Best of our wild blogs: 6 Mar 10

Save our Pangolins!
from Celebrating Singapore's BioDiversity!

Spot me!
from Psychedelic Nature

Pink-necked Green Pigeon killed by lizard
from Bird Ecology Study Group

Some Forest Plants
from Beauty of Fauna and Flora in Nature

Butt Watching at the Leafmonkey Workshop
from wild shores of singapore and Leafmonkey Workshop

Nestling Mania Started
from Manta Blog

Black-headed Bulbul collecting nesting material
from Bird Ecology Study Group

My volunteering in other areas
from Art in Wetlands

Want Free Green Advice For Your Business?
from Green Future Solutions

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Wild animals are dangerous

Straits Times 5 Mar 10;

I REFER to Sunday's report, 'Underwater World, other animal attractions safe'.

Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (Acres) is concerned that Underwater World Singapore and Wildlife Reserves Singapore are not acknowledging the potential risks involved with the close contact between captive wild animals and visitors at their facilities, and feels the public should be aware of the real dangers of coming into close contact with captive wild animals.

Acres would like to highlight the fact that, no matter how well trained the staff are at facilities housing wild animals, and no matter how familiar the animals are with performing and how accustomed they are to being around humans, they still remain wild animals with natural instincts, and the truth is they can attack at any time.

The use of large animals, such as elephants, in shows or for rides, where they come into close contact with the public, poses particular risks to public safety. There are countless accounts of captive elephants who have attacked either members of the public or their trainers, even though used in shows or for elephant rides for many years.

The example cited of Chawang, the elephant at the Singapore Zoo that attacked and hospitalised his keeper who had taken care of him for 18 years, highlights the fact that a wild animal, no matter how long it has been in captivity or interacted with humans, can never be considered 'safe'.

These attacks can happen at even the most reputable zoos, with stringent safety protocols in place. The simple fact is, when a large animal such as an elephant is about to attack or go out of control, there is nothing we can do to stop it, and those near the animal will be defenceless.

There is much evidence that animals such as whales, dolphins and elephants may suffer from the constraints of captivity, and their likely frustration caused by their confinement may contribute to these shows of aggression towards humans.

In 2002, the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority imposed a ban on wild animals performing in travelling circuses, and part of the reason was to ensure public safety.

We hope the captive animal establishments will follow this example, and end all public contact sessions with wild animals, both for safety reasons and to reduce the stress likely to be experienced by the animals during such sessions in which they have no choice to remove themselves from the situation.

Amy Corrigan (Ms)
Director of Education
Acres (Animal Concerns Research and Education Society)

Safety and care come first at wildlife parks
Straits Times 8 Mar 10;

I REFER to last Friday's Forum Online letter, 'Wild animals are dangerous' by Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (Acres).

The Singapore Zoo would like to reassure the public that safety at our park, both of humans and animals, is of prime importance and concern to us all. In line with our operating philosophy to enhance the quality of life of all the animals under our care, we consistently upgrade and create better habitats that are akin to our animals' natural environment.

Our safety policy and procedures are in line with or exceed the international quality standards drawn up by the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums. These procedures are strictly enforced by the zoology and animal presentation teams across all parks and in dealing with all animals.

The first line of safety precautions is the proximity to our animals. All our animal enclosures are designed within the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums' safety standards.

The Singapore Zoo, Night Safari and Jurong BirdPark conduct full-scale emergency drills for animal-related incidents twice a year. This ensures that all our staff are familiar with and clearly aware of their roles and responsibilities during emergencies.

These drills are enacted with varying scenarios, where response time is also measured - for example, quick recapture of the 'escaped animal'. Indeed, the swiftness with which previous isolated incidents were managed over the past 10 years is testament to our sound and efficient emergency protocol procedures.

Lastly, all our zookeepers working with potentially dangerous animals are required to undergo an annual review of current safety procedures and correct practices to keep abreast of the latest developments when working with these animals.

In addition, the Singapore Zoo and Night Safari appointed a full-time enrichment officer five years ago to provide behavioural enrichment for our animals. Environmental enrichment is the process where a captive wildlife's environment is enhanced by adding elements which provide the animal with opportunities for problem-solving, encourages the display of natural behaviour and reduces the occurrence of stereotypical behaviour. This focused approach continues to yield immense beneficial value for our animals.

For example, the Singapore Zoo recently highlighted operant conditioning and training of the white tigers, to further elaborate how such training allows keepers and vets to work better with the animals in a non-stressful situation, by obtaining desired behaviour from animals under their care.

All animals involved in the parks' presentations are trained on the principle of positive reinforcement, where rewards are given for particular positive response and behaviour. Animals that are not receptive to such operant conditioning are not used in our presentations and activities.

We hope this will assure Acres and all visitors that the Singapore Zoo, Night Safari and Jurong BirdPark are safe for visitors, our staff and our animals.

Biswajit Guha
Assistant Director, Zoology
Singapore Zoo

Zoo did not address most concerns
Straits Times Forum 13 Mar 10;

I REFER to the letter, "Safety and care come first at wildlife parks", on Monday.

It is encouraging to hear that the Singapore Zoo adheres to the standards drawn up by the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (Waza).

The zoo, however, did not address most of the concerns raised by the Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (Acres) with regard to contact sessions with wild animals.

How does the zoo ensure that members of the public are not in danger from contact with the wild animals, which are unpredictable and can attack at any time, regardless of how well-trained the zookeeper is?

The zoo cannot deny that incidents have happened and have resulted in injuries.

In addition, despite the animal enclosures being designed to meet the Waza safety standards, there have been cases of animals escaping from their enclosures in the past.

Lastly, the zoo needs to meet all the standards drawn up by Waza and not just some of them. Section 2 of the Waza Code of Ethics and Animal Welfare states that "where 'wild' animals are used in presentations, these presentations must focus on natural behaviour and not demean or trivialise the animal in any way". The circus-style elephant show at the Singapore Zoo clearly does not meet this standard.

James Chua

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Tsunami unlikely to hit Singapore

Experts say shallow waters, land mass around island help shield it from any killer wave
Melissa Kok, Straits Times 6 Mar 10;

SINGAPOREANS who are concerned or fearful of a tsunami hitting the shores here can breathe easy.

This is because shallow waters and the land mass around Singapore protect the island, making it unlikely to be struck by killer waves, experts told The Straits Times.

Dr Pavel Tkalich, the head of Physical Oceanography Research Laboratory at the National University of Singapore (NUS), said there was no life-threatening risk of a tsunami in Singapore.

In theory, the largest 'tsunami' that could ever reach Singapore is estimated at just 0.5 m tall - a height that is considerably less than the tidal range of between two metres and three metres sweeping through the Singapore Strait daily.

'If this ever happens, most people would not even notice,' he said.

The only time Singapore would ever be hit badly by a tsunami would be if, for example, a massive submarine landslide struck along the Malacca Strait, creating a tsunami.

But the chances of that happening are probably as incredible as a meteorite hitting nearby waters, which would also generate a tsunami.

Singapore is located in the middle of the Sunda Shelf, which is a shallow water body, 100m to 200m deep.

The closest fault lines - which are potential sources for tsunamis - are located along the Sunda Arc in the Andaman Sea (600km from Singapore) and the Manila Trench off western Philippines (1,000km from Singapore).
Tsunamis generated by strong earthquakes that originate from other active seismic zones in the region are unlikely to affect Singapore, said Mr Foong Chee Leong, director-general of Meteorological Services at the National Environment Agency (NEA).

Assistant Professor Kusnowidjaja Megawati, principal investigator at Nanyang Technological University's Earth Observatory of Singapore, said the worst-case scenario for Singapore was if an earthquake of magnitude 9 struck along the Manila Trench.

But he said it would take about 12 hours for the tsunami waves generated to reach Singapore coastal waters. By then, the waves would be just 0.6 m high, hardly enough to raise Singaporeans' eyebrows.

Since 2004, there have been several earthquakes along the Sumatra islands of at least 7.9 magnitude. The strongest measured quake of 9.2 was in 2004, which created the Indian Ocean tsunami that killed more than 225,000 people.

Asked if the recent seismic activity along the Sunda Arc was a concern to Singaporeans about 600km away, Prof Kusnowidjaja said there was a strong chance that an earthquake with a magnitude of around 8.8 would strike in the area closest to the Mentawai Islands, off the western coast of Sumatra, in the next 30 years.

But he was quick to add that any tsunami created by the earthquake would have even less of an impact than the Manila Trench example, as Singapore would be shielded by the Sumatra islands.

Still, NEA's Mr Foong said Singapore's beaches could still be affected in the event of a tsunami.

That is why a Tsunami Response Plan was implemented in 2008.

The plan includes evacuation procedures to ensure the public leave unprotected beaches safely.

In addition, Mr Foong said Singapore participates in international tsunami exercises to test and fine-tune its operational readiness.

Last year, Singapore joined 17 other countries around the Indian Ocean Rim to test its tsunami warning system for the first time.

