Best of our wild blogs: 19 Jan 12

Mummy civet with her three babies!
from Life of a common palm civet in Singapore

Gordonia penangensis: A Treasure on Keppel Island
from Flying Fish Friends

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Why fishing is not allowed along the Berlayer Creek

Visitors urged to be considerate to others: National Parks Board
Letter from Kartini Omar General Manager, Parks, National Parks Board Today Online 18 Jan 12;

WE THANK Ms Mary Maloney for her letter, "Boardwalks for walking or ...?" (Jan 14).

We agree with Ms Maloney that what she saw at Labrador Park and Changi Boardwalk were instances of inconsiderate behaviour.

We would like to take this opportunity to explain why fishing is not allowed at or along the Berlayer Creek and the Bukit Chermin Boardwalk in Labrador Nature Reserve.

The boardwalk is narrow, hence the casting of lines and hooks, as well as lines left dangling by the side of the railing pose a danger to other visitors.

In a small coastal creek, driftnet fishing can take away many small marine animals that are important to the ecosystem there.

Driftnets that get stuck in the small creek will also damage the natural habitats in the area.

Those who fish in prohibited areas in parks can be fined S$200 in the first instance. We will step up patrols in the area.

For the safety of other park visitors, cyclists need to dismount and push their bicycles along the Berlayer Creek and Bukit Chermin Boardwalk.

We have advised cyclists to take heed of the signs along the boardwalks, and will continue to do so.

Our parks and gardens are for the enjoyment of everyone. We urge all visitors to be considerate to others, and help keep our parks and gardens litter-free.

NParks to step up enforcement action at park connector
Straits Times Forum 20 Jan 12;

WE SHARE Mr Wang Eng Hin's concern that some park users' irresponsible behaviour has resulted in litter along the Punggol Park Connector Network ('Punggol's dangerous anglers'; Tuesday).

Currently, our contractors clean up the Punggol Park Connector Network (PCN) on a daily basis. We had informed Mr Wang earlier that we would be deploying more cleaners to maintain the area. We will be stepping up enforcement action along Punggol PCN as well.

Our parks and gardens are for the enjoyment of everyone. We urge all PCN users to be considerate to others, and help keep our park connectors litter-free.

Kartini Omar (Ms)
General Manager, Parks
National Parks Board

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Cambodia: Extremely Rare Turtle Is Released Into the Wild

ScienceDaily 18 Jan 12;

The Wildlife Conservation Society, in conjunction with the Cambodian Fisheries Administration and Wildlife Reserves Singapore, just announced the successful release of a Southern River terrapin (Batagur affinis) -- one of the most endangered turtles on earth -- into the Sre Ambel River in Cambodia. The turtle was released on January 16th at a ceremony attended by officials, conservationists, and local people.

The female turtle, which weighs approximately 75 pounds (34 kilograms), is fixed with a satellite transmitter that will allow conservationists to track its whereabouts -- the first-ever satellite monitoring study for this species.

Captured in the Sre Ambel River by local fishermen in April, 2011, the turtle is one of an estimated 200 adults remaining in the wilds of Cambodia, Malaysia, and Indonesia. It was voluntarily turned it over to the WCS Cambodia turtle team instead of being sold into the black market trade where it would have been sent to food markets in China. The population in the Sre Ambel River is estimated at less than ten nesting females. Thus, this individual is extremely important for maintaining genetic diversity of this species that has already suffered drastic population declines.

WCS believes the population has an excellent chance of recovery as the coastal mangrove forests of Southeastern Cambodia are some of the largest and most pristine in Southeast Asia, spanning some 175 square miles (more than 45,000 hectares). These habitats are crucial to numerous aquatic and terrestrial animals and are vital nursery areas for marine fisheries.

Conservationists will monitor the turtle's movements to see how it utilizes this region. Of particular interest is how the turtle navigates through commercial fishing grounds, as well as areas where it could be threatened by other factors such as habitat destruction by sand mining or conversion of mangrove forests into shrimp farming facilities.

WCS notes that numerous studies on similar long-lived species have shown that as little as a five percent increase in annual adult mortality can cause populations to go extinct. "By reducing the adult mortality of the Southern River terrapin, even by fractions -- as little as ten animals a year per population in this circumstance -- we can have immediate and long-term positive impacts on the remaining wild populations of this critically endangered species" said Brian D. Horne of the Wildlife Conservation Society.

Heng Sovannara, Deputy Director of Cambodia's Fisheries Administration's Conservation Department, is extremely hopeful that the release will enhance efforts to conserve the species. "By identifying areas that are most utilized by the turtles, we can pinpoint our efforts to reduce the turtles being caught as fishery by-catch as well as targeted hunting," he said.

