Job advertisement: Project Officer
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Sad Sights At Pulau Satumu
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ICCS Otters blog!
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Battling “A Carnage of Plastic” with motivated Independents @ Pasir Ris 6 from News from the International Coastal Cleanup Singapore
A Toddycats Tree @ Clementi Woods on 10.10.10
from Toddycats!
A Creepy Crawly Day at SBWR
from Crystal and Bryan in Singapore
The Strangling Plant
from Garden Voices
Rebutal by Lim Yuin Chien Foreign Policy 28 Sep 10;
The allegations that Singapore's land reclamation was carried out using sand smuggled from its neighbouring countries ("The Sand Smugglers" Aug. 4, 2010) and that the government condones this illegal sand trade are baseless. Singapore is a small island. To support our economic development, we import sand to reclaim land within our terroritorial waters. This means sand is extracted from elsewhere and brought to Singapore. Since Malaysia and Indonesia banned sea sand exports, we have sourced for reclamation sand from other sources.
The Singapore government does not condone illegal smuggling of sand. We have put in specific and stringent procedures to ensure that sand is extracted legally and in compliance with the environmental laws and regulation of the source countries.
The JTC Corporation imports sand for Singapore's land reclamation projects. JTC requires sand suppliers to show documentary proof that the sand will come from an approved sand concession holder, and requires each sand load to have valid documentation on the date and source location. To date, all sand vendors have provided valid clearance documentation from the source countries.
Singapore expects sand suppliers to respect the laws and regulations of their source countries. We cannot police or enforce laws and regulations which are the sovereign responsibility of the source countries, but we will certainly cooperate with any investigations to the best of our ability within our laws, just as the Singapore authorities routinely cooperate with Malaysian and Indonesian enforcement agencies on a range of issues.
ACRES press release 30 Sep 10;
SINGAPORE, 30 September 2010 – Three sting operations by ACRES within about a week resulted in the seizure of a complete alleged tiger skin, three pieces of alleged tiger skin and one hedgehog. All products were being advertised for sale online by three different sellers.
Posing as buyers, ACRES undercover officers conducted the sting operations in Hougang for the sale of a hedgehog (15 September), in Choa Chu Kang for the sale of a whole alleged tiger skin complete with the head and claimed to be from Sri Lanka (21 September) and in Serangoon for the sale of pieces of alleged tiger skins claimed to be from Thailand (22 September).
The Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) responded immediately and seized the items. AVA is currently investigating the cases.
The hedgehog was offered for sale by a Chinese man for $150, the whole alleged tiger skin by an Indian man for $400 and the pieces of alleged tiger skins by a Chinese woman for $128 each.
“These seizures together with the major seizures of alleged tiger parts in Singapore in March this year have put a huge dent in the illegal wildlife trade. There is an urgent need to curb the illegal wildlife trade. Less than a century ago, more than 100,000 tigers roamed the world’s jungles and forests. Today, less than 3,200 remain in the wild” said Ms. Anbarasi Boopal, Director of ACRES Wildlife Crime Unit.
All commercial tiger trade has been banned since 1987 by CITES (Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora), which Singapore is a party to. AVA is the CITES authority in Singapore and administers the Endangered Species (Import and Export) Act (ESA), which lists all CITES species in its Schedules. Under the ESA, it is an offence to import, export and re-export any CITES species without a permit from AVA. The possession, sale, offering or exposing or advertising for sale or displaying to the public of any illegally imported CITES specimen is also an offence. The penalties, on conviction, are a fine of $50,000 (per species), not exceeding an aggregate of $500,000 and/or 2 years imprisonment.
Under the Endangered Species (Import and Export) (Prohibition of Sale) Notification, the domestic sale of tiger specimens is prohibited. Any person who sells, offers or exposes for sale or displays to the public any tiger parts and products, commits an offence. The offender shall be liable to a fine not exceeding $10,000 for each species (but not to exceed in the aggregate $100,000) or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 1 year or to both.
Anyone who advertises for sale any tiger products contravenes the above Act, even if the products turn out to be not authentic. By making a claim that the product is from tigers, the seller is potentially driving up the demand for tiger products, which directly contravenes the spirit of CITES and the local legislation meant to enforce CITES.
Under the Wild Animals and Birds Act, hedgehogs are one of the several exotic animals who are prohibited by the AVA to be kept or sold as pets in Singapore. Penalties on conviction are a fine of $1,000 per animal.
