Best of our wild blogs: 19 Apr 10

24th April - Chek Jawa Boardwalk trip coming up!
from Adventures with the Naked Hermit Crabs

My forest is dying and the role of water quality
A one-day course on water quality for teachers from Water Quality in Singapore

flare: a ghostly encouter
from sgbeachbum

Damselfly larvae
from Creatures Big & Small

Precious relic of village life below Bukit Timah Hill
from Flying Fish Friends

Pulau Semakau with TeamSeagrass
from teamseagrass and wild shores of singapore and singapore nature

Monday Morgue: 19th April 2010
from The Lazy Lizard's Tales

Green Bee-eater casting pellet
from Bird Ecology Study Group

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Singapore Retirement Village: Pulau Ubin an ideal choice

Straits Times Forum 19 Apr 10;

THE Government should look into the possibility of creating a retirement village on beautiful Pulau Ubin. I am sure it will be well received by senior citizens.

The small island, untouched by development, can be a resort-like green retirement village where the clean atmosphere, fresh breeze from the sea and lovely beaches will make for a healthy and relaxing environment in the golden years of life.

For families visiting their aged parents on weekends, it will be wholesome fun and a refreshing break from the chores of urban life.

The young can also spend the day on the island, cycling or going on a nature walk.

Jeffrey Tan

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Singapore to start feasibility study into nuclear energy

Today Online 19 Apr 10;

SINGAPORE - As more countries seek to explore the use of nuclear energy for civilian purposes, the international community faces a dilemma: How does it juggle a nuclear non-proliferation regime while acknowledging the right of countries pursuing nuclear energy and technology for peaceful uses?

There are still about 20,000 nuclear warheads in the world, many of them on trigger alert, Singapore noted in its statement at the International Disarmament and Non-Proliferation Conference in the Iranian capital of Tehran, which ended yesterday.

And even with the non-proliferation treaty (NPT), which has limited the number of nuclear weapons states (NWS), the world faces proliferation concerns.

For example, the NPT did not stop North Korea from acquiring and testing nuclear weapons, while NPT member Iran has been suspected of pursuing nuclear weapons ambitions.

Moreover, India, Pakistan and Israel, who have or are believed to be nuclear-armed, are not part of the NPT, representing "a lacuna in the NPT regime".

"As interest in nuclear energy grows as a result of rising costs in traditional fuel as well as the concerns over climate change, nuclear technology will continue to spread without checks," the Ministry for Foreign Affairs (MFA) said in the statement. "These would include activities that could be used for a nuclear weapons programme (like) uranium enrichment and plutonium reprocessing."

"Non-state actors, particularly, terrorists groups, are believed to be keen on acquiring nuclear material and nuclear weapons to launch terrorist attacks."

Both NWS and non-NWS alike should adopt higher standards of nuclear safety and security to ensure that nuclear material and facilities under their control remain safe from theft or terrorist attack, urged the MFA, while export controls need to be tightened to prevent illicit trafficking of nuclear weapons and their delivery systems.

A "multilateral fuel assurance mechanism" could also prevent further spread of nuclear know-how, while providing countries interested in pursuing nuclear energy and technology the means to do so.

Singapore, which has not ruled out nuclear energy, will start a feasibility study "which will entail a careful and rigorous examination of the technical, economic and safety aspects of nuclear energy".

"This process is still at a preliminary stage, but we will enhance our cooperation with the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) and nuclear suppliers as our study progresses," said the MFA.

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Nuclear energy: Learning the ropes

Seeram Ramakrishna for the Straits Times 19 Apr 10;

PRIME Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced at the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington recently that Singapore would soon begin 'a careful and rigorous examination of the technical, economic and safety aspects of nuclear energy'.

Since both the technology and the economics of the energy industry are constantly changing, the outcome of such a feasibility study is uncertain. But if Singapore does decide to go ahead, the country will need to embark on capability building and manpower training immediately. A decision not to go ahead, however, will not necessarily mean that the country has turned its back on the nuclear energy option forever.

Nuclear power reactors are being built all over the world to satisfy electricity demand, ensure energy security and address climate change concerns. Whatever the outcome of the feasibility study, Singapore should build up its nuclear science and engineering capability in case it needs to exercise the nuclear energy option in the future.

A nuclear research reactor would be a practical tool for training manpower. It would also provide opportunities for a variety of peaceful applications.

