Best of our wild blogs: 18 Jan 10

Buona Vista to Bukit Batok: the Ulu Pandan Park Connector
from Otterman speaks

Lost Coast
from Singapore Nature and wild shores of singapore

Unknown Plant @ Tanah Merah
from colourful clouds

Take a nature walk at the Chek Jawa boardwalk
from Adventures with the Naked Hermit Crabs

Tetracanthagyna larva
'An impressive larva' from Creatures Big & Small

Weird behaviour of a Malaysian Night Heron
from Bird Ecology Study Group

Monday Morgue: 18th January 2010
from The Lazy Lizard's Tales

today at chek jawa (16 jan)
from isn't it a wonder, how life came to be

How does a frogfish eat?
from Compressed air junkie

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Internet allowing illegal wildlife trade: activist

Yahoo News 17 Jan 10;

SINGAPORE (AFP) – Illegal wildlife traders are turning to the Internet to reach a wider customer base, circumvent laws and evade authorities, an animal rights activist told a conference on Sunday.

Items such as rhinoceros horns, leopard pelts and even live tiger cubs are being hawked openly in online advertisements on public websites, said Grace Ge, Asian regional director of the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW).

The Internet offers anonymity for the seller as well as fast and untraceable sales, while inadequate legislation governing online companies ensures relative impunity, she said at a regional animal rights conference held in Singapore.

"The Internet has facilitated the trading of wildlife, which is having a devastating effect on animals and ecosystems worldwide," she said.

Through the Internet, traders are able to "circumvent rules, regulations and evade enforcement", Ge told delegates at the Asia for Animals 2010 conference.

Citing an IFAW study on the illegal online wildlife trade in 2008, Ge said there was a "huge volume of wildlife and their products traded online on a daily basis".

The research was conducted over a three-month period in 2008 in 11 countries including the United States, China, Australia and several European nations. It found 7,122 online advertisements selling endangered species or products derived from their slaughter.

The United States was a major culprit as the source of 70.5 percent of advertisements, followed by Britain and China with 7.7 percent and 7.6 percent respectively, the study showed.

Estimates of the value of final sales on these websites totalled more than 457,000 dollars, but the actual amount was likely to be higher as most sites did not advertise their prices, according to the study.

Meanwhile, animal rights activists said at the conference that cooperation rather than conflict with traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) practitioners was more effective in protecting wildlife from poachers.

Executive director of the Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (ACRES) Louis Ng said the previous approach of confrontation had not been as effective.

"We realised we had to work with them (the TCM industry)," he told the delegates.

He cited a joint initiative between ACRES and Singapore TCM practitioners in which they created a labelling scheme to discourage local TCM shops from selling products made from endangered animal species.

To date, more than 20 percent of all TCM shops in Singapore were adhering to the voluntary initiative, Ng said.

Executive director of animal welfare group Animals Asia Foundation Jill Robinson said TCM practitioners were more than willing to cooperate with activists.

"I think they are recognising that the use of animals is causing such a slight and such a bad reputation... they actually don't want to see this happening any more," she said.

TCM shops sell medicinal products made from animals such as bears and tigers.

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Work on off-shore marine centre may start soon at Tuas

Tuas project will alleviate demand for scarce waterfront land in the west
Ronnie Lim, Business Times 18 Jan 10;

DEVELOPMENT of an offshore marine centre at Tuas View looks set to start soon.

The offshore marine base will help alleviate rising demand for scarce waterfront land in the west.

The 12-hectare project, with a common wharf and jetty, is meant to accommodate at least 10 offshore support and marine companies. It forms part of a larger development of the hockey-stick shaped Tuas View Extension site in the west into Singapore's next major port area.

JTC Corporation has just called a tender for an accredited checking organisation to carry out professional services including evaluating, analysing and reviewing the project's structural design.

A JTC spokeswoman said that the corporation is currently doing detailed engineering design on the marine centre, but did not specify when this would be completed. Following that, a tender for the main engineering, procurement and construction contract, is likely to be called.

JTC earlier indicated that the marine base could be ready by the first quarter of 2011, and the spokeswoman added that the project 'is on track'.

According to the latest tender document, the offshore marine base will comprise a 320-metre long wharf including a mooring dolphin (a cluster of pilings to which boats or barges can tie up) and access decks at both ends of the wharf.

Three areas of the 30-metre wide wharf will also be designed for 500-ton mobile crane operations. The base will also have a two-storey central operations building, with an electrical sub-station.

There has been rising demand for waterfront land, especially in the west. There used to be an offshore supply base at Shipyard Road in Jurong which has since closed and all the offshore supply facilities there relocated to Loyang Offshore Supply Base in the east.

Also coming up at Tuas View Extension is Sembcorp Marine's new massive integrated yard - with the first phase 73.3-ha development expected to be completed by 2013.

The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore is also doing soil investigation and seismic surveys in the area - reinforcing market talk of a relocation in the medium to long-term of Singapore's port operations in the city centre to the west.

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Looking for long-term volunteers

Helping out regularly in an area which interests you does far more good
Grace Chua, Straits Times 18 Jan 10;

NEARLY every fortnight, a different group of students descends on the Institute of Mental Health ward where I volunteer.

At least I think it's a different group each time - none of them sticks around long enough for me to recognise them.

According to recent news accounts, the student and youth volunteerism rate is 23 per cent, somewhat better than the national average of 17 per cent. And it's commendable that social awareness and activism among young people are on the rise.

But here's what happens when ad-hoc student volunteers show up: They've planned out the afternoon right down to the games and the handicrafts. But they have no idea what activities are appropriate for mental health patients.

Trying to get patients to sit still and read songs off a lyrics sheet is tough enough. Trying to line them up to play an elaborate game involving balls and plastic spoons - well, it's like herding cats.

Are the intrepid volunteers better prepared for next time? No, they've racked up their token few hours in the ward and never darken its door again.

