Best of our wild blogs: 2 Oct 10

Bathing Oriental Magpie Robin
from Bird Ecology Study Group

Vibrant places in ZERO spaces
from Reclaim Land

North of Eden with bear bile farms
from The Straits Times Blogs by Nirmal Ghosh

The Lorax: online video clip
from wild shores of singapore

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Trap kills Sumatran tiger in Indonesia

Yahoo News 1 Oct 10;

JAKARTA (AFP) – A Sumatran tiger that mauled a farmer to death last week has died from injuries inflicted by a trap set by local villagers, an Indonesian wildlife official said Friday.

The male tiger was already badly injured when it was trapped late Thursday in Bengkalis district of Riau province, provincial conservation agency head Danis Woro said.

"Its right rear leg may have been snared in a steel rope set by local villagers," he said.

"Apparently it managed to free itself from the steel wire but injured itself in the process. When we found it last night it was weak and limping."

The big cat died on Friday before it could be brought to a veterinarian, Woro added.

Villagers believed the animal was the same one that killed and partially ate an oil palm farmer on September 21.

There are fewer than 400 Sumatran tigers left in the wild, according to environmental group WWF.

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Sumatra elephants roaming in and destroying villages

Antara 1 Oct 10;

Tapaktuan, Aceh (ANTARA News)- A herd of seven Sumatra elephants (Elephas maximus sumatrae) were roaming in the residential area of Gampong village, Trumon Timur subdistrict, South Aceh regency.

"It has been several days that the elephants are roaming in the residential area, trampling and destroying crops," Director of the South Aceh Institute of Society
Development Strategy (Insosdes) T Masrizar said in Tapaktuan Thursday.

The protected animals also destroyed other crops like palm oil, banana and second crops.

The elephants also caused fear to the villagers especially in the night, during most of the time they stayed indoor.

"The disruption by the wild elephants at the foot of Mt Leuser had caused great concern and fear to the villagers, and the relevant government authorities were called on to handle the situation," Masrizar said.

Many of the villagers had tried to chase the big animals away by throwing fire balls on them, and making loud sounds, but the big animals stayed put and appeared to be reluctant to move.

"It appeared that the villagers had come to their wit`s end, and did not know what to do while the big animals continued destroying their crops, he added.

He said besides the subdistrict of Trumon Timur, some other subdistricts like Bakongan Timur and Kluet had also become victim of the giant animals.

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Bearing the brunt of illegal wildlife trade

Straits Times 2 Oct 10;

A SHORT walk up a hillside at the edge of town is an unobtrusive shed. Inside, eight adult Asiatic black bears are in steel cages so small that the bigger ones cannot turn around. Some have scars on their foreheads from banging and rubbing them against the bars.

Nine smaller cubs pace up and down and paw at the bars of their cages. They will soon grow to fill them, their movements becoming more restricted. �

Two men go in once or twice a day. An adult bear is given a stick of sugar cane as a distraction. While the bear chews, its bile is drained with a catheter-like device into a plastic cup. Sometimes the pain makes the bear arch its back - but it cannot avoid the procedure because the cage is so small.

The shed stinks. The floor has to be washed daily as the bears defaecate and urinate on it through their cage floors. �

The Chinese owner of this bear 'farm', whose two workers are also Chinese, owns a shop in Boten, where dry flakes of the supposedly medicinal bile are sold in vials for a few yuan each.

In the lobby of the biggest hotel in town - the Royal Jinlun, owned by the Boten Golden Land company which runs the whole 20 sq km concession - whole bear gall bladders the size and weight of a BlackBerry are on sale for around US$1,000 (S$1,300), alongside carved ivory seals, figurines and chopsticks. ��

The rejuvenation of old trade routes and the new affluence of Chinese consumers are driving unprecedented plunder of Laos' wildlife and biodiversity.

But the 'farm' is not unique to Boten. Kuala Lumpur-based Chris Shepherd of Traffic - an independent agency tracking illegal trade in wildlife and plants - says there are thousands of bears in similar places regionwide. Under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, the Asiatic black bear is an Appendix 1 species, which means it is high on the endangered list.

The shop in the Royal Jinlun lobby also sells tiger skulls. Some 100m from the hotel entrance is a shop which recently opened, also selling dozens of pieces of carved ivory as well as bear gall bladders.

Traffic's regional director William Schaedla said senior Lao officials want to curb wildlife exploitation,but 'the problem is the department in charge is frequently competing with other interests'.

