Love Letters To Earth
from AsiaIsGreen
Hazy days are here again
from Otterman speaks
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A green track to a talent haven
Making a nature corridor of the soon-to-be-available railway land could have tangible economic benefits
Richard Hartung Today Online 20 Oct 10;
The narrow corridor of railway land that will become available once the train station shifts from Tanjong Pagar to Woodlands seems almost too good to be true, and discussion about how to use the land is heating up.
On the one hand, developers are salivating over potential parcels of land for development all across the island. On the other, the Nature Society Singapore (NSS) has proposed turning the land into a green corridor, with its president Shawn Lum saying that "connecting green strips along the railway land" would have tremendous environmental benefits.
What both NSS and the developers may have missed, however, is the economic benefits that Singapore could gain from keeping the corridor as an urban greenway and turning Singapore into an even more attractive destination for top talent. The real question, then, may be whether Singapore can afford not to keep that corridor intact.
As Singapore competes for top global talent to boost economic growth, it needs to do all it can to show that the city is vibrant and liveable. Liveability means more than just luxurious condos and fancy malls. For people at the peak of their professions with their pick of cities, it can be the little extras that really matter. And a green corridor more than 15km long is far more than something little.
Experiences in other big cities offer examples of the difference a long corridor of land like that can make.
In 2008, London Mayor Ken Livingston announced, for example, that the city plans to build about a dozen Cycling Corridors that commuters can use to get into central London. Mr Livingston boasted to the C40 group of cities committed to tackling climate change that "we will build upon London's leading position as the only major world city to have achieved a switch from private car use to public transport, cycling and walking".
In Spain, Valencia converted a dry riverbed into the city's largest park, the Jardines del Turia. The 10-km ribbon of land has been turned into a stretch of cycle paths, orange trees, fountains and playgrounds that is "incredibly popular with the residents", according to British newspaper The Independent.
In the middle of Seoul, city officials have turned a former expressway into the 6-km Cheonggyecheon greenway that is highly popular with city residents. As the New York Times said in a report about the project, cities around the world are building green corridors like Cheonggyecheon as they seek to "attract affluent and educated workers and residents who appreciate the feel of a natural environment in an urban setting".
Analysis by Indiana University professor Greg Lindsey showed that urban greenways can bring direct financial benefits, too. More than just making the areas nearby more liveable, hedonic price analysis showed that property prices can be up to 11 per cent higher within about half a kilometre of an urban greenway. Other researchers have found there are additional financial benefits, such as more sales at shops near greenways and better health for people who walk or cycle on them.
Example after example like these shows just how many cities around the world are building and benefitting from urban greenways as they seek to transform themselves into more liveable places and to attract or retain top talent.
Here, the Southern Ridges provides a tantalising glimpse of the benefits an urban greenway can bring. The URA recently won the Urban Land Institute Global Award for Excellence for the project, only 9km long.
The far-longer stretch of railway land, which goes through some of the more densely populated parts of Singapore and ends up next to the CBD, could have even more advantages. And for even longer-range planning, it would end right next to the new Tanjong Pagar waterfront city that the Economic Strategies Committee proposed in February.
While keeping that green corridor unspoiled may have environmental benefits as well, turning it into an urban greenway could actually prove to be a key competitive advantage that helps attract or retain top talent and brings more economic development to Singapore. It could well bring other financial benefits, too, including increased property value for nearby residents.
Now, those are benefits that could be truly transformational.
The writer is a consultant who has lived in Singapore since 1992.
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NParks to educate public on people-monkey co-existence
Monica Kotwani Channel NewsAsia 20 Oct 10;
SINGAPORE: National Parks Board (NParks) will be holding guided walks to educate people on how to behave when they see a monkey.
The walks are organised after anxious callers contacted NParks, following a recent case in Malaysia in which a monkey killed a baby.
The long-tailed monkey, known as the macaque, is also a popular species in Singapore forests.
NParks' Central Nature Reserve assistant director James Gan said: "What we are hoping (to achieve) through these kind of guided walks, (is) to have people better appreciate monkeys in their natural habitat and (for the public) to learn how to relate to these monkeys better, so that monkeys and human beings can co-exist peacefully".
NParks said people who feed wild monkeys alter the monkeys' relationship with the eco-system.
Such feeding lures the monkeys out of their natural habit to forage for food in the forests, onto residential areas such as those near the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve.
Ms Helene Mayne, a resident near Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, said residents do not mind the frequent visits by monkeys and are even protective of them.
"Monkeys do not generally seek out interaction with humans.
"And unfortunately, it's the people who come out and feed the monkeys (that cause) the macaques (to) seek that interaction.
"They're very family-orientated creatures. They're not naturally aggressive animals," she said.
-CNA/wk
Don't turn tail, get to know them instead
Guided walks to help residents, visitors cope with monkeys at Bukit Timah Nature Reserve
Ang Yiying Straits Times 21 Oct 10;
RESIDENTS living near the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, get to know your tree-climbing neighbours.
That is the aim of a series of guided walks which will be launched by the end of the year. Nearby residents and visitors to the nature reserve will be encouraged to better understand and to avoid conflicts with the macaques, Singapore's most common wild primate.
The walks are a collaboration between the National Parks Board (NParks) and the Jane Goodall Institute (Singapore), a non-profit organisation for wildlife research, education and conservation. Two trial walks have been conducted so far by primate researcher Michael Gumert, who is based at Nanyang Technological University.
Macaques made the headlines earlier this month when Malaysian media reported that a macaque - believed to be from either the long-tailed or pig-tailed species - took a newborn girl from her house in Seremban in Malaysia, bit her and dropped her to her death from a rooftop.
The guided walks are not a response to the incident but are the latest in a series of measures, including increasing fines and education outreach, that NParks has been implementing to send the message: Do not feed the monkeys.
More people have been caught doing so. As of September this year, 302 had been fined, double the 150 last year and 154 in 2008. This is due to continued flouting of the rules and increased enforcement. Offenders can be fined $500.
Feeding monkeys can alter their natural behaviour, said Mr James Gan, NParks' assistant director of the Central Nature Reserve. Instead of foraging in the forest where there are natural sources of food, the monkeys may start to regard humans as an easy means to get food.
Monkeys which get used to having food thrown from cars may hang around the roads near the reserves, becoming road-kill. Feeding the monkeys can also condition them to behave in certain ways viewed as aggressive by humans, such as snatching plastic bags which they think contain food.
Monkeys which display altered behaviour can be trapped and culled. Last year, the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) culled 127.
It said such monkeys are typically used to being fed, no longer afraid of humans and unable to fit in with other monkeys in their natural habitats.
Figures from the AVA show there were 611 reports last year related to nuisance caused by monkeys or of monkey sightings outside forested areas.
However, the macaques at Bukit Timah Nature Reserve have their fair share of supporters among nearby residents.
Human resource consultant Helene Mayne, 39, lives in Hindhede Drive, where monkeys have been seen roaming about. She said she loves the monkeys - and is able to recognise individual ones that frequent her street.
She said: 'I think they're wonderful. How many places in the world can you be with the monkeys at night and work in the city in the day? Singapore has got the best of both worlds.'
Don't feed the monkeys: A walkthrough guide
Monica Kotwani Today Online 21 Oct 10;
SINGAPORE - When monkeys turn aggressive, it is often people who are to blame, according to the National Parks Board (NParks). So, it plans to hold guided walks by the end of the year to educate people on what not to do when they see one.
NParks was responding to queries from the public following the fatal attack on a Malaysian baby by a macaque, a type of long-tailed monkey common in Singapore's forests.
NParks said members of the public who feed wild monkeys are not only causing them to turn aggressive but also altering their complex relationship with the eco-system.
Its assistant director (central nature reserve), Mr James Gan, said: "Through the walks, we hope to have people appreciate monkeys in their natural habitat and learn how to relate to them better."
He said monkeys lose their skills for gathering food when fed by humans, and the forest also requires the monkeys to disperse fruits and seeds so new trees can grow.
Feeding lures monkeys out of the forests, where they forage for food, and causes them to grab at anything they have been conditioned to recognise as food. This has increasingly been luring them into residential areas.
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Quick meeting among ASEAN ministers needed if haze worsens
Hetty Musfirah Abdul Khamid Channel NewsAsia 20 Oct 10;
SINGAPORE: Hazy conditions continue to plague Singapore as a result of fires in Sumatra, Indonesia.
Singapore's Environment and Water Resources Minister Yaacob Ibrahim said on Wednesday that ASEAN environment ministers may need to reconvene for a quick meeting to discuss additional measures to tackle the issue if the situation gets worse.
"Indonesia as you know is a member of the ministerial sub-committee meeting on transboundary haze, and if the situation worsen then there is maybe the possibility for us to reconvene a quick meeting so that we can explore what are the additional measures that we need to take," said Dr Yaacob.
Dr Yaacob said it is a matter that cannot be taken lightly and Singapore is ready to provide assistance in fire-fighting efforts.
He said Indonesia has been reminded of the need to do more in tackling the issue when ministers responsible for the environment and their representatives from ASEAN member states had met in Brunei on October 13 for the 6th meeting of the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution.
The ministers reviewed national, sub-regional and regional activities to address land and forest fires in the region. ASEAN members states had pledged to remain vigilant and continuously monitor and implement haze preventive activities.
"We are a bit disappointed with what's happening, this is not the first time that we have informed the Indonesians that they should pay attention to the hotspots both in Sumatra and Borneo. And in fact, on many occasions, we have told the Indonesians, please take extra measures that this does not recur," said Dr Yaacob.
"But this has happened. And in fact last week, when we had our meeting in Brunei for the ASEAN Haze agreement, in fact we reminded the meeting, that we should remain vigilant, even though it is supposed to wetter than normal for this year. Whenever there is a dry spell, there is the tendency for people to burn so we pressed upon the Indonesians that they have to do more."
Singapore Institute of International Affairs chairman Simon Tay said: "Indonesia has made attempts to get in funding to keep the forests, provided they don't burn them or destroy them.
"This is in its sense, the haze we have in the air, is evidence that Indonesia may have trouble fulfilling its promises if we give them money to keep their forests".
Dr Yaacob said Singapore would register concerns again perhaps on even strong terms to Indonesia if the situation worsened.
Meanwhile, he said Singapore is ready to assist Indonesia in fire-fighting effort.
