Surprises on oil-slicked Tanah Merah
from wild shores of singapore
Chronicle of Mr & Mrs King
from Life's Indulgences
Long-tailed Parakeet eating fruits of yellow simpoh
from Bird Ecology Study Group
Seen on the shore
from The annotated budak
... And the role the late Mrs Lee Kuan Yew played
Neo Chai Chin Today Online 14 Oct 10;
SINGAPORE - It began with a casual email exchange with Temasek Holdings executive director and chief executive Ho Ching. Now, butterfly enthusiast Khew Sin Khoon's dream has borne fruit, a dream the late Madam Kwa Geok Choo had a role in, albeit indirectly.
In late 2006, Mr Khew had shared with Ms Ho how she could grow certain plants to attract butterflies to her garden.
Ms Ho then offered to lend a helping hand if Mr Khew ever wanted to write a book on butterflies in Singapore. It was actually an idea Mr Khew, 51, had kept on the backburner since 2003, when publishers told him such a book would not sell.
But armed with a "five-figure" sponsorship, the book A Field Guide to the Butterflies of Singapore was launched on Sunday at the Botanic Gardens, with Ms Ho as the guest of honour. She sponsored the book in her private capacity and declined to be interviewed for this story.
Her late mother-in-law, Mdm Kwa, also had experience "attracting butterflies to the Istana garden, planting the right type of plants to attract the desired species", Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan recounted in his blog last week.
This interest is believed to have played a role in the commissioning of a survey of butterflies at the Istana in August 2006, done by Mr Khew's online interest group, ButterflyCircle. Although the group did not interact directly with Mdm Kwa - it was a National Parks Board curator that had invited them - Ms Ho got in touch with Mr Khew soon after, he recounted.
"At that point in time, I'd just started the blog butterflycircle.blogspot.com. I didn't see any harm in sharing with a larger community of nature lovers," said Mr Khew.
Of Mdm Kwa's role in his book, which has a first print run of 1,000 copies and will be distributed to schools and public libraries, Mr Khew said it was an indication of her "care towards nature".
Ng Jing Yng, TODAY Channel NewsAsia 14 Oct 10;
SINGAPORE : Worried residents, searches by animal interest and wildlife groups, even police officers having to cordon off the area - all because of a purported "bear" sighting along Ulu Pandan Road which has turned out to be a publicity stunt by a company to market shavers.
The blurry video clip of a purported "bear" rummaging through a dustbin at a bus stop had been making the rounds on the Internet. It was also reported on television and in newspapers such as Lianhe Wanbao, Shin Min Daily and The New Paper.
In a statement on Wednesday, through public relations agency Fleishman-Hillard, Philips Electronics Singapore clarified that the bear was a mascot for a guerilla marketing campaign for a shaver undertaken by social media agency, The Secret Little Agency.
"We acknowledge that the resemblance of the mascot to a live bear has caused some public concern in the neighbourhood where the mascot was sighted. We had anticipated the attention that the bear will draw but have no intention to cause any alarm. We would like to apologise for any concern caused," the electronics giant said.
But the police, as well as tens of men and women from Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (Acres) and Wildlife Reserves Singapore who scoured the area for hours on Wednesday, were not amused.
On Wednesday night, a police spokesman said: "In response to media queries on the sighting of a 'bear' in Ulu Pandan, Police confirm that we're investigating an offence of Public Nuisance under Section 268 of the Penal Code."
On Monday, the video clip was sent to several news outlets by a person claiming to be a civil engineer named "Wilson Tay", who claimed his teenaged son shot the clip while he was driving on the road.
TODAY newspaper decided against running the story on Wednesday until proper checks could be done, including finding out the full particulars of the so called witness and having this reporter meet him face-to-face to ascertain the authenticity of the "bear sighting" claims he had made online.
This reporter had sent an email to the informant, asking him to call her – which he did. But when this reporter then tried to contact Mr Tay on the mobile number he provided, the person who answered denied he was Mr Tay and said she was not the first one to call that number looking for the informant.
When contacted, The Secret Little Agency said the aim was to get the public to blog and talk about the sighting on social media.
Creative partner Nicholas Ye said they called up to enquire with the Police if a licence was needed on Sunday before heading down to film the video on Monday at about 2am.
"This is irresponsible and it is a waste of resources ... publicity by all means, but this has gone way too far," said Acres founder and executive director Louis Ng, whose group also conducted an hour long search on Tuesday.
Singaporeans whom MediaCorp spoke to had mixed reactions to the news.
"It is hilarious that this bear mascot got on the news ... but imagine the stress and work they have caused the police and zoo over this silly mistaken identity," said a nurse Lee Xiu Hua, 24.
The latest publicity gimmick brings to mind SingPost’s postbox graffiti stunt in January this year - the last time resources were invested when SingPost employed an agency to spray graffiti on its postboxes in the lead-up to the Youth Olympic Games.
Members of the public were startled when they spotted a vandal at work, and called the police. The police said then that they would take up the matter with SingPost.
Wild bear chase
Electronics firm says sorry for ad campaign that alarmed public
Victoria Vaughan Straits Times 14 Oct 10;
TWELVE employees of the Singapore Zoo rushed to the scene, one armed with a tranquilliser gun. Four police officers showed up for whatever help might be needed. Three members of a nature group spent hours searching a forest.
And some residents of Ulu Pandan were left wondering and worrying if indeed danger lurked on their doorstep.
Time and energy were wasted yesterday, all in the name of a new media marketing campaign for a shaver. Industry players said the stunt tested the boundaries of responsible behaviour.
Last night, Philips Electronics Singapore apologised for alarming the public with its guerilla advertising campaign featuring a video of a 'bear' along Ulu Pandan Road.
