Two Members of the Biodiversity Crew to Speak at TEDxNUS
from The Biodiversity crew @ NUS
How is oil-slicked Tanah Merah doing?
from wild shores of singapore
Virgin trip to South Cyrene Reef
from wonderful creation
Cucumbers and carpets
from The annotated budak
Vimita Mohandas Channel NewsAsia 12 Oct 10;
SINGAPORE: A bear-like creature was spotted along Ulu Pandan on Monday morning.
The strange scene was caught on an amateur video using a hand phone.
Eyewitness Wilson Tay, a civil engineer, was driving home with his son when he spotted "something strange".
He said his son took the video when the creature was spotted near a dustbin.
By Mr Tay's estimation, the bear was about the height of an average adult human being.
It's as yet unclear whether the creature is for real.
In a media release, Wildlife Reserves Singapore said no bears had been missing from its parks.
Wildlife Reserve Singapore manages the Singapore Zoo, Night Safari, Jurong Bird Park and the upcoming River Safari.
It added it was unable to verify yet, if the creature was a real bear.
-CNA/wk
Bear on the prowl?
Bryan Huang Straits Times 12 Oct 10;
TWO days after it was supposedly spotted , captured on video by an amateur photographer and posted on citizen journalism site Stomp, a strange, bear-like creature along Ulu Pandan Road is generating buzz online although it has yet to be verified.
Wildlife Reserves Singapore (WRS) said on Wednesday that it is still seeking clearer pictures of the creature and more information from the public on the bear sighting.
The creature was seen standing by a dustbin at a bus stop along Ulu Pandan Road by Stomper Philip3D, who said he and his son first thought it was 'a big dog or some sort of creature'.
'After it caught sight of us and started heading our way, it made sense to drive off without hesitation,' the Stomper said, adding that it had been 'a close shave'.
WRS said in a statement that no bears have escaped from the premises of its parks, which include the Singapore Zoo and the Night Safari. The zoo is home to the Malayan sun bear and polar bear, and the sloth bear resides in the Night Safari.
WRS said it was unable to verify the authenticity of the bear sighting, adding: 'To our knowledge, there has been no prior report of wild bear sightings in Singapore in recent times.'
Lynda Hong Channel NewsAsia 12 Oct 10;
SINGAPORE: Nature enthusiasts on Tuesday planted 2,570 plants, shrubs and trees at Orchard Road to entice butterflies to breed there.
The patch of lush green at Penang Road Open Space, along with the 280 square metre garden on the top two floors of Orchard Central are the 14th designated butterfly sites of Singapore's Nature Society.
The 14th designated butterfly sites of the Butterfly Trail Project is a strategic partnership project among Nature Society (Singapore), National Parks Board, Singapore Tourism Board (STB) and Orchard Road Business Association.
But enthusiasts said growing a butterfly population at 12 storeys high was a challenge.
Nature Society Singapore's Butterfly Interest Group chairperson Gan Cheong Weei said: "They will not fly up in (an) open area because there is no shelter; no protection.
"But if there are tall trees, they will fly up. (Or) if there is enough population (there) and (if) there are host plants and flowering plants up there.
"But of course this is all nature and we try our best to bring it there and we cross our fingers (that) they will do what we want them to do".
-CNA/wk
Butterfly trail at Orchard Rd
The Straits Times 13 Oct 10;
GLAMOUR girls strutting down Orchard Road will face competition from the beauties of the insect world as the Butterfly Trail takes flight.
So far, 24 butterfly species have been observed around the trail, which features clusters of greenery selected to attract butterflies. The trail will run from the Botanic Gardens to Napier, Tanglin and Orchard roads.
Spearheaded by Nature Society (Singapore) and sponsored by property developer Far East Organization, it is expected to be completed by December next year.
It is hoped that 54 of Singapore's 280 butterfly species will be attracted to the area.
The second major stop was added to the trail yesterday at the Orchard Central mall rooftop and Penang Road Open Space, next to Killiney Road Post Office. The Nassim Road stop, opposite The St Regis Singapore, was launched in June.
There will be five major stops along the trail. The other three to be developed are the area behind Ngee Ann City, the space opposite the Istana and a third at Stamford Green.
Orchard Road's butterfly love nest
by Lynda Hong Ee Lyn Today Online Oct 13, 2010
SINGAPORE - Orchard Road just got greener in a move to lure butterflies to breed there.
Nature enthusiasts planted over 2,500 plants, shrubs and trees yesterday at the Penang Road open space. This, along with a 280 sq m garden on the top two floors of Orchard Central, are the Singapore's Nature Society's 14th designated butterfly site.
