Best of our wild blogs: 13 Jul 12

How many stonefishes at Sentosa?
from wild shores of singapore

Olive-backed Sunbird feeding chicks
from Bird Ecology Study Group

Health Checks and Radio Collars: Pangolins Get Ready for Release
from EDGE Blog

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PM Lee highlights wild boars, graffiti on need to be "messy selectively"

S. Ramesh Channel NewsAsia 13 Jul 12;

NEW DELHI: Would Singapore's leaders allow some "mess" in a creative society?

That was a question posed to Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong at the Singapore Symposium held in New Delhi, India, on Thursday.

The Singapore Symposium, organised by the Institute of South Asian Studies and the Asepan India Centre, attracted leading thinkers, politicians and analysts from Singapore and India.

They shared their views and perspectives on international and local issues.

Mr Lee used two recent issues - wild boars and graffiti - to highlight the way Singapore authorities are striking the balance.

Mr Lee said: "I would become messy selectively. There are some areas where you must accept that you cannot do things in a linear or hierarchical way. I decide, you refine, he implements. You have to have an interaction, discussion. There will be objections, you have views but something has to be done.

"We have a peculiar problem which you consider quaint. We have an abundance of wild boars in our nature reserves - about 100 of them - and they are causing a problem. In the old days, we would have just said solve the problem and tomorrow they would be literally gone. But now it has been discussed.

"There are animal lovers who feel you shouldn't cull them, sterilise them, maybe you should keep them in the zoo and have an exhibit of wild boars. Others would say they are part of the natural system and if they exist, it is good. But there are also families who say the wild boar killed my dog, another family says the wild boar knocked over my child, better do something about it. Finally, we have to do something about it.

"But we have to go through this discussion and engagement, and explanation and in the end, it takes longer but it will be done. I am not sure whether we will get the very last wild boar but we will solve this problem.

"As with wild boars, so with many other problems, where we have to do something and engage the people - the physical messiness along the streets - graffiti, I would strongly discourage. We invite graffiti artists, by invitation to perform on designated walls with permission but if you decide to freelance extra, I better do an investigation on how it came about. We want to do this in a controlled way. If the Pandora box is open, then we can't put the demons back."

- CNA/de

PM okay with politics getting messier selectively
Straits Times 13 Jul 12;

NEW DELHI - Singapore is slowly letting its politics get a little messier, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said in response to a question from a participant at a symposium organised by Singapore and Indian think tanks.

But he also made it clear that the Singapore Government meant to keep some measure of control over the process. He cited two examples: the culling of wild boar and street graffiti.

The question put to him was on whether Singapore would tolerate more mess so as to become vibrant and creative like India.

'I will become messy selectively,' he quipped, drawing laughter and applause.

In the case of wild boar, Mr Lee recalled that in the past, creatures that caused problems for people would be dealt with immediately. Now, the process takes longer because many people are given a chance to air their views, from animal lovers to families who fear for their children's safety.

The need to engage and explain to the people affected also extends to areas such as land acquisitions. While the authorities have legal powers to act, the affected parties have to understand the decision and that they are being fairly treated.

'There are some areas where you must accept that you cannot do things just in a linear or a hierarchical way - I decide, you refine, he implements. You have to have an interaction, a discussion, a flow of ideas, there will be objections and views and in the end something has to be done.'

He draws the line however at street graffiti, which he would strongly discourage. He did not mention any specific incident but much debate has been generated by the arrest of a woman who allegedly pasted stickers on traffic lights and stencil-painted roads with Singlish phrases.

Mr Lee said to laughter: 'I would invite graffiti artists to perform on designated walls, with permission, but if you decide to freelance extra, I better do an investigation and find out how it came about.

'We want to do this in a controlled way. Once you have let go, Pandora's box is opened, you cannot put all the demons back into place.'

GOH CHIN LIAN

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Relatives claim 1,000 graves at Bukit Brown

It is about a quarter of the total number slated for exhumation
Tessa Wong Straits Times 13 Jul 12;

ABOUT a quarter of the Bukit Brown graves that must go to make way for an expressway have been claimed in the last four months by relatives.

This works out to 1,005 graves, of which most will be exhumed by a contractor hired by the Land Transport Authority (LTA), said its spokesman yesterday. The Government will pay for this public exhumation.

Only 178 of the applications sent to the LTA between March - when the Government said it would go ahead with the highway - and the start of this month wanted a private exhumation, which allows relatives to pick the date and time.

