Best of our wild blogs: 17 Jan 10

Life History of the Plain Palm Dart
from Butterflies of Singapore

Grassland in Buangkok
from Urban Forest

Chek Jawa with teamseagrass
from teamseagrass and Singapore Nature and wild shores of singapore

3 years after the mass mortality event
from Chek Jawa Mortality and Recruitment Project

Parakeets eating leaves of mangrove plant
from Bird Ecology Study Group

Synchronised flowering of Pulai trees in January
from Otterman speaks

New year, new hope for sun bear!
from Bornean Sun Bear Conservation

Ugly Side of Langkawi Mangrove Tours Part II - How to Make Monkeys Swim from Nature Is Awesome

Read more!

Fish farmers speed up co-op plans

Goh Chin Lian Straits Times 17 Jan 10;

A group of fish farmers will fast forward a plan to form a cooperative, in the wake of a deadly plankton bloom that killed most of their stock.

The fish farmers, harnessing the strength of unity, want to pool information on the latest technology.

They may even go into business together, say, in trading seafood and to raise the profile of their industry.

The idea of a cooperative was floated in February last year, but the crisis late last month that wiped out 34 fish farms off Pasir Ris and Pulau Ubin gave it a fresh push.

Fish valued at about $3 million suffocated after a spike in plankton drained the seawater of oxygen, said the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA).

A group of 25 fish farmers - who are among the 34 affected - met yesterday in the Toa Payoh office of one of them, said their leader, fish farm owner Lee Van Voon, 43.

Other points they agreed on included a letter of appeal to Minister of National Development Mah Bow Tan, to be sent by next Friday.

They want help with restarting their farms, among other things.

Mr Lee said: 'We realised from this crisis that on our own we are very vulnerable. We've got to band together.'

They intend to submit their business plan by next week to the Registrar of Cooperative Societies.

Mr Lee expects to have about 20 fish farmers off Pasir Ris and Pulau Ubin as members for a start.

He will also approach those in the West, off Lim Chu Kang, who were unaffected by the plankton bloom. There are, in all, 106 licensed coastal fish farms in Singapore.

Yesterday's meeting also raised several concerns despite the AVA's promise to help them, which it announced last Thursday.

Members of the group hope the Government will give them a grant or an interest-free loan to restart their farms.

They felt that the AVA's offer to bear the cost of disposing of the dead fish and to help them replenish their fish stocks through bulk purchases was insufficient.

They want to know what the AVA will do to prevent similar incidents and when a plan for an early-warning system will be ready.

Also on their wishlist: more information on the AVA's test results of the dead fish and seawater. Not all among them accept its explanation of a plankton bloom.

Mr Lee said these concerns would be in the appeal letter.

Read more!

From used cooking oil to biodiesel

Straits Times 17 Jan 10;

Mr Goh Hen Turn does not need to hug trees to support the Green movement.

The foodstall operator gives away 8 litres of used cooking oil every two days so that it can be recycled into diesel fuel.

Mr Goh, 63, who owns A Kun Western and Japanese foodstall at Chong Pang Food and Market Centre, has joined Project Rusco (Recycling of USed Cooking Oil) @ North West.

He said: 'I used to give the oil back to the supplier for a $4 rebate but donating to the project is more meaningful.'

Project Rusco was launched yesterday under North West Community Development Council's 10-year plan called Green Living @ North West, which aims to cultivate a green culture within the district.

Project Rusco started when Yishun Junior College approached Alpha Biofuels, a biofuel company, to recycle used cooking oil from the North West District area.

Since September last year, it has collected 1,050 litres of used cooking oil.

Alpha Biofuels now collects used cooking oil from Chong Pang Food and Market Centre and schools in Chong Pang, Nee Soon Central and Nee Soon East and turns it into diesel that can be used in diesel engines. The process separates the fatty acids and unsaturated oil to get raw biodiesel which is then purified.

Said Mr Allen Lim, 36, the firm's founder and chief executive officer: 'I wanted a business that grows the technology to convert waste into energy as well as create awareness in the community about it.

'The biodiesel from used cooking oil creates about 90 per cent less emissions than regular diesel.'

Added the Mayor of North West District, Dr Teo Ho Pin: 'We will bring the project to other parts of the district. By encouraging other establishments to recycle used cooking oil, we will be able to produce more biodiesel.'

Shuli Sudderuddin

North West and South West Districts hold recycling events
Cheryl Lim, Channel NewsAsia 16 Jan 10;

SINGAPORE: Two neighbourhoods in Singapore are turning their trash into treasure, while educating residents on the green cause and bringing the community closer together.

The new "Recycling of Used Cooking Oil Project" or RUSCO hopes to make every drop count. It's part of the North West District's 10-year eco-plan to go green.

The used cooking oil is collected from school canteens in the district and food stalls from Chong Pang Hawker Centre.

Residents and participants from the various community partners also learnt more about recycling oil.

Dr Teo Ho Pin, Mayor of North West District, said: "So over the next 10 years, we'll be reaching out to the community to promote environmental ownership. What we hope is to have a ground-up approach, where community stakeholders can take ownership and organise projects with different community partners."

North West Community Development Council (CDC) also set a new Singapore record, collecting 1,050 litres of used cooking oil.

Over at the South West District, Singaporeans and new citizens gathered at the Soka Culture Centre to collect old clothing and waste paper.

Dr Amy Khor, Mayor of South West District, said: "We hope to achieve three objectives - reach out to more people; we are also using it as a platform to get the religious organisations to come together for a common cause; reach out to the less able, less fortunate in our community."

