Best of our wild blogs: 19 Oct 10

28 Oct (Thu): Green Drinks: An improvised group exploration of our consumption and implications for change from Green Drinks Singapore

Monkey throws away, birds pick up
from Life's Indulgences

WWF’s sustainable seafood campaign
from Green Drinks Singapore

TEDxNUS talks, now online!
from The Biodiversity crew @ NUS

What I missed out... :(
from Psychedelic Nature

Solving nature loss: Child's play?
from BBC NEWS blog by Richard Black

"Worst coral die-off seen since 1998" due to coral bleaching
from wild shores of singapore

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Singapore to go 'green', with or without global agreement: Dr Yaacob

Esther Ng Today Online 19 Oct 10;

SINGAPORE - In the absence of a global agreement, Singapore will still take steps to implement energy-efficiency measures announced under the Sustainable Singapore Blueprint in April last year, Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Yaacob Ibrahim said in Parliament yesterday.

These include implementing minimum Green Mark standards for all new buildings in Singapore, Minimum Energy Performance Standards for household appliances by next year and the Energy Conservation Act by 2013.

Dr Yaacob was responding to Nominated Member of Parliament Viswa Sadasivan, who wanted to know whether Singapore was on track to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 16 per cent below Business-as-Usual levels by 2020.

Singapore had pledged to meet this target dependent on a legally-binding global agreement.

While Dr Yaacob did not think that a final legally-binding agreement would be reached by the Climate Change Conference later this year, he said the Government was studying measures to fulfil its pledge, even though the Republic's carbon emissions accounted for less than 0.2 per cent of global emissions.

It would focus its efforts on five sectors: Transport, buildings, households, industry and power generation.

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions in each of these sectors would require the right pricing, financial incentives and regulations, said Dr Yaacob.

Giving an example of green measures which did not inflict a socio-economic cost on Singaporeans, Dr Yaacob said energy labelling had enabled Singaporeans to make informed choices and Singaporeans could reduce their footprint by using energy-efficient appliances.

He added that several agencies, such as the Housing and Development Board, have switched to energy-saving light bulbs.

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UN meeting on saving species opens in Japan

Malcolm Foster, Associated Press Yahoo News 18 Oct 10;

TOKYO – Delegates from more than 190 nations kicked off a U.N. conference Monday aimed at ensuring the survival of diverse species and ecosystems threatened by pollution, exploitation and habitat encroachment.

But the two-week marathon talks of the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity face some of the same divisions between rich and poor nations over what actions to take that have bogged down global climate negotiations.

Scientists warn that unless we start doing more to protect species, extinctions will spike and the intricately interconnected natural world will be damaged with devastating consequences.

"We're on the verge of a major extinction spasm," said Russ Mittermeier, president of Conservation International and a field biologist who has spent decades studying primates. "Healthy ecosystems are the underpinnings of human development."

If one part of the complex network of living organisms disappears — like bees, which perform the critical role of pollination and whose numbers are falling — the whole system can collapse, scientists argue.

Bringing together 15,000 participants in Nagoya, 170 miles (270 kilometers) west of Tokyo, for the convention's 10th meeting since it was born at the Earth Summit in 1992, the conference will try to hammer out a set 20 measurable targets for the next decade to try to slow or halt these trends.

"The time to act is now and the place to act is here," Ahmed Djoghlaf, executive secretary of the convention, said in a statement.

One of the most attention-getting proposals is to set aside vast tracts of land and ocean as protected areas, although developing nations don't want this to undercut their prospects for economic development.

Another contentious issue will be trying to create a legal structure to equitably share access and benefits from genetic resources, such as plants that have medicinal value — long a sore point among developing countries.

For example, the rosy periwinkle, a plant native to Madagascar, produces two cancer-fighting substances. Western 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 a share of the benefits.

The biodiversity convention doesn't have a particularly good track record. It has failed to reach global goals set in 2002 to make improvements in protecting biodiversity by this year.

Scientists estimate that the Earth is losing species 100 to 1,000 times the historical average. They warn that's pushing the Earth toward its sixth big extinction phase, the greatest since the dinosaurs were wiped out 65 million years ago.

Mittermeier said that in his field, of the 669 different kinds of primates, 49 percent are threatened, largely because of habitat destruction and hunting.

"That's indicative of a real extinction risk," he said.

In one of the 20 proposed goals for 2020, delegates will seek to agree on a percentage of land and ocean to be designated protected areas, which can range from a strict nature reserve to an area managed for sustainable use of natural resources.

The draft text of the final agreement calls for the land percentage to be raised to 15 or 20 percent, up from about 13 percent now. But no specific target has surfaced for oceans, of which less than 1 percent are currently protected.

But even if governments agree on a global figure, implementing the plan is bound to encounter plenty of hurdles, including businesses who don't want to give up access to resources.

Some 193 governments have joined the biodiversity convention. Only three have not ratified it: the United States, Andorra and the Holy See.

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. Tokyo has also come under harsh criticism by environmental groups for its whaling program.

"It's a chance for the Japanese government to show that Japan can play a leadership role in marine and biodiversity issues," said Wakao Hanaoka, an ocean campaigner for Greenpeace.

UN calls for immediate action to save life on Earth
Kyoko Hasegawa Yahoo News 18 Oct 10;

TOKYO (AFP) – The world must act immediately to stop the rapid loss of animal and plant species that allow humans to exist, the United Nations warned on Monday at the start of a major summit on biodiversity.

Delegates from the 193 members of the UN's Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) are gathering in the central city of Nagoya to try to work out strategies to reverse a man-made mass extinction.

"The time to act is now and the place to act is here," CBD executive secretary Ahmed Djoghlaf said as the meeting opened, describing the 12-day event as a "defining moment" in the history of mankind.

"Business as usual is no more an option when it comes to life on Earth... we need a new approach, we need to reconnect with nature and live in harmony with nature."

Delegates were told human population pressures were wiping out ecosystems such as tropical forests and coral reefs, killing off animal and plant species that form the web of life on which humanity depends.

