Bukit Brown photo exhibition from 1 Oct – Bukit Brown: Spaces for the Living from Green Drinks Singapore
More Nights at the Museum
from Ideal Little Zoo
Random Gallery - Gram Blue
from Butterflies of Singapore
Raptors Galore on Coney Island
from Bird Ecology Study Group
Green Drinks: Remapping the Journey
from Green Drinks Singapore
Johann Earle Reuters AlertNet 19 Sep 12;
JEJU, South Korea (Alertnet) – Keeping coastal mangrove forests intact or replanting them is cheaper than building man-man structure to protect coastlines threatened by climate change, according to the head of the International Union for Conservation for Nature (IUCN).
“Our message is, ‘Don’t assume that man-made or engineered solutions are the only ones to protect our coasts and rivers and to provide drinking water. We are not against engineering in the absence of natural solutions, but look at what nature has to offer,’” urged Julia Marton-Lefevre at the recent World Conservation Congress in South Korea.
Preserving mangrove forests can help regulate rainfall patterns, reduce the risk of disasters from extreme weather and sea level rise, provide breeding grounds for fish and capture carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to slow climate change, she said. That suggests preserving them will be essential to fighting climate change and protecting lives and livelihoods in the face of climate shifts already underway.
“Standing trees help us with inevitable climate change,” she said. “Keeping mangroves intact on the coast is not only good for capturing and storing carbon but also very useful for protecting the coast in times of extreme weather conditions and acting like nurseries for fish to ensure people have protein to eat,” she said.
Marton-Lefevre said the financial benefits of maintaining mangrove forests outweigh those of, for instance, cutting mangroves to build coastal hotels, particularly when their effect on disaster risk is taken into account.
And “it is the same for trees standing rather than being cut down (in terms of) protecting against landslides,” she said.
“Ecosystems, including mangroves, play a role in mitigation and adaptation. You have to respect the forests, wetlands, peatlands and oceans in capturing and storing carbon. Once you respect that, then maybe there would be an impetus to take care of (them) better,” she said, during an interview with AlertNet.
“Standing forests also provide livelihoods for people,” she added. “You don’t have to cut the trees down to raise cattle. You could also grow food inside the forest canopy,” she said.
FUELWOOD ALTERNATIVES
Part of what is driving cutting of mangroves and other forests, experts at the conference said, is a lack of alternatives to fuelwood.
In Pakistan’s Balochistan province, for instance, the juniper forests of Ziarat are being cut because residents have no other way of getting fuel. But pilot projects to provide alternative energy sources, including solar lighting, are helping make a difference, experts said.
Pakistan’s mangrove forests, similarly, have been reduced from 600,000 hectares (1.3 million acres) to 86,000 hectares (190,000 acres) over the last 50 years, according to a documentary film shown at the conference.
But an IUCN-backed effort to ensure “mangroves for the future” has so far overseen replanting of 30,000 hectares (66,000 acres) of mangroves, said Mahmood Akhtar Cheema, manager of IUCN’s Islamabad programme office.
Overall forest cover in Pakistan now stands at just four percent of the total land area and “every sapling is needed,” added Javed Jabbar, an IUCN representative for West Asia and the Middle East.
Johann Earle is a Guyana-based freelance writer with an interest in climate change issues.
Jonathan Mayuga Business Mirror 19 Sep 12;
DONSOL, a small town in Sorsogon, hosts the most number of whale sharks in the Philippines, a continuing study of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) showed.
For the past six years, researchers have been studying whale sharks, also known as butanding, to create a database of the gentle creature that occasionally visits the waters of Donsol.
Using state-of-the-art satellite tags, waterproof cameras and diving experience, researchers commissioned by the WWF’s Donsol-based whale shark photo-identification program, found out that Donsol remains a favorite feeding ground of whale sharks.
In fact, because of its presence, whale watching and interaction has become a tourist attraction and a source of income and livelihood for the people in coastal barangays in Donsol.
The strikingly spotted whale sharks (Rhincodon typus) can grow longer than a passenger bus and weigh a whopping 10 tons. With unblinking golf ball-sized eyes, they wolf down wafting clouds of plankton and the occasional, unlucky small fish. Together with basking and megamouth sharks, they are one of just three planktivorous or filter-feeding sharks and have cruised the world’s seas for some 50 million years. Little is known of their habits, with fewer than 350 sightings recorded prior to the 1980s.
Through the support of WWF-Denmark, WWF-Philippines allied with Australia-based ECOCEAN, the Hubbs Sea World Research Institute and Banco de Oro Unibank to catalogue the country’s whale sharks.
The partnership provides researchers with both population pegs and migratory data to guide conservation efforts not just for whale sharks, but for all migratory pelagic species.
Sporting waterproof digital cameras, trained WWF skin divers snap photos of a spot right above each shark’s pectoral fins, behind its gill slits.
The photos are fed into a computer which uses a program to triangulate each shark’s unique spot configuration. Data is then uploaded to the Web-based ECOCEAN library.