The district hopes to collect some 56 tonnes of recyclable material, thereby raising S$60,000 which will go towards helping some 360 needy students and physically disabled Singaporeans.

The recycled material will help reduce 25.2 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

- CNA/ir

Read more!

16 ways to cut 16 per cent

If you are an average Singaporean and want to play your part in helping the nation cut down on its carbon emissions, what can you really do?
Rachel Chang Straits Times 16 Jan 10;

THE Government is committed to cutting carbon emissions by 16 per cent below 'business as usual' levels by 2020 if a legally binding global deal on climate change is struck.

Even without a global agreement, it plans to cut 7 per cent to 11 per cent of emissions.

Singaporeans sat up and took notice when Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong cautioned in his New Year's Day message that this would not be a 'light commitment'.

'Achieving it will require all households, firms and the economy to make significant adjustments,' he said.

Going by the Prime Minister's reference to 'a combination of regulations, price signals and fiscal incentives', the measures could well translate into something like a carbon tax, and subsidies for investments in environmentally friendlier technologies.

Industry knows full well that it will bear the brunt of the cuts as it is responsible for 54 per cent of Singapore's carbon emissions.

Although households account for 9 per cent of the emissions, they would also have to shoulder part of the carbon-reduction responsibility.

To achieve the 16 per cent target, households will have to cut one million tonnes of carbon emissions by 2020. This is about the amount expended on 500 return trips to the moon.

Policymakers are still mulling over the measures to be implemented progressively over the next decade but the bottom line, as PM Lee put it, is crystal clear: Lifestyles will have to change.

Driving less and relying more on public transport was one of the examples he cited. Perhaps road tax will rise. Certainly, the price of electricity will go up if a carbon tax is imposed.

The 16 per cent target may not be realised until 2020. But rather than wait for pain to be inflicted, Singaporeans can start to make emission-cutting changes to their lifestyles from today.

So, in the spirit of New Year resolution making, Insight presents 16 ways an average Singaporean can cut down on his carbon emissions by 16 per cent or more.

These tips and ideas are gleaned from the Energy Studies Institute, government bodies and green websites.

# KEEP COOL CHEAPLY

WHEN you rub the sleep off your eyes in air-conditioned comfort, reflect on the cost. Seriously.

Air-conditioning is the biggest single item on your utility bill - accounting for an average 35 per cent of a household's electricity usage. Even if you have a 'four-tick' unit - considered the most energy efficient - humming at 24 deg C and leaving it on all night chalks up about 8 tonnes of carbon emissions a year.

In contrast, a rotating ceiling fan results in only about 0.15 tonne of carbon emissions a year or about 53 times less. According to the National Environment Agency (NEA), switching to a fan saves you $555 a year.

But if you cannot do without artificially cooled air, consider raising the temperature by a few degrees. NEA estimates that for every degree raised, you save $20 a year.

# GO MEATLESS ON MONDAYS

AS YOUR thoughts turn to lunch, here is something to mull over.

Meat consumption as well as cow farts exact an environmental toll. The production of 1kg of beef emits the same amount of carbon as a car driven 250km.

Singaporeans may think their diets are healthier than those of obese Americans. But according to the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority, Singaporeans ate an average of 90kg of meat and fish per person in 2007. The figure for Americans is 90.7kg per year.

Go without meat one day of the week. Indeed, an online petition is making the rounds calling on the Government to officially recognise 'Meat-Free Mondays'. It is signed by 382 people, many of whom are not Singaporeans. Well, foreigners are not supposed to have a say in domestic matters but it is the thought that counts.

# CALCULATE YOUR CARBON FOOTPRINT

AS THE post-lunch inertia sets in and you need a distraction from work, indulge in some earth-friendly procrastinatory activities.

Calculate your carbon footprint online. It is the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere as a result of your daily activities: from the energy used to power your electronics to the emissions released from your mode of transport.

Going through the process of toting up all these figures, like counting your daily calories or expenses, will illuminate where carbon reduction is possible.

Various websites offer Singapore-centric calculators, like the Singapore Environment Council's at www.climatechange.sg

# LIVE CHEMICAL-FREE

VANITY has a price. Beauty products often come in non-biodegradable plastic containers and result in chemicals going down the drain. Sure, you can spend a lot of money on natural, organic products in hemp containers. Or you can do it yourself.

Most women know about homemade quick fixes like placing warm tea bags on their eyes to reduce puffiness.

Why not take it to the next level and mix your own products? You can make body scrub from sea salt and baby oil, or mix a face mask by beating together egg white and lemon juice.

# GO HYBRID OR TURN LEFT ONLY

WHEN you drive an air-conditioned car to the air-conditioned office, you are contributing to a staggering carbon output.

The emissions from cars, buses and other vehicles account for five times more carbon emissions than the total amount of electricity used by all households in Singapore in a year.

A 2,000cc car which is on the road less than 10km a day contributes 0.4 tonne of carbon emissions a year.

So if you give up your car, you can easily cut more than 16 per cent from your total carbon emissions. Voila!

If that is too big a sacrifice, drive a hybrid car which will reduce your emissions by 17.2 per cent for every 1.6km.

Remember the age-old advice from the Automobile Association: clear your boot and inflate your tyres correctly to lower petrol consumption.

Take a tip from the UPS experiment. In America, the package delivery company maps out routes for its drivers that involve only right turns. No engines need to idle while waiting to turn left.

By doing so, the company cut down its carbon emissions by 32,000 tonnes in 2007. That is the equivalent of removing 5,300 cars from the roads.