"This meeting is part of the world's efforts to address a very simple fact. We are destroying life on Earth," the UN Environment Programme's executive director Achim Steiner said in a speech at the opening ceremony.

"We are destroying the very foundations that sustain life on this planet."

Delegates in Nagoya plan to set a new target for 2020 for curbing species loss, and will discuss boosting medium-term financial help for poor countries to help them protect their wildlife and habitats.

But similar pledges to stem biodiversity loss have not been fulfilled, and Djoghlaf said governments around the world had to acknowledge that failure.

"Let's have the courage to look into the eyes of our children and admit that we have failed individually and collectively to... to substantially reduce the rate of loss of biodiversity by 2010," Djoghlaf said.

"Let us look into the eyes of our children and admit that we continue to lose biodiversity at unprecedented rates."

At the start of the decade, UN members pledged under the Millennium Development Goals to achieve "a significant reduction" in the rate of wildlife loss by 2010, the International Year of Biodiversity.

Instead, habitat destruction has continued unabated, and some experts now warn that the planet faces its sixth mass extinction phase -- the latest since dinosaurs vanished 65 million years ago.

Nearly a quarter of mammals, one third of amphibians, more than one in eight birds, and more than a fifth of plant species now face the threat of extinction, said the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

In May, a UN report warned of looming "tipping points" that could irreversibly damage ecosystems such as the Amazon rainforest, through logging and land clearance, and coral reefs through global warming and overfishing.

The Earth's 6.8 billion humans are effectively living 50 percent beyond the planet's biocapacity in 2007, according to a new assessment by WWF that said by 2030 humans will effectively need the capacity of two Earths.

Meanwhile, disputes between rich and poor nations that have plagued efforts to curb greenhouse gases threaten to similarly hamper biodiversity negotiations.

The European Union is calling for a target of halting biodiversity loss by 2020, while many developing nations only support a weaker goal of "taking action" on the issue.

There are also tensions over efforts to forge an accord on the "equitable sharing" of the benefits from natural resources -- for example a medicine derived from a jungle plant -- under a so-called Access and Benefits Sharing Protocol (ABS).

Under a proposal backed by developing nations, companies would pay a "gene fee" if scientists find plants or animals that have been used by indigenous groups and have commercial use such as in the pharmaceutical industry.

Brazilian Environment Minister Izabella Teixeira warned this month that "for us, it is not acceptable to go to Nagoya and not have an agreement for (the) ABS Protocol... We need a deal."

Some developing countries have warned that a plan to set up an international scientific panel to assess biodiversity issues and advise policy makers could be blocked if there is no deal on the ABS protocol.

World Needs Urgent Action To Stop Species Loss: U.N
Chisa Fujioka PlanetArk 19 Oct 10;

The world cannot afford to allow nature's riches to disappear, the United Nations said on Monday at the start of a major meeting to combat losses in animal and plant species that underpin livelihoods and economies.

The United Nations says the world is facing the worst extinction rate since the dinosaurs vanished 65 million years ago, a crisis that needs to be addressed by governments, businesses and communities.

The two-week meeting aims to prompt nations and businesses to take sweeping steps to protect and restore ecosystems such as forests, rivers, coral reefs and the oceans that are vital for an ever-growing human population.

These provide basic services such as clean air, water, food and medicines that many take for granted, the United Nations says, and need to be properly valued and managed by governments and corporations to reverse the damage caused by economic growth.

More resilient ecosystems could also reduce climate change impacts, such more extreme droughts and floods, as well as help fight poverty, the world body says.

"This meeting is part of the world's efforts to address a very simple fact -- we are destroying life on earth," Achim Steiner, head of the U.N. Environment Programme, said at the opening of the meeting in Nagoya, central Japan.

Delegates from nearly 200 countries are being asked to agree new 2020 targets after governments largely failed to meet a 2010 target of achieving a significant reduction in biological diversity losses.

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.

Greens said the meeting needed to agree on an urgent rescue plan for nature.

LIFE-SUPPORT

"What the world most wants from Nagoya are the agreements that will stop the continuing dramatic loss in the world's living wealth and the continuing erosion of our life-support systems," said Jim Leape, WWF International director-general.

WWF and Greenpeace called for nations to set aside large areas of linked land and ocean reserves.

"If our planet is to sustain life on earth in the future and be rescued from the brink of environmental destruction, we need action by governments to protect our oceans and forests and to halt biodiversity loss," said Nathalie Rey, Greenpeace International oceans policy adviser.

Developing nations say more funding is needed from developed countries to share the effort in saving nature. Much of the world's remaining biological diversity is in developing nations such as Brazil, Indonesia and in central Africa.

"Especially for countries with their economies in transition, we need to be sure where the (financial) resources are," Eng. B.T. Baya, director-general of Tanzania's National Environment Management Council, told Reuters.

"It's not helping us if you set a lot of strategic targets and there is no ability or resources to implement them."

Poorer nations want funding to protect species and ecosystems to be ramped up 100-fold from about $3 billion now.

Delegates, to be joined by environment ministers at the end of next week, will also try to set rules on how and when companies and researchers can use genes from plants or animals that originate in countries mainly in the developing world.

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" (ABS) protocol.

For poorer nations, the protocol could unlock billions of dollars but some drug makers are wary of extra costs squeezing investment for research while complicating procedures such as applications for patents.

Conservation groups say failure to agree the ABS pact could derail the talks in Nagoya, including agreement on the 2020 target which would also set goals to protect fish stocks and phase out incentives harmful to biodiversity.

Japan, chair of the meeting, said agreement on an ambitious and practical 2020 target was key.

"We are nearing a tipping point, or the point of no return for biodiversity loss," Japanese Environment Minister Ryu Matsumoto told the meeting.

"Unless proactive steps are taken for biodiversity, there is a risk that we will surpass that point in the next 10 years."

(Editing by David Fogarty)

'Ten years' to solve nature crisis, UN meeting hears
Richard Black BBC News 19 Oct 10;

The UN biodiversity convention meeting has opened with warnings that the ongoing loss of nature is hurting human societies as well as the natural world.

