Down-under
from Psychedelic Nature
A quick look at Chek Jawa
from wild shores of singapore
Two prominent birds on Pulau Ubin – calls on movie clips
from Otterman speaks
Hornbill!
from Trek through Paradise
Some Sightings From Kusu Island
from colourful clouds
Feeding Spotted Dove: 10. More on eyelids
from Bird Ecology Study Group
Arachnophilia
from The annotated budak
Trash busters at Changi Beach Sites 3 and 4
from News from the International Coastal Cleanup Singapore
Ng Ai Fern The Star 28 Sep 10;
SEA turtles mating for long hours off Talang-Talang islands in the Talang-Satang National Park, one of the primary sites for turtle nesting in Sarawak, is an amazing sight for a privileged few.
“I thought there were turtles approaching the island. I walked to the beach and saw two pairs of turtles mating. It’s the greatest sight in the morning on a beautiful turtle island,” said Teresa Lim, a volunteer diver who stayed a night on the island recently for a reef cleaning project organised by Sarawak Forestry Corporation (SFC).
Another volunteer diver, Mark Justin, also reported that his group had spotted a pair of mating turtles underwater during their third reef monitoring dive.
As the islands are part of the totally protected area managed by SFC, the only way to see turtles nesting is to be among the invited few or to become one of the few privileged participants of a Turtle Adoption Programme.
Each year between May to September, female turtles will cross several hundred kilometres of ocean to return to the place where they hatched to lay eggs.
Female turtles normally mate with several male turtles near their nesting grounds, which is also where they hatched.
After crawling up the beach and digging a deep hole, they can lay up to 100 eggs. The eggs will hatch after 45 to 70 days.
“I once saw the same turtle coming back seven times to lay eggs in a year. Some of them come four to five times a year. I can tell by the tag on their flippers,” said, Abu Seman, 51, who has been working on the islands for about 12 years.
SFC has recorded a total of 9,980 mother turtles since 1996 and 755 nests at the island annually.
Most of the eggs collected by SFC will be incubated. However, among the hatchlings released, only one out of 1,000 will survive and reach maturity.
About 3mil hatchlings have been released in the past 40 years and only 3,244 mature turtles were produced.
“They grow very slowly in the wild, they usually make a long breeding migration of up to 3,000km from the feeding ground to a nesting beach,” said the park warden Tonny Ganyai.
Sea turtles are very sensitive and may return to the sea without nesting if they are disturbed while stranding or excavating the nest, explained Tonny.
The Turtle Adoption Programme was introduced to protect the turtles.
“There are only 12 slots each year and only six volunteers are allowed in each slot. Most of the participants are foreigners and we are always fully booked a year ahead,” said SFC general manager Wilfred Landong.
To adopt a turtle, a local would have to pay RM600 and a foreigner RM1,200.
Wilfred said SFC had limited tourism on the islands despite demands from the industry.
“Tourists coming, turtles going. This (turtle adoption programme) is the maximum level we can open the island for eco-tourism, not more than that. We do not allow day-trips as it would be too noisy, too many speed boats in the area will definitely drive the turtles away,” he said.
In the adoption programme which was launched in 2007, volunteers can actively participate in turtle conservation efforts from locating turtle landings, monitoring sea turtle nesting activities, tagging and measuring turtles, transferring eggs to hatchery, release hatchlings, data recording and other in-situ conservation activities.
Lim agreed with SFC that she and her group of nine other volunteer divers were privileged to stay overnight on the island and witness the reproduction of sea turtles without having to fight for the limited spots to join the adoption programme.
“The efforts done in turtle conversation is encouraging. The public should learn more about this programme and understand the life span of turtles, so they would know how important it is to stop buying or eating turtle eggs,” Lim said.
The group of volunteer divers also adopted a baby turtle for RM300 and a nest for RM100 to show their support to the conservation programme. The baby turtle was named, 1Malaysia, to commemorate the inaugural reef-cleaning project on the island.
Flood of boat tours in Gulf scare giant mammals away
Bangkok Post 26 Sep 10;
An influx of whale watchers to the upper Gulf of Thailand could scare the marine animals away from the ecologically fragile area, experts say.
