Best of our wild blogs: 29 Mar 10

Mon 05 Apr 2010: 4pm – Benoît Dayrat on the biodiversity and evolution of gastropods from The Biodiversity crew @ NUS

It's that time of the year again..
from ashira

bleached anemone @ chek jawa
from sgbeachbum

back to horseshoe crabs
from isn't it a wonder, how life came to be

Brawl on the bark
from The annotated budak

Venus Drive
from Singapore Nature

Observing birds according to J Delacour
from Bird Ecology Study Group

Monday Morgue: 29th March 2010
from The Lazy Lizard's Tales

The Rebound Effect Happening for Earth Hour?
from AsiaIsGreen

Singapore compared to Belize
from Singapore by Stan Rule

Phase 2 of Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre
from Bornean Sun Bear Conservation

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Rethinking the population conundrum

John Gee, Business Times 27 Mar 10;

THERE is a secret that hides in plain view, but goes unrecognised. It is that a lot of Singaporeans want to have all the conveniences of the city, but to live in the country. Those who market property know. Most advertisements in the print media and on television show new apartment blocks with trees around them.

Some appear to be set in forests, although a glance at a map usually reveals that, at best, they have a view over forested land, but are largely surrounded by concrete and glass. Nevertheless, words such as "verdant" and "serene" are used to describe their settings.

They suggest something very far removed from the reality of much of the city state, where the hum of passing traffic is a constant, interrupted only by the late night driver celebrating the end of an evening out, by revving his engine and charging by at speed, and where the view from the window all too often consists of the windows opposite.

Supporting evidence is not lacking. The green spaces of the Botanical Gardens and local parks are very popular with visitors.

Surely, one of the most successful initiatives of the recent past, judging by the pleasure it gives to thousands of people, is the Southern Ridges Walk: A stranger plucked from elsewhere and set down along that trail could believe that Singapore is a heavily forested country.

Those fortunate enough to have even tiny patches of garden that could be covered by table cloths generally enjoy them very much. Last but not least, access to space and open countryside is one of the attractions of life in some of the countries that are attracting migrants from Singapore, such as Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

The fact that green surroundings are being seen as a strong selling point, is one of those telling details of daily life that ought to set long term planners thinking very deeply about policies that assume the desirability - or even necessity - of a significantly larger population.

Considerable effort has been invested in efforts to encourage Singaporeans to have more children, but with limited success so far. Current lifestyles and the heavy costs of raising a child have been cited as reasons, but it might also be questioned whether the built environment in which most live is also a disincentive.

It is certainly one of the factors that lead thousands to decide each year to make new lives for themselves in other countries.

The prospect of a more congested city, dominated by avenues of high-rises, where the pleasure of walking in the last green reserves will be diluted by the presence of thousands of others similarly seeking recreation for the body and repose for the mind, is not appealing to many people and they can hardly be blamed for wanting something better.

Among those most likely to opt for life elsewhere will be the educated and creative young people with marketable talents. They are the ones who face great difficulties in getting a foot onto the property ladder, but also appreciate a green environment.

If Singapore is having problems retaining the citizens it already has, then pronatalist initiatives may be compared to attempting to fill a leaky bucket by pouring water in faster - with the difference that the very act of pouring makes the leaks bigger.

There's a good case for arguing that Singapore could benefit from a greater emphasis on long term sustainability, and less on growth - certainly not growth at any price, or growth understood merely as expanded money making capabilities, with no qualitative element.

Instead of worrying about how to produce more people, an emphasis on the quality of life of the people, who are already here, might make for a happier citizenry that wants to stay in Singapore.

The quality of life is not primarily a matter of money. It includes factors such as more leisure time and reduced pressure on children in the education system, but also the reshaping of urban areas to give a greater sense of contact with the natural and rural worlds.

With enhanced productivity, the population might settle at a level that will be much easier on the environment than the oft-projected 6.5 million, and the country might be able to maintain and recreate the green environment its people clearly need.

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Earth Hour Singapore: results?

Being green for more than just one hour
Esther Ng, Today Online 29 Mar 10;

SINGAPORE - It is not every day that shipyard workers dine by candlelight, and travellers at Changi Airport's Terminal 3 check in in a darkened hall.

This year, the 400 Earth Hour participants in Singapore contributed to electricity consumption falling by 23 megawatts on Saturday - a drop that represented a mere 0.021 per cent of average electricity consumption for Saturdays, according to the Energy Market Authority (EMA).

The total reduction was only roughly half that of last year's Earth Hour, when power consumption fell 42 megawatts.

World Wide Fund for Nature's Earth Hour campaign manager Ms Carine Seror said: "There could a number of factors - people could have turned off the lights but not the air-conditioning. We'll be asking EMA to help us interpret the numbers."

But on the bright side, signs are that the Republic's green-consciousness is heading beyond one hour a year.

First-time participants, Marine Parade Town Council - which switched off the lights of its roof top structures and other peripheral lights up till 7am on Sunday - said it hoped with this initiative to make "long-term changes to the way we use electricity and resources".

"Water and electricity currently make up the single largest operating expenses at 36 per cent," explained its public relations manager, Ms Grace Wong.



For the long-term

Indeed, a number of companies have in place a number of long-term energy efficient practices. Multinational company, The Keppel Group, has environmental task forces across its various business units to assess impact of its environmental activities.

At its seven shipyards, office lights are programmed to be off during lunch time and when employees are out of the office. The air-conditioning is set at 24° Celsius in common areas and Newater is used to flush toilets and wash hulls. By switching off non-essential lights at its 32 properties across Asia on Saturday, the company saved the equivalent of 7.7 months of energy consumption of a five-room HDB household.

Beyond Earth Hour - which it observed for the second consecutive year - Changi Airport Group (CAG) dimmed lights at its terminals by 50 per cent during off-peak hours. Solar panels atop the roof of the Budget Terminal generate about 950kWh of energy daily, resulting in energy savings of some $60,000 annually.

Having attained a Green Mark for Terminal 3, an award by the Building and Construction Authority for environmental design and construction, CAG is pursuing Green Mark status for Terminals 1 and 2.



Small businesses next

To mark their second year of participation, Nanyang Technological University students threw a countdown concert. Some 200 people formed a giant "60", the official Earth Hour logo, lighting the formation with their mobiles.

Concorde Hotel threw a poolside party and about 60 hotel guests turned up. McDonald's turned off the lights of its Golden Arches and facades across its 110 outlets islandwide. It also switched off 70 per cent of dining area lights - up from 50 per cent last year.

But since a number of organisations already have substantive energy efficient measures, is the Earth Hour campaign necessary?

WWF's Seror told MediaCorp there is still a lot of work to do to reach out to small businesses.

"Big businesses have taken steps early because they are on the radar," she said. "But also in the long term, it makes good business sense."

Small businesses do not need huge investments to reduce their carbon footprint; Simple steps like turning down air-conditioning and switching off appliances on standby help, said Ms Seror.

Next year, WWF also plans to reach out to heartlanders and senior citizens with publicity materials in other languages.

More businesses, schools, people participate in Earth Hour 2010
Evelyn Choo Channel NewsAsia 28 Mar 10;

SINGAPORE: Earth Hour 2010 was celebrated around the world on Saturday night. And Singapore joined the fight against climate change for the second year running.