This is the latest addition to the Butterfly Trail Project, a strategic partnership project between Nature Society (Singapore), National Parks Board, Singapore Tourism Board and Orchard Road Business Association.
Still, enthusiasts say growing a butterfly population 12 storeys up atop Orchard Central is a challenge.
The chairperson of the Nature Society's Butterfly Interest Group, Mr Gan Cheong Weei, said: "Butterflies will not fly up to an open area if there is no shelter or protection. But if there are tall trees, just like the old angsana trees in the area, they will fly up - especially once the population of butterflies abounds at the Penang Road open space."
Having done their part, butterfly lovers now have to wait and see if the butterflies will flit on over to the greened shopping belt. "We will try our best but we will just have to cross our fingers and hope they will do what we want them to do," said Mr Gan.
Fidelis E. Satriastanti Jakarta Globe 12 Oct 10;
Jakarta. The environmental group WWF says one of its video camera traps has recorded a bulldozer clearing trees for an illegal palm oil plantation in a protected Sumatran tiger habitat in Riau.
WWF installed the camera traps in the Bukit Batabuh area last year to study the distribution and habits of the tigers, and the threats they face.
In May and June this year, one of the cameras captured footage of a male tiger walking straight toward it and sniffing it.
A week later the camera captured a bulldozer clearing trees, and the next day a Sumatran tiger walking through the devastated landscape.
The location is just 200 meters from another camera trap that captured a tigress and her cubs last October.
Bukit Batabuh was classified as a protected area by the Riau Land Use Planning Agency in 1994, and categorized as a limited production forest, meaning no company can exploit the forest.
The area is considered crucial for conservation because it connects the Rimbang Baling Wildlife Reserve and the Bukit Tigapuluh National Park.
“Because of its status, both as a protected area and limited production forest, the area cannot be developed as a palm oil plantation, therefore any forest clearance — including bulldozing activities to clear the path — strongly indicates this excavation was illegal,” Ian Kosasih, WWF Indonesia’s director of forest and species program, said on Tuesday. “The law should be enforced.”
However, Awriya Ibrahim, the director of investigations and forest protection at the Ministry of Forestry, said while the area was protected, it was not classified as a conservation area.
He said the government would check to see if permits had been issued to clear forests for road development in the area.
Awriya also said the ministry could not confer conservation status on the area, even with the recent tiger sightings, saying that was the responsibility of the local administration.
Camera Catches Destruction of Protected Sumatra Tiger Forest
Jakarta Globe 12 Oct 10;
Jakarta, Indonesia. A video camera trap installed by WWF and its partners has captured footage linking the destruction of a crucial Sumatran tiger forest to the expansion of palm oil plantations in Indonesia’s Riau Province.
A news release from the environmental nongovernmental organizations says videos and photos captured in May and June 2010 – released to the public for the first time on Tuesday — caught a male Sumatran tiger walking straight to a camera and sniffing it.
A week later, the heat-activated-video camera trap documented a bulldozer clearing trees for an illegal palm oil plantation in the same exact location. The next day, the camera recorded a Sumatran tiger walking through the devastated landscape, the release says.
Bukit Batabuh, where the film was taken, was classified as a protected area by Riau Province’s Land Use Planning in 1994 and categorized as a limited production forest based on Indonesia’s 1986 Land Use Consensus, meaning no company can legally exploit the forest.
“Because of its status, both as a protected area and limited production forest, the area cannot be developed as a palm oil plantation, therefore any forest clearance — including bulldozing activities to clear the path — strongly indicates this excavation was illegal,” said Ian Kosasih, WWF-Indonesia’s director of forest and species program. “The law should be enforced in this matter.
“And to stop illegal activities such as this, the palm oil industry should not source its material from farmers or producers who develop their plantations illegally.”
Since mid-2009, WWF has installed video camera traps in Bukit Batabuh to study Sumatran tiger distribution, habits, and threats they are facing. The wildlife corridor connects Rimbang Baling Wildlife Reserve and Bukit Tigapuluh National Park, making it a crucial area for tiger conservation.
“These video camera traps show that Bukit Batabuh area is an important habitat for the Sumatran tiger in Riau, functioning as a wildlife corridor between Bukit Tigapuluh and Rimbang Baling Tiger Priority Landscape, hence it becomes a priority area for tiger conservation,” said M. Awriya Ibrahim, director of investigation and forest protection at the Ministry of Forestry.
