1 1/2 weeks on and there still American bullfrogs in the pond from Life's Indulgences
Biodiversity for kids during the December school holidays
from Celebrating Singapore's BioDiversity!
Butterflies Galore! : Common Rose
from Butterflies of Singapore
Jose Raymond Today Online 7 Nov 13;
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s announcement of a review of the Sustainable Singapore Blueprint, in order to update it with new initiatives, is timely. The document, released in 2009, is five years old and many, if not all, of its recommendations are on the way to being implemented.
The vision is to make Singapore a liveable and lively city state come 2030, one that Singaporeans love and are proud to call home. This aim holds true today and, with a public consultation exercise to be held over the next three to six months, there will probably be further calls to ensure that the city is one which is also lovable.
Sustainable development demands long-term effort and commitment. A short-term view towards developing a city of the future can only be detrimental. Make a mistake today, and future generations will end up paying.
Coming out of this review, for any new or improved recommendations to be accepted and implemented effectively, the key will lie not only in the policies themselves but also in people’s behaviour. It is thus imperative that Singaporeans be at the heart — and the starting point — of the Sustainable Singapore Blueprint version 2.0.
From the man in the street to bankers, from business owners to hawkers, from government to corporate citizens, the v2.0 blueprint must demonstrate to as many as possible the benefits of ensuring that Singapore grows sustainably, and the important role they play in this.
Without this awareness of their personal stake, it is all too easy for the year 2030 to fall off people’s radar, wrongly assuming that what happens in the immediate future is of more urgent priority. But behaviour today affects the future. There needs to be, for instance, greater understanding of the need to change habits, be it in consuming energy, conserving water, reducing carbon emissions or helping to keep the country clean.
This is where the challenge lies for the authorities: To get not just the policy strategies right, but also their communication to the public of what the future holds.
GET PUBLIC TRANSPORT RIGHT
One of the things that people will need to be convinced of is that public transport is a better option than driving a car, especially in a densely-populated city where people live, work and play in very limited space. Consider London, Barcelona and Tokyo, where even CEOs take trains or buses because it just makes more sense to do so.
For this paradigm shift to succeed here, the public transport infrastructure must be constantly upgraded and people must have confidence in the system. The Government and its transport partners must get this right over the next decade or so, now that the Land Transport Master Plan has been released and with the rail network set to double by 2030.
People must find it convenient to take public transport; it must be comfortable and relatively affordable (here, the latest fare review proposals are timely). More people making the switch would alleviate the unsustainable construction of more and more roads and reduce vehicle emissions.
SELLING IT BACK TO THE GRID
If we are to dramatically increase recycling rates in homes, Singaporeans have to buy into the importance of recycling and it should be made even easier for them to do so.
Dual bins should be a feature in all new apartments, and apartment dwellers should be allowed to experiment with renewable energy to reduce their consumption from the grid.
One recent announcement is that it will be made easier for small consumers — such as schools, factories and warehouses — with intermittent energy use and their own renewable energy sources to be paid for supplying excess electricity that they generate back to the grid. Let us hope this can become a reality for home owners some day too.
We should also look at food waste recycling. Last year, Singapore produced enough food waste to fill more than 600 Olympic-sized swimming pools, a 26-per-cent increase from 2007 figures. With growing affluence here, it is very likely that more food will go to waste unless people grasp why climate change will make food security an even greater national issue — for we rely almost entirely on foreign sources for our food supply.
Energy efficiency and water conservation are another two key areas to tackle. In 2011, total household energy consumption measured 6560GWh, compared to 3794GWh in 1995. Domestic water consumption has been brought down from 165 litres per person each day in 2003 to 152 litres. But with the goal being to reduce this to 140 litres by 2030, a more intensive education programme will be necessary, even as Singapore strives towards self-sufficiency in water supply.
Mr Lee, in his letter to the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Sustainable Development in 2009, noted that sustainable development requires long-term commitment, understanding and the efforts of not only the whole of Government but also the “whole of country”. Which is why people should be at the core of the blueprint.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Jose Raymond is Executive Director of the Singapore Environment Council.
ABOUT THE BLUEPRINT:
The Inter-Ministerial Committee on Sustainable Development was set up in 2008 to formulate a national strategy for Singapore’s sustainable development.
