泰坦魔芋花（titan arum）慢慢开opening sloooowly(8am, 8th, Dec)
from PurpleMangrove
Pulau Ubin's other special shores
from wild shores of singapore and Nature's Wonders
Cyrene reef with Teamseagrass
from wonderful creation
Things We Find in the Woods Part Six
from Crystal and Bryan in Singapore
Asian Glossy Starling regurgitating seed of Michelia champaka
from Bird Ecology Study Group
Feeding Time
from Urchin's World
Mega Marine Survey in the news!
from Mega Marine Survey of Singapore
Michael D. Gumert, For The Straits Times 8 Dec 10;
SINGAPORE, the acme of modernisation, struggles with a simple issue: monkeys.
Citizens demonise them for minor inconveniences. The media portrays them as gangsters and villains. Wildlife organisations lack the staff, knowledge and will to manage them. All of which begs the question: Why is a country that is so good at managing so much, so poor at managing its wildlife?
The answer is simple: No serious effort has gone into it. Officials act like it is a minor issue, but every few months, an article or two appears in every major newspaper in Singapore highlighting macaques. If it is so unimportant, why do we hear so much about the issue?
Sadly, the current approach to macaque management is inadequate. People are not fully educated on the issues, and sensational newspaper articles forge a warped impression of macaques. We also lack a long-term, scientific monitoring of the macaque population, which is absolutely necessary for wildlife management.
We should stop immediately the 'loaning' of traps to untrained citizens, putting them at risk. Scientists require special training and permission to safely capture monkeys, which can become violent when contained. But in Singapore, any resident can 'borrow' a monkey trap for his home, possibly triggering monkey mobs.
Citizens need good information and restrictions should be set for people choosing homes near macaques. Individuals should not be demanding the extermination of Singaporean wildlife because of personal inconveniences. Macaques are part of the public natural heritage; we must carefully weigh the views of all Singaporeans before acting.
The media has a responsibility to correctly represent the facts to the public. Much media coverage still focuses on satirical articles that childishly humanise macaques as villainous miscreants that victimise their innocent neighbours.
Singapore needs a professional macaque programme. There should be a specialised wildlife unit, devoted solely to working with macaques, and having enough flexibility to effectively manage such issues as:
# Modifying the environment in human- macaque interface zones, such as by requiring monkey-proof bins, structures and homes;
# Monitoring people's behaviour, educating them and providing well-trained rangers to assist citizens troubled by macaques;
# Providing a scientific monitoring system that will track macaque populations and actively manage and conserve Singapore's macaques.
It is funny to sit back and watch monkeys continually outsmart their less adept human neighbours, but eventually the humour wears off. In the end, the price is dead monkeys - despite which people still go on complaining about them.
It is time to quit monkeying around, and turn Singapore's so-called 'monkey business' into an internationally respected wildlife programme.
The writer is an assistant professor at Nanyang Technological University. Having worked closely with macaques for more than 10 years, including living with them in the forests of Indonesia, Dr Gumert currently studies stone tool-using long-tailed macaques in Thailand.
Sharifah Mahsinah Abdullah and Ramli Ibrahim New Straits Times 7 Dec 10;
GUA MUSANG: A 26-year-old man was trampled to death, by elephants while his four friends escaped while looking for buah keranji (velvet tamarind) on Monday.
In the incident which occurred at Hutan Bring, Pos Pasik, near here, Muhamad Adnan Iberahim was believed to have died of injuries to his head and body after being trampled by the herd of elephants.
Adnan and his friends, all from Kampung Lata Rek, Kuala Krai, had gone to the forest in a four-wheel-drive vehicle.
Recalling the incident, the victim's friend, Mohd Asri Shafie, 30, said they were walking to the location where they normally picked the fruit soon after parking their vehicle.
"While walking to the place, we heard some loud noises coming from behind and were shocked when we turned and saw several elephants, including a calf, coming towards us.
"We panicked and ran for safety. We ran as fast as we could and went in different directions, deep into the jungle.
"The only thing on our minds at this moment was to find shelter and hide so that the elephants will not attack us."
Asri said after 20 minutes, the elephants left the area and ventured into another part of the jungle.
After coming out of safety, the four of them realised that Adnan was not with them.
They then looked for him and found him a few metres away.
"He was lying in a pool of blood. We immediately took him to Gua Musang hospital."
District police chief Superintendent Saiful Bahri Abdullah confirmed the case.
Meanwhile, State Wildlife and National Park director Pazil Abdul Fatah said the department had deployed a team to investigate the incident.
It is believed that this was the first such incident in the state in the last 10 years.
Besides Jeli, Gua Musang is the other district that has a large number of elephants.
BBC 7 Dec 10;
The population of endangered mountain gorillas has increased significantly in the last 30 years, say researchers.
A census carried out in the Virunga Massif - where most of the world's mountain gorillas live - revealed 480 individuals living in 36 groups.
Conservationists say that, 30 years ago, only 250 gorillas survived in this same area.
Along with the 302 mountain gorillas from a census in Bwindi in 2006, the world population is now more than 780.
The Virunga Massif includes three contiguous national parks: Parc National des Virunga in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda and Mgahinga Gorilla National Park in Uganda.
The only other location where mountain gorillas exist is Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in Uganda.
A 2003 census estimated the population in Virunga at 380 individuals - so the current figure suggests that the population has increased by just over 25% in the last seven years.
Conservationists say the increase is thanks to that a collaborative "transboundary" effort by organisations in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Uganda to protect the gorillas and their habitat.
But, according to the African Wildlife Foundation and International Gorilla Conservation Programme (IGCP), the animals are still very much under threat.
A joint statement from the two organisations reported that a recent five-day patrol in the Virunga Massif discovered and destroyed 200 poachers' snares.
Poachers typically do not target mountain gorillas, but the snares they set are a still a threat.
Director of the IGCP Eugene Rutagarama said: "Collectively, we cannot let down our guard on the conservation of these incredible animals.