“The illegal wildlife trade appears to be going online and ACRES will continue to monitor and take action to wipe out this trade. The public plays a crucial role and we urge them to keep a look out for the sale of endangered species and call us on our 24-hour Wildlife Crime Hotline (9783 7782). ACRES is confident that with the community playing an active role, we can wipe out this illicit trade before it wipes out our wildlife” said Mr. Louis Ng, Executive Director of ACRES.
'Tiger pelt' and hedgehog for (illegal) sale
Sting operations catch 3 individuals hawking such wares online
Grace Chua Straits Times 30 Sep 10;
STING operations by wildlife activists here have caught three individuals trying separately to sell pieces of tiger skin, a whole tiger pelt, and a hedgehog.
It is not known yet whether the skins found by undercover officers of the Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (Acres) are real, but the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA) has seized the items and launched investigations.
No one has been arrested yet.
The haul was the result of Acres' first operation to nab people who advertise such illegal wares online. They follow an exercise completed early this year, which homed in on people selling tiger parts in shops. The authorities then clamped down on jewellery shops selling ornaments allegedly made of tiger parts.
The sale of tiger parts is banned worldwide. All six tiger species are highly endangered; by some statistics, just 3,200 are left in the wild.
They are protected under Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites), which 175 countries have ratified, including Singapore.
Singapore law provides another layer of protection in the form of the Endangered Species (Import & Export) Act, which states that importing, exporting, re-exporting or possessing any Cites species without a permit can land one a fine of up to $50,000 per species, with a cap of $500,000, and/or two years in jail.
Traders may not know that the penalties apply even if the parts are fake.
Acres investigators, posing as buyers, met individuals whom they had contacted via e-mail or phone after seeing online ads selling 'tiger skin'.
One investigator inquiring about the whole pelt met his contact in a Choa Chu Kang void deck; the one seeking to buy pieces of skin went to a Serangoon flat.
The pelt was going for $400, and the pieces at $128 each.
Acres' shaky, hidden-camera video footage showed both sellers were aware they were breaking the law.
One, remarking that his trade was 'quite sensitive', avoided putting the skin out in the open, and led the investigator up a flight of stairs to view it.
'One buyer in Geylang asked me to bring it down, but I didn't want to take risks,' the seller said.
The other seller said she smuggles tiger-skin amulets from Thailand through customs and immigration by wearing them like they are her own.
'Most of the time, I make it through,' she said in a matter-of-fact tone.
During Acres' operations, its investigators give the signal for AVA officers to swoop the moment the items are presented and their asking prices are declared.
AVA wildlife regulatory head Lye Fong Keng said the whole 'tiger skin' has been sent to the lab, but appeared to be domestic-animal hide with stripes painted on it.
The hedgehog was seized in Acres' operation in Hougang on Sept 15. A man was trying to sell it for $150. The AVA also seized from him two Indian star tortoises, an alligator snapping turtle, and an elongated tortoise - all Cites-listed species.
Acres head Louis Ng, noting that technology has given a fillip to the trade, said: 'We've been doing undercover ops on traditional Chinese medicine shops, but technology has caught up with us. It's alarming how easy it is to buy these protected species online.'
He urged members of the public to report such postings to Acres.
Guidelines for online classified listings such as singapore.locanto.sg and sg.88db.com state that posts promoting illegal products may be removed.
A search of such online listings turned up the tiger-pelt post, along with advertisements for exotic pets such as capuchin monkeys and sugar gliders. Some date back to 2007.
Under the Wild Animals and Birds Act, these creatures cannot be sold or kept as pets without a licence, for fear they may spread exotic diseases or that these alien species might escape or be released into the wild, upsetting the local ecology.
Those convicted of keeping such animals may be fined up to $1,000 per animal, and the creatures seized.
Tiger skins and hedgehog seized in ACRES sting operation
Channel NewsAsia 30 Sep 10;
SINGAPORE: Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (ACRES) undercover officers seized tigers skins and one hedgehog in three sting operations.
The products were being advertised for sale online by three different sellers.
Posing as buyers, ACRES' officers conducted the sting operations in Hougang, Choa Chu Kang and Serangoon respectively.
A Chinese man offered to sell the hedgehog, which cannot be kept or sold as pets in Singapore, for $150.
An Indian man offered to sell a whole tiger skin for $400 while a Chinese woman tried to sell pieces of alleged tigers skins for $128 each.
The items were seized by the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority.