Typically a nuclear power reactor costs $3 billion to $5 billion per installed gigawatt of electrical generating capacity. International nuclear agencies expect nations constructing such reactors to meet high safety standards. They are also required to have a disaster management plan, deal with radioactive waste, and comply with the international norms and conventions. Regulators also require countries that construct such reactors to comply with non-proliferation safeguards.

Vendors expect the host nation to provide the specifications, select a design and share the financial risks and responsibilities. This implies that any nation aspiring to generate electricity from nuclear power reactors needs to have a high level of in-house nuclear capability.

The best way to nurture such in-house capability is by 'learning by doing' - that is, by investing in a reactor for research. Research reactors are designed to operate using low enriched uranium so as not to pose nuclear proliferation threat.

According to the World Nuclear Association, the nations with the most nuclear power reactors are the United States (104), France (58), Japan (54), Russia (32) and South Korea (20). All of them began with research reactors. Asean countries such as Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia have been operating nuclear research reactors for decades.

Judging from Singapore's track record in other high technology industries, it should be able to establish a globally respectable level of expertise in nuclear science and engineering quickly. Operating a research reactor will enable Singapore to master the intricacies of nuclear technology and thus become a participant in roundtable discussions on such matters at regional and international fora.

In most countries, public opinion on nuclear energy matters is varied and often coloured with emotion. Domestic expertise in operating a nuclear research reactor will contribute to a robust debate on such matters. The result will be greater public awareness about nuclear safety, and other uses of nuclear technology in medicine and industry.

In recent decades, research reactors have been used to produce medical isotopes. For example, the most common medical isotope Technetium-99m is derived from Molybdenum-99 produced in research reactors.

Nuclear research reactors are also used to dope silicon in order to use its semiconductor properties for high quality electronic applications; evaluate materials and reactor designs; study atomic structures and molecular processes in materials science, food science and various kinds of engineering.

Asia is now the most important builder of new nuclear power plants. This means that Singapore needs to possess advanced sensing capabilities to detect nuclear accidents. Singapore, being a major hub for international trade and best shipping practices, will also have to further upgrade its ability to detect illegal transshipments of unauthorised nuclear materials. Experienced staff working in a local research reactor would be able to help the country meet many of these requirements, while ensuring that the country is well placed to participate in the region's growing nuclear industry.

Typical training for a research reactor costs a fraction of the cost of a nuclear power reactor. Such trained manpower is useful for a variety of functions. These include forming nuclear regulatory and licensing bodies, and providing experts who can specify, select and eventually operate and manage nuclear power reactors. Nurturing nuclear scientists and engineers requires time.

Global experience suggests it would take about five years to select, license, prepare the site, and then build and commission a research reactor. A timely decision now would be helpful in enabling Singapore to meet many objectives, from ensuring energy security to detecting illegal transshipments of nuclear materials.

The writer is vice-president (research strategy) at the National University of Singapore, and also the chairman of the National Committee of Engineering Organisations at the Institution of Engineers Singapore

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First images of spotted leopard captured in Malaysia

Yahoo News 18 Apr 10;

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) – Researchers said Sunday they have captured the first images of a spotted leopard in Malaysia, putting to rest a decades-old debate over the existence of the endangered cat in the country.
The images were taken by camera traps set up in the Endau-Rompin national park as part of a 10-year project in southern Johor state, Wildlife Conservation Society Malaysia programme director Melvin Gumal told AFP.

"Out of the 11,500 images taken on the ground, only three were of the spotted leopard and this goes to prove that the spotted leopard does exist in Malaysia," he said.

"It now gives the impetus for greater conservation in the Endau-Rompin area and greater collaboration to protect this extremely biodiverse site."

The spotted leopard has a prominent rosette pattern on its skin, unlike the black leopards, which make up the majority of such cats in Malaysia.

Gumal said the leopard was one of six species of big cats documented along with tigers and marbled cats from the 70 camera traps set up under the project.

Leopards are found in much of Africa, across the Middle East and in Asia. Several of its subspecies, like the spotted leopard, are considered endangered.

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Cameras capture UK's 'Highland tiger'

BBC News 18 Apr 10;

A new research project in the Highlands has provided a rare insight into the secret world of one of Britain's most endangered and elusive species.
Scottish wildcats are notoriously secretive, but conservationists are hoping to gain a more detailed understanding of their behaviour.

They have attached specialist camera equipment, known as photo-traps, to trees in the Cairngorms National Park.

The cameras have already provided images of wildcats and other animals.

Motion detectors and infra-red technology allow the devices to capture images of passing animals over a period of days, weeks or even months.