The two-week gathering aims to set new targets for conserving life on Earth.

Japan's Environment Minister Ryo Matsumoto said biodiversity loss would become irreversible unless curbed soon.

Much hope is being pinned on economic analyses showing the loss of species and ecosystems is costing the global economy trillions of dollars each year.

Ahmed Djoghlaf, executive secretary of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), described the meeting in Nagoya, Japan, as a "defining moment" in the history of mankind.

"[Buddhist scholar] Daisetsu Teitaro Suzuki said 'the problem of nature is the problem of human life'. Today, unfortunately, human life is a problem for nature," he told delegates in his opening speech.

Referring to the target set at the UN World Summit in 2002, he said:

"Let's have the courage to look in the eyes of our children and admit that we have failed, individually and collectively, to fulfil the Johannesburg promise made by 110 heads of state to substantially reduce the rate of loss of biodiversity by 2010.

"Let us look in the eyes of our children and admit that we continue to lose biodiversity at an unprecedented rate, thus mortgaging their future."

Earlier this year, the UN published a major assessment - the Global Biodiversity Outlook - indicating that virtually all trends spanning the state of the natural world were heading downwards, despite conservation successes in some regions.

It showed that loss and degradation of forests, coral reefs, rivers and other elements of the natural world was having an impact on living standards in some parts of the world - an obvious example being the extent to which loss of coral affects fish stocks.

In his opening speech, Mr Matsumoto suggested impacts could be much broader in future.

"All life on Earth exists thanks to the benefits from biodiversity in the forms of fertile soil, clear water and clean air," he said.

"We are now close to a 'tipping point' - that is, we are about to reach a threshold beyond which biodiversity loss will become irreversible, and may cross that threshold in the next 10 years if we do not make proactive efforts for conserving biodiversity."

Climate clouds

In recent years, climate change has dominated the agenda of environmental politics.

And Achim Steiner, executive director of the UN Environment Programme, suggested there is a lack of understanding at political levels of why tackling biodiversity is just important.

"This is the only planet in this Universe that is known to have this kind of life," he said.

"This fact alone should give us food for thought, But more importantly, we are destroying the very foundations that sustain life on this planet; and yet when we meet in these intergovernmental fora, society somehow struggles to understand and appreciate what it is what we're trying to do here, and why it matters."

On the table in Nagoya is a comprehensive draft agreement that would tackle the underlying causes of biodiversity loss, as well as setting new targets for conservation.

At the heart of the idea is the belief that if governments understand the financial costs of losing nature, they can adopt new economic models that reward conservation and penalise degradation.

A UN-sponsored project called The Economics of Ecosytems and Biodiversity (TEEB) calculates the cost at $2-5 trillion per year, predominantly in poorer parts of the world.

Jane Smart, head of the species programme at the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), said that although the problem was huge and complex, there were some encouraging signs.

"The good news is that when we carry out conservation, it does work; we increasingly know what to do, and when we do it, it works really really well," she told BBC News.

"So we need to do a lot more conservation work, such as protected areas - particularly in the sea, in the marine realm - we need to save vast areas of ocean to protect fish stocks - not to stop eating fish, but to eat fish in a sustainable way."

Triple win

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 UN hopes that a protocol on the final element - known as access and benefit sharing (ABS) - can be secured here, 18 years after it was agreed in principle.

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

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

The Intergovernental 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 - and Western governments - believe it is necessary if scientific evidence on the importance of biodiversity loss is to be transmitted effectively to policymakers.

See also Nagoya 2010: UNEP chief addresses opening of Biodiversity summit on the UNEP website.

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E. O. Wilson, Harrison Ford Ask You to Give a Damn About Biodiversity

Dave Mosher Wired Science 18 Oct 10;

With 40 years of work in the biological sciences, two Pulitzer prizes and the equivalent of a Nobel Prize in ecology to his name, E. O. Wilson is perhaps the world’s most honored naturalist. But he’s not above asking for help from celebrities in his quest to bring balance to the planet and restore its biodiversity.

Harrison Ford, the prolific actor and film producer who has actively served on the board of directors at Conservation International for nearly 20 years, recently answered Wilson’s call to fund $10,000 awards each year to writers who produce seminal works about science for the public. They are aiming to reward works comparable to Rachel Carlson’s Silent Spring and James D. Watson’s The Double Helix.

Following their announcement of the PEN/E.O. Wilson Award for Literary Science Writing on Oct. 15, 2010, the dynamic conservation duo spoke to Wired.com in Palo Alto, California, about their mission “to get people to give a damn” about biodiversity.

Wired.com: Why a science-writing award?

Harrison Ford: Because of the belief that an uneducated public is a dangerous public.

E. O. Wilson: That’s a critical idea.

Ford: This proceeds from my longtime involvement with issues of the environment and conservation, and also the quality of the public dialog which we now enjoy, or don’t enjoy. I have the belief that something should be done about that.

I don’t think it’s a surprise to anyone that the facts of science are often unpalatably presented to the general public and, because of my acquaintanceship with Dr. Wilson and having read a few of his books, I have seen what quality communication can do to make science important on a humanistic level.

Wilson: The continuity here is storytelling. Scientists are storytellers. They just don’t know how to tell a story [laughter].

The way they make discoveries and the way they piece them together, particularly when they add the evolutionary part — how it came to be, the impact of the phenomenon on the body or on the ecosystems — is fundamentally historic. The challenge very few scientists choose to undertake is how the story touches not just on the public’s desire to have a story told to them. It also touches on the archetypes.

Hollywood, for example, has mastered them. These are the mythic archetypes. I don’t how Harrison feels about this, he might even disagree, but you know, the scenes that electrify us in a really good movie include ones like the clash between good and evil. The champion who appears and, against all odds, repels the invader. The discovery of new worlds. And the death and rebirth of worlds.

These are grand themes that, in small detail or in grand epics, are what draw our attention. And scientists can tell those kinds of stories if they know how and they try. And this is one of those challenges I think we as scientists need to beat.


Wired.com: So you see this as the best way to incentivize good science writing?

Wilson: Yep.

