27 Feb (Sat): Screening of "End of the Line" and get the WWF Singapore Seafood Guide from Celebrating Singapore's BioDiversity!
A Juvenile Wagler's Pit Viper
from Life's Indulgences
Awesome Ophiuroids: Brittle star talk at St. John's Island
from wild shores of singapore
News Alert - "Galaxea"
from Psychedelic Nature
苍鹭--新加坡体型最大的鸟 Grey Heron@Singapore
from PurpleMangrove
Courtship feeding in Asian Koel
from Bird Ecology Study Group
71 bush fires in first 2 weeks as rainfall set to be lowest ever for Feb
Victoria Vaughan & Sujin Thomas, Straits Times 19 Feb 10;
AN UNUSUALLY high number of bush fires has been raging for the second year in a row, as Singapore heads towards what could be the driest February on record.
With rainfall less than half what it was this time last year, 71 bush fires have been recorded in the first two weeks of the month, and they may continue until it rains, said climate experts.
Last year, the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) fought 159 bush fires in February and 182 in January, the highest figure for that month in the past decade.
This year, 36 bush fires were recorded in January. The huge jump seen in the first two weeks of this month could continue if the weather stays dry.
Rainfall up to Tuesday was just 4.6mm, compared with 11.5mm in the same period last year. Average monthly rainfall for February is usually about 100mm.
According to the National Environment Agency (NEA), it will continue to be dry for at least the next two weeks, with only shortlived showers expected on three or four afternoons.
The SCDF has identified three hot spots, all in the eastern part of the island, which has seen the highest number of fires reported recently. The three are: Fort Road, with three fires; Bedok Road, with four; and along the Tampines Expressway (TPE) towards Changi after the Jalan Kayu exit, which had four cases.
Other areas which had fires included Punggol, Hougang and Pasir Ris.
The fires occurred in vacant grasslands or open fields and were generally not near homes or commercial areas. At the TPE, they raged in the brush just next to the expressway.
The fires are started in different ways, exacerbated by the dry season, such as cigarette butts being thrown carelessly, or from candles that are lit at makeshift altars.
The SCDF, which chairs the Wildfire Task Force Committee, said it is working on preventive measures with related agencies such as the Housing Board and the Singapore Land Authority.
These include increased patrols, trimming vegetation and creating fire-break buffers to prevent the spread of fire.
There were no reports of injuries from the fires last year.
A Straits Times check of the affected stretches of the TPE and Punggol found areas of charred grass and burnt trees ranging in size from smaller than a basketball court to as big as a football field.
Residents in the vicinity largely seemed to be unaware of what was happening.
An SCDF spokesman said its officers patrol the hot spots up to three times a week. Fire hydrants are also inspected during the checks.
National University of Singapore's climate expert Matthias Roth, 49, said that El Nino, a recurring weather phenomenon, could be to blame for the current dry weather.
'A moderate El Nino is in place which is predicted to last into spring. The impact includes drier-than-average conditions which could help to explain why Singapore is experiencing a dry spell,' he said.
He noted that both January and February had below average rainfall.
'This has contributed to dry conditions of the soil and vegetation, therefore increasing the susceptibility to bush fires,' said the climatologist.
The lowest recorded rainfall for February was 8.4mm in the years 1968 and 2005.
An NEA spokesman said it was too soon to tell if this could become the driest February on record, but if rainfall continues at the same rate, then it could well be.
Singapore is currently experiencing the north-east monsoon season, which brings heavy rainfall through December and January. The dry phase of the monsoon occurs between February and early March.
HOTSPOTS
# Fort Road: Three fires
# Bedok Road: Four fires
# Along the Tampines Expressway towards Changi after the Jalan Kayu exit: Four fires
It'll account for 2% of peak electricity demand by 2014, against 5% proposed
Ronnie Lim, Business Times 19 Feb 10;
POWER projects using renewable fuels (such as palm kernel for Tuas Power's latest clean coal/ biomass plant) - and if taken to broadly include waste-to-energy facilities - will account for about 2 per cent of Singapore's peak electricity demand by 2014, going by current projects and others underway here.
This falls short of the Economic Strategies Committee's (ESC) recommendation that 5 per cent of peak electricity be supplied from renewables by 2020, although solar energy could enter the picture here once the technology improves, industry officials said. They said that the ESC recommendation was definitely a step in the right direction, but 'a challenging one'.
The move towards energy alternatives - renewables in the interim, and nuclear energy in the longer term - is critical, they add, given the generating companies' current reliance on piped natural gas from Indonesia and Malaysia.
'Natural gas accounts for as much as 85 per cent of the gencos' fuel, with the remainder being fuel oil. But recently, with some Indonesian gas supply problems, natural gas use here fell to as much as 70 per cent, with more oil used as a back-up,' one genco official said.
