Best of our wild blogs: 26 Jan 11

Singapore has wild dolphins, porpoises and dugongs!
from Celebrating Singapore's BioDiversity!

Caspian Tern and Osprey
from Mendis' World

Hill Myna vocalisation
from Bird Ecology Study Group

Room for change
from The annotated budak

Pulau Hantu walkabout ~ 22Jan2011
from sgbeachbum

Exciting seashore programmes at Sungai Pulai
from wild shores of singapore

7 Types of Recycling at HDB Housing Estates in Singapore
from Zero Waste Singapore

Thomas L. Friedman in Singapore: Why We Need A Green Revolution from EcoWalkthetalk

Read more!

"Vertical Kampong" to promote volunteerism

Saifulbahri Ismail Channel NewsAsia 25 Jan 11;

SINGAPORE: A new initiative to promote informal volunteerism called vertical kampong has been launched.

The initiative will be managed by the National Volunteer and Philanthropy Centre (NVPC).

It was announced by Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong at the 21st International Association for Volunteer Effort World Volunteer conference on Tuesday.

Speaking to international delegates at the conference, Mr Goh explained the initiative was named 'Vertical Kampong' because more than 80 per cent of Singaporeans live in high-rise flats.

He added that the initiative aims to change mindsets and help people realise that everyone can do some good deeds in the community.

"The beauty of informal volunteerism is that people who have been helped will often reciprocate and this enhances the spirit of giving. Nobody should feel helpless or embarrassed to give or receive help. If we can do this successfully, we will become a compassionate and gracious society," said Mr Goh.

He explained that the Vertical Kampong will adopt the Assets-Based Community Development model that has been successfully implemented in Chicago, Taiwan and Brisbane.

The model is premised on the belief that every individual has talents and resources that can benefit his community.

Mr Goh revealed that 33 per cent of the population in Singapore volunteer informally, giving an average of 48 hours per year.

However, he believes more can be done to encourage informal volunteering.

Mr Goh added that the challenge is to help individuals recognise that everyone can be an informal volunteer.

"For instance, a group of residents who walk regularly around the neighbourhood for exercise may not see themselves as volunteer material. But they can also serve as an effective neighbourhood crime patrol by keeping their eyes open for suspicious characters," said Mr Goh.

NVPC will work with local community groups like Residents' Committee and hold public education workshops to help individual realise that everyone can be a volunteer.

Hosea Lai, Deputy Director of NVPC, said: "If you look at the one room flat elderly - the common belief is that they are old, they are poor and they have nothing to give. But I would challenge that.

"I've seen how these one room flat elderly go down to the block of flats and help other elderly who are in need whether it's accompanying them to the market to buy their groceries, whether it's just sitting by the void deck and just chatting with them. These are gifts and these are their talents and they are in fact helping their neighbours through mutual help."

Mr Goh also shared other ideas on how to promote volunteering.

They include making it easier for people to volunteer and making volunteering experiences satisfying so that people will continue to volunteer.

-CNA/ac

Make 'vertical kampungs' of high-rise living
Centre wants to revive community spirit to encourage volunteerism
Teo Wan Gek Straits Times 26 Jan 11;

SENIOR Minister Goh Chok Tong wants to revive the kampung spirit of old in today's high-rise apartment blocks, where the vast majority of Singaporeans live.

So does the National Volunteer and Philanthropy Centre (NVPC), which is spearheading the 'vertical kampung' initiative - a new effort to encourage and enable informal volunteering.

That is the kind of spontaneous help which takes place when people respond to a neighbour's need, and which used to be a way of life in the kampungs or villages of old. It could range from giving a neighbour some salt, to tending a community vegetable garden together, to keeping an eye out for suspicious characters when walking the dog.

In his keynote address at the 21st World Volunteer Conference at Resorts World Sentosa, Mr Goh said: 'This model is premised on the belief that every individual has talents and resources that can benefit his community.

'NVPC will work with local community groups to identify the assets and resources within each community and hold public education workshops to help individuals realise that everyone can be a volunteer.'

The conference by the International Association for Volunteer Effort has drawn more than 1,000 members of the global volunteering community to Singapore.

An NVPC study of individual giving last year found that 33 per cent of Singaporeans volunteer informally, giving an average of 48 hours a year, or less than an hour a week. That is lower than Canada's 80 per cent and Britain's 60 per cent.

Mr Goh also highlighted two other ways to promote volunteering.

The first is by providing volunteer opportunities that are flexible and bite-sized. Organisations today need to adapt to the reality of short-term volunteers, he said, and change the way they work to recruit more of such volunteers.

The second is for organisations to invest more in volunteer management.

Although Singapore's volunteerism rate more than doubled in the past 10 years, from 9 per cent in 2000 to 23 per cent last year, about 17 per cent of volunteers leave after one year.

Mr Goh said: 'People need to have satisfying volunteering experiences so they will continue to volunteer. Continually recruiting but not retaining volunteers is not a sustainable strategy.'

Elaborating on the vertical kampung idea, NVPC deputy director Hosea Lai said the centre has been working with the local community and grassroots groups in Tampines and Eunos since last year. They organise activities where residents can meet, to encourage informal volunteering. NVPC plans to extend these efforts islandwide.

Those who benefit can help others in their community too, based on their own talents and resources, he said.

'It's about paying it forward,' he added.

Mr Chia Kooi Koon, 68, a chauffeur, has lived in Ubi Avenue 1 for more than 20 years but knows only a few of his neighbours. When he lived in a kampung, he knew everyone.

'It's a little harder now in the HDB block. Sometimes when I say 'Hi' or nod to others in the lift, they don't even look at me,' he said.