I appreciate the fact that these junior college and polytechnic students are genuinely trying to make patients' lives better. But working with human beings calls for a long-term commitment.

On visits to old folks' homes for a half-day's worth of community service during my secondary school days, I recall standing around, unable to speak Teochew or Cantonese, getting under the nurses' feet, and vowing 'never again'.

But what mental ward patients - and senior citizens or anyone else who is cooped up in a home or ward - want are lasting relationships.

Long-time volunteers bond with the patients; we recognise who's a lovely singer and who's talented at art, and know who is diabetic and can't take sweets.

And they recognise us and give us hugs and high-fives when we arrive.

Even the organisers of one-off activities wish they were more than that.

The people in charge of the International Coastal Cleanup, for instance, say they'd rather have people doing monthly or quarterly clean-ups and being conscious of beach cleanliness year-round, rather than an annual event that does nothing about litter for the next 12 months.

While one-time community service activities raise awareness - acting as a 'taster' for students to discover their interests - the real measure of their success comes from students who stay on, and bring friends.

Why not have ongoing community projects which students can take part in for a couple of years, before passing the torch on to their juniors?

That's already happening at some schools. The Raffles Girls' School Monkey Business project, a group that raises awareness of Singapore's long-tail macaques, for example, was a cause started by students two years ago and continued by current students.

Young people must pick volunteer schemes that fit in with their interests and the amount of time they can spare.

It's not about hours, points or resume credibility. It's about the real people and communities we're trying to serve.

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Digging up secrets of Singapore's past

More proof Singapore was active trading hub, not backward fishing village when founded by Raffles: Archaeologist
Yen Feng Straits Times 18 Jan 10;

NO ONE would bat an eyelid at demolition works in Singapore, so a torn-up carpark between City Hall and the old Supreme Court has probably drawn few curious gazes.

But it happens to be the site of a rare downtown archaeological dig, which has yielded precious secrets about the island's past.

Over the past month, the Republic's best-known (more accurately, only) full-time archaeologist Lim Chen Sian, 34, has meticulously investigated the earth with the help of 10 or so volunteers.

There are 11 pits, including two in the Padang, dug to a depth of 2m.

Mr Lim was engaged by the National Art Gallery last month to find out if the site, once the centre of trade in 19th-century Singapore, contained any artefacts.

After weeks of digging, Mr Lim's answer is an 'absolute yes'.

Proudly showing off his finds in an abandoned room of the old Supreme Court earlier this month, Mr Lim pointed to military helmets and gas masks from World War II, pieces of earthenware dating back to the 13th century, and Song Dynasty coins from more than 1,000 years ago.

All this, he said, was more evidence that Singapore was an active commercial centre, and not the backward fishing village most people think it was when Sir Stamford Raffles founded the city in the 19th century.

The dig, costing $15,000, was sponsored by the art gallery ahead of its construction works on that site. Its director for infrastructure and projects Sushma Goh said that the dig 'presents a unique opportunity to uncover and properly document items that may give us physical links to our past', adding that some of the uncovered artefacts may be displayed in the art gallery when it opens in 2013.

Over the next few months, Mr Lim will begin laboratory tests to determine the origins of the newly uncovered artefacts and document his findings. He has asked the art gallery to consider a full excavation of the site. He said: 'This area is a rich reservoir of artefacts from the pre-colonial and colonial times.'

Mr Lim's recommendation, however, is unlikely to be accepted.

The National Heritage Board (NHB), which owns the art gallery, said it does not have a regular budget for archaeological digs. Moreover, construction work for the art gallery is scheduled to begin at the end of the year.

'We are mindful that the project and construction schedule is tight,' said an NHB spokesman. Mr Lim estimates that a full-scale dig will cost $500,000 and take a year to complete.

Archaeology remains a relatively underdeveloped discipline in Singapore.

No university here offers a degree in the subject, which studies history through material remains. Unlike many countries, Singapore does not hire full-time archaeologists.

NHB said this was because archaeological expeditions are few, and projects are commissioned only when the need arises.

Historians say this is a shame, because such digs are crucial in piecing together Singapore's past prior to the Europeans' arrival. 'So far, what we know of our past is limited to text documents and few date back to pre-colonial times,' said Mr Lim Tse Siang, 25, a history student and volunteer at the dig. 'And in a rapidly developing nation, such opportunities will only grow fewer with time.'

Only about 15 digs have been carried out since the first in 1984. That expedition in Fort Canning Park, led by an American archaeologist, Dr John Miksic, was the first in establishing Singapore as a nexus of trade in pre-colonial times, uncovering artefacts dating back to the 13th century, such as Yuan Dynasty vases, Indian glass beads and ceramic figurines.

Most of the digs since have been commissioned by a mix of public and private institutions, such as NHB, the National Museum and religious groups like St Andrew's Cathedral and the Foot Tet Soo Khek temple in Palmer Road, off Shenton Way.

Uncovered artefacts are split among various groups, including NHB, the Asian Civilisations Museum and the National Museum.

Almost all of the expeditions since 2004 were led by Mr Lim Chen Sian and a group of volunteers he describes as a 'loose confederacy of individuals'. Most are students who help out during weekends and school vacations.

When The Straits Times visited the Padang site, several volunteers had been hard at work - judging by the build-up of dirt on their T-shirts and trousers.

Ms Wee Sheau Theng, 31, was sifting through a tray of sand looking for tiny objects, such as fish hooks or earrings.

A few metres away, Mr Lim Tse Siang was piling large rocks recently cleared from a nearby pit.

Another volunteer, Miss Lim Shu Xian, 23, recounted how she had found a piece of tape wrapped around a water pipe in one of the pits earlier in the week.

