Job offer: RA and TSO for the Nee Soon Swamp Forest Project
from The Biodiversity crew @ NUS
Finishing Reef Survey For 2010 At Kusu Island
from colourful clouds
Last Dive For Year 2010 @ Pulau Hantu
from colourful clouds
Reduced Vis, Improved Optimism
from Pulau Hantu
Milky Stork interacting with Malayan Water Monitor
from Bird Ecology Study Group
Support the Green Corridor!
from Green Drinks Singapore
Phytoremediation of Wastewater
from Water Quality in Singapore
Ng Lian Cheong Channel NewsAsia 20 Dec 10;
SINGAPORE : Residents of Singapore's first eco-precinct, Treelodge@Punggol, may soon be able to rent electric bicycles within their estate. This eco-friendly and cost-efficient way to travel is a S$40,000 pilot programme by Sanyo.
The company is currently waiting for the go-ahead from the Land Transport Authority.
There are plans to have two rental spots - one at Tree Lodge and the other at Punggol Plaza.
Six electric bicycles will be made available at each station.
To prevent theft or vandalism, users have to register with the company and provide a photo identification.
It will cost 40 cents for the first 20 minutes, 15 cents cheaper compared to taking a bus.
Kelvin Ang, sales engineer at Sanyo, said: "We set the price at 40 cents to encourage residents to change their habits - from taking a feeder bus to riding a bicycle. And this will promote health and prevent congestion to the traffic."
- CNA/al
Electric bicycles for rent at Singapore's first eco-precinct
Ng Lian Cheong Today Online 21 Dec 10;
SINGAPORE - Residents of Singapore's first eco-precinct, Treelodge@Punggol, may soon be able to rent electric bicycles within their estate. This eco-friendly and cost-efficient way to travel is a $40,000 pilot programme by Sanyo.
The company is currently waiting for the go-ahead from the Land Transport Authority.
There are plans to have two rental spots - one at Tree Lodge and the other at Punggol Plaza.
Six electric bicycles will be made available at each station.
To prevent theft or vandalism, users have to register with the company and provide a photo identification.
It will cost 40 cents for the first 20 minutes, 15 cents cheaper compared to taking a bus.
Kelvin Ang, sales engineer at Sanyo, said: "We set the price at 40 cents to encourage residents to change their habits - from taking a feeder bus to riding a bicycle. And this will promote health and prevent congestion to the traffic."
NG LIAN CHEONG
Yahoo News 20 Dec 10;
UNITED NATIONS (AFP) – The UN General Assembly agreed to form a panel of international experts on biodiversity in a resolution approved on Monday.
The resolution is an important step towards the implementation of the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), a UN diplomat told AFP.
The panel of experts is a key component of the UN's push for reform of global biodiversity management.
Representatives from the European Union, the United States, Canada and Switzerland spoke in support of the measure.
In late October, delegates from 193 countries meeting in Japan signed a historic global treaty to protect the world's forests, coral reefs and other threatened ecosystems within 10 years.
Rich and poor nations agreed to take "effective and urgent" action to curb the destruction of nature in an effort to halt the loss of the world's biodiversity on which human survival depends.
Nearly a quarter of mammals, one-third of amphibians and more than a fifth of plant species now face the threat of extinction, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
UN gives final approval to biodiversity science panel
Richard Black BBC News 21 Dec 10;
The UN has given final approval for the establishment of an expert panel to advise governments on science and policy issues relating to biodiversity.
Endorsement came at the UN General Assembly in New York.
The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) will assess evidence on the causes and effects of nature degradation, and policy options.
Details will be worked out during the first few months of next year.
The new organisation is roughly modelled on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and will be similarly charged with providing "gold-standard" reports to governments.
Discussions on establishing it have been going on for more than two years, and a decision in principal was taken earlier this year; but final approval was needed from the General Assembly, as the UN's governing entity.
"IPBES represents a major breakthrough in terms of organising a global response to the loss of living organisms and forests, freshwater, coral reefs and other ecosystems that underpin all life - including economic life - on Earth," said Achim Steiner, executive director of the UN Environment Programme (Unep).
Unep will host the fledgling panel until a decision is taken on where it will be sited.
It is not yet clear whether the new panel will be structured along identical lines to the IPCC, with separate working groups covering science, impacts and policy.
The IPCC is in the middle of a reform process following criticisms of its performance in past years, and IPBES' proponents have indicated they want to learn from the IPCC's experiences and construct their panel along modernised lines.
The case for establishing the body hangs on the fact that across the world, biodiversity - the variety of life on Earth - is in decline.
This is has been highlighted in recent years through periodic projects such as the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment and the Global Biodiversity Outlook.
But governments now believe a more consistent effort is needed.
Meanwhile, the economic case for conserving biodiversity - at least in some situations - has been strengthened by evidence from The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (Teeb) project, a UN-backed analysis of the costs and benefits of sustaining nature as opposed to allowing it to degrade.
Approximately 10 nations are to conduct their own national-level Teeb analyses, which will probably result in a wider adoption of economic levers that reward conservation and penalise destruction.
