Best of our wild blogs: 19 Feb 14



A call for volunteers to help coordinate coastal cleanups in Singapore! from News from the International Coastal Cleanup Singapore

Speaking for the Trees in Parliament
from The Leafmonkey Workshop

Green Drinks Event: The Future of Food Farming in Singapore
from Green Drinks Singapore

MPA and Sentosa will remove large debris at Kusu Island
from wild shores of singapore

Olive-backed Sunbird harvesting nectar from Costus woodsonii flowers from Bird Ecology Study Group

Butterflies Galore! : Yellow Chequered Lancer
from Butterflies of Singapore


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Mass fish deaths: AVA to fund 70% of re-stocking cost for affected farmers

Woo Sian Boon Today Online 19 Feb 14;

SINGAPORE — The Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority (AVA) yesterday laid out how it is assisting fish farmers affected by the mass die-offs earlier this month to re-stock their farms.

The AVA will source for and facilitate the bulk purchase of quality fish fry and fingerlings, said a National Development Ministry spokesperson last night. In addition, the AVA will co-fund 70 per cent of the cost of the fry and fingerlings, with farmers paying the rest.

“To help farmers develop better resilience in fish production, the AVA will also co-fund 70 per cent of the purchase of equipment and systems required to be put in place to mitigate against similar incidents in the future,” said the ministry’s spokesperson.

The spokesperson’s comments came after Minister of State (National Development) Maliki Osman had assured Parliament earlier yesterday that the AVA is working “very closely” with fish-farm owners to develop better systems so that they can cope with sudden adverse changes to the environment and meet production targets better.

Dr Maliki had said this in response to a question by Nominated Member of Parliament Faizah Jamal, who asked whether the AVA monitors the proper disposal of waste from fish farms.

To help fish farms along the East Johor Straits dispose of waste in a proper way, a jetty with a waste collection centre will be built at Lorong Halus, Dr Maliki said.

The centre — which will start operating at the end of the year — will be similar to that of fish farms on the western and southern coasts, which are served by a central disposal system at the Lim Chu Kang jetty, he told Parliament.

Ms Faizah also pointed out that she had not spotted any skid tanks — huge metal tanks often used for industrial waste — for fish farm waste in the Changi area prior to the recent mass fish deaths.

The AVA said on Feb 11 that about 160 tonnes of dead fish were reported by 39 fish farms along both the East and West Johor Straits. The mass deaths could have been caused by a plankton bloom — brought on by hot weather or the neap tide — which can drain seawater of oxygen.

“These questions were filed before the recent incident of fish deaths, so I think the questions are even more important at this stage for us to consider,” Ms Faizah said.

Ms Faizah also wanted to know if the AVA monitors water quality, and why it did not give advance notice on the plankton bloom — which drains seawater of oxygen — that caused the mass fish deaths.

Noting that the plankton bloom “happened very fast”, Dr Maliki added that a “multitude of factors”, such as the susceptibility of certain types of fish to low levels of dissolved oxygen in the water, led to the mass deaths.

Offshore fish farm owners must dispose off waste properly: Dr Maliki
Channel NewsAsia 18 Feb 14

Minister of State for National Development Maliki Osman said under the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) fisg farm licensing conditions, owners of Singapore's offshore fish farms must properly dispose off the waste generated from their farms. Replying to questions from MPs, he said owners must also keep their premises in good condition and ensure that the waters in and around their farms are clean and pollutant-free at all times. He said AVA also carries out quarterly inspections and ad-hoc night raids on all fish farms to check for compliance with its licensing conditions.

Farmers affected by recent mass fish deaths to get help: Maliki
Nur Asyiqin Mohamad Salleh Straits Times AsiaOne 20 Feb 14;

Fish farmers still reeling from losses caused by mass fish deaths in recent weeks will get a helping hand, said Minister of State for National Development Maliki Osman on Tuesday.

One of the first steps authorities can take is to help fish farm owners, especially those with poor aeration systems, develop their equipment to better meet production targets and cope better with sudden changes in environmental conditions.

The mass deaths started about three weeks ago, and were due to plankton blooms brought about by a double whammy of high temperatures and low tides.

"We want to turn this situation from adversity to opportunity... how we can actually facilitate them improving their systems such that future occurences may be prevented," Mr Maliki said.

Farmers may also receive help from the Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority (AVA) in buying fish fry, or get greater subsidies.

Mr Maliki's commments were prompted by questions from Nominated MP Faizah Jamal, who had also asked if fish farms which do not comply with regulations set by the AVA would have their licences revoked.

This could be due to improper waste disposal, such as dumping dead fish into the open sea, or failing to meet production targets. Fish farms here must produce 17 tonnes of fish per half hectare of farm space to keep their licences.

Mr Maliki said revoking licenses would be a "worst-case scenario", aimed at farm owners who have failed over several years to meet licensing conditions.

He added: "But I think the way to go right now is to help them. We want to help the farmers, because this is their livelihood. We want to try to be sympathetic."

