Best of our wild blogs: 17 and 18 Jul 10

Life History of the Anderson's Grass Yellow
from Butterflies of Singapore

Singapore restaurant serves another giant endangered grouper
from wild shores of singapore

TeamSeagrass at Semakau and driftnet removal
from teamseagrass and wild shores of singapore

"Hunter seeking" at Semakau
from wonderful creation

Raptor Sightings
from Life's Indulgences

The "Know 10 trees" stamp issue and belukar blooms on the Flora & Fauna definitives from Habitatnews

Two Yellows @ Lornie Trail
from Beauty of Fauna and Flora in Nature

Chestnut Avenue
from Singapore Nature

Cyrene Reef with TeamSeagrass
from teamseagrass and wild shores of singapore

Guides of Singapore shores: Reefs and rubble
from wild shores of singapore

Observations on feeding behaviour of Lineated Barbet
from Bird Ecology Study Group

Feeding Spotted Dove: 4. The eyelids
from Bird Ecology Study Group

A week spent joining the dots
from BBC NEWS blog by Richard Black

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Happy in my very own Eden

Jessica Cheam Straits Times 18 Jul 10;

At a work party recently, a colleague who writes on transport raised this question while we sat around feasting on local food: What is happiness?

Happiness, according to him, is living near your workplace. His reason? Because commuting is the bane of urban life, resulting in stress, anger and wasted time. People who live near their workplaces are happier, he declared.

Another colleague who lives near town then defined happiness as living near Orchard Road. 'So near all that shopping.'

Then I ventured: How about living near trees? I got blank stares all around the table for a long five seconds before everyone burst into laughter.

'Er, not unless you're Tarzan?' joked one colleague. 'What do trees have to do with happiness?' asked another.

Well, a lot, if you ask me. I have to admit that after moving into my cosy new home late last year in the depths of 'ulu' Hillview residential estate, I have been frustrated by long commutes to work.

The bus journey from Hillview to Toa Payoh requires 11/2 hours, two bus changes and being packed like sardines, with dubious smells from my fellow commuters' armpits.

The MRT line going through Upper Bukit Timah is not due to be completed till 2015 and, in the meantime, is causing severe jams due to building works.

If you drive, you escape the sardinesin-a-can situation, but you'll also likely be uttering expletives at your fellow drivers - most of whom are Those Who Have No Concept Of Signalling Before Changing Lanes.

Traffic would be chock-a-block until you reach your final destination, at which point you are already exhausted even before you begin your work day.

At this point, my colleague is now smugly thinking: I told you so.

Living near trees, I concede, is not going to help the long commute but there are other unquantifiable benefits.

My apartment may be in what others consider an 'ulu' location, on top of a hill, but it is surrounded with evergreen foliage. Lots of it.

When I walk up the hill, there are tall palm trees that line the pavements on both sides, making me feel like I'm retreating to a resort which doubles as a home.

The kitchen, living and dining room windows in my apartment look out to a rainforest. I have neither human nor concrete neighbours and, if anyone so wished, he or she could walk around naked in my home like Adam or Eve in the Garden of Eden and there would be no witnesses.

The view was the deal-clincher for my partner and me when we bought the home. It was what set the apartment apart from the other shoeboxes in the sky in the city where, yes, you may be closer to work but there is also the incessant traffic noise and exhausting crowds of urban living.

Every morning when I get up to turn on my coffee machine before work, I have only to look out of my window and feel a strange serenity. Some call that happiness.

The sea of green that greets my eyes at the start of each day puts me in a great mood and helps me cope with Those Who Have No Concept Of Signalling Before Changing Lanes.

When I come home from work, the unwavering presence of the solid trees outside my window provides an inexplicable sense of much-needed peace.

Living near the city or 'town', I have decided, is overrated.

So many of us go on holiday to beach resorts on remote islands to 'get away' from the city and its trappings but you'd be surprised at the spots all over Singapore that offer that style of living. You just have to look for them.

Somehow, I find that being plugged into the rat race of the 'competitive, global city' makes you forget that there are sometimes simpler pleasures that remind us of humanity's connection with nature.

Just the other day, on a perfectly ordinary Saturday morning, a pair of peculiar, tiny birds perched right on my windowsill, tweeting feverishly - and not of the online type - in a sing-song conversation.

