An Introduction to Ophiuroids by Dr Toshihiko Fujita
from Raffles Museum News
Purple Mangroves
a new blog by mangrove lovers, in mandarin.
Estuarine Crocodile: An Ambush Predator
from Darwinian Left
Stuck in a moment
from The annotated budak
The mantid Diego II
from talfryn.net. Also on Knocked up from The annotated budak.
Jungle Myna - Cattle Egret association with water buffalo
from Bird Ecology Study Group
Ong Dai Lin, Today Online 9 Feb 10;
SINGAPORE - On his round last October to check the mist nets in the Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve (SBWR), he spotted a black and yellow bird stuck in one of the nets.
Assistant conservation officer Ramakrishnan Kolandavelu recognised the bird as a male Yellow-rumped Flycatcher and was thrilled.
While female Yellow-rumped Flycatchers had been caught in the mist nets previously, that was the first time its male counterpart had been trapped since SBWR began its bird-ringing programme in 1990.
Mr Ramakrishnan told MediaCorp that bird-ringing is a vital source of information: "Books don't teach you about how birds move and the areas that should not be disturbed in the reserve when we do pruning."
The bird-ringing process is conducted every two weeks. It begins with staff putting up mist nets that are each 18 metres long in different parts of the reserve.
Birds that fly into the nets are trapped in its pockets, and checks on the nets are conducted every 30 minutes.
A ring band with an identification number is placed on the right leg of the trapped bird and information about the bird is recorded before it is released back into the wild.
If the trapped bird has a ring on its leg, this means it had been tagged previously and updated information about it will be recorded.
The process of checking the mist nets and tagging the birds is carried out throughout the day.
The information collected not only helps SBWR learn about migratory birds and their behaviour, but also how the reserve contributes to the conservation of birds, said SBWR's assistant director James Gan.
Bird-ringing has enabled SBWR to identify about nine new species of birds.
While the number may seem small, it is significant as it helps to identify birds that would otherwise have escaped the eyes of the staff, said Mr Gan.
Only trained staff can conduct bird-ringing as they need to know the proper techniques of handling the trapped bird to prevent traumatising it.
Besides internal training, the staff are also trained by an instructor from the British Trust for Ornithology.
On average, some 700 birds are ringed annually. About 12,600 birds have been ringed in the last twenty years.
Said Mr Gan: "Singapore has quite a good bird-ringing programme with good standards. We have come up with a set methodology and have proper training for our staff. Going forward, we will work on improving the standards of bird-ringing in Singapore."
5 projects get NEA grant to tap new technology in disposing of waste
Victoria Vaughan, Straits Times 9 Feb 10;
SINGAPOREANS are tossing out 7,200 tonnes of waste a day, about the weight of 970 elephants.
This is 51/2 times what we have been discarding daily in 1970.
Going at this rate, the landfill on the island of Pulau Semakau off mainland Singapore will be full in 30 to 40 years.
This landfill, with a volume equivalent to 25,200 Olympic-size swimming pools, is now the only place here where rubbish is being buried.
No wonder the National Environment Agency (NEA) has stepped up its search for ways to cope with the looming mountain of rubbish. It has awarded almost $5 million to five research projects which aim to raise the technology bar in the handling of waste.
Mr Cheong Hock Lai, the director of the Environment Technology Office, said the current system - which turns waste into energy - is about 30 to 40 years old, so new technology is needed to make the process more cost efficient and to lessen the burden on existing plants.
Of the five projects, one by Nanyang Technological University (NTU) aims to transform landfills into energy-producing 'gas mines'.
NTU's Professor Ng Wun Jern explained that methane, a by-product of buried waste breaking down, can be harvested for use as an energy source.
Another gas produced in landfills, carbon dioxide, can be converted into a gum-like sugar, which can be returned to the landfill to stabilise the soil.
When rendered more stable this way, the landfill can be used as a construction site in 10 to 15 years.
Under current methods, landfills must be covered and left for 30 to 40 years before anything can be built on it, because potential gas leaks and subsidence can make them dangerous for construction.
Prof Ng's three-year project will also explore methods of stabilising landfills. He hopes to set up a pilot landfill site in 12 to 18 months, either on Pulau Semakau or the now-closed Lorong Halus landfill.
The second project which has received an NEA grant is being undertaken by Nanyang Polytechnic. This one will look for ways to reduce industrial pollution by using a catalyst to convert harmful emissions into water and nitrogen gas.
At the moment, titanium dioxide is used to neutralise the pollution on honeycomb filters; the Nanyang Polytechnic project will look into using cerium oxide instead, packed tightly in cylinders, to increase the pollution-absorption surface area. This will cut costs by half.
Of the other two projects from NTU, one will seek to make non-biodegradable plastic biodegradable; the other will look into maximising production of synthetic gas and liquid biofuels from waste.
The fifth project, by the National University of Singapore, will look at the recovery of heavy metals from electronic waste.
The NEA's Environment Technology Research Programme, announced last July, has a seed fund of $15 million for three years. Grants will be awarded every six months.
Related PDF "Waste Not"
NEA awards $4.8m to five research projects
They will look into waste management solutions for S'pore
Zeinab Yusuf Saiwalla, Business Times 9 Feb 10;
A STEP closer to its vision of establishing zero waste and zero landfills, the National Environment Agency (NEA) yesterday announced the awardees of the first Environment Technology Research Programme (ETRP) fund.
The five proposals were selected out of 67 that the ETRP received from the academia and industry at the close of RFP
A total of $4.8 million was awarded to five research projects to develop waste management solutions for Singapore.
This grant is part of the $15 million seed fund that the NEA will use to fund and support research and development (R&D) projects with commercial and industrial applications over three years.
Out of the five approved projects, three are from Nanyang Technological University (NTU), one from National University of Singapore (NUS) and one from Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP).
The projects were chosen for several criteria, including their possibilities to improve Singapore's waste management process as well as their potential for market applications.
For example, the project from NYP, which hopes to develop a chemical catalyst to replace precious metals-based catalysts such as titanium in reducing nitrogen oxides to harmless gases was chosen primarily for its cost effectiveness.
By replacing the titanium dioxide-based catalyst with the chemically produced cerium oxide, the project's principal investigator, Sim Gia Wen, estimates that this could translate into savings of almost 50 per cent.
Besides cost effectiveness, other projects were chosen for their environmental sustainability, such as NTU's proposal to convert municipal plastic waster into a useful resource to minimise waste and up-recycle it into a new resource.
The project led by associate professor Wang Jing-Yuan, will convert mixed plastic waste into higher value biodegradable polymers known as polyhydroxlyalkanoate (PHA) which can then be used to create higher-end plastic products such as surgical threads.