Over here, motorists drive on the left. So if you plan to take up this idea, it would mean making only left turns.

# PAY TO PLANT A TREE

HERE is another thought to mull over during your tea break: Do you know that the Vatican is considered carbon neutral? That is because it planted a forest in Hungary's B�kk National Park which will offset all its carbon emissions.

A forest may be beyond your means, but a tree is not. Some Internet portals allow you to pay to plant a tree or invest in a hydropower plant.

# SHOWER FOR FIVE MINUTES

JUMP into the shower, but do not linger. A five-minute hot shower makes for 0.7 tonne of carbon emissions a year, and a 15-minute soak in the tub will multiply that by three.

The five-minute challenge will save you 400 litres of water a week, which will cut your water usage by about two thirds.

Use a 'pea-sized' dollop of shampoo and conditioner rather than the palmful you tend to squeeze out.

Less chemicals washed down the drain means less pollution and less energy used in purifying and cleaning the water.

Blow-dry your hair? Think again. A hair dryer sucks up energy disproportionately and quickly. It uses more energy than your microwave oven. Besides, it is bad for your hair as it weakens the strands by exposing them to heat.

Go to sleep with wet hair pinned up instead to achieve that bounce and volume. Worried about catching a cold if you sleep with wet hair? Well, not if you turn the air-conditioning off.

# FLUSH LESS

REMEMBER, whenever you flush the toilet, about 19 litres of water go down the chute. In a more efficient toilet, it is about 6 litres, which - to put it in perspective - is the amount of blood the human body contains.

Pee in the shower. Yes, really. Nobody is watching anyway.

# SWITCH OFF THE MAINS

BEFORE you leave the house for work, do a quick stretch to get the heart pumping.

How? Crouching and reaching to switch off your mains can bring your electricity bill down by $45 a year, according to NEA.

That is because the electricity usage of your appliances and other electronic equipment on 'standby' mode while you are out all day can go up to 10 per cent of your total consumption.

# IS YOUR FRIDGE TEMPERATURE SET RIGHT?

MANY refrigerators are set at a temperature that is unnecessarily cold. Your refrigerator only needs to be at 4 deg C to keep food fresh.

# CHANGE YOUR BULBS

YOU can easily hit the 16 per cent target by switching all your bulbs to compact fluorescent lamp bulbs, which use 80 per cent less energy than normal. The NEA says each bulb will save you $15 per year.

# IT PAYS TO BE LAZY

SURVEY your kitchen to see what can be substituted to help the environment. For instance, use tupperware instead of cling film, and rags instead of paper towels.

Invest in a dishwasher. This saves up to 40 per cent more water than washing dishes by hand. Sometimes you can pay to be lazy, and it pays to be lazy.

# START A GARDEN

THE tip on the left may give you an idea for a weekend activity.

If a forest in Hungary seems too far-fetched, consider planting something closer to home. Many Singaporeans waste money and time in an air-conditioned gymnasium when they can engage in more natural activities downstairs.

HDB estates from Toa Payoh to Dover now have community gardens where residents can put down roots.

# EAT CLOSE TO HOME

BACK from work and you want to whip up a meal on your own. Think about how your meat gets to you. The greater the distance your food travels, the bigger your carbon footprint. So why buy pork from Australia when you can get it from Malaysia?

# GO PAPERLESS

CUT out the junk mail.

Unsolicited junk mail is kept out by locked mail boxes. But SingPost has an Admail service that allows advertisers to distribute fliers through bulk delivery. You can opt out of receiving unaddressed promotional mail by calling its hotline 6845-6210.

You can save paper by opting for paperless billing from your telco and bank.

# BOTTOMS UP

IT IS the end of a long, hard day and you are feeling thirsty. Just like food, the closer your drink is to home, the less carbon-emitting it will be. So wine from France will incur a higher carbon toll than wine from Australia because of the distance travelled.

Better still, drink locally brewed Tiger Beer. Cheers - and congratulate yourself on reducing your carbon emissions by 16 per cent or more for the day. You will have a good night's sleep without worrying about talk of a carbon tax.

Your guide to a low-carbon lifestyle

IN SINGAPORE

www.nea.gov.sg

The National Environment Agency's website offers tips on cutting down carbon emissions benchmarked against a Singapore electricity bill.

www.mycarbonfootprint.sg

A carbon calculator from Singapore Polytechnic and the Hemisphere Foundation.

www.climatechange.sg

The Singapore Environment Council's resource has a snazzy carbon calculator and information on carbon offsetting projects in Asia.

AROUND THE WORLD

www.carbonfootprint.com

A British-based carbon consultancy through which you can pay to offset carbon by planting a tree in Kenya.

www.freerice.com

A non-profit website run by the United Nations World Food Programme, FreeRice puts a quiz show spin on doing good.

For every answer you get right, it donates 10 grains of rice through the World Food Programme.

www.lighterfootstep.com

A website with tips on how to lighten your carbon footstep

www.greenissexy.org

A website with daily green tips. Founded by three friends, one of whom is movie star Rachel McAdams.

FOR FUN

www.ecorazzi.com

Green Gossip, giving you the buzz from which celebrities are vegetarian to lists of best eco-documentaries.

www.noimpactman.com

Colin Beavan, the No Impact Man in question, shot to fame in 2007 for conducting a public experiment in green living.

For one year, his Manhattan- based family attempted to cut down their carbon emissions bit by bit to zero. The kicker? No toilet paper. That year-long adventure has been turned into a book and a documentary.

http://www.ecogeek.org/

A blog on green technology, which bills itself as keeping tabs on how 'brains are saving the earth'.

http://eco-chick.com/

A blog on natural beauty and eco-fashion that has produced a book as well. Recipes for homemade beauty products go up every week or so.