"While mountain gorillas are physically strong, they are also incredibly vulnerable."
Census finds increase in critically endangered mountain gorilla population
WWF 7 Dec 10;
A census of the world’s largest mountain gorilla population has counted 480 animals, an increase of 100 - more than a quarter - since the last count in 2003.
The gorillas surveyed live in Central Africa’s Virunga Massif region, a volcanic mountain ecosystem consisting of three adjacent national parks spanning parts of Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Uganda and Rwanda.
A fourth park, southwestern Uganda’s Bwindi, is home to an additional 302 mountain gorillas, the only other remaining wild population, which together with four orphaned mountain gorillas in a sanctuary in the DRC brings the wild population to 786.
The Virunga census was conducted in March and April 2010 by local authorities with the support of the International Gorilla Conservation Programme (IGCP), a coalition of several conservation organizations, including WWF.
‘’This is vivid testimony to the commitment of the Rwanda, Uganda and DRC governments, in addition to their supporting partners including IGCP, to ensuring the sustained protection of this charismatic species,” said David Greer, African Great Ape Coordinator at WWF. “The survey results provide us with an excellent demonstration of how strong law enforcement efforts put in place to safeguard flagship species can advance species conservation, benefit local communities, and provide important revenue to governments.”
The current figure represents an annual growth rate of 3.7% in Virunga despite the illegal killing of no less than nine mountain gorillas in the area over the past seven years, according to IGCP. Of the gorillas surveyed, 352 have been habituated to human presence, 349 living in groups and three solitary silverback males. Habituated mountain gorillas have been the basis of a sustainable eco-tourism programme since the late 1970s.
“Unfortunately, as we continue efforts to replicate the successful mountain gorilla eco-tourism model elsewhere in Central Africa, weak government support for wildlife protection, rampant corruption and an uninviting tourism culture make for a much more challenging environment,” said Greer. “To date, no gorilla tourism programmes west of the Virungas have achieved fiscal success.”
“The mountain gorilla is the only one of the nine subspecies of African great apes experiencing a population increase. While we celebrate this collective achievement, we must also increase efforts to safeguard the remaining eight subspecies of great apes,” said Greer. “Elsewhere in African great ape range states, government support of wildlife law enforcement efforts is shockingly weak and great apes continue to be poached in an environment of pervasive, legal impunity.”
To conduct the Virunga census, over 1,000 kilometres were systematically walked by six mixed teams of seventy-two people from DRC, Rwanda, and Uganda. Teams covered the entire range and meticulously documented fresh signs of gorilla groups. Mountain gorillas make a new nest each night. Genetic analysis of fecal samples were collected and analyzed to identify and correct for any double-counting of individuals or groups, ensuring the most accurate estimate for the population.
''While the results of the survey are encouraging, many imminent threats continue to loom over great ape populations throughout Central Africa including commercial poaching to supply bushmeat to wealthy urbanites, habitat destruction through illegal logging and land conversion, and the spread of highly infectious diseases such as Ebola hemorrhagic fever," said Greer. "Moreover, the recent decision by the DRC government to open the Virunga National Park, Africa’s first National Park, a UN World Heritage Site, and DRC’s only home to the mountain gorilla, to oil exploration, is extremely disappointing and reveals that there is much progress to be made in balancing the need to maintain critical biodiversity regions in the face of competing government interests.''
The Virunga Massif mountain gorilla census was conducted by the protected area authorities in three countries: L’Institut Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature, the Rwanda Development Board and the Uganda Wildlife Authority. The census was supported by the International Gorilla Conservation Programme (a coalition of WWF, the African Wildlife Foundation, and Fauna & Flora International), the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund – International and the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project. The census was funded by WWF, Fair Play Foundation, and the Netherlands Directorate General for International Cooperation (DGIS) through the Greater Virunga Transboundary Collaboration.
Public, researchers can access thousands of avian sounds
Michigan State University EurekAlert 7 Dec 10;
EAST LANSING, Mich. — A growing online library of bird sounds, photos and information offers a new resource for backyard birders and seasoned ornithologists alike.
The Avian Vocalizations Center at Michigan State University, or AVoCet,offers free downloads of bird sounds from around the world. It also features sonograms that visually chart the sounds, photos of birds recorded, Google Earth maps of recording locations and links to other online sound collections.
More than 10,200 recordings from over 3,190 species in 45 countries are now available on AVoCet, "and that's growing quickly," said Pamela Rasmussen, an assistant professor of zoology and assistant curator at the MSU Museum. "Soon recordings and their data from many more species and areas will be available for download from AVoCet."
There are, after all, 10,000 bird species, all of which make sounds of some type. Many birds, such as cardinals, even sing in regional dialects. Some birds have huge vocabularies – a single male Brown Thrasher is known to give 2,000 different notes.
Author of an exhaustive reference work on the birds of South Asia, Rasmussen has personally recorded on all the continents for this project. Her work in the Philippines alone netted 597 recordings of 120 species, many of which are threatened. Some of those sound types are not publicly available anywhere other than AVoCet.
AVoCet also contains recordings made around the world so far by 65 others, including local ornithologists, professional guides and MSU students from Rasmussen's study abroad and ornithology courses. Zoology department programmer/analyst Patrick Bills built the database and Web site and undergraduate students also contributed.
Digital technology has revolutionized birding, Rasmussen explains, allowing enthusiasts and professionals to more easily record, share and play bird calls. Online access to the AVoCet library allows easy access to sounds, photos and other supporting information via computer and Internet-connected mobile devices.
The ability to identify birds vocally is crucial for monitoring bird movements and populations, including such popular events as the annual Christmas bird counts organized across the country. A comprehensive collection of bird sounds can yield better understanding of habitats, ranges and habits, while allowing more efficient and thorough biodiversity studies, Rasmussen said. "It's very difficult to see birds in a tropical rainforest, but not difficult to hear and recognize them."