Liquefied natural gas supplies which will be available from mid-2013 will help, although it will initially be more expensive than piped gas, he added.
One genco source said that peak electricity demand here currently ranges from 5,800 MW to 5,900 MW, and even at a conservative 6,000 MW, the ESC target suggests that at least 300 MW should be supplied from renewable fuels by that date.
(The Energy Market Authority projects electricity demand to grow by 2.5-3 per cent annually between 2009 and 2018.)
Right now, the only known projects incorporating renewables includes Tuas Power's $2 billion clean coal/biomass plant being built on Jurong Island. Tropical biomass, comprising palm kernel shell, will make up 20 per cent of its fuel mix.
Apart from steam and cooling water, the plant, when fully completed in 2014, will produce 160 MW of electricity - which means that roughly 32 MW will be generated from renewables.
Singapore's Biofuel Industries had also tied up with Indonesia's Medco Energi to build a $55 million, 24.8 MW cogeneration plant fuelled by horticultural and industrial wood waste, and is scheduled to start selling about 20 MW to the power grid here once the project is completed by the middle of this year.
Currently, there are also several waste-to-energy plants here - such as Senoko Waste-to-Energy (generating 55MW), Keppel Seghers Tuas Waste-to-Energy (24 MW) and IUT Singapore's bio-methanisation plant which creates energy from food waste (2.13 MW). Another power player, Sembcorp, is also continuing pilot trials on refuse-derived fuels (RDF) for its planned second cogeneration plant on Jurong Island, but has so far found RDF to be costly and not energy-efficient. In the UK, it has a 30 MW plant which uses entirely biomass including willow crops, to produce electricity, and gets 'green' incentives such as carbon credits from the UK government for this.
If RFD is added to the 'renewables' equation, then all the current and on-going projects here will add up to about 133 MW by 2014 - or just 40 per cent of the ESC's 300 MW-plus target by 2020.
John Ng, CEO of PowerSeraya, disclosed that the genco is also looking at producing power from waste, but declined to go into project details at this time.
The genco, now owned by Malaysia's YTL Group, is also studying how it can participate in Singapore's electric vehicle network, as well as in small-scale solar projects for customers, he added. 'We are not discounting solar as the technology is evolving and a lot of things can change in 10 years time,' said Mr Ng.
Another industry source cited the example of pharmaceuticals manufacturer Pfizer which has apparently employed solar panels to meet its energy needs, in addition to having an in-house tri-generation plant which produces steam and 4.8 MW of electricity.
'But solar is not sufficiently efficient nor cost effective at this stage to justify the investment involved, and government incentives will be needed to promote its use,' the source added.
Computer program helps planners to identify potential hot spots
Grace Chua, Straits Times 19 Feb 10;
INDUSTRIAL estates could well become cooler and more comfortable to work in.
Less heat will be trapped between their buildings, which will also use less energy to cool them down.
This comes courtesy of a computer program which enables town planners to map out potential hot spots and so design industrial estates or improve existing ones to have fewer of these.
The program, the brainchild of researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) and planners from the industrial real estate firm JTC Corporation, guides planners on how to site buildings, plant trees or place ponds, among other measures to dissipate heat.
Similar mapping tools have been developed in the West, but are inapplicable to tropical climates, said associate professor Wong Nyuk Hien, a design and environment researcher at NUS.
And in Singapore, where temperatures can be broiling, such a mapping tool can make a difference.
Lowering the outside air temperature by a mere 1 deg C can cut a building's energy consumption by 5 per cent, previous NUS research has found.
To develop the program, Dr Wong's team collected data from JTC's 200ha one-north industrial zone in Buona Vista - information on the temperature and solar radiation at different times of day, and even the amount and type of greenery there. The zone houses Biopolis, Fusionopolis, Ayer Rajah Industrial Estate, and residential and mixed-use areas.
It is the first time a tool has been developed to study climate in industrial estates here, and a first in South-east Asia too, although Japan is coming up with a similar tool, said Dr Wong.
He and his colleagues will also use the program to study temperatures in Punggol residential estate, in a separate project with the Housing Board.
The presence of hot spots in built-up areas is not unique to Singapore, said JTC planners, but it is especially pronounced here because Singapore is land-scarce and densely populated.
This leads invariably to high - and expensive - energy needs for cooling.
JTC engineering planning director Koh Chwee said that since there was no way around the need to develop complex industrial areas, the computer program would help lower ambient temperature and slash energy bills.
The first phase of the two-part study, which cost JTC $150,000, found that on a hot afternoon, the hottest and coolest parts of one-north could have a temperature difference of as much as 2 deg C.
The second phase will involve fine-tuning the program and checking its accuracy by running it in other JTC estates such as the Seletar Aerospace Park.