Based on feedback from the public and stakeholders, a blueprint was drawn up with strategies and initiatives to achieve both economic growth and a good living environment over the next 20 years. For more, visit www.sustainablesingapore.gov.sg
Consider 2050 target for Sustainable Singapore blueprint
Paul Chan Poh Hoi Today Online 13 Nov 13;
I agree with the commentary, “People must be at the heart of blueprint for a sustainable S’pore” (Nov 7).
We must avoid pitfalls in the Sustainable Singapore Blueprint, and I am concerned about the composition and dynamics of our population come 2030. The challenge would be less daunting if we were a country with more homogeneity, such as Hong Kong or Taiwan.
We now have 2.1 million immigrants of various ethnic, social, linguistic and economic origins. By 2030, could we manage the integration of up to one million more people from diverse sources? This could well be our Achilles’ heel in pursuing the vision of an inclusive society.
It is not difficult to transform Singapore into a green city, with energy-efficient buildings and sky gardens, because these are the hardware. Public transport that runs smoother as well as reduced energy and water consumption may need more measures.
But to sustain a harmonious society with little social and income inequality, amid undercurrents of tension, may need different approaches.
Stringent controls and money can solve hardware problems, but not “heartware” conflicts. A gracious society with racial harmony requires a long time to nurture, and collective efforts by the Government, communities and the individual.
Planning for both a cosmopolitan and liveable city may take perhaps half a century.
There are no “instant trees” for this, and we must accept trade-offs between economic growth and lower population density to enjoy a clean environment in Singapore.
We should look at how long it took to create global cities such as London, New York, Paris and Tokyo.
I would be pessimistic about achieving the blueprint’s vision for 2030, where native and new Singaporeans are proud to call this country home and love it, if we continue to grapple with achieving an inclusive and harmonious multiracial society.
To avoid missteps, we must cross the river by feeling the stones, with small foreign population increments. Perhaps 2050 is a realistic target, with more room to manoeuvre.
Channel NewsAsia 6 Nov 13;
SINGAPORE: Singapore's first tidal turbine test-bed was launched in Sentosa on Wednesday.
Designed, built and installed by a group of engineers from NTU, and in collaboration with the Sentosa Development Corporation, the system tests the feasibility of tapping tidal energy to generate electricity.
Though tidal energy is a new field in Singapore, its key advantage as a renewable energy source is that tidal cycles are predictable, unlike conventional wind and solar energy, which are highly susceptible to weather fluctuations.
The system already produces energy to power the lights at Sentosa Boardwalk Turbine Exhibit.
In the coming year, it will further analyse how low-flow tidal energy can be used efficiently and made cheaper and more reliable.
The informative exhibition, which is part of the Sentosa Sustainability Plan, will have information about tidal energy and showcases a miniature tidal turbine prototype. The exhibition is open to public.
Dr Michael Lochinvar Sim Abundo, research fellow at NTU’s Energy Research Institute, said: "This location (Sentosa Boardwalk) is a very good spot for tidal occurrence because it is channelled between two islands - Singapore and Sentosa, which causes an acceleration of the flow much like a funnel."
Mike Barclay, chief executive officer at Sentosa Development Corporation, said: “We do have some pretty good tides around Sentosa, quite strong tidal flows so we can extract energy from them, generate electricity and prove something that could be scaleable for Singapore as a whole, something that really works for us."
- CNA/xq
Engineers hoping to harness energy from tidal currents
Kenneth Cheng Today Online 7 Nov 13;
SINGAPORE — Harnessing energy from tidal currents to generate electricity as a new source of renewable energy. This is what engineers from the Nanyang Technological University’s (NTU) Energy Research Institute (ERI@N) hope to test out with a tidal turbine system, the first of its kind in Singapore, launched today (Nov 6) at the Sentosa Boardwalk.
Established in collaboration with the Sentosa Development Corporation (SDC), the Boardwalk Turbine Project took more than two years to come to fruition.
Noting that unlike conventional renewable energy sources like solar — which can be affected by cloud conditions — Professor Subodh Mhaisalkar, Executive Director of ERI@N, said tides are an “extremely predictable” renewable energy source as they are “completely defined by the phases of the moon”.
In contrast with conventional tidal turbines which work “inefficiently at lower (water) flow”, the test bed, comprising two low-flow turbines, had been designed to operate at a “good efficiency range” at low water speeds common in Singapore’s waters as well as those in the region, explained Dr Michael Lochinvar Sim Abundo, a Research Fellow at ERI@N.