Her enthusiasm, like the others, was plain. 'It's nothing fancy, but it's fascinating,' said Miss Lim, who works at the National Volunteer and Philanthropy Centre. 'I mean, why is it there? Who left it? Did someone forget to remove it? It's like a mystery.'

Ms Wee, an adjunct lecturer at Temasek Polytechnic, said the work lets the curious 'discover things in the past that are yet to be discovered'.

'Sure, there are books about history you can read, but these objects are like the primary source of events - you can't compare them to books.'

Mr Lim Tse Siang agreed. The National University of Singapore (NUS) student, currently pursuing a master's degree in history, said archaeology allows history students to 'go into the past without the distance of texts'. 'This is so real, you can feel it in your hands,' he said.

He added that he hoped some day to receive a doctorate in archaeology.

Compared with a decade ago, those who share the group's enthusiasm now have more opportunities to pick up a shovel and start digging into the past.

An online group set up by Mr Lim Chen Sian has gathered about 700 members since it went live in 2003. The website posts reports on past digs and updates members on upcoming projects.

In 2007, the Asia Research Institute began offering PhD scholarships for research in South-east Asian archaeology. The Institute of Southeast Asian Studies as well as the South-east Asian Studies Programme at NUS regularly invite professors from around the world to hold seminars on the subject.

Some of the more recent digs also encouraged community involvement.

Excavations at Fort Tanjong Katong and St Andrew's Cathedral between 2003 and 2005 saw participation from members of the public, including primary and secondary school students.

Despite the lack of resources, which prevents aspiring archaeologists from digging deeper and covering larger areas, Mr Lim Chen Sian says the public's growing interest is cause to be optimistic.

'Archaeology is about time and patience. I'm hopeful more people will come to see it as necessary for future generations to understand our past.'

Key finds at downtown dig
Straits Times 18 Jan 10;

# Carved stone peg with figure of a human head

Found at St Andrew's Cathedral in 2003, dated around the 14th century.

Possibly used as a gaming piece of sorts, this is one of the best examples of such pegs in South-east Asia. Very few have been recovered.

A few of such pegs were found in Kedah, Malaysia, and north Sumatra, but few were as complete and intact as this. This is the only example known which has a figure of a human head; the others were stylised patterns of animals.

# Lead statuette of horseman

Found at Empress Place in 1998, dated between the 14th and 16th centuries.

Most metal work in the 1300s was made of bronze. This specimen is made of lead, a rarity in South-east Asia.

The horseman's garment suggests that it may have been fashioned during the Majapahit period, the ancient ruling empire in Indonesia from 1293 to the 1500s.

# Chinese porcelain compass

Found at Fort Canning Hill in 1984, dated around the 14th century.

This is the only known porcelain purpose-built compass in existence.

The Chinese are said to have invented the use of compasses, but most early users simply used a magnetised needle floating in a bowl of water.

This is the only known specimen with navigational direction characters painted onto the bowl.

No other similar artifacts have been found from archaeological sites in China.

Text and photos by the National Heritage Board.

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Tsunami-generating quake possible off Indonesia: scientists

Richard Ingham Yahoo News 17 Jan 10;

PARIS (AFP) – A huge wave-generating quake capable of killing as many people as in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami could strike off the Indonesian island of Sumatra, and the city of Padang is in the firing line, a team of seismologists said on Sunday.

The group -- led by a prominent scientist who predicted a 2005 Sumatran quake with uncanny accuracy -- issued the warning in a letter to the journal Nature Geoscience.

The peril comes from a relentless buildup of pressure over the last two centuries on a section of the Sunda Trench, one of the world's most notorious earthquake zones, which runs parallel to the western Sumatra coast, they said.

This section, named after the Mentawai islands, "is near failure," the letter warned bluntly.

"The threat of a great tsunamigenic earthquake with a magnitude of more than 8.5 on the Mentawai patch is unabated. (...) There is potential for loss of life on the scale of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami."

The letter gave no timeframe for this event but warned starkly of the danger for Padang, a city of 850,000 people that lies broadside to the risky segment.

"The threat from such an event is clear and the need for urgent mitigating action remains extremely high," it said.

More than 220,000 people lost their lives in the killer wave of December 26 2004 when a 9.3-magnitude earthquake, occurring farther north on the Sunda Trench, ruptured the boundary where the Australian plate of Earth's crust plunges beneath the Eurasian plate.

The authors of the letter are led by John McCloskey, a professor of the Environmental Sciences Research Institute at the University of Ulster, Northern Ireland.

In March 2005, McCloskey warned that the December 26 2004 quake had built up major stress in an adjoining part of the fault to the south. He declared a temblor in the region of 8.5 magnitude with the capacity to generate a tsunami was imminent and urged the authorities to beef up preparations.

Such predictions are extraordinarily rare in the world of seismology. Knowledge of where earthquakes strike is extensive but the ability to say when they will occur remains elusive.

But McCloskey was proven right within two weeks. On March 28 2005, a quake measuring 8.6 erupted at Simeulue island, generating a three-metre (10-feet) tsunami.

In the letter to Nature Geoscience, his team explained their calculations for the vulnerable Mentawai segment in the aftermath of a 7.6-magnitude quake that occurred 60 kilometers (37 miles) near Padang on September 30 last year, killing more than 1,000 people.

Despite its size, this event did not ease the pressure on the Mentawai section, especially under the island of Siberut. Stresses there have been accumulating since an 8.7-magnitude quake in 1797 that caused fault slippage of 10 metres (32.5 feet) and unleashed a tsunami that inundated Padang and neighbouring areas.

Under Siberut, the largest of the Mentawai islands, "the megathrust strain-energy budget remains substantially unchanged" after the 2009 quake, McCloskey's team said.

"It is imperative that the Indonesian authorities, with the assistance of the international community and non-governmental organisations, ensure that they complete the relief effort and earthquake-resistant reconstruction following this earthquake, and work with the people in Padang to help prepare them for the next one."