Oriented to the scientific community, AVoCet maintains rigorous scholarly standards. Whenever possible, recordings are accompanied by photos and sighting observations that enable independent evaluation, Rasmussen said. Scientists can then accurately map avian biodiversity and perhaps identify new species.
"We know that certain species will go extinct in the near future and, sadly, there's not a lot that can realistically be done about it," Rasmussen said. "However, ornithologists and birders do now have the opportunity to document virtually all the species of birds out there in one way or another, and one major goal of AVoCet is to contribute to this effort."
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Michigan State University has been advancing knowledge and transforming lives through innovative teaching, research and outreach for more than 150 years. MSU is known internationally as a major public university with global reach and extraordinary impact. Its 17 degree-granting colleges attract scholars worldwide who are interested in combining education with practical problem solving.
Neil Bowdler BBC News 7 Dec 10;
More than 35,000 new species of flowering plants may be lying undiscovered in cupboards around the world, it is claimed.
Botanists looked at how long it takes for new species collected in the field to be identified, and found it often took decades. They concluded that of the 70,000 flowering plants that experts believe are yet to be found, over half may already be in collections, awaiting identification.
The study is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Plants have been catalogued for hundreds of years. Traditionally, potential new species are dried and mounted on cardboard, labelled and placed in what is known as a herbarium for safekeeping.
There are around 3,000 herbaria worldwide, containing thousands and thousands of specimens.
Dr Robert Scotland of Oxford University spent some 15 years using these herbaria to research one particular genus of flowering plants called Strobilanthes. He found 60 new species lying undiscovered in such collections.
Together with colleagues, he decided to try and calculate how many undiscovered species of all flowering plants may be lying in such collections.
They assembled data for over 3,200 species identified since 1970 and looked at the lag between collection and identification.
They calculated that only 16% were described within five years of collection, while nearly one quarter were described over 50 years after they were first collected and placed in herbaria. One species took 210 years to be identified.
When the same pattern was projected into the future, the team concluded that over 35,000 species were likely to emerge from the herbaria collections over the next 35 years. That is half the estimated 70,000 new species of flowering plant that botanists still expect to find.
Number crunching
"We'd been doing a particular study on a group of tropical plants called Strobilanthes. It's called a monographic study when botanists look at variation in different species across the whole of the globe," Dr Scotland told the BBC.
It is during these studies that botanists can eliminate duplications arising from different names being used for the same species in different countries, for example. But Dr Scotland's study delivered 60 new species from the depths of the herbaria collections.
"I was looking at those 60 species and what I noticed was that most of them were first collected by botanists over 60 years ago. I was quite surprised by that."
A new investigation and some number crunching led to perhaps more surprising results yet.
"What our study has shown is that only 16% of species were collected within five years of being described, whereas most get collected, they then make it into herbarium cabinets, then they sit there for up to 150 years until someone comes along and spots them."
So why are so many plants lying unidentified?
Dr Scotland puts it down to a lack of expertise and a lack of resources, but says examining these vaults may be every bit as important as future field studies.
"There are certainly places in the world which are under-collected where there's many things to be found. Botanists visit a particular rainforest, for example, and come back with a haul of species.
"[But] out of that 70,000 species still to be found, more than half of those have already been collected in the world herbaria and are waiting for someone with the relevant expertise and time to say 'that's a new one'."
Dr Mark Carine, of London's Natural History Museum and another member of the study team, said: "Lack of manpower and lack of expertise is obviously a major issue here. There's no doubt we just don't have enough people to complete the process as rapidly as we might like.
"I think what the study does is highlights the importance of collections such as the one at the Natural History Museum and elsewhere. We need to think about creative ways of unlocking information that we have in those herbaria as quickly as possible."
IUCN 4 Dec 10;
Preliminary analysis shows that an estimated 1.5 billion hectares of the world’s lost and degraded forests, an area almost the size of Russia, could be restored. This is the result of the latest global research, which now needs to be expanded at a national level to identify specific on the ground opportunities, says IUCN.
“Until recently scant attention has been paid to the world’s degraded forests,” says Stewart Maginnis, Director of Environment and Development at IUCN. “Now is the time to recognise the potential of restored forests to deliver the double benefit of removing CO2 from the atmosphere and helping lift people out of poverty. However, there’s no 'one size fits all' solution - each forest landscape is unique and needs its own individual restoration strategy.”
The analysis reveals that Africa and Asia hold the greatest promise, each with about 500 million hectares of forest landscapes offering opportunities for forest restoration, according to IUCN.
The new analysis from the World Resources Institute, South Dakota University and IUCN, carried out for the Global Partnership on Forest Landscape Restoration (GPFLR) comes a month ahead of the launch of the UN’s International Year of Forests.
“Restoring the world’s lost and degraded forests is possible,” says Carole Saint Laurent, IUCN’s Senior Forest Policy Advisor. “Countries as diverse as China, Ghana, Mexico, India, the United Kingdom, the United States and many others have already embarked on ambitious forest restoration programmes.”
The Star 8 Dec 10;
GEORGE TOWN: Pulau Kendi in Penang is one of many islands in the country that is rich in coral but has not been gazetted as a marine park.
Marine biologist Prof Zulfigar Yasin said there was no conservation work to protect the coral on these islands.
“If the situation persists, the fishes will lose their habitat and Malaysia will slowly lose part of its heritage,” he said during an interview at Universiti Sains Malaysia.
Zulfigar, who is with the university’s School of Biological Sciences, was a presenter at a five-day training workshop on coral taxonomy at the university which ends today.
He cited other islands like Pulau Songsong in Kedah, some islands near Langkawi and Pulau Sembilan in Perak should be gazetted as marine parks to conserve their coral.
“Pulau Payar, for example, is providing the fishermen a sustainable source of fish after being gazetted as a marine park,” he said.
