Alien species breeding at the Singapore Botanic Gardens
from Life's Indulgences
13 Nov (Sat): Talk on "Fabulous Frogs & Terrible Toads"
from Celebrating Singapore's BioDiversity!
2-4 Dec: Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research Open House 2010
from Celebrating Singapore's BioDiversity!
A little munia fell out of the sky
from Bird Ecology Study Group
COP10 - Nagoya Protocol
from Psychedelic Nature
Linkedin group for biodiversity professionals
from The Pimm Group
Straits Times Forum 4 Nov 10;
THE aggressive behaviour of monkeys (Ms Eunice Ong, 'Monkey menace at MacRitchie bus stop'; last Saturday) is the outcome of feeding by irresponsible members of the public.
Feeding monkeys alters their natural behaviour and lures them out of the forest in search of handouts. These monkeys pose a nuisance to the public - even to those who do not feed them.
Such monkeys do not only go after food that is handed to them or left in plain sight, but they also grab at plastic bags or any other food containers that the monkeys have been conditioned to recognise. When such monkeys become a nuisance to the public, we have no choice but to trap and send them to be euthanised.
Left on their own, monkeys will forage for food in the forest. Unfortunately. feeding of monkeys persists despite strict regulations and enforcement prohibiting feeding in parks and nature reserves. If the situation does not improve, we may consider increasing the fines further as a deterrence.
We advise park visitors to keep food and snacks in backpacks and not in plastic bags. Should anyone encounter monkeys, do not feed them or eat in their presence. Avoid eye contact with the monkeys and walk away. Let the monkeys return to their natural habitat to forage.
James Gan
Assistant Director, Central Nature Reserve
National Parks Board
Monkey menace at MacRitchie bus stop
Straits Times Forum 30 Oct 10;
I REFER to recent news about the death of a baby in Malaysia after a monkey snatched her from her home ("Monkey dropped baby from rooftop"; Oct 8).
On Monday, I was waiting for a bus outside MacRitchie Reservoir when I heard the screams of a woman behind me and a young girl telling her to "give him your shopping bag". The woman had been confronted by a monkey which had daringly snatched her shopping bag. She had no choice but to drop it to stop the monkey from attacking her, and the monkey later ran back to the field behind the bus stop. It was then that I noticed another two monkeys lurking about in very close proximity to the bus stop.
The young girl, a resident of the area, said she had observed how the monkeys would target humans with shopping bags, as they thought the bags contained food. I was horrified to hear that.
It would be especially dangerous for the elderly and young children to be subject to such snatch-attacks by the monkeys.
More should be done to control these monkeys. I do hope the authorities will take quick action.
Eunice Ong (Ms)
One of world's largest, it is 'key piece' of S'pore's clean energy strategy
Jessica Cheam Straits Times 4 Nov 10;
ONE of the world's largest integrated solar plants opened in Singapore yesterday, marking a milestone in the country's growing clean technology industry.
Its $2.5 billion price tag makes it one of the largest investments ever in Singapore and a 'key piece in Singapore's clean energy strategy,' said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who officiated at the opening of the new complex by Norwegian firm Renewable Energy Corporation (REC) in Tuas.
The cleantech sector, identified as a major pillar of growth for Singapore, is expected to contribute $3.4 billion to gross domestic product by 2015 while providing 18,000 jobs.
REC chief executive Ole Enger called yesterday's opening of the plant's first phase 'a new dawn' for the company and Singapore's solar industry .
It caps a three-year journey since the firm first announced a $6.3 billion integrated solar manufacturing plant in Singapore in 2007.
REC's facility, which sits on a 321,000 sq m site, produces more than 190,000 solar modules per month, which are exported to the European and American markets.
The modules are used in solar energy systems which generate electricity from the sun's rays.
Mr Enger noted that demand from Asia is increasing, such as from Japan, Taiwan, South Korea and more recently, China and India.
REC's plant was considered a major coup for the Economic Development Board when Singapore trumped 200 other locations to clinch what economists called a 'queen bee' investment - the world's largest plant at that time.
Such big investments spur an industry eco-system of companies. Singapore has developed several world-class industries by clustering firms with complementary strengths, and this model has been applied to the clean energy sector, said Mr Lee.
It took the plant only 18 months after construction began in June 2008 for the first solar module to be produced.
But the project was not without challenges. A few months after building began, Oslo-listed REC was hit by the global financial crisis. But support from shareholders, banks and the Singapore Government helped to see the project through, said Mr Enger.
The project even came in under its initial budget of $3 billion for the first phase.
Singapore's skilled workforce, especially in semiconductor industry capabilities, was a key reason why REC decided to set up shop here.
The firm received 35,000 applications for just one advertisement.
To date, it has hired 1,500 workers in Singapore and will employ up to 1,700 as production ramps up.
Mr Lee yesterday acknowledged the Singapore worker as the Republic's 'most critical strength'.
'We've got to work hard to maintain this advantage,' said Mr Lee, adding that the Government is pumping billions of dollars to encourage workers to upgrade their skills.
The modules produced by REC's new plant for the whole of next year could offset 25 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions throughout its lifetime or produce enough electricity to meet the yearly energy needs of 150,000 Singaporean households.
Mr Enger said expansion plans for the plant will be considered after next year.
Singapore to train more clean energy specialists, says PM Lee
Joanne Chan Channel NewsAsia 3 Nov 10;
SINGAPORE : Singapore will ramp up plans to develop manpower for the clean energy industry, and will train over 2,000 specialists in the next five years.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said this at the opening of a new S$2.5 billion solar manufacturing facility - the largest clean tech investment ever made in Singapore.
