Latest Green Jobs in Singapore [10 - 16 Oct 2011]
from Green Business Times
The Army Protects more than just our Human Citizens
from Diary of a Boy wandering through Our Little Urban Eden
Hantu Octoberfest: 1-for-1 Nudis
from Pulau Hantu
fishhooked boar @ chek Jawa 16Oct2011
from sgbeachbum
Mok Ly Yng on “Horsburgh Lighthouse: 160th anniversary” (Sat 15 Oct 2011)
from Otterman speaks
Tapestry Turban Snail
from Monday Morgue
Azrina Abdullah The Sun Daily 10 Oct 11;
I WAS reading the news the other day about students and their favoured career paths. I was struck by how little our future leaders were interested in conservation as a career and proceeded to contact one of the most passionate conservationists I know, Reuben Clements, a PhD candidate in Wildlife Conservation, to talk about his chosen career path. Reuben has numerous international publications under his belt and is highly respected for his work. Here is the interview with some fascinating views on how conservation became his passion.
Why conservation?
Life is too short, so why not make a career out of something that enables you to contribute to the well-being of this planet? When I saw hills being mined, trees being logged and animals being killed for no reason, I felt I had to do something about it. I feel many would be emotionally affected after seeing habitats destroyed and try to make a difference. To paraphrase Gandhi, if you want to make a change, be the best example of that change, and others will follow.
Were you always into conservation?
No. Before entering university, I did not know what to do with my life. I was “following the crowd” and pondered on safe career choices that would yield a comfortable monthly salary. Back in my time, few teachers or parents would ever tell their kids that they could make a career out of conserving biodiversity. But times are different now with greater awareness of green issues.
My turning point was doing a MSc at the National University of Singapore which focused on limestone karst conservation. I started to take more interest in conservation during my field trips to pristine and quarried limestone hills in Malaysia, where I witnessed both majesty and travesties. My involvement in on-the-ground conservation grew even more when I got a job with WWF-Malaysia as species conservation manager. Although I had limited opportunities to work on limestone karst conservation, I learnt a great deal more about the realities of conserving other ecosystems and species, and had the freedom to design and implement conservation programmes to help protect wildlife. I found this to be very fulfilling.
How do you think your PhD will benefit conservation, and society as a whole?
My PhD focuses on the issue of habitat connectivity for wildlife. Animals need to move safely across highways in order to find food and mates. We want to find out if highway viaducts are being utilised by large mammals, and the factors affecting their effectiveness. This will allow us to identify important wildlife habitats where highways should be avoided in order to reduce the risk of forest fragmentation. We are also conducting research to better understand the attitudes of indigenous peoples towards highways. Only time will tell whether our research will contribute to conservation and society – this largely depends on how effective we are at communicating our research findings to decision-makers who can make important policy changes.
What would you say to encourage youth to select conservation as their first career choice?
In order to do conservation, you need to have interest and passion. Even if someone forces you to be a conservationist, don’t listen to them. I always tell young people to follow their dreams. If a person chooses conservation as a career over a medical or legal path, I still think it is a valuable experience to try it out for some time. But if you still do not derive any satisfaction from it, then please vacate that position and let a more passionate person take over.
Azrina Abdullah conducts research on the links between indigenous groups and wildlife trade. She was regional director of Traffic, an NGO which monitors the global wildlife trade. Comments: letters@thesundaily.com
Ong Dai Lin Today Online 17 Oct 11;
SINGAPORE - She grew up in Punggol but, today, Mdm Wee Sah Muay can no longer recognise the area where she had lived for more than 30 years until she moved out in 1975 to Hougang.
The 78-year-old, who used to live at the 20th track near the old Punggol Zoo, told Today: "I have no impression of the new place. Everything looks different and the place where I used to stay is now an empty plot of land that the Government will use to build recreational facilities."
As Punggol is in the midst of being transformed into an eco-town, the Housing and Development Board (HDB) is looking at how to preserve its fishing village heritage for both the younger and older generations.
For instance, the 4.2km man-made Punggol Waterway, which will be open to visitors from Sunday, runs through the town to provide residents with a waterfront living space, while seeking to retain the seaside charm of the old Punggol.
Features such as a "kelong" bridge, heritage panels and a heartwave wall with motif panels will be built along the waterway for residents to learn about the history of the town as they go about their recreational activities.
