Best of our wild blogs: 29 Jul 13

Latest Green Jobs in Singapore [22 - 28 Jul 2013]
from Green Business Times

Beccari hunting at Mandai mangroves: Success!
from wild shores of singapore

Pulau Semakau (28 July 2013)
from teamseagrass

Shore trips to the Terumbus (patch reefs) in the Southern Islands (June & July 2013)
from Psychedelic Nature

Sunbirds love Saraca flowers
from Bird Ecology Study Group

Hantu’s Bamboo Sharks
from Pulau Hantu

Butterflies Galore! : White Banded Flat
from Butterflies of Singapore

Tampines Eco Green Park with volunteers from Temasek Poly
from The Green Volunteers

七月双溪布洛华语导游 Mandarin guide walk@SBWR, July (XXXXII)
from PurpleMangrove

Brown Sailor Spider
from Monday Morgue

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Malaysia: Two more forests may be cleared

Roshidi Abu Samah New Straits Times 29 Jul 13;

IN DANGER: Rare tree species in Perak may disappear

IPOH : After the Bikam forest reserve near Bidor was cleared recently, talk is rife that several other forest reserves in Perak will also be degazetted for the cultivation of oil palm.

They include the Chikus and Parit forest reserves near here. It is learnt that applications have been made by several parties to the state government to convert the land usage status from forest reserve to oil palm plantations.

When contacted yesterday, Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM) field officer Meor Razak Meor Abdul Rahman said the state government needed to make a detailed study before approving the applications to avoid repeating the costly mistake that occurred following the degazetting of the Bikam permanent forest reserve.

The "critically endangered" Dipterocarpus coriaceus tree species, known locally as keruing paya, is now believed to be extinct in the peninsula after more than 400ha of the Bikam permanent forest reserve were degazetted to make way for an oil palm plantation.

Meor Razak said any decision to de-gazette the remaining 933.7ha of the Parit forest reserve would affect another "critically endangered" tree species, the Dipterocarpus semivestitus, locally known as keruing padi, found only in Perak.

This species is among several which may face extinction if the Parit forest reserve is converted for agricultural use.

"Wildlife such as panthers, burung kuang raya (argus pheasant) and siamang (Symphalangus syndactylus) can be found in Parit, based on studies conducted by the Department of Wildlife and National Parks (Perhilitan) in the 1990s," Meor Razak said.

Previously, part of the forest reserve was cleared for the development of Universiti Teknologi Petronas and Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) campuses.

"At present, about 50 keruing padi trees can be found in the freshwater swamp forest inside the UiTM campus in Seri Iskandar," said Meor Razak.

UiTM and the Forest Research Institute Malaysia had signed a memorandum of understanding to look after these trees.

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Indonesia has a lot to lose by losing its coral reefs

The Jakarta Post 29 Jul 13;

Despite the fact that Indonesia is a part of the Coral Triangle Initiative — an initiative to safeguard the home to more than 75 percent of the world’s coral species and more than 37 percent of coral reef fish, spanning from Malaysia to Solomon Islands — 90 percent of the country’s coral reefs remain under threat by over-fishing and disruptive fishing. Rod Salm, the senior advisor at the marine program of the Indo-Pacific Division at the Nature Conservancy, who has been diving in the country’s most exotic diving destinations since 1973, talked to The Jakarta Post’s Nadya Natahadibrata about the importance of preserving coral reefs. The following are excerpts from the interview.

Question: What do you think is the biggest change in Indonesia’s marine conservation compared to the first time you visited the country?

Answer: In the early days through the 1980s, my counterparts couldn’t snorkel or scuba dive and they had degrees in something else. But now all of the people I work with have degrees and masters degrees in marine science and they’re qualified scuba divers. They are also very good field workers, I think that is the biggest change. In the early days, the sea was an unknown place and there was no excitement about doing marine expeditions.

You have been developing research on reef resilience. Can you explain what reef resilience is?

Over the years, since the beginning of the industrial age, the seas of the world have been slowly getting warmer. The warming sea is stressing corals, corals live in warm waters anyway but they are already very close to the maximum heat they can tolerate. So, if you heat a little bit more, it stresses the coral that can result in the coral dying.

