Best of our wild blogs: 2 May 13

Karung Guni Gobi & Streamlining Crinoids
from Pulau Hantu

Is Lyssa zampa back? Send me your records!
from Otterman speaks

Mangrove and freshwater bryozoans on Singapore's northern shores
from wild shores of singapore

Bryozoans and Hydroids Workshop Day 3
from wild shores of singapore

Random Gallery - Plain Plushblue
from Butterflies of Singapore and Random Gallery - Common Sailor

Feldging moment of the Red Junglefowl
from Bird Ecology Study Group

Why are we attempting a pangolin release?
from sundapangolin

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Plans for Johor-Singapore rapid transit system in final stages: Abdul Ghani

Saifulbahri Ismail Channel NewsAsia 2 May 13;

SINGAPORE: Outgoing Johor Chief Minister Abdul Ghani Othman says plans for the rapid transit system (RTS) linking Johor and Singapore are in their final stages.

Speaking to reporters in Singapore, Mr Abdul Ghani said both the Singapore and Malaysia governments will finalise the costing and design of the system by the end of this year.

He added that it is also important to think about a single customs immigration and quarantine (CIQ) complex to further accelerate the movements of people between the two countries.

Mr Abdul Ghani travelled by bus from Gelang Patah in Johor to Jurong East bus interchange in Singapore.

It was his first time travelling on the Causeway Link bus and he noted that the journey took more than an hour.

Mr Abdul Ghani believes the rapid transit system will help commuters cut their travelling time between Johor and Singapore substantially.

It will also reduce traffic congestion.

The RTS is scheduled for completion by 2018.

- CNA/ir

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Best of our wild blogs: 1 May 13

Don’t Miss! May 4 Kampung Tour
from a.t.Bukit Brown. Heritage. Habitat. History.

Changi twice quickly is twice as rich!
from wild shores of singapore

Bryozoans and Hydroids Workshop Day 2
from wild shores of singapore

Malaysia may loan Indonesia rhinos to save species from extinction from Mongabay.com news by Rhett Butler

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Wild greenery makes Singapore a global eco-city

Ho Hua Chew, for The Straits Times 1 May 13;

LOOKING at the Land-use Plan 2030 that came with the White Paper on population, it appears that almost everywhere outside the Tekong and Western Catchment military areas will be built up, leaving only about 9 per cent as parks and nature reserves.

The Government has made great strides on "brown issues" such as clean and recycled water and green buildings. And it has done well in "managed greenery", like public parks, golf courses and football fields. But a holistic and consistent commitment to environmental sustainability must not neglect the natural greenery - the remaining wild or "spontaneous" secondary forests, mangroves and scrublands, for example.

A recent satellite study found this natural greenery to still constitute 29 per cent of Singapore's total land area. The Land-use Plan's vision, unfortunately, regards this greenery largely as dispensable for development.

Much of this wild greenery is secondary forest. Of this, only about 5 per cent is protected as nature reserves. By 2030, going by the Land-use Plan, most of this unprotected greenery outside the military zone will be gone.

A sterile green facade

ROOF-TOP greenery, roadside trees, small neighbourhood gardens and public parks are no substitute for the massive loss of forested areas, with its rich biodiversity and free eco-system services; it will only mean a city in a sterile green facade.

The Punggol Masterplan is touted as the model of Singapore's green city vision. But how much of the wild greenery will be left after the entire Housing Board estate is set up? Looking at the display model, only the thin strip of trees along the old Punggol Road.

The mixed forest on the ridge in Punggol Avenue 17 will be sliced off by two new roads and what is left will be reduced to a public park. Also, the entire forest along the coast from Punggol Marina to Serangoon River will be wiped out. Coney Island will have half of its forest area planned for a housing estate. Punggol will then not be a green housing estate but a concrete jungle.

The Tengeh/Brickland area too seems slated for another massive HDB housing estate, leaving almost nothing of the extensive wild forest there intact.