Ford: What we’re about is storytelling and the alliance of storytelling and emotion. And that’s the humanism that I’m referring to. The real language of film — and the evocative language of any discipline — has an emotional component. And I think that’s part of what Ed is referring to as “grand themes.”

But it takes a degree of perception that’s not always available to be a scientist and write emotionally and evocatively about science. That’s the idea of the prize. We’re not talking about textbooks so much as we are popular writing that will reach the general public. The public that should be responsible for how the world is working or not working.

Wired.com: I know you’ve named an ant species after Ford, Dr. Wilson. What’s the history there?

Wilson: I was once on the board of directors of Conservation International, a major global conservation organization, and Harrison is a really major player. He has been for many years. I was there just five or so years and, well, that’s how we met.

And of course I’ve seen almost every film Harrison Ford ever made. But beyond that, and it was certainly the confluence of both being in the conservation business.

Ford: That’s his long way of saying he met me in the street, and I was his for the price of a drink [laughter].

Wired.com: I take it that’s a figurative statement?

Ford: More or less. Take it any way you wish.

No, really, one of the things I’ve always struggled with is the quality of language and our communications. I find very often that [conservationists] speak in a kind of jargon, and we don’t communicate as well as we should.

The quality of Ed’s work was an important relationship for me. I wondered why we couldn’t aspire to a higher standard of communication, and one of the things I’ve always pushed very hard for at [Conservation International] is to develop clarity and the emotional language, which conveys what we’re trying to do.

Wilson: Well, Harrison has to deal with a lot of science on the board which, to be effective, has to be science-driven. Oh, I don’t know: “What species are important, how they could be saved, how an ecosystem functions …”

All of these things are the bread and butter of conservation.

Wired.com: Mr. Ford, as an actor and film producer I imagine you are very busy. But you also have the conservation work. How does that work?

Wilson: Maybe by avoiding too many interviews [laughter]?

Ford: Both areas are very demanding. I wish I were better at keeping up, but I tend to cram when I need to. If I’m working on a movie, it tends to absorb me 100 percent. I need help to just get my laundry done.

When I’m doing conservation work, when I’m meeting with the board, I try to bring that same effort. But I often find myself struggling to keep up with the information.

Wired.com: Do you ever find people are surprised by your involvement with conservation science?

Ford: I’ve never found myself aware of anyone’s idea of what I should or shouldn’t be doing. Frankly, it doesn’t matter to me. If they are surprised, it’s not uncommon for people from other disciplines to have more than one professional interest.

Wired.com: How do the words science and conservation fit together in your mind?

Wilson: Science is the foundation of the conservation movement, and we’ve seen that develop to major proportions since its origins in the 1980s. There’s now a whole cadre of scientists who have training in various subjects: wildlife physiology and population biology, ecosystems studies and biodiversity studies, and so on.


They all move to address particular problems that are conservation-related. That is, the choosing of which ecosystems to focus energy and resources on, around the world.

This is the so-called hot-spot technique or methodology, which helps judge which species are in the greatest danger and which ones need remedial action right away to keep them off the brink of extinction. All of this makes up a very large landscape of problems, each one of which has relevant scientific methods and information that feed into it. So, science and conservation are very intimate.

Ford: I’d like to add that decision makers depend on the presentation of evidence that you bring to them, to persuade them to take action. And that evidence is all scientific in nature. The quality of your science determines your capacity to effect change. So without that scientific underpinning there is no valid conservation.

Wired.com: On that note: Which world problem worries you the most?

Wilson: Harrison and I know how we’d like to see the world change, but to make a change in the right direction, the problem — and it’s a big problem — is this: Setting aside much larger reserves than we have now, and setting them up so they’re sustainable with the people in and around them taken care of properly, in terms of economic aid and assistance, and helping them develop sustainable agriculture.

Ford: The struggle is the preservation of biodiversity. That is, intact biological organizations that continue to generate and sustain complicated interrelationships between species. That’s the very fabric of life on Earth. That needs to be sustained, encouraged in every possible way.

It’s threatened by climate change. It’s threatened by unsustainable development. It’s threatened by greed and destruction. It’s threatened by ignorance. All of our efforts are to try, at base, to preserve this reservoir for the future. The ability of nature to sustain itself. The ability of nature to serve humanity through our capacity to further understand the interconnections and how things work in nature.

The mission is to get people to give a damn. At the highest level, to get our political leadership to make the effort that’s required to safeguard nature. The United States government needs to sign a convention on biodiversity. We need to better compel our public leadership and tell them that we will not stand for them failing to address the issues and continually put it off, and put it off, and put it off.

It’s a critical necessity that they create meaningful climate legislation, that they engage with the international community and mitigate at least some of the threats to the environment. The U.S. needs to step into a leadership position as we should, befitting our power and our capacity and our scientific understanding, and get these things done.

Wired.com: What can the average person do to help?

Ford: Well I come from Chicago, so vote early and vote often.

Wilson: Let’s hear it from our political leaders. Where do they stand on these issues? We haven’t had a serious environmental debate, and scarcely … a mention of conservation of biodiversity around the world, ever. But the presidents, they just never get there. That’s what Harrison means when he says they keep putting it off. And we can’t afford to keep putting it off.

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Coral death strikes at Southeast Asia

ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies Science Alert 19 Oct 10;

International marine scientists say that a huge coral death which has struck Southeast Asian and India Ocean reefs over recent months has highlighted the urgency of controlling global carbon emissions.

Many reefs are dead or dying across the Indian Ocean and into the Coral Triangle following a bleaching event that extends from the Seychelles in the west to Sulawesi and the Philippines in the east and include reefs in Sri Lanka, Burma Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, and many sites in western and eastern Indonesia.

“It is certainly the worst coral die-off we have seen since 1998. It may prove to be the worst such event known to science,” says Dr Andrew Baird of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and James Cook Universities. “So far around 80 percent of Acropora colonies and 50 per cent of colonies from other species have died since the outbreak began in May this year.”

This means coral cover in the region could drop from an average of 50% to around 10%, and the spatial scale of the event could mean it will take years to recover, striking at local fishing and regional tourism industries, he says.