Singapore identified clean energy as a major growth area for the economy in 2007. And it is committing some S$350 million to support this effort.
Mr Lee said: "There is not yet a global deal on climate change, but many countries worldwide are studying various clean energy options, pursuing all possibilities, seeking a breakthrough. But Singapore can position ourselves for this long-term development, contributing to global energy solutions while tapping the economic spinoffs."
Mr Lee said the strategy to grow the sector has been to attract high-value investments in manufacturing and build strong research and development capabilities.
The Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore (SERIS) was launched in 2008 and has embarked on research projects with leading industry players.
A critical component in attracting investments to Singapore is a skilled workforce.
Mr Lee said more clean energy specialists will be trained in the universities and polytechnics here.
There will also be Continuing Education and Training programmes by the Workforce Development Agency.
Norwegian company Renewable Energy Corporation (REC), which has set up its solar panel manufacturing facility, said the Singapore worker was a major lure.
Ole Enger, the CEO of Renewable Energy Corporation, said: "We selected Singapore for the reason that you have very competent people here, and the second reason being that we are very happy with the Singapore government."
Some 200 sites were considered before Singapore was selected as the location for the manufacturing facility. This state-of-the-art complex spans 321,000 square metres.
When fully operational, the plant and onsite suppliers will generate 1,700 jobs.
1,500 people are currently employed and REC said it is still recruiting.
The Singapore plant is one of the world's largest integrated solar manufacturing facilities.
Solar panels assembled here will be exported to countries such as Europe and the United States. - CNA/wk/ms
Travis Teo Channel NewsAsia 3 Nov 10;
SINGAPORE : Turning "green" has caught on with more big businesses globally.
For some, their initiatives are not only saving costs and the environment, but can also be a source of new income for companies that sell their green technology to other companies.
This is a growing trend highlighted by industry watchers at a conference for environmental sustainability and business practices.
Singapore company Senoko is generating more than just electricity by using its environment-friendly combined cycle plant.
The plant uses natural gas which produces less carbon emission compared to the traditional fuel oil.
The plant has also been generating cost savings due to the higher efficiency of using natural gas.
Eu Pui San, managing director, Senoko Energy Supply, said: "So on top of the economic benefit of higher efficiency, the combined cycle plant has resulted in Senoko having an overall reduction in the carbon emission by more than 40 per cent since the 1990s."
Industry experts said the technology can potentially be exported to other power generating companies in the region, creating a new revenue stream for Senoko.
Tay Kah Soon Victor, chief operating officer, Singapore Business Federation, said: "On the objective of profit itself and as well as being sustainable, these two are not divergent goals. There are ways to intersect them.
"We have seen quite a few companies which have done it to a certain extent. We see an increasing trend - in fact, some of them are telling us it is an inevitable trend."
Going forward, experts said proactive government policies will be key in boosting the number and use of such green technology.
Dorjee Sun, chief executive, Carbon Conservation, said: "Green funds - these initiatives are great. The Singapore government is extremely proactive in terms of wanting to make Singapore a green hub.
"So EDB, the Economic Development Board of Singapore, attracted us to Singapore by providing us with grants in order to make Singapore a green hub in the region."
Specifically, the Singapore government has set aside S$700 million to develop research & development and manpower training in the "clean technology" sector last year.
Experts said this has made green technology cheaper and more accessible for companies.
- CNA/al
Amresh Gunasingham Strait Times 4 Nov 10;
A NEW $30 million project aiming to help laboratories use an international standard of measuring chemicals was announced yesterday.
It is hoped the scheme will allow Singapore to communicate more effectively with its neighbours when assessing the impact of haze pollution on society.
The need for all countries to be on the same page on this issue was underscored during the recent haze episode. Currently, Singapore and Malaysia use different ways of measuring air quality. The two systems can leave open to interpretation the extent to which poisonous gases such as sulphur dioxide and carbon monoxide, which are found in the haze, will affect their communities and their neighbours.
The new project could in future help policymakers and business leaders in the pharmaceutical and food industries, for example, assess safety standards between countries using a common standard.
For decades, scientists have been working furiously to find a way for countries to be able to use the common system of measuring chemicals, known as the International System of Units (SI). As Singapore touts itself as a chemical and biomedical hub, the National Metrology Centre set up under the Agency for Science, Technology and Research will work with the Health Sciences Authority to improve laboratories' competence in this field.
Announcing the initiative at the Orchard Hotel yesterday, Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry and Education S. Iswaran said it will build up the quality and accuracy of measuring devices in key sectors here such as petrochemicals and forensics.
'Manufacturers, suppliers and consumers rely on the accuracy and reliability of measurements made at different stages of production and distribution,' he said.
Dr Lee Loke Chong, executive director of the NMC, added: 'When there are implications for trade and commercial issues, there needs to be a common standard that countries can use to make sure they speak the same language.'
The so-called summit in Japan won't stop anyone trashing the planet. Only economic risks seem to make governments act
George Monbiot guardian.co.uk 1 Nov 10;
'Countries join forces to save life on Earth", the front page of the Independent told us. "Historic", "a landmark", a "much-needed morale booster", the other papers chorused. The declaration agreed last week at the summit in Japan to protect the world's wild species and places was proclaimed by almost everyone a great success.
There is one problem: none of the journalists who made these claims has seen it.