Currently, most plastics are incinerated and then deposited in landfills, which according to Assoc Prof Wang is not environmentally sustainable and hence he hopes that the project will eventually be able to be exported globally owing to its wide ranging benefits.
The five proposals were selected out of 67 that the ETRP received from the academia and industry at the close of the Request-For-Proposal (RFP) period on Aug 31, 2009.
Though 30 to 40 per cent of the proposals received were from those in the industry, departmental director of the Environment Technology Office, Cheong Hock Lai said that none were chosen due to their lack of focus on the research element.
'The proposals from private companies were more like business proposals than about research,' he added.
Nanyang Poly, NTU win NEA grants for waste management projects
Wang Eng Eng, Channel NewsAsia 8 Feb 10;
SINGAPORE: The day may come when the burning of waste will not pollute the air you breathe. That is what a team from Nanyang Polytechnic is working on.
It is one of five teams working on new and cost-efficient ways to manage waste with funds from the National Environment Agency (NEA).
The work to burn waste can cause havoc to the air, producing harmful substances like nitrogen oxides. The damage can be cut down by filtering out the substances.
The Nanyang Polytechnic team, led by lecturer Sim Gia Wen, has been working on a solution that will make a bigger difference.
Its project is to develop lower-cost cerium oxide catalyst elements to remove gaseous air pollutants. Currently, catalyst materials are based on the more expensive titanium dioxide.
Also working to save the environment is a team from Nanyang Technological University. Its job is to find a faster way to make landfills suitable for use - such as property development.
The answer lies in a bio-chemical agent that helps to stabilise the landfill faster.
Principal investigator, Professor Ng Wun Jern, said: "If you look at the typical landfill operations, we are looking at 30 to 40 years before the landfill is stabilised for the next phase of utilisation.
"We are looking at shortening it to 10 to 15 years, so that is quite a dramatic reduction in terms of time required."
A total of S$4.8 million has been given to five teams under NEA's Environment Technology Research Programme. They are expected to complete their projects in three years.
- CNA/ir
NEA hands out $4.8m to 5 projects
Neo Chai Chin, Today Online 9 Feb 10;
SINGAPORE - They could turn household waste and discarded plastic bags into sources of energy, make air pollution control cheaper for power plants and incinerators, and ramp up the productivity of landfills in Singapore and the region.
Five research projects that could herald tomorrow's waste-management solutions were awarded a total of $4.8 million yesterday, in the first disbursement of the $15 million Environment Technology Research Programme.
The programme is administered by the National Environment Agency (NEA) and the Environment and Water Industry Development Council. It attracted 67 proposals.
Twenty-seven submissions were from the private sector, while the rest came from the academic sector.
The winning proposals were chosen for their market application and overseas potential, and their contribution to sustainable, cost-effective waste-management solutions, said Mr Cheong Hock Lai, director of NEA's Environmental Technology Office.
The second call for proposals is ongoing, and will close on March 1. Applicants are invited to submit ideas on waste-to-energy, waste-to-resource and special waste treatment technologies. Ideas on prolonging the lifespan of Semakau Landfill are also welcome.
Eliminating the problem of plastic waste
Neo Chai Chin, Today Online 9 Feb 10;
Singaporeans are massive users of plastic bags, generating 680,000 tonnes of plastic waste annually, of which only 9 per cent is recycled. The remaining 620,000 tonnes is incinerated, and Nanyang Technological University professor Wang Jing-Yuan and his teammates want to slash this amount by half.
Their game plan: Pick the right bacteria, feed them with oil derived from plastic waste, and harvest the plastic-like biodegradable compound they produce.
The latter is called PHA (or polyhydroxylalkanoate), and can be used to make high-value products such as surgical threads.
If the researchers are eventually able to scale up their production of PHA, carrier bags and disposable utensils could one day be made from PHA, eliminating the problem of non-biodegradable plastic waste.
Current production methods of PHA are costly, and use raw materials like sugar or glucose instead of waste. The researchers hope their project, which has been awarded $1 million, can eventually lower prices of PHA, which now costs US$3 ($4.20) to US$5 per kg.
Speeding up landfill reclamation
Neo Chai Chin, Today Online 9 Feb 10;
Landfills now require 20 to 40 years in order to stabilise, but the time span could be halved, if the researchers from the National Technological University (NTU) and construction technologies firm Chemilink achieve a breakthrough. And instead of using reclaimed landfills for parks or golf courses, Professor Ng Wun Jern of NTU dreams of seeing buildings sprout from them.
Landfilling is the most common waste disposal method in the world, yet many of them are poorly designed and operated. Instead of "holes in the ground", Professor Ng sees them as massive grounds for biological processes to take place.
To speed up landfill reclamation, Prof Ng - whose project received a $1.8 million grant - aims to feed to bacteria the carbon produced from burning gases emitted by the landfill. The resulting polymers (large chemical molecules) would then be pumped back into the landfill, stabilising them. The team hopes to perform pilot tests on landfills in Lorong Halus, or a segment of the Semakau Landfill.
Cutting the cost of removing pollutants
Neo Chai Chin, Today Online 9 Feb 10;
During the burning of fossil fuels, nitrous oxides and cancer-causing dioxins are produced. To make it cheaper for power plants and waste incinerators to remove these pollutants, a team from Nanyang Polytechnic is looking for a cheaper catalyst than titanium dioxide, which is commonly used now.
Catalysts react with the nitrous oxides to form nitrogen and water, and the team's catalyst of choice is cerium oxide, which they say is up to 50 per cent cheaper than titanium dioxide.
Cerium oxide is already a proven technology and used in car exhaust systems, but the Nanyang Polytechnic team, led by Ms Sim Gia Wen, aims to develop an effective prototype for the power generation and waste management industry. Their project has been given a $586,200 grant.
May Wong/Jonathan Peeris, Channel NewsAsia 8 Feb 10;
SINGAPORE: South Korea's Samsung C&T Corporation has won the tender to build Singapore's first liquefied natural gas terminal.
Samsung C&T will handle the engineering, procurement and construction of the terminal under a contract worth about S$1 billion.
The Singapore LNG Corporation (SLNG) announced this at a signing ceremony on Monday. SLNG was incorporated by the government's Energy Market Authority to own and develop Singapore's first LNG import terminal.
SLNG's executive director, Neil McGregor, said: "There were many factors that led to selecting the Samsung proposal. Key to this was a very novel and efficient design, which minimised the footprint of the new terminal, thereby freeing up land within the site that SLNG can capitalise on to expand its business and the range of services it can provide in the future."
All in, the government is investing S$1.5 billion in the LNG terminal project.
LNG is natural gas cooled to liquid form, making the gas more practical to transport and store.
