Best of our wild blogs: 1 Oct 10

BESG website has a new face and a sister site
from Bird Ecology Study Group

Behaviours of Libellago Lineata
from Nature Photography - Singapore Odonata

Clean Tech Open ideas competition
on Asian Youth Energy Summit 2010

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Wildlife claws back in Singapore, with a little help

AFP MSN News 1 Oct 10;

Sharon Chan peered through a pair of binoculars and zoomed in on hundreds of birds feeding on crustaceans and invertebrates at a wildlife sanctuary on Singapore's northern coast.

"Those are plovers because their bills are very short," explained Chan, the assistant director at the 130-hectare (321-acre) Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve, separated by a narrow waterway from Malaysia's bustling city of Johor Bahru.

Nearby, a White-breasted Waterhen foraged for food and further away herons and egrets could be seen scouring for a meal.

A blue, red and yellow Stockbird Kingfisher flew past and a sudden splash in the water drew attention to a 2.8-metre (nine-foot) crocodile swimming near a mangrove swamp.

With a land area smaller than that of New York City, Singapore has made deliberate, painstaking efforts to preserve the concrete jungle's last few natural habitats, and the results are encouraging.

On the eastern side of Singapore, cyclists on an islet called Pulau Ubin can run into wild boar -- some with their young -- roaming through the foliage.

In nearby Pasir Ris a mangrove patch exists under the shadow of public housing towers and patient visitors can be rewarded with a sighting of massed fireflies.

Sungei Buloh's waters teem with fish, monkeys abound at the Bukit Timah nature reserve, and there is a diving spot off a small island called Pulau Hantu.

A growing population -- currently at five million people -- and a red-hot economy are driving the need for more housing developments and industries but Singapore is striving to conserve its rich biodiversity.

Visitors to Orchard Road, the main shopping belt lined with malls and skyscrapers, would be surprised to hear that the city is well-endowed with plant and animal species, says Lena Chan, deputy director at the National Biodiversity Centre of the National Parks Board.

Located in the midst of the Indo-Malayan rainforest, equatorial Singapore is home to more than 2,000 plant species, 57 mammal species, 98 reptile species and 25 amphibian species, she told AFP.

It also hosts about 370 bird species and more than 280 species of butterfly.

More than 250 species of hard coral -- or one third of the global total -- are found in Singapore waters despite the country being one of the world's busiest ports, she added.

By comparison, the much bigger Great Barrier Reef in Australia has over 400 species of hard coral and Brazil has only 30, Chan said.

"So if you count per unit area, then we're very rich in biodiversity compared to other countries," she said.

With a land area of only 710 square kilometres (284 square miles), Singapore has made sure that greenery dots its urban landscape.

About 10 percent of the land is allocated to parks and legally protected nature reserves, while the greening of city streets and pathways that connect various parks is an ongoing effort, the parks board said.

Even insects are looked after.

"Dragonflies must have a watery environment, so they need ponds," said Chan.

"What we do is we either create a pond, or if there are ponds around we will then plant plants that are suitable for dragonflies."

Orchard Road might soon host a butterfly sanctuary if a new project succeeds.

Each tree planted along roads and park connectors also has a purpose.

"You have tall trees, you have shorter trees, you have trees that have berries because birds feed on berries," Chan said.

"And then you find that some of our roadsides have tree canopies that link up -- they form as a kind of shelter for birds to fly across, insects to fly across and for small mammals to cross."

Wong Tuan Wah, the parks board's director for conservation, said nothing happens by chance in Singapore's conservation plans, including transforming drainage canals to make them look like rivers with plants on both banks.

"We want to bring the experience of nature to the city."

One heartening success story is the return of the Oriental Pied Hornbill to Singapore in 1994 after it disappeared in the mid-1800s.

Two hornbills reappeared on Pulau Ubin and their numbers have now grown to around 60 thanks to conservation efforts, which included building artificial nest boxes on trees carpeting the islet located just off Changi Airport, one of Asia's busiest transport hubs.

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More Singapore firms adopting sustainable practices using GRI framework

Ong Dai Lin Today Online 1 Oct 10;

SINGAPORE - Three years ago, not one company adopted the Global Reporting Initiative's (GRI) reporting framework to officially document how environmentally-friendly they were. Today more than 20 are doing it and more are expected to follow suit.

The first company to adopt the GRI was City Developments in 2008. The company cited its Project Eco-Office in 2002 and its campaign to get tenants to raise their air-conditioning temperature by 1°C as part of its environmentally-friendly practices.

The GRI is a network-based organisation in the United States that has developed a sustainability reporting framework used worldwide. Some of the areas that the framework requests companies to report on include human resource, environmental and business practices.

