Best of our wild blogs: 21 Jun 10

Mega workshop series for all shore guides (Jul-Aug 10)
from wild shores of singapore and The Leafmonkey Workshop.

"Wetland in a City" - NEW book by Dr Chua Ee Kiam
from wild shores of singapore

Sungei Buloh: Bigger and Better - the Master Plan
from wild shores of singapore and Beyond Buloh - connecting with Johor wetlands

*SCAPE balloon release – What kind of message are they sending to our youth? from Dee Kay Dot As Gee

双溪布洛的大工程 Sungei Buloh Master Plan
from PurpleMangrove and 参加庆典的动物们 animals celebrate the master plan today

Chek Jawa check up 19June2010
from sgbeachbum

Aftemath Of The Oil Spill - Tanah Merah (2)
from Colourful Clouds

A Peep into the Changing Room
from My Itchy Fingers

Tomato clownfish with bleached anemone
from wonderful creation

Back to Venus
from talfryn.net

Lyssa zampa, Kranji Nature Trail, 19 June 2010
from Otterman speaks also on Lazy Lizard Tales

Java Sparrows around the limestone hills of Ipoh, Malaysia
from Bird Ecology Study Group

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Crooks make a killing defying Malaysian sand ban

New Straits Times 21 Jun 10;

A WHOPPING RM600 million worth of sand is illegally mined nationwide annually, with RM145 million of this smuggled to Singapore, Thailand and Cambodia.

The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) estimates that 3,000 lorry-loads of sand is transported to barges which take the commodity to the foreign destinations.

Its investigations director, Mustafar Ali, said each barge carried at least 5,000 tonnes of sand. This meant that 15 million tonnes of sand leaves Malaysian shores annually despite a government ban on the export of the commodity.

"This is what we know. Imagine how many more lorries and barges are leaving without our knowledge," he told the New Straits Times.

It is estimated that up to 75 per cent of the sand is being sold to Malaysians who use it in construction projects, the manufacturing of abrasives and production of bricks.


But at least 25 per cent is exported for construction projects in the three countries.

Mustafar said the mining of sand without permits was illegal with sale abroad considered smuggling.

"Those involved are clearly breaking the law and can be prosecuted."


Illegal sand mining is being carried out in Pahang, Perak, Selangor, Johor and Malacca.

Mustafar said the removal of sand had a detrimental effect on the ecology of rivers and sea beds.

"It has caused soil erosion and the destruction of animal habitats. How will our fishing and agricultural industries survive?"

Mustafa blamed poor enforcement for rampant sand mining, with some closing an eye due to corrupt practices.

"Malaysians must cooperate to curb illegal sand mining," he said, adding that MACC had detained 43 people for involvement in the activity in January.

Those nabbed included 30 enforcement agency officers and 13 from the private sector.

Mustafar said those arrested had allegedly solicited between RM500 and RM88,000 in bribes from those involved in the racket.

"Some even resorted to offering sexual favours to ensure illegal sand mining operations continued," he said, adding that several cases were pending in court.

Mustafar said MACC was determined to nab those involved in illegal sand mining.

He urged those with information on the illegal activity to lodge reports with the commission.

Heavy toll on the environment
New Straits Times 21 Jun 10;

RAMPANT sand mining in the Klang Valley has had a tangible effect on the ecology, leading to cases of deforestation and pollution.

The demand for the commodity in the construction and industrial sectors has pushed miners to expand operations with telling results on the environment.

According to a recent Audit Department report, sand mining in 26 locations had led to erosion and the formation of shallow pools.

The activity had also led to deforestation of the surrounding areas and sedimentation in rivers.

State Land and Mines Department officials found that miners in eight of the locations were operating without permits.

Sand mining has also contributed to sound and air pollution.

A recent Audit Department poll of 100 respondents in Semenyih revealed that 85 of them, comprising hostel students, felt that the quality of air had deteriorated.

The students also complained that the area was no longer conducive for studying due to the loud noise from the sand mining site.

Roads have also been damaged by lorries transporting sand.

'I was threatened with gun'
New Straits Times 21 Jun 10;

SAND mining is truly "dirty" business.

Besides the adverse effects on the environment, there are also claims of unethical methods being employed to threaten people in the industry.

This appears to be panning out in Rasa, a small town seven kilometres from Kuala Kubu Baru, where the grapevine is full of stories of how things are not right as far as the business is concerned.

Questions are being asked whether the companies mining sand along Sungai Rasa are keeping to the conditions of their permit and whether supervision by the authorities is as tight as it should be.

One person who has been at odds with the manner the activity is carried out in the town has also allegedly been threatened with a pistol.

Five months ago, police, the Hulu Selangor district office and the Selangor Land and Mines Department received reports on illegal sand mining but nothing much appears to have been done.

Contractor Zahar Rusuli, who claims to have been threatened with a pistol by two people who came to his Batang Kali home, is appalled by the lack of enforcement by the authorities in Rasa.

According to the 43-year-old who was involved with sand mining at the river last year but has since stopped doing so, there are allegedly six illegal sand mining sites operating in the Hulu Selangor district.

A check on a 20ha site along Sungai Rasa revealed several mining activities in progress.

Zahar claimed that the mining might have encroached on government land.

"I believe mining along the river has encroached on government land as there was a disused mining pool beside the river which has since become part of the operations."

Zahar said his problems began last December when his company, Tuaman Enterprise, was offered a three-month deal by Kumpulan Semesta Sdn Bhd (KSSB) to participate in a sand mining project along the river.

He claimed that soon after work began, he found that the operator was not mining according to regulations stipulated in the contract.

"I have tried to do this business by abiding by the law. But it is difficult to sell sand to purchasers when they can buy illegal sand for a lower price."

Zahar has yet to get back the RM20,000 deposit that he placed for the contract from KSSB.