Fishermen and villagers in the coastal provinces along the upper part of the gulf, including Samut Sakhon, Samut Prakan, Samut Songkhram, and Phetchaburi, are familiar with the sight of Bryde's whales and Irrawaddy dolphins in the area.
However, since videos and pictures of the mammals swimming in the upper gulf off Phetchaburi coast appeared in the media last week, the number of whale watchers has drastically increased.
Conservation groups have started to worry about the impact of whale-watching activities on marine animals and have asked boat operators to proceed with caution. They say too many boats could disturb the whales' habitat.
"An increase in tourists might affect the Bryde's whales, especially mother whales and their offspring," said Vorapol Dounglomjan, leader of the Upper Gulf Conservation Network.
He said whale-watching guidelines are needed to prevent the activity harming marine life.
His group has proposed limiting whale and dolphin watchers to three or four locations to minimise the risk of disturbing the animals.
Boat operators would not be allowed to take tourists to other areas.
The group also proposed designating a 10.45 square kilometre area in the upper gulf as a conservation area which is off-limits to tourism activities.
The area covers mud flats and parts of the sea where marine animals go to feed. Migratory birds can also be found there.
''We need to provide some quiet zones for marine animals, especially whales and the dolphins, or we might not see them again,'' said Mr Vorapol.
Bad tourism management can lead to a decline in marine life.
In Chachoengsao province, the number of Irrawaddy dolphins has dropped after a boom in tourism.
Bancha Wadwaree, a seafood restaurant owner of Ban Klong Mai who provides a free boat service for Irrawaddy dolphin and Bryde's whale watchers, said the number of tourists booking boat trips had jumped sharply in recent weeks.
He played down the impact of whale-watching activities on marine life.
''We have a regulation that boat operators must not get too close to the whales.
''We will try our best to protect them since locals regard them as auspicious animals that will bring us luck,'' said Mr Bancha.
However, he agreed that strict regulations were needed if more boat service operators were to start work in the upper gulf as their activities could pose a threat to the ecological system.
Veera Plairaksa, vice-chairman of the Samut Sakhon-based Pantai Norasing Fishery Network, said fishermen and tourism operators in the upper gulf may announce closure of part of the gulf to allow the marine environment to recover.
''We don't want Thai waters to turn into a dead sea. We want to maintain fertility in the sea for succeeding generations of whale admirers,'' said Mr Veera.
Sombat Poovachiranon, chief of the Samut Sakhon-based marine and coastal resources research centre in the upper gulf, said marine biologists had been collecting data about the Bryde's whales and Irrawaddy dolphins to learn more about their habitats and feeding grounds.
About 100 Irrawaddy dolphins and 20 Bryde's whales live along the upper gulf.
''Sea water quality is a key to their survival. Our study found that Bryde's whales have moved away from the coast as sea water quality has deteriorated,'' he said. The whale-watching boom could also affect the animals, the official said.
He said tourist boats should stay at least 100 metres away from the whales. Boat engines must be turned off when boats draw close to the whales as engine noise could disturb the animals.
Tonette Orejas Philippine Daily Inquirer 27 Sep 10;
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – More than 500 dolphins, whales and dugong (sea cows) were stranded on Philippine shores or swam in shallow waters in the last 11 years, producing several hotspots around the archipelago, according to the country’s first database on marine mammal-stranding from 1998 and 2009.
A team of 10 scientists, veterinarians and policymakers put the database together through a grant given by the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Development of the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City. The international journal “Aquatic Mammals” published a paper summarizing its contents and findings.
Doctor Lemnuel Aragones, the team leader, said the Philippines was in a better situation now because it has a database as well as a response program. These, he said, were “often nonexistent in developing countries.”
Stranding happens when sea creatures that are sick, lost and weak take refuge on shores or when their remains are washed ashore, the team said.
The database documented 178 stranding incidents. In 163 incidents, the sea mammals were found to be alone or a few with calves. In 10 incidents, 36 creatures were seen in groups of two or up to 14. Five “out-of-habitat” stranding incidents, or when animals stayed near shores, counted 370, mostly dolphins in Pilar, Bataan, in February 2009.
On the average, 15 stranding incidents were reported yearly.