The bleaching event has also hit the richest marine biodiversity zone on the planet, the ‘Amazon Rainforest’ of the seas, known as the Coral Triangle (CT), which is bounded by Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines.

“Although the Coral Triangle is the richest region for corals on Earth, it relies on other regions around its fringes to supply the coral spawn and fish larvae that help keep it so rich,” Dr Baird explains. “So there are both direct and indirect effects on CT reefs which will affect their ability to recover from future disturbance.”

“Also the reefs of the region support tens of millions of people who make their living from the sea and so plays a vital role in both the regional economy and political stability. For example, in Aceh, northern Sumatera, where the bleaching is most severe, a high proportion of the people rely on fishing and tourism for their livelihoods. While it may take up to two years for some fish species to be affected by the loss of coral habitat, fisheries yields will decline and this combined with a drop in the number of dive tourists visiting could have major long-term effects on the local economy.”

The cause of the bleaching event was a large pool of super-hot water which swept into the eastern Indian Ocean region several months ago, shocking the corals and causing them to shed the symbiotic algae that nourish them, thereby losing color and “bleaching”. If the corals do not regain their algae they starve to death.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Coral Hotspots website, sea surface temperatures in the region peaked in late May, 2010, and by July the accumulated heat stress was greater than in 1998. Local dive operators recorded water temperatures of 34 C, over 4 degrees higher that than long term average for the area.

The event was first detected on reefs in Aceh by marine ecologists from Wildlife Conservation Society, CoECRS and Syiah Kuala University. They already rate it as one of the worst coral diebacks ever recorded.

“My colleagues and I have high confidence these successive ocean warming episodes, which exceed the normal tolerance range of warm-water corals, are driven by human-induced global warming. They underline that the planet is already taking heavy hits from climate change – and will continue to do so unless we can reduce carbon emissions very quickly,” Dr Baird said.

“They also show this is not just about warmer temperatures: it is also threatening the livelihoods of tens of millions of people and potentially the stability of our region.”

Dr Baird said it was not yet clear whether Australia would suffer a similar coral bleaching event this year: this would emerge only with the arrival of warmer waters from the north in January/February 2011. The previous worst events to strike the Great Barrier Reef were in 1998 and 2002, when over 40% of the reefs along the length of the GBR were affected.

Scientists say Asia's corals dying en masse
Yahoo News 19 Oct 10;

SYDNEY (AFP) – Coral reefs in Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean are dying from the worst bleaching effect in more than a decade, Australian marine scientists said Tuesday.

The bleaching, triggered by a large pool of warm water which swept into the Indian Ocean in May, has caused corals from Indonesia to the Seychelles to whiten and die, Australia's Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies said.

Reefs in the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore were also affected by the phenomenon under which sea temperatures rose by several degrees Celsius in Indonesia, researcher Andrew Baird said.

"It is certainly the worst coral die-off we have seen since 1998. It may prove to be the worst such event known to science," he said.

Baird, a fellow at James Cook University, said the magnitude of the event was so large, and the ocean temperatures in some places raised so much higher than normal, that it was "almost certainly a consequence of global warming".

He said for six to eight weeks from mid-May the temperatures were high enough to cause bleaching of the corals in Indonesia's Aceh, the area worst hit by the event.

"You jump into the water and you are just surrounded by white and dead corals," he said. "It is an extraordinary sight. The locals tell us they have seen nothing like this before."

Baird said the massive die-off was expected to compare in scale and magnitude to the damage caused in 1998, when warmer water bleached reefs globally and about 16 percent were seriously degraded.

"This is the second big global bleaching event that we have documented," he told AFP.

"The scale of the event is so large that it is going to take reefs a long time to recover," he added.

The bleaching is caused by the warm water sweeping over the reefs, shocking the corals and causing them to shed the algae which nourish them. If corals fail to regain their algae, they starve to death.

Baird said it was too early to say whether Australia's Great Barrier Reef, a major tourist attraction swarming with marine life, would be damaged but that he expected bleaching to affect reefs in the Andaman Sea and central Pacific.

"Once the reef dies you lose both live coral cover, which lots of fish need... but then everything that feeds on them will disappear as well," he said, adding that he expected some fish species to decline within a year.

He said in Aceh alone, an area with some unique marine creatures, there would be a loss of biodiversity.

"There's a very good chance that there will be some local extinctions both of endemic fish and of coral," he said.

Baird said the reefs could take years to recover, heavily impacting fishing and tourism in the region and could become a security issue.

"It's one of the reasons that countries like Australia need to act quickly and decisively on climate," he said.

Scientists say corals are vital to marine life because they provide habitats for a vast variety of creatures and absorb large levels of poisonous carbon dioxide.

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Indian Ocean coral reefs fading fast: 2010 expedition findings

IUCN 15 Oct 10;

IUCN scientists were part of a recent expedition, Tara Oceans, to investigate coral bleaching on the reefs of Mayotte, an island that lies to the north west of Madagascar. The team found that bleaching here, which was first reported in March this year, is the worst seen in the Indian Ocean.

Climate change has emerged as the most significant threat to coral reefs on a global scale with coral bleaching one of the most visible and serious effects. This is of particular concern as coral reefs support the richest marine biodiversity in the world. They also provide food, storm protection, jobs, recreation and other sources of income for more than 500 million people worldwide.

The expedition, organised by Tara Oceans (Tara Foundation and scientific consortium Oceans), assessed 34 sites around Mayotte. On board the Tara boat were scientists from IUCN, L'Institut de recherche pour le développement, University of Milano-Bicoca, Coastal Oceans Research and Development in the Indian Ocean (CORDIO), Mayotte Marine Research Center, University College Dublin, University of La Reunion and the European Marine Biological Laboratory.

“The reefs around Mayotte have experienced the worst bleaching and mortality so far recorded in the Indian Ocean with over 50 % of corals affected by the bleaching overall and up to 30% coral mortality at the worst-affected sites,” says Dr David Obura, Chair of IUCN’s Coral Specialist Group and Director of CORDIO.

