Best of our wild blogs: 2 Apr 10

SPAWNED!
from Raffles Science Institute

New Aeolid slug from Changi!
from wonderful creation and Singapore Nature

Finding a 2m Long Boiga
from Life's Indulgences

Olive-backed Sunbird in comfort behaviour
from Bird Ecology Study Group

SECORE workshop - setting up (Part 01)
from ashira

Checking up on Labrador
from wild shores of singapore

Jalan Wat Siam
from Ubin.sgkopi

Indo-Pacific Coral Finder
from Compressed air junkie

New fiddler crab species identified
from Raffles Museum News

Where Have All the Butterflies Gone?
from Butterflies of Singapore

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Rescuing Indonesia`s coral reefs from blast fishing

Rahmad Nasution Antara 2 Apr 10;

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Endowed by nature with more than 50,000 square kilometers of coral reefs, Indonesia has been listed by the United Nations as s nation with the largest coral reef resources in the world, along with Australia and the Philippines.

According to the United Nations Environment Program World Conservation Monitoring Center (UNEP-WCMC)`s World Atlas of Coral Reefs (2001), Indonesia had 51,020 square kilometers of coral reefs or 17.95 percent of the world`s coral reefs.

This archipelagic nation topped the list , followed by Australia with 48,460 square kilometers, the Philippines (25,060), France (14,280), Papua New Guinea (13,840), Fiji (10,020), Maldives (8,920), Saudi Arabia (6,660), Marshall Islands (6,110) and India (5,790).

The benefits that Indonesia can get from its coral reef biodiversity are obvious because coral reefs are evidently the sources of food and income for a lot of people through such activities as fisheries and tourism and also sources of raw materials for medicines.

But the UNEC-WCMC has warned that human activities, such as blast fishing, are seriously degrading coral reefs in various parts of the world, including in Indonesia.

The UN body`s warning is based on factual information collected over the years. Blast fishing itself has been practiced in Indonesia since World War II.

C.Pet-Soede, H.S.J. Cesar and J.S.Pet argued in their research report (1999) that blast fishing was chosen by certain local fishermen in Indonesia because it was "an easy and profitable way to catch whole schools of reef fish".

While it was a practical and profitable for fishermen to earn their living, blast fishing, they said, was threatening the coral reef ecosystem and would eventually spell the end of coral reef fisheries.

Since the publication of C.Pet-Soede, H.S.J. Cesar and J.S.Pet`s report on their economic analysis of blast fishing in Indonesian coral reef waters in 1999 and the UNEP-WCMC`s World Atlas of Coral Reef in 2001, blast fishing has remained a frequent practice in Indonesia.

Although the government has officially banned it, the destructive fishing method, for example, continues to be used by certain fishermen on Enggano Island, Bengkulu Province, and in Kaduara Barat village in Pamekasan district , Madura Island, East Java.

Chief of Bengkulu`s naval base, Lt.Col.Sukrisno, had recently warned local fishermen of the danger of blast fishing for the preservation of coral reefs` biodiversity, and the legal sanctions they were risking.

Therefore, instead of using the home-made explosives, he urged them to use fishing nets as recommneded by Bengkulu province`s fishery and marine authorities.

Cases where fishermen are penalized for having practiced blast fishing happen repeatedly. On March 12, 2010, three fishermen in the East Java island of Madura, for example, were detained for possessing explosives.

The local police caught the fishermen of Candi hamlet, Polagan village, Galis sub-district, Pamekasan district red handed with the evidence minutes before they were about to go fishing.

Chief of Pamekasan police precinct Adjunct Senior Commissioner Mas Gunarso said his men seized 15 packs of home-made explosives from that the suspects. These law violators were threatened with severe sentence.

The direct impacts of this blast fishing has even been felt by the fishermen in the East Java island of Madura.

Basudin, traditional fisherman of Kaduara Barat village, Larangan sub-district, Pamekasan regency, said the fish catches of his and his fellows had badly been affected over the past years.

He suspected that the blast fishing might have contributed to the shortages of marine resources in the Madura sea because during the rainy season, certain local fishermen intensively used home-made explosives in fishing.

Every time they went fishing, they spent Rp100,000 - Rp150,000 in operational costs but they only got five kilograms of tiny sea fish. The selling price of this catch was no more than Rp100,000 in the local fish market, Basudin said.

In his opinion, the blast fishing activities had indeed destroyed all kinds of fishes, including the tiny and baby ones. The impacts of this destructive habit were not only felt by the doers but also caused the fish-net users like him to suffer from the poor catch. "But, we cannot stop them because we are all fellow fishermen," he said.

Besides degrading the marine resources, their destructive way of fishing had also destroyed coral reefs of the islands of Kramat and Pandan, he said.

Looking at the fishing condition in Madura Island waters, local authorities have periodically been holding public awareness campaigns and assisting the local fishermen with needed fishing tools.

For the fishing net users, they had once been given water-resistant lamps, Head of Pamekasan regency`s marine and fishery office Nurul Widiastuti, said.

Providing them with the government`s sponsored water-resistant lamps was part of her office`s efforts to promote a friendly fishing and care for safety of the local fishermen themselves, she said.

Apart from what the state apparatuses, like Sukrisno and Nurul Widiastuti, have done, the government need also protect the traditional fishermen from all sorts of unfair fishing policies and activities, such as letting them freely compete with trawlers on open sea.

The blast fishing may also be fought by introducing the fishermen to such alternative skills as breeding saltwater fish and running aquaculture.

With these people-empowered and oriented approaches, more fishermen can be persuaded to make a living by getting rid of any destructive way of fishing. (*)

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World whaling body could collapse if deal fails: New Zealand

Yahoo News 1 Apr 10;

WELLINGTON (AFP) – The international body to control whaling worldwide could collapse if a deal cannot be reached to allow restricted commercial whaling, New Zealand's representative said Thursday.

Former New Zealand prime minister Geoffrey Palmer, who chairs an International Whaling Commission (IWC) group trying to negotiate a deal, said the IWC could fall apart.

"I think there is a big risk of that and I don't relish it," Palmer told reporters in Wellington.

"We cannot afford to see the end of the International Whaling Commission because if it comes to an end, there will be no international instrument for protecting the whales."

New Zealand is opposed to whaling but is supporting moves to allow restricted commercial whaling over the next 10 years if it means a big cut to the number of whales currently killed by Iceland, Norway and Japan.

Under an IWC moratorium introduced in 1986 commercial whaling was suspended, but Iceland and Norway ignore the edict while Japan uses a loophole allowing lethal scientific research.

Palmer said the three countries had been increasing the number of whales they hunted in recent years.

"At the moment the number of whales for which quotas have been issued are more than 3,000 -- that should be halved and indeed that may not be enough in some places, at some times, and for some stocks."

"We are talking about a big reduction in the total number of whales killed compared with now," he said.

"An emotional attachment to a moratorium that is not working is not in my view realistic."

Palmer is travelling to Washington next week for a meeting of 30 countries involved in the IWC group trying to hammer out a deal in time for the commission's annual meeting in Morocco in June.

There is an April 22 deadline for coming up with a submission to go forward to the annual meeting.

Palmer said he was not confident the opposing sides of the whaling argument could agree on a workable deal, but said it was important they were still talking.

New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully also described a deal as "a long shot" but said it was worth trying.

"All the alternatives to holding these discussions are truly awful," he said.

Australia has taken a harder line, saying it will take Japan to the International Court of Justice if it does not agree by November to stop hunting in Antarctic waters.

New Zealand said it there was a good chance court action would fail, leaving controls on hunting weaker than ever.

