Best of our wild blogs: 9 Jan 10

JGIS Announces Research/Conservation Grants in Primatology
from AsiaIsGreen

Seagrasses, mass orchid blooms, hornbills and serious tree climbers from Celebrating Singapore's BioDiversity!

White-bellied Sea Eagles catch sea snakes
from Bird Ecology Study Group

BioD in the City: What is the Singapore Index?
from Celebrating Singapore's BioDiversity!

Venus Drive
from Singapore Nature

Run for 350!
from Green Drinks Singapore

Read more!

Plan for 1 million native trees on Jurong East plot

Alexis Cai, Straits Times 9 Jan 10;

AN ABUNDANCE of green is set to take root near Pandan Gardens in Jurong East. Residents there can look forward to not only more flora but also more birds and butterflies around their estate.

The plot of land stretching the length of a soccer field at nearby Sungei Pandan has been set aside to recreate a countryside scene.

The three-year collaboration between the South West Community Development Council and Borneo Motors aims to have more than one million native trees planted there by 2020, an extension of a previous project launched by the council in July 2007. The previous target of 100,000 trees was surpassed in November last year.

It is hoped that the greenery will be able to absorb some 22,000kg worth of carbon dioxide annually, the equivalent to that emitted by four flights around the earth.

At yesterday's launch, the Mayor of South West District, Dr Amy Khor, planted the first senna alata, a shrub which features yellow flowers.

'Such an initiative helps ensure that the future generations will continue to have an environment for quality living,' she said.

Also at the mass planting session were 57 Borneo Motors management staff members who were each given a plant for the site.

Managing director Koh Ching Hong hopes the initiative will inspire other corporations to join them in efforts to create sustainable habitats for nature within the community.

The plot of land was chosen by the National Parks Board and the Nature Society for its prime location, so that some of the creatures that live in neighbouring woodlands can be lured over to Sungei Pandan.

At the moment, only three butterfly species and eight bird species can be found in the area.

'It is a stepping stone we are creating,' said Dr Ho Hua Chew, deputy chairman of the conservation committee within the Nature Society.

It is hoped that at least 30 species will settle down at the new site within a year, eventually reaching about 100.

Sungei Pandan to see a more diverse ecosystem by 2012
Evelyn Choo, Channel NewsAsia 8 Jan 10;

SINGAPORE: Sungei Pandan will take on a greener lease of life by 2012.

The South West Community Development Council (CDC) aims to plant 1,000 native plants around the area.

Friday morning's efforts marked the first step to reducing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere - almost 22,000 kilogrammes per annum by the time the project is completed.

The South West CDC has partnered Borneo Motors, which is embarking on its first community project. They hope this mass tree planting initiative will help attract 200 species of birds and butterflies with Sungei Pandan's lush greenery.

About 5,000 residents and students are also expected to take part in the project.

Dr Amy Khor, Mayor, South West District said: "This will give our residents a chance to enjoy nature. It will also build a greener district. At the same time, this could ensure there is room for development."

- CNA/sc

Read more!

From 'urban boy' to green champion

Teacher gets school and students to pitch in to save the environment
Grace Chua, Straits Times 9 Jan 10;

NATURE photography, Star Wars Lego models and Apple electronics are just some of the things Mr Eric Low has been passionate about.

Now, the 34-year-old schoolteacher has a new cause: cutting carbon emissions through clean energy.

At Dunman Secondary School in Tampines, where he teaches mathematics and chemistry, he persuaded the school to include a 2kw solar panel in the design for its rooftop garden.

The panel, which tracks the sun to convert as much of its energy as possible, was paid for through fund-raisers and a Ministry of Education seed fund.

It powers the water pumps at the garden's hydroponics set-up and provides some excess power that is fed back into the school's electricity network.

And he is paying $60,000 to install a 6kw solar panel at his house in Changi - a panel so large, it actually overhangs the existing roof and doubles as a shelter for the balcony.

When it is installed, it will provide enough power for four to six air-conditioners - effectively powering the whole house and getting rid of his $300 monthly electricity bill.

A solar panel that size will take 30 to 50 years to pay for itself in electricity savings, but Mr Low says he is not driven by cost savings alone. Going green is his aim.

He picks products with minimal packaging, avoids switching on the air-conditioner and tries not to use plastic bags.