A blog on natural beauty and eco-fashion that has produced a book as well. Recipes for homemade beauty products go up every week or so.

Read more!

It’s save the Tiger year globally

Hilary Chiew, The Star 17 Jan 10;

PETALING JAYA: Tiger lovers worldwide are seizing on the interest generated by the Chinese lunar calendar’s Year of the Tiger to stress the urgency of saving the big cats from extinction.

The dire situation has reached a crisis point – there may no longer be any real tigers to greet the next Year of the Tiger in 2022 if nothing is done.

There are only about 3,200 tigers in the wild, down from 20,000 in the 1980s and some 100,000 a century ago.

Towards the end of this month, environment ministers from 13 tiger range states will meet in Thailand.

“This meeting is part of a global political process to determine high-level commitment and action to secure the future of the tiger.

“The process will culminate in a heads of state Tiger Summit in Vladivostok in Russia in September to be hosted by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and co-chaired by the World Bank’s president Robert Zoellick,” said the Worldwide Fund for Nature’s (WWF) Greater Mekong Programme in a press invitation e-mailed to the media on Friday.

Tiger conservation programmes across Asia and Russia’s Far East are fighting a losing battle as development encroaches into tiger habitats, and also as the insatiable appetite for tiger body parts and pelts grows.

According to the WWF, tigers are found in 13 countries – Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Russia, Thailand and Vietnam. Nowhere are they safe.

Natural Resources and Environ-ment Minister Datuk Douglas Uggah confirmed that there would be a Malaysian delegation to the meeting, led by Deputy Minister Tan Sri Joseph Kurup.

In the last century, three sub-species – the Bali, Caspian and Javan tigers – became extinct, and of the six remaining sub-species, the Malayan tiger (Panthera tigris jacksoni) is endemic to Malaysia.

Locally known as harimau, Pak Belang or Datuk Harimau, they num-ber at least 490.

The relevant agencies in Malaysia are currently studying the National Tiger Action Plan, a strategic conservation blueprint for the species developed by the Department of Wildlife and National Parks and the Malaysian Conservation Alliance for Tigers.

Tiger year spells new hope for the big cat
New Straits Times 22 Jan 10;

KUALA LUMPUR: The Year of the Tiger is set for a roaring start with an ambitious plan to double the population of the Malaysian tiger by 2020.
Under the National Tiger Action Plan (TAP), the country hopes to merge fragmented forests in Peninsular Malaysia into a single entity to give tigers a higher chance of survival.

Malaysia aims to increase the tiger population to 1,000 within the decade, thriving in the 51,000sq km of the Central Forest Spine, along and around the Titiwangsa Range.

The Wildlife and National Parks Department (Perhilitan) and various non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are working closely together as the Malaysian Conservation Alliance for Tigers (MYCAT) to put the plan into practice.

Many have hailed the cooperation as positive as the two parties are at opposing ends.

MYCAT will spearhead various awareness campaigns to educate and involve the public to stop poaching and trading of tiger parts.

Malaysian Nature Society executive director Dr Loh Chi Leong said conserving the forests in the heart of the peninsula would not only benefit the tigers but also maintain their biodiversity.

"While the rest of the world is very concerned with the dwindling tiger population, we, in Malaysia, can make a difference (with TAP) to achieve a healthy manageable population of tigers," he said in a panel discussion yesterday.

The other NGOs on the panel are the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), Wildlife Conservation Society and Wildlife Trade Monitoring Network (Traffic) Southeast Asia.

Malaysia has been identified as a crucial tiger range country in Southeast Asia for its sizable tigers in the wild and its blueprints for sustainable development.

TAP has highlighted a multi-pronged approach in various areas, including poaching, illegal wildlife trade, habitat loss, protection of tiger's prey and public awareness and education.

WWF executive director Datuk Dr Dionysius Sharma said outreach programmes were as important as enforcement as the ordinary citizens.

"There is no point in us speaking to ourselves if the message doesn't get out. These are actions we must take to walk the talk and achieve the target of 1,000 wild tigers by 2020."

Read more!

Gunning for wild boar in Johor

Hamdan Raja Abdulla, The Star 17 Jan 10;

MUAR: Villagers fearing for their safety after three people died in motorcycle accidents involving wild boars have gone hunting for the animals – and have killed 22 so far.

Kampung Parit Kemang villagers near Sungai Balang have mounted the hunt for wild boars following the deaths of the motorcyclists – the first two months ago.

Using 15 hunting dogs, the team of about 20 men from the Wildlife and National Parks Department, Rela and local hunters have been combing farms and plantations in and around the village.

State Women, Family, Health and Community Development Committee chairman Dr Robia Kosai said the beasts had caused fear among the villagers.

In November last year, a 19-year-old youth on a motorcycle died after he crashed into a wild boar.

Last month, a 45-year-old man suffered a similar fate.

Last week, an Indonesian motorcyclist knocked into a wild boar and died after he was run over by a vehicle, she said yesterday.

Dr Robia said the animals also destroyed crops in the villages.

She said village head Omar Marmin had requested for a hunting party to be formed to rid the village – and six others in Sungai Balang – of the animals.

The hunting team, she said, killed nine boars last week. Yesterday, another 13 were killed.

Omar said the wild boars started to roam the plantations and farms in the villages last year.

“On some rainy days, the animal could be seen near houses.

“Some even entered the porch looking for food,” Omar said.

“We hope the hunting team will be able to rid the animals from our villages and farms,” he added.