"We cannot take this matter lightly and as I have said earlier, we want to press upon the Indonesians that they have to do something about this," he stressed.
Dr Yaacob was speaking at the sidelines of the launch of a new S$800 million power plant in Jurong Island where hazy conditions persisted.
As of Wednesday's noon, the three hour PSI reading was 72 - which is in the moderate range.
A PSI level above the 100 mark is considered unhealthy.
Dr Yaacob said Singapore will continue to monitor the situation and if needed, a health advisory will also be issued.
"We will continue to monitor the situation, I don't think we need to cut back on anything in terms of our daily activities , but for those who slightly sensitive to haze, I think they have to sort of curb a bit of their outdoor activities.
"Meanwhile, we will monitor the situation and if we need to issue a health advisory we will do so, so this is very important for us and NEA will continue to closely monitor the situation." - CNA/fa/wk
Disappointed over hotspots
Amresh Gunasingham Straits Times 21 Oct 10;
A SINGAPORE minister has expressed disappointment at the recent sharp increase in hotspots in the region of Sumatra which has brought haze back to Singapore in recent days.
Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Yaacob Ibrahim on Wednesday said Singapore has asked the Indonesian authorities on several occasions to take extra measures to make sure the forest fires do not recur.
'It is a matter that cannot be taken lightly,' he told reporters on the sidelines of the opening of a new co-generation power plant by Powerseraya at Jurong Island on Wednesday, adding that Asean members had agreed to take steps at a recent meeting on the haze issue to emphasize the need for more vigilance against firestarters.
Dr Yaacob advised those more vulnerable to respiratory ailments to curb their outdoor activities following a worsening of the haze on Tuesday. If the situation gets worse, the authorities will consider issuing a health advisory, said Dr Yaacob. But for now, the Pollutant Standard Index (PSI) is in the moderate range, meaning no special precautions need to be taken. As at 3 pm on Wednesday, the PSI stood at 80.
Satellite pictures on Tuesday showed 202 'hot spots' in Sumatra, indicating where Indonesian farmers and plantation companies had set fires to clear large swathes of forests to get the land ready for the crop-plating season. The prevailing winds from the south-west carried the smoke to Singapore, said the National Environment Ministry.
Many areas in Malaysia were also blanketed in thick haze on Wednesday, with the air quality in Muar reaching an unhealthy level based on the Air Pollutant Index (API) readings compared with 51 other areas nationwide. Malaysia's Department of Environment said in a statement on Wednesday that the API readings at 11am showed 27 areas with moderate air quality and 23 areas with good-quality air.
Declining air quality have been reported over the last two days in several places such as in north Johor, Malacca, Negeri Sembilan and Selangor, due to the haze brought in from Sumatra.
No let-up in Riau forest fires despite crackdown promises
Wahyudi Soeriaatmadja, Straits Times 21 Oct 10;
JAKARTA: Forest fires in the Riau province on Sumatra island have continued unchecked, despite promises by the Indonesian government to crack down on land owners who set fire to their land, environmental activists said yesterday.
This is why thick smog has spread across the province in the past few weeks, they said, adding that land owners who wanted to clear forest land to plant oil palm trees were mostly responsible for the fires.
'A lot of the hot spots were in the concession areas,' said Ms Syamsidar, a World Wide Fund for Nature activist based in Riau province.
A hot spot is defined as a fire covering a hectare of land or larger, while concession areas are the land swathes that have been granted to a company for use for a period of time.
'The government must act and hold the land concession owners accountable. They have been given the right to use the land, thus are required to protect it,' Ms Syamsidar told The Straits Times.
Riau province and its surrounding areas have also been hit by the haze.
The coastal town of Dumai was blanketed in smog yesterday, forcing the Pinang Kampai Airport to halt operations for a few hours in the morning because of poor visibility.
But officials in the province said the situation had improved due to rainfall over the past two days.
In Pekanbaru, which is in central Riau, the visibility level at the international airport was 10km yesterday, compared with just 4km on Monday.
The local government on Tuesday asked Jakarta to carry out cloud seeding to increase rainfall over the area.
This would stop the forest fires from spreading, said Riau province deputy governor Mambang Mit, as quoted by online news website Detik.com.
Ms Syamsidar said that in the past two weeks, 1,302 hot spots had been detected throughout the province, with 445 in the concession areas. She linked this to the growth of the oil palm industry.
Indonesia is the world's largest producer of palm oil, which brings in huge revenue for the country. But large swathes of virgin forest have to be cleared for oil palm plantations.
Ms Syamsidar claimed some operators were illegal plantation owners who resorted to slash-and-burn techniques to clear the land, in order to cut costs.
But a senior Environment Ministry official told The Straits Times that most fires were the result of negligence on the part of people living in Riau, or occurred naturally due to dry weather and heat.
Mr Alfi Fahmi said there were many cases in which residents tossed cigarette butts on dry peatland, which catches fire easily.
But strict law enforcement has helped to lower the number of slash-and-burn cases, he added.
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Singapore's air quality worst since 2006
Expected rain could bring relief, but situation may worsen, says NEA
Amresh Gunasingham Straits Times 21 Oct 10;
HAZE from Indonesia brought Singapore's air pollution to its worst level in four years yesterday, and the smoke is expected to remain in the air until at least Saturday.
The situation could worsen, as fires continue to burn in parts of Sumatra being cleared by farmers, and prevailing winds blow more smoke this way.
But some relief might come from showers expected this week, the National Environment Agency (NEA) said yesterday.
The Pollutant Standards Index (PSI) hovered at 80 yesterday, the highest 24-hour recording since 2006 when Singapore was last blanketed by a severe haze.
A PSI of 80 puts the air quality in the moderate range.
Last night, the three-hour PSI was 74 between 7pm and 10pm.
The NEA has advised those with pre-existing respiratory and heart conditions to refrain from outdoor activities for now.
Expressing disappointment at the recurrence of the haze problem, Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Yaacob Ibrahim said yesterday that Singapore may register its concerns with the Indonesian authorities 'more strongly' if the situation worsens.
The haze has also hit several areas in the southern part of the Malaysian peninsula.
Worst hit was the town of Muar in Johor, where the pollution index hit the hazardous range of 432 on Malaysia's air quality index, forcing schools to shut.
The haze, which has affected Singapore over the past few days, got worse on Tuesday, when the PSI surged to 84 over one three-hour period.
A total of 202 hot spots were detected by satellite pictures over Sumatra on Tuesday, but that number fell to 61 yesterday.
The drop, however, is not a clear indication of the haze situation, said the NEA, as the pictures may have been obscured by cloud cover and the presence of excessive smoke plumes.
The Indonesian fire-starters, mainly in the south Sumatran provinces of Jambi and Riau, are now at the tail end of the traditional season of clearing and burning forested areas.
Their practice has cast a choking, smoky pall over the region nearly every year since the early 1990s.
Asked if the situation could worsen, Mr Foong Chee Leong, NEA's director- general of meteorological services, said this could not be ruled out, given the thick smoke plumes over Riau.
'These fires continue to burn, so it is still a concern,' he told yesterday's press conference.
Because the winds have not been strong, it would take up to a day for the smoke to reach here, he added.
'If more smoke was to blow this way, we will have time to give an early warning,' he said.
If the situation worsens, the NEA will also issue health advisories.
Dr Yaacob, speaking at a separate event yesterday, said he had informed the Indonesian authorities that Singapore was ready to help in their fire-fighting efforts.
He was disappointed that the haze problem had persisted despite repeated calls in the region for more to be done to prevent forest fires in Indonesia.
Just last week, Asean ministers meeting in Brunei had discussed the issue. The ministers may meet again to explore additional measures that could be needed, he added.
'This is not the first time we have reminded the Indonesians that they should pay attention to the hot spots both in Sumatra and Borneo,' said Dr Yaacob.
'Whenever there is a dry spell, and there will be, there is a tendency for people to burn. We impressed upon Indonesia they have to do more.'
Since Sunday, the NEA has been issuing three-hourly updates of the PSI, following an overwhelming number of calls from concerned members of the public.
It received more than 280 calls over the past two days alone.
Twice before, in 1997 and 2006, three-hourly PSI updates were issued when Singapore was hit by especially bad levels of haze.
NEA RECEIVED 280 CALLS
Since Sunday, the NEA has been issuing three-hourly updates of the PSI, following an overwhelming number of calls from concerned members of the public.
It received more than 280 calls over the past two days alone.
Twice before, in 1997 and 2006, three-hourly PSI updates were issued when Singapore was hit by especially bad levels of haze.
Haze likely to stay at least 3 days, says NEA
Channel NewsAsia 20 Oct 10;
SINGAPORE: The National Environment Agency (NEA) said moderate haze would likely continue in Singapore for the next three days.
It added hotspot activities in Sumatra were expected to persist or escalate.
Satellite pictures on Tuesday showed 202 hotspots in Sumatra, indicating where Indonesian farmers and plantation companies had set fires to clear large swathes of forests to get the land ready for the crop-plating season.
The number of satellite pictures has gone down to 146 on Wednesday.
But NEA said the drop in number of hotspots was not a clear indication of the haze situation as there might be undetected peat fires underground or fires undetected by satellite due to cloud cover.
NEA said the prevailing winds from the southwest and westerly directions were blowing the smoke haze to Singapore.
Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Yaacob Ibrahim has expressed disappointment at the recent sharp increase in hotspots in Sumatra.
Speaking on the sidelines of the opening of a power plant on Wednesday morning, he said Singapore has asked the Indonesian authorities on several occasions to take extra measures to ensure the forest fires do not recur.
"We are a bit disappointed with what's happening; this is not the first time that we have informed the Indonesians that they should pay attention to the hotspots both in Sumatra and Borneo," Dr Yaacob said.
"And in fact, (on) many occasions, we have told the Indonesians, 'please take extra measures that this does not recur'.
"But this has happened. Last week, when we had our meeting in Brunei for the ASEAN Haze Agreement, we reminded (during) the meeting, that we should remain vigilant even though it is supposed to wetter than normal for this year".
Dr Yaacob added meanwhile, he had informed the Indonesians that Singapore would assist readily in fire-fighting effort.
The three-hour PSI reading as at 4pm on Wednesday was 79, which is in the moderate range.
A PSI level above 100 is considered unhealthy.
-CNA/wk
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Haze in Malaysia
Schools in Muar close as haze worsens
The Star 21 Oct 10;
KUALA LUMPUR: All schools in Muar have been advised to temporarily close as the air quality in the district has reached dangerous levels.