“Forest clearance in this area threatens this endangered species because it reduces natural habitat and consequently increases human-tiger conflicts, an unfortunate consequence for both sides. Therefore, we encourage all stakeholders — namely provincial and district level government, business sectors, and communities — to support protection for this landscape. The Ministry of Forestry is investigating this matter and will take strong measure in law enforcement, if this activity is proven violating the law.”
Indonesia has adopted protection for critical tiger habitats as part of its commitment to the Conservation Strategy and Action Plan for Sumatran Tiger 2007, and the National Tiger Recovery Plan, delivered at the Pre-Tiger Summit Partners’ Dialogue Meeting in Bali, in July 2010.
During the Bali meeting, which was attended by government delegates from all13 tiger range countries, a strategic plan to achieve an overarching goal of doubling wild tiger populations by 2022 was discussed. The plan is expected to be ratified by heads of government at the Tiger Summit in St. Petersburg, Russia, in November.
“The Indonesian government’s commitment to improve protection for its biodiversity — including an ecosystem-based land-use planning delivered in international fora like the Pre-Tiger Summit Partners’ Dialogue Meeting in Bali last July, and upcoming Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in October — should be supported by stakeholders in provincial or district levels especially on the issue of overlapping land-use planning,” said Chairul Saleh, general secretary of the Sumatra Land Use Forum (ForTRUST).
Saleh said sufficient prey and protection for the remaining wild Sumatran tiger populations will allow the species to procreate and provide it with an intact home range and habitat that will minimize incidents of human-tiger conflict.
“Bearing this in mind, a revision of Riau’s Provincial Land Use Planning—based on sustainable development principles adhering to ecosystem preservation and accommodating the tiger’s habitat — is crucial.”
Land clearing practices for palm oil plantations in the area have been going on for some time, pushing the tiger to have close contact with humans. Workers have testified that they frequently find tiger tracks in palm oil plantations.
The deforestation rate in Riau pushed WWF to intensify tiger population surveys in the province. Aside from vast deforestation, the population declines are exacerbated by illegal poaching. In March, WWF’s Tiger Patrol Unit and Riau’s Nature Conservation Agency confiscated more than 110 tiger snares in Bukit Betabuh.
There are as few as 400 Sumatran tigers left in Indonesia, or about 12 percent of the estimated global tiger population of 3,200 tigers. With its significant percentage of the global tiger population, Indonesia has a prominent role in tiger conservation efforts.
The tiger population is threatened by loss and fragmented habitat, decreasing prey populations, illegal poaching and trading of the tiger and its body parts, as well as human-tiger conflicts.
WWF News Release
Watch the video.
Footage 'shows land clearing threat to Sumatran tigers'
Yahoo News 12 Oct 10;
JAKARTA (AFP) – New infra-red footage released Tuesday captures a rare tiger roaming in protected forests on Indonesia's Sumatra island, which conservationists alleged to have been illegally cleared.
The video captured in May and June this year was released by environmental group WWF, which has been monitoring Sumatran tigers since last year in a wildlife preserve near Bukit Tigapuluh national park in Riau province.
In one clip, a male Sumatran tiger was seen walking towards a camera and sniffing it.
About a week later, a bulldozer was seen flattening land at the same spot, believed to be making way for roads to new palm-oil plantations, WWF spokeswoman Desmarita Murni told AFP.
"There were strong indications of illegal land-clearing activities and this must be investigated. The video showed concrete evidence that there were threats to tigers in this area," she added.
The WWF said it had reported the land clearing in the Bukit Batabuh area to the authorities and "the operations have since stopped".
"But we don't know when they will come back, so we're urging for monitoring to be intensified in the area," Murni said.
Human-animal conflicts are a rising problem as people encroach on wildlife habitats in Indonesia, an archipelago with some of the world's largest remaining tropical forests.
There are as few as 400 Sumatran tigers left in the wild in Indonesia, WWF said.
WWF concerned about continuing destruction of tiger habitat
Vicki Febrianto Antara 16 Oct 10;
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Although feared as ferocious predators, Sumatran tigers are helpless creatures when bulldozers wreak havoc in their habitat.
"The World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WwF) is concerned about the destruction of the habitat of Sumatran tigers in Riau." Desmarita Murni, WWF Indonesia`s communications manager, told ANTARA, on Friday. She said WWF-Indonesia had reported the finding to the related institutions,
Based on monitoring conducted by WWF-Indonesia, Murni said, the Sumatran tigers` habitat in the Bukit Batabuh region was now being cleared of its natural vegetation and forests for oil palm plantations. A WWF team had found oil palm seedlings scattered on the cleared land.