The HDB told Today that facilities along the waterway such as water play and sand play areas "were designed with community interaction and bonding in mind" to foster a kampong spirit.
Apart from Punggol, other housing estates such as Dawson and Yishun will also see their heritage conserved under the HDB's Remaking Our Heartland (ROH) programme.
In 1984, the Government approved the North-eastern Coast Reclamation Scheme for Punggol, which involved 875 hectares of shallow foreshore and swamp land from Pasir Ris to Jalan Kayu. The bulk of the reclamation was for new flats.
All the pig farms, boatels - which provided services like docking and renting of boats for boating, water-skiing and skin-diving lessons - and farms were moved out to make way for Sengkang and Punggol new towns. The residents were relocated to various parts of Singapore.
The HDB said that care has been taken to preserve the rich coastal vegetation and mangroves that Punggol used to be known for.
It has replanted freshwater tolerant mangroves at the eastern zone of the waterway and is test bedding the floating wetlands system at the Sunrise Gateway (where visitors can view the sunrise), which will help enhance the water quality in Punggol Waterway.
Mr Daniel Ng, 29, who stays in Punggol, told Today: "The new facilities coming up at the Punggol Waterway will provide a lot of recreational choices for residents. The efforts to preserve the history of the town is a bonus. It will allow residents to appreciate the town better."
A HDB spokesperson said: "Under ROH, HDB brings out the distinct character of each town, builds on what makes the area unique and endearing. HDB recognises the importance of conserving amid rejuvenating the estates. For this reason, there is a heritage area purposefully set aside in each estate to reflect the past."
More signing contracts with farmers, even going beyond S.E. Asia
Jessica Lim Straits Times 17 Oct 11;
PRICES of Australian carrots sold in FairPrice supermarkets are set to remain at 85 to 95 cents for a 500g pack in the next two years.
Singapore's largest supermarket chain recently inked two-year contracts with two farms in Western Australia state to supply 52 million carrots - about 80 per cent of what it sells a year.
Over the next month, contracts with other farms in the state will be signed for cauliflower, sweet corn, broccoli and vine tomatoes - although in smaller amounts.
Apples and other fruits may also be thrown into the mix.
These efforts are the latest by importers and supermarkets in Singapore to diversify food sources and keep a lid on prices.
High demand from emerging economies like China and supply shortages due to bad weather have led to higher prices of necessities - from cooking oil and rice to vegetables and soya beans - since 2008.
Securing supply is crucial because Singapore imports more than 90 per cent of its food and is hence vulnerable to price fluctuations.
FairPrice chief executive Seah Kian Peng, who was in Western Australia to sign the deals with Sumich and Centre West Exports, said: 'Should there be any issues with a particular food source due to various reasons, diversification helps to lessen the impact on the overall supply and prices of our fresh produce.'
Said Mr Tng Ah Yiam, FairPrice's managing director for group purchasing, merchandising and international trading: 'When there is a contract, farmers plan and reserve stock for us. It is also a guarantee for farms.'
He added that Western Australia was chosen because of its proximity to Singapore, advanced farm technology and good climate for growing food.
The chain's contracts with the two carrot farms are its first outside of South-east Asia. It inked its first overseas contract in 2000 with farms in Malaysia for vegetables like chye sim, potatoes and kailan.
It now has 84 contracts signed with farmers in Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore - more than thrice the number in 2008 - for vegetables.
It is also in discussions with farmers in China.
Other supermarkets are also taking the contract route.
Cold Storage, which started doing so five years ago, has 10 contracts with vegetable producers in Tasmania state in Australia, Malaysia and New Zealand, said a spokesman.
Prime has two contracts for leafy vegetables in Malaysia while Sheng Siong said it is considering the option.
FairPrice's new contracts will help to steady the prices of carrots, cauliflower, sweet corn, broccoli and vine tomatoes, said Mr Poh Sen Kah, its category manager for vegetables.
Over the past year, he noted that the prices had fluctuated by 15 per cent due to an unstable supply.
The higher cost is sometimes passed on to consumers.
With the contracts, price fluctuations will be limited to 5 per cent at the most, he said, adding that it is an amount the company can absorb.
Vegetables from Australia make up about 10 per cent of the total amount that FairPrice sells.
Consumers are drawn to the better quality as farmers there invest in modern farming methods.