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Whetting Singapore's thirst for rice

International Rice Research Institute, EurekAlert 5 Mar 10;

Singapore: Singaporeans consume around 275,000 tons of rice each year, which requires 688 billion liters of water to be produced – 2.5 times Singapore's annual domestic water use.

Competition for water is getting fiercer and water supplies are dwindling, yet Singapore can contribute to securing its rice supply by joining the global community in helping farmers become water-wise.

This is the key message from Dr. Bas Bouman of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), who will present "Preparing Rice for the Global Water Crisis" as part of the Environment and Climate Change Seminar Series of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS), Singapore.

"To produce one bowl of rice it takes about 500 liters of water," said Dr. Bouman.

"For a city like Singapore, the question is whether the 688 billion liters of water needed to produce the country's rice will remain available."

Worldwide, water for agriculture is becoming increasingly scarce as groundwater reserves drop, water quality declines because of pollution, irrigation systems malfunction, and competition from urban and industrial users increases.

Climate change will also reduce water availability in large parts of the world. And, by 2025, 15-20 million hectares of irrigated rice will suffer some degree of water scarcity.

"Farmers can reduce the amount of water they use to grow rice by 10-30% if they adopt water-saving technologies, such as 'alternate wetting and drying,'" said Dr. Bouman.

"The hardest part is to deliver these technologies to farmers. The public and private sector need to mobilize to promote and implement the existing water-saving technologies through policies, partnerships, and extension and education efforts.

"At the same time, investments in research to develop new water-saving technologies need to be increased so that the future of rice production is safeguarded."

Dr. Bouman's visit to Singapore is part of IRRI's 50th anniversary activities, which included the launch of the IRRI Fund Singapore and a campaign to raise US$300 million to support rice research to help ensure that rice production is sustainable, to reduce poverty and hunger, and to improve the welfare of rice farmers and consumers.

###

Media are invited to attend Dr Bouman's presentation at ISEAS on 10 March 2010.

The ISEAS Environment and Climate Change Seminar Series provides a forum for policymakers, academics, business people, NGOs, and practitioners to present and make known their views on issues pertinent to Southeast Asia.

Event details
2.30 – 4.00pm
Wednesday, 10 March 2009

ISEAS Seminar Room II
Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS)
30 Heng Mui Keng Terrace
Pasir Panjang, Singapore

Parking is available at the Heng Mui Keng Complex Carpark, located next to the ISEAS Building. At the car park, please take the lift to Level 6 (Lobby) and exit through the main entrance to ISEAS Building. For the location map see www.iseas.edu.sg/iseaslocation.htm.

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Threats to rice crops in Thailand and the Philippines

Thailand: Dry spell, pests threaten crop
Nirmal Ghosh, Straits Times 6 Mar 10;

BANGKOK: Dry weather made worse by El Nino, combined with invasions by mice and plant hoppers, could cut Thailand's rice crop and push up prices later this year.

But rice prices remain low for the moment. The government still has more than 5.5 million tonnes of rice stockpiled and seems unwilling to sell it to exporters at a loss, experts told The Straits Times.

This month, the government plans to try again to sell some 300,000 tonnes of its stockpiled rice. Two tenders have already been floated but were cancelled because the prices offered were too low.

As in many other Asian countries, rice production and pricing is a major economic and political issue. For Thailand, it is a balancing act; having bought the stockpiled rice from farmers more than a year ago, the government now finds that it cannot recoup the investment because the price has since fallen.

But it must also keep procuring rice to ensure that farmers are not hit by low prices. In fact, it plans to buy an additional 290,000 tonnes from farmers to shore up prices, Deputy Prime Minister Trairong Suwannakhiri said last week.

Production could be hit if the drought persists and is made worse by climate change-related factors such as irregular rainfall and long hot spells.

Last month, Thailand's Office of Agricultural Economics predicted a decline of 15 per cent in the rough rice harvest to 27 million tonnes in the year that began last October.

This was blamed on El Nino - the weather phenomenon caused by a warming of the equatorial Pacific Ocean - which will reduce rainfall.

Already, several districts of Chiang Rai province in the north have been hit by drought, and the Mekong River is at its lowest level in 20 years, grounding much of the river transport.

On Feb 26, the Vientiane-based inter-governmental Mekong River Commission warned that 'severe drought will have an impact on agriculture, food security, access to clean water and river transport, and will affect... economic development.'

An exporter, who asked not to be named, said he did not expect rice prices to rise over the next three months. Thai rice export prices have been falling in recent weeks and are now around US$555 (S$777) a tonne.

Across South-east Asia and especially in Vietnam, recent rice harvests have been good and supply has not been an issue.

The only short-term uncertainty is whether Indonesia will enter the market to buy Thai rice, Thai exporters say.

Malaysia, Bangladesh and the Philippines are the other three major buyers in the region, and demand from them has already been factored into prices.

Major orders are also still to come in from African and some Middle Eastern countries.

But exporters say the price of rice will still remain well below the peak in 2008 when - in what some experts said was an 'aberration' that some blamed on speculators - prices hit an all-time record of around US$1,000 a tonne.

Philippines: Record imports likely
Alastair McIndoe, Straits Times 6 Mar 10;

MANILA: The Philippine government may import more rice than planned this year, as an unusually severe dry spell caused by the El Nino weather pattern deepens a local production shortfall.

The Philippines is already the world's biggest importer of the grain.

National Food Authority (NFA) spokesman Rex Estoperez said the agency is considering raising the rice quota on imports by private firms to ensure that supplies are sufficient.

This, combined with the NFA's own shipments, could see the Philippines importing a record 2.6 million tonnes of rice this year.

'We'll make that decision after studying an inter-agency report due later this month assessing the crop damage from El Nino,' Mr Estoperez told The Straits Times on Wednesday.

The El Nino weather pattern is expected to last until June, but climatologists say its impact will probably be felt well beyond the middle of the year.

A blistering heatwave has already caused dams, reservoirs and rivers supplying water for farm irrigation to fall to critical levels in parts of the Philippines.

There has been no rainfall since December in some food-basket provinces. Some farmers in parched rice-growing areas plan to raise less thirsty crops, such as eggplant and squash, in the planting season between May and June.

It was only late last year that devastating floods hit the northern Philippines, destroying 1.3 million tonnes of padi rice.

With prices quite soft at the moment, now is a good time to import rice.

The NFA late last year signed contracts for the import of 2.25 million tonnes of rice - mostly from Vietnam - for delivery this year. But more may be needed.

If the NFA grants approval, private firms may import up to 150,000 tonnes of rice above their quota of 200,000 tonnes this year. The previous record of rice imports was 2.3 million tonnes in 2008, when rice prices surged on supply fears.

The Philippines imports rice because of three factors, said senior researcher Piedad Moya of the International Rice Research Institute. 'There is a limited land area, a lack of large river deltas supplying irrigation water, and a continually increasing demand for rice by a large and increasing population.'

The country imports about 10 per cent of its yearly rice needs to make up for production shortfalls at home. That could be reduced by increasing rice yields using new grain varieties and improving irrigation infrastructure, said Ms Moya.

Storm damage caused rice production last year to fall 3 per cent to 16.2 million tonnes. The latest estimate by the Department of Agriculture, made early last month, is that 800,000 tonnes of padi rice worth 12 billion pesos (S$364 million) could be lost in the sweltering El Nino.

As a result, the local authorities are already rushing to lend water pumps to farmers to irrigate their land, dig wells and induce rain through cloud seeding.

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World cops target traditional healers over smuggled wildlife

Dave Clark Yahoo News 5 Mar 10;

PARIS (AFP) – Police seized tiger bones, anteater scales and bear gall bladders in an international operation against the use of endangered plants and animals in traditional medicine, officers said Friday.

Illegal animal and plant products with a retail value of 10 million euros (13.6 million dollars) were seized in a month-long drive carried out by forces around the world, the global law enforcement agency Interpol said.

"National wildlife enforcement authorities, police, customs and specialised units from 18 countries across all five continents worked together as part of Operation Tram which ran from 1 to 28 February," Interpol said.

Operation Tram "revealed a large amount of medicines either containing or marketing the use of illegal ingredients such as tiger, bear and rhinoceros," according to the French-based international coordinating body.

British police targeted a business selling medicine from the Chinese tradition, but an Interpol spokeswoman told AFP the global operation was against all use of endangered species in cures from various cultures.

For centuries, traditional Chinese healers have used tiger bone to treat arthritis, rhinoceros horn for fevers and convulsions and bear bile to treat various infections, thus encouraging poachers to hunt rare animals.

In Rome, Italian forest rangers said they had seized 30,000 products containing wildlife, worth about one million euros, after checking more than 3,000 individuals, planes, baggage, and container ships.

Arrest warrants were issued against 40 individuals or companies.

"We noticed there is great deal of illegal traffic in Italy," the Italian Interpol director Colonel Giuseppe Verrocchi told AFP, adding that rare plants and parts of tigers, bears and pangolins -- a scaly anteater -- were seized.

"The products were imported directly from India, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Vietnam through the ports of Mestre, Trieste and Naples and Milan airport," a statement by the Italian forest rangers said.

