Best of our wild blogs: 4 Jan 19

Jan 2019 sampling events for NUS–NParks Marine Debris Monitoring Programme – Last sampling sessions!
News from the International Coastal Cleanup Singapore

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Feeling less productive? Blame it on the air: NUS study

WONG PEI TING Today Online 3 Jan 19;

SINGAPORE — Exposure to air pollution over several weeks is not just unhealthy, it can also affect worker productivity, according to a study by the National University of Singapore (NUS).

Employee productivity dips by 1 per cent when the PM2.5 — a fine particulate matter less than 2.5 microns in size — in the air increases by 10 micrograms per cubic metre and stays at that level for 25 days, the study found.

The NUS team spent more than a year gathering information from factories in China and scrutinising the output levels of two textile mills at Henan and Jiangsu. The findings from the study were published in the American Economic Journal: Applied Economics on Thursday (Jan 3).

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Indonesia: Jakarta Residents Agree on Limiting Disposable Plastic Bag

Ricky Mohammad Nugraha Tempo 3 Jan 19;

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Jakarta Environmental Agency announced that 80 percent of the city’s residents welcomed the idea of limiting the use of disposable plastic bags.

The Agency's head of waste management Rahmawati, said that the Agency acquired the data based on a door-to-door survey conducted on respondents that mostly consist of housewives.

"Almost 80 percent [of respondents] agreed to a limit on the use of disposable plastic bags and willing to bring their own [reusable] bags," said Rahmawati to Tempo on Thursday, January 3, 2019.

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Vietnam: Wildlife trafficking still at serious levels

VietNamNet Bridge 3 Jan 19;

As a hotspot for wildlife trafficking and consumption since the late 80s, Vietnam is facing a risk of depletion of biodiversity.

Vietnam made a commitment to fight against wildlife trafficking at the 2018 London Conference. In reply, PanNature, a Vietnamese not-for-profit organization dedicated to conserving biodiversity, recently issued a policy bulletin on the status of wildlife in the country.

The country in the past mostly exported wildlife and served as a site for wildlife transshipment, but now it has also become a consumer of wildlife.

The wildlife demand from Vietnamese is increasingly high, depleting domestic biodiversity resources, and having a negative impact on natural resources in other countries, from the sub-Mekong Region to Africa.

Despite the ban on trading and consuming wildlife, many Vietnamese still eat wild animal meat, while restaurants still sell dishes made of wild birds and animals.

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