Director of ACRES Wildlife Crime Unit, Anbarasi Boopal, said these seizures together with the major seizures of alleged tiger parts in Singapore in March this year have put a huge dent in the illegal wildlife trade.
All commercial tiger trade has been banned since 1987 by the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
Singapore is a party to the convention.
Anyone who advertises any tiger parts for sale contravenes Singapore's Endangered Species (Import and Export) Act (ESA), even if the products turn out to be unauthentic.
Louis Ng, ACRES Executive Director, said the illegal wildlife trade appears to be going online and the organisation will continue to monitor and take action to wipe out this trade.
If convicted, they can be fined up to $10,000 per species and jailed for up to a year.
Penalties on conviction are a fine of $1,000 per animal. - CNA/fa
Sting Operations Result In Seizure Of Tiger Skins, Hedgehog In Singapore
Bernama 30 Sep 10;
SINGAPORE, Sept 30 (Bernama) -- The Singapore authority seized several animal skins believed to be tiger skins and one live hedgehog following sting operations by a local animal protection society around the island this month.
Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (ACRES) said Thursday that posing as buyers, its undercover officers found a hedgehog on sale in Hougang, a whole tiger skin complete with the head, claimed to be from Sri Lanka in Choa Chu Kang, and three tiger skins claimed to be from Thailand in Serangoon.
ACRES tipped the city-state's Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) which responded immediately and seized the items.
In a statement, ACRES said all the tiger skins and the hedgehog were being advertised for sale online by three different sellers, including a woman.
The hedgehog was offered for sale at $150, the whole tiger skin at $400 and the other three pieces of tiger skins at $128 each.
ACRES Wildlife Crime Unit director Anbarasi Boopal said these seizures together with earlier major seizures of alleged tiger parts in Singapore in March this year had put a huge dent on the illegal wildlife trade.
Under the Wild Animals and Birds Act, hedgehogs are one of several exotic animals which are prohibited by AVA to be kept or sold as pets in Singapore.
ACRES executive director Louis Ng said the illegal wildlife trade appeared to be going online and the society would continue to monitor and take action to wipe out the illicit trade.
He said ACRES was confident that with the community playing an active role, they could wipe out the illicit trade before it wiped out wildlife.
-- BERNAMA
Some 4,500 customers to get energy meters that monitor usage in real time
Today Online 30 Sep 10
SINGAPORE - The Next Generation National Broadband Network (NGNBN) looks set to deliver not only a faster and cheaper digital highway for consumers, but, soon, also an opportunity to reduce home energy usage.
Yesterday, as it was announced that Accenture would design and implement the pilot project for a more energy-efficient power grid, the Energy Market Authority (EMA) revealed that the smart meters to be used in the system will leverage on the NGNBN and other communication platforms.
The meters will provide consumers information on how much electricity is being used.
Advanced metering infrastructure and the communication system will be key as the hardware for the IES pilot is set up between now and 2012.
The EMA shared these details and announced the budget for the project - $30 million, funded by the Government and Singapore Power - in a news release. It also gave a clearer timeline for the implementation of the pilot.
After the infrastructure phase is completed, the second phase, from 2012 to 2013, will focus on smart grid applications.
Around 4,500 customers in residential, commercial and industrial locations - chiefly the Nanyang Technological University campus, the CleanTech Park in Jalan Bahar and the Punggol Eco-Precinct - can then not only monitor their energy consumption "live" but also choose a range of pricing plans.
For residential consumers, they can shift usage from peak to off-peak periods when electricity prices are lowest. For industrial and commercial customers, they can install automation systems that include special programmable thermostats and other devices to monitor and control a buidling's air-conditioning and lighting, for instance.
The project is an "important step" to a smarter national power grid, said EMA.
When the network is up, operator SP PowerGrid will be able to detect "almost instantly" the location and extent of any localised power outage and respond promptly to restore supply.
In the future, alternative energy sources, such as solar panels and co-generation plants, will be able to feed into the grid. The benefits will extend to electric vehicles then.
Energy Market Authority to get S$30m to build Intelligent Energy System
Sharon See Channel NewsAsia 29 Sep 10;
SINGAPORE: The Energy Market Authority (EMA) is getting a S$30 million budget to build an Intelligent Energy System pilot project.
The funds will be provided by the government and Singapore Power.
The pilot project will involve around 4,500 customers in various residential, commercial and industrial locations, including the Nanyang Technological University campus, the CleanTech Park at Jalan Bahar and the Punggol Eco-Precinct.