A green plan needs to respect the natural environment. What is the point of controlling industrial and urban pollution if we then increase pollution and environmental degradation through destruction of our natural greenery?

We should make every effort not to add to global pollution by way of releasing more carbon dioxide (CO2) through the destruction of our existing greenery, especially the forests, which, because of the dominance and density of trees and hence plentiful woody structures, help to sequester CO2.

Forests are a vital help in greatly reducing ambient heat from the "urban-heat island effect" arising from massive use of concrete.

A report on a study by a National University of Singapore climatologist (The Straits Times, Nov 6, 2012) said that in the past 40 years, the difference in average night temperature between a rural area like Lim Chu Kang, which still has a lot of greenery, and the city area, had widened drastically - from 3 deg C to 7 deg C.

The demise of even more forests in Yishun, Brickland and Pasir Ris, and in the coming years in Tampines, Tengah, Punggol and Woodlands/Marsiling, will escalate this trend.

Forests are also critical to the long-term preservation of our national biodiversity. The Central Nature Reserves (Bukit Timah and Central Catchment Nature reserves) - our largest tract of forests - are increasingly surrounded by inhospitable concrete as more housing projects emerge around its borders, gradually turning this priceless biodiversity haven into a "habitat-island", with its wildlife locked up as in a fortress under siege.

Wildlife corridors needed

SUCH isolation leads over time to a decline in the genetic variability of species with small populations, leading to loss of resilience and even eventual extinction.

Hence, apart from the commendable creation of the Eco-link between the Bukit Timah and the Central Catchment Nature reserves, a wider and more comprehensive strategy to include "wildlife corridors" for the conservation of our biodiversity should be implemented nationwide.

The forest patches outside the central nature reserves serve as ecological corridors - a series of "stepping stones" for wildlife.

In the north, wildlife migrates from Johor to Singapore; in particular, forest species move into the Central Nature Reserves and rejuvenate its fauna. Stepping stones along the north-eastern coast comprise mainly the forested patches (including mangroves) of Pulau Ubin, the Pasir Ris Green Belt, Lorong Halus, Punggol and Khatib Bongsu.

For example, the oriental pied hornbill, thought to be extinct for decades but now seen in many forested areas of mainland Singapore, originates from Johor, but its dispersal can be said to be facilitated by the presence of this series of stepping stones.

There are also fragmented forest patches that become stepping stones, enabling forest wildlife to disperse from the central forest reserves to public parks like those along the Southern Ridges, for example, Mount Faber. Those along the railway corridor such as Clementi forest can also provide a link.

Moreover, forest patches close to the Central Nature Reserves, for example, Bukit Brown, can act as "extra habitat" or foraging ground for forest species, like the Malayan flying lemur and the chestnut-bellied malkoha.

With 29 per cent of our wild greenery still intact, the "garden city" or "city-in-a-garden" vision is not our only option. Why not have a global city that is not only a garden city but one with a lovely countryside and ample room for quiet recreation, making Singapore a global eco-city?

To achieve this, it is proposed that the 20 more new parks planned by the Urban Redevelopment Authority cover or accommodate these unprotected secondary forests, in particular the mature ones like Bukit Brown, Bidadari and Clementi, which are rich in biodiversity.

Before we decide how much population growth and its concomitant infrastructure development is required, we have to ask: How much of the remaining wild greenery should be left untouched? And this can be meaningfully sought only by a proper survey of Singaporeans' preferences.

The writer is a conservation activist and council member of the Nature Society.

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Malaysia: Tourists Contribute to Conservation Effort in Kinabatangan Corridor of Life

WWF 30 Apr 13;

30 April 2013, Kota Kinabalu: WWF-Malaysia recently handed over a cheque of RM261,759.70 to KiTA (Kinabatangan Corridor of Life Tourism Operators Association) to carry out conservation work in the Kinabatangan Corridor of Life (KCoL).

The money was the total amount collected from tourists since the inception of the Conservation Levy initiative in 2006 by WWF-Malaysia.