The police told The Straits Times that it is now investigating if what happened was an offence of public nuisance under Section 268 of the Penal Code, which can lead to a fine of up to $1,000.
In a statement, Philips said the 'bear' was actually a mascot deployed as part of a guerilla marketing campaign undertaken by social media agency, The Secret Little Agency, to launch a new shaver.
'We had anticipated the attention that the bear would draw but had no intention to cause any alarm. We would like to apologise for any concern caused,' it said.
It is understood that the agency had not alerted any of the authorities about the 'bear' before the campaign, though it did inquire if a permit was needed to wear an 'animal mascot outfit'.
Mr Nicholas Ye, creative partner at The Secret Little Agency, said that an employee had filmed someone in a custom-made bear suit in Ulu Pandan Road at 2am on Monday.
The video was uploaded onto citizen journalism website Stomp with a write-up. In it, a man said he was driving along the road with his son when they spotted the animal near a dustbin. The video was reported by various media on Tuesday and yesterday.
Alarmed by the news, three members of Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (Acres) set off for the forest behind the bus stop at 11pm on Tuesday to search for the animal, and later again between 1am and 3am. Mr Louis Ng, executive director of Acres, said they had to check it out even though they were sceptical that there was a bear on the loose.
He was left fuming when he found out it was nothing but a ploy.
'You shouldn't joke about such things... Residents were concerned, the police called us to ask if we were doing something about it. You can't tell people there is an adult bear in their neighbourhood. It's completely irresponsible.'
The zoo also swung into action with 12 of its curators heading there. It is understood that the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority had contacted them. Led by veterinarian Serena Oh, they combed the area for 11/2 hours but found nothing.
Speaking during the search, Dr Oh said they were looking for paw prints or signs of disturbance consistent with a large animal. 'If we had spotted it we would have fired the tranquilliser gun,' she said.
She added that the bear looked like it could be an Asiatic black bear, but the video was unclear. The zoo does not keep such a bear but has five sun bears, four sloth bears and two polar bears.
Some residents and workers in the area who heard the news were alarmed.
Mr Elvin Aristorenas, centre manager at Total English Learning in Pandan Valley condominium, said he was worried. 'The bear was obviously hungry as it was digging for food,' he said.
The campaign was roundly criticised by some industry players. They noted this was the second time in recent months that a guerilla marketing campaign had backfired. SingPost recently caused a furore when it had graffiti on its post boxes that turned out to be a campaign for a post box art competition.
On the 'bear' stunt, Mr Baey Yam Keng, deputy managing director of public relation agency Hill and Knowlton, had this to say: 'There needs to be a line drawn... in cases where it may draw unnecessary alarm and waste public resources... Creativity is important but it must be balanced with some common sense.'
Additional reporting by Ng Kai Ling and Cheryl Ong
Esther Ng Today Online 14 Oct 10;
SINGAPORE - If everyone on the planet enjoyed the same level of consumption as the average resident of Singapore, three Earths would be needed to sustain it.
This, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Living Planet Report 2010, which placed Singapore's ecological footprint per person at 5.34 global hectares, 21st in the world.
Put in another way: The ecological footprint of the average Singapore resident in a year is equal to that of 33 Africans.
The ecological footprint is calculated by comparing human demand on renewable resources against the regenerative capacity of the planet.
Carbon is the biggest component of Singapore's footprint, followed by demand for crop and grazing land to raise livestock, oil crops, rubber and livestock feed.
Since people consume resources from all over the world, the ecological footprint of consumption adds together these areas regardless of where they are located.
Asked whether Singapore can support a population of 7.5 million - a figure recently floated by former Housing and Development Board chief Liu Thai Ker - Dr Christopher Hails, chairman of WWF Singapore and director (network relations) of WWF International, said: "Singapore can never sustain its population from an island of this size, Singapore is always going to be an importer of all the resources Singaporeans need for their lives."
However, Singapore can make a positive difference to sustainable development by importing from the right sources, he said. For instance, buying fish and timber from sustainably-certified sources and by putting pressure on other countries to farm sustainably.
However, Singapore's Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) has been making efforts to increase its food production capabilities on a sustainable basis, including the setting up of more than 100 licensed floating fish farms in the country's coastal waters.
Dr Hails also commended the Republic's Garden City concept: "Singapore does have a role in the region, within Asean, to set some good examples ... Kuala Lumpur has used Singapore as a model for its own green programmes."
Why does the UAE have such a high carbon footprint?
Reuters AlertNet 13 Oct 10;
Oct 13 (Reuters) - The United Arab Emirates, the world's third-largest oil exporter, has one of the highest per capita carbon footprints in the world.
According to a U.N. Development Programme report in 2003, the UAE emitted 33.6 tonnes per capita, second only to nearby Qatar and over nine times the world average of 3.7 tonnes.
The 2008 WWF Living Planet Report gave the UAE the world's worst ecological footprint per person. It placed the United States second and fellow Gulf Arab state Kuwait in third place.
The ecological footprint measures humanity's demand on the biosphere in terms of biologically productive land and sea required to provide the resources we use and absorb our waste.
The UAE has said it is becoming greener. The following lists some of the UAE's green and not so green credentials.
NOT SO GREEN
PRIVATE JETS
Dubai's Executive Flight Service handled 6,060 flights and 19,797 customers in 2009, according to figures from Dubai International Airport.
PUBLIC TRANSPORT
Dubai Taxis made 70 million journeys in 2009, in which they transported more than 140 million passengers, the emirate's transport authority said. That compares with 120 million people who took public buses in 2009.
Since its inauguration in September 2009, the number of passengers using the Dubai Metro has risen from about 40,000 a day to more than 120,000 a day. In total, it has transported more than 19 million people so far and expects 35 million passengers in 2010.