Ms Faizah also asked about waste disposal services for fish farms here.

Mr Maliki said fish farms along the East Johor Straits will have a central disposal system when a new jetty at Lorong Halus is ready this quarter.



[wilsingapore update -- These were the written question submitted by NMP Faizah Jamal:

(1) To ask the Minister for National Development when were the feasibility studies for 'door- to- door waste collection services' for fish farms conducted, how many licensed fish farms existed at the time of the studies, what were the quantum of costs that AVA found too high for the farmers , and what costs would AVA consider low enough for the farmers to pay in order to initiate such a service.

(2) To ask the Minister for National Development for clarification as to the frequency of AVA routine inspections to monitor fish farms including night raids, and whether these cover the southern and western coastal fish farms.

(3) To ask the Minister for Environment and Water Resources what steps NEA takes to audit trash disposal from offshore fish farms to ensure our water quality is not affected.]

[wildsingapore update -- The following is our transcript of the above video clip. The official transcript will be available on Parliamentary Reports Hansard 7 working days after the event.

00:00
Minister Maliki: Madam Speaker, under the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority fish farm licensing conditions, owners of offshore fish farms must properly dispose of the waste generated from their farms.

The owners must also keep their premises in good condition and ensure that the waters in and around their farms are clean and pollutant-free at all times.

AVA carries out quarterly inspections and ad-hoc night raids on all fish farms including those in the Southern and Western coastal areas, to check for compliance with its licensing conditions.

During the inspections, AVA officers will check that farmers use proper waste disposal methods.
In addition, night raids deter farmers from illegally throwing fish farm trash to the shore under the cover of darkness.

01:02
Minister Maliki: In Oct 2013, AVA explored if door-to-door waste collection services could be provided to fish farms sited in the Eastern Johor Strait.

There were 60 licenced fish farms at that time. AVA estimated that each fish farmer would have to pay about $160 per month for weekly door-to-door waste collection service.

With the new AVA jetty at Lorong Halus ready later this year, the Eastern fish farmers can bring their farm waste to a waste collection centre at the jetty to help facilitate proper waste disposal.

This is similar to the arrangement for the Western fish farmers who use the waste disposal services at the Lim Chu Kang jetty.

01:50
NMP Faizah Jamal: I have three supplementary questions. My questions were actually filed before the recent incident of fish deaths so I think the questions are even more important at this stage for us to consider. My first question is this: You mentioned that the owners have to dispose of the fish trash correctly. However, immediately after the PQ response that I received in November, I checked at Changi Creek and I found there were no skids at all. Up until only when the fish deaths happened that is when the skid were actually provided. And even then it disappeared yesterday, it’s no longer there. So my question is was the fish trash disposed of previously from the Eastern shores and what happens to the disposal now with the fish deaths? That’s the first question.

And secondly, with the fish deaths happening at the moment, what is AVA going to do about monitoring the water quality as well as given the fact that the reason given for the fish deaths was plankton bloom, does it mean that AVA had not been monitoring water quality and given feedback and if so what is the solution going forward?

Next question is AVA going to be studying what the health impacts are on us as a result of the possibly bad water quality as a result of this incident?

And lastly, would AVA consider, going forward again, helping fish farmers using more techonologically advanced and environmentally (friendly) methods of fish farming in the future? Thank you.

3:28
Minister Maliki: Thank you Ms Faizah for the set of questions. Under the skid at Changi Creek, I will ask AVA to investigate what happened. If your observation is right, we have to find out exactly who is responsible for that.

On the disposal, the recent issue of what happened at the fish farm, plankton bloom during the conditions that happened during the last couple of weeks facilittated plankton bloom. Because when there is high heat as well as the neap tide because of the low tide that also facilitated the flourishing and the blooming of the plankton .So I think AVA is monitoring such conditions, but I think when it happens it was very fast. And it also links up to the type of fish that farmers were actually rearing. The three types of fish that were susceptible to conditions were the ones who were not able to survive. So I think there were a multitude of factors that led to the condition.

On the issue of quality of the water, I think at this point in time, the way the fish were disposed during this recent fish kills, AVA brought in their contractors to help the affected fish farmers. So on normal situations, the fish farmers are responsible to dispose the fish wastes and that is their responsibility.

So there are two locations. You are talking about the Western and Southern and you are talking about the Eastern. The Western and Southern they have the Lim Chu Kang jetty that has facilitated a more controlled fish waste disposal system. They dispose the waste at the jetty and there is a central disposal system available there.

And the Eastern farms we don’t have a system at this point in time. And that is one of the reasons why we have developed and are building the Lorong Halus jetty to facilitate similar processes. Where once we have the Lorong Halus jetty, then the farmers can actually dispose of their waste centrally at the Lorong Halus jetty. The jetty will be ready by this quarter and Iwill be operational by probably the later part of the year.

On the issue of the health impact, I think we are studying the health impact and the conditions of the water are monitored very closely.