Western Australia's Minister for Agriculture and Food, Mr Terry Redman, said the contracts are a first for the region, which exported nearly A$5 billion (S$6.5 billion) worth of agricultural produce last year.
He added that his ministry is hoping to promote more of such contract farming deals.
The tie-up with FairPrice is good news for consumers like Madam Lilian Choo, 52, a teacher.
'The vegetables from Australia taste sweeter compared with those from other countries,' said the mother of two. 'But they are so much more expensive.'
'If the prices are a little bit lower, I may switch,' she said.
Farmers in W. Australia welcome deals
Straits Times 17 Oct 11;
UNDULATING fields of cauliflower greet visitors at Manjimup Fresh Produce, a thousand-acre farm in Manjimup - a town 307km south of Perth.
Its owner Gary Ryan, 46, used to grow 600,000 heads of cauliflower a year in the 1990s. About 80 per cent of them ended up in Singapore.
By 2004, his output had halved and only 1 per cent of that was Singapore-bound. The rest was sold locally.
The reason: China was producing cauliflower by the container load at half the price because of its cheap labour costs - among other things.
'They completely wiped us out. We never really fully recovered,' said Mr Ryan, whose farm was set up in 1956 by his grandfather.
The father of two, who started growing other varieties of vegetables including cabbage and broccoli, stopped exporting altogether. He is hoping to get that part of his business up and running again.
The farming contract between FairPrice and UTR Produce - a brokering company representing farmers to coordinate their supplies into the Perth and international markets - will help him.
Mr Lloyd Williams, the director of UTR Produce, works with numerous farmers at a time so there will always be supply to meet contract requirements. He gets up to 10 per cent return for everything he sells.
By next month, he will be inking two-year-long contracts with FairPrice for cauliflower, sweet corn, broccoli and vine tomatoes.
Such contracts, he said, will go a long way to help farmers in the region. According to his records, there were about 70 broccoli and cauliflower farmers in the Manjimup district in the late 80s.
Now, there are only seven left.
The major supermarket chains in the region refuse to work with farmers on contract terms because they want to hold out for lower prices, he said.
'They call us only when they are short and tell us what they will give us in terms of price.
'What can a farmer do? It costs them a lot to put money into infrastructure and into the ground. It's difficult if they cannot guarantee a return,' he said, adding that many farmers are now working on the quality of their produce.
Produce from China is half the price of its Australian counterpart. At FairPrice, consumers pay 37 cents for 100g of broccoli from China. Australian broccoli costs 69 cents per 100g.
Cauliflower from China can be bought at 25 cents per 100g, while the same vegetable from Australia cost 49 cents per 100g.
Said Mr Ryan: 'We will never be able to get them on price. But we get them on quality every time.'
He added that contract farming also gives him enough security to invest in fertiliser and water sprinklers. 'That's how we are going to compete.'
Other farmers like Mr Vincent Tana, whose father started the family's 3,500ha carrot farm Sumich, agrees that contract farming is the way forward.
Such contracts have also enabled him to invest in water sprinklers and wind-turbines.
He said: 'Growing without supply is a big risk. If we can't sell the carrots, it's perishable in weeks.'
JESSICA LIM
Reuters 16 Oct 11;
HONG KONG Oct 17 (Reuters) - Plants and animals are shrinking because of warmer temperatures and lack of water, researchers said on Monday, warning it could have profound implications for food production in years ahead.
"The worst-case scenarios ... are that food crops and animals will shrink enough to have real implications for food security," Assistant Professor David Bickford, of the National University of Singapore's biological sciences department, said.
Bickford and colleague Jennifer Sheridan trawled through fossil records and dozens of studies which showed that many species of plants and creatures such as spiders, beetles, bees, ants and cicadas have shrunk over time in relation to climate change.
They cited an experiment showing how shoots and fruit are 3 to 17 percent smaller for every degree Celsius of warming in a variety of plants.
Each degree of warming also reduces by 0.5 to 4 percent the body size of marine invertebrates and 6 to 22 percent of fish.
"Survival of small individuals can increase with warmer temperatures, and drought conditions can lead to smaller offspring, leading to smaller average size," they wrote in their paper which was published in the journal, Nature Climate Change, on Monday.
"Impacts could range from food resources becoming more limited (less food produced on the same amount of land) to wholesale biodiversity loss and eventual catastrophic cascades of ecosystem services," Bickford wrote.