Earthquake preparations 'a disgrace', says seismologist
BBC News 17 Jan 10;

The lack of earthquake planning by the international community is a "disgrace", a leading seismologist has said.

Professor John McCloskey said that governments must prepare for quakes, rather than act after the event.

The University of Ulster expert led the analysis of the quake that started the Indian Ocean 2004 tsunami.

"It is an international disgrace that we appear not to have made the smallest progress in preparation," he said.

"The 'international community' is very good at preparing for war but has failed completely to prepare to help the poor, who are always the ones to suffer in these events.

"If we want to claim to be civilised we need to ensure that we never see these scenes again."

In a letter to the journal Nature Geoscience he and his team warn that a huge wave-generating quake capable of killing as many people as in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami could strike off the Indonesian island of Sumatra, with the city of Padang in the path of destruction.

The danger comes from a relentless increase in pressure over the last 200 years on a section of the Sunda Trench, one of the world's most notorious earthquake zones, which runs parallel to the western Sumatra coast.

This section, named after the Mentawai islands, "is near failure," the letter warned.

Professor McCloskey said that governments were "refusing the accept the inevitable".

"Earthquakes happen, they kill people, they will kill more and more people if we don't organise ourselves properly," he said.

He said the earthquake which rocked Padang, western Sumatra in September last year killing more than 1,000 people was not the "great earthquake" scientists were waiting for but it may have made the next massive earthquake more likely.

Professor McCloskey is the head of the Geophysics Research Group at the UoU's Environmental Sciences Research Institute.

He said that while earthquake prediction was "as far off as ever" all the indicators are pointed to western Sumatra as a massive quake location.

"Scientists cannot forecast the exact size of the earthquake but in this case there is complete agreement that it will be very strong, probably bigger than magnitude 8.5, dwarfing the energy release in the Haitian quake," he said.

"We also cannot say for sure what size the tsunami will be but it has the potential to be very destructive - maybe even worse than 2004.

"But the future need not look like Haiti. We know this earthquake is coming and we might have years or even decades to prepare.

"Given the unfolding scenes of carnage following the Haiti earthquake and the completely inadequate speed of the international response, the responsibility on the Indonesian government, the international community and the international NGOs is enormous.

"We must work urgently to prepare for this earthquake if we are not to witness again the awful scenes of children dying for want of a few stitches or a cast for a broken leg."

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Asia powers up on nuclear technology

Michael Richardson, for The Straits Times 18 Jan 10;

RECENT start-ups hardly provide much evidence of the vaunted 'renaissance' in civilian nuclear power that promised reliable supplies of electricity without the greenhouse gas emissions associated with fossil fuels, especially coal.

Only two new nuclear plants began operation last year, one in Japan and the other in India. Since two reactors were shut down last year, that left the same number, 436, generating about 15 per cent of the world's electricity in 31 economies.

However, the pace of reactor construction is rising, particularly in Asia. While problems related to public acceptance, safety, disposal of radioactive waste and high capital costs have slowed the growth of nuclear power in Europe and North America, Asia has become the standard bearer for future expansion.

Of nearly 70 reactors under or close to construction, 45 are in Asia, including China (23), India (six), Japan (six) and South Korea (six).

EdF, the French nuclear power operator, has published global forecast figures up to 2020. These show 140 gigawatts (GW) of new capacity being built and 10GW decommissioned, to give 480GW in 2020, up from 370GW today.

Of the additional 140GW, 60 per cent is in Asia, leaving Europe, the Americas and Russia with about 12 per cent each.

Even so, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency, nuclear power's share of worldwide electricity production will actually be a bit less in 2020 than it is now, although it might increase slightly by 2030.

However, the real significance is the rate of growth in Asia and the emergence of South Korea, China and India not just as sources of advanced nuclear technology, but also as exporters of nuclear plants, components and know-how.

The nuclear industry is rapidly globalising. As it does so, there will be sharper competition, costs and construction times are expected to fall - and more countries will opt for nuclear power. This will make it even more urgent to tighten global nuclear security to prevent the technology being used to make weapons of mass destruction.

The World Nuclear Association (WNA) reckons that another 25 countries in Asia, the Middle East, Europe, Africa and Latin America are either considering or have already decided to make nuclear energy part of their power generation systems.

Nonetheless, the WNA says that over 80 per cent of the expansion this century is likely to be in major economies already using nuclear power.

By the end of 2006, three big Western-Japanese alliances had formed to dominate the world's reactor supply market. They included Areva of France with Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, and the United States' General Electric (GE) with

Japan's Hitachi. Meanwhile, Westinghouse of the US had become a 77 per cent subsidiary of Japan's Toshiba.

Until very recently, only these three groups and a small number of other firms, among them Atomic Energy of Canada, Russia's AtomStroyExport, and Chinese state-owned companies, had shown they had the technical knowledge and project management experience to export nuclear power plants.

A new member joined the club last month when a consortium of mainly South Korean companies headed by Korea Electric Power Corp (Kepco) beat an Areva-led group and GE-Hitachi to win a contract worth about US$20billion (S$28billion) to build four advanced reactors in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The first of the 1,400MW reactors is due to start generating electricity in 2017, with the others following by 2020.

The consortium also expects to earn another US$20billion by jointly running the reactors for 60 years. Since the UAE has said it plans to standardise on one technology, South Korea is hoping to secure follow-on orders.

Faced with limited resources and fast growing demand for energy, South Korea imported Westinghouse System-80 pressurised water reactors in the late 1970s. The contract included terms that allowed Kepco to develop its own versions of the reactor, such as the advanced model now being supplied to the UAE.

South Korea plans to become self-sufficient in nuclear reactor technology by 2012 and export 80 power reactors, worth US$400billion, by 2030.

This would make it the world's third or fourth largest nuclear reactor supplier, with a 20 per cent share of the global market.

