Best of our wild blogs: 30 Dec 09

Thoughts after the EAS Congress
from Psychedelic Nature

2010 TeamSeagrass monitoring dates
from teamseagrass

Ugly Side of Langkawi Mangroves Tours Part I
from Nature Is Awesome

A Visitor With Aplomb
from Life's Indulgences

Nesting behaviour of Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker
from Bird Ecology Study Group

Kung Fu monkey fights off crows in tree
from The Lazy Lizard's Tales

How Algal Biofuels Lost a Decade in the Race to Replace Oil
from Wired: Wired Science

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Poachers still continue to hunt Sumatran tigers

Antara 29 Dec 09;

Bengkulu (ANTARA News) - Poachers still continue to hunt the remaining Sumatran tigers (Panthera tigris) in the Bengkulu forest, conservationist Radius Nursidi of the Profauna nature conservation organization said.

"Based on its survey in March, Profauna found at least 12 tiger traps in the Seblat Elephant Conservation Center (PKG) in North Bengkulu," Radius said here on Tuesday.

He said that Profauna conducted the survey only in one area, namely around the PKG forest park where it found at least 12 tiger traps." he said.Poachers also hunt elephants in the Seblat forest park, he said.

Due to the illegal hunting of elephants and tigers in the Seblat PKG forest park in Putri Hijau subdistrict, North Bengkulu, the population of the protected species was increasingly threatened.

"Since 2004, Profauna has recorded that at least eight elephants have been killed," he said.Tiger and elephant poaching in the Bengkulu forest was a serious threat to the population of the protected animals, he said.(*)

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Dengue Should Be Priority for Indonesia, Not Swine Flu: Indonesian lawmaker

Dessy Sagita, The Jakarta Globe 29 Dec 09;

The avian and swine flu strains may have caused the most panic, but combating tuberculosis, dengue fever and malnutrition should top the Ministry of Health’s priorities for 2010, a lawmaker said on Tuesday.

“Our government is sometimes too preoccupied in handling imported diseases such as bird flu or swine flu, they neglect the other diseases that have caused far more fatalities in Indonesia,” said Ribka Tjiptaning from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P).

The H1N1 swine flu scare most likely distracted health workers from dealing with outbreaks of dengue fever, which continued to be a serious threat across the country, she added.

The ministry’s records show that from January through to July this year, there were 585 deaths from dengue from a total of 77,000 cases. The data also shows that on average, 88,000 people die of tuberculosis every year across the archipelago.

In comparison, the bird flu virus has only claimed 119 lives throughout the country since 2003. About 1,000 people were infected by swine flu, which reportedly claimed 10 lives.

Dr. Kartono Muhammad, a noted public health expert and former chairman of the Indonesian Medical Association, said on Tuesday that Health Minister Endang Rahayu Sedyaningsih had done nothing significant in her first 100 days in office, outside of her plans to broaden the coverage of a health insurance scheme for the poor, known as Jamkesmas.

“The scheme, however, is giving the public an unrealistic view about our health services,” Kartono said. “In the end, I won’t be surprised if the public will be disappointed when expectations fall short.”

The government wants to expand Jamkesmas to include victims of natural disasters and people at social institutions such as orphanages, nursing homes, disabled care centers, drug rehabilitation centers and in prisons.

Kartono said that during her first 100 days in office, Endang could have focused on a number of health issues, including setting pricing limits on generic medicines, issuing regulations to assist the implementation of the recently endorsed Health Law and the aggressive promotion of family planning programs.

Ribka said Endang could have also better handled last month’s filariasis incident in West Java, in which nine people died allegedly from consuming anti-filariasis medication as part of the ministry’s mass treatment program, a charge Endang has dismissed.

“She should have settled the filariasis issue first before she made her ministerial visit to another province,” Ribka said.

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Plunder part of price to pay for growth in South Klang Valley

Geetha Krishnan, The Star 29 Dec 09;

THE price to pay for development is steep and evidence is slowly emerging in the South Klang Valley of the sacrifices needed to spur growth.

Over a year ago, verdant hills dotted the landscape near the Sepang-Putrajaya border. The construction of a golf course has since decimated the natural greenery, to the horror of motorists used to the pleasant drive prior to the devastation.

As the land bank belongs to a commercial entity, such a trade can be expected as there are dollar signs in the equation. However, what if the administration joins the foray?

