Best of our wild blogs: 27 Jul 10

Flooding woes – the critical cause of poor soil quality
from the kent ridge common

Checking up another Changi shore
from wild shores of singapore

Feeding Spotted Dove: 6. Affection
from Bird Ecology Study Group

Unknown Syzygium
from Urban Forest

Work to begin on boardwalk at Berlayar Creek
from wild shores of singapore

Breeding boost to Singapore's native frogs?
from Celebrating Singapore's BioDiversity!

Interview with Prof Peter Ng by beMUSE magazine
from Raffles Museum News

Thai mangrove slug (Aiteng ater) one of top ten taxonomic discoveries of 2009 from Raffles Museum News

We Don't Need to Shoot Birds
from New York Times blog

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Work starts on nature walk at Labrador and Berlayar Creek

Straits Times 27 Jul 10;

WORK began on the Labrador Nature and Coastal Walk on Tuesday, bringing one step closer towards transforming Singapore's Southern Waterfront to a new leisure playground for Singaporeans and visitors.

The new walk will be an extension of the Southern Ridges, seamlessly linking the Southern Ridges and the Southern Waterfront via a series of connections from Alexandra Road to the waterfront at Bukit Chermin.

When completed in 2012, nature lovers can look forward to a variety of experiences, including a mangrove trail with rich biodiversity and a coastal boardwalk with breathtaking waterfront views along the entire stretch of Keppel Bay.

Together with the Southern Ridges, public promenades at Vivocity and Carribean at Keppel Bay and the future public promenade at Reflections at Keppel Bay, the Labrador Nature and Coastal Walk will allow visitors to experience diverse settings comprising hills, mangroves and coastlines all in a single day.

The walk is part of the Parks and Waterbodies Plan first announced by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) in 2002, which seeks to enhance Singapore's green spaces and waterbodies islandwide.

Said URA's Chief Executive Officer Cheong Koon Hean: 'The Labrador Nature and Coastal Walk will allow visitors to get even closer to nature and open up the coastal areas at Bukit Chermin which are currently inaccessible. The Coastal Walk will be a new gem in our leisure offerings, giving Singaporeans a rare experience with nature away from the bustle of the city.'

A multitude of experiences with nature

The 2.1km walk from Alexandra Road to the waterfront at Bukit Chermin will comprise three thematic walks:

(a) the Alexandra Road Garden Trail

(b) Berlayer Creek Mangrove Trail

(c) Bukit Chermin Harbour View Walk.

The three distinctive stretches will allow visitors a variety of experiences capitalising on the natural beauty of the lush green areas and scenic views along the way.

1) Alexandra Road Garden Trail (830m)

The trail stretches along the eastern bank of Alexandra Road between Depot Road and Telok Blangah Road, and is connected to various key attractions in the vicinity such as the Alexandra Arch, the Forest Walk, HortPark and the food and beverage clusters at Gillman Village.

In line with the Garden Trail concept, footpaths and cycle paths will meander around the matured roadside trees along Alexandra Road, and special landscaping such as flowering shrubs will be provided to add interest to the walk.

2) Berlayer Creek Mangrove Trail (960m) This 'Eco-Educational' mangrove trail starts with a lushly landscaped Entrance Plaza at the open area surrounding the future Labrador Park MRT Station. The trail will lead on to boardwalks with bird-watching and look-out rest points that allow city-dwellers the chance to experience one of the few remaining mangrove areas in the southern part of Singapore, and be in close proximity to the rich biodiversity of the creek.

3) Bukit Chermin Harbour View Walk (330m)

This elevated boardwalk on sea brings visitors along the coastal foothill of Bukit Chermin and is connected westwards to Labrador Park and eastwards to the future public promenade of the Reflections at Keppel Bay condominium. Rest points along the boardwalk will allow visitors to soak in the beautiful southern waterfront views of Keppel Harbour and Sentosa.

Work begins on southern waterfront coastal walk
Straits Times 28 Jul 10;

NATURE lovers can look forward to walking along Singapore's southern waterfront by 2012.

Construction started yesterday on the 2.1 km long Labrador Nature and Coastal Walk - which will connect Alexandra Road to the waterfront at Bukit Chermin.

The project, which costs $13.5 million, is part of a masterplan that will link the Southern Ridges - a 9km scenic route through the hills of Mount Faber Park, Telok Blangah Hill Park and Kent Ridge Park - and the Southern Waterfront via a series of connectors.

There will be three sections to the new Labrador walk: Alexandra Road Garden Trail, Berlayer Creek Mangrove Trail and Bukit Chermin Harbour View Walk.

When completed, it will take visitors through different experiences, from a mangrove trail filled with biodiversity, to a coastal boardwalk along the waterfront which stretches along Keppel Bay via both foot and cycling paths.

There will also be links to the future public promenade at Reflections at Keppel Bay and to the existing promenades at VivoCity.

The Labrador Nature and Coastal Walk is a part of the Urban Redevelopment Authority's (URA) Parks and Waterbodies Plan, which was first revealed in 2002.

It aims to enhance Singapore's green spaces, water bodies and living environment.

A detailed plan of the walk was later announced in mid-2008 by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, at the launch of the Southern Ridges.

URA's chief executive officer, Mrs Cheong Koon Hean, said the walk will allow visitors to get even closer to nature and to visit the currently inaccessible coastal areas at Bukit Chermin.

'The coastal walk will be a new gem in our leisure offerings, giving Singaporeans a rare experience with nature away from the bustle of the city,' she said.

The route will have footpaths and cycling paths, as well as rest points for bird-watching and scenic views.

Transportation will also be easily accessible as the the future Labrador Park MRT Station, part of the Circle Line, will be located at the start of the Berlayer Creek Mangrove Trail.


More links

• What can we see at Berlayar Creek? from wild shores of singapore
  
• URA press release 27 Jul 10, with more details about the project.
  