The LNG terminal, which will occupy 30 hectares of land on the southwestern part of Jurong Island, is expected to be Asia's first open-access, multi-user terminal.
It will not only provide capacity for Singapore to import re-gasified LNG for its own needs, but also open up opportunities for companies to make use of the terminal for LNG trading.
The LNG terminal will have an initial capacity of 3.5 million tonnes per year, slightly above past projections of 3 million tonnes, with provisions to expand it to 6 million tonnes per year or more if needed.
The terminal is now due to be completed in early 2013, after a deferment of one year. Foster Wheeler Asia Pacific has been named the project management consultant.
The government said in June last year it was taking over development of the terminal to avoid more delays due to the credit crunch. The project was previously fronted by a PowerGas-led consortium, which included GDF Suez.
Currently, 80 per cent of Singapore's electricity comes from gas-fired power plants. LNG will be an additional source to help Singapore meet increasing energy needs.
Lawrence Wong, chief executive of Energy Market Authority, said: "From an energy security point of view, our imperative is to want to diversify our sources of gas. The terminal enables us to do that, because with the LNG terminal, we plug into the global gas market and we would have a much more diversified source of gas that we can get from all over the world.
"Of course, through our aggregator British Gas, whom we've appointed, we would be able to access gas on a market basis, on a competitive price. So, I think, from that point of view, the LNG terminal is a critical infrastructure that will provide for our energy security and ensure that we have a more sustainable energy future."
- CNA/ir
LNG terminal gets out of the starting gate
Samsung wins contract for the main building of Singapore's first LNG terminal
Joyce Hooi, Business Times 9 Feb 10;
(SINGAPORE) The drawn-out crawl to the dotted finishing line finally came to an end yesterday, with the main building contract for Singapore's first liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal being awarded to the Samsung C&T Corporation (Samsung).
Singapore LNG Corporation (SLNG) announced yesterday that Samsung had beaten two other tenderers - CB&I and the WSKL Consortium - to win the contract for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) of the 30ha Jurong Island project.
The budget of the project, which is funded by the government, is $1.5 billion, of which $1 billion has been earmarked for the development of the terminal.
The remaining $500 million serves as a provision for the building of a second jetty on the premises of the terminal as well as other development costs related to designing and regulatory approvals.
Samsung - which is currently involved in two Downtown Line projects, two Marina Coastal Expressway projects and the Power Seraya project - won the contract for a sum that cannot be disclosed because it is 'commercially sensitive' information.
The South Korean firm won the contract because of its focus on efficiency, according to Neil McGregor, SLNG's executive director.
'Key to this was a very novel and efficient design, which minimised the footprint of the new terminal, thereby freeing up land within the site that SLNG can capitalise on to expand its business and the range of services it can provide in the future,' said Mr McGregor.
A separate contract for the management of the project was awarded to engineering firm Foster Wheeler Asia Pacific Pte Ltd, also for an undisclosed sum.
Plans for the LNG terminal have been in the works since 2006. PowerGas and GDF Suez had originally been appointed the project's developer, but they had run into financing difficulties during the turbulence of the credit crunch last year.
The Energy Market Authority had then set up SLNG to spearhead the project.
The terminal will have an initial capacity of 3.5 million tonnes per annum, with an option to expand to six million tonnes per annum or more.
At present, Singapore imports about six million tonnes per annum of piped natural gas from Indonesia and Malaysia. The capacity of the LNG terminal could be used to meet new demand, as well as for LNG trading.
Currently, SLNG expects initial sales to end users to reach 1.5 million tonnes per annum.
The commercial contracts for the aggregation and sale of LNG initial volumes to end users and sale of terminal services are 'well-advanced and are fast nearing completion', according to Mr McGregor.
BG Group, the appointed LNG aggregator or sole buyer, has the exclusive franchise to supply up to three million tonnes per annum of LNG to Singapore or until 2023, whichever happens earlier.
Construction of the terminal will start in about six months and is slated to be completed in early-2013.
All parties appeared confident that they have seen the back of delays in the project.
'We fully expect to carry out the work on time, within budget, and to the highest standard of quality,' said Jeong Ki Chul, senior executive vice-president of Samsung, yesterday.
Samsung wins Singapore LNG terminal job
Jessica Cheam, Business Times 9 Feb 10;
SOUTH Korea's Samsung C&T Corporation has clinched a contract to build Singapore's first liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal.
The deal is to handle the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) of the Jurong Island facility and could be worth up to $1 billion.
The terminal's total budget, funded by the Government, is $1.5 billion with about $1 billion earmarked for the EPC contract, said Mr Neil McGregor, executive director of the Singapore LNG Corporation (SLNG), which awarded the contract yesterday.
Issues of commercial sensitivity mean the exact value of Samsung's contract could not be disclosed but it is under $1 billion, added Mr McGregor.
Yesterday's signing ceremony marked the start of a key energy project that has been beset by delays.
The plant was first mooted in 2006 and was meant to be developed and operated by Singapore Power's unit PowerGas and French partner GDF Suez and completed by 2012.
But the global credit crunch threatened the plans. The Government said last June that it would take over the development and ownership of the terminal as it was central to the country's efforts to diversify its energy sources.
LNG is natural gas cooled to liquid form and exported via tankers from source countries such as Australia.
SLNG said yesterday it instructed Samsung to start immediately the detailed design, engineering and construction phases of the terminal.
Mr McGregor said Samsung clinched the deal over its competitors due to its 'novel and efficient design, which minimised the footprint of the new terminal' and freed up land that could be used for future expansion.
The other tenderers were CB&I (Chicago Bridge & Iron) and a consortium led by British company Whessoe and including SK Engineering and LG International.
Energy Market Authority chief executive Lawrence Wong said that 'with the award of this contract to Samsung, we have taken a major step forward in the project, and can look forward to the start-up of the LNG terminal in 2013'.
Samsung senior executive vice-president Jeong Ki Cheol said yesterday that Singapore was a key priority for the firm.
The terminal, which will be on a 30ha site on the south-western part of Jurong Island, will have an initial annual capacity of 3.5 million tonnes with provisions to increase capacity to 6 million tonnes.
SLNG yesterday also appointed Foster Wheeler Asia Pacific as its project management consultant. Both firms will jointly manage the EPC contract.
Mr McGregor said the remainder of the $1.5 billion budget will be for a second jetty and extra storage tanks for the terminal as well as development costs.
Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post 9 Feb 10;
Patih Laman, an 89 year-old tribal leader, on Saturday tried to relinquish his Kalpataru, Indonesia’s most prestigious environmental award, as a show of disappointment with the government’s inaction toward checking deforestation in his area.