An expert report to South Korean President Lee Myung Bak earlier this month set out the rationale for developing the nuclear industry as a major export arm.

'Nuclear power-related business will be the most profitable market after automobiles, semiconductors and shipbuilding,' the report said.

Given the success that South Korea has had in exporting its products from all three of these sectors, rival nuclear vendors would be well advised to take the new Korean challenge seriously.

The writer is a visiting senior research fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.

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Biodiversity nears 'point of no return'

Hilary Benn, BBC Green Room 17 Jan 10;

The decline in the world's biodiversity is approaching a point of no return, warns Hilary Benn. In this week's Green Room, the UK's environment secretary urges the international community to seize the chance to act before it is too late.

In 2002, the world's governments made a commitment to significantly reduce the rate of biodiversity loss by 2010.

Although it is hard to measure how much biodiversity we have, we do know these targets have not been met.

Our ecological footprint - what we take out of the planet - is now 1.3 times the biological capacity of the Earth.

In the words of Professor Bob Watson, Defra's chief scientific adviser and former chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), we are in danger of approaching "a point of no return".

So the action we take in the next couple of decades will determine whether the stable environment on which human civilisation has depended since the last Ice Age 10,000 years ago will continue.

To do this, we need to widen the nature of the debate about biodiversity. Flora and fauna matter for their own sake; they lift our spirits and nurture our souls.

But our ecosystems also sustain us and our economies - purifying our drinking water, producing our food and regulating our climate.

Climate change and biodiversity are inextricably linked. We ignore natural capital at our peril.

Interdependence

The UK and Brazil are hosting a workshop in preparation for the next UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

Representatives from more than 60 countries - from the Maldives to China - will attend the three-day event to discuss how we can ensure that the post-2010 targets stand a better chance of being met than those set in 2002.

The majority of those attending are from developing countries, including those with the rarest and greatest biodiversity. They need to be listened to.

It is easy to have principles when you can afford then - economics and ecology are interdependent.

So when it comes to biodiversity, we desperately need to start restoring links between science and policy, between taking action and evaluating it and between economies and ecosystems.

The big challenge will be for the real benefits of biodiversity and the hard costs of its loss to be included in our economic systems and markets.

Perverse subsidies and the lack of value attached to the services provided by ecosystems have been factors contributing to their loss. What we cannot cost, we don't value - until it has gone.

Investing in the future

Much greater concerted effort is needed to stop the plunder of our ecosystems.

Overfishing has reduced blue fin tuna numbers to 18% of what they were in the mid-1970s.

The burning of Indonesia's peat lands and forests for palm oil plantations generates 1.8bn tonnes of greenhouse gases a year, and demand is predicted to double by 2020 compared to 2000.

More than seven million hectares are lost worldwide to deforestation every single year.

The restoration of our ecosystems must be seen as a sensible and cost-effective investment in this planet's economic survival and growth.

I am optimistic. Talking about the danger of climate change has brought with it opportunities to tackle the biodiversity crisis.

While the 2010 targets have not been met, more than 160 countries now have national biodiversity action plans.

Mechanisms now exist for research, monitoring and scientific assessment of biodiversity, although we now need an Intergovernmental Panel on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services to oversee progress in the same way the IPCC does for climate change.

One example of progress is the Brazilian Government's new target, which requires illegal deforestation to be cut by 80% by 2020.

Last year, deforestation rates in Brazil dropped by 45% against those of 2008, the largest fall since records began.

Other examples, closer to home, are the UK's Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) - 89% are in a good or recovering condition.

Our ninth National Park, in the South Downs, was created last year and agri-environmental schemes are producing significant improvements in biodiversity.

2010 is the International Year of Biodiversity and later this year - in Nagoya, Japan - we will have the chance to halt the decline of our planet's biodiversity.

It is up to us to seize it.

Hilary Benn is the UK Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The Green Room is a series of opinion articles on environmental topics running weekly on the BBC News website

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How to tackle Chinese crab invasion: send them home

Creatures regarded as pests in Britain are prized by diners across the Far East
Michael McCarthy, The Independent 18 Jan 10;

They are becoming as big a pest in Britain as the grey squirrel or Japanese knotweed, and seemingly impossible to control. But the answer to dealing with Chinese mitten crabs, the invasive species infesting the Thames and other English rivers with damaging results, may be simple: eat them.

The large and aggressive Asian crabs with their hairy mitten-like claws are damaging native wildlife and river embankments as they spread across the country. Yet diners in China, Japan and Singapore consider them a tremendous delicacy, and will pay the equivalent of £24 for a single mitten crab in the right condition. It is a famous ingredient of Shanghai cuisine, and the roe is especially prized.

There has been no check, natural or otherwise, on the species' expansion. But Paul Clark, a marine biologist at the Natural History Museum, believes human consumption may be the answer. "It is a huge pest problem," he said. "It burrows into river banks and causes them to collapse, and is very damaging to native wildlife." In the Thames, it is now present in such numbers that there is also a risk that the crabs may clog the water intakes of power stations and other industrial facilities along the river. It is steadily spreading across Britain and it is "only a matter of time" before it reaches Scotland, he added.

Dr Clark is organising a conference in London in March to explore whether the abundant mitten crabs of the Thames – and there may be millions of them – can be harvested commercially, as a means of controlling their numbers. The possibility of setting up a mitten crab fishery in the Thames has been mooted thanks to a recent study which concluded that mitten crabs from the river were fit for human consumption, and that the population was large enough to be exploited.

Trials have shown that the best way to catch them is by the use of fyke nets, long bag-shaped nets which are held open by hoops. The fishery would have to be located in the lower Thames, between Greenwich and Erith, because it is to here, in the more saline water, that all the mature mitten crabs of the river migrate in the autumn to spawn – which is when they are their most edible.