Already, JTC is using the software to come up with guidelines for other developers who build on its sites.
Besides one-north, JTC has 6,600ha of projects across Singapore, from Jurong Island to Changi Business Park.
Dr Wong said the program should work for other parts of Singapore, as the climate is the same across the island.
High time for lower temperatures
Joyce Hooi, Business Times 19 Feb 10;
(SINGAPORE) Selecting the desired temperature for an entire industrial estate may soon be almost as easy as playing the simulation computer game SimCity.
JTC Corporation and the National University of Singapore (NUS) yesterday unveiled an air temperature prediction model tool that will allow urban planners to do just that.
The model tool, called the Screening Tool for Estate Environment Evaluation (STEVE), will let users simulate different temperature ranges by changing certain variables like the amount of trees in the area, height of buildings and the quantity of paved surface area.
With STEVE and a web-based temperature calculator, urban planners will be able to ascertain the types and quantity of greenery needed to reduce the area's temperature by a certain number of degrees.
'We are very excited about this development, because now planners won't have to wait years to see if the outcome is what was expected,' said Koh Chwee, director of JTC's engineering planning division.
A climate map that can be generated from the calculator will display various areas marked with different colour indicators according to their temperatures.
'This makes it easier to identify temperature hotspots for mitigation,' said Steve Kardinal Jusuf, the eponymous researcher of the project and a research fellow at NUS's School of Design & Environment.
The lowering of outdoor temperatures will create meaningful differences for building owners in these areas.
Research findings cited by JTC and NUS state that every 1C reduction in outdoor air temperature results in a 5 per cent reduction in building energy consumption.
Phase 1 of the project - which featured primarily data collection and was funded by JTC for $150,000 - was started in October 2007 and completed in September last year.
Having run the model on the one-north development as a test, JTC and NUS will be moving on to Phase 2 later this year, which will involve validating the model at other test sites like Seletar Aerospace Park and Paya Lebar Industrial Park.
The costs associated with the two-year Phase 2 of the project have not yet been finalised.
'Once the prediction model is up, it can be applied to any estate,' said Wong Nyuk Hien, principal investigator of the project and an associate professor at NUS's School of Design & Environment.
JTC's Mr Koh also did not rule out introducing this model to the private sector. 'In time to come, when the toolset is mature enough, extending it to the private sector is possible,' he said.
Straits Times 19 Feb 10;
SHIPPING emissions are attracting greater attention in the climate change agenda as they are responsible for about 3 per cent of total global emissions - 1 per cent higher than the airline industry's carbon footprint.
As one of the busiest ports in the world, along with Shanghai and Rotterdam, Singapore has a part to play in the greening of the shipping industry.
Last year, more than 130,000 ships docked here, so it is about time that Singapore begins its first research centre for seafaring energy.
At its opening yesterday, the Centre for Maritime Energy Research (CMER) at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) launched a programme offering a total of $15 million for research into cleaner shipping technologies.
A memorandum of understanding for the programme was also signed by Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) chief executive Lam Yi Young and NTU Provost Bertil Andersson yesterday.
'The MPA hopes the fund will help it develop greener shipping and port management,' said an MPA spokesman.
Research areas include the probing of nuclear and fuel cell power for ships at sea, carbon capturing of emissions and electrification of ships.
Six projects will be chosen next month and will receive between $500,000 and $1 million in funding.
Funding for the programme will come from the MPA's Maritime Innovation and Technology Fund ($8 million) and NTU ($2 million), over the next five years. They will also seek an additional $5 million from the industry.
Six industry partners have since signed up with NTU to collaborate with CMER. They are the American Bureau of Shipping, APL, DNV, Keppel Offshore and Marine Technology Centre, Sembcorp Marine and Rolls-Royce Singapore.
VICTORIA VAUGHAN
Platform to develop green shipping solutions
Business Times 19 Feb 10;
THE Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) and Nanyang Technological University (NTU) yesterday jointly launched the $15 million Maritime Clean Energy Research Programme (MCERP) to focus on research platforms that promote green, carbon-neutral, energy management solutions.
Co-funded by MPA's Maritime Innovation and Technology Fund and NTU, research grants of up to $8 million and $2 million will be contributed by MPA and NTU respectively over a five-year period.
MPA and NTU will also work towards securing industry co-funding of up to $5 million.
The research will be conducted through the Centre for Maritime Energy Research (CMER), a new centre under the Energy Research Institute at NTU. The programme aims to develop green shipping and port solutions and will work with other centres at the institute.
The first Call for Proposals for research grants opened yesterday. The evaluation panel will constitute members from NTU, MPA and the maritime industry.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) launching the programme was yesterday signed by MPA chief executive Lam Yi Young and NTU Provost Bertil Andersson.
