Best of our wild blogs: 12 Sep 14

Malayan Tiger: Fundraising Dinner (and other ways to help)
from Cicada Tree Eco Place

Visit to Sisters’ Islands
from Sengkang Babies

Predawn walks at the Sisters Islands Marine Park
from wild shores of singapore

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Project to keep tabs on types of moths in Singapore

Carolyn Khew The Straits Times AsiaOne 12 Sep 14;


Genus Utetheisia.

An interest group has started a project to catalogue the types of moths in Singapore by asking the public to send in photos of the ones they spot (https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/singapore-moths)

The initiative by the Butterfly Interest Group of the Nature Society (Singapore) (NSS) has collected more than 150 submissions since the programme was launched in July.

Of these, 60 out of 85 moth species have been identified.

Mr Anuj Jain, chairman of NSS' Butterfly Interest Group, hopes to create a centralised catalogue through this project.

Moths are insects with four wings belonging to the Lepidoptera order. Even though butterflies and moths belong in the same order, entomologists classify them separately.

"There is currently no field guide for moths in Singapore," said Mr Anuj, who is also an ecologist at the National University of Singapore (NUS).

"If we don't even know what moths are here, how can we expect to conserve them?"

The group hopes to ride the public interest piqued in May when numerous sightings were made of the tropical swallowtail moth, Lyssa zampa.

Netizens posted pictures of the palm-sized, dark-coloured insects seen in places ranging from MRT stations to offices in Raffles Place.

Pictures of moths that are spotted and their locations can be submitted online to the iNaturalist platform, and experts in the group will verify and identify the species.

Experts hope the project will help to keep the numbers of moth species up to date.

The Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum at NUS houses thousands of moth specimens dating back to at least the 1930s, said its entomologist, Mr Hwang Wei Song, but more could be known about which moth species are still found in Singapore today.

"Compared to their sister group, the butterflies, information on the rarity of moths is far from certain, and every effort to help determine their local abundance to help with conservation planning is worthwhile," said Mr Hwang.

Dr Roger Kendrick, one of the administrators of the project, said adding new data would help to identify trends in a species.

Differences could show how habitats change over time.

"Many moth species have larvae that can eat only leaves from a particular plant," said Dr Kendrick, who is also the director of a Hong Kong-based independent wildlife consultancy, C&R Wildlife. "If that plant has become locally extinct, then the moth goes bye, bye too."

Lepidoptera enthusiast Foo Jit Leang has submitted 16 moth sightings to the website so far.

"Having such a platform makes it more convenient for us," said Mr Foo, a 65-year-old software developer. "Previously, you would have to use online resources to figure out the moths' identity on your own."

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Malaysia: Bloom is of a new species of plant discovered on Gunung Kanthan

patrick lee The Star 11 Sep 14;


Fragrant: The flower of the new tree species found at the Gua Kanthan mouth on the hill’s Area D.

PETALING JAYA: A new species of plant, Meiogyne kanthanensis, with citrus-smelling flowers was discovered on a limestone hill in Perak last year

Forest Research Institute of Malaysia (Frim) plant taxonomist Dr Ruth Kiew who made the discovery on Gunung Kanthan, said the plant was so rare that only three trees of its kind were seen.

An international scientific journal published in New Zealand known as Phytotaxa reported that the plant’s flower had an interesting smell.

“The flower...(has) a fruity aroma, a complex scent reminiscent of pomelo, citrus, lychee, plum and lemon grass,” it said.

The report was co-authored by Dr Kiew, Frim Forest Biodiversity director Dr Saw Leng Guan, and Frim research officers Joanne Tan and Ummul Nazrah Abdul Rahman.

It also mentioned the discovery of two other new species – Gymnostachyum kanthanense and Vatica kanthanensis – both also found on the hill.

Tan said in an interview that scientists had not noticed the plant there before, and that its flower was only visible during certain times of the year.

“We try to be there nearly every month, but might miss some of the flowering seasons,” she said.

Flora and Fauna International (Asia-Pacific) regional director Tony Whitten said the discovery meant that experts would have to survey Gunung Kanthan’s endemic species and surrounding hills.

“This would be no mean task given the hills’ steepness, but it is possible, as the stakes are high – and extinction is final,” he said.

Lafarge Malaysia Bhd industrial operations vice-president Mariano Garcia said the discoveries would be reviewed along with a previous survey of the hill.

He said local stakeholders would be updated on the progress of a quarry development programme with the biodiversity study. Lafarge is involved in mining limestone in two designated zones on the hill.