Dr. Sonja Luz, Deputy Director of Conservation & Research for Wildlife Reserves Singapore, said: "This project will contribute greatly to a much brighter future for this critically endangered terrapin. Hopefully, more public awareness and education opportunities will arise from this and allow us to create better protection tools and a safer environment for these amazing reptiles."

In 2000, a small population of Southern River Terrapins, Batagur affinis, was found in the Sre Ambel after many years of being considered locally extinct.

The turtle was once considered solely the property of the King of Cambodia, but has been decimated by overhunting over the past two decades.

Following the Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot regime, the Cambodian people were left in severe poverty, and with the growing international demand for turtles in China for human consumption, literally thousands of turtles were captured and sent to China for much needed income by the country's impoverished people.

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Killings Draw Indonesia's Tigers Closer to Extinction

Alina Mustaidah Jakarta Globe 18 Jan 12;

At least 40 endangered Sumatran tigers were killed during 2011, an official said on Tuesday.

Darori, director general of forest protection and nature conservation at the Forestry Ministry, unveiled the figure during a workshop for the implementation of the National Plan for the Revival of the Sumatran Tiger.

The official blamed the impact of growing human settlements on forests and illegal poaching as the main causes behind the deaths.

Darori did not give precise details on the recorded deaths but said that the Sumatran tiger population stood at fewer than 400. He said that from the nine tiger species in the world, three of them were already extinct. Two of the extinct subspecies are specific to Indonesia, the Java and Bali tigers.

Noviar Andayani, country director at the Wildlife Conservation Society, said other extinct tiger subspecies included the Caspian and South China tigers.

“Five other species may soon also become extinct if no according attention is paid to their habitat,” Noviar said.

An estimated 3,200 tigers are left in the world, she said, attributing their dwindling numbers to illegal tiger organ trade, expansion of agricultural lands and plantation and logging.

“Without any immediate response to save them, wild tigers may become extinct by 2022,” Noviar said.

In the latest case of a tiger death, efforts to save a male tiger, about 5 to 6 years old found trapped in a forest in Bengkulu with spear and airgun wounds, failed. The tiger, which had been flown to Java and treated at the Taman Safari park in Cisarua, died of its injuries.

Investor Daily

Sumatran Tiger Given a Fighting Chance by Global Initiative
Jakarta Globe 18 Jan 12;

Indonesia is set to get Rp 300 billion ($33.3 million) to double its wild tiger population by 2022, as part of a global initiative to bring the iconic species back from the brink of extinction.

Endah Murningtyas, the deputy for natural resources and the environment at the National Development Planning Board (Bappenas), said on Tuesday that the funding would come from the Global Tiger Recovery Program, an initiative of the World Bank.

She said the money would be released over several years, with the eventual goal being to double Indonesia’s population of Sumatran tigers from the current estimated 450-700 adults.

The Sumatran tiger, the smallest of the five remaining tiger subspecies in the world, is also the most threatened. Categorized as critically endangered, it is just a step away from being extinct in the wild.

It is the only tiger left that is endemic to Indonesia. Two other subspecies, the Javan tiger and the Balinese tiger, were driven to extinction in the 1930s and 1980s.

Darori, the Forestry Ministry’s director general of forest protection, said efforts to save the species had so far focused more on rehabilitating tigers caught in traps or in conflict with humans, with little emphasis on actual conservation.

He attributed this to the dearth of funding allocated for the conservation of tigers and their habitats. He said the funding would go some way toward making up for the shortfall, but stressed that more money should also be raised domestically for the cause.

“We invite companies to contribute through their corporate social responsibility programs,” Darori said.

“The total amount of CSR funding from companies in Indonesia is around Rp 20 trillion a year, so if we could just set aside Rp 1 trillion for tiger conservation, it would go a long way.”

He said there were still only a handful of companies active in conservation efforts. Among them are the Artha Graha Group, which funds a tiger conservation zone inside the Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park in southern Sumatra, and Asia Pulp & Paper, which is developing a tiger observation center in Riau.

Darori said the Forestry Ministry was also planning to set up a 300-hectare tiger park of its own. 

Antara

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Rainforest in Transition: Is the Amazon Transforming before Our Eyes?

