Shock from the Deep, with otter on Day 3 of the Southern Expedition
from Mega Marine Survey of Singapore
Poikilospermum suaveolens and birds
from Bird Ecology Study Group
Random Gallery - Pea Blue
from Butterflies of Singapore and Random Gallery - Gram Blue
Andrew Jacobs New York Times 21 May 13;
CHENGDU, China — It was, at first glance, a rather modest initial public offering by a small Chinese company seeking to expand production of the key ingredient used in traditional remedies said to shrink gallstones, reduce fevers and sooth the aftereffects of excessive drinking.
But Guizhentang Pharmaceutical, the country’s largest producer of bear bile extract, apparently overlooked one important factor before submitting its application to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange: China’s increasingly audacious animal rights movement.
Guizhentang’s proposal to triple the company’s stock of captive bears, to 1,200 from 400, provoked a firestorm from those opposed to bear bile farming, a process that involves inserting tubes into the abdomens of bears and “milking” them, sometimes for years.
Protesters in bear suits picketed drugstores, hackers briefly brought down Guizhentang’s Web site and more than 70 Chinese celebrities, including the basketball star Yao Ming and the pop diva Han Hong, circulated a petition calling on the stock exchange to reject the I.P.O.
After some of China’s biggest news media outlets posted harrowing undercover footage revealing cages so tight the bears could barely move, Guizhentang last month withdrew its application, saying it needed more time to put together its filing.
For China’s animal welfare advocates, the victory signaled the growing clout of a movement that is frequently derided as bourgeois, frivolous or worse. Its most vociferous opponents paint animal advocates as foreign-financed traitors who would do away with such hallowed Chinese traditions as dog meat hot pot, ivory carving and dried deer penis, consumed to increase virility.
Deborah Cao, a lawyer who frequently writes about animal rights in China, said campaigns like the one that defeated Guizhentang showed how social media brought together the generation of educated Chinese urbanites who grew up with household pets and anthropomorphic Disney characters. “It’s a bottom-up, grass-roots movement, one that is contributing to an emerging civil society increasingly aware of individual rights and obligations, be it to humans or animals,” she said.
Such activism is even more notable given the constraints the Communist Party typically imposes on public lobbying, street protests or any unsanctioned organizing.
Advocates have not yet persuaded the government to enact animal welfare legislation. But optimists say they have started to chip away at the long-held notion that animals exist to satisfy the medicinal and gastronomical needs of humans.
Activists point to the growing visibility of public awareness campaigns targeting the consumption of shark fins as well as a recent spate of vigilante rescue efforts that have blocked trucks laden with cats and dogs from reaching the slaughterhouse. In December, the state-run broadcaster CCTV ran a series of exposés highlighting the illegal consumption of monitor lizards, rhesus monkeys, barking deer and other wildlife, and the police crackdown on black market dealers that followed.
“Animal rights activists are walking an incredibly sensitive tightrope, but I think they’re reaching a tipping point right now,” said Jill Robinson, the director of Animals Asia, an organization based in Hong Kong that has been campaigning for two decades to end bear bile farming.
Still, despite what appears to be growing public opposition to the practice, the Chinese government is not prepared to end the lucrative trade in ursodeoxycholic acid, the active ingredient found in bear gallbladders. Although scientists have engineered a synthetic alternative, traditionalists claim it lacks the therapeutic punch of raw bile, which can sell for as much as $24,000 a kilogram, roughly half the price of gold.
Scientists have scrutinized the health effects of bear bile but have come to no definitive conclusions. But sold in powdered form as capsules, or as a tonic, bile is considered by many to be an elixir of sorts. Bile marketers say it fortifies the liver, reduces flu symptoms and improves eyesight.
Yang Tingying, a vendor at the wholesale Chinese medicine market here in Chengdu, the provincial capital of Sichuan, insisted that bear bile cures all manner of liver ailments, including hepatitis. “It’s the best because it’s from nature,” she said, pulling out a pair of desiccated gall bladders, which are illegal to sell.
To the distress of its opponents, the industry has grown significantly in the 13 years since Chinese officials first pledged to gradually reduce the number of captive bears to 1,500 from 7,000. These days, there are an estimated 20,000 bears on nearly 100 domestic bear farms, an expansion fueled in part by marketing efforts promoting novel uses for bear bile, like a hangover cure for well-to-do businessmen who engage in nightly carousing.