FUEL CONSUMPTION
In 2006, the UAE's population of around 6 million consumed nearly 500 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) of gas.
Germany, which has a population of more than 80 million, burned 942 billion kWh in 2008, according to the German energy industry association (BDEW).
THE WORLD
One of the most ambitious schemes in Dubai, The World is a collection of man-made islands shaped into the continents and countries of the world. As the slump has frozen much building activity, homes have yet to be built there. If completed, the islands would be reachable only by private jet or boat.
Property developer Nakheel used 34 million tonnes of rock to build the 27 kilometre breakwater that surrounds the 300 islands in the development.
Nakheel has said its activities have no harmful effect on nature, although environmentalists have said the consequences of such extensive artificial islands on the natural ecosystem are unknown and could be damaging.
GREEN PROJECTS
MASDAR CITY
Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company, better known as Masdar, was set up in 2006 with a mandate to develop, commercialise and deploy renewable energy technologies and environmental solutions.
Its flagship project in Abu Dhabi is Masdar City, a $22 billion investment in what will be the first zero-emissions, zero-waste city when completed in 2020.
The plan is for Masdar City to be home to some 40,000 residents.
DESERT ISLANDS
The Desert Islands resort comprises the former royal nature reserve of Sir Bani Yas Island, and the Discovery Islands, six nearby offshore outcrops. All of them will be linked by a ferry and hydrofoil service, water taxis, private 'resort' boat service and regional and sea planes.
For every visitor to Sir Bani Yas, one mangrove plant is planted to offset the environmental impact of the visit.
Other initiatives include breeding programmes for rare and endangered wildlife, removal of human interference, including closing roads and removing old irrigation pipes, and water conservation.
FUEL STANDARDS
The UAE has set itself a goal of reducing the maximum sulphur target for both diesel and gasoline to 10 parts per million (ppm). Industry analysts say the target will be reached once a refinery upgrading project is finished.
Until then, the Emirates Authority for Standardization and Metrology has set a maximum sulphur limit for gasoline at 100 ppm, which must be followed by all oil companies in the UAE. For diesel, the maximum limit is 500 ppm. (Reporting by Amena Bakr, Barbara Lewis, Nina Chestney and Henning Gloystein, editing by Lin Noueihed)
(AFP) Google News 13 Oct 10;
PARIS — Carbon pollution and over-use of Earth's natural resources have become so critical that, on current trends, we will need a second planet to meet our needs by 2030, the WWF said on Wednesday.
In 2007, Earth's 6.8 billion humans were living 50 percent beyond the planet's threshold of sustainability, according to its report, issued ahead of a UN biodiversity conference.
"Even with modest UN projections for population growth, consumption and climate change, by 2030 humanity will need the capacity of two Earths to absorb CO2 waste and keep up with natural resource consumption," it warned.
If everyone used resources at the same rate per capita as the United States or the United Arab Emirates, four and a half planets would be needed, it said, highlighting the gap in "ecological footprint" between rich and poor.
The "Living Planet" report, the eighth in the series, is based on figures for 2007, the latest year for which figures are available.
It pointed to 71 countries that were running down their sources of freshwater at a worrying, unsustainable rate.
Nearly two-thirds of these countries experience "moderate to severe" water stress.
"This has profound implications for ecosystem health, food production and human wellbeing, and is likely to be exacerbated by climate change," WWF said.
Signatories to the UN's Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) are to meet in Nagoya, Japan, from October 18-29 to discuss ways of addressing Earth's dramatic loss of species.
The UN named 2010 as the International Year of Biodiversity. Under Target 7b of the Millennium Development Goals, UN members pledged to achieve by 2010 "a significant reduction" in the rate of wildlife loss.
Biologists say many species, especially mammals, birds and amphibians, are in headlong decline, their numbers ravaged by habitat loss, hunting or the likely impact of climate change.
The WWF said biodiversity showed a dramatic loss overall, but one with sharp disparities.
Between 1970 and 2007, an index of biodiversity health showed a global fall of almost 30 percent, it said.
In the tropics, the decline was 60 percent, but in temperate regions, there was an increase of 30 percent.
Temperate zones -- the first parts of the world to industrialise -- may be starting from a lower baseline of species loss, which could explain the gradual improvement in recent decades.
Improvements in pollution control and waste management, better air and water quality, an increase in forest cover and greater conservation efforts may also be making headway in some temperate countries, the WWF said.
Tropics in decline as natural resources exhausted at alarming rate – WWF 2010 Living Planet report
WWF 13 Oct 10;
Gland, Switzerland – New analysis shows populations of tropical species are plummeting and humanity’s demands on natural resources are sky-rocketing to 50 per cent more than the earth can sustain, reveals the 2010 edition of WWF’s Living Planet Report – the leading survey of the planet’s health.
The biennial report, produced in collaboration with the Zoological Society of London and the Global Footprint Network, uses the global Living Planet Index as a measure of the health of almost 8,000 populations of more than 2,500 species. The global Index shows a decrease by 30 per cent since 1970, with the tropics hardest hit showing a 60 per cent decline in less than 40 years.
“There is an alarming rate of biodiversity loss in low-income, often tropical countries while the developed world is living in a false paradise, fuelled by excessive consumption and high carbon emissions,” said Jim Leape, Director General of WWF International.
While the report shows some promising recovery by species’ populations in temperate areas, thanks in part to greater conservation efforts and improvements in pollution and waste control, tracked populations of freshwater tropical species have fallen by nearly 70 per cent – greater than any species’ decline measured on land or in our oceans.
“Species are the foundation of ecosystems,” said Jonathan Baillie, Conservation Programme Director with the Zoological Society of London. “Healthy ecosystems form the basis of all we have – lose them and we destroy our life support system.”