The turbines — which extract and capture tidal energy from the currents that, in turn, generates power — are mounted near the boardwalk on a floating platform.
Concrete pillars at an adjacent bridge help speed up water flows that power the turbines by funnelling water into a narrow channel. The team plans to extend the turbines to Pulau Semakau and the Southern Islands, including the Saint John’s Island and Pulau Tekukor, over the next five years.
The test bed currently powers the lights and an LCD display at the Sentosa Boardwalk Turbine Exhibit. Located near the turnstiles leading into Resorts World Sentosa, the exhibit provides information on the project and tidal energy, and is open to the public.
Prof Mhaisalkar said the data amassed from the test bed — which is jointly funded by the Ministry of Trade and Industry, NTU and SDC — will allow NTU engineers to enhance turbine designs for future projects.
“This turbine here (on Sentosa) is very symbolic in the sense (that) this is basically a message that we can explore other forms of renewable energy for Singapore as well,” he said.
Isabelle Lai The Star 7 Nov 13;
PETALING JAYA: The Malaysian Nature Society (MNS) has praised the introduction of a larger mesh size for fishing nets to promote sustainable fisheries.
Its president, Prof Dr Maketab Mohamad, said a larger mesh size would allow fish fry to become adults as they would not be caught in the net.
“MNS will support any enforcement of laws and regulations that will bring sustainability to our resources, whether on land or in the sea,” he told The Star.
Maketab said that the fishermen’s protests were based on ignorance and greed, with the focus only being on making short-term profits by selling the bycatch to be made into fish meal for animal feed.
Maketab said he hoped the Department of Fisheries (DOF) and related agencies would fully enforce the law, and also urged DOF to carry out enforcement against fishermen using illegal ray nets, also known as pukat pari, to catch stingrays.
“These specialised nets not only catch stingrays, but also turtles, which will drown in them. This is such a waste of conservation efforts done over the years,” he said.
Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said on Sunday that the ruling on the new minimum mesh size of 38mm came into force on Nov 1.
He said studies had shown that mesh sizes below 38mm would capture fish fry and a significant amount of bycatch, resulting in population decline.
Fishermen have protested that they would suffer financial losses with this new rule.
In response, Ismail Sabri said this rule had been incorporated in the Fisheries Act but enforcement of it had been delayed for some time.
The new ruling also requires licence holders to be onboard when the ship is at sea.
However, Pulau Ketam MCA branch chairman Chia Mong Chun had argued that the fish fry would not escape with the bigger mesh size as they would have been crushed by the larger fish when the net was hauled up, and that the new ruling would deprive fishermen of the income received from selling the bycatch.
Alister Doyle and Nina Chestney PlanetArk 7 Nov 13;
World governments are likely to recoil from plans for an ambitious 2015 climate change deal at talks next week, concern over economic growth at least partially eclipsing scientists' warnings of rising temperatures and water levels.
"We are in the eye of a storm," said Yvo de Boer, United Nations climate chief in 2009 when a summit in Copenhagen ended without agreement. After Copenhagen, nations targeted a 2015 deal to enter into force from 2020 with the goal of averting more floods, heatwaves, droughts and rising sea levels.
The outline of a more modest 2015 deal, to be discussed at annual U.N. climate talks in Warsaw on November11-22, is emerging that will not halt a creeping rise in temperatures but might be a guide for tougher measures in later years.
Since 2009, scientists' warnings have become more strident and new factors have emerged, sometimes dampening the impact of their message that human activity is driving warming.
The U.S. shale boom helped push U.S. carbon emissions to an 18-year low last year, for instance; but it also shifted cheap coal into Europe where it was used in power stations.
Despite repeated promises to tackle the problem, developed nations have been preoccupied with spurring sluggish growth. And recession has itself braked emissions from factories, power plants and cars, a phenomenon that may prove short-lived.
Emerging economies such as China and India, heavily reliant on cheap, high-polluting coal to end poverty, are reluctant to take the lead despite rising emissions and pollution that are choking cities.
"Our concern is urgency" in tackling climate change, said Marlene Moses of Nauru, chair of the Alliance of Small Island States whose members fear they will be swamped by rising sea levels. "Vague promises will no longer suffice."
She wants progress when senior officials and environment ministers from almost 200 nations meet in Warsaw to discuss the 2015 deal, as well as climate aid to poor nations and ways to compensate them for loss and damage from global warming.