The researchers confirmed a pattern that is increasingly reported in other locations, whereby corals accustomed to the inner turbid waters of lagoons showed higher resistance to bleaching than corals on outer clear-water reefs.

“Turbidity or green water during a high temperature stress event appears to protect corals,” explains Dr Obura. “This is in contrast to our prior expectation of corals in clear oceanic waters being generally healthier.”

“The majority of coral species have been affected by the bleaching across all depths”, says Dr Francesca Benzoni, Principal Scientist of the Tara Oceans Expedition. “While the dominant fast-growing table corals (Acropora) were visually dominant due to their abundance and striking bleached white appearance, many other genera were even more susceptible to the bleaching.”

“Recovery of these sites will depend on a number of critical factors including the extent of mortality and recruitment but also on the herbivorous fish communities and populations present at these sites,” says Dr Ameer Abdulla, of IUCN’s Global Marine Programme. “Unfortunately, many areas around Mayotte suffer from extensive fishing to the point of overfishing. A few areas, including the marine protected areas, hold healthy communities of fish. These areas will probably have the highest chance of recovery.”

For more information:

TARA: www.taraexpeditions.org
French contact: eloise@taraexpeditions.org,
American contact: syrotter@taramarineexpeditions.org
CORDIO: http://www.cordioea.org/
IUCN Climate Change and Coral Reefs Working Group: http://iucn.org/cccr/

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Indonesian government to stop allowing conversion of primary, peatland forests

Antara 18 Oct 10;

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The government is to stop issuing permits for conversion of primary forest zones and peatland forests in another effort to decrease emission of green house gases, Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan said on Monday.

"In accordance with the national action plan to lower emissions of green house gases, we will stop issuing temporary permits for conversion of primary forest zones and peat lands so as to preserve our forests," Hasan told the press at the office of the Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs.

"In the longer term, the government`s target of lowering the emission of green house gases by 26 percent by year 2020 will be achieved," the minister said, adding that the policy of stopping the issuance of forest conversion permits will be based on a Presidential Instruction.

The Presidential Instruction is now being prepared and expected to be ready at the end of this month, Hasan added. The moratorium on permits for forest land conversion will be effective for two years (2011-2012).

Minister Hasan said the total area of primary forests and peat land forests in Indonesia currently was 40 million hectares. The condition of area is expected to be better with the introduction of new forest management practices.

Agricultural activites, he said, will be permitted as long as they are carried out on idle land areas or outside peat land forests.

The moratorium on issuance of forest land conversion permits would be implemented for provinces whose forest areas were still in good condition like Papua, part of Kalimantan and Aceh for Sumatera.(*)

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On fire: 5,000 hectares of peat land in Riau

Antara 18 Oct 10;

Pekanbaru, Riau (ANTARA News) - The Environmental Board (BLH) of Riau Province said that the acreage of peat land that had been razed by fires in Bengkalis district, Riau province had reached 5,000 hectares.

"About 5,000 hectares of peat land in Bengkalis have been burned by fire," BLH head for Riau Fedrizal Labay said here on Monday.

He said that peat land fires had been taking place over the past two weeks. The widest area affected by the fire is located in Sepahat and Tanjung villages, Bukit Batu sub district, Bengkalis district.

Peat land fires have been taking place in this area every year, he said.

Kalimantan residents still burn forests for farming
Antara 17 Oct 10;

Puruk Cahu, C Kalimantan (ANTARA News) - Residents of some inlands in Central Kalimantan Province are still wishing to open farming grounds by burning land.

"This habit has become tradition and it is easier and more practical than other methods," a resident of Barito Tuhup Sub-district, Murung Raya District of Central Kalimantan, Atak said here Sunday.

According to Atak, the method did not damage the environment as there were only certain fields burned and the fire was maintained not to spread to other locations.

The area around the field should be cleaned that could prevent and halt the fire from spreading, he said, adding that the fire was lit to burn piles of woods and bushes from logs in the canter part of the field.

The field burning occurred frequently and smoke is seen everywhere in the region as what happened in the villages around Barito Tuhup Raya sub-district of Murung Raya District, he said.

The forest burning usually occurred in August, yet they happened in September and October this year too.

The residents are cultivating gogo rice, also known as tugal rice, a variety of dry-soil rice preferred by the locals because of its nice taste and good aroma.

The forest burning and moving agriculture were still conducted albeit the administration adviced not to commit such actions.

However, the residents were less aware as such deeds had become their habit.

"This has become a phenomena and the responsibility for the administration to familiarize the bad effect of field burning," Atak said, adding that if people still conducted moving agriculture, the forests in the area would be lost sooner or later.

The threat also came from companies which had forest concessions, coal mining and gold mining companies in the region.

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Rajang River is drying up: "partly due the Bakun Dam"

Philip Hi The Star 19 Oct 10;

SIBU: Less than two weeks after the logjam disaster in Rajang River, the country’s longest river is again a cause for concern for people living along its banks.

Express boats have not been able to ply the Sibu-Belaga-Sibu routes since Friday as the river is drying up due to the current dry spell. The only option left for travellers is the gruelling journey on the 190km Bintulu-Bakun road.

Floating pontoons at the Kapit Express Boat Wharf along Khoo Peng Loong Road here are now resting on a muddy river bed.

“This time the water level went down really fast. Just 10 days ago, it almost reached the road level, a drop of more than 2m,” boat skipper Lau Ah Kuok said.

Lau said he believed the drastic change in the water level was partly due to the impoundment of the 205m-high Bakun Dam which began last Wednesday.

The flooding of the dam, which is South-East Asia’s largest, is estimated to take seven months and in the process, would flood 69,000ha of land.

Social activist Wong Meng Chuo, who has a masters degree in Environmental Management from the Imperial College in London, said he was worried that a prolonged drought would pose severe environmental and ecological consequences below Bakun Dam.

Wong said the Rajang River was denied one-third of the water source with the impoundment of the dam.

“Firstly, river navigation in some areas will stop due to low water. Secondly, salty water from the ocean would come up to as far as Sibu. Thirdly, marine and river life will be affected,” Wong pointed out.