In London, the Metropolitan Police raided a Chinese traditional medicine business and found what seemed to be plant species protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

"Most traditional Chinese medicines are perfectly legal. However, a small number of people continue to trade in illegal products containing endangered species," said Sergeant Ian Knox from the force's wildlife crime unit.

"This trade threatens some of the world's most iconic species, and it will continue as long as the demand exists," he added.

A director of the company that owns the raided properties will be questioned once the plants have been analysed, Scotland Yard said.

Police in Australia, Canada, the Czech Republic, Ecuador, France, Georgia, India, Italy, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia, South Africa, Turkey and Zimbabwe also took part in the operation.

"The important cultural, historical and religious values of traditional medicines are recognised by the law enforcement community," said senior British officer Chief Constable Richard Crompton.

"However, the increased use of endangered species in medicines can no longer be tolerated as it places extreme pressure on their very survival," he warned.

The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), still known in North America as the World Wildlife Fund, welcomed the raids.

"Given that this crosses many borders, coordinating effective efforts to tackle the illegal trade in wildlife is not easy," said Heather Sohl, who advises the WWF on wildlife trafficking.

"It's great to see 18 countries all working simultaneously ... This can be a blueprint for future action on other areas of illicit wildlife trade too."

INTERPOL targets illegal trade in wildlife medical products
TRAFFIC 5 Mar 10;

5 March 2010—a month-long operation targeting the illegal trade in medicines containing protected wildlife products has resulted in arrests worldwide and the seizure of thousands of illegal products worth more than EUR10 million.

INTERPOL co-ordinated Operation Tram, which involved national wildlife enforcement authorities, police, customs and specialized units from 18 countries across all five continents. In Italy alone, officers from the Corpo Forestalle dello Stato made more than 30,000 seizures.

The operation, which ran throughout February, involved investigations into individuals and companies as well as inspections of premises such as seaports and wholesalers.

Many of the seized medicines contained or were marketing the use of illegal ingredients such as tiger, bear and rhinoceros.

“A primary goal of Operation Tram was to combat the illegal trade in endangered wildlife, which is a threat to our planet’s biodiversity and demonstrates the commitment of INTERPOL and its member countries in fighting this type of crime,” said David Higgins, Manager of the INTERPOL Environmental Crime Programme.

“This operation has again proved that while environmental criminals may cross borders and display high levels of organization, so too will the international law enforcement community in its efforts to apprehend those criminals.

“The success of this operation would not have been possible without the close co-operation and dedication of the police, customs, wildlife law enforcement agencies and specialized units in the 18 participating countries,” added Higgins.

The operation was co-ordinated by the INTERPOL Environmental Crime Programme with strong support from the UK National Wildlife Crime Unit (NWCU) and was developed in response to the increasing use of endangered and protected wildlife products in traditional medicines throughout the world.

“The important cultural, historical and religious values of traditional medicines is recognized by the law enforcement community,” said Chief Constable Richard Crompton, the Association of Chief Police Officers’ lead for the UK NWCU, “However, the increased use of endangered species in medicines can no longer be tolerated as it places extreme pressure on their very survival and existence.”

TRAFFIC has undertaken a number of studies into the use of threatened species in medicinal products, and has published a guide to Traditional Asian Medicine Identification Guide for Law Enforcers (PDF, 5.5 MB), the latest version in 2004.

Countries involved in Operation Tram were Australia, Canada, the Czech Republic, Ecuador, France, Georgia, India, Italy, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia, South Africa, Turkey, the United Kingdom and Zimbabwe.

More details on the operation on the Interpol website

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Activists Wary of Indonesia's New Forest Regulations

Fidelis E. Satriastanti, Jakarta Globe 6 Mar 10;

Despite its stated objective to control open-pit mining, the Forestry Ministry’s new land-use regulation could backfire and lead to the destruction of more forests, policy development institute Greenomics Indonesia said on Friday.

The Forest Area Use regulation, which has been signed by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono but has yet to come into force, aims to allow forest areas to be used in the development of non-forestry activities that are categorized in the regulation as “activities inevitably tied to strategic goals.”

These activities include mining, renewable energy technology, telecommunications development, generator installations, public roads, toll roads, railroads, forestry-related industries, security and defense, and temporary shelters in response to natural disasters.

Regarding mining, the regulation allows for both open-pit and underground mining in productive forests, but only underground mining in protected areas and only under restricted circumstances. It would not be allowed in situations where the mining would cause land subsidence, change the function of the forested area or damage ground water.

“The idea [of the regulation] was to affirm that only 13 companies would be allowed to operate in protected forests,” Greenomics Indonesia executive director Elfian Effendi said. “In the future, if mining companies want to operate in protected forests, they can only use underground mining, not open-pit mining.”

However, Elfian said that the definition of mining as an “activity inevitably tied to strategic goals” was open to misinterpretation and could be taken advantage of to generate more mining activities in protected forests.

“Mining could be considered as strategic, but it’s not inevitable as that means mining can be carried out in protected forests at any cost,” said Elfian, adding that underground mining did not mean that it was environmentally safe.

Agus Setyarso, executive chairman of the National Forestry Council of Indonesia, said the government needed to clarify the definition of mining to prevent multiple interpretations.

“The government needs to strictly monitor the implementation of the regulation because it can easily be turned upside down,” Agus said, adding that mining was better classified as a priority rather than strategic.

He said that it was interesting the government allowed underground mining given that the country was not yet able to implement the technology mainly due to the high costs involved.

“Even those companies that have been granted access to protected forests cannot afford the technology to carry out underground mining,” he said, adding that the idea of underground mining was to exploit minerals or other natural resources without changing the landscape above the ground.

Elfian added that it was possible underground mining could lead to open-pit mining if the government was unable to apply stricter regulations.

“What may start as underground mining could end up as open-pit mining if miners were able to convince the government that the natural resources in the area are worth bending the regulations,” he said.

Meanwhile, Masyhud, the spokesman at the Forestry Ministry, said the regulation was no threat to protected forests. “It is clear in the Law on Forestry that there cannot be any open-pit mining in protected forests.”

New Indonesian Forestry Regulations May Open Way to Mining in Conservation Areas
Fidelis E. Satriastanti, Jakarta Globe 9 Mar 10;

It appears the Ministry of Forestry is playing Catch 22 with the country’s forests. Despite guarantees by the ministry on Monday that mining was forbidden in conservation areas, two recent regulations may have opened a back door to mining in those areas.

On Jan. 21, the government issued the Procedures for Forest Conversion regulation allowing conservation areas (including protected forests) and production forests to be converted to other functions. This means that conservation areas could be converted to either protected or production forests.

Based on the 1999 Law on Forestry, forest functions are divided into conservation, protection and forestry-production purposes, with a percentage of the latter allowed for other non-forest activities, such as plantations.

On Feb. 1, another government regulation on Forest Area Use stipulated that protected and production forest areas can be used in the development of non-forestry activities that are categorized in the regulation as “activities inevitably tied to strategic goals.” That includes mining.

This regulation states that mining companies can now operate inside protected forest areas although only under restricted circumstances. For instance, underground mining is allowed but not open-pit mining and mining would not be allowed if it could cause land subsidence, change the function of the forested area or contaminate ground water.

However, in production forests, the regulation allows for both open-pit and underground mining.

“The [Forest Area Use] regulation only applies to [activities in] production and protected forests, but not for conservation areas. It has already been stipulated in the [1999 Forestry] Law that these areas cannot be used for mining activities,” said Bambang Mulyo, head of forest use subdirectorate at the forestry ministry’s planning directorate general.

However, if, as stated in the Forest Conversion regulation, conservation areas can be converted into protected or production functions, then the way, albeit indirectly, would be open to mining in those areas.

But Bambang denied the regulation could be used to convert conservation forests into mining concessions.

“There is little chance of irregularities whereby companies could end up trying to change conservation areas into mining sites,” Bambang said.

Markus Ratriyono, spokesman for Forest Watch Indonesia, said conservation areas were established to protect them from being destroyed by any human activity.

“The law is clear that there should not be any mining activities, even underground mining, in conservation areas,” said Markus. “However, because underground mining has never been really implemented in Indonesia, I’m not certain how it would effect the environment. There would eventually be some damage, I’m just not sure of the extent of the damage.”

The Forest Area Use regulation has been criticized by environmental groups, who said that despite the Forestry Ministry’s stated objective to control open-pit mining, the new regulation could backfire and lead to the destruction of more forests.

Read more!

How to make the most of rubbish in Bali

A rubbish revolution is under way in Bali
Geoffrey Lean, The Telegraph 5 Mar 10;

It's known as the "Island of the Gods", but it's sinking under a rising sea of rubbish. You see garbage almost everywhere in Bali: on the beaches; dumped by roadsides; clogging rivers and streams and blocking drainage channels. This has got so bad that it is threatening not only people's health, but also that of the economy: two thirds of tourists surveyed said that it would prevent them from coming back. But, still, little is collected, and rubbish tips are overflowing.