Yet many governments, especially in Europe, are concerned that climate policies, such as generous support schemes for solar energy, push up consumer energy bills.
Some want to emulate the success of the United States in bringing down energy prices via shale gas - a fossil fuel that can help cut greenhouse emissions if it replaces coal but at the same time can divert investments from cleaner energy.
PATCHWORK OF PLEDGES
Many Warsaw delegates say the 2015 accord looks likely to be a patchwork of national pledges for curbing greenhouse gas emissions, anchored in domestic legislation, after Copenhagen failed to agree a sweeping treaty built on international law.
The less ambitious model is a shift from the existing Kyoto Protocol, agreed in 1997. That set a central target for emissions cuts by industrialized countries and then shared them out among about 40 nations.
But Kyoto has not worked well, partly because the United States did not join, objecting that the treaty would cost U.S. jobs and set no targets for big emerging nations. Russia, Canada and Japan have since dropped out.
Warsaw will be the first meeting since the U.N.'s panel of climate scientists, the main guide for government action, in September raised the probability that climate change is mainly man-made to 95 percent from 90 and said that "substantial and sustained" cuts in emissions were needed.
TREATY
A leaked draft of a second report by the panel, due in March 2014, suggests climate change will cause heatwaves, droughts, disrupt crop growth, aggravate poverty and expose hundreds of millions of people to coastal floods as seas rise.
"Evidence is accumulating weekly, monthly as to how dangerous this will be," said Andrew Steer, head of the World Resources Institute think-tank in Washington. Every year of delay added $500 million to the cost of fixing climate change.
He said there were signs of progress, such as a plan in June by U.S. President Barack Obama to achieve a goal for cutting emissions by 2020 and the start of carbon trading in China. "But they don't add up" to a solution, Steer added.
Any deal weaker than a treaty for shifting from fossil fuels to renewable energies is anathema to poor nations.
The 2015 deal is unlikely to include deep enough emissions cuts to achieve a U.N. goal set in 2010 of limiting temperature rise to below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit).
Temperatures have already risen by 0.8C (1.4F) since the Industrial Revolution and are on track to cause more heatwaves, floods and rising sea levels despite a hiatus in the pace of warming at the Earth's surface so far this century.
A more flexible approach for 2015, championed by the United States, raises risks that many nations will simply set themselves weak goals, hoping others will take up the slack.
But it may have a better chance of ratification by national parliaments. The idea is that negotiators will find a way to compare the ambition of promises and develop a mechanism to ratchet the weak ones up in coming years.
(Additional reporting by Susanna Twidale in London, Agnieszka Barteczko in Warsaw and Barbara Lewis in Brussels)
Factbox: Governments meet on climate after scientists' warnings
Alister Doyle PlanetArk 7 Nov 13;
Almost 200 nations will meet in Warsaw from November 11-22 to work on a deal due to be agreed in 2015 to fight climate change.
Following are the main findings of a report in September by leading scientists - the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) - that are meant to guide the talks:
HUMAN RESPONSIBILITY - The panel raised the probability that human activities, led by the burning of fossil fuels, are the dominant cause of global warming since the mid-20th century to "extremely likely", or at least 95 percent, from "very likely" (90 percent) in its previous report in 2007 and "likely" (66 percent) in 2001.
SLOWING WARMING THIS CENTURY - The panel said that a slowing in the pace of warming at the Earth's surface this century was probably linked to natural swings in the climate. It said short periods, such as the 15 years since 1998 which was a very warm year, do not usually reflect long-term trends.
PROJECTED WARMING - The panel said temperatures were likely to rise by between 0.3 and 4.8 degrees Celsius (0.5 to 8.6 Fahrenheit) by the late 21st century. The report uses new computer models that are not directly comparable with scenarios used in 2007.
CARBON BUDGET - The report said cumulative carbon emissions needed to be limited to about 1 trillion tonnes to give a likely chance of limiting global warming to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6F) above pre-industrial times. More than 50 percent has already been emitted.
SEA LEVEL RISE - Sea levels are likely to rise by between 26 and 82 cm (10 to 32 inches) by the late 21st century, after a 19 cm rise in the 19th century. In the worst case, seas could be 98 cm higher in the year 2100. The 2001 report projected a rise of 18 to 59 cm, but did not take full account of the potential thaw of Antarctica and Greenland.