We were enraptured by these beautiful little things (yes, seriously, this was a 'You had to be there' moment) and did not speak for a full minute, staring in amazement at how close they were to us.

We felt strangely blessed that the little creatures thought to 'visit' our window and that ordinary Saturday suddenly felt special.

But we wouldn't have had the chance of these rare glimpses of nature if we were not living near it.

So there, despite the golden property rule to look for homes based on location, location, location, I'd add that happiness can be found in a home surrounded by trees, trees and more trees.

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Mandai Orchid Garden: 'Save the orchids, save our heritage'

Mandai Orchid Garden hopes the authorities will let it stay on, as its land lease is running out soon
Melissa Pang Straits Times 18 Jul 10;

These orchids at the Mandai Orchid Garden may soon have no home when the garden's lease runs out in under six months, to make way for a potential nature attraction. Word on whether a lease extension will be granted is expected soon. -- ST PHOTO: DESMOND LIM

With less than six months to go before its land lease expires, Mandai Orchid Garden is stepping up efforts to convince the authorities to let it stay on.

It is using the current week-long Singapore Garden Festival at the Suntec convention centre to draw attention to its plight, by giving out red ribbons adorned with fresh orchids printed with the message 'Save Heritage Orchids'.

'We just want to retain the part of the garden where the orchids are. The Nature Photographic Society has also asked for the water garden to be retained because the place is great for nature photography,' said the garden's curator, Mr Hedrick Kwan, 33.

He is part of a three-man Save Heritage Garden movement fighting to keep the garden alive. The others are the garden's part-time consultant Alice Mendoza and artist-in-residence Mark Kaufmann.

The Mandai Orchid Garden now sits on a 4ha piece of land that is part of a 30ha footprint identified by the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) for a potential gated nature attraction.

The garden has occupied the land in Mandai for 59 years now. Besides the orchid garden, which has 50 orchid varieties dating back more than 20 years, there is also a water garden.

It is now mainly a tourist destination that sees up to 500 tourists a month. Some of the orchids are named after famous people such as Singapore's first chief minister David Marshall.

Mr Kwan said he is asking the tourism body to allow it to extend its land lease, albeit on a smaller plot in Mandai.

At the garden festival, where the Mandai Orchid Garden has a historical retrospective, e-mail contacts are also being collected to build up a mailing list to keep interested members of the public updated on the latest developments.

Mr Kwan said he has exchanged many phone calls with the STB so far, and has had one meeting to exchange ideas on possible uses of the garden.

Ultimately, he hopes to turn the orchid garden into a living museum. 'It will be a depository for vintage orchids. The family members of orchid breeders who have passed on can leave the orchids at the garden, where they will be taken care of,' he added.

STB's director of attractions, Ms Jeannie Lim, said the board is in touch with both Mandai Orchid Garden and the Singapore Land Authority (SLA) on the lease extension. 'STB understands that SLA will convey its decision soon,' she said.

Mr Tan Jiew Hoe, president of the Singapore Gardening Society, said he hopes to see the garden stay, but also highlighted that a place of that size needed more monetary and manpower support to maintain.

Should the mission to save the orchid garden fail, the next best scenario would be for a private grower to offer to purchase the collection, said Mr Kwan.

Otherwise, said Mr Kwan matter-of-factly: 'A part of history could be gone.'

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Sale of eggs from local N&N Agriculture Farm suspended for antibiotic residues

Channel NewsAsia 17 Jul 10;

SINGAPORE: Singapore's food safety watchdog has suspended the sale of eggs produced by a local farm, N & N Agriculture Farm.

The Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) said it found residues of an antibiotic called doxycycline in the eggs.

It has immediately suspended N & N Agriculture Farm from selling its eggs and taking any birds or eggs out of the farm.

The move comes after a routine surveillance tests on local poultry farms on Saturday.

All eggs produced on the farm will be destroyed under AVA's supervision.

The suspension will remain in place and only be lifted when AVA is satisfied that the farm has fully complied with AVA's requirements.

Supermarkets and other retailers have started to take the eggs off the shelf.

AVA said those who may have consumed N & N eggs recently need not be alarmed.

It said the levels of doxycycline in the eggs that tested positive were low and will not have any adverse health effect unless consumed over a prolonged period.

Taking such eggs occasionally or over a short term will not be a concern.