Muar recorded an Air Pollutant Index (API) reading of 432 at 11am yesterday.
Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, who is also the Education Minister, said schools should be closed if the level passed 400,
“School principals will still be able to work but students do not need to attend school until the level is below 400,” he said yesterday.
Muhyiddin, who chaired a National Security Council meeting to discuss the haze, said that co-curricular activities in all 204 schools in Muar should also be cancelled.
However, he said the Sijil Tinggi Agama Malaysia examinations would proceed as scheduled but students were required to wear protective masks during their tests.
He said the air quality in Muar reached an unhealthy level on Monday but rose to the dangerous level at 11pm on Tuesday.
“The Department of Environment has been monitoring the air pollution since Oct 15 via 51 monitoring stations in the peninsula. The API recorded in all stations showed healthy and moderate levels except for Muar and Malacca,” he said.
Malacca’s API was at an unhealthy level when it recorded a reading of 111 at 11am yesterday, he said.
Muhyiddin said an action plan was already activated to deal with the situation.
“We have asked the Muar authorities to inform the residents of developments. We are not hiding any information so that safety measures can be taken,” he said.
“The DOE is sending 10,000 masks to schools in Muar to be distributed to the students. Mineral water will also be given as people are encouraged to drink clean water during this bad weather,” he said.
He said the DOE would also begin cloud seeding as soon as possible.
Asked about the cause of the haze, Muhyiddin said it was due to fires in Sumatra which were sparked by the dry and hot weather.
He added that Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Douglas Uggah Embas had contacted Indonesian authorities to discuss how both countries could keep the situation under control.
In Muar, Education Department officer Ramli Abdul Samad said the department would begin distributing masks to the schools soon.
Ramli said a short shower in the afternoon had reduced the haze in some parts of the district, especially in the Sungai Mati areas, but there was still haze in Sungai Balang and along the coast.
Healthy API readings are below 50, moderate (51-100) and unhealthy (101-200). Readings above 301 is deemed hazardous.
For updates on the API nationwide, visit the department website at www.doe.gov.my.
Air quality in Muar hits hazardous levels
Elizabeth Looi Straits Times 21 Oct 10;
KUALA LUMPUR: The Johor town of Muar, which faces Sumatra, was the worst hit yesterday by haze, which pushed its air quality to hazardous levels.
All schools in Muar were told to close temporarily after the Air Pollutant Index (API) there hit 432 late yesterday morning before dropping to 311 in the afternoon.
An API reading that exceeds 300 is considered hazardous. A 0-50 reading is healthy; 51-100 is moderate; 101-200 considered unhealthy; and 201-300, very unhealthy.
Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said some 10,000 masks were being delivered to the schools in Muar and the government would conduct cloud seeding soon.
Also hit was Malacca, which faces Sumatra, where the API was 111 at 11am before dropping below 100. Visibility at one point was reduced to 2km to 5km.
Residents said they had to keep their windows and doors closed the past few days. Other parts of Johor and the rest of Malaysia recorded good to moderate air quality levels.
The Meteorological Department said it expects hazy days to continue until the middle of next month due to the south-west wind that is blowing from Sumatra, which has more than 200 hot spots.
A department spokesman said the situation would improve once the monsoon season begins next month as the wind would be blowing from the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia.
'When the monsoon starts, Malaysia will not be affected much even if there is haze in Sumatra because the wind will be coming from the north-east,' the spokesman told The Straits Times.
He pointed out that the dry weather was caused partly by super typhoon Megi, which slammed into the northern Philippines on Monday and was now headed for southern China.
'The poor air quality is also because of open burning and perhaps forest fires due to the dry spell,' he said, adding that there were 14 hot spots in Malaysia, mostly in Selangor and Perak.
The annual haze in Malaysia is the result of land clearing by open burning in Indonesia and forest fires sparked by dry conditions.
In 2006, Malaysia was forced to close Port Klang and declare a state of emergency in Klang and Kuala Selangor when the API exceeded 500 and reduced visibility drastically.
Haze from Indonesia forces Malaysian schools to shut: report
Yahoo News 20 Oct 10;
KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) – Haze from fires burning in Indonesia has drifted over Malaysia's west coast, sending air pollution to dangerous levels in one town where schools were reportedly forced to shut on Wednesday.
In Muar, a coastal town on the narrow strait which separates the two countries, pollution levels shot up to 415 by Wednesday morning, well into the hazardous range which begins at 301. A rating of 0-50 is considered good.
"This is because of a hotspot from Sumatra. You can see the affected area on satellite images, it's caused by land clearing and plantations," an environment department official told AFP.
Education Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said schools in Muar had been closed and thousands of masks were being distributed, according to the Star daily. Authorities were also rushing to carry out cloud seeding to disperse the smoke.
Muar is situated in Johor state, where most other towns were not so badly affected. However in the west coast tourist centre of Malacca, air quality had deteriorated to 106, which is in the "unhealthy" range.
Haze caused by fires in Indonesia builds up during the dry season, affecting tourism and contributing to health problems across the region.
Indonesia's government has outlawed land-clearing by fire but weak law enforcement means the ban is largely ignored.
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Over 200 hot spots in Sumatra Island
Antara 20 Oct 10;
Pekanbaru, Riau (ANTARA News) - The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration`s (NOAA) satellite has detected 202 hot spots on Indonesia`s Sumatra Island on Tuesday, an authority said.
The Pekanbaru-based Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency`s analyst, Slamet Riyadi, said here Tuesday that most of the hot spots were found in South Sumatra Province with 66 hot spots.
The remaining hot spots were detected in the provinces of Jambi, Riau, Bangka Belitung, North Sumatra, West Sumatra, Aceh, and Lampung with 42, 36, 24, 16, 13, 3 and 2 hot spots respectively, he said.
On Monday, the imagery data released by NOAA satellite showed 358 hot spots throughout the island. But the number decreased to 202 thanks to rainfalls in some provinces, he said.
The presence of hot spots in Riau and other provinces in Sumatra Island was one of the indications of forest and bush fires,
In extinguishing the forest and bush fire, the Riau provincial government was recommended to make artificial rain to halt the spread of fire, he said.
"We are going to ask the central government (through forestry ministry) to provide us
with funds for making artificial rain," he said.(*)
Dumai airport temporarily closed due to haze
Antara 20 Oct 10;
Dumai, Riau Province (ANTARA News) - As a result of thick haze shrouding the area, authorities at 7 a.m temporarily closed Pinang Kampai airport of Riau province, on Wednesday.
Head of Pinang Kampai airport Ackwin said visibility on the air was only about 500 meters.
He said that the visibility was beyond the normal conditions so that the airport was temporarily closed for reasons of flight safety."We have postponed one flight to Jakarta this morning," Ackwin said.
He said that the weather condition was basically good but the haze was relatively thick that disturbed visibility. "We have also postponed the departure of a helicopter from Pekanbaru (Riau capital city) to Dumai until the visibility could reach over 1,000 meters," he said.
It was informed that the helicopter would depart from Pekanbaru to monitor forest fires in Dumai, Bengkalis and Rokan Hilir districts.
Images of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration`s (NOAA) satellite showed increasing number of hot spots in Dumai city, reaching 18 in different sub-districts.
On Tuesday, NOAA detected 202 hot spots on Indonesia`s Sumatra Island.The Pekanbaru-based Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency`s analyst, Slamet Riyadi, said that most of the hot spots were found in South Sumatra Province with 66 hot spots.
The remaining hot spots were detected in the provinces of Jambi, Riau, Bangka Belitung, North Sumatra, West Sumatra, Aceh, and Lampung with 42, 36, 24, 16, 13, 3 and 2 hot spots respectively, he said.
On Monday, the imagery data released by NOAA satellite showed 358 hot spots throughout the island. But the number decreased to 202 thanks to rainfalls in some provinces, he said.(*)
Haze blankets Batam Island, Singapore
Antara 20 Oct 10;
Batam, Riau Islands (ANTARA News) - Thick haze of forest and bush fires on various parts of Sumatra Island has blanketed the sky of Batam Island in Riau Islands Province on Wednesday.
The smoke also blanketed the sky above the areas near Batam, such as that of the islands of Rempang and Galang, a local climatologist and meteorologist said.
The haze was likely caused by the forest fires, and slash and burns on certain parts of the Sumatra Island, Agus Salim Lacuda said.
Despite the cloudy sky as a result of the haze, flights were not yet hampered due to clear enough visibility, he said.
"The pilots` visibility from Wednesday morning to mid day remains at six thousand meters. So this is still good for airplanes," said Lacuda, head of the Hang Nadim International Airport`s Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Office.
The coming haze has also affected Singapore, a tiny city state which shares sea border with the Indonesian island of Batam, since Tuesday.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration`s (NOAA) satellite has detected 202 hot spots on Indonesia`s Sumatra Island on Tuesday.
The Pekanbaru-based Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency`s analyst, Slamet Riyadi, said that most of the hot spots were found in South Sumatra Province with 66 hot spots.
The remaining hot spots were detected in the provinces of Jambi, Riau, Bangka Belitung, North Sumatra, West Sumatra, Aceh, and Lampung with 42, 36, 24, 16, 13, 3 and 2 hot spots respectively, he said.
On Monday, the imagery data released by NOAA satellite showed 358 hot spots throughout the island. But the number decreased to 202 thanks to rainfalls in some provinces, he said.
The presence of hot spots in Riau and other provinces in Sumatra Island was one of the indications of forest and bush fires.
In extinguishing the forest and bush fire, the Riau provincial government was recommended to make artificial rain to halt the spread of fire, he said.
"We are going to ask the central government (through forestry ministry) to provide us with funds for making artificial rain," he said.(*)
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Singapore's MRT lines to be graded on green-ness
Ranking an effort to help improve energy efficiency in transport
Goh Chin Lian Straits Times 21 Oct 10;
MRT lines will be graded according to how environmentally friendly they are, in a step towards making Singapore's transport system greener.
The Circle Line, the first to be graded, scored a gold ranking for measures such as re-using energy produced by a braking train to power up another train, and installing escalators that slow down or stop when not in use.
The grading by the Building and Construction Authority is based on an ascending scale of certified, gold, gold plus and platinum.