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Hundreds of Olive Ridley turtle eggs washed away

Thaindian 1 Apr 10;

Bhubaneswar, April 1 (IANS) Despite various preservation measures, hundreds of rare Olive Ridley turtle eggs were washed away in tidal waves in Rushikulya beach, one of the three mass nesting sites in Orissa.
High tidal waves exposed the nesting sites, leading to a loss of hundreds of eggs in Rushikulya beach in Orissa’s Ganjam district.

“Eggs are getting lost since the mass nesting started. The high tide during full moon and new moon are creating havoc on the turtle nests,” said Rabindra Sahu, secretary of Rushikulya Turtle Surakshya Samiti - a voluntary organisation.

“It is a natural loss. We are trying our best to save the eggs through our staff members and voluntary organisations,” said Ajay Kumar Jena, district forest officer of Berhampur.

However, environmentalists are worried about the huge loss of Olive Ridley turtle eggs.

“A huge number of eggs are getting lost to tidal waves. We can save them by relocating the eggs from the shore till the hatchlings come out,” said an environmentalist.

Rushikulya beach is about 175 km from here.

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Britain approves Chagos Islands reserve, angers Mauritius

Yahoo News 1 Apr 10;

LONDON (AFP) – Britain gave the green light Thursday for the creation of the world's biggest marine reserve around the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean, provoking fury from Mauritius which claims the archipelago.

The reserve will protect an area which experts say compares with Australia's Great Barrier Reef for its marine life, including coral reefs, yellow fin tuna, turtles and coconut crabs.

It will include a "no-take" marine reserve where commercial fishing is to be banned, the Foreign Office said.

"The MPA (Marine Protected Area) will cover some quarter of a million square miles (400,000 square kilometres) and its establishment will double the global coverage of the world's oceans under protection," said Foreign Secretary David Miliband.

"Its creation is a major step forward for protecting the oceans."

But Mauritius -- where Chagossians were sent after being taken off the islands to allow construction of a military base -- lashed out at the decision.

"Perfidious Albion is dishonest," Mauritian Foreign Minister Arvind Boolell told AFP. "I am very angry.

"As recently as last week, I asked the British government through its high commissioner in Mauritius John Murton to present the results of the British government's consultations to the bilateral committee on Chagos," he said.

"The British government refused," he added.

The Chagos Islands were ceded to Britain in 1814 and the archipelago was evacuated four decades ago.

Its main island, Diego Garcia, is now populated by an estimated 1,700 US military personnel, 1,500 civilian contractors and around 50 British personnel.

The base played a key role in the 1991 military operation against Iraq.

Around 2,000 Chagossians were moved to Mauritius, which still claims the 55 islands.

Mauritius formed part of the same administrative area as the Chagos Islands when it was under British rule.

Most of the refugees are still campaigning to go back, although the British government has paid compensation.

Last month, Olivier Bancoult, of the Chagos Refugees Group, accused Britain of "trying to create a protected area to prevent Chagossians from returning to their native islands".

Miliband said in his statement that the creation of the reserve "will not change the UK's commitment to cede the territory to Mauritius when it is no longer needed for defence purposes".

He said the decision on the marine reserve was taken following consultation and pledged to work with "all interested stakeholders" in making it work.

The announcement was welcomed by environmental campaigners Greenpeace, who said it marked an "end to the unfair commercial exploitation of Chagossian seas".

"These coral seas are a biodiversity hotspot in the Indian Ocean and unquestionably worthy of protection from destructive activities like fishing," Greenpeace campaigner Willie Mackenzie said.

"The creation of this marine reserve is a first step towards securing a better and sustainable future for the Chagos Islands.

"But this future must include securing justice for the Chagossian people and the closure and removal of the Diego Garcia military base."

UK okays world's biggest sea reserve, angers islanders
Adrian Croft, Reuters 1 Apr 10;

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain created the world's biggest marine reserve in its Indian Ocean territory on Thursday, pleasing environmentalists but angering exiled Chagos Islanders who say it creates an obstacle to them returning home.

Foreign Secretary David Miliband ordered the creation of a marine reserve, where commercial fishing is banned, in the British Indian Ocean Territory, made up of 55 tiny islands, including Diego Garcia, which houses a U.S. air base.

Some 2,000 Chagos Islanders were forcibly removed from the archipelago in the 1960s and '70s to make way for the American base and have waged a long legal battle for the right to return.

Representatives of the Chagos Islanders, who have now taken their case to the European Court of Human Rights, argue that the creation of the reserve will stop them returning home because it bars fishing, their main livelihood.

The new "marine protected area" will cover a quarter of a million square miles -- an area larger than California -- and doubles the area of the world's oceans under protection.

"Its creation is a major step forward for protecting the oceans," Miliband said in a statement.

The decision by the British government comes weeks before an election that opposition Conservatives are favorites to win.

The U.S.-based Pew Environment Group, one of a number of conservation groups that campaigned for the creation of the marine reserve, called Miliband's decision "a historic victory for global ocean conservation".

It said the Chagos Islands rivaled the Galapagos Islands and the Great Barrier Reef in ecological diversity and the area was important for research on climate change, ocean acidification, the resilience of coral reefs and sea level rise.

SAFE HAVEN FOR WILDLIFE

It said the islands provided a safe haven for dwindling populations of sea turtles and more than 175,000 pairs of breeding sea birds. The sparklingly clean waters around the islands are home to 220 species of corals and more than 1,000 species of reef fish, it said.

But islanders and their supporters said the move could be used to prevent them returning home.

"They will say that if you go there, you are not allowed to fish. How are you going to feed yourself? How are you going to get your livelihood?," Roch Evenor, an islander who chairs the UK Chagos Support Association, told Channel 4 News.

Marcus Booth, vice-chair of the association, which supports islanders' right to return home, accused the government of disregarding the islanders' rights in a rushed move to secure an environmental legacy before the election.

Diego Garcia became an important base for the United States during the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts, acting as a refueling site for long-range bombers.

In 2008, Britain acknowledged that two U.S. planes carrying terrorism suspects had refueled there six years earlier.

Several British courts ruled that evicted islanders and their descendants had a right to return home but Britain's highest court overturned those rulings in 2008.

The islanders and their descendants are now believed to number about 5,000. Around a fifth are looking to resettle on the islands, which have belonged to Britain since 1814.

(Editing by Louise Ireland)

UK sets up Chagos marine reserve
Paul Rincon, BBC News 1 Apr 10;

The UK government has created the world's largest marine reserve around the Chagos Islands.

The reserve would cover a 545,000-sq-km area around the Indian Ocean archipelago, regarded as one of the world's richest marine ecosystems.

This will include an area where commercial fishing will be banned.

But islanders, who were evicted to make way for the US air base on the island of Diego Garcia, say a reserve would effectively ban them from returning.

UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband said establishing the reserve would "double the global coverage of the world's oceans under protection".

He commented: "Its creation is a major step forward for protecting the oceans, not just around BIOT [British Indian Ocean Territory] itself, but also throughout the world.

"This measure is a further demonstration of how the UK takes its international environmental responsibilities seriously."

Conservationists say the combination of tropical islands, unspoiled coral reefs and adjacent oceanic abyss makes the area a biodiversity hotspot of global importance.

Rich ecosystem

The archipelago, which has been compared to to the Galapagos Islands and to Australia's Great Barrier Reef, hosts the world's biggest living coral structure - the Great Chagos Bank. This is home to more than 220 coral species - almost half the recorded species of the entire Indian Ocean, and more than 1,000 species of reef fish.