CLIMATE SENSITIVITY - The report estimates that a doubling of carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere would lead to a warming of between 1.5 and 4.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 and 8.1F), lowering the bottom of the range from 2.0 degrees (3.6F) estimated in 2007 report. The new range, however, is the same as in other IPCC reports before 2007.
(Reporting By Alister Doyle)
Volunteer wanted for coral relocation in Singapore starting Nov 2013 from wild shores of singapore
Sat 9 Nov Heritage Walk with Claire Leow
from a.t.Bukit Brown. Heritage. Habitat. History.
ecoYOUth releases paper documenting environmental perspectives of youths in Singapore
from Green Drinks Singapore
Red-footed Booby photographed at Lim Chu Kang
from Bird Ecology Study Group
A revisit to Sungei Buloh
from My Nature Experiences
Butterflies Galore! : Banded Swallowtail
from Butterflies of Singapore
Neo Chai Chin Channel NewsAsia 5 Nov 13;
SINGAPORE: Tourist arrivals to the country have remained strong despite the haze crisis in June, with latest figures from the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) showing an increase in year-on-year visitor arrivals for the months of January to August.
The impact of the haze -- which sent the Pollutant Standards Index to a record 401 -- was minimal as it was sudden and short-lived, said experts who cited the strength of the Singapore dollar as a greater factor that would impact visitor numbers.
In fact, June was a month of robust growth in visitor arrivals with 1.26 million visitors recorded, an increase of 8.9 per cent from last year.
Visitor arrivals in the first eight months of this year also grew 8.5 per cent year-on-year to 10.5 million.
Mr Edward Koh, executive director for strategy and planning at STB, said hotel room and tour bookings during the weekend of June 21 to 23 had seen a decline, but the overall impact of the haze in this area was "minimal".
He added that the STB was "cautiously optimistic" of achieving its forecast of 14.8 million to 15.5 million visitors, and S$23.5 billion to S$24.5 billion in tourism receipts this year.
Hong Thai Travel assistant general manager Tony Aw said many of its inbound tour groups had wanted to cancel their trips in June.
But, all the travellers eventually went ahead with their plans as there were no official travel advisories issued by governments, which would have triggered refunds from tour operators. Some frequent independent travellers, however, did cancel their trips, said Mr Aw.
CIMB-GK Research regional economist Song Seng Wun believes Singapore will easily surpass the 7 per cent growth in visitor arrivals he had projected at the start of this year, to some 15.7 million visitors for the year. But, he said the weakening of currencies, like the Indonesian rupiah and Indian rupee, could deter some potential travellers.
"We were more concerned subsequently with the impact of weakened currencies... than the haze."
Though some doctors here have told him that the number of Indonesian patients have fallen in recent months after the rupiah weakened significantly against the Singapore dollar, Mr Song said "per visitor, (spending is) almost unchanged".
Visitors from China -- the second-largest inbound market for Singapore -- could also slow down, due to the Chinese government's curb on "shopping tours", which took effect last month.
With the new regulation, Mr Aw said such tours could double in price and cost 8,000 yuan for a 7-day trip.
Though such "shopping tours" were not offered by Hong Thai, he said several agencies that did are likely to turn their attention to frequent independent travellers instead.
- CNA/ac
Tourist arrivals remain strong despite June haze crisis
Neo Chai Chin Today Online 6 Jun 13;
SINGAPORE — Tourist arrivals to the country have remained strong despite the haze crisis in June, with latest figures from the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) showing an increase in year-on-year visitor arrivals for the months of January to August. The haze — which caused the Pollutant Standards Index to reach a record 401 — had minimal impact as it was sudden and short-lived, said experts who cited the strength of the Singapore dollar as a greater factor that would affect visitor numbers.
In fact, June was a month of robust growth in visitor arrivals with 1.26 million visitors recorded, an increase of 8.9 per cent from last year. Visitor arrivals in the first eight months of this year also grew 8.5 per cent year-on-year to 10.5 million.
Mr Edward Koh, Executive Director for Strategy and Planning at STB, said hotel room and tour bookings during the weekend of June 21–23 had seen a decline, but the overall impact of the haze in this area was “minimal”. He added that the STB was “cautiously optimistic” of achieving its forecast of 14.8 million to 15.5 million visitors, and S$23.5 billion to S$24.5 billion in tourism receipts this year.