Unless it is a new individual, the library shows researchers when and where the shark was last encountered. Since 2003, ECOCEAN has catalogued 3,822 individual sharks from places as far as Mexico, Mozambique and the Galapagos Islands.
“Photo-identification is a non-invasive approach for identifying sharks,” said Dave David, head of the research team. “The library uses the whale shark’s distinct patterns, plus information on scars, sex and size to identify individuals.”
Since WWF-Philippines began implementing the program in 2007, 458 individual whale sharks have been identified: 377 in Donsol, 54 in Cebu, 14 in Leyte and the rest in Bohol, Palawan, Albay and Batangas.
Donsol has most whale sharks in the Philippines
ABS-CBNnews.com 19 Sep 12;
MANILA, Philippines -- If you want to spot a whale shark, more commonly known as butanding among Filipinos, Donsol in Sorsogon is still the best place to visit.
According to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Donsol hosts the most whale sharks in the Philippines with at least 377 identified by the group -- more than any other area in the country.
In a statement released on Wednesday, WWF-Philippines said it has identified 458 individual whale sharks in the country since 2007, with 377 of them found in Donsol.
Cebu was a far second with 54 butandings identified, 14 in Leyte and the rest in Bohol, Palawan, Albay and Batangas.
With the support of WWF-Denmark, WWF-Philippines teamed up with Australia-based ECOCEAN, the Hubbs Sea World Research Institute and Banco de Oro Unibank to catalogue the country’s whale sharks. The partnership provides researchers with both population pegs and migratory data to guide conservation efforts not just for whale sharks – but for all migratory pelagic species.
Sporting waterproof digital cameras, trained WWF skin divers snap photos of a spot right above each shark’s pectoral fins, behind its gill slits. The photos are fed into a computer which uses a program to triangulate each shark’s unique spot configuration. The data is then uploaded to the web-based ECOCEAN library.
Unless it is a new individual, the library shows researchers when and where the shark was last encountered. Since 2003, ECOCEAN has catalogued 3,822 individual sharks from places as far as Mexico, Mozambique and the Galapagos Islands.
“Photo-identification is a non-invasive approach for identifying sharks,” said Dave David, a whale shark researcher at WWF-Philippines. “The library uses the whale shark’s distinct patterns, plus information on scars, sex and size to identify individuals.”
To complement the photo-identification drive, 29 whale sharks were also affixed with detachable GPS satellite tags designed to pop to the surface after several months of data collation. Four sharks were tagged in May 2007, 10 more in May 2009 and 15 in April 2010, according to the WWF.
"The results suggest that most tagged whale sharks keep to 200 kilometers of Donsol. Three however, swam east to the Philippine Sea, with one more swimming as far north as Taiwan. All spent most of their time below 50 meters, rarely rising to the surface to feed," the group said in the statement.
David said the results suggest that whale sharks are "highly mobile, transient foragers which recognize no country or territorial boundary as their own."
"The distribution of whale sharks and other large filter-feeders also indicate the presence of plankton and the overall health of our oceans,” he added.
For years, Donsol has been identified as a whale shark hotspot, hosting one of the largest aggregations of whale sharks on Earth.
Other large aggregations include Ningaloo Reef in Australia with 808, Mexico with 812 and Mozambique with 624.
Through continued research, David and other WWF volunteers hope to generate an accurate peg of the country’s migratory and resident whale shark population.
“Long days at sea are worth it, considering the immense scientific, ecological and economic value that whale sharks bring people,” David said.
“Even after years of research, there’s still so much we have to discover – where they feed, mate and give birth. Our work continues, which is just as well because diving with these gentle giants is pure magic.”
Jakarta Globe 19 Sep 12;
Palangkaraya. The haze from ground and forest fires that have blanketed the capital of Central Kalimantan for days has thickened, constraining visibility and causing hazardous air pollution, residents said on Tuesday.
Visibility in Palangkaraya was as little as 15 meters in the morning and equipment to measure the air pollution index was no longer functioning, residents said.
Deli, 42, a resident of Jalan Georgi Obos, said the broken equipment was an indication to the local population that air pollution level had reached dangerous levels.
He noted that the public display of the index had become difficult to see because of the profusion of billboards and banners in the area.
“Maybe it is because the equipment is not functioning that it is being intentionally hidden from sight behind those large banners,” said Wardi, who lives on Jalan Yos Sudarso.
Both Deli and Wardi said they hoped the equipment would be repaired so that the public could know the level of pollution and act accordingly.
According to satellite images issued on the weekend, there were 868 hotspots in the province. Hotspots are areas of high temperatures indicating possible ground or forest fires.
The hotspots were detected in eight districts of Central Kalimantan: Lamandau, Seruyan, Kapuas, Murung Raya, Katingan, Gunung Mas, East Kotawaringin and Pulang Pisau.
The smog has curtailed visibility in the air during the day to only 2,000 meters, threatening the safety of flights taking off and landing at Tjilik Riwut Airport in Palangkaraya.