David Biello Scientific American Yahoo News 18 Jan 12;

The Amazon rainforest is in flux, thanks to agricultural expansion and climate change. In other words, humans have "become important agents of disturbance in the Amazon Basin," as an international consortium of scientists wrote in a review of the state of the science on the world's largest rainforest published in Nature on January 19. (Scientific American is part of Nature Publishing Group.) The dry season is growing longer in areas where humans have been clearing the trees—as has water discharge from Amazon River tributaries in those regions. Multiyear and more frequent severe droughts, like those in 2005 and 2010, are killing trees that humans don't cut down as well as increasing the risks of more common fires (both man-made and otherwise).

The trees are also growing fast — faster than expected for a "mature" rainforest — according to a network of measurements.

The exact cause or causes of this accelerated growth—which means the Amazon's 5 million square kilometers of trees are now sucking in and sequestering some 400 million metric tons of carbon per year, or enough to offset the annual greenhouse gas emissions of Japan—"remains unknown," the researchers wrote in the review.

"When we measure that a particular stand of mature forest is accumulating carbon, it is difficult to say whether that might be due to recovery from some unrecognized disturbance long ago or whether it is due to more recent changes in climate and CO2," explained Woods Hole Research Center Senior Scientist and Executive Director Eric Davidson, lead author of the review, in an e-mail. Candidates include recovery from the potential wide-scale disturbance by pre-Columbian human societies now beginning to be uncovered or the increasing availability of some formerly limiting factor, such as atmospheric carbon dioxide.

In fact, increasing levels of CO2 in the atmosphere—now roughly 392 parts per million and rising—may be fertilizing the rainforest and preventing even greater impacts from reduced rainfall, although this question, Davidson and his colleagues wrote in the review, "may be one of the largest unknowns for the future of the Amazon forests."

What is known is that the forest clearing that has already gone on is decreasing forest rainfall. The Amazon produces roughly a third of its own precipitation—trees release moist air that then falls back as rain to nourish other trees (the rest comes from the Atlantic Ocean). But the air above cleared land warms faster and therefore rises more quickly, drawing the moist air from surrounding forested areas away. In fact, the conjunction of cleared and forested lands actually creates wind known as a vegetation breeze. But that breeze tends to blow rainfall away from the forest and over the surrounding pastures instead. It also weakens the continental-scale low-pressure system that draws rainfall over the Amazon.

The southern and eastern portions of the Amazon are the most affected, according to this review. For example, the southeastern Amazon around one of the local tributary rivers—the Tocantins—has seen pasture and cropland increase from 30 percent to 50 percent of the land between 1955 and 1995. As a result, that river now carries 25 percent more water. Another southeastern tributary, the Araguaia, now carries 28 percent more sediment—precious soil lost during downpours from surrounding, expanded agricultural fields.

Agroforestry and other techniques for better environmental management of such agriculture remain rare, despite their proven ability to help balance increased food production with ecosystem services like carbon sequestration. On the whole, cutting down trees so that the Amazon covers only roughly 80 percent of the land it once did seems to have tipped the rainforest from being a sink for global CO2 emissions to a net source, although this calculation remains highly uncertain, the scientists noted. In addition, the entire rainforest may be transitioning from a relatively undisturbed ecosystem to what scientists like to call a "disturbance-dominated regime," or a biome that has become an "anthrome"—a landscape dominated by human impact.

The good news is that Brazil has in recent years begun to restrain such deforestation: annual rates fell from 28,000 square kilometers in 2004 to less than 7,000 in 2011. "Brazil is poised to become one of the few countries to achieve the transition to major economic power without destroying most of its forests," the researchers wrote in their conclusion. New laws currently under consideration may put that potential in peril, however, by allowing a return of previously banned forest-clearing practices. "There is considerable progress toward improved management of the impacts of development in the region," Davidson noted in his e-mail, "but there is still much work to be done."

Amazon Basin shifting to carbon emitter: study
AFP Yahoo News 20 Jan 12;

The Amazon Basin, traditionally considered a bulwark against global warming, may be becoming a net contributor of carbon dioxide (CO2) as a result of deforestation, researchers said on Wednesday.

In an overview published in the journal Nature, scientists led by Eric Davidson of the Woods Hole Research Center in Massachusetts say the Amazon is "in transition" as a result of human activity.

Over 50 years, the population has risen from six million to 25 million, triggering massive land clearance for logging and agriculture, they said.

The Amazon's carbon budget -- the amount of CO2 that it releases into the atmosphere or takes from it -- is changing although it is hard to estimate accurately, they said.

"Deforestation has moved the net basin-wide budget away from a possible late 20th-century net carbon sink and towards a net source," according to their paper.

Mature forests such as the Amazon are big factors in the global-warming equation.