Mr Thomas Thomas, executive director of the Singapore Compact for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), said the group's membership now includes 341 companies - a 42-per-cent increase from a year ago. He said more investors and consumers now want more information on the long-term viability and ethics of companies they were interested in.

"More young people want to work with organisations that are not only profitable but also sustainable in the long run," he said.

However, many companies still do not see incentives in writing a sustainability report, he added.

Mdm Halimah Yacob, Member of Parliament (Jurong GRC) and a member of the Singapore Compact for CSR's management committee, noted that the GRI's sustainability reports were not the only means of measuring a company's efforts.

"What we do hope to help them in is to provide a more structured framework for them to move from one point to another," she said.

Which is why the Singapore Compact for CSR will be launching the ISO26000 in November, a guide on adopting socially responsible behaviour. An Asean CSR Network will also be launched next week to promote good business values.

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Whale snot, bat sex win 2010 IgNobel spoof prizes

* Prizes aim for both humor and scientific research
* Handed out by real Nobel prizewinners at Harvard
* British dominate this year with four winners
Maggie Fox Reuters AlertNet 30 Sep 10;

WASHINGTON, Sept 30 (Reuters) - Researchers who used a remote-controlled helicopter to collect whale snot, documented bats having oral sex and showed that swearing makes you feel better when you stub a toe were among the winners of spoof IgNobel prizes on Thursday.

The prizes, meant to be both humorous and to encourage scientific research, are given every year by the Journal of Improbable Research as a whimsical counterpart to the Nobel Prizes, which will be awarded starting next week.

IgNobels also went to researchers who found that wearing socks outside shoes can prevent slipping on ice and that organizations would fare better if managers were promoted randomly.

Former winners of the real Nobel prizes hand out the prizes at a ceremony held at Harvard University in Massachusetts.

"There are four winners from Britain this year," said Marc Abrahams, editor of the Annals and architect of the IgNobels.

"The British Empire had a rough 20th century. Maybe this is the best sign that the empire is surging back to prominence."

Karina Acevedo-Whitehouse and Agnes Rocha-Gosselin of Britain's Zoological Society and Diane Gendron of Instituto Politecnico Nacional in Mexico won an engineering IgNobel for a new way to study respiratory diseases in whales.

"The technique involves flying a remote-controlled helicopter above a whale as it surfaces and catching the whale blow in petri dishes attached to the underside of the helicopter," they said in a statement.

A team of Chinese researchers led by Min Tan of Guangdong Entomological Institute and including Gareth Jones of Britain's University of Bristol won a biology IgNobel for scientifically documenting oral sex between fruit bats.

"Our observations are the first to show regular fellatio in adult animals other than humans," they wrote in their paper, published at http://www.plosone.org/article/ info:doi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0007595.

Oil spill researchers Eric Adams of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Scott Socolofsky of Texas A&M University and Stephen Masutani of the University of Hawaii, along with BP Plc, won a prize "for disproving the old belief that oil and water don't mix."

Other winners:

-- Simon Rietveld of the University of Amsterdam and Ilja van Beest of Tilburg University in the Netherlands for discovering that asthma symptoms abate with a roller-coaster ride.

-- Alessandro Pluchino and colleagues at the University of Catania in Italy for showing mathematically that organizations would become more efficient if they promoted people at random.

-- Toshiyuki Nakagaki of Future University Hakodate in Japan and colleagues for using slime mold to route railroad tracks.

-- Lianne Parkin and colleagues of the University of Otago, New Zealand for demonstrating that people slip and fall less often on ice if they wear socks on the outside of their shoes.

-- Richard Stephens and colleagues of Britain's Keele University for confirming that swearing relieves pain.

-- Manuel Barbeito and colleagues of Fort Detrick in Maryland for demonstrating that microbes cling to beards.

An economics prize was given to the "executives and directors of Goldman Sachs, AIG, Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch, and Magnetar for creating and promoting new ways to invest money."

The awards ceremony can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/improbableresearch (Editing by Eric Walsh)

Ig Nobel Prizes: Fruit-Bat Fellatio and Other Crazy Science
Clara Moskowitz livescience.com Yahoo News 1 Oct 10;

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - Fruit bats enjoy fellatio. Wearing socks on the outside of shoes prevents slipping and falling. Riding a roller coaster can relieve symptoms of asthma.

These are just a few of the scientific discoveries that are being honored tonight (Sept. 30) at the 2010 Ig Nobel Prizes presented here at Harvard University's Sanders Theater. The awards honor scientific achievements that "first make people laugh, and then make them think," according to an Ig Nobel release.

Winners traveled, at their own expense, from New Zealand, Japan, the Netherlands, Mexico, Italy, the United Kingdom and the Americas to collect their prizes in person.

"Why not?" said winner Richard Stephens, a psychologist at England's Keele Unviersity, on his reasons for traveling across a pond to attend the ceremony. "I think it's a form of recognition. I had no qualms about saying yes."