Hong Thai Travel Assistant General Manager Tony Aw said many of its inbound tour groups had wanted to cancel their trips in June. But, all the travellers eventually went ahead with their plans as there were no official travel advisories issued by governments, which would have triggered refunds from tour operators. Some frequent independent travellers, however, did cancel their trips, said Mr Aw.
CIMB-GK Research Regional Economist Song Seng Wun believes Singapore will easily surpass the 7 per cent growth in visitor arrivals he had projected at the start of this year, to about 15.7 million visitors for the year. But, he said the weakening of currencies, like the Indonesian rupiah and Indian rupee, could deter some travellers.
“We were more concerned subsequently with the impact of weakened currencies ... than the haze.”
Though some doctors here have told him that the number of Indonesian patients have fallen in recent months after the rupiah weakened significantly against the Singapore dollar, Mr Song said “per visitor, (spending is) almost unchanged”.
Visitor arrivals from China — the second-largest inbound market for Singapore — could also fall, due to the Chinese government’s curb on “shopping tours”, which took effect last month.
With the new regulation, Mr Aw said such tours could double in price and cost 8,000 yuan (S$1,620) for a seven-day trip.
Though such “shopping tours” were not offered by Hong Thai, he said several agencies that did are likely to turn their attention to frequent independent travellers instead.
Channel NewsAsia 5 Nov 13;
SINGAPORE: Singapore's and Malaysia's environment ministers have expressed deep concern over the transboundary haze from land and forest fires in Indonesia that recurs every year.
Meeting in Singapore on Tuesday, Singapore's Environment and Water Resources Minister Vivian Balakrishnan and Malaysia's Natural Resources and Environment Minister G Palanivel noted that the haze has severely affected the people in both their countries.
They resolved to take actions to enhance regional collaboration to prevent the recurrence of the transboundary haze by implementing the ASEAN leaders' decision made at the 23rd ASEAN Summit in October.
The ministers hope that prompt measures will be taken to detect, prevent and suppress fires, added a statement from Singapore's Ministry of Environment and Water Resources issued on Tuesday.
Meeting in Singapore for the 26th Malaysia-Singapore Annual Exchange of Visits, Dr Balakrishnan and Mr Palanivel welcomed the long-standing and close environmental cooperation between their countries.
Other issues discussed on Tuesday include the control of vehicular pollution, the joint monitoring of water quality in the Straits of Johor, and cooperation in preventing chemical and oil spills.
- CNA/ac
Ruben Sario The Star 6 Nov 13;
KOTA KINABALU: Wildlife researchers are hoping that they can understand how small carnivores such as civets and otters are able to exist in a mix of forests and plantations in Sabah’s Lower Kinabatangan region through satellite tracking.
The researchers recently trapped a male civet from Lot 5 of the Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary and fitted him with a transmitting collar before releasing him. They are hoping this civet could provide key information on small carnivores such as their foraging habits.
“The data collected can provide information regarding how small carnivores are using the forest and oil palm plantation matrix in the Kinabatangan region,” said Sabah Wildlife Department (SWD) director Datuk Dr Laurentius Ambu.
“The results will in turn guide management plans and conservation actionsin the future.”
The trapping and fitting of the collar on Oct 26 was carried out by SWD, the Kinabatangan Small Carnivore Project (KSCP), Cardiff University (CU) and the Danau Girang Field Centre. It was funded by the Sime Darby Foundation and Houston Zoo.
After trapping and sedating the 5.5kg civet, which the researchers named Tenang, they recorded its length and weight, and took saliva and faecal samples before fitting it with a 70g collar that would relay his whereabouts for the next five months.
Danau Girang director Dr Benoit Goosens said a number of small carnivore species, including six species of the civet, and two otter species, had been found within the Kinabatangan region.
“Our project strives to understand the influence of habitat fragmentation on these small carnivores,” he said.
Cardiff University graduate student Meaghan Harris said the initial data from Tenang’s satellite collar was important to help specialists map out Sabah’s biodiversity conservation plans.
“Civets, although not as flashy as larger carnivores such as the Sunda clouded leopard and the Malayan sun bear, are very important to the rainforest ecosystem,” Harris said.
“It will be an adventure to study these animals.”
Nina Larson (AFP) Google News 5 Nov 13;
Geneva — Hundreds of millions of people worldwide risk exposure to toxic pollution, environmental groups warned Monday, publishing a list of the world's worst areas, including an African processing site for European electronics.
