Singapore's population reaches 5.1 million

Channel NewsAsia 28 Sep 11;

SINGAPORE: Latest statistics from the Population Trends 2011 report released on Wednesday showed Singapore's total population stood at 5.18 million as at end June this year.

The report also showed there were 3.79 million Singapore residents, of whom 3.26 million are Singapore citizens and 530,000 are permanent residents.

There were 1.39 million non-resident foreigners as at end June.

The report said the total population expanded by 2.1 per cent, or 107,000, in 2011, due to increased number of citizens and non-residents.

The number of Singapore citizens grew by 0.8 per cent between 2010 and 2011 to 3.26 million.

Growth in the number of non-residents was 6.9 per cent in 2011, down from the peaks of 15 per cent in 2007 and 19 per cent in 2008.

In contrast, the number of permanent residents declined by 1.7 per cent to 532,000, after growing 1.5 per cent last year and at least six per cent each year between 2005 and 2009.

Reflecting the ageing population, the proportion of Singapore residents aged 45 years and over expanded over time.

The median age of the resident population rose from 37.4 years last year to 38 years in 2011.

Consequently, the ratio of working-age residents to elderly residents dropped.

There were 7.9 residents aged 15-64 years for each resident aged 65 years and over in 2011, a decline from 8.2 in 2010.

In 2011, the Chinese formed the majority at 74 per cent of the resident population, followed by the Malays with 13 per cent and the Indians with 9.2 per cent.

The report also showed the first decline in general marriage rates since 2003.

The Singapore Department of Statistics said in 2010, 24,363 marriages were registered.

That is 6.6 per cent lower than the 26,081 registered in 2009.

Sociologists said this is a particularly worrying trend given that the number of singles in the population has risen.

With more singles, the general marriage rate should be going up but it has gone down instead.

Experts said the reason singles are not translating their relationships into marriage may have to do with global economic uncertainty.

Singles may be too focused on maintaining economic and job stability to even date.

The Population Trends report also found more people aged 30 to 34 have never been married.

It found more couples are not having children and there are more families with only one child.

Experts said the fact that more women are marrying past their prime reproductive years means the likelihood of them growing larger families will be smaller.

-CNA/wk

PR numbers down for first time in 20 years
Janice Heng Straits Times 29 Sep 11;

THE number of permanent residents (PRs) in Singapore has fallen for the first time in 20 years, according to latest government figures.

There were 532,000 PRs at the end of June, 9,000 fewer than last June.

One reason for the decline is Singapore's tighter immigration policy, said another government report that was also released yesterday.

But the pool of PRs is the only group to shrink.

Total population and the number of citizens and non-residents have all gone up this year.

The population has risen to 5.18 million. This is an increase of about 2 per cent from 5.08 million the year before.

Similarly, the number of citizens has gone up to 3.26 million. The increase is less than 1 per cent from a year ago, when it was 3.23 million.

The rise is proportionally steeper for non-residents - foreigners who are working, studying or living here but not granted PR status. Their numbers have risen nearly 7 per cent to 1.39 million. Previously, it was 1.31 million.

These figures were released by the Department of Statistics yesterday.

At the same time, the National Population and Talent Division (NPTD) issued a report, in which it attributed the fall in PR numbers to official policy.

'Due to the tightened immigration framework, the growth in our PR population has slowed significantly since 2010,' said the report.

PR growth peaked in 2009, when the number rose 11.5 per cent to 533,200, from 478,200.

Last year, the growth rate slowed significantly to just 1.5 per cent. This year, the number of PRs shrank 1.7 per cent.

In March last year, then Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng said in Parliament that Singapore would move to raise the quality of immigrants.

The NPTD publication suggests that new PRs and new citizens are more educated than their existing counterparts, although the bases for comparison differ.

Of new PRs aged 20 and older, 78.2 per cent have post-secondary education. This compares with 74 per cent of existing PRs who, however, are aged 15 and older.

Of new citizens aged 20 and older, 69.7 per cent have post-secondary education. Only 44.1 per cent of citizens aged 15 and older are similarly qualified.

MP for Moulmein-Kallang GRC Edwin Tong said the fall in PR numbers is not a surprise, given the tightened policy.

'The fall reflects greater reluctance to grant PR status, as compared with the case in previous years,' said Mr Tong.

He expects the PR population to dip further before levelling off in the next few years.

Dr Leong Chan Hoong, a research fellow at the Institute of Policy Studies, agrees but adds that the reasons for the fall in PR numbers are not clear-cut.

'The fall could reflect a number of things,' he said.

More of them are taking up citizenship in recent years. At the same time, the number of newly minted PRs has been falling.

From 2001 to 2005, Singapore saw an average of 8,300 new citizens a year, many of whom would previously have been PRs.

But from 2006 to last year, the average number of new citizens a year is 17,950 - more than twice that of the preceding five years.

As for newly minted PRs, the tighter immigration policy has caused their numbers to drop to 29,265 last year.

This is almost half the 2009 figure of 59,460, which is already fewer than 79,167 in 2008.

But tighter immigration policy may not be the sole factor driving down the total number of PRs in Singapore.

An NPTD spokesman cited other factors, such as death, people losing their PR status and PRs being absent from Singapore for more than 12 months.

Dr Leong pointed out that the economic uncertainty of recent years might have caused companies to relocate - and PRs to move out with them.

'It's a matter of both the economic attractiveness of Singapore as well as the government policy,' he said.

In the expatriate community, anecdotal evidence suggests that it is harder to get PR status nowadays.

British junior college teacher Nicola Perry, 50, said a friend applied recently and was turned down. 'But she plans to try again.'

She added that foreigners do not seem to be discouraged by the Government's stricter turn. 'I think people are still quite keen to become PRs here.'

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Hazy conditions in Singapore

Channel NewsAsia 29 Sep 11;

SINGAPORE: Many in Singapore woke up to a burnt smell and hazy skies in the air on Thursday morning.