The national conservation organisation, upon realising the importance of conserving Kinabatangan, had initiated the Voluntary Conservation Levy (VCL) as part of effort to involve the tourism sector in restoring and rehabilitating the habitats and natural resources in Kinabatangan.

Under the VCL programme, participating lodges operating in and around the Lower Kinabatangan area invited their guests to voluntarily contribute RM20 (or USD 5) for conservation work. Tourists were encouraged to pay the levy upon checking out.

The participating lodges, comprising KiTA members, pooled together and channelled the monies collected into on-going or new conservation efforts in the Kinabatangan area. WWF-Malaysia was the custodian of the fund.

KiTA has nine members consisting of Abai Jungle Lodge, Barefoot Sukau Lodge, Bilit Adventure Lodge, Borneo Nature Lodge, Kinabatangan Riverside Lodge, Nature Lodge Kinabatangan, Proboscis Lodge Bukit Melapi, Sukau Rainforest Lodge, The Last Frontier Resort, and Uncle Tan Jungle Camp.

In January 2011, KiTA decided to improve the collection mechanism of the VCL programme and implemented the Compulsory Conservation Levy (CL) whereby KiTA members would contribute RM10 for every guest who purchased a tour package to KCoL. Similar to the VCL fund, the collection from the CL would be used for the conservation and protection of KCoL’s natural assets.

“The Conservation Levy initiative has broadened funding sources for conservation as well as promoted sustainable tourism in the KCoL area. Some KiTA members match guest contributions during peak months” said Executive Director/CEO of WWF-Malaysia, Dato’ Dr. Dionysius Sharma.

“Through the VCL mechanism, we found that tourists are actually happy and ready to contribute to conservation. They want to see that the Kinabatangan’s reputation as a premium wildlife viewing region is sustained. Through the Conservation Levy initiative, we have created an avenue for responsible tourism to thrive,” said President of KiTA, Alexander Yee.

The levy collection is expected to increase with continuous and proactive support from lodge guests and operators. The money will be used to fund various ongoing conservation and community projects implemented by KiTA in the area, including tree planting, river clean-ups, building of waste disposal sites, conducting medical camps for local communities and hosting environmental education programmes.

“The collection will contribute immensely towards the conservation of the KCoL. WWF-Malaysia hopes to see this initiative replicated in other ecologically sensitive areas within the state and beyond. Conservation efforts require funding. We need to continuously explore new financing mechanism to broaden funding sources for conservation,” Dr. Dionysius said.

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Indonesia: East Kalimantan’s Nature Reserves Under Threat From Villagers

Tunggadewa Mattangkilang Jakarta Globe 30 Apr 13;

Balikpapan. Forest rangers have revealed that up to two-fifths of the combined area of two nature reserves in East Kalimantan’s Paser district are degraded as a result of the increased human presence there.

Darmanto, the chief ranger with the Balikpapan Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA), said on Monday that the 53,800-hectare Teluk Adang and the 46,900-hectare Teluk Apar reserves, both home to ecologically important mangrove swamps, were slowly being taken over by people building villages and fish and shrimp farms there.

“They’ve even built schools and clinics inside the reserves, which is prohibited, and this has left up to 40 percent of the area badly degraded,” he said.

Darmanto added that there were now 14 villages inside the reserves, with a total population of 24,000 and growing. He warned that if the trend continued, human activities would destroy all vestiges of the reserves within just five years.

He said there were several factors for the proliferation of human activities inside the ostensibly off-limits area, among them the fact that a handful of villages already existed there before the two nature reserves were established in 1982.

“What the BKSDA and the Paser district administration have tried to do is propose that human activities be limited to a small enclave within the reserve area. The problem is that the Forestry Ministry has never approved this proposal,” Darmanto said.

He added his office had only five rangers to patrol a combined area of more than 100,000 hectares.