"We have not seen large-scale effects yet, but as temperatures change even more, these changes in body size might become much more pronounced - even having impacts for food security." (Reporting by Tan Ee Lyn; Editing by Nick Macfie)
Climate change downsizing fauna, flora: study
Marlowe Hood AFP Yahoo News 17 Oct 11;
Climate change is reducing the body size of many animal and plant species, including some which supply vital nutrition for more than a billion people already living near hunger's threshold, according to a study released Sunday.
From micro-organisms to top predators, nearly 45 percent of species for which data was reviewed grew smaller over multiple generations due to climate change, researchers found.
The impact of rapidly climbing temperatures and shifts in rainfall patterns on body size could have unpredictable and possible severe consequences, they warned.
Previous work established that recent climate change has led to sharp shifts in habitat and the timing of reproductive cycles. But impact on the size of plants and animals has received far less attention.
Jennifer Sheridan and David Bickford at the National University of Singapore looked at scientific literature on climate-change episodes in the distant past and at experiments and observations in recent history.
Fossil records, they found, were unambiguous: past periods of rising temperatures had led both marine and land organisms to became progressively smaller.
During a warming event 55 million years ago -- often seen as an analogue for current climate change -- beetles, bees, spiders, wasps and ants shrank by 50 to 75 percent over a period of several thousand years.
Mammals such as squirrels and woodrats also diminished in size, by about 40 percent.
The pace of current warming, though, is far greater than during this so-called Palaeocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM).
It, too, has begun to shrink dozens of species, the study found.
Among 85 examples cited, 45 percent were unaffected. But of those remaining, four out of five had gotten smaller, while a fifth got bigger.
Some of the shrinkage came as a surprise. "Plants were expected to get larger with increased atmospheric carbon dioxide," but many wound up stunted due to changes in temperature, humidity and nutrients available, the researchers said.
For cold-blooded animals -- including insects, reptiles and amphibians -- the impact is direct: experiments suggest that an upward tick of one degree Celsius translates into roughly a 10 percent increase in metabolism, the rate at which an organism uses energy. That, in turn, results in downsizing.
The common toad, for example, has measurably shriveled in girth in only two decades, along with some tortoises, marine iguanas and lizards.
Overfishing has been blamed for decreased body size in both wild and commercially-harvested aquatic species, threatening the key source of protein of a billion people around the world, mainly in Africa and Asia.
But experiments and observational studies have shown that warming waters play a role as well, especially in rivers and lakes.
Birds -- including passerines, goshawks and gulls -- and mammals such as soay sheep, red dear and polar bears, have also trended towards less bulk.
Some of the most worrying changes are at the bottom of the food chain, especially in the ocean, where tiny phytoplankton and calcium-building creatures are dwindling in size due to acidification and the reduced capacity of warmer water to hold oxygen and nutrients.
Carbon pollution has probably locked in an additional 1.0 C increase in average global temperatures, and continued emissions of greenhouse gases could push up the thermometre another 4.0 to 5.0 C (7.4 to 9.0 F) by centuries end, according to the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Because warming is occurring at unprecedented rates, "may organisms may not respond or adapt quickly enough", especially those with long generation times, the authors noted in an email.
"We do not yet know the exact mechanisms involved, or why some organisms are getting smaller while others are unaffected," they added. "Until we understand more, we could be risking negative consequences that we can't yet quantify."
The study is published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Climate Change.
Animals Shrink as Earth Warms
Wynne Parry LiveScience.com Yahoo News 17 Oct 11;
As global temperatures rise this century, the result of human-caused climate change, many living things will shrink, thanks to a host of changes in the environment, as well as the direct effects of warming, two researchers write.
If everything were to shrink at the same rate, this wouldn't be a problem. Smaller plants would feed smaller fish that would feed smaller sharks, for example. However, it appears that organisms don't all react at the same rate, so change is likely to throw ecosystems out of whack, putting some species at risk of extinction, according to Jennifer Sheridan and David Bickford of the National University of Singapore.
This isn't a new phenomenon; during past periods of natural global warming, beetles, bees, spiders, algae called diatoms, pocket gophers and woodrats have shrunk, according to fossil evidence. For example, the burrows dug by invertebrates, including beetles, bees and spiders, during a warm spell about 56 million years ago, show the creatures shrank by 50 to 75 percent, the researchers write in a study published on Oct. 16 issue of the journal Nature Climate Change.