So far, 93 have been exhumed privately, while the public exhumation will start in January. An LTA spokesman said that as a tender has yet to be called, it cannot say how much this will cost.

A total of 3,746 graves will be exhumed and relatives have until Dec 31 to claim the graves.

Dr Hui Yew-Foong, an anthropologist at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, expects half of the graves to be claimed for a cemetery of Bukit Brown's age, which is about 90 years.

'The older the cemetery, the lower the claim rate, as ancestors are usually remembered for only two to three generations,' he said.

Unclaimed remains will be individually cremated, and the Government will keep them for three years. If still unclaimed, the ashes will be scattered at sea.

The decision to build a road through part of the historical burial ground to ease congestion on Lornie Road has sparked intense debate on preserving Singapore's heritage.

Though the exhumed graves form only a tiny proportion of the 100,000 graves at Bukit Brown, the entire 86 ha site is earmarked for a housing estate - a fact which, though not new, was raised again amid debate.

Various groups have swung into action to petition for preservation and to conduct tours of one of Singapore's last historical burial sites.

Dr Hui's team has documented about 90 per cent of the affected graves. They will also document the exhumations, he said.

Last month, his team documented the first private exhumation - that of Mr Ong Seah Say, who died in 1942.

Mr Ong was a member of the Singapore branch of Tongmenghui in the 1900s, the Chinese Revolutionary Alliance started by Dr Sun Yat Sen, who founded the Republic of China.

The Nature Society, with groups from the Singapore universities and the Government, is carrying out wildlife surveys. Society president Shawn Lum said he hopes the groups can eventually create a map with detailed information on, among other things, the wildlife clusters, and flora and fauna of the entire cemetery.

'As the Government intends to build a housing estate on the land eventually, this survey will help planners designate green spaces and decide which parts to preserve,' said Dr Lum.

Groups formed to preserve Bukit Brown's history say weekly public tours are packed.

And the number of private tours carried out for organisations has risen from an average of five a month before March to around eight a month now, said Ms Catherine Lim, co-founder of All Things Bukit Brown.

Students also ask the Singapore Heritage Society for help on Bukit Brown school projects.

Mr Woon Tien Wei of SOS Bukit Brown said his group is carrying out street surveys on people's sentiment about preserving the cemetery and collecting petition letters.

It plans to submit a report to the Government by year-end.

Academic Terence Chong, an executive committee member of the Heritage Society, is not surprised at the strong interest.

'There is an especially greater yearning among younger Singaporeans to get in touch with their roots because we became global and cosmopolitan so fast. So it is natural that there is a desire to look back into the past for authenticity and comfort,' he said.

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Coral Reefs in the Indo-Pacific Ocean Naturally Tougher Than Caribbean Reefs

ScienceDaily 12 Jul 12;

Coral reefs in the Indo-Pacific region, including the Great Barrier Reef, recover faster from major stresses than their Caribbean counterparts, leading marine scientists have said.

Dr George Roff and Professor Peter Mumby from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and The University of Queensland told the 12th International Coral Reef Symposium in Cairns on July 12 that coral reefs in the Indo-Pacific Ocean are naturally tougher than the Caribbean reefs.

"The main reason that Indo-Pacific reefs are more resilient is they have less seaweed than the Caribbean Sea," Dr Roff says. "Seaweed and corals are age-old competitors in the battle for space. When seaweed growth rates are lower, such as the Indo-Pacific region, the reefs recover faster from setbacks. This provides coral with a competitive advantage over seaweed, and our study suggests that these reefs would have to be heavily degraded for seaweeds to take over.

"This doesn't mean that we can be complacent -- reefs around the world are still heavily threatened by climate change and human activities," he says. "What it indicates is Indo-Pacific reefs will respond better to protection, and steps we take to keep them healthy have a better chance of succeeding."

"Many of the doom and gloom stories have emanated from the Caribbean, which has deteriorated rapidly in the last 30 years," says Professor Mumby. "We now appreciate that the Indo-Pacific and Caribbean are far more different than we thought."

The study, published in the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution (TREE), includes survey data Indo-Pacific region and Caribbean reefs from 1965 to 2010.

The researchers also found that seaweeds in Indo-Pacific region bloom four times more slowly than those in the Caribbean.