I checked with as many of them as I could reach by phone: all they had read was a press release which, though three pages long, is almost content-free. The reporters can't be blamed for this – it was approved on Friday but the declaration has still not been published. I've pursued people on three continents to try to obtain it, without success. Having secured the headlines it wanted, the entire senior staff of the convention on biological diversity has gone to ground, and my calls and emails remain unanswered. The British government, which lavishly praised the declaration, tells me it has no printed copies. I've never seen this situation before. Every other international agreement I've followed was published as soon as it was approved.
The evidence suggests that we've been conned. The draft agreement, published a month ago, contained no binding obligations. Nothing I've heard from Japan suggests that this has changed. The draft saw the targets for 2020 that governments were asked to adopt as nothing more than "aspirations for achievement at the global level" and a "flexible framework", within which countries can do as they wish. No government, if the draft has been approved, is obliged to change its policies.
In 2002 the signatories to the convention agreed something similar, a splendid-sounding declaration that imposed no legal commitments. They announced they would "achieve by 2010 a significant reduction of the current rate of biodiversity loss". Mission accomplished, the press proclaimed, and everyone went home to congratulate themselves. Earlier this year the UN admitted the 2002 agreement was fruitless: "The pressures on biodiversity remain constant or increase in intensity."
Even the cheery press release suggests all was not well. The meeting in Japan was supposed to be a summit, bringing together heads of government or state. It mustered five: the release boasts of corralling the president of Gabon, the president of Guinea-Bissau, the prime minister of Yemen and Prince Albert of Monaco. (It fails to identify the fifth country – Liechtenstein? Pimlico?) A third of the countries represented couldn't even be bothered to send a minister. This is how much they value the world's living systems.
It strikes me that governments are determined to protect not the marvels of our world but the world-eating system to which they are being sacrificed; not life, but the ephemeral junk with which it is being replaced. They fight viciously and at the highest level for the right to turn rainforests into pulp, or marine ecosystems into fishmeal. Then they send a middle-ranking civil servant to approve a meaningless and so far unwritten promise to protect the natural world.
Japan was praised for its slick management of the meeting, but still insists on completing its mission to turn the last bluefin tuna into fancy fast food. Russia signed a new agreement in September to protect its tigers (the world's largest remaining population), but an unrepealed law in effect renders poachers immune from prosecution, even when they're caught with a gun and a dead tiger. The US, despite proclaiming a new commitment to multilateralism, refuses to ratify the convention on biological diversity.
It suits governments to let us trash the planet. It's not just that big business gains more than it loses from converting natural wealth into money. A continued expansion into the biosphere permits states to avoid addressing issues of distribution and social justice: the promise of perpetual growth dulls our anger about widening inequality. By trampling over nature we avoid treading on the toes of the powerful.
A massive accounting exercise, whose results were presented at the meeting in Japan, has sought to change this calculation. The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) attempts to price the ecosystems we are destroying. It shows that the economic benefit of protecting habitats and species often greatly outweighs the money to be made by trashing them. A study in Thailand, for instance, suggests that turning a hectare of mangrove forest into shrimp farms makes $1,220 a year but inflicts $12,400 of damage every year on local livelihoods, fisheries and coastal protection. The catchment protected by one nature reserve in New Zealand saves local people NZ$136m a year in water bills. Three quarters of the US haddock catch now comes from within 5km of a marine reserve off the New England coast: by protecting the ecosystem, the reserve has boosted the value of the fishery.
I understand why this approach is felt to be necessary. I understand that if something can't be measured, governments and businesses don't value it. I accept TEEB's reasoning that the rural poor, many of whom survive exclusively on what the ecosystem has to offer, are treated harshly by an economic system which doesn't recognise its value. Even so, this exercise disturbs me.
As soon as something is measurable it becomes negotiable. Subject the natural world to cost-benefit analysis and accountants and statisticians will decide which parts of it we can do without. All that now needs to be done to demonstrate that an ecosystem can be junked is to show that the money to be made from trashing it exceeds the money to be made from preserving it. That, in the weird world of environmental economics, isn't hard: ask the right statistician and he'll give you any number you want.
This approach reduces the biosphere to a subsidiary of the economy. In reality it's the other way round. The economy, like all other human affairs, hangs from the world's living systems. You can see this diminution in the language TEEB reports use: they talk of "natural capital stock", of "underperforming natural assets" and "ecosystem services". Nature is turned into a business plan, and we are reduced to its customers. The market now owns the world.
But I also recognise this: that if governments had met in Japan to try to save the banks, or the airline companies, they would have sent more senior representatives, their task would have seemed more urgent, and every dot and comma of their agreement would have been checked by hungry journalists.
When they meet to consider the gradual collapse of the natural world they send their office cleaners and defer the hard choices for another 10 years, while the media doesn't even notice they have failed to produce a written agreement. So, much as I'm revolted by the way in which nature is being squeezed into a column of figures in an accountant's ledger, I am forced to agree that it may be necessary. What else will induce the blinkered, frightened people who hold power today to take the issue seriously?
• A fully referenced version of this article is available on www.monbiot.com
Macquarie University Science Alert 4 Nov 10;
A study by researchers from the University of California - Santa Barbara (UCSB) and Macquarie University into the human impacts on the health and well being of marine ecosystems has recently been published in the journal American Naturalist.
The study reports that when hunted by large predators, such as sharks and snapper, small fish hide and move around less. When predator numbers are seriously reduced, their prey move greater distances, take more risks, and change feeding behaviours. These behavioural responses in prey species also drive significant changes in the balance of ecosystems.
The study looked at coral reefs of the central Pacific Ocean's northern Line Islands, a small equatorial archipelago thousands of miles from the nearest landmass. Predators had been heavily fished near some islands and virtually never fished near others.