A check with the National Environment Agency's (NEA) website showed that the three-hour PSI reading at 8am was 68, an increase of six points from an hour earlier.

This means that the air quality is in the moderate range.

NEA had said in an update two days ago that the Southwest Monsoon season lasting from June to September is the traditional dry season for the southern ASEAN region.

An escalation of hotspot activities can be expected during extended periods of dry weather.

NEA said in the past few days, scattered hotspots with slight to moderate smoke haze have been detected mainly over southern Sumatra.

With the prevailing winds blowing predominantly from the southeast or southwest, there is a likelihood that Singapore could be affected by transboundary smoke haze from Sumatra.

The impact of the smoke haze is dependent on factors such as the proximity and extent of the fires, the strength and direction of the prevailing winds and the incidence and amount of rain.

- CNA/cc

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Indonesia: Forest Loss Blamed for Animal Attack Death

Dwi Lusiana Jakarta Globe 28 Sep 11;

Malang, East Java. After a farmer was gored to death by a species of wild cattle, an animal protection group said a drastic decline in habitat may have pushed the animal into a populated area, and an inadvertent confrontation.

Sutini, 48, was tending her clove trees in Malang’s Lenggoksono hamlet on Monday when she was attacked by a banteng . She died at the scene after being gored in the neck and stomach.

According to ProFauna, which works to protect wildlife and their habitat, illegal logging in the Sumbertangkil Lenggoksono protected forest has led to shortages of food and shelter for banteng, which are endangered in the wild.

The number of wild banteng in the area fell from 20 animals in 1990 to just five when data was last collected, in 2001.

Rosek Nursahid, chairman of ProFauna, said the animal that killed Sutini had most likely come down from the protected forest looking for food.

“The fact that this animal came down from the forest shows that the population in Sumbertangkil Lenggoksono is not yet extinct. The government needs to take immediate steps to fix the damage to the forest and let residents know about this,” he said.

“The community needs to be aware of the presence of the banteng, which are not savage beasts. This is important to prevent any further conflict.”

Banteng are recognized as an endangered species by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

Wild Javan banteng can still be found in Baluran National Park in Banyuwangi, East Java, but their numbers are thought to have declined by 90 percent over the past 20 years because of habitat destruction.

Sutomo, an Indonesian Red Cross official in Malang, said Sutini’s goring death was the first known case in the area.

He speculated that the red scarf Sutini was wearing at the time of the attack may have angered the banteng, which reportedly appeared without warning from dense forest.

“Maybe it was afraid when it saw the residents’ homes, but whatever the reason the banteng ran around in a panic,” said Sutomo, who helped transfer Sutini’s body to the hospital.

After bringing the wayward banteng down, residents slaughtered the animal and distributed its meat among residents of the hamlet.

Read more!

Indonesia: Mass Dolphin Die-Off Puzzles Banten Officials

Fidelis E. Satriastanti Jakarta Globe 28 Sep 11;

Sixteen dolphins have died in the waters off of Ujung Kulon, Banten, after being stranded this afternoon, officials said.

“The 16 dolphins were stranded in Ujung Jaya village at about 2 p.m.,” said the head of Ujung Kulon National Park, Agus Priambudi. “Seven others returned to the sea.”

Officials haven’t been able to pinpoint why the dolphins were stranded. “Maybe because of strong northern currents or it can also be because of the hot weather,” he said.

This is the first such case of mass dolphin deaths in the country.

Agus said they would keep patrolling the waters until midnight to ensure the seven others remained safe.

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Thailand breaches rules on wild dolphins in captivity

Edwin Wiek, Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand
The Nation 29 Sep 11;

Thailand is witnessing an ever-increasing legal and illegal exploitation of local wildlife and marine life

Dolphins have been kept in captivity in Thailand since 1986. The first wild pink dolphin was caught and kept at Laem Singh in Chanthaburi by Mr Vichai Wattanapong, which later became Oasis Sea World. But it wasn't until recent years that interest in new dolphinaria has developed within Thailand.

Several attempts to start up aquariums containing wild-caught dolphins in Phuket and Koh Samui did not eventuate. One involved a Danish scientist who tried and failed to win the support of local politicians and businessmen to start a dolphinarium in Phuket in order to treat autistic children, three years ago.

Likewise, a Koh Samui resort owned by a politically influential Thai family purchased a locally caught wild pink dolphin in an attempt to increase tourist interest. While they claimed that they had rescued the dolphin from a collision with a fishing boat, the dolphin was trained to perform shows instead of being medically treated, with evidence of which being printed in The Nation in February 2007.

The poor animal was later confiscated and freed back into the gulf of Thailand, with the resort's further plans of obtaining more dolphins being cancelled.

Prior to this, two enterprises initiated the exploitation of dolphins many years earlier: Oasis Sea World in Chanthaburi (established in 1991) and the "Sanctuary of Truth" in Pattaya (established in about 2001).

Both resorts claimed to be merely rescuing wild dolphins that were harmed by the fishing industry, building ponds in order to nurse the "rescued" dolphins back to health. However, the dolphins were instead trained to perform shows, attracting tourists with the promise of rare and beautiful species of wild dolphins.

Oasis Sea World was even able to export six pink dolphins to Singapore in 1999, despite the international regulatory body the Conference on International trade of Endangered Species (CITES) clearly forbidding the trade of wild-caught specimens for entertainment purposes. The Sanctuary of Truth allegedly still does not even have a zoo permit to date.

Thankfully, a campaign led by the Thai Animal Guardians Association, the Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand and Care for the Wild International, which called on the Thai government to enforce the CITES regulations and local laws, put an end to the export of dolphins after the financially lucrative deals undertaken by Oasis Sea world.