• Nature walkway will link Alexandra to Keppel From garden to creek to harbour - all in just 2km Liaw Wy-Cin, Straits Times 15 May 08

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Decaying trees in Orchard cut

Straits Times 27 Jul 10;

TWO Angsana trees that have stood outside Liat Towers in Orchard Road for more than 30 years were chopped down yesterday after showing signs of decay.

The National Parks Board (NParks) decided to fell the 20m-tall trees following a routine inspection, to lessen the risk of an accident in an area which sees heavy pedestrian and vehicular traffic.

The extent of the decay was confirmed after a detailed inspection using a decay detection drill, said Mr Simon Longman, director of streetscape at NParks.

Last month, there were 240 incidents in which branches or entire trees fell, largely due to bad weather such as strong winds and heavy rain.

Last Tuesday, a man was crushed to death in his car when a rain tree was uprooted and fell onto his car.

DARYL CHIN

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Singapore may be site for 'green' space-plane demo

Grace Chua Straits Times 27 Jul 10;

AEROSPACE firm European Aeronautic Defence and Space (EADS) is considering a space-plane demonstration in Singapore, its executive adviser said at a climate change conference here yesterday.

The aerospace giant is developing its space plane as a precursor to a zero-emissions aircraft that can travel faster than sound, explained Mr Marvyn Lim.

The company announced at the Berlin Air Show last month that it would be starting a three-year study on the hypersonic plane. It is touted to use zero-emissions hydrogen fuel and can travel much faster than normal planes and at a much higher altitude.

He was speaking at a conference on European Union and Asian policy responses to climate change and energy security. The two-day conference, which continues today, is organised by the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, the Energy Studies Institute (ESI), and the EU Centre in Singapore.

The conference comes five months ahead of the United Nations' climate change meeting in Cancun, Mexico, at the end of this year, which aims to hammer out international agreements to cope with climate change.

Mr Lim, a Singaporean, explained why the country was a good pick for a space-plane demonstration: 'I believe that Singapore has the entrepreneurship and technology culture to appreciate such an animal.'

The aerospace company is also working with Singapore institutions such as the Agency for Science, Technology and Research's Institute of Chemical and Engineering Sciences on projects such as algal biofuels. Other biofuels such as palm oil, however, came under scrutiny at the conference, which featured presentations from academics and industry players across Asia.

Dr Hooman Peimani, ESI's head of energy security and geopolitics, cautioned that biofuel production could hasten environmental destruction if not done sustainably. 'The way we produce biofuels today is highly pollutive, resource- and water-intensive, and takes fertiliser,' he said, citing palm oil in Indonesia and Malaysia as an example of biofuel production contributing to deforestation.

In Indonesia, for instance, 3.8 million ha of land were used for oil palm between 1996 and last year. That included palm oil for food, fuel and other use.

Biofuels and a diverse range of energy sources, however, are necessary for energy security and to ensure that developing countries have enough energy to grow, Dr Peimani and other speakers said.

Meanwhile, Mr Tan Yong Soon, permanent secretary of the National Climate Change Secretariat, said Singapore would work to secure a global agreement on climate change, and stick to its plans to increase energy efficiency and reduce emissions.

'I believe we can, and must, succeed in balancing our fight against climate change and in ensuring a high standard of living with good jobs for all,' he said. 'Singapore has always taken a balanced approach to growth and sustainability and we have been reaping the fruits of our on-going efforts as a reference site for other countries and cities.'

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Turtle Feeding Habitats in Malaysia Unaffected By Coral Bleaching - Expert

Haslin Gaffor Bernama 27 Jul 10;

SANDAKAN, July 27 (Bernama) -- The coral bleaching phenomenon which poses a threat to coral reefs in peninsular Malaysia does not affect the turtle feeding habitats, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu Marine Science Department lecturer Dr Juanita Joseph said today.

This is because green turtles eat seaweed while the hawksbill turtles feed on soft corals and crustaceans, she said.

"Currently, coral bleaching in several islands in the peninsula have not affected turtle-feeding areas," she told Bernama, adding that it would only present a problem if the number of crustaceans in the area declined.

Local dailies reported last month that all islands off Terengganu, including Redang, where turtles feed, were critically affected by the condition.

However, the waters off Sabah were not hit by the phenomenon, especially the popular diving spots of Pulau Sipadan and Pulau Mabul in Semporna which are among Malaysia's turtle feeding areas.

Dr Juanita said turtle feeding areas in Pulau Redang were also unaffected by the bleaching, and there had been an increase in turtle landings although their number was small.

She said the bleaching condition could be attributed to many factors such as pollution, but it could also be caused by increased water temperature which kills a type of algae called Zooxanthellae.

"The green pigment of coral reefs is actually Zooxanthellae. When the algae dies, the coral dies too and its colour changes to white.

"The coral reef ecosystem is a productive one and when the coral dies, all other organisms in the area will be affected, especially fish," she said.

Dr Juanita said coral bleaching was a frequently occurring phenomenon but scientists had yet to figure out how to overcome the problem.

She said dead corals would usually recover but required a long period of time to return to its normal state.

-- BERNAMA

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Control tower set up at all Malaysian marine park islands

Adib Povera New Straits Times 27 Jul 10;

LANGKAWI: The Marine Department will set up control towers at all marine park islands in the country soon.

Its director-general Abdul Jamal Mydin said the setting up of the tower was the department's move to monitor the safety of tourists engaged in snorkelling or scuba diving in the marine parks.

The control tower would help the department to cripple encroachment activities among unscrupulous fishermen on the island.

The Marine Department will set up control towers at all marine parks islands in the country soon like this one in Pulau Payar in Kedah. — NST picture by Shahrizal Md Noor

"The construction of the control tower will be conducted in phases.

"The first phase would involve the construction of the tower at the main six marine park islands namely Pulau Payar in Kedah, Pulau Tioman in Pahang, Pulau Sibu Tinggi in Johor, Labuan and Pulau Redang and Pulau Perhentian in Terengganu," he said at the launch of the Pulau Payar Marine Park's control tower here yesterday.