Stephens won the 2010 Ig Nobel "Peace Prize" for proving that swearing relieves pain. Though he acknowledged the prizes are "a bit of a piss-take," he said it was an honor as well.

This year marks the 20th time the prizes have been awarded. Out of a pool of almost 7,000 nominations, a committee whittled down the list to 10 winners, said past honoree Kees Moeliker, who won in 2003 for discovering homosexual necrophilia in mallard ducks. Since winning the prize himself, Moeliker has become part of the Ig Nobel organization and helps choose the champions now.

Of the 10 victors, eight attended the ceremony, where they were permitted a maximum of 60 seconds each to deliver an acceptance speech. The accolades were presented by five actual Nobel laureates in an event produced by the science, humor magazine "Annals of Improbable Research."

"Scientists can take themselves way too seriously," said Karina Acevedo-Whitehouse of the Zoological Society of London, winner of the engineering award for figuring out how to use a helicopter with Petri dishes strapped to its front to collect samples of whale snot to study disease in the mammals.

She said the awards were a good chance to loosen up and share the lighthearted elements of research with the public.

Acevedo-Whitehouse and her co-researchers, Agnes Rocha-Gosselin, also of the Zoological Society, and Diane Gendron of the Instituto Politecnico Nacional in Mexico, said they were bemused the research was being honored for the novel helicopter method, since the main project involves investigating serious health questions in marine biology. But they were glad of the recognition, nonetheless.

"Most of the time science is just ignored by normal people, and it's really sad," Gendron told LiveScience, saying this was a nice chance to reach out to non-scientists, especially children.

Before learning they were chosen for the awards, many winners admitted ignorance about the Ig Nobels.

"At first we thought it was a joke - we didn't believe it," said Ilja van Beest of the University of Amsterdam, who won the medicine prize for discovering that asthmatics feel relief after riding roller coasters. But after a little Googling, he and his co-researcher, Simon Rietveld, decided to travel in person to accept their awards.

The two scientists said they were excited to meet the other nominees and have fun.

Despite the lighthearted nature of the awards, all discoveries are legitimate research findings that have been published in scientific journals.

"There's nothing funny about what we're doing," said Eric Adams of MIT, who won the chemistry award for finding that oil and water do mix, after all. His research investigates how oil behaves during oil spills.

Though the topic is serious, he acknowledged how the finding boiled down to an amusing description, especially when the Ig Nobel committee decided to award the prize to the BP Corporation for its contribution to oil spill knowledge in the wake of the disastrous Gulf oil spill.

The honorees in the economics category - the executives of Goldman Sachs, AIG, Lehman Brothers, Bear Sterns, Merrill Lynch, and Magnetar - who were being honored for "creating and promoting new ways to invest money - ways that maximize financial gain and minimize financial risk for the world economy, or a portion thereof" declined to accept in person.

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Phuket Tragedy: Tourists, Trawlers, But No Turtles

Chutima Sidasathian PhuketWan 1 Oct 10;

Photo by Phuket Marine Biology Centre

THIS sad photograph could mark the end of the line for Phuket's remarkable leatherback turtles. It's the remains of a male, a giant of 200 kilos, about 20 years old. The carcass was washed up at Bang Tao beach yesterday.

Phuket Marine Biology Centre specialist Dr Kongkiat Kittwattanawong said that he feared the death of the male could signify the end of an era. He pleaded for trawlers to be careful, because 60 percent of turtle deaths are from nets.

Locals who were around when leatherbacks were plentiful say that it was a time of great joy whenever a female came ashore to lay eggs, ''looking as big as a Honda Jazz.''

That may sound an exaggeration but the leatherback is the largest turtle. One specimen weighed in at above 900 kilometres and longer than three metres.

The laying of two batches of eggs by leatherbacks earlier this year led biologists to hope that the big creatures might be returning to Phuket. However, the eggs were not fertilised, so there were no hatchlings.

Hence the concern . . . could this have been the last adult male leatherback capable of continuing the breed off the Phuket coast? There is no way of knowing for sure, but every moment of hope for the return of leatherbacks has so far been dashed.

There are too many reasons why the big turtles cannot come back.

Leatherbacks have so far proven virtually impossible to breed in hatcheries. Unlike other turtles, the young leatherbacks cannot turn.

The result is that they beat themselves to death by repeatedly swimming straight into walls.

The decades-old photographs of huge leatherbacks laying eggs in the sand along Phuket beaches may soon be the only evidence that the wonderful creatures were once here.

Last night the large male leatherback, dead for about two weeks, was buried under the sand at Bang Tao.

Trawler net kills giant Phuket turtle
Phuket Wan 1 Oct 10;

PHUKET: A 250-kilogram male leatherback turtle was found dead at Phuket's popular Bang Tao Beach in Cherng Talay yesterday afternoon.