Currently, there are six marine parks in the country, which are made up of 42 islands in Kedah, Perak, Terengganu, Pahang, Johor and Sabah.
In a related matter, Prof Zulfigar said the government should incorporate a more specific policy to address coral bleaching as the issue would impact the coastal communities and the country’s tourism industry in the long-term.
He was commenting on the closure of nine popular snorkelling sites at marine parks in Kedah, Pahang and Terengganu in July for several months because of coral bleaching.
The Marine Parks Department had banned recreational activity and the sites were off limits to divers and coral enthusiasts.
Dr Zulfigar said Malaysia currently only has a general policy to protect bio-diversity and it was high time to rescue the coral reef by creating public awareness while adding that another factor related to coral bleaching was the rise in acidity levels of sea water due to human activities.
Associated Press Google News 8 Dec 10;
PUERTO MORELOS, Mexico (AP) — The once-vibrant coral reef shielding these sun-soaked beaches from the wrath of the sea is withering away under the stress of pollution and warmer water.
It's not likely to get much help from world governments meeting in Cancun for talks on a new climate pact. Their so-far elusive goal to limit global warming to 2 degrees C (3.6 F) is too little too late, says coral expert Roberto Iglesias.
"That represents the end of the coral reefs in the world," says the Mexican scientist, who works at a marine research station in Puerto Morelos, 12 miles (about 20 kilometers) south of the beach resort hosting the annual U.N. climate conference.
Coral reefs are like underwater jungles that host 25 percent of marine species and provide food and income to hundreds of millions of people, mostly in the developing world. They also serve as shock absorbers to storm surges whipped up by hurricanes.
But many reefs, including the one off this hotel-packed coastline, have been damaged by water pollution and overfishing, leaving them vulnerable to a warming ocean that "bleaches" corals and sometimes kills them, Iglesias said.
This year, preliminary reports show global coral bleaching reached its worst level since 1998, when 16 percent of the world's reefs were killed off, said Mark Eakin, a coral reef specialist at the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
"Clearly, we are on track for this to be the second worst (bleaching) on record," he said. "All we're waiting on now is the body count."
The 700-mile (1,100-kilometer) Mesoamerican reef that runs along Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula — suffering under other stresses — was spared the bleaching this year, but other parts of the Caribbean were hit hard, including Tobago, Curacao, Panama and islands north of Venezuela.
Some of the biggest impacts were in Southeast Asia. In Indonesia's Aceh province, surveys showed some 80 percent of the bleached corals died. In July, Malaysia closed several popular dive sites after virtually all the corals in those areas were damaged by bleaching.
Bleaching occurs when warmer temperatures disturb the symbiotic relationship between the corals and tiny algae that live inside them. When the algae are spit out, rainbow-colored reefs are turned into pale and lifeless skeletons — a "hideous" sight for veteran scuba divers like 52-year-old Eakin.
"You can't imagine what it's like to jump in the water and expect beautiful vibrant colors and all the corals are white," he said.
One or 2 degrees C (1.8-3.6 degrees F) above normal can be enough to cause bleaching. Corals may recover if the water cools and the algae return, but they're still significantly weaker and more vulnerable to disease. If the warmer temperatures persist, the corals die.
Bleaching occurs due to natural variability; both the 1998 and 2010 events were linked to the El Nino weather phenomenon. But the gradual rise of ocean temperatures means "it doesn't take much to push them over the edge," Eakin said.
The World Meteorological Organization says most tropical waters already have seen surface temperatures rise by up to 0.5 C (1 F) in the past 50 years. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the U.N. climate-science network, projects an increasing frequency of bleaching episodes that "is very likely to further reduce both coral cover and diversity on reefs over the next few decades."
Many reefs have already been degraded by disease and the impact of human activities, including discharges of fertilizers and waste as well as overfishing of parrotfish and other species that help keep the corals clean and healthy.
The global area covered by coral reefs has shrunk by 20 percent since 1950 and another 35 percent could disappear in the next 40 years, even without the impact of climate change, according to a report released in October by the World Meteorological Organization and the Convention on Biological Diversity.
Off the Riviera Maya coast south of Cancun, where large swaths of mangrove forests have been cut down to make room for an endless row of beachfront resorts, only 15 percent of the coral reefs are alive, down from about 45 percent in 1995, said Fernando Secaira, who coordinates a Mesoamerican Reef program for the U.S.-based environmental group Nature Conservancy.
The biggest problem, he said, is the rapid development, with tens of thousands of hotel rooms added only in the past decade. Fertilizers from lawns and golf courses and sewage from the developments filters through the limestone rock and is washed out onto the reef by underground rivers, altering the balance of the sensitive ecosystem.
Secaira said such unhealthy reefs will find it difficult to adjust to warming waters, raising the risk they will be destroyed by bleaching or diseases. The priority for conservationists is identifying the most resilient reefs, and protecting them as climate change sets in with full force, raising temperatures and acidifying the ocean, which limits the carbonate minerals that help corals grow.
Scientists say no emissions cuts being considered by world governments will suffice to prevent that from happening.
"We're going to lose more corals and more reefs before this is all over," said Eakin, of NOAA. "The question at this point is how many can we save."
Mexicans fear climate change threat to massive reef
Anna Cuenca Yahoo News 7 Dec 10;
SIAN KA'AN, Mexico (AFP) – A vast coral reef off southeastern Mexico attracts a rich array of fauna but some locals say they release the fish they catch to try to counter the effects of climate change.
Numerous fish species, such sea bass, live in the salty water, said 28-year-old Elias Dzul, from a village near the Mayan ruins of Tulum, one of a growing number of people concerned about the reef's future.
"Commercial fishing is not viable, because it damages the ecosystem," said Dzul, who works in a sports fishing camp where tourists catch fish for fun and throw them back in the sea.
The Mesoamerican Reef, the world's second longest after Australia's Great Barrier Reef, stretches down from the top of the Yucatan peninsula some 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) in waters off Mexico, Belize, Guatemala and Honduras.