A storm of allegations
New Straits Times 21 Jun 10;

A SAND "storm" has been blowing in Selangor following allegations of impropriety in the mining of sand.

At the centre of the controversy are Kumpulan Semesta Sdn Bhd (KSSB), the state-government subsidiary overseeing the industry, and Kapar member of parliament S. Mani-kavasagam.

The Parti Keadilan Rakyat MP had made allegations that things were not right as far as sand mining was concerned in the state, adding that there could be corruption involved. He lodged a police report on May 12.

The Selangor Select Committee on Competency, Accountability and Transparency subsequently found indications of mismanagement in KSSB.

Selangor Menteri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim later said while findings did not show evidence of corrupt practices, action had been taken against inefficient officers in the subsidiary.

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Singapore among top 25 most liveable cities: survey

Low crime rate, ease of setting up business and timely emergency services
Chan Yuping Business Times 21 Jun 10;

THERE'S no lack of Starbucks or Zara here, and certainly not sunshine, but still Singapore has slipped three rungs to 21st in a global ranking of the most liveable cities.

European cities, led by Munich, took the top spots in the latest quality-of-life survey by UK magazine Monocle, which goes beyond hard economic indicators in assessing the attractiveness of a city.

The poll includes 'soft' factors such as hours of sunshine and other attributes of urban appeal, such as the number of cinema screens and yes, the number of Zara and Starbucks outlets in town.

These are 'often-overlooked factors that can bring happiness and ease to everyday life', says the London-based lifestyle and global affairs magazine.

Singapore was rated highly for its low crime rate, ease of setting up a business - which takes about 15 minutes online - and prompt emergency services.

'However, high stress levels, a relatively high cost of living and a sense of self-censorship present room for improvement,' says Monocle.

Germany's Munich beat Zurich, which slipped from first place last year to third this year, while Copenhagen hung on to the second spot.

Munich's connectivity, cultural investment and abundance of green space helped it win top position, says Monocle. This is the second time the German city has been ranked number one since the survey started four years ago.

A growing commitment to embed environmental awareness in every aspect of urban planning was cited by Monocle as a key strength of the top three cities.

Several new metrics were introduced for this year's survey, including the amount of outdoor seating available, accessibility of green spaces, response time for emergency services and ease of starting a business.

These new attributes place a higher premium on small-scale neighbourhoods than on over-developed expatriate cities, says Monocle.

The 2010 top 25 list remains largely unchanged from 2009, with only Amsterdam dropping out and Northwestern US city Portland joining the league.

'There was a noticeable lack of reshuffling in 2010, in part because the economy saw many large-scale improvement projects put on hold,' says Tyler Brule, Monocle's editor-in-chief.

'But there were enough shifts, including Geneva, Madrid and Portland, to ensure no mayor should be resting on last year's performance.'

Tokyo, which dropped one spot to fourth position this year, was lauded for its connectivity and easily accessible transport system.

Other regional cities that made the top 25 list were Melbourne (9), Sydney (12), Fukuoka (14), Auckland (20) and Kyoto (23).

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EDB to make Singapore a living lab for urban solutions

It will set aside $100m to develop urban solutions here
Teh Shi Ning Business Times 21 Jun 10;

(SINGAPORE) The Economic Development Board (EDB) has sharpened its strategy to make Singapore a 'living lab' for urban solutions.

With $100 million set aside for EDB to facilitate private and public sector tie-ups to test-bed new clean energy, urban mobility, IT and public safety systems, the agency hopes companies will move quickly to gain a global edge with locally-developed urban solutions.

'We are creating businesses for the future, going after a market that may not be big now but is likely to grow very large globally,' EDB deputy managing director Tan Choon Shian told BT in an interview last week. This urban solutions strategy is to ensure Singapore rides the 'global megatrend' of rapid urbanisation, Mr Tan says, laying it out in three stages.

First, identifying 'lead demand' - a challenge Singapore faces, such as a dependable supply of water. 'This gives us more impetus to drive technology forward, get companies to take risks, figure out how to make technology work for the lead users here,' says Mr Tan.

Which leads to stage two, creating test-beds and inviting companies on board. 'We don't have a monopoly on good ideas, so we need companies, foreign or local, large or small, to come in and help co-create solutions,' he says. Solving the myriad problems of urban living and working 'used to be entirely the domain of governments, but we need companies to take risks, innovate, experiment, for us to gain that edge', says Mr Tan.

And he hopes these companies, 'with a track record of working with the Singapore public sector, reputed for efficiency, for prudence, can then scale up their businesses abroad'. This is in fact stage three - bringing Singapore-developed urban solutions into growing cities worldwide.

It is still 'early days', Mr Tan says, but some success has been seen in the area of water. Need-driven innovation led to national water agency PUB, Hyflux and Black & Veatch's collaboration on the SingSpring desalination plant, which has been in operation for close to five years. That experience has already been exported, with Hyflux having built desalination plants in Algeria, Oman and China.

More recently, EDB has helped coordinate the test-bedding of solar panels on the rooftops of HDB blocks in 30 precincts.

Electric vehicle testing, on track for launch by year-end, will help companies and the Energy Market Authority (EMA) figure out how best to run electric charging stations, pricing and other technical issues. EMA also got IBM, Accenture, Logica and Siemens to drive a consortium to roll out the first smart grid to make energy cheaper and more efficient, which could potentially be used for Singapore's main power grid.

And there are plenty of opportunities on larger-scale projects, both residential, such as HDB's Punggol eco-town plans, and business-focused, such as the upcoming CleanTech Park, says Mr Tan.

While it is usually foreign players who first bring in existing technology - solar modules, water membranes, electric vehicles - local firms can and should step in to design systems for urban use, he says. Specifically, they could find a niche in tropical urban uses, since most technologies are still made for use in temperate climates.