Mr Ng Wui Han, 33, an administrative executive, said: 'If you have neighbours who are open to the idea and to inter-action, then it will work.

'If not, there's only so much one person can do if it stops at him.'

Time to promote a 'vertical kampung' spirit: SM Goh
Linette Lim Business Times 26 Jan 11;

THE volunteerism rate in Singapore more than doubled in the past decade to reach 23 per cent last year, Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong said yesterday.

SM Goh revealed the figure on Day 2 of the 21st International Association of Volunteer Effort (IAVE) World Volunteer Conference being held in Singapore. In his keynote address to delegates, he also called for more 'flexible volunteering, satisfying volunteering and informal volunteering'.

He then mooted the concept of 'vertical kampungs' (villages) as an example of informal volunteering. Vertical, because 'more than 80 per cent of Singaporeans live in high-rise apartment blocks', he said.

The vertical kampung initiative will be rolled out by the National Volunteer and Philanthropy Centre (NVPC) to promote volunteering within neighbourhoods.

The conference then led to a plenary session featuring actors Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh. Li attended the conference in his capacity as International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies goodwill ambassador and founder of international charity One Foundation.

He told delegates he found happiness in volunteering. Before he got involved in charity work, he 'had wealth, reputation and power, but was miserable'.

'I have been very tired (running the charity) for the last few years but I have been very happy,' he said.

Mainly based in China, One Foundation aims to get people to donate one yuan (20 cents) or volunteer one hour a month.

Yeoh spoke of her role as global ambassador for the Make Roads Safe Campaign, a campaign aimed at reducing road traffic injury and deaths.

'I was so disappointed the first time I went to the UN (to lobby),' she said. 'The discussion was 70 per cent empty and the leaders were disinterested.'

The lobbying efforts came through, however: the United Nations General Assembly has proclaimed 2011-2020 a UN Decade of Action for Road Safety.

Besides using their star power to draw people to their causes, both celebrities agree that volunteerism is not just about helping others, but helping yourself become a more complete person.

Read more!

Protecting the future's rights over nature: interview with Paul Collier

Cheong Suk-Wai Straits Times 26 Jan 11;

OXFORD University economics don Paul Collier's son Daniel, then eight, came home from school one day in tears and hopping mad at Dad.

Professor Collier, 61, recalls: 'He looked at me and said strangely, 'Tell the President!' He had seen me on television with President Barack Obama and had got rather inflated views about my influence.'

It turned out that young Daniel had been told at school that his father's generation was using up so much resources that he might never get to see a rainforest. That inspired Prof Collier, author of the award-winning The Bottom Billion, to write his latest tome, The Plundered Planet, which tries to understand 'why Daniel thinks he has rights over the rainforest but not over our neighbour's car'.

The married father of three is a global expert on poverty and is now director of Oxford's Centre for the Study of African Economies, after serving five years as the World Bank's development research group head. He still advises the bank, as well as the International Monetary Fund and the British government.

I called him recently to learn more about his attempt to get all countries to use nature more responsibly:

# Why have you made studying the world's poorest countries your life's work?

First, for these countries, most of their undiscovered natural assets are going to be hugely valuable over the next decade or two, and will be extracted. So there will be a tidal wave of money coming into these countries. But, of course, if history repeats itself, that will result in a missed opportunity for these countries to better themselves. And it's a one-shot opportunity; these assets will be depleted and then gone forever. So it's vital that these countries harness this opportunity by making decisions differently so that history does not repeat itself.

And second, because this issue has to do with the natural environment, natural assets in the poorest countries, it's also about those in rich countries. I've dedicated my latest book to my two younger children aged two and three because it's their future that we are determining.

# How could we do better in that?

We don't own natural assets in the same way that we own other stuff. We don't have rights to burn such assets up without regard to their future... We've to try and see what it means to manage natural assets and liabilities responsibly.

# What does being responsible mean?

Some people are ostriches; they just ignore the obvious. At the other extreme, there are the sort of romantic environmentalists who just want to preserve nature as it is, regardless of the cost. That's not a responsible attitude to the future any more than being an ostrich.

# Extremes are seldom instructive. So what really works?

What I'm trying to do is build a powerful centre ground in what, until now, has been a polarised debate between the environmental fundamentalists and the ostriches. Neither are right. The position we need is that the future has rights concerning the value of nature rather than just seeing it as a bunch of artefacts.

All I'm trying to show is that the future co-owns nature with the present and so we have to protect the future's rights even though, in other dimensions, we may not care very much about the future. Otherwise, ignoring such rights would be fundamentally unethical. If I buy a car, it's mine. But I don't have the equivalent right to use up the natural world. If I do use it up, I have to pass on something equivalent to its value to the future.

# Why would the average Joe buy into your view?

The world is changing. The days when everything depended on a few good leaders are going. What's coming is leaders being swayed by what their citizens think matter. Part of The Plundered Planet is to say that citizens can be misled easily. So there are actually two battles out there today: One is between good and bad ideas, with the bad ones manipulated by commercial interests. One of these is the biofuels scam in the United States, which is about the agricultural lobby using ridiculous arguments in their hunt for subsidies.

The other battle is that it's getting easier to build a critical mass of informed opinion these days, a mass which can sufficiently influence what governments do.

# Which of these two battles worries you more and why?

I'm more concerned about the battle for ideas because it can mislead the citizenry so easily. One example would be the ban on GM (genetically modified) crops. Europe and then Africa banned these crops. But Africa desperately needs crop adaptation and GM crops are a useful technology for that. But a range of anti-GM, anti- American and anti-commercialism groups have been hijacked by the power of European agricultural protectionism which wanted to stop the import of GM grains. This sort of cheap moralising about nature has got ahead of understanding the science.