And yet, on a disused pig farm not far from the main tourist beaches, a rubbish revolution is under way; it is spreading throughout Indonesia, and could have a bearing all over the Third World. I discovered it in between meetings of the world's environment ministers on the island last week, when tracing what happened to the contents of my hotel room wastepaper basket.

Beneath the corrugated iron roof of an open-ended old pig shed – amid swooping swallows – workers were painstakingly hand-separating paper, plastics, glass, aluminium, food scraps, vegetable matter and other material that can be used again, leaving only the remnants to go into the island's rudimentary waste disposal system. Every week, 140 lorryloads of waste arrive. Only 10 leave carrying real rubbish.

I was shown the operation by Yuyun Ismawati, who started it 12 years ago, then in her early thirties. An environmental engineer, designing water supply systems for wealthier areas, she decided to switch to working with the poor and picked garbage "because no one else wanted to touch it". She found the pig farmer was paying hotels for their waste – five-star food scraps for his animals – and persuaded him that recycling it would be more profitable. Now 25 hotels – including mine – pay him to take their garbage away. Almost all is recycled: food scraps are bought by pig farmers and grass clippings and other vegetation is composted, and mostly returned to the hotels for flowerbeds.

This, she says is the green economy – the very subject the ministers were discussing – in action, providing new employment for those that need it. In all, she adds, the operation supports over 400 "real green jobs", while the old farm employed just 10 people. It is very basic but it succeeds. "If you want a hi-tech solution in a developing country, you will wait and wait and wait until you get the money, or big donors to fund it. And even then it may not work."

A big blue machine, provided by the local government to process the waste stands idle in a corner, proving the point. The electricity needed to power it costs too much: human energy is cheaper, and employs more people. Ismawati wanted to get rid of the contraption but was persuaded to let it remain as a kind of monument to official support.

The scheme was the first of its kind in Indonesia. She has now established six more, all on the neighbouring island of Java. Now that the government has backed the idea, 15 are to be established annually.

Ismawati – who this year won a Goldman Award, the world's biggest prize for grassroots green activists – has had even more success with a similar plan for tackling an even bigger problem, the sanitation crisis. Only eight of Indonesia's 450 cities, she says, have a sewerage system, covering just 1.3 per cent of its almost 250 million population. Worldwide, over two billion people lack proper sanitation; the resulting pollution causes more than two million deaths a year.

Building big sewerage systems costs a fortune, and takes ages. But Ismawati found that she could rapidly get small schemes running for a fraction of the cost. Local government provides most of the funding, but the people it serves also chip in and are trained in their operation. Some 300 have been set up across Indonesia and, from this year, 1,000 – serving a total of a million people – are to be established annually.

Ismawati next wants to provide clean water in a similarly decentralised way and took me down a river to explain why. It was full of rubbish, of course, including the occasional dead cat. Batik dyers lined its banks: the colours, she said, often showed in the river. Water from rice paddies, presumably laden with pesticides, also ran into it.

Below all this, near the river mouth, was a water supply intake. Who gets this stuff, I asked? Ismawati thinks she knows, as she was once offered a job in the waterworks. She roared with laughter. "It probably goes to your hotel."

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Should We Put A Dollar Value On Nature?

Judith D. Schwartz, Time Magazine 6 Mar 10;

Nature lovers might cringe at the term "ecosystem services" to describe, say, the view of a pristine beach or a stream teeming with trout. But a growing number of experts within the scientific and economic communities say that putting real economic value on components of nature will help protect the environment and promote biodiversity.

Far from cheapening nature, thinking in terms of "natural capital" can offer a way to assess the crucial but unmeasured benefit that humans derive from the nature. Ascertaining that value can then help decision makers bring environmental factors more explicitly into their planning.

Can biodiversity loss, then, be seen as a failure of the market? "Biodiversity is the living capital of the planet," says Pavan Sukhdev, a senior banker with Deutsche Bank and Special Adviser to the United Nations Environment Programme's (UNEP) Green Economy Initiative. Like any capital, he says, it has to be measured to be managed. "If you don't count half of your balance sheet, you're going to get your profit and loss ratio incorrect — and we have."

Sukhdev, who's also Study Leader for a UNEP initiative called The Economics of Ecosystems and Diversity (TEEB), says that currently "the economic value attached to nature is zero. Our metrics are geared toward consumption and production of man-made goods and services, and we tend to gloss over nature." This, he says, has led to "bad accounting" which, in turn, has contributed to rapid biodiversity loss.

There is clearly an irony in the notion that attaching a "price" to ecosystems can help people reconnect with nature and what it offers us. Yet appreciating nature from an economic perspective may put environmental concerns on the table in a way that governments and institutions can work with. "In speaking the language of economics, you can play a role in the policy process," says Edward B. Barbier, Professor of Economics at the University of Wyoming, who does research on the economics of natural resources. "Twenty-five years ago, people said, 'That's horrendous — you can't discuss nature that way!' Now they say, 'You're right. We've got to put a value on nature."

What kind of value are we talking about? According to research cited in the TEEB report, an annual investment of $45 billion to biodiversity conservation worldwide could safeguard about $5 trillion in ecosystem services — a benefit to cost ratio of 100 to 1.

For a site-specific example, in Southern Thailand converting mangroves into commercial shrimp farms yields financial returns of about $1,220 per hectare per year. However, this does not consider the rehabilitation costs of $9,318 per hectare necessary when the area has been "shrimped out" after five or ten years. Other economic benefits the mangroves provide include: collected wood and other forest products; cultivation for off-shore fisheries; and coastal protection against storms, a total of $12,392 per hectare over the course of nine years. If the developer were accountable for the mangrove depletion, would you still want to invest in that shrimp farm?

"The reason we're losing natural capital is because it's free," says Ed Barbier, noting that we often think of conservation in terms of its costs rather than its value, and regard manufactured goods in terms of value rather than their environmental costs. Says Barbier: "When we incorporate the services of ecosystems we may start to think: maybe the costs of maintaining [the integrity of] ecosystems aren't that high compared with the benefits. Maybe the gains we get out of converting nature into commodities are not so large in comparison. The point is that we don't see that tradeoff until we go out and measure that value."

The challenge is that our business institutions evolved at a time when nature seemed limitless; the idea of endless natural bounty is embedded within our national identity. "In the past, natural resources were abundant," says Robert Costanza, Director of the Gund Institute for Ecological Economics at the University of Vermont. "We've used up all the frontier. Those days are gone. People are recognizing this, but our institutions haven't caught up." So markets continue to ignore natural capital as if it's of no economic consequence.

Right now, he explains, there is an expectation of free and open access to nature. However, its use affects everyone. For example, unless an area is specifically regulated, someone can clear-cut a hardwood forest in a developing nation for the timber. But losing that forest also means the loss of habitat for wildlife, other forest products for food and shelter, soil fertility — plus numerous other functions, including climate regulation, which are not yet completely understood.

There have been other efforts to value ecosystem benefits, notably by British economist David Pearce, through his book Blueprint For a Green Economy, which was influential in the 1990s. (Professor Barbier was a coauthor.) What's different now is the urgency — we get news of nature disappearing every day — and new tools for measuring value, since research on ecosystems and valuation metrics have been evolving steadily over the last 20 years. Through programs like the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, drawing on the work of more than 1,360 experts worldwide, the economic value of biodiversity — which, alas, is often determined after its loss — is becoming more apparent.

According to Costanza, we need different institutions for managing natural capital because of its "public good" aspects. For example, there are systems of payments for ecosystem services, such as compensating farmers who plant trees for carbon sequestration. These could be embedded in common asset trusts, set up to assign property rights to the community rather than private hands. Those who damage ecosystem services would be charged, while those whose land produces services could be paid. Economic incentives can encourage people to preserve natural assets. For example, in Costa Rica U.S. pharmaceutical companies are paying landowners to conserve their properties — essentially maintaining a genetic laboratory in an area with great natural wealth. (About half of manufactured drugs derive from materials found in nature.) "Costa Rica has been a laboratory in strategies for making money while saving the environment," says Barbier.

While such economic arrangements hold great promise, Barbier warns that focusing on one "ecosystem service" — as opposed to grappling with complex systems and interactions — can distort value. He also notes that payments may not cover all the costs of preservation, particularly in the short term. But they may, for instance, pay for running conservation programs, or supplement the income of people who live in the area.

The renewed interest in valuing nature gives Barbier some optimism. "If through scientific and economic analysis we can show the benefits that the natural environment offers, and show that the economic value is not zero, this gives policy makers a vehicle for addressing our fragile ecosystems," he says.

Pavan Sukhdev observes, "The loss of forests worldwide amounts to somewhere between $2 trillion and $4.5 trillion a year. Losses in the U.S financial sector [in the economic downturn] were between $1 and 1.5 trillion. But the banks made the headlines."

And, one might add, got bailed out.