NIRMAL GHOSH

See also North of Eden from The Straits Times Blogs by Nirmal Ghosh

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Climate change forcing a 'move it or lose it' approach to species conservation?

Arizona State University EurkeAlert 1 Oct 10;

What does it take to save a species in the 21st century? The specter of climate change, with predicted losses to biodiversity as high as 35 percent, has some scientists and managers considering taking their conservation strategies on the road.

Managed relocation (MR) is literally the physical relocation of endangered or threatened species of plants and animals, by humans, to new, and foreign geographical climes. It addresses the concern that climate shifts may make many species' historical ranges environmentally inhospitable, and that the rapid speed of change and habitat fragmentation will prevent them from adapting to these new conditions or moving themselves. And while conservationists argue that the practice may not preserve some species, such as the polar bear, relocation is a hotly debated option for others' long-term survival.

Arizona State University environmental ethicist Ben Minteer and ecologist James P. Collins ask hard questions about the practice, also known as assisted colonization, assisted migration or assisted translocation, in their article "Move it or Lose it" published October 1 in the journal Ecological Applications.

Stress on native species is just one of the unknowns that come into play with translocation of species. There also remains the more critical question of how to evaluate such management decisions, according to Minteer, an associate professor in ASU's School of Life Sciences and researcher in the Center for Biology and Society, and Collins, a Virginia G. Ullman Professor of Natural History and the Environment in ASU's School of Life Sciences in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

"New approaches to conservation, such as MR mean the need for a new 'ecological ethics' geared toward problem-solving in ecological research and policy," says Minteer. "Beyond asking 'should' we do it, there's the more pragmatic ethical question: what separates a 'good' from a 'bad' MR activity?" In a time of rapid global change, Collins says that "ecologists and biodiversity managers will have to think hard about not only what management actions are possible, but also which ones are acceptable ethically."

Such discussion is as critical as the technical and scientific questions of relocation: the "can we do it and how we do it," the authors state.

Minteer points out that while moving species around is nothing new, the climate change rationale for doing so is. "Looking past creating parks and shielding species from bullets, bulldozers and oil spills in favor of the anticipatory relocation for conservation purposes strikes many as different, in terms of motive and perhaps the extent of the consequences."

Minteer and Collins's call to reassess conservation goals in the face of climate change is timely. While the practice has no guarantees of success, managed relocation of species is already being put into practice. The Florida torreya tree is an example, along with the proposed relocation of the Quino Checkerspot butterfly and the Iberian lynx.

Collins says that the real scientific concern with species relocation – voiced by prominent skeptics – is that crossing evolutionary boundaries via managed relocation will produce a number of negative ecological and genetic consequences for species and systems on the receiving end.

How to leap the ethical gulf separating decisions about which species should be moved and "saved" is also critical to the debate. Though some argue that human activity has already played an active role in shifting species and that some populations are "naturally" undergoing range shifts without assistance due to climate change in response to human pressures as well as natural ones.

However, as Minteer points out, "There is also the more philosophical objection to the fact that 'we' are doing this, rather than the populations themselves, and that this is therefore another example of human arrogance toward wild species and the environment more generally."

Does the shift to focus on relocation strategies mean that more traditional routes to preserve species, such as species migration corridors that connect forest patches, will become anachronistic?

"Traditional philosophy and policy of conserving species will likely change to reflect a more anticipatory and interventionist mode of thinking," Minteer says. "What this spells for conventional norms of ecological preservation is that they may have to give way to a more dynamic and 'novel systems' model rather than historical ones."

In other words, the "metabolism" of conservation will have to speed up to keep in step with climate change, Minteer believes.

Some believe that the distraction from the use of traditional protected areas and historical systems models, will also, once managed relocation is legitimized, open the floodgates and that people will start moving species willy nilly around the landscape. "I think that fear is exaggerated, though the precedent that would be set for ecological policy by formally adopting MR, even as a last resort, is indeed a significant issue," says Minteer.

"How to formulate new approaches to ecological research and management landscapes in an era of rapid and global environmental change raises original and difficult ethical questions about how to save species and protect landscapes," Collins states. "We can improve the decisions we make by using more collaborative and interdisciplinary approaches to such problem-solving and decision-making."

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Climate anomalies threaten food supply in Bengkulu Indonesia

Antara 1 Oct 10;

Bengkulu (ANTARA News) - Bengkulu`s food supply is threatened because of its uncertainty due to climate change anomalies that caused major disasters.