Besides China, there are bear bile farms in Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and North Korea.
For animal welfare advocates, the challenge is to convince Chinese consumers that the barbarity of bile farming outweighs the supposed medicinal benefits of natural bile — or that the risks of consuming bile from sick bears pumped with antibiotics are high.
In addition to circulating videos of harvesting practices, organizations like Animals Asia wield a number of secret weapons, including Sun Li, Caesar and Buddha. They are among the 158 rescued bears that roam the group’s sanctuary outside Chengdu. The center receives school groups, celebrities and Chinese reporters, all of who are invariably smitten with the bears.
Most of the animals came from farms closed by the authorities because they had fewer than 50 bears, a violation of industry rules. The bulk of the animals are Asiatic black bears, a threatened species better known as the moon bear for the distinctive white crescent that arcs across its chest.
Nicola Field, the sanctuary’s chief veterinarian, said bears often arrived emaciated, their abdomens riddled with the infections, hernias and tumors that are hallmarks of a extraction process requiring open wounds for thrice-daily milkings.
The bears’ teeth are invariably worn down from gnawing on the bars of their cages and their feet are often in pitiful shape because few of the animals have ever walked on the ground. “The catalog of abuse they’ve endured is appalling,” Ms. Field said.
The years of pain and confinement are so traumatizing, some of the rescued bears spend endless hours butting their heads against walls or gnawing on their limbs.
Industry supporters have mounted their own pro-bile public relations campaign, stressing China’s history of traditional medicine and suggesting that animal rights advocates are doing the bidding of foreign drug companies out to promote Western medicine at the expense of homegrown remedies.
During a news conference last year called to counter critics, Fang Shuting, chairman of the China Association of Traditional Chinese Medicine, suggested that bears enjoy the process, which he likened to turning on a tap. “Natural, easy and without pain,” he said. “After they’re done, the bears can even play happily outside.”
His remarks backfired, producing a torrent of ridicule on social media and refutations from experts who said bear farmers could not possibly let the animals leave their cages. “Bears are smart like dogs and remember pain,” said Zhang Xiaohai, who has visited a number of bear farms as an undercover investigator for Animals Asia. “They would never willingly come back to be milked again.”
But Mr. Zhang and others find hope in the attitudes of young Chinese like Guan Zhiling, who was visiting the sanctuary with her high school classmates. “It’s brutal and disrespectful to the bears, and a disgrace to the human race,” she said.
Avila Geraldine New Straits Times 23 May 13;
VULNERABLE SPECIES: Loss of suitable habitat and poaching have reduced numbers in the past three decades
SANDAKAN: THE population of the Malayan sun bear has declined by 30 per cent in the last three decades due to habitat loss and poaching for parts used in traditional medicine.
In Borneo, the smallest of the world's eight bear species is also seeing a drop in numbers following their illegal capture for the pet trade as well as being killed after being wrongly perceived as pests.
The sun bears are found throughout mainland Asia, Sumatra in Indonesia and Borneo but their exact numbers in the wild is unknown, making it even more pressing to reduce pressure on a species that is classified "vulnerable" on the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Red List and at risk of becoming endangered unless circumstances threatening their survival improve.
Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre (BSBCC) founder and chief executive officer Wong Siew Te said the sun bear was divided into two sub-species -- the Helarctos malayanus malayanus and the Helarctos malayanus euryspilus, with the latter, smaller bear found only in Borneo.
"In other words, sun bears in Borneo are even smaller than sun bears found in other parts of Malaysia and the region.
"We hope to share with more locals how fortunate we are that such a unique bear is found here in Borneo and right here in Sabah," he said in a statement.
Shrinking forest cover makes poaching and capturing wild bears easier due to increased contact with human settlements, Wong added.
Currently, BSBCC is holding 28 rescued bears. Some of these bears were illegally kept as pets while others were trapped in the forest and sent to the centre.
"Bears here are trained to adapt to the forest within an enclosed area as some have never been in the wild, having been kept as pets from a young age," said Wong, adding the bears would be released into the wild after an evaluation process.
The centre is located adjacent to the Sepilok Orang Utan Rehabilitation Centre here.