"We estimate that the health of more than 200 million people is at risk from pollution in the developing world," said Richard Fuller, who heads US-based environment watchdog the Blacksmith Institute.
The institute and Green Cross Switzerland published a new top 10 list of the "World's Worst Polluted Places" -- their first since 2007 -- based on more than 2,000 risk assessments at contaminated sites in 49 countries.
West Africa's second largest processing area for the world's swelling piles of electronic waste, at Agbogbloshie in Ghana's capital Accra was among new additions.
Each year, Ghana imports around 215,000 tonnes of secondhand consumer electronics, mainly from Western Europe -- a number that is expected to double by 2020, according to the report.
The main health concern linked to e-waste processing in Ghana is the burning of sheathed cables to recover the copper inside, the report said, pointing out that the cables can contain a range of heavy metals, including lead.
Soil samples from around Agbogbloshie have shown concentrations of that toxic metal that are 45 times more than accepted levels, the report said.
"E-waste is really going to be a challenge. It's growing exponentially. Everybody wants a computer, a laptop, the modern devices, so I think we're seeing the tip of the iceberg," Blacksmith research director Jack Caravanos told reporters in a conference call.
Other newcomers to the 2013 list included Indonesia's Citarum River Basin in West Java, an area that is home to around nine million people, but also some 2,000 factories.
The river, which is used among other things for human consumption and to irrigate rice farms, is contaminated by a wide range of toxins, including aluminium and manganese.
Drinking water tests have shown lead at levels more than 1,000 times above US standards, the report said.
Another Indonesian area, Kalimantan on the island of Borneo, was also added to the list due to the widespread artisanal small-scale gold mining there.
Most practitioners of this craft use mercury in the extraction process, and contribute to a large portion of global emissions of the hazardous metal each year.
This year's list also includes Hazaribagh in Bangladesh, which is home to most the country's 270 registered tanneries.
Every day, they collectively dump around 22,000 cubic litres of toxic waste, including cancer-causing hexavalent chromium, into the Buriganga, Dhaka's main river and key water supply.
The Niger River Delta in Nigeria and the Matanza-Riachuelo River Basin in Argentina were also added to the list.
Several toxic industrial areas in the former Soviet Union, including the site of the devastating 1986 nuclear disaster in Chernobyl, Ukraine, were carried over from the last list, as was Zambia's lead-mining city Kabwe.
Unlike the list six years ago, which was dominated by Chinese and Indian sites, those two countries are missing from the list published Monday.
"There has been a reasonably strong movement towards clean-up in India and China," Hanrahan explained.
10 Nov Sunday Forum :Globalising the Local
from a.t.Bukit Brown. Heritage. Habitat. History.
Sunday 17th Nov Battlefield Tour
from a.t.Bukit Brown. Heritage. Habitat. History.
When did washing your face, brushing your teeth and scrubbing your body become an act of pollution? from News from the International Coastal Cleanup Singapore
Jeanette Tan Yahoo Newsroom 5 Nov 13;
Is trapping and killing Singapore's long-tailed macaques the solution to what has become dubbed "the monkey problem" here?
Authorities say they have witnessed a spike in complaints about monkey nuisance from residents living in the vicinity of nature reserve areas between last year and this. They have received some 1,460 complaints between January and August this year alone with a further 200 added in September — more than double the number in 2011.
Where do the bulk of these complaints come from? Residents living near the Central Catchment and Bukit Timah Nature Reserves, says the Agri-food and Veterinary Authority (AVA). According to them, more than 100 of the complaints were reports of monkey aggression — this includes monkeys snatching belongings, chasing people, as well as biting, scratching or injuring children, the elderly or pets.
In response, the AVA says it conducts "targeted removal of aggressive or nuisance-causing individuals to address concerns of feedback providers". Additionally, AVA spokespersons said that it loans monkey traps to members of the public "bothered by monkey nuisance/aggression", or engages external contractors to conduct "monkey control operations, when necessary".
As for its last measure, the AVA says its hired contractors are required to adhere to specific locations where trapping can be conducted, and also follow a set of guidelines for handling, capture and transport of the macaques.
What happens after trapping?
Monkey trapper Jack Pang tends to a cage with a long-tailed macaque inside on Jacaranda Road. (Screengrab from …
What happens when the macaques are trapped or captured? The AVA said releasing the macaques into the forest will not resolve instances of aggression and nuisance.