William Marsden, chairman of the Chagos Conservation Trust, commented: "Today's decision by the British government is inspirational. It will protect a treasure trove of tropical, marine wildlife for posterity and create a safe haven for breeding fish stocks for the benefit of people in the region."

Mauritius has asserted a claim to sovereignty over the islands; and the UK has agreed to cede the territory when it is no longer required for defence purposes.

But in a letter to the Sunday Times newspaper earlier this year, Mauritius' High Commissioner Abhimanu Kundasamy said: "There can be no legitimacy to the [marine protected area] project without the issue of sovereignty and resettlement being addressed to the satisfaction of the government of Mauritius."

The former residents of the islands, who were evicted from the British overseas territory between 1967 and 1971 to make way for the US Air Force base on the largest island, Diego Garcia, have fought a long-running battle in the UK courts for the right to return.

Of the islands, only Diego Garcia, which has played a key role in the US-led operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, is currently inhabited.

Resettlement fight

Some Chagossians claim the marine protected area (MPA) would "severely jeopardise" any resettlement, because it would prevent them from fishing - their main livelihood.

The islanders' legal saga is not over; Chagossians are now pursuing their cause through European courts.

In a statement on its website, The UK Chagos Support Association said the Foreign Secretary's announcement left several key questions unanswered and called on Mr Miliband to involve Chagossians in the marine protection project.

The association said the announcement did not make clear whether zones could be established within the MPA in which "limited, sustainable fishing could take place".

The statement also criticised the timing of the decision: "It is... bitterly disappointing that the government has felt it appropriate to make its announcement now, whilst parliament is [in] recess."

In his statement, Mr Miliband pointed out that the decision had been taken following a consultation (in which 90% of those who responded supported greater marine protection). He also said the Foreign Office intended "to continue to work closely with all interested stakeholders".

He added that the decision over the protection zone "is, of course, without prejudice to the outcome of the current, pending proceedings before the European Court of Human Rights".

'Conservation legacy'

Some Chagossian representatives back the reserve. Allen Vincatassin, from the UK-based Diego Garcian Society, told BBC News: "I am personally delighted that the Foreign Secretary has made the brave decision to protect the (BIOT)."

Mr Vincatassin told me he regarded the issue of the MPA as separate from the question of the right to return: "If a resettlement occurs in future on the outer islands, the marine protected area can be adjusted. These are two separate issues and I think there has been a deep misunderstanding."

He called the exile of the Chagossians "a great injustice", but added: "We don't want another state to come and exploit the area, do massive construction of hotels and bring in commercial fishing. Then the area will be finished."

Conservationists said the 545,000-sq-km (210,000-sq-mile) protection zone - an area twice the size of the UK - would prohibit activities such as industrial fishing and deep-sea mining.

Alistair Gammell, from the Pew Environment Group, said he was "thrilled" with the decision, adding that the oceans "desperately need better protection".

He commented: "In 2010, the International Year of Biodiversity, the UK has secured a conservation legacy which is unrivalled in scale and significance, demonstrating to the world that it is a leader in conserving the world's marine resources for the benefit of future generations."

The Foreign Office said it had been advised that the BIOT was crucial for repopulating coral systems along the East Coast of Africa and hence to the recovery in the marine food supply in sub-Saharan Africa.

The conditions of the MPA are expected to be enforced by the territory's patrol vessel.

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Court Voids Malaysian Palm Oil Giant's Leases on Native Lands

Environment News Service 1 Apr 10;

MIRI, Sarawak, Malaysia, April 1, 2010 (ENS) - A native community on the Tinjar River in the Malaysian part of Borneo has won an important legal battle against the Sarawak state government and a subsidiary of IOI, one of the world's largest palm oil companies.

Twelve years after the natives' class action lawsuit was filed, the Miri High Court Wednesday declared leases of Kayan native customary lands "null and void" because they had been issued by the Sarawak state government to IOI Pelita in an illegal and unconstitutional manner.

The court declared that the five plaintiffs who represented their village of Long Teran Kanan in the class action case possess native customary rights over their native customary land area, both on the leased lands and beyond them "according to the plaintiffs' communal boundary."

The court also found that issuance of the leases constitutes a violation of the rights of the plaintiffs to their property which is the source of their livelihood.

The court ruled that the company and its agents "are trespassing" over the land of the plaintiffs and awarded both exemplary and aggravated damages to the Long Teran Kanan native community. Any damages and losses suffered by the plaintiffs will be assessed by the Deputy Registrar of the High Court at a date to be fixed.

Outside the courthouse plaintiff Emang Jau said he was very happy with the judgement. He urged the state government not to appeal the High Court decision.

Jau said, "Previous and current ministers, elected representatives and government officers have encouraged us to develop our land and not leave it idle. We have received a lot of assistance from the government when our previous longhouse was burnt twice and also from subsidies to plant rubber, cocoa and paddy [rice]. So it is unfair for the government to accuse us of not having any rights at all."

Lah Anyie, the first plaintiff and also the headman for Long Teran Kanan asked, "Why does the company and the government accuse us of being squatters when our village is officially recognized by the government as a legitimate village?"

The Court decision also discredits the so-called Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil, which, according to IOI, had found in a probe that the company "had acted responsibly for the management of land in Sarawak."

IOI, a Malaysian palm oil producer serving markets in 65 countries, is a founding member of the Roundtable. IOI Pelita is its subsidiary.

Nongovernmental organizations that have supported this native community and others in their fight for native customary rights and land rights are urging the Sarawak state government not to appeal the High Court's ruling.

The Borneo Resources Institute Malaysia says the Sarawak government should let the ruling stand. "Even though the government has a right to appeal, they have to take into account their priorities to the people, espoused by the slogan, 'Peoples First, Performance Now,'" the institute said in a statement Wednesday.

The Bruno Manser Fund, based in Switzerland, said today that it welcomes the Miri High Court decision and "expects IOI to stop its jungle clearance activities and move out of the disputed lands in the Tinjar region with immediate effect."

Last December, a BBC News investigation found that vast tracts of former rainforest were being bulldozed in the disputed IOI operations area. BBC reporters documented "a scene of absolute devastation: a vast scar on the landscape."

On March 15, Friends of the Earth Europe and its Dutch branch Milieudefensie issued a report presenting evidence that IOI was responsible for large-scale illegal and unsustainable activities in the Indonesian part of Borneo.

The report exposes the illegal activities of the IOI Group and shows that the increasing demand in Europe for palm oil in food and biofuels is leading to deforestation, breaches of environmental law and land conflicts in Asia.

"The picture that arises from our investigation differs considerably to the promise of sustainable palm oil that is being presented by the IOI Corporation," Friends of the Earth states in its report. "As IOI is expanding its plantations to capitalise on the growing market opportunities for palm oil, it is failing ... to live up to the standards it has subscribed to."

The IOI Group responded that its own investigation into these allegations found that "Milieudefensie's field research had been highly selective and limited, and that several incidents on which allegations were based were incorrectly reported. The investigation also concluded that no land conflicts have occurred, nor have any laws or RSPO regulations been violated."

"IOI Corporation is also not involved in any open burning activities and, as part of its zero-burning policy, is monitoring and preventing third-party burning activities on its concessions," the company said in a statement March 25.

"IOI Corporation is determined to demonstrate its commitment to its sustainability goals and its compliance with legal regulations and RSPO Principles and Criteria by openly providing concerned stakeholders with insight into company field documents and procedures," the company said.