EMA said this was an important step towards a smarter power grid, which would provide consumers with more information, choice and control over their electricity usage.
EMA said the IES project would be conducted in two phases.
Phase 1, which will be conducted from 2010 to 2012, will focus on the implementation of the enabling infrastructure for the IES like establishing the smart metering communication protocols and standards.
This will be done by leveraging on the Next Generation National Broadband Network and other communication platforms.
EMA added that Phase 2, which will be conducted from 2012 to 2013, will focus on the smart grid applications.
Customers with the smart metres installed in their premises will be able to experience the benefits of the IES through various services offered by the electricity retailers.
Residential customers will be able to monitor their energy consumption on a real-time basis with convenient in-home display devices.
They can also choose from a range of electricity pricing plans, thus allowing them to better manage their consumption and budgets, for example, by shifting their usage from peak to off-peak periods when electricity prices are lowest.
As grid owner, Singapore Power can use the system to better enhance delivery of electricity.
The system also enhances its ability to detect and respond promptly to localised power outages.
It will also allow Singapore Power to integrate new energy sources, like solar energy, into the grid.
This system also caters to the possibility of electric vehicles connecting to the grid, both to draw electricity from the grid and also to supply electricity to the grid.
EMA said the pilot project would allow it to test out promising smart grid applications in selected areas before rolling them out on a wider scale.
Gene sleuths uncover the secrets of the civet
Yahoo News 29 Sep 10;
PARIS (AFP) – The Asian palm civet, a small nocturnal carnivore famous for excreting coffee beans prized by gourmets, in fact comprises three species, French scientists said on Wednesday.
Instead of one species, until now known as Paradoxurus hermaphroditus, there should be three, according to molecular biologists at the Museum of National History in Paris.
The species have developed separately in different habitats -- northeastern India; Southeast Asia, including Indonesia; and parts of Borneo and the Philippines.
Tree-loving and fruit-eating, palm civets are arguably best known for a smooth-tasting Indonesian coffee known as Kopi Luwak.
Its beans come from the ripest fruits eaten by the civet, which are claimed to pass through its digestive tract unscathed, enhanced by enzymes.
Retrieved from the faeces, the beans are roasted before being sold for up to 500 dollars per kilogramme (227 dollars per pound). Only 200 kilos (440 pounds) of the coffee are produced each year.
Audrey Mcavoy, Associated Press Yahoo News 30 Sep 10;
HONOLULU – Corals at remote atolls northwest of the main Hawaiian islands suffered some bleaching this summer as ocean temperatures rose to higher-than-normal levels for a couple of weeks, but they were spared the large-scale mass bleaching observed this year in Indonesia and other parts of Southeast Asia, scientists said Wednesday.
Corals appear white or "bleached" when the ocean becomes too hot and they expel the algae they rely on to survive. Corals may recover if the algae returns, but they're still significantly weaker and more vulnerable to disease.
Thirty percent of the Kure atoll reef and one-fifth of the Pearl and Hermes atoll reef bleached, according to scientists who spent the past month on a research cruise in the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument. Corals at other atolls inside the monument were unaffected.
"There were certain areas where the bleaching was kind of severe, where it was just a white carpet essentially," said Peter Vroom, chief scientist of the cruise, which returned to Oahu on Wednesday.
"Other areas you would see a coral head that's had a lot of color, but maybe a quarter of it would be white," Vroom said.
Scientists say it's unclear what the long-term effect of this summer's bleaching will be. Corals in the monument — which account for 69 percent of all coral under U.S. jurisdiction — were exposed to only two weeks of slightly above normal temperatures.
Rusty Brainard, chief of the NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center's coral reef ecosystem division, said coral starts dying after about two months of being exposed to higher-than-normal temperatures.
In May, marine biologists working for the Wildlife Conservation Society observed coral bleaching off Indonesia's Aceh province when surface waters there peaked at 93 degrees — 7 degrees higher than long-term averages. Subsequent surveys found 80 percent of the bleached corals had died. Warmer temperatures this year also affected reefs in Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and Sri Lanka.
In the Caribbean, scientists said this week that corals are being exposed to water temperatures higher than those reported during a record bleaching period five years ago. They warned corals there could start dying in coming weeks.
Brainard said the Hawaii and Southeast Asia bleaching events are related in that they both occurred as global temperatures hit records from January through September.