The project is still in its early stages but the cameras have already provided images of Scottish wildcat - popularly known as the Highland tiger - and other animals, including golden eagles.

'Major threat'

The research is being led by Dr David Hetherington of the Cairngorms National Park Authority.

He told BBC Scotland: "Wildcats are very shy, secretive animals. They are active mainly at night and it's really difficult for people to get close enough to watch them properly.

"These camera traps are an excellent way of us getting a much better insight into where wildcats live, when they're active, and what habitat they're using.

"We can also get an idea of where they don't live and, of course, that's also really important information."

Experts believe the Scottish wildcat population has fallen to about 400, and work is under way to prevent the species becoming extinct.

That involves encouraging cat owners in the Highlands to ensure their animals are neutered.

Dr Hetherington explained: "The major threat to wildcats these days is hybridisation, or inter-breeding, with domestic cats.

"Although they are quite different and have a completely different temperament, they are actually quite closely related genetically to domestic cats so they can produce fertile hybrids.

"If that continues we are going to lose our pure Scottish wildcat."

Conservationists believe the work could help prevent another iconic species joining a long list of large predators which have been wiped out in Scotland over the last few centuries.

Douglas Richardson, of the Highland Wildlife Park at Kincraig near Aviemore, said: "We are dealing with an animal that's the last of its kind in the British Isles.

"We formerly had lynx and other big, dangerous and interesting animals. But this is our last feline predator and I think we are duty bound to protect it.

"There are many representatives from Scotland and the UK who are involved in conservation efforts with tigers in Asia or giant pandas in China.

"If we allow the Scottish wildcat to disappear, then the Indians, the Russians, the Chinese could quite rightly turn round and say 'Why should we bother? You didn't.'"

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Ocean census uncovers 'new world' of marine microbe life

Jean-louis Santini Yahoo News 18 Apr 10;

WASHINGTON (AFP) – An ocean census has revealed a "new world" of richly diverse marine microbe life that could help scientists understand more about key environmental processes on Earth, a study said Sunday.

Scientists participating in the International Census of Marine Microbes (ICoMM) said they had uncovered an astonishing array of hard-to-see marine lifeforms, including microbes, zooplankton and larvae.

Traditional research methods have already isolated some 20,000 marine microbes, but new data suggests the true numbers are much higher.

"The total number of marine microbes, including both bacteria and archaea (single-cell microorganisms), based on molecular characterization, is likely closer to a billion," said ICoMM's scientific advisory council chair John Baross, of the University of Washington.

The marine microbes in fact constitute somewhere between 50 to 90 percent of all ocean biomass, and by volume weigh the equivalent of 240 billion African elephants, according to the researchers.

"In no other realm of ocean life has the magnitude of Census discovery been as extensive as in the world of microbes," said Mitch Sogin, of the Marine Biological Laboratory in Massachussetts.

Determining the number, variety and role of different forms of marine microbes provides key insight into "the size, dynamics and stability of the Earth's food chain, carbon cycle and other planetary fundamentals," researchers said.

This marine life is responsible for over 95 percent of respiration in the oceans, thereby helping to maintain the conditions humans need to survive on Earth, they added.

They function as key recyclers, turning atmospheric carbon dioxide absorbed by the ocean into carbon that goes back into the ground. They perform similar functions for nitrogen, sulfur, iron, manganese and other elements.

Among other discoveries made by the research was the location of massive "mats" of microbes that carpet areas of sea floor.

One located off the west coast of South America covers a surface comparable in size to Greece and is among Earth's largest masses of life, researchers said.

The study also found that some microbes and bacteria formed symbiotic relationships with marine animals, living on their skin or in their guts.

The revelation could uncover hundreds of millions of new microbial species and provides "a huge frontier for the next decade," Baross said.

The research was conducted at more than 1,200 sites worldwide, allowing scientists to amass 18 million DNA sequences of microbial life.

The latest finding is part of the decade-long research involved in the ocean census, which will conclude October 4 with closing ceremonies in London.

Involving more than 2,000 scientists from more than 80 nations, the census is one of the largest global scientific collaborations ever undertaken, according to organizers.

Microbes galore in seas; "spaghetti" mats Pacific
Alister Doyle, Reuters 18 Apr 10;

OSLO (Reuters) - The ocean depths are home to myriad species of microbes, mostly hard to see but including spaghetti-like bacteria that form whitish mats the size of Greece on the floor of the Pacific, scientists said on Sunday.