Some modern shrinkage is expected to come about indirectly. For example, an increasing acidity in the ocean — caused by increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere — interferes with some organisms' ability to build their calcium carbonate shells or skeletons (such as corals, scallops and oysters). Acidification also decreases growth rates among phytoplankton, the tiny plants that float in the ocean, and this has implications for the food chains that depend on them. [Colorful Creations: Gallery of Incredible Coral]
Plants were expected to thrive on the excess carbon dioxide humans have expelled into the atmosphere, because they use it to create sugars by photosynthesis. However, things have not played out this way over the past century. Plant growth is highly dependent on water, and while climate models predict that some areas will get wetter and others drier over the coming decades, many places are expected to experience higher variability in rainfall. This means longer dry periods even in wetter regions, which will ultimately reduce growth, according to the authors.
Cold-blooded animals — most of the animals on Earth — are directly affected by changes in temperature, which increase their metabolic rates. This means they need more food to maintain their body sizes, or shrink. Temperature also affects cold-blooded creatures by amping up their development rates, so the animals reach maturity at smaller sizes. Other research has explored how this plays out in copepods, tiny crustaceans that play an important role in marine food chains.
It is established that among warm-blooded animals, a colder climate means a larger body size, because larger animals are better able to conserve their body heat, and there is evidence that size decreases in warmer regions. For humans, changes in organism size could have a direct effect on our food supply, for instance, through crops and fisheries.
There are exceptions: Climate change is expected to increase the growing and feeding season in high-latitude places, and hence allow organisms to get bigger. (An exception to the exception: Polar bears are shrinking along with the Arctic sea ice upon which they live.) Also, animals with broad diets may be able to compensate for shrinking meals by shifting their diets.
"Continued global warming is likely to favor smaller individuals, and we predict that organism size will continue to decrease over the century," Sheridan and Bickford write.
Antara 15 Oct 11;
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The government is determined to turn Indonesia into the world`s largest wood producer in the next 25 years without destroying natural forests, Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan said.
To achieve the goal, the government would among others intensify tree-planting campaigns in which each citizen was expected to plant at least 10 trees, he said on the sidelines of a discussion with bloggers here on Friday night.
"If the entire people can plant 10 trees each, the Indonesian forests can be restored in 30 years` time. To support the endeavor, I have not issued new permits since 2007," he said.
The Forestry Ministry recorded about 30 percent of the country`s forests was damaged in the past 60 years with an annual deforestation rate of 1.08 million hectares.
To date, the area of damaged forests in Indonesia reaches 65 million hectares or 50 percent of the country`s forests covering about 130 million hectares.
"The Indonesian forests are now in critical condition as for tens of years the state has relied on them for revenues," he said.
Therefore, it came as no major surprise if the area of Indonesian forests dwindled at a fast pace every year, he said.
He put the blame on excessive exploitation for the current deforestation.
In addition, he added the deforestation was also caused by the frequent conversion of forested land into plantations and the use of forested land for mining activities.
This year alone, the ministry prepared 500 million seeds to reforest arid and barren land in the country. "The seeds are available at the forestry ministry and its regional offices all over Indonesia free of charge," he said.
The regional autonomy in which local governments could easily issue permits to foreign investors also contributed to the deforestation, he said.
Editor: Priyambodo RH
Fidelis E. Satriastanti Jakarta Globe 15 Oct 11;
Indonesia could face an energy crisis and environmental disaster unless it makes drastic changes to its current policies on natural resource exploitation, activists said on Friday.
“Indonesia is truly at a tipping point, facing a forestry crisis, an environmental crisis, an energy crisis and even a food crisis,” said Mukri Friatna, head of advocacy at the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi).
Mukri said the pending energy crisis stemmed from policies that allowed foreign investors to muscle out local ones in extracting fossil fuels.
“Of all the coal mines we have, 75 percent are controlled by foreign groups,” he said.
“In oil and gas, 70 percent of concessions are operated by companies from the United States.”
Mukri said another factor for a future fuel shortage was declining domestic oil production, leading to a growing dependence on increasingly expensive imports. In 2004, total domestic production was 400 million barrels, while in 2010 it was 344 million.
Prianto Rakhmanto, an energy analyst, said rolling blackouts in several regions were a sign the country was already in the throes of an energy crisis.