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Indonesia: Malaysian firm fined, executives get prison for role in forest fires

Hasyim Widhiarto, The Jakarta Post 11 Sep 14;

A Malaysian manager at plantation firm PT ADEI Plantation and Industry, a unit of Malaysia’s Kuala Lumpur Kepong Berhad, was found guilty on Tuesday of causing forest fires in Riau last year that led to haze choking neighboring Singapore and Malaysia.

The Pelalawan District Court in Riau sentenced ADEI general manager Danesuvaran KR Singam to a year in prison and the option of paying Rp 2 billion (US$168,800) or serving an additional two months in jail for violating Article 99 (1) of the 2009 Environmental Protection and Management Law.

“The defendant was negligent in his supervisory role of the estate. He should have actively prevented irresponsible parties from slipping into the estate and setting the fires,” presiding judge Donovan Pendapotan said.

Danesuvaran, however, was not sent directly to prison after the hearing. “We need to wait for a final and binding verdict from the Supreme Court before sending the defendant to prison,” said prosecutor Banu Laksmana, adding that the prosecutors would appeal the sentence.

The court found ADEI guilty of violating the same article in the 2009 law and handed down a Rp 1.5 billion fine or see its director, Tan Kei Yoong, serve five months in jail. The court also ordered ADEI to pay an additional Rp 15.1 billion to repair the environmental damage caused by the forest fires.

Between June and August last year, the slash-and-burn fires on plantations in Riau and some parts of Kalimantan triggered severe haze that blanketed Singapore and some parts of Malaysia, as well as areas of Indonesia near the blaze.

In response to the subsequent diplomatic uproar, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono apologized to the neighboring countries.

The incident also served as a catalyst for Singaporean legislators to pass a law in August that allows the city state to prosecute local and foreign firms involved in illegal forest burning that leads to severe air pollution. The law was also a response to Indonesia’s lack of action in preventing a repeat of the problem.

Despite the verdict, the law-enforcement monitoring deputy at the Presidential Working Unit for the Supervision and Management of Development (UKP4), Mas Achmad Santosa, argued it was not enough as the sentence was deemed too light.

Mas Achmad said the judges’ lack of appreciation of the ecological crisis was the reason behind such a light punishment.

“The sentences are too light and fail to provide a deterrent effect. They do not reflect the court’s sense of crisis about the impact of land and forest fires on our environment,” Mas Achmad said on Tuesday.

However, he praised the court for holding the company and its top officials to account in the case.

“Cases related to land and forest fires usually end up in the arrest of field operators only. But by applying the corporate criminal liability approach [as in this case], the functional perpetrators, such as the business executives or the corporation itself, can now be punished,” he said.

The Indonesian Forum for the Environment’s (Walhi) Riau chapter executive director, Riko Kurniawan, meanwhile, suggested the court speed up its deliberations in the future. “These two cases took around seven months. Law-enforcement officials should wrap up future forest-fire cases faster if they really want to show their commitment to protecting the environment,” he said.

Malaysian jailed over forest fires
The Star 12 Sep 14;

PETALING JAYA: A Malaysian has been slapped with a year’s jail for causing forest fires in Indonesia which led to the severe haze in Malaysia and Singapore.

The Jakarta Post reported that Danesuvaran KR Singam, who is a general manager at the plantation firm PT ADEI Plantation and Industry, a unit of Malaysia’s Kuala Lumpur Kepong Berhad, was found guilty by the Pelalawan district court in Riau for violating Article 99(1) of the 2009 Environmental Protection and Management Law.

He was also fined two billion rupiah (RM539,507.36), for the offence.

Judge Donovan Pendapotan said Danesuvaran was negligent in his supervisory role of the estate and that he should have actively prevented irresponsible parties from slipping into the estate and setting the fires.

The court also fined ADEI 1.5 billion rupiah (RM404,814) for violating the same law or see the firm’s director, Tan Kei Yoong sentenced to five months in prison.

Prosecutor Banu Laksmana said Danesuvaran would, however, not be sent to jail immediately as they needed to wait for a final and binding verdict from the Supreme Court.

“We will be appealing the sentence,” Banu was reported saying.

The sentences have been deemed too light by some, including the law enforcement monitoring deputy at the Presidential Working Unit for the Supervision and Management of Development, Mas Achmad Santosa.

“The sentences are too light and fail to provide a deterrent effect. They do not reflect the court’s sense of crisis about the impact of land and forest fires on our environment,” Mas Achmad was quoted saying.

He, however, praised the court for finding the company and its top officials accountable in the case, as it was usually the low level operators who were punished.

The Indonesian Forum for the Environment’s Riau chapter executive director Riko Kurniawan however, urged for quicker resolution to future forest fire cases, saying that the two cases had taken seven months.

Singapore and parts of Malaysia and Indonesia were blanketed by thick smoke as a result of slash and burn fires on plantations in Riau and Kalimantan between June and August last year.