"The common denominator is more on a planetary scale," Brainard said. "There's more heat on the planet this year in the first nine months than any other year."
He said bleaching hadn't even been observed in corals until 20 years ago.
"Then with these El Nino events we started seeing more bleaching. And now these are occurring — this is one of the symptoms of global warming," he said. "Even these small events, I think what they indicate is the whole scale is shifting."
What the Hawaii corals experienced was significantly more mild than Southeast Asia. But being bleached could hurt the corals over time.
Heidi Schuttenberg, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's research coordinator for the monument, predicted the bleached corals would be sick by the time scientists return for another research trip next year.
"When corals are bleaching, they're essentially starving," Schuttenberg said. "They're very weak so even if they survive their event, they're much more vulnerable to disease, and they have much lower reproductive capacity."
ECOS Magazine: Towards a Sustainable Future
Wendy Pyper Science Alert 30 Sep 10;
Living whales can provide as much, if not more, valuable scientific information to aid their conservation than dead ones. This was the message behind a report released by the Australian and New Zealand governments at the 62nd International Whaling Commission meeting in Agadir, Morocco, last June.
The report documents preliminary results from a six-week joint Australian–New Zealand Antarctic whale expedition to the Southern Ocean between February and March this year.
Seventeen researchers from Australia, New Zealand and France gathered new information about whales using non-lethal techniques – including skin biopsy, photography, satellite tagging, and acoustics – to study the population structure, distribution, movement, feeding and ecological role of Southern Ocean whales.
The expedition was the first project conducted under the banner of the Southern Ocean Research Partnership (SORP), which formed in March 2009 and involves 12 countries.
Working from two small boats supported by New Zealand’s research vessel, Tangaroa, the research team – led by Dr Nick Gales of the Australian Antarctic Division – collected 64 skin biopsy samples and 61 individual tail fluke photographs from humpback whales. The team also satellite-tagged 30 humpback whales in their Southern Ocean feeding grounds. By deploying 110 sonobuoys (passive ‘listening’ devices), the team recorded sounds from blue, humpback, minke, fin and sperm whales, and an unidentified beaked whale. They also tracked the movements of blue whales for 36 hours.
Humpback whales were the most commonly sighted species, particularly around the Balleny Islands. Dr Gales says the sightings data will contribute to a major SORP project investigating Southern Hemisphere humpback whale populations around Antarctica. The satellite tagging results will provide information on the medium-scale movement of humpbacks in their Antarctic feeding grounds, and links between their Antarctic feeding grounds and their tropical breeding grounds.
Photo identification will also help build a picture of humpback population distribution.
‘Matching tail fluke photos taken in the feeding grounds on this expedition with those taken on breeding grounds by others will contribute to our understanding of the mixing between breeding populations on common feeding grounds in Antarctica,’ says Dr Gales.
To complete the picture, genetic analysis of the skin biopsy samples from 64 humpback whales will give scientists an insight into the population structure in Antarctic waters and the sex composition of whales in Antarctica for comparison with whales migrating along the east Australian coast.
The team will also use genetic techniques to study age-related gene expression, which could lead to a simple, non-lethal ageing method for baleen whales.
Passive acoustic sonobuoys were deployed to identify the sounds produced by whales in the study region and compare them with sounds recorded in other regions of the Southern Ocean. Blue whales were the most commonly recorded species, and their sounds were similar to those recorded from blue whales at other Antarctic sites. In contrast, humpback whales were rarely recorded, but their limited recordings were intriguing.
‘We did record a humpback whale song with the repetition of distinct stereotypic phrases,’ Dr Gales says. ‘As far as we know, this is the first instance where structured song-like sounds have been recorded from humpback whales on their Southern Ocean feeding grounds. Previously, it was thought that humpback whales only sang during their migration to and from, and while on, their breeding grounds.’
To learn more about the diet of whales, active acoustic instruments – ship-based ‘echosounders’ that emit ‘pinging’ sounds into the water – were used to detect aggregations of krill and small fish in humpback feeding areas. Dense schools of krill, the largest of which was about one kilometre across, were usually found around whale aggregations.
Schools of what are thought to be Antarctic silverfish (Pleurogramma antarctica) were also detected around the Balleny Islands. Samples of krill, phytoplankton and small invertebrates such as salps, amphipods and squid larvae were collected. Their carbon and nitrogen signatures will be compared with those found in the whales’ skin biopsy samples to identify the whales’ prey and feeding locations.