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Indian Ocean tuna commission fails again on tuna, does better with sharks

WWF 5 Mar 10;

Busan, Korea: Closing to fishing an area already largely closed by pirates is a long way short of being meaningful fisheries management, WWF said at the conclusion of the annual meeting of the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) in Busan, Korea today.

“The Indian Ocean Tuna Commission continues to lag well behind nearly every other comparable fisheries regulator in its failure to introduce catch limits for the commercial fish species under its control,” said Dr Amani Ngusaru, head of WWF’s Coastal East Africa Marine Programme.

“We have agreement on a catch limit for bigeye and yellowfin tuna, as recommended by the scientists and this is a big step forward for the IOTC. And we have a non-binding commitment that catch limits for the tuna resources of the Indian Ocean will be considered at the 2012 meeting, which could be a big step nowhere.”

“In the meantime, we have this laughable measure that an area off Somalia which is already largely off limits due to piracy will be closed to long-liners for a month and purse seiners for a month. Are we really serious about limiting fishing pressure on our already overfished stocks?”

But the IOTC did rather better on protecting sharks and seabirds.

“The vote to adopt a ban on commercial landing of endangered thresher sharks is not all we wanted in relation to sharks and to the trade in shark fins but it is a major advance for the commission,” Dr Ngusaru said.

“It also illustrates the truth of our assertion for all the world’s Regional Fisheries Management Organisations that they make better decisions when they vote on recommended fisheries management measures than when they race to the bottom trying to achieve a consensus.”

With studies showing that several endangered albatross and petrels were highly vulnerable to longline fishing in the Indian Ocean during their critical juvenile phase, the commission hardened seabird catch mitigation requirements for longline boats operating south of 25 degrees south.

Boats will now need to use two out of five recognised mitigation measures which include minimum light night operation, bird scaring lines, weighted branch lines and blue-dyed bait.

IOTC’s scientific community had warned contracting country parties that bigeye tuna catches should be limited to 110,000 tonnes and yellowfin tuna should be limited to 300,000 tonnes. But although the meeting accepted these recommendations, action to institute catch restrictions is to wait on a process of setting country allocations.

Another key measure not adopted was a Seychelles proposal for a ban on discards of Skipjack, Yellowfin and Big eye tuna from purse seine vessels. This would have reduced the carnage from the practice of trawlers “trading up” or discarding previous catches if better catches of higher value fish are found.

“Developing Indian ocean states were rightly upset about the failure to pass this significant bycatch measure as it is a food security issue for them,” said Dr Ngusaru. “If it is good enough for fisheries in the Atlantic Ocean, why isn’t it good enough for fisheries in the Indian Ocean.”

A key development of the meeting was the growing assertiveness of Indian Ocean developing states in taking responsibility for their fish stocks, both in improving management of their own fishing industries and in seeking better practice from foreign industrial fleets in their waters.

“This was illustrated in the Maldives signing up to the IOTC,” said Dr Ngusaru. “WWF is totally behind this new push for sustainable fishing in the Indian Ocean and will do all we can to support it as it benefits both the fisheries and coastal populations depending on them.”

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Sea lions caught in debris get help from Oregon State

Mark Floyd Oregon State University KVAL.com 4 Mar 10;

NEWPORT, Ore. – A team of scientists, veterinarians and volunteers will deploy a custom-built “capture cage” in Newport to temporarily sequester sea lions that have become entangled with rope, fishing line and other materials so they can be untangled.

The cage will be located on the bayfront at Dock 1, where coastal visitors frequently see the animals sunning themselves on the floating dock.

(photo courtesy of Jim Rice, OSU Marine Mammal Institute)

Jim Rice of Oregon State University, who coordinates the multi-agency Marine Mammal Stranding Network, said removing debris from the animals can be difficult and dangerous.

“Because entangled animals are generally active and defensive, options for removing debris are very limited,” said Rice, who is affiliated with OSU’s Marine Mammal Institute. “Sea lions will not tolerate close approach and unrestrained anesthesia is deemed too dangerous for the animals since a sea lion injected with drugs by a pole or dart would likely flee to the water only to subsequently drown.”

However, doing nothing may also doom the animals, Rice pointed out. Steller sea lions on the West Coast are listed as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act and the waste debris from human activities increasingly is posing a risk to these animals and other marine species.

“When you visit the Newport bayfront, it isn’t unusual to observe California sea lions with various forms of entanglement – especially plastic “packing bands” wrapped tightly around the neck, cutting into the animal’s skin, blubber and muscle,” Rice said. “But despite these animals’ proximity to a public viewing pier, they are not nearly as accessible to would-be rescuers as they may appear.”

Thus Rice and colleagues will use a cage built by Mulder Sheet Metal, Inc., in Newport that was based on designs from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. The cage is basically a modified floating dock enclosed on four sides by a galvanized steel structure, with sliding doors on two sides. It is designed primarily to serve as an additional “haul out” area for sea lions to use freely, with its doors locked in the open position so animals can comfortably come and go as they choose.

“Once they become comfortable with using the dock, we can close the cage doors when we spot an entangled animal and then address the entanglement,” Rice said.

Entangled sea lions will be anesthetized and then treated by veterinarians. Veterinary medical services will be provided by Steven Brown and Daniel Lewer of Animal Medical Care in Newport, with logistical support from the Oregon Coast Aquarium.

Kim Raum-Suryan, a marine mammal specialist with OSU’s Hatfield Marine Science Center, says entanglement of marine mammals is a global problem.

“In our studies in southeast Alaska, we estimated that as many as 60 individuals were visibly entangled at any given time and there were likely many more that were not observed,” Raum-Suryan said. “Most of the entanglements were from thick plastic packing bands used to wrap bait boxes, but fishing line, nets, large rubber bands and other materials can be equally dangerous.

“Thousands of marine animals are estimated to die each year as a result of entanglement, or ingestion of marine debris,” she added. “We’ve had the same issues with animals at Sea Lion Caves and off Cascade Head. I spotted four juvenile Stellers in one day that were entangled.”

Advocates are working with bait manufacturers and others on different, less dangerous wrapping materials. But common sense also can be applied, Raum-Suryan said.

“First, don’t litter,” she pointed out. “And if you find trash on the beach, consider picking it up and discarding it. But it’s also a good idea to cut any banding in half in case it mistakenly gets into the water.”

The entanglement relief project involves several partners, including Animal Medical Care, the Port of Newport, Oregon Marine Mammal Stranding Network, Oregon State University Marine Mammal Institute, Oregon Coast Aquarium, and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Funding was provided by a grant from the Oregon Animal Health Foundation/Oregon Veterinary Medical Association, the Oregon Coast Aquarium, the Marine Mammal Institute, OSU, and NOAA’s John H. Prescott Marine Mammal Rescue Assistance Grant Program, which provides support for the Oregon Marine Mammal Stranding Network through OSU’s Marine Mammal Institute.

The Oregon Marine Mammal Stranding Network is a collaborative volunteer effort to respond to reports of sick or dead marine mammals – including whales, seals and sea lions – and report data about stranding incidents to the National Marine Fisheries Service.

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Cancer Kills Many Sea Lions, and Its Cause Remains a Mystery

Ingfei Chen, The New York Times 4 Mar 10;

For 14 years, since they first reported that a disturbing proportion of deaths among rescued California sea lions were caused by metastatic cancer, researchers have been trying to pinpoint the source of the illness.

In 1996, Dr. Frances Gulland, the director of veterinary science at the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, and colleagues at the University of California, Davis, found that a striking 18 percent of deaths in stranded adult sea lions were the result of tumors in the reproductive and urinary tracts.

“It’s such an aggressive cancer, and it’s so unusual to see such a high prevalence of cancer in a wild population,” Dr. Gulland said. “That suggests that there’s some carcinogen in the ocean that could be affecting these animals.”

The center has not observed the same syndrome in other seals.

Years of study have led researchers to think the answer lies not with any one culprit, but with several. Their research has added to a body of evidence concerning industrial contaminants in the ocean and their effects on the health of its inhabitants.

Sea lions have had to cope with a variety of challenges lately. There was the animals’ mass exit from Pier 39 in San Francisco late last year, which experts suspect was driven by a hunt for a better food supply. Also in 2009, the Sausalito mammal center had an unusually busy year. It took in a record 1,370 sick and injured California sea lions, and doctors found major problems in many, including malnutrition, parasitic diseases and bacterial kidney infections. Some had brain seizures from a toxic algae poisoning.

But the cancers are what Dr. Gulland found most worrisome.

One day last month, a volunteer rescue crew netted an ailing sea lion stranded on Stinson Beach and drove back to the hospital, which was newly rebuilt and reopened last summer. The thin, lethargic 200-pound young adult male had paralysis in its genital area and in its swollen hind flippers, clear signs of cancer.

“It’s pretty distressing to see,” Dr. Gulland said.

The veterinary team had to euthanize the animal. A post-mortem examination revealed not only cancer in the penis, but also tumors riddling the lymph nodes, lower spine, kidneys, liver and lungs. The disease typically starts around the penis in males and the cervix in females, then spreads. In an average year, the Marine Mammal Center sees 15 to 20 California sea lions with cancer.