Lead author on the research, Dr Elizabeth Madin, said they were able to see first-hand how fishing had decimated populations of sharks and other predators.
"By removing predators and changing the grazing behaviour of small fish, there were dramatic changes in the seaweed patterns on coral reefs, giving the reefs a new look," Dr Madin said.
"Seaweed is important because lush areas of seaweed inhibit the settling and growth of coral - the critically important engineers of the reef. By changing where seaweed grows, fishing may be limiting where coral can grow."
Previously with UCSB's Department of Ecology, Evolution & Marine Biology, Dr Madin was based at Macquarie University when parts of the research were undertaken. She is now a US National Science Foundation International Postdoctoral Fellow with the UTS Faculty of Science.
Her co-authors on the paper include the UCSB's Professor Robert Warner and Professor Steven Gaines, and Macquarie University's Dr Joshua Madin.
Charles Q. Choi livescience.com Yahoo News 3 Nov 10;
The record-holder for the smallest frog in the world apparently makes up for its miniature size by packing a wallop of poison, research reveals.
With a body that's only 10 millimeters long, the Mount Iberia frog (Eleutherodactylus iberia) from Cuba currently holds the Guinness World Record for smallest frog.
The smallest frog in the world would fit (with room for a buddy) on your fingertip. Credit: A. Rodriguez and M. Vences.
Investigating these dwarf frogs is painstaking work, said researcher Miguel Vences, an evolutionary biologist at the Technical University of Braunschweig in Germany.
"You have to crawl on your knees and move leaf by leaf," Vences told LiveScience. "And when you discover one of these frogs, they usually jump away immediately so that you have to start all over again."
When Vences found his first specimen, he smelled a bitter odor and suspected it might be coated in toxic alkaloids. (Morphine and caffeine are alkaloids.)
"At the time I just mentioned this as a crazy and rampant speculation - I was sure it would prove to be wrong, and was even more surprised when my chemistry colleagues sent me the first results, stating they indeed had found alkaloids in the skins," Vences said.
Only four other groups of frogs in the world secrete defensive toxins onto their skin, including the infamous poison-dart frogs of Latin America. It remains uncertain precisely how deadly this new poison dwarf might be.
The researchers suspect these dwarfs evolved their tiny size to better prey on mites overlooked as meals by larger frogs. These arachnids possess alkaloids the dwarfs secrete on their skins. And so by consuming the poison, the frogs somehow reallocated the goods for their own use. It was only later the frogs might have evolved their brown, yellow-striped appearance - "such a contrasting coloration usually is found in poisonous animals, which use it to deter potential predators," explained researcher Ariel Rodriguez of the Institute of Systematic Ecology at Havana.
A variety of tiny frogs roughly 10 millimeters long can be found around the world. These poisonous new findings could shed light on why this dwarf became so tiny.
"A more important question is probably why did the frogs not get even smaller?" Vences said. "In birds and mammals, who have to maintain a stable body temperature, you can understand why they cannot get smaller than a dwarf shrew or a tiny hummingbird - as the body surface relative to body volume increases as you get smaller, you are cooling more easily, so you need more energy to maintain your temperature. This only works to a certain size well above the 10 millimeters found in frogs."
However, frogs, being cold-blooded, do not need to maintain a stable body temperature.
"So what is the limiting factor? Is it ecological, that there is not enough prey available for frogs under 8 to 10 millimeters?" Vences speculated. "Is it developmental, some fundamental processes in the body, like producing eggs, not being possible in smaller frogs? Physiological, related to water loss? In these questions, I see the greatest challenge, and this is where studies of miniaturization of vertebrates will be able to provide data of more fundamental importance, far beyond the pure curiosity of just their dwarf size."
The scientists detailed their findings online Nov. 3 in the journal Biology Letters.
Micro-frog springs toxic surprise
Yahoo News 3 Nov 10;
PARIS (AFP) – A "robber frog" whose body is just 10 millimetres (three-eighths of an inch) long eats toxic mites and exudes their poison on its skin to deter predators, scientists reported on Wednesday.
The tiny creature is called the Monte Iberia eleuth -- Eleutherodactylus iberia -- after a mountain in Cuba which is its only known habitat.
Just five other species of frog, including the amphibian's Cuban cousin, Eleutherodactylus orientalis, share the unusual ability to take toxic alkaloids from their diet and sequester the compound on their skin.
The Monte Iberia eleuth is the smallest frog in the northern hemisphere.
It is also the second smallest in the world after the Brazilian gold frog (Psyllophryne didactyla), which measures just 9.8 mm in body length.
The Monte Iberia eleuth is part of a family of amphibians called robber frogs, of which there are several hundred in the Caribbean and the southwestern United States.
The origin of the name is unclear.
The study appears in Biology Letters, published by Britain's Royal Society.
PA The Independent 4 Nov 10;
The world's rarest snake has slithered back from the brink of extinction, with its numbers increasing 10-fold in the past 15 years, conservationists said today.
Researchers found there were just 50 Antiguan racers (Alsophis antiguae) in 1995, all confined to the eight-hectare Great Bird Island, off the coast of Antigua in the Caribbean.
The snake had been wiped out on mainland Antigua by the mongoose, a species from Asia which had been introduced by humans, while the species had been attacked by black rats which had colonised Great Bird Island.
The harmless Antiguan racers were also killed by people.
But work by conservationists in the past 15 years, including eradication of the rats from a dozen offshore islands, an education programme and reintroduction schemes, has boosted the population to more than 500 snakes.
The range of the snake has increased to 63 hectares and other wildlife has also benefited, the conservation groups involved in the project said.