“The 2.5-meter-long turtle had died at least two weeks earlier. Its body was tangled up in a large section of trawler fishing net,” Phuket Marine Biological Center (PMBC) biologist Dr Kongkiat Kittiwattanawong told the Gazette.

“People found the turtle floating in the sea around noon yesterday, before it washed ashore near the Sunwing Phuket Resort about 4pm. PMBC officers went to examine it at 6pm,” he said.

Local residents who had gathered around to see the huge carcass buried the turtle's body on the beach in front of the resort around 7pm, he added.

“Leatherback turtles are very rarely spotted around here these days. Probably only about five turtles return to lay eggs in Phuket,” said Dr Kongkiat.

“This time of year, the turtles come to breed in the sea before the females lay their eggs on the beaches,” he added.

The marine life expert pointed out that the leatherbacks breeding area is about six kilometers offshore.

However, the marine-turtle protection zone covers only three kilometers from the beach, he said.

“The PMBC plans to ask Department of Marine and Coastal Resources to extend the zone to cover six kilometers from where the turtles lay their eggs,” he said.

“We are now in discussions with the relevant organizations and we will draw up the plan together and send it to the department soon,” he said.

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One thousand tortoises a week illegally gathered in south Madagascar

WWF 28 Sep 10;

Toliara, Madagascar: Ten or more zebu carts filled with around 100 terrestrial tortoises each are leaving the Mahafaly Plateau in south Madagascar every week, according to a survey conducted by WWF staff.

And while poaching of the endemic radiated tortoise (Astrochelys radiata) and the spider tortoise (Pyxis arachnoids) for the bush meat and pet trade is long established, ongoing political instability has seen a large jump in illegal collection.

Poachers are also now much more likely to be armed and dangerous, with Toliara area gendarmes suspecting a well established network behind the poachers now lies behind the trade.

Radiated and spider tortoises are among only four terrestrial tortoise species found in Madagascar and their range is limited to the unique but also under pressure southern spiny forest.

Some 7,855 living tortoises and more than 4.8 tonnes of meat were seized between 2001 and 2010 – thought to represent around two per cent of an estimated 600,000 tortoises collected from the eco region during that period.

Highly sought after in exotic pet markets

“The population decline of these flagship species is alarming,” said Tiana Ramahaleo, WWF’s Conservation Planning and Species Programme Coordinator in Madagascar. “If we don’t manage to halt tortoise poaching and habitat destruction in the South, we might lose both tortoises in the wild in less than fifty years”

Radiated tortoise meat is a delicacy for the Vezo and Antanosy ethnic groups in the south and people from the High Plateau around Madagascar's capital Antananarivo during special events such as Christmas, Easter and Independence Day – accounting for peaks in poaching for a few weeks before the festivals. To a lesser extent, radiated tortoises are killed after they invade crop fields in search for food.

A recent survey by WWF Toliara among 30 communities in the south western spiny forest shows that tortoise collection in the Plateau Mahafaly is still rampant. Tortoises are gathered in this area and sent to the main meat markets such as Toliara and Fort Dauphin for local consumption or they are being smuggled out of the country.

Tortoise habitat is also under threat from alarming levels of deforestation, with a study made in 2008 by Conservation International (CI) showing an increase in deforestation rates from 1.2 per cent annually 1999-2000 to nearly four per cent annually in some regions in 2000-2005. The main drivers behind such high rates of deforestation are slash and burn agriculture, bush fires and charcoal production for the towns of Toliara and Fort Dauphin.

Madagascar’s endemic tortoises are highly sought after in exotic pet markets. TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade programme of WWF, recently reported radiated tortoises and other threatened Malagasy species openly on sale in pet markets in both Thailand and Indonesia, while TRAFFIC also reports a number of occasions when travellers have been arrested with Malagasy tortoises in their luggage in the region.

Earlier this year, two Malagasy women became the first people charged and convicted under Malaysia’s tough new International Trade in Endangered Species Act 2008 after they were found with 374 tortoises, the majority of them radiated tortoises in their possession. Each woman received a one year prison term. There have also been a number of seizures from passengers at Madagascar’s international airport in Ivato.

“Such effective law enforcement action in Asia sends a strong deterrent signal to those involved in the illicit trade that this global problem is being tackled in an increasingly systematic manner,” said James Compton, Director of TRAFFIC’s Asia-Pacific Programme.

WWF in Madagascar has been active in the spiny forest eco region since 1999.

“We managed to reduce deforestation rate by 27% where WWF works” says Ramahaleo “And four theatre groups are touring the South raising awareness for tortoise conservation. Many villages have decided to forbid tortoise poaching and cooperate well with local authorities. Almost all seizures made so far were possible because of community members blowing the whistle”.