The center always performs a post-mortem dissection. That work is “really what tells us about health trends in the ocean,” Dr. Gulland said.

The nonprofit center is one of the two biggest marine mammal rescue-and-rehabilitation facilities in the world — the other is in the Netherlands — dedicated to researching the health troubles of the animals it finds, said Dr. Sylvain De Guise, a veterinary scientist at the University of Connecticut.

Members of the medical staff in Sausalito, Dr. De Guise said, “have been pioneers at going beyond treating one individual at a time and releasing it, and have tried to understand the bigger picture, the causes and consequences.”

Ordinarily, veterinary experts do not see much cancer in wild animals, but there has been little monitoring for the disease. Recently, however, cancer has emerged as a key concern for some endangered species, including green sea turtles, Attwater’s prairie chickens and Tasmanian devils, said Denise McAloose, a veterinary pathologist at the Wildlife Conservation Society in New York City.

In addition, about 18 percent of dead, stranded beluga whales in the St. Lawrence River estuary in Canada were found to have intestinal tumors or other cancers, which have been linked to industrial pollutants.

No one knows how much of the general California sea lion population has tumors, or if the current rate is higher thanbefore. No diagnostic test for the disease exists, said Dr. Robert DeLong, a research biologist at the National Marine Mammal Laboratory in Seattle who has participated in the cancer studies.

In his field observations among a colony of 100,000 animals in the Channel Islands — the birthplace for most California sea lions that travel the state’s coast — Dr. DeLong said he saw two to five sea lions a year with huge advanced tumors.

When Dr. Gulland and Dr. Linda Lowenstine, a veterinary pathologist at the University of California, Davis, began investigating the cancer mystery, the obvious suspect was environmental contaminants. The Channel Islands lie off the Southern California Bight, where, from the late 1940s until the early 1970s, manufacturing companies discharged millions of pounds of DDTs and PCBs into the sea. Cleanup continues, but the chemicals linger.

But if those chemicals are solely to blame, the researchers asked, why was cancer originating mainly in the uro-genital tract, and not in the kidney or liver, as one would expect?

“That didn’t really fit,” Dr. Lowenstine said.

But, in examining sea lion tumor cells with an electron microscope, Dr. Lowenstine noticed what looked like viral particles. And indeed, in a major discovery in 2000, a different team of researchers in Washington, D.C., identified a herpesvirus in the sea lions, a close relative of the human herpesvirus that fosters Kaposi’s skin cancer lesions in AIDS patients. Recent studies by the California researchers have shown that the sea lion virus likes to live in the reproductive tract and, among adults, is twice as common in males — infecting 45 percent of them — as in females.

But environmental contaminants are not off the hook. Because it takes several “hits” of environmental or genetic damage to turn a healthy cell into cancerous one, the researchers speculated that the virus and chemicals could be interacting to trigger tumors.

Sea lions accumulate high concentrations of PCBs and DDTs in their blubber from eating contaminated fish; mothers also pass the compounds to babies. An analysis by the California researchers and experts at the Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Seattle found that animals with higher blubber PCB concentrations were more likely to have died of cancer.

“PCBs are notorious for two different things,” Dr. Lowenstine said. They can suppress the immune system, which may increase a sea lion’s vulnerability to the herpesvirus infection, but they also have estrogen-like hormonal effects.

In research published last summer, Dr. Lowenstine and Dr. Gulland and their associates began exploring the possibility that the contaminants interact with hormone receptors in the reproductive tract of sea lions to help promote cancer.

Meanwhile, a third piece of the puzzle is genetics. Another study revealed that animals with cancer are more inbred than those without it, so bad genes are probably also at work.

But proving cause and effect in the cancer mystery is difficult, the investigators said, especially given that experiments cannot be done on sea lions, which are federally protected.

“We don’t have all the answers by any means,” Dr. Lowenstine said. But the scientists are now mapping out a large study of 300 sea lions to study which of the three prime suspects — virus, PCBs or genetics — is most strongly tied to cancer.

To the California investigators, sea lion cancer is further evidence that what people do on land directly influences what happens to marine mammals in the ocean. And what makes them sick might affect us, too.

“Sea lions do eat a lot of the same things we do,” Dr. Gulland said. “So we really should start paying attention to what we’re putting into the oceans.”

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World's Largest Dead Zone Suffocating Sea

James Owen, National Geographic News 5 Mar 10;

"Eagle!" The shout goes up as a great shadow sweeps over our boat. The white-tailed eagle makes its descent to one of the 24,000 islands that make up Sweden's pine-covered, rocky Stockholm Archipelago.

The tourists on board for this nature tour in August 2009 mostly miss the photo opp. But local wildlife expert Peter Westman, of the conservation group WWF Sweden, assures the group that there will be others.

Numbers of this once-threatened predator have soared from 1,000 to more than 23,000 in the Baltic Sea (map) since pollutants including DDT, an eggshell-thinning pesticide, and PCBs, chemical compounds used in electrical equipment, were banned in the 1970s, Westman said.

But there is a new danger to the eagle and many other marine species: An explosion of microscopic algae called phytoplankton has inundated the Baltic's sensitive waters, sucking up oxygen and choking aquatic life.

Though a natural phenomenon at a smaller scale, these blooms have recently mushroomed at an alarming rate, fed by nutrients such as phosphorous and nitrogen from agricultural fertilizers and sewage. When it rains, farm fertilizers are washed into the sea. Sewage-treatment facilities also discharge waste into the Baltic ecosystem.

As a result, the Baltic is now home to seven of the of the world's ten largest marine "dead zones"—areas where the sea's oxygen has been used up by seabed bacteria that decompose the raining mass of dead algae.

"We’ve had enormous algal blooms here the last few years which have affected the whole ecosystem," Westman said.

Overfishing Adding to Algal Blooms

Overfishing of Baltic cod has greatly intensified the problem, Westman said. Cod eat sprats, a small, herring-like species that eat microscopic marine creatures called zooplankton that in turn eat the algae.

(Related: "Overfishing is Emptying World's Rivers, Lakes, Experts Warn.")

So, fewer cod and an explosion of zooplankton-eating sprats means more algae and less oxygen.

This vicious cycle gets worse as the spreading dead zones engulf the cod’s deep-water breeding grounds, he added.

The algal blooms, which can be toxic to animals and human swimmers, leave behind an ugly layer of green scum that fouls tourist beaches and starves seaweeds of light.

"Other species have taken the place [of cod], which don’t provide as good habitats for fish," especially juveniles, Westman said. "In the past couple of years common fishes like pike and perch have had virtually no reproduction in the inner part of the archipelago."

This vicious circle gets worse as the spreading algal blooms engulf the cod’s breeding grounds.

Too Late to Save the Baltic Sea?

Back in Stockholm, it's World Water Week, the annual global meeting on water issues organized by the Stockholm International Water Institute. On a conference room wall is a satellite image of the Baltic Sea, its deep blue edges giving way to a swirling, milky center that shows the algal blooms.

World Water Week attendees are pushing a new action plan called the Baltic Sea Strategy. The European Union-led initiative will attempt to coordinate the efforts of the eight EU members within the nine Baltic states—not including Russia—to revitalize their shared sea.

While the speakers all agree "it’s time for action," they don’t sound optimistic.

"It might well be too late," said Søren Nors Nielsen of the University of Copenhagen.

The planet’s youngest sea at less than 10,000 years old, the Baltic is unique in that it formed after the last ice age. It's also one of the world’s largest bodies of brackish water.

"Experience tells us such a system is almost impossible to predict," Nielsen said.

The Baltic Sea's unusual mix of fresh water and marine species means it's also especially vulnerable to environmental changes. "Evolution didn’t have time to develop an ecosystem able to tolerate flux," Nielsen explained.

(Related: "Viking Shipwrecks Face Ruin as Odd 'Worms' Invade.")

"Sea of Laws"

Water-law attorney Megan Walline of the Stockholm International Water Institute, who spoke at the Baltic Sea presentation, said there's already "a sea of laws" for dealing with human activities that threaten the Baltic.

Too numerous to list, they include existing EU directives that cover nutrient pollution and illegal fishing. The laws are there, they just need to be implemented, she said.

For his part, WWF’s Westman hopes the new EU strategy will at least turn the Baltic into "a kind of test area for enforcing and implementing the directives." For instance, the plan calls for phasing out phosphates in laundry and kitchen detergents, and putting in place more sustainable fishing regulations.

Even so, "There are no quick fixes, unfortunately," Westman concludes, reaching for his binoculars.

Seems it’s back to the eagles for now.

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Conservationists unveil plans to restore bison to North American plains

Recovery 'roadmap' would see large herds roaming free over thousands of hectares but hinges on an overhaul of government regulations and a rethink of public attitudes to the animal

Suzanne Goldenberg, guardian.co.uk 5 Mar 10;

Bison, the iconic animal of the American west, could once more roam wild across the great plains under a recovery roadmap prepared by international scientists.

