Best of our wild blogs: 12 May 10

International Museum Day at RMBR!
from Raffles Museum News and Celebrating Singapore's Biodiversity

Nature walk at Chek Jawa Boardwalk - every 4th Saturday from Adventures with the Naked Hermit Crabs

22 May (Sat): Acres Gala Dinner 2010
from wild shores of singapore

Stop Burying Our Head in the Sand
from AsiaIsGreen

Been to Cyrene: Sea Star Paradise!
from the brand NEW Cyrene Reef Exposed!

Protect Cyrene Reef
from Protect the Cyrene Reef

Wood pecker
from The annotated budak

Dragonfly (28) - Diplacodes Trivalis (侏儒蜻蜓)
from Nature Photography - Singapore Odonata

五月华语导游 Mandarin guiding walk @ SBWR II
from PurpleMangrove

Raffles Museum Treasures: Sumatran rhinoceros
from The Lazy Lizard's Tales

Taxi pooling now available!
from Green Drinks Singapore

Blue-throated Bee-eaters sunning
from Bird Ecology Study Group

Can One man and One cow Save our Planet?
Seeding the real Green Revolution from EcoWalkthetalk

Will and equity - does climate alternative offer enough?
from BBC NEWS blog by Richard Black

Read more!

NParks to conduct coastal protection and restoration works at Pulau Tekong

Channel NewsAsia 11 May 10;

SINGAPORE: It is the largest of Singapore's outlying islands and is used exclusively for army training.

Now, more than 1,000 mangrove trees on the north-eastern coastline of Pulau Tekong are at risk of falling due to coastal erosion.

To protect the coast and mangroves in the area, the National Parks Board (NParks) will be conducting, for the first time, coastal protection and restoration works at the north-eastern coastline of Pulau Tekong.

Deputy director of NParks' National Biodiversity Centre, Dr Lena Chan, said that the erosion - with mud being scraped out - is due to movements of ships and strong waves in the area.

The erosion has affected 3km of north-eastern shore, posing a threat to the 92 hectares of mangroves in Pulau Tekong which is one of the largest remaining mangrove areas in Singapore with a mature and undisturbed habitat.

From a study it commissioned in 2006, NParks found that 1.65km of the north-eastern shore is most severely affected.

At some points, the extent of the erosion was as deep as 1.2 metres below the level of the mangrove berm.

NParks' works will concentrate on restoring this 1.65km stretch.

"The coastline is very precious to us. It is important that we make sure it is not seriously eroded and we have good mangroves right next to the coastline," said Dr Chan.

The first stage in the restoration process will be to fill the eroded parts below the mangrove berm with mud-filled biodegradable sacks.

Next, loosely-placed stones will be placed in front of the berm as a shoreline stablisation measure.

Around 8,000 mangrove saplings will be planted in front of the stones to help deflect the waves.

The saplings will also serve to increase the biodiversity of the mangroves population on Pulau Tekong.

As a further anti-erosion measure, two rows of bakau (a type of mangrove tree) poles will be set up in front of the saplings to be the "front battle line" to further reduce the effect of the waves, said Dr Chan.

A tender will be called in June for the work and NParks expects the project to be completed by June next year.

MediaCorp understands that the works on the north-eastern shore will not affect army training on Pulau Tekong as training is not conducted there.

- CNA/jy

Saving Tekong's coastal greenery
NParks' pilot project to stem erosion of mangroves by waves from passing vessels
Grace Chua Straits Times 12 May 10;

THE north-east coast of Pulau Tekong is being swept away by the sea, and taking a stretch of pristine mangroves with it.

To stem the erosion, the National Parks Board (NParks) is planting more mangroves in a pilot project on the military island off Singapore's east coast. And if it succeeds, the same methods could be used in other threatened coastal areas here.

Click on image for larger view.

The 92ha, 3km-long stretch of mangrove swamp is home to rare birds and mangrove trees. But strong waves from passing vessels have scooped out chunks of the coast to form horizontal berms (see graphic) held in place only by the mangrove roots. In 2006, NParks found that a number of trees had fallen along a 1.65km stretch of coastline. Another 1,300 were in danger of toppling.

It began collecting data on the site, and in February last year started work on modelling the area's wave movements and investigating the soil.

With development consultants Surbana, NParks designed a set-up of mud-filled bags, rocks, mangrove seedlings and poles to not only replace lost mangroves but also stop repeat erosion. NParks also plans to plant certain hardier species of mangroves farther out to sea to stymie the waves.