This year, WWF Toliara celebrated the Year of Biodiversity with a conference about their endemic tortoises. The objective was to raise awareness among the local population and animate them to conserve these emblematic species.

But even as WWF Toliara was holding this conference, participants received the breaking news: tortoise poachers had been arrested outside Toliara and 1,475 living tortoises as well as dry tortoise meat confiscated.

“For the next 5 years WWF will empower civil society and establish an information network in the south to help the police make sure tortoise trafficking does not go unpunished,” said Ramahaleo.

“We will also continue development initiatives in the region to show people there are alternatives to poaching tortoises for an income.

“Last but not least, we are asking every single person on this planet not to buy endangered Malagasy tortoises as pets. If the demand for the radiated and the spider tortoise on international markets is weakening, it’ll buy time to save them once and for all.”

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Monitoring the Marine Environment In Sabah And Terengganu

Bernama 30 Sep 10;

KUALA LUMPUR, 30 Sept (Bernama) -- The Environmental Monitoring for Marine and Coastal Ecosystems (EMCEE) will be held in Pulau Redang, Terengganu and in Sabah next year.

Talisman Malaysia Limited is collaborating with the Malaysian Nature Society (MNS) in the project that is expected to cost RM329,000.

Talisman Malaysia acting country manager Jim Tarlton said for the Terengganu chapter, it would also be providing volunteers and transport to the MNS project team during the marine mammal observation period.

"We are committed to investing in the communities where we operate, as we see it as our responsibility and we believe in conducting business in an ethical, socially and environmentally responsible manner," he said at the signing ceremony, here Thursday.

MNS vice-president Prof Jeffrey Phang said the project mooted by MNS was part of its nationwide effort to track changes in marine and coastal environment.

"Day after day, we see our marine and coastal areas being overexploited, overdeveloped and overused.

"This project aims to empower the community to monitor the changes, so that we'll be more aware of the health of our coastal ecosystem and manage it in a proper manner."

Phang said this was the first time the EMCEE study would be conducted in Terengganu and also the first to involve local residents.

"The findings from the study will be compiled into a report and used for further research, as well as to support the government's many ongoing environmental preservation efforts", he said.

The MNS-Talisman project partnership is not new as they had collaborated before on other projects, such as mangrove tree planting at the Kuala Selangor Nature Park and in a bird-watching survey, the result of which contributed towards producing informative brochures.

-- BERNAMA

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Indonesian Shorelines May Wash Away If Government Does Not Act: Experts

Ulma Haryanto Jakarta Post 30 Sep 10;

Jakarta. The government’s lack of comprehensive strategy in preventing erosion along the country’s coastlines will pose a threat to the livelihoods of those living along the shore, a Public Works Ministry official said on Thursday.

Making the situation worse is the high population growth rate and unsustainable groundwater extraction by industry.

“Twenty percent of Indonesia’s shores were damaged with abrasion, worsened by global warming that will magnify the intensity and magnitude of abrasion and tidal waves,” said Mochammad Amron, director general of water resources at the Ministry of Public Works.

Abrasion occurs when waves and tides erode an unprotected shoreline, often leading to tidal flooding.

The ministry is prioritizing artificial sea defenses, such as the sea wall built on the shores of the popular tourist site Marunda in North Jakarta.

“The walls would be made of concrete; aside from that we also need to build tetrapods as wave breakers to prevent abrasion,” he said.

Although Jakarta’s shores are not the priority for the sea defense budget this year, Amron told the Jakarta Globe that the national government would conduct an extensive study in partnership with the Dutch government, seeking ways to protect the capital’s shores.

“The budget is at a minimum. We can only afford reconstruction along 19,860 kilometers of coastline while Indonesia has approximately 95,000 kilometers,” he explained.

The public works ministry gives higher priority to flood mitigation projects such as the West and East Flood canals.

This year’s budget for the project amounts to Rp 164.2 billion ($18.4 million).

“Of course we need more money; in the medium term, up to 2014, we plan to construct sea defenses along 300 kilometers and rehabilitate 50 kilometers” nationwide, he added.

Meanwhile, Yayat Supriyatna, an urban planning expert from Trisakti University, warned the threat of rising sea levels due to global warming in the coming years should not be taken lightly.

“Researchers forecast best, medium and worst-case scenarios. In 20 years, the sea level could rise between eight centimeters, 17 centimeters and 27 centimeters, respectively,” he said.

The situation will correspond on the volume of rising sea water caused by global warming and the following land subsidence.

“The key is to start building sea walls and pumps to get the water back out to the sea,” he said.

Separately, Ubaidillah, chairman of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), called on the government to pay more attention to providing natural coastal barriers by adding mangrove forests, instead of only installing sea walls made of concrete.