"2010, the International Year of Biodiversity, began on a mute note after it emerged that no single country had achieved the target of substantially reversing the rate of loss of biodiversity," said Mr Steiner.
"But it has ended on a far more positive one that underlines a new determination to act on the challenges and deliver the opportunities possible from a far more intelligent management of the planet's nature-based assets."
Biodiversity Year Ends on a High Note as UN General Assembly Backs Resolution Signing into Life an 'IPCC-for Nature'
UNEP 21 Dec 10;
New York/Nairobi, 21 December 2010 A new international body aimed at catalyzing a global response to the loss of biodiversity and world's economically-important forests, coral reefs and other ecosystems was born yesterday by governments at the United Nations 65th General Assembly (UNGA).
It underlines a further success of the UN's International Year of Biodiversity and should provide a boost to the International Year of Forests which begins in January 2011, and the international decade of biodiversity, also beginning in January 2011.
The adoption, by the UNGA plenary, was the last approval needed for setting up an Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).
Governments gave a green light to its establishment in June at a meeting in Busan, Republic of Korea, coordinated by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), but this required a resolution to be passed at the UNGA.
The independent platform will in many ways mirror the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which has assisted in catalyzing worldwide understanding and governmental action on global warming.
The new body will bridge the gulf between the wealth of scientific knowledge on the accelerating declines and degradation of the natural world, with knowledge on effective solutions and decisive government action required to reverse these damaging trends.
Its various roles will include carrying out high-quality peer reviews of the wealth of science on biodiversity and ecosystem services emerging from research institutes across the globe in order to provide gold standard reports to governments.
These reports will not only cover the state, status and trends of biodiversity and ecosystems, but will also outline transformational policy options and responses to bring about real change in their fortunes.
The IPBES will achieve this in part by prioritizing, making sense of and bringing consistency to the great variety of reports and assessments conducted by United Nations bodies, research centres, universities and others as they relate to biodiversity and ecosystem services.
"IPBES represents a major breakthrough in terms of organizing a global response to the loss of living organisms and forests, freshwaters, coral reefs and other ecosystems that underpin all life-including economic life-on Earth," Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and UNEP Executive Director said.
"2010, the International Year of Biodiversity, began on a mute note after it emerged that no single country had achieved the target of substantially reversing the rate of loss of biodiversity. But it has ended on a far more positive one that underlines a new determination to act on the challenges and deliver the opportunities possible from a far more intelligent management of the planet's nature-based assets," he added.
Builds on Biological Diversity Convention Achievements
Mr. Steiner said the sign-off by the UNGA came in the wake of the successes at the meeting of the Convention on Biological Diversity that took place in Nagoya, Japan, in October.
Here governments adopted a new strategic plan including targets for addressing biodiversity loss to be met by 2020.
For example, governments agreed to increase the extent of land-based protected areas and national parks to 17 per cent of the Earth's surface, up from around 12.5 per cent now, and to extend marine protected areas to 10 per cent, up from under one per cent currently.
Other elements of the extensive plan include, by 2020 lifting the extinction risk from known threatened species.
The meeting agreed to study resource mobilization for assisting developing countries to meet the new targets in the plan based on a methodology that relates support to needs and gaps.
Other decisions included taking a 'precautionary approach' in terms of emerging areas such as geo-engineering in order to combat climate change and the development of synthetic biofuels.
Builds on Green Economy TEEB Successes
Nagoya also delivered a sea change in the global understanding of the multi-trillion dollar importance of biodiversity and forests, freshwaters and other ecosystems to the global economy and to national economies, and in particular for the "GDP of the poor".
The case has been built via The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB), an initiative hosted by UNEP, requested by G-8 environment ministers as well as developing country ones and supported by the European Commission and governments including Germany, Norway and the United Kingdom.
The TEEB partnership also brings together a wide network of contributing organizations, institutes and individuals from the world's of science to economics from developing and developed countries.
In Nagoya the final global TEEB report—a major stream of the UNEP Green Economy Initiative- was launched as countries including Brazil and India announced they would be launching their own national TEEB studies.
A parallel and supporting partnership was also announced by the World Bank in collaboration with organizations including UNEP to 'green' national accounts in order to mainstream 'natural capital' within national economic and development plans.
The project is initially set to be implemented in between six and 10 countries including Colombia and Mexico.
Mr. Steiner said the formal go-ahead for an IPBES meant much of what had been possible in 2010 had been transformed into a reality.
He said the UNGA backing now triggered a series of steps needed to get the work of the new body up and running.
UNEP, as the interim Secretariat, will now organize a plenary or meeting of governments in 2011 to decide on issues such as which country will house the independent IPBES and which institutions will host it alongside other institutional arrangements.
Notes to Editors
IPBES-what is it likely to do?
There have been and are currently a myriad of global, regional and national assessments being carried out from time to time that relate to biodiversity and ecosystem services.
These include the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment; the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development; UNEP's Global Environment Outlook; the Global Biodiversity Outlook and the Global Forest Resources Assessment.
Others include the State of the World's Animal Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture; the Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity and the IUCN Red List of threatened and endangered species.