“We are asking the health office, the environment office, the education office and other institutions to prepare steps to take if the conditions worsen in the near future,” Palangkaraya Mayor H.M. Riban Satia said. “The smoke is starting to thicken in our region.”
He said the choking haze was increasingly presenting traffic and health concerns, with the elderly and children most prone to respiratory problems because of the smoke.
“Launch early anticipatory measures before the smoke from these ground fires endangers the population,” Riban said.
He also asked the head of the health office to conduct a registration of patients suffering from respiratory ailments to see whether there is a notable increase so that appropriate measures can be taken.
Officials have blamed the fires on the use of fire for land clearing, a practice that is outlawed but difficult to enforce.
Forest fires have become a annual occurrence during the dry season, which has a couple of months to run.
SP, JG
Patrick Campbell Phuket Gazette 19 Sep 12
PHUKET: There are certain indisputable facts about fish. With very few exceptions, they look good, taste good and they do you good. Dietitians recommend at least two fishy portions a week. So-called "oily fish" – herring, mackerel, salmon, tuna and sardines – are especially good for you since they contain omega 3 fatty acids that help keep immune systems healthy and prevent cardiovascular problems.
Fish and chips, usually battered and wrapped in yesterday’s newspaper, used to be the favorite fodder of working class Britain. Not any more. Wild fish, even the humble cod, have become scarce and consequently expensive.
Why this parlous state of affairs? The over-riding reason is over-fishing. True, there are other factors such as pollution, global warming, and the loss of habitat. But the insatiable greed of the industry, coupled with the sheer efficiency of modern commercial methods, is to blame.
The herring and mackerel shoals of the North Sea are a thing of the past. It was estimated in the late 1960s that the herring population was down to one per cent of its former numbers and fishing was banned completely in 1977.
Across the Atlantic, the cod industry of Newfoundland collapsed, another victim of over-exploitation on a grand scale. A vast natural resource vanished, whole eco-systems were changed and the cod have never returned.
Closer to home, the commercial fishing of tuna – up from one million to four million tonnes a year – has reached such a state that a BBC documentary, "South Pacific", estimates that continued fishing at current levels may see a collapse of stock within five years. And not just yellow-fin, but blue and black fin, albacore and big-eye tuna as well.
The story could be repeated about other species and habitats, as well.
In Thailand, one estimate leads us to believe that the Kingdom has about 40,000 fishing vessels, with the number of trawlers – the worst offenders – at just over 2,000. For some incomprehensible reason, the fishing industry wants to up these numbers to 3,619 vessels.
Both figures are almost certainly ludicrous underestimations anyway. And in any case, there must already be more than enough trawlers, since there is a severe and measurable decline in the numbers of fish being caught. If you don’t believe the figures, ask any sport fisherman.
A sailing friend, who regularly fishes by rod and line on extended trips around the islands, told me he is now lucky to catch three tuna a day. And the largest weigh less than three kilos.
But it is not just the sheer numbers of boats; it is the methods they employ. Trawling is the most annihilative of all techniques for catching fish. A trawl is a huge, bag-shaped affair with a closed end dragged for miles along the sea bed behind a powerful boat. Its maw is weighed down with heavy metal bars to ensure it scours the sea bed.
And scour the sea bed it does, divesting of everything that lives down below: fish and squid, crustaceans (such as crabs, shrimp and lobster), even the plants (such as sea grass) that grow there. Any coral that happens to be in its path is unceremoniously ripped from its watery home. The process has been likened to total deforestation, a technique known as "clearcutting".
Remorseless and cruel, trawling ensures that fish trapped in its maw are often already dead before the net is lifted several hours later. It is, moreover, totally indiscriminate. What is euphemistically called the "by-catch" may contain sharks, dolphins, porpoises or turtles. Six Olive Ridley turtles found stranded recently on a Phuket beach were all in distress. One had a huge propeller gash in its shell, two were missing flippers, a likely result of becoming ensnared in the sharp nylon mesh of a trawl.
Worldwide, it is estimated that 1,000 marine mammals die every day by poor fishing practices; in Danish waters alone, the fishing fleet kills 3,000 porpoises a year. And up to sixty per cent of this by-catch is returned, already lifeless, to a watery grave.
Trawlers in Thailand are supposed to respect a three mile offshore limit. But if you frequent any west coast beach in Phuket, you will see trawlers sailing well within that boundary. Judged by their snail-like speed, they may already be trawling.
Indeed, it is estimated that the same furrow of sea bed may be ploughed three times a year – especially around Phuket, where the water is shallow enough and the bottom smooth enough to enable dredging to continue unchecked. Under these circumstances, what chance is there for the re-establishment of marine life?
There are of course other methods used by commercial fishermen. Gill nets are long panels of netting, set at any depth and supported by headline floats at the top and weighted foot-ropes at the bottom. Sometimes these small monsters can be several kilometers in length. Like trawls, they do not respect aquatic life: they catch fish by wedging their bodies and gills, or by tangling their fins in the mesh. They also accidentally ensnare cetaceans, especially whales and dolphins.