Their trees suck up CO2 from the atmosphere through the natural process of photosynthesis.

But when they rot or are burned, or the forest land is ploughed up, the carbon is returned to the air, adding to the greenhouse effect.

The paper estimates that the biomass of the Amazon contains a whopping 100 billion tonnes of carbon -- the equivalent of more than 10 years of global fossil-fuel emissions.

Global warming, unleashing weather shifts, could release some of this store, it warned.

"Much of the Amazon forest is resilient to seasonal and moderate drought, but this resilience can and has been exceeded with experimental and natural severe droughts, indicating a risk of carbon loss if drought increases with climate change."

The paper also noted that there had been extreme droughts and floods on the Tocantins and Araguaia basins, whose rivers drain the heavily deforested Cerado region.

"Where deforestation is widespread at local and regional scales, the dry season duration is lengthening and wet season discharge is increasing," it warned.

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China report spells out "grim" climate change risks

Chris Buckley Reuters 17 Jan 12;

(Reuters) - Global warming threatens China's march to prosperity by cutting crops, shrinking rivers and unleashing more droughts and floods, says the government's latest assessment of climate change, projecting big shifts in how the nation feeds itself.

The warnings are carried in the government's "Second National Assessment Report on Climate Change," which sums up advancing scientific knowledge about the consequences and costs of global warming for China -- the world's second biggest economy and the biggest emitter of greenhouse gas pollution.

Global warming fed by greenhouse gases from industry, transport and shifting land-use poses a long-term threat to China's prosperity, health and food output, says the report. With China's economy likely to rival the United States' in size in coming decades, that will trigger wider consequences.

"China faces extremely grim ecological and environmental conditions under the impact of continued global warming and changes to China's regional environment," says the 710-page report, officially published late last year but released for public sale only recently.

Even so, China's rising emissions of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas from burning fossil fuels, will begin to fall off only after about 2030, with big falls only after mid-century, says the report.

Assuming no measures to counter global warming, grain output in the world's most populous nation could fall from 5 to 20 percent by 2050, depending on whether a "fertilization effect" from more carbon dioxide in the air offsets losses, says the report.

But that possible fall can be held in check by improved crop choice and farming practices, as well as increased irrigation and fertilizer use.

China is the world's biggest consumer of cereals and has increasingly turned to foreign suppliers of corn and soy beans.

The report was written by teams of scientists supervised by government officials, and follows up on a first assessment released in 2007. It does not set policy, but offers a basis of evidence and forecasts that will shape policy.

RISING COSTS OF GROWING FOOD

"Generally, the observed impacts of climate change on agriculture have been both positive and negative, but mainly negative," Lin Erda, one of the chief authors of the report, told Reuters.

"But steadily, as the temperatures continue to rise, the negative consequences will be increasingly serious," said Lin, an expert on climate change and farming at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

"For a certain length of time, people will be able to adapt, but costs of adaptation will rise, including for agriculture."

Under different scenarios of greenhouse gas levels and their effects, by the end of this century China's average atmospheric temperature will have risen by between 2.5 degrees and 4.6 degrees Celsius above the average for 1961-1990.

Water, either too much or too little, lies at the heart of how that warming could trip up China's budding prosperity.

"Climate change will lead to severe imbalances in China's water resources within each year and across the years. In most areas, precipitation will be increasingly concentrated in the summer and autumn rainy seasons, and floods and droughts will become increasingly frequent," says the report.

"Without effective measures in response, by the latter part of the 21st century, climate change could still constitute a threat to our country's food security," it says.

Under one scenario of how global warming will affect water availability, by 2050 eight of mainland China's 31 provinces and provincial-status cities could face severe water shortages -- meaning less than 500 cubic meters per resident -- and another 10 could face less dire chronic shortages.

"Since the 1950s, over 82 percent of glaciers have been in a state of retreat, and the pace has accelerated since the 1990s," the report says of China's glaciers in Tibet and nearby areas that feed major rivers.

RISING SEA LEVELS

In low-lying coastal regions, rising seas will press up against big cities and export zones that have stood at the forefront of China's industrialization.

In the 30 years up to 2009, the sea level off Shanghai rose 11.5 centimeters (4.5 inches); in the next 30 years, it will probably rise another 10 to 15 centimeters.

China's efforts to protect vulnerable coastal areas with embankments are inadequate, says the report, noting their vulnerability to typhoons and flood tides that global warming could intensify.

There are sure to be shifts in Chinese crop patterns as well, says the report. More rice and other crops will probably grow in the northeast, thanks to warmer weather and possibly more rain. In the northwest cotton-growing region of Xinjiang, shrinking water availability could lead to a "marked decline in agricultural crop productivity".