While most, if not all are important, many of the findings are failing to translate into meaningful and decisive action by governments on the ground and in global and national planning.
This is in part due to different methodologies and standards operating across such assessments.
IPBES can bring greater rigor to such assessments while bringing together their findings in order to provide governments with greater clarity and confidence on the conclusions in order to act.
Other areas include bringing to the attention of governments 'new topics' identified by science, outlining what is known and also aspects where more research is needed.
Some scientists, for example, claim that evidence that deoxygenated dead zones in the world's oceans took too long time to migrate from scientific circles into the domain and in-trays of policy-makers.
A similar argument is made concerning the pros and cons of biofuels. IPBES could provide better early warning of such new topics to governments before decisions are taken.
While IPBES will support some capacity building in developing countries, its main role will be to catalyze funding to assist developing country scientists and developing country assessments through, for example, harnessing funding via UN agencies; foundations and other sources.
Unraveling the precise role of animals, plants, insects and even microbes within ecosystems and their functions in terms of the services generated-from water purification to soil fertility-could also be a major thrust.
Some experts are convinced that many scientific discoveries, from the identification of new lower life forms to the fast disappearance of others, can often remain within the corridors of research institutes and universities for many years before they reach the wider world.
By that time is may be too late to act to either conserve or protect the species concerned whereas early warning might have put the species on the political radar giving it a better chance.
For more details including the history of IPBES www.ipbes.net
UN green light for science-policy platform on biodiversity
IUCN 22 Dec 10;
IUCN welcomes the resolution adopted by the UN General Assembly yesterday to establish a new international body designed to boost the global response to the loss of the world’s biodiversity and ecosystems.
The new independent body, the Intergovernmental science-policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) aims to bridge the gulf between the wealth of scientific knowledge about the accelerating degradation of the natural world and government action needed to reverse it. IPBES is being widely compared to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which has helped global understanding and action on climate change.
“This is a wonderful way to end the International Year of Biodiversity and this resolution adds to the big achievements of the Convention on Biological Diversity conference in Nagoya in October,” says Cyrie Sendashonga, Director of IUCN Programme and Policy.
One of the roles of IPBES will be to carry out high-quality peer reviews of the science of biodiversity and ecosystem services emerging from research carried out around the world. It will ensure that governments are armed with the best information on which to base their decisions and outline the various policy options that are open to them.
IUCN has been a strong supporter of the establishment of IPBES and is playing a key role in its development through its commissions of experts on species, ecosystem management and protected areas.
“We still have a lot of work ahead of us to promote the implementation of IPBES in a way that reflects what IUCN would like to see, including the involvement of civil society in the new body and IUCN playing a role in the hosting of its distributed secretariat. The involvement of all components of IUCN will be needed to promote and support IPBES,” adds Sendashonga.
Yesterday’s resolution calls on the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) to take the necessary steps to put IPBES into operation by convening its first plenary in 2011. This will build on the groundwork laid during a series of meetings earlier this year.
The decision should provide further impetus to the International Year of Forests which begins in January 2011, and the international decade of biodiversity, also starting in January 2011.
Victoria Gill BBC News 20 Dec 10;
A new species of tropical mistletoe has been described by scientists at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in London. The research team found the plant on an expedition to Mount Mabu in northern Mozambique in 2008.
Now, just in time for Christmas, they have confirmed that Helixanthera schizocalyx is new to science.
The plant tops a list of Kew's botanical discoveries of 2010, which includes a Vietnamese orchid and an exceptionally rare tree from Cameroon.
Butterfly specialist, Colin Congdon, spotted the mistletoe in the dense foliage near the summit of Mount Mabu.
He realised that it was different from anything he had seen on the mountains in neighbouring Malawi and Tanzania. Closer inspection back at Kew confirmed it as a new species.
Mistletoes are "hemi-parasitic", meaning they take some of the nutrients they need from other plants.
When birds eat the small fleshy white sweet fruits, the seeds are wiped onto branches of trees, where they stick. Once germinated, the root grows into the living tissue of the tree to "suck out" its nutrients.
Giant genome
Another highlight from this year was the discovery of the largest genome of any living species studied so far. This was found in Paris japonica, a subalpine plant endemic to Honshu, Japan.
Its genome is 50 times the size of the human genome - so large that if this line of genetic code was to be stretched out, it would be taller than the tower of Big Ben.
Plants with such large genomes may be at greater risk of extinction as biologists believe they are less able to adapt to environmental changes.
The other plant discovery highlights from 2010 include:
#Lustrous Vietnamese orchid(Dendrobium daklakense).
This beautiful orchid, with white and orange flowers, was first collected in 2009 by a local plant hunter in the Dak Lak province of southern Vietnam. Botanists at Kew suspect it is already endangered.
# Cameroon canopy giant (Magnistipula multinervia). At 41m, the gigantic but critically endangered tree towers above the canopy of the lush green rainforests of Korup National Park, where it was found. The team used alpine climbing equipment to scale its heights and collect specimens of its fruit from which to identify it. Only four of these trees are known to exist.