In conjunction with the MCERP, Mr Lam and Prof Andersson also witnessed the signing of an MOU with the American Bureau of Shipping, APL, DNV, Keppel Offshore and Marine Technology Centre and Sembcorp Marine and a Letter of Intent with Rolls-Royce Singapore which are all interested to explore collaborations with CMER.
MPA, NTU launch Maritime Clean Energy Research Programme
Channel NewsAsia 18 Feb 10;
SINGAPORE: Research funding of up to S$15 million will be available over five years under a newly launched "Maritime Clean Energy Research Programme".
The programme, jointly launched by the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) and Nanyang Technological University (NTU), aims to help the development of green technologies in shipping and port management.
Research will be conducted through the Centre for Maritime Energy Research, a new centre under the Energy Research Institute at NTU.
The first Call for proposals for the research grant opened on Thursday.
- CNA/sc
May Wong, Channel NewsAsia 18 Feb 10;
SINGAPORE: Singaporeans can soon learn more about climate change through a roving interactive exhibition.
The Singapore Environment Council hopes the initiative will get the young thinking about what they can do to save the earth.
The S$70,000 project is a collaboration between the Singapore Environment Council, Club 21 and Toshiba.
From January next year, schools and organisations can loan the mobile Earth Stations for a two-week period through this website: http://www.climatechange.sg
"It's really to provide outreach and to make learning a bit more fun and less dry for our young," said Howard Shaw, executive director of the Singapore Environment Council.
"We find that they are so much more receptive to the content when it's something that they think is cool, it's fun to play with, and there's an element of competition in it too."
The interactive exhibit has a database of information ranging from pollution to the global warming process, and even the solar system.
The roving exhibition hopes to engage children about climate change issues through games and quizzes.
"Educating our young is really the foundation for a greener society and it's a long term investment," said Shaw.
"We noticed that education is there these days but perhaps the young are getting a bit jaded because they hear it too many times... they're maybe even a bit bored of hearing. So it's a matter of repackaging your education programme and bringing it up another notch to a level where they regain their interest."
The exhibition, in the form of an Earth Station, is aimed at educating students aged between six and 16 by using simple explanations and interesting graphics.
For a start, the stations will be loaned to schools, but organisers also plan to place them temporarily at community clubs and shopping malls in the future.
The stations will soon be available in Chinese.
Singapore's roving eco exhibition: Fun, games and competition
It's the fun, fact-filled interactive way for kids to learn about climate change
Larry Loh CNN GO 22 Feb 10;
The S$70,000 project is a collaboration between the Singapore Environment Council, Club 21 and Toshiba.
It's the roving interactive exhibition with a green message -- climate change is important. Mobile Earth Stations will be making their rounds around Singapore as part of a nationwide initiative to get the young thinking about what they can do to save the earth.
With fun facts ranging from pollution to the global warming process and even the solar system, the climate change exhibition aims to engage children about climate change issues through games and quizzes, as well as using simple explanations and interesting graphics.
"Educating our young is really the foundation for a greener society and it's a long-term investment," said Howard Shaw, executive director of the Singapore Environment Council, to Channel NewsAsia. "[The exhibition is] really to provide outreach and to make learning a bit more fun and less dry for our young. We find that they are so much more receptive to the content when it's something that they think is cool, it's fun to play with, and there's an element of competition in it too."
For a start, the stations will be loaned to schools, but organizers also plan to place them temporarily at community clubs and shopping malls in the future. If you're interested in borrowing the mobile Earth Station for a two-week period, take a look at www.climatechange.sg.
Mustafa Shafawi, Channel NewsAsia 18 Feb 10;
SINGAPORE: Singaporeans polled by the government feedback channel, REACH, have given high marks to the key recommendations by the Economic Strategies Committee (ESC).
The telephone poll of some 8,000 Singaporeans found 70 per cent agreeing with the recommendations.
REACH said the sentiments also largely reflected the feedback received through other online channels.
Respondents to the telephone survey were most supportive of the ESC recommendations to upskill workers at all levels through an enhanced Continuing Education and Training (CET) system (94%), strengthen support for low-wage workers through enhanced Workfare Income Supplement scheme (93%), and provide multiple skills-based progression pathways to complement academic routes (89%).
Three recommendations received less support and relatively more disagreement.
Sixty-five per cent of respondents agreed to raising the quality of the foreign workforce and encouraging employers to retain skilled foreign workers by increasing the skilled levy differential, while 22 per cent disagreed.
Fifty-eight per cent of respondents agreed to diversifying energy sources by exploring the feasibility of nuclear energy for the long term, while 25 per cent disagreed.
Fifty-two per cent of respondents agreed to raising foreign worker levies in a gradual and phased manner in order to manage Singapore's dependence on the foreign workforce, while 31 per cent disagreed.