A report by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) (pdf), prepared by dozens of scientists and bison experts from Mexico, America, and Canada, says there is a chance of a second recovery, nearly a century after the animals were rescued from the brink of extinction.

But success depends on allowing large herds to roam free over thousands or perhaps millions of hectares, an overhaul of government regulations, and a rethink of public attitudes to the animal.

Currently, there is only one population of plains bison, in Yellowstone national park.

"The next 10-20 years present opportunities for conserving American bison as a wild species and restoring it as an important ecological presence in many North American ecosystems," the study says. It says the animals are critical to the restoration of the prairie grasslands.

But Americans, especially ranchers in the west who view the animals as competition for grazing lands or a potential source of disease in their cattle, need to accept its presence on the plains.

"The greatest challenge is to overcome the common perception that the bison, which has had a profound influence on the human history of North America, socially, culturally and ecologically, no longer belongs on the landscape," the study says.

Tens of millions of bison once grazed the rolling hills and prairies of North America, from Alaska to northern Mexico. But by the beginning of the 20th century, the great herds had almost completely wiped out by hunters trying to satisfy the European fur trade.

Early efforts managed to save the bison from the brink of extinction, and about 31,000 now roam free. But conservationists say more needs to be done to protect the genetic diversity of such herds to assure their long-term survival.

Aside from harsh winters, bison in the wild face a range of diseases from anthrax to BSE, or mad cow disease.

The study says the new conservation strategy should aim to recreate the traditional range of the bison.

"While substantial progress in saving bison from extinction was made in the 20th century, much work remains to restore conservation herds throughout their vast geographical range," said Cormack Gates, a University of Calgary conservationist who co-edited the study.

Several states continue to view bison as livestock rather than wild animals and about 400,000 bison are being raised in commercial herds. Some 55,000 of those belong to Ted Turner, the media magnate and CNN founder, who has ranches in seven states.

"The key is recognition that the bison is a wildlife species and to be conserved as wildlife, it needs land and supportive government policies," Gates said.

But persuading the public the bison should be free and not food may not be easy. In 2002, Turner's ranches were so successful in raising bison that he opened up a chain of bison burger restaurants that now stretches from Montana to Florida.

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Earth Hour heads into record territory

Gland, Switzerland: A record Earth Hour is looming with more countries now signed up for the event than for last year’s globe circling lights out for climate action.

Just over two weeks out from the event, timed for 8.30 pm on March 27, organisers are now active in in 92 countries, compared to a final participation figure of 88 countries in 2009 which saw hundreds of millions participating.

With confirmation that the Tokyo Tower in Tokyo and Brandenburg Gate in Berlin will both turn off their lights for Earth Hour, all members of the G20 are now taking part in the event.

“Earth Hour demonstrates the determination of the world’s citizens for a better healthier world,” said Earth Hour Executive Director, Andy Ridley.

“It brings together cities, communities, businesses and individuals on the journey to positive action on climate change,”

As a co-founder of the event, Ridley has seen it boom from a one city, one country event in 2007 to the levels where nearly half the world’s nations, and many of its largest cities and iconic landmarks make a statement for a more secure and safer future.

Countries and regions involved for the first time include the world’s newest country Kosovo, the remote island nation of Madagascar, Nepal, Saudi Arabia, Mongolia, Cambodia, Czech Republic, Paraguay, Ecuador and the US Commonwealth of the Northern Marina Islands in the Pacific Ocean amongst others.

Honduras became the latest nation to have official Earth Hour recognition and Earth Hour global organisers confirm that there are currently more than 1,100 cities and towns signed up to switch their lights off at 8.30pm on 27 March - 100 more than at the same time last year.

“Typically we see a big jump in the number of cities and towns taking part in the last few days before the lights go out, but to see such strong support already is fantastic,” said Ridley.

“Earth Hour is an opportunity for the global community to speak in one voice on the issue of climate change, while at the same time coming together in celebration of the one thing every single person on the planet has in common – the planet,” he said.

“Whether it’s joining your community in a town square to watch the city lights go dark or hosting a lights out party in your own home, I encourage everybody across the world to be a part of this important and historic occasion. Turn off your lights, celebrate the planet, enjoy the moment and think about the future of our living planet.”

Related links
Earth Hour in Singapore on the wildsingapore happenings blog.

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Drought extinguishes Venezuela's lightning phenomenon

Lake Maracaibo left in darkness as drought caused by El Niño disrupts weather patterns that cause constant lightning storms
In pictures: Venezuela's vanishing lightning

Rory Carroll, guardian.co.uk 5 Mar 10;

Darkness rarely lasted long in the skies over Lake Maracaibo. An hour after dusk the show would begin: a lightning bolt, then another, and another, until the whole horizon flashed white.

Electrical storms, product of a unique meteorological phenomenon, have lit up nights in this corner of Venezuela for thousands of years. Francis Drake abandoned a sneak attack on the city of Maracaibo in 1595 when lightning betrayed his ships to the Spanish garrison.

Photograph: Vladimir Marcano

But now the lightning has vanished. A phenomenon that once unleashed up to 20,000 bolts a night stopped in late January. Not a single bolt has been seen since.

"This is unprecedented. In recorded history we have not had such a long stretch without lightning," said Erik Quiroga, an environmentalist and leading authority on the Relampago de Catatumbo, or Catatumbo Lightning.

The spectacle, one of the longest single displays of continuous lightning in the world, lasts up to nine hours a night. On average it is visible over 160 nights a year and from 400km away. Lightning bolts discharged from cloud to cloud strike 16 to 40 times a minute. They can reach an intensity of 400,000 amps but are so high thunder is inaudible. There are similar phenomena in Colombia, Indonesia and Uganda but they do not last the whole night.

Fishermen in the village of Congo Mirador, a collection of wooden huts on stilts at the phenomenon's epicentre, are puzzled and anxious by its absence. "It has always been with us," said Edin Hernandez, 62. "It guides us at night, like a lighthouse. We miss it."

The celestial spectacular appears to be a casualty of the El Niño weather phenomenon, which has disrupted global weather patterns and caused a severe drought in Venezuela. Rain has all but disappeared, drying up rivers and disrupting the conditions that produce the lightning, whose causes remain unclear. One theory links it to decomposing organic materials which release methane. Another links it to Andean winds blowing across marshes, generating low pressure and building up an electrical charge in the atmosphere.

The last time the phenomenon vanished was in 1906 after a catastrophic 8.8-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Ecuador and Colombia unleashed a tsunami. The lightning returned three weeks later.

Now it is five weeks and there is still no sign of the nocturnal flashes.

"I look for it every night but there is nothing," said Francisca Hernandez, 28, a schoolteacher in Congo Mirador who monitors Lake Maracaibo's sky for researchers based in Caracas.

Some scientists believe the electrical storms help replenish the ozone layer. Others doubt that, saying the ozone they produce reaches only the tropospheric atmosphere.

The drought has also extinguished many man-made lights across Venezuela as the country relies largely on hydropower. Last month, the president, Hugo Chávez, declared an electricity emergency and said severe rationing, which has blacked out towns and cities, could last months. One state electricity company told workers to pray for rain.

Losing the lightning is a symbolic blow. In addition to warding off Drake's naval assault – an event celebrated in Lope de Vega's 1598 epic poem – it is credited with helping independence fighters defeat a Spanish fleet in 1823. The state of Zulia, which encompasses Lake Maracaibo, has a lightning bolt across its centre and refers to the phenomenon in its anthem.

Quiroga worries that when rains return the lightning may not recover its former glory. It was dwindling in frequency and force even before the drought, probably because deforestation and agriculture had clogged the Catatumbo river and several lagoons with silt.

"This is a unique gift and we are at risk of losing it," said Quiroga, who has led scientific teams to its epicentre. He has lobbied Venezuelan authorities to protect the area and the United Nations to recognise it as a world heritage site. A Unesco spokeswoman said there were no plans to do so because electrical storms did not have a "site".

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Environmentalists see "Avatar" in oil sands

Jeffrey Jones, Reuters 4 Mar 10;

(Reuters) - Environmentalists aim to hitch their stars to James Cameron's "Avatar" by trying to draw parallels between the sci-fi blockbuster and Canada's oil sands industry ahead of Sunday's Academy Awards.

In a full-page ad in the show business trade publication "Variety," a coalition of green groups endorsed the film, which is nominated for nine Oscars, saying the predatory grab for resources it portrays on the fictional planet Pandora is similar to methods used in northern Alberta.

The oil industry panned the ad, calling it irresponsible.

"Canada's Avatar Sands," it read before a backdrop featuring a massive dump truck, which is used in oil sands extraction, and an open pit mine.

Like the film, it said, indigenous peoples are endangered by pollution and future oil spills, Shell, BP, Exxon and other "Sky People" are destroying ancient forests and huge trucks are used to mine an expensive energy source to feed America's "addiction."

"Part of it is to reach out to a new audience that have seen the movie," said Mike Hudema, a campaigner for Greenpeace, one of the groups behind the ad. "A lot of the themes that were dealt with in "Avatar" do parallel a lot with what we're seeing in the tar sands."

