Best of our wild blogs: 18 Oct 10

A forgotten mangrove?
from Urban Forest

Setting Up the Ideal Garden: Garden Birdbaths to Feeders
from Bird Ecology Study Group

Monday Morgue: 18th October 2010
from The Lazy Lizard's Tales

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Food recycling firm wins Singapore government funding

Effort to boost bio-gas production among five green projects picked
Grace Chua Straits Times 18 Oct 10;

WHEN food or organic waste breaks down, the gas methane, which can power electricity generators, is released.

But with the Singapore diet typically rich in grease and meat, this gas is not being produced as efficiently. This is because proteins and fatty acids from meat and grease slow down the process.

To get around this, local waste management firm IUT Global has hooked up with Nanyang Technological University researchers to find more efficient ways to produce this valuable gas.

For this effort to develop sustainable-energy technology here, IUT was picked as one of five companies to receive funding from the Energy Market Authority (EMA) for its research.

The other four projects, selected from 88 proposals, aim to build:

# A virtual power plant to tap the excess capacity of industrial factories;

# A better battery system for electric vehicles;

# More efficient motors for air-conditioners and cranes; and

# Security systems for 'smart' power grids.

To get these off the ground, the EMA has set aside up to $10 million under its Smart Energy Challenge programme, which was unveiled last year during Singapore International Energy Week, a conference and exhibition for energy issues and technologies.

The money comes from its $25 million Energy Research Development Fund, set up to broaden Singapore's array of energy sources, cut down on energy intensity and develop the industry.

This year's Energy Week, to run from Oct 27 until Nov 4, is expected to pull in up to 12,000 industry players, policymakers and academics from Singapore and abroad to share expertise and perhaps collaborate on energy projects.

Jointly organised by the EMA and think-tank Energy Studies Institute, the conference will be the third since 2008.

In a recent interview, IUT chief executive Edwin Khew noted that its bio-gas plant was running under capacity for two reasons: the food waste recycling rate here is low, and the food waste collected is contaminated with plastics and other tableware. 'Increasing efficiency by 20, 30 or 40 per cent would allow us to generate a lot more power from the same amount of waste,' he said.

EMA chief Lawrence Wong said it hoped to see Singapore-based energy solutions developed under the Smart Energy Challenge. These will address energy demands in Singapore and capture business opportunities abroad, he added.

The initiative is part of a national push to grow the water and environment-technology sector, which includes developing alternative energy sources and increasing energy efficiency.

The Government is aiming for the clean energy industry to contribute

$1.7 billion to Singapore's gross domestic product by 2015, and for the sector to provide 7,000 jobs in areas like solar power, fuel cells and carbon services.

The Government recently announced that German firm Bosch would develop charging stations for electric vehicles in a national test-bed scheme.

And last month, solar panel conglomerate Hanlong Group announced it would set up its $134 million international headquarters and research and development centre here.

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Long-term planning cut flood-prone areas in Singapore

PUB veteran helped design drainage system that has reduced such areas by 98%
Chang Ai-Lien, Straits Times 18 Oct 10;

PUB veteran Yap Kheng Guan knows Singapore's extensive network of drains like the back of his hand - after all, he built many of them.

Drains have been his passion in his 35-year career at the Environment Ministry and the national water agency PUB, which is responsible for drainage issues.

He has stood beside floodwaters as pig and water buffalo carcasses floated past in the 1970s. He has blasted through granite to build underground drainage tunnels.

But the seeds of his career in drainage were planted much earlier.

His secondary school, St Andrew's near Potong Pasir Village, was built on elevated ground, he said. It would be closed during bad floods that happened during the rainy season so that it could serve as a refugee centre for people in the area whose homes were sometimes flooded up to the roof.

As a boy scout, he helped to distribute blankets and food to these people.

Said the soft-spoken 58-year-old: 'This really brought home to me the impact of flooding, and shaped my decision later when I had the chance to improve the situation for Singapore.'

Starting off as an engineer handling drainage projects in 1975, he has witnessed some of the nation's most devastating floods, including the December 1978 deluge which holds the record for the highest amount of rainfall in a day in the last 60 years - 512 mm.

Seven people died, including five who drowned, and about 1,000 people had to be rescued and evacuated.

'The moment the waters subsided, we would be there to make sure that debris was cleared. We were on call 24/7 and we wouldn't have had it any other way,' he said.

'There was a sense of urgency for myself and my colleagues, especially because all the new towns were coming up and this industrialisation would only make the flooding situation worse unless we expanded and enlarged our drainage systems.'

Singapore, with its high-intensity rainfall and an average of 240cm of rain each year, as well as its low-lying land surrounded by the sea and its high tides, was already a flood zone waiting to happen. With more buildings coming up, the situation was only set to get worse.

Part of the challenge then was to convince other agencies in charge of public housing and transportation, for instance, that land had to be set aside for drains and also kept in reserve for future flood alleviation systems.

'When the country expands and urbanises, you have only one chance. All that we have in place now, including Marina Barrage, was mapped out 20 to 30 years ago,' he said.

By doing so, engineers and planners have managed to reduce flood-prone areas to 62ha this year, 98 per cent less than the 3,178ha in 1970. With ongoing efforts, the figure is set to go down to 40ha by 2013.

Over the last 30 years, the Government has spent $2 billion on upgrading drainage infrastructure. About $150 million is spent each year on such works.

Transforming the system from that of natural streams and smaller canals to the comprehensive network of drains and canals of today came with its own set of demands.

Marine clay in catchment areas such as the Geylang River and Marina Barrage posed one huge challenge. 'The soil was like toothpaste and the piles just sank right into it,' said Mr Yap.