# But is it only cheap moralising when consuming GM crops might harm one's health?

I think of these things as a balance of risks and, certainly, in Africa, the risk of death from not having enough food is going up. Everything I've learnt since 1996 is that the risk of not having GM crops in Africa has gone up because its population has grown and there's also climatic deterioration. And we've not actually learnt anything from science that points to GM grains being a problem for those who consume them. I don't want to be ideological here but I do want to say that we have to look at this issue on a balance-of-risks (basis) rather than on the ruddy notion of some antipathy to science.

# But how are we going to make your ideas work when power is with the few and we need to plunder nature to keep us going?

Okay, let's take these two issues in turn: first, the power of the elite. You know, the elite can actually guide society quite well. Asian societies, for example, have been guided by the elite pretty successfully from poverty to prosperity. The critical mass within some societies might be the critical mass within some of the elite - people who are properly informed. So the process by which ideas are influenced doesn't have to be through the ballot box. For example, the bumiputera elite in Malaysia through the 1970s did guide its society towards prosperity. It wasn't really a democratic process but it was a shared vision among the elite and bumiputeras.

# Hasn't that shared vision benefited only a select group?

The Malaysian national oil company wasn't plundered in the same way that, say, the Nigerian national oil company was; the Nigerians running it had a mechanism to plunder it.

# But isn't such a comparison merely a matter of degree?

My broad approximation of the Asian elite is that they did take a broader view consistent with their nations doing well. Whereas, on the whole, the African elite had a weaker sense of the nation and so were just concerned with plundering.

You're viewing everything from the pristine perfection of Singapore. If you were sitting in Africa, Malaysia would look very attractive indeed. I was in Angola addressing its government recently and said: 'Angola has two possible futures in 30 years' time - one, to be like Kuala Lumpur today, and the other to be like Lagos today. And let me tell you, at the moment, Angolan society is booked on the plane to Lagos.' Now, that really had an impact. They invited Malaysians to advise them.

Read more!

Earth Hour returns on 26 March

Evelyn Choo Channel NewsAsia 25 Jan 11;

SINGAPORE: Earth Hour, the annual "lights out" event, will be back for the third time.

There will be live concerts and carnivals - all fuelled by recycled cooking oil - at the Promontory at Marina Bay in the early evening of 26 March.

And as the lights go out, participants will be going the extra mile for the cause - quite literally.

For S$15, they can sign up for a walk - as a sign of support for the fight against climate change.

The 3.5-kilometre route will take participants to Marina Bay Sands, The Float@Marina Bay, The Esplanade, One Fullerton, Clifford Pier and then back at the Promontory.

- CNA/ir

Read more!

New housing guidelines developed for Tianjin Eco-city

East Asia Bureau Chief Maria Siow Channel NewsAsia 25 Jan 11;

TIANJIN, China: New housing guidelines have been developed for the Tianjin Eco-city, which is a joint collaboration between China and Singapore.

Under the new framework, at least 20 per cent of residential units will be set aside for public housing.

On a visit Tianjin, Singapore's Minister for National Development, Mah Bow Tan, said the new model of public housing will tap on Singapore's housing experience.

These include home ownership, with emphasis on affordability, subsidies for eligible families, and centralised management and maintenance of housing estates.

The construction of the first public housing project in the Eco-city is scheduled for completion by the end of this year.

Apart from energy saving features, it will include community malls and common areas for social integration.

Mr Mah said: "What we would like to see in the Tianjin Eco-city is not just physical development, not just environmental development, in terms of energy efficiency, but in terms of the social harmony aspect.

"I think this is what will make Tianjin Eco-city stand out from the many other eco-cities that are developed not just in China but also in other parts of the world."

The city's water management will also be based on the Singapore experience.

It was recently announced that Singapore would set up a Ministerial Committee on the Tianjin Eco-city Project.

Mr Mah said this would strengthen and coordinate efforts among various ministries.

He said: "I think it is important to renew the signal of commitment to this project and to make sure that the next phase of development will go beyond the traditional hardware aspects, such as buildings, roads, and so on, into the softer - not necessarily easier - parts of the project."

Mr Mah also witnessed the signing of agreements to develop an integrated logistics distribution centre, water treatment projects, and an innovation centre.

Even though the development of the start-up area is said to be well on track, analysts have expressed concerns that getting people to move in will be highly dependent on the completion of the public transport network, as well as the creation of jobs.

- CNA/ms

Tianjin Eco-City approves transport masterplan
Grace Ng Straits Times 26 Jan 11;

BEIJING: The Tianjin Eco-City has kicked off the new year with newly revamped plans for a green transport system, as well as fresh progress in its goal to create a more harmonious social environment.

It has approved a new masterplan to combine rail and tram services in a transport system aimed at making 'green' trips a predominant way of life for 350,000 residents in the 30 sq km city.

Begun about two years ago and expected to be completed in 10 to 15 years, the project is jointly developed by China and Singapore.

The joint venture has also created two frameworks - one for public housing policy and another for waste water management - that draw on Singapore's experience in these areas.

These fit into the joint venture's progress from rapid construction of buildings and infrastructure to the intangible aspects of creating a sustainable city, National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan told reporters during a visit to the 4 sq km start-up area yesterday.

'The Tianjin Eco-City is not just (about) the physical development or... energy efficiency,' he noted. 'It is also the 'social harmony' aspect that I think will make it stand out from the other eco-cities being developed, not just in China but also in other parts of the world.'

Mr Mah was speaking after visiting the showflat for a new 569-unit public housing estate, as well as other developments such as a waste water treatment area and a neighbouring industrial park.