It is a clear and delicate example of how global warming appears to be affecting marine habitats.
Dzul works on the Sian Ka'an reserve that spreads around the reef, some 150 kilometers (100 miles) south of Cancun, where international negotiators this week hope to advance on agreements to limit climate change worldwide.
"If the negotiators limit themselves to a stabilization agreement to try to keep global temperature rises to two degrees Celsius, it will be the end of the coral reef," said Roberto Iglesias, a researcher from the National Autonomous University of Mexico's marine institute in Puerto Morelos, near Cancun.
"When the temperature rises, the coral loses its main source of energy, which comes from a symbiosis with the algae, which are losing their photosynthetic function," Iglesias said, underlining that 2010 has seen the highest recorded sea temperatures for a second consecutive year.
The reef plays an important role in protecting the coast, forming a natural barrier that breaks the force of the waves and tones down erosion of the beaches, particularly in the face of regular tropical storms and hurricanes.
But commercial fishing and marine pollution from tourist areas have weakened the ecosystem, which is struggling to adapt to the effects of climate change.
Scientists from the Puerto Morelos laboratory collect samples from the sea on a daily basis to measure the threats to the reef and how it is changing, including the effects of the acidification of the ocean.
"Thirty percent of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere is absorbed by the ocean and that changes the chemical make-up of the ecosystems," Iglesias said.
Known as the Maya Riviera, the Mexican coast south of Cancun is a fast-developing tourist area, where the population is also expanding rapidly.
Some hotel owners, like Paul Sanchez, aim to show that it is possible to keep developing, but in a sustainable way.
Sanchez manages a complex of hotels that have around 12 rooms, in a former coconut plantation in the Bay of Akumal, on a beach of white sand formed from coral skeletons.
A garden of banana trees and mangroves lies near a restaurant terrace, but it is not only part of the scenery.
"The plants grow on a swamp of residual water from the hotel. The trees filter and purify the dirty water before it enters the sea," Sanchez said.
"The proof that it works is that it doesn't even smell," he said, underlining that if the water is acid it prevents the coral from reproducing.
Guatemalan biologist Marie-Claire Paiz, from The Nature Conservancy non-governmental group, said it was important to show hotel developers that preserving the reef made good business sense.
"For example in Cancun, where construction has broken the natural dynamics of the sand dunes, hotels spend 20 million dollars every two or three years to return sand to the beaches," Paiz said.
"They could save money if they managed them in an ecological manner."
Kelsey Munro Sydney Morning Herald 8 Dec 10;
Preserving Sydney's beaches against rising sea levels could cost more than $700 million over the next 50 years and would require the government to reverse its long-standing position regarding offshore sandmining, according to a study on climate change-induced beach erosion.
The report was commissioned by the Sydney Coastal Councils Group to investigate whether beach nourishment could stop Sydney's beaches from being washed away by the projected sea level rise of 10 centimetres a decade.
But the report also identifies a business case for beach nourishment, saying the economic benefits would outweigh the costs, compared with doing nothing.
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''At some point, which will come sooner for some beaches than others, Sydney beach sands will be depleted, and [offshore] sands in the shelf sand bodies could be used to nourish these beaches,'' said Professor Bruce Thom, the President of the Australian Coastal Society and an adviser to the coastal councils group.
Beach nourishment involves a floating dredge drawing up sand from deeper waters and depositing it in the shallower ''surf zone''. The action of the waves then pushes it onto the beach.
''It's a practice that has been used on the Gold Coast for many years,'' Professor Thom said. ''Different techniques, but the basic principle is the same: using sands from a local source, putting them into the surf zone, and [allowing] the waves to push sand on to beach.''
Many NSW coastal councils perform beach nourishment on a smaller scale but the sand must be sourced from lagoons or estuaries.
The report's author, Lex Nielsen from AECOM, determined that beach nourishment would need to be carried out in 10-year stages. The first and largest program would require 12 million cubic metres of sand at an estimated cost of $300 million to nourish all Sydney's beaches from Cronulla to Palm Beach.
Subsequent campaigns every decade would call for about 4 million cubic metres of sand at a cost of about $120 million an operation.
The report said sandmining off Cape Banks at Botany Bay would provide sufficient sand for the first stage of works but that the subsequent operations would have to source sand from elsewhere.
But a long-standing state government embargo on offshore marine sandmining would prohibit sand being mined at this scale off Cape Banks, a spokeswoman from the Department of the Environment, Climate Change and Water said.
Geoff Withycombe, from the coastal councils group, said the report identified a strong economic case for beach nourishment, based on detailed case studies of Narrabeen-Collaroy, Manly and Bate Bay in Sutherland.
Manly, as a tourist attraction and iconic Sydney beach, had the best economic case, with every dollar spent on sand nourishment yielding an economic benefit of $2.40.
''Of course, it's much harder to place a value of having the beach existing for future generations to enjoy, but that is the outcome we're aiming for,'' Mr Withycombe said.
Chris Buckley PlanetArk 8 Dec 10;
Residents of the Himalayas and other mountain areas face a "tough and unpredictable future" as global warming melts glaciers and threatens worse floods and water loss, officials said during U.N. climate talks on Tuesday.
A study said that glaciers in southern Chile and Argentina, followed by ones in Alaska, had been losing mass "faster and for longer than glaciers in other parts of the world."
Negotiators at two-week talks in Cancun, a seaside resort in Mexico, have been seeking agreement on how to cut the greenhouse gases from fossil fuels, forest loss and land changes that are stoking global warming and threatening dangerous climate changes.
Tuesday's report, by the United Nations Environment Program, found that many people in vulnerable mountainside homes are already living with the growing risks of global warming and need more support to help them adapt to a changing landscape.
The melting of glaciers was triggering more frequent "glacial lake outburst floods," when masses of melted water burst through brittle rock barriers and inundating valleys below, said the report.