Following that, Singapore passed a law that allows the city state to prosecute local and foreign firms involved in illegal forest burning that leads to severe air pollution.

Riau court jails and fines Malaysian plantation manager over forest fires
The Star 12 Sep 14;

SINGAPORE: A district court in Riau sentenced a Malaysian plantation firm manager to one year in jail and fined him 2 billion rupiah (RM539,492) on Tuesday for neglecting to prevent forest fires on his company's estate in June last year.

The Pelalawan court also fined his company ADEI Plantation, a subsidiary of Kuala Lumpur Kepong (KLK), 1.5 billion rupiah (RM404,619) and ordered it to pay 15.1 billion rupiah (RM4,073,160) to repair the environmental damage.

"The defendant was negligent in his supervisory role over the estate. He should have actively prevented irresponsible parties from slipping into the estate and setting the fires," presiding judge Donovan Kusumo Bhuwono said.

The judgment comes as the Indonesian authorities appear keen to signal they are acting on environmental offences after receiving flak from local residents, environmental groups and neighbouring countries over last year's haze.

Prosecutors had also sought a five-year sentence for the manager Danesuvaran K.R. Singam, 52. Both he and the prosecution plan to appeal against the verdict before a higher court.

Rafles Panjaitan, director for forest fire control at the Forestry Ministry, told The Straits Times: "We have been stepping up efforts to enforce the laws. The President (Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono) has ordered police, attorneys, ministries and state agencies to act faster."

He noted that more individuals have been arrested for illegal burning over the past year. KLK had previously said it did not carry out irresponsible burning practices.

In 2001, ADEI's head C. Gobi was sentenced to two years in prison for using fire to clear land, although this was lowered to eight months on appeal.

Uncontrolled forest fires in Riau sent pollutant levels to record highs in neighbouring countries in June last year, prompting Susilo to apologise for the haze and order swift action to stop the fires.

However, green groups say that lenient sentences remain a weak link in the effort to stop illegal burning. - The Singapore Straits Times/ANN

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Warmer air caused ice shelf collapse off Antarctica

Alister Doyle Reuters Yahoo News 11 Sep 14;

Warmer air triggered the collapse of a huge ice shelf off Antarctica in 2002, according to a report on Thursday that may help scientists predict future break-ups around the frozen continent.

Antarctica is a key to sea level rise, which threatens coastal areas around the world.. It has enough ice to raise seas by 57 meters (190 feet) if it ever all melted, meaning that even a tiny thaw at the fringes is a concern.

Until now, the exact cause of the collapse of the Larsen-B ice shelf, a floating mass of ice bigger than Luxembourg at the end of glaciers in the Antarctic Peninsula, had been unknown. Some experts suggested it was thinned by sea water from below.

Writing in the journal Science, a team of scientists blamed rising air temperatures, saying that melt water and rain in the brief Antarctic summer had flowed into deep cracks.

Water expands when it turns to ice, and the re-freezing meltwater in the Larsen-B shelf - perhaps 200 meters thick - led to a build-up of huge pressures that shattered the ice in 2002.

A rival theory had been that warmer sea water had destabilized ice where the shelf was grounded on the seabed. Studying the seabed, however, the scientists found evidence that water had flowed freely under the ice for the past 12,000 years.

"This implies that the 2002 Larsen-B Ice Shelf collapse likely was a response to surface warming," they wrote. Since 2002, several other shelves have broken up around the Antarctic Peninsula, which is below South America.

WARNING SIGN

The Larsen-B captured the public imagination and even featured in a Hollywood disaster movie about climate change, "The Day After Tomorrow", showing a huge crevasse appearing through a scientific base on the ice.

"Hollywood underplayed that one," said Eugene Domack, an author of the study at the University of South Florida. "It fractured into thousands of icebergs, not just one huge crevasse."

Loss of floating ice shelves does not directly affect sea levels but can accelerate the slide of glaciers from land into the sea, raising levels. Thursday's study was by scientists in Italy, the United States, Portugal, Germany, Canada and Britain.

Domack told Reuters the findings could help scientists spot other ice at risk of breaking up. Pools of summer meltwater on the surface of ice shelves - visible from space - could be an early warning sign, he said.

The northern part of the Larsen-C ice shelf, further south and four times the size of the Larsen-B shelf, has been showing signs of instability, he said.

Scientists have linked warmer air over the Antarctic Peninsula to climate change and to a thinning of the ozone hole that shields life from cancer-causing solar rays, driven by man-made chemicals.

A U.N. report on Wednesday said that the ozone layer is showing its first signs of recovery after years of depletion, in a rare piece of good news about the environment.

(Editing by Alison Williams)

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