It allows the Land Transport Authority (LTA), which builds MRT lines, to identify areas for improvement, Transport Minister Raymond Lim told an international conference on urban transit yesterday.
Rail operators will also gain from reduced energy consumption and added hedging against a rise in fuel costs, he said.
Welcoming the move, Singapore Environment Council executive director Howard Shaw told The Straits Times: 'Green-marking the various lines will help in driving innovations in greener green transport.'
The transport sector consumes about 5 per cent of electricity in Singapore, with a big chunk going to the MRT, based on official 2005 figures. Industry used 43 per cent, buildings 31 per cent and households 18 per cent.
Transport's appetite for electricity is expected to grow as more MRT lines open in the next 10 to 15 years. But the MRT is still greener than buses or cars as a mode of transport.
Each MRT passenger generates a carbon footprint of 13.2g per kilometre, compared with 73g by bus and 118g by car, based on figures from transport operator SMRT.
New technology can reduce the carbon footprint, said Mr Lim. He added that Sweden's railway network runs entirely on renewable energy harnessed from wind and water.
Singapore's technological solutions include 'regenerative' train brakes such as those on the Circle Line.
These brakes shave 1 per cent off energy consumption per year - enough to provide power for about 90 HDB flats for a year - the LTA said.
More green practices are being specified in tenders for new lines.
The 42km Downtown Line, to be completed in 2017, is expected to be more energy efficient than the Circle Line, with better train brakes and lighter trains, said LTA deputy director Melvyn Thong.
Attention is paid up to the day the train goes for scrap.
Mr Thong said aluminium, copper and steel parts, which make up 90 per cent of the Downtown Line trains' weight, are designed to be easily removed and recycled.
Rail systems to be graded for eco-friendliness
Dylan Loh Channel NewsAsia 20 Oct 10;
SINGAPORE: Rail systems in Singapore will be graded over the next two years for eco-friendliness.
Minister for Transport Raymond Lim said: "By allowing for the benchmarking of future and current Rapid Transit Systems, the framework will pave the way for the adoption of green technologies.
"For the operators, there will be tangible benefits in the form of lower energy consumption and added hedging against rise in energy costs".
Under the framework, rail systems will be graded according to three "pillars".
These "pillars" include environmentally-friendly design, effective energy use and the presence of water-saving features.
Singapore's Building and Construction and Land Transport authorities are the testers.
The MRT Circle Line was the first to be rated. It garnered a gold award for green features.
One of these green features includes the regenerative braking system.
Energy produced by a train during braking is channelled to be re-used either by a train nearby or a rail station.
LTA's Mechanical & Electrical Services deputy director Melvyn Thong said: "We actually look at the various components that make up our railway system - the mechanical and electrical systems, the architectural, the civil components and even the landscape and the connectivity of it".
-CNA/wk
Circle Line receives Green Mark Gold Award
Channel NewsAsia 20 Oct 10;
SINGAPORE: The Building and Construction Authority (BCA) has awarded the Circle Line (CCL) the Green Mark Gold Award for its environmentally-friendly features.
The assessment and grading were based on the Green Mark for Rapid Transit System (RTS) framework, jointly developed by the Land Transport Authority (LTA) and BCA.
The BCA-LTA Green Mark for RTS was developed to provide a holistic approach in evaluating and rating the environmental performance of RTS for existing and future lines.
LTA Chief Executive, Chew Hock Yong, said: "The award reaffirms the agency's commitment in ensuring that the planning, design, construction and operations of our MRT systems take into account potential environmental impact, and engage the appropriate measures to minimise the impact."
The regenerative braking system, where the energy that is produced by the train during braking is re-used, is one of the features that was awarded high scores.
This energy, if not harvested, would be wasted as heat.
The recovered energy can be re-used by a nearby train or channelled through an inverter system to be used by the station.
With this, the CCL achieved a 1 per cent reduction in energy usage or 433MWh a year, enough to power up about 90 HDB flats for a year.
The CCL also scored well on its water conservation efforts.
For instance, the use of effective drift eliminator in its air-conditioning units reduces drift loss of the cooling tower.
The process helps the CCL save 13,550 cubic metres of water every year, equivalent to the water consumption of about 60 HDB households' in a year.
Other green features of CCL include energy-conserving escalators that reduce its speed when not in use or stop completely during extended period of non-usage. - CNA/fa
Circle Line gets top marks for eco-friendliness, other lines to be tested
Today Online 21 Oct 10;
SINGAPORE - The first MRT line to be graded on eco-friendliness has passed with flying colours.
The Building and Construction Authority (BCA) said yesterday it had awarded the Circle Line (CCL) the Green Mark Gold Award for its environmentally-friendly features.
Over the next two years, the other parts of the entire rail network will be assessed based on the Green Mark for Rapid Transit System (RTS) framework, which was jointly developed by the Land Transport Authority (LTA) and BCA.
Under the framework, existing and future lines will be graded according to three criteria: Environmentally-friendly design, effective energy use and the presence of water-saving features.
Speaking separately at the World Urban Transit Conference at Resorts World Singapore yesterday, Transport Minister Raymond Lim said the framework would "pave the way for the adoption of green technologies". Said Mr Lim: "For the operators, there will be tangible benefits in the form of lower energy consumption and added hedging against rise in energy costs."
In particular, CCL's regenerative braking system was awarded high scores. Energy produced by the train during braking is re-used by a nearby train or channelled through an inverter system used by the station.
The energy saved by the CCL is enough to power about 90 HDB flats annually. CCL's other green features include energy-conserving escalators that reduce speed when not in use or stop completely when not in use for an extended period.
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Two new green power plants on Jurong Island
Straits Times 21 Oct 10;
JURONG Island, the nerve centre of Singapore's petrochemical industry, was given a greener sheen yesterday with the opening of two new power plants that burn fuel more cleanly.
The $800 million co-generation plants built by energy giant PowerSeraya are able to burn natural gas more efficiently compared with older plants.
They are also able to generate about 130 tonnes of steam every hour, which is then sold as thermal energy to oil companies operating in the area.
In all, there are now four such plants in Singapore built by PowerSeraya. They are able to shave carbon dioxide emissions by 10 per cent.
The two new plants were officially opened yesterday in a ceremony witnessed by Environment and Water Resources Minister Yaacob Ibrahim.
PowerSeraya is one of the largest electricity-generating firms here, supplying up to 30 per cent of Singapore's energy needs. In total, about 1,500MW of electricity are generated by PowerSeraya's 14 power plants operating here.
Speaking yesterday, PowerSeraya chief executive John Ng said the new plants will boost the competitiveness of the industry in Singapore at a time when others are going green.
Under the Singapore Green Plan 2012, the Government has set a goal to improve the Republic's air quality over the next few years as a means to reduce its overall carbon emissions by 2030.
The petrochemical industry, which is one of the heaviest polluting here, has been targeted to improve the efficiency of fuel consumption in its power generation plants, as well as reduce the amount of harmful carbon emissions released into the atmosphere from such plants.
Speaking to an audience of industry players yesterday, PowerSeraya chairman Francis Yeoh pointed out the need to harness the limited supply of fuel here more efficiently, so as to secure the energy security of future generations.
This challenge comes at a time when cities eager to grow bigger and faster are driving up energy demands in the region. Studies show, for example, that energy demand in South-east Asia is expected to triple over the next 10 years.
AMRESH GUNASINGHAM
$800m facility powers up
Natural gas-fired plant produces electricity and steam simultaneously
Esther Ng Today Online 21 Oct 10;
SINGAPORE - The Republic's energy sector is getting a boost from a new $800 million power plant.
Officially opened yesterday, PowerSeraya's new natural gas-fired facility is capable of producing electricity and steam simultaneously - up to 600 tonnes per hour - for more than 95 petrochemical companies on Jurong Island.
Said PowerSeraya chief executive officer John Ng: "It reduces the need for them to produce their own steam and it allows them to reduce their business capital and operating costs."
With its new plant, PowerSeraya now has the largest co-generation capacity here - close to 1,500 megawatts.
PowerSeraya's new co-generation plant is 75 per cent more thermal efficient than its combined cycle plants as it harnesses waste heat produced from the electricity-generation process.
It also makes use of water from its seawater reverse osmosis desalination plant to produce up to 600 tonnes per hour of high-pressure steam.
This can then be sold immediately to its industrial customers.
This new plant is expected to reduce the energy company's overall carbon emissions by 10 per cent.
PowerSeraya is in the business of producing, wholesaling, trading and retailing energy, with a primary focus on electricity .
It supplies about 30 per cent of the country's energy needs. ESTHER NG
Singapore's energy sector gets boost from S$800m plant
Hetty Musfirah Abdul Khamid Channel NewsAsia 20 Oct 10;
SINGAPORE: Singapore's energy sector is getting a boost from a new S$800 million power plant.
The natural gas-fired facility located on Jurong Island, owned by energy company PowerSeraya, is expected to spur on the nationwide drive to lower Singapore's carbon footprint.
This year's World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Living Planet Report 2010 placed Singapore's ecological footprint per person at 5.34 global hectares.
Despite that, the country has managed to reduce its carbon intensity by 25% from 1990 levels. And it has achieved this ahead of the target date of 2012 set out under the Singapore Green Plan 2012.
The strategy is to be more energy-efficient, something PowerSeraya wants to achieve with the new natural gas co-generation plant.
At the Co-Generation Combined Cycle Plant, other than providing electricity, waste heat is used to generate steam and then supplied to petrochemical companies on the island.
The 800-megawatt plant replaces three oil-fired steam units, providing cleaner energy.
It is expected to reduce the company's overall carbon footprint by a further 10 per cent.
PowerSeraya's CEO, John Ng, said: "In Singapore, we have transformed quite a fair bit of our plants from oil-fired to gas-fired, and gas-fired plants are essentially (producing) lower carbon footprint and much better than the oil-fired plants. If you talk about percentage, a gas-fired plant is typically about 40% better in terms of emissions than the oil-fired plant. So while we convert some of our oil-fired plants to gas-fired plants, it also means that the carbon footprint will reduce significantly as well."
"That's the direction we want to go.....our power-generation sector will use gas and use it in an efficient manner. So we are very happy with this latest development done by the private sector," said Dr Yaacob Ibrahim, Minister for the Environment and Water Resources.
PowerSeraya says the establishment of the new plant will make Jurong Island more economically competitive.