Seines and purse seines are another weapon in the fisherman’s armory. Seines nets were used, as were gill nets, by artisanal fishermen the world over, long before the advent of huge vessels and sophisticated equipment such as radar, sonar, high-powered winches and high-wattage lighting.
Purse seines are more sophisticated: they operate by encircling shoals of fish and then preventing them from ‘sounding’ [going deep] by using a draw string to close the base of the net, thereby forming a purse from which the fish cannot escape. Often used for tuna or marlin fishing, or to catch varieties of pelagic fish which shoal near the surface, they can be used in deeper water where the bottom is too rocky or uneven for trawling. Even fishing by hook and line is more damaging than one might think. After all, some of these lines, baited at regular intervals, can stretch fifty miles behind a ship.
Nylon or polypropylene materials are bad news since they are virtually indestructible. Probably more responsible than any other single invention for the appalling efficiency of modern-day commercial fishing, mono-filament nylon nets last for years. They resist abrasion by rocks, tear coral to pieces, entrap, throttle and cut fish, and ensnare marine mammals. And these nets are practically invisible in sea water.
Some, have a mesh so fine that they allow almost nothing to escape. Melancholy mountains of tiny fish in any Thai fresh market, maybe millions in number, are testament to that.
A visitor to Ranong fish market recently observed that, inexplicably, about 95 per cent of the fish on sale there consisted of juvenile barracuda. None of them had been given the chance to grow to adulthood, to reach a size where they might help replenish depleted stocks.
And not only hatchlings are killed: the impact on other species dependent on any small fish for food is incalculable. In temperate waters, huge catches of sand eels are made. Most end up as fish meal, while larger fish such as haddock or cod and birds such as kittiwake gulls or puffins are
deprived of their main source of food. A crucial link in the ecological food chain is broken.
There is a human cost to all this piscine carnage. People suffer as well as fish. In the southern Thai provinces of Pattani and Narathiwat, many small fishermen in coastal communities have been driven out of business.
One fisherman interviewed said he no longer used his boat: he was only able to support his family by buying bulk shrimp from commercial vessels, and re-selling batches for a small profit.
And those fishermen who do work on trawlers often suffer appalling hardship. Often recruited illegally, it is estimated that up to 90 per cent are migrant workers who are virtual prisoners on these boats.
Captains often rule by the gun: the environment on board gives new meaning to the expression "slave ship". Indeed, many have reported slave-like conditions. And a recent newspaper editorial succinctly observed that "cheating, fraudulence, debt bondage, [even] abduction" are used to supply the nation’s fishing workers.
Thailand’s two largest export markets, the EU and the USA, are both so concerned, that they have threatened to boycott the importation of seafood and fish from Thailand unless the industry cleans up its act.
In this doomsday scenario, what steps can we take?
One thing we can all do is eat less fish, or at least avoid buying fish fry (whitebait) or pre-breeding juveniles. Maybe we should all agree to give up eating fish for a week or a fortnight. Let’s encourage all our Thai friends to help create a much greater awareness of these key environmental issues in schools.
Consuming "farmed" fish, or stock from known sustainable sources, is another important way in which we can help.
But what is most needed is greater governmental awareness and action; the exercise of better control over a greed-driven and short-sighted industry; the elimination of fake licenses and fishing permits; the prosecution of those captains who regularly and cynically violate protected coastal waters, or use ultra-fine mesh nets.
The dive industry, dependent for its survival on the preservation of coral reefs and fish species, should be allowed more influence.
Only last week, two readers’ letters in the Phuket Gazette commented on how the world famous dive areas near the Similan Islands are only surviving because scuba diving allows the sites to recover from the illegal and destructive inshore fishing on and around the reefs during the low season.
On the positive side, the farm fishing industry is flourishing. Asia leads the way in aquaculture. Prawn farming has been practiced here on the island for many years: in fact Thailand is the world’s largest producer of cultured shrimp. Tilapia and fresh water catfish, widely farmed here, are a staple of the Thai diet. Barramundi are increasingly seen as a valuable and delicious species that can be farmed.
In cold oceans there is open–water production of sea-bass and salmon. Of course, there is always a downside. To produce one sizable farmed salmon requires several times its own weight in food, much of it probably live. Farmed fish are much more prone to disease, and have been known to infect wild stocks. Prawn farms regularly release stale or polluted water into rivers and seas.
But we have no choice; it is the way we have to go. The world’s palate for fish is insatiable and rising: it now stands at 38 pounds per person per year. So-called "wild" stocks are vanishing worldwide with a finality that permits no regeneration, no renewal…
This annihilation has already happened to many fishing grounds in the Western hemisphere: it will as surely happen here too unless something is done – and done fast.
Alister Doyle PlanetArk 19 Sep 12;
Local pollution in the Arctic from shipping and oil and gas industries, which have expanded in the region due to a thawing of sea ice caused by global warming, could further accelerate that thaw, experts say.