In 1998, there was a really serious heating event all around the world and it caused coral bleaching, so when the corals are stressed they lose their color, they go paler and then they die. There were places in Indonesia in 1998 where the coral had no stress at all. So there are areas with good water mixing, so you have strong currents that are bringing up cooler water from the bottom, so when the surface water heats up, it mixes with cooler water so those areas can survive, and the coral, they produce larvae which go to help the other areas to recover. So that is one example. And I think that Indonesia is very fortunate. In other parts of the world it doesn’t happen that way.

What is lost if Indonesian reefs are lost?

About 90 percent of Indonesian reefs are threatened by over fishing and disruptive fishing. And if you add climate change to that, what it does is it pushes that even higher and it means that about 20 percent of the reefs are at very high risk, and about 50 percent are high to very high risk, and high and medium risk is about 95 percent. That is a big amount of threat to the coral reefs in Indonesia.

In 2010, an evaluation was done on the reefs of Indonesia and they found that the value of coral reefs in Indonesia to tourism is about US$137 million a year. For fisheries it is $1.5 billion a year, that’s coral reefs fisheries alone, and to coastal protection it’s about $387 million per year. If you take that together its 2 billion a year that Indonesia’s get from reefs.

The country has a lot to lose by losing its coral reefs. And what we forget too is that reefs provide more benefits. Coral reefs provide jobs to a lot of people and also provide different medicines. People in Indonesia are becoming more active, it’s a strong recreational value.

Do you think Indonesia has improved its protection for coral reefs over the past few years?

It has improved. There was nothing going on in 1973. It only started in the 1980s. Now there are allot of good things going on. It used to be top down by minister’s decree. Now it’s more about working with the communities and district level government. Everybody’s awareness to protect the environment has increased, But it doesn’t mean that all of the problems are solved. I don’t want to paint it with a white brush. There are still a lot of challenges.

What kind of challenges?

I think that there is a real problem with enforcement of regulation in some places. People are coming to protected areas illegally. And the enforcement is very expensive and is also not very effective in some areas.

Because they [the law enforcers] need to use speedboats and its very expensive to run those boats and these marine protected areas are very large and we could have somebody fishing and we didn’t know it. And fisherman has fast boat too so you have to get faster boats.

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Best of our wild blogs: 28 Jul 13

An invitation to join us at the 2013 Mandai Mangrove and Mudflat Workshop! from Mandai Mangrove and Mudflat

Big rain on Big Sisters Island
from wild shores of singapore

Sea turtles nesting in Singapore
from Pulau Hantu

Frogfish at Pulau Hantu!
from Pulau Hantu

My first Chek Jawa intertidal survey trip
from Peiyan.Photography

Chek Jawa coral rubble survey after 4 years
from Chek Jawa Mortality and Recruitment Project

Night Walk At Macritchie Reservoir (26 Jul 2013)
from Beetles@SG BLOG and Short Recce Trip To Bukit Brown Cemetery (27 Jul 2013)

Sharing a birthday with the Royal Baby
from thelongtails

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Singapore to share new haze monitoring system with KL and Jakarta

Feng Zengkun Straits Times 28 Jul 13;

Singapore will share its new haze monitoring system with Malaysia and Indonesia for their experts to review and for feedback as part of a trial.

The move is aimed at helping all three countries decide on how best to use the system as part of a joint effort to identify and punish those responsible for the haze. But this only if the governments agree to share digitised land-use and concession maps.

The trial was agreed upon when the three countries met in Jakarta last Friday, ahead of the Asean Summit in Brunei in October.

The session was the first trilateral meeting between senior officials from the three countries on the haze, said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) yesterday in a statement.

The Singapore delegation, which includes officials from the MFA, Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources, National Environment Agency and the Attorney-General's Chambers, was led by Permanent Secretary of the Foreign Ministry, Mr Chee Wee Kiong.

At the meeting, Mr Chee renewed Singapore's offer to help Indonesia put out its fires, including an aircraft for cloud-seeding operations to artificially create rain.

He also provided high-resolution satellite pictures of the hot spots there.