At the moment, there are only two marine parks, which have been equipped with a control tower.

The other island is Pulau Redang in Terengganu.

The towers were established with the cooperation of the Department of Civil Defence (JPAM).

Jamal said each of the towers would be manned by seven workers -- four staff from the Department of Civil Defence and three staff of the Marine Department trained by the JPAM.


There are five marine parks, made up of 42 islands, in Kedah, Perak, Terengganu, Pahang, Johor and Sabah.

Every year, almost 500,000 tourists visit the marine parks in the country.

Meanwhile, nine popular snorkelling areas in Kedah, Pahang and Terengganu have been closed from July 2 until Oct 31.

The snorkelling areas were closed to allow works on preservation of corals.

This is the first time the department is forced to shut down dive sites in the nine areas after a two-degree Celsius rise in ocean temperature.

The ban, which came into effect early this month, is on until October.

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Green role for oil palm firms in Sabah

Sean Augustin New Straits Times 27 Jul 10;

SANDAKAN: Oil palm companies have been urged to secure the Kinabatangan-Segama wetlands Ramsar site here under the Bornean Biodiversity and Ecosystems Conservation (BBEC) programme.

BBEC is a joint endeavour of Sabah agencies, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, non-governmental organisations and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) which provides technical and financial assistance.

JICA's chief adviser Motohiro Hasegawa said the 78,803ha site offers the opportunity for plantation owners to help conserve the environment without affecting the industry's returns.


A win-win situation, he said, could be achieved with the introduction of the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) certificate.

The Ramsar convention is an international treaty on wetlands adopted in Ramsar, Iran in 1971 for the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources.

RSPO is a non-profit association that unites stakeholders to develop and implement global standards for sustainable palm oil.


"To be certified with RSPO means one must follow the criteria including the management of pollutants.

"Our Ramsar site may be affected by oil palm plantations and mills located around Sungai Kinabatangan," he said.

A majority of oil palm plantations in the area are not RSPO certified although Hasegawa said a 10-year management plan for the Ramsar site is in the pipeline.


"Hopefully by then all the plantations and mills will have RSPO certificates," he said.

The Ramsar site is surrounded by oil palm plantations and Hasegawa is worried about its sediments and mill effluent within the river basin. These are probably the two main threats to the ecosystem.

He said Sabah had an excellent opportunity to become an international model of biodiversity and ecosystem conservation, especially in the Ramsar site.

Protection of a Ramsar site will, Hasegawa explained, provide tangible and intangible benefits.

Among the tangible benefits include securing breeding grounds for marine life such as fish, prawns and crabs which can economically benefit the locals. It will also help promote eco-tourism as birds, monkeys, elephants and mangroves can lure many tourists to Kinabatangan.

Intangible benefits include providing research opportunities on wildlife and their habitats apart from keeping the environment intact for future generations.

Read more: Green role for oil palm firms http://www.nst.com.my/nst/articles/13saramsar/Article#ixzz0urC8dWIF

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Indonesian Government Ready to Seek Damages In Timor Spill

Eras Poke & Fidelis E Satriastanti Jakarta Globe 27 Jul 10;

Indonesia will turn to national law in the pursuit of a Thai company it holds responsible for a massive oil slick in the Timor Sea last year, an official said on Monday, but it has not ruled out also demanding compensation from the Australian government.

The blowout at the Montara well operated by PTT Exploration and Production, a unit of the Thai energy giant, took place last August 690 kilometers off the northern coast of Australia.

Although the well burst within Australian territorial waters, the leak was only staunched 74 days later, allowing the slick to spread over a large swath of the Timor Sea, intruding deep into Indonesia’s exclusive economic zone.

Pursuing charges under Indonesian law allows the government to directly demand compensation from PTTEP on the basis of evidence that the oil came from the Montara well, avoiding a possible lengthy and costly court battle over liability.

“We have checked and the ‘fingerprints’ matched, meaning the samples of the oil spill in the Timor Sea are the same as the oil coming from the company,” said Rosa Vivien Ratnawati, deputy assistant for civil law enforcement at the State Ministry for the Environment.

A copy of the government’s legal standing in the dispute, which was obtained by the Jakarta Globe, said the oil spill had spread to 51 kilometers from Rote Island, inside Indonesia’s exclusive economic zone.

The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, ratified by Indonesia in 1985, stipulates that coastal states have the right to exercise their national law within their exclusive economic zones, Rosa said.

Based on the “polluters pays” principle acknowledged by the 2009 Environmental Protection and Management Law and by Australian regulations, PTTEP should be liable to pay compensation if it was established that the oil came from its well.

“It’s very clearly stated in the Environmental Protection and Management Law that every individual found to have damaged the environment will have to pay compensation,” Rosa said.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said last week that he was determined to seek compensation for losses caused by the slick, and Transportation Minister Freddy Numberi suggested the government seek at least Rp 500 billion ($55 million) in damages.

Besides the oil company, however, the government is also debating whether the Australian government should also be held to account for the oil spill, as it took place within its territorial jurisdiction.

It was not yet possible to make a final estimate for losses suffered by Indonesia, Rosa said. “We haven’t included that yet [in our demand] because we’re still counting the losses, and it’s not that easy.”

A team of officials from the ministries of environment, foreign affairs, and maritime affairs and fisheries is due to meet with PTTEP over the next few days to deliver its research findings.

West Timor’s Care Foundation, which supports impoverished fishermen in eastern Indonesia, estimates that the spill has affected the livelihoods of some 18,000 people in East Nusa Tenggara, including about 3,500 fishermen.

The rest are seaweed and pearl farmers who also depend on the waters for their income.

Ferdi Tanoni, head of the foundation, said that it had recommended to Yudhoyono that the government seek Rp 140 trillion in compensation.