The survey, part of a 10-year Census of Marine Life, turned up hosts of unknown microbes, tiny zooplankton, crustaceans, worms, burrowers and larvae, some of them looking like extras in a science fiction movie and underpinning all life in the seas.

"In no other realm of ocean life has the magnitude of Census discovery been as extensive as in the world of microbes," said Mitch Sogin of the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, head of the marine microbe census.

The census estimated there were a mind-boggling "nonillion" -- or 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (30 zeroes) -- individual microbial cells in the oceans, weighing as much as 240 billion African elephants, the biggest land animal.

Getting a better idea of microbes, the "hidden majority" making up 50 to 90 percent of biomass in the seas, will give a benchmark for understanding future shifts in the oceans, perhaps linked to climate change or pollution.

Among the biggest masses of life on the planet are carpets on the seabed formed by giant multi-cellular bacteria that look like thin strands of spaghetti. They feed on hydrogen sulphide in oxygen-starved waters in a band off Peru and Chile.

"Fishermen sometimes can't lift nets from the bottom because they have more bacteria than shrimp," Victor Gallardo, vice chair of the Census Scientific Steering Committee, told Reuters. "We've measured them up to a kilo (2.2 lbs) per square meter."

GHOSTLY MATS

The census said they carpeted an area the size of Greece -- about 130,000 sq km (50,000 sq miles) or the size of the U.S. state of Alabama. Toxic to humans, the bacteria are food for shrimp or worms and so underpin rich Pacific fish stocks.

The bacteria had also been found in oxygen-poor waters off Panama, Ecuador, Namibia and Mexico as well as in "dead zones" under some salmon farms. They were similar to ecosystems on earth that thrived from 2.5 billion to 650 million years ago.

Overall in the oceans, up to a billion microbe species may await identification under the Census, an international 10-year project due for completion in October 2010.

Tiny life was found everywhere, including at thermal vents with temperatures at 150 Celsius (300F) or in rocks 1,626 meters (5,335 ft) below the sea floor. Many creatures lack names or are hard to pronounce like loriciferans, polychaetes or copepods.

One major finding was that rare microbes are often found in samples where they can be outnumbered 10,000 to one by more common species. Isolated microbes may be lying in wait for a change in conditions that could bring a population boom.

Ann Bucklin, head of the Census of Marine Zooplankton that include tiny transparent crustaceans or jellyfish, said the seas were barely studied even by the census.

"Seventy percent of the oceans are deeper than 1,000 meters," Bucklin, of the University of Connecticut, told Reuters. "The deep layer is the source of the hidden diversity."

Paul Snelgrove, of Memorial University in Canada, said one sample in the South Atlantic in an area the size of a small bathroom -- 5.4 square meters -- turned up 700 species of copepod, a type of crustacean, 99 percent of them unfamiliar.

Just finding Latin names for each find will be hard. Scientists had rejected the idea of raising funds by letting people pay to have a marine "bug" named after them.

(Editing by Charles Dick)


Counting sea life, sometimes little things are big
Randolph E. Schmid Associated Press Google News 18 Apr 10;

WASHINGTON — If the Census Bureau thinks it has its hands full counting Americans, imagine what scientists are up against in trying to tally every living thing in the ocean, including microbes so small they seem invisible.

And just try to get them to mail back a form.

The worldwide Census of Marine Life has four field projects focusing on hard-to-see sea life such as tiny microbes, zooplankton, larvae and burrowers in the sea bed.

Tiny as individuals, these life forms are massive as groups and provide food that helps underpin better-known living things.

"Scientists are discovering and describing an astonishing new world of marine microbial diversity and abundance, distribution patterns and seasonal changes," said Mitch Sogin of the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass., leader of the International Census of Marine Microbes.

The Census of Marine Life, which is scheduled to be reported Oct. 4 in London, has involved more than 2,000 scientists from more than 80 nations.

The decade-long census has discovered more than 5,000 new forms of marine life. Researchers think there may be several times that many yet to be found.

Previous updates have focused on larger creatures, such as a city of brittle stars off the coast of New Zealand, an Antarctic expressway where octopuses ride along in a flow of extra salty water, the deepest comb jellyfish ever found and The White Shark Cafe, a deep Pacific Ocean site where sharks congregate in winter.

Now the researchers have turned to the tiniest of things, some of which burrow in the sea floor.

Remotely operated deep-sea vehicles discovered that roundworms dominate the deepest, darkest abyss. Sometimes, more than 500,000 can exist in just over a square yard of soft clay. Only a few different types have been studied.