Read more!

Orang utan lovers cry foul

Muguntan Vanar, The Star 17 Jan 10;

KOTA KINABALU: Orang utan conservationists are upset with World Growth, a US non-governmental organisation, for “dismissing” the threat posed to the ape population by oil palm plantations.

“Genetic studies in Sabah show that the orang utan population has declined by 50 to 90% over the past few decades,” said Sabah-based wildlife biologist Dr Marc Ancrenaz.

“This severe decline is due to several causes such as hunting and pet trade, but the foremost reason is forest loss when the forest is cut down and converted for agriculture,” said Dr Ancrenaz, who heads the French non-governmental organisation, Hutan, which works with Sabah Wildlife Department for orang utan conservation.

The World Growth website contained a report titled Collateral Damage: How the Bogus Campaign Against Palm Oil Harms the Poor, which outlined several claims about oil palm plantations which the NGO described as misleading.

Dr Ancrenaz said there was no doubt that forest conversions created losses to the biodiversity and there was a need for all parties – the pro-conservationists and anti-conservationists – to work together.

The orang utan group and the palm oil group, he said, were both so “passionate” that it made it difficult to have an impartial view of the actual situation on the ground.

“We all need to work together to identify solutions,” he added.

Dr Ancrenaz said oil palm plantations covered 14,000sq km of Sabah (about 20 times the size of Singapore) and the oil palm needed to be planted in lowland below 500m.

These lowland forests, he said, used to be inhabited by orang utan and other wildlife.

“We found about 1,000 orang utans in lower Kinabatangan sanctuary but this habitat is highly ‘broken up’ in isolated patches of forests that are surrounded by plantations,” he said.

Dr Ancrenaz added that they found a surprising high number of orang utan nests within extremely isolated and degraded tree patches located within oil palm plantations and in mangrove forests that had been cut off from mainland forests by the development of oil palm plantations.

However, he said the discovery of the orang utan within oil palm plantations was not a sign that they had adapted to the new landscape.

“The orang utan have not adapted to this landscape. They cannot survive in the present conditions. It is equivalent to asking a human being to survive on eating potatoes,” he added.

Dr Ancrenaz said the solution was to create a “corridor of life” for the orang utan to move from one area to another.

Read more!

Controversy surrounds seagrass project

A Washington-based conservation foundation is hoping success of its first seagrass restoration project, now under way in the Keys, will lead to a seagrass mitigation fund for Florida. But some environmental groups criticize the effort.
Cammy Clark, Miami Herald 16 Jan 10;

MARATHON -- On 95 acres of ocean floor near the Seven Mile Bridge, a seagrass meadow damaged by boaters is Exhibit A in an environmental group's controversial quest to start a new marine mitigation fund for Florida.

Washington-based Ocean Foundation has applied to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for permission to create the fund as a way for private developers or public agencies to mitigate marine habitat destruction that occurs as a result of coastal construction projects.

An initial report on the restoration work at Knights Key Bank -- the foundation's pilot project funded with $45,000 in private donations -- shows some success repairing the important marine habitat.

But the program, called SeaGrass Grow, is being criticized by other environmental groups that say mitigation funds do more harm than good and that the foundation has no track record of long-term success restoring seagrass.

"I'm not against mitigation . . . but this type of restoration doesn't make ecological sense," said Roy "Robin" Lewis, president of the non-profit Coastal Resources Group.

Lewis, who in the '70s and '80s conducted the biggest seagrass mitigation project ever attempted in the Keys during the upgrading of the old Henry Flagler bridges, said the best way to fix seagrass damage is to let scars heal themselves and keep boats off the banks.

"The money should be spent putting up more channel markers, especially in the Keys that are tough to navigate," Lewis said.

The foundation says future coastal development is inevitable, so it's necessary to do aggressive restoration. "We as a conservation organization would prefer there never is harm done to any seagrass meadows anywhere to start with," said Mark Spalding, president of Ocean Foundation founded in 2002.

COASTAL PROJECT PROBLEMS

But, he said, the Army Corps sometimes allows coastal projects even though they damage seagrass. "We're stepping in at that moment, after the decision has been made to allow the project."

To many environmentalists, the idea sounds similar to a controversial amendment that Rep. Will Kendrick, R-Carrabelle, added to a state seagrass bill in 2008.

The amendment, on a bill that called for a $1,000 fine for careless boaters who rip up seagrass, would have created a mitigation program when the damage occurred on state-owned lands. The amendment so angered environmentalists that Gov. Charlie Crist vetoed the entire bill, which had appeared headed to passage.

David Guest, an attorney with the environmental law firm EarthJustice, said Ocean Foundation's proposal is recycling the same bad idea. He said state mitigation banks, such as the one for wetlands, don't work because of a lack of enforcement and monitoring.

Under the foundation's proposal, the group would create and run an Aquatic Resource Fund for Florida, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Agencies or developers building bridges, marinas and other coastal projects that damage seagrass beds would pay to restore double the amount of sea beds that would be destroyed.

The foundation would hire contractors to restore sea beds damage by propeller scars and vessel groundings, and monitor the site for five years. The foundation's program began as a charitable effort by private donors to repair valuable underwater meadows that provide marine habitat, protect coastlines from erosion and capture carbon to combat global warming.

"Seagrass is disappearing at an alarming rate, like coral reefs and the rain forests," Spalding said.

Florida has 2 million acres of seagrass, down from 5 million in the 1950s. One study from the 1990s indicated boaters had damaged 173,000 acres of seagrass statewide. Scientists say the damage likely is much worse today.