"Indiscriminate release of aggressive/nuisance-causing wildlife back into the environment merely transfers the problem from one estate to the next," said the spokesperson. "Relocation options are also limited in land-scarce Singapore. As such, humane euthanasia is our last resort."
Just how many were killed in the first half of this year? According to Louis Ng, founder and executive director of wildlife society Acres, some 357 or an estimated 20 per cent of the existing population of macaques in Singapore.
"(It's) a very, very high figure, and it almost sounds like what the authorities are trying to do is to exterminate the whole population," he said in an interview with Yahoo Singapore recently.
The National Parks Board (NParks) is responsible for enforcing rules regarding contractors who are hired to capture and kill macaques in Singapore. Essentially, contractors hired by the AVA are allowed to trap macaques in designated areas outside of land that comes under the purview of NParks. NParks land includes nature reserves, parks and forested areas.
Yahoo Singapore understands that the contractors are paid per macaque caught — a possible reason for contractors occasionally straying out of areas designated by the AVA for them to set their traps up.
Members of the public have flagged these instances to NParks before, resulting in one contractor, Jack Pang, being fined by the board recently for setting up a large cage too close to Bukit Timah Nature Reserve.
The green cage, which he placed bananas and oranges into, was, according to Nparks, photographed in July just 10m outside the reserve, in an area where a troop of macaques sleeps at night and play around on most afternoons.
According to a statement from NParks, Pang "had immediately removed the cage upon public feedback", and also paid the "composition amount" imposed for his offence.
"The composition amount is a matter between the contractor and NParks. Based on our records, the number of such offences is very small and we do not see growing trends in this type of offence," said NParks Director Yong Fook Chyi, in response to questions about how much Pang was fined, as well as how many times in the past such hired contractors had been penalised or caught for illegal trapping.
Feeding monkeys in Singapore
Animal researchers and activists have said previously that the aggressive behaviour of macaques towards humans — and their daring to venture into residential areas — have been progressively cultivated by humans.
Over the years, visitors to parks and nature reserves have fed them and lured them with food, teaching them that humans and human residences are sources of food. This has in turn resulted in their tendency to approach humans, grab plastic bags or containers of food off them, and if humans move too close to their babies, retaliate — in some cases, turning aggressive.
Feeding the macaques is against the law in Singapore, and NParks has in recent years erected signs in its nature reserves and parks warning against doing so. It has also conducted various outreach programmes over the years that included road shows, workshops and guided walks.
"We also carry out regular enforcement actions against people who feed monkeys," said Yong, who shared that a total of 451 notices of offence have been issued to people who feed animals (not restricted to macaques), and who fish illegally, between 2011 and June this year.
NParks said it does not break down this figure into specific offences, however, but for the first half of this year, 89 notices of offence were issued for all the above activities.
See pictures of some of the traps used for capturing macaques in Singapore, shared with us by residents, here:
Assisting NParks in its efforts to curb macaque-feeding in Singapore is Acres, which set up a macaque response team about a month and a half ago.
The team of two full-time rescuers responds to calls regarding macaques multiple times a day, and can receive up to seven calls on its hotline each day, with weekends and public holidays being busier.
Apart from dealing with reports or complaints about macaques, though, Acres is also making efforts to reach out to residents living near nature reserves, to educate them in how to behave around macaques as well as how to keep food sources inaccessible to them.
"The response has generally been very positive," said Ng. "When we try to explain and get their (residents') side of the story, they start to realise that okay, we are the source of the problem."
"So we need to cut our jackfruit tree down, or need to harvest the fruits; again we need to monkey-proof the bins, and then we need to retain the forest we are living in at this moment, and then this issue will be resolved," he added.
Ng also warned against the danger of AVA's practice of lending out traps to residents, because the latter are not trained to use them and when baby macaques get trapped in them, residents end up facing aggression from their angry parents.
"That's why we always stress it is very dangerous to loan out these traps," said Ng. "For a lot of the cases that we go down, we advise people and once they start to change their behaviour, try and have monkey-proof bins, we do see a decline in the number of conflicts."
If you spot any traps set up for macaques, or are experiencing difficulties with a macaque, please call the Acres hotline at 97837782. If you have feedback to share about the macaques, the AVA's hotline is 1800-476-1600.
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