Best of our wild blogs: 27 Aug 10

Videos from Pulau Hantu
from wonderful creation

Javan Mynas in a fight
from Bird Ecology Study Group

Giant lizards
from Life's Indulgences

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Deep-sea images reveal colorful life off Indonesia

Robin McDowell Google News 27 Aug 10

JAKARTA, Indonesia — Scientists using cutting-edge technology to explore waters off Indonesia were wowed by colorful and diverse images of marine life on the ocean floor — including plate-sized sea spiders and flower-like sponges that appear to be carnivorous.
They predicted Thursday that as many as 50 new plant and animal species may have been discovered during the three-week expedition that ended Aug. 14.

More than 100 hours of video and 100,000 photographs, captured using a robotic vehicle with high-definition cameras, were piped to shore in real-time by satellite and high-speed Internet.

Verena Tunnicliffe, a professor at the University of Victoria in Canada, said the images provided an extraordinary glimpse into one of the globe's most complex and little-known marine ecosystems.

"Stalked sea lilies once covered the ocean, shallow and deep, but now are rare," she said in a written statement. "I've only seen a few in my career. But on this expedition, I was amazed to see them in great diversity."

Likewise, Tunnicliffe has also seen sea spiders before, but those were tiny in comparison, all around one-inch (2.5 centimeters) long: "The sea spiders ... on this mission were huge. Eight-inches (20-centimeters) or more across."

One animal captured on video looks like a flower, covered with glasslike needles, but scientists think it is probably a carnivorous sponge. The pink spikes, covered with sticky tissue, appear to capture food as it passes by.

Other pictures showed a lavender-colored fish walking on the sea floor and the bright red arms of underwater lilies.

Timothy Shank of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts said his team has so far pored over more than 150,000 high-definition video framegrabs.

"I now feel that there may be at least 40 new species of deep-water coral and at least 50 new species that include benthic shrimp, crabs, sponges, clams, barnacles, anemones and sea cucumbers," he said.

Confirmation that a species is new involves a scientific peer review and other steps and can take years.

Scientists used powerful sonar mapping system and the robotic vehicle to explore nearly 21,000 square miles (54,000 sq. kilometers) of sea floor off northern Indonesia, at depths ranging from 800 feet (240 meters) to over two miles (1.6 kilometers).

The mission was carried out by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's ship, the Okeanos Explorer. An Indonesian vessel, the Baruna Jaya IV, also took part, collecting specimens that, together with all rights for future use, will remain in the country.

___

Online:

http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/

http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/okeanos/welcome.html

http://shiptracker.noaa.gov/

New Deep-Sea Pictures: Chimaera, Ten-armed Starfish, More photos on National Geographic

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Elephants to be used against forest intruders in Bengkulu

Antara 26 Aug 10;

Bengkulu (ANTARA News) - Bengkulu province`s Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA) is to use five trained elephants in its operations against forest intruders, especially in the Bukit Kabah natural tourism park, a spokesman said.

Bengkulu BKSDA head Andi Basrah said here Thursday there were hundreds of recalcitrant intruders in the natural tourism park, and the elephants would be used to evict them.

The trained elephants, he said, would be deployed to tear down the many huts the intruders had erected in forest areas. Forest agency officers had previously burnt down the huts but the intruders rebuilt them as soon as the officers had left.

The eviction operations with the help of elephants, he said, would be carried out for their deterrent effect because the animals were not only able to tear down the huts but also to chase away the intruders.

In the moves against the intruders, the elephants would be guided by mahouts and accompanied by an integrated team in the hope the intruders would really become scared and run away on their own accord. But those caught would be subjected to legal procedures, Basrah said.

He also said tough actions against forest intruders at the natural tourism park were necessary as their purpose was to steal timber whereas the area was fulfilling the important function of catching water and supplying water to tens of rivers that also flowed through neighboring provinces.

The intruders were said to be targeting Kepahiang Indah village which is located inside the park area. The local Plantation and Forestry agency had previously warned that the park`s forest area in between the two districts could become totally depleted by the intruders.

