Best of our wild blogs: 7 Jan 10

Life History of the Colour Sergeant
from Butterflies of Singapore

NSS Kids’ Fun with Migratory Birds at Ubin
from Fun with Nature

Calling all green groups!
from Green Drinks Singapore

black sea cucumbers
from sgbeachbum

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Singapore and Malaysia in eco project

Straits Times 7 Jan 10;

JOHOR BARU - A BILATERAL study between Malaysia and Singapore to tap the eco-tourism potential of the Sungai Pulai wetland reserve in south-western Johor is expected to be completed by June.

This marks the two countries' first joint ministerial committee project on tourism, reported The New Straits Times on Thursday.

Johor Menteri Besar Datuk Abdul Ghani Othman said an international consultant has been engaged to draw up a proposal on how to turn Sungai Pulai, one of Malaysia's six Ramsar sites (wetlands of international importance), into a tourist destination.

The effort will be based on the same method and strategy used by Singapore in promoting its first wetland reserve, Sungei Buloh, near Kranji.

'The study will identify the kind of the eco-tourism activities, the categories of visitors who may be interested and the need for strict management of the wetland reserve,' he said here on Wednesday. 'Johor is also blessed with an abundance of natural wonders, and Sungai Pulai is a good example... Together with the rapid development in Iskandar Malaysia, the state aims to preserve its natural beauty and carry out sustainable development.'

Spread over 9,126ha, the Sungai Pulai forest reserve is the second largest mangrove area in Peninsular Malaysia. It was gazetted by Johor in 1923 and was listed as a Ramsar site on Jan 31, 2003.

Singapore to help boost eco-tourism in Johor
Republic is sharing experience in developing Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve in Kranji
Amresh Gunasingham, Straits Times 8 Jan 10;

SINGAPORE is lending Malaysia its expertise in developing green reserves for eco-tourism.

The tourism agencies of both countries have started a joint feasibility study to look into how an attraction like Singapore's Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve in Kranji can be replicated across the Causeway.

The areas that Malaysia hopes to develop into tourism spots are all in Johor - Sungai Pulai, Tanjung Piai and Pulau Kukup.

All have been classified as Ramsar sites, a title granted by the Geneva-based Ramsar Convention Bureau to identify wetlands of international importance.

Johor's lush Sungai Pulai alone spans 9ha. Officially gazetted in 1923, it is the country's second- largest mangrove forest.

It sits at the mouth of a lowland tropical river basin, and is home to seagrass beds, intertidal mudflats and an inland freshwater riverine forest, which teem with animal life.

The joint feasibility study, expected to be completed this year, is the first such venture into the tourism sector.

It will identify appropriate activities for visitors and the kind of people likely to go there, as well as explore the adoption of a code of management practices.

The first mention of the collaboration between Singapore and Malaysia in this area came from Minister for National Development Mah Bow Tan last year, when he gave an update on Singapore's involvement in Iskandar Malaysia, a project to develop southern Johor's economic corridor.

Collaborations between the two countries in this economic zone come under a joint ministerial committee.

Mr Mah added that the two sides' environment agencies are also sharing expertise in areas such as river cleaning.

Malaysia's senior regional government officials have been quoted in the media as having said that the move to develop Sungai Pulai is in line with the plan to build a viable tourist hot spot there.

Johor Menteri Besar Abdul Ghani Othman told the New Straits Times: 'Together with the rapid development in Iskandar Malaysia, the state aims to preserve its natural beauty and carry out sustainable development.'

When contacted, Mr John Conceicao, director of strategic planning and innovation at the Singapore Tourism Board, said it was working with its Malaysian counterpart on developing joint marketing campaigns for the nature sites 'to potentially increase tourism flows into and between Iskandar Malaysia and Singapore'.

Professor Leo Tan, director of special projects at the National University of Singapore, said that if the findings of the study are followed through and adopted, the area's vital eco-system could be preserved.

Pointing to Sungei Buloh here, he said that it had, with proper management, 'morphed out of what was nothing more than a dilapidated prawn pond'.

He added: 'The key for any country lies in optimising its resources in a rational and educated manner... to develop an appreciation and understanding of why we need to protect our biodiversity.'

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What makes Singaporeans happy

Tambyah Siok Kuan & Tan Soo Jiuan, For The Straits Times 7 Jan 10;

THE media gives some insight into what makes Singaporeans happy or upset.

Singaporeans are happy when the Government rolls out a family-friendly Budget. Singaporeans are annoyed by service staff who are not passionate about their work or cannot speak English well. Depending on the performance of their investments, Singaporeans may love or loathe coffee shop talk about the stock and property markets.

These snapshots motivated us to study three things Singaporeans consider when they evaluate their quality of life: happiness, enjoyment and achievement. In a recently published book that we wrote, The Wellbeing of Singaporeans, we reported that more than one in four Singaporeans (27.5 per cent) are very happy with their life and about half (51.1 per cent) are quite happy while less than 1 in 100 (0.9 per cent) are very unhappy. Singles are the happiest lot while the middle-income group is the least happy.

But what makes Singaporeans happy? We found five contributing factors: fluency in English, satisfaction with personal life (for example, standard of living and health), satisfaction with interpersonal life (for example, friendships and family life), pride in being a Singaporean, and the perception of how the Government deals with ethnic diversity.

Singaporeans who are more fluent in English reported more happiness. In Singapore, those who speak English better tend to be more educated and hold higher-paying jobs. This is consistent with other analyses in our book showing that Singaporeans who are highly educated with medium to high levels of incomes are the happiest.

While financial resources are important, Singaporeans also found happiness in relationships with those close to them. Satisfaction with personal and interpersonal lives is associated with more happiness.

In addition, Singaporeans' happiness has a broader social dimension: national pride and the performance of the Government. The prouder Singaporeans are of their nation, the happier they are.