“We allow our natural resources to be exploited without concern for the environment or consideration for domestic consumption. Our policies have always been toward exporting and earning revenue,” he said.
Prianto said it would be difficult to reverse the situation without first ending subsidies for fuel and electricity. “As long as prices remain artificially low, oil producers will find it more competitive to export oil rather than sell it in the country,” he said.
“And if electricity rates are no longer suppressed, it will finally be commercially viable to start developing geothermal power on a larger scale.”
Walhi executive director Berry Nahdian Furqon said that bringing about the necessary policy changes required serious commitment from the government. “The government bases its decisions on social and political interests, and never on the ecological crisis that we face,” he said.
Checking up Chek Jawa's northern sand bar
from wild shores of singapore
Before the Rain @Chestnut Avenue
from Beauty of Fauna and Flora in Nature
Hand feeding of wild Javan Mynas
from Bird Ecology Study Group
Cute variable squirrels of Bidadari Cemetery
from wonderful creation
Bukit Brown @ night
from Urban Forest and Bukit Brown in the news
Sunday Times Letter 15 Oct 11;
My wife and I are concerned by the extreme felling of trees in the land adjacent to our condominium, The Peak @ Balmeg, in the West Coast area.
The land houses rare bird life and includes greenery that is over 100 years old. Some of the vegetation is well outside the reach of any building, and many of the concerned trees are in sound health and do not pose any threat.
While we are trying to get some guidelines from the Singapore Land Authority (SLA) so that only truly rotten or endangering branches are dealt with, it is becoming increasingly difficult to get precise answers.
Singapore's pride in maintaining a 'green policy' has been lauded and we should be careful not to become over-protective over perceived 'safety' concerns. Saving our trees and maintaining the right eco balance is essential, as is the noise protection which such an environment provides. We look forward to the SLA's response.
William M. Smart
Trees posed some risks to residents
Sunday Times 23 Oct 11;
We thank Mr William M. Smart for his feedback ('Take care not to cut down healthy trees'; last Sunday).
The Singapore Land Authority (SLA) carried out a careful risk assessment and also consulted NParks before deciding to remove the trees in question.
Our overriding concern was the safety of the residents of the Peak @ Balmeg condominium as they were in close proximity to the trees.
The trees that were removed were of the self-sown Albizia variety. These trees are prone to uprooting in severe storms due to their shallow root system. They also have brittle branches. While these trees may appear healthy, their branches can snap easily and the entire tree can be easily uprooted in the event of strong wind and heavy rain.
Only the most dangerous trees were removed. The Albizia trees further away from the condominium were not disturbed.
Ng Siau Yong
Director
Land Asset Management Services
Singapore Land Authority
Avila Geraldine New Straits Times 16 Oct 11;
SEMPORNA: The planting of 777 individual corals in the underwater nursery at Ribbon Reef off here by a group of divers gained entry into the Malaysia Book of Records yesterday.
The "Beautiful Malaysia: Largest Coral Planting" project was organised by Astro Kasih to help conserve coral reefs and underwater life.
The programme was aimed at raising awareness on the importance of preserving the environment.
Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen said coral conservation was important.
"The climate is changing and corals can only live in temperatures of 28o Celsius.
"If it's too hot, it will die because of bleaching and other factors. Coral diving is a very important tourism product for Malaysia as many tourists from Europe as well as China come here to dive.
So, if there are no corals, they will go to other places.
"We want to have sustainable tourism and this programme is in line with our tourism motto, that is to protect, conserve and reserve," she said after the programme launch here.
Present were state Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun and Astro chief financial officer Ahmad Fuad.
The coral planting involved 50 divers from Astro Kasih and international divers from Finland, France and Japan.
Last year, Astro Kasih planted 501 individual corals at Perhentian Island in Terengganu.
"We also hope to have a world record next year," Dr Ng said.
Fuad said it was Astro's responsibility to help generate the country's economy.
"We want to be part of government efforts to protect the environment, and our hope is that through this programme, we can raise awareness among the people."
Masidi, meanwhile, said Sabah would ban shark hunting and sharks' fin soup next year.
"Sabah is known for its dive spots. A ban on shark hunting is crucial because divers come here to see sharks and if there are no sharks, they will definitely dive elsewhere.
"This is a state's initiative and we are glad that the tourism minister is supporting the move."