# New palms in Madagascar.
With the help of local palm expert, Joro Rakotoarinivo, Kew scientist John Dransfield has described no fewer than 14 new species of Madagascan palms this year, all of which are threatened in the wild. Among these are Dypsis metallica, which has thick, steely-blue leaves and Dypsis dracaenoides, which resembles a spiky dragon tree.
# Medicinal aubergine (Solanum phoxocarpum). Commonly known as 'Osigawai' in the local Masai language, the plant was discovered during an expedition to Kenya's Aberdare mountainous cloud forests. It is used medicinally by local people, but Kew scientists say it may be poisonous.
# Wild Irises from the Andes.
Researchers found three new Bolivian iris species from the genus Mastigostyla. One of these (Mastigostyla chuquisacensis) is found in the sandy hollows between rocks on sandstone mountain ridges near Sucre. This species could become an ornamental garden plant.
More Reason for Christmas Kisses: New Mistletoe Found
Wynne Parry, LiveScience 20 Dec 10;
This Christmas, a new tropical cousin joins a traditional evergreen decoration. British researchers announced that they have identified a new species of mistletoe, a partially parasitic plant that grows on stunted trees in the coffee family near the summit of Mount Mabu in northern Mozambique.
"This is truly a completely new discovery," said Bill Baker, senior research botanist at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in the United Kingdom.
This tropical mistletoe, dubbed Helixanthera schizocalyx, is a relative of the European and North American varieties, sprigs of which are hung over doorways around Christmas with the expectation that couples passing beneath them will kiss, a tradition that may have pagan roots.
Tropical mistletoes, like this one, can have bright, tubular flowers that are often red, according to Baker. Five specimens of this species have been collected so far, however, flowers have not yet been observed to open in the field.
"Quite often the buds are slightly greenish, and then they color up when they are open. I suspect they will come out yellow," Baker said.
The berries have not yet been observed either, according to Baker.
Most mistletoe are partially parasitic plants, meaning that it in addition to sucking nutrients from a tree, mistletoe has green leaves that use photosynthesis to produce its own energy. Tropical mistletoes collaborate with birds and insects that pollinate them while feeding on the nectar of the flowers. This new species is believed to be pollinated by insects, and it was spotted by a butterfly specialist, Colin Congdon, according to Kew's species description.
And while the plant was collected during an expedition in 2008, it wasn't until this year that scientists identified and determined it to be vulnerable to extinction. This is common for newly discovered species, Baker said.
"They very often tend to have narrow ranges and are under threat and this is why whenever we talk about new species, we tend to talk about things disappearing before we have even named them and found out what their properties are," Baker told LiveScience.
Although it has only been identified on this particular mountain, the researchers speculate that it may also live on nearby mountains.
The new mistletoe topped the list of the year's top botanical discoveries at the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew. Other finds included a Vietnamese orchid with glossy, white-and-bright-orange flowers; four individuals of a new species of 135-foot (41-meter) tall canopy tree in Cameroon; 14 species of new Madagascar palms; and a wild, medicinal aubergine (also called an eggplant) in East Africa.
Shari Nijman Jakarta Globe 20 Dec 10;
As the United Nation’s International Year of Biodiversity draws to a close, Indonesia, home to some of the earth’s richest ecosystems, still struggles to protect some of its most vulnerable creatures.
Indonesia is considered a “megadiverse” country because of its wide variety of ecosystems.
It has the largest number of mammal species in the world and the third-largest number of reptiles.
“There is an amazing concentration of species in Indonesia,” said Endang Sukara, vice chairman of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI).
“In some places, we’ve found well over 200 different organisms wider or taller than 10 centimeters wide in an area of only 0.2 hectares.”
However, Endang warned that protecting our biological resources was not high on Indonesia’s list of priorities.
“Biodiversity is not on the national agenda right now, with such a fast developing economy,” he said.
Chris Shepherd, senior program officer at Traffic Southeast Asia, a wildlife trade monitoring network, said the list of animals in Indonesia “that are in big trouble” is becoming pretty long.
“Both of the rhino species in Indonesia will be gone soon, just like the tigers,” he said.
“And many species of snakes, turtles and birds are threatened with extinction in the near future.”
The illegal pet trade is the biggest enemy of many of Indonesia’s animals.
Unfortunately, Indonesian animals are often charming or interesting enough to be popular as pets both within the country and overseas.
“Indonesia is one of the last countries to still have open markets where illegal wildlife is traded,” Shepherd said.
The slow loris, a tiny, innocent-looking primate found in various regions across Indonesia and the rest of Asia, is extremely vulnerable to illegal pet traders because of its enchanting looks.
With its big curious eyes and soft fur, it seems like the perfect pet and is popular with families.
At the International Animal Rescue center in the forests of Ciapus, near Bogor, animal care specialists do their best to repopulate Javanese forests with the endangered primates.
Slow lorises that have been saved from a life in captivity are kept in the wildlife center while being prepared for release into the wild.
Not all of the lorises can be released, said Sharmini Paramasivam, veterinarian at the IAR.
“When lorises are caught, their teeth are usually clipped. This leads to terrible injuries in their mouth and some of the lorises can’t eat their natural food.”
She said that, depending on the state of their teeth, some of them will never be able to return to the wild.