This year saw more participants from various groups of society.

At 8.30pm on Saturday, lights went out and the festivities began. Some took a more sombre approach to the occasion. But how ever they spent Earth Hour, one thing stayed the same - the commitment to save mother earth.

Organisers were heartened to see various organisations making their own efforts.

Amy Ho, managing director, World Wide Fund for Nature, Singapore said: "We get the sense that there is greater participation from organisations and community groups. That is because we have been receiving queries earlier than usual. Overall, in Singapore, more people are taking part."

When the lights came back on, clean-ups began. Unlike other major events here, the aftermath of Earth Hour 2010 didn't end on a messy note.

Small as the step may be, Singapore's certainly on its way to making the switch to save the earth.

- CNA/sc

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Green drive in Singapore switches to higher gear

Business Times 29 Mar 10;

The brightening economy, rising awareness and new 'green' technologies are helping to intensify the eco-friendly and sustainability focus in Singapore and across the region, reports ONG BOON KIAT

WITH the economic doldrums lifting and loosening purse-strings of businesses, eco-friendly, clean-energy and sustainable practices are expected to gain traction among organisations this year.

And for those hoping to slash their carbon footprint, a raft of new green technologies are emerging to help them do so more effectively.

The result, experts say, is an acceleration of the push to go green by businesses across the world this year. Singapore, which has a high per-capita rate of emissions relative to its neighbours, is expected to embrace the movement. One indication: the Republic recently pledged to cut carbon pollution by 16 per cent against projected business-as-usual levels by 2020.

The rising tide of public awareness of green practices and deepening worry over global warming is fuelling the movement, market watchers say, despite the fractious nature of last December's United Nations climate summit in Copenhagen and the recent controversy over climate science.

Technology is seen as a key enabler of green and sustainable practices. In a study last August, research firm IDC predicted that information and communications technologies (ICT) can collectively reduce global emissions by over 25 per cent annually by 2020, compared with 2006 levels. IDC added that companies in Asia Pacific can contribute to some 40 per cent of these potential reductions.

'Companies should not be focused myopically on profits and allow themselves to plunder the world. There should be prudent use of water, fuel, electricity and other resources in order to minimise waste and pollution,' said Sundeep Khisty, the green practice leader of HP Enterprise Services for Asia-Pacific and Japan.

Besides, he pointed out, going green today can give organisations a crucial market differentiation edge for commoditised products and services.

'Singapore businesses will experience greater shareholder value for their companies if they adopt green practices. If a company has the right green governance, their products and services will attract better pricing power.'

Upcoming trends

The green IT buzzword arrived about three years ago. The main focus then was around achieving better energy-efficiency within data centres and existing IT infrastructures, noted Philip Carter, associate research director of IDC Asia-Pacific.

'Obviously, oil prices was at a high in that period. It was also because new technologies that arrived then were based around virtualisation and automation, which helped to ensure that data centre operators can run their data centres in a more effective manner.'

But now, another green facet has emerged: sustainable practices.

'Here we see the adoption of more intelligent technologies in a more proactive fashion to actively reduce carbon emissions associated with normal business process,' said Mr Carter, whose research areas include green IT and sustainability practices.

IDC recently identified 17 key technologies that are most likely to have a positive impact on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. These technologies - among them smart metering, intelligent power generation, smart lighting, teleworking, virtual conferencing and telecommuting and electronic media - could help curb carbon dioxide emissions by 5.5 giga tonnes by 2020, the research firm said.

Mr Carter singled out video-conferencing and green building as among key technologies on IDC's list that will be important for Singapore.

'Video-conferencing is important for Singapore because this country is a regional hub for MNCs (multinational companies), which are looking at using this technology to reduce employee air-travel.'

Green building technologies are important for Singapore because of the fast pace of new building construction here.

Another driver for green projects is regulation and compliance, such as those around carbon emissions, recycling and waste material handling. Carbon emission regulations, however, could take a while to come to Singapore, he said.

'There is no regulatory environment in Singapore that relates to carbon emissions. Although Singapore has set a target at a country level, that hasn't been passed down to businesses,' Mr Carter noted. 'But there is no question in anyone's mind that at a global context, we have to move to a lower carbon-type of economy and more regulations will come.'

Lee Fook Sun, president of Singapore Technologies Electronics (ST Electronics), points to three key green trends that will be important for organisations in Singapore. The first is corporate initiatives to reduce, reuse and recycle. The other two are virtualisation and the use of solar energy.

He believes more companies will be implementing conservation practices, like tweaking their air-conditioning systems to match optimal conditions, using recycled paper, encouraging staff to car-pool, and using video-conferencing applications for meetings to cut down staff travel.

He said: 'Apart from contributing to a greener environment, these initiatives help firms bring down operating costs without compromising the quality and productivity of work.'

Mr Lee believes that solar energy could eventually become an important alternative energy source for Singapore, given that it is a tropical country. However, its adoption on a large scale is feasible only when solar energy cost is comparable to that of conventional energy sources, he noted.

Virtualisation, transparency

Virtualisation, a familiar green IT buzzword for the past few years, will continue to be a key trend this year, said Edwinder Singh, practice head, professional services, data centre solutions, Datacraft Asia.

'This is because in a typical data centre, server virtualisation is the easiest to implement and has the largest impact in terms of its many benefits,' he said.

Virtualisation refers to a set of technologies that lets IT managers carve out multiple virtual servers from a single physical server, or consolidate far flung hard drive systems as if they are a single unit. Doing so helps organisations maximise the usage levels of those resources and thus correspondingly, reduce their power consumption. In a data centre, virtualisation can help dramatically slash equipment cooling costs.

Said HP's Mr Khisty: 'The journey to change starts with being transparent. One key trend we're seeing is requirements of the firms to provide more transparency of their environmental social governance policies and to report a triple bottom line, consisting of planet, people and profit.'

Another trend is the growing pressure on the supply chain to reduce carbon footprint and increase energy efficiencies. Mr Khisty gave the example of HP's move to get its thousands of partners to reduce their carbon footprint.

Organisations are also looking at how to reduce power and cooling energy consumption on a long-term basis - a perennial concern for those which operate data centres. 'We have reached a boundary and now we have to push through that boundary. We have to rethink the whole model of delivery and use machines more productively and more efficiently,' he said.

Challenges

Vendors interviewed by BizIT see the high cost for certain green technologies and the general lack of perceived commercial value of green technologies as the key obstacles, among others, to their proliferation today.

Harold Klaje, director of sales for Asia-Pacific at IT management software firm SolarWinds, noted that the 'single, biggest challenge facing the adoption of green and sustainable practices is balancing the short-term investments and cost against the long-term return on investment', but this is where IT departments can help convey the value of such investments to their management.

ST Electronics' Mr Lee said: 'Economically, it is not yet viable or attractive enough for companies to dive into implementing green initiatives in a big way.' For instance, the cost of solar-powered solutions are still relatively expensive, he said.

'Many Singapore SMBs (small and medium-sized businesses) have yet to actively participate in the reduction of their carbon footprint and addressing the danger of global warming, because they probably feel that any impact made by them would not be significant, and that mega enterprises and governments should take the lead.'