The Ecological Footprint, one of the indicators used in the report, shows that our demand on natural resources has doubled since 1966 and we’re using the equivalent of 1.5 planets to support our activities. If we continue living beyond the Earth’s limits, by 2030 we’ll need the equivalent of two planets’ productive capacity to meet our annual demands.
"The report shows that continuing of the current consumption trends would lead us to the point of no return,” added Leape. “4.5 Earths would be required to support a global population living like an average resident of the of the US."
Carbon is a major culprit in driving the planet to ecological overdraft. An alarming 11-fold increase in our carbon footprint over the last five decades means carbon now accounts for more than half the global Ecological Footprint.
The top 10 countries with the biggest Ecological Footprint per person are the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Denmark, Belgium, United States, Estonia, Canada, Australia, Kuwait and Ireland.
The 31 OECD countries, which include the world’s richest economies, account for nearly 40 per cent of the global footprint. While there are twice as many people living in BRIC countries – Brazil, Russia, India and China – as there are in OECD countries, the report shows the current rate of per-person footprint of the BRIC countries puts them on a trajectory to overtake the OECD bloc if they follow same development path.
"Countries that maintain high levels of resource dependence are putting their own economies at risk,” said Mathis Wackernagel, President of the Global Footprint Network. “Those countries that are able to provide the highest quality of life on the lowest amount of ecological demand will not only serve the global interest, they will be the leaders in a resource-constrained world."
New analysis in the report also shows that the steepest decline in biodiversity falls in low-income countries, with a nearly 60 per cent decline in less than 40 years.
The biggest footprint is found in high-income countries, on average five times that of low-income countries, which suggests unsustainable consumption in wealthier nations rests largely on depleting the natural resources of poorer, often still resource rich tropical countries.
The Living Planet Report also shows that a high footprint and high level of consumption, which often comes at the cost of others, is not reflected in a higher level of development. The UN Human Development Index, which looks at life expectancy, income and educational attainment, can be high in countries with moderate footprint.
The Report outlines solutions needed to ensure the Earth can sustain a global population projected to pass nine billion in 2050, and points to choices in diet and energy consumption as critical to reducing footprint, as well as improved efforts to value and invest in our natural capital.
“The challenge posed by the Living Planet Report is clear,” said Leape. “Somehow we need to find a way to meet the needs of a growing and increasingly prosperous population within the resources of this one planet. All of us have to find a way to make better choices in what we consume and how we produce and use energy."
Stephen Then The Star 14 Oct 10;
MIRI: The flooding of South-East Asia’s largest dam, the Bakun Dam, in Belaga district has begun.
Developer and manager Sarawak Hidro, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Ministry of Finance Incorporated, dammed up the Balui River diversion tunnels to start the process of flooding 69,000ha of land.
The impoundment of the 205m high dam, the second highest concrete-rock filled dam in the world, started before 8am yesterday and by 10am, the massive gates of the diversion tunnels were closed.
There are three river diversion tunnels, each measuring 12m wide and 12m high.
A small outlet was still open in one of the tunnels to enable a controlled amount of water to flow downstream so that the Balui River downstream would not dry up completely.
The flooding was initiated in a somewhat sudden manner at short notice after Sarawak Hidro engineers held a late meeting on Tuesday night and decided that the weather and river conditions were safe enough for damming up of the tunnels.
Some Bakun folk lodged a police report on Tuesday morning in a desperate bid to halt the flooding.
Sarawak Hidro managing director and chief engineer Zulkifle Osman told The Star from Bakun that he and his group of engineers found the condition right for the impoundment.
“We have successfully closed tunnels number 2 and 3. A small outlet in tunnel 1 is still open to release some water downstream,’’ he said.
To a suggestion that the impoundment was rushed through despite the pre-conditions that there must be seven continuous days of dry weather and water depth of below 60m were not met, he said:
“We found that the weather was good enough in the past two days and the river level safe enough, so we went ahead with the impoundment.”
It will take about seven months and two weeks for the 69,000ha area to be flooded to the top of the dam wall, which is roughly about 44 storeys high or half the height of the Petronas Twin Towers.
Once the water level reaches 195m, the water will enter the inlet and turn the turbines and the power-generation process can start.
In the meantime, natives living downstream of Bakun and environmentalists and human rights groups, expressed shock that the impoundment had proceeded despite the Bakun folk lodging a police report.
Denis Hang Bilang, secretary of the Joint Committee of Lebu Kulit, Uma Bakah, Uma Lesung and Uma Balui Ukap, said he and his longhouse folk had lodged a police report at the Belaga police station against Sarawak Hidro.
“We lodged the police report at 10am yesterday (Tuesday) and today but they (Sarawak Hidro) went ahead with the flooding. We have called on the police to halt the flooding because the compensation issue for our land has not been settled yet.
“The land in Bakun still belongs to us because the government and the dam developer have not fully compensated us for uprooting us from our original longhouses in Bakun 15 years ago,’’ he said.
Meanwhile, a Sarawak coalition of environmentalists and human rights group expressed alarm at the manner in which the flooding began.
The Sarawak Conservation Alliance for Natural Environment (SCANE) was unhappy with the manner in which Sarawak Hidro was allowed to proceed with the flooding.
“How could the Federal and state governments allow the impoundment to start when the Emergency Rescue Plan has not been made public? On Monday, a longboat capsized in Bakun and a man is still missing,” said SCANE national coordinator Raymond Abin.
“The people living in Bakun, especially downstream, have not been adequately informed of the precautionary measures to take. We fear the impoundment would trigger landslides and floods and may even trigger an earthquake,’’ he said.
Environment News Service 13 Oct 10;
LYON, France, October 13, 2010 (ENS) - An international law enforcement operation coordinated by INTERPOL against the illegal trade in tigers has led to the arrest of 25 individuals suspected of taking part in the illicit trade of one of the world's most endangered species.