The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) said there was an urgent need to calculate risks of local pollutants such as soot, or "black carbon", in the Arctic. Soot darkens ice, making it soak up more of the sun's heat and quickening a melt.
Companies such as Shell, which this week gave up a push to find oil this year in the Chukchi Sea as the winter closed in, Exxon or Statoil say they are using the cleanest available technologies.
But the risks of even small amounts of pollution on the Arctic Ocean, emitted near ice with little dispersal by winds, have not been fully assessed.
"A lot of the concerns need urgent evaluation," said Nick Nuttall, spokesman of Naibori-based UNEP, referring to issues such as flaring of gas or fuels used by vessels in the Arctic.
"There is a grim irony here that as the ice melts...humanity is going for more of the natural resources fuelling this meltdown," he said. Large amounts of soot in the Arctic come from more distant sources such as forest fires or industry.
The extent of sea ice on the Arctic Ocean has shrunk this summer to the smallest since satellite records began in the 1970s, eclipsing a 2007 low. The melt is part of a long-term retreat blamed by a U.N. panel on man-made global warming, caused by use of fossil fuels.
"We're working to get a better documentation of the risks of black carbon in the Arctic," said Lars-Otto Reiersen, head of the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program (AMAP), part of the Arctic Council.
An AMAP report last year said that "regulation of black carbon production from all sources, especially those resulting locally from activities in the Arctic, is required at all scales."
400 FIELDS
More than 400 oil and gas fields within the Arctic region were developed by 2007, according to AMAP, mostly in West Siberia in Russia and in Alaska. Most of the undiscovered oil and gas is now estimated to be offshore.
Soot is an extra problem for planners, adding to risks such as of an oil blowout or a shipwreck. The U.N.'s International Maritime Organization is trying to work out a new "Polar Code" that might tighten everything from emissions to hull standards.
Still, for shipping, use of the Arctic route may be less damaging overall in terms of global warming, including soot, since it is a short-cut between some Atlantic and Pacific ports. That means ships burn much less fuel on the route.
"We are working on the net effect of the Arctic route compared to the Suez Canal," said Jan Fuglestvedt, of the Center for International Climate and Environmental Research in Oslo.
In 2009, the Bremen-based Beluga Group sailed from South Korea to Rotterdam across the Arctic, cutting 4,000 nautical miles off the route via Suez. This year, for instance, an icebreaker became the first Chinese vessel to cross the ocean.
One study indicated that increased use of the Arctic route might limit carbon dioxide emissions for global shipping by 2.9 million tons a year by 2050, or 0.1 percent, compared to use of the Suez Canal.
"If the Arctic route is really open by then it may reduce carbon emissions a bit on the global scale," said Leif Ingolf Eide, an author of the study at Norwegian-based risk management group DnV. The study did not assess soot, he said.
In a 2011 report, UNEP estimated that a global crackdown on soot, methane and ozone could slow global warming by 0.5 degree Celsius (0.9F). It would also protect human health and promote crop growth.
Almost 200 nations have agreed to limit climate change to below 2 degrees C (3.6F) above pre-industrial times, seeing it as a threshold to dangerous changes such as more droughts, floods or rising sea levels.
(Reporting By Alister Doyle; Editing by Rosalind Russell)
Alister Doyle PlanetArk 20 Sep 12;
Climate change is a threat to everything from coffee plantations to Arctic foxes and even a moderate rise in world temperatures will be damaging for plants and animals in some regions, experts said on Wednesday.
Habitats such as coral reefs or the Arctic region were among the most vulnerable to global warming, scientists said at a conference in Lillehammer, south Norway, organized by the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF).
Almost 200 governments agreed in 2010 to a goal of limiting global warming to below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times, seen as a threshold for dangerous changes such as droughts, floods, desertification and rising sea levels.
"At 2C you have impacts. The idea that 2C is a safe level doesn't really hold up," said Jeff Price, coordinator of the Wallace Initiative, an international group seeking to model the effects of climate change on 50,000 types of plant and animals.
"And when you start moving beyond 2C the impacts on biodiversity start rapidly increasing through much of the world," he said. Greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels are the main cause of warming, according to a U.N. scientific panel.
Price said Colombian coffee plantations, for instance, would have to be shifted to higher altitudes and onto more shaded northern slopes as temperatures rose. "It's going to require wholesale movements of coffee plantations in Colombia," he said.
That could put coffee more into competition with habitats for rare tropical animals and plants.
FOXES, LEMMINGS
In Scandinavia, the Arctic fox is among animals under pressure since climate change is reducing the availability of its main prey, the lemming. And red foxes, bigger than their Arctic cousins, are moving north as temperatures warm.
"In a bad lemming year there won't be many Arctic foxes born," Anouschka Hof, of Umea University in Sweden told the GBIF, which is funded by governments. Arctic foxes turn white in winter and brown in summer.