Caribbean brown pelicans have increased from just two breeding pairs to more than 60 pairs on the first islands to be restored, rare white-crowned pigeons have increased from five pairs to more than 450 pairs and sea turtles and lizards have also been boosted by less predation of their eggs by the rats, the wildlife experts said.
Fauna and Flora International (FFI) and Jersey-based Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust are among the groups involved in the project to help the Antiguan racer.
Dr Jenny Daltry, senior conservation biologist at FFI, said: "I am proud we proved the pessimists wrong and turned the fortunes of this unique and endearing animal."
She said the dedication of local volunteers had been key in helping the snake.
Natalya Lawrence, programme co-ordinator with the Environmental Awareness Group, another organisation involved in the Antiguan Racer Conservation Project, said: "Although the population of the racer has grown by leaps, we cannot stop now.
"There is still a need for public awareness, continued monitoring and stronger laws to protect the snake and other endangered species on our islands."
Cesar Sabogal (AFP) Google News 3 Nov 10;
PUNTA AGUJAS, Colombia — Indigenous Wayuu people living on South America's northernmost tip are dropping their age-old tradition of eating turtle meat as a main protein source because the reptile is dying out.
"This really is rejecting the culture of my ancestors," 72-year-old Olegario Choles told AFP. "I grew up eating turtle, and raised my kids on the money I make hunting them.
"But now the turtles are scarcer and scarcer. The nets come back empty," he said.
"The time has come to save them, in order to save ourselves," conceded Choles, the leader of the Wayuu on Colombia's impoverished La Guajira peninsula, one of the poorest regions in South America according to the website of The Wayuu Taya Foundation, an NGO helping the Amerindian group.
Choles, standing next to his canoe, watched as a group of local children released 200 Caguama turtles, also known as Caretta or Loggerhead sea turtles, though all six kinds of sea turtles native to the region are endangered.
This mass release took place at a beach on Bahia Hondita, one of the outcomes of months of negotiations by hunters, restaurant owners and cooks who all agreed it was time to take turtle meat and eggs off restaurant and home menus.
Some efforts are being handled by volunteers. Selected by the community for their understanding of the task, one group will make rounds at local beaches three times a day to monitor nests and protect baby turtles from natural predators.
Other volunteers will visit local restaurants that serve turtle soup -- often for about 12 dollars a bowl -- and try to persuade them not to serve the dish, to help save the species.
But it is not all easy, in a region the website of the Wayuu Taya Foundatiion, a non-governmental organisation helping the Amerindian group, says is one of the poorest in Latin America.
Lina Baez, an environment analyst at the multinational coal concern Cerrejon -- which sponsors the campaign -- said "the Wayuu eat the meat of almost all the animals in the area, yet changing their customs is a major effort and requires reaching deals with them."
The ethnic group numbers about 430,000, according to The Wayuu Taya Foundation website which said about one-third live in Columbia and the rest in Venezuela, though migration between the two countriesis common.
Baez said turtle catchers, who agree to stop catching the sea turtles, are offered compensation of about half what they would get for selling turtles to local restaurants. In addition, funds are channelled to programs that benefit their communities, such as helping schools or libraries.
"Only one out of 100 hatchling turtles makes it to reproductive age due to their animal predators, including humans," Baez explained.
"This is a really dramatic situation that led us to warn the indigenous people that they need to either change their traditions, or the species will die out."
Gabriel Bustos, an environmental management expert with the mining concern, says local children have embraced the educational campaign aimed at them with gusto.
"Wayuu children are starting to use their influence to have turtle meat taken out of their diets. They refuse to eat it and back it up with a conviction that is really surprising," said Bustos.
Environmental groups have been supportive. "It is really moving to see former turtle hunters and their children working to safeguard a nesting place for an adult so that she can lay her eggs and the hatchlings can make it out to sea," said Maria Claudia Diazgranados.
A biologist with the oceans program at Conservation International, Diazgranados said the drive to get Caguama turtles off local menus has made some progress. Yet local artisans remain keen to use the turtle shells for crafts, and need an alternative.
Indeed all along the Caribbean coast, locals and tourism businesses have long used the turtle shells to make jewelry and other crafts to sell to visitors, which can also lead to indiscriminate hunting.
Chris Buckley PlanetArk 4 Nov 10;
China's quest for a green future built on rare earths metals seems a world away from Ren Limin as he casts lumps of one of the metals in a chemical-spattered shed thick with acrid fumes.
Ren tends cauldrons of sputtering acid, additives and ore in a shed in north China's Inner Mongolia region, smelting lanthanum, one of the 17 rare earths that Beijing hopes will power the nation up the clean technology ladder.
Yet Ren and a workmate use few safety protections as they stir and poke the red-hot cauldrons. Holes in the roof and windows act as main ventilation.
"This place doesn't have anything but it's got mines. We live off the rare earth mines," Ren, who gave his age as 32 but looked years older, told Reuters journalists who visited Baotou, a city of 1.8 million people about 650 kilometers (404 miles) west of Beijing that calls itself the "capital of rare earths."
"It's not that dangerous. You get used to the smells, but there's also the heat," he said.
China says it must curb rare earth ore sales abroad for the sake of its environment, though its own rare earths industry is marked by pollution and primitive production that tightening export quotas alone appears unlikely to staunch.
China supplies 97 percent of the world's rare earths, used in computers and clean energy technology such as wind turbines and electric cars. The battery of a Toyota Prius hybrid car uses 10 to 15 kg (22-33 lb) of lanthanum.
Beijing has sparked international concerns by curbing exports of rare earths which it says it needs for its own green growth.