"We're not sure why this happens, but a plausible theory is that Caribbean waters are highly enriched in iron," they say. "For thousands of years, the Caribbean Sea has received dusts that blow across the Atlantic from the Sahara, and the dust contains iron -- an essential element for algae to grow.

"This suggests that the difference between the Indo-Pacific and Caribbean oceans and their coral reefs is fundamental, and occurs at a very large scale.

"Another factor that protects these reefs is the abundance of herbivorous fish, such as surgeon and parrotfish that treat seaweed as a delicacy. The Indo-Pacific region has a lot of these fishes.

"For instance, the Indo-Pacific region has 70 species and six genera of parrotfish, while the Caribbean only has 13 species and two genera of the fish."

While the findings indicate a brighter future for the Indo-Pacific reefs, nations such as Australia will need to maintain vigilant protection of the ocean, the researchers warn.

"All reefs face an uncertain future, particularly in places with lots of human activities," they say. "We still need to curb the overfishing of herbivorous fish, as they are very sought after in the Pacific. We also need to control the level of nutrients in the water and prevent runoff when necessary.

"The good news is that our Indo-Pacific reefs are tougher than we thought -- we just need to make sure that our actions won't destroy their natural resilience."

Reefs ‘tougher than we thought’
ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies
Science Alert 13 Jul 12;

Coral reefs in the Indo-Pacific region, including the Great Barrier Reef, recover faster from major stresses than their Caribbean counterparts, leading marine scientists said.

Dr George Roff and Professor Peter Mumby from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and The University of Queensland told the 12th International Coral Reef Symposium in Cairns that coral reefs in the Indo-Pacific region are naturally tougher than the Caribbean reefs.

“The main reason that Indo-Pacific reefs are more resilient is they have less seaweed than the Caribbean Sea,” Dr Roff says.

“Seaweed and corals are age-old competitors in the battle for space. When seaweed growth rates are lower, such as the Indo-Pacific region, the reefs recover faster from setbacks. This provides coral with a competitive advantage over seaweed, and our study suggests that these reefs would have to be heavily degraded for seaweeds to take over.

“This doesn’t mean that we can be complacent – reefs around the world are still heavily threatened by climate change and human activities,” he says. “What it indicates is Indo-Pacific reefs will respond better to protection, and steps we take to keep them healthy have a better chance of succeeding.”

“Many of the doom and gloom stories have emanated from the Caribbean, which has deteriorated rapidly in the last 30 years,” says Professor Mumby. “We now appreciate that the Indo-Pacific and Caribbean are far more different than we thought.”

The study, published in the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution (TREE), includes survey data Indo-Pacific region and Caribbean reefs from 1965 to 2010.

The researchers also found that seaweeds in Indo-Pacific region bloom four times more slowly than those in the Caribbean.

“We’re not sure why this happens, but a plausible theory is that Caribbean waters are highly enriched in iron,” they say. “For thousands of years, the Caribbean Sea has received dusts that blow across the Atlantic from the Sahara, and the dust contains iron – an essential element for algae to grow.

“This suggests that the difference between the Indo-Pacific and Caribbean oceans and their coral reefs is fundamental, and occurs at a very large scale.

“Another factor that protects these reefs is the abundance of herbivorous fish, such as surgeon and parrotfish that treat seaweed as a delicacy. The Indo-Pacific region has a lot of these fishes.

“For instance, the Indo-Pacific region has 70 species and six genera of parrotfish, while the Caribbean only has 13 species and two genera of the fish.”

While the findings indicate a brighter future for the Indo-Pacific reefs, nations such as Australia will need to maintain vigilant protection of the ocean, the researchers warn.

“All reefs face an uncertain future, particularly in places with lots of human activities,” they say. “We still need to curb the overfishing of herbivorous fish, as they are very sought after in the Pacific. We also need to control the level of nutrients in the water and prevent runoff when necessary.

“The good news is that our Indo-Pacific reefs are tougher than we thought – we just need to make sure that our actions won’t destroy their natural resilience.”

Free video clips to illustrate this article are available at Prof. Mumby’s site http://www.reefvid.org. Images are available at http://bit.ly/MLBzCH

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Environment or profit - palm oil firm tests Indonesia

Olivia Rondonuwu and David Fogarty and Niluksi Koswanage
PlanetArk 13 Jul 12;

Insight: Environment or profit - palm oil firm tests Indonesia Photo: David Fogarty
A canal cuts through deep peat land at a palm oil plantation near Sebangau Kuala, Pulang Pisau Regency in Central Kalimantan June 19, 2012.
Photo: David Fogarty

An Indonesian palm oil firm received preliminary approval six years ago for a large plantation in a swampy, forested corner of Borneo island, bringing the promise of jobs and roads to impoverished villages.