Dr Clark said the conference will also be looking at the risks posed by a commercial fishery. The trials showed that the fyke nets used to catch the crabs attracted a substantial bycatch of eels, which are increasingly considered a threatened species in Europe. Furthermore, he thinks there is a risk that if a fishery took off and was commercially successful, people might intentionally disperse the crabs into other UK rivers, with the intention of making money.

"We are damned if we do and damned if we don't. "Mitten crabs have few natural enemies capable of reducing their numbers, but the establishment of a fishery would certainly carry risks."

The mittened mini-monster was first recorded in Britain in the Thames in 1935 having almost certainly arrived as larvae in the ballast water of ships from the Far East. It is found as far upstream as Windsor, and has also spread to other watercourses as far north as the Tyne. With a body the size of a human palm, and legs double the width of that, Eriocheir sinensis has spread around most of Europe during the last century, and has also arrived in the US, where it is considered a major pest.

Not welcome in Britain Troublesome aliens

Japanese knotweed (Fallopia japonica)is the UK's most invasive non-nativeplant. The Victorians introduced itas an ornamental plant, but fertileBritish lands lacking in biologicalenemies have enabled it to flourish.

Grey squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis)are to blame for the decline of the UK’snative red squirrels, of which thereare estimated to be only 140,000remaining. Greys were brought fromAmerica in the late 19th century,and red squirrels are usuallydisplaced within 15 years of theirarrival locally.

Harlequin ladybirds (Harmoniaaxyridis) are a recent addition toBritain and are the most invasive ladybirdson earth. They arrived in the UKin 2004, but were introduced to NorthAmerica in 1988 and have since becomethe most widespread ladybirdspecies on the continent.

The Rose-ringed parakeet(Psittacula krameri) has alreadycaused serious damage to crops inBritain. It is found mainly in Londonand southern England, but how it wasfirst introduced is unclear. It is notedfor its loud, screeching calls.

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Seafood ecolabels under the spotlight in new WWF report

WWF 18 Jan 10;

Gland, Switzerland – The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) comes out on top in a new report commissioned by WWF that reveals poor performance among other assessed seafood ecolabelling schemes and calls for improvements across the board to strengthen their effectiveness.

Accenture’s non-profit practice, Accenture Development Partnerships (ADP) compared and ranked seven fishery certification schemes that use ecolabels on seafood products against a set of WWF criteria that focus on the schemes’ effectiveness in addressing the health of fisheries and oceans.

The MSC is ranked the highest in the ADP report, Assessment of On-Pack, Wild-Capture Seafood Sustainability Certification Programmes and Seafood Ecolabels, with a score of just over 95 percent compliance to the assessment’s criteria requirements.

Many seafood ecolabels are inadequate

The report finds that except for the MSC, the other assessed schemes - Naturland, Friend of the Sea, Krav, AIDCP, Mel-Japan and Southern Rocklobster - do not evaluate fisheries across all criteria to the extent required to support sustainable fishing and healthy oceans.

“The findings of this assessment reveal serious inadequacies in a number of ecolabels and cast doubt on their overall contribution to effective fisheries management and sustainability.” said Miguel Jorge, Director of WWF International’s Marine Programme.

“While the assessment shows the MSC comes out best in class using the most rigorous programme out there, it is not perfect. Improvements are needed across the board to ensure all seafood ecolabels deliver on their promise.”

Assessment of ecolabels based on best practice guidelines

The criteria used in the assessment reflect best practices for fisheries ecolabelling certification schemes with the Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) 2005 guidelines for ecolabelling forming the basis for the criteria. Standards developed by the International Social and Environmental Accreditation and Labelling Alliance (ISEAL) and elements from WWF’s framework for ecosystem-based management of marine fisheries were added.

The assessment points to significant differences in transparency, information availability, structure and accuracy of claims made by each scheme. Aside from the MSC, all other schemes assessed have substantial shortcomings in the area of transparency and information provision.

“The growth of seafood ecolabels over the last ten years attests to the strong demand from consumers and seafood companies who want seafood from better fisheries.” added Jorge.

“But with the proliferation of ecolabels and the variability of these schemes there is a real risk of confusion, or worse still a lack of confidence in seafood ecolabelling among buyers and consumers.”

Working with the seafood industry to protect life in the oceans

As part of WWF’s efforts to implement sustainable fishing practices globally to protect marine life and ocean habitats, the conservation organization works with major seafood buyers to use their purchasing power to secure seafood from sustainable sources and assess their current supply chain. The report is intended to address confusion expressed by this group and inform their choices.

The most credible ecolabelling schemes accepted in international fora are voluntary, third party, operated independently and involving interested parties.

Seafood ecolabels shoudl reflect on their contribution to marine conservation

In addition to fisheries certification scheme efforts to address sustainable fishing, other issues including carbon footprint, animal welfare and social issues such as worker’s rights are growing in public consciousness. WWF calls on the seafood ecolabelling community to develop internationally agreed criteria for these priority issues and establish evaluation mechanisms.

“We recommend the assessed schemes reflect on their contribution to marine conservation and use the report as a guide to how best to assess and evaluate fisheries seeking their ecolabel.” added Jorge.

Download
Full Report: Assessment of on-pack, wild-capture seafood sustainability certification programmes and seafood ecolabels 2.68 MB pdf
Executive Summary: Assessment of on-pack, wild-capture seafood sustainability certification programmes and seafood ecolabels 274 KB pdf

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Floods worsen in Sabah

The Star 18 Jan 10;

KOTA KINABALU: The number of flood evacuees in the state has nearly tripled from 850 to more than 2,600 as more districts reported being hit by flooding.

The latest district is Telupid in the east coast, where 600 people from six villages had to be moved to relief centres.

In Kota Belud, 398 people had been evacuated to the relief centres at the district’s community hall and SMK Taun Gusi.