'In Geylang, we had to devise a chemical treatment to strengthen the soil by pumping pressurised cement into it.'

At Marina Barrage, piles had to be driven 60m deep to reach firm soil.

Special care was spent on roads, tunnels, the MRT system and other crucial areas. Ground openings, ventilation ducts and access to underground facilities were built at least 1m higher than the highest recorded flood levels. At MRT stations, for example, stairs at the entrance were built to prevent water from entering.

'That's why the MRT system has been dry since it started,' said Mr Yap.

Now a senior director at PUB, he still has a mental map of the more than 7,000km of drainage fanning across the island. Stretched out end to end, the drains would extend from Singapore to Sydney, Australia, and beyond.

He was among the first at Stamford Canal in Orchard Road after freak floods hit on June 16 and July 17 this year.

'Doing this has become second nature, although I'm no longer in charge of drains,' he explained.

He said there can never be a zero-flood situation because it would be too expensive and land-intensive to create monster drains big enough to handle freak weather.

'The question is, do you design for the mother of all storms, or can you strike a practical balance?'

Generally, drains are designed to cater to the heaviest rainfall to hit an area every five years, based on factors such as run-off, rain intensity and the size of the catchment area.

For sensitive areas such as the airport, the calculation is based on the heaviest rainfall over 50 to 100 years.

'Of course an engineer's wish is to be super kiasu (Hokkien for 'afraid to lose') but the result would be huge, extremely expensive canals that come at the expense of other things such as the roads and trees. And most of the time, these drains would be empty.

'Yes there will still be floods, but I am proud to say we have a sound system in place which will see us through for many, many years.'

Did Marina Barrage make Orchard Road floods worse?
Straits Times 18 Oct 10;

AFTER floods hit Orchard Road on June 16 and July 17 this year, various theories were floated by people wondering why the shopping district had been deluged. Chang Ai-Lien puts these questions to the PUB.

# Did Marina Barrage contribute to the flooding because water levels at the barrage were too high and not pumped out fast enough, causing a backlog?

The barrage keeps seawater out, acting as a tidal barrier to reduce flash floods in low-lying city areas. Its nine crest gates are lowered if there is excess water in the basin. If heavy rains coincide with high tide, seven drainage pumps are activated to remove excess storm water.

During the highest tides, some parts of Singapore can be flooded even in the absence of rain. Marina Barrage makes sure that this is not a problem in the surrounding 26ha of flood-prone areas because it keeps water at a constant mid-tide level, shaving 1.5m to 1.7m off high-tide levels.

Weather conditions and water levels are monitored constantly, and the moment set levels at the barrage are exceeded by around 10cm or so, water is discharged. This has been done many times and there has been no case where water has not been released fast enough.

In addition, the section of Orchard Road which was flooded is too far away to be affected by the barrage. During heavy rain, the influence of Marina Barrage at Stamford Canal does not go beyond Handy Road near The Cathay Cineplex. At such times (heavy rains), water levels in the canal beyond this point have remained the same with or without the barrage.

# Could new developments along Orchard Road, such as Ion Orchard, have contributed to the flooding because they have depleted green space which would previously have soaked up the water?

Of three major developments in the vicinity, one - Ion Orchard - used to be 1.86ha of green space. Orchard Central and 313@Somerset both used to be carparks.

PUB has a comprehensive drainage masterplan drawn up in the mid-1970s, which guides the provision of drainage systems and sets aside drainage reserves for future requirements, while planning flood alleviation projects to target known flood-prone areas.

Drainage capacity is planned for even before the bulldozers come in. Developments such as Ion Orchard and the effect of the potential increase in surface run-off were factored in when building and upgrading the Stamford Canal in Orchard Road.

All the new buildings in Orchard Road did not flood because they had prevention measures in place such as ramps at basements.

PUB is now helping older buildings such as Liat Towers and Lucky Plaza, which were hit by the recent floods, to do the same. Prior to this year, the last time Orchard Road was flooded was in 1984.

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UN meeting aims to set species-saving goals

Malcolm Foster, Associated Press 17 Oct 10;

TOKYO – An international conference aimed at preserving the planet's diversity of plants and animals in the face of pollution and habitat loss begins Monday in Japan, facing some of the same divisions between rich and poor nations that have stalled U.N. climate talks.

Seventeen years after the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity was enacted, it has yet to achieve any major initiative to slow the alarming rate of species extinction and loss of ecosystems despite global goals set in 2002 to make major improvement by this year.

Frogs and other amphibians are most at risk of disappearing, coral reefs are the species deteriorating most rapidly and nearly a quarter of all plant species are threatened, according to the convention, which is convening the two-week meeting.

A key task facing delegates will be to hammer out a set of 20 strategic goals for the next decade.

Unless steps are taken to reverse the loss of Earth's biodiversity, scientists warn that the rate of extinction will climb and natural habitats will be degraded or destroyed — contributing to climate change and threatening agricultural production, fish stocks in the oceans and access to clean water.

Scientists estimate that the Earth is losing species 100 to 1,000 times the historical average, upsetting the intricately interconnected natural world. Prominent insect biologist E.O. Wilson at Harvard University argues that a man-made environmental crisis is pushing the Earth toward its sixth big extinction phase, the greatest since the dinosaurs were wiped out 65 million years ago.

However, some battle lines have already formed between developed and developing nations over the convention's strategic mission statement — whether to take action to halt or simply slow the loss of biodiversity by 2020 — and finding a way to equitably share the benefits of genetic resources, such as plants native to poor countries that have been converted into lucrative drug products in the West.