He added: 'The government's efforts in educating the public on the importance and need to protect the environment, as well as appropriate regulations and incentive schemes can certainly influence the pace of adoption of green practices in the business community.'

Datacraft's Mr Singh said: 'With regard to measurement and reporting, getting accurate data is always a challenge. However, we are seeing an increase in technology that enables us to record and report the effectiveness of our programmes.'

HP's Mr Khisty said there is still a lack of awareness of the issue at the business level, on how it impacts organisations. Other barriers include the lack of expertise to develop a comprehensive business case and take the 'green journey'.

He also noted that while the Singapore government has initiatives in place to improve energy efficiencies in the building and real estate sector, 'more could be done to make carbon emissions reduction the primary driver to reduce Singapore's climate change impact'.

'Singapore should ask the public and private sector to show transparency in carbon footprint reporting as other countries are slowly initiating regulations to change behaviours and establish governance.'

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Benefits from riding the green wave

Eco-friendly workplaces are healthier and can result in cost savings
Marissa Lee, Straits Times 29 Mar 10;

GOING green is all well and good - helps the planet and all that - but Singaporeans do not like being denied their air-conditioning.

Working in an eco-sound building can often seem more like an endurance test in a sweatbox with desks.

But employees at the Standard Chartered (Stanchart), Citi and Xilinx offices at Changi Business Park have found that going green does not have to be an ergonomic compromise.

For them, working in a well-designed green office means embracing the environment outside rather than being boxed in and away from it.

It means more windows to maximise natural lighting and ventilation, which also means the end of jostling for once-rare window seats.

Stanchart chief information officer Shee Tse Koon said: 'One of the key things that I enjoy about working in this building is that it has lots of windows and plenty of natural light.'

Trees and shrubs deck a rooftop garden while greenery also infiltrates the offices and ground floor.

'The greenery and natural light provide a healthier working environment and give me a chance to relax, even if it's for a brief respite,' said Mr Shee.

Next door at the DBS Asia Hub, staff who move in from May are expected to benefit from the better air quality achieved by using 'green' materials, such as carpets that emit less volatile organic chemicals.

Carbon dioxide levels will be monitored in the office to regulate fresh air intake, while checks in the carpark will prevent harmful levels of carbon monoxide and exhaust gases from accumulating.

'Going green makes good business sense both financially and as part of a corporate's social responsibility,' said Mr Ho Twee Teng, managing director of technology and operations at DBS Bank.

'With better and cleaner surroundings, our organisation will benefit from healthier employees.'

Indeed, more companies are starting to ride the green wave.

Mr Tan Swee Yiow, chief executive of Singapore Commercial at Keppel Land, observes 'an increasing trend for multinational companies to include 'green' as one of the selection criteria when choosing office buildings'.

Keppel Land has pledged to achieve a minimum Green Mark Gold certification or its equivalent for all its developments in Singapore and overseas, as a form of product differentiation.

Keppel does not charge higher rental costs for companies that choose sustainable developments, Mr Tan said.

Lend Lease, the developer behind 313@Somerset, is also pushing for a greener work environment.

Last year, 313@Somerset was the first retail centre here to introduce the Green Lease.

'The Green Lease is a two-way collaboration with the tenants whereby the landlord helps them reach the centre's sustainability aspirations by providing consultancy, sustainability tools and access to sustainable vendors and materials,' said Mr Philip Yim, development manager of Lend Lease Retail.

A retail calculator was provided to show tenants how different choices with regard to a shop's interior and display could translate into reduced electricity usage.

More importantly, this information was translated directly into a figure of the tenant's energy savings, as well as the exact reduction in the business' carbon footprint.

While there are some higher initial capital costs for tenants that have invested in things like energy-efficient lighting, the average payback period is a mere one to three years, and Mr Yim expects this period to shorten as utility prices continue to rise.

'Having benefited from all this, some of our tenants have asked for our assistance in their other retail outlets in other centres,' he added.

But building a green workplace does not always mean higher costs.

The concept of passive design was deployed in the DBS Asia Hub so that the building is no less than a simple yet eloquent response to a tropical climate.

A double-glazed building facade and naturally ventilated staircases help lower the air-conditioning load and eliminate the need for mechanical fans.

The National Institute of Education (NIE) campus has also been 'greened' at no additional cost, with the help of sunscreens, overhanging roofs and cavity walls that let in light but not heat and direct glare.

But there is more to passive design than just metal and plaster.

'Our canteen is also known as the rainforest cafe,' said Mr Selvarajan Selvaratnam, head of the development and estate department at NIE.

He explained how the NIE cultivated a small plot of tall trees at the building's western face to shade the canteen and the library above it from the evening sun.

Besides creating a visually pleasing dining atmosphere, the foliage also doubles as a rain shield.

And like any other cycle of nature, NIE's green cost savings are ploughed back to staff and students via landscaping projects.

So far, NIE has funded the planting of more trees and the installation of a miniature water terrace, which has become a popular venue for wedding photos.

Rewards even went straight to the stomach when some of Mr Selvarajan's colleagues from the Malay language department identified a certain rough green fruit growing from the new trees as breadfruit.

They proceeded to slice, fry and serve them like potato chips to the other staff.

'So you have a form of multiracial bonding,' said Mr Selvarajan, 'because...most Indians and Chinese don't know about this fruit.'

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Eco-friendly shrimp farming in Terengganu, Malaysia

Michael Cheang, The Star 29 Mar 10;

The Integrated Shrimp Aquaculture Park that is being built in Terengganu is driven by a vision to place Malaysian seafood on the world map.

THESE are the prawns of progress. The shrimps of the future. The crustaceans of development. And here in this tiny village of Penarik, in the Setiu district of Terengganu, is where it will all happen.

If everything goes according to plan, the RM200mil Integrated Shrimp Aquaculture Park (i-SHARP) that is being built here will revolutionise not just the economy of this sleepy coastline district, but possibly the entire seafood industry in Malaysia as well.

Designed and constructed by aquaculture specialists Blue Archipelago Bhd (BAB), i-SHARP (which is set to start operations next year) encompasses a whopping 1,000ha, and will have about 600 ponds producing an estimated capacity of 10,000 tonnes of white-leg shrimps a year. Now that’s a lot of shrimp.

The main drawing point of i-SHARP is not its production capacity, but the fact that it aims to be the first sustainable shrimp aquaculture farm in Malaysia.

“i-SHARP is not just about shrimps. It’s about food, seafood in particular, about people, ecology and most of all sustainability,” said BAB chief executive officer Dr Shahridan Faiez. “We are trying to achieve a balance between economic growth, social well-being, and the ecosystem that supports all of us.”

According to Dr Shahridan, the shrimp aquaculture industry has evolved a great deal since the days when it was the main perpetrator of mangrove destruction and other environmentally-damaging practices. It has now reinvented itself by imposing the strictest requirements possible when it comes to sustainability.

“The market now demands high food safety and environmental standards. Producers who are unable to meet such standards will find themselves squeezed out of the market,” he said. “As such, it would be foolhardy for us to do anything unsustainable because it would only hurt our reputation and our business.”

In a shrimp shell, what the market is looking for are responsible producers who take environmental matters into consideration right from the planning stage to implementation. This is where i-SHARP comes in.