On the last question of technological advancements, and that is one of the things that we found when I visited the farms recently also. We have put in place opportunities for the farmers to improve their conditions. One of the challenges they had was they have very poor aeration systems. Some didn’t even have generators to facilitate aeration as an immediate action when the oxygen level of the water came down. And the oxygen level came down because of the plankton bloom. So we are working very closely with the farmers to help them improve on their current system. One of the challenges is that we acknowledge and I think the farmers acknowledge is that we want to turn this situation to an advantage and opportunity. How we can actually facilitate for them improving their systems such that future occurences may be prevented. There are farms who have successfuly tapped on the Food Fund and they have actually put in better systems that have allowed them to actually mitigate the impact of the current situation. So some of the farms were not affected because they have invested in proper technology and have proper systems that allowed them to mitigate the impact of such sudden changes in temperature and suddent changes in conditions. So their aeration systems were a lot more advanced, they were able to manage the oxygen levels within the farms.

07:25
NMP Faizah: Supplementary question Mdm Speaker, would AVA then consider revoking the licences of those farmers that have not been up-to-date or have not kept to the promises they made to AVA?

07:40
Minister Maliki: You know when we revoked the licences recently, there was a lot of pleas from the fish farmers. We want to try to help the fish farmers, I think the first thing is to help them to develop their systems so they are able to produce. Certainly there are targets that have been set in place because we have very limited water spaces and we have limited land spaces for farming activities. So with the farmers we have put in place opportunities for them to actually improve their productivity levels. Yes, in the worst case scenario we will revoke licences for those who have failed to comply with the regulations we have put in place including those who fail to produce the kind of quantity that we require. But I think the way to go right now is to help them, because this is their livelihood. We want to try to be sympathetic. Even for those who have recently suffered the mass fish kills, AVA is working very closely with them trying to facilitate and possibly help them with the purchase of fish fries, fingerlings. Put in greater subsidies to help them get back on their feet. We want to try to help our local farmers. We also have targets. We want to improve the productivity level of our fish production because fish is one of the key food items in our food strategy. So as much as we want to try to make them comply, we will take a very calibrated approach to support them. For those failed over several years and they have not been taking part in productivity movements, we will certainly look into the worst case scenario of revoking their licence.]

Waste Disposal at Fish Farms
from Singapore Parliament Reports (HANSARD)

Ms Faizah Jamal asked the Minister for National Development (a) when were the feasibility studies for door-to-door waste collection services for fish farms conducted; (b) how many licensed fish farms existed at the time when the feasibility studies were conducted; (c) what is the quantum of costs that AVA found too high for the farmers; and (d) what costs will AVA consider low enough for the farmers to pay in order to initiate such a service.

Ms Faizah Jamal asked the Minister for National Development (a) what is the frequency of AVA's routine inspections to monitor fish farms including night raids; and (b) whether these cover the southern and western coastal fish farms.

Ms Faizah Jamal asked the Minister for National Development what are the steps that NEA takes to audit trash disposal by offshore fish farms to ensure that our water quality is not affected.

The Minister of State for Defence and National Development (Dr Mohamad Maliki Bin Osman) (for the Minister for National Development): Mdm Speaker, with your permission, may I take Question Nos 6 to 8 together?

Mdm Speaker: Yes, please.

Dr Mohamad Maliki Bin Osman: Mdm Speaker, under the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority’s fish farm licensing conditions, owners of offshore fish farms must properly dispose of the waste generated from their farms. The owners must also keep their premises in good condition and ensure that the waters in and around their farms are clean and pollution-free at all times.

AVA carries out quarterly inspections and ad-hoc night raids on all fish farms, including those in the southern and western coastal areas, to check for compliance with its licensing conditions. During the inspections, AVA officers will check that farmers use proper waste disposal methods. In addition, night raids deter farmers from illegally towing fish farm trash to the shore under the cover of darkness.

In October 2013, AVA explored if door-to-door waste collection services could be provided for fish farm sited in the eastern Johor Straits. There were 60 licensed eastern fish farms at that time.

AVA estimated that each fish farmer would have to pay $160 per month for weekly door-to-door waste collection service. With the new AVA jetty at Lorong Halus ready later this year, the eastern fish farmers can bring their farm waste to the waste collection centre at the jetty to help facilitate proper waste disposal. This is similar to the arrangement for the western fish farmers who use the waste disposal services at the Lim Chu Kang jetty.

Ms Faizah Jamal (Nominated Member): I have a few supplementary questions. These questions were actually filed before the recent incident of fish deaths. So I think the questions are even more important at this stage for us to consider.

My first supplementary question is this. There has been mention that the owners have to dispose of the fish trash correctly. However, immediately after the Parliamentary Question (PQ) response that I received in November, I checked at Changi Creek and I found there were no skids there at all. Up until only when the fish deaths happened that a skid was actually provided. And even then, it disappeared yesterday – it is no longer there. So my question is: how was the fish trash disposed of previously from the eastern shores and what happened to the disposal now with the fish deaths? That is the first question.