Bengkulu Forestry Agency head Chairil Burhan had earlier said that as many as 25 intruders had been arrested and all of them had been operating inside the tourism park that belonged to Rejang lebong district. Thousands of hectares of forest area had been turned into vegetable plots, coffee and cinnamon plantations, he said.(*)

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Sumatran tigers attack Jambi residents' dogs

Antara 26 Aug 10;

Jambi, Jambi(ANTARA News) - A number of wild Sumatran tigers (Panthera tigris sumatrae) attacked five dogs belonging to residents of Renah Kayu Embun village, Sungaipenuh sub-district, Jambi province, over the past weekend.

Three of the dogs died and two others suffered injuries, the head of Renah Kayu Embun Village, RKE Jandida, said. "The tigers attacked the five dogs but not eny of my fellow villagers," he said here Thursday.

The dead dogs belonged to Suparman and Zahar. The Sumatran tigers` presence in the village had struck fear into the villagers hearts. Many of them even did not dare to go out to attend to their crops in the field, he said.

"The tigers` foot prints have been found inside people`s farming areas," Jandida said. In response to his people`s deep concern, he had met with local forest rangers about the way to drive away the tigers.

"A tiger team member checked on the tigers` foot prints in Renah Kayu Embun village last week," he said.

Jandida said the tiger team had found foot prints but not the moving tigers. The local conservation rangers predicted that there were at least three tigers moving around the village.

Conflicts between human being and such wild animals as tigers and elephants frequently happen in various parts of Sumatra Island.

Residents of three villages in Maje sub-district, Kaur district, Bengkulu Province, were also shocked when a few Sumatran tigers suddenly appeared in their neighborhoods recently.

According to a spokesman of Bengkulu Province`s Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA), Supatono, the villages lay in an area that was part of the Sumatran tigers` habitat.

The hungry tigers were also reported to have attacked villagers` livestock such as goats and dogs, he said.

The Indonesian government itself intends to increase the population of Sumatran tigers from 400 now to 800 by 2012 but its efforts continues to be hampered by some unfavorable factors.

The factors were, among others, shrinking habitats, insufficient food, and poor surveillance of illegal hunting activities, he said.

In handling those illegal hunters, a comprehensive task force involving forest rangers, police and military apparatuses, environmentalists, and conservationists, was needed, he said.

The illegal hunters remained serious threats to the government`s efforts to save the Sumatran tigers.

At the same time, the growth of this big cat`s population was much slower than that of other wild animals, such as forest pigs, he said.

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Cambodia: Record low water levels threaten livelihoods

IRIN Reuters AlertNet 26 Aug 10;

Reuters and AlertNet are not responsible for the content of this article or for any external internet sites. The views expressed are the author's alone.
PHNOM PENH, 26 August 2010 (IRIN) - Late rains and record low water levels in Cambodia's two main fresh water systems will affect food security and the livelihoods of millions, government officials and NGOs warn.

"We expect the impact to be very strong," said Nao Thuok, director of the Fisheries Administration, adding that low water levels along the Mekong and Tonle Sap rivers were already limiting fish production and migration.

Crucial spawning grounds in floodplains along the rivers remained dry. "The places where the fish usually lay their eggs do not have much water so the fish population will decrease a lot," he warned.

Approximately six million Cambodians or 45 percent of the population depend on fishing in the Mekong and Tonle Sap basins, the government's Inland Fisheries Research and Development Institute, reports.

The annual "flood" season of daily rain usually starts in July but began a month late, local agricultural surveyors say.

According to the Mekong River Commission [http://www.mrcmekong.org/] , which monitors the river at throughout its member states - Cambodia, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam - this month's levels are among the lowest ever for August. At the port of Phnom Penh, the Mekong plunged to 5.36m on 23 August, against more than 7.5m the same time last year and more than 8.5m in 2000.

Low rice productivity

Not only the fisheries sector is suffering, however.

Rice farmer Meas Chan Thorn in western Pursat Province was only able to plant last week, a month behind schedule, because of the late rains, and predicted yields would be halved.

"It's so difficult for us farmers in Cambodia because we depend entirely on the weather," the 67-year-old said.

According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Cambodia could experience a 22 percent drop in rice output this year - from 7.6 million MT in 2009 to 5.9 million MT in 2010.

Rice is Cambodia's main crop and its harvesting requires more water than other crops. According to the UN World Food Programme, more than 85 percent of the country's rice production is rain-fed.