By the book, that would have marked the start of a lengthy licensing and environmental approvals process before clearing and planting could start.

The firm, PT Suryamas Cipta Perkasa (SCP), didn't wait. It quickly cleared thousands of hectares of forest. That revelation recently set off alarm bells at major international palm oil trading firms Bunge and Cargill, which have made public pledges to source edible oil from plantations developed without cutting down forests illegally.

PT SCP is now under investigation from a presidential taskforce on forests and land reform as well as local police for clearing and developing the concession before getting mandatory environmental approvals. The investigation has become a test of Indonesia's pledge to clamp down on illegal forest clearing and pull plantation and mining firms into line.

Pressure is also building on PT SCP's parent PT Best Agro International Group, a large unlisted Indonesian palm oil plantation owner, processor and exporter.

"The allegation of illegal deforestation is deeply disturbing and should be addressed by PT Best quickly and transparently," major customer Bunge, a global agribusiness and food company, said in an email to Reuters. "If proven true, Bunge will take appropriate steps to ensure that our supply chain reflects our principles."

International conservation group Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) conducted a detailed probe into PT SCP and handed its findings to the Indonesian government. The British-based NGO also gave its findings to Reuters.

Further examination by Reuters of official documents, interviews and satellite images reveals how the 23,000-hectare (57,500 acre) concession in Central Kalimantan province was developed and cleared apparently in violation of multiple laws.

"PT SCP is suspected to have committed violations to the concession area since three years ago at the very least," said Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, one of Indonesia's most respected officials and head of the presidential taskforce on forests and land reform.

The allegations are being investigated by the taskforce and police in Central Kalimantan, a province in the Indonesian portion of Borneo, a vast island east of Singapore with an interior of dense tropical rainforest. If found guilty, PT SCP directors could be jailed and the concession's license revoked.

Villagers are also waging a campaign against PT SCP for compensation and loss of livelihoods, saying the firm never properly consulted them about the plantation plan.

Officials at PT SCP and PT Best deny wrongdoing and point to conflicting national and local laws in the area and say fair compensation was offered.

PT SCP official Wahyu Bima Dharta said the plantation had brought jobs and development. One local official also defended PT SCP, saying it had helped the economy.

"In the past, even the devil didn't want to enter this area," Dharta said, referring to the concession.

Illegal deforestation is widespread in Southeast Asia's biggest economy, especially in Central Kalimantan, where scores of palm oil and mining concessions overlap with protected forests.

British-based NGO Forest Peoples Programme and Sawit Watch of Indonesia say Indonesian laws offer weak protection for community land rights. They point to figures from Indonesia's National Land Bureau stating there are about 5,500 land conflicts, of which 3,500 relate to palm oil.

BILLION-DOLLAR PROMISE

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has set a goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by saving Indonesia's dwindling rainforests, a pledge that won the promise of $1 billion from Norway should he succeed. Indonesia has the world's third-largest area of tropical rainforest.

But Yudhoyono faces huge pressure because of soaring global demand for palm oil, used in everything from cookies to lipstick to biofuels, and the government plans to double current output to 40 million metric tons (44.1 million tons) a year. Indonesia is the world's top palm oil producer and earns $20 billion a year from exporting the edible oil.

A recent trip to PT SCP's concession in Pulang Pisau district in Central Kalimantan showed how advanced the plantation is.

Criss-crossing the plantation along roads laid out in a grid-pattern, deep canals drain tea-colored water from the black peat soil where forests stood a few years ago. The deep peat stores large amounts of carbon, which when drained or burned is released into the air, stoking climate change.

Plots marked with tags show some areas planted in March 2008 and already bearing palm fruits for harvest.

At the northwest edge of the plantation, a canal marks the boundary with thick forest on one side where several endangered orang-utans were gathered before fleeing at the sight of people. A GPS tracking device confirmed the area was part of PT SCP's concession area.

EIA's report details eight suspected violations against Indonesian law committed by PT SCP. The report cites the laws and includes copies of official documents supporting its findings. "This is a test case that will show us very clearly if the government is able or willing to enforce the law," said Tomasz Johnson, a forest campaigner for EIA who investigated the company.