And secondly, with the fish deaths happening at the moment, what is AVA going to do about the monitoring the water quality? Given the fact that the reason given for the fish deaths was a plankton bloom, does it mean that AVA had not been monitoring water quality and given feedback? And if so, what is going to be the solution going forward?

Next question is: is AVA going to be studying what the health impact is on us as a result of a possibly bad water quality as a result of this incident?

And lastly, would AVA now consider going forward again and helping fish farms to use more technologically advanced and environmentally friendly methods of fish farming in the future?

Dr Mohamad Maliki Bin Osman: I thank Ms Faizah for the set of questions. On the skid at Changi Creek, we will ask AVA to investigate on what happened. If the Member’s observation is right, we have to find out exactly who is responsible for that.

On the recent issue of what happened at the fish farms, the plankton bloom: the conditions happened over the last couple of weeks facilitated a plankton bloom because when there is heat as well as the tide, because of the low tide, we were told that facilitated the flourishing and the blooming of the plankton.

AVA is monitoring such a condition. But when it happened, it was very fast. It also links up to the type of fish that the farmers were actually rearing. There were three types of fish that are susceptible to such conditions and these were the ones who were not able to survive. I think there was a multitude of factors that led to that condition.

On the issue of the quality of the water: the way the fish were disposed of during the recent fish deaths, AVA brought in their contractors to help the affected fish farmers. Under the normal situation, the fish farmers are responsible to dispose of the fish waste – that is their responsibility. We have two locations: western and southern, and the eastern.

The western and southern section, they have the Lim Chu Kang jetty that has facilitated a more controlled fish waste disposal system. They dispose of their waste at the jetty and there is a central disposal system available there. At the eastern farms, we do not have that system at this point in time. That is one of the reasons why we are building the Lorong Halus jetty to facilitate similar processes. Once we have the Lorong Halus jetty, then the farmers can dispose of their waste centrally at the Lorong Halus jetty. The Jetty will be ready by this quarter and will be operational by probably the later part of the year.

On the issue of the health impact, I think we are studying the health impact and the conditions with the water, we are monitoring very closely.

On the last question on technological advancement: that is really one of the things we found when I visited the farms recently. We have put in place opportunities for the farmers to improve their conditions. One of the challenges they had was they had very poor aeration system. Some did not even have generators to facilitate aeration as an immediate action when the oxygen level of the water came down. The oxygen level came down because of the plankton blooms.

We are working very closely with the farmers to help them improve on their current systems. One of the challenges that we acknowledge -- and I think the farmers acknowledge it as well -- is we want to turn this situation from adversity to opportunity, and see how we can actually facilitate them in improving their systems such that future occurrences may be prevented.

There are farms who have successfully tapped on the Food Fund and they have put in better systems that had allowed them to mitigate the impact of the current situation. So some of the farms were not affected because they have invested in proper technology and proper systems that allowed them to mitigate the impact of such sudden changes in the temperature and sudden changes in conditions. Their aeration systems were a lot more advanced. They were able to manage the oxygen levels within their farms.

Ms Faizah Jamal: A supplementary question, Mdm Speaker. Would AVA then consider revoking the licences of those farmers that have not been up-to-date or have not been keeping to the promises that they made to AVA?

Dr Mohamad Maliki Bin Osman: When we revoked licences recently, there were a lot of pleas from the fish farmers. We want to try to help the fish farmers. The first thing is to help them develop their systems as well as to be able to produce. Certainly, there are targets that have been set in place because we have very limited spaces. We have limited water and land spaces for farming activities. With the farmers, we have put in place opportunities for them to improve other productivity levels.

Yes, in a worst case scenario, we will revoke licences for those who have failed to comply with the regulations we put in place, including those who fail to produce the kind of quantity that is required. The way to go right now is to help them. We want to help the farmers because this is their livelihood. We want to try to be sympathetic even for those who have recently suffered the mass fish deaths. AVA is working very closely with them, trying to facilitate and, possibly, help them with the purchase of fish fries, fingerlings, put in greater subsidies to help them get back on their feet. We want to try to help our local farmers. We also have targets where we want to improve the productivity level of our fish production because fish is one of the key food items in our food strategy.

So as much as we want to try to make them comply, we will take a very calibrated approach to support them. For those who have failed over several years and they have not been taking part in productivity movements, certainly we will look at the worst case scenario of revoking their licences.


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Malaysia: Number of hotspots increasing like wildfire

The Star 19 Feb 14;

PETALING JAYA: Open, peat and bushfires are breaking out at the rate of 305 a day across the country as the dry spell continues.

In the first 18 days of this month 5,485 such fires were reported, compared with 440 for the whole of February last year.

The 1,100% increase is mainly due to the drought, said Fire and Rescue Department director-general Datuk Wan Mohd Nor Ibrahim, who also blamed those who carelessly threw their lighted cigarette butts on the ground.

“In a normal situation, open burning can be controlled. But under dry conditions, a spark can cause a fire that spreads quickly,” he added.