"We need to protect the remaining forest cover if we are to secure the future of sun bears and, at the same time, eliminate any poaching of these bears in the wild.
"Awareness activities will be stepped up once the centre is officially opened to the public, tentatively by early next year."
Sun bears are also classified as a "totally protected species" under the Sabah Wildlife Conservation Enactment 1997, providing it the same status as orang utans and the Sumatran rhinoceros.
Antara 22 May 13;
Pekanbaru, Riau (ANTARA News) - A herd of Sumatran elephants ran amok in an oil palm plantation in Minas, Riau Province, seriously injuring one worker identified by his name as Samuel Rudi Antoni Aritonang.
"An elephant lifted my husband by using its trunk. The animal later trampled and kicked him like a ball. It`s really a miracle that he survives," Nurjenti Sidabutar, the victim`s wife, said here on Wednesday.
Aritonang, 42, was attacked by the elephants on last Saturday evening when he was guarding the plantation which is located not far from the Riau Elephant Conservation Center in Minas.
The incident occurred when a male and female elephants with their baby walked through the plantation area and Aritonang intended to drive them away. But he was too close to the elephant cub and triggered the female elephant to attack him.
Aritonang suffered broken ribs, arms and right shoulder blade. His lung was also injured because of the attack.
He is now being hospitalized at Santa Maria Hospital in Pekanbaru and must undergo a surgery to survive.
"But we don`t have money. My husband is only a security worker and his salary is only Rp1.5 million (around US$170) per month," Sidabutar, a mother of five children, said.
She urged the local authorities to help cover the medical cost of her husband.
Meanwhile, Head of the Riau Nature Conservation Agency Memen Suparman believed the elephants who ran amok are wild elephants, because elephants in the conservation area are tightly guarded.(*)
Editor: Heru
Jakarta Globe 22 May 13;
The Forestry Ministry has denied claims by several environmental groups that 1.2 million hectares of protected forest in Aceh will be cleared if the province’s proposed spatial planning draft is approved.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, Hadi Daryanto, the ministry’s secretary general said the draft proposed by the administration of Governor Zaini Abdullah only called for a change to the current spatial plan to allow up to 119,000 hectares of currently protected forest to be designated for commercial use.
He added that the team evaluating the proposal for the central government had recommended that only 26,000 hectares be approved for commercial forestry and 79,000 hectares for other use.
“So the accusations by these nongovernmental organizations that Aceh will lose 1.2 million hectares of protected forest is not correct, and the figure being touted must be clarified,” Hadi said.
His remarks echoed similar comments by Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, the head of the government task force on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+), who said in a statement over the weekend that his team had pored over existing data and documents and not found any evidence of plans to convert up to 1.2 million hectares of forest.
“The figure for forest conversion proposal is consistent with what was stated by the Aceh regional government and the Forestry Ministry,” Kuntoro said, as quoted by the environmental news portal mongabay.com.
Kuntoro attributed the figure of 1.2 million hectares to the difference between the total forest cover proposed by the previous governor, Irwandi Yusuf, and that proposed by Zaini.
Irwandi’s plan would have seen 2.75 million hectares of forest protected, or 855,000 hectares more than the 1.895 million hectares designated in the 2000 spatial plan. Zaini’s plan, however, would leave 1.79 million hectares protected, or 105,000 hectares less than the 2000 plan.
The difference of 105,000 hectares comes from the amount of land that the evaluation team is currently recommending be approved for commercial use.
More than 1 million people across the globe have signed an online petition demanding the Indonesian government scrap Zaini’s proposed spatial plan, based on the argument that it would lead to the clearing of 1.2 million hectares of previously protected forest.
Although the plan appears to contradict the central government’s recent decision to extend a moratorium on clearing primary and peat forests, the project is possible because it hinges on Aceh’s decision to overturn its own deforestation ban, which was introduced at the local level six years ago.
Sally Huang and Ben Blanchard PlanetArk 22 May 13;
China's small traditional trade in carving uses ivory acquired through legal auctions and in no way encourages or worsens the problem of elephant poaching in Africa, a senior Chinese official said on Tuesday.