For the slow lorises that do make it back into the Javanese wilderness, their chances of survival are slim.
“We released 11 lorises last year, and only two are still alive,” Paramasivam said.
“We hope to learn from those who didn’t make it, so we have more success in the future.”
Paramasivam said that, despite the high fatality rate, it is still worth trying to get the primates back into the wild.
“Slow lorises are a seriously endangered species and fewer are found in the wild each year. If we don’t put them back, the only remaining lorises will all be living in captivity in a few years.”
Illegally captured animals are traded across Indonesia’s border in large quantities.
One way to get the animals exported is to label wild species as captive-bred and apply for a license to trade them.
According to Shepherd, “This makes it the Indonesian government’s responsibility to look into the licensed traders and see if they’re exporting what they say they are. If someone has one registered turtle and manages to export 400 offspring, you know there is a problem,” he said.
Earlier this month, a man was caught in Abu Dhabi, en route from Jakarta, with two snakes, two parrots and a squirrel in his hand luggage.
The man continued his journey, while the animals were confiscated.
Shepherd explained how the man was able to get through security and board his flight in Indonesia with five live animals in his suitcase.
“Security at airports is simply not set up for wildlife, it isn’t a priority. They are set up to detect metal, explosives and drugs, but not wild animals,” he said.
Animal traffickers and traders often get away with a warning or a “slap on the wrist,” Shepherd said.
At best, the animals are confiscated and the traffickers lose their merchandise.
“It’s not really a loss to them,” Shepherd said. “It wasn’t their animal in the first place.”
The problem is “good laws, bad enforcement,” said Paramasivam, adding that animal traffickers in Indonesia often face no consequences for their actions.
“It’s illegal to catch and sell slow lorises in Indonesia, but if you go to a pet market, you’ll find them any day of the week.”
Shepherd also thinks that Indonesia has good laws, at least on paper.
But the enforcement of those laws is an issue of political will.
“We have never met a dealer who didn’t know that the animals he was trading were illegal,” he said.
“The key is improved and increased enforcement and prosecution levels. Serious jail time, not a slap on the wrist or a warning every time.”
Just last week, researchers at the IAR discovered 18 slow lorises held captive at the Jatinegara bird and pet market in Jakarta, according to Paramasivam.
Shepherd said this was not an exceptional case. “There have been countless reports about illegal animals being held at these markets. I’m completely at a loss why they don’t just shut them down.”
Endang said Indonesia should not only try to protect its natural biodiversity, but “link it to the prosperity and livelihood of the people.”
He said that Indonesia’s biodiversity can teach people a lot about sustainable development.
“What an orangutan eats, we can often eat as well, or use for medication or as a source of carbohydrates. Their eating habits are a valuable source of information.”
Endang believes that, with increased research, over 40 percent of plants found in Indonesia could be used as food sources.
“But don’t ever convert a forest into something like a monoculture. When forests are lost, they are lost forever. There isn’t a technology in the world that can replace the biodiversity of a forest.”
The same could perhaps be said of all of our nation’s fragile biodiversity.
It’s irreplaceable.
Yahoo News 21 Dec 10;
WASHINGTON (AFP) – The US Senate on Monday toughened laws against shark finning, hoping to save the ancient fish which experts fear is on the brink of extinction due to growing demand in Chinese restaurants.
The removal of sharks' fins -- a delicacy in Chinese cuisine -- was already illegal in the United States. The new rules close a key loophole that permitted trade in the Pacific so long as sharks were not finned onboard the vessel.
The legislation cruised through the House of Representatives in early 2009 but had languished in the Senate, which approved the measure without objection on one of the last days of its session.
"Shark finning has fueled massive population declines and irreversible disruption of our oceans," said Senator John Kerry, who championed the bill.
"Finally we've come through with a tough approach to tackle this serious threat to our marine life," the Democrat from Massachusetts said.
The bill does not ban imported shark fin, which is readily available in many upscale Chinese restaurants in the United States.
But conservationists welcomed the bill, saying it would curb a burgeoning but largely undocumented US trade in shark fins.
"This legislation will help address not only an unspeakably cruel practice of removing fins from live animals and then releasing them to suffer a slow death," said Nancy Perry, vice president for government affairs at The Humane Society of the United States.
"It will also help address on the macro level the rapid decline of shark populations," she said.
Environmental groups estimate that up to 73 million sharks are killed each year around the world for fins, leading to declines of up to 90 percent of some species of sharks -- which have swum the oceans since the age of the dinosaurs.
Despite campaigns from activists, demand for shark fins is seen as growing as China becomes increasingly prosperous.
Matt Rand, director of the shark conservation campaign at the Pew Environmental Group, said he recently heard of shark fins selling in California for an unprecedented 800 dollars a pound, or about 360 dollars a kilogram.
"The United States is a major shark exporter," Rand said. "I think this legislation sends a big signal that the United States is concerned about the decline of shark populations, not just in its own waters but in international waters as well."
Sharks are caught almost exclusively for fins, with little meat in the rest of the fish. While the law does not ban trade in fins, all shark fins entering the United States must have an accompanying carcass.