The Sungai Jelok Forest Reserve near the Kajang Prison simply exists in name as 80% of the lowland diptocarp jungle has been ravaged under the pretence of reforestation. The clandestine plundering activities involved bartering precious timber for rubber timber clone saplings.

The law states that a permanent forest reserve cannot be logged yet the Selangor Forestry Department issued logging permits to two private companies in 2007. Only 4% of the profits from the lopsided timber sale went into the state coffers.

It does not require environmentalists to point out that clearing a forest has repercussions. Flood waters rise swiftly these days in Kajang and one of the causes is said to be random forest clearing.

This same activity is causing distress to Hulu Langat folk, many who are poor villagers dependent on the tourism or fish-rearing industries to feed their families.

Trees are being felled in the district for the RM8.2bil Pahang-Selangor interstate raw water transfer project under the Energy, Green Technology and Water Ministry. The RM3.9bil Langat 1 component involves the construction of a 44.6km tunnel from Pahang to Hulu Langat and will be completed in 2014.

The project is being blamed for polluting Sungai Congkak, a popular tourist spot while shallow retention ponds unable to hold large volumes of water have damaged fish-rearing ponds. No doubt the project will address Selangor’s future water needs but what of the long-term impact?

Meanwhile, high ammonia levels detected in Sungai Langat forced the closure of the Cheras 11th Mile water treatment plant in July, days after the Salak Tinggi water treatment plant shut down for a similar reason associated with Sungai Labu.

Bagan Lalang’s eco-tourism potential is under duress due to the Sungai Sepang Kecil river-deepening and widening activities by the authorities. The riverine mangroves lining the river have perished in the process. The Malaysian Nature Society has also voiced concerns about the sandbank built near the Jimah coal-fired power plant in Negri Sembilan encroaching into Selangor.

At least two municipalities were quoted in the media for facing critical solid waste management problems.

While the Kajang Municipal Council was put in a quandary when the Sungai Sedu dumpsite could no longer accept its refuse, the Sepang Municipal Council urged the state government to hasten the opening of the Tanjung 12 sanitary landfill in Kuala Langat due to issues with the Ampar Tenang dumpsite. Both dumpsites are operating beyond capacity.

A crisis of a different kind unfolded in Taman Cheras Awana on Nov 18 when a 50m-long gabion wall collapsed and flattened several cars and a motorcycle. Investigations revealed that the 4m-high wall was not built according to the design specified by the council’s engineering department.

On a positive note, Kajang is expected to benefit from several flood mitigation measures in place. Time will tell if the problem of several decades will finally be solved.

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Sharks Killed for Oil Used in Swine Flu Vaccine

James Owen, National Geographic News 29 Dec 09

Vaccines being made to protect people from swine flu may not be so healthy for threatened species of sharks.

That's because millions of doses of the pandemic H1N1/09 vaccine contain a substance called squalene, which is extracted from shark livers.

More commonly found in beauty products such as skin creams, squalene can be used to make an adjuvant, a compound that boosts the body's immune response.

The World Health Organization recommends adjuvant-based vaccines, because they allow drug makers to create doses that use less of the active component, increasing available supplies.

Olive oil, wheat germ oil, and rice bran oil also naturally contain squalene, albeit in smaller amounts. But for now squalene is primarily harvested from sharks caught by commercial fishers, especially deepwater species. (Related: "Tomato, Tobacco Plants Produce SARS Vaccine.")

"There are several very disturbing issues associated with use of shark-liver-oil squalene," said Mary O'Malley, co-founder of the volunteer-run advocacy group Shark Safe Network.

"The deepwater sharks targeted have extremely low reproductive rates, and many are threatened species."

For example, one supplier has dubbed the gulper shark the Rolls-Royce of squalene-producing sharks—but the gulper is listed as vulnerable on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's (IUCN's) Red List of Threatened Species, meaning the species faces a high risk of extinction.

Shark Oil Demand

Although vaccines containing squalene have not yet been approved for use in the U.S., they are being distributed elsewhere, including Europe and Canada.

Novartis, a drug company that produces swine flu vaccines containing squalene, did not answer requests for information about the source of its squalene.

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), another major swine-flu vaccine producer, announced in October that it had received orders for 440 million doses of vaccine containing adjuvant.

And the adjuvant in GSK's vaccines—which have been administered in 26 countries so far—contains shark-liver squalene, company spokesperson Clare Eldred confirmed in a statement.