The 60 sq m units, which are slightly smaller than three-bedroom Housing Board flats, are 'an adaptation of the Singapore model to the needs of young families here', said Mr Mah.

They feature smaller kitchens but bigger bathrooms compared with Singapore flats, and only lower-income, married couples are eligible to buy them.

Buyers must live in their flat for a minimum period before they can sell it to other eligible applicants. Such a system is unprecedented in China, where resale public housing units join the stock of private units and can be sold to richer people.

The completed eco-city is expected to have about 25,000 public housing units, equivalent to 'one Toa Payoh, if you reference it to Singapore', Mr Mah said.

He was accompanied by five other ministers, including Minister in the Prime Minister's Office Lim Hwee Hua and Senior Minister of State for National Development Grace Fu. They are part of a new ministerial committee set up to enhance support and coordination for the eco-city, and were here on a three-day trip ending today.

Read more!

Malaysia releases GM mosquitoes in landmark trial

Sin Chew Jit Poh 26 Jan 11;

KUALA LUMPUR, Wednesday 26 January 2011 (AFP) - Malaysia has released 6,000 genetically modified mosquitoes designed to combat dengue fever, in a landmark trial slammed Wednesday by environmentalists who say the experiment is unsafe.

In the first experiment of its kind in Asia, about 6,000 male Aedes aegypti mosquitoes were released at an uninhabited site in the central state of Pahang, the government-run Institute of Medical Research (IMR) said.

The IMR, which was tasked with carrying out the trial, said the experiment was conducted on December 21 to "study the dispersal and longevity of these mosquitoes in the field".

"The experiment was successfully concluded on January 5, 2011," the institute said in a statement dated Tuesday, adding that no further releases are planned until the trial results are analysed.

The insects in the experiment have been engineered so that their offspring quickly die, curbing the growth of the population in a technique researchers hope could eventually eradicate the dengue mosquito altogether.

Females of the Aedes species are responsible for spreading dengue, a deadly disease which killed at least 134 people last year in Malaysia alone.

The trial has sparked widespread concern among environmental groups and non-government organisations (NGOs), and had been postponed due to their protests as well as unfavourable weather conditions.

"I am surprised that they did this without prior announcement given the high level of concerns raised not just from the NGOs but also scientists and the local residents," said researcher Lim Li Ching from Third World Network.

The network is part of 29 public health and environmental groups which have repeatedly demanded the government cancel the trial, saying it was risky and could lead to unintended consequences.

"We don't agree with this trial that has been conducted in such an untransparent way. There are many questions and not enough research has been done on the full consequences of this experiment," she told AFP.

Critics have also said that too little is known about the Aedes mosquito, and how the genetically modified insects would interact with their cousins in the wild.

Authorities have dismissed the fears and said the trial would be harmless as the GM mosquitoes can live for only a few days.

Dengue infection leads to a sudden onset of fever with severe headaches, muscle and joint pains, and rashes, which can lead to death if left untreated.

Malaysia releases lab mosquitoes to fight dengue
Julia Zappei, Associated Press Yahoo News 26 Jan 11;

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – Malaysia released about 6,000 genetically modified mosquitoes into a forest in the first experiment of its kind in Asia aimed at curbing dengue fever, officials said Wednesday.

The field test is meant to pave the way for the use of genetically engineered Aedes aegypti male mosquitoes to mate with females and produce no offspring or ones with shorter lives, thus curtailing the mosquito population. Only female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes spread dengue fever, which killed 134 people in Malaysia last year.

A similar trial in the Cayman Islands last year — the first time genetically modified mosquitoes have been set loose in the wild after years of laboratory experiments and hypothetical calculations — resulted in a dramatic drop in the mosquito population in a small area studied by researchers.

The plan has sparked criticism by some Malaysian environmentalists, who fear it might have unforeseen consequences, such as the inadvertent creation of uncontrollable mutated mosquitoes. Critics also say such plans could leave a vacuum in the ecosystem that is then filled by another insect species, potentially introducing new diseases.

Government authorities have tried to allay the concerns by saying they are conducting small-scale research and will not rush into any widespread release of mosquitoes.

The Malaysian government-run Institute for Medical Research said it released about 6,000 sterile male lab mosquitoes in an uninhabited forest area in eastern Malaysia on Dec. 21. Another 6,000 wild male Aedes aegypti mosquitoes were also placed in the area for scientific comparison, it said in a statement.

The institute provided few details of the experiment, but said it was "successfully" concluded Jan. 5, and that all the mosquitoes were killed with insecticide. It said it is not planning to release any more mosquitoes until it analyzes the results.

It was the first such trial in Asia, an official in the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to make public statements.

Duane Gubler, a professor specializing in infectious diseases at Singapore's Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School who was not involved with the research, said the plan is likely to be effective in fighting dengue if it is combined with other biological control methods.

"We need new tools. Nothing we've done in the past 40 years has had an impact" on dengue, Gubler told the AP.

Using genetically altered sterile male insects against fruit flies and other flies that cause damage in cattle has been successful in places like the United States, Gubler said. He added that environmentalists should not be concerned, because the genetically modified mosquitoes would die quickly.

In the Cayman Islands, genetically altered sterile male mosquitoes were also set loose by scientists in a 40-acre (16-hectare) region between May and October last year. By August, mosquito numbers in that area dropped by 80 percent compared with a neighboring area where no sterile mosquitoes were released.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said last year the project was an "innovative" way to fight dengue after a lack of success in campaigns urging Malaysians to keep neighborhoods free of stagnant water where mosquitoes can breed.

The number of dengue-linked deaths in Malaysia increased 52 percent last year from 88 in 2009. The total dengue infections rose 11 percent from 2009 to more than 46,000 cases last year.