Laman said he ran out of money to pay his hotel room in Riau, where he had spent three days waiting for an audience with Riau governor Rusli Zaenal, through whom he would have consigned his trophy to be sent back to Jakarta.
Also a recipient of a WWF award for his conservation effort, Laman wanted to show his disgust over rampant logging in and around Bukit Tigapuluh National Park, where the Talang Mamak tribe has lived for generations.
Laman had hoped local environmental activists would help pay for at least another two days at the hotel so that he could see the governor on Monday, but nobody offered him assistance, detik.com reported.
Laman received the Kalpataru award in 2003 from then president Megawati Soekarnoputri for his effort in protecting the remaining forests in Rakit Kulim area, about 300 kilometers from Riau’s capital, Pekanbaru.
“Reality makes me sick. We don’t have the forest anymore. I don’t know the fate of our community in the years to come,” the Laman told reporters in Pekanbaru.
Laman has managed to protect and conserve 1,813 hectares of Penyabungan and Penganan forests, the rest has been cleared and converted into massive plantations.
Three of Talang Mamak’s communal forest areas, known locally as Rimba Puka, consist of 104,933 hectares in Tunu River, 98,577 hectares in Durian Jajar and 21,901 hectares in Kelumbuk Tinggi Baner, all of which have been converted into oil palm plantations.
He said the community had reported forest conversion to the government but had not received a response.
“I want to discuss the problem with the governor,” Laman said as quoted by Antara news agency on Saturday.
“I am not weary from travelling the 300 kilometers to Pekanbaru, but from the heavy burden of failing to protect the forest.”
Talang Mamak is one of the very few tribes living in isolation in Riau’s jungles.
They used to be a self sufficient community that grew sialang, trees that attract honey bees. From one sialang tree, they would collect about 150 kg of honey to sell per harvest. Unfortunately, there are now only 10 sialang trees left in their forest.
The Kalpataru is the most prestigious award presented to people or communities that have contributed to preservation and improvement of the environment.
So far, 264 people have received the Kalpataru Award since it was launched in 1980 during the Soeharto administration.
Last year, the government for the first time revoked a Kalpataru award from the elders of the Negeri Enam Tanjung community in Riau last year after the recipient built a 3-kilometer road across a protected forest in Kampar regency, Riau.
The government has been under pressure to protect the nation’s forests, which suffer losses of over 1 million hectares per year due to illegal logging, forest fires and massive forest conversions.
The high deforestation rates and forest fires have put Indonesia as the world’s third largest greenhouse gas emitter.
The government has launched a number of programs to save the forest and mitigate climate change including a campaign by the Forestry Ministry pledging to plant 1 billion trees this year.
Indonesia is home to 120 million hectares of rainforest, making it the world’s third-largest forested nation.
Arientha Primanita, Jakarta Globe 8 Feb 10;
No more plastic bags by next year? That’s the city administration’s new plan to help save the capital from environmental destruction.
Governor Fauzi Bowo on Monday said an agreement would be signed this week with the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) to reduce the use of plastic bags at stores across Jakarta.
He said the city would also cooperate with the Association of Indonesian Retailers (Aprindo) to promote shopping bags made from recycled materials.
Edi Kuntadi, head of Kadin’s Jakarta branch, said Kadin had already asked the governor to instruct PD Pasar Jaya, the city-owned market operator, not to use plastic bags in their trading activities.
“The most important thing about the plan is the end result,” Edi said. “Not using plastic bags is for the environment’s sake.”
Kadin will present the plan at its leadership meeting later this month, promoting the concept in the hope that Jakarta will be free of plastic bags by 2011.
“It is better if people are encouraged to bring their own bags when they go shopping. That way, plastic bag usage can be reduced starting now,” Edi said.
While noting that some supermarkets already sold environmentally friendly reusable bags, Edi said consumers tended not to buy these, opting instead for free plastic bags. But he said that instead of the cost, people should be more concerned about the future impact of environmental degradation, especially on public health.
Plastic bag bans have gained traction around the world in recent years. In 2003, Ireland put a hefty surcharge on plastic bags at grocery stores, and in 2007 San Francisco became the first city in the United States to ban the bags outright.
Djangga Lubis, president director of Pasar Jaya, said he supported the plan, but added that thought must be given to the welfare of the companies that manufactured plastic bags.
“We must also prepare a solution for the plastic producers and society, not just cut usage straight away,” he said.
According to Iwan Henry Wardana, from the city’s sanitation office, Jakarta produced up to 6,500 tons of garbage a day. Some 44 percent of that waste was inorganic waste, of which 13 percent was plastic.
Ubaidillah, executive director of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), said that the city administration should put sanctions in place to discourage the use of plastic bags.
“The governor must dare to realize the plan. If there is a commitment to reduce plastic bags, there should also be punitive action from the government,” Ubaidillah said.
Fauzi’s Plan to Bag Plastic Bags in Jakarta Gets Friendly Response
Arientha Primanita & Ulma Haryanto, Jakarta Globe 9 Feb 10;
Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo’s ambitious plan to wean the capital’s residents off their environmentally disastrous addiction to plastic bags by next year has found favor among some supermarket operators and consumers.
Irawan D Kadarman, director of corporate affairs for PT Carrefour Indonesia, told the Jakarta Globe that the supermarket giant would abide by any local bylaws.
“Carrefour is willing to educate consumers about not using plastic bags, along with the promotion of the city’s regulations,” he said.
Irawan, who could not say how many plastic bags the company used each day, added that any such program would need to be implemented gradually because “not all consumers can easily accept the concept.”
Many Jakartans insist on using plastic bags for purchases of just one or two items, as well as for wrapping takeaway food or even as drink containers.
Irawan said Carrefour offered eco-friendly plastic bags that sold for Rp 2,000 (21 cents) and reusable fabric bags for Rp 10,000, as well as the normal, free plastic bags and cardboard boxes.
Djangga Lubis, president director of PD Pasar Jaya, which runs the city’s markets, previously said he supported the initiative because it was good for the environment.
“But we also need to offer a solution, not just forbid the use of plastic bags. All stakeholders should help promote the idea and find a replacement solution for plastic bags.”
Tulus Abadi, chairman of the Indonesian Consumer Protection Foundation, said he fully supported the initiative.
“Plastic bags are not environmentally friendly,” he said. “Getting people to change their habits should be very easy because people nowadays have become more aware of the importance of environmentally friendly products.”
He added that he thought the change should be done gradually.
However, Iko Putera, a consultant who lives in Jakarta, was a bit more skeptical.
“Changing people’s habits is not that easy. Look at the messy public transportation, and how so many people still litter. It might be possible to enforce the program in some areas, such as malls, but to change the larger community will be a challenge,” Iko said. “Changing [the habits of] 9 million people in one year is not easy.”