This could mean linking up with larger local players which have led consortiums on various test-beds, such as Sembcorp and ST Engineering. Or spotting niche urban needs, designing systems for wider application, and seeking out the relevant public agencies, he says.

Enterprises currently on these test-beds see long-term gains too. SolarGy installed solar panels and designed integrated systems for the Tampines and Marine Parade test-bed precincts. 'The main reason we made much effort to get this job was for the learning experience,' said its managing director Albert Lim. 'Installing solar panels on existing buildings is very challenging.'

SolarGy, a three-year-old firm, has won installation contracts from Universal Studios at Resorts World Sentosa and Keppel Land's Ocean Financial Centre, and Mr Lim thinks the HDB testbed will prepare it for a wider roll-out of solar systems across Singapore and boost its plans to enter Thailand and Philippines.

Similarly, Bernard Goh, general manager of Asiatic Engineering, said its long-term plan is to be a leading solar system integrator, 'not just in Singapore, but in the region'.

Said Mr Goh: 'Opportunities to apply and install various types of solar panels would become valuable experiences for local enterprises.'

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Flood: Climate change to blame?

Straits Times Forum 21 Jun 10;

I REFER to Mr Sin Wei Xiang's letter, "Orchard flood: Were there lapses?' (last Saturday). I agree that a clogged drain may not have been the only factor that caused the massive flooding.

There was an exceptionally dry spell in Singapore in February, which turned out to be the driest month ever and one of the hottest on record.

From my observation and a study of the National Environment Agency's rainfall statistics, the last two north-east monsoon periods - from December 2008 to February last year, and December last year to February this year - have brought largely dry weather rather than wet weather.

In fact, there was more rain over the period from June to July last year than from December last year to January this year - the latter usually very wet due to prevailing heavy rains from the north-east monsoon.

I am not sure if we are witnessing a permanent shift in weather patterns, but climate change models generally point towards drier weather in some places and wetter weather in other areas, as well as more extreme weather conditions.

This has long-term implications not only in terms of storm water drainage during periods of exceptional rainfall, but also a need for more water storage or reservoirs, and water sprinklers to maintain Singapore's greenery during periods of prolonged drought.

Clarence Andre

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Fish farms go high tech to net more gains

Online system monitors water to prevent repeat of plankton disaster
Jessica Lim Straits Times 21 Jun 10;

FISH farmers are installing an early-warning system that monitors water quality and alerts them when it falls.

They do not even have to be at the farms to check, for example, the levels of dissolved oxygen and water temperature, as the system can be accessed through the Internet.

Three farmers, among those who lost thousands of dollars worth of fish stocks when a plankton bloom hit Singapore last year, have each paid $115,000 for the system.

At least 15 other farms in the Pasir Ris-Pulau Ubin area are also looking into installing the system by the end of the year. The thought of another financial setback is too scary for them to contemplate.

The pioneering trio of farmers got in touch with local water testing company Shecey in February and worked with it to come up with the system comprising an above-ground display panel, sensors placed in the water, 3m down, and closed-circuit television cameras.

If oxygen levels fall too low - such as when a sudden mushrooming of plankton takes place - alarms will go off to alert those on the farm.

A text message will also be sent to the farm's owner, who can remotely activate the farm's oxygen pumps.

The farmers dug into their own pockets to pay for the pilot project, but they are hoping to be able to claim the cost, as well as that for future installations, from the Food Fund managed by the Agri- Food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA).

A sum of $5 million was put into that kitty last year for the food production industry, aimed at helping Singapore reduce its dependence on a few overseas suppliers of food.

The farmers who have sent in applications for funding say such water-monitoring systems are sorely needed.

Mr Philip Lim, who led the group in coming up with the system, said: 'Without it, I just wouldn't feel safe investing in so many fry and pumping all my money into my farm any more.'

Referring to the plankton bloom that hit his five-year-old farm in December, the 47-year-old added: 'It was so devastating that we need more assurance to continue.'

He lost about $150,000 with the death of 100,000 fish, mostly snappers and groupers. Altogether, 400,000 fish died.

Plankton blooms happen when one species of these drifting marine organisms predominates and multiplies quickly. The enlarged population uses up the oxygen in the water, which leads to fish and other animals suffocating.

But with the monitoring and warning system in place, the farmers will feel reassured about upping their production.

Fish farmer Lee Van Voon, 44, harvested about four tonnes of fish last year. With the system keeping watch, he is confident he can more than double his output to 10 tonnes this year.

He said as he tinkered with the system's display panel: 'It is different now. See, if oxygen levels fall below four milligrams per litre, I will immediately know. It is safe to farm now.'

The system can be expanded to also monitor water acidity and pollution levels, said Mr Lee, who lost $2,000 because of the bloom.

Mr Lim also plans to increase his farm output, as have the 15 other farmers who now also want the system on their farms.

AVA spokesman Goh Shih Yong said all applications for funding will be evaluated.

He also disclosed that the agency was testing its own early-alert system for plankton blooms, but that it would take time to design one that was accurate, cost-effective, easy to maintain, reliable and suitable for the waters here.

Only 4 per cent of the fish consumed here is farmed locally. The AVA hopes to take this figure up to 15 per cent in five years.

Meanwhile, the farmers say they cannot afford to wait until the AVA comes up with its system.

Mr Lee said: 'Who knows when that system will be ready? The plankton bloom wiped out all our stock. We have to start rearing a new batch right now. We can't wait around.'

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Philippines: Batangas corals spared from Crown of Thorns

Gregg Yan The Philippine Star 21 Jun 10;

MANILA, Philippines - An invisible confetti of stinging plankton just off the coral-fringed waters of northern Batangas signals an unfolding massacre.

Bristling with lethal toxin-tinged spikes, a multi-armed creature creeps menacingly toward a Porites coral head, its dull gray-green form blending well with the seascape. It is a Crown-of-Thorns Seastar (Acanthaster planci) - a dedicated coral predator and the bane of today’s coral reefs.