A few contributors argued that this change should not be applied across the board as some jobs were shunned by locals, and businesses in those sectors depended heavily on foreign workers to remain viable.
While a handful of contributors who gave their feedback online welcomed the move to explore the feasibility of studying nuclear energy as a possible source of energy, others argued over the risks and costs involved in developing a nuclear plant.
They hoped that the government would consider this decision very carefully, and explore other means to generate alternative sources of energy.
On anchoring Singapore as a Global-Asia hub, contributors felt that there was an ongoing need to identify, develop and retain talents across all sectors, including developing world class companies such as Singapore Airlines and Creative Technologies.
Commenting on the feedback, REACH Chairman Dr Amy Khor said it shows Singaporeans broadly agree with and are supportive of the ESC's strategies to grow the economy to achieve sustained and inclusive growth.
She said the results should help to give the government a better idea of ground sentiments on these issues.
- CNA/yb
Yahoo News 18 Feb 10;
JAKARTA (AFP) – Conservationists Thursday hailed a breakthrough in efforts to save the critically endangered Sumatran rhino after a female called Ratu became pregnant in captivity.
Tests on Tuesday revealed that eight-year-old Ratu was carrying a calf after mating with Andalas, the first of only three Sumatran rhinos born in captivity over the past 112 years, experts said.
"We're really happy to see the ultrasound has spotted the foetus and umbilical cord in Ratu's uterus," said Widodo Ramono of the Rhino Foundation of Indonesia, which is conducting the breeding programme in conjunction with the International Rhino Foundation (IRF) and Cincinnati Zoo.
"This is very, very good news... It will be the first Sumatran rhino born in captivity in Indonesia."
If everything goes well, Ratu will give birth in May next year to only the fourth Sumatran rhino born in captivity.
The two-horned, hairy, forest-dwelling Sumatran rhinoceros is one of the most endangered mammals in the world, with only about 200 remaining in the wild, up to 180 in Indonesia and the rest in Malaysia, Ramono said.
Solitary and aggressive, they are rarely sighted in the wild and avoid even other members of their species except when females are ready to mate.
Andalas was born on September 13, 2001 in Cincinnati Zoo, while Ratu was rescued in 2005 after she was chased from a forest on Sumatra by villagers who reportedly mistook her for a mythical monster and tried to kill her.
They met last year in a sanctuary in Way Kambas national park in Lampung, South Sumatra province, two years after Andalas was brought from the United States to participate in the programme.
"At the beginning, we were quite pessimistic as Andalas was aggressive and unfriendly towards the female rhinos," Ramono said.
"He chased and fought Ratu and the other females and suffered quite serious wounds that needed at least a month to heal.
"But suddenly on November 16, Andalas softened his attitude towards Ratu and he tried to mate with her for the first time, but he didn't do it properly."
The pair finally got it right on their fourth attempt on January 13, when Ratu conceived, he said.
Poaching is one of the biggest killers of Sumatran rhinos, whose numbers have dropped more than 50 percent over the last 15 years. Their horns are reputed to have medicinal properties.
The Way Kambas sanctuary has two male and three females rhinos. The other male, Torgamba, proved to be infertile, so Andalas is carrying all the responsibility to make the breeding programme a success.
Veterinary surgeon Dedi Chandra told AFP that Ratu was in prime condition for motherhood and so far she was dealing with pregnancy well.
"Our approach now is more psychological. We're just trying to make her enjoy her pregnancy," he said.
"We haven't detected anything abnormal. Like humans, the early stages of pregnancy should be closely monitored. She has to be free from disturbances, have good food and drink and a good place to live."
IRF executive director Susie Ellis said that while captive breeding was not a substitute for protecting the species in the wild, it was a "critical part" of the strategy for the rhino's recovery.
"Every individual counts and the captive population represents not only an 'insurance policy' for the wild population, but also a means to study the basic biology of the species, which we must understand in order to save them," she said in a statement.
Mum-to-Be Helps Sumatran Rhinos Take Step Back from Extinction
Jakarta Globe 18 Feb 10;
The survival of the critically endangered Sumatran rhinoceros has received a much-needed boost with an announcement on Thursday from the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary in Lampung that a baby rhino was on the way.
The calf is expected to be born in May 2011 at the sanctuary, which is located in the Way Kambas National Park, and will be the second Sumatran rhino born and bred in captivity since 1889. But good fortune seems to run in the family, with the expecting father, Andalas, being the last Sumatran rhino born away from its natural environment.
Ratu, the expectant mother, was brought to the sanctuary in 2006 after wandering into a village near the Way Kambas National Park. “The pregnancy seems to be progressing well, and we believe the pregnancy is now about 36 days and Ratu is doing very well,” Susie Ellis, executive director of the International Rhino Foundation, said in an e-mail.