The database also included information on illegal fishing practices and environmental changes that caused what the team called “unusually high incidence of stranding.”
“It might be likely that the annual average number of stranding of 15 from 1998 to 2009 represents an underestimate in events because past incidents might have been unreported,” the team said.
At least 116 of 163 individually stranded dolphins, whales and dugong were found alive, a rate considered by local scientists to be high.
These animals might have sought refuge on the beach due to noise trauma from dynamite fishing, interactions with fish or biotoxins from harmful algal blooms, the team said. Countries like Thailand, Taiwan, South Australia and eastern United States had low live stranding cases, it said.
The stranding incidents happened mostly in Central Luzon, Central Visayas, the Ilocos and Bicol.
Zambales, Cagayan, Zamboanga City, Negros Oriental, Bohol, Pangasinan and Bataan are considered hotspots because of the frequency of stranding incidents there.
Some places are also considered hotspots because rare species retreated to their shores.
The Longman’s beaked whale (Indopacetus pacificus) was seen in Davao City. The first recorded specimen of the pygmy sperm whale (Kogia breviceps) was seen in Bulakan, Bulacan, while the highest number of stranding baleen whales was documented in Batangas.
It was through the database that the team validated that 23 of the 28 confirmed species of marine mammals in the Philippines had been stranded. These included the Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops aduncus), pygmy sperm whale and Longman’s beaked whale.
The database showed that the top five stranded species were the spinner dolphin (Stenella longirostris), short-finned pilot whale (Globicephala macrorhynchus), melon-headed whale (Peponocephala electra), Risso’s dolphin (Grampus griseus) and common bottlenose dolphin (T. truncatus). Records showed seven stranding cases of dugong (Dugong dugon) since 2001.
Stranding happened throughout the year, but mostly during the northeast monsoon (amihan) season when winds caused strong water current from November to March.
Its members said it was not surprising to see stranded mammals in the country because the Philippine coastline stretches 36,289 kilometers.
The team collected the data from the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, nongovernment groups, Museum of Natural History at UP Los Baños in Laguna, the private marine park Ocean Adventure in Zambales and incidents documented by team members.
Too few data are available before 1998, the oldest being that of the stranding of 12 sperm whales in Cadiz City, Negros Occidental in 1967, the team said.
It made a stranding report form to systematize the recording of incidents. It said the database confirmed the diversity of marine mammals in the Philippines and growing awareness of the public to help animals in need.
The database called attention to the plight of the Irrawaddy dolphin and dugong because these have been most endangered by human activities.
The team recommended the continued collection of comprehensive data to reach “greater accuracy in determining the possible causes of stranding [incidents] and the influence of human activities on these events.”
It urged further investigation on the impact of dynamite fishing and other causes of stranding.
The team suggested improving the response capability of communities and groups and opening facilities to support the rehabilitation of stranded marine animals. To date, Ocean Adventure is said to be the only place capable of doing that.
Fidelis E Satriastanti Jakarta Globe 27 Sep 10;
Jakarta. Jakarta-based Asia Pulp & Paper, a subsidiary of Sinar Mas Group, on Monday went on the counterattack, accusing Greenpeace of using false and misleading information to damage its credibility.
Greenpeace has accused APP of massive expansion in Indonesia, destroying peatlands and other unsustainable forestry practices.
In a statement, APP said an independent peer-reviewed audit released by consultancy ITS Global on Monday showed the environmental watchdog’s report “is highly misleading and simply not defensible,” citing ITS chief executive Alan Oxley.
According to the Melbourne-based ITS, which was commissioned by APP to conduct the audit, Greenpeace had in its report on APP provided unattributable quotes, maps that showed concessions that did not exist and used source material with high margins of error, trying to pass them off as facts.
However, Bustar Maitar, lead forest campaigner for Greenpeace Indonesia, dismissed ITS’s report, saying it was biased. “If they claim it’s an independent report, it’s a joke because Alan Oxley is speaking as an APP representative,” he said.
Oxley is well-known for his strong support of the palm-oil industry, which he says is an effective vehicle for relieving poverty in the developing world.
He was also a former Australian ambassador to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, the precursor to the World Trade Organization.