Prom Tola, a consultant for Phnom Penh-based Agricultural Development International [http://www.agdevi.com/] , who is surveying farmers in Siem Reap Province, said there had been a rise in the number of rural people from Siem Reap leaving for Thailand in search of seasonal labour.

Upstream dams

Som Sitha, who monitors marine life for the NGO Conservation International [http://www.conservation.org], said Mekong residents were finding the river levels increasingly unpredictable.

"They complain that it's getting lower every year, especially the last few years, and they say it's preventing them from getting enough fish."

But while observers attribute low river water levels to atypical rainfall patterns this year, others cite upriver dams as the real cause. [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=85381]

Environmentalists blame an increasingly shallow Mekong on China, accusing Cambodia's powerful northern neighbour of hoarding water in its upriver dams.

To date, four dams have been built along the Chinese stretch of the Mekong, with nine more under way or awaiting construction downstream in Laos and Cambodia.

However, according to the Mekong River Commission, the upstream dams have yet to influence downstream water levels.

"There is no doubt that upstream dams, when they do come fully on-line, will have an impact on the water levels, as well as generate other environmental and social concerns," Damian Kean, a spokesman for the Mekong River Commission, said.

"However, at present there is no evidence that Chinese upstream dams are operating at a sufficient intensity to cause these low water levels in Cambodia," he added.

More than 60 million people in the lower Mekong basin rely on the river for food, commerce and transportation, according to the Mekong River Commission. The group says 80 percent of protein consumed by Mekong residents comes from the river.

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Fires cost Russia '300 billion dollars' in deforestation

Anna Smolchenko Yahoo News 26 Aug 10;

MOSCOW (AFP) – Wildfires have cost Russia 300 billion dollars in forest loss, environmentalists said on Thursday, explaining the scale of the disaster by Vladimir Putin's "absurd" changes to forestry law.

The economic damage amounts to 25,000 dollars per hectare (2.4 acres), or at least 300 billion dollars, according to estimates based on the market value of timber and the cost of reforestation, said Alexei Zimenko, general director of the Biodiversity Conservation Centre.

"The figures are completely astronomical," Zimenko told a news conference, adding that they did not include several factors, such as the loss of wildlife like insects and rare birds and animals.

According to Russian environmentalists, citing data from the Global Fire Monitoring Centre, the fires have covered an area of 10 million to 12 million hectares in Russia since the start of the year.

The government's emergencies ministry says however that nearly 29,500 fires covering a total area of 935,286 hectares have so far been registered in the country this year.

Environmentalists say the authorities have purposely under-reported the scale of the disaster.

"Unfortunately, official data on the scale of wildfires is reduced by a factor of three to 10," several environmental groups, including Zimenko's Biodiversity Conservation Centre, WWF Russia and Greenpeace Russia, said in a statement released at the news conference.

Several economists have put the cost to the economy this year at roughly 7-15 billion dollars.

The fires wreaked such colossal damage due to the "absurd" forestry legislation and reforms passed since the start of Vladimir Putin's 2000-2008 presidency when he eliminated the Federal Forestry Service and introduced a new Forest Code, activists said.

Reforms spearhead by Putin, now the prime minister, turned Russia's prized forests into a virtual no-man's land as they led to the sacking of some 150,000 forestry officials, among other changes, they said.

As a result, authorities have been so helpless in the face of the worst ever heatwave and fires that local officials told residents in one village to jump into a pond if the fires reached their village, said Grigory Kuksin of Greenpeace Russia.

"The system of control over forests have collapsed," said Ivan Blokov, head of Greenpeace Russia.

He added that the catastrophe would repeat in the coming years unless the authorities reinstate the forestry agencies eliminated under Putin in an apparent attempt to save money.

"The forests look abandoned. And you know what happens to abandoned forests: they get plundered, they catch fire," said Nikolai Shmatkov, forest policy coordinator at WWF Russia.

Seeking to demonstrate he is in control of the situation, Putin himself doused fires in a water bombing jet and travelled around the country to meet Russians whose homes were destroyed in the flames.

He also replaced the head of Russia's forestry agency, after his policies were heavily criticised and he found himself shouted at by the victims of the fires in a rare show of public anger.

The fires might have also dealt a severe blow to a number of rare birds, including cranes, said Viktor Zubakin, president of the Russian Bird Conservation Union, adding however that ornithologists would get a full picture of the losses only in spring when they see which birds do not return to forests.