The two-month operation in August and September involved national enforcement agencies in six tiger-range countries - China, India, Nepal, Russia, Thailand and Vietnam.
The entire operation was co-ordinated by INTERPOL's Environmental Crime Programme at its General Secretariat headquarters in Lyon.
INTERPOL worked in close collaboration with the participating member countries to provide a single platform to National Central Bureaus for the exchange and coordination of intelligence via INTERPOL's I-24/7 secure police communications system.
In Russia, criminal intelligence obtained by national authorities revealed key smuggling routes.
Direct enforcement action during the operation included the arrest by Indian authorities of 10 suspected wildlife criminals.
In Thailand, the Royal Thai Police arrested a number of alleged tiger smugglers connected to cross-border trade, including at Suvarnabhumi International Airport in Bangkok.
In a single raid in Hanoi, Vietnamese police seized six whole tiger skeletons and six tiger skulls, while in a separate case two tiger carcasses were seized along with 50 kilograms of tiger bone. As few as 30 wild tigers are believed to survive in Vietnam.
In June, Vietnam's Environmental Police launched a 24-hour Wildlife Crime Hotline as a new enforcement measure in the battle against the illegal wildlife trade and other environmental crimes. More than 150 Environmental Police officers have been trained handle reports.
"The Government of Vietnam has strong laws in place to stop the illegal trade of protected plants and animals and the Environment Police is committed to enforcing these laws," said Capt. Luong Minh Thao, vice director of the Department of Environmental Police.
In addition to the 25 arrests during the two-month INTERPOL operation, more than 50 kg of tiger bone, including skeletons and skulls, were seized, and key smuggling routes broken up during raids across the six participating countries.
INTERPOL's Environmental Crime Manager David Higgins said, "The national agencies involved in this international operation supported by INTERPOL have shown unscrupulous criminals who target threatened species that action will be taken to combat their illegal activities."
Fewer than 3,200 tigers remain in the wild as a result of loss of habitat and the involvement of organized criminal networks engaged in poaching and in the illegal trafficking of their skins and bones.
"It's great to see news of arrests of criminals rather than seizures alone," said Debbie Banks, who heads the Tiger Campaign for the UK-based nonprofit Environmental Investigation Agency, which investigates and campaigns against a wide range of environmental crimes, including illegal wildlife trade.
"Organized crime needs an organized response and Operation Tigre is a step in the right direction, but must be sustained," said Banks.
Conservationists hold out hope that concerted action and funding may be the outcome of a Heads of State Tiger Summit that will be held November 22-23 in St. Petersburg, Russia, hosted by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and World Bank President Robert Zoellick.
The summit aims to get unprecedented high-level commitment for tiger conservation from all of the 13 tiger range states.
Banks said, "Increased resources for slick, professional policing operations to bust the criminal networks controlling the tiger trade should be at the top of the agenda for the St. Petersburg tiger forum."
The global conservation organization WWF has been working with tiger range countries to strengthen protection for wild tigers. WWF hopes the St. Petersburg summit will deliver a high-level binding agreement committing countries to initiate actions, backed by sustainable financing mechanisms, to double the number of wild tigers by 2022.
A new international regime hopes to help reverse the trend of biodiversity loss as well as spur economic growth and research for both industrial and developing nations
Robynne Boyd Scientific American 13 Oct 10;
High in the Cederberg Mountains of South Africa grows a bristly shrub that embodies the tug-of-war taking place between industrialized and developing nations over the value of genetic resources—the genes found in plant, animal or microbial cells used for research as well as in commercial products, such as enhanced seeds and naturally derived cosmetics and pharmaceuticals.
The leaves of rooibos, translated from Afrikaans as "red bush," are sipped in ruby-hued teas around the world but were previously sought by early settlers for their capacity to heal skin and reduce inflammation. Now, Nestec, SA, a subsidiary of Switzerland-based Nestlé, is trying to patent rooibos's healing properties for use in beauty products, a process some call a misuse of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge. Others consider it an advancement of science and an economic boon, given the industry's estimated value of $500 billion to $800 billion, as of 1999.
A truce in the worldwide tussle over the use and patenting of genetic resources is scheduled for the middle of October when the parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)—an international legally binding treaty on upholding the world's ecological sustainability—are set to gather in Nagoya, Japan, in hopes of finalizing a protocol on "access and benefit–sharing [ABS]." The aim is to ensure that the benefits resulting from researching animals, plants and microorganisms, such as the invention of new medicines or enhanced genes to improve crop varieties, are "fairly and equitably shared" among the providers and users. Whereas most people agree on the need for such a legally binding agreement, the fine print is still being tweaked between industrialized and developing countries. Even if the protocol is adopted in Nagoya, the only way for it to be truly effective is for it to have a strong compliance component.
"I think there is a clear ethical mandate for developed countries to create partnerships with developing countries, rather than subordinate them," says Paul Root Wolpe, a bioethicist who directs Emory University's Center for Ethics. "There also needs to be clear ways for those countries to not only get paid, but receive the other benefits of their own biological resources."
Ethics aside, there is also a political mandate. It reaches back to 1992 when 154 governments adopted the CBD. At that time, developed countries such as Canada, Germany and Japan agreed to share the associated benefits of poorer countries' genetic resources. In return, developing nations would help preserve them.
The vision was for countries and biodiversity a win–win situation. Over time it would spur scientific knowledge, catalyze commercial production, protect species and help enable developing countries to undertake bioprospecting themselves. It is akin to the "teach a man to fish" philosophy.