Chinese government, World Bank and NGOs co-operating on multimillion-dollar scheme to protect Amur tiger
Jonathan Watts, guardian.co.uk 7 Feb 10;
Taking turns to act as human ploughs, Liang Jianmin and his tiger survey team forge through mile after mile of knee-deep snow in the mountain forests near China's frozen mountain border with Siberia.
From dawn to dusk they track, looking for droppings, paw prints, bark scratchings, scraps of fur caught on twigs and fences, any sign that the Amur tiger – the biggest cat species in the world – is still alive in the wilds of China.
Elsewhere in Hunchun, other teams scour the slopes and valleys near the North Korean border, while in Russia, zoologists and conservation groups trudge through the taiga forest with the same goal: measuring the scale of the challenge facing the most ambitious effort yet to save the endangered predator.
Next week, China will start the year of the tiger with fireworks, feasting and, the Guardian has learned, a new drive by the government, the World Bank and conservation groups to halt the perilous decline of Asia's most powerful wildlife symbol.
Since the last tiger year, in 1998, the wild population of the animal worldwide has almost halved to about 3,200 due to habitat loss, economic development and poaching for hides and traditional medicine.
China has been among the worst affected. The South China tiger, which has not been seen for many years, is feared to have followed the Bali, Caspian and Java subspecies into extinction in the wild. In the country's north, the population of the Amur tiger – which can grow to three metres in length and 300 kilograms – is estimated at 18 to 22.
Many of these animals are isolated from one another by roads and railways, making it difficult for them to breed.
The conservation group WWF warns that the animal may be extinct in the wild in China within three decades if current trends continue. The tiger is the group's priority for 2010.
Across the world, other would-be saviours are taking advantage of the Chinese zodiac to press home the need for changes in consumption and development patterns.
Last week, the first Asian ministerial conference on tiger conservation, in Hua Hin, Thailand, set a goal of doubling the wild population by the start of the next tiger year, in 2022.
The Chinese government recently issued a directive calling for increased protection of wild tigers through habitat management, public education and stronger law enforcement action. In September, Vladivostok will host the first tiger summit, which is expected to be co-hosted by the Russian prime minister, Vladimir Putin, and the World Bank president, Robert Zoellick. While disputes remain about Chinese tiger farming and the use of tiger parts in traditional medicine, there are signs of co-operation.
The Guardian has learned that the World Bank, NGOs and the Chinese government are discussing a three-stage, multimillion-dollar scheme to protect the Amur tiger. Measures will include acquiring land for expanded reserves, linking tiger communities, relocating residents, training local officials and reconfiguring forestry management to allow for sustainable economic use and cohabitation by predators and prey species.
The survey in Hunchun and Siberia is a preliminary step that shows an unprecedented level of co-operation between China, Russia, the World Bank and conservation groups.
In the first week, the team found a piece of tiger fur caught on a fence, and droppings and sightings of the main prey species – wild boar and sika deer – as well as snares and traps left by poachers.
The main threat comes from economic development, which intrudes into the tiger's habitat. In some places it takes the form of roads or railways; elsewhere, it is logging, mines and frog farms.
"Infrastructure construction has blocked the tiger's migration channels and the rising population density has eaten into the tiger's territory," warned Wu Zhigang, of the Jilin Science Academy as he pressed through the snow. "We must restore these channels by building elevated roads or tunnels."
Wu, one of China's leading tiger experts, said the government was drawing up plans for a tiger-friendly model of forestry management that would be presented at a forum in the spring.
The people in Hunchun will need to be convinced that it is in their interests to protect an animal often seen as a threat. In the last three years there have been more than 120 tiger attacks on farm animals and one human death.
Compensation has been increased. Che Jinxia, the last woman to survive an attack, received more than 50,000 yuan (about £5,000), a record.
The Wildlife Conservation Society is also trying to foster tiger eco-tourism in the region, partly through the launch last November of an annual Hunchun tiger festival. It will be expanded this year with a conservation marathon, exhibitions, forums, screenings and tiger-themed essay and art competitions.
"We want to appeal to nature lovers by showing that the tiger habitat is an ideal environment," said Sun Quanhai, the local director of the society. "Hunchun's forest coverage exceeds 80%. The local government have realised the importance of conservation and decided to make Hunchun the 'tiger town' of China."
Whether the current spirit of optimism and co-operation can be sustained throughout the tiger year is, however, far from certain.
China's tiger farmers, who have bred more than 5,000 animals, are pushing for a relaxation of the ban on the trade of tiger parts in the hope of selling bones and penises for traditional medicine.
If this plan is submitted to the next CITES (convention on international trade in endangered species) meeting in Doha in March, it could undermine the goodwill that has built up in recent months.
Celebrity 'saviours'
Tiger Woods and Madonna are at the frontline of a controversial, celebrity-backed project to protect tigers in their natural habitat. The two South China tigers were raised in captivity and flown to a reserve in South Africa for training on how to survive in the wild. In a semi-protected environment, they and other tigers have spent four years "learning" how to mate and to kill guinea fowl, antelope and blesbok.
It is hoped their offspring will eventually be prepared for a flight back to China and released into reintroduction areas in either Jiangxi and Hunan province.
The "rewilding project" has the backing of the government in Beijing and several mostly Chinese celebrities, including the actors Jackie Chan and Michelle Yeoh, director Chen Kaige and entrepreneur David Tang.
The foundation behind it was established in 2000 by the fashion executive Li Quan. It is not clear whether Tiger Woods or Madonna have approved the use of their names.
Critics claim the project is an expensive distraction from protecting the tiger species in their natural habitat. The same criticism has been levelled at China's captive breeding of pandas and other endangered species.
Divisions over how best to conserve rare animals partly contributed to the demise of the baiji, a freshwater dolphin found only in the Yangtze river, because foreign and Chinese zoologists were unable to agree on whether it should be taken to a reserve or looked after better in its natural environment.
Additional reporting by Cui Zheng and Han Ying
Yahoo News 8 Feb 10;
BEIJING (AFP) – Fewer than 50 wild tigers remain in China, a conservation group said Monday, voicing hope that the Year of the Tiger would not be the last for the endangered cats.
Xie Yan, director of the China programme for the US-based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), said that just 20 years ago tigers still roamed across large swathes of China.
But based on data from the year 2000, there are only around 15 Bengal tigers left in Tibet, 10 Indochinese tigers in China's southwest, and around 20 Siberian tigers in the northeast, she told reporters.
And the South China tiger may already be extinct. According to the international conservation group WWF, none have been spotted in the wild since the late 1970s. In the 1950s, there were around 4,000.