With such exports banned and its location a little inconvenient for tourists, Oasis Sea World was forced to look into other options to increase profits. This resulted in the "Pattaya Dolphin World and Resort" being developed last year. A soft opening on August 12 this year saw the transfer of seven of 18 dolphins at Oasis Sea World, but improved visitor numbers and profits are expected by the end of this year for both Oasis and Pattaya Dolphin Worlds.

On Phuket Island, there were serious plans last year and early this year to construct yet another dolphinarium by a Canadian national and a group of foreign investors. After several articles in a local newspaper and a number of open blog discussions, it was clear that a lot of the locals and expatriates did not agree with the plans, resulting in some investors since retracting financial support. No zoo or building permits have yet been requested or issued.

People involved in the Phuket project wished to display local and imported species, but acquiring local species may be nearly impossible, and it could be similarly tricky to import species from the Solomon Islands after changes in the law disallowing any further export licences from January 1, 2012.

The Phuket project is not completely out of the question just yet, however, but with continued pressure from environmental organisations, it may be cancelled entirely.

The current figures on captive dolphins in Thailand are:

Dolphin species found in captivity in Thailand:

Pink or Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin (Sousa chinensis)* 7 to 8 individuals at 3 places.

Irrawaddy dolphin (Orcaella brevirostris)* 14-15 individuals at 3 places.

Bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncates) 6 or more at 1 place.

Beluga or white whale (Delphina-pterus leucas) 4 or more at 1 place.

Origin:

*Local dolphin species (wild-caught) 21-23 in total (both CITES Appendix 1 protected).

Imported (with CITES permits) dolphins or whales: 10 or more.

Locations where dolphins are found in captivity:

Sanctuary of Truth, Pattaya: 3 to 5.

Dolphin World and Resort Pattaya: 7.

Oasis Sea World, Chanthaburi: 11.

Safari World, Bangkok: 10 or more.

"The Cove", an Academy Award-winning

documentary that exposes the annual slaughter of dolphins in Japan, will show at the Foreign Correspondents' Club in Bangkok at 8pm tonight (Thursday). For details see

www.fccthai.com.

Read more!

New Zealand: Endangered dolphins near extinction

Experts say fishing methods are to blame, with one subspecies in New Zealand down to fewer than 100 mammals
Press Association guardian.co.uk 28 Sep 11;

The world's most endangered sea dolphins are sliding towards extinction in the face of damaging fishing methods, experts are warning.

Hector's dolphins are found only around New Zealand, where the population has fallen from 30,000 to around 7,000 since nylon fishing nets came into use in the 1970s, a conference on marine biodiveristy in Aberdeen will hear on Thursday.

The country's North Island population, a subspecies known as Maui's dolphins, is down to fewer than 100 mammals, according to Dr Barbara Maas, head of endangered species conservation for German environmental group NABU International – Foundation for Nature.

Research by Dr Liz Slooten, from Otago University in New Zealand, suggests commercial fishing gear known as gillnets – which create a wall of netting to catch fish – are drowning 23 Hector's dolphins a year on the east coast of the South Island.

She said the sustainable limit for the area was about one dolphin a year, and at the levels currently seen the population would fall by at least a further 14% by 2050.

Maas, who has worked to protect the species for more than a decade including for the New Zealand Department of Conservation, will warn the conference that gillnets are only part of the problem.

Other fishing methods which had not been included in the calculations are also killing Hector's dolphins, including the recreational use of gillnets, along with pollution, boat strikes and marine mining.

Trawl nets, which are pulled through the water from boats, were likely to kill as many endangered Hector's dolphins as commercial gillnets, bringing the number of deaths due to fisheries to 46 along the east coast, she warns.

"An annual loss of this size will wipe out 62% of the population by 2050. Only a scattering of animals will survive, potentially pushing the population beyond the point of no return."

She said that "absolute protection against commercial and recreational gill-netting and trawling is the only way to prevent their demise".

Dr Maas, who is speaking at the international marine conference organised by the Universities of Aberdeen and St Andrews, is urging the New Zealand government not to bow to industry pressure and to ban the fishing methods in waters up to 100m deep to save the species.

She suggests more selective fishing methods, such as hook and line fishing, or fish traps, which do not catch dolphins, could be used instead.

Read more!

Sharks in trouble on the Great Barrier Reef and worldwide

James Cook University Science Alert 29 Sep 11;

Sharks are in big trouble on the Great Barrier Reef and worldwide, according to an Australian-based team who have developed a world-first way to measure rates of decline in shark populations.

“There is mounting evidence of widespread, substantial, and ongoing declines in the abundance of shark populations worldwide, coincident with marked rises in global shark catches in the last half-century,” say Mizue Hisano, Professor Sean Connolly and Dr William Robbins from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and James Cook University.

“Overfishing of sharks is now recognized as a major global conservation concern, with increasing numbers of shark species added to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s list of threatened species,” they say in the latest issue of the international science journal PLos ONE.

“Evaluating population trends for sharks is complicated,” Professor Connolly said. “The simplest approach of looking at trends in fisheries catches doesn’t work well for sharks.

“First, many countries with coral reefs don’t keep reliable records of catches or fishing effort. Second, around 75 per cent of the world shark catch consists of illegal and unreported finning. Third, sharks may be caught, discarded, and not reported when fishers are targeting other species,” he said.

“An alternative is to take estimates of shark growth, birth, and mortality rates, and use these to calculate population growth rates. Estimates of growth and birth rates are easy to get, but it is very hard to get good estimates of mortality in sharks and other large animals.”

To deal with this problem, the team developed several alternative models, which combined birth rates and growth rates for sharks with a variety of different methods for estimating mortality.

They then used state-of-the art statistical methods to combine the uncertainty associated with each of these methods and arrive at a more robust long-term population prediction for two GBR shark species -- the grey reef shark and the whitetip reef shark.

As a further check on their results, the researchers used their population projections to see how well their models could explain differences in shark abundances on fished and unfished reefs, based on how long the unfished reefs had been protected.

The team found that results obtained by all methods of assessing shark populations were in close agreement that sharks are declining rapidly due to fishing.