“We believe this is her first pregnancy. Remember, she walked out of the forest and so what happened to her before she came to the sanctuary, we can’t be certain.”
Widodo Ramono, executive director of the Indonesian Rhino Foundation (YABI), said Ratu was fortunate to get pregnant so quickly because Andalas had been acting aggressively toward female rhinos.
“Rhinos are very, very difficult to breed because they are very solitary, so they become very aggressive towards the opposite sex,” he said. “The female only ovulates for 20 to 24 days each month and it will be 15 months before giving birth, so this should give a clear massage to illegal poachers that producing one calf is not that easy.”
According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, there are only around 200 Sumatran rhinos left in the world, 170 of which are scattered across Way Kambas National Park, Bukit Barisan National Park and the Gunung Leuser ecosystem on Sumatra.
The remainder are found in Sabah, in Malaysian Borneo.
The Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary currently has three female and two male rhinos.
Associated Press
Rare Sumatra rhino expecting calf
BBC News 18 Feb 10;
Conservationists in Indonesia have announced a breakthrough in their efforts to save the critically endangered Sumatran rhino.
They say an eight-year-old female in a Sumatra wildlife reserve is due to give birth to a calf in May.
The calf will be the fourth Sumatran rhino to be born in captivity, and the first in Indonesia.
The number of Sumatran rhinos has halved in the past 15 years. There are now an estimated 200 in the wild.
Widodo Ramono, of the Rhino Foundation of Indonesia, said it had been "very, very good news" when an ultrasound scan had revealed Ratu was carrying a calf.
Ratu's mate, Andalas, was born in Cincinnati Zoo in the US in 2001 and moved to the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary at the age of six.
Solitary animals
It is believed that when the two first met, Andalas chased Ratu, who was born in the wild, and fought with her, leaving her with serious injuries.
The smallest of the world's five rhinoceros species, the two-horned, hairy, forest dwelling Sumatran rhinos are solitary animals, often only approaching each other to mate.
The BBC's Karishma Vaswani in Jakarta says the rhinos have long been the target of poachers who seem them as valuable prizes.
There is a long-held belief their horns have medicinal properties, especially in traditional Asian medicine, says our correspondent.
Chan Li Leen, The Star 19 Feb 10;
IPOH: A Perak orang asli leader believes that a tiger caught in a snare set up by the orang asli in Sungkai two weeks ago may have been trapped by mistake.
Perak Orang Asli Foundation chairman Suki Mee said that the Semai would not trap a tiger because they regard tigers as their ancestors.
“According to the shaman, tigers are the reincarnation of our ancestors and guardians. They are like our grandfathers.
“Bad luck and illness will befall the person and the entire village if a Semai kills a tiger,” said Suki Mee, himself a Semai.
Orang asli Yok Meneh, also of the Semai tribe, claimed last Saturday that he was attacked by the tiger while on his way to gather petai at the Bukit Tapah Forest Reserve.
However, it was later found that he had been attacked while trying to kill the tiger, which was caught in a snare and left to die by other orang asli.
The Perak Wildlife and National Parks Department (Perhilitan) has since initiated investigations. It is learnt that it will be referring the matter to the Deputy Public Prosecutor.
Suki Mee said he believed that the snare in which the four-year-old male tiger was caught had been set up to trap other animals like wild boars.
“In all my 46 years, I have never heard of orang asli hunting tigers to sell. I don’t believe any orang asli would hunt or eat tigers. No one eats tiger within the Semai tribe.
“It’s not our way,” he insisted.
Suki Mee came to the defence of Yok after World Wide Fund for Nature Malaysia chief executive officer Datuk Dr Dionysius Sharma was quoted as saying that many middlemen were using orang asli to hunt for wildlife, including tigers, for their parts.
Dr Dionysius’ comment has also earned the ire of Perhilitan director Shabrina Shariff.
“It is a sweeping statement to say that the orang asli are poaching wildlife as we know most of the perpetrators are foreigners and other Malaysians.
“You have to put forth the evidence,” she said.
When contacted, Dr Dionysius said there could be more to the story than mere hunting of wildlife by the orang asli for food.
“It could be argued that the tiger is a revered animal amongst the orang asli but then there may be some who are into the trade for the money,” he added.
156ha of peat fires still burning in Johor and Sabah
The Star 19 Feb 10;
PENGGERANG: Scores of firemen are still battling several peat soil and forest fires spanning over 156ha in Johor and Sabah. The fires broke out earlier in the month.
Fire and Rescue Department assistant director-general (operations) Amer Yusof said the peat soil fires in Johor involved an area of 130ha while 26ha of forest and bush fires had been detected in Sabah.