He explained that with less water in the river, there would be less oxygen which could cause some species of fish to die. Wong added there could also be more landslides along the riverbanks as the soil structure would be different.

He said it was unlikely that the impoundment of the dam would stop because it would incur a loss of RM330,000 per day to do so.

The low water level is also a cause for concern for the RV Orient Pandaw, the only cruise ship here.

“If the dry weather continues, I am worried our ship would have difficulties navigating near the Pelagus rapids,” the ship’s purser Neville Joseph said, adding that October to December were peak seasons with an average of 40 passengers per trip.

Durin vegetable farmer Kong Chiek Wak is worried the prolonged dry weather will seriously affect his vegetables.

“We only have a small water pump. It would be difficult to pump water from the Rajang for farm use if the water level is too low,” Kong explained.

The low water level will also affect the transportation of logs by barges and cargo boats from Kapit-Baleh areas to the sawmills in Sibu or for export through Tanjung Manis.

Sibu Water Board general manager Daniel Wong said he was monitoring the situation closely.

“The water supply in Sibu is normal and there is no cause for alarm now,” he said.

At about 4.30pm yesterday, heavy rain fell for about an hour on Sibu after a dry week.

Low level raises concern over water quality
The Star 20 Oct 10;

SIBU: The one-hour downpour on Monday afternoon here did not raise the level of Rajang river but it remains to be seen whether the low water level is caused by the impoundment of the Bakun dam or due to the dry weather.

Sibu Drainage and Irrigation Department chief engineer Ting Sing Kwong said he believed the impoundment of Bakun dam last week had affected the water level in Sibu.

“There was some effect but the low water level in Sibu is mainly due to the dry weather,” Ting said, adding that it was more acute in the upper Rajang such as in Kanowit, Julau, Song, Kapit and Belaga.

Ting said that between Oct 13 and 17, the water level had dropped by between one and 3m in these towns in the upper Rajang.

He also said sea water could not reach Sibu. Past records showed that the sea water could reach as far as Tg Kunyit, which was about half an hour by road from Sibu.

Former Sibu municipal councillor Dr Gregory Hii, who holds a PhD in chemistry, argued that the water quality in the Rajang would deteriorate due to the reduced amount of water flowing down river.

“If waste water from settlements like Kanowit, Song and Kapit continue to be discharged into the Rajang, the degree of contamination down river will increase,” he said.

Hii added that the slower movement of the water would also cause more sedimentation and siltation, which in turn would affect marine life and river transportation.

Rajang being choked to death
Vanes Devindran The Star 20 Oct 10;

THERE is a saying that when the mighty Rajang cries, everyone will feel its pain.

Locals say this is because come the monsoon season, the Rajang river will burst its banks, destroying crops and crippling transportation for thousands.

Life will basically grind to a halt.

When this happens, there’s nothing anyone can do but wait for her to calm down.

Located northwest of Borneo, the longest river in Malaysia flows from the Irian Mountains for about 563km to the South China Sea.

A large population in the central region depends on the Rajang and its tributaries in one way or another.

Those from Sibu still remember the river’s bountiful harvest of freshwater fish like patin and lulong, which are rare these days.

For people living in the interior, the bends, curves and forks along the Rajang are their addresses.

There are also many legends and folklore surrounding the Rajang.

Many towns have sprouted along the river banks, the biggest of which is Sibu with a population of 257,000 people.

For generations, people have been tapping its resources.

Then, 14 years ago, the government decided to tap the river with the construction of the Bakun hydro-electric dam on Balui River, one of Rajang’s tributaries.

The project meant that hundreds of acres of land had to be cleared of vegetation. It was a windfall of sorts for timber companies.

Last week, the dam started its impoundment.

The effects were slowly seen and felt through the changes in Rajang’s appearance. The river water became murky due to siltation, reducing fish stock and destroying other marine life.

Just over a week ago, the goings-on on Rajang’s banks came to a head when 50km of logs and debris jammed the river.

Described as an “environmental disaster” and dubbed the “Rajang logjam disaster”, it made headlines worldwide.

Although the logjam cleared up within a few days, many demanded ans­wers as to how it could have taken place. Irresponsible logging acti­vity upriver was blamed.

Hardly had the dust settled, Rajang suffered another blow. It was reportedly “shrinking” because of the dry weather, and some say, the impoundment of the dam.

There is no denying that human activities are taking their toll on the river and the last thing Sarawakians want is to have a dead river in their state.

Perhaps it’s time that an agency is established to ensure the Rajang continues to be the pride of the state and the country.

At the moment, the Sarawak Rivers Board is the agency that handles the state’s rivers, a gargantuan task considering the number of rivers in the state.

As such, conservation of the river might not be the best. There are those who feel the agencies, particularly those handling the environment, are not doing their jobs.

Though it is agreed that environmental conservation is a joint responsibility, the new agency could be a focal point to coordinate the tasks, at least where the Rajang is concerned.

The agency’s team should be familiar with Rajang’s every meander and be committed to sustaining it without fear or favour.

For this, the team could be made up of people from the community, experts on rivers and the environment, and perhaps the media, too.

And for the team to be effective, it has to be given muscle to allow stringent enforcement of laws.

Educating the community remains a pivotal point in protecting the Rajang. The people, particularly the youth, should be made aware of their responsibilities and actions.

Obviously, more needs to be done for the Rajang. Things are happening for a reason. The mighty Rajang is crying out for help.

But is anybody listening?

Two days of heavy rain puts riverine traffic as it used to be
The Star 22 Oct 10;

SIBU: The water level in Rajang River is back to normal following heavy rain in the past two days.

Earlier this week, there were worries that the low water level caused by the sudden drought and the impoundment of the Bakun Dam would cripple riverine traffic.

The wharf here was a hive of activity yesterday with express boats plying the Sibu — Kapit route, Matu to Daro, Song, Kanowit and vice versa in full swing.

Sibu-Kapit Express Boat Association chairman Ting Chu Won was optimistic that the drought was over and everything was back to normal.