Warming temperatures are also be a threat to many northern plants. The northern bilberry, for instance, may gain niches such as on the coast of Greenland in coming decades but will lose far bigger areas to the south.
"There are not many place where the northern plants can move into. The Arctic is mainly ocean," said Inger Greve Alsos of the University of Tromsoe in Norway. "We expect a loss of range for many plants."
Price, of the University of East Anglia in England, said that a peak in global greenhouse gas emissions in coming years, at the latest by 2030, would help buy time to help species adapt to climate change.
"You generally have a halving of the impacts" on wildlife if emissions peak in coming years, he said, compared to policies of letting them keep rising. But he said the benefits of curbs would not be felt worldwide.
An early peak to greenhouse gases would give the biggest respite to animals in places such as the Amazon basin, southern Africa, southern Australia, parts of Russia and Asia.
Plants would also benefit most in the Andes, southern Africa and Australia, according to modeling by the Wallace Initiative, named after British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace, the co-author with Charles Darwin of the theory of evolution in 1858.
Governments are aiming to agree a pact by 2015 to slow climate change, entering into force by 2020. China, the United States, India and Russia are the top national emitters of greenhouse gases.
(Editing by Sophie Hares)
Of memories and changes
from Nature rambles
Random Gallery - Leopard Lacewing
from Butterflies of Singapore
daurian starlings @ seletar link mangroves - 16Sep2012
from sgbeachbum
Greater Racket-tailed Drongo Vocalisation
from Bird Ecology Study Group
A burden of plastics relieved from Pandan mangrove – more than 900kg categorised, counted and removed! from News from the International Coastal Cleanup Singapore
Learning to live with elephants in Malaysia
from Mongabay.com news by Jeremy Hance
Wildlife trade bans may be worsening trafficking of some species, argues paper from Mongabay.com news by Rhett Butler
Straits Times 19 Sep 12;
AN ELDERLY woman fell and broke her hip after a wild boar in Pulau Ubin went for a bag of food she was carrying.
Madam Lin Hui Juan, 64, was operated on yesterday morning, reported Chinese newspaper Lianhe Wanbao.
The Bukit Panjang resident had gone for a half-day tour to Pulau Ubin on Sunday when the attack happened at 11am.
The group of more than 40 members was near Chek Jawa when a female boar, with two other small boars, appeared near some bicycle stands.
The group began taking pictures of the boars and feeding them. Madam Lin was nearby but was busy haggling over the transport fare with a van driver.
The female boar suddenly charged and tugged at a bag filled with food that Madam Lin was carrying on her shoulder.
Caught unawares, she lost her footing and fell. A group member rushed over and grabbed the bag from the boar, which later ran off.
Madam Lin was shouting in pain and could not stand up, said a fellow group member. She was carried by the group members to the van and taken to the National University Hospital.
Zoologist Diong Cheong Hoong said the group should have kept a distance from the boars and refrained from feeding them.
"If there is a group of people, the boars are more easily provoked and have a tendency to charge, especially if they have sniffed out food," he said.
"And if the piglets are still suckling, the sow will be particularly sensitive and will charge to defend her piglets."
Last December, a boar killed a pet dog in the Chestnut area. Three months ago, one attacked a security guard and a boy.
The National Parks Board has since decided to cull the animals to control their numbers.
JANICE TAI
She breaks hip in boar attack on Pulau Ubin
Madam Lin Hui Juan who fractured her hip after a wild boar knocked her down during her excursion to Pulau Ubin.
Hedy Khoo The New Paper AsiaOne 21 Sep 12;
Attracted by a bag of food she was carrying, a wild boar charged at the 64-year-old woman, causing her to fall and break her hip.
The injury required her to undergo an operation at National University Hospital (NUH) tuesday morning, reported Chinese evening daily Lianhe Wanbao.
Madam Lin Hui Juan, a Bukit Panjang resident, was on a half-day excursion organised by a residents' committee to Chek Jawa on Pulau Ubin on Sunday morning when the incident happened at about 11am.
She was among the group of 40 who each received a red recyclable bag containing food and water.
After visiting Chek Jawa, the group started negotiating with a bus driver over the fare to take them back to the jetty.
Then a female wild boar with two piglets appeared and they did not seem afraid of humans. The group took photos of the animals and even fed them.
At that time, Madam Lin was carrying the red recyclable bag on her left arm. Suddenly, the sow charged at Madam Lin from behind, causing her to fall on her left side.
A group member said Madam Lin was unaware of the boar near her as she was bargaining with the bus driver over the fare.
After she fell, someone helped her retrieve the bag, while Madam Lin remained on the ground, groaning in pain. She was also unable to stand up.
She was then carried into a taxi, onto the boat at the jetty and taken to NUH.
It is believed Madam Lin's husband was with her during the excursion.
Advice to visitors
A Pulau Ubin resident said visitors to the island should avoid wearing red clothes and carrying red plastic bags as the colour attracts the attention of monkeys and wild boars.
He added that there have been instances of visitors who had hung red plastic bags of food on their bicycles being attacked by wild boars.