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Indonesia: Homeless Elephants Haunt North Kalimantan Village

Tunggadewa Mattangkilang Jakarta Globe 1 May 13;

Nunukan. Villagers in North Kalimantan’s Nunukan district say a group of elephants has been encroaching on their land and destroying their crops for the past five days, a claim that conservationists say indicates that the endangered animals are being driven out of their habitat.

Putra Sinar Jaya, the head of Sekaduyan Taka village in Simenggaris subdistrict, said on Tuesday that the group of three elephants had destroyed “dozens of hectares” of crops, including oil palms, banana trees ad cassava plants, since last week.

“For the past five days they’ve been coming here and destroying everyone’s plants,” he said, adding that they usually arrived at twilight and left before dawn.

“We fear that soon they’ll start destroying people’s homes. And we can’t defend ourselves otherwise we’ll be accused of killing wildlife.”
He said villagers had reported seeing the animals arriving from the direction of Serudong in Malaysia’s Sabah state.

Wiwin Effendy, WWF Indonesia’s East Kalimantan coordinator, said that if the reports of the elephant invasions were confirmed, then it would be the first time that the animals were known to have encroached onto human settlements in Simenggaris subdistrict.

“As far as we know, they usually stick close to the four rivers in the border region between Nunukan and Malaysia, which is in Tulin Onsoi subdistrict,” he said.

Wiwin added that the reports that they were now straying further indicated that they had been driven out because of the destruction of their primary habitat.

He said the elephants’ known habitat there was rapidly being lost to the expansion of oil palm plantations and logging concessions, since permits for commercial activities in the area began to be issued seven years ago.

Studies conducted by WWF Indonesia and the East Kalimantan Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA) over the past five years suggest there are only 20 to 80 Borneo elephants left in the area and that extinction is likely without efforts by the government and other stakeholders to preserve their habitat.

Borneo elephants are classified as an endangered species. Fourteen are confirmed to have died so far this year from suspected poisoning by villagers.

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Best of our wild blogs: 30 Apr 13

Undergrad part-time field/lab assistants wanted (Apr – Dec 2013)
from The Biodiversity crew @ NUS

Pulau Ubin: "What more could you want?"
from wild shores of singapore

Site Allocation Exercise II – 2,955 volunteers from 52 organisations registered!
from News from the International Coastal Cleanup Singapore

Jong Surprises
from wild shores of singapore

Bryozoans and Hydroids Workshop Day 1
from wild shores of singapore

Random Gallery - Grey Sailor
from Butterflies of Singapore

Bidadari: A challenge to Nature Society’s birdwatchers
from Bird Ecology Study Group

What if companies actually had to compensate society for environmental destruction? from Mongabay.com news by Jeremy Hance

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'Relook' planting of big trees near roads

Brother of man killed by tree, experts suggest NParks look into size, species
Hoe Pei Shan Straits Times 30 Apr 13;

THE National Parks Board (NParks) could reassess the practice of planting huge trees close to roads.

That is one suggestion salesman Jacky Cheong, 31, gave when The Straits Times spoke to him at his younger brother Jason's wake yesterday. The driving instructor, 25, died last Saturday after a rain tree - 14m tall and 3.9m thick - in Admiralty Road West fell during a spell of rain, and crushed a car that he was in.

Mr Cheong's proposal was echoed by some experts The Straits Times spoke to. They suggested NParks look into the sizes of trees lining roads, and the species.

Madam Jacqueline Allan, assistant director of Nature Landscapes, said: "Today's urban developments have changed wind directions and wind forces in some areas. NParks could look at the history of fallen trees and reconsider the tree species in these areas as a preventive method."

Asked which species are suitable for roadside planting, as well as whether big trees should be near roads, NParks yesterday declined to comment.

Following the 2010 death of project manager Chua Loong Wai, whose car was crushed by a 15m-tall rain tree, then-NParks director of streetscapes Simon Longman said: "It is not so much about the size of the tree, but about the management - even smaller trees can cause extensive damage."