Dengue fever is common in Asia and Latin America. Symptoms include high fever, joint pains and nausea, but in severe cases, it can lead to internal bleeding, circulatory shutdown and death. There is no known cure or vaccine.

Associated Press writer Sean Yoong contributed to this report.

Malaysia releases GM mosquitoes in landmark trial
Yahoo News 26 Jan 11;

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) – Malaysia has released 6,000 genetically modified mosquitoes designed to combat dengue fever, in a landmark trial slammed Wednesday by environmentalists who say the experiment is unsafe.

In the first experiment of its kind in Asia, about 6,000 male Aedes aegypti mosquitoes were released at an uninhabited site in the central state of Pahang, the government-run Institute of Medical Research (IMR) said.

The IMR, which was tasked with carrying out the trial, said the experiment was conducted on December 21 to "study the dispersal and longevity of these mosquitoes in the field".

"The experiment was successfully concluded on January 5, 2011," the institute said in a statement dated Tuesday, adding that no further releases are planned until the trial results are analysed.

The insects in the experiment have been engineered so that their offspring quickly die, curbing the growth of the population in a technique researchers hope could eventually eradicate the dengue mosquito altogether.

Females of the Aedes species are responsible for spreading dengue, a deadly disease which killed at least 134 people last year in Malaysia alone.

The trial has sparked widespread concern among environmental groups and non-government organisations (NGOs), and had been postponed due to their protests as well as unfavourable weather conditions.

"I am surprised that they did this without prior announcement given the high level of concerns raised not just from the NGOs but also scientists and the local residents," said researcher Lim Li Ching from Third World Network.

The network is part of 29 public health and environmental groups which have repeatedly demanded the government cancel the trial, saying it was risky and could lead to unintended consequences.

"We don't agree with this trial that has been conducted in such an untransparent way. There are many questions and not enough research has been done on the full consequences of this experiment," she told AFP.

Critics have also said that too little is known about the Aedes mosquito, and how the genetically modified insects would interact with their cousins in the wild.

Authorities have dismissed the fears and said the trial would be harmless as the GM mosquitoes can live for only a few days.

Dengue infection leads to a sudden onset of fever with severe headaches, muscle and joint pains, and rashes, which can lead to death if left untreated.

Read more!

Tiger numbers could triple if large-scale landscapes protected: study

WWF 25 Jan 11;

Asia's tiger reserves could support more than 10,000 wild tigers – three times the current number – if they are managed as large-scale landscapes that allow for connectivity between core breeding sites, a new paper from some of the world’s leading conservation scientists finds.

The study, co-authored by WWF scientists, is the first assessment of the political commitment made by all 13 tiger range countries at November’s historic tiger summit to double the tiger population across Asia by 2022.

“A Landscape-Based Conservation Strategy to Double the Wild Tiger Population” in the current issue of Conservation Letters, finds that the commitment to double tiger numbers is not only possible, but can be exceeded. However, it will take a global effort to ensure that core breeding reserves are maintained and connected via habitat corridors.

“In the midst of a crisis, it’s tempting to circle the wagons and only protect a limited number of core protected areas, but we can and should do better,” said Dr. Eric Dinerstein, Chief Scientist at WWF and a co-author of the study.

“We absolutely need to stop the bleeding, the poaching of tigers and their prey in core breeding areas, but we need to go much further and secure larger tiger landscapes before it is too late.”

Wild tiger numbers have declined from about 100,000 in the early 1900s to as few as 3,200 today due to poaching of tigers and their prey, habitat destruction and human/tiger conflict. Most of the remaining tigers are scattered in small, isolated pockets across their range in 13 Asian countries.

“Tiger conservation is the face of biodiversity conservation and competent sustainable land-use management at the landscape level,” said study co-author Dr. John Seidensticker of the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute.

“By saving the tiger we save all the plants and animals that live under the tiger’s umbrella.”

Past examples show that an increase in tiger numbers is possible

The authors found that the 20 priority tiger conservation landscapes with the highest probability of long-term tiger survival could support more than 10,500 tigers, including about 3,400 breeding females. They also looked at historical examples to prove that a doubling or tripling is possible using large landscapes:

* In the jungles of lowland Nepal, tiger numbers crashed during civil conflict from 2002 to 2006. However, tigers did not disappear because Nepal and India’s tiger reserves are linked by forest corridors, which likely allowed for replenishment from India;
* In the Russian Far East tigers, almost disappeared in the 1940s but the region was re-populated by tigers moving in from northeastern China. Recently designated habitat corridors across the Sino-Russia border are helping tigers re-establish themselves in China’s Changbaishan mountains, where they had disappeared in the 1990s.
* In India’s Nagarahole National Park, tiger numbers are “healthy and resilient” because the park is connected to other reserves in the region. Tigers number almost 300 in this large landscape of connected parks and reserves.

And population declines are also possible without connectivity between habitats

In contrast, the authors point to two of India’s premier tiger reserves to show how lack of connectivity can preclude tiger population recovery. Tigers disappeared from Sariska and Panna tiger reserves in 2005 and 2009 due to poaching and were not able to re-colonize because these reserves are not connected to other reserves through habitat corridors. Consequently, wild tigers had to be translocated into these reserves to attempt to re-establish populations.

Besides poaching and habitat loss, the $7.5 trillion in infrastructure projects like roads, dams and mines that will be invested in Asia over the next decade threatens tiger landscapes. A focus only on core sites and protected areas like reserves, instead of larger landscapes, could be seen by developers and politicians as a green light to move forward with harmful infrastructure projects outside of core sites.