In northern and southwest areas, winter wheat harvests could shrink due to shifting seasons and less rain when it is needed. Corn-growing regions will need more irrigation and fertilizer.

"Future climate warming will therefore increase the costs of agriculture," says the report.

China, with 1.34 billion people, already emits a quarter of the world's CO2, with the United States the world's second largest greenhouse gas emitter.

The report forecasts China's CO2 emissions could reach between 9 and 9.5 billion tons in 2020, given the government's goal of cutting the carbon pollution emitted for each unit of growth by 40-45 percent compared to 2005 levels.

China's emissions totaled 8.3 billion tons in 2010, according to BP Statistics, representing annual growth of 10.4 percent.

The report says China's emissions reduction efforts up to 2020 will cost 10 trillion yuan ($1.6 trillion), including 5 trillion yuan for energy-saving technology and new and renewable energy.

"Many cost-effective and mature technologies for energy saving and new and renewable energy have already been widely applied," it says. "In the future, controlling greenhouse gas emissions will require more costly and less mature technologies."

(Reporting by Chris Buckley; Editing by David Fogarty)

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Best of our wild blogs: 18 Jan 12

Why do Scorpions Glow Under UV light?
from Macro Photography in Singapore

fireworm fished @ labrador 17Jan2012
from sgbeachbum

Pond Herons foraging
from Bird Ecology Study Group

Fauna of the Native Garden @ HortPark
from Raffles Museum News

An Un-bear-able trade
from Bornean Sun Bear Conservation

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Shangri-La stops selling shark's fin

Straits Times 18 Jan 12;

SHANGRI-LA Hotels and Resorts yesterday announced that it was stopping the sale of shark's fin at its 72 properties worldwide, with immediate effect.

The Hong Kong-based chain will also halt the sale of bluefin tuna and Chilean sea bass by the end of the year. But banquet bookings made before yesterday will be honoured, it said.

The announcement came two weeks after FairPrice and Carrefour supermarket chains said they would halt the sale of shark's fin, joining Cold Storage, which stopped the practice last September.

Among hotels, the Fairmont Singapore was one of the first to stop serving shark's fin completely. It has also removed Chilean sea bass and bluefin tuna - which are also overfished - from its menu.

Other hotels, such as Amara Singapore and The Fullerton, still serve shark's fin soup during wedding banquets but provide alternatives when asked.

To encourage customers to hold shark's fin-free wedding banquets, luxury resort Capella Singapore is giving wedding couples one night's free accommodation and a certificate of acknowledgement for their contribution to conservation.

Ms Priscilla Chua, its senior director of catering and conference services, said many couples who are environmentally conscious are pressured by their elders into serving shark's fin soup.

She added: 'We hope to alleviate this familial pressure by offering a further incentive of presenting the certificate to the couple during the dinner.'

In recent years, consumption of shark's fin - considered a delicacy in traditional Chinese culture - has been a controversial issue. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species, six species of shark are considered critically endangered.

Shangri-La hotels take shark fin soup off the menu
The resort company's move, coming just ahead of the Chinese new year festivities, is a huge boost to the campaign to protect decimated shark stocks by banning the dish
Jonathan Watts guardian.co.uk 18 Jan 12;

The campaign to reduce the demand for shark fins achieved its greatest victory to date on Wednesday when the Shangri-la hotel group announced that it would no longer serve the dish, which is decimating populations of the ocean predator.

The resort company, which operates 72 hotels, took the step just days before the Chinese spring festival, the main season for shark fin soup consumption at banquets in Hong Kong and the mainland.

It is estimated that between 26 million and 73 million sharks are killed each year to supply this billion-dollar industry. Almost a third are consumed during Chinese new year.

But conservationists' efforts to reduce demand have gained pace and prominence in the past year, particularly since WildAid international ambassador and basketball star Yao Ming spoke out against shark fin soup.

In November, the Peninsula hotel became the first traditional hotel in Hong Kong – the centre of the trade – to remove the dish from its restaurants. It was followed by 112 companies who signed up to a "Say No" initiative to remove shark fin from corporate banquets.

Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts has now gone a step further by unveiling a "sustainable seafood policy" that also includes a commitment to phase out the use of other endangered marine species, including Bluefin tuna and Chilean sea bass.

The company had previously taken shark fin off its restaurant menus, but offered the dish on demand.

The move was welcomed by conservationists as a sign that some major corporations are starting to take sustainability more seriously.