The Government's role in ensuring that the different ethnic groups co-exist harmoniously also affects happiness. The more Singaporeans perceive the Government to have been effective in dealing with ethnic diversity, the happier they are.

Apart from happiness, enjoyment of life also contributes to quality of life. More than one in 10 Singaporeans (11.5 per cent) never or rarely enjoy life. We observed that low-income Singaporeans enjoy life the most while the highly educated enjoy life the least. Satisfaction with personal life, satisfaction with interpersonal life, and national pride also affected Singaporeans' enjoyment of life.

Finally, do Singaporeans think that they have achieved the most out of life? Almost one in four Singaporeans (23.9 per cent) feels that he or she has accomplished nothing or very little in life.

Ironically, it is the low-income earners who feel they have accomplished much while the high-income group feels exactly the opposite. We found that the higher the household income, the more a Singaporean feels that he or she has not achieved much in life. Perhaps such families have expectations that are so high that their members feel that they have not accomplished much. Alternatively, they may feel that they have not pushed themselves to their limits because their lives have been comfortable thus far.

As with happiness and enjoyment, personal life satisfaction and national pride affect one's sense of achievement. But what's interesting is that the perception of the quality of public services also matters. Singaporeans who believe that the Government is doing a good job in providing public services also tend to feel that they have accomplished much in life.

What do these findings tell us about Singaporeans? While they are generally a happy lot, more can be done to help them appreciate their own achievements and to find more enjoyment in life. Perhaps they have forgotten how to savour simple pleasures.

They may also be setting themselves up for disappointment by imposing unrealistically high expectations on themselves. A balance must be struck between setting and striving towards standards of achievement and ensuring personal well-being in other areas of one's life.

The writers are professors in the Department of Marketing at the National University of Singapore Business School. They specialise in quality of life and lifestyle studies.

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Dearer fish for reunion dinner

Shortage of tiger garoupa as demand rises in Year of the Tiger and plankton hits farms
Jessica Lim, Straits Times 7 Jan 10;

THOSE who want a taste of the tiger garoupa this Chinese New Year are likely to be hit by a double whammy: The fish, usually already more expensive during this period, is set to be priced even higher.

The striped fish is a mainstay on reunion dinner menus due to its quality and relatively low price compared to other types of garoupa, say importers and distributors.

The surge in demand during Chinese New Year typically pushes prices up by about 15 per cent at restaurants - from $58 to almost $70 per kilogram, at an averagely priced restaurant.

However, two other factors are likely to push prices up even higher this year.

First, restaurants have lost a key supplier.

A plankton bloom hit fish farms off Pasir Ris and Pulau Ubin two weeks ago, depriving the fish of oxygen. About 20 floating farms reported a combined loss of 300,000 fish, more than half of which are tiger garoupa.

This number makes up 75 per cent of the total tiger garoupa production in Singapore.

Many of the fish were destined for restaurants here during the Chinese New Year next month.

Another factor that could spike price rises even further is the fact that the tiger garoupa, already popular during the festive season, is likely to be even more so this time around - the next lunar year is the Year of the Tiger, and many Chinese feel the dish will be auspicious.

'There will be some shortage of the fish, especially since demand is so high during Chinese New Year,' said Mr Dennis Ng, co-owner of Jong Fresh which supplies the fish to about 50 eateries here.

'We will get more fish from Indonesia and Malaysia, but prices will definitely go up.'

The 33-year-old predicts that prices will be about 20 per cent higher than they were during Chinese New Year last year.

Another supplier, Mr Ong Sing Seng from Seng Seafood Supplies, which supplies about five tonnes of the fish to Singapore every month, reckons that this year's supply of tiger garoupa will come mostly from Malaysia or Indonesia.

'Almost all the local supply of tiger garoupa is gone,' he said.

Some restaurants, wary that prices may put the dish beyond the reach of their patrons, are thinking of taking the fish off their menus altogether.

Marine Parade's Roland Restaurant and MacPherson Road's Ming Kee Live Seafood are among them.

'If prices go up too high, we will definitely switch to some other fish that are cheaper, and will stop selling it,' said Mr Thomas Tan, Roland Restaurant's manager. 'We will sell it only if customers ask us to bring it back and are willing to pay more.'

Ah Yat Seafood Market's six seafood restaurants will keep selling the fish, but pass a proportion - about 20 per cent - of the increase in cost to customers. Others which sell the fish at market prices, like Grand Copthorne Waterfront hotel, will continue to do so.

Fans of the tiger garoupa are peeved that they might have to pay a higher price for the fish this year, but some are willing to cough up the money.

'Eating tiger garoupa during Chinese New Year is part of the culture. It is like buying a Christmas tree during Christmas. We will stick to it even if prices go up,' said Mrs Sock Wee Lim, 50, a consultant. 'It's also good luck to consume tiger garoupa during the tiger year.'

Others, though, say they will make a switch.

'If a particular kind of fish becomes more expensive, I will switch to other kinds,' said homemaker Mabel Tjong, 53.

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SAF ships and helicopter search for tugboat survivors

Two bodies found, nine men missing after Singapore-flagged vessel capsizes off Pedra Branca
Jermyn Chow, Straits Times 7 Jan 10;

A MASSIVE search and rescue mission involving the Singapore Navy and Air Force is under way off Pedra Branca, after one of the worst accidents in nearby waters in decades.

So far, two bodies have been pulled from the wreckage of a tugboat which capsized with 13 men on board about 45 nautical miles from Singapore early yesterday morning.

Two crewmen managed to clamber onto a life-raft after the incident, and were rescued several hours later by a commercial vessel which had been passing by.

The survivors were found about 16 nautical miles east of Pedra Branca.

Nine men are still missing, and two Singapore Navy (RSN) patrol vessels, the RSS Fearless and Brave, with 30 crewmen aboard each, a Super Puma helicopter, and three private ships are now combing a 250-sq-km area looking for them.

All 13 on board the stricken vessel are believed to be Indonesians.