Since mid-2009, WWF had installed video camera traps in Bukit Batabuh to study the Sumatran tigers` distribution and habits but also the threats they were facing. The wildlife corridor connects the Rimbang Baling Wildlife Reserve and the Bukit Tigapuluh National Park making it a crucial area for tiger conservation.
Murni said the results of the latest monitoring indicated that the bulldozers used in the clearing operation had disappeared. However, WWF-Indonesia did not know if the bulldozers were gone because of an order to stop the work or because the clearing job was completed.
"We have reported the case to related institutions, such as the Forestry Ministry and the local government," Murni said, adding that WWF-Indonesia was pleased that the institutions had given positive responses.
Riau province`s Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA) had denounced the destruction of the Sumatran tigers habitat located in a protected forest in the Bukit Batabuh region which is part of Kuantan Mudik subdistrict, Kuantan Sangigi district, Riau province.
Sumatran tigers are endangered species and therefore protected. They are to be found only in Sumatra Island, and their population is now only 400 while the threat of poaching and destruction of the forest persists. "The destruction of the Sumatran tigers` habitat inside the protected forest can`t be justified," said head of Riau`s BBKSDA, Trisnu Danisworo.
Danisworo regretted that the local government had disregarded the destruction on the pretext that supervision of protected forests was the responsibility of the provincial government while BBKSDA could not interfere in this situation.
"We will send a letter to the local government to get clarification, and we`re ready to help," he said
Getting closer to extinction
Various sources, including WWF, believe that there are around 400 Sumatran tigers (panthera tigris sumatrae) left in the diminishing forests of Sumatra. The Sumatran tigers are really getting closer to extinction as evidence had indicated their habitats on Sumatera Island ware narrowing faster than previously calculated.
"Forests area encroachments by irresponsible people have been on the rise in recent years in Sumatera, in addition to the legal forest clearings for plantations," said Rasyid Assaf Dongoran, director of Sumatra Rainforest Institute (SRI), a Medan-based NGO, on Sunday.
Sumatran tigers, Dongoran added, would not make it to longer years to survive should their habitat become reduced and make them difficult to get food. "This rare species of animal is sure on the brink of extinction," Dongoran pointed out.
Dongoran added reports on forest areas being encroached and the trees felled down had come from virtually every provinces on Sumatera, from Aceh to Lampung. This dismaying fact adds to the previous announcement by the local governments on the legal clearing of forested land for oil palm plantations.
"If forest degradation rate goes unchecked because of the absence of serious attention from the government and society, then disaster would sure to come," Dongoran said.
There are as few as 400 Sumatran tigers left in Indonesia, or about 12 percent of the estimated global tiger population of 3,200 tigers. With its significant percentage of the global tiger population, Indonesia has a prominent role in tiger conservation efforts.
The tiger population is threatened by loss and fragmented habitat, decreasing prey populations, illegal poaching and trading of the tiger and its body parts, as well as human-tiger conflicts, according WWF.
Video camera
A video camera trap installed by WWF and partners has captured footage linking the destruction of a crucial Sumatran tiger forest to the expansion of palm oil plantations in Indonesia`s Riau Province. Videos and photos captured in May and June this year caught a male Sumatran tiger walking straight to a camera and sniffing it.
A week later, the heat-activated-video camera trap documented a bulldozer clearing trees for a palm oil plantation in the same exact location. The next day, the camera recorded a Sumatran tiger walking through the devastated landscape.
Bukit Batabuh, where the film was taken, was classified as a protected area by Riau Province in 1994, and catagorized as a limited production forest based on Indonesia`s 1986 Land Use Consensus, meaning no company can legally exploit the forest.
"Because of its status, both as a protected area and limited production forest, the area cannot be developed as a palm oil plantation, therefore any forest clearance-ncluding bulldozing activities to clear the path-strongly indicates this excavation was illegal," said Ian Kosasih, WWF-Indonesia`s Director of Forest and Species Program.
"These video camera traps show that Bukit Batabuh area is an important habitat for the Sumatran tiger in Riau, functioning as a wildlife corridor between Bukit Tigapuluh and Rimbang Baling Tiger Priority Landscape, hence it becomes a priority area for tiger conservation," explained M. Awriya Ibrahim M.Sc Director of Investigation and Forest Protection, Ministry of Forestry.
"Forest clearance in this area threatens this endangered species because it reduces natural habitat and consequently increases human-tiger conflicts, an unfortunate consequence for both sides. Therefore, we encourage all stakeholders-namely provincial and district level government, business sectors, and communities-to support protection for this landscape.