Head of the Bengkulu food security agency Muslih said that the disasters including landslides and floods along with high rainfall caused harvest failure and hampered distribution.

Climate anomalies were considered important in determining the start of the planting season, he said here Thursday.

In order to face threat, the food security agency has coordinated with the several related government institutions such as the agriculture, transportation, trade and the meteorology and climatology agencies.

The farmers must understand that natural disasters were triggered by climate anomalies.

Disasters like floods and landslides are also potential to damage the irrigation systems, he said.

Farmers can lose their crops after disasters and suffered from food scarcity that also triggered a drop in the people`s purchasing power with a serious impact on the people`s economy and livelihood.

Recently, 150 villages are threatened by food insecurity from 1.400 Bengkulu`s villages due to the poor geographical condition of dry lands.

The government had also launched aid programs for the farmers, providing funds to purchase farming equipment and goods as well as seeds and fertilizers. (*)

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True cost of cheap pineapples in UK supermarkets

Workers in developing nations endure injury, chemicals, low wages and union repression so British consumers can pay less
Felicity Lawrence guardian.co.uk 1 Oct 10;

UK supermarket price wars are wrecking lives in the developing world, according to a new campaign launched tomorrow by Consumers International (CI). Recent deep cuts in the price of pineapples on the British high street have inflicted unacceptable damage on those living and working on plantations in Costa Rica, the consumer group says.

An investigation by Guardian Films [click for video], with funding from CI, has found a catalogue of environmental and social damage caused by intensive tropical fruit production in Costa Rica, from where three-quarters of pineapples sold in the UK come.

Our findings include evidence that:

• The constant use of agrochemicals has led to contamination of drinking-water supplies to communities around the plantations. One group of villages, bordering plantations that either supply or are owned by Del Monte, has been forced to collect water from tankers for more than three years.

• Repeated chemical accidents have inflicted serious damage on the local environment. In June this year, a fire at a chemical dump used by the multinational trader Dole caused a toxic cocktail to spill into the nearby river. Fish and other wildlife including crocodiles were killed along miles of waterways. The pesticide involved is sprayed by Dole on its bananas. Dole told us that it was co-operating with the authorities investigating the accident.

• Workers reported suffering serious health problems from exposure to the chemicals used on pineapple plantations, including in some cases accidental chemical poisoning on Del Monte and Grupo Acon farms. Grupo Acon supplies Tesco, Asda, Dole and Fyffes.

• Price cuts in European supermarkets have led to wages being drastically cut by Grupo Acon, workers said.

• Efforts to join independent trade unions to improve conditions are said to have been met with repression and mass sackings on Del Monte and Grupo Acon plantations.

Consumers International, which acts as an umbrella group for independent consumer organisations across Europe, says its own research has shown that conditions in Costa Rica's tropical fruit industry are unacceptable. It accuses supermarkets such as Tesco and Asda of complicity despite their public commitments to source food responsibly.

"Their positive intentions are being undermined by retail price cuts and aggressive procurement practices that lead to cuts in wages and insufficient resources to improve working practices," said Catherine Nicholson, CI's programme co-ordinator. "Consumers want low prices but not at the cost of fair living conditions for producers."

Del Monte, which exports 50% of Costa Rica's pineapples, told us it had strict controls on chemicals to minimise accidents. It said that the government was monitoring the drinking water situation. It also said that all its workers were free to join unions. Grupo Acon did not respond to the allegations in our film but later said that it had strict protocols to deal with accidents. Dole declined to comment on conditions at its supplier. Fyffes, supplier to Asda of some Grupo Acon fruit, told us that it had checked in audits and was satisfied that all its suppliers had an open attitude to unions and did not discriminate against union members. Asda told us that it had reiterated to suppliers the high ethical standards expected of them.

Tesco told us that it was already actively engaged in improving standards: "After two years working with suppliers in Costa Rica, we have brokered agreement to invite independent labour experts to review labour practices and identify ways to strengthen them. That project is underway and is examining issues including pay, labour relations, seasonal labour and health and safety."

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Norway PM urges quick, cheap fix to save forests

* Slowing deforestation easiest way to fight climate change
* International push on forests showing results, more ahead
* Norway to beat Kyoto Protocol emissions goal-Stoltenberg
Alister Doyle and Wojciech Moskwa Reuters AlertNet 1 Oct 10;

OSLO, Oct 1 (Reuters) - Norway favours more international action to slow deforestation in developing nations as the quickest and cheapest way to fight global warming, Prime Minister Jen Stoltenberg said on Friday.