NParks said then that it stepped up its tree-management regime after a series of cases of fallen trees and branches. It said well-maintained trees could still be uprooted in severe weather.

A 2011 coroner's inquiry revealed that the tree that killed Mr Chua showed no signs of pest infestation or deterioration, and heavy rain had caused its fall.

Yesterday, NParks said the tree in last Saturday's accident was inspected last November, and assessed to be healthy.

Landscape architect Mason Tan said: "So why is NParks so fixated on intensifying its maintenance practices when even the best-maintained trees can still succumb to nature? There are many other complementary solutions they can look at."

For example, instead of having fixed distances between trees, he suggested planting them in clusters to simulate natural conditions, which could result in better support between trees. "We need to reinvent our greenery policies so that they're relevant to our rapid urbanisation, which is changing the encumbrances and root systems of our trees," he added.

Arborist Lucien Wijeadasa noted the quality of NParks' tree maintenance is "indisputable", but that "tall, upright trees, such as casuarinas, shouldn't be in areas with heavy traffic".

Still, he cautioned that replacing bigger trees with smaller ones might not completely remove the danger. "If a heavy wood tree falls on something hard like a car, the damage is much greater than that caused by a softer wood. But if both fell on a person, they may cause roughly the same damage."

Additional reporting by Lim Min Zhang

Trees can be felled by natural forces beyond NParks' control
Straits Times 6 May 13;

MR DANIEL Chia suggests that the National Parks Board (NParks) plant only deep-rooted trees along our roads ("Plant only deep-rooted trees along roads"; last Friday). However, even the strongest tree may fall if it rains continuously for two weeks and wind speeds reach hurricane levels.

Is it feasible for NParks to deploy a battalion of arborists and tree inspectors to inspect every tree once every six months, given that there may be more than a million trees in Singapore?

Our trees are exposed to inclement weather throughout the year. Trees can fall by acts of God - events caused by natural forces whose effects cannot possibly be prevented by the exercise of reasonable care and foresight.

An act of God may be a defence against liability for injuries or damages; insurance policies often exclude coverage for damage caused by acts of God.

Urban land owners are responsible for injuries caused by a falling tree only if they knew, or reasonably should have known, that the tree posed a danger. They are not expected to know that a tree is rotten, as an expert would, but rather as a reasonable person would.

In the vast majority of cases involving trees felled by strong winds, the car owner whose vehicle is damaged will have to make a claim against his motor insurance policy and not the tree owner.

NParks has a duty to take only reasonable steps to prevent trees from falling, but it does not owe a duty to motorists and persons if trees are felled by unprecedented natural forces beyond its control.

Heng Cho Choon

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Scientists divided on pesticides and bee health

Kate Kelland, Health and Science Correspondent PlanetArk 30 Apr 13;

Bee populations have been declining steadily in recent decades but there is scientific disagreement over the contribution of pesticides called neonicotinoids to falling bee numbers.

Europe is expected to impose a temporary ban on the pesticides after EU governments failed on Monday to agree whether or not their use should be halted.

Some recent studies have shown neonicotinoids can have damaging effects on bee health by interfering with their homing abilities and making them lose their way.

Other scientific studies point to a virus spread by a parasitic mite called the Varroa as a prime suspect in fuelling so-called "colony collapse disorder" which has seen bee numbers drop rapidly in Europe, Asia, the Americas and the Middle East.

Bees are important pollinators of flowering plants, including many fruit and vegetable crops. A 2011 United Nations report estimated that bees and other pollinators such as butterflies, beetles or birds do work worth 153 billion euros ($203 billion) a year to the human economy.

Neonicotinoid pesticides are new nicotine-like chemicals and act on the nervous systems of insects. They pose a lower threat to mammals and the environment than many older pesticide sprays.

Because they are water soluble, they can be applied to the soil and taken up by the whole plant, making them "systemic" - meaning they render the whole plant toxic to insects. Neonicotinoids are often applied as "seed treatments", which means coating the seeds before planting.