The Ocean Lark, a Singapore-registered vessel, sank at about 5am yesterday, said its owner, Intone Private Limited, a subsidiary of global shipping firm Drydocks World South-east Asia which is based here.

Singapore was alerted to the incident after the two crewmen were found adrift.

Under international maritime law, the Republic is responsible for mounting rescue operations in the area should a vessel sink or be in danger, and search and rescue teams were immediately despatched.

Drydocks enterprise director Colin Simpson said the sunken vessel was carrying 12 crew members.

However, the Maritime Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) said there was another person on board.

It is not known who he was, or what he was doing on the vessel.

The cause of the accident is also unknown.

Mr Simpson said the Ocean Lark was travelling from Batam to Tarempa Natuna in Indonesia's Riau archipelago when it capsized.

The 767-tonne tugboat was not towing any barges when it went under.

Neither Drydocks nor the MPA wanted to speculate on the cause of the incident.

But mariners contacted said that at this time of year, conditions can be treacherous, with choppy seas and adverse weather conditions fuelled by the north-east monsoon.

Meanwhile, an MPA spokesman said that Indonesian navy vessels were on the way to the accident site to help in search and rescue efforts.

She added that rescuers are using a computer modelling program that relies on wind and tidal information for clues as to where to locate wreckage and survivors.

The last major maritime accident in nearby waters occurred in 2003, when the RSN's patrol vessel RSS Courageous collided with a container vessel.

Four Navy personnel, all women, were killed in the incident.

Two RSN officers were later found guilty of negligence by a district court and were fined for causing the deaths of the four women.

Singapore-registered tugboat capsizes off Pedra Branca
Imelda Saad, Channel NewsAsia 6 Jan 10;

A search-and-rescue operation is now on for nine missing crew members of a Singapore-registered tugboat which had 13 crew on board.

The boat capsized off Pedra Branca on Wednesday at about 5am.

The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) said two crew members were rescued at 9.50am by a passing Singapore supply vessel, about 16 nautical miles east of Horsburgh Lighthouse.

And on Wednesday evening, two bodies were recovered by divers from salvage company Posh Semco Pte Ltd.

MPA said the crew, all Indonesians, belonged to a Singapore-registered tugboat called 'Ocean Lark'.

The tugboat had left Batam, Indonesia and was headed to Matak, Indonesia, when the incident happened.

Singapore's Air Force and Navy have been roped in for the search efforts which are ongoing.

Assets deployed include a helicopter, a patrol vessel and three commercial vessels. - CNA/vm

9 sailors missing off Pedra Branca
Leong Wee Keat Today Online 7 Jan 10;

SINGAPORE - As nightfall descended yesterday in the South China Sea - and search and rescue operations continued - the fate of nine Indonesians missing at sea remained unknown at press time.

The group was on board the Singapore-flagged Ocean Lark when the offshore support vessel capsized off Pedra Branca at around 3.55am yesterday.

As at 11pm, divers recovered two bodies from the ship's wreck. The search was still in progress at press time.

The 767-tonne vessel, which was carrying 13 Indonesians, was travelling from Batam to Tarempa Natuna in Indonesia's Riau archipelago when the incident happened. Two crew members were rescued from a life-raft about six hours later by a passing Singapore-registered vessel, Pacific Protector.

The Maritime and Port Authority (MPA) was informed at 9.50am yesterday.

A search and rescue operation by the MPA, the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF), Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN) and commercial vessels was launched. Up to three commercial vessels, two RSN patrol vessels, an RSAF helicopter and an RSAF aircraft were involved in the search.

The MPA has also issued navigational broadcasts to vessels in the vicinity to assist with the search and rescue.

Indonesia's Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre has also been informed, said the MPA.

Ocean Lark is owned and operated by Intone Private Limited, a subsidiary of Drydocks World South-east Asia. When Media­Corp visited the company's HarbourFront office yesterday evening, a company representative declined comment.

Instead, the company issued a written statement, which said that the families of the missing crew members have been notified.

"Until more facts are available the company is unable to comment or speculate on the circumstances and will continue to cooperate fully with the relevant parties, keeping the families of the missing crew members fully advised of developments," the statement also said.

The company declined to disclose where the two survivors were taken to after their rescue.

2 more bodies recovered from waters off Pedra Branca
Imelda Saad, Channel NewsAsia 7 Jan 10;

SINGAPORE: Two more bodies have been recovered from the waters off Pedra Branca after a Singapore-registered tugboat sunk early Wednesday morning.

The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) said the bodies were recovered at about 5.30pm on Thursday. This brings the death toll to four. Two bodies had been recovered on Wednesday night.

MPA said the search continues for the remaining seven missing crew members.

Two seamen were the first to be found alive, at about 9.50am - five hours after the boat sunk.

All crew members are Indonesians.

The tugboat, called Ocean Lark, had left Batam, Indonesia and was headed to Matak, Indonesia, when the incident happened.

Helping in the search and rescue operations are four Singapore navy vessels, one Super Puma helicopter, two Fokker 50 maritime patrol aircraft from the Singapore Air Force, one Indonesian navy vessel and 14 commercial vessels.

- CNA/sc


Three more bodies recovered from capsized tugboat
channelnewsasia.com 8 Jan 10;

SINGAPORE: Rescuers searching for victims of capsized tugboat "Ocean Lark" recovered three more bodies on Friday.

This brings to seven, the number of bodies recovered from the vessel which capsized off Pedra Branca on Wednesday morning.

Search efforts by the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA), Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF), Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN) and commercial vessels for another four missing persons are continuing.

The Singapore-registered tugboat had an Indonesian crew of 13 on board when the vessel left Batam, Indonesia.

The "Ocean Lark" was headed to Matak, Indonesia when it capsized and two crew members were rescued by a passing Singapore supply vessel some 16 nautical miles east of Horsburgh Lighthouse.