As it scales its quarry, it turns its brilliant ochre stomach inside out, ready to engulf and devour the coral’s fleshy polyps. Suddenly, aluminum tongs slice the water to grasp the seastar in a mortal tug-of-war. With a Lacrosse player’s finesse, the tong-armed diver stuffs the creature into a nylon mesh and heads for a waiting boat above. Not quite divine intervention - but for the coral head, the next best thing.

The Porites coral and its kin are safe for now, but hidden in innumerable nooks and crannies around it are dozens more seastars. Welcome to Etayo Cove - one of hundreds of reefs in the Coral Triangle under attack by these voracious fallen stars.

Perfect coral predators

“This,” says local warden Agapito Perno as he raises the same rapidly deflating seastar, “is locally known as Dap-ag. It comes every summer, when the sea is hottest.” Known throughout the community as Mang Pete, Perno once served as a bosero or spotter for blast-fishers, but has since chosen to protect the coasts of his native Batangas. “Careful,” he says when I peer in for a closer look. “Very poisonous. Look only.”

Widespread throughout the Coral Triangle, Crown-of-Thorns Seastars or COTS aren’t actually star-shaped. Rather, they resemble flattened sea urchins, with 12 to 20 arms radiating from a central disc, densely coated by needle-tipped spikes.

Mammoth appetites allow adults to chomp through six square meters of coral reef annually. An outbreak can be devastating - live coral cover in Palawan’s Green Isle Bay plummeted from 70 percent to 10 percent in just a few months. Full recovery takes years and can be hindered by the inevitable growth of algae. When this happens, only browsers such as surgeonfish or rabbitfish can graze off enough space for new corals to develop.

“COTS are the perfect coral predators because of their highly developed breeding and defense capabilities,” explains WWF-Philippines CEO Jose Ma. Lorenzo Tan. “They are believed to have the highest fertilization rates of all known invertebrates. A tire-sized adult can spew up to 60 million eggs per batch, so if just one percent survives, 600,000 will - as Spock says - live long and prosper.”

Few animals are better engineered to deter predators: if the needle spikes don’t stave off potential attackers, the neurotoxins they instantly inject into wounds often do. Still, large triggerfish, Triton Shells and colorful Harlequin Shrimp take a small but steady toll on COTS populations. Sadly, these hunters have been declining due to over-collection. With few natural control measures, COTS populations are determined only by the amount of corals they can seek.

Pollution, climate change fuel outbreaks

For millennia, COTS outbreaks have been instrumental in dictating the composition of the world’s coral reefs. However, increased coastal pollution and ocean temperatures may be causing populations to skyrocket.

Says Tan, “These seastars play a crucial ecological role - their constant browsing keeps fast-growing coral species in check, preventing them from dominating slow-growing, but equally important coral species. However, large-scale outbreaks - fuelled primarily by human activities - can wreak severe havoc and must be carefully managed to minimize long-term reef damage.”

Human pollution is a real culprit: life amid the world’s oceans depends mainly on the natural upwelling of nutrients from decaying matter. Nutrients fuel the creation of vast clouds of free-floating algae and plankton, which are then fed upon by filter-feeders like corals. It is this crucial gauntlet that larval seastars must brave before being able to settle on reefs.

However, pollution from coastal communities and offshore fleets has given rise to unusually high amounts of plankton - allowing more larval COTS to reach adulthood. Higher sea temperatures also cause coral-bleaching which - depending on the current health of a given reef - can either weaken or finish off its constituent corals.

“Ultimately, the best check-and-balance for COTS outbreaks would be to strengthen reef resilience itself. Healthy reefs have lots of filter-feeders. More filter-feeders mean less COTS. However, manual cleanups are still necessary,” says WWF dive leader Paolo Pagaduan while inspecting a crateful of COTS.

Collecting fallen stars

Back at Etayo Cove, the cleanup continues. Save for the rhythmic hissing of dive regulators, the reef is silent. Below, a tiny Watchman Goby pulls guard for its unlikely burrow-mate, a Pistol Shrimp. Beyond is a red basketstar - no, a lionfish, feathered fins swaying in the current. With this, our dive leader starts his ascent, signaling the end of the trip. In the silence of the blue, all others follow suit.

On the boat, COTS are emptied into plastic crates, the ones used for packing fruit. Soon the seastars will be buried on land to avoid adding more nutrients to the sea, fuelling more outbreaks.

Concludes Tan, “Though eliminating hundreds of seastars may sound inhumane, we recognize a need to reset nature’s balance. We choose to control COTS populations because many of the Coral Triangle’s reefs are no longer in good shape. Physical removal is the quickest and surest way to ensure the continued survival and productivity of these undersea oases.”

* * *

As the sunset looms, we help the old caretaker bury the seastars in a pre-dug pit along Hamilo Coast, a cool sea breeze gradually drifting in. Mang Pete looks up, shoulders his shovel and motions for silence. The dozen-strong cleanup team perks up, the air still heavy with the stench of dead echinoderm.

“Today, we collect 247 Dap-ag. This is good, very good.” Cheers and backslapping abound as the volunteers celebrate a fine day’s work. When the crescendo finally dies down, the lone warden strolls back to his moored boat, toward the sea. I follow, if only to enjoy the dramatic sunset.

Abruptly he turns to me, his worried visage tinged crimson by the dying rays of the sun. “247 today, 1,000 for whole season - but like the sea tide, they will be back.” I catch his eye and slowly comprehend the truth behind his words. “These starfish... they always come back.”

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Environmental Cost of Shark Finning Is Getting Attention in Hong Kong

Bettina Wassener The New York Times 20 Jun 10;

HONG KONG — When Christine and Constant Tang, both avid scuba divers, got married in 2003, they did something unusual: They did not serve shark’s fin soup at their wedding reception in Hong Kong.