Ng said the ministry was also planning to introduce a direct flight from East Russia to Kota Kinabalu.
The direct flight is expected to start at the end of this year and would involve two Russian cities, Vladivostok and Khavbarosk.
She said flights from the two cities to Kota Kinabalu would take seven hours.
"Currently, there is no direct flight from Rusia to our country. There are only direct flights from Moscow to Vietnam and Bangkok.
"This move will further boost our tourism industry."
Read more: Planting a record of 777 corals http://www.nst.com.my/nst/articles/25dive/Article#ixzz1auOSh5QO
M. Jegathesan AFP Yahoo News 13 Oct 11;
Thousands of swiftlets erupt from their roosts, swirling into a brightening dawn in a riotous ritual that announces the start of each day in this coastal town in northern Malaysia.
But the tiny birds emerge not from natural cave roosts, but from a purpose-built swiftlet "farm" resembling an industrial building that affords easy access to the valuable nests used in bird's nest soup.
Such farms are at the centre of a Malaysian effort to capitalise on the growing world popularity of the soup, a delicacy believed in Chinese society to be an aphrodisiac and provide a range of health benefits.
Strong demand for the so-called "Caviar of the East" from newly wealthy consumers in China and India and in the Middle East is fuelling unprecedented new growth in a world market estimated by Malaysia's government at more than $6 billion.
"The Middle East is our new market. They are feeding bird's nest soup to race horses to make them run faster," said Loke Yeu Loong, managing director of the swiflet farm in the rural coastal town of Sitiawan.
"At the moment, demand outstrips supply."
The cup-shaped collections of twigs are held together by dried swiftlet saliva, which is made into a gelatinous soup credited in China with everything from alleviating asthma to arresting the ageing process.
In 2009, world production reached 3,750 tonnes, 75 percent of which came from Indonesia.
Thailand and Malaysia, where the birds also are found in huge numbers, produced most of the rest.
But safety and environmental concerns have forced a move away from the caves and disused buildings where swiftlets roost, and Malaysian harvesters are today building thousands of surrogate homes for the birds.
Loke opened his first dedicated swiftlet farm in 2009 -- several block-long rows of neatly designed three-storey buildings with sealed doors and windows and hollow interiors -- outside Sitiawan in Perak state.
Enticed by swiftlet mating songs played from loudspeakers, the birds enter via small openings and build their nests.
From just a few hundred individual bird houses in the late 1990s, there are now about 50,000 in Malaysia, according to the government.
Malaysia produced about 275 tonnes of bird's nest in 2010, worth some 1.5 billion ringgit ($470 million), and the government projects output growing to 500 tonnes by 2020.
Demand has pushed the average price of a kilogramme of Malaysia bird's nest to 4,000 ringgit today, four times what it was 20 years ago.
"Obviously at present we can't meet the huge growing consumer demand for edible bird's nest," Loke said.
His firm, Swiftlet Eco Park, is now developing or planning 14 other sites nationwide and aims to become Malaysia's top producer.
The Malaysian industry hatched in the 1980s but gained momentum after the 1997 Asian financial crisis left many property developments abandoned or unfinished.
Resourceful entrepreneurs capitalised on this -- and the lack of industry regulation -- to use many such sites as swiftlet farms.
But they ran into opposition amid complaints that the recorded bird song disturbed human residents and that droppings posed a potential health threat in the avian flu era. Calls for regulation have grown louder.
As a result, government officials say authorities have stopped approving new farms in urban areas and that legislation expected soon would ban them except in rural zones.
Environmentalists criticise the repeated snatching of the birds' diligently built nests, often before they can lay their eggs, as cruel to the swiftlets.
"Our major concern is the distress caused to the birds," said Mohamad Idris, president of the Malaysian branch of Friends of the Earth.
Mohamad Noorhisham, head of swiflet supervision for Malaysia's veterinary services agency, said legislation expected next year would ensure safe, sustainable and bird-friendly development of the industry.
Among other things, it will outlaw harvesting of nests containing chicks.
"We want the industry to be environmentally and people-friendly," he said.
But with the birds plentiful -- the government does not have precise figures -- and processed nests fetching high prices, the growth looks to continue.
Five years ago, swiftlet farmer John Peor had a handful of the purpose-built structures.