The self-described 'urban boy' grew up in Queenstown and Choa Chu Kang, but says he has always preferred nature to crowds.

'I haven't even been to Ion Orchard or 313,' he said, referring to the two brand-new malls on Orchard Road.

About seven or eight years ago, while Mr Low was dating his then girlfriend and now wife Deanna, the couple would wine and dine, not at downtown restaurants, but at the Choa Chu Kang Farmart.

Around 2003, he picked up nature photography - starting in neighbourhood parks like Bishan Park and moving on to reserves like the Sungei Buloh wetlands.

Mr Low's passion has spread to his family and students.

He caught the hydroponics bug when he was put in charge of student gardeners at Dunearn Secondary in Bukit Batok in 2002.

When he transferred to Dunman Secondary three years ago, he introduced a hydroponics garden there as well.

Put in charge of the computer club, he got the members to program simple iPhone applications for measuring personal carbon footprints.

After writing a carbon-footprint program, one of his young charges put the carbon-cutting tips into action.

Secondary 3 student Muhammad Aliff Rahmad found his carbon footprint slightly above average.

'Now, I use the air-con less and take public transport instead of using my father's car,' he said.

Mr Low even talked his father-in-law, property developer Alan Koh of Gold Island Development, into putting solar panels on some of his new houses.

'You don't have to live in the Stone Age to be green,' Mr Low says. 'Just use less and waste less.'

However, there are some contradictions which suggest that even a green champion has some way to go.

He and his wife, who runs an education centre, have two cars; and despite living relatively near work, he drives there each day.

Sometimes, convenience trumps conscience, he says with a wry smile.

Read more!

Palm Oil Under Heavy Fire Over Environmental Toll

Jakarta Globe 8 Jan 10;

Palm oil has always been under fire, first because of its allegedly adverse effect on cholesterol, since disproven, and then because of tropical deforestation to clear the way for oil palm plantations.

However, the ante has been raised considerably in recent months. The palm oil industry beat back an attempt at the United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Copenhagen in December to curb additional planting under a World Bank proposal called Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing countries (REDD).

But the industry’s relief has been tempered. On Dec. 11, Unilever, the world’s biggest buyer of the oil, which is used in everything from biofuels to chocolate chip cookies, suspended a $32 million contract with a subsidiary of the giant Sinar Mas Group until the Indonesian conglomerate proved its plantations are not contributing to deforestation.

Just three days before, in a program called “The End of the Jungle,” the BBC accused the Malaysian government and the palm oil industry of “laying waste to the last remaining rainforests of Borneo in what has been described as a corporate land grab.”

Now the plantation companies are concerned that other major European Union and US importers, particularly Procter & Gamble and Nestle, may follow Unilever’s example, especially as the global warming debate intensifies and concerns grow over the accelerating and alarming destruction of the habitat of the orangutan.

Scientific American recently quoted Richard Zimmerman, director of Orangutan Outreach in New York, as saying Indonesian tropical forests are wiped out at a rate of six football pitches per minute to make way for palm oil plantations.

As many as 20,000 orangutan have been killed, according to the report. A recent Jakarta Globe article called attention to massive deforestation of ostensibly federally protected forest areas on the island of Riau, with 2,000 hectares of forest leveled in 2008 alone.

On the Malaysian side of Borneo, according to the BBC, IOI Group, which sells palm oil in more than 65 countries, is bulldozing vast tracts of rainforest for oil palm plantations.

“From a distance, the plantations look quite green and lush — in reality they are barren: the life has basically gone,” the report found. “It’s estimated that only 3 percent of the primary rainforest of Malaysian Borneo remains.”

Between them, Malaysia and Indonesia produce 90 percent of the world’s palm oil — with world demand at 48 million metric tons annually and growing. Virtually all of the major plantation companies belong to the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, an alliance between consumers and producers that ostensibly subscribes to best environmental practices. Unilever was a founding member.

But both the Unilever decision on the Sinar Mas subsidiary and the BBC show on IOI have exposed vast discrepancies between promises and practices. In addition, both the Malaysian and Indonesian governments fully backed the two companies, attesting that they were protecting the environment.

In effect, those events make the Roundtable look like a sham and call into question its credibility in getting importers and exporters to work in concert to raise environmental standards.

The palm oil industry has become increasingly concerned as environmental groups have raised awareness of the loss of primary forest and carbon sinks. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimated in a recent report that preventing carbon release from deforestation is “the climate-change mitigation option with the globally largest and most immediate carbon-stock impact per hectare in the short term.”