He also told Reuters that Norway, the world's number five oil exporter, was on target to over-achieve its national goal for cutting greenhouse gas emissions until 2012 under the U.N.'s Kyoto Protocol.

Norway has promised more cash than any other nation to preserving forests in developing nations, with planned spending of $1 billion from 2010-12. Forests soak up heat-trapping carbon dioxide as they grow, and release it when they burn or rot.

"To reduce deforestation is the way we can achieve the quickest, the biggest and the cheapest reductions," he said. "That's why Norway is pushing so much forward and is so active."

He said that developed nations had promised a total of about $4 billion to safeguard forests at a meeting in Norway in May. Other nations including the United States, European Union member states, Japan, Canada and Australia have pledged cash.

"When it comes to forests, something is happening, we see progress, we see reduced deforestation," he said. "We would like to see even more."

Norway's main projects are in Brazil, Indonesia and Guyana. The United Nations estimates that deforestation accounts for up to about a fifth of greenhouse gases from human sources, led by burning fossil fuels.

"In Brazil deforestation has been drastically reduced...It is partly because of political decisions, international support. It is very much the Brazilians themselves," he said.

Norway and France have led efforts to draft guidelines for releasing aid to save forests, although some questions remain about monitoring and graft. [ID:nSGE68G03P]

EMISSIONS OVER-ACHIEVER

Stoltenberg, whose centre-left cabinet won re-election last year, said Norway was in line to cut its domestic emissions by 9 percent below 1990 levels by 2008-12, a tougher goal than the 1 percent rise that Oslo negotiated in 1997 in the Kyoto Protocol.

"I think Norway is the only country in the world which is over-fulfilling our Kyoto obligations," he said.

U.N. talks on a climate deal resume next week in China with few hopes of a breakthrough after a U.N. summit in Copenhagen last year failed to agree a binding new treaty to succeed Kyoto.

Norway's emissions, dominated by the offshore oil and gas sector, were 2.2 percent above 1990 levels in 2009 at the equivalent of 50.8 million tonnes of carbon dioxide.

Stoltenberg said the financial crisis, which meant a slight recession in the oil-dependent country in 2009, had contributed to a decline in Norway's greenhouse gas emissions.

"We are very close to (the original one percent target) now because emissions are quite stable in Norway, partly because of the financial crisis. In 2008 and 2009 we have seen a drop in emissions," he said.

He said that Norway was also investing in green energy in developing nations in a U.N. project known as the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) that promotes everything from wind turbines in India to solar power in Morocco.

"We buy CDMs equivalent to around 10 percent of our total emissions," he said. "This is an over-fulfilment by 10 percentage points. This is also a financial transfer to the developing world."

(Editing by Philippa Fletcher)

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EU-Asia summit to call for 'binding' climate change deal

Yahoo News 1 Oct 10;

BRUSSELS (AFP) – The European Union and Asia will issue a joint call for a "binding" climate change deal at a summit of nearly 50 nations next week, according to a draft of the final statement obtained by AFP on Friday.

The draft document said leaders of the 48-nation Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) in Brussels "shared the goal of reaching urgently a fair, effective and comprehensive legally binding outcome" on climate change.

"Deep cuts in global emissions are required" to ensure the increase in global temperature remain below two degrees Celsius, said the draft, which has yet to be formally adopted by the leaders flying in to Brussels for the summit.

The ASEM forum meeting on Monday and Tuesday includes the 27 EU nations, Southeast Asian nations as well as China, Japan, South Korea and India.

New members Russia, Australia and New Zealand will also be gathering at the two-day summit, held ahead of a final preparatory meeting in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin for UN talks opening in November in Cancun in Mexico.

Major carbon emitters including the United States and China remain far apart on climate change.

Hopes are low that any binding deals on cutting greenhouse gas emissions can be reached at the talks in the Mexican resort amid lingering bitterness following last year's global talks in Copenhagen.

The Copenhagen conference last December agreed on the goal of capping global temperature rises at 2.0 degree Celsius (3.6 degree Fahrenheit) and pledged 100 billion dollars a year to help poor countries cope with climate change.

But it failed to muster the requisite emissions-reduction commitments from carbon producers or specify who would provide the mitigation funds.

Major emerging nations such as China and India also have resisted legally binding requirements to cut emissions, saying rich countries are historically responsible for global warming and must take the lead.

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