FIRST SEAGRASS PROJECT

For its first seagrass project at Knights Key Bank, the foundation hired Seagrass Recovery Inc. of Indian Rocks Beach to restore 4,000 square feet of scars and holes. The company used about 2,000 biodegradable sediment tubes to stabilize the ocean floor and allow recolonization of seagrass.

The company also planted some seagrass from other areas into the meter-long tubes made from special cotton fabric. Staples kept the transplanted seagrass from being washed away by the current. Company president Jeff Beggins estimated it will take 18 to 24 months for the seagrass to return to original density.

MONITORING SITE

Two weeks ago, Beggins viewed the site by boat, pointing out where the fast-growing manatee seagrass was blossoming over prop scars.

"We want to clear up some falsities out there that seagrass damage will just recover on its own and there's no reason to restore it," Beggins said. "That's not true."

The initial monitoring report by the company showed an average of 50 percent coverage of new seagrass. The report also said most of the transplanted seagrass died.

Seagrass expert Margaret Hall of the state's Fish and Wildlife Research Institute said her studies using the sediment tubes at other sites in the Keys shows promising results. But she added the cost of such restoration is expensive, and she believes money would be better spent on improving water quality.

When considering any seagrass mitigation plan, Sean Meehan, biologist with the National Marine Fisheries Restoration Center, said "caution flags should go up."

"We shouldn't destroy a football field of seagrass here because we think we can grow it over there," Meehan said. "Nobody can guarantee that. We need to protect what we have."

Read more!

Dugong found dead along India's Jamnagar coast

Himanshu Kaushik, The Times of India 16 Jan 10;

AHMEDABAD: A dead dugong that washed ashore along the Jamnagar coast on Friday evening has raised hope that there might be a small population of the rare and endangered marine mammal surviving along the coast in Saurashtra-Kutch region.

Dugong or sea cow is usually found in the Great Barrier Reef in Australia and Shark Bay and Torres Strait, south of New Guinea. Apart from these foreign destinations, dugong has been sighted along the Indian coast in Gulf of Mannar and Andaman Nicobar.

Divisional Forest Office (DFO) at the Jamnagar Marine National Park, Prakash Sata, said that on Friday evening body of five feet and four inches long, sea mammal aged around four years was recovered.

Sata said there was no apparent external mark of injury on the body which indicated that the mammal might have died on being trapped in the fishing nets. It might have got involved with an accident with a boat.

Sata said that the post mortem will reveal the exact cause of death. But it does not appear to be a case of poaching. He said that the last time a dugong had washed ashore was in 2004.

Sata said there have been sporadic reports of sightings of dugong in the past. The fishermen identify this mammal as "suvar machali" (pig fish) and it is also popularly known as sea cow. Sata said last sighting was reported by a navy official a week ago. However, there are no records of any regular sighting of this rare and endangered species along the state coast.

HS Singh, conservator of forests, said, "There is a history of dugong sighting along the coast from Gulf of Kutch to Pakistan. There is a large quantity of sea grass along this stretch which is suitable for the dugong presence." He said that this was the third time that the dead dugong had been found. In 2002, bodies of two dugongs were found while in 2004, a dead dugong had washed ashore. He said that the sighting was very rare and the population could be only a couple of dozens from Gujarat to Pakistan coast. A senior officials said that dugong was found in the waters towards Pakistan but this had raised hope of their population along Gujarat coast also.

Read more!

All rivers in Central Java polluted, says green agency

Suherdjoko, The Jakarta Post 16 Jan 10;

All the rivers in the Central Java region have dangerously high levels of pollutants, including manure, human feces and industrial waste, the provincial environmental agency warned Friday.

"The levels of E. coli bacteria as well as the biochemical and chemical oxygen demand in these rivers are all well above accepted safe levels," agency head Djoko Sutrisno said.

He placed the blame partly on the "irresponsible behaviour" of people living and working close to the waterways.

Citing an example, he said parts of the Bengawan Solo River had been polluted by industrial waste, with many companies discharging effluent into the river.

Because of the pollution, he said, water from these rivers and other polluted water resources was no longer potable and it was not even feasible to further process it into drinking water.

"Communities living in water catchment areas seem not to care about their environment," he said.

He pointed out the example of the polluted Umbul Jumprit, the famous spring in Temanggung known for clean, clear water considered sacred and often used in religious rituals.

Once a water resource is polluted, he said, tap water companies can't remove the iron content polluting the water. "Waste processing facilities are required in order to prevent factories from polluting the rivers," he said.

He added that his office would help build a waste processing facility for small-scale industries, adding that "large scale industries have the responsibility of building their own waste processing facilities".

Data from the Central Java Spatial and Residential Agency showed that poor sanitation had resulted in tens of thousands of people in the province suffering from diarrhea annually.

In 2006, 488,785 cases of diarrhea were reported, of which 40 percent were children.

Of the 35 regencies in Central Java, Tegal, Kebumen and Purworejo had the highest number of diarrhea cases.

The same data also showed that 12 percent of the Central Java urban population did not have access to toilets, while 37 percent of the rural population did not have toilets in their homes.

What was also concerning is that 35 percent of the toilets in rural regions did not have water, were roofless and were not connected to septic tanks. Meanwhile, leaks from septic tanks were reported to have caused 70 percent of the ground water in urban areas to be contaminated with the E. coli bacteria that causes diarrhea.

To deal with the challenges, the Surakarta municipal administration has launched a mass septic tank program, in which all household waste are channeled through special pipes to a waste processing facility.

Read more!

