,000 kilometers) it needs to cover, only about 326 miles (525 kilometers) have been planted so far, all within Senegal.

In Copenhagen, President Wade emphasized that he has made the wall a priority, and he has already asked scientists working on the project to choose species hardy enough to survive in arid conditions without maintenance.

"One thing the president has insisted is … we have to begin the work now, right now," added Ndiawar Djeng, advisor to the Senegalese environment minister.

"If other international committees follow us, that's OK. If not, we have to do what we have to do," Djeng told National Geographic News.

"It's in the interest of our local people."

Farming Boon

The lush channel through the desert would help farmers already displaced by drought—and may even stem the exodus of "environmental refugees," organizers say.

More than 70 percent of Africa's poor depends on farming, according to the IPCC.

But drought, desertification, and other climate-related disasters are forcing many farmers to abandon their lands, spurring a heavier flow of immigrants out of central and North Africa.

The 9.3-mile-wide (15-kilometer-wide) wall of trees would improve the surrounding, now-degraded soils, allowing farmers to again grow crops and more easily raise livestock in the region.

Senegal also plans to dig rainwater reservoirs along its portion of the wall—virtual lifesavers in a region where rain falls only three months out of the year, supporters say.

"France is helping us by bringing its soldiers, who are working with us planting trees and building reservoirs," President Wade added.

The gigantic tree barrier would also trap some atmospheric carbon dioxide, a potent greenhouse gas, and produce a refuge for native animals and plants.

Some of the trees themselves may become valuable crops.

The native acacia senegal tree, which is to be a staple plant in the Great Green Wall, produces gum arabic, a main ingredient in consumer products such as cosmetics and soft drinks.

Farmers could collect the sap and even sustainably harvest some of the wood to make tools or produce charcoal, Senegalese environment advisor Djeng said.

Local Know-How

But Senegal may do more for farmers by simply supporting age-old solutions to desertification, UC Berkeley's Gonzalez noted.

For example the ethnic groups of the Sahel—a swath of semi-arid savanna on the Sahara's southern border—have long been successful at reforesting their land using "natural regeneration."

In this method, farmers plant small native trees from seeds found in the region and raise the trees in agricultural fields protected from nibbling livestock, Gonzalez said.

"The Great Green Wall is less feasible than supporting and reinforcing local farmers and the practice of natural regeneration," he said.

What's more, planting trees alone will not stop the Sahara's spread, according to Matt Brown, senior conservation advisor for the Nature Conservancy's Africa program.

Instead, African governments need to find ways to protect existing vegetation and water sources from overuse, Brown said by email.

Overall, though, the Great Green Wall is an "extremely bold" undertaking, he said, and "sometimes thinking big is what is needed to draw attention to a problem."

'Back to nature' cuts flood risks

Mark Kinver, BBC News 28 Dec 09;

Reconnecting flood-plains to rivers will help reduce the risk of future flooding, suggest US scientists.

A study by US researchers said allowing these areas to be submerged during storms would reduce the risk of flood damage in nearby urban areas.

Pressure to build new homes has led to many flood-prone areas being developed.

Writing in Science, they said the risks of flooding were likely to increase in the future as a result of climate change and shifts in land use.

"We are advocating very large-scale shifts in land use, "said co-author Jeffrey Opperman, a member of The Nature Conservancy's Global Freshwater Team.

"There is simply no way economically or politically that this could be accomplished by turning large areas of flood-plains into parks," he told the Science podcast.

"What we are proposing in this paper is a way that this strategy can be compatible, and even supportive, with vibrant agricultural economies and private land ownership."

For example, the authors explained, the flood season and growing season in California did not occur at the same time.

This meant that allowing the land to be submerged by floodwater would not result in a permanent loss of farmland or crops being destroyed.

In their paper, they said that man-made flood management systems, such as levees, also had an ecological impact.

"Control infrastructure prevents high flows from entering flood-plains, thus diminishing both natural flood storage capacity and the processes that sustain healthy riverside forests and wetlands," they observed.

"As a result, flood-plains are among the planet's most threatened ecosystems."

'Ecosystem services'

The reconnection programmes would deliver three benefits, they added:

• Reduce the risk of flooding

• Increase in flood-plain goods and services

• Greater resilience to potential climate change impacts

In other parts of the world, Dr Opperman said that there was a range of agricultural strategies for private landowners that would be compatible with allowing areas to be flooded.

"There are emerging markets for ecosystem services, such as carbon sequestration and nutrient sequestration," he explained.

"These are services that flood-plains do provide, so with various climate policies there will be a price for carbon."

The researchers cited the Yolo By-pass, in California, US, in their paper as a successful demonstration of the idea they were advocating.

The scheme absorbed 80% of floodwater during heavy storms, they said, protecting the nearby city of Sacramento.

"During a March 1986 flood, the by-pass conveyed [about] 12.5bn cubic metres of water, more than three times the total flood-control storage volume in all Sacramento basin reservoirs.

"Without the by-pass flood-plain, California would need to build massive additional flood-control infrastructure," they observed.

The Yolo by-pass was created back in the 1930s, when a 24,000 hectare flood-plain was reconnected to the Sacramento River.

The scheme was introduced when it became apparent that a "levees only" approach would not offer the required flood protection.

"It's connected in an engineered way, which mean that when the river reaches a certain volume it flows over a weir and enters the flood-plain," Dr Opperman explained.

He added that the scheme also had numerous additional ecological benefits: "In recent decades, people began to notice that this area was a phenomenal habitat for birds.