There are also 16,000 or more species of seaworms. There are loriciferans, which the scientists call "girdle wearers" because of hind shells resembling a corset. And there are hundreds of types of tiny crustaceans.

"Such findings make us look at the deep sea from a new perspective," says researcher Pedro Martinez Arbizu of the German Center for Marine Biodiversity Research. "Far from being a lifeless desert, the deep sea rivals such highly diverse ecosystems as tropical rainforests and coral reefs."

Consider zooplankton, the tiny, often transparent animals that some call sea bugs. They form a vital link in the food chain.

As of 2004, scientists had identified about 7,000 species of zooplankton. Now they expect that to double when they finish analyzing all the samples collected in the marine census.

Improved techniques such as DNA analysis have helped unravel some errors along the way. DNA, of course, is the genetic code in the cells of each living creature.

Tracey Sutton of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science and colleagues led by the Smithsonian Institution's G. David Johnson used genetics to show that three types of fish thought to be different are really one.

They found that even though they look different, the Mirapinnidae (tapetails), Megalomycteridae (bignose fishes) and Cetomimidae (whalefishes) are really the same species. The tapetails are the larvae and when they grow up they become either the bignoses (girls) or the wehalefish (boys).

After studying samples taken from more than 1,000 sites, scientists concluded there may be as many as 100 times more microbe genera in the sea than they had thought. Indeed, a 2007 study in the English Channel alone yielded 7,000 new genera of microorganisms.

Genus is the category of life ranked between family and species. For example the mammal family has many genera, such as homo (humans), canis (dogs) and equus (horse).

What ocean microbes lack in size they make up for in numbers. Marine census researchers calculate there are a "nonillion" of them.

Never heard of nonillion? Well, it's a lot. It's 1,000 times 1 billion, times 1 billion, times 1 billion.

Of course no one can really envision a number like that, so the researchers turned to the popular comparison measure — the African elephant.

A nonillion microbe cells, they say, is about the same weight as 240 billion African elephants — or the equivalent of 35 elephants for every person on Earth.

And that's just the microbes.
On the Net:

* Census of Marine Life: http://www.coml.org
* International Census of Marine Microbes: http://icomm.mbl.edu/
* Marine Biological Laboratory: http://www.mbl.edu/
* German Center for Marine Biodiversity Research: http://tinyurl.com/y792dye
* Virginia Institute of Marine Science: http://www.vims.edu/


Slide show of photos on the National Geographic website.

Also on the BBC website.

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Indonesian Firm Sinar Mas Faces New Forest Clearing Allegation

Sunanda Creagh, PlanetArk 19 Apr 10;

Conservationist group Greenpeace released on Friday new satellite images it said linked Indonesian oil palm producer Sinar Mas to the clearing of high value rainforest, a practice the firm had vowed to stop.

Several top palm oil buyers, including Unilever and Nestle have said they will stop buying from Sinar Mas after Greenpeace released a report alleging rainforests and peatlands had been cleared to make way for its plantations.

Rainforests and peatlands trap enormous amounts of greenhouse gases and their preservation is seen as an important step in slowing climate change.

Sinar Mas, which owns Jakarta-listed PT SMART Tbk and Singapore-listed Golden Agri-Resources issued a statement in February promising it would not convert high conservation forests or develop plantations on peat soils.

However, Greenpeace said in a statement it had satellite images showing continued forest clearing in a concession operated PT Agro Lestari Mandiri (PT ALM), which is managed by PT SMART Tbk. The concession is in Ketapang district, West Kalimantan, on the Indonesian half of Borneo island.

"Greenpeace has new evidence from the field, showing that Sinar Mas continued to clear peatlands and orangutan habitat in its PT ALM concession, despite its commitment to stop," Greenpeace said in a statement.

Greenpeace said in the statement that a comparison of satellite images from February 23 this year and November 19 last year showed peatland and forest clearance had continued, and that about 2,300 hectares (5,683 acres) had been cleared by PT ALM.

PT SMART Tbk President Director Daud Dharsono said in a statement emailed to Reuters that the new allegations would be examined as part of a broader investigation by two certifiers, Control Union Certification and BSI Group.

"We would like to reaffirm that we remain committed to achieving environmentally sustainable production of palm oil," he said in the statement.

Palm oil is used in confectionary, cooking oils, soaps, cosmetics and as a biofuel for transport.

Industry officials have said that demand for Indonesian palm oil remains strong, despite the Greenpeace campaign.

Agribusiness giant Cargill said in March that it would stop using Sinar Mas as a supplier if the Greenpeace allegations of improper land conversion were validated by an investigation by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, an industry body of planters, consumers and green groups.