Indonesia set to demand compensation for oil spill
Adianto P. Simamora and Arghea Desafti Hapsari Jakarta Post 27 Jul 10;

A negotiating team from Indonesia will meet the management of a Thai oil-rig operator in Perth on Tuesday to clarify claims that an oil spill that began last year is damaging areas in the Timor Sea.

It will be the first official meeting between the parties since the PTTEP Australasia oil rig exploded in August 2009 on the Montara oil field off of Australia's north coast.

Indonesia's team will be headed by deputy minister for environmental damage control at the Environment Ministry Masnellyarti Hilman.

The team, set up last week, includes Havas Oegroseno, director general for international treaties and legal affairs at the Foreign Ministry and Gellwynn Jusuf, director general of research at the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry.

"We will show *the results* of our fact finding *mission on impacts of the oil spill* and compare it with their findings *from PTTEP*," Masnellyarti said Monday.

"We will inform them of our plan to demand compensation from the oil spill. We are ready if they want to resolve it in or out of court."

The team said it was still calculating the total financial losses it would claim from PTTEP, a subsidiary of PTT, Thailand's state-owned oil and gas company.

Indonesia's Environment Ministry said the level of pollutants in the Timor Sea had exceeded tolerable levels set by Indonesian government. The ministry measured the quality of water in five places.

It said total suspended density had reached 147 milligram per liter. The tolerable level is 20 mg/l.

An environmental agency in East Nusa Tenggara said it had found visual and chemical evidence of the oil spill.

"We want to recalculate direct and indirect damages such as how long it will take to restore the damaged ecosystem," Masnellyarti said.

She said that Indonesia would prefer for the case to be settled out of court. "But, we are ready if the company wants to take it to court," she said.

The Montara field was developed by the Norwegian and Bermudan-owned Seadrill, and operated by PTTEP Australasia, a unit of PTT.

The company's oil platform exploded, releasing more than 500,000 liters of crude oil every day into the Timor Sea.

Thirty-eight percent of Indonesia's sea territory in the Timor Sea was affected by the spill, local fishermen's catches dropped and thousands of tons of shallow water fish and many whales died.

The spill also destroyed seaweed farms cultivated by coastal communities in East Nusa Tenggara.

Transportation Minister Freddy Numberi earlier said the government would seek initial compensation of Rp 500 billion (US$54 million) for direct losses from the disaster.

Maritime law expert Hasyim Djalal said that Indonesia could claim three kinds of damages due to the oil spill, including direct damage, consequential damages and environmental losses.

"The environmental damage will be more complicated since it needs assessment. The impacts cannot be calculated within 2 days," he said.

Assistant deputy minister for civil enforcement Rosa Vivien Ratnawati said that the government would use the 2009 environmental law and the United Nations Convention on Law of Sea as a legal basis for the claims.

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Our environment is the natural foundation on which our economy is built

Protecting our natural world has solid economic benefits – it creates thousands of jobs and generates billions of pounds
Caroline Spelman guardian.co.uk 26 Jul 10;

Our approach to our natural environment is often bafflingly equivocal.

On the one hand, we're unified by our appreciation of the beauty of our waterways, forests and the diversity of plants, birds and animals. On the other, appreciation hasn't saved them from piecemeal degradation over the years.

Too often as a society, we decide that economic gain and environmental protection are incompatible, instead of inseparable.

The beauty of our landscapes is significant, but few are aware of the solid economic benefits they bring – and what we don't value we don't protect.

So today, when rebuilding their economies is the number one priority for governments across the world, we need to start making the economic case for our environment at least as strongly as we have been making the aesthetic one.

Today, Defra is launching a discussion paper that will lead to the first Natural Environment white paper in 20 years.

It points out that our environment is the natural foundation on which our economy is built.

It creates thousands of jobs and generates billions of pounds.

English national parks, for example, support over 54,000 tourism-related jobs. The Peak District national park on its own contributes £155m to the region – 60% of local businesses say they would suffer if the landscape deteriorated.

Our natural assets don't just add to the quality of our lives – they can actually extend them. Those living within 500m of green space are almost 25% more likely to be active at recommended levels. It's also been estimated that the NHS could save over £2bn through increased activity in open green spaces – our home-grown natural health service.

Our trees are "multitaskers" – capturing carbon and holding soils together, preventing flooding and helping control our climate. They play a particularly important role in our urban cities – in some parts of inner London each tree is calculated to be worth as much as £78,000 in terms of its benefits.

The natural environment, of course, isn't just restricted to our land or air. The passing of the Marine and Coastal Access Act clears the way to the creation of a network of marine conservation zones around the UK that will provide ecosystem services worth up to £1.6bn every year.

The Natural Environment white paper isn't about simply trying to put a price on nature, but about recognising its true value.

The services we get from our environment, ecosystems and biodiversity are not, for the most part, optional. Our honeybees and other pollinators, for example, contribute up to £440m to our economy every year, 13% of the country's entire income from farming.

If our natural capital isn't providing these kinds of services, we will have to pay for an alternative. This isn't just about altruism; it's about enlightened self-interest.

The natural environment is incredibly generous – it provides us with goods and services worth trillions of pounds at no cost.

All it needs in return is that we allow it the ability to function and maintain itself.

If we degrade it to the point that its ability to mitigate the effects of climate change, purify our air and water and keep us healthy is lost, there will be a heavy price to pay.

And our children and theirs will be the one to pay it. We need to become the generation that draws a line in the sand of the steady degradation of our natural capital and says "no more".

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Protecting wildlife in conflict zones

Eva Fearn BBC Green Room 20 Jul 10;

Research shows that the vast majority of armed conflicts occur in areas rich in biodiversity, says Eva Fearn. In this week's Green Room, she explains how conservationists often find themselves on more than the front line in the battle to save species.

In Afghanistan's Wakhan region, a mountainous area bordered by Tajikistan and China, a herd of ibex deftly climbs a steep hillside.