He told The Star that his men were now fighting major fires in Terengganu, Selangor, Pahang, Perlis, Kedah and Perak.

“Two hundred and twelve men have been battling fires on 1376.6 acres (557ha) of land.

“We have put out fires on about 1270.3 acres (514ha) of the affected areas and are creating fire breakers to stop the other fires from spreading,” Wan Mohd Nor said.

Between 8am on Monday and 8am yesterday, the states with the most fires were Perak (70), Selangor (66), Kedah (63), Malacca (39), Johor (28) and Penang (26), he said.

Wan Mohd Nor said that low water pressure and the absence of fire hydrants were among the problems his men faced.

He cited an instance at Tok Kah in Dungun, Terengganu, when water tankers had to be brought in to fight a fire.

He also said the firemen often had to use water from ponds and rivers.


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Malaysia: Cloud seeding to start this week

New Straits Times 19 Feb 14;

KUALA LUMPUR: A cloud seeding exercise will be carried out near water catchment areas this week to prevent a water crisis here and in Selangor.

Deputy Energy, Green Technology and Water Minister Datuk Seri Mahdzir Khalid said yesterday the recent lack of rainfall had caused dam levels to drop, prompting the need for cloud seeding.

"The exercise will be carried out this week as the water reserves at several dams are already at critical levels," he said at the Malaysian Power & Water Summit 2014 here.

Mahdzir said last week, water reserve levels at the Sungai Selangor and Klang Gate dams had fallen to 58 and 57 per cent, respectively.

He said the water reserves could fall below critical levels if the drought persisted.
The levels at the Sungai Selangor dam, for instance, could drop to as low as 40 per cent without rainfall within the next 20 days.

Mahdzir said the Cheras Batu 11 and Bukit Tampoi water treatment plants remained closed because of the high level of ammonia pollution.

Ammonia pollution at Cheras Batu 11 was at 4.15ppm, while at Bukit Tampoi, it was 5.1pmm. Ammonia levels need to be lower than 1.5ppm to be considered acceptable.

Dry and cloudless now, so seeding put on hold
The Star 19 Feb 14;

PETALING JAYA: The Meteorological Depart­ment’s decision to carry out cloud seeding has been put on hold due to unfavourable weather conditions.

Its director Alui Bahari said cloud seeding could only be carried out in suitable atmospheric conditions.

“The department has had several meetings on cloud seeding but the decision to carry it out has been put on hold due to unfavourable weather conditions.

“Cloud seeding operations may not be successful if it is carried out now due to the current weather.

“The weather is quite dry now and it is cloudless. If we do it now, the success rate will be low so we need to wait until the atmosphere is quite suitable.

“If there are no clouds, then nothing can be done,” he told The Star yesterday.

The department, he said, was constantly monitoring the changes and would carry out the cloud seeding operation once there were changes in the atmospheric condition.

According to its website, cloud seeding was carried out over dams in Durian Tunggal, Malacca, and Langat, Klang Gate, Semenyih and Sungai Tinggi in the Klang Valley over the years during dry spells.

Earlier yesterday, Deputy Energy, Green Technology and Water Minister Datuk Seri Mahdzir Khalid had said that the Govern­ment planned to carry out cloud seeding around water catchments this week to prevent a water crisis in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor.


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Indonesia: Number of hotspots in Riau double

Antara 19 Feb 14;

Pekanbaru, Riau (ANTARA News) - The number of hotspots of forest, plantation and peatland fires in Riau Province on Wednesday morning was 256, double from 126 on the previous day.

Of 281 hotspots detected across Sumatra Island, 256 were found in Riau province, Slamet Riyadi, the head of the Pekanbaru meteorological, climatology and geophysics agency (BMKG)s data and information section, said.

The data was based on the recording on Wednesday at 7 am local time, he added.

Of the 256 hotspots in Riau, 94 were detected in Bengkalis district, 32 in Meranti, 26 in Indragiri Hilir, 34 in Pelalawan, 52 in Siak, 10 in Rokan Hilir, 7 in Dumai, and one in Kampar.

He predicted that the number of hotspots in Riau will still be high until one week to come because of lack of rains. Hotspots in forests, plantations and peatland fires, which came early on Sumatra and Kalimantan islands this year, have caused the Indonesian government to intensify law enforcement to deal with the problem.

"Usually haze occurs in May or June. But, this year, the haze has happened in January and February in Riau and West Kalimantan," the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) spokesman Sutopo stated in Jakarta, recently.

(KR-FZR/A014/F001)

Editor: Jafar M Sidik

528 hotspots of forest fires detected in Sumatra
Antara 17 Feb 14;

Pekanbaru, Riau (ANTARA News) - The Terra and Aqua satellite detected a total of 528 hotspots of forest, plantation, and peatland fires across Sumatra Island, Indonesia, on Monday morning.

"As per satellite imagery and data, 386 hotspots were recorded in the Riau Province, which was highest in the country," Slamet Riyadi, the head of the Pekanbaru Meteorological, Climatology and Geophysical Agency (BMKG)s data and information section stated here on Monday.