The Ministry of Forestry is investigating this matter and will take strong measure in law enforcement, if this activity is proven violating the law.
Indonesia has adopted protection for critical tiger habitats as part of its commitment to
the Conservation Strategy and Action Plan for Sumatran Tiger 2007, and the National Tiger Recovery Plan, delivered at the Pre-Tiger Summit Partners` Dialogue Meeting in Bali, in July 2010.
The deforestation rate in Riau pushed WWF to intensify tiger population surveys in the province. Aside from vast deforestation, the population declines are exacerbated by illegal poaching. In March, WWF?s Tiger Patrol Unit and Riau`s Nature Conservation Agency confiscated more than 110 tiger snares in Bukit Betabuh.
WWF: Sumatran Tiger habitat destroyed for plantations
Antara 16 Oct 10;
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has expressed concern over the continued destruction of Sumatran tiger habitats in Riau for oil palm plantations.
"WWF is concerned about the destruction of the habitat of Sumatran tigers in Riau. We have reported the finding to the related institutions," Desmarita Murni, communications manager of World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)-Indonesia told ANTARA, on Friday.
Based on the monitoring conducted by WWF-Indonesia, Murni added that the particular site, Bukit Batabuh, is being cleared of its natural vegetations and forests for oil palm plantations. There were oil palm seedlings found scattered over the cleared land.
She said the results of the latest monitoring indicated that the bulldozers used in the clearing operation had disappeared. However, WWF-Indonesia did not know if the bulldozers were gone under an order to stop the work or because the clearing job was done already.
"We have reported the case to related institutions, such as Ministry of Forestry and the local government," Murni said, adding that WWF-Indonesia is pleased with the fact that there have been positive responses from those institutions.
WWF had placed heat-activated video cameras since 2009 to study Sumatran tiger at Bukit Batabuh. The area was classified as a protected area by Riau Province in 1994, and categorized as a limited production forest based on Indonesia?s 1986 Land Use Consensus, meaning no company can legally exploit the forest.
The wildlife corridor connects Rimbang Baling Wildlife Reserve and Bukit Tigapuluh National Park, making it a crucial area for tiger conservation.
Antara 13 Oct 10;
Padang, W Sumatra (ANTARA News) - The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) in Tabing, Padang, said Sumatra has 38 hot spots in the north and south of the island.
"Our finding was based on monitoring by the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) on October 11, 2010," Head of the Tabing BMKG Budi Iman Samiaji said here Tuesday.
The hot spots, he said, were spread from Riau, South Sumatra, to Jambi provinces.
However, he said, the hot spots were not dangerous to West Sumatra.
Budi said he has not found any hot spots in West Sumatra. "Thank God, I have not found any hot spots," he added.
Budi hoped the constant rains showering West Sumatra in the last couple of weeks, would extinguish any emerging hot spot.
He also called on the people not to burn the forests because this will only destroy the ecosystem and endanger the people. (*)
UPI 12 Oct 10;
WASHINGTON, Oct. 12 (UPI) -- An unexplained sea temperature rise has caused a major coral bleaching and die-off event in the western Caribbean, U.S. researchers say.
Scientists from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and divers first found coral bleaching in July in waters off Panama followed by an extensive bleaching event in September, an institute release said Tuesday.
During this time, seawater temperatures were measured at 89.6 degrees Fahrenheit, well above the seasonal average of about 82 degrees.
The warming event is affecting the entire Caribbean coast of Panama and has also been reported at sites in Costa Rica, Smithsonian scientists said.
Coral reefs contain photosynthetic algae called zoxanthellae, and bleaching occurs when corals lose their color as a result of the loss of their algal component caused by increased water temperature or other stress factors.
Bleaching impairs vital functions of the coral such as reproduction and growth.
Smithsonian scientist Hector M. Guzman says the hurricane season may be part of the current problem by causing low water circulation in the southwestern Caribbean and thus creating a "warm pocket" of water along the coasts of Panama and Costa Rica.
Smithsonian reports regional sea temperature rise and coral bleaching event in Western Caribbean
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute EurekAlert 12 Oct 10;
The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute's Bocas del Toro Research Station and Galeta Point Marine Laboratory are reporting an anomalous sea temperature rise and a major coral bleaching event in the western Caribbean. Although the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA, issued an advisory in July announcing above-average sea surface temperatures in the wider Caribbean region, there had been no clear indication of increased sea temperatures in Panama and the western Caribbean until late August-early September.