“The waiter who took our banquet order gave us a pretty strange look, and my father-in-law had to explain in his welcoming speech that we felt strongly about being environmental, and that we were not just being cheap,” Mrs. Tang said.

This may sound a bit strange and arcane to anyone unfamiliar with Chinese culture. Unluckily for sharks, the soup brewed from their fins is considered a must-have at Chinese wedding banquets and corporate dinners. For the Chinese, the delicacy is a matter of wealth, pride and prestige.

But the question of whether to eat shark’s fin soup has finally begun to gain traction with the Hong Kong public, spawning Internet discussion and campaign groups. The debate here could well influence the survival of numerous shark species.

And it puts the spotlight on the evolving environmental attitudes of the world’s most populous nation: China. China’s huge economy is booming. So what Chinese consumers buy and eat matters — on a global scale.

Researchers estimate that 100 million sharks are killed each year, some 73 million of them for the lucrative trade in shark fins. As demand, mainly from China, has soared, many shark populations have plummeted by as much as 90 percent in recent decades.

“If sharks continue to be overfished at the current rate, it’s only a matter of a few years before the targeted species are extinct,” according to Richard Thomas, communications director at Traffic, which monitors wildlife trade.

The fins are not cheap. Retailers in Hong Kong charge more than 2,000 Hong Kong dollars, or $260, per “catty,” a traditional weight measure commonly used in markets here and equal to a bit more than 600 grams, or 21 ounces. One catty makes about 10 portions of shark’s fin soup.

The soup is losing some of its status — slowly.

Several vendors of dried seafood in the bustling Hong Kong neighborhood of Sheung Wan said last week that they now sold significantly less than they had a few years ago.

“People are a lot more aware about protecting the environment,” said an employee at one of the dozens of stores in the area. Like others, he declined to give his name, because he was worried about the mounting bad publicity surrounding shark fins here. “There is less demand now,” he said.

Hong Kong now has several groups that are opposed to shark finning — the practice of capturing sharks, removing the fins and then throwing them back into the water to die. In May, 12 restaurants and hotels pledged to offer shark-free options for banquets. Alibaba, the Chinese answer to eBay, has banned the sale of the fins on its site.

“Awareness has been rising for the past few years, but it really took off this year,” said Andy Cornish at the WWF in Hong Kong.

A proliferation of videos on YouTube — like one of a whale shark that washed up in the Philippines this year, still alive but with its fins cut off — has really pushed the issue mainstream. And it hammered home how the precious fins are harvested.

Sharks are fished in oceans around the world, but Hong Kong is the hub for the trade in their fins, handling between 50 percent and 80 percent of the global market. The fins go on to mainland China or to Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Taiwan. Hong Kong itself is also a major consumer.

Because Hong Kong is generally a trendsetter for upmarket spending in China, attitudes here could well influence consumption in the vastly greater mainland market, experts believe.

But conservationists have also taken their message to the mainland itself. Most prominent is a campaign by WildAid featuring Yao Ming, the National Basketball Association star, who was born in Shanghai. The campaign appears on CCTV, the main state television broadcaster, and on billboards and public screens in major cities.

“Many people in China are simply not aware that shark finning is wasteful, cruel and unsustainable,” said Michael Skoletsky, executive director at Shark Savers in New York, which also supports the campaign.

But changing attitudes is an uphill struggle.

A survey by McKinsey, for example, showed last year that even though half of Chinese consumers said they wanted to understand the environmental impact of products they purchased, few actually walk the talk: Fewer than 3 percent ever purchased “green” products.

Even in Hong Kong, where awareness has risen, many restaurants offer a plethora of shark’s fin dishes. Among them: Lung King Heen, which has three Michelin stars, and Man Wah in the Mandarin Oriental hotel, though both have also recently introduced shark-free options for banquets.

Only about 5 percent of couples choose shark-free menus at their weddings, according to a survey by a wedding industry group last year.

Elsewhere, too, shark protection is proving tough.

Last month, Hawaii became the first U.S. state to outlaw shark fins. But, Mr. Skoletsky at Shark Savers said that with all the other issues legislators have to deal with — from unemployment to oil spills — it will be “very hard to get it on the agenda” of other states.

Fergus Fung, founder of WOM, a Hong Kong restaurant guide, said, “Ultimately, we’ll see shark’s fin consumption phasing off here. But we’re still a long way away from sharks’ disappearing completely from menus. It’s still a very, very big dish.”

Andrea Deng contributed reporting.

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Sea cucumber smugglers hurt Indian ecology at the Gulf of Mannar

Sea slug smugglers hurt ecology deeply
Swati Das | Rameswaram The Daily Pioneer 21 Jun 10;

Sea cucumbers are a sea slug that cleans the floor of the oceans and helps maintain the ecosystem under the water. But they are a delicacy in the South-East Asian countries that can fetch the Indian sellers around Rs 5,000 a kg or more.

To preserve and protect these sea creatures, the Indian Government banned sea cucumber fishing under Schedule I of Amendment (2002) to the Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972. Yet, sea cucumber trade continues to thrive, depleting the resources of Indian seas, especially in the Gulf of Mannar, along the south Tamil Nadu coast, thanks to smugglers in these areas.

Sea cucumber fishing had provided a successful alternative for Tamil Nadu fishermen. But following the ban, the trade has slipped into the hands of smugglers. They, with the help of Forest department officials, are minting money and causing a huge loss to the country.

“The ban has not helped protect the species. The smugglers along the Rameswaram-Tuticorin coast are depleting the resources; they get away by bribing forest officials,” said former sea cucumber fisherman BG Sekhar.

Smugglers have enough subordinates to handle the pouching of holothurians, processing them and selling them across the sea. So, when someone is caught, it is not the real smugglers. Sources say the smugglers operate with strong political support.