"By all accounts we've lost large habitats for rare birds," he added.

Putin in the past years has made a big show of his love for nature, publicly kissing animals, promoting efforts to save endangered species like the Amur Tiger and chasing grey whales on his most recent trip to the Far East.

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Food figures need a pinch of salt

Isobel Tomlinson BBC Green Room 26 Aug 10;

The idea that the world needs to double its food production by 2050 in order to feed a growing population is wrong, says Isobel Tomlinson from the Soil Association. In this week's Green Room, she says the misuse of data could be used to allow even greater intensification of the global agricultural industry.

In the last couple of years, scientists, politicians and agricultural industry representatives around the globe have been using two statistics: the need to increase global food production by 50% by 2030, and for food production to double by 2050 to meet future demand.

These figures have come to play a significant role in framing current international policy debates about the future direction of global agriculture.

These apparently scientific statistics have been dominating the policy and media discourse about food and farming, leading almost everyone to assume we need vast increases in agricultural production to feed a population of nine billion people by the middle of this century.

While ensuring an equitable and sufficient future food supply is of critical importance, many commentators are using this to justify the need for more intensive agricultural practices and, in particular, the need for further expansion of GM crops.

Cooking the books

When the Soil Association, in its report Telling Porkies, looked into the reported sources for these figures, none of the sources actually stated that global food production needs to increase by 50% by 2030, or to double by 2050.

What the reports on which the claims are based do say is that certain sectors, in certain parts of the world, may have to increase food production by significant amounts.

For example, for cereals, there is a projected increase of one billion tonnes annually beyond the two billion tonnes produced in 2005.

For meat, in developing countries only (except China), the reports say that some of the growth potential (for increased per capita meat consumption) will materialise as effective demand, and their per capita consumption could double by 2050.

So this is a projected doubling of meat consumption in some developing countries - not a doubling of global food production.

Indeed, recent calculations show that the key source for the "doubling" claim - a 2006 report from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) - implies that global food production for 2006-2050 would need to increase by around 70%, not 100%; a difference that is equivalent to the entire food production of the continent of America.

But while a re-evaluation of the veracity of the claim that food production needs to double by 2050 is to be welcomed, simply switching to the figure of 70% does not solve the problem.

Food for thought

The statistic of a 70% increase is still predicted on the same "business as usual" model as the "doubling" figure and that is problematic for several reasons:

First of all, the projections reflect a continuing pattern of structural change in the diets of people in developing countries with a rapid increase in livestock products (meat, milk, eggs) as a source of food calories.

However, the continuation of dietary transition in developing countries, as assumed by the modelling work, is likely to cause worsening health problems as such diets are a leading cause of non-communicable diseases including cardiovascular disease, some cancers and Type 2 diabetes.

Secondly, the data used to measure food security focuses attention on the level of agricultural production without considering access to food, distribution, and affordability which are all important in ensuring that people do not go hungry.

Thirdly, the projections assume that the developing world continues to import growing quantities of staple food stuffs when, in fact, increasing local production of staple foods is vital in ensuring food security.

Finally, according to these scientists, meeting these projected food demand targets will not solve food insecurity anyway. Indeed it is predicted that there will still be 290 million under-nourished people worldwide in 2050.

The assumptions and projections in this modelling reflect the authors' vision of the "most likely future" but not necessarily the most desirable one.

At the Soil Association, we now want to have an honest debate about how we can feed the world in 2050 in a way that doesn't lead to the further increases in obesity and diet related diseases, ensures that the global environment is protected, and that puts an end to hunger and starvation.

The misuse of the doubling statistic, based as it supposedly is on just one particular forecast of future demand for food, has prevented alternative visions of food and farming in 2050, which do not rely on the further intensification of farming and use of GM technologies, from being taken seriously in food security policy circles.

It is important that scientific research is now done to show how a better future is possible.

One recent scientific study has examined how we can feed and fuel the world sustainably, fairly and humanely. It explored the feasibility of feeding nine billion people in 2050 under different diet scenarios and agricultural systems.

The study showed that for a Western high-meat-diet to be "probably feasible" would require a combination of massive land use change, intensive livestock production and intensive use of arable land.