Consumers who have bought N & N eggs are advised not to consume them.

N & N Agriculture Farm produces about nine per cent of Singapore's total egg supply.

AVA said there will not be any impact on the supply of eggs.

Eggs from other local farms and accredited farms in Malaysia can easily make up for any shortfall.

AVA said other local and imported eggs continue to be safe for consumption.

Singapore consumes about four million eggs a day with about 23 per cent from the local farms.

In general, antibiotics are used to treat bacterial infections.

When chickens are under treatment, the eggs are not allowed to be sold.
Doxycycline can be used in poultry under proper dosage regimes and withdrawal periods.

A withdrawal period between the treatment of the chickens and the sale of eggs from the treated chickens must be complied with to ensure that no doxycycline residues are found in the eggs. - CNA/vm

AVA stops sale of eggs from farm
Low levels of antibiotic residue found; egg supply in S'pore unlikely to be affected
Goh Chin Lian Straits Times 18 Jul 10;

An egg farm in Singapore has been suspended from selling its eggs, after residues of an antibiotic were found in them.

But the authorities were quick to assure consumers who recently ate eggs from N & N Agriculture Farm not to be alarmed.

'The levels of doxycycline in the eggs that tested positive were low, and will not have any adverse health effect unless consumed over a prolonged period,' said the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) in a statement yesterday evening.

It said eating such eggs occasionally or over a short term will not be a concern. But the AVA advised those who had bought N & N eggs not to eat them.

It said it discovered the antibiotic in the eggs yesterday after routine surveillance tests on poultry farms here.

It immediately suspended N & N from selling the eggs and taking any birds or eggs out of the farm.

The AVA said it would lift the suspension only when it is satisfied that the farm has fully complied with its requirements.

Supermarkets and other retailers here have also started to withdraw the eggs from sale, the AVA said.

About four million eggs a day are consumed in Singapore.

N & N is one of three egg farms here. Located in Lim Chu Kang, it supplies 9 per cent of the eggs eaten here, or more than 300,000 a day.

The other two farms here, Seng Choon and Chew's Agriculture, supply another 14 per cent together.

Coupled with accredited farms in Malaysia, they can easily make up for any shortfall, the AVA said.

Its spokesman told The Sunday Times last night that it was investigating how the antibiotic got into the feed for the chickens.

N & N director Ma Chin Chew met AVA officers last night at their Maxwell Road office for an hour.

Mr Ma, 42, told The Sunday Times he was in Kuala Lumpur when he received news of the suspension at about 3pm. He drove back to Singapore immediately.

He said his farm uses antibiotics only as part of a vaccine programme for chickens during their growth and not when they are ready to lay eggs.

He suspects the antibiotic may have been in the pre-mixes used to feed his 400,000-plus chickens. The pre-mixes come from places like Japan and Thailand, he said. The AVA has taken samples of the pre-mixes for tests.

Farmers use antibiotics to treat bacterial infections. When chickens are under treatment, their eggs are not allowed to be sold, explained the AVA.

Doxycycline can be used in poultry under proper dosage regimes and by observing a withdrawal period between the time chickens are treated and the sale of their eggs.


Price of Malaysia-imported eggs rise after Saturday's recall of local farm produce
Zhao Quan Yin Channel NewsAsia 18 Jul 10;

SINGAPORE : Eggs imported from Malaysia will cost more from Monday, with each egg costing one cent more.

Local egg farms are also looking to adjust their prices.

The price hike comes after food safety authorities suspended the sale of eggs produced by N & N Agriculture Farm, whose eggs were found to contain an antibiotic called doxycycline.

Staff from the farm said they did not feed their poultry the antibiotic, and suspect there was something wrong with the feed.

The Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) of Singapore revisited the farm on Sunday to conduct investigations. - CNA /ls

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400 stage protest against Sabah coal-fired plant

The Star 18 Jul 10;

KOTA KINABALU: Some 400 people comprising villagers and folks from the east coast’s Lahad Datu district have voiced their opposition against a proposed 300MW coal-fired power plant.

In the one-hour gathering at the project site in Kampung Sinakut, some 60km from Lahad Datu town, the group held up banners to protest against the plant, which they said would have adverse effects on the environment.

The group included 200 people from Lahad Datu and a similar number from the seaside village of Kampung Sinakut.