Ren was unaware of the diplomatic fuss and met questions about environmental and health problems linked to production with gruff bemusement.
"We sell it on. That's all I know. I'm not sure who buys it or what it's for," he said of a pile of lanthanum bricks lying on the floor, among discarded cotton gloves and scrap.
He worked without a mask but wrapped a towel around his face and donned a visor when pouring the molten compound into molds.
He said they made 1,100 yuan ($165) a metric ton, working 12-hour days, with a few days off every two weeks.
The plant he works in lies in a northern corner of Baotou, a city and surrounding expanse of Inner Mongolia that produces more than half of the world's rare earths, especially the lighter ones, from the fenced-off Bayan Obo mines.
The government says it wants to end unfettered exploitation of rare earths, and has been shutting unlicensed mines and smelters. But China's biggest producers still pollute at levels far beyond what would be allowed in the United States, Australia and other countries now looking to ramp up production as Beijing curbs exports.
Near Baotou city, where Baotou Steel Rare-Earth Group processes the metals on a vast scale, villagers said the resulting toxins were poisoning them, their water and air, crops and children. At least one official has backed that claim.
"If we take into account the resource and environmental costs, the progress of the rare earths industry has come at a massive price to society," Su Wenqing, a Baotou rare earths industry official wrote in a study published last year.
THE "MIDDLE EAST" OF RARE EARTHS
Baotou wants to remake itself as a crucible of China's ambitions to turn its rare earths into green-tinged gold.
The city has a rare earths high-tech zone, a shiny Rare Earths Tower for officials and investors, and Rare Earths Street.
The city's Rare Earths Park features carvings of scientists and leaders who pushed China to turn its reserves into an engine for economic growth, including Deng Xiaoping, the revolutionary veteran who guided the nation to market economic reforms.
"The Middle East has oil, and China has rare earths," a carving records Deng as saying in 1992.
"China's rare earths resources can be likened in importance to the Middle East's oil. They have immense strategic significance and we must certainly deal with rare earths issues with care, unleashing the advantages they bring."
The Baotou Steel Rare-Earth Group is at the heart of China's ambitions to turn rare earths into a lucrative ingredient of growth. It dominates rare earths production in Inner Mongolia, where most of the ores come out of the ground mixed with iron ore, which is the parent company Baotou Steel's main business.
China wants enough rare earths for its expansion into clean technology, especially advanced wind turbines, hybrid and electric vehicles and other innovations.
Minutes from the mines of Bayan Obo north of Baotou city, hundreds of wind turbines just above the grasslands, their three blades and parts using rare earths in compounds that give them strength and lightness.
"MOTHER SHIP" BESET BY POLLUTION
At the heart of Baotou's rare earths smelting, those environmental aspirations are blighted by pollution that can cut visibility around the main plants to a few dozen meters.
Su Wenqing, the Baotou industry official, wrote that companies there had dumped tailings, including mildly radioactive ore scrap, into local water supplies and farmland and the nearby Yellow River, "creating varying levels of radioactive pollution."
Repeated faxes and phone call inquiries to Baogang city authorities and Baotou Steel Rare-Earth Group were not answered.
The outer walls of the Huamei plant proclaim its ambitions to become the "mother ship" of Chinese rare earths production.
But villagers near the rare earths plant live in a blanket of fumes, a constant reminder of how much China still allows near-unfettered industrial growth.
Separating out the minerals is usually done by dousing the rare earths in acids and other chemicals. The tailings from Huamei and other nearby metals plants end up at a 10 square kilometer dam.
The reservoir can hold 230 million cubic meters of the dark, acrid waste. That, according to a sign on its banks, is equal to 92,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
The residents of Xinguang village said the chemicals from the dam have been seeping into the underground waters that feed their wells, crops and livestock, including fluoride.
They complained of nausea, dizzy spells, arthritis, migraines, wobbly joints and slow-healing injuries.
"The pollution is too much for even our crops to grow, and a lot is from the rare earths plants," said Wu Leiji, a ruddy-faced farmer. "It's not getting any better. In fact, it's worse."
"Look at the kids. They're the worst off. What will all this pollution do them?"
A report last month in a Chinese newspaper, the Yangcheng Evening News, cited experts supporting the villagers' complaints of damaged health from rare earths and other smelting pollution.
"When we boil the water to drink, this white scum forms on top and it tastes bitter," said Guo Gang, a 58-year-old farmer.
"We used to grow vegetables, but now all we can grow is corn, and even the crops for that are far smaller than 10 years ago."
(Editing by Ken Wills and Jonathan Thatcher)
Yahoo News 3 Nov 10;
SYDNEY (AFP) – Australia's military chief has warned that his troops are likely to be sent to the Pacific more often and on bigger missions as small island states become increasingly unstable due to climate change.
The Australian Defence Force (ADF) has been deployed to the Solomon Islands and East Timor in recent years to enforce law and order, also assisting in a 2009 relief operation in Samoa after a devastating tsunami killed 143 people.
Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston said these types of operations would probably be more frequent in the future, The Age newspaper reported Wednesday.
"It is highly likely the ADF will be engaged in disaster relief and stabilisation operations in the south Pacific into the future," the paper reported him as saying in a lecture last week at the University of Canberra.
"With the effects of climate change compounding existing pressures, future operations will be more frequent and more intense than those currently underway in East Timor and the Solomon Islands."
Houston said that rising sea levels caused by climate change would worsen social problems on the islands, many of which are poor and underdeveloped, with the potential for sustained economic growth low in all but a few countries.