Scientists and local dive operators first noticed coral bleaching in the waters surrounding Isla Colon in Panama's Bocas del Toro province in July. Smithsonian staff scientist Nancy Knowlton and colleagues documented an extensive bleaching event in late September. Station personnel recorded an extreme sea water temperature of 32 degrees C. Normal temperatures at this time of year are closer to 28 degrees C. This warming event currently affects the entire Caribbean coast of Panama from Kuna-Yala to Bocas del Toro and has also been reported at sites in Costa Rica.
An extensive coral reef monitoring network in Panama, established over a decade ago by staff scientist Héctor M. Guzmán of STRI and partially funded by the Nature Conservancy, consists of 33 sites along both the Pacific and Atlantic coasts of the Isthmus, with 11 sites in the Bocas del Toro area. As of Oct. 3, 95 percent of the seafloor at the Bocas del Toro sites had been checked for bleaching. Coral mortality was limited to shallow areas near Isla Colon and a semi-lagoon area in Bocas del Toro, which is considered to be particularly vulnerable to bleaching as water circulation there is slow and temperatures tend to rise quickly. Researchers expect to have a complete report of the state of the coral reefs in several weeks.
Coral polyps, the tiny organisms that make up a coral reef, contain photosynthetic algae called zoxanthellae. Coral bleaching occurs when corals lose their color as a result of the loss of their algal component, which is caused by increased water temperature or other stress factors. Bleaching impairs vital functions of the coral such as reproduction and growth.
With prolonged warming, corals begin to die releasing great quantities of mucous resulting in increasingly turbid waters. Oxygen levels may fall as bacteria and fungi proliferate. Anoxic conditions affect fish and coastal productivity. STRI has monitored the water column to a depth of 20 meters at 23 sites. "Dissolved oxygen dropped to less than 3 milligrams per liter at 10 meters and nearly zero milligrams per liter at the bottom," said STRI technician Plinio Gondola, who recorded the measurements. It is still not clear if temperature rise is directly related to bleaching and anoxia at this site.
The images show ocean temperatures in September 2009 and in 2010. Increasing intensity of orange towards red indicates warming on a regional scale. The final outcome of this event is uncertain. A similar event in 2005 in the wider Caribbean included intense bleaching in Panama. However, mortality was less that 12 percent in this zone and reefs have been relatively resilient. In Guzman's opinion, hurricane season may be enhancing the current problem, resulting in low water circulation in the Southwestern Caribbean and thus creating a "warm pocket" of water along the coasts of Panama and Costa Rica.
###
The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, headquartered in Panama City, Panama is a unit of the Smithsonian Institution. The Institute furthers the understanding of tropical nature and its importance to human welfare, trains students to conduct research in the tropics and promotes conservation by increasing public awareness of the beauty and importance of tropical ecosystems. www.stri.org
Darryl D'Monte Reuters AlertNet 11 Oct 10;
MUMBAI (AlertNet) - Around a third of the coastline north and south of Mumbai, India's financial capital and most populous city, is vulnerable to severe flooding from extreme weather and rising sea levels, according to a study that has yet to be published.
The number of people living in the Mumbai urban agglomeration will touch 28.5 million by 2020, making it the biggest city in the world, according to the Washington-based Population Institute.
As much as 14 percent of the 720 km (450 miles) coastline - with Mumbai roughly in the centre - is "highly" vulnerable, and 16 percent "moderately" vulnerable, according to the Hyderabad-based Indian National Centre for Ocean Services.
"The Indian ocean rim is predisposed to natural disasters," says the centre's T. Srinivasa Kumar. "A rise in the sea level due to a storm surge could lead to coastal flooding in a low-lying area or in an open creek or river mouth."
In July 2005, Mumbai, the capital of Maharashtra state, was hit by an unprecedented cloudburst - 944 mm in 10 hours - which shut down much of the city and took around 400 lives, besides causing millions of dollars of damage to property.
Just over half the population of Greater Mumbai, some 8 million people, live in slums, the highest proportion for any metropolis in the world. They have tended to squat along the coast and estuaries, leaving them exposed to hazards from flooding and sea level rise.
Mumbai residents know only too well that if torrential rain is accompanied by a high tide, the floodwater cannot escape and backs up into the city.
'NO MORE LAND TO MOVE TO'
Shirish Karlekar, a geographer from SP College in Pune, some 150 km (90 miles) inland from Mumbai, has been monitoring changes along the coast from just north of Mumbai to the southernmost tip of the state's coast for 20 years. In that period, the average sea level has risen by 5 to 6 cm.