“Without strong countervailing pressures, short-term economic gains will inevitably trump protection of the critical ecosystems necessary for sustainable development,” said Keshav Varma, Program Director of the Global Tiger Initiative at the World Bank.

The authors insist that conservationists and governments must be involved in helping design infrastructure projects to mitigate their impacts on tigers both inside core sites and in current and potential forest corridors. A recently built oil depot in India’s Terai Arc, for example, severed a vital elephant and tiger corridor. Conservationists are now in litigation to remove the depot. Early intervention could have avoided this.

"Following the St. Petersburg Declaration, Nepal has committed to the goal of doubling wild tiger numbers across our country by 2022,” said Deepak Bohara, Nepal’s Minister for Forests and Soil Conservation.

“This analysis shows that it can be done, not just in Nepal, but, if done right with careful study and planning, across the entire tiger range. It is also worth noting that the tiger conservation provides carbon credits, protects water resources, and complements community development efforts. Thus, it is important to promote regional cooperation to maintain a healthy tiger corridor between different reserves.”

Read more!

Gujarat whale shark campaign

Mangrol adopts whale shark as mascot
The Times of India 25 Jan 11;

AHMEDABAD/MANGROL: Mangrol, a small fishing town situated along Gujarat coast, now has whale shark as its mascot. The announcement was made during the Whale Shark Day celebrations on Tuesday, marking the culmination of six years of successful Save The Whale Shark campaign.

Mangrol is the seventh town in Gujarat to have adopted whale shark as a city mascot. Earlier, Porbandar, Diu, Okha, Ahmedabad, Veraval and Dwarka had adopted the whale shark as their official mascot.

The whale shark campaign, launched in January 2004, is an initiative of Gujarat forest department and Wildlife Trust of India-International Fund for Animal Welfare (WTI-IFAW). The campaign is supported by Tata Chemicals Limited.

The species was previously hunted in hundreds in Gujarat for their liver oil which is used to water-proof boats, and the by-products including meat and fins were exported. The whale shark is now safe on the shores of Gujarat because of the fishing community, the Indian Coast Guard, the local people and popular spiritual leader Morari Bapu.

"Since the launch of the campaign, over 240 whale sharks accidentally caught in the fishing nets were freed by the people," said Anita Karn, DCF, Junagadh.

The Whale Shark Day celebrations kicked off with a rally by hundreds of children. A 40-feet long inflatable whale shark was taken from Parmeshwar Vidyalaya to the venue of the event at Mangrol. The event was chaired by chief conservator of forests S K Chaturvedi and was attended by MLA Rajgi Jatwa among others.

Chaturvedi said, "The city of Mangrol has been closely associated with whale shark conservation for the last four years. The fisher folk have carried out many rescues. It is a matter of great pride that they are now taking their dedication to the next level by officially adopting the Vhali."

On March 12, 2005, the postal department of Gujarat came out with a special whale shark postal cover and TCL awarded the BNHS Green Governance award on November 10, 2005, for the whale shark campaign.

Rajbir Singh Saini, head administration, TCL, said, "Over the years, the Whale Shark Conservation Project has grown in leaps and bounds. TCL is committed to saving the flora and fauna."

The campaign`s overwhelming success lay in its multiple strategic approach which connected human emotions to socio-cultural beliefs. Morari Bapu established a comparison of the whale shark to a daughter returning home to give birth. This message was spread across the coastal towns through street plays and awareness campaigns and proved instrumental in the success of the project.

"There is no other species in India that has a `day` dedicated to it, and no other species, let alone a fish, has been adopted by so many cities as their mascot," said Rahul Kaul, senior director at WTI. "The campaign has covered one aspect of whale shark conservation in India. Now, the focus will be on generating scientific information on the species for its conservation," he added. The forest department, WTI-IFAW and TCL are currently undertaking scientific studies on whale sharks.

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Birds vanishing in the Philippines

Cecil Morella Yahoo News 25 Jan 11;

CANDABA, Philippines (AFP) – The number of birds flying south to important wintering grounds in the Philippines has fallen sharply this year, with experts saying the dramatic demise of wetlands and hunting are to blame.

Despite some harsh, cold weather across the Eurasian landmass, some waterbirds that usually migrate in huge flocks to the tropical islands have been completely absent, said Philippine-based Danish ornithologist Arne Jensen.

"The flyway populations of several waterbird species are in constant and dramatic decline," Jensen, who advises the Philippine government on species conservation, told AFP.

"Hence the urgent need to establish real and well-managed, hunting-free waterbird sanctuaries along the migratory flyways."

Candaba, a swamp two hours' drive north of Manila that has long been used as a pit stop by hundreds of species as they fly staggering distances between the Arctic Circle and Australia, appears emblematic of the downfall.

Jensen said that bird watchers routinely counted 100,000 ducks at Candaba in the 1980s as they stopped there for a rest while traversing the East Asian-Australasian flyway.

But volunteers recorded just 8,725 waterbirds and 41 species during the annual census last weekend, Wild Bird Club of the Philippines president Michael Lu told AFP at Candaba at the end of the count.

Northern pintails, common pochards, and green-winged teals were absent, and just one tufted duck was seen, while numbers for northern shovellers shrank and only garganeys were easily seen along with resident Philippine ducks.

Lu said the number of waterbirds counted at Candaba was down from more than 11,000 last year.

"The main threat is hunting," said Lu, amid occasional loud bangs that were apparently gunfire or firecrackers set off by local residents seeking to flush out the birds.

But Lu also pointed to the dramatic shrinkage in the size of the swamp over the past 50 years as the region was converted into farmland, mainly rice fields.

The swamp two generations ago covered 27,000 hectares (66,690 acres), but it is now just 77 hectares -- or less than one percent of its original size -- according to figures provided by Lu, Jensen and the local government.