- CNA/sf

Search for missing tugboat crew called off
Straits Times 13 Jan 10;

SEARCH and rescue operations for the crew of capsized tugboat Ocean Lark have been called off, with four men still missing.

The tugboat sank early last Wednesday as it was making its way from Batam to Tarempa Natuna in the South China Sea.

At the time, 13 people were on board the vessel. They are all believed to be Indonesian men.

Two - who clambered onto a lifeboat - were rescued, while seven bodies were recovered.

The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) said the search, involving 75 vessels and aircraft over an area larger than 1,000 sq km, was suspended at 5pm yesterday.

The MPA added that it will continue to inform vessels passing the vicinity of the incident site to keep a lookout for the four men who remain unaccounted for.

Besides Singapore and Indonesia, which sent their navies to look for the missing crew, 64 commercial vessels deviated from their voyages to assist in the search.

An Indonesian Embassy spokesman said the two survivors - the tugboat's chief and third engineers, who are in their 30s - are still in Singapore.

The families of two dead crew members - the master and chief officer - have claimed their bodies.

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Vietnamese villagers raise fears of fresh sand dredging

Fishermen air fresh dredge fears
Vong Sokheng and Sebastian Strangio Phnom Penh Post 6 Jan 10;

VILLAGERS in Koh Kong province say they continue to suffer from large-scale sand-dredging operations in coastal estuaries, which they add have reduced fish catches and threatened the livelihoods of thousands of local fishermen.

Un Thanann, provincial coordinator for local rights group Adhoc, said that 1,200 families from Village 4 in Koh Kong’s Dong Tung commune had filed two complaints with local authorities since October, but have yet to receive a response.

“In all the fishing areas along the Tatai, Trapaing Roung and Sre Ambel rivers, there have been complaints by the fishermen that there are no more fish, and villagers need more petrol to travel farther to fish,” he said, adding that local authorities had appeared to ignore their complaints.

Set Vannak, a coordinator for the rights group Licadho, said that in numerous interviews with fisherman in different villages, he heard complaints that dredging had churned up the riverbeds and polluted the water. Oil from ships had also polluted the surface of the water, he said, forcing fish to seek cleaner habitats.

Fisherman Matt Sen, 46, from Village 4, said that two years ago he could net 100 kilograms of fish in just two hours, but that now he regularly spends up to seven hours on the water for catches of 2 kilograms or less.

“Our villagers here have been seriously impacted by the sand dredging,” he said. “Our daily living condition depends on the sea, and when the sea becomes polluted we will die.”

In March 2009, the Post reported that sand-dredging operations in Koh Kong were under the control of LYP Group – owned by CPP Senator Ly Yongphat – in partnership with the Hong Kong firm Winton Enterprises, which exported the sand to Singapore.

According to a 2009 sector profile published in a government-run online investment guide, three other local companies – Udomseima, Dany Trading and Regapo – have also been granted concessions to mine sand in Koh Kong under what the site says are tight government regulations.

“While sand-mining operations in Koh Kong province’s extensive salt-water estuaries remain small-scale, they are expected to have little impact on the local environment,” the Web site states.

Pech Siyon, director of the provincial Department of Industry, Energy and Mines, said authorities were aware of the villagers’ concerns and were “preparing a licence for a local company to clean oil from the surface water”.

He added that Winton wound up its operations last month, having fulfilled its export agreement with the government, and was “awaiting the renewal of [its] licence”. Only two companies – LYP Group and Udomseima – are now operating in the area, he said.

Singapore bound

However, photos taken in Koh Kong in November and obtained by the Post show a recent flurry of dredging and transport activity in Koh Kong.

According to international shipping registries, several of the tug-boats and barges pictured are owned by Singapore-based shipping companies – including IMC Shipping and the Marco Polo Shipping Co – while others bear Malaysian and Vietnamese markings. One barge is marked with the names of HSC, a Phnom Penh-based dredging firm, and Cambosand, a small company based in Singapore.

Cambosand’s representative in Singapore could not be reached on Tuesday, while HSC staff in Phnom Penh had not responded to requests for comment Tuesday.

Read more!

Bid to protect home of sea creatures great and small

Ari Sharp, The Age 7 Jan 10;

A PRISTINE stretch of West Australian coast is being put forward as the country's 18th World Heritage site after a deal between the state and federal governments was struck to protect the Ningaloo Coast.

A virtually untouched barrier reef stretching 260 kilometres off North-West Cape, Ningaloo is home to the largest fish in the world - the whale shark - as well as manta rays, sea snakes, whales, turtles, more than 500 species of tropical fish and 220 varieties of coral.

More than 700,000 hectares of the oceanic wilderness will get special protection if the United Nations agrees to the World Heritage listing, which follows a campaign lasting most of the past decade.

The area has become a cause célèbre among many West Australians, including novelist Tim Winton, who became a leading advocate of its heritage value.

The heritage nomination was announced yesterday by Federal Heritage Minister Peter Garrett and WA Environment Minister Donna Faragher, and came after the State Government relaxed its resistance to the move.

''The Ningaloo Coast tells an extraordinary story of biogeography, climate change, the assembling of continents and the opening of oceans, biological richness and environmental conservation,'' Mr Garrett said.

''The World Heritage nomination reflects that Ningaloo is internationally significant for its role in the protection of an exceptional number of marine and terrestrial species.''

But the heritage listing could affect tourism in the region, which has grown as a destination for snorkellers and divers.

''A heritage listing means more paperwork, more red tape and nothing to show for it,'' said Peter McKissock, whose company Ningaloo Blue each year takes hundreds of tourists, mostly from Australia and Europe, to snorkel on the remote reef.

''I can't understand why we need to give away control to foreigners,'' he said.

Nearby Shark Bay has already been put on the world heritage list, a move Mr McKissock said had affected coastal property sales and tourism.