Environmentalists have escalated a campaign to spread their message that developing Canada's oil sands, the largest deposits of crude outside the Middle East, is damaging the land, air, water and local communities.

Meanwhile, the industry has intensified efforts to counter that, saying it is doing all it can to minimize environmental impacts, clean up operations and support aboriginal communities with consultation and employment opportunities. The two sides have become more polarized.

"The campaign is bizarre at minimum and at maximum it's irresponsible," said Janet Annesley, spokeswoman for the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, the industry's main lobby group.

"We've seen in the past that anti-oil activists like to blur the line between fact and fiction, but in this instance the cognitive dissonance is just too great to go unaddressed."

Canada is the largest foreign oil supplier to the United States, and about half the country's crude oil supplies are derived from the oil sands.

(Editing by Frank McGurty)

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Australian states at sea over coastal levels

Sid Maher, The Australian 6 Mar 10;

AUSTRALIA'S six state governments have four different figures for predicted sea-level rise caused by climate change, leaving developers and councils confused and sparking calls for a federal takeover of coastal climate change planning.

While Kevin Rudd pushes to cut red tape and boost housing construction, the property industry says the different state plans, which dictate where houses can be built or renovated near the coast, are creating a new layer of bureaucracy and risk holding back developments in some of the nation's fastest-growing areas.

Victoria's and Queensland's draft coastal plans have nominated 80cm as the expected sea-level rise by 2100 that developers must allow for, which is broadly in line with the predictions of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

NSW cites CSIRO research that sea levels will be 10cm higher at 90cm.

In South Australia, preparations are being made for a 1m rise, and the West Australian government is working on 38cm, although that is under review.

Tasmania makes vulnerability assessments based on peak storm values but will have in-depth research on the rise of the sea level completed by the end of the year.

This all compares with a federal government report released last year on the climate change risks to Australia's coasts, which found that up to 247,600 existing residential buildings worth up to $63 billion would be at risk from sea inundation by 2100, under a sea-level rise of 1.1m.

The Australian Local Government Association has called a summit of council leaders next month to discuss the inconsistencies, in the wake of confusion over differing standards, public furore in Greens-dominated Byron Bay, simmering tensions in Wyong in NSW and a raft of planning disputes in Victoria, including the borough of Queenscliffe, where councils have faced public protests over a plan that could have limited development and renovations on hundreds of homes.

Peter Russell, who lived in one of the affected houses, said the original council decision would have left residents unable to renovate existing houses or build new homes, a move that could have been financially devastating.

"Big government can have all these plans about climate change, but now that it is down to our level, there needs to be some sensitivity and understanding of communities that have been in place for 100 years," Mr Russell said.

Borough of Queenscliffe Mayor Bob Merriman said the council had been acting in line with state government amendments to its town plan and directions on how to deal with rising sea levels. Mr Merriman said the Victorian government needed to provide a clear way forward.

ALGA president Geoff Lake said the different state plans were creating confusion and a lack of direction for councils and developers. There was no central direction and no adequate collaboration between the states.

"What we have is confusion for developers, confusion for communities and a lack of scientific rigour going into solving a problem that is a national problem rather than being confined to one or two states," Mr Lake said.

He said that although the issue was on the Council of Australian Governments agenda, a national authority was needed to provide greater direction to councils and to people who owned property on the coast, or who aspired to do so.

Property Council of Australia chief executive Peter Verwer backed calls for national co-ordination of sea-level-rise responses, describing the current system as "piecemeal" and nonsensical.

"We've got a non-evidence-based approach that assumes sea-level rises will be different above and below the Tweed," he said.

Residential Development Council executive director Caryn Kakas said part of the problem was that state governments were using different applications of the science of climate change, and this was causing development delays.

Climate Change Minister Penny Wong this week announced $6.5 million for research into the potential risks from climate change, including vulnerable coastal communities.

A spokesperson for Senator Wong said responsibility for land-use planning and development approval rested with state and local governments.

The federal government's role was to lead national reform and provide information for decision-makers.

Opposition regional development spokesman Warren Truss said the inconsistent state climate change allowances reflected the imprecision of the science.

He said the inconsistencies showed that a national approach was needed.

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EU's 'carbon fat cats' get rich off trading scheme: study

Yahoo News 5 Mar 10;

PARIS (AFP) – Europe's system for industrial carbon quotas has enriched the continent's biggest polluters, with ten firms together reaping permits for 2008 alone worth 500 million euros, a new report revealed.

Dominated by steel and cement makers, the same "carbon fat cats" stand to collect surplus CO2 permits that -- at current market rates -- could be worth 3.2 billion euros (4.3 billion dollars) by 2012, it said.

This is roughly equivalent to the entire EU investment in renewable energy and clean technology under its economic recovery plan, according to Sandbag, a non-profit group in Britain that analyses carbon market policy.

"Emissions trading is meant to be the central policy for cutting CO2 levels," said Anna Pearson, Sandbag's top policy analyst.

"The fact that companies are able to make large sums of money for doing nothing highlights that the trading scheme must be reformed and EU climate change target strengthened."

Under the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), the European Union allocates carbon polluting allowances to member states to meet obligations laid out in the UN's Kyoto Protocol, for which the first commitment period runs through 2012.

The states then assign quotas to the industries that belch the most CO2 into the atmosphere.

Companies that emit less than their allowance can sell the difference on the market to companies that exceed their limits, thus providing -- in theory -- a financial carrot to everyone to become greener.

But the energy, steel and cement sectors that dominate the system, hit by the global crunch, are emitting less CO2 than forecast, which means surplus carbon permits are flooding the market.

Among the top ten beneficiaries, steelmaker ArcelorMittal collected more than 40 percent of the 2008 excess permits, reported Sandbag.

French cement giant Lafarge got about 12 percent, with Tata steel group subsidiary Corus and Swedish steel maker SSAB-Svenskt Stal each claiming about 10 percent.

Even if the permits are not directly resold for profit, the value will still remain on the companies' books, rising or falling with the market.

Most of the permits were generated simply because the companies were allocated more free permits than they wound up using, according to the report.

"Little or no actual 'effort' toward emissions reductions need have taken place, yet these companies will be able to literally bank the profits," it said.

The price of a tonne of carbon dioxide (CO2) or its equivalent has fallen sharply over the last 18 months.

After peaking at nearly 30 euros (38 dollars) in mid-2008, CO2 is currently trading at about 13 euros, according to BlueNext, one of several European carbon exchanges.

Viewed narrowly, the recession-driven drop in CO2 emissions helps the environment.

But low carbon prices give businesses little incentive to develop and install new technologies to slash future emissions.

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Activists cast doubt on Indonesia's vow to cut emissions

Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post 6 Mar 10;

Activists have cast doubt over the government's commitment to slash emissions to help combat climate change as required action plans have not yet been finished, five months after their announcement.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in September announced plans to voluntarily cut emissions by 26 percent by 2020 using the national budget with the formal letter submitted to the United Nation office in January.

Officials said the action plan document on emissions cuts was expected to be finished next month.

"It shows the government's lack of leadership in coordinating sectors to meet the targets," executive director of the Indonesian Environmental Forum (Walhi) Berry Forgan told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

"Ideally, details of action plans on how to slash the emissions should be finished before making any commitment to the international community."

The National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) said that discussions were underway to officially define the nation's forests.

Director of forest and water resources conservation at Bappenas, Basah Hernowo, said that estimations of the emissions cuts budget had also not yet been calculated.

"We hope that President Yudhoyono can sign the document in April," Basah said.

The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) requires each country to submit detailed action plans on how they plan to meet their pledged targets.

The documents should explain in detail where emissions cuts projects would take place and which sector would responsible for it.

Basah said that the targets would be set in seven sectors, including deforestation, peat land, sustainable energy sources, energy efficiency, public transport and waste management.

Officials at the State Environment Ministry earlier said that Indonesia would allocate Rp 83 trillion (US$8.98 billion) to cut 767 million metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) to meet the 26 percent pledge.

If developed nations provide Rp 168 trillion in assistance, Indonesia could slash its emissions by up to 41 percent.

Special assistant on climate change to President Yudhoyono, Agus Purnomo, earlier said the document was almost finished and was waiting for a presidential decree.

Berry has also questioned the government's commitment to protect the forest to reduce emissions with the signing of a new bill this week that puts protected and conservation forests at risk of being rebranded as commercial forests.

"We have warned the government to not focus only on image building in the international arena," he said.

Indonesia was one of the first developing countries to pledge to slash emissions when rich nations were reluctant to make similar commits.

Under the Kyoto Protocol, only rich countries were bound to reduce their emissions by 5 percent by 2012.

At the recent Copenhagen climate conference, rich nations rejected calls to set binding emissions reduction targets of between 25 and 40 percent.

Director of Climate change and energy at WWF Indonesia Fitrian Ardiansyah warned that Indonesia could be left behind by other developing countries in managing its climate budget if it has still not yet finished its action plan.

He said the President should clarify which office is responsible for organizing the emissions cuts targets.

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