When contacted by the Jakarta Globe, an ITS representative was unable to provide any details about the audit and did not respond to further questions submitted by e-mail.
Sinar Mas also commissioned a separate audit last month to analyze Greenpeace’s claims. British auditor BSI Group, however, complained that the company had misrepresented its findings.
BSI Group and Control Union Certification had found that some of Greenpeace’s claims were false or exaggerated, but also found that Sinar Mas had cleared high-value deep peatlands and 38,000 hectares of natural forest without conducting an impact assessment.
Last week, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, in apparent response to the BSI Group audit, publicly censured Sinar Mas Agro Resources & Technology for its practices.
The RSPO, a group of industry planters, green groups and palm oil buyers, said Smart was in “serious noncompliance” with its principles and criteria, and faced suspension or expulsion if it did not “take the necessary remedial actions.”
It was the first time that the RSPO had censured a member.
Greenpeace Slammed for Using 'False Data' on Sinar Mas: Report
Fidelis E. Satriastanti Jakarta Globe 27 Sep 10;
Jakarta. Greenpeace on Monday rejected allegations of using "false and misleading information to attack a company's credibility," after an independent study questioned the environment watchdog's data.
International Trade Strategies Global, also known as ITS, conducted a peer-review on Greenpeace's report, "How Sinar Mas is Pulping the Planet."
The report was launched in July 2010, highlighting the environmentally devastating actions of one of the world's leading pulp and paper companies, Asia Pulp and Paper, also known as APP, owned by Sinar Mas.
"The evidence shows that Greenpeace provided quotes that don’t exist, maps that show concessions that don’t exist, and used source material with high margins of error that was cited as absolute fact," said Alan Oxley, chief executive office of the Melbourne-based ITS Global on the press release.
Oxley said the Greenpeace report was highly misleading and indefensible. In addition, the audit stated that a map in the Greenpeace report shows four concessions which don't exist.
“Sadly this is not an isolated incident. Greenpeace has exaggerated claims in the past.
"When we see reports like this with such obvious factual inaccuracies it makes us call into question the real Greenpeace agenda, risking the greater good to achieve its own political ends."
However, Bustar Maitar, team leader of Greenpeace SouthEast Asia, retaliated saying that the reviews were not independent considering the reviewer was allegedly paid by the company.
"If they claim it's an independent report, it's a joke because Alan Oxley is speaking as an APP representative," Bustar said.
Concerning the maps, he said the maps were based on data drawn from the government and the company's internal sources.
"So, if they said that those maps don't exist then they should have corrected the government and their own sources," he said.
Mark Kinver BBC News 28 Sep 10;
A decline in pollinating insects in India is resulting in reduced vegetable yields and could limit people's access to a nutritional diet, a study warns.
Indian researchers said there was a "clear indication" that pollinator abundance was linked to productivity. They added that the loss of the natural service could have a long-term impact on the farming sector, which accounts for almost a fifth of the nation's GDP.
Globally, pollination is estimated to be worth £141bn ($224bn) each year.
The findings were presented at a recent British Ecological Society meeting, held at the University of Leeds.
Each year, India produces about 7.5 million tonnes of vegetables. This accounts for about 14% of the global total, making the nation second only to China in the world's vegetable production league table.
Lack of data
Despite the concern, no study had been done to assess directly the scale of the decline in natural pollinators, explained Parthiba Basu, from the University of Calcutta's Ecology Research Unit.
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"The ideal situation would have been if we were able to compare the overall pollinator abundance over the years, but that kind of data was just not available," he told BBC News.
Instead, his team compared the yields of pollinator-dependent crops with pollinator-independent crops.
"Data shows that the yields of pollinator-independent crops have continued to increase," Dr Basu said. "On the other hand, pollinator-dependent crops have levelled off."
He explained that certain crops did not depend on insects for pollination, including cereals. Instead, the plants used other mechanism - such as relying on the wind to carry the pollen.
However, many vegetables - such as pumpkin, squash, cucumber and gherkin - were reliant on insects, such as bees.
He added that the fall in yield per hectare was against the backdrop of a greater area being turned over to crop production each year.