Floods inundate 879 hectares of Jambi rice fields

Antara 16 Jan 10;

Jambi (ANTARA News) - Floods triggered by incessant rains over the past three weeks, have submerged a total of 879.41 hectares of rice fields in Jambi Province.

The floods also caused 116 hectares of rice fields failed to harvest, Amrin Aziz, head of the Jambi provincial facility and infrastructure section, said here on Saturday.

Maize and peanut fields respectively measuring 10 hectares were also flooded, and five hectares of them were spoiled.

The Jambi authorities would provide seedlings and 54,000 tons of subsidized fertilizers to help farmers whose fields being hit by the floods, he said.

The floods affected 24 hectares of rice fields in Bathin, 10 hectares in Batanghari District, 233 hectares in Muarojambi District, 1.35 hectare in Bungo District, 213 hectares in Tebo District, 214 hectares in Merangin District, 27.25 hectares in Sarolangun District, and 292 hectares in Kerinci.

The floods have also inundated thousands of houses and forced a number of residents to evacuate themselves to safer areas.

Indonesia is now in rainy season which has triggered floods in several areas, including in the capital city of Jakarta.(*)

Floods, bad weather hit Jambi, Lombok
Jon Afrizal and Panca Nugraha, The Jakarta Post 16 Jan 10;

Floods continued to inundate several schools in Jambi while bad weather disrupted sea voyages in West Nusa Tenggara on Friday.

The SDN 83, SDN 193 and SDN 164 elementary schools in East Jambi district, in Jambi have had to give students leave because floods have swamped both the school compounds and the classrooms.

"Students have been given leave as water has entered the classrooms and disrupted lessons," said Nurijah, a neighborhood unit chief in Sijenjang subdistrict, East Jambi district.

Activities at SMP 23 state junior high school have continued despite the flood, which engulfed the field in 1-meter-high water, disrupting extracurricular activities, such as sports and a flag-raising ceremony.

School vice principal Akmal Said said although the floods had disrupted a number of activities, students were still attending school.

The Jambi Disaster Mitigation task force recorded that 1,429 houses were totally engulfed and 3,435 others swamped by floods.

Acting task force head Susilo said floods have hit five districts in the city: Pasar, East Jambi, Pelayangan, Danau Teluk and Telanaipura.

The floods in Jambi city over the past several days in Pelayangan district have submerged 56 homes and forced 56 families, or 267 people to take refuge at residents' homes not affected by the floods.

However, the flood victims have yet to receive aid despite the fact that data on the number of victims has already been handed over to the municipality, disaster mitigation task force and municipal council.

Pelayangan district chief Abdullah said they had not received relief aid for flood victims in his area, though data on the number of victims had been handed over to the municipal council during its recent hearing.

"The flood level is still above 1.5 meters."

In West Nusa Tenggara, rain followed by strong winds and high tides over the past week disrupted ferry crossing activities at the Lembar Port in West Lombok, which connects to Bali's Padangbai port.

The Lembar Port branch PT Indonesia Ferry state-owned ferry company had suspended ferry crossings since Thursday night due to bad weather.

PT Indonesia Ferry Lembar Port branch manager Kaimuddin Maliling told The Jakarta Post on Friday the decision to close the port was reached at 11 p.m. local time Thursday due to heavy rain followed by strong winds and huge waves up to 3 meters tall.

"We closed the port last night due to the grave risk to passenger safety during this bad weather," he said.

At least 19 ferries are currently plying the Lembar-Padangbai, Bali route, once in two hours. However, the ferry schedule could be delayed by up to eight hours due to the bad weather, thus leading vehicles to back up at Lembar Port.

"Vehicles lining up at the port have reached 1 kilometer outside the port area, or approaching the Lembar market. We are making efforts to apply the open-close system to prevent further congestion."

Read more!

Flooding rains bring rare waterfalls to Australia's Uluru

Yahoo News 16 Jan 10;

SYDNEY (AFP) – Heavy rains which flooded parts of Australia's vast desert centre have brought rare waterfalls spilling from the iconic monolith Uluru, or Ayers Rocks, officials said Saturday.

The deluge, which swept across much of the continent's east after a tropical cyclone last month, prompted a wave of green in the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, home to the giant red rock.

"It's something that a lot of people actually wouldn't experience, seeing the park at this time of year when it is green and the plants are really shooting and the flowers are coming out," said park manager Christine Burke.

"It's a very exciting time at the park now to see what happens after we have a good rain and it looks beautiful," she told state radio.

Situated near the centre of the semi-arid Sturt Desert, Uluru typically receives little more than 12 inches of rain a year, and January is its hottest, driest month, with temperatures topping to 45 degrees Celsius (113 F).

Conditions are overcast, on average, just five days of the year.

Uluru is a sacred part of Aboriginal tribes' creation mythology and one of the nation's most recognisable landmarks.

Australia is currently mulling a ban on climbing the rock on cultural and safety grounds. Signs at the site ask people not to climb it out of respect for the Aboriginal community, but one-third of the 350,000 annual visitors still do so.

Read more!

Indonesia-US begin discussions on second debt-for-nature deal to save forests

Antara 16 Jan 10;

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The United States government was pleased to announce on Friday the start of discussions toward conclusion of a second debt-for-nature agreement under the US Tropical Forest Conservation Act (TFCA) to finance tropical forest conservation.

US Embassy press release said the TFCA authorized reduction and re-direction of certain debt to support tropical forest conservation in eligible development countries.

It said the US Treasury Department had provisionally set aside over US$19 million for the treatment of eligible debt. Initial discussions regarding an agreement began this week in Jakarta between representatives of the US and Indonesian governments.