“Our different approaches all painted a surprisingly consistent picture of the current state of population decline, but also of the potential recovery of these species if they are adequately protected,” says Mizue Hisano, the study’s lead author.

For the Great Barrier Reef shark populations, the close agreement between the different methods appears to justify management actions to substantially reduce the fishing mortality of reef sharks.

“More broadly, we believe that our study demonstrates that this approach may be applied to a broad range of exploited species for which direct estimates of mortality are ambiguous or lacking, leading to improved estimates of population growth.”

Population Growth Rates of Reef Sharks with and without Fishing on the Great Barrier Reef: Robust Estimation with Multiple Models by Mizue Hisano, Sean R. Connolly and William D. Robbins is published in PLos ONE 6.9, September 2011.

Read more!

Experts Identify World’s Most Threatened Sea Turtle Populations

IUCN 29 Sep 11;

Top sea turtle experts from around the globe have discovered that almost half (45%) of the world’s threatened sea turtle populations are found in the northern Indian Ocean. The study also determined that the most significant threats across all of the threatened populations of sea turtles are fisheries bycatch, accidental catches of sea turtles by fishermen targeting other species, and the direct harvest of turtles or their eggs for food or turtle shell material for commercial use.

The recent report, produced by IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Marine Turtle Specialist Group (MTSG) and supported by Conservation International (CI) and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF), is the first comprehensive status assessment of all sea turtle populations globally. The study, designed to provide a blueprint for conservation and research, evaluated the state of individual populations of sea turtles and determined the 11 most threatened populations, as well as the 12 healthiest populations.

“This assessment system provides a baseline status for all sea turtles from which we can gauge our progress on recovering these threatened populations in the future,” explained Roderic Mast, Co-Chair of the MTSG, CI Vice President, and one of the paper’s authors. “Through this process, we have learned a lot about what is working and what isn’t in sea turtle conservation, so now we look forward to turning the lessons learned into sound conservation strategies for sea turtles and their habitats.”

Five of the world’s 11 most threatened species of sea turtles are found in the northern Indian Ocean, specifically threatened populations of both Loggerhead Turtles (Caretta caretta) and Olive Ridley Turtles (Lepidochelys olivacea) are found in the northern Indian Ocean in waters and on nesting beaches within Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) of countries such as India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.. Other areas that proved to be the most dangerous places for sea turtles were the East Pacific Ocean (from the USA to South America) and East Atlantic Ocean (off the coast of western Africa).

“The report confirms that India is a home to many of the most threatened sea turtles in the world,” said Dr. B. C. Choudhury, head of the Department of Endangered Species Management at the Wildlife Institute of India and a contributor to the study. “This paper is a wake-up call for the authorities to do more to protect India's sea turtles and their habitats to ensure that they survive."

The study also highlighted the 12 healthiest sea turtle populations in the world, which are large and currently populations facing relatively low threats. Five species, such as the Hawksbill Turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata) and the Green Turtle (Chelonia mydas) have populations among these dozen thriving habitats which include nesting sites and feeding areas in Australia, Mexico and Brazil. Other areas that harbor healthy turtle populations include the Southwest Indian Ocean, Micronesia and French Polynesia.

“Before we conducted this study, the best we could say about sea turtles was that six of the seven sea turtle species are threatened with extinction globally,” said Dr Bryan Wallace, Director of Science for the Marine Flagship Species Program at CI, and lead author for the paper. “But this wasn’t very helpful for conservation because it didn’t help us set priorities for different populations in different regions. Sea turtles everywhere are conservation-dependent, but this framework will help us effectively target our conservation efforts around the world.”

Map of the 11 most Threatened Sea Turtle Populations 2.81MB
Map of The 12 Healthiest Sea Turtle Populations 2.90MB

Global Conservation Priorities for Marine Turtles
ScienceDaily 28 Sep 11;

Marine turtles worldwide are vulnerable and endangered, but their long lives and broad distribution make it difficult for scientists to accurately determine the threat level to different populations and devise appropriate conservation strategies. To address this concern, researchers have developed a new method to evaluate spatially and biologically distinct groups of marine turtles, called Regional Management Units, or RMUs, to identify threats and data gaps at different scales.

The results are reported September 28 in the online journal PLoS ONE. In their analysis, the researchers identified 11 out of the 58 worldwide turtle RMUs that are most at risk. Of these 11, five reside in the Indian Ocean, four in the Pacific, and two in the Atlantic. Populations of four of the seven total species of marine turtle are included in this most threatened group.

The researchers suggest that these results should be used to help set conservation priorities. Furthermore, this approach is flexible and can also be used to assess other widely distributed taxa to generate a portfolio of conservation priorities that reflect the diversity of conservation needs associated with variation among different populations of a single species.

Journal Reference:

Bryan P. Wallace, Andrew D. DiMatteo, Alan B. Bolten, Milani Y. Chaloupka, Brian J. Hutchinson, F. Alberto Abreu-Grobois, Jeanne A. Mortimer, Jeffrey A. Seminoff, Diego Amorocho, Karen A. Bjorndal, Jérôme Bourjea, Brian W. Bowen, Raquel Briseño Dueñas, Paolo Casale, B. C. Choudhury, Alice Costa, Peter H. Dutton, Alejandro Fallabrino, Elena M. Finkbeiner, Alexandre Girard, Marc Girondot, Mark Hamann, Brendan J. Hurley, Milagros López-Mendilaharsu, Maria Angela Marcovaldi, John A. Musick, Ronel Nel, Nicolas J. Pilcher, Sebastian Troëng, Blair Witherington, Roderic B. Mast. Global Conservation Priorities for Marine Turtles. PLoS ONE, 2011; 6 (9): e24510 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0024510

South Asia most dangerous for sea turtles: study
(AFP) Google News 30 Sep 11;

MANILA — The waters around India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are home to the world's most endangered sea turtles, according to a study released Thursday aimed at setting a blueprint for global conservation.