Degradation of the animal's habitat and poaching of the tiger and its prey are blamed for its rapid disappearance.
China banned international trade in tiger bones and related products in 1993, but completely stamping out poaching and illegal trade has been a challenge due to weak law enforcement, experts say.
"Tiger conservation has been depressing for many years, (numbers) keep dropping and dropping," Xie said.
"But last year is the first year I've felt a lot of confidence from the support of the central government, the State Forestry Administration, and the local governments," she added.
"We see improvement in the management of nature reserves, we see the understanding of local communities, so I hope the tiger year will be the turning point for tiger conservation in China," she said, referring to the Chinese Year of the Tiger which starts on February 14.
China was among 13 Asian countries which last month pledged to double the number of wild tigers by the year 2022 and called for the protection of habitats to save the animals from extinction.
The global wild tiger population is estimated to be at an all-time low of 3,200, down from an estimated 20,000 in the 1980s and 100,000 a century ago.
Xie said the greatest hope for tigers in China was in the country's extreme northeast, which borders on Russia where hundreds of Siberian tigers live in the wild.
Authorities in the northeast are implementing several measures to protect the animal and one nature reserve in Jilin province has launched a tiger tourism programme, she said.
The Hunchun Nature Reserve started an annual tiger festival last year, and has plans to develop eco-tourism further with possible excursions into the wild, said Xie.
Fewer Than 50 Wild Tigers Left In China: Expert
Ben Blanchard, PlanetArk 9 Feb 10;
BEIJING - China has an estimated 50 or fewer tigers left living in the wild, but efforts to stabilize one population in the bleak northeast are starting to pay off, a conservationist said on Monday.
Tigers once roamed huge swathes of China, right up to the now booming east coast. Their population has collapsed due to habitat destruction on the back of rapid economic development and poaching for tiger products to use in traditional medicine.
About 10 still live in the southwestern province of Yunnan, some 15 in Tibet, and 20 or so in northwestern Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces, said Xie Yan, China Country Program Director of the Wildlife Conservation Society.
The South China Tiger is probably already extinct, she told the Foreign Correspondents Club of China, ahead of the Chinese Lunar New Year of the Tiger, which starts on Sunday.
"The number of wild tigers left in China is very depressing," Xie said. "We have less than 50 individuals in the wild. The populations in Tibet and in the south are still dropping.
"The northeast tiger is now stable, and maybe increasing a little, but the number is still very small," she added.
SKIN AND BONES TRADE
Conservationists say the trade in skin and bones is booming in countries such as China, which has banned the use of tiger parts in medicine but where everything from fur and whiskers to eyeballs and bones are still used.
Skins sell as rugs and cloaks on the black market, fetching up to $20,000 for a single pelt.
Activists say tough laws and occasional well-publicized clampdowns cannot compensate for a crucial problem -- the lack of strong and consistent enforcement.
Barely 3,500 tigers are estimated to be roaming wild across 12 Asian countries and Russia, compared with about 100,000 a century ago, conservationists say.
In December, a Yunnan court sentenced a man to 12 years in jail for killing and eating what may have been the last wild Indochinese tiger in China.
The Indochinese tiger is also on the brink of extinction, with fewer than 1,000 left in the forests of Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Myanmar.
Xie said the Tibetan and Yunnan tigers have the bleakest futures, as their populations are both tiny and isolated.
The northeast tigers, though small in number in China, are far more numerous just across the border in Russia, where around 500 still live in an area with a far lighter human presence.
"We think that the best hope for wild tigers in China is in the northeast, because it is connected to the bigger population in Russia," she added.
"The rest of the populations are too small and not connected," Xie said of the Yunnan and Tibet tigers.
(Editing by Alex Richardson)
David Usborne, The Independent 9 Feb 10;
About 30 Galapagos sea lions have moved away from their familiar waters and settled off the coast of Peru
Marine scientists are reporting that a colony of sea lions, previously unique to the Galapagos Islands, has unexpectedly decamped 900 miles south-east to an island just off the coast of Peru in what may be another symptom of global warming.
According to the Peru-based Organisation of Research and Conservation of Aquatic Animals, it is the first recorded instance of a colony of Galapagos sea lions abandoning their familiar waters around the archipelago, which belongs to neighbouring Ecuador. About 30 of the animals in the group have moved.
"Never before has a residency of Galapagos sea lions been reported outside of the islands. Individual sea lions have been reported stranded in Ecuador and Colombia, here as well, but never a colony," said Carlos Yaipen, the organisation's president. "This is due to their adaptation to climate change. The conditions of the sea around Piura are now similar to the Galapagos."
The researchers have found that the waters around Peru's Foca Island, where the sea lions have settled, have risen in temperature over the past 10 years from an average of 17C to 23C. That is roughly the same as the surface waters around the Galapagos, which have become a favourite destination of tourists and botanists because of their unique ecosystem and reputation as a living laboratory of evolution.
Galapagos Fur Seals Gain Foothold In Warming Peru
Terry Wade, PlanetArk 25 Feb 10;
ISLA FOCA, Peru - Taking advantage of warmer seas, fur seals from the Galapagos Islands have established a full-fledged colony on the Pacific Coast of Peru, some 900 miles from their normal habitat, local scientists say.
Though the fur seals have been spotted sporadically for several years along the northwest coast of South America, the scientists in the last few months have gathered evidence adult seals are mating and having babies in Peru.
Carlos Yaipen-Llanos, a veterinarian and marine biologist at the Orca research center in Peru, believes climate change has allowed the fur seals to expand beyond their traditional home.
"This is a unique species that used to live exclusively in the Galapagos Islands of Ecuador," he said after luring a baby out of a cave on the rocky island by barking to imitate its parents' calls.
"The scientific importance of the Galapagos fur seals establishing a resident colony in Peru is that the animals have extended their range and found a new habitat. This is associated with warmer water temperatures."
According to data from Peru's geophysics institute, water temperature readings taken every January over the last decade near Isla Foca have varied from 17 degrees Celsius (63 Fahrenheit) in 2000 to 23 Celsius (74 F) last month. Temperatures in the Galapagos are around 25 Celsius (77 F).
The colony of about 30 fur seals lives on Isla Foca, a tiny island populated by birds such as blue-footed gaviotas and pelicans, along with another larger mammal, the South American sea lion. The craggy island is near the city of Paita, about 700 miles north of Lima, Peru's capital.
The Galapagos fur seal is believed to be the smallest of its kind in the world, with an adult male weighing about 110 pounds (50 kg) and 5 feet 3 inches in length.
They move fast in the water, but waddle slowly on land -- across jagged ledges covered in white bird droppings that give the whole area the pungent smell of ammonia.