“These trees were scientifically proven to significantly prevent abrasion and tidal floods. They also provide stability to the soil and serve as a habitat for fish and other plant and animal species,” he said.

Walhi also suggested that at least 30 percent of the “defense belt” along Jakarta’s 32-kilometer shoreline came naturally.

“The only thriving mangrove forest in Jakarta is the one in Muara Angke, which can only protect the areas around it, so this isn’t enough,” Ubaidillah said.

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Thai Drilling Firm Asks for Time to Verify Timor Sea $2.4b Oil Spill Damage Claim

Camelia Pasandaran Jakarta Post 30 Sep 10;

Jakarta. The company responsible for last year’s Timor Sea oil spill has received the government’s $2.44 billion compensation claim but would need more time to verify the figures, an official said.

Transportation Minister Freddy Numberi, who heads the government team handling the spill, said on Thursday that PTTEP Australasia had agreed to check the claim, worth Rp 22 trillion.

“They’ve asked for time to verify it with their insurer first,” he said. “We don’t mind, because our data is valid and we’re in the process of completing [a document of the supporting data].”

Freddy added he would meet with the rest of his team on Friday to finalize the document before submitting it to PTTEP, the operator of the Montara oil rig which exploded last year.

“After we’ve taken this step, the company and its insurer should discuss the subsequent compensation process,” he said.

The minister added PTTEP can conduct its own tests to verify the claim if it wants to.

“However, testing water samples now would be redundant because much of the oil has dispersed and we’ve also sprinkled chemicals to soak it up,” he said.

Freddy added the government still had the samples and results of the initial water tests taken shortly after the spill in August 2009.

“PTTEP can test it in their labs and they’ll find the results will be the same as ours,” he said.

“If they want access to those water samples, they’re welcome to [access] them.”

The government team presented its claim to PTTEP Australasia, a subsidiary of Thailand’s state-controlled PTT Exploration and Production, in early September.

The firm initially said the Indonesian claim lacked verifiable data, a sentiment echoed by environmental and social activists pushing the government to provide clear scientific evidence to back its claim.

The Montara oil rig, which caught fire off Australia’s northern coast in August last year, leaked about 400 barrels of crude a day before it was finally capped 74 days later.

The slick from the oil spill spread over almost 90,000 square kilometers of Indonesian and Australian waters, according to the environmental group WWF.

The West Timor Care Foundation, which supports traditional fishermen in eastern Indonesia, estimates the spill affected the livelihoods of about 18,000 fishermen.

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Permits Clear Way for Forest Graft: Indonesian NGO

Fidelis E Satriastanti Jakarta Globe 30 Sep 10

Jakarta. Environmental activists have voiced suspicions of forest-clearing permits being issued illegally to palm-oil producers, raising the specter of even more corruption within the industry.

Sawit Watch, a nongovernmental organization, said 18 million hectares of rainforest had been cleared for oil-palm plantations, but only six million hectares had been planted.

It linked the expansion to a government target to boost crude palm oil output to 23 million tons this year, up from 20.3 million tons in 2009.

“We have strong suspicions that with this massive demand for palm oil will eventually lead to forestry related corruption, especially the issuing of permits for forests to be cleared for plantations,” Sawit Watch campaigner Edi Sutrisno said on Thursday.

“We’ve lost around 3.2 million hectares of peat lands to oil-palm plantations already, and most of the permits granted for those plantations were illegal.”

He said planters usually bypassed the necessary permit for clearing forests by getting another permit for land release, which changes the status of the land from a forest to a plantation.

“The most common method is to get a land release permit from the Forestry Ministry,” Edi said. “That means the land is theirs to manage, and allows them to skip the mandatory step of getting a permit to fell the trees.”

He added many oil-palm plantations only submitted an environmental impact analysis after they were already set up, and not before, as required by law.

“Another permit they’re supposed to get is a business permit that obliges them to pay tax for exploiting their land,” he said. “However, they get around this through backdoor deals with local officials. So that’s another loss to the country, this time from taxes.”

Febri Diansyah, a researcher from Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW), said graft in the forestry sector was “very complicated” because it did not always take the form of a straightforward money transactions, but rather of permits issued.

“However, that doesn’t mean such cases can’t be tried on corruption charges, because they still lead to state losses,” he said. “Local authorities who abuse their power in issuing illegal permits can also be charged with corruption.”

Febri added another complication was the overlap of regulations between local authorities and the central government.

“ICW has been tracing this corruption trail for a while, and we’ve discovered there are so many legal inconsistencies between the local and central governments, which makes things very complicated,” he said.

“There should be a specific solution for this, which is why we want to remind the KPK [Corruption Eradication Commission] about their commitment to tackle corruption in the forestry sector, one of their four target sectors.”