While it was well known that almost all sea turtle species face extinction, the study by 30 scientists was the first to identify specific populations around the world that were most at threat, Conservational International said.

It identified the 11 most threatened populations around the globe, five of which were on the beaches or in the exclusive economic zones of Indian Ocean countries India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

Asia in general was found to be a particularly dangerous region for sea turtles, with Japan, Myanmar, the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia also named as having some of the most threatened populations.

In contrast, the study found the healthiest sea turtle populations in Australia, the South Pacific and Latin American countries including Mexico, Ecuador and Brazil.

The main threats for sea turtles, stunning creatures that have been in existence for at least 110 million years, are getting caught in the nets and long lines of the commercial fishing industry, the study said.

Other major threats are the gathering of turtle eggs and the eating of their meat by local communities. Coastal development, shipping and increasingly climate change are also endangering these populations, the study found.

Scientists involved in the study said it would play an important role in mapping out conservation plans for the must vulnerable sea turtles.

"We are excited by the clarity this new study provides by identifying areas around the world that are most important for sea turtle conservation," said Claude Gascon, chief science officer at the US-based National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.

"This report is a guide for scientists, conservationists, policy makers, and funders to determine where conservation resources can be allocated to improve the status of these threatened populations."

Conservation International scientist Bryan Wallace emphasised in a blog that strong conservation efforts had proved to be successful, offering hope for the future.

He cited the example of green and olive ridley sea turtles -- once widely harvested particularly in Mexico for their eggs and meat -- but which now have some of the world's healthiest sea turtle populations.

This was credited to a 1990 ban imposed -- and strictly enforced -- on the consumption of such sea turtle products, Wallace said in the blog.

Read more!

South Africans, Vietnamese meet on rhino poaching

Donna Bryson, Associated Press Google News 28 Sep 11;

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — More needs to be done to dispel the myth among the Vietnamese that rhinoceros horn can cure cancer, Vietnamese officials said Wednesday after meeting with their South African counterparts about curbing rhino poaching.

This year already, 309 rhinos have been poached in South Africa, compared to the 2010 record of 333, according to the Department of Environmental Affairs. The 2010 figure was nearly triple the deaths in 2009.

Demand for rhino horn among a growing Vietnamese middle class is believed to be driving the poaching spike in South Africa and elsewhere in Africa — Vietnam's own rhinos are nearly extinct. David Newton of TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network of the World Wildlife Fund and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, said demand in China and Thailand also was a concern, but that recently, the "vast majority" of rhino horn smuggling prosecutions involved Vietnamese citizens.

"We need to raise public awareness of the importance of biodiversity and we need to get rid of the wrong understanding that rhino horn can cure cancer," said Kien Nguyen, a Vietnamese diplomat who took part in two days of talks with South African diplomats, conservationists and law enforcement and prosecuting authorities.

Tuan Cong Ha, a Vietnamese environmental affairs official who headed his country's delegation in South Africa, called on medical researchers in his country to study what he called the cancer-cure "rumor" and make their findings public. He also said attempts to educate Vietnamese should be more specific, saying previous campaigns have spoken only generally of the need to protect wildlife.

Newton said rhino horn has been used traditionally in Asia to treat fever. He said the focus on cancer was new, and that Wednesday's comments from Vietnamese officials showed they were aware of a growing problem.

The Vietnamese and South African officials said a key focus of their talks was the need to ensure that Vietnamese who come to South Africa as trophy hunters do not return and sell rhino horn on the black market. It is legal to keep rhino horn as a souvenir, but not to trade in it. Such illegal trade can lead to up to seven years in prison in Vietnam, Nguyen said.

The Vietnamese officials in South Africa on Wednesday could not provide figures for arrests and prosecutions in Vietnam.

Newton, of TRAFFIC, said Vietnam needed to be more open about the problem and what was being done to combat it.

"They're increasingly paying attention to it, but there's obviously a very long way for them to go," he said in an interview.

Fundisile Mketeni, who led the South African delegation in talks with the Vietnamese, said South Africa would schedule similar meetings with Chinese and Thai officials.

"All those countries have a role to play," Newton said. "It's absolutely urgent that South Africa does get those countries involved."

South Africa, Vietnam launch talks on rhino poaching
(AFP) Google News 28 Sep 11;

JOHANNESBURG — South Africa and Vietnam have launched talks toward an agreement to curb rhino poaching, which has soared in recent years driven by booming demand in Asia, officials said on Wednesday.

The talks, which aim to produce a Memorandum of Understanding between the two countries, come amid another bloody year for rhinos in South Africa and a rise in the price of rhino horn on the Asian black market, including Vietnam, where the substance is believed to cure cancer.

"Biodiversity conservation is a full-circle process which starts from the source country and ends in the destination country," Nguyen Trung Kien, a counsellor at the Vietnamese embassy in Pretoria, told journalists.

"We also understand that we need to raise public awareness of the importance of biodiversity. And we also need to get rid of the wrong understanding that rhino horn can cure cancer."

South Africa lost 333 rhinos to poaching last year and has lost 309 so far this year, up from 13 in 2007.

Police and parks officials say the increase has been driven by organised poaching syndicates.

The horns on the lucrative Asian black market fetch up to $500,000 per piece, according to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.

Officials from South Africa's environment ministry and Vietnam's forestry administration held two days of talks that the South Africans described as a "total package" bringing police, prosecutors and customs officers into the discussions.

Officials said the final document will be a wide-ranging agreement, including conservation, law enforcement, intelligence, prosecution and monitoring of legal hunts. They did not give a timeline for signing the deal.

South Africa and Viet Nam to co-operate on protection of wildlife
TRAFFIC 30 Sep 11;

Johannesburg, South Africa, 30th September 2011—South Africa and Viet Nam formally agreed on a process to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to collaborate on natural resource management wildlife protection and law enforcement.