Indonesia, on its part, said it was willing to share meteorological data through the World Meteorological Organisation, as well as data on air quality with the Asean Sub-Committee on Meteorological and Geophysics and the Asean Specialised Meteorological Centre.

Senior officials from all three countries also agreed to update their foreign ministers on their discussion at the sidelines of the Asean Foreign Ministers' Retreat in Thailand next month.

Separately, Second Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Grace Fu said yesterday that the haze was unlikely to return to Singapore in the next few days.

Speaking to the media on the sidelines of a community event in Jurong, Ms Fu noted that Singapore has been helped by favourable wind directions and recent rain in Indonesia, where raging fires caused record levels of pollution here last month.

The number of hot spots in Sumatra, for example, rose to more than 250 at the start of last week but has fallen to fewer than 25 in the past few days.

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Monkey complaints up, so culling rises too

But high number of kills alarms animal activists who prefer containment strategy
Feng Zengkun Straits Times 28 Jul 13;

Almost 360 macaques were killed by the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) in the first half of this year, more than the combined total for the past two years and estimated to be one-fifth of the total population of not more than 2,000.

The AVA told The Sunday Times it had euthanised 357 monkeys from January to last month, compared with 204 in 2010, 151 in 2011 and 127 last year.

The animals were culled in response to complaints, which it is getting more of, said the AVA. Last year, it received 920 complaints about the "monkey nuisance", up from 730 in 2011.

External contractors are hired, or traps lent to residents to capture the monkeys, which are then released elsewhere or killed.

But the high number culled this year has shocked a macaque researcher and an animal welfare group, which is calling for a containment strategy that uses other methods.

"Culling one-fifth of the population seems like we're trying to exterminate the monkeys, not manage the conflicts between them and people," said chief executive of the Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (Acres) Louis Ng.

He said his group is in the midst of "very positive" discussions with the AVA on other ways to manage the conflicts.

For instance, smooth walls at least 3m high or electric fences would prevent the monkeys from climbing into condominium grounds, said Nanyang Technological University graduate student Amanda Tan, who is studying a troop of Bukit Timah monkeys.

She also recommended more aggressive monkey-proofing of trash bins and common dumpsters.

The monkey problem was highlighted at two separate meetings yesterday. At one, called by the Moulmein Watten Neighbourhood Committee, almost 40 people told representatives from the AVA and National Parks Board (NParks) how monkeys had entered their homes and bedrooms, stolen food, attacked pet dogs, broken lamps and roof-top lightning conductors, ransacked balconies, and pilfered fruit.

"I love animals. I love wildlife on my streets. But I draw the line when my personal or family's safety is threatened and there is danger to our property," said committee chairman Fong Kwok Shiung.

Residents appealed to the authorities to capture the animals more quickly.

An NParks representative said the agency was trying to move the animals' food sources deeper into the nature reserves, away from homes.

Problems with the animals were also among the issues raised at a community meeting between government agencies and about 15 residents of Holland-Bukit Timah GRC and their MP Sim Ann. Several there, however, said they did not want the monkeys to be culled.

Acres said it has hired two full-time staff and trained them to shoo the monkeys away when they approach homes in conflict-prone areas. The staff also encourage residents to keep food out of sight.

"Shooing the monkeys away modifies their behaviour so they will learn that they cannot get into homes so easily, and they may stop trying," he said, but added that this process will take months.

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'Keruing paya' now extinct: Last natural habitat cleared for oil palm

Jaspal Singh New Straits Times 28 Jul 13;

PRICE OF DEVELOPMENT: Last natural habitat in Bikam forest reserve in Perak cleared for oil palm cultivation

BIDOR: WITH its last natural habitat totally wiped out, the Dipterocarpus coriaceus tree species, known locally as keruing paya, is now regarded as extinct in the peninsula.

A finding made by the Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM) on Wednesday found that trees from the species could not be found at their last remaining bastion -- the now de-gazetted Bikam permanent forest reserve near here.

The state government had this year fully de-gazetted what remained of more than 400ha of the forest reserve to make way for the cultivation of oil palm.

A team of FRIM officers, led by forest botany expert Dr Lilian Chua, visited the former forest reserve for a site inspection for the species following a report that was published on July 22 in the New Straits Times.