A report from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) in January said three widely-used neonicotinoids, made mainly by Switzerland's Syngenta and Germany's Bayer, posed an acute risk to honeybees.

But Britain, whose department for environment, food and rural affairs (DEFRA) recommended abstaining in a previous EU vote in March, argues the science is inconclusive and advises caution in extrapolating results from lab studies to real-life field conditions.

Lynn Dicks, a bee expert at Cambridge University said it should come as little surprise that insecticides kill insects.

"They are designed to," she said, adding it is the extent to which they can be blamed for bee decline that is in doubt.

"They are unlikely to be the sole cause of falling insect numbers and diversity, but they represent one of a set of multiple interacting threats that seems to be driving declines."

Experts note that one of the key difficulties in establishing the potential danger lies in how to find out how much of the pesticides the bees come into contact with as they forage, and the degree to which this might lead to fewer bees.

Britain's DEFRA published a report in January in which it said its research "did not show conclusively that exposure to neonicotinoids used within a normal agricultural setting had major effects on bumble bee colonies".

James Cresswell, an ecotoxicologist at the University of Exeter, says the science has yet to produce unequivocal answers.

"While recent research based on artificial dosing shows that neonicotinoids can harm bees, uncertainty remains over the severity of environmentally realistic conditions," he said.

Lin Field, Head of Biological Chemistry and Crop Protection at Rothamsted Research, says there is not enough evidence to support a total ban on neonicotinoids and questions whether the "precautionary principle" should apply and a ban should be imposed just in case the threat turns out to be real.

"On the face of it that might be the best solution but it takes no account of the risk of the ban on our ability to control insect pests and secure crop yields," she said.

(Editing by Philippa Fletcher)

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Metals recycling needs bigger role in product design: U.N

Alister Doyle and Nina Chestney PlanetArk 26 Apr 13;

Designers of everything from mobile phones to electric car batteries should make their products far easier to recycle to offset soaring demand for metals, two United Nations reports recommended on Wednesday.

Products should be made to become "designer minerals" at the end of their lifetimes so they can more simply be broken up and stripped of metals ranging from copper to gold, according to the twin studies.

"Global metal needs will be three to nine times larger than all the metals currently used in the world" if demand in emerging economies rises to levels of rich nations, said Achim Steiner, head of the U.N. Environment Programme.

The total amount of steel in use in the United States, for instance, was an estimated 11 to 12 metric tonnes per person in 2010, compared with 1.5 tonnes in China.

"Product designers need to ensure that materials such as rare earth metals in products ranging from solar panels and wind turbine magnets to mobile phones can still be recovered easily when they reach the end of their life," he said in a statement.

Recycling rates are low in most nations and electronic waste alone is estimated at between 20 to 50 million tonnes a year, or between three and seven kilos (7-15 pounds) per person. Most ends up dumped or burned, contaminating air, water and soil.

A third report by a non-governmental organisation quoted estimates that about 130 million mobile phones are thrown away annually in the United States. Collectively, they weigh about 14,000 tonnes and include almost 2,100 tonnes of copper, 46 tonnes of silver and 3.9 tonnes of gold.

A mobile phone alone can contain more than 40 elements including copper, tin, cobalt, indium, antimony, silver, gold, palladium, tungsten and yttrium. Most are in tiny amounts but recycling would take pressure off mining.

TECHNOLOGIES

The two reports by the United Nations' International Resource Panel urged governments to agree on best available recycling technologies. So far, recycling laws are limited mostly to developed nations.

Manufacturers also should start with ease of recycling in mind, the reports said, for instance avoiding mixes of metals that are hard to separate. Platinum group metals, for instance, can effectively dissolve when mixed into steel.

"Some combinations are harder and uneconomic to separate," Markus Reuter, lead author of the report on metals recycling, told Reuters. He likened some mixes to trying to separate a cup of coffee into water, milk, sugar and coffee.