An industry group, World Growth, headed by Alan Oxley, an Australian lecturer and climate-change skeptic, has been established. It has bitterly disputed Greenpeace’s efforts, saying environmental groups, by their actions against palm oil producers, are themselves potentially devastating to the poor, with tens of thousands of jobs at risk on palm oil plantations.

Palm oil, the industry group said, can generate returns of more than $3,000 per hectare, while village farming generates less than $100 per hectare. Malaysia’s plantations alone, which directly employ 580,000 people, support two million livelihoods, World Growth argues.

Oxley has aggressively sought to contradict environmentalists. He has argued that development and forestry experts have shown that two-thirds of forest clearance is driven by low-income people in poor countries searching for land, habitation and food production.

Oxley has described environmentalists as “Europe-based activists who don’t provide data that can be verified,” peddling so-called science that “cannot be substantiated or is severely exaggerated.”

The question is what happens next. As a Reuters analysis pointed out, if European buyers of palm oil get stickier about requiring Indonesian companies to observe strict environmental standards, there are roughly 2.5 billion people in India and China alone who have no qualms whatsoever about buying Indonesian and Malaysian palm oil, by far the largest staple oil in Asia. It is far cheaper to produce than either soybean or corn oil and requires virtually no fertilizer.

Not only is palm oil by far the most popular cooking oil in Asia, just-auto.com, the automotive industry’s online analytical publication, says that “Rising energy consumption and environmental issues have now shifted the focus toward biofuel use, particularly in transportation. Though the biofuel industry is in its initial stages in Asia-Pacific, there is a huge potential for its development in the region.” Any downshifting of demand for palm oil in the West appears to be matched rising demand in Asia.

The global biofuels market, the publication said, is likely to grow by 1.47 percent on a compounded annual basis through 2015.

One thing is certain. The credibility of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil has been severely damaged, perhaps fatally, and the credibility of the Malaysian and Indonesian governments regarding protection of their tropical rainforests is equally at risk.



Asia Sentinel

Read more!

Where did SF Bay's sea lions go? Try Oregon Coast

Jeff Barnard, Associated Press Yahoo News 9 Jan 10;

GRANTS PASS, Ore. – Hundreds of sea lions that abruptly blew out of San Francisco Bay's Pier 39 last Thanksgiving have apparently found a new home at another tourist attraction — 500 miles north on the Oregon coast. Thousands of California sea lions started showing up in December at Sea Lion Caves, a popular tourist draw because of the Stellar sea lions living in the caves.

The California sea lions appear to have made the trip because of an abundance of anchovies at the Oregon site, 11 miles north of the town of Florence.

Scientists say there is no way to say how many of the newcomers came from Pier 39, where the numbers fell from a peak of 1,701 in October to just 20 by the end of November. But it is likely some did, since they easily swim 100 miles a day searching for food between Mexico and Alaska.

Some of the California newcomers came into the cave, but most seem to prefer a nearby rocky beach.

Kim Raum-Suryan, a biologist at the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, noticed the number of California sea lions at Heceta Head had doubled to some 5,000 in December and, like other scientists, figures the simple answer is food.

"My gut feeling is it has something to do with the (ocean warming) El Nino conditions off California, which is driving prey and sea lions up north," she said.

There are fewer herrings in San Francisco Bay, and a general decline in sea lion food off California last summer triggered a die-off of young sea lions making the transition from mother's milk to fish.

Meanwhile, anchovies have been plentiful in Oregon waters — so plentiful that brown pelicans that normally winter in California are also hanging around, said Bob Emmett, a fisheries biologist for NOAA Fisheries Service in Newport.

Picking out which of the newcomer sea lions at Oregon Sea Caves are visitors from Pier 39 would be difficult.

Many sea lions are branded, and Raum-Suryan has been recording the brands she sees on sea lions at Heceta Head. But she hasn't found anyone who did the same at Pier 39.

Back at Pier 39, a marketplace and arcade with a view of Alcatraz, public relations director Sue Muzzin was happy to hear a couple dozen sea lions barking Thursday, and hopes any that are in Oregon left their hearts in San Francisco.

"People are taking photos of the dock because it is so atypical," she said. "You don't realize how much you miss them 'til they're gone."