Across the valley, a man in Wakhi headdress views them through a spotting scope.

His tracking skills are helping my organisation - the US-based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) - assess ibex numbers.

Of all the places to study wildlife, why work in a volatile country such as Afghanistan?

Well, Afghanistan holds a surprising diversity of species, from giant flying squirrels to the Himalayan lynx.

Of course, first and foremost, war is a tragedy for humans. But the environmental destruction it causes has also become a concern.

In Afghanistan, the past three decades have seen 50% of the country's forests disappear and wildlife hunted out of many areas.

The connection between conservation and conflict was highlighted by a report published in the journal Conservation Biology last year.

It found that more than 80% of the armed clashes in the past 50 years occurred in countries that contain places of extraordinarily high global species diversity.

In the 1990s, in Africa's biologically diverse Albertine Rift region, civil insurgencies rendered national parks the strongholds of rebels and provided shelter for refugees, causing large mammal populations to plummet.

More recently, instability in other parts of Africa, including Zimbabwe and the Central African Republic, has facilitated increased elephant poaching, which is boosting the world's illegal ivory trade.

So if conservation organisations are to protect wildlife and wild places, they must increasingly operate in conflict and post-conflict settings.

On the front line

Because civil unrest can often result from competition for natural resources, there is another powerful reason why conservation is important in conflict settings: it can help build peace.

The UN Environment Programme (Unep), the World Bank, and the International Institute for Sustainable Development have all found re-inforcing linkages between natural resource management and post-conflict recovery.

As the international community looks for ways to encourage peace and development, some conservation NGOs are taking on a little extra work.

How exactly can a conservation organisation promote political stability? In part, it is by helping to build (or rebuild) natural resource management governance structures.

During conflict, as people flee - and after, as refugees return - traditional ways of managing forests and pastures can dissolve.

Helping to re-establish local governance structures for natural resources has become a key way to manage overgrazing, overhunting, and competition for dwindling resources.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), for example, decades of strife have allowed for an explosion in the trade of bushmeat, tropical timber and charcoal.

With funding from the US development agency USAID, WCS staff facilitated multi-stakeholder village committees to target overharvesting and corruption, and to plan for the management of resources.

At three fishing villages near Lake Edward, addressing overfishing involves a participatory process to ascertain why fish stocks are declining and what can be done. It brings together stakeholders, including the military, police, fishing community, local security officials, and park managers to agree on plans for managing the stocks.

People participating in this effort at good governance are building the foundations of new democratic institutions that will be essential to long-term stability and the future sustainability of fishing, their main resource.

Risky business

While wildlife conservation and the promotion of peace are worthy goals, staff safety is a major concern for conservation organisations operating in conflict zones.

In Nuristan, a volatile region of Afghanistan along the Pakistan border rich in species like Asiatic black bear and markhor sheep, conservation work has stalled.

Foreign experts cannot enter this Taliban stronghold, and even local Nuristani wildlife surveyors have been interrogated, their GPS units and binoculars a cause for suspicion.

In DRC, a Congolese conservationist surveying Grauer's gorilla in Kahuzi Biega National Park was recently apprehended (and thankfully released) by a militia group.

For conservation work to succeed through times of conflict, organisations must commit for the long-term. In war-torn DRC in the 1990s, a combination of UN agencies and NGOs continued to pay park guard salaries long after central ministry funds dried up.

Similarly, flexible funders allowed WCS to maintain a presence in Rwanda and Uganda through the years of civil unrest.

Perseverance through times of upheaval is well worth the effort on many fronts.

Often, the conservation of resources and of economically important species can be discussed with relatively little political, ideological, or military pressure, and can serve as a starting point for wider political dialogue.

For example, the creation of a wilderness buffer area along the contested Peru/Ecuador border bolstered a 1998 peace accord between the two countries.

In Africa, there are plans for similar transboundary "peace parks" on the border between Sudan and Uganda, as the two nations emerge from decades of civil unrest.

Because post-conflict states are often pre-occupied and underfunded, international conservation organisations can be called upon to help in myriad ways.

Working to establish and re-establish community resource management mechanisms can help secure food, shelter, and economic stability, while nature tourism, transboundary parks, and scientific training can contribute in other ways to long-term peace.

Conservation "diplomacy" has become an exciting and critically important outgrowth of the work of conservationists.

Eva Fearn is Editor of the State of the Wild series, published by the Wildlife Conservation Society and Island Press. The 2010-2011 volume features a special section on Conservation in Times of War

The Green Room is a series of opinion articles on environmental topics running weekly on the BBC News website

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Post-Katrina Study Shows Strength of Salt Marshes

Andrea Mustain LiveScience.com 26 Jul 10;

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita sent devastating waves through Louisiana's coastal plains in 2005, washing away hundreds of square miles of the state's wetlands.

Yet post-hurricane surveys of the Breton Sound, a large area of marshes along the state's southeastern edge, left researchers puzzled. All of the sound's wetlands suffered an equal pounding, yet the storms destroyed certain areas and left others relatively intact.

"It was as if the hurricane had never touched it," said Duncan FitzGerald, a professor at Boston University who has spent more than two decades studying the region. "It was night and day in the resilience of these two plant communities."

Researchers wanted to find out why some areas withstood the onslaught while others crumbled, and a new study has provided some answers. It turns out that high salt levels can be an advantage for marshes when it comes to withstanding a beating.

"The saline portions of the marsh lost about a half percent of land area - that's in contrast to the freshwater marshes that lost about 10 percent, so it's quite a difference and it really shows up in a map," said Boston University's Nick Howes, lead author of the new study.

Howes and a team of scientists ran extensive soil tests both in the field and in the laboratory, comparing multiple sites across Breton Sound in the two years following the storms.

It turns out that salt marshes are tough because they support tough plants. In the more saline areas, the plants produce dense webs of thick roots that bore deep into the ground, forming a kind of anchor that keeps the soil from being eroded.