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Environmentalists decry gold mining in Lampung naitonal park

Oyos Saroso H.N., The Jakarta Post 1 Apr 10;

Conservationists in Lampung are up in arms over the resumption of gold mining in the Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park, saying the activity threatens the area’s ecosystem.

“Gold mining in the forest is destroying the ecosystem,” Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) campaign manager Mukri Friatna said recently.

“We have proof that gold-mining activities carried out by PT Natarang Mining in the park from 2006 to 2008 have damaged the forest.”

He added the Lampung Forestry Office should be held accountable for breaching the mining ban in the national park by granting concessions in the area to miners.

“The company had initially stopped mining after protests from the public and environmental groups,” Mukri said.

Lampung Forestry Office head Hanan A. Razak said the provincial administration had allowed gold mining within a 40-hectare area in the national park, which straddles West Lampung and Tanggamus regencies, saying it would bring significant economic benefits for the people of Lampung.

Hanan added the mining activities were legitimate under the forestry law.

“The mining is carried out underground so it doesn’t affect trees aboveground,” he claimed.

“We issue the concessions, and we benefit from the economic activities entailed.”

Natarang Mining previously explored a 40-hectare concession in Tanggamus before it was forced to stop in 2008.

“The concession is right next to the national park so any activity there severely threatens the park,”said Walhi Lampung director Hendrawan.

“Part of the concession overlapped into the park.”

He added gold mining in the national park would aggravate the problem of illegal logging and lead to greater threats to the wildlife.

“The illegal loggers at work in the area have already encroached into the habitat of the wild elephants,” Hendrawan said.

“So if we get gold miners in there too, the elephants’ mobility will be severely restricted and we’re going to see more incidents of elephants stampeding in villages and farms.”

Tanggamus resident Meza Swastika said he had noticed more guard posts and helipads in the area.
“It’s a given that mining will cause environmental damage,” he said.

“Plus they’re going to disturb a historical site that most locals believe dates back to the Majapahit Kingdom.”

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Dutch experts advise Vietnam on dealing with rising sea

Vietnam News 2 Apr 10;

MEKONG DELTA — It was high time for Viet Nam, especially Mekong Delta provinces, to put climate change on top of its list of concerns, experts said at a recent conference on climate change response plans for the Mekong Delta, held in Can Tho City.

Over the last 30 years, the delta's average temperature has increased 0.5 degrees Celsius, while the number of days with temperatures over 35 degrees Celsius has also increased, according to vice chairman of the Can Tho City People's Committee Nguyen Thanh Son.

Natural resource exploitation and construction projects along the rivers had affected water levels, said Son. River waters had been reduced by 30 per cent in both the dry and rainy seasons compared to last century, leading to a shortage of water and the encroachment of salinated waters.

These changes have also affected people's health, livelihoods and agricultural production.

According to the Ministry of Natural Resource and Environment's recent climate change scenario, the delta's temperature may increase 10 degrees Celsius by 2050, and another 10 degrees Celsius by 2100, rainfalls may increase by 0.8-1.55 per cent and the sea level may rise 33-75cm. The delta will be inundated if the level goes 1m higher, with the hardest-hit localities including Ca Mau, Bac Lieu, Hau Giang, Long An, Soc Trang, Kien Giang and Can Tho.

"Learning experiences from other countries, including the Netherlands, is necessary for Viet Nam, especially for the Mekong Delta provinces, to respond to and mitigate the impacts of climate change," said minister Pham Khoi Nguyen.

Nguyen emphasised that helping the delta respond to climate change effectively and safely was a great task, for both national and international food security.

The Netherlands' former Minister of Agriculture, Cornelis Pieter Veerman, said that the two countries had many geographical similarities and both faced huge risks of rising sea levels and climate change.

At the conference, delegates shared information about climate change, then jointly set up targets and medium- and long-term strategies based on practical situations.

Professor Eelco Van Beek said that the delta provinces needed to improve their dykes and their sewage systems to raise capacities to cope with floods, set up drought/flood warning systems and to raise people's awareness.

Also on this occasion, experts from the Netherlands came to work with relevant sectors in Viet Nam.

The final plans, once approved by Vietnamese authorities, will be designed in detail to call for investments. Experts also had concerns about the frequent occurrences of landslides along the banks of the Hau River and the Tien River, even during the dry season.

In Can Tho City, along with the recent collapse of the Tra Nien Bridge, the authorities warned that six other bridges were facing high risks of landslides. Landslide warnings were also issued for Vinh Long, Ben Tre and Dong Thap provinces.

Unstable foundations and excessive sand exploitation from the rivers were blamed for the landslides, said Cao Van Be, director of An Giang Department of Natural Resources and Environment.

The conference, held by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and the embassy of the Netherlands in Viet Nam, was one of the activities under the co-operation memorandum signed by the two countries last October. — VNS

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A Call for Hong Kong to Clean the Air

Bettina Wassener, The New York Times 31 Mar 10;

HONG KONG — Top business leaders in Asia’s financial hub are sounding a bit like environmental activists these days, taking a stand against the persistently unhealthy levels of air pollution gripping this city.

“I ran a half-marathon recently, and I was coughing,” William Fung, managing director of one of Hong Kong’s largest firms, the giant trading company Li & Fung.

“Hong Kong has to do as much as it can to clean up the local environment,” he said at its earnings news conference last week. So far, he added, the government has been “too timid on almost every move they have made.”

Mr. Fung’s remarks reflected a growing frustration here with the perpetually poor air quality and the commercial implications for a city that prides itself on being one of Asia’s most forward-looking centers of international finance.

Mr. Fung made his comments two days after pollution levels had streaked past the upper 500-point end of a government index, more than doubling the previous record of 202, set in 2008. The authorities warned people to avoid outdoor activities, and many schools canceled sports activities.

Pollution levels have since subsided. On Wednesday, the index registered about 60, although even that is classified as high. The levels of March 22, however, thrust the issue into the public eye at home and abroad, and raised pressure on the authorities to do more to contain homegrown pollution.

The Clean Air Network and Civic Exchange, a public policy group, say that the air breathed by Hong Kong’s seven million residents is three times more polluted than New York’s and more than twice as bad as London’s. And when one applies the standards of the World Health Organization, Hong Kong’s air is healthy only 41 days a year, they say.

For Hong Kong, pollution is not just about poor visibility and canceled school athletics. Many analysts and business people say the failure to push ahead on controlling emissions also risks tarnishing Hong Kong’s reputation of being one of Asia’s most advanced cities.

“If Hong Kong is to maintain its status as a world city, it has to show it is adopting standards of the highest order including in managing its own pollution,” said Richard Vuylsteke, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, which has long been vocal on the issue. “There are a lot of smart people in this town, so you have to ask yourself: How come this has not been addressed more so far? It’s a matter of political will and public support.”

The interest by business leaders is giving activists new hope that some action finally may be taken.

“In my opinion, it’s an opening salvo for business to advocate visibly, even loudly, for more aggressive air cleanup measures,” said Joanne Ooi, chief executive of the Clean Air Network, a nongovernmental organization set up last July.

Not all of Hong Kong’s pollution is generated by local traffic or power stations. Much blows in from factories in the neighboring mainland Chinese province of Guangdong, where many of China’s exports are manufactured, and from vessels moving cargo through one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes. A sandstorm sweeping in from the mainland aggravated the situation March 22.

But environmental campaigners like the Clean Air Network estimate that more than half the time, the bad air quality here can be attributed to local sources, rather than to fumes from across the Chinese border.

