Best of our wild blogs: 28 Jan 11

Green Drinking in January
from spotlight's on nature

Mystery row of 'drums' off Pasir Ris
from wild shores of singapore

Year of the Rarebit
from The annotated budak

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Farming for young blood

Esther Ng Today Online 28 Jan 11;

SINGAPORE - They have big dreams for Singapore's agriculture and have even unveiled a 10-year plan to increase land productivity, food security and promote tourism in the north-western part of Singapore. However, all their efforts could come to naught if the 28 farmers from the Kranji Countryside Association (KCA) cannot draw young people to the farming industry. After all, farming is hard work.

"You have to get up early in the morning and work doesn't stop - even in a storm - especially in the case of fish farming," said Metropolitan Fishery Group chief executive Malcolm Ong, 48.

Young Singaporeans who become farmers do so because they want to continue their family business and have a "passion" for farming but their numbers are low. The industry has also "never tried attracting young people", Mr Ong pointed out.

This is set to change with more educational tours to farms in the offing and "farm executives" will be hired to share the workload of conducting tours. "We have to show young Singaporeans that farming can be fun," said second-generation farmer Kenny Ong, 36, from GardenAsia.

The Singapore Environment Council's executive director, Mr Howard Shaw, also noted that the young generation have "become rather detached from nature and where we grow our food". He said: "We have to find a connection back to our roots."

Ground-Up Initiative, a non-profit organisation, is doing exactly that. Every weekend, it organises farming activities on its premises in Yishun. Its founder, Mr Tay Lai Hock, told MediaCorp he has had no problems attracting young people to participate in GUI's activities because they make its programmes fun.

However, it will be some time before young Singaporeans consider farming a "noble profession", partly because of the low pay. It would help if the Government gave it a push as it did with the cleaning industry, said Mr Tay. Still, he said: "We've got to make people understand why farming is important."

Indeed, Ms Alicious Goh, 21, who is studying banking and finance at SIM University, did an internship at GardenAsia doing events management. She told MediaCorp that, had it not been for the internship, working on a farm would not have crossed her mind.

With tours to her frog farm, JFF, increasing, "frogologist" Chelsea Wan, 27, told MediaCorp that she is looking to hire one full-time employee. But her efforts have been hampered by a lack of public transport to the area.

While there is a bus service - SMRT Service 925 - the farthest it plies from the Woodlands Interchange is Kranji Reservoir Park B, after which it heads towards Sungei Kadut and the Choa Chu Kang Interchange. There are no public buses plying along Neo Tiew Road and other roads leading to the farms. The KCA plans to work with the authorities to improve public transport to the area.

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Not sure about recycling? Look to bins for info

NUS group will help put up details on recyclables to reduce contamination
Grace Chua Straits Times 28 Jan 11;

A PLASTIC drink bottle, a styrofoam food carton and an old pair of shoes: One of these is recyclable, another is reusable, while one does not fall into either category. Which is which?

Most people cannot tell the difference - and a student group from the National University of Singapore (NUS) would like to help.

Students Against Violation of the Earth (Save) are putting detailed illustrations and information on some recycling bins in Yew Tee, with the help of the NUS Office of Environmental Sustainability and two residents' committees (RC) from the Choa Chu Kang neighbourhood.

NUS sustainability executive Marcus Tay, 29, explained that even though posters, leaflets and the Internet do inform people which materials can be recycled, such information is not available when most-needed - when people are about to tip bags full of recyclables into bins.

Up to a fifth of all the waste collected from recycling bins does not belong there, the National Environment Agency has said in previous reports.

The students plan to put recycling information on the bins, and eventually provide waste bins next to recycling bins, so people can throw away non-recyclable items such as styrofoam food boxes.

That is because some people just need to get rid of the trash in their hand - whether it can be recycled or not - Mr Tay said. If there is no waste bin in sight, they will pop it into the nearest recycling bin.

NUS will be putting the information on bins in Yew Tee Zone 8 - around Choa Chu Kang Streets 53 and 54 - but not on those in Zone 4, at Choa Chu Kang Street 51, to compare the two zones to measure effectiveness.

In both zones, the students are weighing recycling bins and checking how contaminated the contents are. They are also conducting door-to-door surveys of some of the zones' 2,800 households, to find out their attitudes towards recycling.

By April, they will find out how successful the scheme has been.

A similar project at NUS from October 2008 to March 2009 succeeded in cutting recycling-bin contamination almost completely.