Look SHARP

The idea is to make i-SHARP a one-stop facility for shrimp farmers; they lease the ponds within the site and just concentrate on growing shrimp.

“What i-SHARP provides is a place where all the necessary certification is provided, the infrastructure is in place, and all the regulations are met, so that farmers don’t have to worry about spending money on all that,” said Dr Shahridan.

Much thought has been given to making i-SHARP a sustainable venture, not just economically, but more importantly from an environmental and social aspect as well.

Travelling by boat on Sungai Caluk, you would not have guessed that a 1,000ha shrimp farm was being built behind the thick mangroves that line the river.

“The minimum regulation for a buffer zone is 50m from the river. Our minimum is 70m, and at some points, the buffer zone stretches up to 180m,” said Sharizal Shaarani, BAB strategic communications manager, our guide for the day.

Just 5.5km outside the borders of i-SHARP, Sharizal points out a stark reminder of how damaging development can be if done indiscriminately – a vast swath of barren, cleared forest can be seen from the river.

“No one knows what was being done here,” said Sharizal, who added that it was a reminder of what BAB did not want to do when constructing i-SHARP.

“One of the factors in building the farm is that it must not be built on pristine forest land. Historically, the site in Setiu has been disturbed for logging and charcoal mining, and farms,” he said.

During construction of the farm, measures were taken to minimise impact on the environment and wildlife. The directional felling method was used during land clearing (to facilitate movement of wildlife into adjacent forests and prevent them from getting pocketed into fragmented forests or driven into adjacent villages). Silt traps were constructed to prevent silt from the construction site from flowing into the river.

A resident of Setiu and a conservationist at heart, Umar Salleh is the BAB senior aquaculture specialist and consultant in charge of making sure i-SHARP stays focused on its goals. As a former lecturer in Universiti Putra Malaysia’s Terengganu branch (now known as Universiti Malaysia Terengganu), he started the turtle conservation programme in UPM in Setiu in the 1980s, and used to do freelance conservation and consultation work for the Terengganu government before joining BAB.

“One day, we saw a tree in the middle of our site that had a bird’s nest in it, and I insisted that the contractors not bring it down until the nest was empty,” he said, beaming proudly.

Umar is also painfully aware of the poverty of the people in Setiu, the second poorest district in Peninsular Malaysia.

“i-SHARP will help to galvanise the economy, create jobs for the people here and lift the standard of living,” he said. “The locals are already working on the construction of i-SHARP. Even if they’re not working on the farm itself, there is already a positive impact on secondary industries in the area.”

Sustainable shrimp

To ensure that they cover all bases, BAB conducted a Detailed Environmental Impact Assessment (DEIA) study before building i-SHARP. This was subsequently submitted and approved on Sept 3 last year by the Department of Environment (DOE), thus making them the first and only aquaculture farm to have conducted and submitted a DEIA successfully.

The extensive consultation process involved 12 government state agencies, four federal agencies, 727 households in seven villages and several reputable environmental NGOs.

Through the DEIA, BAB was able to plan mitigation measures to conserve the surrounding wildlife and environment, some of which influenced the design of i-SHARP, at the cost of extra profits.

For instance, the shrimp ponds occupy only 38% of the 1,000ha. The rest of the land is used to ensure that the farm is run in an ecologically sound manner.

“In the old aquaculture model, you can be sure the production area would be 80%-85%, because the aim was to maximise production,” said Sharizal. “What we want to do is find the optimal production size so that we can produce and fetch a decent return, and at the same time not undermine the very ecosystem our production process is based on.”

The DEIA process also identified the riparian vegetation along Sungai Caluk as a High Conservation Value Habitat; as a result, BAB allocated an additional buffer zone of 200ha within i-SHARP to ensure the natural vegetation remains intact.

The company is working with Universiti Malaysia Terengganu to form a not-for-profit stakeholder organisation called Friends of Sungai Caluk, and set aside a 2ha site dedicated to the conservation of the area’s wildlife (which include the endangered river terrapins) and the riparian vegetation along the river.

“We want to show that sustainable shrimp aquaculture is possible. And that is why we invested in a bigger buffer zone, and allocated the 2ha of land for conservation purposes,” said Sharizal. “We have also taken pro-active measures with regard to the conservation of river terrapins.

“Another example of BAB willing to go the extra mile is the building of a submarine pipeline 1.2km out into the sea for their marine water intake. This ensures that the water intake will not have a significant impact on the terrapin nesting site at Pasir Tebing Penarik, and also to maintain the picturesque vista of the world class beach in Penarik.”

BAB has also been working closely with DOE to monitor the water quality of the river for a period of 12 months, so that accurate data can be used to remodel the impact of the water discharge.

To alleviate fears that the discharge will pollute the river, BAB will build what will be the largest sedimentation pond for a shrimp farm in the country, and practise minimal water exchange as well.

“The sedimentation process is so extensive that it will take almost four days before the water is discharged into the river. This will enhance the quality of our water discharge while reducing the volume of water discharged into the river,” said Sharizal.

“A 40ha pond translates to 80 potential shrimp ponds, which means we’re losing at least RM12mil in revenue per year. We want to make sure that this farm will be the first environmentally and financially sustainable farm in Malaysia.”

Food of the future

If all goes according to plan, i-SHARP may yet usher in a new dawn for Malaysian seafood. Dr Shahridan’s vision is that in the future, every shrimp that comes from Malaysia will be produced by i-SHARP.

“We want a whole new paradigm for aquaculture. The old way of aquaculture was done in small farms that had the classic problems of lack of scale and inability to perform consistently,” he said.

“We want these smallholders to come and produce in the secure environment of i-SHARP, which has all the necessary certification, security, bio-safety and infrastructure. They will have access to technical expertise, and can sell their products to processors who target premium markets.”

Through the i-SHARPs, BAB plans to raise the production of aquaculture companies, and raise the standard of aquaculture products in the country.

“We want to position Malaysia as a country of origin for safe seafood,” said Dr Shahridan. “Think about meat, for example. We tend to choose Australian beef or New Zealand lamb over those from other countries. We want the same thing for Malaysian seafood – so when people want safe, high quality and sustainable seafood, they will automatically go for Malaysian seafood.”

Related article
WWF Malaysia's Letter to the Editor on this article

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Bird nest industry catching up in the peninsula

The Star 29 Mar 10;

ALOR SETAR: The bird nest industry so far has been the domain of entrepreneurs in Sabah and Sarawak but the billion dollar industry is now slowly picking up in Peninsula.

Realising of the huge potential, a businessman in Alor Setar, Datuk Mohd Yusof Ismail without hesitation invested millions of ringgit in the swiftlet nest industry that is synonymous with the Chinese community.

Mohd Yusof noted that he became interested in the venture after a casual meeting with the chairman of the Federation of Bird Nest Traders Associations, Datuk Paduka Beh Heng Seong, in Sitiawan, Perak in 2008.

“It started as a casual conversation but after hearing Beh’s explanation on the lucrative returns from the bird nest industry, I was convinced that I should give a try.

“Several of my friends who were already in the industry also gave me encouragement saying that the risks on investment are low and also asked me to attend courses related to the field,” said Mohd Yusof, the managing director of Kumpulan Usima.