"This is very significant. Two leading hotel groups have now sent a very strong message to the food and beverage industry and the wedding industry. I don't see why others don't follow suit," said Bertha Lo of the Hong Kong Shark Foundation.

However, there is still a long way to go. The foundation's recent survey of 64 leading Hong Kong hotels found that 98% served at least one endangered marine species. Almost all included shark fin, which is particularly popular at wedding banquets. Very few had policies for sustainable seafood sourcing.

Conservationists said corporate social responsibility programmes had improved in recent years to include energy efficiency and carbon dioxide emissions, but still usually neglected impacts on wildlife.

"We are seeing announcements one by one, but it is not enough just to stop serving shark fin," said Stanley Shea of Bloom Association, a Hong Kong-based NGO. "Hotels also need to put in place public policies on sustainable seafood sourcing."

The government in Hong Kong has yet to act, although surveys by the Bloom foundation suggest that 88% of consumers want the authorities to prevent sales of products that involve killing threatened species.

It is believed the mainland could move faster than the territory – as it has done with air pollution. But most hotels in Chinese cities will continue to serve shark fin as a traditional part of the festivities to usher in the year of the dragon on 23 January.

Among them is the Grand Hyatt in Beijing, which was offering a new year special spring festival banquet of 888 yuan (£91.50) per person, including shark fin soup. Outside of the holiday season, it offers the soup alone from 468 yuan (£48) to over a thousand yuan. "It depends on the type of shark. We have all types," a restaurant employee said.

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Singapore To Showcase Achievements In Balancing Rapid Urban Development

Singapore to take part in Expo 2012 Yeosu Korea
Channel NewsAsia 17 Jan 12;

SINGAPORE: Singapore will showcase its achievements in balancing rapid urban development with environmental sustainability at the International Exposition Yeosu Korea which will be held from May 12.

The three-month long expo is expected to attract up to eight million domestic and international visitors.

The 712 square metre Singapore Pavilion aims to convey how Singapore balances growth and development with environmental sustainability through four segments: waste management, nature conservation, urban planning and water management.

The Environment and Water Resources Ministry will lead a multi-agency project committee to manage the Singapore Pavilion.

Project Director Eng Tiang Sing said, "We are very excited to participate in Expo 2012. Besides being an excellent platform to showcase and promote Singapore to a sizeable international audience, we hope Singapore's development story can be an useful case study to some of the world's rapidly growing cities in finding ways to create a healthy and attractive environment despite their urbanisation.

"This exposition also presents a good opportunity to foster closer people-to-people relations between Singapore and the Republic of Korea, and cultivate a deeper understanding of each other's environmental practices, lifestyles and cultures."

- CNA/cc

Singapore To Showcase Achievements In Balancing Rapid Urban Development
Tengku Noor Shamsiah Tengku Abdullah Bernama 17 Jan 12;

SINGAPORE, Jan 17 (Bernama) -- Singapore will showcase its achievements in balancing rapid urban development with environmental sustainability at the International Exposition Yeosu Korea 2012 (Expo 2012 Yeosu Korea) from May 12 to Aug 12 in Yeosu, South Korea.

The Environment and Water Resources Ministry said the exposition is expected to attract up to eight million domestic and international visitors.

The 712 square-metre Singapore Pavilion will be housed within the International Pavilion, together with exhibitions from more than 100 other countries.

Themed "Paradox-ity: City of Contrasts", the Singapore Pavilion aims to convey how Singapore balances growth and development with environmental sustainability through four main content segments: waste management, nature conservation, urban planning and water management.

A multi-agency project committee led by the ministry has been formed to manage the Singapore Pavilion.

Participating government agencies include Trade and Industry Ministry, Foreign Affairs Ministry, National Development Ministry, Environment and Water Resources Ministry and Transport Ministry.

Building and Construction Authority, National Parks Board, Urban Redevelopment Authority, National Environment Agency and Public Utilities Board, Singapore Tourism Board and Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore are also participating.

Expo 2012 Yeosu Korea is an international exposition hosted by the Bureau International des Expositions (the inter-governmental organisation in charge of Expositions).

-- BERNAMA

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Malaysia: A New High for the Hawksbills of Melaka

WWF 17 Jan 12;

2011 ended on an optimistic note for the Hawksbill turtles in Melaka. 568 nestings were recorded along Melaka's coastline last year, the highest ever for the state. This number is comparable to the nestings recorded in the Sabah Turtle Islands, the premier nesting site for the hawksbills in Malaysia.