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Joint Project Aims to Rescue Java’s Critical Forests

Jakarta Globe 18 Apr 10;

Banyumas, Central Java. The president director of state forest management company PT Perhutani has said that up to 900,000 hectares of land on Java Island are in critical condition, including areas located within forests overseen by the company.

Speaking during a working visit to Perhutani’s Baturaden tourist forest in Banyumas district, Central Java, over the weekend, Upik Rosalina Wasrin said that in 2005 the company began rehabilitating 350,000 hectares of critical areas under its management through its Green Perhutani program.

She said the program, which is hoped to be completed by the end of this year, also called for 70,000 hectares of land to be planted with trees and areas outside its scope to be rejuvenated.

“Perhutani is currently working on land outside its forest areas that belong to the public. This is part of the rehabilitation program and the development of local enterprises,” Upik added.

Rehabilitation plans for critical lands in the Dieng Plateau region of Central Java, Upik said, are still awaiting agreement from local residents because the land there is privately owned.

“If we can reach a deal to work together with the local people, we will first start with an effort to identify the [problems],” she said.

Reforesting and rehabilitating private land is a complex issue, Upik said, and Perhutani needs to consult with local land owners in Dieng before any work can begin.

“Whether they want their land rehabilitated or not, we first need to find out if they want their land to be managed as public forested areas, how the land will be shared and what type of trees should be planted,” she said, citing a few of the problems that need to be resolved.

Forest rehabilitation efforts in cases such as Dieng require cooperation in the form of public forested areas, also known as joint forestry management, Upik said, adding that just handing out assistance funds does not work. The best way, she added, is to get local residents to form a business that offers the land as part of the public forested area in return for a share of its products.

Similar cooperation efforts have already been entered into by Perhutani with Banten’s provincial government and the province’s Pandeglang district administration, covering some 7,500 hectares of forest.

Several other cooperation programs have also been entered into with other regions in Central Java, including with Banyumas and the district administration in Kendal.

In Dieng, forested lands, especially on the region’s mountainous terrain, have been converted for agriculture by local residents. The resulting land degradation has been blamed for landslides in the area during the rainy season.

Upik said Perhutani’s rehabilitation model involved providing loans to residents to be repaid under a production-sharing system. “The people are encouraged to make use of their land in a productive and economic way,” she said.

The land rehabilitation projects also involve working with local forestry offices — in the case of Dieng, both Banyumas and Wonosobo districts — to ascertain whether any rejuvenation programs have already been conducted in the areas concerned.

“If there has already been some program, we will not get involved in the area because each of us, the Ministry of Forestry and Perhutani, have our respective programs,” Upik said. “And so that there is no overlap, we have to make sure of this first so the handling of critical areas in Java can be done together.”

As for Perhutani’s long-term reforestation program, Upik said the company aimed to replant an additional 2,000 hectares of forest lands across Java by 2014.



Antara

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Coral reefs at risk from coal barges for Sabah's coal-fired power plant

New Straits Times 19 Apr 10;

KOTA KINABALU: Shipping coal by barges to Lahad Datu for Sabah's proposed coal-fired power plant will put at risk the rich coral reefs and marine life in waters off the east coast.

If the project in Felda Sahabat takes off, coal for the 300 megawatt plant will likely come from neighbouring Kalimantan in Indonesia for at least 20 years, passing through the Coral Triangle zone.

Scientific reports show that although it covers only one per cent of the earth's surface, the Coral Triangle is home to over 30 per cent of the world's coral reefs and slightly more than a third of the world's coral reef fish species.

Green SURF (Sabah Unite to Re-Power the Future), a coalition of five non-governmental organisations, is questioning why the shipping of coal is not included in the terms of reference for the plant's Detailed Environmental Impact Assessment.

Coalition member Cynthia Ong said waters off Sabah's east coast are important for coastal communities and tourism.

NGOs query coal route for Sabah power plant
The Star 19 Apr 10;

KOTA KINABALU: Concerned groups are questioning why the route taken by shipments of coal for a proposed 300MW power plant in Sabah’s Lahad Datu district is not included in the terms of reference in the project’s detailed environmental impact assessment (EIA) report.

Green SURF (Sabah Unite to Re-Power the Future), a coalition of five non-governmental organisations, said the route for the shipments would pass though some of the region’s most ecologically sensitive coastal zones known as the Coral Triangle.