Read more!

Is violent protest wrong?

The collision between whalers and an anti-whaling boat reveals the biggest problem with violent protest: it breeds more violence
Bibi van der Zee, guardian.co.uk 8 Jan 10;

How far can you go, in pursuit of a campaign goal? Is violence ever acceptable? The collision between the anti-whaling Sea Shepherd boat and the Japanese whalers this week was the fault – both parties claim – of the other side. Did it make life better for whales – the ostensible focus of the Sea Shepherd campaign? Those two sentences, pretty much, sum up the problem with violence.

The accepted position is that violent tactics are, de facto, wrong. The only people who are legally allowed to use violence in our society are the police, the army, and, very occasionally, us in self-defence. It is not acceptable, we all believe, that the World Wildlife Fund, say, should stand at the frontiers of jungles and bash over the head anyone who tries to nick a baboon.

But somewhere between rattling a tin on the high street and beating people up to stop them doing things there is a surprisingly wide grey area, and for the last century activists have been exploring that area. They've tried civil disobedience, non-violent passive resistance, boycotts, sit-ins, die-ins, blockades, and of course direct action. They've explored right up to, and sometimes over, the difficult-to-define line that differentiates violence from non-violence.

This, in fact, is part of the problem. In a thought-provoking book by anarchist Peter Gelderloos, he describes a workshop he ran where he read out a list of tactics and asked the participants to walk to one spot if they considered the action violent, and to another if they considered it non-violent. "The actions included such things as buying clothes made in a sweatshop, eating meat, a wolf killing a deer, killing someone who is about to detonate a bomb in a crowd and so on. "Almost never," he wrote, "was there perfect agreement between the participants."

Violence against property is one of the biggest sticking points; some activists who are entirely committed to non-violence regard the destruction of property as an entirely separate issue. But according to the FBI, eco-terrorism consists of violence against people or property.

And Paul Watson, unlike most activists, decided a long time ago that as far as he was concerned violence against property was absolutely fine. Watson was one of the earliest members of Greenpeace who took part in the early anti-whaling voyages described by fellow-member Robert Hunter as "a sea-going gang of ecological bikers... being involved in an archetypal battle between the forces of darkness and the forces of light... reincarnated Indian warriors whooping and hollering as we surged down out of the hills towards the wagon train." For Watson that was the way he wanted to carry on the battle. And so in the decades since he has scuttled ships, threatened to ram them, seized nets and destroyed them, and thrown bottles of butyric acid onto the decks of whalers.

Is it right? Well, some of it is illegal, but is the legal framework the only arbiter of right and wrong? According to some religions, violence in support of your passionate beliefs is right. According to others it is wrong. But from my point of view one of the biggest problems with using these kind of tactics is that you legitimise the use of them by your opponents. Frankly, if the Sea Shepherd boat was rammed by the whalers, it's hard to get too hot under the collar about it when in the past Sea Shepherd have openly admitted deliberately ramming and sinking whaling boats themselves. Violence (against property or people) breeds violence. Once you step outside the legal framework you lose all protection for yourself.

As to whether it works, although studies have shown that violence is often successful as a campaign tactic the fact is that in this particular case, despite years of campaigning the whalers are still whaling. These huge, intelligent mammals, who have been observed grieving for their young, are still being killed with harpoons, and bleeding to death over hours in the oceans. As far as they are concerned, Watson's tactics clearly are not working.

Read more!

Anti-whaling boat sinks after Japanese collision

Talek Harris Yahoo News 8 Jan 10;

SYDNEY (AFP) – A high-tech protest boat sank without trace on Friday after a dangerous collision with a Japanese whaling ship, as Australia protested to Tokyo over its fleet's alleged tactics.

Peter Hammarstedt, first officer of the Sea Shepherd group's "Bob Barker" ship, said the celebrated "Ady Gil" was abandoned overnight after a tow line snapped en route to an Antarctic research base.

The futuristic trimaran, which held the round-the-world record, had several metres (yards) of its front end sheared off in the collision with a Japanese security vessel on Wednesday.

"At this point unfortunately the Ady Gil is on the bottom of the Southern Ocean," Hammarstedt told AFP.

"It leaves us with no other option but to re-take up the pursuit of the whaling fleet," he added. "We have no intention of backing down. We will never surrender."

Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard said Australia's Tokyo embassy had relayed "very strong concerns" over recent developments, including Wednesday's crash and claims the fleet chartered spying flights out of Australia.

"Our embassy in Tokyo is making high-level representations to the Japanese government," she said.

"They have passed to the Japanese government our very strong concerns about the question of flights being chartered, potentially in Australia, to monitor the activity of protest vessels.

"They have passed on our very strong concerns about conduct on the high seas and of course we continue to make it very clear, our view about whaling."

Footage of the crash showed the "Shonan Maru 2" ploughing across the New Zealand-registered Ady Gil's bow and firing water cannon while the protest boat's crew dived for safety.

Hammarstedt said the stricken powerboat, bankrolled by Hollywood businessman Ady Gil, broke its tow line after taking on too much water.

"Last time we saw the Ady Gil, the entire engine room was fully submerged in water as well as the fuel tanks," he said.

"It was going down pretty quickly. Captain Pete Bethune estimated two to three hours before being fully submerged. At that point we decided to take up the hunt for the whaling fleet again."

New Zealand and Australian authorities are investigating the incident, while Japan lodged a strong protest with the Wellington government. Both the whalers and the protesters blame each other for the crash.

"In the last few seconds we realised, they're actually going to collide with us," recalled New Zealand protester Simeon Houtman, who was left with broken ribs.

"Instinct took over and we all just dived for the aft desk and landed in a heap. Thankfully everyone survived."

Sea Shepherd claims to have saved hundreds of whales by chasing the Japanese fleet over a six-year campaign backed by Hollywood A-listers including Sean Penn, Martin Sheen and Pierce Brosnan.

Japan hunts the animals using a loophole in a 1986 international moratorium which allows "lethal research", defying regular protests from Australia, New Zealand and the Netherlands.

The skirmishes have grown increasingly sophisticated with the activists deploying laser-like devices and stink bombs, and the Japanese fleet operating military-style acoustic weapons and water cannon.

Sea Shepherd also claims the Japanese chartered flights to pinpoint their position so that the Shonan Maru 2 could keep them away from the whalers, setting off a pursuit which set back the harassment campaign by weeks.

The Ady Gil, which put to sea in December, made its first contact with the fleet before dawn on Wednesday before being stricken in the dramatic crash just hours later.

The sleek, carbon-and-kevlar, wave-piercing trimaran was capable of speeds up to 50 knots, and claimed the circumnavigation record in 2008 under its former name, "Earthrace".

Read more!

Canada to study biofuel's environmental impact

Reuters 7 Jan 10;

WINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters) - The Canadian government has ordered a study of the environmental impact of making ethanol and biodiesel just as a government regulation mandating fuel blending is set to take effect.

The study, ordered on Wednesday, comes after evidence of harmful environmental effects from ethanol plants and amid growing criticism of biofuel technology, according to a government document from the environment ministry, Environment Canada.

"Experiences in the U.S. and Brazil now suggest that existing biofuels production facilities are responsible for the generation of a range of new air- and water-related problems as well as recent concerns over human health," the document states.

The study will help government scientists understand the environmental implications of making biofuel, it states.

Canada has invested heavily in the biofuel industry as a way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It has committed to distributing subsidies for biofuel plants totaling up to C$1.5 billion ($1.45 billion) over nine years.

In September 2010, a federal mandate takes effect requiring 5 percent renewable content in gasoline.

A spokesman for Environment Canada was not available for comment by late Thursday afternoon.

On Wednesday, the Canadian Press quoted department spokeswoman Paula Franchellini as saying: "The commissioning of this study does not presuppose that there are any harmful effects from these facilities, nor does it change the government of Canada's commitment to renewable fuels."

Gordon Quaiattini, president of the Canadian Renewable Fuels Association, was unavailable for comment.

Canadian plants make ethanol from corn and wheat and make biodiesel from animal fat, soybeans and canola. Canadian biofuel production is expected to grow by 76 percent before the end of 2011, according to the document.

Environment Canada also ordered on Wednesday a study of the environmental impact of using "marginal lands" -- such as contaminated sites and buffer strips along roads and rivers -- for the production of biofuel crops or for production plants. The U.S. and European biofuel industries have come under criticism for taking up traditional farmland to grow biofuel crops, Environment Canada said.

($1=$1.03 Canadian)

(Reporting by Rod Nickel; editing by Peter Galloway)

Read more!