It is also a step closer to the Jurong Island 2.0 initiative which seeks to optimise the use of valuable energy resources and strengthen Singapore's position as a leading energy hub.
The new plant will also reduce the need for companies on the island to produce their own steam, allowing them to lower their costs.
- CNA/fa/ir
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New research centre to build energy savings in Singapore
Grace Chua Straits Times 21 Oct 10;
BUILDINGS consume a quarter of all the energy used here, and a new research centre aims to drive that amount down - by figuring out how to make them more energy-efficient.
The Berkeley Education Alliance for Research in Singapore was one of two new research centres announced yesterday under the National Research Foundation's $1 billion Campus for Research Excellence And Technological Enterprise (Create) scheme. The programme, set up in 2006, allows global universities to establish research centres here.
For its first project, Berkeley scientists will work with local researchers to make tropical buildings sustainable and energy-efficient, said Professor S. Shankar Sastry, one of the centre's leaders. He said 'smart dust' networks, made up of tiny sensors, could monitor and adjust temperature and lighting to reduce costs.
'I think nobody is looking at the tropics,' Prof Sastry said, observing that buildings' energy needs here are vastly different from those in colder climes. 'And now that most buildings are being built in tropical or subtropical regions like India and China, the potential impact is huge.'
Some of the five-year project's targets include cutting energy use by 80 per cent in new buildings and by half in retrofitted ones.
The other Create centre announced yesterday is a tie-up between Nanyang Technological University and Israel's Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Ben-Gurion University. It will study nanotechnology's applications for sensing water pollutants and recycling water, as well as energy harvesting and conservation.
Both centres are expected to officially open in the middle of next year. This brings the number of Create centres to seven, including tie-ups with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and the Technical University of Munich.
National Research Foundation chairman Tony Tan, who also addressed the press conference, explained that universities have a role to play in inventing products and thus contributing to the economy.
The Create centres will be housed at a $360 million facility at the National University of Singapore's University Town, which is expected to be ready next year.
NRF hopes new research centres will bear fruit
They will carry out research into energy efficiency and water management
Nisha Ramchandani Business Times 21 Oct 10;
TWO new research centres will be set up here as part of the National Research Foundation's (NRF) Campus for Research Excellence And Technological Enterprise (CREATE) programme, to carry out research in areas such as energy efficiency and water management.
UC Berkeley will establish the Berkeley Education Alliance for Research in Singapore (BEARS) centre here, while Israel's Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU), the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJ), and Nanyang Technological University (NTU) will collectively develop and apply nanomaterials to boost the efficiencies of energy and water management technologies.
'We expect that innovations arising from the research carried out will spawn new enterprises and help existing locally based companies to become more competitive,' said Tony Tan, chairman of NRF, at a press conference yesterday.
BEARS' first major project will look at how to make buildings more energy efficient as well as how to reduce the carbon footprint of buildings.
This will be done in collaboration with NTU, the National University of Singapore (NUS), and other local research institutions here.
According to S Shankar Sastry, dean of engineering at UC Berkeley, one key target of the five-year programme is to reduce energy consumption in new buildings by 80 per cent and by 50 per cent in retrofits.
Besides Singapore, the research and its outcomes could also greatly benefit countries and regions such as India, China, and the Middle East, given that a sizeable amount of new building stock will be coming from such markets in the future.
Meanwhile, Rivka Carmi, president of Ben-Gurion University, said that the BGU-HUJ-NTU programme 'may potentially lead to breakthroughs in the field of energy conversion and conservation, and water sensing and remediation'.
The two new centres will raise the number of universities with a research presence under NRF's CREATE programme to seven.
The seven research centres will be relocated to the CREATE campus once it is completed in 2011. Located at the southern end of the new NUS University Town, the campus will house some 1,000 researchers.
The NRF did not disclose how much was being invested in the two new research centres. The two new centres are expected to commence next year.
Two more research centres to be set up in Singapore
sara grosse Today Online 21 Oct 10;
SINGAPORE - Two more research centres, which will focus on energy efficiency, will be set up here under the National Research Foundation's (NRF) Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise programme, bringing the total number of centres under the programme to seven.
The new centres, which will be up and running next year, will be associated with the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) and the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel, in collaboration with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Nanyang Technological University.
The Israeli university will jointly develop new nano-materials to increase efficiencies for energy and water management, while the Berkeley university will establish a research centre focusing on reducing the carbon footprints of buildings. UC Berkeley professor S Shankar Sastry said it will work with Singapore researchers on making tropical buildings sustainable and energy-efficient. For example, smart dust sensor networks could be used to monitor and tweak temperature and lighting.
The NRF has set itself high targets for the next five years, such as cutting energy use by 80 per cent in new buildings.
NRF chairman Tony Tan noted that the research will stimulate Singapore's economy, while NRF chief executive officer Francis Yeoh added: "We think these two centres, plus the five that are already here, would give a lot of depth, breath and vibrancy to the research eco-system in Singapore." Sara Grosse
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U.N. study highlights price of nature to mankind
* Role of nature worth trillions of dollars
* U.N. meeting aims to set goal to fight species loss
* Study urges action by governments, businesses
Chisa Fujioka Reuters AlertNet 20 Oct 10;
NAGOYA, Japan, Oct 20 (Reuters) - Governments and businesses need an overhaul of policies and strategies to respond to the rapid loss of nature's riches, worth trillions of dollars but long taken for granted, a U.N.-backed study said on Wednesday.
Damage to natural capital including forests, wetlands and grasslands is valued at $2-4.5 trillion annually, the United Nations estimates, but the figure is not included in economic data such as GDP, nor in corporate accounts.
That "invisibility" needs to change so steps can be taken to save ecosystems that are a vital source of food, water and income, said Pavan Sukhdev, study leader for The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB), a U.N.-backed initiative.
"We can not treat this lightly," he told a news conference on the sidelines of an Oct 18-29 U.N. meeting in Nagoya, Japan, where envoys from nearly 200 countries are aiming to set targets for 2020 to fight losses in biological diversity.
"Unfortunately, the lack of an economic lens to reflect these realities, has meant that we have treated these matters lightly, that they are not centre-stage when it comes to policy discussions nor centre-stage when it comes to business discussions."
Sukhdev, on secondment from Deutsche Bank, unveiled the final installment of several TEEB reports that analyse the value of nature, including forests that clean the air, bees that pollinate crops and coral reefs that are home to millions of species.
For example, halving deforestation rates by 2030 would cut damage from climate change estimated at more than $3.7 trillion, while Swiss bee colonies ensured yearly agricultural production worth $213 million by providing pollination, the report said.
SAME COIN
Destruction of coral reefs was not only damaging to marine life but also posed risks to communities, the report said. Some 30 million people are reliant on reef-based resources for food production, incomes and livelihoods.
"It has exacerbated the suffering of human beings, especially of those at the bottom of the economic pyramid," Sukhdev said.
"Development and biodiversity cannot be seen as competing choices. They are not only the same coin but they are literally the same side of the same coin."
The report highlighted recommendations for policymakers, such as the need to include the value of nature and the role of ecosystems in national accounts. Businesses must disclose values in their annual reports and accounts, it said.
Emerging economies Brazil and India threw their support behind the U.N. effort, saying they would use the TEEB findings as a guide.
"At a national level we are in discussion to implement a TEEB study of our natural capital, and the Brazilian business sector is also in planning to move towards this practical and sustainable approach to decision-making," Braulio Dias, secretary for biodiversity and forests at Brazil's environment ministry, said in a statement.
Putting a price on the role of nature has been a major focus at the Nagoya talks on biodiversity, an issue that environmental groups say has so far received far less attention from policymakers and the public than climate change.
"The conservation community has a translation problem," said Andrew Deutz, director of international government relations at The Nature Conservancy.
"We've spent decades talking about habitat degradation and species loss. The people who run the world talk in terms of economic growth and employment rates. This report could be our Rosetta Stone." (Reporting by Chisa Fujioka; Editing by David Fogarty)
FACTBOX-Putting a value on nature to preserve its riches
Reuters AlertNet 20 Oct 10;
Oct 20 (Reuters) - Putting a value on nature and the services it provides is crucial to protect the world's forests, oceans, reefs and rivers from destruction, a major United Nations-backed report said on Wednesday.
The report by The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity, a research initiative also backed by the European Commission, highlights the multi-trillion dollar benefits nature provides to farmers, businesses, cities and entire economies. [ID:nTOE69J05V]
Yet much of these benefits are taken for granted, TEEB says, leading to incentives that are perpetuating the destruction of nature and raising the risks of an environmental crisis that could harm livelihoods, human health and food and water supplies.
Following are examples of the services nature provides and some of the key recommendations from the report released on the sidelines of a major U.N. conference in Japan aimed at combating accelerating losses of plant and animal species. WHAT DOES NATURE PROVIDE?
-- Forests: Cover about a third of the Earth's land surface and are estimated to contain more than half of all land species, mainly in the tropics.
Provide livelihoods to rural communities, help regulate the climate by soaking up large amounts of planet-warming carbon dioxide, control erosion, act as water storages for rivers, filtering water in the process and provide pollination for nearby crops such as coffee and fruit trees.
-- Coral reefs: About 30 million people are wholly reliant on reefs for food and other goods for income. Reefs also provide protection from storms, are valuable for tourism and can boost local real estate prices.
-- Wetlands: Can reduce pollution by acting as filters, boost flood protection from storms, act as breeding grounds for fish.
-- Rivers: Lifelines for agriculture, towns and cities. Used to generate electricity and transport goods and people.
TEEB'S SOLUTIONS
* Make nature visible:
Decision makers need to assess the role of nature's richness and ecosystem services in economic activity. They also need matching analysis of how costs and benefits of ecosystem services are spread across society, with public disclosure and accountability for impacts on nature.
* The bottom line and beyond:
Better accounting of business impacts and benefits from nature can spur change in business investment and operations.
Annual reports and accounts should disclose details such as environmental liabilities and changes in natural assets not currently included in the statutory accounts.
* Mainstreaming the economics of nature:
Full value of biodiversity and ecosystem services in decision making can be achieved if their sustainable management is recognized as an opportunity and not a constraint on development.
The value of nature's services needs to be included in:
Economic, trade and development policies; transport, energy and mining; agriculture, fisheries and forestry; corporate financial and social responsibility management and reporting; development policies and local, regional and national planning; and public procurement and private consumption
* Using nature to fight climate change:
Maintaining, restoring or enhancing services provided by ecosystems, such as mangroves, other wetlands and forest watersheds can compare favourably with man-made infrastructure, such as wastewater treatment plants or dykes, TEEB says.