At a joint press conference on Wednesday, Mr. Fundisile Mketeni, Deputy Director General of Biodiversity and Conservation in the South African Department of Environmental Affairs, and Dr. Ha Cong Tuan, Deputy Director General, Viet Nam Forestry Administration, announced technical agreement on promoting co-operation between the two countries to enhance wildlife protection, law enforcement and compliance with CITES.

The announcement came following a bilateral meeting that was facilitated by TRAFFIC to discuss the issue of rhino poaching and illegal trade in rhino horn between the two countries.

Viet Nam has been identified as the primary destination for rhino horns illegally coming from South Africa, where government officials announced that the death toll had reached 309 poached animals since the beginning of the year.

The MoU now moves into the final round of vetting before being signed in the near future.

The two countries have agreed to co-operate through information and intelligence sharing, the future introduction of a rigorous permit verification procedure, technology development and exchange, joint research and capacity building and training.

“We are now on the cusp of proactive law enforcement collaboration that harnesses the political will of both nations to actively combat the illegal trade in rhino horns. This can only be good news for Africa’s beleaguered rhinos and hopefully leads to a new era of diminishing rhino losses” said Tom Milliken, head of TRAFFIC’s Elephant and Rhino Programme.

Whilst the rhino crisis dominated the current round of discussions, the future MoU will broadly include other natural resource management, protected areas management, community development and sustainable livelihoods as they relate to biodiversity management.

“Today we are concerned about rhinos, but tomorrow our concerns may expand to elephants or reptiles or something else”, said Mr Fundisile Mketani. “We will now be prepared”.

Dr Ha Cong Tuan strongly signaled Viet Nam’s intention to co-operate with South Africa to address outstanding wildlife trade problems.

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Best of our wild blogs: 28 Sep 11

Seminars next week in NUS: evolutionary biogeography and conservation in SEA, bats and viruses, exceeding earth's carrying capacity from Habitatnews

NUScasts and Youtube videos from the Biodiversity of Singapore Symposium III (2011) from Habitatnews

Another Good Vis Day @ Pulau Hantu
from colourful clouds

Shrimp goby and commensal shimp
from Pulau Hantu

Tuas: seagrass shift and very long driftnet
from wild shores of singapore and Project Driftnet and teamseagrass

Drilling to take place near Kusu Island reefs
from wild shores of singapore

Damselfly (5) – Agriocnemis Femina
from Dragonflies & Damselflies of Singapore

Holiday Workshops by the Education Unit of RMBR
from Raffles Museum News

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Council formed to keep Singapore clean

Hoe Yeen Nie Channel NewsAsia 27 Sep 11;

SINGAPORE: The National Environment Agency (NEA) has formed a new Public Hygiene Council, in its latest effort to keep Singapore clean.

It wants Singaporeans to stop littering and practise good hygiene by influencing public attitudes.

The Public Hygiene Council, chaired by Khoo Teck Puat Hospital CEO Liak Teng Lit, comprises 21 individuals representing the public sector, environment groups and related industries.

They include Ms Tan Puay Hoon, president of the Restroom Association (Singapore), Mr Eugene Heng, chairman of the Waterways Watch Society, Dr Foo Suan Fong, principal of Dunman High School and Mr Edward Goh, chief operating officer of Purechem Veolia Environmental Services.

The plan is to tap their collective experience for ideas, which will in turn complement NEA's initiatives.

The NEA already has a whole slew of campaigns, from anti-littering to getting people to use public toilets more responsibly.

But it said there is a limit to their effectiveness, and in order to see progress, behaviour and attitudes need to change. That is where the council comes in.

Streets will continue to be swept, and strict penalties against offenders will still apply.

But there will now be a more coordinated attempt at changing public behaviour through the community.

Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Vivian Balakrishnan said: "I still believe we need to make sure it is clean in the morning; you still need to maintain that.

"If a person is habitually anti-social, I need to make sure there is a high probability that he will be caught.

"Thirdly and most importantly, I want his neighbours to care. And frankly, neighbours know who are the guilty ones."

Public Hygiene Council chairman Liak Teng Lit said: "Every single Singaporean really needs to take ownership.

"Do the right thing, and advocate for it, stand up for it. When people do not do the right thing, they really ought to be able to stand forward and say, that's not right."

The council is inviting feedback on its website, www.publichygienecouncil.sg.

-CNA/wk

New council to tackle littering, hygiene issues
Esther Ng Today Online 28 Sep 11;

SINGAPORE - One in four Singaporeans know it is an offence to litter but will do so out of convenience, while one in a hundred will litter regardless of the consequences.

These are some of the findings a sociological study commissioned by the National Environment Agency (NEA) has found, and are due to be released next month.

To tackle the scourge of littering, as well as other public hygiene challenges such as dirty toilets, a newly formed Public Hygiene Council will work with the NEA and other Government agencies to get Singaporeans to be more civic conscious.

The 21-member council comprise stakeholders from the private sector - such as food court operator Koufu, the Singapore Hotel Association and Purechem Veolia Environmental Services - as well as representatives from Government bodies.

And it has set the bar very high. "We need to reach the standard of Japan or Northern Europe or Korea, and we must not settle for less," said Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Vivian Balakrishnan who was present at the launch of the council at Khoo Teck Puat Hospital yesterday.

"It's not enough to be clean in some areas, and have a mess in certain areas. So the difference this time round, we're going to do an all out blitz on all areas and involving all stakeholders."

Over the next few months, the council will garner feedback from the public and work with stakeholders to "promote best practices" and outreach efforts, said NEA's chief executive Andrew Tan, who added that the council's promotional efforts will complement the agency's regulatory role.

Mr Tan noted that there is "no single formula" to tackle cleanliness and littering problems, but rather by a combination of enforcement, education, provision of rubbish bins and a cleaning regime.

"It's a community of best practices that we can promote around the island by the different stakeholders who can achieve a certain tipping point and establish a new social form that we can then all follow," he said.