In the Riau province, 136 hotspots were found in Bengkalis, 58 in Rokan Hilir, 52 in Meranti Islands, 35 in Dumai city, 34 in Siak, 28 in Indragiri Hilir, and one each in Rokan Hulu and Kampar respectively.

Scarcity of rains in the province has triggered the spread of forest fires, which are often deliberately set by some local farmers or plantation companies with vested interests to clear the land.

On Saturday morning (Feb. 15), the Terra and Aqua Satellite detected 704 hotspots in Sumatra, an increase of almost 100 percent from 357 recorded on the previous day. There were 611 hotspots recorded in the Riau Province, which was drastically up from 53 hotspots recorded a day earlier.

The 704 hotspots were spread across the six provinces on Sumatra Island, including 64 in North Sumatra, 18 in Aceh, four each in Jambi and Bangka Belitung, and three in the Riau Islands province, Sanya Gautami, an analyst at the BMKG noted on Feb. 15.

On February 11, the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) held a coordination meeting with several government and law enforcement agencies to tackle the problem of haze from forest fires and drought this year.

The government will address the forest fire issue through land and aerial operations. The land operation will involve, among others, military officers, police, forest fire brigade units, and civilian security personnel.

The aerial operations will include air-borne water bombing and weather modification or cloud seeding technologies. The BNBP will rent the Be-200 Fire-Fighting Amphibious aircraft and the Kamov helicopter from Russia for water bombing.

(f001/INE)

EDITED BY INE.
Editor: Suryanto

Riau haze remains, thousands suffer respiratory problems
Rizal Harahap and Jon Afrizal, The Jakarta Post 19 Feb 14;

The haze in Riau, which has plagued the province since late January, is showing no signs of receding with over 14,000 people suffering from acute respiratory tract infections (ISPA) as they breathe in the polluted air.

Based on data from the Riau Health Office, the highest number of patients with ISPA are in Rokan Hilir regency (6,661 people), followed by Pekanbaru (1,420), Dumai (1,237), Siak (1,232) and Bengkalis (1,092). Kuantan Singingi regency only has 15 people affected.

“None of the regencies have been spared from the affects of the haze,” said Riau Health Office’s environmental health and disease control division head Erdinal on Tuesday.

Besides ISPA, four other health issues have surfaced, namely pneumonia, infecting 179 patients, asthma (314), eye irritation (205) and skin irritation (501).

“Every regency and mayoralty has been instructed to provide free treatment to patients affected by the haze. Treatment will be covered by the Riau provincial budget,” he said.

The Riau Health Office distributed 150,000 masks over the past week.

“On Feb. 16, 12,840 ISPA patients were recorded and that number rose to 14,093 in just two days. This has to be addressed,” said Erdinal, referring to the reasoning behind the dispersal of face masks.

“Regions severely hit by the haze have been told to close their kindergarten and elementary schools,” he said. “So far, five regencies and mayoralties have imposed leave on students: Dumai and Pekanbaru municipalities and Siak, Pelalawan and Rokan Hulu regencies.”

According to Erdinal, younger children are especially susceptible to the haze. At Arifin Achmad General Hospital in Pekanbaru, for instance, almost half of its 70 ISPA patients are below the age of 14.

The Riau provincial administration extended its haze disaster alert status, which should have ended on Feb. 17, to next week as forest and peatland fires continue to burn.

“More than 6,000 hectares are affected as of mid February. They include oil palm plantations, community-owned sago and rubber farms as well as large-scale estates,” said Riau Plantation Office head Zulher.

Besides direct action by police, he added, the Riau provincial administration had carried out persuasive measures, such as speaking directly with forestry and plantation companies, who promised to cease the practice of slash-and-burn and help put out the fires.

Separately, Riau Police chief spokesman Adj. Sr. Comr. Guntur Aryo Tejo said the police in a number of regions had detained 10 suspects.

“We have only arrested 10 suspects — all are members of the public: No companies have been named as suspects,” said Guntur.

Meanwhile, in Jambi province, the number of hotspots has increased. In February thus far, a total of 67 hotspots have been detected, as reported by the Jambi Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD).

Based on the BPBD report, the highest number of hotspots were found in the regencies of Tebo (41 hotspots), Batanghari (5), Sarolangun (4), West Tanjung Jabung (6), East Tanjung Jabung (1), Muaro Jambi (7) and Bungo (3).

“Some were detected in Berbak National Park. The investigation is ongoing,” said Jambi BPBD Emergency Response Division head Dalmanto on Tuesday.

He said his office would further discuss the matter with all the relevant agencies.


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Malaysia: Rangers capture two wild elephants

New Straits Times 19 Feb 14;

KOTA KINABALU: Two elephants, part of a herd of 30 that had repeatedly entered a central Sabah village and destroyed crops, have been caught by Wildlife Rescue Unit rangers.

The two female elephants include the herd's matriarch. They were subdued after being shot with tranquillisers yesterday. Efforts are underway to translocate both animals to the Deramakot Forest Reserve where they came from.