The affected areas in Johor are:
* 108ha in Kg Seri Paya in Tanjung Sedili, Kota Tinggi, which has been burning since Feb 4;
* 15ha in Kg Baru Punggai in Teluk Ramunia, Penggerang, affected since Feb 12; and
* 10ha in Kebun Felcra Kg Lepau
In Sabah, 22.6ha in Jalan Sepanggar, 2ha in Taman Putera Jaya and 1.6ha behind Hotel Berjaya Palace are affected.
Most of the fires in Johor and Sabah have been put out with only 7.6ha still burning, Amer said.
“Nevertheless, we are still monitoring areas that have been doused to prevent any recur-rence,’’ he said, adding that a total of 222 firemen were involved in fighting the fires.He said in Johor, the department was using two of its MI17 helicopters to conduct water bombings to douse the three major peat fires in the area.
He said firemen were also being assisted by 51 other agencies, with additional manpower deployed from Negri Sembilan, Malacca and Pahang.
Johor Fire and Rescue Depart-ment director Abdul Ghani Daud said the fires were caused by farmers who were clearing their land.
Tricky fight to put out landfill blaze
The Star 19 Feb 10;
A FIRE raged for about six hours at the Jelutong landfill on Penang island on Tuesday night. Sixteen firemen in two fire engines from the Perak Road fire station reached the landfill within minutes after receiving the call at 8.49pm.
But they faced difficulties in reaching the site of the fire, which was about 2km from the entrance.
Only fire engines which had water tanks could be used as the fire was too deep inside the landfill.
The fire engines had to go back and forth to a hydrant not far from the entrance to the landfill several times to refill their water tanks.
Firemen managed to douse the flames after 1am but there was still smoke for an hour after that.
Several volunteer fire-fighting teams, including one from Paya Terubong, also rushed to the scene.
Sungai Pinang assemblyman Koid Teng Guan said he was told about the fire at 7pm and rushed to the scene where he remained until 2am.
Koid said this was the fourth fire at the landfill since he was elected assemblyman in March 2008.
“The other three were small fires. This one was big,” he said.
The Fire and Rescue Services Department is still investigating the cause of the fire.
It will be scorching until April
Jaswinder Kaur, New Straits Times 17 Feb 10;
KOTA KINABALU: It's scorching hot in Sabah, with trees and grass turning brown and this is expected to last another two months.
State Meteorological Department director Abdul Malek Tusin said the El Nino phenomenon started in the middle of last year and was predicted to last until April.
"Some are saying we are experiencing El Nino when in actual fact, it started last year. We are actually in the middle of it.
"It is a moderate El Nino, so there is no drought. It is also normally dry at this time of the year as we are at the end of the northeast monsoon," he said yesterday.
Malek added that the current El Nino was not bringing a prolonged drought like what the state experienced in 1983 and 1997.
He said rainfall was below normal but things would improve in a couple of months.
Malek was commenting on a warning by the state Forestry Department last week of an impending "severe drought".
The department had said there were signs of the El Nino phenomenon, which was responsible for destroying forests in 1983.
The department's deputy director, Fidelis Edwin Bajau, had said forest fires were reported in Sipitang, and that shifting cultivation and illegal poaching, which could lead to brush and peat fires, had to be stopped.
"Companies which are forest concessionaires are reminded to take precautions in their areas by carrying out more patrols.
"They must ensure that firefighting equipment is operational."
Yahoo News 18 Feb 10;
MANILA (AFP) – The Philippines said Thursday that its farming industry could lose about 433 million dollars this year due a drought caused by the El Nino atmospheric phenomenon.
The damage estimates range from eight to 20 billion pesos (173 to 433 million dollars), depending on whether El Nino will cause a prolonged dry spell or a short one, said agricultural undersecretary Joel Rudinas.
Local governments have already reported that as much as a billion pesos in rice and about 1.4 billion pesos in corn may have been lost due to the drought that is scorching farms across the Southeast Asian archipelago, he said.
"We are still evaluating if the crops cannot be saved or if the yield will just be lower," he told AFP.
El Nino is an occasional seasonal warming of the central and eastern Pacific Ocean that upsets normal weather patterns from the western seaboard of Latin America to east Africa, and has caused droughts in the Philippines before.
The government is trying to alleviate the effects of the drought by helping farmers switch to crops that are less dependent on water than rice, such as vegetables and fruits.
It is also providing 6,000 water pumps to help farmers draw on more distant sources of water such as rivers, lakes or even underground water, Rudinas said.
The department is carrying out other schemes such as trying to re-use water in the drainage systems, inter-connecting irrigation systems and controlling the release of water from hydroelectric plants, he added.
President Gloria Arroyo on Thursday also issued various orders aimed at ensuring Filipinos conserve water, including the creation of "water marshals" to ensure government agencies cut down on wastage.