In Kinabatangan, 462 people have been evacuated while the northern Kota Marudu district saw the largest number of people affected, with 1,177 from 23 villages having to move to relief centres.

Kota Marudu district officer Luvita Kiansun said the water levels of the two major rivers there — Sungai Kanarom and Sungai Bandau — had surpassed the danger mark.

Meanwhile, the families in Sabah’s “rice bowl” districts of Kota Belud and Kota Marudu could only watch helplessly as their padi crop — which was on the verge of being harvested — was flooded after five days of incessant rain.

State Assistant Minister of Community Development and Consumers Affairs Datuk Herbert Timbon Lagadan said the affected families could only hope the rain will stop so they can salvage some of the harvest.

“In areas like Mukim Kalawat, more than 12ha of the padi fields have been flooded. The farmers are praying they can salvage about 40% of their harvest.

“If the rain doesn’t stop, then all their crops will be wiped out. This is the second year in a row they are facing such a disaster,” he said.

Sarawak hit by rain and winds
Stephen Then, The Star 16 Jan 10;

MIRI: Travelling into the remote regions of Sarawak is now risky following days of heavy rain that have turned rural roads into treacherous glaciers of mud.

Strong wind and heavy rain have been battering the coastal and interior regions of the state since early this week.

Rural folks in various parts of the interior of northern Sarawak have reported that all rural land links across the logging concession zones have become treacherous following the heavy rain.

The timber roads have become streams of mud and one wrong slip may cause a tragedy.

Owners of four-wheel-drive vehicles have cut back or stopped services during the heavy rain and this has disrupted the transport link with urban centres.

Many people in the interior settlements are finding it difficult to go to urban centres for food supplies as some gravel roads are knee-deep in mud and in some parts, with rocks on hillslopes coming loose.

Former councillor Ding Laeng, also a community elder in Long Panai in Ulu Baram district, told The Star that interior folks were worried it might be the beginning of another wet spell.

“It is very difficult now to travel along rural roads. If it rains non-stop for a few hours, the roads become too slippery even for a four-wheel-drive.

“Timber trucks run only when the weather permits. Very heavy rain results in a standstill of everything, even logging.

“We (in Long Panai) are worried the weather may become worse. Dark clouds are looming every day,” he said.

Long Panai is located 250km inland from here.

Elsewhere in the interior Sarawak, similar spells of heavy rain have occurred over the week.

A check with the police in Long Lama, 350km away, showed there had not been any reports of floods yet.

“It has been raining non-stop but the volume is not heavy. Rivers linking Long Lama to the upstream longhouses are still below danger levels, but the roads are very wet and risky for light vehicles,” said a spokesman.

In Belaga district (central Sarawak), Catholic church workers are monitoring the situation in remote settlements, particularly the Penan villages near the Sarawak-Kalimantan border as severe floods may completely cut off the villagers.

Reverend Father Sylvester Ding of the Belaga Catholic Parish said on Thursday that he was keeping constant touch with Penan elders all over Belaga.

“The food situation is okay. We (church workers) still travel to the remote settlements when the weather permits, to find out the latest situation,” he said.

The Sarawak Meteorological Department, meanwhile, has warned folks in the state to brace for winds of up to 60km per hour and cautioned coastal folks to keep away from the sea as waves of between 3.5m to 5m are dangerous for all boats.

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Coal exploitation threatens ecology in east Kalimantan

Antara 18 Jan 10;

Samarinda, E Kalimantan (ANTARA News) - Business oriented coal exploitations in East Kalimantan are threatening the local ecology, environment observer Abrianto Amin said here on Sunday.

"Ecological balance will be seriously threatened if coal exploitations are exclusively oriented to commercial aspects while ignoring the social and environmental sectors," he said.

He said that regional government heads (district heads/mayors) were authorized to issue mining exploitation permits enabling them to secure a license easily.

"However, if the companies ignore the social and environmental aspects, they will pose a serious threat to the environment," he said.

The collapse of forest and timber industries has caused companies to switch their business to the mining sector in East Kalimantan, particularly to `black gold` (coal) mining, owing to the fact that the market for this commodity is stable both at home and abroad.

Abrianto Amin, who is also a former chief of the Indonesian Environmental Forum (Walhi) for East Kalimantan, said that actually mining companies had the obligation to restore and preserve the environment.

One of the programs that had to be carried out by the mining companies was to reclaim and plant trees in the areas where they had carried out excavations.

But the reclamation program was not running well because the companies were reluctant to meet their obligation as they had to spend a lot of money on carrying out the program, he said.(*)

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Why coastal oil spills can pollute for decades: study

Marlowe Hood Yahoo News 17 Jan 10;

PARIS (AFP) – Oil from the 1989 Exxon Valdez tanker spill that devastated Alaska's Prince William Sound still lies trapped beneath its beaches, continuing to pollute once pristine shores, scientists reported Sunday.

As climate change opens the Arctic region to oil exploration and shipping, the findings could prove crucial in devising effective methods for cleaning up future spills, the researchers said.

Up to now, experts puzzled over why remnants of the 11 million gallons of crude that fouled some 1,300 kilometers (750 miles) of Alaskan coastline have persisted for so long.

At first it seemed that nature, with some help from technology, would soon wash away one of the worst environmental disasters in history.

The spill decimated the region's wildlife as well as the state's fishing industry.

But within a decade it became apparent that the rate at which the oil was disappearing had dramatically slowed, from 70 percent per year to about four percent.

Today, it is estimated that some 20,000 gallons remain.

Michael Boufadel and Hailong Li of Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania wanted to find out why this oil was not been broken down through biodegradation and weathering, as had been widely predicted.

Collecting field data and running computer simulations, they found the key lay in the fact that affected beaches consisted of two layers, each with different properties.

The geographically variable impact of rising and falling water tables also played a critical role.

Oil was temporarily stored in the porous upper layer, slowing the rate at which it was subject to weathering, according to the study, published in the journal Nature Geoscience.