In that report, Sahabat Alam Malaysia's field officer Meor Razak had expressed his fear that the keruing paya trees were facing threat of extinction following logging and land clearing activities in the area.

The NST reported that 175ha of the forest had been cleared by a timber contractor for an oil palm plantation, while another 175ha was being cleared by a different timber contractor for the same purpose.

The remaining area of the excised forest, believed to be more than 100ha, is expected to be cleared by another timber contractor after October.

Malaysian Nature Society's president Professor Dr Maketab Mohamed said he was informed of the team's finding by FRIM director-general Datuk Dr Abd Latif Mohmod.

"It is indeed a shocking find but this phenomenon did not happen overnight.

"The extinction was caused by the act of the state which de-gazetted forest reserves for oil palm plantations over a long period of time.

"The keruing paya is a species that is exclusive to the southern Perak region.

"It is a highly valued species for timber. The Bikam forest reserve was identified as the last largest natural habitat for the trees.

"But even that habitat is now gone; becoming a victim of exploitation of the forest for oil palm cultivation."

He said internationally, the keruing paya was ranked as a "critically endangered" species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN).

However, with the last keruing paya forest already cleared in Bikam, he pointed out that the same species could be ranked in Peninsular Malaysia as "extinct in the wild" category of IUCN.

When asked if there was a likelihood of obtaining saplings of the species, Dr Maketab said saplings were available at FRIM.

"But these saplings should be planted in their original habitat and not where they don't belong.

"MNS is prepared to undertake planting of the saplings at the same site, that is, the Bikam area.

"We will undertake the exercise provided the state government can provide land to grow the species," he said, adding that MNS would work with FRIM in the replanting exercise.

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Indonesia haze: Activists demand environment minister’s transparency on concession maps

The Jakarta Post 28 Jul 13;

Environment Minister Balthasar Kambuaya’s remark made on July 17 that he would not publish the concession had sparked criticism from environment activists.

The remark Balthasar made was a response to Singapore Minister of Environment and Water Resources Vivian Balakrishnan, who had asked him to reveal to the public the name of any individuals or companies that had been allowed to exploit Indonesian forests.

Carole Excell of the World Resource Institute said Balthasar’s remark had contradicted Indonesian government’s commitment in practicing Open Government Partnership (OGP).

Within the OGP platform, Indonesia has pledged to provide a map portal which would support efficiency in forestry management and support transparency, accountability and public participation in the environment, natural resources and special data management.

“As we know, the statement is [also] against the spirit of the free information era in Indonesia, as stipulated in Public Information Law,” Carol said.

Echoing Carol, executive director of the Indonesian Center for Environmental Law (ICEL) Henri Subagiyo said that the government has made a commitment to provide good environmental management and therefore was expected to comply with it wholeheartedly.

“Balthasar and Forestry Ministry Zulkifli Hasan [and also other ministers] should act transparently as part of the commitment,” Henri said.(hrl/dic)

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Convention on Biological Diversity launches the Global Taxonomic Initiative

Taxonomy, a dying profession
Business Mirror 27 Jul 13;

TAXONOMY, the science of describing, naming and classifying living things, is dying.

The profession of taxonomy is on the verge of extinction as it cannot compete with high-paying professions. Thus, all over the world, very few students are taking up taxonomy as a course.

The world needs taxonomists to identify and classify species before they can be protected. Recording, studying and inventory of species provide an essential basis for the conservation, development and management of species. What we don’t know, we can’t protect and conserve.

The Asean Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) discusses the relevance of strengthening taxonomy in “Save the Taxonomists, Conserve the Web of Life,” the first in a series of policy briefs on promoting the role of taxonomy in biodiversity conservation.

ACB Executive Director Roberto V. Oliva said the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) stresses the dwindling number of taxonomists as an impediment to biodiversity conservation.

“The CBD launched the Global Taxonomic Initiative in the hope of increasing the number of taxonomists all over the world. ACB recommends that taxonomy be integrated in National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans of countries. Taxonomists should be consulted in planning and decision-making in biodiversity conservation strategies to develop fully informed and strategic decisions in conservation,” Oliva said.