“We will be first ones to feel any adverse environmental impact from this plant. That is why we are saying no,” said the group’s spokesman Vincent Ng.

He said Lahad Datu folks had also voiced their objections against the plant when giving their feedback on the project’s environmental impact assessment (EIA) report.

The demonstration was held even as officials from Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd, Tenaga Nasional Bhd and Lahad Datu Energy Sdn Bhd gave a briefing at a public forum in Kota Kinabalu.

Apart from assuring that the plant’s operations would have minimal impact on the environment, they said the coal would be mined in an area in Kalimantan, Indonesia, that would be replanted with trees.

“The coal for this power plant will not be from any Tom, Dick or Harry,” said TNB Fuel Services Sdn Bhd general manager for operations Zainal Abidin Shah Mahmood.

To a question, Zainal Abidin declined to say who was the owner of the coal mine in question, adding that this was a business issue.

Green Surf, a coalition of concerned groups including WWF Malaysia and the Sabah Envi­ronmental Protection Association, has objected to the plant.

Environmental groups also pointed out that the plant could have an adverse impact on the environmentally-sensitive Tabin Wildlife Reserve and the Coral Triangle, which Malaysia has pledged to protect.

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Greenpeace activists block barge carrying timber in Kampar Peninsula

Antara 17 Jul 10;

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Greenpeace activists blocked a barge carrying thousands of cubic meters of timber from the rainforests of the Kampar Peninsula in Sumatra, Friday (July 16).

The activists unfurled a banner reading "APRIL stop trashing our future" and urged pulp and paper company APRIL and the Indonesian government to stop forest destruction, Greenpeace Southeast Asia wrote on its website.

Around 25 activists stopped the loading of a barge carrying logs from Kampar`s carbon-rich peatland forests destined for APRIL` s pulp mill in Pangkalan Kerinci.

This is the second time Greenpeace activists have taken action to stop APRIL destroying the natural forest of Kampar. After a Greenpeace action in October 2009, the Minister for Forests ordered the temporary suspension of APRIL operations. The order was delivered in front of the Teluk Meranti community, and the Minister also promised to resolve this matter within two weeks by forming an independent team to conduct a review of the permit.

"However in March this year, the Ministry of Forestry issued Rencana Kerja Tahunan (RKT - Cutting Permits) to convert 22 thousand hectares in Kampar Peninsula without conducting the promised legal and legislative review of APRIL`s existing permits. The Minister also broke his promise to resolve conflicts between the company and the community," said Zulfahmi, Greenpeace Southeast Asia Forest Campaigner.

Greenpeace released a report last week exposing the role that Sinar Mas`s APP, another pulp and paper giant, is playing in driving massive deforestation, tiger habitat loss and peatland destruction also in the island of Sumatra.(*)

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Eleven percent of Kalimantan national park damaged

Antara 17 Jul 10;

Sampit, Central Kalimantan (ANTARA News) - Some 11 percent of the 568,700-hectare Sebangau National Park`s forest area has been damaged, the park`s caretaker said.

"The damage was mostly due to illegal logging activities and forest fires," Sumantri, head of the Sebangau National Park, said here Friday.

Nests, habitats and trees, which are food sources of orangutans and other animals, have lost due to illegal logging activities, he said.

Illegal logging practices must be stopped because food sources of animals living in the national park have been threatened, he said.

The Sebangau National Park is one of Indonesia`s largest national parks and has the biggest number of animal species, he said.

Some 90 percent of the animal species are protected, such as orangutans, monkeys, `kukang`, and `rangkok` birds , he added.

The patrol in the national park has been intensified and he planned to conduct routine patrol jointly with police officers.

The national park authorities have also implementing reforestation program by planting various trees in cooperation with local villagers.

"The reforestation program must involve the surrounding community because there are 45 villages inside the national park," he said.

The Sebangau national park is located in Palangka Raya, Pulang Pisau dan Katingan Districts.

Meanwhile, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has asked for the enactment of a law to deal with crimes in the forestry sector to prevent environmental damage and illegal logging.

"I on behalf of the government propose the enactment of a law to act against forestry crimes. If illegal logging is allowed to continue it will continue to give us problems," he said after holding a consultative meeting with the House of Representatives (DPR) in Jakarta on Wednesday (July 13).

He said if those damaging the environment were not dealt with the state would continue to suffer losses.(*)

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