She also ordered a reduction in the amount of water to be released by Angat, the country's main dam on Luzon island, a crackdown on pilferage from pipes and a campaign to inform people about the importance of saving water.
Antara 19 Feb 10;
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Five non-governmental organizations have called on the government to temporarily stop issuing licenses for the exploitation of natural resources due to the destruction it has so far caused.
The NGOs demanding the moratorium on license issuance are the Indonesia Environment Forum (WALHI), the Mining Advocacy Network (JATAM), the Women`s Solidarity, the People`s Coalition for Fishery Justice (KIARA) and the Indonesian Center for Environmental Law (ICEL).
"The government must declare a moratorium on natural resource licences be they for mining or forest conversion. The licenses already issued meanwhile must be reviewed," Walhi`s executive director Berry Nahdian Furqon said at a press conference at the JATAM office here on Thursday.
The NGOs had demanded moratoruim on licences for mining, natural forest conversion into industrial forests and construction development in catchment areas or green belts.
Berry said natural resource exploitation would bring a bad impact on the community such as increasing floods and areas affected by them.
According to Walhi floods occured in 34 districts and cities in the country in January to February this year leaving 55 people dead.
In 2009 a total of 179 floods were recorded in the country, claiming 225 lives.
Jatam`s national coordinator Siti Maemunah meanwhile said in Kalimantan that produces more than 200 million tons of coal a year had continued to suffer environmental quality degradation.
She said coal mining licenses in the region reach more than 2,000, causing poverty, environmental disasters, conflicts, health problems, accute corruption that have strengthened gender inequality.
Every year she said more than 200,000 food producing lands change into coal mining areas to worsen food reliance of the local people.
Licenses for oilpalm plantations and logging meanwhile reached 8.4 million hectares of the planned 26 million hectares according to Sawit Watch, she said.
She said the activities had caused minimaly 576 conflicts one of them from the destruction of traditional forests by PT Ledo Lestari in Semunying Jaya in the subdistrict of Jagoi, Babang, Bengkayand district in West Kalimantan.
The House Commission III in a meeting with the ministries of the environment, forestry, and energy and mineral resources on Tuesday had called on the ministry of energy and mineral resoruces and the ministry of forestry to conduct synchronization with regard to the draft government regulation on protection and management of the environment to maintain sustainability of natural resources in the country.
The synchronization includes among others exploitation and/or reservation of natural resources including determination of mining areas and authorities with regard to natural resource inventories and environment licenses as well as environmental risk analysis.(*)
`Stop new business permits' for the sake of the environment
Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post 20 Feb 10;
A group of activists have urged the government to stop issuing new business permits to exploit natural resources due to poor regulation and the high number of overlapping permits.
They also called on the government to review licenses that had been given to companies that were yet to start operation.
The calls for a moratorium were made by the Mining Advocacy Network (Jatam), the Indonesian Center for Environmental Law (ICEL), the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) and the Women's Solidarity and People's Coalition for Justice in Fishery (Kiara).
They said that a temporary moratorium on business permits was urgent in order to allow time for the government to settle the policies needed to manage natural resources for the benefit of the people.
Jatam chairwoman Siti Maimunah said that in some provinces, the total number of business licenses awarded to companies to exploit natural resources far exceeded the entire land mass of the province.
"They *local authorities* no longer use common sense when issuing permits," Maimunah told a press conference on Thursday. Most of the permits were for mining and plantations, she added.
In East Kalimantan, she said, the total number of overlapping licenses awarded to mining and plantations had reached 21.7 million hectares, but the province's total area of land was only 19.8 million hectares.
"We are not against mining or plantation activities as long as they comply with the regulations. But now, selling permits has become a lucrative business for local authorities," she said.
The coalition said that despite the operation of big companies, the people of Kalimantan, which produced more than 200 million tons of coal per year, remained in poverty.
"Ecological disasters, social conflicts and health problems coupled with a high rate of poverty are still common in provinces that are rich in natural resources," she said.
The Environment Ministry found that most small-scale coal mining firms in East and South Kalimantan failed to produce environmental impact analysis (Amdal) documents, with a number of big companies failing to reclaim their former mining pits.
Executive director of the ICEL Rhino Subagyo, said the ministry was slow to act to protect the environment.
"The office of the environment ministry remains unmoved although it has the authority to act under the 2009 Environmental Law," he said.
The law requires the government to set an inventory on environment to map the capacity and the availability of natural resources.
The inventory is designed to be the basis for policy makers to determine strategic plans on environmental protection and management.
The law also obliges local administrations to formulate strategic environmental assessments to evaluate impacts that could harm the environment.
Under the law, each company should have environmental permits before starting operations.
"We are disappointed with the lack of willingness to impose the environmental law," Rhino said.
The House of Representative's Commissions VII overseeing environmental affairs has summoned the relevant ministries to discuss the issue.
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