Unfortunately, less industrialized countries have not received the intended compensation, says Krystyna Swiderska, senior researcher in the Natural Resources Group of the International Institute for Environment and Development, which has led to a growing feeling of distrust between providers and users. The term "bio-piracy" evolved from this distrust and numerous examples exist.
Take the example of açaà fruit pulp, which is found in high-antioxidant health drinks sold in the U.S. The name of the fruit was patented, causing Brazilians to have to fight over the right to use the name "açaÃ" in their own products. Brazil eventually won this battle in court. Similar arguments have erupted over basmati and jasmine rice, neem, ayahuasca, tumeric and the hoodia cactus, to name a few.
The new protocol would change this trend by legally binding the industrialized countries that utilize the genetic resources to the ABS laws of the countries of origin, adds Swiderska, even though the negotiation's outcome remains uncertain because delegations still need to agree on a number of key elements. One is whether the protocol should apply to genetic resources that have already been collected. Many developing countries hope this will be the case, although the E.U. and others oppose this proposal.
"Given the substantive implications of the ABS Protocol for research and industry, any application of the new rules to past activities would create legal uncertainty for users, not legal certainty," E.U. negotiator Matthias Buck wrote in an e-mail, "We are supportive of a legally binding instrument on ABS precisely because our stakeholders would appreciate greater legal certainty on access and benefit–sharing for genetic resources in the future."
To clarify, Buck used the metaphor of a speeding ticket, noting that a person cannot be punished for speeding yesterday if a traffic sign was only placed on the street today.
Another key area of disagreement is whether derivatives of genetic resources, such as biochemicals produced by DNA, should be included in or excluded from the text of the protocol or left to be negotiated bilaterally. The third relates to the inclusion of traditional knowledge. The negotiators have a few days before the Conference of the Parties to the CBD to finalize these details.
For all those involved in the negotiations it may help to remember that 2010 has been declared by the United Nations the "International Year of Biodiversity". This year was supposed to mark a reduction in the rate of global biodiversity loss. This has not happened. Instead, animals and plants continue to go extinct at an alarming rate. According to the IUCN Red list of Threatened Species, of the 47,000 species assessed by the agency the world is losing species about 1,000 times more than the assumed normal rate.
If negotiators are successful at hashing out their differences, ideally then, a new day may dawn for the global preservation of species and science.
"We need a regime that provides enough confidence for access, and in exchange the access is facilitated and facilitates interesting research and use," says Johanna von Braun of Natural Justice, an environmental law firm that's working on the rooibos issue. "This would help benefit everyone."
UNEP marks International Day for Disaster Reduction
UNEP 13 Oct 10;
Geneva, 13 October 2010 - Haiti, one of the poorest and most environmentally degraded countries in the western hemisphere, is one of the many examples in recent times of the crucial role played by ecosystems in reducing disaster risk. Prior to the earthquake in January 2010 which devastated the country, environmental degradation was already a critical challenge, as extensively degraded catchments made Haiti's rural and urban population vulnerable to floods, landslides and severe soil erosion. From August to September 2008, four major storms ravaged Haiti, triggering mudslides and flash floods, leaving thousands homeless, killing nearly 800 people and destroying 60% of the country's harvest.
Neighbouring Cuba and the Dominican Republic were also affected but to a significantly lesser degree than Haiti. Did deforestation play a role in multiplying the devastating impact of disasters in Haiti?
With less than 2% tree cover and high rates of deforestation driven primarily by poverty, Haiti has become extremely vulnerable to floods and landslides during heavy rainfall. Unfortunately, 2008 was not a one-off event. In 2004 tropical storm Jeanne killed an estimated 3,000 people as a result of mudslides and floods coming down exposed mountains. But these lessons are not confined to Haiti alone; flash floods linked to forest degradation are a recurring experience in countries like the Philippines and most recently Mexico and are stark reminders of how environmental degradation can contribute to disaster statistics.
In the past decade alone, an estimated 2.5 million people globally were affected by natural hazards, 97% of whom were impacted by climate-related and hydro-meteorological disasters.
Greater recognition of the vital role of well-managed forests and watersheds in reducing the risks of disasters will help make urban and rural populations more resilient to floods, landslides and other natural hazards, was the theme of the high-level forum convened in Geneva, Switzerland today by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Partnership for Environment and Disaster Risk Reduction (PEDRR) to mark the International Day for Disaster Reduction.
The audience heard how forests and watersheds provide critical services to both rural and urban communities, including protection against natural hazards and critical support to local livelihoods and economies. Yet these multiple forest services, particularly for natural hazard regulation, continue to be under-valued, resulting in missed opportunities to maximize their potential for disaster prevention and mitigation.
Around the world, in countries such as Bolivia's Altiplano region, China, Switzerland and Japan, communities and governments are giving increased recognition to the value of forests for mitigating against floods, avalanches, rockfall and soil erosion while providing timber and non-timber products to support livelihoods.
The International Day, held annually on 13 October, aims to raise awareness on the impacts of disasters globally, and it originated within the framework of the World Disaster Reduction Campaign, initiated in 2008.
The roundtable, attended by members of the development community and the general public, provided a key opportunity to raise awareness of the environmental drivers of disaster risk and discuss the challenges faced by communities and countries in reducing disaster risk and recommendations to guide future actions. It was opened by the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction, Margareta Wahlström, and the Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Costa Rica to the United Nations of Geneva, His Excellency Manuel B. Dengo.
The International Day was also marked this year at the Shanghai Expo with a panel discussion around the theme "The City" which examined ways of building urban centers resilient to natural hazards and included the Assistant Mayor of Chendgu, Mao Zhixiong; the Editor-in-Chief of China Business Times, Li Zhong Chun, and the Chief of UNEP's Post-Conflict and Disaster Management Branch, Henrik Slotte, as well as representatives from the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UN ISDR).