FitzGerald said this has important implications. Louisiana wetlands are at-risk ecosystems, and understanding the relative resilience of salt marshes can help inform policy decisions on how to treat and maintain these coastal areas to help them survive.

In addition, the marshes act as a buffer, protecting inland areas from the ravages of powerful waves. "They're one of the speed bumps along the way for the storm surges," FitzGerald told OurAmazingPlanet.

And in light of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's prediction that 2010 could be one of the most active hurricane seasons on record, knowing which wetlands best survive storms could be an issue of increasing interest.

Although Louisiana's marshlands are facing complex problems, FitzGerald said, "There are actions that can be taken to prolong the longevity of these wetlands."

Freshwater wetlands 'vulnerable in hurricanes'
BBC News 27 Jul 10;

Freshwater coastal wetlands are more vulnerable to erosion during hurricanes than habitats with higher levels of salinity, a study has suggested.

US researchers say freshwater marshes have shallower root systems, leaving them at risk from wave erosion during storm surges.

They added that the results could have implications for wetland restoration projects in hurricane-prone areas.

The findings appear in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"During the 2005 hurricane season, the storm surges and waves associated with Hurricanes Katrina and Rita eroded 527 square kilometres of wetlands within the Louisiana coastal plain," the researchers wrote in their PNAS paper.

"Low salinity wetlands were preferentially eroded, while higher salinity wetlands remained robust and largely unchanged."

The team said that both freshwater and salt marshes within their study area were exposed to similar conditions during Hurricane Katrina, which struck the US Gulf coastline in August 2005.

"We hypothesise that wave shear stresses generated during the hurricane exceeded the shear strength of the low salinity wetland soils, resulting in failure, whereas greater soil shear strength in the saline wetlands largely precluded erosion," they suggested.

"Soil shear strength and the resistance of the soil to erosion are determined by the properties of the vegetation.

"We propose that resistance to erosion is primarily a function of rooting characteristics, which depend on the dominant species of vegetation - as controlled by salinity."

The scientists identified a "weak zone" about 30cm below the surface in freshwater wetlands, which coincided with the base of the root system of the plants growing in the habitat.

However, in the salt marshes, plants' roots were found to penetrate the soil to depths of about one metre.

As a result of the deeper root system, the vegetation was better suited to withstand the pressure exerted by storm surges and wave action during a hurricane.

The team concluded that the findings could play a part in shaping restoration programmes and land management schemes in regions that are prone to tropical storms.

They wrote: "The dramatic difference in resiliency of fresh(water) verses more saline marshes suggest that the introduction of freshwater to marshes as part of restoration efforts may therefore weaken existing wetlands rendering them vulnerable to hurricanes."

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China says oil spill under control

Yahoo News 26 Jul 10;

DALIAN, China (AFP) – China said Monday an oil spill on the northeast coast had been successfully controlled as reports said operations at the port where it originated were returning to normal.

The spill began 10 days ago when two pipelines exploded at an oil storage depot in Dalian, a port city in Liaoning province, triggering a spectacular blaze that burned for days. About 1,500 tonnes of oil poured into the Yellow Sea, according to official estimates.

"So far, large pieces of the pollutant have been successfully removed or controlled," said Chen Aiping, executive deputy director of the Maritime Safety Administration, according to a statement posted on the ministry's website.

Official estimates say the spill covers over 435 square kilometres (170 square miles) of water but one Chinese media report last week said the slick had spread to 946 square kilometres.

By Sunday afternoon, 41 oil-skimming vessels and 1,200 fishing boats had been mobilised to contain the spill, the maritime agency's statement said.

Dalian mayor Li Wancai said the battle to contain the oil spill had achieved a "decisive victory", the state-run Dalian Daily reported.

Oil sludge in the sea has mostly been cleaned and the spill has not spread to international waters, the report said.

Speaking Sunday, Li urged crews to focus on cleaning the coastline to prevent residual oil from being washed back into the sea, it said.

Dalian authorities shut down some maritime traffic following the spill, but operations at many berths have gradually resumed.

A Greenpeace activist monitoring the spill, Zhong Yu, last week told AFP clean-up crews seemed ill-equipped for the effort, with many using only their bare hands and lacking even basic equipment.

The Dalian Port (PDA) Company Limited said in a statement Sunday that two of its three oil berths affected by the accident have resumed operations, with the last one expected to return to normal imminently.

The pipelines that exploded belonged to China National Petroleum Corp, the country's largest oil company.

Dalian is a major petroleum distribution port and the accident triggered fears of an impact on oil supply movements.

The China Business News on Monday cited a manager of a cleaning company working on the site as estimating that the clean-up efforts could cost more than one billion yuan (147.5 million dollars).

The manager, identified only by his surname Yang, added that it may take another week to clean up the spill.

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China says air pollution worsening

Yahoo News 27 Jul 10;

BEIJING (AFP) – China's air pollution increased this year for the first time since 2005, the environmental protection ministry has said, due to sandstorms, a rise in construction and industrial projects, and more cars.

The ministry found that the number of "good air quality days" in 113 major cities across the nation had dropped 0.3 percentage points in the first six months of the year compared with the same time last year.

These cities had not recorded a fall in the number of good air quality days since 2005, Tao Detian, spokesman for the ministry, said in a statement on its website dated Monday.

The level of inhalable particles, a major air pollution index, was also up during that time in those cities for the first time since 2005, Tao said, blaming the deterioration in air quality on severe spring sandstorms.

"More construction and industrial projects that started this year due to economic recovery and the rapid increase in automobiles should also be blamed," Chai Fahe, vice head of the Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, told the China Daily newspaper.

The ministry also found that more than a quarter of surface water in China was contaminated, and fit only for industrial or agricultural use.

Acid rain was also a problem in the first half of the year -- out of 443 cities the ministry monitored, 189 suffered from the harmful precipitation.