In an attempt to identify an underlying cause for the pollinator decline, the team is carrying out a series of field experiments, comparing conventional agriculture with "ecological farming".
Defined as "a farming system that aims to develop an integrated, humane, environmentally and economically sustainable agricultural production system", ecological farming is almost a hybrid of conventional and organic farming, looking to capitalise on returns from modern farming methods as well as drawing on natural ecological services, such as pollination.
Dr Basu said: "There is an obvious indication that within the ecological farming setting, there is pollinator abundance. This method typically provides the habitats for natural pollinators - this is the way forward."
He added that if the team's findings were extrapolated, this would offer a "clear indication" that India was facing a decline in natural pollinators, as ecological farming was only practiced on about 10-20% of the country's arable land.
Figures show that agriculture accounts for almost one-fifth of the nation's gross domestic product (GDP), compared with the global average of just 6%. The sector also provides livelihoods for more than half of India's 1.2 billion population.
Troubling times
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that of the slightly more than 100 crop species that provide 90% of food supplies for 146 countries, 71 are bee-pollinated, primarily by wild bees, and a number of others are pollinated by other insects.
In order to gain a clear insight into the scale of the global problem, the FAO has established the International Pollinators Initiative, which includes a project involving seven nations (India is among them) with the aim of identifying practices and building capacity in the management of pollination services.
In a 2007 assessment of the scientific data on the issue, the UN Environment Programme observed: "Any loss in biodiversity is a matter of public concern, but losses of pollinating insects may be particularly troublesome because of the potential effects on plant reproduction and hence on food supply security."
Dr Basu said food security was unlikely to be the main consequence facing India.
"There has been a debate within India about this, but most of the cereal crops are not pollinator dependent, so if there is a pollination crisis it is not going to affect food security as such.
"What is going to be affected is nutritional security."
The concept of food security was first established by a FAO committee in 1983. Nutritional security was soon added as a key pillar to ensure "access by all people at all times to enough food for an active and healthy life".
Dr Basu said that vegetables such as pumpkins, squash, cucumber, and gherkins were "quite substantial" in terms of delivering necessary nutrients to the population.
"But there are many other vegetable crops that are eaten by people who are around the poverty level, so-called minor vegetable crops like eggplant, for which is there is no or very little data," he explained.
About a quarter of India's population is believed to live below the poverty level, which - under the UN's Millennium Development Goals - refers to people who live on less than US$1 a day.
Uncertain times
In industrialised nations, such as the US and in Europe, many farms employ the services of commercial hives to pollinate fruit trees and food crops, and ensure they harvest adequate yields.
But Dr Basu said the use of domesticated bees in this context was not widespread in South Asia.
"There are honey farmers, but using hives in the field to pollinate crops is not at all common in India," he said.
"That is why a lot of the political noise about a global pollination crisis came from the US and Europe, because their managed/domesticated bee population was declining."
In 2007, about one third of the US domesticated bee population was wiped out as a result of a phenomenon known as Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), with some commercial hive owners losing up to 90% of their bees.
The exact cause remains a mystery, and last year a number of UK agencies - including the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) - began a £10m project to help identify the main threat to bees and other insect pollinators.
A number of possible causes have been suggested, including the misuse of pesticides, habitat loss and fragmentation, and the spread of parasites and diseases.
Dr Basu said that as a result of his team's field experiments, it was clear that India too was experiencing a decline.
However, he cautioned: "There are many kinds of natural pollinators. As a result, we - not only in India, but in other parts of the world - do not really know what is happening to natural pollinator populations."
Justin Nobel Reuters AlertNet 27 Sep 10;
Palau is a paradox: The low-lying Pacific island nation is threatened by climate change but may soon be drilling for oil.
Seismic tests in the 1970s indicated the presence of petroleum but exploratory wells were never dug. Now, President Johnson Toribiong is pushing for exploration, hopeful oil will bring cheaper fuel, revenue and jobs.
"Right now we are importing fossil fuel and that is very, very expensive," Toribiong said in a telephone interview. "If we find oil we will use the proceeds to make Palau a green country."