The convention, which will bring together 8,000 delegates from 193 member nations in Nagoya, 170 miles (270 kilometers) west of Tokyo, was born out of the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. So far, the convention has failed to meet a series of goals set eight years ago to preserve the world's biodiversity against overfishing, deforestation and pollution.

Conservation groups attribute part of that to a lack of political will and funding. They also say that some of the goals until now have been fuzzy, and partly blame their own failure to make a convincing case that action is needed — something they hope to change in Nagoya.

"We haven't been able to successfully get across a message that our society and economies ultimately depend on this biodiversity," said Bill Jackson, deputy director-general of the International Union for Conservation of Nature. "We have to fix the problem within the next 10 years."

Host country Japan, meanwhile, will be looking to this conference as a chance to portray itself as a protector of biodiversity after helping kill off many of the measures at the CITES, or Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, meeting earlier this year that would have limited the trade in tuna, sharks and other marine species.

Divisions between rich and poor nations over how to fairly share in the access and benefits of genetic resources could undermine the gathering, observers say.

For example, the rosy periwinkle, a plant native to Madagascar, produces two cancer-fighting substances. Drug companies have grown the plants and profited from them, but little of the money has returned to Madagascar. Developing countries argue they should receive royalties or a share of the benefits of such natural resources.

The convention aims to address this problem by setting up a legal framework by which producers and users can negotiate to reach mutually agreeable terms to ensure equitable sharing of resources and their benefits.

"Developing countries are putting pressure on developed countries and saying if we don't reach an agreement on this issue, we won't give you what you want on the strategic plan," said Patricia Yakabe Malentaqui, international media manager at the environmental group Conservation International. "All the parties are at risk of polarizing the debate."

Another contentious goal will be setting a percentage of the Earth's land and oceans that should be protected by 2020.

Currently, 13 percent of land and less than 1 percent of open ocean is protected — which can range from a strict nature reserve to an area managed for sustainable use of natural resources. Those percentages need to be raised to 25 percent and 15 percent respectively, Conservation International says.

But even if delegates manage to agree to such targets, carrying them out in real life is another matter. Businesses will likely oppose any limits on their activities and population growth means setting aside such protected areas will become increasingly difficult. Furthermore, the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity has no mechanism for enforcing compliance.

Environmental groups argue that creating protected areas reap huge economic rewards. For example, there is plenty of evidence, says IUCN's Jackson, that providing safe havens for fisheries help their populations recover and flourish.

Saving Nature, Economies At Stake In Japan U.N. Talks
David Fogarty and Chisa Fujioka PlanetArk 18 Oct 10;

Envoys from around the world meet in Japan from Monday to try to combat the destruction of nature and to value properly the services of forests, coral reefs and oceans that underpin livelihoods and economic growth.

The United Nations says natural resources, or natural capital, are being lost at an alarming rate and urgent steps need to be taken to combat the destruction of plant and animal species that ensure mankind's survival.

Envoys will hold two weeks of talks in the Japanese city of Nagoya to try to win agreement on new targets and funding to help nations save and better manage vanishing ecosystems.

A treaty on sharing the genetic richness of nature between countries and corporations is also a central focus of the talks that are the culmination of years of negotiations.

Developing nations want a fairer deal in sharing the wealth of their ecosystems, such as medicines created by big pharmaceutical firms, and back the draft treaty, or "access and benefit-sharing" protocol. Failure to agree the pact could derail the talks in Nagoya, conservation groups say.

Drug firms in some rich nations are worried about how it will work in practice, for example, making it harder to get patents.

"Nagoya is a milestone," said the head of the United Nations' Environment Programme, Achim Steiner. "It's the most important attempt in a decade to tackle the issue of biodiversity and ecosystem services," he told Reuters.

The United Nations says countries must fully value the benefits ecosystems bring to economies, such as food, water, clean air and medicines.

Forests are a key source of fresh water and clean air and they help regulate the climate. Coral reefs and mangroves are crucial fish breeding grounds that support mulit-billion dollar fisheries, while also protecting coastlines from storms.

TARGETS

The meeting aims to set new 2020 targets to guide nations after governments largely failed to meet a 2010 target of achieving a significant reduction in biodiversity losses.

Nations will decide either to set a 2020 deadline to halt the loss of biodiversity or opt for taking action toward halting loss of plant and animal species, the draft text shows.

Under a 20-point plan, nations will consider goals covering greater protection of fish stocks, halving or halting the loss and degradation of natural habitats, phase out incentives harmful to biodiversity and conserve much larger land and marine areas.

But developing nations, which own much of the remaining richness of plant and animal species, want a 100-fold increase in funding to achieve these targets.

Steiner said talks about funding could become difficult.

He said rich nations benefitted from nature's riches in the oceans and forests elsewhere on the planet and should be willing to share the costs of protecting and restoring ecosystems.

"Otherwise it is a very unfair deal to save the world's biodiversity, with developing nations having to bear the brunt of the costs," he said.

But he said all governments must put policies and incentives in place to protect nature and that there was only about a decade left to take steps to drive government and business action.

For poorer nations, agreement on the protocol to share genetic benefits could unlock billions of dollars.

Some drug makers, though, are wary.

"A massive amount of money is already spent on research and development for pharmaceutical goods," said Yuji Watanabe, director of intellectual property at Astellas Pharma, Japan's second-biggest drugmaker.

"So additional costs such as in the form of royalties, would completely change the basis for companies' profitability. It could weaken the drive to develop new, improved drugs."

Steiner acknowledged the protocol was "a major frontier in international policy" because it challenged fundamental assumptions about how patents and intellectual property worked.