At the project's launch last weekend, Yew Tee Zone 8 RC chairman Eric Lim said: 'I don't think people understand what recycling is, so I hope this exercise is successful.'

Several letters to The Straits Times Forum page this month reflected a need for more guidance.

'It is not surprising that the rubbish chute is seen as the answer to getting rid of unwanted items,' wrote reader Roy Koo, who added that many Singaporeans do want to recycle but, lacking enough information, opt to throw things away instead.

By the way, the plastic drink bottle can be recycled into new plastic items after it is cleaned, the styrofoam carton cannot be recycled, and the shoes can be donated to charity and reused if they are in good condition.

Can these items be recycled?
A guide to some of the items that can and cannot be put into your neighbourhood recycling bin
Straits Times 28 Jan 11;

YES

# Paper: Cardboard tubes for paper towels, cleaned and flattened cereal and drink boxes, envelopes, red packets, brochures, books, magazines, newspapers, telephone books
# Plastic: Rinsed plastic cups and bottles, clean bread wrappers and bread packet tags, clean plastic bags, plastic packaging from magazines, video and audio cassettes with the tape ribbon removed
# Metal: Clean metal food tins, beverage powder tins, biscuit tins, empty drink cans, clean aluminium foil and trays
# Glass: Empty, rinsed drink bottles (like wine or beer bottles), jam jars, food containers and glass cups

NO

# Paper: Used tissue paper
# Plastic: Styrofoam cups and packaging
# Metal: dirty metal tins, cans and trays
# Glass: Window glass, fluorescent light bulbs, mirrors
# Others: Batteries

Electronics can be recycled through manufacturers' schemes, or those that still work can be donated to charities. Stuffed toys, shoes and eyeglasses can also be donated.

SOURCE: www.zerowastesg.com/our-initiatives/can-recycle/ and the National Environment Agency

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Pushing hard for Singapore eateries to think green

Cert scheme boosts eco-friendly approach but getting tenants to adopt measures still a struggle
Grace Chua & Goh Kai Shi Straits Times 28 Jan 11;

SINGAPORE'S foodcourts, hawker centres and coffee shops are being offered the chance to get themselves certified eco-friendly - but will they bite?

Last week, the Singapore Environment Council launched a certification scheme for communal-dining establishments that manage waste and energy well.

To get the certificate, they must have eco-friendly measures in place - including water-saving devices on taps, recycling bins in staff areas, and sustainable takeaway boxes.

Council executive director Howard Shaw wants a hundred outlets certified by the end of this year. Right now, two are: Kopitiam foodcourt at City Square Mall in Little India, and The Deck foodcourt at the National University of Singapore.

But beyond saving the earth, it may not be clear what incentive there is for communal-dining establishments to get the stamp of environmental approval.

Even if they adopt measures like food-waste recycling and use biodegradable takeaway boxes, getting tenants to put them into practice may be an uphill task.

And although hawker centres are eligible for the scheme, the National Environment Agency (NEA) - which runs most of them - has not yet signed up. The agency did not say whether it would start using the scheme at its 106 hawker centres in future. It said it works with various organisations and businesses to help minimise waste, save energy and recycle.

The Kopitiam foodcourt chain has yet to commit to certifying more outlets, said spokesman Goh Wee Ling. She said it is easier to implement measures right from the start at new outlets than ask tenants at existing ones to start doing it.

The push for greater sustainability comes from Kopitiam rather than from customers or tenants, Mrs Goh added. However, being more sustainable can allow tenants to cut operating costs by 15 per cent to 20 per cent - by using less energy and water.

Kopitiam customers The Straits Times spoke to felt the green scheme was a good thing, but said it would not affect their decision to eat there. Administrative executive Shannon Tan, 29, said the quality of the food was more important.

Koufu spokesman Lena Ong said only its Marina Bay Sands foodcourt, Rasapura Masters, uses energy-saving measures and eco-friendly packaging. It plans to introduce similar measures in new outlets opening later in the year.

But even if foodcourts and hawker centres bring in ways to recycle food and other waste, it can be hard to get tenants to actually use them. Biogas firm IUT Global, which turns organic waste into gas burned for energy, conducted an ill-fated food-waste recycling experiment with five hawker centres. It could barely get busy hawkers and cleaners to sort food waste properly, particularly at peak periods.

'At the end of 10 months, we just gave up,' said IUT Global CEO Edwin Khew.

Hawkers are often held back from recycling by practical concerns such as space. Casting a glance at her cramped sugarcane-juice stall, Bukit Timah Food Centre stall helper Jasmine Chua, 48, said: 'If they ask us to separate our food waste, where are we to put it?'