Coalition member Cynthia Ong said if the coal-fired plant project were to take off, tonnes of coal on barges would pass through the zones for 20 years.

“Scientific reports show that although the Coral Triangle covers only 1% of the Earth’s surface, it is home to over 30% of the world’s coral reefs and slightly more than a third of its fish species.

“An accident early this month at Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, where a ship carrying coal ran aground and spilled oil, serves as a warning,” she said, adding that the state’s east coast was important for coastal communities and tourism.

“Some of the coastal communities depend on what they catch to feed their families while others are involved in fisheries for their livelihood.

“Tourism, which is an important revenue earner for Sabah, also stands to lose if our reefs are damaged and our seas and beaches polluted,” she said in a statement, adding that divers and tourists came from all over the world to see Sabah’s coral reefs and rich marine life.

Several years ago, a barge carrying construction material damaged corals at the world-renowned Sipadan Island.

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Australia to extend Reef tracking after China ship crisis

Yahoo News 19 Apr 10;

SYDNEY (AFP) – Australia Sunday said it would extend a satellite ship-tracking system to cover all of the massive Great Barrier Reef after a Chinese ship ran aground threatening an environmental catastrophe.

Transport Minister Anthony Albanese said the system, currently in place for most of the reef, would be extended south following advice from safety officials.

The move, which would force all ships to report their positions for tracking, must be ratified by the International Maritime Organisation because much of the area is outside Australia's territorial waters.

"In the mean time, (transport safety agencies) will begin rolling out the infrastructure necessary to support the reporting system, such as sensors, communications equipment and modified navigational software," Albanese said.

"By beginning this work now, our authorities will be fully ready for the start of mandatory reporting in July 2011."

Two Chinese crew from the Shen Neng 1 appeared in court last week over the giant ship's nine-day grounding in the reef's south, which prompted fears of a major oil spill and gouged a huge scar in the world heritage-listed coral.

Officials have pledged to probe allegations that ships, many ferrying Australia's booming exports to Asia, are taking short-cuts through the reef, which sprawls along 2,300 kilometres (1,400 miles) of the country's northeastern coast.

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Water used in developed countries' imports worsening water shortage in developing world

UK water imports 'unsustainable'
Richard Black, BBC News 19 Apr 10;

The amount of water used to produce food and goods imported to developed countries is worsening water shortages in the developing world, a report says.

The report, focusing on the UK, says two-thirds of the water used to make UK imports is used outside its borders.

The Engineering the Future alliance of professional engineering bodies says this is unsustainable, given population growth and climate change.

It says countries such as the UK must help poorer nations curb water use.

"We must take account of how our water footprint is impacting on the rest of the world," said Professor Roger Falconer, director of the Hydro-Environmental Research Centre at Cardiff University and a member of the report's steering committee.



"If we are to prevent the 'perfect storm', urgent action is necessary."

The term perfect storm was used last year by the UK government's chief scientist, Professor John Beddington, to describe future shortages of energy, food and water.

Forecasts suggest that when the world's population soars beyond 8bn in 20 years time, the global demand for food and energy will jump by 50%, with the need for fresh water rising by 30%.

But developing countries are already using significant proportions of their water to grow food and produce goods for consumption in the West, the report says.

"The burgeoning demand from developed countries is putting severe pressure on areas that are already short of water," said Professor Peter Guthrie, head of the Centre for Sustainable Development at Cambridge University, who chaired the steering group.

"If the water crisis becomes critical, it will pose a serious threat to the UK's future development because of the impact it would have on our access to vital resources."

Key to the report is the concept of "embedded water" - the water used to grow food and make things.

Embedded in a pint of beer, for example, is about 130 pints (74 litres) of water - the total amount needed to grow the ingredients and run all the processes that make the pint of beer.

A cup of coffee embeds about 140 litres (246 pints) of water, a cotton T-shirt about 2,000 litres, and a kilogram of steak 15,000 litres.

Using this methodology, UK consumers see only about 3% of the water usage they are responsible for.

The average UK consumer uses about 150 litres per day, the size of a large bath.

Ten times as much is embedded in the British-made goods bought by the average UK consumer; but that represents only about one-third of the total water embedded in all the average consumer's food and goods, with the remainder coming from imports.

The UK is not unique in this - the same pattern is seen in most developed countries.

The engineering institutions say it means nations such as the UK have a duty to help curb water use in the developing world, where about one billion people already do not have sufficient access to clean drinking water.

UK-funded aid projects should have water conservation as a central tenet, the report recommends, while companies should examine their supply chains and reduce the water used in them.