"People in the Himalayas must prepare for a tough and unpredictable future," said Erik Solheim, Norway's environment minister, in a statement accompanying the report.
"Global climate change has posed a serious threat to the Himalayan region. Countries are highly vulnerable to climate change, due to their vast dependence on water...originating in high mountains," said Madhav Karki, of the Nepal-based International Center for Integrated Mountain Development, at a news conference to release the report.
An earlier U.N. scientific panel's assessment of global warming was criticized for overstating the rate of melt of Himalayan glaciers and wrongly claiming they could all vanish by 2035.
The new report said the threat to glaciers was likely to unfold unevenly and over a longer time.
"In some regions, it is very likely that glaciers will largely disappear by the end of this century, whereas in others glacier cover will persist but in a reduced form for many centuries to come," it said.
Paradoxically, in parts of some mountain ranges, such as the Karakoram in Asia, glaciers have expanded, apparently due to increased snowfalls brought by the warmer, moister air caused by climate change, the report said.
It can be found on the U.N. Environment Program's website (www.unep.org).
(Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
Glaciers melting fastest in South America, Alaska: UN
Sophie Nicholson Yahoo News 7 Dec 10;
CANCUN, Mexico (AFP) – Glaciers are melting fastest in southern South America and Alaska and communities urgently need to adapt to the meltdown, according to a UN report released Tuesday.
Many low-lying glaciers may disappear over the coming decades, with the northwest United States, southwest Canada and the Arctic also affected, according to the report compiled by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and scientists, presented at UN climate talks in Cancun, Mexico.
Most glaciers -- which are formed by accumulations of snow and ice -- started shrinking around 150 years ago, but the rate of ice loss has increased significantly since the 1980s, the report said.
"Averaged over their entire areas, within the period 1960 to 2003 glaciers in Patagonia and Alaska have thinned by approximately 35 meters and 25 meters, respectively," it said.
Warmer temperatures due to climate change were a major factor in melting the glaciers. Another cause could be the deposit of soot, reducing the reflection of heat back into space, according to the report.
The changed glaciers alter rain patterns and reduce water in rivers as well as food supply to nearby communities.
"Adaptation is crucial and urgently needed to assist people who will be affected," said John Crump, UNEP polar issues coordinator, at a news conference.
Though glaciers are shrinking overall worldwide, high levels of rain have actually increased the size of others, including in western Norway and New Zealand's South Island, the report said.
And as glaciers melt, lakes can form and eventually burst, leading to flooding.
Such floods have increased in the past 40 years, from China to Chile, the report said.
Peru has siphoned off the water from lakes formed by melted glaciers while similar projects, which can be costly and technically challenging, have been tried by Nepal and Bhutan.
Norway on Tuesday pledged more than 12 million dollars to help one major region where glaciers are melting -- the Himalayas.
Madhav Karki, from the International Center for Integrated Mountain Development, pointed to aerial pictures of glaciers that he said were shrinking some five to 15 meters per year in the eastern Himalayas.
The five-year investment aims to help communities, mainly in India, Pakistan and China, to adapt to changes in the glaciers they depend on and investigate why they are happening, said Norwegian Environment Minister Erik Solheim.
"South Asia for me is probably the most vulnerable continent on the globe when it comes to climate change," he said. "Norway is at the opposite end of the spectrum."
More than 40 percent of the world?s floods takes place in Asia, and have affected nearly a billion people between 1999 and 2008, according to the UN.
Pakistan this year was ravaged by floods that covered the size of England, killing more than 1,700 people and affecting more than 21 million more.
Bangladeshi Environment Minister Hasan Mahmud expressed concern Tuesday over glacial melting affecting his delta country, which is ravaged annually by floods from the Himalayas.
"If for any reason this is exacerbated, this will have a devastating impact, beyond our imagination," Mahmud said.
Charles J. Hanley, Associated Press Yahoo News 7 Dec 10;
CANCUN, Mexico – U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, trying to revive long-stalled climate talks, told world environment ministers on Tuesday he is "deeply concerned" that many years of negotiation have proven largely fruitless.
"The pace of human-induced climate change is accelerating. We need results now, results that curb global greenhouse emissions," Ban declared at the opening of high-level talks at the annual U.N. climate conference.
In the two-week session's final days, environment ministers will seek agreement on knotty side issues in coping with global warming, but once more the U.N. climate treaty's 193 parties will fail at Cancun to produce a sweeping deal to slash greenhouse gas emissions and control climate change.
"I am deeply concerned that our efforts so far have been insufficient," the U.N. chief told delegates.
"Nature will not wait while we negotiate," he said. "Science warns that the window of opportunity to prevent uncontrolled climate change will soon close."
U.N. environment chief, Achim Steiner, reminded the conference that countries' current, voluntary pledges to reduce emissions would, at best, offer the world limited protection against serious damage from shifts in climate.
Another reminder came from the mountains of south Asia: In a new report, experts said people's lives and livelihoods are at "high risk" as warming melts Himalayan glaciers, sending floods crashing down from overloaded mountain lakes and depriving farmers of steady water sources.
Low-lying Pacific island states, in particular, are losing shoreline to rising seas, expanding from heat and the runoff of melting land ice. Following Ban to the podium, President Marcus Stephen of Nauru, one of those states, said the reality of climate change has been lost in scientific, economic and technical jargon.
"Without bold action, it will be left to our children to come up with the words to convey the tragedy of losing our homelands when it didn't have to be this way," he said.
Despite such evidence of growing impacts, and scientists' warnings that temperatures will rise sharply in this century, nations have made little progress over the past decade toward a new global pact on emissions cuts to replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. The Republican rebound in Washington promises to delay action even further.
Instead, environment ministers will focus on secondary tools for confronting global warming, laying the groundwork, for example, for a "green fund" of $100 billion a year by 2020.
Financed by richer nations, the fund would support poorer nations in converting to cleaner energy sources and in adapting to a shifting climate that may damage people's health, agriculture and economies in general.