Wildlife Rescue Unit rangers had approached the herd to chase it off in Kampung Bauto, 12km from Telupid, on Monday. The matriarch elephant was aggressive, defensive and threatened the rangers.

Since last week, the herd has been entering the village and destroying villagers' bananas and oil palm trees. Some of the elephants even ventured close to the villagers' homes.

Though sightings of the elephants began last month, the villagers claimed the herd had recently become more destructive.

Some believe a depleting habitat may have forced the herd to step out of their original habitat and venture to the village, located along the main Kota Kinabalu-Sandakan road, and 200km from here.

Sabah Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun said the case had given the government more reason to create more wildlife sanctuaries and establish corridors linking pockets of forests to allow wildlife to roam in a bigger area.

"If they have no place to roam, they feel their natural habitat is threatened and what you see may just have been a normal reaction of the elephants (venturing into human populated areas)," Masidi said.

He added that there was a need for the authorities to work with communities who lived near wildlife habitats.

"We will give priority to the safety of the villagers but at the same time it is important for them to learn to co-exist with the wildlife."

He said that with the two elephants subdued, the rest would return to its habitat. Masidi said once the threat posed by the herd was contained, the department would find out why the animals had acted that way.

Sabah wildlife rangers stop rampaging herd of 30 pygmy elephants
Muguntan Vanar The Star 19 Feb 14;

KOTA KINABALU: Wildlife rangers have quelled the threat from a rampaging herd of 30 pygmy elephants that were terrorising a village in Sabah's central region of Telupid over the last three days.

Rangers from the Wildlife Rescue Unit tranquillised two female members of the herd, prior to translocating the two into a the neighbouring Dermakot Forest reserve, in the hope the rest of the herd will make their way back into the forest.

The herd rampaged through Kampung Bauto, causing massive damage to oil palm, banana and other fruit trees planted by villagers, causing substantial losses to the farming community.

Rangers said that the herd was led by a very dominant and wild matriarch that was not deterred by loud noises and fires lit by the Sabah Wildlife Department's elephant control team.

"This group of elephants was very determined to go into the village and feed on banana trees and young oil palm plants," said senior wildlife ranger Richard Jaikim.

"They seemed to target the food trees in the village and were not scared off by warning shots fired in the air," Jaikim said, adding that they then called in the Wildlife Rescue Team to assist.

Sandakan district wildlife officer Rashid Saburi said that the decision was made to tranquillise the matriarch and the other large female leading the herd.

Sabah Wildlife department assistant director Dr Sen Nathan said that they would place a GPS collar provided by the Danau Girang field centre, on the matriarch to monitor the movement of the herd.

"Though we will try to translocate them as far as possible into the forest, there is no guarantee that they will stay away as elephant habitats are shrinking fast and increasingly fragmented due to human encroachment," Nathan added.

Growing concern on whether mothers of rescued elephant calves were poisoned
Muguntan Vanar The Star 19 Feb 14;

KOTA KINABALU: A concern is growing on whether the mothers of two rescued Borneo Pygmy female elephant calves found wandering in two plantations on Feb 12 were poisoned.

Wildlife rangers have been combing areas to locate the whereabouts of the elephant cows and their herd but have yet to locate any of the herd in the Kinabatangan area.

Amid the spectre of last year's gruesome poisoning deaths of 14 elephants at Gunung Rara forest with only a calf surviving, the latest recovery of two calves is raising questions whether their mothers might have been poisoned in efforts to stop the herds from marauding farms or plantations.

One possibility is that calves were separated from their herd when people or plantation workers tried to shoo them away or in the worst case scenario might been victims of poisoning.

"We really do not know what has happened to the mothers of these babies," Sabah Wildlife Department director Datuk Laurentius Ambu said on Wednesday.

Ambu said rescued calves were in healthy condition and gaining weight at the care of the Sepilok wildlife medical care in Sandakan.

Ambu said human-elephant conflicts in Sabah have seen a dramatic rise in the past couple of years with number of elephants being killed and poisoned in on an upwards trend.

“We would like to advise all farmers and plantation owners not to take the law in their hands by injuring or killing the elephants.

“We will prosecute anybody because the Bornean elephant is now a totally protected species. We urge everyone to notify us if there are such elephant intrusions in their farms or estates," Ambu said.

The two calf elephants were found in separate locations in Kinabatangan - first a two week old they named Jimbo was found at a plantation located in Sg. Lokan after receiving a report made by the plantation manager.

Workers found him by the river and transferred moved him to elsewhere as the workers were afraid that a crocodile might attack him.

The second one-year-old calve named Tun Tan, was found in a plantation near Sukau and followed a tractor driven by a plantation worker back to the kongsi area where rangers picked it up.

Meanwhile, wildlife rangers expect by Thursday to carry out the trans location of two "fierce'' elephant cows with a herd of about 30 elephants that trampled into farmlands at Kg Buarto close to the Tungkalap Forest reserve in Telupid.