An initial investment of RM1mil to build two four-storey swiftlet farms in Kuala Rompin, Pahang early last year saw good returns within six months.

“This gave me the confidence to invest another RM2.5mil to build five more swiftlet farms in Jerlun, Kubang Rotan, Kuala Sanglang, Padang Sera and Tebengau respectively. The farms were completed recently.

“Though in Kuala Rompin alone there are more than 100 swiftlet farms, there is still room for competition and only that the startup cost is high,” noted Mohd Yusof in an interview with Bernama here.

The first harvest after six months recorded almost RM10,000 for each farm and one can expect the same returns for the first three years.

Normally, the harvesting is done once every two or three months. After three years, the returns may go up or down depending on the number of birds nesting there.

“Based on my experience, each farm can produce up to 3kg of bird nest and their market value is between RM3,600 and RM4,000 per kg for the unprocessed nest and the processed ones can fetch twice more.

“Currently the bird nests are sold raw as there is no expertise to process them,” said Mohd Yusof who has a list of regular buyers.

According to Mohd Yusof, the revenue would be affected at times when the birds migrate but there are ways to entice them to continue staying in their farms.

The design of the nesting building especially the entrance helps in retaining the birds along with the right temperature and level of humidity within and the calls to lure in the swiftlets, he said.

"It is not difficult to take care of the birds and there is no need to feed them. The only problem is that the nests get stolen even before the owners can harvest them.

“There was one I found a rope used to climb into one of the swiftlet farm building in Kuala Rompin. It is definitely the work of those in the know,” he said.

Lizards, ants and other insects too pose a threat especially when the birds are brooding but these pests can be rid off with the right pesticide.

However, the swiftlets are sensitive to the presence of owls that often eat their young when the adult birds leave the nest at night to look for food.

“I’m planning to open a bird nest exhibition room within the next four or five years when my business expands,” he said.

Mohd Yusof noted that he is willing to share his expertise with those keen to venture into this field which still has room for more participants.

He advised those lacking in capital to consider establishing a consortium to venture into this lucrative industry.

Meanwhile, Beh noted that the bird nest industry in Malaysia has a bright future looking at the demand and the price of the product.

“The bird nests from Malaysia is highly sought after in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Korea, surpassing the demand for nests from Thailand and Indonesia, two of the world’s biggest bird nest producers,” he told Bernama. -- Bernama

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North Sumatra River Blocked by Hunt for Killer Python

Jakarta Globe 28 Mar 10;

Medan. Residents living on the banks of the Tembung River in Deli Serdang district, North Sumatra, have closed access to the waterway as they hunt for a 7-meter-long python that strangled a teenager and then attempted to devour his body last week.

Access to a number of tunnels where the snake is believed to be hiding, allegedly created by textile company PT Panca Pinang to serve as waste dumps, has been restricted.

Residents have also burned vegetation around the tunnel over the last week to make the killer reptile easier to spot.

Andi, a local resident, said the blockade was necessary to protect people who came to catch a glimpse of the predator.

“We did not charge people who came here any money because it can be considered to be charging illegal fees,” said Andi. “Besides, the blockade is only temporary."

Despite the snake attack and reports of two other large snakes in the area, housewives and teenage girls living on the riverbanks bathed and washed their clothes in the river as usual.

Some of the housewives said that they were not afraid of the presence of the giant snake in the river.

Most of those involved in the search, as well as a number of visitors, believe the snake was still hiding inside the tunnels.

Junior high school student Mohammed Zakaria was strangled to death by the 7-meter python as he swam in the river on March 21.

The victim was swimming with three of his friends in the river when the snake reportedly emerged from a hole in the river­bank. Zakaria could not muster the strength to escape though his friends managed to save themselves, they said.

Zakaria was killed and was “almost swallowed,” according to residents.

Antara

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Microbial answer to plastic pollution?

Society for General Microbiology, EurekAlert 28 Mar 10;

Fragments of plastic in the ocean are not just unsightly but potentially lethal to marine life. Coastal microbes may offer a smart solution to clean up plastic contamination, according to Jesse Harrison presenting his research at the Society for General Microbiology's spring meeting in Edinburgh today.

The researchers from the University of Sheffield and the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science have shown that the combination of marine microbes that can grow on plastic waste varies significantly from microbial groups that colonise surfaces in the wider environment. This raises the possibility that the plastic-associated marine microbes have different activities that could contribute to the breakdown of these plastics or the toxic chemicals associated with them.

Plastic waste is a long-term problem as its breakdown in the environment may require thousands of years. "Plastics form a daily part of our lives and are treated as disposable by consumers. As such plastics comprise the most abundant and rapidly growing component of man-made litter entering the oceans," explained Jesse Harrison.

Over time the size of plastic fragments in the oceans decreases as a result of exposure to natural forces. Tiny fragments of 5 mm or less are called "microplastics" and are particularly dangerous as they can absorb toxic chemicals which are transported to marine animals when ingested.

While microbes are the most numerous organisms in the marine environment, this is the first DNA-based study to investigate how they interact with plastic fragments. The new study investigated the attachment of microbes to fragments of polyethylene – a plastic commonly used for shopping bags. The scientists found that the plastic was rapidly colonised by multiple species of bacteria that congregated together to form a 'biofilm' on its surface. Interestingly, the biofilm was only formed by certain types of marine bacteria.

The group, led by Dr. Mark Osborn at Sheffield, plans to investigate how the microbial interaction with microplastics varies across different habitats within the coastal seabed – research which they believe could have huge environmental benefits. "Microbes play a key role in the sustaining of all marine life and are the most likely of all organisms to break down toxic chemicals, or even the plastics themselves," suggested Mr Harrison. "This kind of research is also helping us unravel the global environmental impacts of plastic pollution," he said.

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How bureaucrats decided not to save the bluefin tuna

Adam Mynott, BBC News 28 Mar 10;

The latest two-week long meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) saw bureaucrats sweep aside expert advice on how to save the bluefin tuna.

There is no disputing they are important - vital decisions have been taken here in Doha in the past few days affecting plants and creatures great and small.

But international conferences as journalistic assignments struggle to quicken the pulse or stimulate the mind.

They are monuments to bureaucracy and they present a televised world stage to middle-ranking bureaucrats who, once they have pressed the button on the desk in front of them illuminating a red light indicating their microphone is on, seem very reluctant to switch it off again.

Middle-ranking bureaucrats are incapable of generating anything other than middle-ranking oratory.

There are moments of excitement, if that is not too strong a word.

When the vote came through not to allow Tanzania to sell a stockpile of elephant ivory there was applause in the hall: a victory for conservation.

There were equivalent levels of excitement and outrage when delegates voted not to protect the bluefin tuna and several species of shark which are being fished steadily to extinction.

Degree of suspicion

CITES delegates come together every two or three years to add and amend legal protection for a multiplicity of species.

Their decisions sit on top of years of detailed, dedicated research.

It is the high-profile, emblematic animals that get most of the attention - the tigers, elephants and gorillas - and crucial measures to protect other species like cacti, caterpillars and clams pass through often unnoticed.

Most issues are agreed by consensus but some contentious ones are pushed to a vote.

Balloting now takes place electronically. Member countries have voting buttons on their desks, and because the counting is electronic and less transparent than a show of hands, it is viewed with a degree of suspicion.