This positive development is a culmination of hard work and perseverance displayed by everyone involved. Patrolling teams which consistently monitored key nesting beaches were the key to securing more egg clutches than ever before for incubation. During the peak nesting season of April to September, patrolling was carried out every day from sunset to sunrise, and at times covered a cumulative distance of approximately 40km. The team comprised of WWF-Malaysia’s staff, Daily Paid Assistants, local youth, interns and volunteers.

In addition, the teams worked closely with the staff of the Department of Fisheries and licensed egg collectors in safely transferring the eggs at Pulau Upeh, Kem Terendak-Tanjung Bidara and Padang Kemunting-Pasir Gembur to the hatchery.

The patrols also extended to Balik Batu beach this year where in the past, many egg clutches have been poached. Committed and continuous engagement with the local communities also greatly facilitated safe and effective beach patrols.

The success of this year’s monitoring programme would not have been possible without the generous funding from the Malaysian public and WWF –Netherlands. With this support, this critically endangered Hawksbill population now has a good chance of bouncing back

By: Lau Min Min, Team Leader Malacca Turtle Conservation WWF-Malaysia

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US bans import of Burmese pythons

AFP Yahoo News 18 Jan 12;

The United States announced Tuesday it is banning the import of Burmese pythons and three other species of giant constrictor snakes due to the danger they pose to local wildlife.

The formal ban on importing or transporting across state lines the Burmese python, the yellow anaconda and the northern and southern African pythons will take effect in about two months, said the Fish and Wildlife Service.

According to the decision, the four big snakes are considered "injurious wildlife" and the ban aims to halt their spread in the wild. People who own them as pets would not likely be affected by the new restrictions.

"Burmese pythons have already caused substantial harm in Florida," said FWS director Dan Ashe, noting that they have preyed on endangered Key Largo wood rats while other pythons have eaten endangered wood storks.

"By taking this action today, we will help prevent further harm from these large constrictor snakes to native wildlife, especially in habitats that can support constrictor snake populations across the southern United States and in US territories."

US authorities have spent millions of dollars in the Florida Everglades due to the threat posed by the big snakes, "an amount far less than is needed to combat their spread," the FWS added.

Five other non-native snakes remain under consideration for listing as "injurious," including the reticulated python, boa constrictor, DeSchauensee’s anaconda, green anaconda and Beni anaconda.

The Burmese pythons are among the largest snakes on Earth and are native to southeast Asia, including Myanmar, also known as Burma.

U.S. Clamps Ban On Pythons, Yellow Anaconda
Tom Brown PlanetArk 18 Jan 12;

The United States announced a ban on Burmese pythons on Tuesday, after years of unsuccessful efforts to eradicate the giant snakes from the Everglades National Park in Florida.

U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who has championed the ban, said it would take effect within about 60 days and make it illegal to import the snakes or transport them across state lines.

Salazar announced the measure at a news conference at a flood control pumping station in a corner of the Everglades just outside Miami, where he was joined by Florida Senator Ben Nelson and two senior park and Florida Wildlife Commission officials as they held aloft a recently captured 13-foot (4-meter) python.

"The action were taking today is a milestone in the protection of the Everglades," Salazar said.

Biologists say most pythons in the Everglades are thought to have been released there by their owners once they realized that the "pets" can grow from just a foot to 12 feet long within their first two years of life.

In addition to the Burmese python, which has become one of the most notorious invasive species in U.S. history, the ban affects the yellow anaconda and northern and southern African pythons.

Invasive species in subtropical parts of Florida include dragon-like Nile Monitor lizards and raccoon-sized African rats.

But Burmese pythons, which are native to southeast Asia, have become the stuff of legend in the Everglades since they were first sighted in the wildlife haven in the mid-1970s.

With their razor-sharp teeth, they have been known to eat practically anything that moves in the park, from small mammals to large wading birds. Last year, a 15.7-foot (4.8-meter) Burmese was found with a huge bulge from a recently consumed 76-pound (34-kg) deer.

Compounding eradication problems, however, the bone-crushing snakes have also bred in the wild in the savanna and steamy swamps of the Everglades.

One of the creatures was aggressive enough to try devouring a 6-foot (1.8 meter) alligator in the park in 2005. The alligator was believed to have been dead already and the snake also died trying to digest it.

(Editing by Sandra Maler)

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La Nina 'linked' to flu pandemics

Richard Black BBC News 16 Jan 12;

La Nina events may make flu pandemics more likely, research suggests.

US-based scientists found that the last four pandemics all occurred after La Nina events, which bring cool waters to the surface of the eastern Pacific.

In Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), they say that flu-carrying birds may change migratory patterns during La Nina conditions.

However, many other La Nina events have not seen novel flu strains spread around the world, they caution.

So while the climatic phenomenon may make a pandemic more likely, they say, it is not sufficient on its own - and may not be necessary either.

La Nina is the cold cousin of El Nino - the two collectively making up the El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO).

"Certainly ENSO affects weather and precipitation and humidity around the world," said Jeffrey Shaman from Columbia University in New York.

"But the effects are very varied around the world - there's no coherent picture."

Nevertheless, the last four pandemics - the Spanish Flu that began in 1918, the Asian Flu of 1957, the Hong Kong Flu of 1958 and the swine flu of 2009 - were all preceded by periods of La Nina conditions.

What pandemics have in common is that they all feature novel strains of the virus to which people have not developed immunity.

Typically these are created when two existing strains infecting an animal such as a bird or a pig exchange genetic material.

The link to La Nina events is not clear. But recent research has shown that some wild birds' patterns of flights and stopovers during migrations, or moulting times, differ between El Nino and La Nina years.

"Our best guess is this brings together birds [in La Nina conditions] that don't otherwise mix, and that allows the genetic reassortment to take place," Professor Shaman told BBC News.

Yet the fact that many other La Nina periods have not been followed by a pandemic indicate that other factors must also be involved.

If the swine flu pandemic of 2009-10 was part of this pattern, the crossing of viral strains must have had something to do with birds as well as pigs.

As wild migratory birds will sometimes visit farms and as domestic flocks of ducks or chickens often live alongside pigs, especially in developing countries, this is quite feasible.

Professor Shaman cautions that the link is far from being firm enough that it could be used as a tool to forecast pandemics.

But the monitoring of birds, pigs, people and the genetics of the influenza virus have all been stepped up in response to recent outbreaks of both swine flu and bird flu.

And this, he believes, should in time show whether the theory is correct.

"Now we can look at viral gene flow in a number of birds, pigs and people - and we might be able to get something more statistically robust, to get a better sense of the mechanisms."

Flu Pandemics Linked to Ocean's Cooling Cycle
Wynne Parry LiveScience.com Yahoo News 19 Jan 12;

Flu pandemics have been linked to fluctuations in climate, and new research connects the world's four most recent pandemics to the cyclical cooling of the Pacific Ocean near the equator.

The connection? Changes in ocean temperature affect migrating birds, which are major contributors to the spread and mixing of flu viruses.

An earlier study had linked flu pandemics to ocean warming, rather than cooling, but public health researchers Jeffrey Shaman of Columbia University and Marc Lipsitch of Harvard University dispute these findings, saying this analysis relies on flawed data, such as records of older pandemics and climate fluctuations, which are less precise and reliable.

The researchers found that the four flu outbreaks that swept the world in the past 100 years — in 1918, 1957, 1968 and 2009 (in this last instance, the H1N1 "swine flu") — followed a fall or winter when sea-surface temperatures sank abnormally low. This cooling is associated with La Niña, a phase in a larger climate pattern. La Niña is the cool counterpart to El Niño, which is marked by unusually warm temperatures in the equatorial Pacific; both alter weather patterns around the globe.

There are three types of influenza viruses. One of them, type A, is naturally carried by wild aquatic birds. Type A viruses, which include swine flu, can infect not only people but other mammals, such as pigs and dogs, as well as other birds, according to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The long flights and many stopovers made by migratory birds turn these viruses into globe trotters and allow them to mix with each other. This process, called re-assortment, occurs when an animal or person carries multiple strains of the virus that swap genetic information. It can lead to the emergence of new viruses that are potentially capable of causing pandemics. "We know that pandemics arise from dramatic changes in the influenza genome. Our hypothesis is that La Niña sets the stage for these changes by reshuffling the mixing patterns of migratory birds, which are a major reservoir for influenza," said Shaman in a press release issued by Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health.

Previous research showed the El Niño/La Niña climate pattern affects the health and behavior of migratory birds, including their population density and flight and stopover patterns, the researchers noted in their study.

The researchers note that the 2009 pandemic is believed to have arisen from swine flu viruses. It is possible birds carried one or more of the ancestors of the 2009 pandemic virus, they write Monday (Jan. 16) in the journal the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Their results contradict earlier research that showed a link between flu pandemics and moderate to strong El Niño events.

Flu isn't the only misery that has been linked to fluctuations in this climate cycle. Past research has connected El Niño to civil conflict, and La Niña to drought that gripped Texas, Oklahoma and parts of New Mexico.

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