And in eight cities, including a district of Shanghai, the rain that fell for the first six months was constantly acid, the statement said.

Tao said that despite some improvements, China still faced a "grim" situation in fighting pollution.

China has some of the world's worst water and air pollution after rapid industrialisation over the last 30 years triggered widespread environmental damage.

A report published in March by the London-based medical journal The Lancet said air pollution in the Asian nation was widely to blame for 1.3 million premature deaths a year from respiratory disease.

Pollution Makes Quarter Of China Water Unusable: Ministry
David Stanway Reuters 27 Jul 10;

Almost a quarter of China's surface water remains so polluted that it is unfit even for industrial use, while less than half of total supplies are drinkable, data from the environment watchdog showed on Monday.

Inspectors from China's Ministry of Environmental Protection tested water samples from the country's major rivers and lakes in the first half of the year and declared just 49.3 percent to be safe for drinking, up from 48 percent last year, the ministry said in a notice posted on its website (www.mep.gov.cn).

China classifies its water supplies using six grades, with the first three grades considered safe for drinking and bathing.

Another 26.4 percent was said to be categories IV and V -- fit only for use in industry and agriculture -- leaving a total of 24.3 percent in category VI and unfit for any purpose.

Despite tougher regulations over the last decade, the ministry has struggled to rein in the thousands of small paper mills, cement factories and chemical plants discharging industrial waste directly into the country's waterways, and the overuse of fertilizers has also left large sections of China's lakes and rivers choking with algae.

The ministry said there were noticeable improvements in air quality throughout the country's cities in the first half of 2010, with sulphur dioxide emissions declining 30.2 percent compared to last year.

Airborne particulate matter in China's cities fell 12.1 percent and nitrogen dioxide declined 5 percent, the ministry said.

However, 189 out of 443 cities monitored suffered from acid rain in the first half of the year.

(Editing by Miral Fahmy)

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Climate pressures leading to rise in Sunderbans 'tiger widows'

Syful Islam Reuters AlertNet 26 Jul 10;

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AlertNet) - Climate change is driving a growing number of farmers in Bangladesh's southern Sunderbans region out of their fields and into the region's mangrove forests, leading to a rise in tiger attacks and 'tiger widows,' researchers say.

Finding no other jobs to earn livelihoods, people of the region are increasingly turning to the forests to catch fish and crabs or collect wood and honey for sale.

But that has left them vulnerable to attacks by the dwindling number of Royal Bengal tigers that roam the Sunderbans, experts say.

Aleya Begum, 18, of Munshiganj Kolabari village in Bangladesh's Satkhira district, lost her husband Abdur Rouf to a tiger attack when he was fishing near the Sundarbans. Now she lives with her mother, and both are struggling to survive on wages earned as day labourers.

Begum's 5-year-old son has been sent to live with his grandfather, following tradition that children of a marriage belong with the husband's family.

In a society where widows often have low social status and little chance to remarry, the tiger attacks are creating new suffering in a region already struggling with widespread loss of farmland to sea level rise and salt intrusion that has made it impossible for many farmers to continue growing crops.

"The tiger widows in that area are being treated as 'unwanted'. They are unwelcome at their in-laws' house and forced to return to their father's family," said Anwarul Islam, a geologist at the University of Dhaka and chief executive officer of the Wildlife Trust of Bangladesh (WTB).

Tiger-people interactions are age-old in the region, but are now on the rise as farmers who can no longer earn a living from their land venture in growing numbers into the Sunderbans mangrove forests in search of an alternative income.

Some farmers have been able to begin raising shrimp on their fields, hard-hit by sea water intrusion into underground aquifers and salt water driven into even inland fields during cyclone surges.

But shrimp cultivation requires only a small number of workers, leaving many people in the area with no way to earn a living.

"So people go to the Sundarbans and become easy prey of tigers. A tiger or tigress needs to run 10 to 15 minutes at least to catch a deer. But it doesn't need to run to catch a (man)," Islam said.

So far this year, 26 people have been killed by tigers in the region, compared to 34 in all of 2009 and 30 in all of 2008, WTB figures show. Nine people in the area have been injured in tiger attacks so far this year, compared to eight in all of 2009, the group said.

Islam said a recent survey by the wildlife trust found that 80 percent of 400 people questioned had eaten deer meat at least once in their life. That suggests hunting in the mangroves may also be reducing the tigers' access to their normal prey.

A MILLION DEPENDENT ON FOREST

Islam said that about a million people in the area are in one way or another dependent on the Sundarbans mangrove forests.

"I recently talked with many of them who are risking their lives. (But) they said they won't go to the forest if they get alternative ways to earn a living," he said.

Nowshad Gazi, 65, and his son Ismail Hosen, 13, of South Kodomtola village, in Shyamnagar sub-district, were killed in a tiger attack on July 6 while fishing in a canal near the Sundarbans.

A Royal Bengal tiger first attacked the son and dragged him into the forest. When the father entered the forest to rescue his son, the tiger then attacked and killed both of them.

Nowab Ali, 23, another of tiger victim Nowshad Gazi's sons, told AlertNet he is now the only earner supporting a seven-member family.

A crab trader, he said even his business was now suffering because the recent increase in tiger attacks means fewer people are willing to risk their lives fishing in the Sunderbans, at least for a few weeks.

Inevitably, however, they will return, he said.

"People go to the forest to find bread and butter as there is no other job in this area. Only God is with us to feed us, to save us," he said.

Salma Begum, 27, recently saw her husband, Majibur Rahman, seriously injured in a tiger attack after fishing from a canal in the Sunderbans forest.

Rahman had earlier tried his hand at cultivating shrimp on their salty farmland, but because of inexperience lost $700 when the shrimp died in a bacteria outbreak. He then found a job making bricks in a neighbouring town, but that job recently ended, forcing him to try fishing, his wife said.

Now the family is struggling to get by.