In their assessment, environmental consultants DHI assured that the project would not cause the coastline to creep outwards towards international boundaries, and there would be no cross-border physical or ecological impact. The site is just 760m from the Singapore-Malaysia boundary.

Construction is expected to begin in the middle of this year and take about 12 months. The same methods may one day be applied to other eroded areas like Sungei Buloh near Kranji.

'We hope this will be a good test-bedding site, though conditions might be different at different areas. But this is a good model for areas that have mangroves and are eroded,' said NParks' National Biodiversity Centre deputy director Lena Chan.

Even though the Tekong mangrove area is off-limits to the public, it remains an important part of Singapore's natural heritage and a source of genetic diversity, reminded Dr Chan.

National Institute of Education plant biochemist and mangrove expert Jean Yong said it was important to plant multiple tree species on such engineered structures to boost biodiversity.

The public can view the project's environmental impact assessment report till next month - by appointment with NParks - when a tender for the project will be put up.

Taking on the Pulau Tekong threat
Project to contain erosion to be completed in a year
Ong Dai Lin, Today Online 12 May 10;

IT IS the largest of Singapore's outlying islands and is used exclusively for military training. Now, coastal erosion is threatening more than 1,000 mangrove trees on the north-eastern coastline of Pulau Tekong. To protect this natural habitat, the National Parks Board (NParks) will for the first time be conducting coastal protection and restoration work in the area.

Deputy director of NParks' National Biodiversity Centre, Dr Lena Chan, said that the erosion - with mud being scraped out - is due to the movement of ships and strong waves in the area.

The erosion has affected 3km of the north-eastern shore, posing a threat to the 92 hectares of mangroves in Pulau Tekong which is one of the largest remaining mangrove areas in Singapore with a mature and undisturbed habitat.

From a study it commissioned in 2006, NParks found that 1.65km of the north-eastern shore is most severely affected. At some points, the extent of the erosion was as deep as 1.2 metres below the level of the mangrove berm.

NParks' work will concentrate on restoring this 1.65km stretch.

"The coastline is very precious to us. It is important that we make sure it is not seriously eroded and we have good mangroves right next to the coastline," said Dr Chan.

The first stage in the restoration process will be to fill the eroded parts below the mangrove berm with mud-filled biodegradable sacks. Next, loosely-placed stones will be set in front of the berm to stabilise the shoreline.

Around 8,000 mangrove saplings will be planted in front of the stones to help deflect the waves. The saplings will also serve to increase the biodiversity of the mangrove population.

As a further anti-erosion measure, two rows of bakau (a type of mangrove tree) poles will be set up in front of the saplings to be the "front battle line" to further reduce the effect of the waves, said Dr Chan.

NParks expects the project to be completed by June next year.

MediaCorp understands that the work on the north-eastern shore will not affect army training on Pulau Tekong as training is not conducted there.

NParks is also studying the extent of coastal erosion at East Coast Park and the Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve.

Read more!

Singapore: Paradise island for the birds

Straits Times 12 May 10;

Singapore has 367 species of birds on the official checklist.

Many nature areas are easily accessible, making the country one of the best places for bird-watching.

Nature book to raise funds for the elderly

A book comprising a professional photographer's work on birds in Singapore is being sold to raise funds for the needy elderly and their care-givers here.

'Birds In A Garden City' is an effort supported by The Photographic Society of Singapore, of which Lianhe Zaobao chief photographer Lee Tiah Khee is a member.

The $50 book, now in major bookstores, will raise money for the SMRT Silver Tribute Fund. To buy photo prints, e-mail smrtstf@smrt.com.sg

Read more!

More hospitals seen going green in Southeast Asia

Nisha Ramchandani, Business Times 12 May 10;

DEMAND for green hospitals is expected to rise in South-east Asia as the healthcare industry continues to look for ways to cut energy and resource consumption, says GE Healthcare.

'An increasing number of healthcare facilities will be built in Singapore and South-east Asia over the next five to 10 years, which will lead to growth in demand for green solutions that help hospitals reduce their carbon footprint and achieve resource optimisation,' said Tommy Tan, Asean government relations director for GE Healthcare, a unit of the General Electric Company.

Hospitals typically use three times as much energy as commercial buildings, so significant cost-savings can be had from going green.

This could be achieved by more efficient water, energy and waste management, more environmentally friendly facilities and better design lay-out to boost productivity.

'Unlike green buildings, green hospitals are a fairly new concept in this region,' said Mr Tan. 'Most hospitals would have implemented such concepts in bits and pieces. We want to see the industry embrace the concept of green hospitals.'