Indonesia has abundant laws to protect its forests. But lax enforcement and corruption mean cases go unpunished, NGOs say.

ALL IN THE TIMING

At the heart of the issue is PT SCP's development of the plantation without getting approval for its environmental impact assessment report. The firm has also planted in deep peat, data used by the Ministry of Forestry shows. A presidential decree bans planting in peat more than 3 meters deep.

Indonesian law states that plantation and mining firms need an approved environmental impact assessment before carrying out any business or activities. Failure to comply can result in up to three years in jail and 3 billion rupiah ($318,000) in fines.

PT SCP official Dharta said an environmental impact assessment report had been done but not approved by provincial authorities. A senior company official from PT Best, who declined to be named, told Reuters the firm would try to get the environmental assessment approved in one or two months.

The key to the issue is the timing.

Indonesia's complex permitting process for a plantation can take up to three years, meaning the firm was obliged to wait until receiving its major environmental and business approvals.

Satellite imagery analysis by Thomson Reuters subsidiary Lanworth, which specializes in agriculture, forestry and renewable energy, shows the concession area being cleared from 2006, when the firm had only received a preliminary approval that did not give it the right to clear land.

It shows that before the clearing of PT SCP's concession, forest cover was 17,600 hectares in 2004-05, or 75 percent of the total. By late 2011, just over 2,100 ha of forest and other vegetation was left. Large areas of clearing started in September-November 2006 and continued into 2009, the analysis shows.

The firm also never received a forest clearance permit from the Ministry of Forestry. Dharta told Reuters this was because of confusion over the application of national and regional laws.

"We are actually the victim here. There is uncertainty in the law where this area should go to," he said.

A 2011 Ministry of Forestry decree shows the concession area as a combination of production, protection and conservation forest, meaning it has not been released for development.

Local officials and the company say a provincial bylaw removes the obligation for firms to get Ministry of Forestry approval to clear forest for a palm oil plantation, a view the ministry disputes.

Usis Sangkai, district head for economic administration and natural resources, said PT SCP had developed "abandoned land" and boosted the economy.

Presidential adviser Mangkusubroto told Reuters his team was investigating evidence PT SCP had also extended the plantation beyond its boundaries.

Local landowner Haji Asmadi, a thin, energetic man of 60, says villagers were never properly consulted on plans to develop the plantation, a view disputed by PT SCP and PT Best. He is leading a claim for compensation for about 5,600 hectares of land within the concession.

Indonesian shipping records obtained by Reuters show that PT Best has been expanding its reach slowly.

Last year, Bunge accounted for a third of the more than 50,000 tonnes of palm oil cargoes shipped from PT Best in Belawan port in Sumatra, the main export hub for the commodity.

Cargill confirmed a single purchase of palm oil products from PT Best in September 2011 and said it would halt purchases from the firm if any illegality was proven.

(Editing by Ed Davies)

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Amazon Due for Numerous Species Extinctions

Joseph Castro LiveScience.com Yahoo News 13 Jul 12;

When species lose their natural habitat to deforestation and other causes, they don't immediately disappear. Instead, they gradually die off over several generations, racking up an "extinction debt" that must eventually be paid in full. New research shows that the Brazilian Amazon has accrued a heavy vertebrate extinction debt, with more than 80 percent of extinctions expected from historical deforestation still impending.

While the results are alarming, this deathly time lag provides a conservation opportunity to save some of the disappearing species, scientists said, stressing that actions taken in the next few years are critical.

"Now that we know where the extinction debt is likely to be, we can go to the ground to restore habitat and take remedial actions to try to regenerate new habitats," said study lead author Robert Ewers, an ecologist at Imperial College London in the U.K. "We can try to put off ever having to pay that debt."

Extinction debt

The Brazilian Amazonis home to about 40 percent of the planet's tropical forests and a staggering amount of biodiversity. However, the Amazon's plant and animal species are under threat by deforestation, mostly due to agriculture and cattle ranging. [Stunning Photos of the Amazon]

Ewers and his colleagues set out to determine how many species would be lost from at least part of their historical habitats in the Amazon because of past and future deforestation. They began by looking at the "species-area relationship," a well-established ecological pattern describing how the number of species in a given habitat increases predictably as the habitat area increases. By turning this idea on its head, you can figure out how many species should go extinct as their habitat shrinks.