This meant island nations would struggle to adapt to climate change, he said, while changing rainfall patterns, extreme weather and rising sea levels would threaten the agriculture and fisheries on which they depended.
"From there, it is a small step to political instability and social disorder," Houston said.
It could take two decades before climate change began to inflict major damage on the South Pacific, said Houston, but he warned that Australia would need to be prepared well before that.
Australia has some 110 troops in the Solomon Islands and 400 in East Timor.
Sunanda Creagh and David Fogarty PlanetArk 4 Nov 10;
When President Barack Obama flies over the vast Indonesian archipelago next week, he will see first hand the size of two of the nation's greatest and most threatened resources: its forests and seas.
Both are widely expected to be at the heart of efforts to boost ties between the United States and Indonesia and to step up the fight against climate change, officials and sources say.
Indonesia has some of the world's most complex and diverse forests but also one of the highest deforestation rates.
Saving them from illegal logging and unsustainable clearing for agriculture and mining could help Indonesia meet its goals to cut greenhouse emissions -- the third highest globally according to the World Bank when taking into account deforestation and land use.
It would also help the United States in its aims to fight climate change, and help Indonesia become a source of tradeable forest carbon offsets that would help polluting U.S. industries meet future targets to cut emissions.
The reasoning is simple. Forests, particularly tropical rainforests, soak up huge amounts of planet-warming carbon dioxide, acting as a brake on climate change. Clearing and burning forests accelerates the pace of global warming.
During his trip, Obama could announce how some of the $700 million allocated to Indonesia by the Millennium Challenge Corporation can be used to fund climate change and forest conservation programs, a source said.
The MCC is a U.S. foreign aid agency set up under the Bush administration.
"It will be quite substantial. It's safe to say it will be north of $100 million on an annual basis," said the industry source. That comes on the heels of Norway's $1 billion climate deal with Indonesia announced earlier this year.
"The U.S. doesn't want to compete directly with the Norwegians but they do want similar big headline news."
UNDER PRESSURE
The visit could also reveal details about implementing a four-year program worth between $35 million and $40 million on fighting deforestation, reducing loss of biodiversity and improving land use management. The scheme was announced earlier this year.
Details may also emerge on a further $20 million pledged for marine conservation, a source said, while steps to promote clean-energy development could also be announced.
USAID, the overseas aid agency, is working on a proposal to fund a program named the "Indonesian Forestry and Climate Support Project" to run until 2014 and the presidential visit could generate details on the project's implementation as well.
Among the project's aims are halving the rate of forest degradation and loss from conversion, illegal logging, over-harvesting and fires for at least 6 million hectares (15 million acres) in targeted areas.
It also plans to boost training, funds for forest management, development of low-carbon growth plans in at least 8 districts and steps to improve management of high-conservation value forests that also include large areas of orangutan habitat.
Indonesia needs cash to save its dwindling forests and sees a natural role as a major player in a future carbon market trading forestry carbon credits. The country is also under intense international pressure to fight deforestation and the burning of its forests that regularly smothers its neighbors in smoky haze.
SEEING GREEN IN REDD
The United States could eventually become a major buyer of forest carbon offsets under a U.N.-backed scheme called reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD).
REDD aims to reward developing nations for protecting, restoring and sustainably managing rainforests. Projects that set aside large areas of forest for decades would earn tradeable credits for the CO2 locked away by the trees -- a trade potentially worth billions of dollars a year.
The U.S. has an interest in protecting Indonesia's forests not just because of the valuable role they play sucking greenhouse gases out of the air, but also as a key part of a potential future forest offsets trading industry, observers say.
"They are trying to find a way to protect their future offsets but they have also seen how important Indonesian forests are for the global climate crisis," said Jakarta-based Greenpeace forest campaigner Bustar Maitar.
"Indonesian forests are as important as forests in the Amazon and the Congo."
The climate bill passed last year by the U.S. House of Representatives allowed imports of REDD credits but the legislation has been since been shelved.
Undeterred, the United States, Norway, Japan and dozens of other countries created a REDD partnership worth about $4 billion earlier this year aimed building up REDD pilot projects and national institutions in developing nations over the short term.
Indonesia's seas are also a key resource, its coral reefs some of the richest in the world and vital for fisheries but also under threat from over fishing and warming seas.
U.S. cash is also likely to help the Coral Triangle that stretches from the Solomon Islands northeast of Australia to Bali, Borneo and the Philippines.
(Editing by Andrew Marshall)
Arshad Mohammed PlanetArk 4 Nov 10;
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Wednesday offered to help Papua New Guinea create a sovereign wealth fund to manage its resource revenue and avoid a "resource curse" which could fuel conflict and corruption.
During her four-hour stop-over en route from Asia to New Zealand, Clinton stressed that the South Pacific island nation needed to manage its energy windfall, while preserving its diverse environment.
"There is a phrase 'resource curse' where countries with an abundance of natural resources like oil and gas or gold or minerals, if they are not handled right can actually (make) a country poorer instead of richer," Clinton told a news conference in the capital Port Moresby.
PNG is a resource-rich nation with reserves of gold and gas.
U.S. oil giant Exxon Mobil is the majority stakeholder in a new $15 billion liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in PNG due to come on stream in 2014.
But many in PNG fear the windfall from the country's biggest ever resource project could fuel corruption and violence.
Clinton said the United States wanted to provide whatever help it could, including assisting with the creation of a sovereign wealth fund, to help PNG manage its energy revenues.
"We know that Papua New Guinea wants to do this right and we want to provide whatever technical assistance and help that they would need," said Clinton.