“If half the pollution you can see here in Hong Kong is Hong Kong-generated, then there is a great deal that can be done domestically to reduce pollution,” said Jonathan Slone, chief executive of CLSA, a brokerage firm based in Hong Kong, echoing Mr. Fung’s comments. “Air pollution needs to be a top fiscal policy.”

Hong Kong’s government has pledged to “leave no stone unturned” to achieve better air quality and said in an e-mailed statement Wednesday that it was also working with Guangdong on reducing emissions in the Pearl River Delta region. Still, environmentalists argue that a current review that aims to improve official air quality objectives is not ambitious enough.

In a twist, Hong Kong risks being put to shame by mainland China, many of whose cities suffer even worse air quality but which has been pushing ahead with fairly aggressive efforts to clean up its environmental act.

Mainland China, estimates CLSA, is earmarking more than $450 billion for environmental protection and cleanup in the five years from 2011 to 2015 — more than double what was spent during the previous five-year period.

Hong Kong’s proximity to China ensures that it will remain a crucial business location even if Singapore is a constant rival for the title of top Asian financial center, and has a greener and more family-friendly environment.

But studies show that environmental issues play an important role in businesses’ ability to attract and retain top staff, and that they need to be taken seriously.

A survey conducted in 2008 by the American Chamber of Commerce found that about 40 percent of companies in Hong Kong had experienced difficulty recruiting professionals to come and work in the city. Many more said they knew of people who had turned down job opportunities here or were thinking of leaving because of the environment.

Similarly, a 2006 study by the recruitment firm Hudson found that Hong Kong companies often had to offer potential overseas employees much higher salary packages as a direct result of pollution.

And ECA International, which advises companies on posting staff abroad, said in a report last week that “air pollution continued to be the dominant factor that makes Hong Kong a harder location for international assignees to adapt to.”


This, said Lee Quane, regional director for ECA, could affect Hong Kong's "competitive edge with other countries in the region."

To be sure, the current economic backdrop means that "clean air is certainly not a key issue on job seekers' minds right now," said James Carss, general manager of the Hong Kong office of Hudson, whose 2006 survey was conducted well before the global financial crisis.

But, propelled by growing local concern, the issue is likely to reemerge as the recruitment market gains traction.

"Give it another year, and pollution will be top of the agenda again," Mr. Carss said.

Read more!

Mekong power plan will affect millions of lives : activists

Pongphon Sarnsamak, The Nation 2 Apr 10;

Civic groups, academics and environmental activists yesterday called for the Mekong River Commission (MRC) to revise its 10year hydropower development plan on the river and its tributaries, saying the current plans would adversely affect millions of lives living downstream.

Representatives from Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Burma and China open a twoday MRC summit in Hua Hin today.

The MRC Secretariat's chief executive officer, Jeremy Bird, said the Hua Hin summit would focus on regional cooperation issues and the record of cooperation over the past 15 years.

"They will use this anniversary as an opportunity to assess the achievements, to look at the challenges in the future from the water resources infrastructure and climate change, to reaffirm the commitment from four member countries for basin management cooperation," he said.

Activists rebutted Bird's optimism.

Witoon Permpongsacharoen of the Mekong Energy and Ecology Network and the Foundation for Ecological Recovery, presented a paper called "The Definite Future Situation", at a Chulalongkorn University seminar. The paper looks at the river five to 10 years from now with the development of cascade dams in China, plus at least 25 more hydropower dams in the tributaries, and con�cludes that "there will be a permanent change to the river flow regime".

About 200 representatives of environmental organisations and local communities in the six countries except China attended the twoday seminar to raise their concerns over possible problems to be caused by the hydropower development.

Pianporn Deetes from Save the Mekong Coalition said the Mekong drought and China's upstream dam construction demonstrate the need for cooperation among all countries sharing the Mekong River.

"There are better ways to meet water and energy needs and the climatechange challenge, while keeping rivers healthy," she said, adding that China's recent release of water to the Mekong to ease the historic drought was a move in the right direction and would help pave the way for genuine partnership from downstream neighbours.

She urged all countries to share information and forge a cooperative response to work with riverside communities to minimise economic, social and environmental costs.

Another 15 dams to be built along Mekong

China will build four more dams along its section of the Mekong River, which it calls the Lancang, while 11 more will be constructed on the Thai, Lao and Cambodian portions, in accordance with the Mekong River Commission's hydropowerdevelopment plan.

However, Witoon Permpongsacharoen of the Mekong Energy and Ecology Network/Foundation for Ecological Recovery yesterday insisted the plan was not entirely negative. Once completed, the dams will contain only 10 per cent of the annual water runoff, or 36 billion cubic metres per annum.

Moreover, due to the higher waterholding capacity, the river's water level in some areas could be higher during the dry season. For example, the water level along Chiang Rai's Chiang Saen district could be 59percent higher than now, or nearly 1 metre higher.

"However, looking at 20 years from now, with more dams built downstream, sandbars, rapids and deep pools could be adversely affected," Witoon said.

In 2008, China completed four dams that have been criticised for causing this year's unusually low water level downstream.

Pianporn Deetes of the Save the Mekong Coalition said not only had the river dried up, but also the water level was fluctuating unnaturally. While countries in the lower basin suffered from a water shortage, the MRC failed to warn local communities in northern Thailand and Laos about possible flooding in 2008, she said.

"There was a systemic lack of accountability to the public within the MRC," Pianporn said, adding that the MRC should monitor data more efficiently and formulate precautionary actions.

Dam debate looms large over Mekong summit
Rachel O'Brien Yahoo News 2 Apr 10;

BANGKOK (AFP) – Leaders of Southeast Asian nations straddling the shrinking lower Mekong River are set to lean on China at landmark talks as controversy builds over the cause of the waterway's lowest levels in decades.

Beijing's Vice Foreign Minister Song Tao will join the premiers of Cambodia, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam in the Thai resort town of Hua Hin to discuss management of the vast river, on which more than 60 million people depend.

Myanmar will also participate as a dialogue partner at the top-level talks, which will kick off late Sunday and run through Monday.

A crippling drought in the region and the much-debated role of hydropower dams are due to dominate the summit of the inter-governmental Mekong River Commission (MRC) -- the first in its 15-year history.

The body warned Friday that the health of the Mekong Basin and the river's eco-systems could be threatened by proposed dams and expanding populations.

"There is a strong link between water quality and the impact of human activity on eco-systems," MRC advisor Hanne Bach said in a statement.

"Over the past five years, significant changes have taken place in water related resources and this is likely to continue, which may put livelihoods under threat," she added.

China is expected to staunchly defend its own dams, which activists downstream blame for water shortages, after the Mekong shrivelled to its lowest level in 50 years in Laos and Thailand's north.

Nations in the lower Mekong basin are likely to press China for information on the river as well as financial help, said Anond Snidvongs, director of the Southeast Asia START Regional Centre, which researches environmental change.

And "behind closed doors there will be strong debate," he told AFP.

China -- itself suffering the worst drought in a century in its southwest, with more than 24 million people short of drinking water -- says the reason for water shortages is unusually low rainfall rather than man-made infrastructure.

It says the dams, built to meet soaring demand for water and hydro-generated electricity, have been effective in releasing water during dry seasons and preventing flooding in rainy months.

"China will never do things that harm the interests of (lower Mekong) countries," said Yao Wen, a spokesman at the Chinese Embassy in Bangkok.

The crisis has grounded cargo and tour boats on the so-called "mighty Mekong" and alarmed communities along what is the world's largest inland fishery.

The situation "could be a taste of things to come in the basin if climate change predictions become a reality," said MRC spokesman Damian Kean.