The researchers modeled the number of vertebrate species expected to go extinct within 31-mile by 31-mile blocks (50 by 50 kilometer blocks). They used a combination of deforestation data spanning back to 1970 and species-distribution maps of the Amazon. They compared their model's predictions with the actual number of extinctions seen thus far in the forest regions and found that 80 to 90 percent of the expected local extinctions have yet to happen, and many of them will occur in the southern and eastern regions of the Amazon.

Next, Ewers and his team used their model to estimate the magnitude of the local extinctions and extinction debts expected to occur in four scenarios, which mainly differ in their projections of future deforestation rates. Under the most likely scenario, every forest block will lose an average of about nine vertebrate speciesand be in debt for another 16 species by 2050.

And in all scenarios, species will continue to go extinct more than three decades after deforestation in the Amazon has stopped, if key forest areas are not restored, the researchers found.

"What we've seen in the last four decades is nothing like what we are going to see in the next four decades," Ewers told LiveScience.

Defaulting on the debt

Thiago Rangel, an ecologist at the Federal University of Goiás in Brazil who wasn't involved in the research, was surprised to see the Amazon's huge extinction debt. "Of course, that gives Brazil a very good opportunity for conservation measures," Rangel said. [10 Species You Can Kiss Goodbye]

Rangel, who wrote a perspective article accompanying the study published July 13 in the journal Science, pointed out that Brazil has made a lot of progress in reducing deforestation in the last decade. Moreover, the county has been expanding its network of protected areas — more than 50 percent of the Amazon is now under some form of environmental protection.

"But we are in the middle of a strong transition in Brazil from a very good and modern environmental legislation to something else," Rangel told LiveScience. Agricultural businesses, for example, have been lobbying for weaker forest protection codes — this past May, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff vetoed portions of such a bill, though this isn't likely the end of the debate, Rangel said.

Rangel stresses that Brazil must "default on its extinction debt," possibly by creating more conservation areas, particularly in places that have been abandoned by agriculturalists. Whatever the case, something needs to be done soon, he said.

Ewers agreed. "This problem has been building, and it will soon roll over and crash like a wave," he said.

Amazon's doomed species set to pay deforestation's 'extinction debt'
Ending forest clearance would not save some species from the effects of decades of destruction, scientists find
Ian Sample guardian.co.uk 12 Jul 12;

The destruction of great swaths of the Brazilian Amazon has turned scores of rare species into the walking dead, doomed to disappear even if deforestation were halted in the region overnight, according to a new study.

Forest clearing in Brazil has already claimed casualties, but the animals lost to date in the rainforest region are just one-fifth of those that will slowly die out as the full impact of the loss of habitat takes its toll. In parts of the eastern and southern Amazon, 30 years of concerted deforestation have shrunk viable living and breeding territories enough to condemn 38 species to regional extinction in coming years, including 10 mammal, 20 bird and eight amphibian species, scientists found.

The systematic clearance of trees from the Amazon forces wildlife into ever-smaller patches of ground.

Though few species are killed off directly in forest clearances, many face a slower death sentence as their breeding rates fall and competition for food becomes more intense.

Scientists at Imperial College, London, reached the bleak conclusion after creating a statistical model to calculate the Brazilian Amazon's "extinction debt", or the number of species headed for extinction as a result of past deforestation. The model draws on historical deforestation rates and animal populations in 50 by 50 kilometre squares of land.

It stops short of naming the species most at risk, but field workers in the region have drawn attention to scores of creatures struggling to cope with habitat destruction and other environmental threats.

White-cheeked spider monkeys, which feed on fruits high in the forest canopy, are endangered largely because of the expansion of farmland and road building. The population of Brazilian bare-faced tamarins has halved in 18 years, or three generations, as cities, agriculture and cattle ranching has pushed into the rainforest. The endangered giant otter, found in the slow-moving rivers and swamps of the Amazon, faces water pollution from agricultural runoff and mining operations in the area.

Writing in the journal Science, Robert Ewers and his co-authors reconstructed extinction rates from 1970 to 2008, and then forecast future extinction debts under four different scenarios, ranging from "business as usual" to a "strong reduction" in forest clearance, which required deforestation to slow down 80% by 2020.

"For now, the problem is along the arc of deforestation in the south and east where there is a long history of forest loss. But that is going to move in the future. We expect most of the species there to go extinct, and we'll pick up more extinction debt along the big, paved highways which are now cutting into the heart of the Amazon," Ewers told the Guardian from Belém, northern Brazil.