Today, his firm Yenzheka Technology has more than 60, producing about 200 kilogrammes of nests per month for export to Hong Kong and China. He hopes to raise monthly output to 500 kilogrammes.
"Buyers book in advance. I sell processed bird's nest for anything between 8,000 to 15,000 ringgit per kilogramme, depending on the grade," he said.
Producers and veterinary officials say that while concerns must be addressed, farming is more sustainable.
"In cave harvesting, where they bid huge sums of money to secure the right to harvest the bird's nest, they need to harvest as many nests as possible," Loke said, adding that meant chicks or eggs were often destroyed.
Loke says his firm does not destroy chicks or eggs, viewing them as the seeds of future growth.
Kate Findley, WWF Fiji Times 16 Oct 11;
How would you describe a mangrove forest? Muddy, smelly, and mosquito-infested?
The land's not suitable to build on, the fish are small, refuse collects in the tangled web of roots that keep trying to trip you like a cartoon character, stunted shoots cut and scratch at you and it's impossible to navigate without years of experience or a compass. These are perhaps the reasons for Fiji's mangrove area declining by 13% between 1978 and 1994.
However contrary to popular belief mangrove forests are actually extremely productive and biodiverse ecosystems - linking the land to the sea they prevent debris from washing onto reefs, absorb and store the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, and act as nursery grounds for commercially important fish including rabbitfish (nuqa), bumphead parrotfish (kalia) and many shark (qio) species.
The mangrove corridor to the Great Sea Reef
There is a close connection between mangroves and the Great Sea Reef, the third longest reef in the southern hemisphere, hugging the entire northern coast of Vanua Levu. Those in the NGO business often consider the Great Sea Reef to be "the hidden gem" of the South Pacific with its globally significant biodiversity, 12 IUCN Red Listed species including the green turtle, humphead wrasse and manta ray, as well as its sheer length.
The Great Sea Reef's health is in large part dependent on that of its mangrove corridor which fringes the Labasa River from hilltop to river mouth before the river water flows on to the reef. Mangroves roots - those extensive, tangled masses - trap particles from the river, so that the tree in effect builds an environment for itself from which it can obtain nutrients and anchor its roots.
By trapping particles, mangroves clarify and purify the water, creating that wondrously clear aquamarine water essential for coral reefs to receive sunlight and flourish; and by absorbing excess nutrients they prevent algae enshrouding the slow-growing coral.
Recent scientific evidence following the 2004 Boxing Day Aceh tsunami indicates that mangroves are also effective buffers for the shore when cyclones and tsunamis strike; fewer lives are lost and less damage is caused in communities with broader mangrove belts, earning them the nickname "bioshields".
Putting a plaster on a gaping wound
With lives and livelihoods lost in the furious flash floods that strike Labasa year after year, in 2008 it was decided to dredge the Labasa River, which flows directly through the centre of the town. Floods have always been a problem in Labasa, which is unsurprising considering it sits straddling three rivers in a flat, low-lying estuary that used to be a swamp.
For those who are not familiar with the term, dredging is the process of excavating the sediment lying at the bottom of a river bed to deposit it somewhere else, which at least in the short term deepens the water channel so it can carry a larger volume of water at any one time.
So what's the problem? Environmental group the WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature) have recently been speaking out about the impact dredging is having on the surrounding mangroves.
"Unfortunately, the act of dredging to deepen the channels and river mouth is in this case creating a false sense of security with the dredging's capacity to do more harm than good." Ms Monifa Fiu, Building Resilience Officer at WWF South Pacific commented.
"The way dredging is currently being conducted in the Labasa river just now, the material or 'spoil' that is dredged from the bottom of the river is being dumped in the first line of mangroves on the river bank, killing them."
"My fear is that as storm frequency increases due to climate change, we will have to dredge much more often, progressively destroying the layers of mangroves that line the bank."
Ms Fiu noted these dead patches on a field trip assessing the vulnerability of these mangroves to climate change as part of the major new AusAID funded 'Building Resilience' project, which aims to strengthen the resilience of the Ba and Labasa river catchments to the effects of climate change. The patches were of mature black mangroves (dogo) - a species of particular note for their protection and stabilization of low-lying coastal areas. In short, their message is clear: In Fiji we gain so much from mangroves that we cannot afford for them to be damaged as a result of poor planning. Mangrove build, mangroves protect, mangroves host and mangroves provide.
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