To build confidence, the chairman periodically carries out a few dummy runs to satisfy everyone there are no gremlins in the software.

On day nine as crucial votes loomed, delegates were invited to check the electronic balloting device once again.

"This is just to test the system," the chairman said.

"Here's a simple question to make sure the buttons are working properly: Is Doha the capital of Qatar? To record Yes, please press button number two."

Thirty seconds later, once the 150 delegates had reached forward to prod the relevant button and the votes were recorded, two nations, Croatia and Cameroon, had voted No and - perhaps from force of habit long-established in security councils and global gatherings - China abstained.

The Cameroon and Croatian delegations could not or maybe did not want to explain why they appeared to have learnt little about the city in which they had spent the past week.

The Chinese delegation remained inscrutable and said nothing.

Perhaps they thought it might be giving too much away if they stated unequivocally that Doha was the capital of Qatar.

What this identified, I think, is a level of cynicism and mistrust that is new to the convention.

Shock decision?

CITES - the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora - exists to save the planet's endangered species.

An international treaty mechanism which enables man to come together and stop the destructive exploitation of other creatures and plants.

No decision is taken without the support of expert evidence, and I cannot help but feel huge sympathy for the scientists and naturalists who tramp through dense jungle and wade through swamps to collect data.

They compile, assess and deliver a recommendation about the protection of a species that they understand in greater detail than anyone else on the planet; all too often that expertise is swept aside by baser instincts.

Maybe it is naive to be surprised that that CITES' lofty ideals have become sullied and tarnished by geo-politics, but it is impossible to apply anything other than a very cynical interpretation to the bluefin tuna vote.

Years of research by marine and fisheries experts have concluded that the bluefin tuna's days are numbered, and unless there is an immediate ban it will become extinct in the very near future.

Some experts fear its population in the Atlantic has already fallen below sustainable levels.

Delegates were being asked to give the fish the very highest level of protection and ban its sale.

Leading opposition to the ban was Japan, where most of the world catch is consumed in sushi restaurants.

The Japanese had applied months of diplomatic and not-so-diplomatic activity to their preparations for CITES and they took a 30-strong delegation teeming with fisheries experts to the Doha gathering.

Japan argued that a ban would be unfair, but the science supporting reasoned analysis was pushed to one side by politics, amid claims that Japan was trading promises of donor aid to developing countries in exchange for votes.

Japan prevailed and the bluefin tuna may be doomed.

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Time for China to share Mekong data

Michael Richardson, For The Straits Times 29 Mar 10;

CHINA has a public relations problem over a series of dams it is building on the upper reaches of South-east Asia's longest river, the Mekong.

Its dams are being blamed in some quarters for worsening the impact of one of the worst droughts on record in the Mekong basin.

'China's dams killing Mekong,' blared an editorial in the Bangkok Post last month. It asserted that the dams on upper sections of the river, which China calls the Lancang, were having an adverse impact on millions of people, many of them poor farmers and fishermen, living downstream in South-east Asia.

Earlier this month, a coalition of non-governmental organisations claiming to represent affected communities in South-east Asia said the Chinese dams had been built 'without consultation, apology, disclosure of data, compensation or restitution, all of which are now long overdue'.

In the wake of this criticism, Thailand's Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya said China and South-east Asia should not quarrel but find ways to improve management of the Mekong. How Beijing handles the Mekong problem will affect its relations with the region, especially Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam.

An indication of whether China is prepared to share more information with its neighbours will come this week at a conference being organised by the Mekong River Commission (MRC), the inter-governmental agency overseeing development of the river.

China and Myanmar are not MRC members. But as 'dialogue partners' since 1996, they have been invited to send high-level representatives to the summit in Thailand, which runs from Friday to Monday.

What are the facts? Much of northern Thailand, Laos, south-west China and parts of Cambodia and Vietnam are suffering from one of the most severe dry periods in recent history.

China's Yunnan province is among the worst hit areas. The Mekong dams are located in Yunnan mainly to generate electricity. Power is being rationed. Officials estimate that six million people are short of water and that crop losses will amount to at least US$1.5 billion (S$2.1 billion).

The MRC says its weather data shows that low water levels in the Mekong and its tributaries are the result of extreme natural conditions. Very low rainfall in the current dry season followed an unusually early end to last year's wet season. As a result, the river is at its lowest levels in at least 50 years.

However, this weather phenomenon coincides with a significant development in Chinese dam building. Last July, China began filling the reservoir of the Xiaowan Dam - one of the world's tallest dams and the fourth built in Yunnan on the Mekong mainstream.

In terms of water storage capacity, the first three Chinese dams on the Mekong, completed between 1992 and 2008, are relative minnows. Together, their reservoirs hold back just over 2.9 billion cubic metres of water.

The Xiaowan reservoir will hold 15 billion cubic metres of water, more than five times as much. Filling it is expected to take between five and 10 years, assuming that half the normal water flow is held back during this period.

Chinese officials point out that although 44 per cent of the 4,880km Mekong is in China, only 13.5 per cent of its average annual flow originates in China, far less than what comes from Laos, Cambodia and Thailand.

One of the questions China should answer is how much of the natural dry season flow is being held back, and how long will it take to fill the Xiaowan reservoir?

MRC chief executive officer Jeremy Bird says that in the next few years the completed storage capacity of the Chinese dams will lead to increased dry season flows downstream, with perhaps as much as 40 per cent more water reaching Vientiane on the Mekong in Laos.

However, he adds that for the time being the Chinese projects that have been completed are 'not sufficiently large to consistently deliver such benefits'.

China plans to have eight dams on the Mekong in Yunnan and may eventually build more higher up the river. By 2014, it is scheduled to complete another dam below the Xiaowan, at Nuozhadu. It will not be quite as high but will impound even more water, nearly 23 billion cubic metres. How long will it take to fill and how much of the Mekong's natural flow will be held back as it does so?

Eventually, the Chinese dams should have some positive impact. By retaining water in the wet season, they will help control flooding and river bank erosion downstream. Conversely, releases from hydropower reservoirs to generate electricity in the summer will help raise water levels in the lower Mekong in the dry season.

The best way of forestalling a recurring public relations problem with Southeast Asia would be for China to join the MRC and share river and dam management information fully with its downstream members.

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

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Rainy Season Brings Floods, Landslides in Sumatra

Jakarta Globe 28 Mar 10;

Torrential rain caused a landslide in Central Bengkulu on Sumatra Island on Saturday evening, blocking a major road connecting Bengkulu city and Taba Penanjung and delaying motorists.

There have been several landslides in the area over the past two weeks due to heavy rain that has drenched the area.

Motorist Mardi Cipto said he couldn’t take his family to Jambi due to the landslide.

“It is better to return to Bengkulu today rather than being trapped in this uncertain situation,” he said.

The roads in hilly areas in the Central Bengkulu and Kepahiang districts are particularly vulnerable to landslides during the rainy season.

On Saturday evening, local authorities deployed an excavator to clean up the affected road.

Over the past weeks, torrential rains have caused floods and landslides throughout the Indonesian archipelago. The Karawang area in West Java and the Sarolangun district in Jambi Province, Sumatra have suffered from flooding.