The nomination is for an area of 708,000 hectares that includes Cape Range on Exmouth Peninsula, a coastal strip extending about 260 kilometres south to Red Bluff, as well as adjacent dunefields, marine areas, reefs and islands.

The UN's World Heritage Committee will now assess whether it meets the test of ''outstanding universal value'' in order to join the 890 sites already on the list.

The listing of a site requires the national government to manage the sites to protect the heritage value, which can include protecting species and limiting the impact of human activity.

If the nomination is successful, Ningaloo will become the 18th Australian site on the list, joining areas such as the Great Barrier Reef, the Tasmanian Wilderness and Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park.

Ningaloo has also been added to the National Heritage list, making it the 89th site to be included.

Read more!

Camera traps yield first-time film of tigress and cubs

WWF 7 Jan 10;

Jakarta, Indonesia – Camera traps deep in the Sumatran jungle have captured first-time images of a rare female tiger and her cubs, giving researchers unique insight into the elusive tiger’s behaviour.

After a month in operation, specially designed video cameras installed by WWF-Indonesia’s researchers seeking to record tigers in the Sumatran jungle caught the mother tiger and her cubs on film as they stopped to sniff and check out the camera trap.

There are as few as 400 Sumatran tigers left in the wild and they are under relentless pressure from poaching and clearing of their habitat. After five years of studying tigers using wildlife-activated camera traps set up in the forest, these are the first images of a tiger with offspring.

“We are very concerned though, because the territory of this tigress and its cubs is being rapidly cleared by two global paper companies, palm oil plantations, encroachers, and illegal loggers. Will the cubs survive to adulthood in this environment?” said Karmila Parakkasi, the leader of WWF-Indonesia’s Sumatran tiger research team.

The discovery comes as WWF prepares to launch a campaign on 14 Feb. 2010, to coincide with the start of the Year of the Tiger in the Chinese calendar.

The year-long, Tx2: Double or Nothing campaign aims to raise the bar for tiger conservation by securing high-level political commitment at a Heads of State Tiger Summit in September in Vladivostok, Russia to be hosted by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, and supported by WWF and other partners of the Global Tiger Initiative, including the World Bank.

“We want to change the course of tiger conservation,” said Mike Baltzer, leader of WWF’s global Tiger Initiative. “It’s not just about saving the tiger from extinction, but about doubling their number by 2022.”

With wild tiger numbers as low as 3,200, and a systematic attempt underway to wipe them out of the forests in Asia, more must be done to ensure this charismatic species and flagship for Asia's biological diversity, culture and economy is not lost forever.

In addition to the tigress and cubs’ footage, the video camera also captured images of a male Sumatran tiger and its prey, wild boar and deer, as well as many other species such as tapirs, macaques, porcupines and civets.

Infrared-triggered camera traps, which are activated upon sensing body heat in their path, have become an important tool to identify which areas of the forest are used by tigers, and to identify individual animals to monitor the population. WWF has operated dozens of cameras throughout the central Sumatran province of Riau.

Parakkasi and her team first captured still images of the tigress and its cub in July 2009 through still camera traps. The photos were, however, not very clear.

“We were not so sure how many cubs there were,” she said.

Video camera traps were then installed in September at the same location to clarify the initial findings.

WWF’s tiger research team set up four of the video camera traps in known tiger routes in a forested “wildlife corridor” that allows animals to move between two protected areas in central Sumatra – Rimbang Baling Wildlife Reserve in Riau and Bukit Tigapuluh National Park in both Riau and Jambi provinces.

“When these cubs are old enough to leave their mother, which will be soon, they will have to find their own territory,” said Ian Kosasih, WWF-Indonesia’s Forest Programme Director. “Where will they go? As tiger habitat shrunk with so much of the surrounding area having been cleared, the tigers will have a very hard time avoiding encounters with people. That will then be very dangerous for everyone involved.”

“With this clear scientific evidence of tiger presence, WWF calls for formal establishment of the area between Rimbang Baling and Bukit Tigapuluh forests as a protected wildlife corridor,” Kosasih said.

WWF is also urging the paper companies operating in the area – Sinar Mas/APP and APRIL – as well as palm oil plantations to help protect all high conservation value forests under their control that are the habitat of tigers and other endangered species.

Tiger Video Sparks Calls for Protection
Jakarta Globe 7 Jan 10;

Footage of a female Sumatran tiger and her two cubs captured by a video camera hidden deep in the forests of central Sumatra supports demands that such areas be given better protection and management to ensure the preservation of wildlife habitats, according to environmental campaigners.

“The footage shows us the tigers’ living patterns and the size of their roaming areas, which we can use to recommend areas that need protection and their best management practice,” Desmarita Murni, spokeswoman for conservation organization WWF Indonesia, told the Jakarta Globe on Thursday. “It would be difficult if we did not have this evidence.”

An infrared-triggered video camera, which is activated by movement, captured the tigers on film when the mother showed up to check out the camera, followed by her two cubs, which are estimated to be about one year old.

“We determined that the last cub to appear on camera is a male cub, though we cannot yet identify the other cub’s gender,” said Karmila Parakkasi, the head of WWF Indonesia’s Sumatran tiger research team.

“Seeing this footage within one month of setting up the new video cameras was a real boost for our team in the field,” Karmila said in a press release. “We are very concerned though, because the territory of this tigress and its cubs is being rapidly cleared by two global paper companies, palm oil plantations, encroachers and illegal loggers. Will the cubs survive to adulthood in this environment?”

Desmarita said the footage of the tigress was captured in October, while other footage of a male tiger as well as many other species, including tapirs, macaques, porcupines and civets, was captured in November.

The camera was installed in a “wildlife corridor” between two protected areas in central Sumatra — the Rimbang Baling Wildlife Reserve in Riau and Bukit Tigapuluh National Park, which straddles Riau and Jambi.

Much of the forest in the corridor is being cleared by paper companies and palm oil plantations or is slated for clearing, putting the tigers’ future in doubt.