Lamenting that Singapore has a "first world infrastructure" but a "third world behaviour", the council's chairman Liak Teng Lit urged Singaporeans to keep the country clean just as they would their "homes and bedroom".

"Every single Singaporean really needs to take ownership," Mr Liak said.

"Do the right thing, and advocate for it, stand up for it.

"When people do not do the right thing, they really ought to be able to stand forward and say, that's not right."

New council rolls up sleeves for dirty job
Littering and filthy public toilets among problems it will tackle
Feng Zengkun Straits Times 28 Sep 11;

FOUR in 10 people in Singapore would litter if they knew they could get away with it, a National Environment Agency (NEA) survey found. Another finding: The state of public toilets is 'appalling'.

These results were cited by a new Public Hygiene Council launched yesterday in another renewed push to raise cleanliness standards in Singapore.

The 21-strong council is made up of representatives from schools, the hotel and restroom associations, environmental organisations, government departments and hospitals.

Mr Liak Teng Lit, chair of the council and chief executive of Khoo Teck Puat Hospital, said that bringing all the relevant groups together would improve future cleanliness campaigns.

The council hopes to pick up the work where fines and penalties end, to keep Singaporeans' bad habits in check.

And even though the NEA has an array of campaigns, from anti-littering to promoting clean public toilet habits, the council plans to step in by pooling together the expertise of hotels, schools and others to bring about a change in behaviour.

So, to deal with dirty toilets, for example, the council will tap the advice of the Restroom Association as well as operators of foodcourts and restaurants. The hope: with more heads and hands on deck, the cleaner that deck will be.

It plans to conduct studies on hygiene and littering and wants to get feedback through its website www.publichygienecouncil.sg and Facebook page www.facebook.com/publichygienecouncil.

'All this will help move the council away from the more top-down approach of the past,' said Mr Liak.

The council's members are appointed by the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources. The ministry will oversee any funding request from the council.

For now, its first priority is public toilets, especially those at coffee shops and hawker centres. Ms Tan Puay Hoon, president of the Restroom Association, said she was ashamed to take overseas guests to these toilets because of their condition.

She added: 'The floors are often wet and slippery and it's dangerous for the elderly and children.'

The council has started consulting stallholders and will announce an education campaign by year-end.

It also intends to put a lid on the littering problem.

For example, it wants to focus on improving habits at HDB lift landings, where refuse tends to collect. It will also go beyond educational efforts by looking at the design of bins. The small openings may be a reason for people dumping trash at the side rather than into the bins.

Even though the number of litterbugs caught dropped by half, to 7,500, in the first half of this year compared to last year, there is a growing perception that Singapore is getting dirtier.

The NEA's chief, Mr Andrew Tan, agreed that there was such a view, given the number of Forum page letters focusing on the subject in recent months.

But he felt that the perception could also have come about because the littering problem was worse in high-traffic places such as bus stops and interchanges, Orchard Road, Little India, Chinatown and East Coast Park.

Associate Professor Paulin Straughan, vice-dean of the arts and social sciences faculty at the National University of Singapore, said people could also be getting more cunning at avoiding being caught.

She cited the NEA survey she led, which found that four in 10 of the 4,400 respondents polled would litter if they believed they would not be caught.

The survey's full findings will be compiled into a book to be launched next month.

Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Vivian Balakrishnan lauded the council's goals and said people could help keep Singapore litter-free by taking care of their own neighbourhoods.

'If you see your neighbour littering, remind him not to do so,' he said.

Council member Leo Yee Sin, head of the infectious disease department at Tan Tock Seng Hospital, said good hygiene is essential because Singapore's small size means disease outbreaks could spread more quickly than in other countries.

Mr Liak said residents need to help clean up the country and not rely on professional cleaners.

'We have a First World country's infrastructure but we look like a Third World country sometimes,' he added.

Singapore's First Public Hygiene Council Calls For A New National Passion For Good Hygiene
NEA Press Release 27 Sep 11;

Singapore, 27 Sept 2011 -- The newly launched Public Hygiene Council calls on the public to be “passionate” about good hygiene practices, both in the area of personal and public hygiene. This is particularly important in an urbanised, densely populated country like Singapore.

The Council will promote a process of engagement with society, which aims to spread good hygiene practices and where the public makes a stand on what they are prepared to do to sustain and improve personal and public hygiene standards and practices. Through this process, the Council also hopes to rally the community to stand resolute against poor public hygiene habits, such as littering and poor toilet user behaviour.

Outreach and Obtaining Feedback

Utilising a variety of platforms, the Public Hygiene Council seeks to gather ideas suggestions and feedback from the public on hygiene issues. The Council also seeks to grow a community of practitioners and advocates by calling on individuals and groups to learn from best practices and do their part to stamp out bad hygiene practices.

Among these, there will be focus group discussions with the different stakeholders to develop relevant educational campaigns, as well as networking and sharing sessions to share best practices on instilling good hygiene practices. Public and stakeholder groups can also provide their feedback through behavioural studies, which the Council intends to use to gain insights on the current standards of hygiene in Singapore. Online polls and forum discussions on various public hygiene issues would also be organised to seek feedback, obtain suggestions for improvement, as well as organise various activities and programmes.

Chairman of the Public Hygiene Council, Mr Liak Teng Lit, said, “I think many in Singapore want a cleaner and more hygienic environment and everyone has a part to play to achieve this goal. There needs to be ownership of hygiene issues. The Council cannot do it alone. We want to call upon like-minded people to join us in our efforts towards a cleaner and more hygienic environment for all.”

A Concerted Effort for a Cleaner Singapore

The Public Hygiene Council comprises passionate individuals from various sectors of the community, including, non-governmental organisations, government, media and education.

The Council believes that a cleaner and more hygienic environment is within Singapore’s reach, and it hopes that more people in society will participate collectively towards this goal by carrying out one good hygiene practice a day, such as picking up a piece of litter.