Wild-boar sightings are getting more common in Singapore.
On Sept 5, Wanbao reported an incident of a wild boar which was killed when it was hit by a car on Upper Thomson Road.
The driver said the animal had dashed out suddenly from the bushes at the side of the road.
In August, a pet dog out on a walk was believed to have been gored by a wild boar at Adam Drive, off Adam Road. The chocolate labrador survived.
And in June, two wild boars which wandered into Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park knocked down a five-year-old boy and a patrolling Cisco protection officer, who hurt his hand in the fall.
Following the attacks in the Park, the National Parks Board decided to control the wild boar population in the Lower Peirce area by culling.
Last month, it was decided that the animals would be rounded up before being sedated with dart guns and euthanised with drug injections.
Related links
Chek Jawa wild boar: Thousands of peaceful interactions on wild shores of singapore.
Chuah Bee Kim New Straits Times 17 Sep 12;
CHEQUES READY:Compensations vary according to location, size and shape of the property, among other factors
THE 12-day land acquisition award hearings concerning the development of oil-and-gas projects in Pengerang were concluded recently.
Johor State Economic Planning Unit director, Elias Hasran, told a Press conference at Kota Iskandar, here, that 16 cheques were ready to be handed out to the main title holders.
He added that a total of 74 copies of the consent forms out of 191 distributed were returned by the title owners of 223 plots of land affected by the Petronas Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development (Rapid) and Pengerang Independent Deepwater Petroleum Terminal located within the proposed Pengerang Integrated Petroleum Complex (PIPC).
Elias said that those with doubts would be entitled to file their reasons according to the Land Acquisition Act 1960 whereby they would be able to seek their own counsel or land valuers, and all expenses would be borne by the government.
"Everything will be done in accordance with the Act," he said.
Also present at the Press conference were Johor Petroleum Development Corporation Bhd chief executive Mohd Yazid Ja'afar and Johor Land and Mines Department deputy director, Azmi Rohani.
Elias said the compensations varied according to the location, size and shape of the land, among other factors.
On another matter, Elias said that the move to re-locate all the Muslim graves to a 32.32-hectare site had been settled.
However, some issues remained concerning the relocation of the Chinese graves to a 23.43-ha site in Punggai, near Pengerang.
He was however confident that the issues would be resolved as this was not the first time the government has re-located Chinese graves in the name of development.
He cited the construction of the Eastern Dispersal Link and the Nusajaya highway where Chinese graves had been re-located without any problems.
"We will be having another round of talks with the local Chinese community leaders in Pengerang.
"On our part, the government will appoint a company that is well-versed in Chinese rites according to Taoist faith," he said, adding that the re-location of the Chinese graves will probably be before next March.
Elias said notwithstanding some gatherings being organised by non-governmental organisations, he believed any misunderstanding which arose out of miscommunication would be resolved amicably.
It was reported that the state government would be acquiring some 8,094ha of land in Pengerang for the development of the PIPC.
This massive development is the state government's initiative to transform Pengerang into a oil-and-gas hub.
It will involve the relocation of 3,122 people from 927 families currently residing in the affected areas.
Phase One of the relocation exercise will begin in March next year involving three villages. These are Kampung Sungai Kapal, Kampung Teluk Empang and Kampung Langkah Baik.
By October next year, another four villages will follow suit. These are Kampung Sebong, Kampung Batu Mas, Kampung Jawa and Kampung Sungai Buntu.
Jakarta Globe 18 Sep 12;
Jambi. Haze from ground brush and forest fires resumed blanketing parts of central Sumatra on Monday after cloud-seeding efforts failed to induce any rain for three straight days, officials and residents said.
Visibility early in the morning at Jambi’s Sultan Thaha Airport was just 500 meters, preventing planes from landing until the smog cleared up a bit by 8:30 a.m.
Zubaidi, head of the provincial disaster mitigation office, blamed the problem on the failure to produce any rain through cloud-seeding efforts over the past three days, after earlier efforts had proved successful.
“We haven’t had any rain even though we seeded the clouds above Jambi. The problem is that the clouds are much too thin,” he said.
He added the Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT) would continue seeding the clouds.
“Most likely we’ll be able to induce some rainfall over Jambi again on Monday evening,” he said.
“We’ll continue making artificial rain until the normal rains set in.”
Zubaidi also denied that most of the haze in Jambi and the neighboring provinces of West Sumatra and Bengkulu came from fires within Jambi, pointing out that only one hot spot was detected in the province as of Sunday.
“There was only one hot spot, in West Tanjung Jabung district. We believe the smoke blanketing the city of Jambi comes from South Sumatra,” he said.
Officials in Bengkulu and West Sumatra have confirmed an increased level of haze there, but say it has not yet reached dangerous levels.
In Bengkulu, the haze is reportedly thicker in the early mornings and evenings, while during the daytime winds keep the skies clear.
There have been no reports of limited visibility or respiratory complaints out of Bengkulu as a result of the haze.