At Yuhua Village Market and Food Centre, a pneumatic food-waste collection system goes unused because stallholders worry it could slow down service and increase the cost of maintenance and electricity, Lianhe Zaobao reported earlier this month.

The NEA, which piloted the system with Jurong Town Council, said the council had briefed stallholders on its use and advantages on Monday.

About the scheme
Straits Times 28 Jan 11;

WHO IS ELIGIBLE?

Any food and drinks establishment that features multiple vendors and a common area for self-service dining.

WHAT DO THEY NEED TO HAVE?

# An environmental management system.
# Water-saving devices at water points.
# Recycling bins with waste segregation.
# Sustainable takeaway containers only.
# Re-usable crockery, cutlery and cups.
# Green Label-marked cleaning products.
# Energy audit, natural light and ventilation, energy-efficient appliances.
# At least a stall offering vegetarian food.
# Environmental messages in foodcourt.

HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?
$2,000 for first certification (including audit fee), valid for one year. Subsequent renewals are $1,000 a year.

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Malaysia: Conduct EIA study before starting any development project

The Star 28 Jan 11;

THE increasing number of wildlife killed on our roads is an issue that Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM) is finding difficult to ignore.

The most recent tragic case was the death of a female jumbo killed by a cement tanker while crossing the road from a jungle along the East-West Highway.

It is about time the Malaysian Highway Authority and the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry take a real hard look at the situation where endangered wildlife, amphibians and reptiles have become victims of motorised vehicles.

Urban areas across the country are also similarly afflicted, with thousands of domestic animals killed.

In wildlife areas, road construction fragments habitat, disrupts migration corridors and exposes sensitive species to a deadly array of hazards. Higher vehicle speeds, heavier traffic, and wider roads definitely make crossings more treacherous.

More often than not, road kills peak where wildlife corridors such as riparian zones or strips of forest intersect with roads. Not only animals but humans are injured in the collisions as well.

Wildlife that are injured and orphaned often suffer long, painful deaths.

For rare or isolated populations, vehicle collisions can cause death not just at the individual level but also for the entire species. Road kills can be considered a major threat to wildlife.

Despite the length of time animals have shared environments with humans, they are still baffled by the noise, lights and motion of vehicles. Animals must cross roads to gather food, find mates or return home from their forays.

Sometimes animals are also attracted to the warm surface of the roads.

Highway planners, land managers, biologists and engineers are oblivious to all these as they continue to lay asphalt corridors across forested habitats, cutting across animal migrating paths.

Placing animal crossing signages along roadways may not work as few people pay attention to such signs. While crossing structures are slowly being incorporated into road plans, yet virtually nothing is known on the true effectiveness between overpasses and underpasses.

Wildlife crossing structures come in many sizes and shapes and their features will ultimately depend on the needs of the myriad of species that inhabit the area of consideration.

Nothing will completely eradicate animal deaths, but the authorities can construct better and safer roads for everyone.

We need to make people aware that roadkill is a serious problem, and driver education courses should encourage drivers to watch for animals in or near roads.

In any road development project that is likely to have an impact on native fauna, an Environmental Impact Assessment study must be carried out and advice sought from the wildlife authorities.

Involving the news media through radio and television announcements and billboards will do well to alert drivers.

With dwindling and damaged habitat, animals are losing ground in humanity’s broader war against wildlife. Even if we do nothing, the rate of roadkill will decline – from lack of wildlife, not from lack of cars or roads.

S.M. MOHD IDRIS,
President,
Sahabat Alam Malaysia.

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Asean meet to discuss sharing of nuclear energy

Senior energy officials will attend inaugural meeting in S'pore next month
Ronnie Lim Business Times 28 Jan 11;

AN inaugural meeting on Asean nuclear energy cooperation in Singapore next month could see the region potentially moving towards some sharing of nuclear power in the longer term.

An energy player here, for instance, had earlier suggested that cooperation could take the form of Singapore building a nuclear plant with its neighbours.

But it is still early days, as the coming Feb 18 meeting of the Asean Nuclear Energy Cooperation Sub Sector Network is its first since the body was endorsed by the Asean Energy Ministers meeting in Vietnam last July. The meeting involves the grouping's senior energy officials at this stage.

Currently, the region already has an Asean emergency petroleum sharing scheme for crude oil and products in times of both shortages and surplus, and has activated this once. And it is also working towards building an integrated Asean power grid as well as a trans-Asean gas pipeline.