University of Washington EurekAlert 20 Dec 10;
Researchers from the University of Washington say the Mariana crow, a forest crow living on Rota Island in the western Pacific Ocean, will go extinct in 75 years. The extinction could happen almost twice as soon as previously believed.
The crow's extinction can be prevented with a bird management program that focuses on helping fledgling birds reach their first birthday, said James Ha, UW research associate professor in psychology.
Ha examined survival rates in 97 Mariana crows – Corvus kubaryi – that had been tracked between 1990 and 2010 by researchers. He found that 40 percent of fledgling crows made it to their first birthday.
The rapid decline of young birds is twice what researchers previously estimated.
"It's the first year of survival that's the most crucial," said Ha, lead author of a report on the research. "If only 40 percent of fledglings survive their first year, then we predict the species will go extinct in 75 years."
Ha and his co-authors published the report in the current issue of Bird Conservation International.
The 75-year extinction estimate is according to a population model that factors in the estimated number of existing Mariana crows – 330 – with the 40 percent first-year survival rate, average number of fledglings per nest and fertility of female birds. Using this model, Ha found that 91 birds would exist in 20 years and that in 75 years the species would be extinct.
Previously, biologists believed that the first-year survival rate of Mariana crows was higher, around 60 to 80 percent.
When Ha used those estimates in his population model, the outlook was not as grim for the birds. At 60 percent first-year survival rate, Mariana crows would dwindle to 218 birds in 20 years and become extinct in 133 years. And an 80 percent first-year survival rate projects that in 20 years there would be 453 birds, a growing population that would avoid extinction.
"According to the population model, if we can boost fledgling survival from 40 percent to 70 percent, the Mariana crows will be fine," Ha said.
Of the about 35 crow species, Mariana crows are considered rare and classified as critically endangered. Weighing about a half of a pound, Mariana crows are 40 percent smaller than other crows, such as the Northwest crow.
Monogamously-mating, Mariana crows live exclusively on Rota Island, populated by about 1,200 people and located 56 miles northeast of Guam. Rota is a U.S. territory and is up for consideration as a U.S. national park.
Ha and Renee Ha, co-author of the report and UW research scientist in psychology, fear that Rota faces the same avian demise as Guam, which has no forest birds.
Brown tree snakes introduced to the island after World War II wiped out native birds, such as the Guam flycatcher and the Rufous fantail.
The Has suspect that the uncontrolled increase of feral cats on Rota is leading to the decrease of Mariana crows, much like brown tree snakes led to the disappearance of forest birds on Guam.
The researchers say that a captive rearing program could save the Mariana crows. They hope to set up a rearing facility where they could incubate eggs from the wild, raise the fledglings until their first birthday and then release the grown birds into nesting sites on the island.
###
The study was funded by the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Co-author Alyssa Butler graduated from UW with a bachelor's degree in biology and is now a staff member at the Pali Institute, a science education camp in California.
Learn more about UW's Rota Avian Behavioral Ecology Program: http://depts.washington.edu/rabep/index.html
Alister Doyle PlanetArk 21 Dec 10;
Animals and plants introduced from foreign habitats may not reveal themselves to be harmful 'invasive' species for decades, according to a European study published on Monday.
Species that are moved away from their natural predators back home can displace native species in their new habitats, and scientists say the problem already costs Europe 12 billion euros ($16 billion) a year.
The study, which is likely to hold true for other continents too, means that the seeds of future, perhaps bigger, problems have literally already been sown.
The study compared the effects of "alien species" such as American ragweed, Canada geese or Japanese deer in 28 European countries.
The study's findings indicated that it can take decades to figure out which alien species will be disruptive, and looking at those that arrived in 1900 was a better indicator of current problems than looking at those from 2000.
"This lag in the cause-and-effect relationship would mean that ... the seeds of future invasion problems have already been sown," said the study, published in the U.S. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Birds and insects were quickest to get established in new habitats, helped by their mobility. Others took far longer to reach the critical numbers to become invasive.
Introductions to Europe from the 19th century included ragweed, whose pollen is blamed for some hay fever, and the black locust tree, also from North America, which can damage European grassland with its ability to store nitrogen.
Increasing trade and travel during the 20th and 21st centuries means that the problems are likely to worsen unless checks on everything from the ballast tanks of ships to coffee or grain imports are tightened.
"We should do more about this problem now," said Stefan Dullinger, of the University of Vienna, Austria, who was among authors of the study from institutes in New Zealand, the Czech Republic, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Italy and France.
"Otherwise, things can become even much worse than they are in a few decades," he said. The findings for Europe were likely to be mirrored elsewhere in the world.
The study also recommended that Europe should target controls at animal and plant species that were so far causing no damage but were known to be invasive in other habitats.
Climate change could also add to the spread. "Warmer temperatures could trigger the spread of invasive species that are limited by climate now," Dullinger said.
(Editing by Kevin Liffey)
Yahoo News 20 Dec 10;
HANOI (AFP) – Southeast Asia's largest hydroelectric power station has begun operating to help ease an electricity shortage in fast-growing Vietnam, an official said Monday.