The chief of the MRC's secretariat, Jeremy Bird, last week hailed Beijing's agreement to share water level data from two dams during this dry season, saying it "shows that China is willing to engage with lower basin countries".

Yet questions remain over the impact of the eight planned or existing dams on the mainstream river in China.

Vice Minister of Water Resources Liu Ning said Wednesday more were needed to guarantee water and food security, while 12 dams in lower Mekong countries have also been proposed.

Campaigners also fear that the settling of political scores could block co-operation over the Mekong -- especially the current animosity between Cambodian premier Hun Sen and his Thai counterpart Abhisit Vejjajiva.

The summit marks Hun Sen's first visit to Thailand since the two countries became embroiled in a row late last year over Cambodia's appointment of ousted Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra as an economics adviser.

"That's what worries me quite a lot, that the debate will be more political, and not even related to water," said Anond.

Thailand has invoked a tough security law and will deploy more than 8,000 troops in Hua Hin to ensure protesters do not disrupt the summit, in light of mass anti-government "Red Shirt" rallies in Bangkok since mid-March.

A year ago, regional leaders were forced to abandon a summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) due to protests.

Read more!

Countries Blame China, Not Nature, for Water Shortage

Thomas Fuller, The New York Times 1 Apr 10;

BANGKOK — In southern China, the worst drought in at least 50 years has dried up farmers’ fields and left tens of millions of people short of water.

But the drought has also created a major public relations problem for the Chinese government in neighboring countries, where in recent years China has tried to project an image of benevolence and brotherhood.

Farmers and fishermen in countries that share the Mekong River with China, especially Thailand, have lashed out at China over four dams that span the Chinese portion of the 3,000-mile river, despite what appears to be firm scientific evidence that low rainfall is responsible for the plunging levels of the river, not China’s hydroelectric power stations.

This weekend, a group of affected countries — Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam — are meeting in Thailand to discuss the drought, among other issues.

Thailand will be requesting “more information, more cooperation and more coordination” from China, said Panitan Wattanayagorn, a government spokesman.

China has begun a campaign to try to counter the perception that its dams are hijacking the Mekong’s water as the river runs from the Tibetan Plateau to the South China Sea.

Chinese officials, normally media shy, recently held a news conference and have appeared at seminars, including one on Thursday, to make their case that the drought is purely a natural phenomenon.

“More information will help reduce misinformation,” said Yao Wen, the head of the political section at the Chinese Embassy in Bangkok.

He presented pictures of sun-baked riverbeds and dried-up wells at the seminar, including one of a man straddling cracks in a dry riverbed.

“This old man used to be a boatman, but now he has nothing to do,” Mr. Yao told participants.

The concluding image was that of a child staring longingly into a bucket. “You can see how serious the drought is,” he said. “It is a very, very terrible situation.”

Still, many in the room continued to focus on China’s dams. Mr. Yao listened to impassioned pleas by residents of northern Thailand to stop further construction on the river.

“It’s where we fish, where we get food,” said Pianporn Deetes, a Thai campaigner for the environmental group International Rivers. “It’s where we feed our families.”

She blamed Chinese dams and the blasting of rapids to make the river more navigable for reduced fish catches, and she criticized plans for more dams without more transparent public consultations.

By one recent count, there are more than 80 hydropower projects in various stages of preparation and construction for the Mekong and its tributaries.

“How can you decide without listening to us?” asked Ms. Pianporn, a native of Chiang Rai Province, in northern Thailand.

As in so many other parts of the world, the politics of sharing water are rife with tension. Within Thailand, where the drought has affected at least 14,000 villages, one official has described “water wars” between farmers hoping to keep their crops alive.

But discussions among the countries that share the Mekong are more complicated. A common approach toward planning the river’s future means accommodating Thailand’s lively and freewheeling society, the military dictatorship in Myanmar, the authoritarian democracy in Cambodia and the Communist-ruled systems of Laos and Vietnam.

Many Thais remain particularly suspicious of Chinese plans for the Mekong, called Lancang in Chinese.

One professor at the seminar on Thursday prefaced a question to Mr. Yao, the Chinese diplomat, with this: “I realize that it’s difficult for you to speak freely — after this conference you would be fired if you talked freely.”

Some conservationists have attributed the low river levels partly to the construction of China’s fourth dam on the Mekong, at Xiaowan. The dam began filling its reservoir in July, during the rainy season, Chinese officials say, a process that was stopped with the arrival of the dry season.

In recent weeks, as water shortages became acute and navigation at some points of the Mekong became impossible, China released water from its dams, raising the water level, according to Jeremy Bird, the chief executive officer of the Mekong River Commission, an advisory body set up in 1995 by the governments of Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam. China and Myanmar are not members but have some agreements to share information.

Over all, Mr. Bird says China has a “limited capacity” to reverse the effects of the drought for countries downstream. The Mekong, he says, has always been volatile.

“Intense droughts and intense floods have been experienced for a long time,” he said.

Mr. Bird and other experts say dams on the lower part of the river, including one planned in Laos, could have a harmful effect on migratory fish, among other problems.

But over all, Mr. Bird said he believed that more dams in China could even out the Mekong’s seasonal variations by storing water when it was plentiful and releasing it when scarce.

For Ms. Pianporn, who says she cherishes the river’s natural beauty and its bountiful fish, that argument is not persuasive.

“We don’t need more water in the dry season, and we don’t need less in the wet season,” she said. “We would like to see the water as it is.”

China says not to blame for shrivelling Mekong river
Yahoo News 1 Apr 10;

BEIJING (AFP) – China is moving to head off criticism of its proliferating dams ahead of a Mekong river summit, with a top official quoted Thursday saying they were not to blame for the waterway's record-low levels.

Jia Jinsheng, head of the International Commission of Large Dams, said Chinese dams were not channelling water away from the upper reaches of the Mekong, the state-controlled China Daily newspaper reported.

The comments by Jia, also a top official at the state-run China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, follow similar remarks this week by Vice Minister of Water Resources Liu Ning and a foreign ministry spokesman.

They come ahead of a summit in Thailand later this month to discuss management of the Mekong, with the river's lowest water levels in 20 years set to top the agenda amid a drought across its drainage basin.

Activists in Thailand have blamed Chinese dams for low levels on the critical waterway, on which more than 60 million people depend for drinking water, transport, irrigation and fishing.

The issue has come to the fore as the drought in southern and southwestern China has dried up water resources there and also affected its Mekong neighbours to the south.

Jia said there are eight existing or planned dams on the Mekong in China, where it is known as the Lancang river.

He added that China's dams had been effective in releasing water during dry seasons and holding it back to help reduce potential flooding in rainy months.

But China's massive dam projects -- built to meet soaring demand for water and hydro-generated electricity -- have long been a source of controversy.

Critics say they often cause huge environmental problems and do little to control floods, while millions of people have been displaced to make way for projects that are often riddled with corruption.

Liu, China's vice minister of water resources, denied on Wednesday that China was hijacking regional water resources and said the country actually needs more water infrastructure.

"In fact there are still not enough, we must continue to increase building efforts in that direction to guarantee water and food production security," he said at a press briefing.

Read more!

Arab states urged to be open on water scarcity

Dina Zayed, Reuters 1 Apr 10;

ALEXANDRIA, Egypt (Reuters) - People in the Arab world need fuller and freer information about shrinking water supplies but their governments are withholding it for fear of fuelling unrest, a United Nations expert said on Thursday.

Arable land makes up just 4.2 percent of the Middle East and North Africa and is expected to shrink due to climate change -- a potential source of political instability, analysts say, in a region where economic privation has sometimes sparked conflict.