* Valuing protected areas:
The benefits from setting up and managing protected areas on land and ocean reserves can outweigh the loss of economic activity. Ecosystem valuation can help to justify protected areas, identify funding and investment and guide conservation priorities.
(Editing by Alex Richardson)
Change global economic model to save biodiversity
Karl Malakunas Yahoo News 20 Oct 10;
MANILA (AFP) – The global economy must be radically altered to put a value on forests, reefs and other elements of nature but the financial benefits of doing so will be enormous, a UN-backed report said Wednesday.
The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) report warned that allowing nature to remain unaccounted for within the economy would lead to the continuing rapid extinction of species, and ensuing massive financial costs.
"TEEB's approach can reset the economic compass and herald a new era in which the value of nature's services is made visible and becomes an explicit part of policy and business decision making," said banker Pavan Sukhdev, who chaired a study that led to the report.
After nearly three years of research, the report aims to raise global awareness about the economic costs of inaction on biodiversity in a similar way to British economist Nicholas Stern's famous 2006 report on climate change.
The TEEB report was released in Nagoya, Japan, where delegates from 193 countries are meeting at a UN summit in an effort to map out a strategy to stop humans from driving species to extinction.
"We hope the next phase after Nagoya... is going to be a change in policy, a change in the matrix, a change in consumer behaviour, a change in business behaviour," Sukhdev told AFP ahead of the report's release.
The report highlighted the broad scope of so-called "ecosystem services" that are generally not valued in the economy.
These included regulation of the environment -- such as through water filtration by wetlands, pollination and disaster protection -- and as a source of medicines and wild foods.
Spiritual and recreational values, as well as the environment's role in nutrient recycling and photosynthesis, also needed to be taken into account, the report urged.
TEEB recommended that businesses and governments reveal in annual reports or national accounts how they depleted or damaged the environment.
This depletion or damage would have an economic value, and businesses would need to compensate for their adverse environmental impacts.
The TEEB reported cited a study by Britain-based consultancy TruCost that found the negative environmental impacts of the world's top 3,000 listed companies were worth 2.2 trillion dollars annually.
But it insisted there were already many examples of how placing a value on natural services would bring economic windfalls.
It highlighted a decision by New York City to pay landowners in the nearby Catskill mountains between 1-1.5 billion dollars to improve farm management techniques and stop run-off of pollutants.
This saved the city from having to build a new water filtration plant, which would have cost 6-8 billion dollars.
It also said fishermen around the world could reap an extra 50 billion dollars a year annually if the current over-exploitation of fish stocks, caused partly by billions of dollars in government subsidies, ended.
The TEEB report said the impacts of not giving economic values to ecosystems was most widely felt in the developing world.
This could be commonly seen when forests were logged, with the economic value placed only on the trees and not the other immense benefits that the ecosystem provided.
Among the benefits are that forests act as water catchments, provide habitats for valuable plants and animals, and store carbon so that it is not released into the atmosphere.
Continuing to log forests at current rates until 2050 would lead to natural capital losses of 2-4.5 trillion dollars annually, according to TEEB.
Sukhdev told AFP that India, Brazil and some other developing countries had already committed to placing values on their natural capital.
"I'm delighted to see the leadership is coming from the developing world, and now it's up to the developed world to walk the talk," he said.
But Sukhdev warned governments and corporations would not make the enormous changes needed unless pressured to do so by people around the world.
"People have to get agitated enough to force their governments to act," he said.
Insects £134bn, coral £109bn – UN puts a value on nature's resources
Pioneering report equates biodiversity to cash in hope of encouraging conservation
Michael McCarthy, The Independent 20 Oct 10;
Nature and the services it provides are worth trillions of dollars annually to human society, and governments and businesses must formally recognise this to halt the continuing degradation of the natural world, a groundbreaking UN report said yesterday.
The enormous economic value of forests, freshwater, soils and coral reefs, as well as the social and economic consequences of their loss, must be factored into political and economic policies in all countries, according to the new study of The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (Teeb).
It suggests, for example, that the value of human welfare benefits provided by coral reefs is between $30bn (£19bn) and $172bn annually. The destruction of coral reefs is not only damaging to marine life but also poses risks to communities, the report says. Some 30 million people around the world rely on reef-based resources for food production, and for their livelihoods.
In another example, the report reveals that the economic value of insect pollinators in global crop production is worth €153bn (£134bn) every year.
On the other hand, damage to natural capital including forests, wetlands and grasslands is valued at between $2trn and $4.5trn annually, but the figure is not included in economic data such as GDP, or in corporate accounts.
Released at the UN biodiversity conference in Nagoya, Japan, the report is likely to mark a turning point in how the world deals with the growing global biodiversity crisis, with wildlife and ecosystems everywhere under mounting threat of extinction and destruction – a scenario highlighted by the fact that the international community has failed to meet the agreed target of halting the rate of biodiversity loss by 2010.
It is hoped that by underlining its economic value to people, the report will transform the understanding of biodiversity and its disappearance, just as the 2006 Stern Report widened the appreciation of the threat of climate change by stating how much it would cost, and stressing that acting to tackle it would be far cheaper than doing nothing.
Seen by many as the Stern Report for biodiversity, the Teeb report puts cash figures on the value of nature, disclosing that ecosystems such as freshwater, coral reefs and forests account for between 47 and 89 per cent of what the UN calls "the GDP of the poor", meaning the source of livelihood for the rural and forest-dwelling poor.
"This economic invisibility of nature is a problem," said Pavan Sukhdev, the Indian banker who led the Teeb study. "The invisibility needs to change, so steps can be taken to save these threatened ecosystems that are a vital source of food, water and income.
"Unfortunately, the lack of an economic lens to reflect these realities has meant that we have treated these matters lightly, that they are not centre stage when it comes to policy discussions, nor centre stage when it comes to business discussions," he said.
The report in numbers...
£31bn: Overfishing
The report says that £31bn a year is lost due to overfishing. It says that poor regulation and weak enforcement of existing regulations allow industrial fishing fleets to plunder valuable fish stocks without regard for sustainability, thus reducing the potential income from fishing.
£134bn: Insect pollination
The value of insects pollinating crops and flowers can be estimated at £134bn a year, according to the UN. The figure represents 9.5 per cent of all agricultural output used for human food.
£19bn–£109bn: Coral reefs
Home to an estimated three million species. Thirty million people in coastal and island communities are reliant on reef-based resources as their primary means of food production, income and livelihood. The UN report values coral reefs at between £19bn and £109bn annually.
50
Millionaires that have been made in the Hiware Bazaar district of India after 70 hectares of forest were regenerated, leading to the number of wells in the area doubling and grass production increasing. Income from agriculture increased too.
TEEB report puts world's natural assets on the global political radar
Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres EurekAlert 20 Oct 10;
Nagoya, Japan, 20 October 2010– The economic importance of the world's natural assets is now firmly on the political radar as a result of an international assessment showcasing the enormous economic value of forests, freshwater, soils and coral reefs, as well as the social and economic costs of their loss, was the conclusion of The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) report launched today by TEEB study leader, Pavan Sukhdev.
"TEEB has documented not only the multi-trillion dollar importance to the global economy of the natural world, but the kinds of policy-shifts and smart market mechanisms that can embed fresh thinking in a world beset by a rising raft of multiple challenges. The good news is that many communities and countries are already seeing the potential of incorporating the value of nature into decision-making," said Mr. Sukhdev, a banker who heads up the Green Economy Initiative of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
He was speaking at the launch of the two-year study, which has involved hundreds of experts from around the world, at the Convention on Biological Diversity's 10th Conference of Parties meeting (CBD COP10) in Nagoya.
The TEEB study calls for wider recognition of nature's contribution to human livelihoods, health, security, and culture by decision-makers at all levels (local to national and business to citizens). It promotes the demonstration, and where appropriate, the capture of the economic values of nature's services through an array of policy instruments and mechanisms.
Countries such as India have already announced plans for implementing the economic valuation of their natural capital as well as the value of nature's services in decision-making.
"TEEB's approach can reset the economic compass and herald a new era in which the value of nature's services is made visible and becomes an explicit part of policy and business decision-making. Do nothing, and not only do we lose trillions worth of current and future benefits to society, we also further impoverish the poor and put future generations at risk," said Mr. Sukhdev.
"The time for ignoring biodiversity and persisting with conventional thinking regarding wealth creation and development is over. We must get on to the path towards a green economy," he added.
Nature is crucial to prosperity and development
In TEEB's final report, "Mainstreaming the Economics of Nature", there are three scenarios: a natural ecosystem (forests), a human settlement (city), and a business sector (mining), to illustrate how the economic concepts and tools described in TEEB can help equip society with the means to incorporate the values of nature into decision-making at all levels.
With more than half of the human population now living in urban areas, cities have a crucial role to play in acknowledging the natural capital required to maintain and improve the well-being of their residents. Innovative economic instruments and policies are emerging that reward good practice. For example, the Japanese city of Nagoya (host to the COP-10 meeting), has implemented a new system of tradeable development rights whereby developers wishing to exceed existing limits on high-rise buildings can offset their impacts by buying and conserving areas of Japan's traditional agricultural landscape. Discounts on bank loans for buildings that receive a higher 'star rating' based on a green certification system designed by city authorities also create incentives for more green space within city projects.
An important finding of many studies reviewed by TEEB is the contribution of forests and other ecosystems to the livelihoods of poor rural households, and therefore the significant potential for conservation efforts to contribute to poverty reduction. It has been estimated that ecosystem services and other non-marketed natural goods account for 47 to 89 per cent of the so-called 'GDP of the Poor' (i.e. the effective GDP or total sources of livelihoods of rural and forest-dwelling poor households) in some large developing countries.
"In the past only traditional sectors such as manufacturing, mining, retailing, construction and energy generation were uppermost in the minds of economic planners and ministers of finance, development and trade. TEEB has brought to the world's attention that nature's goods and services are equal, if not far more central, to the wealth of nations including the poor--a fact that will be increasingly the case on a planet of finite resources with a population set to rise to nine billion people by 2050," said Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and UNEP Executive Director.