GSK wouldn't reveal the name of its supplier or the annual quantity of shark squalene it buys. But Eldred told National Geographic News that the drug company takes about 10 percent of its supplier's total output.

O'Malley, of the Shark Safe Network, estimates that GSK's 440 million doses would require at least 9,700 pounds (4,400 kilograms) of shark oil, based on the stated squalene content of 10.69 milligrams in a dose.

This estimate, however, assumes zero waste and no refining of the squalene once it's been extracted from the sharks, O'Malley said.

Slow-Growing Sharks

Found at depths of between 984 and 4,921 feet (300 and 1,500 meters), the deep-sea sharks that produce squalene are most frequently caught via bottom trawling, either deliberately or as bycatch.

"Bottom trawling is a horribly destructive fishing method that just bulldozes everything in its path and destroys enormous areas of the ocean floor," O'Malley said.

What's more, the already at-risk sharks are extremely slow growing and reproduce rarely.

A female gulper shark, for example, takes between 12 and 15 years to reach sexual maturity. A pregnant female gives birth to a single pup after a gestation period of about two years.

This means that the loss of a single female has a big impact on the population, said Hans Lassen, fisheries advisor for the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea, an intergovernmental organization.

In 2006 the European Union imposed deep-sea shark fishing limits in the Northeast Atlantic, and the amount of shark squalene available on the market has since been reduced.

Still, some squalene suppliers are actively soliciting fishers for these sharks, the Shark Safe Network's O'Malley said.

For instance, France-based suppler Sophim lists the species it seeks on its Web site, along with an offer to evaluate samples from shark livers that "are thrown away because fishermen don't know that the liver has a value."

Shark Liver Alternatives

Some cosmetics firms have stopped using shark squalene or are phasing it out following pressure from conservation groups.

A shark-squalene alternative isn't yet an option for adjuvant vaccine makers, according to GSK's Eldred.

The drug company is currently looking at non-animal squalene sources, including olive oil.

But at the moment, she said, "we are unable to find an alternative of high enough grade."

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Bangladesh tries to save lone coral island

Yahoo News 29 Dec 09;

DHAKA (AFP) – Bangladesh has ordered a building freeze on its lone coral island in a bid to save its wildlife and natural beauty from a boom in construction fuelled by tourism, its environment minister said Tuesday.

Hasan Mahmud told AFP his government had declared the eight square kilometre (three square mile) St Martin's Island an ecologically critical area and had banned new buildings there.

"We have also ordered an inventory of the existing infrastructure that threatens the island's ecology," he said, adding that any buildings that harm the environment would be demolished.

St Martin's Island, situated 400 kilometres (250 miles) south of the capital Dhaka, is Bangladesh's lone coral island and attracts tens of thousands of tourists during holiday periods.

The island is home to some rare flora and fauna, including 182 wildlife species. In recent years, the island has witnessed a building boom due to a huge rush of tourists.

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Conserving carbon-rich regions could also benefit biodiversity

Journal Watch Online 29 Dec 09;

Regions with high carbon storage tend to be species-rich, according to a paper accepted for publication in Conservation Letters. Efforts to preserve carbon stocks, therefore, may also support biodiversity.

A team came to this conclusion after analyzing global data on 20,697 species of mammals, amphibians, and birds, as well as a recently published assessment of the world’s carbon storage. When the researchers compared the datasets, they found significant overlap between carbon and species richness. That’s not entirely surprising, they note, since one would expect tropical forests to have plenty of both, while neither are found in abundance in deserts or at the poles.

But not all regions with high biodiversity will be covered under purely carbon-focused conservation, the authors say. Species-rich areas with low carbon storage could “suffer from a double conservation jeopardy,” they write. Money may flow to the preservation of high-carbon regions instead, and development efforts might become concentrated in the low-carbon zones. These areas should get special attention, the team says, so they don’t fall through the cracks. – Roberta Kwok

Source: Strassburg, B., Kelly, A., Balmford, A., Davies, R., Gibbs, H., Lovett, A., Miles, L., Orme, C., Price, J., Turner, R., & Rodrigues, A. (2009). Global congruence of carbon storage and biodiversity in terrestrial ecosystems Conservation Letters Accepted Article DOI: 10.1111/j.1755-263X.2009.00092.x

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