"Arab countries do not disclose enough information on their water out of concern that transparency could fuel unnecessary public concern and unrest," said Hosny Khordagui, Regional Program Director of the U.N. Development Programme (UNDP) Water Governance Programme for Arab States.

Disclosing figures on water scarcity might be perceived as reflecting bad management on the part of Arab states and so is generally avoided, he told a UNDP round-table on Arab environmental issues.

"If we have public participation, we would have better management, participation and more justice," Khordagui said, adding that ministers were accountable to those who appointed them and not to the public.

"Don't expect accountability without real democracy and free elections," he said.

People in the Middle East and North Africa have access to an average of just 1,000 cubic meters of water a year, seven times lower than the worldwide rate, according to the UNDP's Arab Human Development Report.

As climate change takes its toll and the region's populations grow at nearly twice the global average, that figure is projected to shrink to just 460 cubic meters by 2025.

Coordinated water policy will be a challenge in a region where water politics is often seen as a zero-sum game and can be used as a lever in larger political feuds.

DISPLACED POPULATION

"If we lose one more drop of water and our capacity to give Arab citizens their right to food, this is a political issue par excellence," said Ismail Serageldin, a former World Bank environmental expert.

In one example, a temperature rise of 1-1.5 degrees in one area of Sudan in 2030-2060 would slash maize production by 70 percent, the UNDP report said. Such scenarios could be repeated elsewhere in the region.

Agriculture consumes more than 85 percent of water in the region, home to the Fertile Crescent in which the first civilizations of the Middle East emerged. Less water could make it impossible for already poor farmers to earn a livelihood, pushing them to move to overcrowded cities.

Droughts in Syria have already displaced hundreds of thousands of people. A September U.N report found that climate-related natural disasters displaced 20 million people in 2009, nearly four times more than conflicts.

"More people in Yemen will leave their villages because of water and environmental reasons," said Ali Atroos, manager of the planning department in Yemen's Ministry of Water.

Yemen is one of the region's most water-stressed countries, with per capita access to water seven times below the average in Europe. Some villages are pumped water only once a month, Atroos said.

Experts urged immediate action to confront the dire issue.

"Water is a security factor. If people do not have water to drink and to use for food production, that would be a direct threat to national security," said Hassan Janabi, Iraq's permanent ambassador to U.N agencies in Rome.

(For graph on regional water security per capita: here)

(Editing by Mark Trevelyan)

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Desert spreading like 'cancer,' Egypt conference told

Yahoo News 1 Apr 10;

ALEXANDRIA, Egypt (AFP) – The desert is making a comeback in the Middle East, with fertile lands turning into barren wastes that could further destabilise the region, experts said at a water conference on Thursday.

"Desertification spreads like cancer, it can't be noticed immediately," said Wadid Erian, a soil expert with the Arab League, at a conference on Thursday in the Egyptian coastal town of Alexandria.

Its effect can be seen in Syria, where drought has displaced hundreds of thousands of people, ruining farmers and swelling cities, Erian said.

He said Darfur in western Sudan is still reeling from a devastating war exacerbated by a shortage of water and fertile land.

The United Nations Development Programme's 2009 Arab Human Development Report said desertification threatened about 2.87 million square kilometres of land (1.15 million square miles) -- or a fifth of the Middle East and north Africa.

Erian said a large portion of rangeland and agricultural land was under threat, with little effort taken so far to reverse the process.

Burgeoning populations, which put further strain on the environment, and climate change are accelerating the trend, he said.

"The trend in the Arab world leans towards aridity. We are in a struggle against a natural trend, but it is the acceleration that scares us," he said.

"Most Arab countries until 2006 dealt with it as one problem among many. Then agriculture ministers described it as a danger threatening the Arab world. That is because they began to feel pain."

A 2007 UN study spoke of an "environmental crisis of global proportions" that could uproot 50 million people from their homes by 2010, mostly in Africa.

Erian said that if unchecked, the trend could emerge as a threat to international stability, a conclusion shared by the UN report.

"It will lead to more immigration and less security. It will lead to people losing hope," he said.

Fatima el-Malah, a climate change adviser for the Arab League, said despite its impact donor countries have not dealt with desertification as a priority.

Programmes by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification were underfunded, she said. "They said just draw a plan and we'll fund you. There was never any funding."

Read more!

Wetlands: the world’s larder

Wetlands supply us with an abundance of food and useful stuff, but this natural wealth could also be their downfall

David Reay, The Times 1 Apr 10;

• If ever there were a fitting ecological term, it is wetland. For these vast tracts of marshes, swamps, bogs, fens, coasts, reefs and flood plains are exactly that — a confluence of water and land. Covering 4 to 6 per cent of the world’s surface, they form where water cannot drain away. Even London has some.

• The 15,000sq km Bangweulu wetlands in Zambia are an ever expanding and contracting wilderness, flooding and receding in time with seasonal rains. David Livingstone, the missionary, discovered them in 1868. Returning five years later, he died there, exhausted and malarious.

• Freshwater areas are home to more than 40 per cent of all the world’s species. Nearly two thirds of the world’s fish harvest is plucked from wetlands and migrating birds depend on them for refuge. They also sustain up to 400 million people, making them in effect nature’s supermarket …

• So first, the fruit and veg section. Oil palms, one of the world’s most important sources of edible oil, biofuel and soap, occupy millions of acres of swampy plantations in Malaysia and Indonesia. Cranberries, which grow in marshes, are a $1.5 billion industry in the US.

• And so through to groceries. More than half the world’s population relies on one staple food — rice. Although many paddy fields are now man-made, the wild strain of rice first grew in swamps. Sago, a starchy cereal, also has its roots in South-East Asian flood plains.

• Which brings us to the meat and fish counter. Saltwater wetlands are a haven for fish and shellfish. In 2008, nearly half a billion Scottish farmed salmon meals were eaten, with most hatcheries relying on water from wetlands.

• So what about household goods? Willow trees are synonymous with river banks, and from them we derive aspirin, wicker and, of course, cricket bats. And forget bleach — wetlands act as natural sewage works.

• And now the DIY aisle. Reeds have been used for thousands of years as thatch, although cutting down wetland buffers is not always a good idea. The cost of replacing Malaysian coastal mangrove swamps — a natural storm and flood protection system — with concrete walls has been estimated at almost £200,000 per kilometre.

• Finally, let’s pull into the fuel station. Peat is a clean and efficient fuel when dried. And mangrove charcoal, highly prized for its long-lasting heat, provides income for communities from Thailand to the Caribbean.

• All these benefits mean that wetlands are in demand and thus in decline. More than half the world’s coverage has been destroyed in the past 100 years and they are now the most threatened ecosystem on Earth. The Convention on Wetlands of International Importance was adopted in 1971 and it protects 185 million hectares in 159 countries. But, as shown below, this is the tip of the iceberg.

Read more!

Air Pollution Costs Two Shell Chemical Companies $9.5 Million

Environment News Service 31 Mar 10;

WASHINGTON, DC, March 31, 2010 (ENS) - Two Shell Chemical companies have agreed to install pollution reduction equipment on two petroleum refining facilities at an estimated cost of $6 million as part of two comprehensive Clean Air Act settlements, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Justice Department announced today.

Shell Chemical with headquarters in Houston, Texas and Shell Chemical Yabucoa based in Puerto Rico will also pay a combined $3.3 million civil penalty to the United States as well as to Alabama and Louisiana, and $200,000 to Louisiana organizations for environmental education and emergency operations.

The two companies are subsidiary corporations wholly owned by Royal Dutch Shell.