On December 29 last year, the high tide rose by 4 cm near Ratnagiri town, which lies around 200 km (125 miles) south of Mumbai and is the home town of many Mumbai immigrants. Karlekar says the increase on the same day in 2008 was just 2 cm.
"In recent years, the sea level has risen at a much faster pace than in the early years of our study," he explains.
The ever-higher tides have led to salt water penetrating as much as a kilometre inland, damaging mangroves, eroding beaches and filling creeks with sand.
Sadanand Tandel recalls how the waves first entered his village of Deobagh (meaning God's garden) in coastal Sindhudurg district during the 1978 monsoon.
Since then, his village has lost 32 hectares (79 acres) of land, mainly valuable coconut groves.
"In the 1980s, the sea was more than 300 metres from my house and more than 1,000 casuarina (pine) trees were planted to protect the coast between my grove and the sea," Tandel said. Nonetheless, the sea threatens just 40 m from his doorstep today.
Tondawli village, 20 km (12 miles) to the north, has lost 40 hectares (100 acres), including some 500 coconut trees and space for drying fish.
Lakshmi Kochrekar, who tends a coconut plantation and isn't sure of her age, has had to rebuild her house twice due to the rising tides.
"I have no more land to move to now," she complains.
Village elders in this region say the sea's very behaviour is changing. Patterns of erosion and deposition are different.
While tides are eroding the coast more rapidly, debris is being deposited on an unprecedented scale in other areas.
"We have a saying that that the sea brings back whatever it takes," says Shridhar Wadekar, an elderly villager. "But for the past two years, I have been waiting for it to bring back my rice farm."
VULNERABLE REAL ESTATE
While poor communities along the coast are the first to have been hit, the super-rich of Mumbai are likely to be affected too. Consultants Jones Lang LaSalle Meghraj recently noted that Mumbai accounts for 40 percent of the $100 billion in Indian construction projects underway.
Property in Mumbai is astronomically expensive because the 100 sq km (39 square mile) island city is located at the southern tip of a peninsula and cannot expand. Coastal multi-storey apartments are in the greatest demand, with high-end apartments now selling for as much as $7 million.
Mumbai also has the highest proportion of land reclaimed from the sea of any old city core in the world. The reclamation was led by rampant speculation during the British Raj in the 18th Century and was only halted by environmentalists in the 1970s. The filling has already caused severe erosion of properties in the northern suburbs as the displaced ocean bites elsewhere along the coast.
After the 2004 Asian tsunami, which impacted only India's deep south, Mumbai authorities erected three-metre-high walls along shallow-water fishing village coasts to the north of the city, even though the villages had been unaffected.
Environmentalists criticised the Canute-like gesture as both ineffectual and a thinly-disguised attempt by officials to line their pockets from sea wall contracts.
TUBE TECHNOLOGY
The latest protection project being undertaken by the Maharashtra government uses "geo-textile tubes", which it says are an eco-friendly method of arresting erosion by keeping sand in place. The tubes are already being used in Kerala and Goa.
The tubes - hollow plastic pipes - will be submerged and placed over sand-filled coconut fibre bags to form a semi-circle, creating an artificial bay. It is hoped marine creatures will be able to get a toehold on the resulting reef-like structure.
The state has identified 72 km (45 miles) south of Mumbai - one tenth of the total length of the coast - as subject to high erosion, and it plans to protect the plantations and fish drying grounds of coastal villagers in this area.
The Asian Development Bank is providing loans to cover $104 million of the total project cost of $179 million. The state government will lend $58 million, and the remaining $17 million will come from private investors, who are looking to sell the tubes, particularly if the technique is replicated elsewhere in the state and in the rest of India.
Yet experts warn the technology must be deployed with care. P.K. Das, an architect and activist who has helped "nourish" a strip of eroded beach in midtown Mumbai with Dutch technology that uses partial barriers to stop sand erosion, says that if the geo-textile tubes are too large, they can interfere with the natural movement of sand and tides.
The state should first conduct modeling experiments to establish sand movement patterns, Das says. Otherwise the tubes could act like dams, arresting natural processes.
"Sand is never static," he explains.
Darryl D'Monte, former editor of The Times of India in Mumbai, heads the Forum of Environmental Journalists of India and is the founding President of the International Federation of Environmental Journalists. He is based in Mumbai.
Ella Ide Yahoo News 12 Oct 10;
ROME (AFP) – Farmers from the developing world called on governments this week to curb a global land rush in which millions of hectares of their terrain are being taken over by foreign private investors.