A total of 2,674 buildings in Sarolangun district were submerged after the Batanghari River overflowed last Tuesday.

On the same day, floods inundated around 7,000 houses in the subdistricts of Baleendah, Dayeuhkolot and Bojongsoang in Bandung district, following the Citarum River breaching its banks. On March 11, a landslide hit Ciawitali hamlet in Cianjur, West Java, destroying five houses and killing 10 people.

Meanwhile in Karawang, the floodwaters that inundated the area last week began to recede on Saturday.

But the flood victims kept their possession stored at temporary shelters or the houses or relatives, in case the area was flooded again.

“I am still traumatized by this ongoing flooding, said 41-year-old Dayat, a resident of Karawang whose house in the Bintang Alam housing complex was flooded.

“ I think it is better to secure my belongings here in my relative’s house instead of bringing them back to my home,” Dayat said.

Nana, another Karawang resident, was less fortunate than Dayat.

The 30-year-old man said he was too late in moving his belongings when the floods hit his neighborhood.

On the day the floods hit his area, he was working in Jakarta. “My wife and children did not immediately take our belongings out of the house,” he said.

More than 30,000 houses in 35 villages in 10 subdistricts were inundated by the Karawang floods.

According to Karawang’s social welfare authorities, the worst hit villages were found in the Telukjambe Timur, Karawang Barat and Pakisjaya subdistricts.

Before the floodwaters began to recede on Saturday, floodwaters in the three subdistricts were between 50 centimeters and two meters.

In certain areas, the floodwaters had even reached the roof-tops of houses.

On Saturday, Communications and Information Technology Minister Tifatul Sembiring visited the area and handed over six tons of rice, 200 boxes of instant noodles and 300 boxes of mineral water to local authorities to be distributed to the flood victims.

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Canada's annual seal hunt off to slow start

Yahoo News 28 Mar 10;

MONTREAL (AFP) – Canada's annual seal hunt was off to a slow start Sunday, with most fishing boats still moored in their harbors, as missing ice floes in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence kept their prey hundreds of miles to the north.

"I know one boat set sail tonight, at around 4:00 am in the morning," Magdalen Island seal hunters' association president Denis Longuepee told AFP.

"In past years, there were 10 to 40 boats weighing anchor" to go seal hunting, he added.

About a dozen hunters are aboard a ship trying to find a small harem of 1,000 seals spotted Saturday from a plane by Fisheries and Oceans Canada near Blanc-Sablon, in the northeastern corner of Quebec province, according to Radio Canada.

The mild winter this year has hampered the hunt for the Greenland seal. A lack of ice floes in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence has kept some 300,000 seals far to the north, off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador, where there is coastal ice.

That's good news for seal hunters in Newfoundland and Labrador, said Longuepee.

Seal hunting brings in 20-30 percent of the yearly revenue of 400-500 hunter-fishermen in Magdalen Islands. The rest of the year, they fish for lobster and clams.

Seal hunting is highly controversial for its perceived inhumane killing methods. The 27 European Union states in July 2009 adopted a ban on seal products, ruling the goods could not be marketed from 2010.

Around 6,000 Canadians take part in seal hunting each year along the Atlantic coast, and 25 percent of their sales had come from exporting products to Europe.

Canada and Greenland account for more than 50 percent of the 900,000 seals slain in the world each year. Other seal-hunting countries include Norway, Namibia, Iceland, Russia and the United States.

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Mongolia winter kills herds, devastating the poorest

Tyra Dempster, Reuters 28 Mar 10;

BEIJING (Reuters) - A severe winter has left 4.5 million dead animals in stockyards across the Mongolian steppes, and many poor herders face the loss of all their property just before the important breeding season.

About a tenth of Mongolia's livestock may have perished, as deep snows cut off access to grazing and fodder.

The damage to the rural economy could increase demands on Mongolia's already-stretched national budget, which relies on mining revenues to meet spending commitments.

The Red Cross launched an emergency appeal for 1 million Swiss francs to assist Mongolian herders, after it estimated that 4.5 million livestock have died in the country since December.

"The numbers of livestock that have perished have gone up very, very quickly and dramatically now to about 4 million which is roughly a tenth of the whole livestock population," Francis Markus, communications director for the Red Cross' East Asia delegation, said in Beijing after returning from Mongolia.

"This means that thousands of families, mostly coming from the poorest and most vulnerable layers of the herder population, have lost their entire flocks of animals and have been left in a very, very distraught and very, very desperate state."

Roughly one-quarter of Mongolia's 3 million people are nomads, while others also raise livestock in fixed settlements. Many go deeply in debt to buy and raise their herds, in hopes of making the money back by selling wool, meat and skins.

A similar combination of a summer drought, followed by heavy snow and low winter temperatures, which is known in Mongolian as a 'zud', caused widespread hardship in Mongolia a decade ago.

As a result, impoverished herder families flocked to the slums outside the capital, Ulan Bator, straining the city's ability to provide basic services.

"The herding community's situation is very hard now. The best off are those who still have around 40 percent of their livestock left and in the worst 50 cases are those who have lost absolutely everything," said Zevgee, speaker of the county parliament in Bayangol, southwest of the capital.

This zud was the worst for several years, with temperatures dropping to 40 degrees Celsius below zero or colder in 19 of Mongolia's 21 provinces, according to a World Bank report.

Around 63 percent of Mongolia's rural residents' assets are their livestock, it said, and at least 35 percent of the population earn a living from their animals.

Herder Tsendjav said that she had no option but to rely on the government and aid to survive the weather.

"I have seen many zuds that have caused the loss of numerous animals but I have never seen a zud as bad as this one," she said at a Red Cross aid dispensary.

(Writing by Lucy Hornby; Editing by Sugita Katyal)

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Grasshopper outlook strikes fear on U.S. Western range

Matt Joyce, Associated Press Yahoo News 28 Mar 10;

NEWCASTLE, Wyo. – Grasshopper infestations have taken on mythic tones here on the arid prairie of northeastern Wyoming — they blanket highways, eat T-shirts off clotheslines and devour nearly every scrap of vegetation on ranches and farms.

The myth may come closer to reality this summer than at any time in decades in several states in the West and the Plains.

A federal survey of adult grasshoppers last fall indicated that parts of Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota, North Dakota, Nebraska and Idaho could face costly grasshopper infestations this summer.

Ranchers and farmers as well as federal and municipal pest control agencies are praying for well-timed cool and wet weather to stifle the young grasshoppers when they hatch around May and June.

In the meantime, they're scrambling to line up the millions of dollars it will cost to battle an outbreak with aerial insecticide.

"They're grass eaters," said Tom Wright, a rancher near Newcastle in northeast Wyoming about 20 miles from the South Dakota border. "They'll eat the leaves and leave the stem. And they will eat the stems finally.

"When they're really thick, people say they'll eat T-shirts on a line," he said as he recalled a time in the mid-1980s when the grasshoppers were so thick that you couldn't put your hand on the shady side of a fence post without squashing one.

Grasshoppers are found across the United States, but outbreaks of pest species are most common in the Plains and Western states. Different species range from a length of under an inch to more than 3 inches.