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Soaring Chinese economy at odds with climate goals

* China CO2 poised to hit levels recommended in 2020
* Emissions are a quarter of world total, rising fastest
Gerard Wynn and Chris Buckley Reuters AlertNet 30 Sep 10;

LONDON/BEIJING, Sept 30 (Reuters) - Just last year experts at the International Energy Agency proposed a target for China's carbon emissions to peak in 2020 before declining if the world were to be saved from devastating climate change. Too late now.

Figures from energy firm BP showed earlier this year that Chinese emissions will steamroll through the Paris-based IEA's 2020 peak target next year, nearly a decade early, with no sign of slowing down.

China, which hosts U.N. climate talks next week for the first time, is promoting what it calls ambitious plans to boost energy efficiency and curb emissions. But its supercharged growth means even with rapid efficiency gains it cancels out other global efforts to combat climate change.

China already emits a quarter of the world's CO2, the main gas contributing to global warming, making it the world's top emitter ahead of the United States. Its emissions have more than doubled since 2000.

Higher emissions from China and other big emerging economies, plus the failure of rich countries to slash emissions, could pump greenhouse gases to levels which scientists say augur a dangerous rise in average global temperatures by more than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 F).

The IEA's suggested target for China of 8.4 billion tonnes of CO2 per year by 2020, which would then fall, is in line with most other research for a safe peak, said Michel den Elzen at the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency.

But the latest figures released by BP and den Elzen's agency in June show China will hit that figure in a matter of months, rather than over the next decade.

"They are hitting that level earlier than expected because of their rapid growth the last decade," den Elzen said. "For meeting a 2-degrees target (of increasing global temperatures) such a high emissions rate is definitely bad news."

TORPEDO

China's rapid economic growth is helping underpin a fragile global recovery, but it is also increasingly at odds with safe levels of greenhouse gases.

Policy makers recognise it is difficult to say what is a "fair" emissions target for China, which is rapidly pulling its huge population out of poverty.

"It's difficult to say that there's a benchmark for China which they should not exceed, because there are all kinds of issues, equity principles, on what you allocate for China," den Elzen said.

China does not control the agenda of next week's U.N. climate meeting in the northern port city of Tianjin, which runs from Oct. 4-9. Beijing is not expected to announce any new carbon-cutting measures in the talks.

Still, the government could still use the conference to promote its own emissions curbing goals, to be incorporated into a five-year economic plan that starts from 2011.

China has resisted an absolute cap on its greenhouse gas emissions, like those developed countries are expected to implement. It says a cap would be unfair because it contributed less to the problem historically, its emissions per capita are still relatively low and it needs leeway to grow its economy.

Instead, its focus is on reducing "carbon intensity" -- the amount of the main greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide (CO2), emitted for each dollar of economic activity. It plans to reduce this by 40-45 percent by 2020 compared to 2005.

But even with such big efficiency gains, China's expected rapid economic growth will push its absolute volume of emissions to between 9.6 and 10.1 billion tonnes of CO2 per year by 2020, compared with 5.2 billion tonnes in 2005, according to a study from the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Its emissions rose about 9 percent last year, faster than any other major economy. If sustained that rate "would torpedo efforts for the global 2 degrees target", said Malte Meinshausen, from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK).

FIVE-YEAR PLAN

The emissions projections underscore the wrenching economic shifts that China would have to achieve in order to help contain global CO2 levels at a point less likely to trigger worsening droughts, floods and extreme weather.

Even without an absolute cap, China's carbon intensity target will be tough, government officials and advisers say.

"Without a fundamental transformation of the development model and substantial adjustment of the industrial structure, China will find it impossible to achieve the 2020 emissions reduction goal," said the Chinese Academy of Sciences study.

China's new five-year plan and a follow-up one for 2016-2020 will detail how to reach the intensity goal and shift to low-carbon growth. But it is struggling to meet an existing target to cut energy intensity by 20 percent from 2005-10.

The most energy wasteful plants have mostly already been shut under that plan, and achieving further improvements will require more refitting of factories and plants and other more expensive measures, said Deborah Seligsohn, a Beijing-based climate policy expert working for the World Resources Institute.

China has won plaudits for investing in clean energy, making it the world's biggest wind power market last year, but a big majority of its energy will continue to come from high-carbon coal, at 69 percent and 64 percent in 2009 and 2015 respectively, according to national forecasts.

China could opt for a more stringent greenhouse gas goal from 2016 if it found the costs of carbon cutting and energy saving fall and other big emitters also took steeper cuts, said Barbara Finamore, Director of the China Program at the Natural Resources Defense Council, a U.S. environmental group.

The country will face mounting international pressure.

"They've just announced an increase in carbon emissions which is the same scale as the entire carbon emissions of the United Kingdom," said British energy and climate change secretary Chris Huhne last week.