"Generations in Africa have lived off family farming," Hortense Kinkodila, a farmers' representative from Congo Brazzaville, said on the sidelines of talks on the issue at the UN food agency FAO in Rome this week.
"We're really angry that people come and grab our land and take away traditions that have sustained us for years," she said.
Renaldo Chingore from Mozambique said: "What's been happening in Mozambique is a disaster for rural communities.
"International companies are kicking farmers off the land, and moving them to areas that are not fertile," he said.
"Land-grabbing has led to riots, as local peasants are no longer able to produce food for themselves and the community," he added.
Driven by recent food, energy and climate crises, investors from richer nations have been buying up vast tracts of land in poorer countries to meet demand for bio-fuels, crops and mining resources.
A World Bank report last month said there had been a dramatic increase of investor interest since 2008, with reported large-scale farmland deals amounting to 45 million hectares (111 million acres) in 2009 alone.
Land buyers come from countries like Britain, China, the Gulf states, Saudi Arabia and South Korea and half of the deals are done in Africa, with Ghana, Madagascar and Sudan among the most targeted states, officials said.
Activists at the UN World Food Security meeting said a "land-grab" was underway in the developing world that was driving up prices, forcing the eviction of local farmers and fuelling corruption.
But while the World Bank admitted there were significant risks for vulnerable populations in large-scale land purchases, the bank's private sector arm said it would continue to invest.
Analysts at the bank stressed agribusiness deals could help countries with underused land get access to technology, raise employment levels and create conditions for sustained development.
The report pointed to successful projects in Peru, where auctions of 235,000 hectares have brought in almost 36 million euros (50 million dollars) of investment over the last 15 years.
But experts on land deals slammed large-scale acquisitions as exploitative.
"Those in favour of land grabbing in poor countries often claim that it makes good resource of areas that otherwise lie empty and unused," said Ian Scoones, from the Institute for Development Studies at the University of Sussex.
"But this simply isn't true," he added.
"Nomads, shifting farmers, and small-holders have their livelihoods disrupted and it's going to be a long-haul process to try and find a way to secure the rights of local farmers and seek legal redress to common property," Scoones said.
Critics say investors have made deals in secret, evicted people from their land without proper compensation and failed to get projects off the ground or create the number of jobs promised.
"Often it is the speculatory deals which end up displacing peasants and disrupting the lives of locals, especially if the project then doesn't go ahead and no actual benefits are seen," said Scoones.
According to a Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) report, many such projects only create "a tiny fraction of the employment opportunities that farmland may offer under labour-intensive family farming."
To minimise the risks to smallholders, the FAO has proposed voluntary guidelines on responsible governance of land which it hopes will help in the fight against corruption and exploitation.
But critics are not convinced everyone will abide by the rules.
"Voluntary codes of conduct are all very well when you're working with the good guys, but not everyone is driven by a commitment to civic morality," said Scoones.
"So as well as the carrot, we need to use the stick", he said.
* Climate aid goal "challenging but feasible", Norway PM
* Penalties on carbon emissions to be a major source
* Report to be submitted to U.N., public in early November
Reuters AlertNet 12 Oct 10;
OSLO, Oct 12 (Reuters) - A U.N. advisory group agreed on Tuesday it would be tough but feasible for rich nations to raise a planned $100 billion a year from 2020 to help poor countries combat climate change, Norway's Prime Minister told Reuters.
Jens Stoltenberg, who co-chaired a final meeting of top experts in Addis Ababa on Tuesday with Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, said higher penalties on carbon emissions had to be a main source to raise the cash.
"We have concluded that it is challenging but feasible, achievable to raise the $100 billion," Stoltenberg said in a telephone interview to the Reuters Global Climate and Alternative Energy Summit.
Rich nations agreed at the Copenhagen summit in December 2009 to aim to raise $100 billion a year from 2020 to help poor nations curb their greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to likely impacts such as floods, droughts, mudslides or rising seas.
But they did not agree how and no nations have made firm long-term offers of cash.
The U.N. advisory group, appointed by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in March to come up with ideas, will publish a final report in early November. Stoltenberg said the group would make recommendations but this would not be a full-blown plan.
"This will not be a blueprint with an exact formula of how exactly to raise $100 billion," Stoltenberg said.
"We will provide some analytical work, some guidelines and narrow down the different options which we believe are the most realistic and most viable," he said.
"Carbon pricing has to be one of the major sources of finance," he said, adding there were many different options, such as taxes on emissions or via carbon markets.
He declined to give exact details of sources of funds. Suggestions have also included more expensive plane tickets or taxes on bunker oil.
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