NATURE ON THE BALANCE SHEET

But the United Nations said putting a value on nature is the only way to make it visible to businesses to help them fully understand the costs of damaging or destroying it.

A U.N.-backed study this month said global environmental damage caused by human activity in 2008 totaled $6.6 trillion, equivalent to 11 percent of global gross domestic product.

The Nagoya talks also come during increasingly fraught U.N. climate negotiations. Lack of trust between rich and poor nations led to a non-binding climate deal in Copenhagen last year that left many gaps.

"We need a success. What we don't need is a second Copenhagen, that's for sure," Gunter Mitlacher, biodiversity director for WWF Germany, told a briefing in Tokyo on Thursday.

(Editing by Robert Birsel)

UN Japan forum 'key time' to solve global nature crisis
Richard Black, BBC News 18 Oct 10;

A major UN meeting aimed at finding solutions to the world's nature crisis is set to open in Japan.

Species are going extinct at 100-1,000 times the natural rate, key habitat is disappearing, and ever more water and land is being used to support people.

Some economists say this is already damaging human prosperity.

The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) meeting will discuss why governments failed to curb these trends by 2010, as they pledged in 2002.

Delegates will also try to finalise a long-delayed agreement on exploiting natural resources in a fair and equitable way.

Before the start of the two-week meeting, Achim Steiner, executive director of the UN Environment Programme (Unep), said it was a crucial point in attempts to stem the loss of biodiversity.

"There are moments when issues mature in terms of public perception and political attention, and become key times for action," he told the BBC.

"And this is a moment when the recognition that biodiversity and ecosystems need preservation urgently is high, when people are concerned by it, and are demanding more action from the global community."

A UN-sponsored team of economists has calculated that loss of biodiversity and ecosystems is costing the human race $2 trillion to $5 trillion a year.
Going downhill

Governments first agreed back in 1992, at the Rio Earth Summit, that the ongoing loss of biodiversity needed attention. The CBD was born there, alongside the UN climate convention.

It aims to preserve the diversity of life on Earth, facilitate the sustainable use of plants and animals, and allow fair and equitable exploitation of natural genetic resources.

The convention acquired teeth 10 years later, at the Johannesburg Summit on Sustainable Development.

Noting that nature's diversity is "the foundation upon which human civilisation has been built", governments pledged "to achieve by 2010 a significant reduction of the current rate of biodiversity loss at the global, regional and national level as a contribution to poverty alleviation and to the benefit of all life on Earth".

Since 2002, most measures of the health of the natural world have gone downhill rather than up.

The majority of species studied over the period are moving closer to extinction rather than further away, while important natural habitat such as forests, wetlands, rivers and coral reefs continue to shrink or be disturbed.

"Since the 1960s we've doubled our food consumption, our water consumption," said Jonathan Baillie, director of conservation programmes at the Zoological Society of London (ZSL).

"The world's population has doubled, and the economy has grown sixfold; in 2050 there will be 9.2 billion people on the planet."

There are signs of change in some regions. The forest area is growing in Europe and China, while deforestation is slowing in Brazil.

About 12% of the world's land is now under some form of protection.

But in other areas, countries - particularly in the tropics - have made little progress towards the 2010 target.

Government delegates here will consider adopting a new set of targets for 2020 that aim to tackle the causes of biodiversity loss - the expansion of agriculture, pollution, climate change, the spread of alien invasive species, the increasing use of natural resources - which conservationists believe might be a more effective option than setting targets on nature itself.
Difficult birth?

Delegates will also be negotiating a draft agreement on exploiting the genetic resources of the natural world fairly and sustainably.

The protocol, named Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS), aims to prevent "biopiracy" while enabling societies with abundant plant and animal life to profit from any drugs or other products that might be made from them.

Agreement on ABS has been pursued since 1992 without producing a result. But after four years of preparatory talks, officials believe the remaining differences can be hammered out here.

"We are confident that on 29 October, we'll celebrate the birth of another baby, with the support of all parties, and we'll have a protocol on access and benefit sharing," said Ahmed Djoghlaf, CBD executive secretary.

"This protocol will be a future investment for the human family as a whole."

However, the bitter politicking that has soured the atmosphere in a number of UN environment processes - most notably at the Copenhagen climate summit - threatens some aspects of the Nagoya meeting.

Some developing nations are insisting that the ABS protocol be signed off here before they will agree to the establishment of an international scientific panel to assess biodiversity issues.

The Intergovernmental science-policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) is due to be signed off during the current UN General Assembly session in New York.

Many experts believe it is necessary if scientific evidence on the importance of biodiversity loss is to be transmitted effectively to governments, in the same way that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assembles evidence that governments can use when deciding whether to tackle climate change.

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Bridging the orang utan gap at Kinabatangan, Malaysia

Muguntan Vanar The Star 18 Oct 10;

KOTA KINABALU: A new orang utan rope bridge has been created in the Lower Kinabatangan wildlife sanctuary to allow the primates living within the fragmented forests to reconnect with each other.

The 40m-long rope bridge, made of fire hoses, was set up across Sungai Takala, a tributary of Sungai Kinabatangan in another effort by local and international conservationists to ensure that orang utans in trapped fragmented forests do not become extinct.

The teams involved took three days to complete the project.

The project, which was undertaken by the Sabah Wildlife Department, the HUTAN non-governmental organisation and Danau Girang Field Centre (DGFC), was funded by Borneo Conservation Trust Japan and expertise was provide by Ropeskills Rigging Sdn Bhd.