The coming meeting on nuclear energy cooperation, hosted by Singapore's Energy Market Authority, is timely given the spate of announcements in the last two months by regional countries to build such plants.

Asean had also earlier set up a nuclear energy safety sub-sector network to study safety issues.

Last November, Vietnam signed a US$5.6 billion deal with Russia to build the country's first nuclear power plant, expected to be operational around 2020.

Indonesia also disclosed plans to build two nuclear plants on Pulau Bangka, a large island to the south-east of Batam.

Just last month, Malaysia also said that it wanted to build two nuclear plants that will generate 1,000 megawatts each, with the first ready for operation in 2021.

Meanwhile, Singapore has started studying the feasibility of having a nuclear power plant, although Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has stressed that safety was a major concern because of the Republic's high urban density. He also said that it would be a long time before any decision is made on nuclear energy here.

Edwin Khew, chairman of the Sustainable Energy Association of Singapore, suggested that a nuclear reactor - which would be clean and efficient, and have a low carbon footprint - could perhaps be built on a Tekong-size island accessible to Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia.

'If you look at the fact that they're talking about an Asean (power) grid, this will be a perfect project to put on a common island.'

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Death Of Yellowstone Bison Sparks Conservation Debate

Laura Zuckerman PlanetArk 27 Jan 11;

Less than a week after 25 wild buffalo from the nation's last purebred herd were permitted to roam into Montana, officials have shot and killed one bison and were debating the fate of 14 others.

Government wildlife managers on January 19 drove a trial band of buffalo, or bison, from Yellowstone National Park into nearby Gallatin National Forest in Montana to use winter grazing grounds for the first time in more than a century.

The plan represented a hard-won agreement among federal and state governments, ranchers and conservation groups over an animal that symbolizes the American West.

Until now, any of the 3,900 buffalo escaping the deep snows of Yellowstone to forage in Montana's lowlands were chased back into the park, quarantined or killed to stop them from infecting cattle with brucellosis, a disease that causes cows to abort.

The 25 buffalo pushed by officials on horseback and on all-terrain vehicles onto forest lands in Montana were meant to stay until spring, when biologists hoped they would migrate back to the park.

But officials say 15 of the brucellosis-free band repeatedly crossed to private ground on the east side of the Yellowstone River, where they are not tolerated.

Seven government wranglers spent most of Sunday and Monday trying to drive a bison cow back to public lands before Montana Department of Livestock agents decided to shoot and kill the animal for acting aggressive.

"They couldn't get her turned around so they had to lethally remove her," said agency spokesman Steve Merritt.

Pat Flowers, regional supervisor for the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks, said shooting the bison was a last resort.

'LIKE LITTLE KIDS'

"The good news is that 10 of the bison have found habitat on the forest," he said.

Officials on Tuesday were still searching for a buffalo yearling that wandered off earlier this week and weighing options for the remaining 13 bison that will not stay put.

Hunting of buffalo west of the Mississippi river cut their numbers from tens of millions to the fewer than 50 in the early 20th century. That small band took refuge in Yellowstone, which stretches across parts of Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.

Millions of visitors flock to the park every year to view wildlife such as bison, which have a high rate of exposure to brucellosis. About half the Yellowstone herd has been exposed to the bacteria and an estimated 25 percent infected.

Those rates alarm Montana's billion-dollar cattle industry, with producers fearing disease-bearing bison will jeopardize the state's brucellosis-free status. That U.S. Department of Agriculture designation means Montana livestock can be shipped across state lines without testing and maintain market value.

Ken McDonald, Montana's chief of wildlife, said it is possible managers will change out the uncooperative bison with others quarantined on the edge of the park.

"They're like little kids, they do just the opposite of what you tell them," he said. "A bison has a mind of its own at times."

The outcome of this year's experiment will shape the plan over the next several years to establish a 100-strong herd permitted to migrate annually between from Yellowstone.

Some conservationists argue that wild buffalo should never have been captured, tested and collared for the experiment in the first place. And they say wildlife experts should have known bison would roam.

"They thought the buffalo would stay in this little magic area designated for them and buffalo don't tend to do that," said Dan Brister, head of Buffalo Field Campaign.

More than 3,500 Yellowstone bison have been killed by the government or by public hunting since 2000.

(Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Greg McCune)

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Bulgaria sets first annual bear hunting quota

Yahoo News 27 Jan 11;

SOFIA (AFP) – Bulgaria's environment ministry set an annual brown bear hunting quota for the first time on Thursday, following a decades-long ban on killing the protected animals.