This could lead to difficult questions being asked, such as whether it is right for the UK to import beans and flowers from water-stressed countries such as Kenya.

While growing crops such as these uses water, selling them brings foreign exchange into poor nations.

In the West, the report suggests, concerns over water could eventually lead to goods carrying a label denoting their embedded water content, in the same way as electrical goods now sport information about their energy consumption.

The Engineering the Future alliance includes the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE), the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAE) and the Chartered Institute of Water and Environmental Management (CIWEM).

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Heat is on for carbon trading plan

Michael Richardson, For The Straits Times 19 Apr 10;

A HYDROPOWER dam in the Himalayan mountain country of Bhutan has just been registered as the first cross-border project in a United Nations programme to encourage developing nations to reduce carbon emissions.

Known as the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), the programme allows government and private sector investors to develop clean energy projects in poorer nations to earn certified emission reduction (CER) credits - each equivalent to one tonne of carbon dioxide.

These CERs can be traded and sold, and used by industrialised economies to meet a part of their emission reduction targets under the Kyoto Protocol climate change treaty. Developing countries are not bound to make similar cuts.

Although the protocol is due to expire in 2012 and negotiations on a follow-on framework are mired in contention, supporters of the CDM see it as a way of demonstrating that developed and developing nations have a common interest in working together to achieve sustainable development. This, they say, could help encourage agreement on a new international framework to limit climate change.

The US$200 million (S$275 million) Dagachhu dam in Bhutan, financed by loans from the Asian Development Bank, Japan and Austria, is expected to reduce CO2 emissions by about 500,000 tonnes per year, largely through export of power to India, which relies heavily on coal-fired plants for its electricity generation.

The 114MW project will earn income for Bhutan's state-owned utility, which says royalties from the project will enable it to supply low-cost electricity to rural domestic customers while providing the government with a long-term revenue stream to alleviate poverty.

This first cross-border project under the CDM to encourage regional trade in renewable energy follows registration in January of the UN scheme's 2,000th project - a biogas extraction and distribution venture in Thailand's Sakaeo province that will reduce CO2 emissions by more than 56,000 tonnes annually.

The first CDM project was registered with the UN certification authority in November 2004. It took almost 31/2 years for the first 1,000 projects to be approved, and less than two years for the next 1,000, ranging from wind and solar power to waste handling and reforestation. With 450 projects now being considered for final approval by the CDM executive board and more than 2,000 additional ventures being assessed, it is hoped the 3,000 mark will be reached in an even shorter time.

The secretariat in Bonn, Germany, of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the parent treaty of the Kyoto Protocol, expects the CDM to save more than 2.7 billion tonnes of CO2 from being spewed into the atmosphere in the five years to 2012.

CDM projects are designed to ensure measureable and verifiable emission reductions. But in a scheme that yields tradeable credits worth billions of dollars, there have been abuses. Much of the preliminary auditing of CDM projects is done by private firms. The UN recently suspended two of them for procedural breaches, bringing to four the total number removed from the scheme in 15 months.

Some governments, too, have been lax in supervising CDM schemes. So far, despite efforts to encourage other developing regions to take advantage of the programme, the CDM has been dominated by Asia, chiefly China and India.

An independent review of the UN secretariat supporting the CDM highlighted the need for reform. The review, released in December, found that while demand for the CDM was rising fast, the proportion of projects registered without the need for corrections had dropped from 80 per cent to 30 per cent in four years.

As a result of the need for more careful checks to ensure that projects delivered the promised environmental benefits, registration times tripled in two years to an average of 200 days, substantially increasing costs and the workload of the over-stretched secretariat. The review concluded that while project quality had been restored, the CDM process needed to be better coordinated.

This effort is now underway. It includes allowing developers to put up similar small-scale clean-energy projects in a single programme for registration to cut expensive auditing fees. Swiss firm South Pole Carbon says it recently received the first letter of approval from the Indonesian government to bundle dozens of small hydropower projects for formal UN registration next year. Submitting each of the Indonesian projects singly would have been time-consuming and costly.

The UN says it already has 40 bundled CDM projects being processed. The moves to accelerate registration offer South-east Asia the chance to increase its share in the clean energy scheme, which currently stands at just 231 of the 2,141 approved ventures. Only eight of the 10 Asean member states have registered CDM projects, with Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam the most active so far.

The CDM is the first global environmental investment and credit scheme of its kind. If it is to be a trailblazer for a new global climate change framework, it must produce broadly based benefits and credible emission reductions.

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

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