Demand for ivory as an ornamental item is soaring in Asia and especially in China, driven by the rising purchasing power of the region's newly affluent classes as well as growing Chinese investment in Africa and demand for its resources.
That has led to an increase in the illegal slaughter of African elephants for their ivory, with some wildlife groups estimating that over 90 percent of the ivory on sale in China is illegally sourced.
But Yan Xun, chief engineer of the wildlife conservation department under the State Forestry Administration, said it was unfair to blame China for the rise in poaching.
"Has China's legal ivory trade caused the poaching of wild elephants? I don't think there's necessarily a connection," he told a news briefing.
"The reasons for poaching wild elephants around the world are very complex, including competition for resources between people and elephants, livelihood issues for local people, war and ... the mistaken belief ivory generates huge profit margins."
China only permits 37 companies to work with ivory and 145 to sell the finished product. They use no more than a total of 5,000 kg of legal ivory every year, he said.
"I'd like to say that the Chinese ivory trade is mainly to hand down the art of exquisite carvings using ivory. This is not any ordinary trade," Yan added.
"The Chinese government has been paying great attention to the protection of elephants and we legally source ivory through international auctions," he said, adding China has to date sourced some 60 metric tons (66 tons) of ivory this way.
Convicted ivory smugglers can be jailed for life, Yan said.
While China has shown no sign of banning the ivory trade, Thailand's prime minister said earlier this year that her country would do so, promising legislation that could help the country avoid international trade sanctions after criticism by environmental groups.
China is the world's largest illegal ivory market, followed by Thailand, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature.
(Reporting by Sally Huang and Ben Blanchard, editing by Elaine Lies and Ron Popeski)
Where none have gone before on Day 2 of the Southern Expedition from Mega Marine Survey of Singapore
Venus Drive 21 May 2013: First sighting of the White Ladybirds!
from Coccinellid Chronicles
Random Gallery - Pale Grass Blue
from Butterflies of Singapore
Scientists capture one of the world's rarest big cats on film (photos)
from Mongabay.com news by Jeremy Hance
Janice Tai Straits Times 22 May 13;
THE Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) has responded to a public outcry over a YouTube video showing one of its contractors herding a wild monkey into a cage.
Titled "How Singapore handles its wild macaques", the video last night garnered more than 4,000 views. In the video, workers armed with a water gun and grabber are seen dragging the animal into a small cage.
Netizens appeared to be disgusted by the images. Ms Marie Teo posted a comment on the site saying: "Many of us are disgusted by this kind of behaviour from our fellow men and do not support it at all."
But yesterday, the AVA told The Straits Times that the method used by its contractor in Bukit Timah is "approved for monkey control operations".
Explaining what took place in the video, the AVA said contractors encountered a troop of monkeys with an aggressive male that had been harassing passers-by.
"Traps were set up but the monkey was not lured by the bait," said a spokesman. "The contractor had to throw a net over to catch it while his assistant stood by with a water gun to shoo away other members of the troop, if the situation warrants it."
The AVA said it conducted the operation in the area in response to complaints from residents of condominiums and commercial establishments there.
Together with the National Parks Board, it is studying the feasibility of sterilisation as a "long-term" measure to manage the monkey population. Currently, it traps the monkeys to either rehome or kill them. The AVA spokesman said: "We will try to relocate them where possible. However, as relocation options are limited, most will eventually be humanely euthanised."
Animal Concerns Research and Education Society chief executive Louis Ng said the method used to capture the monkey in the video is "clearly cruel as the monkey is screaming". He said sterilising the monkeys instead of relocating or culling them is still not a good strategy.
"The root of the problem is public education; people should be taught how to behave towards monkeys as it does not mean that the less monkeys we have, the less conflicts we will have," he said. "A handful of monkeys can still wreak havoc if provoked."
The number of complaints about the "monkey nuisance" has risen. AVA received 920 such complaints last year, up from 730 in 2011 and 800 the year before.
(AFP) Google News 21 May 13;
KUCHING, Malaysia — Three dozen Malaysian NGOs on Tuesday denounced the world hydroelectric industry's decision to hold a conference in a Borneo state where dam projects have uprooted forests and native peoples.
The groups, including the Malaysian chapters of Amnesty International and Transparency International, said in a statement the choice of Sarawak state "makes a mockery" of the industry's calls for sustainable development.