"In the past 10 years, people recognised that native fish were moving from the river on to the flood-plain, and deriving all of the benefits that fish get from natural flood-plains.

"It was an excellent place for fish to spawn, and for juvenile fish to be reared."

Climate and humans: the long view

Professor Clive Finlayson
Director, Gibraltar Museum
BBC News 24 Dec 09;

We seem preoccupied today by looming predictions of imminent climate change.

This is understandable as our lifestyles and lives appear to be coming under threat from this global phenomenon of unprecedented scale.

But if we were to use the deep history of this planet as our yardstick, the unusual thing would be for our climate to remain immutable.

Earth's climate has always been in flux and the last 10,000 years, which in relative terms have been fairly stable, are not the rule.

In those 10,000 years we have gone from hunter-gatherers to farmers, industrialists and travellers in cyberspace, seemingly safe within the cocooned illusion that climatic stability was the way of the world.

Human imprint

And all the time, the deadline for the next climatic downturn, leading to the next Ice Age, was getting closer. It gets closer every day that goes by and our science cannot predict when this will happen. But happen it will.

We became increasingly uneasy as we began to realise that the effects of the industrial revolution had, over the last two centuries, generated new variables that were complicating an already complex multivariate, multi-scale, melee.

The debate then centred on how we could distinguish our own imprint on the Earth's climate from the background gamut of natural factors that generated climatic variability.

And we came to the conclusion, after a long-drawn debate, that our mark could be picked up, appearing like a curved hockey stick on a graph of temperature against time.

The "hockey stick" spoke of warming not cooling. Perhaps a new Ice Age would come, but in a remote future that was not worth considering.

Perhaps our own brand of global warming would counteract it. But the imminent danger would be the warming of the planet.

We should be under no illusion as to the effects of global warming, natural or man-made. It will change the face of the planet even though we don't really know where, when or how, in any kind of detail.

But natural climate change has altered the face of the planet many times before, and in far more dramatic ways. Even the rate of change expected today is not outside the limits of natural change.

Climate swings

The 40-odd thousand years leading up to the last Ice Age included countless wild and sharp climatic oscillations that would have provided the most sensational of world headlines had our Neanderthal cousins had satellite television, mobile phones or internet.

The regularity of drastic climate change would soon have offered little by way of breaking news.

So, in terms of the well-being of our planet, little of what is coming will scare it. It has seen extreme global warming, as when tropical forests covered the poles, and extreme deep freezes, as when icebergs reached the latitude of Lisbon, Portugal - with strays drifting into the Mediterranean.

The difference with this one, and we should be open and honest about it, is that it will affect millions of people. Our own history, and that of our Neanderthal cousins and our predecessors, has been shaped by climate change and luck.

Our population was so small that being in the right place at the right time, or the wrong place at the wrong time, really mattered.

The Neanderthals, who had been so successful in Europe for much longer than we have been around, vanished because of too much global cooling.

Many of our own stock - and this may surprise people - also went extinct because they couldn't handle the climate and its effects.

Several small populations, in Africa, Australia and on the plains of central Asia, scraped through and we are all descended from them.

No living human has experienced the kind of climate change that they had to go through. Most perished but a few survived.

Clive Finlayson is director of the Gibraltar Museum and author of the book "The Humans Who Went Extinct. Why Neanderthals died out and we survived", in which the theme of this article is expanded.

China introduces law to boost renewable energy

Lucy Hornby, Reuters 28 Dec 09;

BEIJING (Reuters) - A new Chinese law requires power grid operators to buy all the electricity produced by renewable energy generators, in a move that will increase the proportion of energy that comes from renewable sources in coal-dependent China.

The amendment to the 2006 renewable energy law was adopted on Saturday by the standing committee of the National People's Congress, China's legislature, the Xinhua news agency said.

The amendment also gives authority to the State Council energy department, together with the State Council finance department and the state power authority, to "determine the proportion of renewable energy power generation to the overall generating capacity for a certain period."

Many other countries also have requirements that grid operators priorities the dispatch of power from renewable sources, even if it is more expensive than coal-fired baseload plants.

In China, a boom in wind-power plants thanks to government subsidies has resulted in a large amount of wind capacity that is not always properly connected to the grid. In some cases, the wind farms are not located at the optimal spot for wind.

One-third of China's installed wind power capacity is not well connected to the grid, Xinhua said, citing industry experts.

Much of China's wind power is installed in remote, wind-swept regions like Inner Mongolia and Gansu, where power demand is low. But some of the country's cheapest coal generators are also in Inner Mongolia, pricing the wind farms out of the power market.

"Renewable energy power in the country's resource-rich, underdeveloped northwestern region must be sent to the resource-scarce, prosperous coastal area," said Wang Zhongyong, renewable energy director at the National Development and Reform Commission's Energy Research Institute, according to Xinhua.

The relative independence of regional grids made such transmission difficult, Wang said.

China must develop more efficient "smart grids" as part of the solution, said Xiao Liye, director of the Institute of Electrical Engineering of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The new requirement will also benefit China's massive new nuclear power plants, although nuclear power is usually cheap enough to be competitive on its own.

Grid operators refusing to buy power produced by renewable energy generators could be fined up to double the loss suffered by the renewable energy generator, the amendment said.

China's target is for renewable energy sources to make up 15 percent of its power generation by 2020, up from about 9 percent currently. It also targets a reduction in carbon intensity, or the amount of carbon produced per unit of GDP, of between 40 and 45 percent by 2020 compared with 2005.

(Editing by Sugita Katyal)