Failure to account for the value of natural capital poses significant business and social risks
The report also drives home the message that failure of business to account for the value of natural capital, particularly in sectors such as mining, can pose significant business and social risks. The UK-based consultancy, TruCost, estimated that the negative impacts, or 'environmental externalities', of the world's top 3,000 listed companies totals around US$ 2.2 trillion annually.
Approaches such as Net Positive Impact, wetland mitigation and bio-banking can help ensure that developers take responsibility for their environmental footprint. As consumers and governments opt for greener purchasing choices the business sector also stands to make considerable gains: by 2020 the annual market size for certified agricultural products is expected to be US$210 billion; payments for water related ecosystem services US$6 billion; and voluntary biodiversity offsets in the region of US$100 million a year.
Countries give nature the green light
Countries are already taking steps to adopt the TEEB approach. India's Minister for Environment and Forests, Mr. Jairam Ramesh, said today that the TEEB study provides practical guidance for new economic approaches that India will start to implement.
"TEEB aims to provide strong incentives for countries to ensure decisions are not solely based on short-term gains, but build foundations for sustainable and inclusive development. India is planning a TEEB for India study to assess its natural capital. We are committed to developing a framework for green national accounts that we can implement by 2015, and we are confident that the TEEB for India Study will be the key facilitator for the same," said Mr. Ramesh.
The European Commission and Germany saw the benefits of the TEEB study at the Potsdam G8+5 Environment Ministers meeting in 2007 and applauded its conclusions.
"The European Commission has supported the project from the start and will continue to work on these issues after COP 10, taking into account the decisions that will be adopted in Nagoya. We intend to launch a study to examine more in detail the evidence available in an EU context and areas for implementation of the analyses developed by TEEB in our policies. The Commission is also willing to support initiatives by other countries, in particular developing countries, to demonstrate the benefits and costs of investing in the management of biodiversity and ecosystem services. Notably, we plan to work in partnership with UNDP for supporting assessments in interested developing countries and making the links with economic sectors and development plans," said Janez Potočnik, European Commissioner for the Environment.
Japan, the host country of the 10th Conference of Parties meeting on the Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD COP10), also welcomed the study.
"The Japanese Government has contributed to the TEEB study, and has conducted research on economic evaluation and policy responses on Japan's biodiversity in close cooperation with TEEB. Japan welcomes the launching of TEEB at Aichi-Nagoya, Japan, in the International Year for Biodiversity. We expect the TEEB study will deliver significant impacts on global biodiversity policy. To support this new approach, Japan, as COP10 presidency, would like to proactively contribute to national, regional and global initiatives to implement aspects of the TEEB study," said Mr. Hideki Minamikawa, Vice-Minister for Global Environmental Affairs in the Ministry of the Environment Japan.
The TEEB study concludes with the following recommendations:
1. Public disclosure of --and accountability for --impacts on nature should be essential outcomes of the biodiversity assessment.
2. The present system of national accounts should be rapidly upgraded to include the value of changes in natural capital stocks and ecosystem service flows.
3. An urgent priority is to draw up consistent physical accounts for forest stocks and ecosystem services, both of which are required, for example, for the development of new forest carbon mechanisms and incentives.
4. The annual reports and accounts of business and other organizations should disclose all major externalities, including environmental damage affecting society and changes in natural assets not currently disclosed in the statutory accounts.
5. The principles of 'No Net Loss' or 'Net Positive Impact' should be considered as normal business practice, using robust biodiversity performance benchmarks and assurance processes to avoid and mitigate damage, together with pro-biodiversity investment to compensate for adverse impacts that cannot be avoided.
6. The principles of 'polluter pays' and 'full-cost-recovery' are powerful guidelines for the realignment of incentive structures and fiscal reform. In some contexts, the principle of 'beneficiary pays' can be invoked to support new positive incentives such as payments for ecosystem services, tax breaks and other fiscal transfers that aim to encourage private and public sector actors to provide ecosystem services.
7. Governments should aim for full disclosure of subsidies, measuring and reporting them annually in order that their perverse components may be recognized, tracked and eventually phased out.
8. The establishment of comprehensive, representative, effective and equitably managed systems of national and regional protected areas should be pursued (especially in the high-seas) in order to conserve biodiversity and maintain a wide range of ecosystem services. Ecosystem valuation can help to justify protected areas policy, identify funding and investment opportunities, and inform conservation priorities.
9. Ecosystem conservation and restoration should be regarded as a viable investment option in support of climate change mitigation and adaptation. Within the UNFCCC process, REDD-Plus should be prioritized for accelerated implementation, beginning with pilot projects and efforts to strengthen capacity in developing countries to help them establish credible systems of monitoring and verification that will allow for the full deployment of the instrument.
10. Human dependence on ecosystem services and particularly their role as a lifeline for many poor households needs to be more fully integrated into policy. This applies both to targeting development interventions as well as to evaluating the social impacts of policies that affect the environment.
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It is envisaged that the TEEB study will continue with ongoing work on outreach and capacity building. The TEEB reports are available at www.teebweb.org.
Notes to Editors:
In addition to the launch of the final synthesis Mainstreaming the Economics of Nature, TEEB Ecological and Economic Foundations is published today by Earthscan. The volume synthesizes state-of-the-art knowledge on a range of issues that are central to applying economic valuation to ecosystem services and biodiversity. A further three volumes based on the TEEB reports will be published by Earthscan over the next 15 months.
TEEB is an independent study, led by Pavan Sukhdev, hosted by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), with financial support from the European Commission, Germany, UK, the Netherlands, Norway, Belgium, Sweden and Japan.
Mainstreaming the Economics of Nature is the last in a series of interconnected reports: TEEB Ecological and Economic Foundations, coordinated by Pushpam Kumar of the University of Liverpool; TEEB for Policy Makers coordinated by Patrick ten Brink of the Institute of European Environmental Policy (IEEP); TEEB for Local and Regional Policy Makers coordinated by Heidi Wittmer of the UFZ Helmholtz Research Centre and Haripriya Gundimeda of the Indian Institute of Technology; and TEEB for Business coordinated by Josh Bishop of IUCN. A TEEB for citizens website can be found at www.teeb4me.com.
US$ 50 billion
The annual loss of opportunity due to the current over-exploitation of global fisheries. Competition between highly subsidized industrial fishing fleets coupled with poor regulation and weak enforcement of existing rules has led to over-exploitation of most commercially valuable fish stocks, reducing the income from global marine fisheries by US$50 billion annually, compared to a more sustainable fishing scenario (World Bank and FAO 2009).
Euros 153 billion
Insect pollinators are nature's multi-billion dollar providers. For 2005 the total economic value of insect pollination was estimated at Euros 153 billion. This represents 9.5% of world agricultural output for human food in 2005. (Gallai et al. 2009)
US$30 billion – US$172 billion
The annual value of human welfare benefits provided by coral reefs. Although just covering 1.2% of the world's continent shelves, coral reefs are home to an estimated 1-3 million species including more than a quarter of all marine fish species. (Allsopp et al. 2009). Some 30 million people in coastal and island communities are totally reliant on reef-based resources as their primary means of food production, income and livelihood. (Gomez et al. 1994, Wilkinson 2004) Estimates of the value of human welfare benefits provided by coral reefs range from US$30 billion (Cesar et al. 2003) to US$172 billion annually (Martinez et al. 2007)
US$20 -US$67 million (over four years)
The benefits of tree planting in the city of Canberra. Local authorities in Canberra, Australia, have planted 400,000 trees to regulate microclimate, reduce pollution and thereby improve urban air quality, reduce energy costs for air conditioning as well as store and sequester carbon. These benefits are expected to amount to some US$20-US$67 million over the period 2008-2012, in terms of the value generated or savings realized for the city. (Brack 2002)
US$6.5 billion
The amount saved by New York, by investing in payments to maintain natural water purification services in the Catskills watershed (US$1-US$1.5 billion) rather than opt for the man-made solution of a filtration plant (US$ 6-8 billion plus US$300-500 million/year operating costs). (Perrot-Maitre and Davis 2001).
50
The number of (rupees) millionaires in Hiware Bazaar, India, as the result of regenerating 70 hectares of degraded forests. This led to the number of active wells in the surrounding area doubling, grass production increasing and income from agriculture increasing due to the enhancement of local ecosystem services (a TEEB case mainly based on Neha Sakhuja).
Further examples available at www.teebweb.org
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Nature's law: Business will pay the costs of depleting natural resources
Richard Anderson , BBC News 20 Oct 10;
The natural world supports the livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people the world over.
It also provides the foundations upon which all the world's major corporate enterprises are built.
For it is not just farmers, fishermen, tour operators and the like that are dependent on nature.
Miners, energy providers, food and clothes retailers - you name it, most companies rely to varying degrees on natural resources.
The majority of businesses, for example, would struggle to survive without clean and accessible water.
The rapid degradation of the natural world by humans, therefore, has a very real and detrimental impact on the ability of people to support themselves and their families, and hits the bottom line of businesses in every sector of the economy.
Fish quotas
Few industries have been hit harder than fishing.
In many areas of the world, fish stocks have fallen by more than 90% since the onset of commercial fishing. Not only does overfishing threaten a vital food source, but it threatens the livelihoods of millions of fishermen.
For some, there simply aren't enough fish left to catch, while for others the quotas and restrictions on time at sea designed to prevent the total collapse of fish stocks are hitting incomes hard.
John Kirkwood has spent his entire working life as a fisherman in the village of Pittenweem, Fife, on the east coast of Scotland.
He left school in 1974 and went straight into a summer job fishing "and just ended up staying at sea".
"I bought my first boat for £460,000 in 1986, which was a big gamble for me, and have been a skipper ever since, fishing white fish such as cod and haddock," says Mr Kirkwood.
"We made a good living back then," he says of himself and his six crew. "There were no restrictions and no quotas."
But in the mid-1990s, the European Union began introducing regulations to protect rapidly-dwindling fish stocks.
"The cuts became deeper every year, so we just weren't able to buy enough," Mr Kirkwood says.
"We were better off than many others, but the quotas have put a lot of boats out of business.
"There was a big decommissioning in 2001 and 2003, which cut the Scottish fleet by more than a half."
And nowhere has the impact of quotas and restrictions on days at sea been felt more deeply than on the northern banks of the Firth of Forth.
"There used to be 20 large vessels fishing white fish, but we are the last. When we go, there will be no big boats fishing out of Fife," Mr Kirkwood says.