Officials there insist that the haze is wafting in from Jambi and South Sumatra, given that there have been no reports of ground brush or forest fires in Bengkulu.
Risman Sipayung, the head of the Bengkulu Forestry Office, said forest rangers had been deployed to prevent fires from being lit, especially for land clearing.
“We have called on the people, through the district and Bengkulu city authorities, against conducting land clearing using fire during this dry season, because besides causing forest fires it also creates haze,” he said.
In Padang, West Sumatra, a thin veil of haze limited visibility to less than 10 kilometers, with officials there also blaming the conditions on forest fires in Jambi and South Sumatra.
Neli Elfira, from the local office of the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG), said the latest satellite imagery of the region showed 75 hot spots, areas of high temperature indicating forest or ground brush fires, in South Sumatra.
She said the haze in Padang was not yet at dangerous levels and that aviation safety was still unaffected because visibility was well above the minimum level required.
She added that the higher people went, the denser the haze would be, and cautioned motorists going through mountainous areas to drive cautiously.
SP, JG
Lisa Siregar Jakarta Globe 18 Sep 12;
Shifts in the weather have changed the lives of today’s fishermen in Bali.
They no longer can predict the best days to sail and catch fish. Maybe it’s because of climate change — Balinese fishermen leave it to scientists to figure out the reasons — but nonetheless, they need an immediate alternative to be able to maintain a steady income.
And some might have found one.
Fishermen have turned to farming mangrove crabs in the mangrove forests in their neighborhoods.
For the fishermen at Wana Sari, in the south of Denpasar, it was not easy to change from fishing to crab farming. Not only did the lack of know-how present a problem, but the farm also requires Rp 25 million to Rp 35 million ($2,600 to $3,700) to start. They need at least 10 fishing nets for a farm, each costing about Rp 2.5 million. They also need to build a proper cage for each crab to grow. It comes as no surprise that of more than 100 fishermen in the area, only 45 were willing to change their line of work.
It was only in March of last year that they began to establish these crab farms. The fishermen organized themselves into groups and all chipped in to build a farm. There are now five groups, and each owns a hectare of crab farm in the mangrove forest in Wana Sari.
“We sell these crabs alive to Jakarta and Singapore, and buyers usually buy a minimum of 200 kilograms,” said Made Sumasa, the head of the fishermen’s association at Wana Sari.
It takes between 20 and 30 days for a crab to grow. The fishermen usually buy a ton of seeds for each group, which results in about 500 kilograms of crabs.
The first time they sold crabs, which was last year, they made a profit of 30 percent. So Made and his friends decided to maintain their crab farm.
It soon become clear that crab farming is more promising because there is no risk of going home empty handed, unlike fishing. Made said they need to plant more mangroves to make sure that the crabs have the perfect habitat.
Should anyone want to build a new crab farm, there is no need to worry about the lack of space, said Yudha Wayan, another fisherman at Wana Sari. There are more than 1,300 hectares of land in the forest in Ngurah Rai.
“We live very close to the road, so there’s no distribution problem. But we were all purely fishermen, so we lack the proper knowledge on how to grow these crabs,” he said.
The fishermen-cum-crab farmers recently received donations and workshops from Pertamina. The energy company donated Rp 5 million to each group and put them in contact with a beneficiary of its corporate social responsibility program in Probolinggo, East Java. They will share their knowledge of crab harvesting, and making sweet jelly (dodol) and syrup with mangrove fruit as the main ingredient.
Pertamina also recently agreed to contribute to the government’s Grow a Billion Trees program. Afandi, a manager at Pertamina, said that the company plans to plant 100 million trees by 2015.
Speaking in front of 100 high school students before a mangrove-planting event in Serangan, Bali, on Thursday, Afandi said that mangrove trees are useful in a variety of ways.
“We know that Pertamina’s products contribute gas emissions, so we decided to [plant] more trees,” he said.
He added that although mangroves do not produce oxygen, the plant is useful for fishermen on the island because they can grow crabs in the forest and make food from its fruits.
“It’s very important to pick up only the fruit and not the wood,” Afandi added.
The company has been planting mangroves since 2008. The numbers grew from 1,000 to 10,000 trees in four years, and it is hopeful of reaching its eventual goal. To teach fishermen at Wanasari, Pertamina works with Bali’s University of Udayana.
Budi Waluya, a representative from the conservation association, said that mangroves are very easy to plant and grow. The trick is to plant only mangroves that have grown at least one meter high.
“[The tree] lives on muddy ground,” said Budi, adding that the areas in Serangan and Wana Sari are good for mangroves.
Made said that mangroves helped his people survive a food crisis during the eruption of Mount Agung in 1963, and through the political crisis in 1965.
“It is proven that we can survive by consuming mangrove, so we should [grow] more,” he said.
Fishermen at Wana Sari agree. To sustain their occupation, these fishermen have also began to consider eco-tourism. They have built a 150-meter trekking route into the forest where tourists can see a small warung and enjoy grilled crabs.
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