The first of six turbines at the Son La station was connected to the national power grid on Friday, said Hoang Trong Nam, director of the plant's management board.
He said the two-billion-dollar plant with a capacity of 2,400 megawatts is expected to be fully operational in 2012, three years ahead of a target set by the National Assembly.
Nam said about 100,000 people -- mostly from ethnic minority groups -- were relocated to make way for the reservoir, which stretches across the three provinces of Son La, Lai Chau and Dien Bien in northwestern Vietnam.
Initial plans called for an even larger dam but it was scaled down after deputies in the National Assembly raised concerns about the human and environmental costs of the project, including its safety in an earthquake-prone mountainous region.
Construction finally began in December 2005.
"It's a strategic project for Vietnam's energy security in the years to come," Nam said.
The European Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam (Eurocham) has cited estimates that the fast-growing country needs infrastructure investment of 120 billion dollars over the next five to 10 years, much of it in the energy sector.
Vietnam draws more than one-third of its electricity from hydropower but suffers periodic blackouts and is trying to diversify its power sources.
Electricity demand is growing by 14 percent annually, the state Vietnam News Agency said.
In October the country signed a deal worth an estimated 5.6 billion dollars with Russia for Vietnam's first nuclear power facility.
Some power is purchased from neighbouring China.
Fidelis E. Satriastanti The Jakarta Globe 20 Dec 10;
The Indonesian government and the company responsible for last year’s oil spill in the Timor Sea have agreed to carry out a joint survey to assess the impact of the disaster on Indonesian fisheries, a company official said on Monday.
The spill was the result of a blowout at the Montara platform off the northwest coast of Australia on Aug. 21, 2009. The well was operated by PTTEP Australasia, a subsidiary of Thailand’s PTT Exploration and Production.
Luechai Wongsirasawad, a spokesman for PTTEP in Bangkok, said the agreement had been reached at a meeting in Singapore last Friday.
“It was agreed by the parties that we will now give urgent priority to resolving the economic and social impacts of the incident regarding the fisheries sector,” he said.
“This will also include a joint survey between the Indonesian government and the company to verify the data, to visit fishing locations which have been identified by the Indonesian government as having been impacted by the oil,” he said.
Luechai added the company had requested to conduct its own survey in Indonesian waters and compare it with the findings made by the government earlier this year.
“We requested to send a team by ourselves, but they said why not go together,” Luechai said.
“My guess is that the government might not do it [run an assessment] again, but just accompany the team,” Luechai said.
He explained that the assessment would take place in the East Nusa Tenggara areas of West Timor, Rote Island and Savu Island, which the government has highlighted as the areas worst affected by the spill.
Despite the decision to carry out the joint exercise, Luechai said both sides were still not seeing eye to eye on the key issue of how much of the slick actually entered Indonesian waters.
“We’ve acknowledged that it entered Indonesian waters, but there are differences on how far it entered or whether it even reached Indonesian shores,” he said.
A recent study conducted by the Australian government and funded by the company said the slick had not reached Australian or Indonesian shorelines.
“Three studies have been published and they are very comprehensive studies, that’s why we are confident about the findings,” Luechai said.
“Secondly, 98 percent of the oil spilled into Australian waters, so only a couple of percent entered Indonesian waters,” Luechai added.
He stressed the company would not discuss any compensation figure until the joint assessment was complete.
Indonesia claims the slick covered 78,000 square kilometers of its waters, and is seeking up to Rp 23 trillion ($2.5 billion) in damages.
European Commission Joint Research Centre EurekAlert 20 Dec 10;
Maritime transport causes about 4% of global man-made CO2 emissions which makes its carbon footprint approximately as high as Germany's. There is no regulation of international maritime transport emissions yet, but this is currently under discussion in the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
In respect of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, shipping is the most environmentally-friendly mode of transport. However, if no action is taken, it is estimated that emissions from ships will increase by 150-200% by 2050. At present, around 50,000 merchant ships transport 90% of global goods and make maritime transport indispensable for the world economy.
A report published today by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC), provides the first comprehensive overview of methodologies for estimating air emissions from shipping, describes technological solutions and analyses policy options for reducing carbon emissions and air pollution in this sector.
Research, Innovation and Science Commissioner Máire-Geoghegan-Quinn said: "This JRC report underlines why pollution from shipping, like that from many other sources, needs to be reduced both to help tackle climate change and to prevent severe damage to human health. It also discusses options for how a combination of technological innovation and market-based policies could deliver the reductions needed. This study is also a perfect example of how the scientific work done by the Commission's Joint Research Centre can help drive political progress towards the EU's Innovation Union and Europe 2020 goals."
Although maritime transport has the lowest ratio of CO2 emissions per ton-kilometre transported compared to other modes of transport, its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are expected to increase from the current level of around 1 giga-tonne per year, by an estimated 150-200% over the next four decades.