They provide some ecological benefits, serving as a food source for other animals. However, some pest species are capable of eating their body weight daily in vegetation and can waste up to six times more by dropping forage to the ground.

Making matters worse is the prevalence of migratory species in the latest surveys — insects that can fly 60 miles in a day.

The Wyoming acreage infested with 15 or more grasshoppers per square yard increased more than 10-fold from 2008 to 2.9 million acres last summer, according to federal surveys.

Regionwide, surveys predict at least 48 million acres of outbreak-level infestation this summer.

"In some states, we may see some of the most severe grasshopper outbreaks that we've seen in nearly 30 years," said Charles Brown, the national grasshopper suppression program manager at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

No government agency keeps a comprehensive tally of the economic damage from grasshoppers, but the cost of spray programs can exceed a million dollars for a single county.

Last summer, when an outbreak first surfaced in Wyoming, the voracious insects hurt hay production and prompted some ranchers to downsize their herds.

Wright didn't sell any cattle because of grasshoppers, but his calves weighed 30 pounds lighter than normal last fall as a result of the insects eating up forage. The grass damage also forced the ranch to buy extra feed to help its cows through the winter, costing about $10,000, he said.

Paying to participate in a spray program could make sense if it was cheaper than the alternatives, he said.

"At the point that (grasshoppers) eat all the grass, you have to either sell all your cows, lease grass somewhere else or buy hay," he said.

Grasshopper eggs tend to survive better in untilled soil, but that doesn't stop the grown insects from hopping to cropland and eating crops such as corn, alfalfa, sunflowers, soybeans and sugar beets.

"In the past couple of years, we've had some crop damage by grasshoppers, especially alfalfa and soy beans," said Dave Boxler, a research technologist in entomology for the University of Nebraska based in North Platte.

In Wyoming, Gov. Dave Freudenthal announced this month a $2.7 million plan to help local pest districts and to pay for spraying on state lands this summer. Freudenthal and the state's congressional delegation have also urged the federal government to make more money available for treating federal rangeland.

Pest managers combat rangeland grasshoppers by using planes to spray alternating strips of land with an insecticide that kills the bugs in the nymphal stage, meaning it must be applied within a few weeks after eggs hatch.

Entomologist Scott Schell of the University of Wyoming said the insecticide, Dimilin 2L, has a very low toxicity level for mammals, reptiles and birds. It also has little effect on bees, he said.

Gail Mahnke, supervisor of the Niobrara County Weed and Pest Control District, said she expects grasshopper treatment in the eastern Wyoming county to run about $1.2 million this summer. That works out to a cost to landowners of about $1.65 a protected acre. The district plans to spend its $60,000 in emergency reserves on the project, she said.

Mahnke said she's not sure what will happen if weather conditions unexpectedly kill off the grasshoppers.

"When you're talking a $1.2 million deal just in this county, and getting it all set up and having all that money sitting here, and then those conditions just happen to hit perfect, what do you do?" she said.

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Delays clog new Indonesian oil output

John McBeth, Straits Times 29 Mar 10;

FOR a resource-rich country seemingly in a panic over becoming a net oil importer, a status that ended its membership in the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries two years ago, Indonesia sure has a strange way of showing it.

Indeed, the delays afflicting the 600-million-barrel Cepu block, the biggest oil discovery in Indonesia for three decades, illustrate all that is wrong with the oil and gas bureaucracy and even the investment climate in general. Regulatory and contract uncertainty and resource nationalism have already cut Indonesia's share of global exploration spending to its lowest-ever level.

Ideally, Cepu should have been in full production by 2005. The best bet now is that it won't be until 2014 that the oil is finally flowing along a planned 76km pipeline to an offshore storage container off the north-eastern Java coast.

When subsidiary Cepu Mobil discovered the main Banyu Urip field in 2001, there were grumbles over why previous concessionaires had failed to find it. The answer: state-of-the-art 3-D technology. Then followed four long years of wrangling with ExxonMobil's partner, the Pertamina state oil company, and a powerful lobby of nationalist officials and politicians over who would operate the concession.

There were also the uncertainties created by the October 2001 Oil and Gas Law and the fact that the legislation's all-important implementing regulations were not issued until 2004.

In late 2005, newly elected President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono fired the Pertamina board and cleared the way for ExxonMobil to take the lead in the US$2.7 billion (S$3.8 billion) venture covering Banyu Urip and seven smaller fields in the Cepu block.

Under a 30-year production-sharing contract, the government was awarded 85 per cent of the revenue, with the majority of the remaining 15 per cent shared by the two partners and a minority stake going to four district governments.

It was hoped the new oil bonanza, with its bonus of two trillion cubic feet of natural gas, would re-energise Indonesia's dwindling crude production. It turned out to be a faint hope.

ExxonMobil wanted to develop Banyu Urip to its 165,000 barrel-a-day potential in one step. But regulator BPMigas opted for a phased approach in the strange belief that the company had inflated the size of the field. Instead of one large separation facility, it proposed two smaller plants to be built at different stages.

When ExxonMobil objected, BPMigas prevailed on the company to put down two new wells, just to prove what it already knew from the 3-D seismic mapping. Mines and Energy Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro signed off on the plan.

By then it was mid-2006 and ExxonMobil told the government that it did not think it could get production going by 2009. Not only was BPMigas dragging its feet over contract approvals, but the company still did not have any land, only an inventory of the 700ha (held by 3,000 individual landowners) it needed for the processing plant and the pipeline right-of-way.

The company finally relented after receiving assurances it would get help with the land acquisition and that the early oil would be piped to a small refinery already operated by a Pertamina-PetroChina venture in an adjacent field.

But Pertamina failed to finish the 23km pipeline in time. So while Exxon met the start-up deadline in December 2008, it spent the next three months trucking the oil to Mudi in a fleet of 40 tankers - until the operation was deemed unsafe.

Nothing moved between March and August last year, when the pipeline was finally completed. Since then, the supply of oil delivered to Pertamina-PetroChina and a second small off-taker has risen to the promised 20,000 barrels a day.

By then, however, there was a dramatic new twist to the whole saga. Results from the two new wells showed ExxonMobil had, in fact, under-estimated the size of the field - by 75 million barrels! No guesses about what happened next: BPMigas proposed the one-stage idea the company had proposed in the first place.

The revised development plan went back to the minister's desk. But Mr Purnomo, now busy managing Dr Yudhoyono's 2009 campaign finances, left the issue to his eventual successor, Mr Darwin Saleh, one of the stranger choices in President Yudhoyono's new Cabinet.

Perhaps wisely, given his zero experience in oil and gas, Mr Saleh passed the buck to BPMigas. But again, it was another four months before the plan was approved and tenders called for three of the five contracts.

Even that process revealed the unhealthy side of doing business in Indonesia, with a company belonging to a legislator on the parliamentary petroleum commission vying - unsuccessfully - for one of the contracts. Other politicians merely sought pay-offs from a company whose adherence to corporate cleanliness and playing by the rules almost certainly contributed to its troubles.

Thanks to unbridled speculation, the Rp15,000 (S$2.30) per sq m tax value of Cepu's land eventually ballooned to Rp85,000, leaving the developers with an acquisition bill of nearly US$60 million.

By now, however, with all the time and expense that has gone before, it must seem to be cheap at the price.

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