The International Hydropower Association's (IHA) four-day biennial congress got under way Tuesday in Kuching, capital of Sarawak.
The state's chief minister of 32 years, Taib Mahmud, has faced mounting accusations of enriching himself, family and cronies through a corrupt stranglehold on the state's economy.
"We call upon the IHA to stop this green-washing attempt on behalf of Taib Mahmud's regime," the statement said.
Taib, 77, has come under fire over rapid timber harvesting and a campaign of dam-building blamed for destroying huge swathes of rainforest and driving native tribes from their ancestral lands.
The groups' statement called these "humanitarian and environmental crimes".
Save Sarawak Rivers, a coalition of local NGOs and tribal groups, earlier announced plans for a "parallel congress" in Kuching and other protests this week.
IHA director Richard Taylor has defended the congress as an opportunity to share sustainable practices.
"The IHA is happy to have the opportunity to interact in this way, and we feel that the current willingness to engage should be acknowledged and encouraged, rather than campaigned against," he said in emailed comments to AFP.
Save Sarawak Rivers has said, however, local stakeholders are excluded by high delegate fees.
Swiss-based forest-protection group Bruno Manser Fund (BMF), citing financial and corporate records, estimated Taib's net worth at $15 billion last year, which would make him Malaysia's richest man.
Taib is regularly cited by anti-graft groups as typifying endemic corruption in Malaysia.
He is accused of handing land and timber concessions and government contracts to companies controlled by himself, his family, and close allies.
He has denied wrongdoing, saying the backward state must be developed. His office has not responded to requests for comment on the congress.
Malaysian anti-corruption authorities have failed to act against Taib, whose political party is vital to keeping the 56-year-old ruling coalition in power.
Natalie Heng The Star 22 May 13;
An important bird area gets much-needed attention.
SPOTTING a spoon-billed sandpiper was not on the agenda, but it happened. The first sighting in nine years in Penang, one might argue that only someone as bird-crazy as David Bakewell, an environmental consultant and avid birdwatcher, could have spotted it.
The criticially endangered spoon-billed sandpiper.
One tiny little bird, shuffling rapidly amongst a sea of red-necked stints, and captured with a magnifying telescope mounted on a camera, demonstrates a level of bird watching expertise most will only ever dream about.
But more importantly, it also shows that a new partnership between building materials company Cemex and Malaysia’s oldest environmental organisation, the Malaysian Nature Society (MNS), is paying off.
The coastline between Teluk Air Tawar near Butterworth, Penang, and Kuala Muda in Kedah, is Malaysia’s second most important site for migratory waterbirds. Identified as an “important bird area” (IBA) by the global partnership of conservation organisations, BirdLife International, the site is spread out across 7,200ha of tidal mud flats, estuaries and mangroves.
Bakewell says yearly bird counts are done as part of Wetland International’s Asian Waterbird Census, which is conducted by volunteers.
“The problem is, the Teluk Air Tawar coastline is quite difficult to access from land. Boats make more sense, but are expensive, so funding is an issue,” he says.
Cemex’s partnership with MNS has changed that. Funds from one of the world’s largest building materials suppliers and cement producers is enabling a team of experts – Bakewell included – to conduct the first comprehensive survey of the area in years. The fact that Bakewell saw one of the world’s rarest and most endangered birds just a couple of months into the project has been hugely uplifting. “When you have maybe just 100 to 300 spoonbills left in the world, every sighting counts,” he says.
Every record is useful, and can be logged into the online data bank Bird-I-Witness to help keep researchers up-to-date with the changing population dynamics of this rapidly declining species – its global population is estimated to have declined by 88% in just eight years (2002-2010).
The little bird, spotted among thousands of similar-looking birds of another species, is classified as critically endangered under the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List.
Malaysia is probably the southern-most limit of their wintering range. Bakewell says there have been three to four sightings per year, mostly at the north and central Selangor coast. The rare sighting is not so much an indication of the birds not frequenting the area but rather of how intensely difficult they are to spot.
Nevertheless, the finding underlies just how important the Teluk Air Tawar-Kuala Muda coast is as habitat degradation continues at the other stop-over points along the migrational flyways of many birds. Other species, such as the lesser adjutant (listed as vulnerable on the Red List) and the spotted greenshank (endangered) have also been found in significant numbers at that site.