"All the carbon emissions reductions throughout the world are effectively cancelled out by China's increase."

-- Additional reporting by Jackie Cowhig in London

FACTBOX-Forecasts for China's rising carbon emissions
Reuters AlertNet 30 Sep 10;

Sept 30 (Reuters) - China's greenhouse gas emissions may hit levels in the next two years beyond which the world will struggle to ward off dangerous global warming, unless rich nations make deep cuts, say climate scientists.

Beijing next month hosts for the first time long-running U.N. negotiations seeking to agree a new global regime to rein in greenhouse gases.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) said that the country's CO2 emissions should peak at 8.4 billion tonnes in 2020, and then fall, to avoid dangerous warming, alongside similar proposed targets for other big emitters.

Following are estimated and forecast China emissions from burning fossil fuels, in billions of tonnes of carbon dioxide, in 2009, 2010 and 2020.

SOURCE SCENARIO 2009 2010 2020 BP N/A 7.5

The Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency

N/A 7.1-7.3

China's State Council Development Research Centre

Reference scenario 7.2 12.3

"Fast transformation" scenario 8.3

International Energy Agency

Reference scenario 9.6

Ambitious "blue map" scenario 8.4

Chinese Academy of Sciences

Carbon intensity cut of 40 pct 10.1

Carbon intensity cut of 45 pct 9.6

Reference scenario 17.5 (Reporting by Chris Buckley and Gerard Wynn)

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Japan develops hybrid car motor free of rare earths

Yahoo News 30 Sep 10;

TOKYO, Japan (AFP) – Japanese researchers said on Thursday they had developed a hybrid vehicle motor that is free of rare earths, the minerals that are now almost exclusively produced by China.

The news from a state-backed research group and a university comes days after industry sources said China had temporarily halted crucial rare earth exports to Japan amid a bitter territorial dispute.

Magnets made from rare earths have so far been considered indispensable for motors in gasoline-electric hybrid and electric vehicles produced by Japanese auto makers such as Toyota, Mitsubishi and Honda.

Japan's New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organisation (NEDO) and Hokkaido University said they had now developed a motor using magnets which are commonly used in electronics parts.

"As the technology uses only inexpensive ferrite magnets, it is expected to boost Japan's competitiveness in the development of next-generation automobiles contested more and more fiercely in recent years," they said in a statement.

Kenji Kobayashi, of NEDO, said "ferrite magnets are very cheap as they are mostly iron."

Ferrite magnets are weaker than magnets made from rare earths such as neodymium and dysprosium, which are both imported from China, but sell at only one 20th of their price, he told AFP by telephone.

"Magnets are placed differently in the new motor so that their attraction power does not escape," Kobayashi said, adding however that it would take years to put the technology to practical use.

More than 90 percent of rare earths worldwide are produced in China.

China's rare earths shipments to Japan were disrupted last week amid a bitter diplomatic spat between the two countries, although China has moved towards resuming exports, according to industry sources.

Beijing repeatedly denied claims it blocked the shipments of rare earths, which are used in a range of products from consumer electronics to batteries for hybrid cars and components in wind and solar power.

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UK Science academy publishes climate change guide

Yahoo News 30 Sep 10;

LONDON (AFP) – Britain's national science academy released a new guide on climate change Thursday, setting out what is known and what remains unclear after a series of scandals about global warming research.

The Royal Society guide says there is "strong evidence" that changes in the amount of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere caused by human activity -- notably a rise in carbon dioxide -- are the dominant cause of recent global warming.

But it also outlines the debates that continue to rage, including over the effect of variations in the energy emitted by the Sun, and says several areas are not well understood, including how the ice sheets on Greenland and Western Antarctica are melting.

Despite the "absence of perfect knowledge", however, it says world governments must act, warning: "The potential impacts of climate change are sufficiently serious that important decisions will need to be made."

A previous Royal Society guide, published in 2007, was organised as a point-by-point rebuttal of the "misleading" arguments about climate change, including that computer models are unreliable.

According to the BBC, this was updated partly as a result of complaints by 43 of the society's members, who were concerned it was too strident.

The new 19-page guide was published after a series of rows dented the credibility of established climate science.

The UN climate change panel which won a Nobel prize after a landmark 2007 report into global warming admitted it had exaggerated the speed at which Himalayan glaciers were melting, while a leading British research centre was accused of manipulating its data, although it strongly denied this.

"Much of the public debate on climate change is polarised at present, which can make it difficult to get a good overview of the science," said John Pethica, the Royal Society's vice-president who helped compile the guide.

"This guide explains where the science is clear and established, and also where it is less certain."

The guide, which can be found at http://royalsociety.org, has been prepared by leading international scientists, most of them fellows of the society, and is based on extensive published works.

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