S Ramesh Channel NewsAsia 13 Oct 10;
SINGAPORE : ASEAN environment ministers have reiterated the importance of reaching agreement on climate change issues at the meeting in Cancun, Mexico in November-December this year.
In a joint statement after their meeting in the Bruneian capital, Bandar Seri Begawan, the 10 ASEAN ministers expressed concern over the slow pace of negotiations. They said many key issues remain unresolved at this late stage.
They stressed that the next Summit should strive for a legally binding agreement, particularly to limit the increase in average global temperature to below 2 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial level.
They also called on developed countries to continue taking the lead by making more ambitious commitments.
The ministers added that these countries can also set out specific and binding targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and support developing countries with adequate, predictable and sustainable financial resources.
On tackling the challenge of transboundary haze, the ministers noted that for the southern ASEAN region, the inter-monsoon season bringing shower activities will help to subdue hot-spot activities in October and November.
However, periods of dry conditions may occur, and hence the ASEAN members have pledged to remain vigilant, and continuously monitor and implement haze preventive activities.
The ministers also endorsed developing a Fire Danger Rating System (FDRS) for the ASEAN region as a tool to undertake monitoring and preventive actions to address the outbreak of fires.
The ASEAN ministers will meet their counterparts from China, Japan and South Korea at the 9th ASEAN Plus Three Environment Ministers Meeting on Thursday.
They will exchange views on global environmental issues and discuss topics such as biodiversity, climate change, environmental education, water resources management, and hazardous waste management.
On Friday, they will also meet their counterparts from Australia, China, Japan, India, New Zealand, and South Korea at the 2nd East Asia Summit Environment Ministers Meeting.
- CNA/al
* "Absolutely critical" to spell out pledges clearly
* Mexico seeks cornerstone of new climate deal-Figueres
* U.N. talks to fall short of treaty
Alister Doyle and Gerard Wynn Reuters AlertNet 13 Oct 10;
OSLO/LONDON, Oct 13 (Reuters) - Rich nations must spell out their plans for cutting greenhouse gases more clearly to enable U.N. talks in Mexico to agree the cornerstone of a pact to slow global warming, the U.N.'s climate chief said.
Christiana Figueres said the annual Nov. 29-Dec. 10 meeting in Mexico would fall short of a U.N. treaty to combat climate change, saying countries learnt there was no "magic bullet" for a quick new U.N. accord at a Copenhagen summit last year.
She urged rich nations to clarify promises to cut greenhouse gases, many of which have not been written into domestic laws, and also admit they were too weak to avert damaging climate change.
"It is absolutely critical that these mitigation pledges that are on the table be formalised and recognised as a first and necessary but insufficient step," she told the Reuters Global Climate and Alternative Energy Summit on Wednesday.
"Governments do need to double their efforts between now and Cancun," she said of the talks among environment ministers to be held in the Mexican Caribbean resort.
She said promises so far for cuts in emissions fall short of those needed to limit a rise in temperatures to below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 F) above pre-industrial times, a ceiling set at the U.N. summit in Copenhagen last December.
Figueres noted that many developing states wanted temperature rises limited to below 1.5 degrees Celsius to avoid more floods, droughts, mudslides and rising sea levels.
Many promised curbs on greenhouse gases, mainly by cutting emissions from fossil fuels, are hedged. The European Union plans a cut of 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 with a cut of 30 percent if others act. Japan plans a cut of 25 percent, but only if there is an ambitious U.N. deal.
The U.N. talks are meant to agree a successor climate deal to the Kyoto Protocol whose first round ends in 2012.
U.S. CURBS
Some rich nations, notably Japan and Canada, say they can only agree new binding emissions cuts when the United States -- which never ratified the Kyoto Protocol -- does the same.
Figueres, who heads the Bonn-based U.N. Climate Change Secretariat, said Washington could bring plans in Cancun even though the Senate has failed to enact President Barack Obama's call for a law for cuts of 4 percent below 1990 levels by 2020.
She said Cancun could agree elements of a dea, such as a fund to help poor nations curb emissions and adapt to global warming, a system to protect tropical forests or ways to share green technology.
A set of decisions in Cancun would be "the cornerstone on which (nations) may choose to build" in coming years. She said it was unclear they would try to set a deadline for a treaty.
She said among good news was that studies showed that rich nations had collectively promised about $28 billion in fast-start aid for developing nations from 2010-12.
But she said some of it fell short of being "new and additional" under a pledge in Copenhagen to provide funds approaching $30 billion for the three years, rising to $100 billion a year from 2020.
She also said that only the United Nations, not alternative groups or bilateral deals, could drive a global fight against climate change since it comprised all nations. "The multilateral process is...cumbersome and necessarily a slow process...but absolutely indispensable." (Additional reporting by David Fogarty in Singapore; editing by Ralph Boulton)
Hopes fade for Mexico climate tallks
* Low hopes for U.N. talks in Cancun, Mexico
* Disputes between China and U.S. on climate change
* Some suggest G20 may be better route than U.N.
Alister Doyle, Reuters AlertNet 13 Oct 10;
OSLO, Oct 13 (Reuters) - Hopes for a deal on climate change at U.N. talks in Mexico next month have faded, undermined by splits between America and China and by fears the 194-nation process is too unwieldy to work out a pact to slow global warming.
Experts told the Reuters Global Climate and Alternative Energy Summit the Nov. 29-Dec. 10 annual meeting of environment ministers in Cancun might at best agree steps such as a new fund to help poor nations or ways to share green technology.
But there are risks of deadlock.
"If Cancun is a big disappointment, achieving nothing or not much, then I think a lot of governments around the world will start to say: What comes out of this process?" European Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard said.
"The world's citizens will be sick and tired if all we achieve at Cancun is a blame game over who is to blame for not doing anything," she said.