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Asian countries among the worst air polluters

But WHO says Singapore one of region's better places; most-polluted city in the world is in Iran
Straits Times 28 Sep 11;

GENEVA: Asian countries fare poorly when it comes to air pollution, although Bhutan, Japan and Singapore rank among the better places, according to the World Health Organisation's first global survey.

Cities in Canada and the US were rated among the best, while those in the Middle East were among the worst. The south- western Iranian city of Ahwaz in fact walked away with the unfortunate distinction of having the highest measured level of airborne particles smaller than 10 micrometres.

WHO released the list on Monday, to highlight the need to reduce outdoor air pollution, which is estimated to cause 1.34 million premature deaths each year.

The global body said investments to lower pollution levels quickly pay off because of lower disease rates and, therefore, lower health-care costs.

The list, which relies on country-reported data over the past several years, measures the concentration of airborne particles smaller than 10 micrometres - so-called PM10s - for almost 1,100 cities.

WHO recommends an upper limit of 20 micrograms for PM10s, which can cause serious respiratory problems in humans. They are mostly sulphur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide from power plants, vehicle exhausts and industry.

The world average for PM10 was estimated to be 71 micrograms per cu m.

Singapore's outdoor air pollution level was significantly lower at 32 micrograms per cu m, for 2009, the latest available figures. And this was an improvement over the pollution five years ago, when it was estimated to be 48 micrograms per cu m.

Still the Republic was behind Bhutan - which at 18 micrograms per cu m had the lowest levels of pollution in Asia - and Japan, with 22 micrograms per cu m.

Cities in Pakistan and India, such as Quetta and Kanpur, and the Mongolian capital Ulan Bator fared among the worst on the pollution scale.

Mr Mohammad Hasan, 39, of Karachi, Pakistan, said attempts to improve air quality in the port city of 18 million - such as by replacing heavily polluting buses with vehicles using compressed natural gas - are being undermined by bigger polluters which are 'playing havoc with the lives of Karachi's populace'.

'Industries and factories are emitting thick clouds of smoke, and no government agency is out there to check them or correct them,' the bank employee said.

Elsewhere in the region, pollution in heavily populated China, at 98 micrograms per cu m, was way above the world average.

China's Environmental Protection Ministry said in a report last year that a third of the nation's 113 cities surveyed failed to meet national air standards. And a World Bank report said 16 of the world's 20 cities with the worst air are located in China, which relies heavily on coal to meet its energy needs.

Myanmar, with 94 micrograms per cu m, and Indonesia, with 55 micrograms per cu m, figured among countries with the most pollution in South-east Asia.

The WHO said the reasons for high pollution levels varied, but that often rapid industrialisation and the use of poor quality fuels for transportation and electricity generation are to blame.

In India, major metropolitan areas such as New Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata have banned the construction of new power plants within city limits, while existing ones are being shut down or relocated.

But at the same time, a lack of public transport has led to an explosion of privately owned cars and SUVs as the economy booms, with the number of heavily polluting diesel vehicles increasing 10-fold, as diesel is highly subsidised by the government.

At the other end of the list are cities in Canada and the United States, which benefit from lower population density, favourable climates and stricter air pollution regulation.

Estonia topped the list with the best air quality, at 11 micrograms per cu m, Mauritius ranked second, with 12 micrograms, and Australia tied with Canada for the third spot, on 13 micrograms per cu m.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Singapore's air is the cleanest in region but ...
Today Online 28 Sep 11;

SINGAPORE - While the air in Singapore is cleaner than it is in other South-east Asian countries, the Republic's outdoor air pollution reading exceeds the World Health Organization's (WHO) recommended air quality guidelines, according to a report on about 1,100 cities released by the global body yesterday.

However, in a press release, the WHO noted that "only a few cities currently meet the WHO guideline values" - only 10 countries made the cut.

The report looked at how many tiny air pollutant particles - PM10 particles - were recorded floating in the air in each city.

Singapore's PM10 reading came in at 32 micrograms per cubic metre of air, above the WHO's guidelines, which call for PM10 readings below 20 micrograms per cu m.

In contrast, countries like Estonia - which topped the list - and Australia have some of the best air in the world, with PM10 readings of 11 and 13 per cu m respectively, while in Asia, Japan had a reading of 22.

The data, collected from government agencies worldwide, was dated between 2003 and last year.

The WHO said outdoor air pollution is estimated to cause 1.34 million premature deaths each year and that investments to lower pollution levels quickly paid off due to lower disease rates and, therefore, lower healthcare costs.

The reasons for high pollution levels varied but rapid industrialisation and the use of poor quality fuels for transportation and electricity generation are often to blame, it said.

PM10 particles come mostly from power plant and auto exhaust emissions, and can penetrate into the lungs where they may cause cancer, asthma and acute lower respiratory infections.

They can also enter the bloodstream, leading to heart disease, research suggests.

In South-east Asia, Thailand's PM10 reading was 41, with Bangkok's air being more polluted than that in other Thai cities, at 54.

Malaysia's reading was 42, while Indonesia's reading was 55. The air was significantly worse in Medan, which had a PM10 reading of 111, compared to 43 in Jakarta.

Bejing's reading soared above China's national PM10 reading of 91, at 121, while Shanghai's reading was 81.

The Republic of Korea had a reading of 61.

Cities in Iran, India and Pakistan have some of the worst polluted air on the planet.

The Iranian city of Ahvaz had the highest measured levels of PM10 particles in the world, at 372 per cu m of air, while the reading for New Delhi stood at 198. The reading for Islamabad, in Pakistan was 189.

On the other end of the list are cities in Canada and the United States, benefitting from lower population density, favourable climates and stricter air pollution regulation.

The PM10 reading for Canada was 13, while the reading for the US was 18, with the worst reading coming from Bakersfield, California, at 38. AGENCIES

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