Negotiators also hope to agree on a mechanism giving poorer countries' easier access to the patented green technology of advanced countries, and on pinning down more elements of a complex plan to compensate developing nations for protecting their climate-friendly forests.
"Some important decisions are ripe for adoption, on protecting forests, on climate adaptation, technology and some elements of finance," Ban told reporters.
He urged governments "to be flexible and to negotiate in a spirit of compromise and common sense for the good of all the peoples."
Year after year at these U.N. sessions, activists frustrated by their slow pace have rallied in protest. On Tuesday, hundreds marched from downtown Cancun toward the heavily guarded beach resort area where the conference is taking place. About a dozen protesters managed to get inside the conference complex, marching briefly through a meeting hall before being escorted away by security guards.
High-level guidance from the environment ministers may be needed most in the coming days' debates over limited gestures proposed on emissions reductions.
The U.S. has long refused to join the rest of the industrialized world in the Kyoto Protocol, a 1997 add-on to the climate treaty that mandates modest emissions reductions by richer nations, and whose commitments expire in 2012. The U.S. complained Kyoto would hurt its economy and should have mandated actions as well by such emerging economies as China and India.
Last month's election of a Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives all but rules out for at least two years U.S. legislation to cap carbon dioxide and other global-warming gases emitted by industry, vehicles and agriculture. Such American action is deemed essential to winning a new global pact on emissions.
China and other poorer, growing nations, have rejected calls that they submit to Kyoto-style legally binding commitments — not to reduce emissions, but to cut back on emissions growth. Their first obligation, these governments say, is to lift their people from poverty, and not potentially hobble their economies.
In a nonbinding Copenhagen Accord emerging from last December's climate summit in the Danish capital, the U.S. and other industrial nations announced targets for reducing emissions by 2020, and China and some other developing nations set goals, also voluntary, for cutting back on emissions growth.
That accord was not accepted by all treaty parties. Now many negotiators want to have the voluntary targets "anchored" more formally in a final Cancun document — but how, with what wording and form of commitment, will be subject to backroom haggling in the coming days.
The glacier report, issued here by the U.N. Environment Program and glacier researchers, said that since the early 1980s, "the rate of ice loss has increased substantially in many regions, concurrent with an increase in global mean air temperatures."
Glaciers in southern South America and Alaska's coastal mountains have been losing mass faster and for longer than glaciers elsewhere in the world, it said.
The experts said the incidence of "glacial lake outburst floods" has grown over the past 40 years, accounting for some of the 5,000 Asian deaths each year from flash floods. More broadly, the swift depletion of glacial waters may leave tens of thousands of farmers without irrigation water.
UN chief warns world failing on climate
Shaun Tandon Yahoo News 7 Dec 10;
CANCUN, Mexico (AFP) – UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon warned the world was missing its last chance to control climate change, appealing to nations at talks in Mexico to ramp up progress.
In an emphatic address to the 194-nation talks, the UN chief highlighted studies by scientists who say the world has a limited gateway to cut carbon emissions or risk irreversible damage to the planet.
"I'm deeply concerned that our efforts so far have been insufficient, that despite the evidence and many years of negotiation we are still not rising to the challenge," Ban said as the two-week talks entered the final four days.
"Business as usual cannot be tolerated," he said. "Cancun must represent a breakthrough."
"The world, particularly the poor and vulnerable, cannot afford the luxury of waiting for the perfect agreement," Ban said, adding: "Every country can and must do more."
Host Mexico has encouraged nations to look for building blocks to an eventual climate accord, hoping to undo some of the damage from last year's Copenhagen summit, which disappointed many environmentalists.
To the surprise of some of the hardened negotiators, the talks have appeared to bear fruit with a compromise eyed on one of the key stumbling blocks -- verification of nations' promises to fight climate change.
China climbed down from its past refusal on verification after India drafted a compromise under which all countries responsible for more than one percent of emissions would submit to verification but not face "punitive consequences."
"It does represent progress," US lead negotiator Todd Stern said.
The draft is "definitely not adequate yet, but it's a step in the right direction. If we can keep moving a few more steps, we might actually get there," Stern said.
But Stern warned that another dispute remained "very tough" -- on the future of the Kyoto Protocol.
With few expecting a new full-fledged treaty anytime soon, the European Union has led calls to extend the Kyoto Protocol past the end of 2012, when requirements under the landmark 1997 agreement are set to expire.
The EU position has triggered protests from Japan. It says Kyoto is unfair by not involving the two top polluters -- China, which has no requirements as a developing country, and the United States, which rejected the treaty in 2001.
"It is absolutely imperative that we deliver something, something substantial," EU Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard said. "To come out of Cancun with nothing is simply not an option."
Even if countries carry out pledges they have already made, they are off track to meet the goal agreed in Copenhagen to check rising temperatures at two degrees Celsius compared with pre-industrial levels.
"There is a giant gap. We need to acknowledge and commit to close that," said Alden Meyer of the Union of Concerned Scientists, an environmental group.
The US Congress looks unlikely to approve any restrictions on carbon emissions after the Republican Party's victory. President Barack Obama's administration, however, has pledged to meet its Copenhagen target of cutting emissions by 17 percent by 2020 from 2005 levels.
The Cancun conference is also making progress on how rich nations can help in reducing emissions from deforestation in developing nations -- known to negotiators as REDD.
The loss of trees accounts each year for 12 to 25 percent of the carbon emissions due to the loss of vegetation that counteracts the gas.
Activists and negotiators from several Latin American nations have pressed against a deal out of suspicion over calls to set up a market, in which nations would offer forest aid in return for credit to meet their climate goals.
Thousands of activists and Mexican peasants, holding rainbow flags and playing drums and flutes, marched in central Cancun, many of them to reject the REDD deal.
"REDD is a false solution because you are creating a market on our forests, you are not protecting our Mother Earth," said US activist Kari Fulton.