Hunters, farmers, and watersports also threaten Paoay Lake, another wild bird habitat in the far north of the Philippines that is close to southern China.

The lake lacks surface plant life after the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos ordered the water lilies removed so he could jetski from his lakeside mansion, while a former local official used to shoot ducks there, Lu said.

Since the water lily purge, water levels have continued to drop as farmers siphoned off water to irrigate farmland, while poor residents around the lake cut down trees, which they burnt to sell as charcoal, local bird watchers said.

The government has banned hunting of ducks on the lake, but things could still get worse with plans for a wakeboarding park, Lu said.

In the annual Paoay bird census this month, fewer than 700 waterbirds were counted compared with more than a thousand the previous year, said Elsie Nolasco, an official at the local environment ministry office.

The scenarios at the Paoay and Candaba wetlands are a microcosm of the general state around Asia, said Carlo Custodio, head of the coastal and marine management office at the Philippines' environment ministry.

"If you look down the coasts from China, South Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and down to Australia, you can see fast economic development, especially in China," Custodio told AFP.

"In the course of this development, habitats are destroyed as big segments of the populations move to the coasts. This also increases the chances that the birds will be hunted."

Environment group Wetlands International reported last year that waterbird populations in Asia were shrinking at a faster rate than anywhere else in the world because their habitats were being destroyed.

"The combination of rapid economical growth and weak conservation efforts (in Asia) appears to be lethal," Wetlands International said.

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Southeast Asia facing new 'health crisis'

Rachel O'Brien Google News 25 Jan 11;

BANGKOK — Southeast Asia's 600 million people are facing a raft of new health challenges as the disaster-prone region undergoes some of the world's fastest social change, medical papers published Tuesday said.

"A health crisis is transpiring right before our eyes," warned a paper in the series, published by The Lancet journal, which said chronic diseases such as cancer now account for 60 percent of deaths in the region.

It was also dubbed a "hotspot" for emerging and difficult-to-control infectious diseases, with outbreaks in avian flu fuelling fears about the possibility of new pandemics spreading from Southeast Asia.

"The pace of demographic change in the region is one of the fastest worldwide, whether it is due to population ageing, fertility decline, or rural to urban migration," said the papers.

"As elsewhere, the disease burden continues to shift from infectious to chronic diseases, yet increased urban population density has created concerns about emerging infectious diseases."

The reports also point to Southeast Asia being one of the world's most disaster-prone regions, with the environment responsible for up to a quarter of all deaths in an area regularly hit by monsoons and typhoons.

Weather phenomena such as El Nino also "intensify the annual variation of the hot and wet climate, leading to droughts, floods and the occurrence of infectious diseases such as malaria and cholera," said one of the papers.

"Climate change could exacerbate the spread of emerging infectious diseases in the region, especially vector-borne diseases linked to rises in temperature and rainfall," such as dengue, it added.

Deforestation and other human encroachment on wildlife habitats were said to heighten the potential for germs to cross species barriers, as they increase interactions between wildlife, humans and livestock.

Controlling these diseases is difficult given the variety of economies and health systems across the nations analysed: Laos, Indonesia, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam.

City state Singapore, for example, has a gross domestic product per head of $37,500, while in largely rural Laos the equivalent figure is $890.

Political tensions within and between countries "have the potential to further hinder control" of emerging infections, said the papers, which called for improved surveillance of these health threats across the region.

They also called for urgent action to tackle Southeast Asia's "epidemic of non-communicable disease", including heart disease, stemming from environmental factors promoting tobacco use, unhealthy diet and inadequate physical activity.

"Unless nations recognise the problem and take appropriate action, premature death and disability will continue, hindering development where development is needed most."

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Indonesian government urged to declare extreme weather national disaster

Antara 25 Jan 11;

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The People`s Coalition for Fisheries Justice (Kiara) has asked the government to declare the current extreme weather conditions a national disaster as they were preventing thousands of Indonesian fishermen from making their living.

"There are 53 districts and cities in Indonesia which have been impacted by the present extreme weather conditions and 550,000 people are being victimized. Looking at the facts, we urge the government to declare present extreme weather conditions a national disaster," Kiara Secretary General M Riza Damanik said here on Tuesday.

Riza also criticized the divergence between the data collected by Kiara and those issued Marine and Fisheries Ministry where the latter stated extreme weather had impacted 41 districts and cities in Indonesia and a total of 473,983 people.

"The ministry fails to count the damage done in several areas. In Jakarta province, for example, the ministry only studies areas such as Muara Angke and Thousand Islands while there are also other areas like Cilincing, Marunda and Kali Baru where the fishermen cannot go to the sea due to bad weather," Riza said.

Meanwhile Secretary to an NGO called Coalition of Indonesian Traditional Fishermen (KNTI) Dedy Ramanta said the government was slow in handling the problem faced by fishermen.

He suggested the government to set up an insurance system for Indonesian fishermen to help them survive when harsh conditions happened. He also said the government must accurately note the number of fishermen impacted by extreme weather in Indonesia. Such action was needed to ensure that aid was given to the right persons, he said.

Extreme weather in Indonesia is predicted to last until April 2011.

Fishers’ Empty Nets a Indonesia Disaster: Activists
Elisabeth Oktofani Jakarta Globe 26 Jan 11;

Environmental activists on Tuesday called on the Indonesian government to declare the inability of fishing families nationwide to earn a living because of months of bad weather a national disaster.

“The national disaster status is crucial because it would smoothen the coordination process between the central government and the regional government for the distribution of relief aid,” said Riza Damanik, the secretary general of the Fisheries Justice Coalition (Kiara).