“The water level has risen in the last two days due to heavy rain in the Upper Rajang and in this town. We have no problem now in operating our business as usual.

“However the water level in Belaga is still low and inaccessible by big boats. Hopefully, with more rain in the next few days, the situation there will be back to normal, too” he said.

The only problem express boat operators were now facing was the wood debris washed down during the Oct 7 logjam. “Most of the debris are washed down to sea but there is still some on the riverbed.

“During the drought, the debris caused a major problem as the express boat propellers hit them causing damage and danger to the passengers,” Ting said, adding that some of the operators suffered huge losses.

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Britain sinks tidal scheme, names eight future nuclear sites

Yahoo News 18 Oct 10;

LONDON (AFP) – The British government confirmed on Monday it will drop plans for a multi-billion-pound tidal energy project, as it identified eight sites suitable for building new nuclear power stations.

An official study said the proposed 10-mile (16-kilometre) barrage stretching across the Severn river, which was to generate energy using tidal power, could cost more than 34 billion pounds (54 billion dollars, 38.9 billion euros).

It described the project as "high risk in comparison to other ways of generating low-carbon electricity", although it said the proposal could be reconsidered in the future.

"Other low carbon options represent a better deal for taxpayers and consumers," said the energy minister, Chris Huhne.

The barrage would have stretched between Weston-Super-Mare in southwest England and the Welsh capital Cardiff.

But the report said the barrage was unlikely to attract adequate investment from the private sector and would rely heavily on public investment.

The project has been scrapped as Britain's finance minister George Osborne prepares to announce billions of pounds in public spending cuts on Wednesday in order to reduce the country's huge deficit.

The decision to scrap the project was welcomed by environmental campaigners. Martin Harper of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds said the barrage would have "trashed" local wildlife sites.

It would have destroyed "huge areas of estuary marsh and mudflats used by 69,000 birds each winter and block the migration routes of countless fish," Harper added.

The Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government also cleared the way for new nuclear power plants to be built at eight sites in England and Wales -- three fewer than the 11 proposed by the previous Labour government.

The coalition had already said it would give the go-ahead to companies that want to build new nuclear plants, provided no public subsidy is required, despite Liberal Democrat opposition to new nuclear power stations before the party was in power.

But environmental campaigners Friends of the Earth slammed the announcement, describing it as a "reckless" disregard for the need to tackle climate change.

"Nuclear power is not the solution to tackling climate change -- it would leave us saddled with toxic waste for centuries to come," said campaigner Simon Bullock.

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US oil spill hit a key tuna spawning site: agency

Yahoo News 18 Oct 10;

PARIS (AFP) – Numbers of juvenile Atlantic tuna at a major spawning site in the Gulf of Mexico probably fell by at least a fifth this year as a result of the BP oil spill, the European Space Agency (ESA) said Monday.

The assessment comes from satellite images and data of the Gulf from April 20 to August 29, it said in a press release.

The Atlantic tuna is a valuable commercial species that is in alarming decline, especially in the western part of the ocean, where stocks have plummeted by 82 percent over the last 30 years.

Western Atlantic tuna migrate to the Gulf from January to June each year to reproduce, spawning in two important sites in April and May.

In the northeastern site, the number of bluefin fry fell by more than 20 percent as the suspected result of surface oil that was tracked by radar from the Earth-sensing satellite Envisat, ESA said.

The fish were especially vulnerable as they spawn in surface waters, which means the floating oil could harm eggs, larvae and even adult tuna, the agency said.

The other site, in the northwestern part of the Gulf was apparently unaffected.

The surveillance project was launched on behalf of a marine biology group, the Ocean Foundation.

It brought together images from Envisat and two NASA satellites of the oil spill, the ocean's temperature and sea-surface heights with data from electronically tagged tuna.

An estimated 4.9 million barrels of oil spewed from the shattered Deepwater Horizon oil rig during the 87-day crisis.

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Conditions not met for climate deal in Cancun: Mexico

Yahoo News 18 Oct 10;

MEXICO CITY (AFP) – Mexican Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa said Monday that "conditions have not been met" for a new climate deal on reducing greenhouse gas emissions at a worldwide summit in Cancun in December.

"For Cancun, the conditions have not been met to adopt a new protocol" to replace the Kyoto accord which expires in 2012, Espinosa said.

The Cancun meeting, from November 29 to December 10, aims to firm up "a basic agenda" for the continuation of negotiations, Espinosa said.

The United States and China clashed at climate change talks earlier this month in China, accusing each other of blocking progress ahead of the Mexico summit.

Delegates from more than 200 countries will take part in the next round of UN talks in Cancun.

World leaders failed to broker a new climate treaty in Copenhagen, Denmark, last year, as developed and developing nations battled over who should carry more of the burden in curbing greenhouse gases, which are blamed for global warming.

European leaders now look set to push China, the United States and a host of emerging powers to extend the Kyoto deal at the crunch talks in Mexico.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon has underlined the urgency for an agreement, saying that the poorest communities were already suffering the impact of climate change.

Climate talks must ensure carbon trading: WBank official
Yahoo News 18 Oct 10;

HANOI (AFP) – Major talks on global warming next month must provide reassurances for the future of the market in greenhouse-gas emissions beyond 2012, the World Bank's environment chief said Monday.

"What they have to find out is how to ensure that carbon trading does not collapse," Inger Andersen, the Bank's vice-president for sustainable development, told AFP in an interview.

She added that "finding a way that that can be ensured would be very important to the world".

Carbon trading began under the Kyoto Protocol, the world's only treaty to set down targeted curbs in man-made gases that trap solar heat, inflicting potentially catastrophic changes to the world's climate system.

Developed countries which have ratified the Protocol, mainly in Europe, can buy or sell credits to help meet their emissions quota.

The Protocol's current roster of pledges runs out at the end of 2012. As a result, the future of the market has been cast into doubt by uncertainty surrounding talks on a global climate treaty beyond this date.

Negotiations resume in Cancun, Mexico from November 29 to December 10 under the 194-member UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Kyoto's parent organisation.

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