“Genetic studies, which were carried out in the Lower Kinabatangan forest fragments, showed that orang utans are estimated to go extinct within our lifetime if they are not reconnected through schemes like the rope bridges,” Sabah Wildlife department director Dr Laurentius Ambu said.

DGFC director Dr Benoit Goosens said the rope bridges were important in efforts to stop in-breeding among orang utans within the fragmented forests.

The project was initiated by the Kinabatangan Orang Utan Conservation Project seven years ago,

“If we do not set up a corridor, substantial levels of inbreeding will occur, and this will lead to their extinction in the most isolated fragments of the wildlife sanctuary,” he added.

Goosens said similar bridges will be set up at tributaries in the vicinity of DGFC following a survey carried out by HUTAN last year which identified sites suitable for bridge construction to alleviate the issues of orang utan population fragmentation.

Ropeskills Rigging Sdn Bhd operations director Simon Amos supervised the construction of the rope bridge.

He added rigging and tree climbing were essential skills needed to establish the bridge and the camera trap, which will eventually capture evidence that orang utans are actually using the bridge.

Bridges built to help Borneo orangutans meet mates
Julia Zappei, Associated Press Yahoo News 18 Oct 10;

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – Endangered orangutans on Borneo island are using fire hoses slung across rivers by humans to help them move around isolated forests to potentially meet new mates and boost the species' chances for survival, an environmental group said Monday.

Malaysian authorities are building more of the makeshift bridges after some orangutans were spotted using them over the past year, said Marc Ancrenaz, co-founder of French-based conservation group Hutan, which is working with Malaysian state wildlife department officials on orangutan protection.

Conservationists estimate about 11,000 orangutans live in Malaysia's Sabah state in Borneo, but many are isolated from each other because swaths of forest have been cut for development, logging and oil palm plantations.

Environmental groups and wildlife authorities have been hooking up old fire hoses strung together between trees on different sides of rivers to help orangutans — which cannot swim — swing or walk across them. The first bridge was set up seven years ago, but it was only last year that an orangutan was captured on camera using one of them.

Witnesses have seen others doing so since then, prompting officials to build more bridges.

"It takes a while for the animals to get used to it. ... If we are not able to reconnect them, they will go extinct very soon," Ancrenaz said.

But the bridges are "just a quick fix" because the long-term solution would be reforestation, Ancrenaz said.

Benoit Goossens, an adviser for the Sabah Wildlife Department, said more bridges will soon also be hung across oil palm plantation moats.

Studies of the orangutan population in part of Sabah indicated they might go extinct within 60 years due to inbreeding and loss of habitat unless the jungle patches are reconnected.

Hutan estimates the number of orangutans in Sabah has decreased eight-fold in the past 15 years, though conservation efforts in recent times have slowed the decline.

Last year, Sabah's government announced it would bar companies from planting palm oil and other crops near rivers to preserve the natural habitat of orangutans and other threatened animals. Authorities working with the World Wildlife Fund have also pledged to replant trees in crucial territory over the next five years.

Orang utan get 'highway' of fire hoses
The New Straits Times 21 Oct 10;

KINABATANGAN: A rope bridge made of fire hoses was erected across Sungai Takala, a tributary of the Kinabatangan river, in Lot 6 of the Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary to provide a corridor for the isolated orang utan population in the area.

The project undertaken by the Sabah Wildlife Department (SWD), non-governmental organisation, HUTAN, and Danau Girang Field Centre (DGFC), was funded by the Borneo Conservation Trust Japan and supported by expertise from Ropeskills Rigging Sdn Bhd.

"Genetic studies have been carried out by Cardiff University, HUTAN and our department.

"The data shows that orang utan populations in the Lower Kinabatangan forest fragments are expected to become extinct in our lifetime if they are not reconnected through schemes like the rope bridges," said SWD director Dr Laurentius Ambu.

The project was initiated by HUTAN's Kinabatangan orang utan conservation project seven years ago after genetic data showed that non-intervention by corridor establishment would produce substantial levels of inbreeding and lead to orang utan extinction in the most isolated fragments of the wildlife sanctuary.

The building of the bridge was supervised by Simon Amos, the operations director at Ropeskills Rigging Sdn Bhd, who has just opened an indoor climbing centre at Likas Sport Complex in Kota Kinabalu.

"Rigging and tree climbing were essential skills needed to establish the bridge and the camera trap which will eventually capture evidence that orang utans use the bridge," said Amos.

"With the help of Japanese friends from BCT Japan and staff and students from DGFC, it took us three days to establish the bridge above the 40-m wide Sungai Takala."

DGFC director Dr Benoit Goossens said similar bridges would be set up at tributaries in the vicinity of DGFC following a survey carried out by HUTAN last year which identified sites suitable for bridge construction to alleviate the issues of orang utan population fragmentation.

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China unveils ambitious plan to protect wildlife at UN talks

Foreign supporters say the move will put the country at the forefront of global efforts to reverse habitat and species decline
Jonathan Watts The Guardian 18 Oct 10;

China has unveiled its most ambitious conservation plan in a generation, ahead of the opening tomorrow of a crucial UN biodiversity conference.

Foreign supporters say the move will put China at the forefront of global efforts to reverse habitat and species decline.

But critics have warned that the good intentions, as with many of the proposals that will arise at the UN meeting in Nagoya, Japan, are likely to be outweighed by economic interests. They also allege the plans are so domestically focused they will do little to halt the over-consumption and illegal trade of scarce species.

China's biodiversity action plan designates 52 priority conservation areas, covering 23% of the country; it promises state funds for protection; and sets a target of controlling biodiversity loss by 2020.