Dr Gales says the team will complete their analysis of expedition data before presenting the International Whaling Commission with a full report next year.
Fidelis E. Satriastanti Jakarta Globe 29 Sep 10;
Jakarta. The government lacks the political will to protect two tree families highlighted earlier this week by scientists for their vulnerability to exploitation, experts said on Tuesday.
On Monday, the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) said the conservation of the Dipterocarpaceae and Thymelaeaceae families of trees needed to be made a priority.
The Dipterocarpaceae family of large trees found in Kalimantan includes highly valuable species such as the meranti, kruing and kapur. The Thymelaeaceae family includes species such as aloe and agar, which are prized for their distinctive scent.
Of the 42 Dipterocarpaceae species, Dipterocarpaceae litoralis is considered the most at risk of extinction because it is found only in Nusa Kembangan, Central Java.
“I went to Nusa Kembangan in 2006 and found almost no Dipterocarpaceae litoralis trees there,” said Tukirin Partomihardjo, a LIPI researcher.
“In 2000, I managed to find six big trees spread out over a 20-hectare area.”
He said LIPI would submit its recommendation for the priority conservation to forestry officials for follow-up efforts.
“With sufficient research, we hope to be able to find ways to multiply the species and protect them,” Tukirin said.
“We hope that with sufficient legal protection, we can get a logging moratorium for Dipterocarpaceae litoralis in Nusa Kembangan, which could eventually lead to the protection of other species.
However, the LIPI researcher said that he was not hopeful, noting that scientific recommendations usually lost out to political interests.
Inclusion of the Dipterocarpaceae and Tyhmelaeaceae families of trees into the government list of protected species depends on approval from the House of Representatives.
Harry Santosa, the director of conservation and biodiversity at the Ministry of Forestry, said that his office was considering all recommendations for conservation from the scientific establishment.
“We already have a list of plant and animal species protected under a 1999 government regulation, which is currently being reviewed, so we welcome any suggestions,” Harry said.
Last year, LIPI recommended that 100 species from four plant families be included in the list of protected species.
However, that recommendation has still not been approved by the government.
Indonesia ranks fourth, alongside Brazil, for the highest number of endangered plants with 386 species from 44 families.
The biggest family facing extinction is the Dipterocarpaceae family, which accounts for 37 percent of the 386 affected species.
Ismira Lutfia Jakarta Globe 29 Sep 10;
Jakarta. Environmental activists have called on the government to abandon its business-as-usual approach to granting forestry concessions and suggested an action plan to implement a moratorium on new concessions.
Under an agreement signed by Indonesia and Norway in Oslo in May, Indonesia pledged to stop issuing new logging permits for peatland and primary natural forests between 2011 and 2013.
The agreement will see Norway provide a $1 billion fund for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) schemes in Indonesian forests.
On Tuesday, Giorgio Budi Indarto, coordinator of the Civil Society Forum for Climate Justice, said the government should use the implementation of the moratorium as an opportunity to re-evaluate its “inconsistent policies” between forest conservation and exploitation.
“The government can begin by freezing the issuance of new logging and mining concessions, and appointing independent bodies to review previous concessions,” he said.
To ensure the moratorium can be put into effect, Giorgio said, the government must issue a presidential decree to serve as a legal reference for a logging ban.
However, he warned that the decree should not be treated as a “final target but as part of a process that we have to go through to achieve zero deforestation.”
The next step, he said, would be for the government to compile a list of forest areas assessed by their ecological value, and to reclassify forest allocation.
Last, the government must resolve social problems stemming from deforestation that affect local communities, Giorgio said.
“The locals have to be taken into account, including their indigenous right to benefit from the forests,” he said.
But Yuyun Indradi, a political campaigner for Greenpeace Southeast Asia, said that he was pessimistic that Indonesia would be able to achieve its commitment to reduce emissions by as much as 41 percent, a pledge made by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono last year.
“The implementation of the moratorium in the field so far hasn’t provided any guarantees that there will be any reduction in emissions,” he said.
“It looks like the government really lacks the intention to slow the pace of deforestation and reduce emissions.”
Governments have to stop thinking about biodiversity protection as loss but as an investment to ensure long-term stability
Robert Bloomfield guardian.co.uk 29 Sep 10;
In some extraordinary scenes at the UN general assembly last week, where a special session began with the stark message that addressing biodiversity loss was not a luxury but a duty, secretary general Ban Ki-moon rang the alarm bells saying that the situation was an emergency, one requiring an internationally agreed rescue package akin to the global bank crisis. Governments had to stop thinking about environmental (biodiversity) protection as a loss, he said, but as an investment alongside the other measures needed to ensure long-term stability.