And it won't be long before they are all gone.
"The income we get now is the same as it was in 1998 - our earnings have stood still for the past 12 years.
"So I am retiring at 53, a good two or three years before I had intended to."
And it's not just overfishing that affects stocks - pollution can have a more sudden and devastating impact on freshwater fish.
For example, river pollution caused by rapidly expanding oil palm plantations and extensive logging in the Kinabatangan floodplain in Malaysia have caused the local fisheries to collapse, with local fishermen losing their major source of income.
Ski resorts
Another sector that has been hit by damage to the natural world - often referred to as biodiversity loss - is tourism.
For example, lions across Africa have disappeared from 80% of their former habitat, hitting game reserves and associated businesses.
Rising temperatures caused in part by greenhouse gases have also seen glaciers and snow coverage shrinking, hitting winter sports resorts that are seeing ski seasons cut short.
Rising sea temperatures and water levels are also affecting coastal regions and small islands such as the Maldives, and particularly those businesses dependent on coral reefs, 20% of which have disappeared in the past few decades alone.
Disappearing corals
Adrenalin Dive, based in Townsville in Queensland, Australia, is being squeezed on many sides.
Paul Crocombe set up the business in 1987, running trips for tourists to the Great Barrier Reef.
"We used to visit Keepher Reef, 38 nautical miles from Townsville, but this has been severely impacted by coral bleaching and by Crown-of-thorns starfish that eat up the reefs," Mr Crocombe explains.
"This has affected a lot of reefs - Flinders Reef was exceptional but now suffers severely from bleaching due to the higher water temperatures.
"At first the corals get brighter and more colourful as they give off algae, but once all the algae is gone, the corals go white and then die."
The problem is compounded by the Crown-of-thorns starfish, which tend to prey on stressed reefs.
"Now we have to go to Wheeler Reef, which is about as quarter as far again, which adds travel time and fuel costs," Mr Crocombe says.
This, he estimates, requires an extra 30,000 litres of fuel a year, costing the business 42,000 Australian dollars ($41,000; £26,000).
The extra time taken on the trip also puts some potential customers off.
"People say they don't want to go that far so we need a faster, more modern boat to keep the time, and our fuel costs, down.
"If we don't change boats, then our business becomes marginal," explains Mr Crocombe.
He already employs fewer full-time staff, and is now relying on the banks to provide funds for the new craft.
"We are chasing finance now but a new boat costs A$3m, while a second-hand boat costs A$1.2m.
"I think that eventually we will get it, somehow."
Water costs
But it is not just small businesses that are hit directly by biodiversity loss.
A recent study by the UN-backed Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), conducted with corporate environmental research group Trucost, estimated the cost of environmental damage caused by the world's largest 3,000 companies in 2008 at $2.15tn, the equivalent of one-third of their combined profits.
Increasingly these costs - what economists call externalities - will become internalised.
Consumer products giant Unilever, for example, has been forced to take action to secure the water supply to its tea plantations in Kenya's Rift Valley.
"The local population has chopped down large sections of the Mau Forest, which directly impacts on our ability to catch water," explains Gavin Neath, Unilever's senior vice president of sustainability.
To compensate, the company has spent about £300,000 over the past 10 years on planting more than one million indigenous trees in the forest. It has also spent a similar sum on safeguarding forestry and biodiversity in Tanzania.
Changing rain patterns in California, Spain and Greece are also raising issues over tomato production, just another one of the "serious issues" that could hit the company in the next 10 years, Mr Neath says.
Europe's largest carmaker Volkswagen has also committed to investing $430,000 (£270,000) in re-planting forests and digging rain water pits to secure the water supply to its factory in the Mexican town of Puebla, while brewer SABMiller has paid farmers in Bogota, Colombia, $150,000 to replant trees for the same reason.
The world's largest steel producer, ArcelorMittal, has invested almost $2.1m since 2006 on protecting what is, after iron and coal, the most important component in making steel, by restoring the ecosystems surrounding the Great Lakes in North America that supply water to nine facilities.
Coffee giant Starbucks has also committed millions of dollars to protect the water supply and to ensure natural shade cover to its coffee plantations in Mexico and Indonesia.
Rising costs
More and more major corporations are waking up to the fact that they have to pay to protect or replace the earth's natural resources and services that have, until now, been seen as free.
Many will be forced to do so by increased regulation, just like fishing quotas and pollution taxes, such as carbon credits, that already exist.
And these costs are not peripheral.
According to Trucost and PRI, environmental costs amounted to more than half the combined earnings of about 2,500 major listed companies in developed and emerging markets across the world in 2008.
And as resources come under greater pressure, as they inevitably will, so the bill will continue to rise.
Big business will be forced to adapt, but many smaller businesses and individuals will not have that luxury.
Nature's sting: The real cost of damaging Planet Earth
By Richard Anderson Business reporter, BBC News 11 Oct 10;
You don't have to be an environmentalist to care about protecting the Earth's wildlife.
Just ask a Chinese fruit farmer who now has to pay people to pollinate apple trees because there are no longer enough bees to do the job for free.
And it's not just the number of bees that is dwindling rapidly - as a direct result of human activity, species are becoming extinct at a rate 1,000 times greater than the natural average.
The Earth's natural environment is also suffering.
In the past few decades alone, 20% of the oceans' coral reefs have been destroyed, with a further 20% badly degraded or under serious threat of collapse, while tropical forests equivalent in size to the UK are cut down every two years.
These statistics, and the many more just like them, impact on everyone, for the very simple reason that we will all end up footing the bill.
Costing nature
For the first time in history, we can now begin to quantify just how expensive degradation of nature really is.
A recent, two-year study for the United Nations Environment Programme, entitled The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (Teeb), put the damage done to the natural world by human activity in 2008 at between $2tn (£1.3tn) and $4.5tn.
At the lower estimate, that is roughly equivalent to the entire annual economic output of the UK or Italy.
A second study, for the UN-backed Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), puts the cost considerably higher. Taking what research lead Dr Richard Mattison calls a more "hard-nosed, economic approach", corporate environmental research group Trucost estimates the figure at $6.6tn, or 11% of global economic output.
This, says Trucost, compares with a $5.4tn fall in the value of pension funds in developed countries caused by the global financial crisis in 2007 and 2008.
Of course these figures are just estimates - there is no exact science to measuring humans' impact on the natural world - but they show that the risks to the global economy of large-scale environmental destruction are huge.
Natural services
The reason the world is waking up to the real cost of the degradation of the Earth's wildlife and resources - commonly referred to as biodiversity loss - is because, until now, no one has had to pay for it.
Businesses and individuals have largely operated on the basis that the natural resources and services that the planet provides are infinite.
But of course they are not. And only when the value of protecting them, and in some cases replacing them, is calculated, does their vital role in the global economy become clear.
Some are obvious, for example the clean and accessible water that is needed to grow crops to eat, and the fish that provide one-sixth of the protein consumed by the human population.
But others are less so, for example the mangrove swamps and coral reefs that provide natural barriers against storms that devastate coastal regions; the vast array of plant species that provide pharmaceutical companies with endless genetic resources used for live-saving drugs; and the insects that provide essential pollination for growing around 70% of the world's most productive crops.
Bee collapse
It is a hugely complex process, but an economic value can be placed on these resources and services.
In the US in 2007, for example, the cost to farmers of a collapse in the number of bees was $15bn, according to the US Department of Agriculture, contributing to a global cost of pollination services of $190bn, according to Teeb.
As Paven Sukhdev, a career banker and team leader of Teeb, says: "Bees don't send invoices".
Research by consultancy group PricewaterhouseCoopers also suggests the economic losses caused by the introduction of non-indigenous, agricultural pests in Australia, Brazil, India, South Africa, the US and the UK are more than $100bn a year.
In 1998, flash flooding in the Yangtze River in China killed more than 4,000 people, displaced millions more and caused damage estimated at $30bn. The Chinese government established that extensive logging in the region over the previous 50 years had removed the trees that provided essential protection from floods. It promptly banned logging.
Indeed the Centre for International Forestry Research has estimated that, in the 50 years prior to the ban, deforestation cost the Chinese economy around $12bn a year.
Business costs
The impact of biodiversity loss is felt hardest by the world's poor. The livelihood and employment of hundreds of millions of people depend upon the world's natural resources, whether it be fish to eat or sell, fertile soil for farming or trees for fuel, construction and flood control, to name just three.
As Mr Sukhdev explains: "Biodiversity is valuable for everyone, but it is an absolute necessity for the poor".
For example, Teeb has calculated that the Earth's natural resources and the services they provide contribute 75% of the total economic output of Indonesia, and almost half of India's output.
But it's not only the poor who suffer.
Businesses will increasingly be hit as they start paying for their part in biodiversity loss.
Not only will they have to pay to protect or replace services that nature has historically provided for free, but they will be forced to pay by regulatory instruments such as pollution taxes, like carbon credits and landfill taxes that already exist, and higher insurance premiums.
Then there is the cost of paying for the increased number of natural disasters, resulting in part from more extreme weather conditions caused by rising temperatures due to greenhouse gases, and even reputational damage among consumers that are becoming increasingly sensitive to environmental issues.
Trucost and PRI have estimated the cost of environmental damage caused by the world's largest 3,000 companies in 2008 at $2.15tn.
That equates to around one-third of their combined profits.
Again, these figures are only estimates, but the scale of the costs that will have to be paid by companies for their damage to the environment cannot be ignored.
As Gavin Neath, senior vice president of sustainability at consumer goods giant Unilever, says: "It's pretty terrifying. Nobody in business thinks that at some point this is not going to hurt us".
Pension values
And higher costs for business mean higher prices for consumers.
Only this summer, massive floods in Pakistan and China forced the global cotton price to 15-year highs, pushing up the costs of clothes, with retailers such as Primark, Next and H&M all warning of higher prices to come.
Drought and wildfires in Russia also sent wheat prices rocketing, sending global food prices sharply higher.
But consumers won't just be hit by rising prices. As Trucost's research shows, earnings and profits of the world's largest companies will come under increasing pressure, undermining share price growth.
And it is precisely these companies that pension funds invest in.
Pension values, therefore, are likely to suffer, reducing retirement incomes for all.
The cost of the current, rapid rate of degradation of the earth's natural resources will, then, be borne by everyone, environmentalist or not.
This is the first in a series of three articles on the economic cost of human activity on the natural world.
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