Sichuan, has been the first province to put the plan into action. It has set aside about 930m yuan (£87m) and identified five ecological protection areas: one links to existing giant panda reserves, another restores an area damaged by industry, two conserve semi-tropical flora and fauna, and another offsets the impact of dams. The national plan, which builds on China's existing 2,500 nature reserves, has been praised by foreign conservationists.

"These are solid commitments. If China can implement this plan systematically, then they will be managing better than any other country," said Matthew Durnin, lead scientist in north Asia for the US group Nature Conservancy, which has advised the drafters of the new strategy.

Ouyang Zhiyun, vice president of the Ecological Society of China, said moves were also afoot to revise wildlife protection laws and ramp up "ecological transfer funds" that reward counties for safeguarding areas that sequester carbon, conserve soil and biodiversity. This year the government has budgeted 30bn yuan for such environmental service payments, up from 12bn yuan last year.

Gretchen Daily, associate professor at Stanford University, claimed China went further than any other country in embedding "natural capital" into decision making.

But some conservationists have warned that poor enforcement often undermines such initiatives. "Sometimes the laws are not well implemented so the destruction … goes unpunished," said Yan Xie, of the Wildlife Conservation Society. "China has done a great deal, but we cannot be optimistic about biodiversity conservation while the underlying problems remain of habitat loss, pollution, overuse of pesticides and over consumption."

The 10th conference of the Convention on Biological Diversity, lasting two weeks, will try to set targets for biodiversity protection and establish rules on sustainable and fairly shared genetic resources. But, noting the failure to meet the goals it set 10 years ago, some critics doubt the effectiveness of its voluntary actions, particularly given weak international controls on the wildlife trade and the exploitation of oceans that do not fall within national boundaries.

Without cross-border arrangements, protection in one country pushes the environmental stress elsewhere, usually on to poorer nations.

Following a widespread ban on logging in 1998, China's forests have started to recover but its paper mills, flooring firms and furniture makers consume more imported wood than ever, accelerating forest loss in Siberia, Indonesia, Tanzania and Brazil. Wealthy consumers, meanwhile, continue to buy foods and traditional medicines made illegally from rare species, such as the pangolin and tiger.

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Papua New Guinea forests dying in decades

James Cook University Science Alert 18 Oct 10;

The accessible forests of Papua New Guinea are likely to be logged or disappear in the next decade or two, according to a leading international team of scientists.

In an article in the journal Nature this week, the scientists say that weak governance in Papua New Guinea is allowing foreign logging companies to over-exploit the country’s native forests.

“Most accessible forests in Papua New Guinea are being seriously over-exploited,” said lead author Professor William Laurance of James Cook University in Cairns, Australia. “The rate of logging is definitely unsustainable.”

“Papua New Guinea has some of the world’s most biologically and culturally rich forests, and they’re vanishing before our eyes,” he said.

Titus Kakul, a scientist from Papua New Guinea also based at James Cook University, said it was almost impossible to control the foreign logging companies.

“Corruption plays a big role—it often defeats efforts to manage forests sustainably,” he said.

Timber in Papua New Guinea is mostly cut by Malaysian logging corporations and then exported as raw logs to China. There, it is made into furniture and other wood products and then exported around the world.

“Despite all the logging, Papua New Guinea isn’t getting enough financial benefit,” said Rod Keenan of the University of Melbourne, Australia. “Instead of shipping raw logs to China they should be exporting more in products like sawn timber, plywood and furniture. This will create much more employment, training and value-adding for the country.”

“There also needs to be more support for community forestry,” said Keenan.

Environmental prospects in Papua New Guinea are probably worsening, say the authors. In May, the country’s parliament changed land-rights protections for indigenous groups, making it more difficult for them to sue offending corporations for environmental damage.

And the government has frozen proposals for 120 new conservation areas to avoid conflicts with loggers and other resource developments.

“These are serious mistakes,” said co-author Navjot Sodhi at the National University of Singapore. “Traditional land-rights protections should be reinstated, and a big push is needed to improve forest governance and slow rampant logging.”

The authors emphasize that international carbon finance could help Papua New Guinea improve its forest management. According to some estimates, the country could gain up to $500 million annually in payments from industrial nations designed to slow forest loss and reduce harmful greenhouse gases.

“We’re clinging to this hope because right now it looks like a tragedy in the making,” said William Laurance.

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Malaysia air quality drops but remains at acceptable levels

The Star 18 Oct 10;

PETALING JAYA: The air quality in recent days has worsened but the Department of Environment says there is no cause for concern.

DOE director-general Datuk Rosnani Ibarahim said the air pollutant index (API) was below 100 and averages at 60 throughout the country.

The index had gradually dropped from Oct 13, when a general reading of 37 areas in the country showed 76, to 51 as of 11am yesterday.

The majority of the air quality measurement stations in areas with unhealthy air readings reported that dust content was high.

Healthy air levels are supposed to be below 50.

Batu Pahat and Muar recorded the highest readings of around 90 API yesterday, said Rosnani, adding that the DOE was closely monitoring the situation.

She also said bush fires and open burning have been spotted over Sumatra and her department had been alerted.

In Johor Baru, The Star office reported that Batu Pahat and Muar districts were engulfed by thick haze but the DOE had yet to trace its source.

The office received calls from residents who said they were baffled by the phenomenon.

Jenny Chan, 45, who was travelling home to Batu Pahat from Johor Baru, said the hazy conditions were visible from Parit Raja onwards.

“My brother, who was travelling from Kuala Lumpur, called me to say there were similar hazy conditions between Muar and Batu Pahat,” she said.