"Already Taka 40,000 ($600) has been spent for his treatment. We are eating hardly twice a day. Now I am working sometimes as a day labourer as my husband can't work," said Begum, the mother of three school-age children.

Not only people are being killed as a result of growing tiger-human interactions, Islam said. Tigers, unable to find food in the forest or looking for new territories, sometimes also wander into human settlements and are regularly killed, he said.

The size of the Sunderbans forest had fallen by half in 100 years, from its original 12,000 square kilometres, he said.

Modinul Ahsan, programme coordinator of the WTB, noted that conflict between tigers and people in the Sunderbans is centuries old. Quoting a survey carried out by researcher Adam Barlow in 2009, he said that from the year 1881 to 2006, an estimated 3,615 people had been killed by tigers in the area, or an average of 51 a year.

Syful Islam is a senior reporter with The New Nation newspaper in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Reuters AlertNet is not responsible for the content of external websites.

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Smog Blankets Moscow On City's Hottest Day

Conor Humphries Reuters 27 Jul 10;

Moscow sweltered on Monday through its hottest day since records began 130 years ago, as temperatures hit 37.4 degrees Celsius (99.3 degrees Farenheit) sparking peat fires that blanketed the city in smog.

A heatwave has engulfed central parts of European Russia, and Siberia since June, destroying crops covering an area the size of Portugal. Green groups, including Greenpeace, say the temperatures are evidence of global warming.

"The all-time record has been broken, we have never recorded a day this hot before," said Gennady Yeliseyev, deputy head of Russia's state weather agency. The previous high of 36.8 degrees Celsius was recorded on August 7, 1920, he said.

"The new record could be broken by Wednesday," he said.

Muscovites have struggled to deal with the heat, with most electronics retailers selling out of fans and air conditioners, and many cafes running out of ice and cold beer by early afternoon.

Women were using golf umbrellas to shield themselves from the sun on Red Square. Bloggers have begun to complain of men traveling with bare torsos on the metro.

"This summer is very hard, physically and emotionally," said accountant Marina Veselkova, trying to cool off by a fountain in front of Bolshoi Theater after sending her children to relatives in the country.

"It's very bad," said Alexander, a courier. "I go to the beach at the weekends but it's difficult to swim because the water is so hot."

CROPS SUFFER

Russian grain prices shot up last week on advancing drought . The Agriculture Ministry said late on Friday that by July 22 drought had killed crops over 100,000 square kilometers (38,600 square miles), an area larger than Portugal.

Muscovites' discomfort was compounded on Monday by a blanket of smog, whose sharp, cinder-filled smell permeated the city and crept into offices, homes and restaurants via windows and doors.

The emergencies ministry said 34 peat fires and 26 forest fires were blazing on Monday in the area surrounding Moscow, covering 59 hectares (145 acres).

"Muscovites will have to inhale smoke for another two to two and a half months," said Alexei Yaroshenko, head of the forest programme at Greenpeace Russia. He said the smoke could eclipse the worst smog registered in Moscow, in 1872 and 1837.

Airports serving Moscow were unaffected by the smoke.

"This is awful. It is going to damage people's health," said telephone engineer Davit Manukov, 25, standing by the Kremlin where black clouds of smoke enveloped its golden onion domes.

The Moscow government agency overseeing air pollution, Mosekomonitoring, told Reuters the amount of harmful impurities in Moscow's air exceeded the norm by 5-8 times.

The elderly and those suffering from heart disease should try and avoid contact with the smog, said its chief specialist Alexei Popikov, adding that the levels of carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxide were high.

(Editing by Peter Graff)

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Developing Nations See Cancun Climate Deal Tough

Brian Ellsworth PlanetArk 27 Jul 10;

Reaching a binding climate deal at the upcoming U.N. conference in Mexico will likely be difficult, delegates from a group of developing nations said on Monday, spurring further doubts about a global climate accord this year.

Environment ministers from Brazil, South Africa, India and China -- known as the BASIC group -- meeting in Rio de Janeiro said developed nations have not done enough to cut their own emissions or help poor countries reduce theirs.

Delays by the United States and Australia in implementing schemes to cut carbon emissions has added to gloomy sentiment about possible results from the Cancun meeting.

"If by the time we get to Cancun (U.S. senators) still have not completed the legislation then clearly we will get less than a legally binding outcome," said Buyelwa Sonjica, South Africa's Water and Environment Affairs minister.

"For us that is a concern, and we're very realistic about the fact that we may not" complete a legally binding accord, she said.

BASIC nations held deliberations on Sunday and Monday about upcoming climate talks, but the representatives said those talks did not yield a specific proposal on emissions reductions to be presented at the Cancun meeting.

"I think we're all a bit wiser after Copenhagen, our expectations for Cancun are realistic -- we cannot expect any miracles," said Indian Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh.

He added that countries have failed to make good on promises for $30 billion in "fast track" financing for emissions reduction programs in poor countries.

"The single most important reason why it is going to be difficult is the inability of the developed countries to bring clarity on the financial commitments which they have undertaken in the Copenhagen Accord," he said.

Hopes for a global treaty on cutting carbon emissions to slow global warming were dealt a heavy blow last year when rich and poor nations were unable to agree on a legally binding mechanism to reduce global carbon emissions.

More than 100 countries backed a nonbinding accord agreed in Copenhagen last year to limit global warming to below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times, but it did not spell out how this should be achieved.

The U.S. Senate on Thursday postponed an effort to pass broad legislation to combat climate change until September at the earliest, vastly reducing the possibility of such legislation being ready before the Cancun conference begins in December.

Australia has delayed a carbon emissions trading scheme until 2012 under heavy political pressure on from industries that rely heavily on coal for their energy. [ID:nSGE66L0TE]

The U.N.'s climate agency has detailed contingency options if the world cannot agree a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, whose present round expires in 2012 with no new deal in sight.

Kyoto placed carbon emissions caps on nearly 40 developed countries from 2008-2012.

(Editing by David Gregorio)

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