Cemex Malaysia country director Fikry Sami El-Kaissouni feels personally invested in the project. He joined the team on a recent survey expedition and was elated to see over 60 spotted greenshanks.
“At current estimates, that could represent over 10% of the world population,” he says.
Such data shows that these surveys are invaluable as they provide up-to-date evidence of how the Teluk Air Tawar IBA remains one of Peninsular Malaysia’s most important bird habitats, and strengthen the case for its protection.
Yeap Chin Aik is head of conservation at MNS. He has spent some 10 years carrying out bird conservation initiatives, and describes how mangroves along the west coast of the peninsula, known important flyways for migratory birds, have disappeared over time.
“In the 1970s and 80s, there were several key areas in south-west Johor, Perak and Perlis that had good migratory numbers. But now, migratory waterbirds have very few choice-areas left to go to.”
Although Penang has lost much of its mangroves, the Teluk Air Tawar-Kuala Muda coast remains the most important stretch of habitat for migratory waterbirds in the northern west coast.
MNS has lobbied for protection of the site for years. The area is state land and therefore, remains vulnerable to development pressures, which have been increasing over the years, says Yeap. Already, small aquaculture farms have appeared along the coast, eating into the mangroves.
“This is by no means happening on a large scale but if we don’t give it attention, we may end up with a fragmented rather than unbroken stretch of mangrove habitat,” he adds.
This is where survey data can be used to strengthen the case for converting Teluk Air Tawar IBA into a protected landscape. Currently, few people recognise it as an important bird area.
About six years ago, Cemex shook hands on a 10-year partnership with BirdLife International. The objective was to assess the company’s biodiversity risks and opportunities, and in 2010, it published the results of a biodiversity study.
The study mapped all 543 Cemex sites worldwide and their proximity to key biodiversity areas. Malaysia is one of six pilot project sites for the implementation of a Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP). The partnership between MNS (the local BirdLife International partner) and Cemex was formed under this framework.
“The surveys are to help Cemex look at how to conserve or maintain biodiversity within their sites of operation, and within the IBA,” says Yeap.
The results of the surveys will be the basis for action plans for the Cemex quarry in Bukit Tambun, Seberang Prai and the Teluk Air Tawar IBA. Quarries involve controlled rock blasting and irreversible change to the physical structure of the landscape, which means that the action plan is likely to involve things like rehabilitating the landscape or creating new habitats.
“I don’t have the survey results yet but people have heard (the calls of) buffy fish owls and spotted the blue rock thrush, probably the first recorded for Seberang Prai. So, creating a suitable artificial nesting site could be one point of action,” says Yeap.
For the IBA, the survey information will be used to identify key threats to biodiversity and the required measures for the action plan.
Using the information gathered to lobby the state to confer some sort of protection status for the site is also likely to be on the agenda.
“The area’s importance in terms of biodiversity is pointed out in the Penang Structure Plan. However, we would like stronger protective legislation or a solid conservation status … such as gazettement into a bird sanctuary, for example,” says Yeap.
A large portion of the raw materials needed in construction come from rock blasting. And with the World Economic Forum estimating that we will require the same amount of housing infrastructure over the next 40 years as has been built over the past 4,000 years, quarries are here to stay. Fortunately, top-level support for environmental management began way back in 1993 for Cemex.
“There is a saying, ‘If your boss is interested, you are fascinated’,” says Fikry. “Our chief executive officer has been hammering the topic for the past 20 years. You have a whole generation of executives in Cemex who are fascinated, because of his interest.”
The company is trying to replicate some of that here, through talks about biodiversity and conservation for its staff.
Yeap says the response has been encouraging. Cemex staff have even asked what birds have been found at the quarry site. The commitment demonstrated by Cemex has been impressive. It is now the leading user of alternative fuels in the cement industry (for machinery and processes). Also, it has introduced a policy disallowing its staff from billing the company for events and functions where endangered species have been consumed or used as gifts. It also funded staff trips aimed at raising environmental awareness, such as to the Raptor Watch in Port Dickson in March and the World Tapir Day event at Taman Negara last month.