"This is an important symbol of our partnership with Indonesia on issues of climate change and the environment. It is a practical way we can work together to protect critical forests and mitigate climate change," US Ambassador to Indonesia Cameron R. Hume said.

The first TFCA agreement, signed on June 30, 2009, will reduce Indonesia`s debt payments to the U.S. by nearly US$30 million over eight years.

In return, the Government of Indonesia will commit these funds to support grants to protect and restore tropical forests in Sumatra.

The agreement was the largest debt-for-nature swap under the TFCA thus far and was made possible through contributions of US$20 million by the US Government and a combined donation of US$2 million from Conservation International and the Indonesian Biodiversity Foundation (Yayasan Keanekaragaman Hayati Indonesia, or KEHATI).

To date, 13 countries have entered into debt-for-nature agreements under the TFCA.
Over time, these debt-for-nature programs will together generate over US$218 million to protect tropical forests. (*)

RI, US negotiating second debt-for-nature deal
Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post 17 Jan 10;

Indonesia and the US are negotiating the second deal in the debt-for-nature scheme to help conserve deteriorating forests in the country and mitigate climate change.

US Ambassador to Indonesia Cameron R. Hume said the debt-for-nature agreement as stipulated under the US Tropical Forest Conservation Act (TFCA), was a practical way to mitigate climate change.

"This is an important symbol of our partnership with Indonesian on issues of the climate change and environment," Cameron said in a statement on Friday.

"It is a practical way we can work together to protect critical forests and mitigate climate change."

The two countries signed the first debt-for-nature deal in June 2009, swapping Indonesia's debt by US$30 million, the first ever biggest under TFCA.

The debt's reduction will be used to conserve around 7 million hectares of degraded forest in Batang Gadis National Park in North Sumatra, Bukit Tigapuluh National Park in Central Sumatra, and Way Kambas National Park in Lampung, in eight years.

Director of forestry and water resources conservation at the National Development Planning Board (Bappenas) Basah Hernowo said that negotiations on the deal focused on the amount of debt to be swapped and conservation forest locations.

"There will be another meeting to determine the areas of forest that will be conserved under the scheme," he told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

Basah said that the implementation of the first debt swap deal would be deployed this year.

"Local NGOs will lead in implementing the forest conservation programs," he said.

Basah added that Indonesia had also signed the debt-for-nature deals with the government of Germany, including protecting the forests in the country.

Debt-for-nature swaps are financial transactions where a portion of a developing nations' foreign debt is swapped in exchange for local investments in conservation measures.

The concept was first introduced by the WWF in 1984 as an opportunity to deal with the problems of developing nation indebtedness and its consequent deleterious effect on the environment.

The TFCA was initiated in 1998 to offer eligible developing countries options to relieve certain official debt owed to the US government, while at the same time generating funds in local currency to support tropical forest conservation.

Cameron said further that the US Treasury Department has provisionally set aside over US$19 million for treatment of eligible debt.

It said that to date, 13 countries had entered into debt-for-nature agreements under the TFCA, which was expected to generate $218 million to protect tropical forests. The TCFA was implemented through a bilateral agreement with eligible countries.

Indonesia is the world's third largest forest nation with 120 million hectares of tropical forest.

The high deforestation rate and forest degradation in Indonesia has been blamed as the main contributor to the country's greenhouse gas emissions.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said that the forest contributed about 20 percent of global carbon emissions causing global warming.

A number of countries, including the US, Germany and Australia have provided huge dollars to Indonesia to help protect forests.

The Australian government for example, has channeled A$70 million to develop emission cut reduction projects, reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) in Kalimantan.

Australia is expected to launch the second REDD project in Jambi this month.

Read more!

Conditions for EU to deepen CO2 cuts not met: report

Reuters 15 Jan 10;

SEVILLE, Spain (Reuters) - The European Union's conditions for moving to a 30 percent cut in carbon dioxide emissions over the next decade have not been met, an informal European Commission position paper says.

The EU has already set its own internal target of cutting CO2 to 20 percent below 1990 levels over the next decade. It promised ahead of climate talks in Copenhagen in December that it would deepen those cuts to 30 percent if other countries followed suit.

"In particular due to the insufficient offers by the U.S. and Russia, the EU's comparability criteria to move to a 30 percent target are not met," said a document prepared for environment ministers meeting in Seville, Spain on Saturday.

"The EU should therefore submit the 20 percent commitment," added the paper seen by Reuters. Official commitments must be submitted to the U.N. climate negotiations by a January 31 deadline.

Spain holds the EU's rotating presidency until July and will play a role in defining the bloc's climate strategy for 2010.

The move will disappoint environmentalists who argue that the economic crisis has slowed industry to the point that the less ambitious goal is within easy reach.

"Sticking to 20 percent emission reductions in the EU is utterly incompatible with the ambitions of the EU's Spanish presidency on renewable energy and economic recovery," said Greenpeace campaigner Joris den Blanken.

But ministers said they would keep pushing other countries to increase their emissions cuts ahead of a climate meeting in Mexico at the end of this year.

"It's very important to find a way of getting people to the top of their ranges," British environment minister Ed Miliband told Reuters. "When those commitments can be ratcheted up is something we're working on."

The nominee for European climate commissioner, Connie Hedegaard, told a European Parliament hearing on Friday that she hoped the EU's conditions for moving to 30 percent had been met before the Mexico meeting.

"Is it not better...if we can squeeze out some few more percentages from other parties?" she added.

(Reporting by Pete Harrison, editing by Anthony Barker)

Read more!