Under the settlements, Shell Chemical will apply new air pollution control technologies to reduce emissions from some of the largest emitting units at its petroleum refining facilities in St. Rose, Louisiana and in Saraland, Alabama, located outside the city of Mobile.

Shell Chemical Yabucoa operates a facility in Yabucoa, Puerto Rico. For independent business reasons, Shell Chemical Yabucoa decided to shut down its refining operations at the facility in Puerto Rico in the summer of 2009.

The company still continues to operate the existing gasoline terminal there.

The two refineries in Alabama and Louisiana, and the terminal operation in Puerto Rico also will upgrade their leak-detection and repair practices to reduce harmful emissions from pumps and valves.

The refineries must implement programs to minimize the number and severity of flaring events and adopt new strategies for ensuring continued compliance with benzene waste requirements under the Clean Air Act.

Together, both settlements will reduce air emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and other pollutants by more than 1,450 tons per year, the EPA estimates.

The annual emission reductions from all three refineries, including the emissions associated with the shutdown at Yabucoa, are estimated to be 645 tons of sulfur dioxide and 813 tons of nitrogen oxides, as well as additional reductions of volatile organic compounds and benzene.

"These settlements demonstrate EPA's continuing commitment to increase compliance and reduce emissions from this industrial sector," said Cynthia Giles, assistant administrator for EPA's Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. "As a result of today's actions, the communities living nearby these refineries can look forward to cleaner, healthier air."

Nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds mix with sunlight to cause ground-level ozone, or smog. Nitrogen oxides "can cause acid rain, particulate matter, global warming, water quality deterioration, and visual impairment," the EPA explains. Children, people with lung diseases such as asthma, and people who work or exercise outside are susceptible to health effects of NOx such as damage to lung tissue and reduction in lung function.

High concentrations of sulfur dioxide affect breathing and may aggravate existing respiratory and cardiovascular disease, the agency says. Sensitive populations include asthmatics, individuals with bronchitis or emphysema, children and the elderly. Sulfur dioxide is also a primary contributor to acid rain.

EPA has classified benzene as a human carcinogen.

As part of the settlement, Shell Chemical will donate $100,000 to Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality to support the production of educational campaigns that promote awareness of illegal dumping, stormwater construction activities, and ozone nonattainment.

Shell Chemical will donate $83,370 the St. Charles Parish Emergency Operations Center for the purchase and installation of two additional AM radio emergency transmitters and emergency signs for the Montz area, and will also donate $10,000 to the Audubon Nature Institute of New Orleans to support its Teacher Workshops on Environmental Education program.

The settlements are the latest in a series of multi-issue, multi-facility settlements being pursued by the EPA under its National Petroleum Refinery Initiative.

With today's settlements, 102 refineries operating in 30 states and territories are now covered by settlements, representing more than 89 percent of the nation's refining capacity.

"These two settlements are excellent examples of businesses working with government to achieve compliance at their facilities around the country, which will benefit the health of local communities and the environment," said Ignacia Moreno, Environment and Natural Resource Division assistant attorney general.

The states of Alabama and Louisiana actively participated in and are joining in the settlement with Shell Chemical, which was filed with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas.

The settlement with Shell Chemical Yabucoa was filed with the U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico. Each settlement is subject to a 30-day public comment period and approval by the federal court.

Read more!

How green is your technology?

'There is no such thing as a green product' says one expert. But are mobile phones leading a technology revolution?
Nigel Kendall The Times 1 Apr 10;

Attempts by corporate giants to prove their green credentials are often met with suspicion — usually with good reason. At a recent UK press event, representatives of the Japanese electronics giant Toshiba spent 30 minutes regaling journalists with new technologies — from batteries to products with better power consumption, new lightbulbs and toxin-free laptops — in a bid to emphasise their eco-friendliness.

As a gift, those attending were presented with a 2.5 inch external hard drive. It came encased in a heavy-duty plastic box three times the size of the device, and complete with a 120-page instruction booklet in 11 languages. The instructions could be boiled down to six words: “Plug it in to a computer.”

This is a fairly typical tale, and Toshiba is by no means alone in declaring its conversion to more ecologically friendly processes one minute, while acting utterly thoughtlessly the next.

The story also illustrates an essential truth about green issues and technology. They are mutually incompatible. If you want a green life, drop everything and go live in a cave. Those of us unwilling to do so are in a permanent position of compromise, all we can hope to do is minimise the environmental damage we are causing.

“There is no such thing as a green product,” says the head of sustainability at Sony Ericsson, Mats Pellbäck Scharp. “What we are doing is taking every small step towards a better product by reducing the total amount of impact that a product has.”

Over the past ten years, Pellbäck Scharp pointed out, Sony Ericsson, like many other companies in its field, has worked to eliminate toxic chemicals from its manufacturing processes, including PVC, brominated flame retardants and cadmium (from batteries).

Like most technologies when they first appear, mobile phones have long been the subject of concern, ranging from now discredited theories about brain-heating and transmitter masts causing cancer, to panic about their environmental impact, especially arsenic and mercury, which are used in LCD screens.

“An average mobile phone contributes 8kg of CO2 per year to a user’s carbon footprint,” Pellbäck Scharp says. “But the average carbon footprint is eight tonnes per year, so we are talking about 0.008 per cent.”

The figure broadly tallies with an estimate from his rival Apple, which puts the environmental impact of an iPhone over a three-year lifecycle at 55kg of CO2, including manufacture and use.

“More than ten years ago,” Pellbäck Scharp adds, “we started looking at the charging on the energy side and the chemicals on the manufacturing side and the toxic impact and working conditions in the supply chain on the social side.”

Given all these improvements, you might expect the environmental pressure group Greenpeace to be delighted. It’s not.

“These companies are still encouraging people to ditch phones after one or two years of use. We would like to see phone companies use more modular design, so that you could upgrade a mobile phone with more memory without buying a new one,” Iza Kruszewska, Greenpeace’s international toxics campaigner, says. “It becomes more difficult, of course, when a phone is sold as a lifestyle accessory, by its look, rather than by its new technical features.”

Read more!

Tokyo launches Asia's first carbon trade scheme

Yahoo News 1 Apr 10;

TOKYO (AFP) – The city of Tokyo on Thursday launched Asia's first scheme to trade carbon credits, aiming to lead Japan in the battle against greenhouse gas emissions blamed for climate change.

The mega-city of 13 million mandated that the 1,400 top-polluting factories and office buildings reduce emissions, with the aim of slashing Tokyo's total output of carbon dioxide by 25 percent from 2000 levels by 2020.

"We want to be a model for the Japanese government," Yuki Arata, the director for emissions trading at the Tokyo metropolitan government's environment bureau, told AFP.

Japan, Asia's biggest economy, has pledged to cut greenhouse emissions by 25 percent by 2020 from 1990 levels, provided other major emitters also make sharp reductions, one of the most ambitious targets of any industrialised country.

In Tokyo, in the shorter term, the businesses will have to cut carbon dioxide emissions by six percent during the 2010-2014 period compared to their average emissions of recent years.

Under the scheme starting in 2011, companies that cannot meet the target will have to buy "right-to-pollute" credits from those that can, or will face fines and the bad publicity of having their names published.

To meet their targets, businesses can cut emissions through greater energy efficiency and by using renewable energy sources.

Tokyo's Governor Shintaro Ishihara, known for his strong nationalist and ecological ideas, led the city's unsuccessful bid to host a green 2016 Olympic Games, which he promised "would save planet Earth".

Rio de Janeiro beat Tokyo, Chicago and Madrid to host the Games.

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