Galapagos fur seals tend to feed at night in the open seas and are smaller than sea lions, which grow to 9 feet in length.
WAITING FOR GENETIC EVIDENCE
Some marine biologists said the fur seals Yaipen-Llanos has been observing might in fact be another species, the South American fur seal, which thrives in Chile and Southern Peru, where upwelling in the chilly Humboldt Current creates the world's most productive fishery.
"Unless genetic evidence is provided, I don't think anyone can claim with much substance that these are Galapagos animals," Fritz Trillmich, a biologist at Germany's Bielefeld University who studies fur seals, said by email.
But Yaipen-Llanos, who is still analyzing genetic data for release later this year, said the Galapagos fur seals have noticeably louder and higher pitched calls than South American fur seals, as well as different coloring, stature, fur, anatomy and behaviors that he has seen in the field and on rescues of injured animals.
"The Galapagos fur seal is highly specialized. It often feeds on squid and mollusks typical of warmer temperatures, while the South American fur seal eats cold water species like anchovies," he said.
Northern Peru, popular with tourists because of its exposure to equatorial waters, sits near where the Humboldt Current veers west away from the continent.
It is an unpredictable region, where severe weather anomalies develop in years of El Nino, the periodic spiking of equatorial water temperatures in the Pacific.
The island appears to be affected by two phenomena -- a broader warming trend and El Ninos.
"That area of Peru is especially susceptible to temperature variation, with the interface between (cold and warm) currents moving back and forth," said Bill Patzert, an oceanographer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab in California.
EXPANDING BEYOND DARWIN'S ISLANDS?
When a strong El Nino forms in the central Pacific, easterly winds can overtake weakening westerly ones and send warmer waters east to slam into the South American coast, right around Ecuador and Northern Peru.
During a robust El Nino, rains can cause floods along Peru's desert coast and its anchovy stocks plummet as phytoplankton levels drop in the sea. The current El Nino has caused some flooding, but is weaker than the severe anomaly of 1997/1998 that triggered catastrophes globally.
Sara Purga, a biologist at Peru's Instituto del Mar, a government run marine lab, said average sea surface temperatures near Isla Foca have risen over the last five decades.
"This warming could generate the arrival (in Peru) of tropical species from Ecuador, mainly species such as turtles, tropical birds and colorful fish that we don't have," she said.
For Yaipen-Llanos, the Galapagos fur seal's move into a new habitat suggests swifts changes are occurring in the Earth's environment, with or without El Nino.
He wonders if fur seals from the Galapagos, where Charles Darwin collected evidence for his theory of evolution, will establish other colonies on the coasts of Peru, Ecuador or Colombia.
"With warming up along the continent, the likelihood increases that more colonies of Galapagos fur seals could be set up here," Yaipen-Llanos said.
(Editing by Dana Ford and Eric Beech)
Deborah Zabarenko, PlanetArk 9 Feb 10;
WASHINGTON - A proposed new U.S. NOAA Climate Service is meant to help businesses adapt to the impact of climate change, and to spur development of new technologies to cope with it, U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke on Monday.
"Even with our best efforts, we know that some degree of climate change is inevitable and American citizens and businesses, and American governments ... must be able to rise to environmental and economic challenges that lie ahead," Locke told reporters in announcing the move.
He said new private second industries could develop from information generated by the new service, just as industries based on data from the National Weather Service and U.S. Census Bureau have done.
In addition to dealing with climate change, Locke said, "In the process, we'll discover new technologies, build new businesses and create new jobs."
The new service -- its Web site is www.climate.gov -- means a reorganization at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which is part of the Commerce Department and includes the National Weather Service.
NOAA already offers data to businesses ranging from agriculture and energy to fisheries and transportation, as well as to the billion-dollar weather-forecasting industry, Locke said. But information about climate change is scattered across the agency.
Locke said concentrating NOAA's expertise and information on climate change in one place would help these industries and others including renewable energy like wind power, infrastructure and architecture planning and disease prevention and control.
NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco said the new service would offer information to help plan for sea level rise, coastal erosion, longer growing seasons, increases in heavy downpours and other severe weather events -- all predicted consequences of climate change.
The Commerce Department is working with Congress, which must approve the transfer of existing funds to the new service; Locke said he hoped it would be operating by the start of the 2011 fiscal year.
U.S. legislation aimed at curbing the greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change was narrowly approved by the House of Representatives last year; Senators John Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat, and Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, are working on a Senate measure.
The NOAA announcement brought quick praise from Sierra Club President Carl Pope: "As polluters and their allies continue to try and muddy the waters around climate science, the Climate Service will provide easy, direct access to the valuable scientific research undertaken by government scientists and others."
US government plans new climate service
Yahoo News 8 Feb 10;
WASHINGTON (AFP) – US President Barack Obama's administration announced plans Monday for a new office handling climate change, aiming to help businesses chart future plans as the nation shifts to a greener economy.
The first practical effect was the creation of a website, www.climate.gov, which came online Monday and brings together government resources on climate change for business, scholars and the general public.
Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said that the new Climate Service would help businesses on subjects such as wind power by providing data on wind patterns which they would need to expand.
"The bottom line is this -- the better climate information that alternative energy companies have, the more profitable they can be, the more jobs they can create and the more they can actually meet the energy demands of our country and indeed the world," he told reporters.
Locke compared the initiative to the National Weather Service, which he said had spurred a private industry of forecasters who benefit from the government data.
The Climate Service would bring together resources now spread throughout the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, an agency that falls under the Commerce Department. It will also have six regional offices across the country.
Locke said he expected that the Climate Service would be running before the start of the 2011 fiscal year. He said the administration would first consult with Congress, although he did not believe any new legislation was needed.
The Climate Servi
ce marks the latest effort by the Obama administration to act on climate change despite an uncertain political terrain.
The House of Representatives last year approved a landmark plan to impose the first US nationwide caps on emissions of carbon dioxide, which scientists say is causing a dangerous heating of the planet.
But the legislation is stalled in the Senate, where Obama's Democratic Party last month lost a seat to a critic of the climate bill.
New federal climate change agency forming
Randolph E. Schmid, Associated Press 8 Feb 10;
WASHINGTON – The Obama administration on Monday proposed a new agency to study and report on the changing climate.
Also known as global warming, climate change has drawn widespread concern in recent years as temperatures around the world rise, threatening to harm crops, spread disease, increase sea levels, change storm and drought patterns and cause polar melting.
Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and Jane Lubchenco, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, announced NOAA will set up the new Climate Service to operate in tandem with NOAA's National Weather Service and National Ocean Service.
"Whether we like it or not, climate change represents a real threat," Locke said Monday at a news conference.