Under the "business as usual" scenario, where around 62 sq miles (160 sqkm) of forest are cleared each year, at least 15 mammal, 30 bird and 10 amphibian species were expected to die out locally by 2050, from around half of the Amazon. Under the most optimistic scenario, which requires cattle ranchers and soy farmers to comply with Brazilian environmental laws, the extinction debt could be held close to 38 species.

Ewers said the model reveals hotspots in the Brazilian Amazon where conservation efforts should be focused on the most vulnerable wildlife. "This shows us where we are likely to have high concentrations of species which are all in trouble, and that becomes a way for directing our conservation efforts. We are talking about an extinction debt. Those species are still alive, so we have an opportunity to get in there and restore the habitat to avoid paying that debt," Ewers said.

The Brazilian Amazon is home to 40% of the world's tropical forest and one of the most biodiverse regions on the planet. About 54% of the area is under environmental protection, and in the past five years, stricter controls and better compliance have driven deforestation rates down to a historical low.

The trend towards less deforestation might not last though. Under pressure from the financial crisis, the Brazilian government has proposed a rapid development programme in the Amazon to fuel the economy. The move foresees the construction of more than 20 hydroelectric power plants in the Amazon basin and an extensive push into the rainforest.

Environmentalists are further concerned about an overhaul to Brazil's Forest Code, which is widely expected to weaken the protection of the rainforest, and potentially speed up deforestation once more, according to an accompanying article in Science by Thiago Rangel, an ecologist at the Federal University of Goiás in Brazil. "Extinction debts in the Brazilian Amazon are one debt that should be defaulted on," he writes.

Reducing the rate that extinction debts build up is not enough to preserve the Amazon's biodiversity, Rangel argues. "The existing debt may eventually lead to the loss of species. To prevent species extinctions, it is necessary to take advantage of the window of opportunity for forest regeneration. Restored or regenerated forests initially show lower native species richness than the original forests they replaced, but they gradually recover species richness, composition and vital ecosystems functions, reducing extinction debt and mitigating local species loss," he writes.

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Drought leads to declaration of natural disaster in 26 US states

Decision means farmers who have lost crops in more than 1,000 counties are eligible for assistance from government
Suzanne Goldenberg guardian.co.uk 13 Jul 12;

America declared a natural disaster in more than 1,000 drought-stricken counties in 26 states on Thursday.

It was the largest declaration of a national disaster and was intended to speed relief to about a third of the country's farmers and ranchers who are suffering in drought conditions.

The declaration from the US department of agriculture includes most of the south-west, which has been scorched by wildfires, parts of the midwestern corn belt, and the south-east.

It was intended to free up funds for farmers whose crops have withered in extreme heatwave conditions linked by scientists to climate change.

According to the US drought monitor, 56% of the country is experiencing drought conditions – the most expansive drought in more than a decade.

The agriculture secretary, Tom Vilsack, said the funds were intended to help farmers and ranchers across the country who have lost crops to extreme heat or wildfires.

The declaration will make affected ranchers and farmers eligible for low-interest loans and speed processing of disaster claims.

"Agriculture remains a bright spot in our nation's economy," Vilsack said. "We need to be cognisant of the fact that drought and weather conditions have severely impacted on farmers around the country."

The declaration covers counties in California, Oregon, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Nebraska, Wyoming, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Illinois, Indiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, South Carolina, Florida, Delaware and Hawaii. It does not include Iowa, the country's biggest corn producer.

The first six months of this year were the warmest on record, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said. Twenty-eight states east of the Rockies set temperature records.

Those record-breaking temperatures deepened drought conditions across much of the American west, triggering an early and violent season of wildfires in Utah, Idaho, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico.

The heat also destroyed expectations of a bumper corn crop. American farmers planted more than 96m acres of corn this year, the most in 75 years.

The early spring got the crop off to a good start but , after June's extreme heat, only 40% of the crop was in good condition, according to USDA figures.

From the midwest to the mid-Atlantic, meanwhile, there were triple digit temperatures, breaking hundreds of heat records. On Thursday, St Louis confirmed 18 deaths due to extreme heat conditions.

"The recent heat and dryness is catching up with us on a national scale," Michael Hayes, director of the national drought mitigation centre said in a statement.

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