There are as few as 400 Sumatran tigers left in the wild and they are under relentless pressure from poaching and habitat destruction. After five years of studying tigers using motion-activated camera traps, these are the first images of a tiger with cubs.

The discovery comes as WWF prepares to launch a yearlong campaign at the start of the Year of the Tiger on the Chinese calendar to raise the bar for tiger conservation by securing high-level political commitments at a summit in Russia in September.

Rare Wild Tiger and Cubs Captured on Video
livescience.com Yahoo News 7 Jan 10;

A female tiger and her cubs gave scientists quite a show as the elusive animals sniffed and checked out a video-camera trap in the Sumatran jungle.

After five years of studying tigers using wildlife-activated camera traps set up in the forest, these are the first images of the rare tiger with cubs. The video will provide a window into the elusive tiger's behavior, say scientists with the WWF (formerly called the World Wildlife Fund).

As few as 400 Sumatran tigers remain in the wild, and even these individuals are under relentless pressure from poaching and clearing of their habitat, officials say.

"We are very concerned though, because the territory of this tigress and its cubs is being rapidly cleared by two global paper companies, palm oil plantations, encroachers, and illegal loggers," said Karmila Parakkasi, the leader of WWF-Indonesia's Sumatran tiger research team.

Parakkasi and her team first captured still images of the tigress and its cub in July 2009 through still camera traps. The photos were, however, not very clear, and the research team was not sure how many cubs there were. And so they set up four of the video camera traps in known tiger routes in a forested wildlife corridor that allows animals to move between two protected areas in central Sumatra - Rimbang Baling Wildlife Reserve in Riau and Bukit Tigapuluh National Park in both Riau and Jambi provinces.

The video comes as WWF prepares to launch a campaign for tiger conservation on Feb. 14 to coincide with the start of the Year of the Tiger on the Chinese calendar.

"We want to change the course of tiger conservation," said Mike Baltzer, leader of WWF's global Tiger Initiative. "It's not just about saving the tiger from extinction, but about doubling their number by 2022." Hence, the campaign is called "Tx2: Double or Nothing."

WWF scientists are worried about the cubs' future. "When these cubs are old enough to leave their mother, which will be soon, they will have to find their own territory," said Ian Kosasih, WWF-Indonesia'' Forest Program Director. "Where will they go? As tiger habitat shrunk with so much of the surrounding area having been cleared, the tigers will have a very hard time avoiding encounters with people. That will then be very dangerous for everyone involved."

Kosasih says with this new evidence of Sumatran tigers, WWF is calling for a formal establishment of a protected area between Rimbang Baling and Bukit Tigapuluh forests. WWF is also urging the paper companies operating in the area as well as palm oil plantations to help protect all high conservation value forests under their control that provide habitat for tigers and other endangered species.

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Indonesia Revoked Licenses of 9 Natural Forest Firms in 2009

Jakarta Globe 6 Jan 10;

The Ministry of Forestry said on Wednesday that it revoked the concession rights of nine companies last year that managed natural forest totaling 470,533 hectares across the archipelago.

“The licenses were revoked because the companies were violating the law by neglecting forest areas,” said Hadi Daryanto, director general of forest production at the Forestry Ministry.

Four of the companies were located in Riau, with the others in South Kalimantan, West Sumatera, West Sulawesi, East Kalimantan and Gorontalo. Natural forest licences allow companies to cut down trees on a selective basis. The ministry said it planned to revoke an additional 36 licenses this year. JG

Government revokes 7 concessions, warns 36 other holders
Benget Besalicto Tnb, The Jakarta Post 11 Jan 10;

Having revoked seven forest concessions amounting to more than 500,000 hectares last year, the Forestry Ministry has threatened to revoke at least 36 more this year unless concession holders comply with all the regulations.

Speaking on the sidelines of a ceremony to launch REDD (reduction of emissions from deforestation and forest degradation) pilot projects last week, Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan said the seven concession holders had been ordered to return their concessions to the government, which will
then offer them again to interested investors.

He added four of the concessions were in Riau province, one in Central Kalimantan, one in West Sulawesi and one in Gorontalo province in Sulawesi.

Zulkifli said the concessions had been revoked for several reasons, among others because the holders had abandoned their concession sites, failed to present their annual work plans to the ministry, subcontracted their concessions to other companies, and failed to pay forests tariffs, such as rehabilitation funds and forest resources fees.

The minister said the government had been forced to take the “harsh measure” as it was necessary to make forest concession holders comply with prevailing regulations.

“Of course we need to develop our forestry sector for the benefit of our economy,” Zulkifli said.

“But they should do their business in line with government regulations. Otherwise we’ll have to take action against them, including revoking their permits.”

Hadi Daryanto, the ministry’s director general of forest production development, said at least 36 other forest concessions amounting to 2.04 million hectares could be revoked this year.

“We’ve given the holders a final warning to comply with all requirements within the next few months,” he said.

“If they failed to do so, then we’ll have to revoke their licenses.”

He added the seven affected concessionaires from 2009 were PT Riau Putra Bersama, PT Nanjak Makmur, PT Dexter Kencana Timber and PT Rokan Permai Timber in Riau province; PT Inhutani 2 ex Valgosoon Indonesia in Central Kalimantan; Perusahaan Nasional Hayam Wuruk in West Sulawesi, and PT Acrisindo Utama in Gorontalo.

Hadi declined to name the 36 companies currently at risk of losing their concessions, saying the government would only identify them if it decided to revoke their licenses.

“We’re now in the process of reviewing their licenses. If we decide to revoke them, then we can give you their names,” he said.

He added the government was also facing an increasing number of illegal logging cases across the archipelago.

“Cases of illegal loggers being arrested have been increasing of late,” Hadi said.

“Perhaps the loggers are making use of the kind of transition process currently underway. But we’ll take harsh action against them.

We’ll cooperate with the police on this issue.”