At the same time last week, the actor Ed Norton, the UN's goodwill ambassador for biodiversity, urged people to use their purchasing power to influence opinion, saying that it could have a bigger impact on industry – a primary driver of biodiversity impacts – than government policy. Norton's event ended with the ringing of a memorial bell, which was joined by bell-ringing around the world – including at Peterborough Cathedral, which tolled its bell 492 times for each species known to have become extinct in England in recent history.
Despite the star power, behind the scenes in the UN the international negotiators were not pulling in harmony. There is concern that next month's crucial meeting in Nagoya, Japan, could end up in a cacophony as efforts to reach agreement about biodiversity for the next decade falter.
There are two primary causes for this concern. The first is that one country in particular won't fully cooperate. The CBD (Convention on Biological Diversity) has almost universal support, now with 193 countries having full status. However, as Norton highlights, the US only has observer status at the CBD. This is not only hugely politically embarrassing, it has a major impact on key decisions which need to be made in Japan.
The second, and bigger threat, is disagreement over the creation of a biodiversity equivalent to climate science's IPCC. While Brazil, Germany and the EU all heralded the establishment of IPBES (Intergovernmental Science Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services) as a major breakthrough, a threat has emerged over its full implementation. This panel is seen as essential in getting better-informed responses and action at global and national levels.
But there are three components of a deal in Nagoya that could cause some countries to not support IPBES's implementation if financial arrangements cannot be agreed for them. Brazil's environment minister Izabella Teixeira laid them out last week:
A comprehensive Strategic Plan with new country targets to implement measures to protect biodiversity and ecosystems
An agreement on how countries with important genetic resources in their biodiversity, particular developing countries, will benefit from any commercial development of these assets
The creation of a new strategy and financial plan that can mobilise the resources to make a difference
While these issues are surmountable, what the CBD and the UN are saying is that global society has to change, change fast and change dramatically if the consequences of biodiversity loss are to be avoided – including major setbacks to addressing climate change and global poverty alleviation.
The message was clear: that the rate of damage caused by man in recent years, and in the next few decades, will have a monumental impact for thousands of years. And the call is for an unprecedented programme of global ecosystem restoration which has to be supported in all areas of governance – from heads of state, through all government departments.
The value of ecosystems' natural assets has to be in our economic accounting – and this is in the red. The movement towards a green economy places biodiversity centre stage and it is the greatest challenge of the decade ahead. The representative for Japan recognised this, calling on the UN to accept a resolution that 2011 to 2020 be called the International Decade of Biodiversity.
What is dispiriting is the lack of widespread media interest to these events. The Guardian's own reporting and initiatives Biodiversity100 and Piece by Piece are much welcome exceptions. The media could be doing so much more to engage the public and we need millions of people to understand, to ring bells, glockenspiels, mobile ring tones, maracas, bang tins and empty plastic bottles and demand that governments take heed.
I hope that Nagoya will be cause for celebration and not the knell for biodiversity actions because of short-sighted and narrow political positioning. To coin a phase, For whom the Bell Tolls, The Bell Tolls for You, and Me, and You and You and You…
•Dr Robert Bloomfield is the co-ordinator of International Year of Biodiversity in the UK. IYB-UK and the Natural History Museum are running The Big Nature Debate
* Global crisis hits human water security, nature
* U.S., Europe mask crisis with trillion-dollar spending
* New approach urged to protect freshwater flows
Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent Reuters AlertNet 29 Sep 10;
OSLO, Sept 29 (Reuters) - The world's rivers are in crisis including in North America and Europe where governments have invested trillions of dollars to clean up freshwater supplies, a study showed on Wednesday.
"Threats to human water security and biological diversity are pandemic," Charles Vorosmarty of the City University of New York, co-lead author of the report in the journal Nature, told Reuters.
The international team of scientists estimated that almost 80 percent of the world's population -- or about 5 billion people -- lived in areas with high levels of threat to water security, caused mainly by river mismanagement and pollution.
"Rivers in Crisis," Nature said on its front cover.
A map showed high levels of threat, in red, for much of the United States including the Mississippi basin, along with almost all of Europe. India, including the Ganges basin, and eastern China with the Yangtze River were also shown in red.