Batu Pahat resident S.K. Malini Devi, 23, said that the hazy conditions were prevalent in the morning.

“The haze cleared slightly by the late afternoon,” added the technology media graduate.

Johor DOE director Dr Zulkifli Abdul Rahman said the department was aware of the haze and was investigating its cause.

“We are investigating the cause of the haze but have yet to determine the source of the emissions,” he said.

He said as of 11am on Saturday, the API recorded at the air quality measurement station at Muar showed a level of 68.

Zulkifli said the public can get daily nationwide API updates via www.doe.gov.my.

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Save the Rain Forest ... Voluntarily

In Borneo, environmentalists hope local officials will promote sustainable-development projects, and end the fruitless antagonism between developers and activists
Patrick Barta Asian Wall Street Journal 18 Oct 10;

BARIO, Malaysia—Until recently, this town was one of the most isolated places in Asia. Then developers cut the first muddy road to Bario last year.

What happens next here and in other communities like it in Borneo will help determine whether the island's dwindling rain forest can be saved—and whether a new approach to managing forests world-wide can succeed.

Bario is in an area officially designated the Heart of Borneo, a new kind of conservation zone launched in 2007 to help protect the island's forest, one of the largest after the Amazon jungle.

Unlike other national parks and conservation areas, where logging and other activities are restricted by law, the Heart of Borneo is essentially a voluntary protection zone, in which environmentalists and government officials have formally pledged to work together to better manage an area roughly the size of Utah. Its borders were drawn in consultation with the World Wildlife Fund, and its management doesn't yet involve major new legal protections for the forest.

Instead, it relies on the goodwill of local officials—and their desire to avoid public censure—to give priority to sustainable-development projects within the area's borders and reject more-harmful development. Supporters hope the program will replace the often fruitless antagonism between activists, politicians and companies with cooperation to limit forest clearing—a result they hope can be exported elsewhere.

The governments of Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei, which each govern portions of the island and of the Heart of Borneo, have embraced the plan. It also has caught on with many residents, who have invoked the Heart of Borneo agreement in successfully lobbying government officials to rework two major development projects.
Limitations Emerge

But the limitations of the Heart of Borneo agreement are also becoming clearer as the project matures. Bario and other towns are in a part of the zone where the local government hasn't completed its plans to protect the forest. Skeptics call the program a public-relations exercise and question whether any agreement to limit development can survive without tougher legal protections. And many people in the area prefer development, which brings jobs.

The Heart of Borneo "hasn't fulfilled everything that I had hoped for," says Adam Tomasek, a project leader for the Heart of Borneo at the WWF in Jakarta, the Indonesian capital. "But I think the reality check is that this is not an easy thing to do. It's difficult for one country, much less three countries, to do something they've never done before at this scale. And we've seen progress."

Logging for timber, palm oil and paper products wiped out much of Borneo's jungle in the 1980s and 1990s. By 2005, only about half of the island's original forest remained.

For years, the WWF focused on surveying wildlife and on other projects on the island. But as time wore on and more trees fell, the WWF and other advocates decided such efforts were too fragmented, protecting pockets of forest rather than the whole ecosystem.

So the WWF helped the governments draw up borders for a protected area that it thought would provide enough land to sustain Borneo's wildlife—nearly a third of the island, or about 90,000 square miles. WWF officials lobbied the three governments to sign on by explaining that the economic viability of their countries—which rely heavily on logging and tourism—would be at risk if forest continued disappearing.

In 2007, Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei signed a declaration pledging to ensure the "effective management of forest resources and conservation of a network of protected areas" in the zone.
Early Success

Results were soon evident. A plan to slash up to 4.4 million acres of Borneo forest in Indonesia to make the world's largest palm-oil plantation was largely abandoned after the WWF and others complained it would undermine the Heart of Borneo plan. A network of new roads that was to cut through two national parks in Indonesia was rerouted after lobbying from the WWF and others.

The main problem with the Heart of Borneo, though, is that it doesn't compel governments to do much if they don't want to. This has proved particularly problematic in the Malaysian state of Sarawak in northern Borneo, where development pressures are intense.

The part of Sarawak that lies within the Heart of Borneo is the only area in the zone for which no government action plan has been approved to protect the forest as part of the program, WWF staff say. Massive palm-oil plantations are being built in the area, and a half-dozen major timber companies are expanding their operations there.

Sarawak government officials didn't respond to questions about their forestry management. In the past, the government has said it is committed to preserving forest for future generations.
Development Is Coming

Sarawak communities like Bario are where the battle is playing out. The town is little more than a collection of dirt roads and homes with metal roofs surrounded by rice paddies, with about 1,000 residents, a pool hall and a few karaoke shacks. Until recently, supplies had to be airlifted in by propeller planes.

In a bid to ease the town's isolation, the local leaders encouraged a Sarawak timber company to cut a dirt road connecting Bario with the coast. Although it takes as many as 20 hours to make the roughly 100-mile trip, local prices for sugar, fuel and other goods have tumbled as more traffic arrives.

"We have been asking for development ever since we joined Malaysia" in the 1960s, says Philip Lakai, Bario's paramount chief. "Now it's coming."

What shape that development will take, though, is a matter of concern to some Bario residents. The possibilities include greater agricultural trade and tourism, both of which now exist on a very small scale, and the arrival of timber or other forest-cutting companies.

Mr. Lakai says he's seen no downside to the town opening itself up to the outside world and doubts logging companies will be a problem in the area, which some residents argue has the wrong kinds of trees and climate for either timber or palm oil. More development will make it possible for younger people to find work, Mr. Lakai says.
Better Than Nothing?