Many island nations around the world are looking for creative solutions to a pending crisis - predicted boosts in sea level, associated with climate change, that could ruin their drinking water supplies and crops, put them at greater risk from storms and tidal surges and, in some cases, submerge their homelands entirely.
Officials in Kiribati, a group of Pacific Ocean atolls, are trying to train their young people as nurses and other sought-after professions, in hope they - and eventually their families - can migrate legally to other countries, particularly Australia. The president of the Maldives is exploring buying land elsewhere - perhaps in India or Sri Lanka - to accommodate an eventual wholesale migration.
Other island officials think finding ways to improve the economic plight of their people will give them more resources and options to adapt to the coming changes.
Palau, however, may be the only imperiled island nation aiming to raise needed funds by pumping oil, which when burned boosts carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere and drives climate change.
Toribiong, Palau's president, established the world's first shark sanctuary in Palau but also, prior to becoming president in 2009, did legal work for Palau Pacific Exploration (PPX), the Australia- and U.S.-based company now drilling for oil.
His position on drilling is in marked contrast to that of Tommy Remengesau Jr., Palau's former president, who launched a project called the Micronesia Challenge to conserve 30 percent of Palau's near-shore marine resources by 2020 and was cited by Time magazine in 2007 as a "Hero of the environment" for trumpeting the threat of climate change. Presently, he is a member of Palau's Congress.
The island's Congress has criticized the President's contract with PPX, which gives the company until May 2011 to drill two exploratory wells and which Toribiong signed before giving Congress a chance to draft legislation guiding the development of petroleum resources.
Palau is now working with the World Bank to craft such legislation, which will ensure that as the country pursues an oil economy, social and environmental concerns are considered and a means for the fair distribution of profits is set up.
'I HOPE WE DON'T HAVE TO DRILL'
"In the end I hope we don't have to drill," said Noah Idechong, a renown marine conservationist who is now a leading member of Congress. "But I kind of sat down myself and realized that if you don't get the legislation done right it will pop up in the future and we won't be able to control it."
Some analysts question why the World Bank is helping Palau develop fossil fuel resources when the island's very existence is threatened by the burning of them.
"It is gut-wrenching and kind of sickening that Palau has been put in this position by those who have developed on the backs of the country's future," said Janet Redman, a sustainable energy researcher with the Institute for Policy Studies, a Washington D.C.-based think tank. "We are contributing to the process of an entire country disappearing."
When asked why the World Bank was helping Palau pursue oil, Silvana Tordo, the lead energy economist in the World Bank's oil, gas and mining policy division replied: "The choice of developing Palau's resources is theirs, not ours. They will develop them with or without World Bank assistance. It is therefore important for the Bank to be part of the dialogue."
Palau has 16 states and a complex system of governance that includes both state- and nationally-elected officials and traditional chiefs. Nearly two-thirds of the country's 21,000 people, and most of its hotels and institutions are in the capital state of Koror.
The oil is located far from the capital, some 13 miles offshore from the remote state of Kayangel, a sandy reef-ringed isle of sparse tribal villages.
"Kayangel is not like Koror," said Kayangel Governor Edwin Chokai. "They have a lot of jobs over there; over here we don't have a lot of jobs, so over here we want to start the [oil] project so we can help the people of Kayangel."
But even President Toribiong worries about what oil might bring.
"I am concerned. It is easy for people to be friendly in advance, but once you get the money greed sets in and shysters and phony consultants come," Toribiong said. "Kayangel is a simple state, and these are not sophisticated people."
Justin Nobel has reported on science and culture in Nunavik, Micronesia and northern California, and has on ongoing interest in climate issues in the South Pacific.
Reuters AlertNet is not responsible for the content of external websites.
Emma Charlton Yahoo News 27 Sep 10;
PARIS (AFP) – Poisonous pesticides, soil pollution and water waste: high-street fashion has a lot to answer for in the environmental game. But can big brands use their global clout to drive the green revolution?
If green is the new black on the high-street, then global retailers are lining up to parade their eco-credentials, from Marks and Spencers in Britain, to sportswear behemoth Nike or the fashion giant H&M.
"There's a paradigm shift in the textile sector," John Mowbray, editor of the green trends magazine Ecotextile, told AFP at the Texworld trade fair in Paris this month.