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Germany Pledges $39m for REDD Pilot Project in Indonesia

Jakarta Globe 6 Jan 10;

Germany has committed 27 million euros ($39 million) for a pilot project that would demonstrate how the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation program would work ahead of its implementation in 2012.

The pilot project is scheduled to begin this month in three districts in Kalimantan — Kapuas Hulu in West Kalimantan and Malinau and Berau in East Kalimantan — and will continue until 2016.

The project will help prepare the districts for international carbon credit trading under the REDD scheme, including teaching them how to monitor carbon emissions and increase local residents’ income through environmental conservation efforts.

REDD aims to encourage developing nations to preserve their forests by measuring and giving an economic value to the carbon saved by stopping deforestation. Under the scheme, the saved carbon would be sold as “credits” to investors and industrialized nations with higher emissions.

Agus Widiarto, head of the planning section at the Ministry of Forestry, said the German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ) would provide technical assistance for the pilot project.

“The budget for technical assistance from the GTZ will be 7 million euros, and the other 20 million euros will come from the German [state-owned] bank KfW. So, in total, it will be 27 million euros,” Agus said on Wednesday.

Two other countries have committed funds to similar REDD pilot projects in Indonesia. Norway has provided 2 million euros for a three-year project that started last year, while Australia has committed 40 million Australian dollars ($36 million) for a project in Kalimantan and another 30 million Australian dollars for a project in Jambi.

The International Tropical Timber Organization has also committed $900,000 to a project that is expected to run for four years beginning this year in the Meru Betiri conservation forest in East Java.

Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan has said that while the government has committed to reducing carbon emissions by 26 percent by 2020, with the help of other countries, Indonesia could achieve a 41 percent reduction by 2020.

“If those programs were seriously implemented, we could reduce emissions by 41 percent by 2020, including from our own efforts in reducing [them] 26 percent,” Zulkifli said on Wednesday in Jakarta. Arti Ekawati

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Drought, rising sea levels predicted to damage Vietnam's crops this year

Vietnam News 7 Jan 10;

HA NOI — Serious drought in the north and rising sea levels in the south may cause significant losses to farmers in the winter-spring harvest, according to a forecast by the National Centre for Hydrometeorology Forecasting.

Impacts from El Nino would continue to influence the country until April, said Le Thanh Hai, director of the centre.

"As a result, rainfall in northern provinces will continue to decrease by 20 to 30 per cent," he said.

Nearly 12 per cent of the country’s winter-spring rice harvest will be seriously affected by drought, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD). The lack of rain will reduce productivity and may even result in a bad harvest for nearly 80,000ha out of 627,000ha of the nation’s rice.

In Yen Bai Province, a lack of water has affected more than 1,000ha of rice and other crops because many of its mountainous districts do not have reservoirs.

Residents in the province have had to plant other types of crops such as maize, peanuts and beans.

Reservoirs in Hai Duong Province, one of the country’s major rice suppliers, have reached critical levels. Some 2,000ha of rice in the province have been predicted to lack water for growing.

Pham Ngoc Thuoc, director of the Phu Tho Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said that reservoir water levels in the province currently reached only 80 per cent of their designed capacity.

For example, the Hoa Binh Water Reservoir is currently short of 354 million cubic metres of water, the Thac Ba Reservoir lacks more than 1,000 million cubic metres and the Tuyen Quang Reservoir lacks 978 million cubic metres.

In order to deal with this problem, MARD has ordered authorities in affected provinces to improve their irrigation infrastructure and mobilise people to help dredge canals.

During a fact-finding visit to the province yesterday, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Dao Xuan Hoc asked Hoa Binh Province to closely monitor water sources in order to help its districts deal with the drought.

Hoc also asked the province to take the initiative to mobilise an anti-drought fund for mitigation measures and to submit timely reports to the Government for supplemental funds if necessary.

He said the province must change to drought-resistant crops and provide financial support to local farmers when they make the change.

According to the Hoa Binh Province Agriculture and Rural Development Department, up to 4,000ha out of total 6,500ha of rice under cultivation in the province will be seriously affected by the drought.

As many as 500ha has already been changed to the cultivation of cereal crops. The province hopes to ensure adequate water supply for the rest.

Department deputy director Quach Tu Hai said the province was intensifying efforts to repair irrigation infrastructure and water pumps to deal with the drought.

In Ha Noi, the municipal Department of Agriculture and Rural Development will install 192 water pumps to deal with drought.

The department has also called on farmers to plant drought-resistant crops like peanuts and maize.

The capital’s finance, and agriculture and rural development sectors have proposed that the city invest VND58 billion (US$3 million) on constructing irrigation infrastructure.

Salination

Meanwhile, the rising sea level has increased salinity in 53 Mekong (Cuu Long) Delta communes, according to the Southern Hydrographic and Meteorology Forecast Station.

More than 1,200ha of rice in Bac Lieu Province was recently damaged from high salt concentrations in irrigation water.

Soc Trang Province was also affected by drought and salinity. Nearly 40,000ha of the summer-autumn rice crop in the province was affected.

A project is currently under construction that will help separate salt water from fresh water.

"Although it won’t be operational during this year’s dry season, when complete it is expected to facilitate production for more than 150,000ha of cultivation land," said Nguyen Van Minh, an official of Bac Lieu Province.

In An Giang Province’s Tan Chau District and Chau Doc Town, the water level has already dropped below last year’s dry season.

According to the Irrigation Department in Hau Giang Province, the Hau River will decrease by 0.9 metres, the largest drop in the province.

The station’s forecast shows that many provinces in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta won’t have enough water for irrigation, with river flows expected to reduce to only 600cu.m per second, a 200cu.m per second drop from normal.

Salination will continue to hit 12 communes and towns in Long My and Vi Thuy districts in Hau Giang, Ben Tre, An Giang and Bac Lieu provinces.