Raising the current social disaster status to national disaster would allow the state to provide more relief assistance to the affected fishermen.

“The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency [BMKG] has said the bad weather will last at least until April,” Riza said.

Earlier, the Social Affairs Ministry had said that to help nearly 474,000 fishermen — and their families — whose livelihoods have been affected, the maritime affairs and fisheries minister, Fadel Muhammad, had asked district heads and governors to dip into rice reserves and funds from the Social Affairs Ministry.

Salim Segaf Al Jufri, the social affairs minister, said his ministry had already distributed about Rp 540 billion ($60 million) in development funds to regional governments to help the fishermen and their families.

However, environmental watchdogs say this isn’t enough, arguing that the government first has to get its numbers right.

Selamet Daryoni, the director of urban environment at the Indonesian Green Institute, questioned the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries’ data on the number of fishermen.

“The Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, for instance, has only listed 3,084 fishermen in the Thousand Islands and Muara Angke [in Jakarta],” Slamet said. But he added there were other fishing villages in Jakarta, with more than 6,000 fishermen in places such as Marunda, Muara Baru, Kali Baru, Cilincing, Muara Tawar and Kamal Muara.

“If more than 6,000 fishermen living only 20 kilometers from the Presidential Palace are ignored by the government, what about the other fishermen in other parts of Indonesia?” he said.

The government’s mistakes in this regard, Slamet suggested, should not be tolerated. Oversights could have disastrous effects on the lives of thousands of citizens, he said.

Riza concurred, adding that many more fishing families were suffering than the government suggested. He said the actual number of fishermen across the country who had been unable to catch fish in the past months was far larger than what the state had estimated.

He said that at least 550,000 fishermen in 53 districts and municipalities across the archipelago had been affected by freakish weather conditions.

“At the moment the government only provides 13,721 tons of rice every two weeks,” he said, adding that more was needed.

Riza also said inaccurate data would influence the kind and amount of aid the government would provide.

“The government needs to do a lot more to help out more than 550,000 fishermen and women during bad weather conditions,” said Tejo Wahyu Jatmiko, the coordinator of the Alliance for Prosperous Villages.

Dedy Ramanta, the national secretary of the Indonesian Traditional Fishermen’s Association (KNTI), criticized the government for only reacting to deteriorating conditions and not preparing a long-term strategy to deal with the effects of climate change, especially for fishermen whose livelihood options are limited.

“The government needs to implement an insurance program and also give capital assistance so they can build small businesses,” he added.

Tiharom, 35, a traditional fisherman from Marunda in North Jakarta, said that in order to feed his family, he was now making sandals and doormats from garment industry waste.

He said that as a fisherman he could earn up to Rp 80,000 in one outing, enough to feed his family of six.

“However, now that the bad weather has really stopped me from going out to sea, I am trying to build a small business by turning garment waste into strong ropes and then producing sandals and doormats,” he said.

However, supply of materials and marketing posed serious problems, he added.

“I am not sure if this job will go anywhere or whether it will just keep me busy during the bad weather,” he said.

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Climate ‘driver of extinction’

The University of New South Wales Science Alert 26 Jan 11

Climate change this century is expected to place substantial strain on the integrity and survival of some of the world's biologically important conservation regions, with most experiencing monthly climate conditions that were considered extreme in the recent past, says a new study.

Within the next 60 years, almost all of the Global 200 "ecoregions" – those selected for priority conservation for their irreplaceability or distinctiveness - will experience extreme monthly temperatures with a local warming of up to 2 °C, the study has found.

Tropical and subtropical ecoregions - including some in northern Australia - and mangroves face extreme conditions earliest, with those in Africa and South America thought to be particularly vulnerable to even relatively small temperature increases, according to a report in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The study team, led by Dr Linda Beaumont of Macquarie University, includes UNSW's Professor Andy Pitman, Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science.

They found that Amazon rainforests are vulnerable to reduced rainfall and higher temperatures but, in contrast, few ecoregions within boreal forests and tundra biomes will experience such extremes this century.

The study used actual climate records between 1961 and 1990 as a baseline and looked at projections of climate change through to 2070.

"Biodiversity and the maintenance of associated ecosystem goods and services are vital for human well-being, yet despite increases in conservation activity, the loss of biodiversity continues," the report says.

"Although habitat degradation, fragmentation and destruction, over-exploitation and invasive species have driven recent biodiversity loss, climate change is projected to be a major driver of extinction throughout the 21st century, both directly and via synergies with other stressors."

Ultimately, the ability of species and ecosystems to respond positively to climate change will depend on the capacity of species to rapidly adapt or to disperse to other habitats and the natural resilience of biological systems to such changes, it says. But those responses will also depend on pressures due to human activity and the extent to which future climate regimes present conditions beyond those previously experienced.

Deforestation of mangroves is occurring at a rate of 1 to 2 per cent a year, for example, with sea-level rises threatening up to 15 per cent of the world's mangroves this century: but the study found that mangroves require only a small rise in local temperatures of less than 1.3 °C for monthly climatic conditions to become extreme and expose the trees to heat stress.

"The sustainability and protection of the Global 200 would be of immense value to conservation efforts worldwide because of their richness in endemic species, high taxonomic uniqueness, unique ecological or evolutionary phenomena, global rarity and their representation of biomes.

"Most of them, however, are already threatened by habitat loss, fragmentation and degradation, with 147 of 185 terrestrial and freshwater regions being classified as either vulnerable or critically endangered.

"Exposure of these ecoregions to significant climate change—in particular, extreme or novel conditions—will further undermine efforts to protect them. The identification of those ecoregions that in the future may commonly experience climate patterns that would be considered 'extreme' could lead to reprioritization of conservation efforts."

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