This would have negative impacts for animal welfare and lead to further destruction of natural habitats like rainforests.

However, the study also provides evidence "that organic agriculture can probably feed the world population of 9.2 billion in 2050, if relatively modest diets are adopted, where a low level of inequality in food distribution is required to avoid malnutrition".

Isobel Tomlinson is the policy and campaigns officer for the Soil Association, the UK's leading organic organisation

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

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Climate Aid Reaches $30 Billion Goal, But Is It New?

Alister Doyle PlanetArk 27 Aug 10;

Aid promises from rich nations to help poor countries slow global warming are reaching the $30 billion goal agreed in Copenhagen but analysts say much of that is old funding dressed up as new pledges.

Officially, the promises total $29.8 billion, Reuters calculations show, apparently meeting a pledge of "new and additional" funds "approaching $30 billion" for 2010-12 made at the U.N. summit in Copenhagen in December.

But austerity policies to combat government debt problems and a re-labeling of past promises will undermine real funding that is vital to unlock a new U.N. climate deal by showing that the developed world is serious about taking a leadership role, analysts say.

"I'm afraid the pledges of Copenhagen will not be realized," said Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. "It would be a little political miracle if it happened. I'm fairly pessimistic."

He said that Germany, the biggest European Union economy, was unlikely to fulfill its promises even though it had fewer economic problems than most EU nations, struggling to plug huge budget deficits.

Climate aid is widely seen as a key to build trust between rich and poor in the run-up to the 2010 U.N. meeting of environment ministers, in Cancun, Mexico, from November 29-December 10.

The cash was meant as a "fast start" for action to slow floods, droughts, heat waves and rising seas. Donors say projects are starting, from Nepal to Mali.

Many poor nations say "new and additional" means cash above an unmet 1970 U.N. target for rich nations to give 0.7 percent of their gross national product in aid -- OECD figures show that aid totaled $120 billion, or 0.31 percent of developed countries' combined GNP, in 2009.

Developed nations have varying definitions of what counts.

RENAMING AID

"It's hard to know what's really new and additional," said Clifford Polycarp of the Washington-based World Resources Institute, which tracks pledges by all nations. Some funds were "restated or renamed commitments already made."

Japan's pledge of fast start funds is by far the highest -- $15 billion -- but much of the money stems from a "Cool Earth Partnership" agreed several years ago to run from 2008-12.

Among other big pledges, the EU plans $9.6 billion for 2010-12 and U.S. President Barack Obama plans $3.2 billion for 2010-11. But some money was committed before Copenhagen to climate funds, for instance managed by the World Bank.

"It's horribly confusing," said Gordon Shepherd, leader of the climate initiative at the WWF International environmental group. He said it was vital that governments outlined strings attached and what they meant by "new and additional."

"Without that, people can't get into honest and open negotiations," he said.

NEW WEBSITE

Switzerland, Mexico and the Netherlands are among countries that favor setting up a voluntary website to track promises. The portal may be unveiled at an informal meeting of about 30 environment ministers in Geneva next week.

Analysts say new cash would help build trust after the Copenhagen Accord fell short of a new treaty. It set a non-binding goal of limiting a rise in world temperatures to below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6F) above pre-industrial times.

According to the Copenhagen Accord, aid is meant to surge to $100 billion a year from 2020 to help the poor curb dependence on fossil fuels and help adapt, for instance by improving defenses against floods like those devastating Pakistan.

Alden Meyer, of the Washington-based Union of Concerned Scientists, said progress in raising $30 billion and confidence that the $100 billion "is more than vapid rhetoric is essential to the prospects of anything getting done in Cancun."

The Cancun talks are unlikely to agree a new U.N. treaty but could make progress on issues such as protecting tropical forests, sharing new green technologies and sharing out the burden of curbs on greenhouse gases between rich and poor.

One problem is the lack of yardsticks to decide who pays what in aid. The Swiss government, for instance, is asking parliament to approve fast start funds totaling 140 million Swiss francs ($135.9 million) -- 0.45 percent of $30 billion.

Franz Perrez, Swiss ambassador for the environment, said the contribution was based on the country's 0.3 percent share of developed nations' greenhouse gas emissions, boosted by the fact that Switzerland is wealthier than most developed countries.

(Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)

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