"We are standing here to say that we want protection and to be respected," she said.
U.N.'s Ban Urges Climate Deal, Short Of Perfect
Gerard Wynn and Timothy Gardner PlanetArk 8 Dec 10;
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged almost 200 nations meeting in Mexico on Tuesday to agree to a modest deal to rein in climate change without holding out for perfection.
After U.S. President Barack Obama and other leaders failed at last year's U.N. summit in Copenhagen to work out a sweeping new climate treaty, Ban stressed that Cancun has more modest ambitions.
"We cannot have a perfect agreement at this time ... perfect is the enemy of good," Ban said on the sidelines of the November 29 to December 10 talks in the Mexican resort of Cancun where ministers were meeting.
Rich and poor nations are deeply split about the future of the U.N.'s existing Kyoto Protocol, which obliges almost 40 developing nations to cut greenhouse gas emissions in a first period to 2012. Kyoto is blocking progress on other issues.
Ban said there were four areas being discussed where "we can make progress but we may not be able to make the full agreement."
The talks are seeking a four-way package on climate aid, ways to curb deforestation, help poor countries adapt to the impacts of climate change and a mechanism to share clean technologies.
Bolivia has led calls by some poor nations for deep cuts in greenhouse gases by rich nations that would require a radical overhaul of the world economy to help protect "Mother Earth."
CHINA, INDIA
Many developed nations want emerging economies, led by fast-growing China and India, to do far more to rein in emissions, including greater oversight of their programs to limit rising greenhouse gas emissions.
"The negotiations are still difficult, a result is still possible," said U.S. climate envoy Todd Stern.
"The Kyoto Protocol issue continues to be very tough. It's not clear whether it's resolvable. I would certainly hope so," he said, adding that it was draining time from other talks.
Ban said he was concerned that the world had not done enough to rein in global warming, which a U.N. panel of climate scientists has predicted will cause more floods, droughts, desertification, heatwaves and rising sea levels.
Japan, Russia and Canada have been adamant that they will not approve an extension to Kyoto when the first period runs out in 2012. They want a new, broader treaty that will also bind emerging economies like China and India to act.
But developing states say rich nations have emitted most greenhouse gases since the Industrial Revolution and must extend Kyoto before poor countries can be expected to sign up.
Christiana Figueres, head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat, said the talks would have to find a compromise.
"We currently are still stuck on how parties are going to decide on the continuation of the Kyoto Protocol where we have diametrically opposed positions," she said.
"Germans have a wonderful word 'yein' which means both 'yes' and 'no' and I think that's the kind of attitude countries are now engaged in," she said.
(Editing by Christopher Wilson)
China denies softening on emissions stance
* Chinese diplomat says no shift on binding target
* No proposal yet on oversight of developing countries
Chris Buckley Reuters AlertNet 7 Dec 10;
CANCUN, Mexico, Dec 7 (Reuters) - China will insist on keeping its greenhouse gas output free of any binding climate treaty fetters, a senior Chinese diplomat said on Tuesday, dismissing an earlier report that suggested a softening of Beijing's position as a "misunderstanding."
Assistant Chinese Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin made the comments in Cancun, Mexico, where negotiators are trying to agree on pieces of a new agreement to fight the global warming being stoked by greenhouse gases from fossil fuels, industry and land use change.
Liu also told a news conference that there would be a "crisis of confidence" if negotiators rejected the Kyoto Protocol, the current main treaty on cutting greenhouse gas emissions, which keeps a barrier so poorer countries, including China, are free of firm goals to curb their emissions.
As the world's biggest emitter of these gases, China is at the heart of many of the long-running talks, which are seeking to build a binding climate pact by late next year.
Many advanced economies want China and other rising economies to accept firmer international obligations to slow their rising emissions and eventually cut them.
On Monday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry's envoy for climate talks, Huang Huikang, told Reuters that his government could bring its "voluntary" goals to slow emissions growth and fight global warming under a binding overall framework. [ID:nN06239915]
That suggested a softening of China's long insistence that it should be free to grow its economy and eliminate poverty unfettered by any internationally binding emissions commitment.
But Liu said China's position had not changed and that there had been a "misunderstanding."
"This in nature is a voluntary pledge, autonomous pledge. Voluntary, autonomous means it's not negotiable," Liu said of China's domestic goals to slow emissions growth, speaking in English.
"In terms of nature, it's different from those quantified limitation reduction targets by developed country parties," he said.
BINDING
Huang told Reuters on Monday that a resolution or decision under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the umbrella pact on the issue, could bring in the voluntary efforts of developing countries to fight climate change.
"We can create a resolution, and that resolution can be binding on China," Huang had said.
But Liu said it was too early to discuss bringing the efforts of China and other developing countries under the convention.
"The negotiations on how to reflect the pledges, the voluntary actions -- the negotiations has not been completed yet. There's just some talking," said Liu. "You cannot prejudge the result by one of the views."
Japan, Russia and Canada have said they will not approve an extension to Kyoto when the first period runs out in late 2012. They want a broader agreement that will also bind the United States, which did not join the protocol, as well as emerging powers like China and India.
China and other developing countries were adamant that Kyoto, with its division between rich and developing countries, must stay, said Liu.
"It's also an issue of political confidence," he said. "It will be an international crisis of confidence" if Kyoto comes into doubt, he added.
Liu also poured cold water on reports that China may have accepted an Indian proposal on the contentious issue of how and how much big developing nations should inform other countries about their efforts to curb emissions.
That Indian proposal was welcomed by some negotiators from advanced economies as a potentially acceptable compromise, which would boost their confidence that emerging economies are doing their part to minimize emissions.
"Actually, there is no substantive discussion yet taken place," Liu said of the emissions vetting and reporting proposals for emerging economies.
"Of course, it's obvious this negotiation will not be completed at Cancun." he said of those issues. (Editing by Mohammad Zargham)
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