“You will often read that sea cucumbers are seized by forest officials. These are nothing but a cover-up to show they are doing their job. The real business goes unnoticed,” said a journalist.

The fact that neither Sri Lanka, nor Mauritius has a ban on catching sea creature – sold in the processed form known as Beche-de-mar – helps in the smuggling. These sea creatures are traded at sea along the International Maritime Boundary Line to traders from these countries. They are in turn sold to South-East Asian countries, with Singapore being a major hub where a kilogram of these processed animals cost about $150-200.

When the war with the LTTE was on, the sea cucumbers used to be smuggled out in refugee boats. They are also sometimes exported clandestinely by air or ship by naming the containers as ‘dried fish’.

Along with sea cucumber, the endangered mammal sea cow (Dugon dugon), sea horse and pipe fish, all coming under the Schedule I of the Wildlife Act, are also sold across the sea. While harvesting the sea cucumbers, which nestle to the sea corals, the corals are destroyed. Sea cow meat is known to be delicious and even in Keelakarai market it sells for around Rs 500 or more.

The ban on sea cucumber fishing was initiated by then Union Environment and Forests Minister TR Baalu in 2001 and the Amendment to the Wild Life Act was passed in December 2002. India was the first country to ban sea cucumber fishing. Ironically, it is the same Minister who was bent on carrying out the Sethusamudram Ship Canal project in the same area that would endanger the fragile eco-system.

But not all are happy with the ban. Scientists believe it only sent the trade underground, instead of replenishing the stock. They say that the Government should not have been in a hurry to ban the sea cucumber fishing. Instead, there should have been ranching facility to farm these slow mild creatures and let them into the sea for augmenting their population. Instead restrictions should have been on the size of the sea cucumber allowed to fish and export. This way both livelihood of fishermen and population of the sea slugs could have been maintained.

“There should have been a scientific study before imposing the ban so suddenly,” observed a fisheries official. The stretch between Rameswaram and Tuticorin is the fragile national marine park called the Gulf of Mannar Marine National Park and there is a Gulf of Mannar Biosphere Reserve Trust to ensure protection to this park.

An expert in sea cucumbers and the retired scientist from the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI) DB James had written in his paper for a 2004 Expo on Ocean-Life, Food & Medicine: “Instead of introducing a blanket ban, the Government should have stepped in to rehabilitate the fishermen from fishing to farming. They should be trained for a mass scale breeding and sea ranching programme to keep up the natural stock in the sea. Rational exploitation can be allowed subject to size regulations and catch quota systems for sea cucumber fishing and trade as done in other countries.”

Sea cucumbers or holothurians are also known as sea urchins or scavengers of sea. Since the Chinese invented the Beche-de-mar around 1000 years ago, this has become a thriving industry. Not only is it a delicacy, the slugs are also harvested for medicinal values – treating diabetes, there are claims of it being anti-HIV virus, joint pain reliever and blood pressure. It is also used in the manufacture of cosmetics. The animal in some countries are also considered an aphrodisiac. It is rich in proteins, polysaccharides, Omega-3 fatty acid and marine trace minerals.

It was the Chinese who taught the Tamil Nadu fishermen how to process the slugs or attai as they say in Tamil. Though Andaman and Nicobar Islands is a gold mine of sea cucumbers, it is the poachers from Thailand who exploit the sea around it. Similarly, the Mauritian poachers thrive near Lakshadweep, where quality slug is found.

A lot of middlemen are involved in the pouching of the animal. However, fishermen who are forced to do it get only miniscule amount. There are 17 varieties of sea cucumbers in the Gulf of Mannar and of them the fast moving and costliest is Holothuria scabra - sand fish (vella (white) attai in Tamil). Others include Holothuria atra or Lolly fish (karuppu (black) attai) and Stichopus hermanni – a warty sea cucumber known as pavaikya (bitter gourd) attai.

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India seizes third shipment of tiger parts on way to China

Yahoo News 21 Jun 10;

GUWAHATI, India (AFP) – Indian customs officers Sunday seized the third shipment of tiger bones and other animal parts, worth 230,000 dollars and destined for use in traditional medicine in China.

A customs official said the officers found tiger bones, skulls, and 125 kilogrammes of scales from pangolins, rare scaly mammals that are distant relatives of the anteater and a protected species in India.

"The animal products were estimated at about 10.66 million rupees if sold on the international black market," customs superintendent S. Das told AFP.

Customs officials, acting on a tip-off, had also seized two other shipments at the international airport in the eastern city of Guwahati on Wednesday and Thursday.

In total, the raids netted contraband worth about 660,000 dollars.

On average, poachers kill 30 tigers every year in Indian reserves, with demand driven by China where pelts, claws and bones are prized in traditional medicine.

In 2008, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh set up a national wildlife crime prevention bureau, drawing experts from the police, environmental agencies and customs in a bid to break up the poaching network.

Tiger hunting is illegal worldwide and the trade in tiger parts is banned under a treaty binding 167 countries, including India.

There are estimated 1,400 tigers living in the wild in India, according to conservation group WWF.

In August of 2009, an Indian delegation in Beijing asked China for full co-operation for controlling cross-border trafficking of tiger parts and to send a clearer message to smugglers, but no official agreement was reached.

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96% of chimpanzees could be saved by African action plan

IUCN 21 Jun 10;

96 per cent of known populations of eastern chimpanzees, that’s an estimated 50,000 individuals, could be protected with a new action plan, which puts stamping out illegal hunting and trafficking as key to saving one of man’s closest relatives. The nations of East and Central Africa have developed a 10-year plan to save the eastern chimpanzee from hunting, habitat loss, disease, the capture of infants for the pet trade and other threats, IUCN and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) announced today.