Lenny Tristia Tambun Jakarta Globe 21 May 13;
A new regulation in Jakarta imposes fines of up to Rp 50 million ($5,120) on illegal dumping, while also implementing stricter mandates on eco-friendly bags, biodegradable packaging, littering and waste management.
Unu Nurdin, the head of the Jakarta Cleanliness Office, said the new rule, approved by the Jakarta Legislative Council on Tuesday, mandates that rubbish be put in designated locations and companies manage their waste, especially that which can lead to pollution and environmental degradation.
“If residents and companies do not meet their obligations, as arranged in the regulations, they will face sanctions. The sanctions range from administrative ones to fines of between Rp 500,000 to Rp 50 million,” Unu said after a plenary meeting of the City Council.
Article 126 of the regulation prohibits dumping waste into waterways and water reservoirs, streets, parks and public areas. It also says that waste must be disposed in integrated waste dumps (TPST) and final dump sites (TPA) between 6 a.m to 9 p.m.
“It is also prohibited to dispose waste at the TPST or TPA without a permit, burn waste that pollutes the environment, throw waste from a vehicle, use parts of streets as temporary waste dumps, manage waste that leads to pollution or environmental degradation,” Unu said.
Neighborhood units known as Rukun Warga were also given the authority to slap administrative sanctions on those households which fail to separate their waste into organic and inorganic.
Those responsible over the management of residential, commercial, industrial and other special areas, who are found negligent in providing facilities for waste management will also incur administrative sanctions and fines of between Rp 10 million to Rp 50 million.
Operators of public and social facilities which fail to provide facility for waste separation will incur administrative sanctions and fines of between Rp 1 million to Rp 5 million.
Manufacturers which fail to display matters related to reducing waster or waste handling on their packaging, or use packaging that cannot naturally decompose, may face administrative sanctions as well as fines of Rp 25 million to Rp 50 million.
Shopping center operators who do not use environmentally-friendly shopping bags will also face administrative sanctions as well as fine of between Rp 5 million and Rp 25 million.
“The governor can issue administrative sanctions, including fines, on individuals who intentionally dump waste outside of the allowed time, of up to Rp 100,000,” Uno said.
Litterers, including dumping waste into water ways and reservoirs, on the streets, in parks or in public areas, face a fine of Rp 500,000
Those caught littering from vehicles will also face the same fine. Salvagers working on piles or mounds of waste can also face a fine of a similar amount if they spread the waste.
“These fines will be sent to the regional treasury in line with the regulations and laws. We want the public to be waste conscious, so that we can also reduce floods in Jakarta,” he said.
HKU researcher wants law to tighten monitoring of trade after study finds 20 species are at risk
Lo Wei South China Morning Post 22 May 13;
One in 10 species of grouper face extinction and most are found on restaurant dinner tables in Hong Kong, a global study has found.
University of Hong Kong researchers, who led the study, urged the government to protect the threatened species through legislation and tighten monitoring over the grouper trade, of which the city is a major centre.
"We as consumers don't really realise the problem because we see plenty of the fish in our restaurants and markets. But the situation is different in the sea," HKU biology professor Yvonne Sadovy said.
The study collected data from different countries and assessed all 163 grouper species known in the world. Of these, 20 were identified as threatened, meaning their population will keep declining if nothing is done.
"Their populations and trade need to be managed if we still want to eat these fish in the future," said Sadovy, who released details of the study yesterday.
Of the threatened species, Hong Kong grouper and longtooth grouper are found in Hong Kong waters and Sadovy said they should be protected by law. These two, the giant grouper, humpback grouper and two other threatened species are sold in Hong Kong.
It also identified 22 other near-threatened species, including the popular leopard coral trout often served at banquets.
Almost all the live grouper sold were supplied to Chinese markets because of the tradition of favouring live fish. One-fifth of these, roughly 3.6 million a year, are consumed in Hong Kong.
The chairman of the Hong Kong Chamber of Seafood Merchants, Lee Choi-wah, said the supply of some grouper species like the leopard coral trout had been declining, but he suspected the threat of extinction was exaggerated.
Lee said supplies of Hong Kong grouper had always been scarce. Demand was low, he said, because of the expense: the wholesale price can be up to HK$1,500 a kilogram.
A spokesman for the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department said it had been working with other regions in protecting endangered species.
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