But environmental activists and some residents fear that with the road now open, it is only a matter of time before forest-cutting companies arrive. That's especially worrisome for those who live in the forest and the townspeople who hunt there.

"It's good that they built a road," says Alau Adi, a tribal woman who lives with her family in a hut in the forest near Bario. "But we don't want any logging. They destroy the forest, and that destroys our life."

The WWF is working with locals to improve tourism infrastructure and train more guides—a strategy the organization hopes will generate enough tourism revenue to convince locals they're better off without larger-scale development.

Activists are also scrambling to map cultural sites in the forest, including stone megaliths scattered by ancestral tribal peoples. The government has promised to prohibit forest-clearing around the megaliths, the activists say. They hope to identify enough of the sites that timber companies will find it impossible to work because of all the off-limits areas.

The WWF is also working with Sarawak's largest timber companies to get them to change their practices so they can qualify for potentially valuable certifications from international organizations that promote sustainable forestry. That would help minimize any damage if loggers do come to places like Bario. One of the half-dozen major companies in the area, Ta Ann Holdings Bhd., has agreed.

Some residents in Bario remain skeptical. Florance Apu, a local guide who has followed the work of the WWF, says it is "good at meetings, but nothing much is happening" to stem the tide of development, though she says there has at least been progress in promoting tourism.

Officials at the WWF say they understand the skepticism—but add that limited oversight is better than no oversight at all. The Heart of Borneo "is a grand experiment," says Mr. Tomasek at the WWF. The environmental community is still learning how to make it work, he says.

Mr. Barta, based in Bangkok, is The Wall Street Journal's bureau chief for Southeast Asia. He can be reached at patrick.barta@wsj.com. Celine Fernandez, based in Kuala Lumpur, contributed to this article.

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Greenpeace: Palm-Oil Campaign Not Effort At Sabotage

Fidelis E Satriastanti Jakarta Globe 17 Oct 10;

Jakarta. International environmental group Greenpeace is denying accusations that it is waging a foreign-funded campaign aimed at sabotaging the palm oil industry in Indonesia.

Kumi Naidoo, executive director of Greenpeace International, said over the weekend that the group’s only motivation was preserving the environment for future generations.

“We are not trying to blacken [Indonesia’s] palm oil [industry]. In Brazil, we’re against soya and cattle ranches because they are the two main drivers of deforestation there. What are the two main drivers [of deforestation] in Indonesia? [The industries behind] pulp and paper and palm oil,” Kumi said.

“We are worried about what will happen to our children. If we continue [development] in nonsustainable ways, we will be destroying their future.”

Greenpeace Southeast Asia has been waging an aggressive campaign against palm oil companies that allegedly cause massive deforestation and forest degradation in Indonesia. In July 2010 it released a report titled “How Sinar Mas Is Pulping the Planet,” which accused one of the world’s leading pulp and paper companies, Sinar Mas-owned Asia Pulp & Paper, of crimes against the environment.

As a result of Greenpeace campaigns, major international buyers, such as Burger King, Unilever, Nestle and Kraft, have stopped buying palm oil from Sinar Mas and its subsidiaries.

A palm oil industry insider, who asked not to be named, questioned Greenpeace’s intentions.

“Not all [palm oil] companies run their business carelessly, you can’t generalize. This is a maneuver to weaken our palm oil industry because Indonesia has a very strong potential in this [field] and not all countries like that. They are afraid of us so they use these methods,” the source said.

Kumi said Greenpeace was not the first group to attack palm oil companies. “It’s easy and cheap to blame international NGOs and not address the real issues because Greenpeace Indonesia is not working in isolation and you might have seen other organizations’ demands for a moratorium [on palm oil plantation conversion],” he said.

“It’s not just us saying all that. For instance, take the recent official statement from the RSPO [Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil] warning Sinar Mas that it had breached certain moral standards. It’s own peers are saying that.”

RSPO, a group of industry planters, green groups and palm oil buyers, has publicly censured Sinar Mas Agro Resources & Technology by saying the company was in “serious noncompliance” with its principles.

“If only the [Greenpeace ship] Rainbow Warrior was allowed [to dock], we could have an open discussion and stress that we are not against palm oil per se, but against deforestation, and palm oil is driving deforestation,” Kumi said.

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Indonesian environmentalists launch film on ecological destruction in Kalimantan peat project

Walhi launches film on C Kalimantan ecological destruction
Antara 17 Oct 10;

Palangka Raya, C Kalimantan (ANTARA News) - The Central Kalimantan chapter of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Wahli) has launched a film showing ecological destruction caused by one million-hectare peat-land project in the province.

"The film tells about the obstacles faced by the people (in their struggle to regain their land) in the wake of the failed one million-hectare peat-land project in Central Kalimantan," Director of Walhi`s Central Kalimantan chapter Arie Rompas said on the sidelines of a function marking the chapter`s 30th anniversary here last Friday.

The film was dedicated to the struggle of the people who had been deprived of their rights to manage their land as a result of the project started in 1995, he said.

He said the project which had originally been planned to help the country achieve self-reliance in rice production inflicted losses on the people living in areas around the project, including Palangka Raya, Pulang Pisang, Kapuas and South Barito.

The people living in the areas had lost their rights to manage the environment and cultivate their land and had to bear the impact of environmental destruction due to the declining function of peat-land, he said.

On the other hand, the government`s policies to revitalize and rehabilitate the peat-land had been facing many obstacles, he said.

"What makes thing worse is the fact that policies on peat-land have been overlapping one another, including the issuance of a permit to a large-scale plantation company to operate in forested area in the one million-hectare peat-land project," he said.

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