The eastern chimpanzee is currently classified as Endangered on IUCN’s Red List of Threatened Species™, and lives in the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania and Zambia. Eastern chimpanzees share an estimated 98 percent of genes with Homo sapiens and are among the best studied of the great apes.

“Eastern Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii): Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan: 2010-2020”, calls for the conservation of 16 areas, which if protected would conserve 96% of the known populations of eastern chimpanzees, estimated to be around 50,000. However, the total number could be as high as 200,000, almost double the estimates that have been made previously.

“We know about the distribution and abundance of only a quarter of the world population of the eastern chimpanzee”, says Dr Liz Williamson, IUCN’s Species Survival Commission Great Ape Coordinator. “There are large areas of the Congo basin where we know very little about this ape. The plan identifies key areas for future surveys that are likely to be of importance for chimpanzees.”

“This effort to assess the status of eastern chimpanzees will help us to focus our conservation actions more effectively,” says Dr. Andrew Plumptre, director of the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Albertine Rift Program and the plan’s lead author. “In the next decade, we hope to minimize the threats to these populations and the ecological and cultural diversity they support.”

In addition to targeting two of the greatest threats to the species, illegal hunting and trafficking, other objectives include reducing the rate of forest loss in chimpanzee habitats; increasing knowledge of chimpanzee distribution, status, and threats; improving the understanding of health risks to chimpanzee populations, including human-transmitted diseases; increasing community support for chimpanzee conservation; and, securing sustainable financing for chimpanzee conservation units.

“The plan will require considerable support from the global community but will ensure the continued survival of eastern chimpanzees in their natural habitats,” says Dr. James Deutsch of the WCS’s Africa Program. “The conservation of wild populations is important not only for conservation, but also for the survival of chimpanzee cultures in the region that are invaluable to helping us define our own place within the natural realm.”

The development of the Eastern Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii): Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan: 2010-2020 was funded by WCS, the ARCUS Foundation and the Daniel K. Thorne Foundation.

For more information, contact:

Leigh Ann Hurt, IUCN Species Programme Communications Officer, t. +41 22 999 0153 e. leighann.hurt@iucn.org
John Delaney, Wildlife Conservation Society, t. +1 718 220 3275, e. jdelaney@wcs.org
Stephen Sautner, Wildlife Conservation Society, t. +1 718 220 3682, e. ssautner@wcs.org

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Plan to pump water into Dead Sea makes environmentalists see red

Activists unite with industrialists to oppose World Bank study into project to transport water from Red Sea
Harriet Sherwood guardian.co.uk 20 Jun 10;

In a plastic-lined hole in a spit of sand stretching out into the Dead Sea, something is growing in the water.

Floating on top of the greenish pool – a mixture of 70% water from the Dead Sea and 30% water from the Red Sea – is a white scum of algae.

This is Pool No 9, dated March 2003. Next to it is Pool No 8, with exactly the same proportions of Dead Sea and Red Sea waters, created a year ago. Here the colour of the water is red.

No one knows why the two pools are different, but both environmentalists and industrialists are worried.

The reason behind the experimental mixing pools at the Dead Sea Works industrial complex, located at the southern end of the lowest point on land, is an ambitious and controversial proposal to build a conduit to pump water from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea in order to revitalise the latter's shrinking dimensions.

It attracts hordes of tourists wanting to float in its waters and bathe in its restorative mud. But the level of the Dead Sea has dropped 25m in the past 50 years and it is continuing to recede at the rate of a metre a year.

North of the Dead Sea Works is Ein Gedi, a historic oasis where a luxury spa was originally built on the sea's edge. Now, guests have to be transported one and a half kilometres to reach the sea. Further north, an abandoned restaurant, built on what was Lido Beach, is marooned inland. Where once the sea lapped almost at the feet of diners, there is now a vast expanse of rock and sand.

The gradual disappearance of the Dead Sea has alarmed environmentalists, industrialists and tourist authorities for years. It has been caused mainly by three countries – Israel, Jordan and Syria – diverting an astonishing 98% of its source, the once-surging Jordan river, to provide water for their citizens. (Another impact has been to deny much-needed water to Palestinian communities and businesses in the West Bank). Industry is also to blame: the waters of the Dead Sea have been pumped into evaporation ponds to allow the extraction of minerals.

Now the World Bank is conducting a study into the feasibility of taking water through tunnels, pipes and canals from the Red Sea to replenish the Dead Sea. Public hearings into the "Red-Dead Conduit" are being held this week.

The plan, estimated to cost around $15bn (£10bn), is enthusiastically backed by the Israeli and Jordanian governments. But both environmentalists and industry – usually in fierce opposition to one another – are deeply concerned about the consequences.

The Dead Sea Works, which extracts potash, bromine, magnesium and salt from the unique waters, has been experimentally mixing the seas for several years. It doesn't like what it has seen.

"No one can answer for sure what the response of nature to the mixing will be," Dr Joseph Lati, in charge of the experiment, says cautiously. "We have to go very carefully with this project until we know more about the biological and chemical effects. There might be micro-impacts that we don't know about until they hit us."

The red colour of Pool No 8 is due to the blooming of bacteria, he explains. The algae indicates that the mixing on a large scale would encourage the growth of living organisms in a sea with no life.

The World Bank study is considering a number of options, all of which involve massive construction in ecologically delicate areas of desert between the two seas. That in itself would be disruptive to biodiversity and costly, but the inclusion of two stretches of canal under one of the options would attract further development along their banks.

Both the Dead Sea Works and a coalition of environmentalists led by Friends of the Earth Middle East fear the study is being rushed and alternatives are not being properly considered.

The governments behind the plan are pushing the study towards "certain results", claims Gidon Bromberg, Israeli director of Friends of the Earth Middle East. "They are paying lip service to alternative options. The public consultations are a box-ticking exercise."