Moreover, the shipping sector is a source of air pollution. Unless measures are taken, air pollution over the main shipping routes will increase due to an estimated 10-20% rise in sulphur dioxide emissions in the next two years. Marine fuel oil has a very high sulphur content which ranges from a global average of 27,000 ppm (parts per million) to 10,000 ppm in Sulphur Emission Control Areas (SECAs). However, with the new agreement in IMO ships in the Baltic and North Sea SECAS will have to use fuel with only 0.1% of Sulphur content by 2015, as is already the case in the EU ports due to EU legislation.
There is significant potential for abating emissions from the shipping sector. Technical solutions to reduce fuel consumption, air pollutants and greenhouse gases are readily available and range from better ship design, propulsion and machinery to optimised operation.
This new JRC Reference Report contributes to raising awareness of the environmental impacts, including on health, of world-wide shipping. It analyses the methodological issues raised within the scientific community about assessing the impacts of the maritime sector on the environment, and identifies shortcomings in reliable and comprehensive sources of information. A detailed assessment of the cost efficiency and abatement potential of each technological option described in the report is also provided.
However, to achieve significant improvements in the reduction of carbon emissions and air pollution, technological (fuel- and engine-related) solutions should be supplemented with other measures. Market-based options addressing both regional and global measures must also be investigated. The report analyses how the introduction of market-based policies, such as a GHG Emission Trading Scheme (ETS) for the shipping sector at international level, could be used.
In summary, this JRC Reference Report provides the first comprehensive framework in which to define a strategy to abate air emissions from ships, and provides the analytical tools to assist in paving the way towards effective policies.
JRC Reference Reports
JRC Reference Reports represent a JRC view on a subject for which the JRC has recognised expertise. They provide a reference for political decision-makers, the research community, stakeholders and an informed but non-specialist audience. JRC Reference Reports aim to establish the current state of knowledge in specific areas of scientific investigations or in policy assessments.
The legal position on shipping emissions
The Europe 2020 Strategy includes, as a headline target for 2020, the commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 20% compared to 1990 levels or by 30%, if the conditions are right. The scope of this commitment is set out in the EU's climate and energy legislation. According to this legislation, all sectors of the economy should contribute to achieving these emission reductions, including international maritime shipping and aviation. In the event that no international agreement which includes international maritime emissions in its reduction targets has been approved by the Community by 2011, the Commission should include international maritime emissions in the Community reduction commitment, with the aim of the proposed act entering into force by 2013.
###
http://ec.europa.eu/governance/impact/planned_ia/docs/2012_clima_001_greenhouse_maritime_transport_en.pdf
http://ec.europa.eu/governance/impact/planned_ia/roadmaps_2011_en.htm#clim_act
For further information: To download the JRC Reference Report "Regulating air emissions from ships: the state of the art on methodologies, technologies and policy options", please go to: http://www.jrc.ec.europa.eu/rr
For more information on JRC activities related to air quality and climate change, please visit: http://ies.jrc.ec.europa.eu/
For more information on the EU policy on ship emissions, please visit: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/air/transport/ships_directive.htm
For more information on the EU maritime transport policy please visit: http://ec.europa.eu/transport/maritime/index_en.htm
PlanetArk 21 Dec 10;
The United Nations urged governments on Monday to make deeper cuts in greenhouse gas emissions quickly, saying the world will otherwise overshoot a ceiling for global warming agreed this month in Mexico.
The U.N. Climate Change Secretariat also called on countries to work out the details of new institutions, such as a "Green Climate Fund" to help poor nations, agreed on December 11 at the 190-nation talks.
"All countries, but particularly industrialized nations, need to deepen their emission reduction efforts and to do so quickly," Christiana Figueres, head of the Secretariat, said in a statement.
She said existing pledges for curbs on greenhouse gas emissions were only 60 percent of those needed to limit a rise in temperatures to below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit), the level agreed in Mexico to avert dangerous change.
The Mexico talks asked nations formally to list their emissions curbs, many of them already made under a non-binding accord in 2009 at a summit in Copenhagen.
It asked for ideas about how listings could be done by March 28, 2011, but set no firm deadline for completion. A problem is that many countries have unclear strings attached to their national pledges for fighting global warming.
Japan is offering a 25 percent reduction in emissions from 1990 levels by 2020, for instance, as part of a future deal involving what it says must be "ambitious" targets by all major economies such as China or India.
And Washington has promised cuts in U.S. emissions of 3-4 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, in line with anticipated U.S. legislation. That is not possible after gains by Republicans, who are skeptical of tougher action, in mid-term elections.
The talks in Cancun helped put U.N. negotiations back on track after Copenhagen fell short of agreeing a new U.N. treaty meant to avert more floods, droughts, heatwaves, mudslides or rising ocean levels.
Figueres praised the deal in Cancun but said it "needs to be implemented as fast as possible, and it needs to be accompanied by credible accountability systems that will help in measuring real progress."
In Cancun, governments agreed measures such as a new fund to help oversee $100 billion in annual aid to developing nations from 2020, a new mechanism to slow deforestation and ways to help poor countries adapt to the impacts of climate change.
The agreement widens many of the elements of a non-binding Copenhagen Accord among 140 nations in 2009 into a broader-based U.N. deal. Bolivia was alone in bitterly criticizing the Cancun agreements, saying they were inadequate to slow climate change.
Posts
visitors since Nov 07