An environment lacking the kind of nutrients needed by oil-eating micro-organisms to thrive further protected the fossil fuel.

The second layer, while composed largely of the same materials, was far less porous: on average, water moved through the top layer 1,000 times faster.

When the water level from declining tides fell below the interface between the two layers, oil seeped from the upper to the lower stratum, especially where there was little or no freshwater discharge to compensate.

"Once the oil entered the lower layer, it became entrapped by capillary forces and persisted," the authors said.

Because of the even lower oxygen content in the sub-stratum, the crude was not degraded and has remained suspended.

The study also said that oil tends to linger on gravel beaches more than on sandy ones, pointing to evidence from previous spills: the Arrow in Nova Scotia, Canada (1970), the Metula in the Strait of Magellan, Chile (1974), and the Amoco Cadiz along the French coast of Brittany (1978).

"As global warming is melting the ice cover and exposing the Arctic to oil exploration and shipping through sea routes such as the Northwest Passage, the risk of oil spills on gravel beaches in high-latitude regions will be increased," it said.

Gravel beaches trapping oil from 1989 Exxon spill
Mary Pemberton, Associated Press Yahoo News 17 Jan 10;

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – An engineering professor has figured out why oil remains trapped along miles of gravel beaches more than 20 years after the Exxon Valdez tanker disaster in Prince William Sound.

An estimated 20,000 gallons of crude remain in Prince William Sound, even though oil remaining after the nearly 11-million-gallon spill had been expected to biodegrade and wash away within a few years.

The problem: The gravelly beaches of Prince William Sound are trapping the oil between two layers of rock, with larger rocks on top and finer gravel underneath, according to Michel C. Boufadel, chairman of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Temple University. His study appeared Sunday in Nature Geoscience's online publication and will be published in the journal later.

Boufadel found that water, which could have broken up and dissipated the oil, moved through the lower level of gravel up to 1,000 times slower than the top level.

Once the oil entered the lower level, conditions were right to keep it there, he said. Tidal forces worked to compact the finer-grained gravel even more, creating a nearly oxygen-free environment with low nutrient levels that slowed the ability of the oil to biodegrade.

"The oil could be maybe one foot below the beach surface and in contact with sea water with a lot of oxygen, but the oxygen doesn't get to it," Boufadel said.

He found that the upper layer of beach is so permeable that the water table falls within it as fast as the tide. However, the permeability of the lower level is so low that the water table does not drop much within it, he said.

Boufadel said the study points out the susceptibility of beaches worldwide to long-term oil contamination, especially at higher latitudes where beaches tend to be gravel or a mixture of sand and gravel.

"As global warming is melting the ice cover and exposing the Arctic to oil exploitation and shipping through sea routes such as the Northwest Passage, the risk of oil spills on gravel beaches in high-latitude regions will be increased," the study says.

Boufadel and his team dug about 70 pits between 3-feet and 5-feet deep on six beaches during summers from 2007 to 2009. His report focuses on data collected on Eleanor Island, about 15 miles away from Bligh Reef where the Exxon Valdez grounded on March 24, 1989.

Peter Hagen, program manager for Exxon studies for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said Boufadel's study is a continuation of previous work that began in 2001 when 9,000 pits were dug around the sound, confirming the presence of oil.

While the remaining oil likely remains somewhat locked up in the beaches, the spill's lingering effects are ongoing, Hagen said. Sea otters, sea ducks and some sea birds are producing an enzyme showing exposure to oil.

Boufadel's study was funded by a $1.2 million, three-year grant from the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council. The council was formed after the environmental disaster to oversee restoration of the sound.

Boufadel doesn't know how long it might take for the remaining oil to finally disappear but predicted it will take a long time.

"It will be a slow process because the oil is relatively sheltered from water motion," he said.

Beaches trapping some oil from Exxon Valdez spill
JoAnne Allen, Reuters 17 Jan 10;

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A lack of oxygen and nutrients below the surface of beaches in Alaska's Prince William Sound is slowing the dissipation of oil remaining from the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill, U.S. researchers said on Sunday.

The team conducted field studies over the past three summers using geologic information and hydraulics to try to determine why patches of oil linger on the beaches 20 years after the worst oil spill in U.S. history.

The supertanker Exxon Valdez spilled more than 11 million gallons (50 million liters) of crude oil, blackening some 1,300 miles of Alaska's coastline. An estimated 20,000 gallons (90,920 liters) remain, the researchers said.

They found that the oil remaining was trapped between two layers of beach and sheltered from the elements, according to the study posted on the journal Nature Geoscience's website (www.nature.com/ngeo/index.html)

"The oil that is in the upper layer either gets flushed out or biodegraded. In the lower layer, we found out there's not enough fresh water exchange to cause any flushing," co-author Michel Boufadel of Temple University said in a telephone interview.

Boufadel also said oxygen levels in the lower layer were not high enough for the oil to disappear through natural biodegradation.

"Microorganisms that are indigenous in beaches are capable of breaking down the oil, of eating the oil, provided that they have oxygen to breathe and nutrients such as nitrate and phosphate," Boufadel said.

He said earlier research uncovered nutrient deficiency in the area. But his team was the first to detect the low oxygen levels and the two-layer beaches.

In the first five years after the accident, the oil was vanishing at a rate of 70 percent a year and calculations showed it would be gone within a few years, the researchers said.

About eight years ago, the disappearance rate slowed to 4 percent a year.

Boufadel's team is exploring ways to deliver oxygen and nutrients to the lower layer of beach in an effort to spur biodegrading of the remaining oil.

The study was funded by the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council, established in 1991 when Exxon settled civil and criminal charges filed by the Alaska and the U.S. governments.

The council has administered the $900 million that Exxon paid to settle the state and federal civil cases from the disaster.

(Editing by Eric Beech)

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