Rising wealth often meant worsening threats, for instance from badly sited dams or rising pollution from fertilisers, pesticides and other chemicals. Rich nations then covered up mismanagement by installing costly treatment plants.
The authors urged a re-think to safeguard rivers, especially those now less affected in developing nations. The world population is on track to reach 9 billion by 2050 from 6.8 billion now.
The study said it was first to examine in detail a twin set of threats -- to clean water supplies for people and to the biological diversity of life in rivers, from fish to crocodiles.
THREATS TO LAST
"Given escalating trends in species extinction, human population, climate change, water use and development pressures, freshwater systems will remain under threat well into the future," they wrote.
Least affected rivers were in parts of Siberia, Canada, Alaska, the Amazon basin or northern Australia, they said. Parts of the Amazon, the Congo and the Nile had low threats.
In rich nations, people often failed to grasp the underlying problems with water supplies because tap water was cleaned.
"In the industrialised world, the water management strategy is to patch up the problems at the end of the pipeline rather than the underlying causes," Peter McIntyre, co-lead author at the University of Michigan, told Reuters.
The study urged other nations not to follow the rich which had invested trillions of dollars in managing rivers, ranging from dams for hydro-electric plants to building artificial barriers to allow cropland on flood plains.
"If your concern is flooding you might wish to preserve flood plains and wetlands in low-lying areas as they absorb the shock of floods," Vorosmarty said.
"That would obviate the need to build a flood containment system costing millions of dollars," he said.
In one positive example, New York City bought an area of the Catskills Mountains to help provide naturally filtered water, reckoning it cheaper than a water treatment plant.
The authors said that it might take decades to get politicians sufficiently engaged to fix the problems. "In the meantime, a substantial fraction of the world's population and countless freshwater species remain imperilled," they wrote.
(Editing by Peter Graff)
* Rise of developing economies calls for new approach
* Research should be more relevant
Lesley Wroughton Reuters AlertNet 29 Sep 10;
WASHINGTON, Sept 29 (Reuters) - World Bank President Robert Zoellick on Wednesday called on economists to rethink the way they look at issues affecting developing nations and said he was overhauling the way his institution approached research.
Zoellick said development economics was often too narrowly focused and not transparent to those affected by policies that emerged from the analysis.
He said the global financial crisis and the rise of developing countries had forced a rebalancing of the world economy and raised questions about policy approaches.
"Even before the crisis there was a questioning of prevailing paradigms and a sense that development economics needed rethinking," he said in a speech at Georgetown University. "The crisis has only made that more compelling."
Zoellick, who is is not an economist, said as a policymaker he looked to development economics even more for answers. He said success in tackling global poverty was uneven and countries were frustrated with the lack of progress.
He said the World Bank would apply its economic know-how to studying issues from food security to what drives growth to be more relevant to the developing countries it assists.
The Bank would make its research available online free of charge so that it can be accessed not only by other economists but also by "a health care worker or parent in a village".
"We need to democratize and demystify development economics, recognizing that we do not have a monopoly on the answers," he said. "We need to throw open the doors, recognizing that others can find and create their own solutions."
The World Bank chief said there were lessons from the experience of emerging economics like China, where rapid economic growth has reduced poverty and created new markets.
His speech followed a week after world leaders including U.S. President Barack Obama called for a new approach to development to meet goals agreed by the United Nations in 2000 to tackle global poverty, disease and hunger.
Obama said the United States would focus its development assistance more toward helping countries develop their economies. He called for results-based development -- applying strategies that in practice benefit the poor.
FILLING IN THE GAPS
Zoellick said experience had shown that what may work for one country does not necessarily work for others. He said development knowledge should become "multi-polar" and recognize developing countries are new poles of growth.
"I believe we need a more practical approach -- one that is firmly grounded in the key knowledge gaps for development policy," he said. "One that is geared to the needs of policymakers and practitioners -- as a primary focus, not as an academic afterthought. One that throws open the doors to all those with hands-on experience."
He identified four areas that needed more research. These included a better understanding of how economic transformations occur and why some countries are able to grow and others remain trapped in dire poverty.
Research should also help countries understand how access to economic opportunities can be broadened, including by connecting education to jobs and giving the poor access to markets and finance.
Zoellick said research should look closer at risk to do with natural disasters to health pandemics, and climate changes that are affecting food production. Lastly, more study was needed to gather evidence and data to evaluate and assess the effectiveness of development efforts, including aid, he added.
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