Lubchenco added, "Climate change is real, it's happening now." She said climate information is vital to the wind power industry, coastal community planning, fishermen and fishery managers, farmers and public health officials.
NOAA recently reported that the decade of 2000-2009 was the warmest on record worldwide; the previous warmest decade was the 1990s. Most atmospheric scientists believe that warming is largely due to human actions, adding gases to the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels such as coal and natural gas.
Researchers and leaders from around the world met last month in Denmark to discuss ways to reduce climate-warming emissions, and a follow-up session is planned for later this year in Mexico.
"More and more people are asking for more and more information about climate and how it's going to affect them," Lubchenco explained. So officials decided to combine climate operations into a single unit.
Portions of the Weather Service that have been studying climate, as well as offices from some other NOAA agencies, will be transferred to the new NOAA Climate Service.
The new agency will initially be led by Thomas Karl, director of the current National Climatic Data Center. The Climate Service will be headquartered in Washington and will have six regional directors across the country.
Lubchenco also announced a new NOAA climate portal on the Internet to collect a vast array of climatic data from NOAA and other sources. It will be "one-stop shopping into a world of climate information," she said.
Creation of the Climate Service requires a series of steps, including congressional committee approval. But if all goes well, it should be finished by the end of the year, officials said.
In recent years, a widespread private weather forecasting industry has grown up around the National Weather Service, and Lubchenco said she anticipates growth of private climate-related business around the new agency.
While most people notice the weather from day to day or week to week, climate looks at both the averages and extremes of weather over longer periods of time. And understanding both weather and climate, and their changes, are vital to much of the world's economic activity ranging from farming to travel to energy use and production and even food shipments and disease prevention.
Atmospheric scientists have long joked that climate is what you expect and weather is what you get. But greenhouse warming is changing what can be expected from climate, and researchers are seeking to understand and anticipate the impacts of that change.
Michael Perry, PlanetArk 9 Feb 10;
SYDNEY - The dream of turning Australia's tropical north into a major food bowl to replace drought-stricken southern farmlands and feed a future Asia has been shattered by a new report released on Monday.
Despite a billion of liters of annual rain, the equivalent of 2,000 Sydney Harbours, northern Australia has limited water, with 65 percent of rain lost through evaporation and 20 percent in rivers, while only 15 percent recharges groundwater reserves.
And climate change will make northern Australia hotter and drier by 2030, reducing water availability, said the report by the Northern Australian Land and Water Taskforce.
Northern Australia's resources boom, with miners Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton fuelling China's growth, is forecast to continue to grow significantly.
However, water scarcity in the north will be a major issue for future mining, along with access to skilled labor, said the report on sustainable development in northern Australia.
"Given the significant growth anticipated in this industry, it will be important to monitor the impact of the mining and resources industry on the water balance in northern Australia," the government-commissioned report said.
Farmers and rural politicians have for decades called for the "Top End" of Australia to be developed into a food bowl, citing the success of the nation's largest irrigation scheme, the Ord River Irrigation Scheme in the far northwest. The Ord scheme produces fresh fruit and vegetables, mainly for export to Asia.
"It will not be the food bowl for the world," said Western Australian state politician Gary Gray after the reports release.
The report said: "Despite high rainfall from November to April there is almost no rain for the remaining six months.
"Evaporation and plant transpiration is so high throughout the year that, on average, for 10 months of the year there is very little water to be seen."
Most rain falls near the coast or on floodplains, quickly running into the sea and making it hard to capture, and little in the upper reaches of rivers, where the topography is suits dams and water reservoirs. Few northern rivers flow all year.
The report ruled out more dams on environmental grounds and said the maximum area that could be irrigated from groundwater was 60,000 hectares, only three times the current area.
MINING, CATTLE TO GROW
Future agriculture in the north could expand by developing small-scale mosaic agriculture, however, and its cattle industry, which exports live cattle to Asia, could double in size by 2030 by intensifying production and improving feeding facilities.
Australia's largest beef producer, Australian Agricultural Company Ltd, has major operations in northern Australia.
Northern Australia carries about 30 percent of the country's cattle and produces 80 percent of live cattle exports, worth about up to A$400 million ($346 million) a year.
The gross value of agricultural production in the north by 2030 could increase by 40 percent from 2000 levels in response to increasing demands for plant and animal protein from both Asia and domestic consumers, said the report.
Northern Australia is the center of the country's mineral resources boom and will continue to grow, employing two-thirds of the region's population by 2030, it said.
By 2030, the gross value of production (GVP) in northern Australia will be near A$35 billion, more than double the value in 2000. Mining, tourism, and marine and environmental service industries will account for 90 percent of GVP, compared with approximately 60 percent in 2000.
(Editing by Alex Richardson)
Yahoo News 8 Feb 10;
SYDNEY (AFP) – A massive Australian coal export deal with China, seen as boosting the economy and creating jobs, would ultimately result in enormous greenhouse gas emissions, The Greens political party said Sunday.
Australian miner Resourcehouse announced Saturday it had secured a 60-billion-US-dollar deal with energy-hungry China to ship 30 million tonnes of coal a year from a proposed mine in Queensland.
But Greens Senator Bob Brown said the deal would result in the release of significant carbon pollution into the world's atmosphere once the coal was shipped to China and burned to create electricity.
The deal did not line up with the Australian government's push to introduce a carbon pollution reduction scheme (CPRS) to limit greenhouse gas emissions blamed for global warming, he said.
"In one signed contract this single coal export deal with China will produce more greenhouse gases into our atmosphere... than the government's CPRS scheme, in fact more than double," Brown told reporters.
"They are saying we have to act on climate change in this country... but we don't have to act on it. It's going to come out of chimneys in China so why should we worry."
A spokesman for Treasurer Wayne Swan declined to comment on Brown's remarks.
Coal is Australia's largest export, contributing some 54.7 billion dollars (47.5 billion US) to the national coffers in 2008-2009.
Australia's government, which has been pushing to get a proposed carbon trading scheme through parliament, has said it will cut greenhouse gas emissions by between five and 25 percent of 2000 levels by 2020, depending on the commitments of other nations.
The Resourcehouse deal, described as Australia's biggest ever export contract, would supply China Power International Development (CPI) from a thermal coal mine in the Galilee Basin in central Queensland for 20 years.
Queensland's Labor premier, Anna Bligh, said the development, which will include four underground mines, two open cut mines, a new coal port and a rail line, would be good for the state's economy.
"What the signing of this contract with the Chinese company means is that Australia's largest single export deal ever signed will be happening right here in Queensland," Bligh said on Saturday.
Australia is already China's largest source of coal imports, accounting for 43.9 million of the 125.8 million tonnes of coal imported by the country in 2009.
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