The new Policy Brief on Taxonomy may be downloaded from www.aseanbiodiversity.org/pbs.

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Best of our wild blogs: 27 Jul 13

Sea fan garden with signs of dugong
from wild shores of singapore

Chek Jawa coral rubble survey after 4 years
from wonderful creation

Life History of the Malay Lacewing v2.0
from Butterflies of Singapore

Little Heron Nest
from Bird Ecology Study Group

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Storm-vulnerable Albizia trees to get the chop

Walter Sim Straits Times 27 Jul 13;

THE Albizia, bad boy of trees and scourge of local roads, is getting the axe.

Vulnerable to storms and more prone to falling due to its brittle wood structure and shallow root system, it is being targeted by the authorities in the interest of public safety. The tree is also susceptible to pests and root rot.

The Singapore Land Authority (SLA) and the Housing Board have been working with the National Parks Board (NParks) to cull the tree and replace it with other species like the sea gutta, tembusu and jelutong, which are more weather-resilient and less likely to break. SLA has already culled some 3,000 storm-vulnerable trees, including the Albizia.

"Priority was given to areas assessed to be more critical," an SLA spokesman said in response to queries from The Straits Times. He added that this was especially so near roads and public places.

"Pruning will not be effective in preventing Albizia trees from falling, especially during adverse weather conditions. Removing them remains the best solution."

On Sunday, an Albizia tree growing on state land toppled onto a Bukit Timah property belonging to 94-year-old Pamela Hickley, the former private secretary to Singapore's last British governor. The tree, which fell despite a lack of wind, flattened a portion of a fence and garden.

The SLA said it receives about 70 reports of trees falling a year, mainly on forested state land. But it could not give the total number of Albizia trees on the 14,000ha of state land it oversees. This is because the species spreads naturally and tracking is "not practicable".

If left unchecked, the Albizia, one of the fastest growing species of trees in the world, can reach more than 40m - about 11 storeys. It was first introduced to Singapore in the 1870s.

NParks, which is also replacing older trees in parks and along roads which are at risk of falling, has advised agencies to "take a more vigilant and proactive approach to replace storm-vulnerable species, in particular, self- sown Albizia trees".

Over the past 10 years, four people have died and 62 injured by falling trees and branches. There were 122 cases of trees being uprooted from January to April this year.

HDB did not provide figures of the number of trees it has cut down in its public estates, but said that its officers regularly conduct inspections to identify those which may pose a danger.

It also explains the danger to residents who may prefer to see the trees stay. In January, a 30m Albizia in a forested area bound by Elias Road and Pasir Ris Drive 3 was cut despite protests from residents, who said that it was home to 900 parakeets.

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First trilateral meeting on transboundary haze in Jakarta

Teo Chia Leen Channel NewsAsia 27 Jul 13;

JAKARTA: The first trilateral meeting on transboundary haze among senior officials of Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore has taken place in Jakarta.

Singapore's Foreign Affairs Ministry said its Permanent Secretary Chee Wee Kiong led an inter-agency delegation comprising officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources, National Environment Agency and Attorney General's Chambers to the meeting.

During the meeting, Mr Chee noted that the meeting was a follow-up to the agreement by the foreign ministers of Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore on the sidelines of the 46th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting in Brunei last month.

The meeting was what Minister for Foreign Affairs K Shanmugam had earlier referred to as the Trilateral Cooperative Process. This process is not meant to duplicate existing platforms for environmental cooperation such as the Sub-Regional Ministerial Steering Committee (MSC) on Transboundary Haze Pollution.

It will act as an additional channel for the three countries to complement and enhance their collaboration and work.

At the meeting, the officials received an update on Indonesia's efforts to address the fires that caused the haze, and considered future areas for cooperation.

Singapore and Malaysia acknowledged Indonesia's ongoing efforts to combat the haze, including the mobilisation of national resources to tackle the issue.

The senior officials agreed to provide an update on their discussions to their foreign ministers on the sidelines of the ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Retreat in Hua Hin from 13-14 August 2013, before the ministers report to the countries' leaders at the sidelines of the ASEAN Summit in October 2013.

- CNA/al

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