The salination rate will increase during the months of the dry season and 800,0000ha have been predicted to suffer from the effects by March.

Authorities in these provinces are struggling with the decision to open or close their irrigation dikes; if they are closed, there won’t be enough water for shrimp farming, while opening them will salinate hundreds of hectares of rice paddies. — VNS

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GrassRoots Activist Brings Clean Water To Afghanistan

Jon Hurdle PlanetArk 7 Jan 10;

PERKIOMENVILLE, Pa - Aldo Magazzeni leans across the table in his farmhouse kitchen and explains why, when it comes to supplying clean water to thousands of impoverished Afghanis, small really is beautiful.

During the last five years, the 60-year-old co-owner of a New Jersey manufacturing firm has arranged for some 75,000 people in remote areas of Afghanistan to be connected to community water systems.

His efforts helped to end the toil of fetching water and to reduce water-borne diseases, particularly among children.

The key to his success, he says, is not large sums of money or the involvement of international aid organizations, but his willingness to cultivate relationships with communities and to persuade them to donate the labor that has reduced costs to a fraction of what a commercial contractor would charge.

Magazzeni estimates the total cost of 12 water systems built so far at $80,000, in contrast to at least $500,000 that he says would have been charged commercially.

"With less money, and keeping things small, I have accomplished more than I would have done if I had a ton of money," Italian-born Magazzeni said.

His work started after a solo mountaineering trip to Afghanistan in 2004 when he stayed in the remote village of Kwalkoo in the Panjsher Valley, an area rarely visited by outsiders. Villagers had to walk a mile or more to a spring for clean water.

Sensitized to the needs of poor communities after working in Haiti, Kenya and Mexico since the late 1990s, Magazzeni struck up relationships with village elders, who told him they wanted a water system. He found water engineers to help install a system, and won the backing of the local governor.

He sold his BMW back home in Pennsylvania to pay the $7,000, the average cost of his projects, for piping, pumps and engineering advice for the first system. He financed other projects with his personal savings -- he once withdrew $30,000 from his retirement fund -- while travel expenses were paid by his company, Champion Fasteners, of Lumberton, New Jersey.

Now he has a nonprofit, Traveling Mercies, and his costs are met with funds raised from individual donations, local schools, and Rotary clubs. The nonprofit's budget is set at $100,000 for 2010, up from $60,000 in 2009.

He works full-time for the non-profit but takes no salary, living off income from his company, and his savings. In any spare time, he helps his wife Anna run their 80-acre farm some 40 miles north of Philadelphia.

Much of the fundraising and promotion of Traveling Mercies is done by Magazzeni, in keeping with his belief that there is no substitute for strong personal relationships.

Suraya Pakzad, an Afghan women's activist who was among Time magazine's 100 most influential people of 2009, has worked with Magazzeni and said his insistence on working at a grassroots level explains his success.

"He sits on the floor. He has no bodyguards. He has no black-window cars," she said in an interview from Afghanistan. "He trusts people and his trust protects him."

With a long beard and a tousled mass of shoulder-length gray hair making him look like an Old Testament prophet, Magazzeni stresses the spiritual nature of his work.

Underpinning the benefits of providing clean water is the link that his projects create between people, he said.

"What they are eventually going to see is that it's all about human beings seeing their common divinity," he said.

Magazzeni acknowledges his similarities with Greg Mortenson, another former mountaineer who has built more than 100 schools in remote areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan since the mid-1990s, described in his best-selling book "Three Cups of Tea."

Like Mortenson, Magazzeni sees his efforts in Afghanistan as complementary to the U.S. war effort in helping to win the hearts and minds of local people through peaceful means.

But unlike Mortenson's Montana-based Central Asia Institute, Magazzeni has no employees.

By keeping it simple, Traveling Mercies shows that helping to alleviate suffering in the developing world need not be the preserve of governments, corporations, or international aid organizations, but should be focused on individuals.

"It's not going to get solved by institutions," he said. "I want to be a story that can be read by anybody who could say 'I could do that.'"

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Half Of Money Managers Ignore Climate Risks: Survey

Timothy Gardner PlanetArk 7 Jan 10;

WASHINGTON - Nearly half of global money managers are making investment decisions without factoring in risks or opportunities associated with climate change, according to a survey released on Wednesday by a coalition of environmentalists and investors.

A related report recommended that money managers and institutional investors do climate risk assessments on all investments and encourage the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to encourage full disclosure of climate risks.

"This is about significant business issues that affect our portfolios," Jack Ehnes, chief executive of the California State Teachers' Retirement System told reporters in a teleconference about the survey. "Certainly leaving the most recent economic crisis with a deeper understanding of risk, I would think it would be incumbent on everyone to embrace (climate) issues."

The survey of the world's 500 largest asset managers by Ceres, a Boston-based coalition of environmentalists and investors, found 44 percent of the respondents did not consider climate risks in their investment decisions. They did not see risks as financially material.

Industries that face the most financial risk from climate change and current and future limits on greenhouse gas emissions include electricity generators, automobile manufacturers and insurance companies, it found.

Asset owners, such as pension funds and other institutional investors, were not asking their asset managers to analyze the risks, or were only just beginning to raise the subject, the survey found.

Alexis Krajeski, a sustainable investment expert in London at global asset management company F&C Management Ltd, said money managers could stand to lose if they do not analyze opportunities and risks linked to climate change.

Opportunities could include investments in companies that are responding to greenhouse gas regulations by helping heavy industry to reduce emissions.

"In order to capitalize on climate-related opportunities and avoid losses linked to climate risk, we need to identify the winners and losers," she said.

Pension funds and other investors led by Ceres and holding more than $1 trillion in assets, have been pressing the SEC to require companies to disclose climate-related risks.

SEC Commissioner Elisse Walter, one of five members who makes decisions on federal securities rules, has said she believes it is time for the regulators to issue so-called interpretive guidance on climate risks.

(Editing by David Gregorio)

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