The ministry said in a statement it would allow the hunting of 17 animals this year, with dispensations distributed among seven bear-populated regions.

The quota was determined based on three recent tallies of the bear population, which found that some 540 to 560 bears roam Bulgaria's mountains.

Seven of the dispensations were granted to the Smolyan region, in the southern Rhodope mountains, where a brown bear killed a villager in July 2010, the first such accident in decades.

The killing and a number of attacks on flocks and beehives in the region sparked angry cries for a cull and eventually prompted parliament in end-2010 to open between three and eight percent of the bear population for hunting.

Environmentalists immediately slammed the changes as catering to the interests of hunting lobbies, under the guise of attempting to curb poaching.

"We had to obey the law," ministry expert Ruslan Serbezov told AFP, noting however that the government had set the quota at the lowest three-percent end of the scale, while Bulgaria's bear habitats were by no means overpopulated.

Bears are a protected species in Bulgaria and their killing was strictly banned for more than 20 years, except in cases of accidents and with special permits distributed on a case-by-case basis.

The move comes as the European Commission launched legal action against Sweden on Thursday for allowing hunters to shoot 20 wolves this year even though the species is threatened with extinction.

The European Union's executive arm raised concerns about Sweden's wolf policy, including the licensed hunting of a protected species and the "arbitrary ceiling" of 210 wolves that was set for the animal's population.

Swedish Environment Minister Andreas Carlgren said Sweden alone could decide whether or not to allow the hunt.

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Two-thirds of UK biofuel fails green standard, figures show

Just 31% of the biofuel supplied under the government's initiative to tackle climate change met its own green standards, the Renewable Fuels Agency reports
Sylvia Rowley guardian.co.uk 27 Jan 11;

Less than one-third of the biofuel used on UK roads meets government environmental standards intended to protect water supplies, soil quality and carbon stocks, according to new figures.

The Renewable Fuels Agency says that just 31% of the biofuel supplied under the government's initiative to use fuel from plants to help tackle climate change met its green standard. For the remaining 69% of the biofuel, suppliers could not say where it came from, or could not prove it was produced in a sustainable way, the figures show.

In April 2008, suppliers began mixing biofuel into all petrol and diesel supplies under the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO), and by 2009-10 – the time period to which these latest figures relate – biofuels accounted for 3.3% of UK transport fuels. Suppliers were supposed to ensure that 50% of biofuel met government environmental standards, but the target is not mandatory and was not met.

Several suppliers, including BP, Total, Morgan Stanley and Chevron, also failed to meet targets on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and providing data on the source of their biofuels.

The Renewable Fuels Agency's chief executive Nick Goodall said: "We've seen some progress from suppliers in meeting the challenge of sourcing their biofuels responsibly, but in many cases it has been disappointingly slow. Too many are lagging behind and dragging overall performance down. With mandatory sustainability criteria due to be introduced with the [European] Renewable Energy Directive, companies currently missing all three targets need to make a step change in performance."

Scientists and campaigners have warned that biofuels could cause more problems than they solve, with concerns over the destruction of tropical forests and impact on global food supplies.

As a whole, suppliers exceeded the target of 45% reduction in greenhouse gases compared to petrol and diesel fuels – achieving 51% savings. However, these figures do not include carbon emissions from indirect changes in land use, such as forests and grasslands being turned over to cropland, which experts have warned could cancel out the environmental benefits of biofuels and even accelerate climate change.

The majority of UK biofuel is imported. Biodiesel from soy was the single biggest source (31%) in 2009/10, with a large increase in Argentinian soy compared to the previous year, something that Friends of the Earth biofuels campaigner Kenneth Richter calls a "huge cause for concern".

"This report shows us that current biofuels policies are unsustainable " he says. "Additional demand for crops like soy and palm oil only creates extra pressure for agricultural expansion in producer countries, which in many cases leads to rainforest being cut down to make way for plantations."

There are also concerns about the impact of biofuels on food prices. The United Nations has singled out biofuel demand as a major factor in what it estimates will be as much as a 40% increase in food prices over the coming decade.

The Renewables Fuel Agency published the Gallagher review into biofuels in 2008, which recommended that the government slow the introduction of biofuels until more was known about the possible negative impacts.

Ministers responded by reducing the rate at which the RTFO's biofuel targets will increase, so that the total biofuel content in petrol and diesel will reach 5% in 2013-14. A separate EU plan aims to include 10% biofuel in transport fuel by 2020.

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