"Three years ago sustainability was not on the agenda" he says. "Now a lot of retailers and brands want to move regardless of what their suppliers think. They think consumers want transparency. Brands are driving change."
Sourcing cleaner fabrics -- from organic yarns to recycled polyester -- and rooting out sweatshop practices in Asia and elsewhere are the twin planks of the sustainability mantra adopted by many of the West's top brands.
And the most visible example of this is organic cotton.
Until recently an expensive rarity, organic cotton t-shirts are cropping up on supermarket and bargain retail shelves, from Tesco or Topshop in Britain to Auchan in France or Primark in the United States.
Global retail sales of organic cotton apparel and home textile goods have been soaring 40 percent per year since 2001, according to the Organic Exchange (OE) non-profit group.
The world's top 10 organic-cotton using brands last year, according to the OE, reads like a Who's Who of the high-street fashion and sports industry, including C&A, Nike, Walmart, H&M, Levi Strauss & Co and Adidas.
The global organic cotton market is still a baby, making up one percent of the total harvest. But the market is booming -- and the growth appears recession-proof.
Organic cotton production grew 20 percent in 2008/09 over 2007/08, across India, Turkey, Pakistan and 19 other countries, with growth forecast to continue at 20 to 40 percent through 2011.
Last year, even as the economic slowdown sliced seven percent off the global apparel and textiles market, the organic segment grew by 35 percent, with sales of 4.3 billion dollars.
"We weren't affected by the crisis," said H.L. Ding, a Chinese entrepreneur whose natural fibre firm Hemp Fortex turned over 10 million dollars in 2009 selling to the likes of Walmart.
"We're a small part of a market that's still growing."
Short of going organic, meanwhile, dozens of brands and retailers -- who together consume 15 percent of the world's cotton -- have signed up to a global scheme called the Better Cotton Initiative.
Aiming to cut water and soil pollution while battling child and bonded labour, it involves 100,000 cotton farmers in China, Central Asia, Brazil and West and Central Africa.
Retail giants Ikea and Levi Strauss sit on the council of the scheme, whose first crop is set for harvest in the coming months.
-- 'Organic cotton, yes, but at what price?' --
So the figures are impressive. But how much is this really doing to reduce the industry's ethical footprint? Is this real change or mere "greenwashing"?
"Sure, they are buying organic cotton, but at what price, and how is it made?" warned Isabel Quehe, founder of the Ethical Fashion Show which was holding its seventh edition in Paris this week.
Looking beyond fabrics, "consumers need to think about where their clothes come from, whether the person who made them was paid a living wage."
Just this week, a report in France's Liberation newspaper exposed the "prison-like" conditions in a textile complex in southern India that supplies many of the West's top brands, like Gap or H&M.
"I saw an organic t-shirt selling for 2.90 euros -- at that kind of price you can only be producing it in terrible conditions," said Christan Tournafol, one of the designers at the Paris show whose label Les Racines du Ciel sources organic fibres around the world.
But there was also evidence at the Texworld fair that support from big retail partners is helping green, ethical suppliers to thrive.
Some 120 certified organic and fair-trade fabric suppliers made the trip to Paris this year -- double the number a year ago.
"It's not easy for companies to transform themselves," says Bernd Muller, in charge of sustainable textiles at the show.
"There have been problems with whole villages who converted to organic, and ended up with unsold cotton on their hands," added the fair's managing director Marie-Armelle de Bouteiller.
A case in point: JCT Limited ships a million yards of organic yarn each year from the Indian Punjab to clients including Nike and Decathlon.
Under a lock-in deal with Nike, it says it plans to convert huge acreage to organic farming within three years, educating farmers about the technique and pledging to buy their whole crop.
OE research also suggests that organic cotton is being spurred by "strong commitment and support from brands".
"Big companies always tread very carefully but once they feel its right for the market, it can be really big," agreed Hemp Fortex's Ding. "They are taking serious steps."
Quehe believes it is easier for a small firm to be truly ethical, by keeping watch on environmental and labour practices all along its supply chain.
But she concedes that "large firms have the power to set an example."
"Change has been set in motion on a global scale. And the more of us there are, the better."
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