Implementing such features once a hospital is up and running could require more effort.

In Singapore, GE Healthcare has been working with Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH), Alexandra Hospital and the National University Hospital (NUH).

For example, it has implemented its Radiology Information System and Picture Archival and Communication System at TTSH and NUH to help them digitise their radiology departments. According to Mr Tan, the systems reduce the steps required to process an X-Ray, resulting in reduced film and chemical use, reduced storage space and greater efficiency.

'What we are doing next is to tie all the green concepts specifically for hospitals,' he said. 'We have already started conversations with public and private hospitals here.'

Besides Singapore, markets such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam are also open to adopting green concepts when it comes to the healthcare industry, Mr Tan said.

Last year, GE Healthcare generated US$143 million of revenue from its Asean businesses.

Read more!

Coral bleach in Australia 'points' to warmer seas

The Cairns Post 12 May 10;

THE worst coral bleaching Torres Strait islanders have seen in about 40 years is thought to be linked to global warming.

Large patches of coral between Horn and Thursday islands have taken on a ghostly appearance in the past month.

The bleaching has coincided with a sudden rise in sea temperature in the region.

Residents claim the bleaching, which has hit shallow inshore coral reefs, is the worst they’ve seen in at least 40 years.

A coral expert at the University of Queensland, Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, said satellite mapping had shown a temperature anomaly had recently happened in the Torres Strait.

"Putting the two (events) together, you’d have to say there is a high likelihood that this is probably driven by elevated sea temperature," he said.

Coral bleaching happens when sea temperature rises more than 1C above coral’s normal range, forcing it to expel its symbiotic algae, which supplies coral with nutrients.

Prof Hoegh-Guldberg said it was too early to tell whether the Reef would recover from the bleaching.

"Some of the long-term effects that might occur in the next few months, if not years, are things like the fish populations will eventually change, and probably not for the best," he said.

"In the case of reef-building corals, if you lose the corals, you lose things that build the reef, and these are of course where fish live and what we depend on for pleasure and industry."

Horn Island resident Liberty Seekee, 38, who took photographs of the bleaching, said the devastated inshore soft corals looked like limp vegetables.

"It’s like limp flowers leaning over. I’ve never seen it before. I’ve been up here all my life," Mr Seekee said.

The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority will not be investigating the phenomenon as it lies outside the marine park.

A GBRMPA spokeswoman said bleaching had affected every reef region in the world.

"The spatial extent and severity of impacts of coral bleaching have been increasing throughout the world over the last few decades," she said.

Read more!

Marine Protected Areas Conserve Mediterranean Red Coral

ScienceDaily 11 May 10;

A team of Spanish and French researchers has undertaken a pioneer analysis of red coral populations in the oldest Marine Protected Areas (MPA) in the Mediterranean and the impact that fishing activity has had. Results show that MPAs are a guarantee for conserving this species.

Red coral. (Credit: Joaquim Garrabou)

Mediterranean red coral (Corallium rubrum) has been highly valued for jewellery since ancient times. But intensive fishing, particularly in shallow waters, has transformed populations and hindered the recovery of this species along the Mediterranean coastline, where the colonies of coral at depths of less than 50 metres are now very small. Fishing and now climate change threaten the persistence of this slowing growing species which also boasts slow population dynamics.

A team of scientists has analysed the three oldest Marine Protected Areas in the Mediterranean -- Banyuls, Carry-le-Rouet and Scandola, off the island of Corsica -- to quantify the impact of human activity and ascertain how efficient MPAs are in conserving red coral, as the latter are "a vital tool" when it comes to observing the evolution of populations in the absence of fishing.

"The problem with studying a species that grows so slowly is that populations need to be monitored over long periods of time to guarantee sufficient data are obtained to estimate how populations have evolved," says Cristina Linares, the author of the article and a researcher from the Department of Ecology at the University of Barcelona.

The study, which was published recently in the journal Marine Ecology Progress Series, shows that MPAs are "a slow but effective tool for conserving Mediterranean red coral populations," Joaquim Garrabou, co-author of the article and a researcher at the Institute of Marine Sciences (CSIC) declared.

According to the scientists, Mediterranean red coral cannot be considered an endangered species. This opinion is justified by the extensive distribution of dense populations all over the Mediterranean Basin and the fact that some colonies with basal diameters of less than two millimetres are now sexually fertile.