The World Bank says nothing has been decided. "This is a big idea to address a big problem, namely the dying of the Dead Sea," says Alex McPhail. "We are still in the middle of a comprehensive and integrated evaluation of the proposed project."

Bromberg is critical of the Dead Sea Works, despite its anxieties over the conduit scheme. "We have a common interest in not destroying the Dead Sea. But we know where our interests diverge."

The company is only concerned with its commercial interests, he claims, and whether a change in the chemical composition of Dead Sea waters would impact on its mineral extraction business – which has been a big contributor to the problem.

Bromberg says the conduit plan ignores the root cause of the dwindling Dead Sea. If Israel, Jordan and Syria halved the amount of water they diverted from the Jordan river, the Dead Sea would stabilise, he says. That would require ending the free supply of water to agriculture and asking some fundamental questions: "Do we need to grow bananas in the middle of the desert? Do we need to flush our toilets with clean drinking water?"

The Dead Sea will never completely disappear, says Bromberg. Fresh water continues to seep into the sea from the earth below it, and as the sea continues to drop the rate of evaporation is slowing. "At some point the amount of water coming in will equal the evaporation," says Bromberg, leading to the sea's stabilisation. The solution, according to Noam Goldstein of Dead Sea Works, lies at the other end of the Dead Sea: "The best solution is for the Jordan river to flow again – this is what nature intended."

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EU Sees Solar Power Imported From Sahara In 5 Years

Christian Lowe PlanetArk 21 Jun 10;

Europe will import its first solar-generated electricity from North Africa within the next five years, European Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger said in an interview on Sunday.

The European Union is backing projects to turn the plentiful sunlight in the Sahara desert into electricity for power-hungry Europe, a scheme it hopes will help meet its target of deriving 20 percent of its energy from renewable sources in 2020.

"I think some models starting in the next 5 years will bring some hundreds of megawatts to the European market," Oettinger told Reuters after a meeting with energy ministers from Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia.

He said those initial volumes would come from small pilot projects, but the amount of electricity would go up into the thousands of megawatts as projects including the 400 billion euro ($495 billion) Desertec solar scheme come on stream.

"Desertec as a whole is a vision for the next 20 to 40 years with investment of hundreds of billions of euros," said Oettinger. "To integrate a bigger percentage of renewables, solar and wind, needs time."

The EU is backing the construction of new electricity cables, known as inter-connectors, under the Mediterranean Sea to carry this renewable energy from North Africa to Europe.

Some environmental groups have warned these cables could be used instead to import non-renewable electricity from coal- and gas-fired power stations in north Africa.

"This is a good question but not a question to destroy our project," Oettinger said. "This question must be answered by a good answer and so we need ways to ensure that our import of electricity is from renewables."

He said he believed it was technologically possible to monitor electricity imports to the EU and establish if they come from renewable sources or fossil fuels. "This question must be solved in the next years," he said.

SOLAR SUBISIDIES

The Desertec consortium includes major firms such as Siemens, RWE and Deutsche Bank. They are expected to seek public money for the project.

Oettinger said the EU's assistance was likely to include help coordinating stakeholders, updating regulations to allow the imported electricity to move across European borders, and financing feasibility studies.

On the prospect of EU subsidies, or the European Commission permitting state aid to firms involved in the project, he said that would become clear once the consortium has presented a detailed business plan.

Oettinger said all three energy ministers at the meeting in the Algerian capital sent a signal they were willing to build the infrastructure and common market rules needed to allow a trade in renewable electricity with Europe.

He countered concerns expressed in the past by some officials in Algeria that the project could involve Europeans exploiting north Africa's natural resources.

"Renewables are a two-way partnership because electricity produced here is for the home market of north African countries," he said.

"Maybe a bigger percentage of the electricity will be exported to Europe but at the same time we have to export the technology, tools, machines, experts, and so it's a real partnership, not only a partnership by selling and by buying."

(Additional reporting by Hamid Ould Ahmed; Editing by Jon Loades-Carter)

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Rainfall impacts of climate warming to persist

Richard Black BBC News 17 Jun 10;

Impacts of man-made greenhouse warming on rainfall would endure long after temperatures fell, a study suggests.

UK Met Office scientists constructed a hypothetical future in which carbon dioxide levels rise and then fall, and modelled what might happen to rainfall.

Their computer simulation showed temperature falling decades after CO2's decline, with changed rainfall going on for several more decades after that.

The study is published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

The hypothetical future saw concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere rising to four times pre-industrial levels over 70 years, then returning to the baseline over a similar period.
Continue reading the main story

As models improve, we'll be able to get more confident on this

Vicky Pope Met Office

"This is an idealised situation," said Vicky Pope, head of climate change advice at the Met Office.

"On the other hand, we could reach atmospheric concentrations of greeenhouse gases equivalent to a quadrupling of CO2 by the end of the century.

"So if we allow emissions to increase to the end of the century and then decrease them rapidly, this is the kind of thing you'd expect to see," she told BBC News.

The computer simulation also suggested that if greenhouse gas levels remained elevated for an extended period, the rainfall changes would then endure for longer after emissions began to decline.
'Basic physics'

Rainfall changes arise largely through increased temperatures in the ocean.

More water evaporates into the atmosphere. Overall, this means the world would receive more rain - but computer simulations suggest the impacts would be very unevenly distributed.

High latitude countries such as Canada and Russia would receive more rain and snow, whereas other regions such as the Amazon basin, Australia and parts of sub-Saharan Africa would receive substantially less.

As the oceans have huge capacity to store heat, releasing the heat relating to a temporary quadrupling of the man-made greenhouse effect would take many decades.

The Met Office computer model is known to project more drying of the Amazon than most others.

"Details of exactly where the impacts fall would be different in different models because they don't agree in details," said Dr Pope.

"But the mechanism is the same in all models, because it's basic physics. As models improve, we'll be able to get more confident on this."

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