PNG and the adjacent Indonesian province of West Papua account for the world's third-largest expanse of tropical rainforest after the Amazon and Congo, the United Nations says.
But Greenpeace last week said PNG's efforts to protect its rainforests were being hindered by corruption and lack of political leadership. It said widespread logging had left only 55 percent of PNG's forests intact.
PROTECT ISLANDS FROM CLIMATE CHANGE
Bare-chested dancers beating drums greeted Clinton when she arrived in Port Moresby on a visit during which she focused on the environment, climate change and women's rights in talks with PNG Prime Sir Minister Michael Somare.
Rising sea levels and more frequent storm surges, blamed on climate change, are already threatening several Pacific island nations, forcing people to abandon coastal villages.
"As sea levels rise and storms increase, the very existence of countries in the Pacific are at risk," Clinton said after watching two students plant mangrove trees along the shore of the capital.
Nations like PNG are trying to create barriers to the sea by planting mangroves along their shores and are shifting farms away from the coast to stop seawater inundation.
"We have no time to lose to take meaningful, measurable actions to limit greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change," said Clinton.
Villagers on PNG's remote Cateret Islands became the first climate change refugees two years ago when they started abandoning their tiny coral atoll because of rising sea levels.
U.N. talks on a new climate pact have largely stalled over a split between rich and poor nations over sharing the burden in cutting greenhouse gas emissions. The United Nations has played down expectations of any major breakthrough at climate talks that begin in Mexico in less than a month.
PROTECT PNG WOMEN
Clinton also called for an end to violence against women in the jungle-clad mountainous island nation, which has one of the world's highest incidence of rape.
"If a woman or a girl can not be safe in her own home or safe in her own family or safe in her own community then that woman or girl will not have the chance to make the most out of her life," she said.
An Australian AusAID report ranks PNG as 123 out of 136 nations for violence against women.
The group said the high rate of sexual violence against women in PNG added to the risk of contracting HIV, which was now an epidemic spreading across the general population.
Clinton said the U.S. government, Exxon and local groups would set up a mentoring program "aimed at ending the culture of violence against women and girls in Papua New Guinea."
(Editing by Alex Richardson)
Clinton calls for climate action to protect islands
* Clinton urges greenhouse gas limits
* PNG needs to manage energy resources, preserve environment
* Call for end of culture of violence against women
Arshad Mohammed Reuters AlertNet 3 Nov 10
PORT MORESBY, Nov 3 (Reuters) - Bare-chested dancers beating drums greeted U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Wednesday as she visited Papua New Guinea (PNG) to highlight the need to protect the Pacific island nation from climate change.
During her four-hour stop-over enroute from Asia to New Zealand, Clinton also called for an end to violence against women in the jungle-clad mountainous island nation, which has one of the world's highest incidents of rape.
"As sea levels rise and storms increase, the very existence of countries in the Pacific are at risk," Clinton said after watching two students plant mangrove trees along the shore of the capital, Port Moresby.
Rising sea levels and more frequent storm surges, blamed on climate change, are already threatening several Pacific island nations, forcing people to abandon coastal villages.
Nations like PNG are trying to create barriers to the sea by planting mangroves along their shores and are shifting farms away from the coast to stop seawater inundation.
"We have no time to lose to take meaningful, measurable actions to limit greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change," said Clinton.
Villagers on PNG's remote Cateret Islands became the first climate change refugees two years ago when they started abandoning their tiny coral atoll because of rising sea levels.
The PNG government is relocating some 2,700 islanders to the neighbouring and larger island of Bougainville. About 85 percent of PNG's population live a subsistence life.
The scattered island nations of Kiribati and Tuvalu are most at threat from rising sea levels in the South Pacific and have been at the forefront of island calls for big polluting nations like the United Sates to take action against global warming.
U.N. talks on a new climate pact have largely stalled over a split between rich and poor nations over sharing the burden in cutting greenhouse gas emissions. The United Nations has played down expectations of any major breakthrough for major climate talks that begin in Mexico in less than a month.
PRESERVE ENVIRONMENT, PROTECT WOMEN
Clinton stressed that PNG needed to manage its energy windfall, while preserving its diverse environment.
PNG is a resource-rich nation with reserves of gold and gas.
U.S. oil giant Exxon Mobil
But many in PNG fear the windfall from the country's biggest ever resource project could fuel corruption and violence.
PNG and the adjacent Indonesian province of West Papua account for the world's third-largest expanse of tropical rainforest after the Amazon and Congo, the United Nations says.
About 200 news species of animals and plants have been discovered in recent years in PNG's rugged interior.
But Greenpeace last week said PNG's efforts to protect its rainforests were being hindered by corruption and lack of political leadership. It said widespread logging had left only 55 percent of PNG's forests intact.
Clinton held talks with PNG Prime Sir Minister Michael Somare, covering issues from the environment to women's rights.
PNG's male-dominated society has one of the world's highest incidents of rape. An Australian AusAID report ranks PNG as 123 out of 136 nations for violence against women.
The group said the high rate of sexual violence against women in PNG added to the risk of contracting HIV, which was now an epidemic spreading across the general population.
Clinton said the U.S. government, Exxon and local groups would set up a mentoring programme "aimed at ending the culture of violence against women and girls in Papua New Guinea".
"If a woman or a girl can not be safe in her own home or safe in her own family or safe in her own community then that woman or girl will not have the chance to make the most out of her life," said Clinton.
The United States would also train PNG women to become political candidates in an effort to increase female representation beyond the sole woman MP, Dame Carol Kidu. (Writing by Michael Perry; Editing by Robert Birsel)
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