Rising demand for metals will also have to be curbed with lighter-weight designs. In the European Union, for instance, the average weight of cars rose to 1.2 tonnes in 2001 from 0.85 tonnes in 1981.

Recycling could also cut energy demand and greenhouse gases compared to mining, which often uses 10 to 100 times more energy than recycling for the same amount of metal.

"Metals use seven to eight percent of the world's total energy in their primary production. That's larger than anyone had thought," Ester van der Voet, lead author of the other report on metals and environmental challenges, told Reuters.

The third study, by the Gaia Foundation, said the world's growing addiction to throwaway consumer electronics was putting enormous pressure on resources such as metals, minerals, water and ecosystems.

In the United States, it said, 80 percent of electronic waste was shipped to developing countries in Asia or Africa where it was handled in bad social and environmental conditions.

"In failing to create effective recycling systems, we are thus outsourcing our toxic waste and turning parts of the world into digital dumps."

(Editing by Mark Heinrich)

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Plants slow climate change by forming cloud sunshade: study

Alister Doyle PlanetArk 29 Apr 13;

Plants help to slow climate change by emitting gases as temperatures rise that lead to the formation of a sunshade of clouds over the planet, scientists said on Sunday.

The tiny sun-dimming effect could offset about one percent of warming worldwide and up to 30 percent locally such as over vast northern forests in Siberia, Canada or the Nordic nations, they wrote in the journal Nature Geoscience.

While proportionally small, some scientists said the study provided further evidence of the importance of protecting forests, which help to slow climate change by absorbing greenhouse gases as they grow and to preserve wildlife.

Observations of forests from 11 sites around the world showed that plants emitted tiny particles that float on the wind as temperatures warm and act as seeds for water droplets that create clouds, they wrote.

Clouds' white tops in turn reflect sunlight back into space and offset warming, they wrote.

The study focused on forests in Europe, North America, Russia and southern Africa. The effect is believed to be smaller over far hotter tropical forests such as in the Amazon or the Congo basin.

"It's a small effect - one percent is not much," said lead author Pauli Paasonen of the University of Helsinki and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Austria.

"If temperatures were to increase by 1 degree without this effect, they'd rise 0.99 degrees with it," he told Reuters of a study that included researchers in the United States, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, South Africa, Hungary and Sweden.

SUNSHADE

Many other tiny aerosols, such as human pollution from factories, cars and power plants, also have a sun-dimming effect that may be slowing the pace of climate change, blamed mainly on emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide.

But there has been uncertainty about the role of nature, and of plants' emissions of gases such as monoterpenes.

"Everyone knows the scent of the forest," Ari Asmi, a University of Helsinki researcher who also worked on the study, said in a statement. "That scent is made up of these gases."

It is unclear why plants emit more monoterpenes at higher temperatures - it may be a side-effect of trees' natural air conditioning to reduce heat.

"Forests are providing an additional cooling. This is another reason why we should conserve and protect forests," said Dominick Spracklen, an expert on plants and climate change at the University of Leeds who was not involved in the study.

But the damaging effects of warming on forests, such as more wildfires or insect pests, may exceed tiny benefits of more clouds that would only come from healthy forests, he said.

Spracklen said plants' cooling effect was tantalizing evidence for people who believe the planet somehow acts as a self-regulating organism for life, sometimes known as the Gaia hypothesis.

One idea launched in 1987 was that warmer temperatures spur the growth of more algae in the upper oceans. These tiny plants would in turn release more of the chemical dimethyl sulphide that seeds clouds to reflect sunlight.

"No one has yet proved that this effect exists," he said.

The U.N. panel of leading climate scientists says that human emissions of greenhouse gases are driving up world temperatures and will lead to ever more floods, droughts, heatwaves and rising sea levels.

It says that it is at least 90 percent certain that human activities, rather than natural variations in the climate, are to blame for most of the warming in the past half-century.

(Reporting By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent; editing by Mike Collett-White)

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