Most nations gave hopes of a quick all-encompassing treaty to curb greenhouse gases after world leaders at a 2009 summit in Copenhagen failed to work out a deal to avert projected heat waves, floods, droughts and rising sea levels.
Even a patchwork of smaller deals is now not certain for Cancun.
"We are in a very, very troubling situation," said Achim Steiner, head of the U.N. Environment Programme, saying many nations blamed the economic downturn for less action.
But he predicted that factors including more extreme weather, such as the floods in Pakistan or the drought in Russia that pushed up grain prices, would eventually bring global cooperation on a binding U.N. deal.
Christiana Figueres, head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat, said that the Copenhagen summit had taught the world that there was no "magic bullet" to solve climate change.
She said Cancun can agree a set of decisions -- such as on finance, technology or measures to protect tropical forests -- that might be turned into a formal treaty at later meetings.
"Governments do need to double their efforts between now and Cancun," she said.
GROUP OF 20
Some experts say the talks could shift from the United Nations to other groups, such as the G20 which includes all big emitters -- China, the United States, the European Union, Russia and India.
"The talks are going nowhere," said Bjorn Lomborg, Danish author of "The Skeptical Environmentalist". He said the world should abandon the U.N. process and agree to invest $100 billion a year in new clean technologies such as wind or solar power.
Figueres and Steiner said it was wrong to predict the demise of the U.N. track.
An objection to groups such as the G20 or G8 was that they excluded 3 or 4 billion people in poor nations, from Bangladesh to small island states in the Pacific, who have done little to cause global warming but are most at risk.
The world cannot afford to ignore their views, Steiner said.
"The multilateral process is ... cumbersome and necessarily a slow process ... but absolutely indispensable," Figueres said.
Last week in China, a final round of preparatory talks for Cancun was hit by disputes between Beijing and Washington, the top greenhouse gas emitters, about how to share out responsibility for combating climate change.
The United States, where President Barack Obama has failed to persuade the Senate to agree emissions cuts by 2020, says China must do far more. Beijing retorts that Washington must take the lead as the world's richest economy.
Investors have scant hopes for Cancun.
"It would be nice to get a sense that direction is moving forwards rather than backwards," said Rob Lake, head of sustainability and governance at Dutch pension fund APG.
A U.N. advisory group agreed in Ethiopia on Tuesday that it was feasible for rich nations to keep a promise made in Copenhagen of raising $100 billion a year in aid for developing nations from 2020 despite austerity in many donors.
Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, who co-chaired the talks, said penalties on carbon emissions would be a major source of the funds. "I hope that this report will be ... a useful input to the (U.N.) negotiations," he said. (Additional reporting by Pete Harrison in Brussels, David Fogarty in Singapore, Gerard Wynn and Nina Chestney in London and Ernest Scheyder in New York; Editing by Janet Lawrence)
Japan sees China, India backsliding on climate
* Japan urges emerging nations to keep Copenhagen pledges
* Copenhagen accord covers over 80 pct of global emissions
* Japan keeps looking to bilateral emission-reduction deals
Risa Maeda Reuters AlertNet 13 Oct 10;
TOKYO, Oct 13 (Reuters) - China and India are deviating from an accord they took part in last December to fight global warming, slowing the progress of U.N. climate talks, a key delegate from the Japanese government said on Wednesday.
Jun Arima, Deputy Director-General for Environmental Affairs at Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, added that the backtracking undermined Japan's willingness to contribute funds that developing countries are seeking to mitigate the impact of cutting greenhouse gas emissions on their economies.
Facing the risk of a deadlock in U.N. talks, Japan will keep trying to make bilateral deals with countries in Asia to reduce CO2 emissions blamed for warming the globe, employing Japanese clean-energy technologies, and aim to achieve its own emission-reduction pledge, Arima told the Reuters Global Climate and Alternative Energy Summit.
"As a negotiator, it is impossible to ask taxpayers here to shoulder the cost for mitigation so long as there is little transparency in emission cuts by developing countries," he said, referring to resistance to accepting transparent ways to measure, report and verify claimed emission cuts.
Arima said he was disappointed to see China and India undermining their pledges for emission cuts listed under the Copenhagen Accord, because the deal, if and when accepted as the basis for a legally binding agreement, would cover more than 80 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.
BILATERAL AGREEMENTS
China has responded to developed countries' criticisms on climate issues by stating that it is taking action, while the advanced economies are responsible for most of the emissions fuelling global warming. [ID:nSGE69801R]
The United Nations' Kyoto Protocol, which commits almost 40 rich nations excluding the United States to curb emissions by 2012, covers less than 30 percent of the total.
"We'd like to keep seeking a legally binding pact with balanced responsibilities between developed and developing countries, based on the Copenhagen Accord," Arima said.
In August, Japan selected 15 groups of companies that aim to offset a portion of the world's fifth-biggest emitter's greenhouse gas output by offering low-carbon technologies in eight Asian countries. [ID:nTOE678084]
In return, Japan is expected to use the offsets generated by any such bilateral technology transfer agreements to help it meet a pledge to cut its greenhouse emissions by 25 percent from 1990 levels by 2020. That pledge is conditioned on all major emitters adopting similar targets.
The government has closed a second tender to subsidise companies to do feasibility studies on such emission-reduction plans.
The number of applications for the second and last round totalled about 50, Arima said, reflecting high corporate interest. The results are expected to be announced next week.
One option to make bilateral deals attractive to emerging countries would be for the Japanese government or corporations to buy all of the carbon offsets generated by the adoption of Japan-originated technology, he said.
"There is risk to taking a wait-and-see attitude toward the U.N. talks because global warming is happening, and we should encourage private investment in this sector," he said. (Editing by Edmund Klamann)
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