Wildlife Department assistant director Dr Sen Nathan said that they hoped to the two female elephants into Dermakot Forest Reserve which is linked to Tungkalap.

The remaining herd would be guided back into Tungkalap reserve, he said, adding that the situation was under control.

Jumbo task for Sabah rangers
The Star 21 Feb 14;

KOTA KINABALU: A herd of about 30 elephants that rampaged a village in Sabah’s central Telupid region three days ago have begun returning to their natural habitat at the Tangkalung forest reserve, says the state Wildlife Department.

Department assistant director Dr Sen Nathan, who is monitoring the movement, said rangers had to restrain two of the herd’s more aggressive females.

The two females were tranquillised on Tuesday because they kept charging at the rangers.

Dr Sen said two lorries had been arranged to transport the two elephants to the Dermakot forest reserve.

“Rangers have been monitoring the rest of the herd at Kampung Bauto, about 300km from here. Some of the members of the herd have left the village and are heading into the forest about 15km away,” he said yesterday.

He said the rangers expected the elephants to return to the forest while the two females were being moved to Dermakot.

“We need to send the two females deeper into the forest as they are too aggressive and can pose a problem to villagers and plantations,” he added.

Wildlife officials have warned that there was an increase in human-elephant conflict due to the shrinking natural habitat.

Meanwhile, state Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun said his ministry planned to come up with a long-term mitigation solution to the problem.


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Wild weather puts climate back on global agenda before 2015 deadline

Alister Doyle and Nina Chestney PlanetArk 19 Feb 14;

OSLO/LONDON (Reuters) - Bitter cold in the United States might appear to contradict the notion of global warming, but with Britain's wettest winter and Australia's hottest summer, extreme weather events have pushed climate change back on the political agenda.

A spluttering world economy had sapped political interest in the billion-dollar shifts from fossil fuels that scientists say are needed to cut greenhouse gas emissions, but rhetoric is changing in 2014, one year before a deadline for a new U.N. climate deal.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry went furthest, calling climate change "perhaps the most fearsome weapon of mass destruction" and ridiculing those who doubt that climate change is man-made.

Almost 200 governments have agreed to work out a deal at a summit in Paris in December 2015 to combat rising global temperatures which a U.N. panel of scientists has predicted will cause increasing extreme weather and rising seas.

The deal would replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol - the world's first attempt to agree emissions reductions which was spurned by the United States and which did not impose limits on rapidly developing economies like India and China.

With wild weather hitting some of the most developed parts of the world, politicians in rich nations are once again under pressure to address the issue.

"Attention has been increasing ... sadly because of the increase in the frequency and intensity of natural events and disasters,", U.N. climate change chief Christiana Figueres told Reuters.

"The scale and speed of action needs to improve," she said, adding that disasters in the past two or three years including 2013's Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines had also focused minds.

U.S. President Barack Obama and French President Francois Hollande last week urged an "ambitious" climate deal in 2015, which would come into force from 2020.

Large parts of the United States and Canada suffered bone-numbing cold last month that some scientists say could be a paradoxical side-effect of disruptions to the jet stream linked to climate change. Britain has had the wettest December to January on record, with widespread floods.

SLEEPWALKING

British opposition leader Ed Miliband said at the weekend that Britain was "sleepwalking to a climate crisis".

Last year was the warmest on record in Australia with heatwaves, droughts and wildfires. Prime Minister Tony Abbott is skeptical of a link to man-made global warming.

"If you look at the records of Australian agriculture going back 150 years, there have always been good times and bad," he told reporters during a tour of drought-stricken farming regions this week. "This is not a new thing in Australia."

Last year, the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change raised the probability that mankind was the main cause of global warming since the mid-20th century to at least 95 percent from 90 percent assessed in 2007.

Most nations have yet to say what curbs they will impose on carbon emissions in 2015, in a deal that could influence energy investments from coal to wind power.

"It's very good that international leaders are increasingly recognizing the threat of climate change," Connie Hedegaard, the European Union's climate commissioner, told Reuters.

"But leaders must walk the talk with concrete and forward-looking actions and pledges."

The European Commission has proposed a 40 percent cut in the bloc's emissions by 2030 from 1990 levels, after a 20 percent cut by 2020.

China, the top greenhouse gas emitter, ahead of the United States, has an added incentive to cut emissions - disastrous levels of air pollution caused by its rising use of coal.

"There will be more to see on China's (climate) plans around June 2015," Jiang Kejun at state-run think-tank Energy Research Institute told Reuters. He said China aimed to set a cap on energy consumption and carbon emissions in its next five-year plan, from 2016.

Most experts say that any 2015 deal is likely to be well short of deep cuts in emissions that scientists say are needed to limit global warming to a U.N. goal of no more than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times.

But those pushing for action are encouraged by the change in rhetoric. "The pace is starting to pick up," said Alden Meyer, of the Union of Concerned Scientists.

(Additional reporting by Stian Reklev and Kathy Chen in Beijing and Lincoln Feast in Sydney; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)


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