Three Decades of Protection

The researchers chose these three Marine Protected Areas because they are 30 years old. They forecast the structure of red coral populations when they were created, and three decades later, they have returned to repeat the process.

According to Linares, "these MPAs are home to extraordinarily large colonies, at depths of less than 50 metres and also deep-dwelling populations, in comparison to the populations studied previously." This confirms that MPAs are effective as measures to conserve this species, "providing, as is the case in these three MPAs, that they are well managed and that constant surveillance guarantees the protection of this species," the authors state.

"But the forecast for the future of populations reveals that 30 years of protection are not enough to allow colonies to reach the size of those observed in the 1960s (with diameters of around 45 mm)," Garrabou underlines.

Linares warns that if the colonies continue to diminish, the resilience of this species (its ability to absorb disturbances without suffering changes) will be affected. "The lack of large colonies has significant implications for future of populations, because it is these colonies that contribute to reproduction and, therefore, the persistence of these populations," the researcher says.

Read more!

'Leave water in ground for the future': Malaysian scientist

New Straits Times 11 May 10;

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia should protect and properly manage all its surface water supply before resorting to groundwater, a prominent scientist has warned.

Professor Dr Chan Ngai Weng of Universiti Sains Malaysia said better management of rivers, river basins and water catchments could avert a water crisis from hitting the country.

But, he said, proper management must be complemented with sustainable consumption which Malaysians still have a lot to learn from.

"Groundwater should be left to the future generations," he said at a Water Resource Management seminar at the National Institute of Public Administration (Intan) at Bukit Kiara yesterday.

Chan was among the presenters at the first session, themed "Water Resource Management: A Crisis".

At present, 97 per cent of Malaysia's water supply comes from surface resources especially rivers.

"We still have lots of rivers. What we need to do is tell our consumers to start saving (water)," Chan said.

"We should also gazette all our water catchment areas and make recycling water mandatory."

Chan does not have an issue with small scale use of groundwater such as wells in villages. It is projects that tap groundwater on a mega scale that worries him.

"If we start mining groundwater (in a big way), there is no control.

"Even if we have to do it, we must make sure we don't use more than its recharge ability," he said.

Chan explained that the recharge ability is the time it takes the groundwater to replace what was taken out.

He warned that cities like Bangkok and Mexico city were sinking because of extensive over-pumping being carried out in these cities.

Cost-wise, groundwater is also five times more expensive than surface water.

Other speakers in the same session, Irrigation and Drainage Department, Water Resources and Hydrology division director Hanapi Mohamad Noor, Water and Energy Consumer Association secretary-general S. Piarapakaran and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Institute for Environment and Development Raja Datuk Zaharaton Raja Zainal Abidin agreed that it was timely for water management to be streamlined.


All three speakers in the seminar argued that the current framework was "too sectorial".

"Without an integrated water management, policies can't be implemented in a holistic way," Raja Zaharaton said.

Read more!

Indonesia can get US$3 billion for climate change

Antara 11 May 10;

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Indonesia is expected to get international funds amounting up to US$3 billion dollars to address climate change.

"Through the Advisory Group on Financing, the finance minister and Goerge Soros reported Indonesia can get US$3 billion in 2012 including funds from Norway," Rachmat Witoelar, the executive chairman of the Climate Change National Council (DNPI), said at Parliament Building, here, Tuesday.

The DNPI chief and Environmental Affairs Minister Gusti Muhammad Hatta attended a hearing with the Commission VII of the Parliament.

Indonesia was also expected to receive international funds worth US$1 billion, he said.
"The funding obligation will be soon realized, while the obligation to cut gas emission is still waiting for the decision of the Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP UNFCCC)," Witoelar said.

At the hearing, Environmental Affairs Minister Hatta said the Mexico government, as the next host of the 16th COP to be held in Cancun, late this year, would strive for the implementation of the "fast start" as decided in the Copenhagen Accord.

The Indonesian government shared the government of Mexico`s intention to maintain two-track negotiations, namely through Ad Hoc Working Group on Kyoto Protocol (AWG KP) and Ad Hoc Working Group on Long Term Cooperation Action (AWG LCA).
"Currently, we are preparing in detail on Indonesia`s position to be presented in the Cancun Climate Change Summit," he said.

In accordance with the decision of the Copenhagen Accord in the 15th COP in December 2009, it was agreed on the provision of climate finance also called `fast-start` finance.

The promised "fast-start" funding approaching USD 30 billion for 2010-2012 was a strong inducement for small, poor and vulnerable developing countries to accept the Accord.(*)

Read more!