Malaysia: Protected turtle found dead

LOGHUN KUMARAN New Straits Times 26 Apr 14;

HOOKED BY FISHING LINE: NGO calls for fishing ban to preserve Perak's only turtle landing site of Pasir Panjang

LUMUT: AN endangered green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas) has been found dead in the waters off Teluk Senangin near here two days ago. It was believed to have been hooked by a fishing line.

Sahabat Alam Malaysia field officer Meor Razak Meor Abdul Rahman said the male turtle, believed to be around 30 years old, was found floating in the sea by a fisherman.

The fisherman, Mohd Saufi Ahmad, claimed that the 1m-long carcass was found with a strand of fishing line in its mouth.

Meor Razak said both of them had notified the Perak Fisheries Department of the discovery, adding that the department had yet to collect the carcass from the beach.

"Saufi and I had reported the finding to a state fisheries officer at the Pasir Panjang turtle rehabilitation centre. After documenting the condition of the carcass, the officer determined that the turtle had been dead for four days before it was found by Saufi."

Meor Razak said the department should have taken the turtle's carcass to conduct further investigations.

"The post-mortem is important as the green sea turtle is categorised as an endangered species on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) red list of threatened species."

He said the incident illustrated how important it was to preserve the natural condition of Pasir Panjang beach, which was the state's last turtle-landing site. He added that the department should ban fishing at designated areas of the beach, especially during the egg-laying season which runs from March to June.

"Sea turtles run a high risk of injuring themselves on fishing lines during the egg-laying season as more of them come to the beach to lay eggs. A reduction or ban on fishing activities along the turtles' nesting grounds will be sufficient to reduce this risk without hurting the fishing industry."

Meor Razak urged the state government to halt the development of two industrial plants in the neighbouring Tanjung Hantu area.

Announced last year, the projects were believed to be a liquefied natural gas plant and a steel coil mill.

Construction work on both have not been carried out.

"If these projects are built, the lights and sounds from the buildings and factories will drive the turtles away as they are very timid and sensitive creatures.

"The government needs to stop development in this area if it wants to keep the only remaining turtle landing site in the state," he said.

Read more!

China hopes to take rare animals off the menu with tough jail sentences

People who knowing eat products made from 420 species classified as endangered face of up to 10 years or more in prison
Jonathan Kaiman theguardian.com 25 Apr 14;

Chinese diners who enjoy bear bile, tiger bones and pangolin meat now have a new reason to lay down their chopsticks.

China's top legislative body passed a new "interpretation" of the country's criminal law on Thursday that will allow authorities to jail people who knowingly eat products made from rare wild animals. Prison sentences for the offence range from under three years to more than a decade, the state newswire Xinhua reported.

Beijing classifies 420 species as rare or endangered, including giant pandas, golden monkeys, Asian black bears and pangolins – scaly, slow-moving anteaters which curl into balls to avoid their predators. While China already promises harsh fines and jail sentences for people who catch, kill, traffic, buy and sell the animals, it has until now remained unclear on the potential consequences for eating them.

"This is very, very encouraging," said Grace Gabriel, Asia regional director for the International Fund for Animal Welfare, a US-based animal rights organisation. "Including wildlife consumption in the criminal law can play a very important part in curtailing, and also stigmatising, wildlife consumption."

In recent decades, China's growing wealth has engendered a thriving illegal market in endangered wildlife products. Many businesspeople and status-obsessed officials believe that certain rare animal parts – shark fins, bear bile, tiger bone – posses medicinal properties, and that spending large amounts of money on them confers social prestige.

"Eating rare wild animals is not only bad social conduct but also a main reason why illegal hunting has not been stopped despite repeated crackdowns," Lang Sheng, deputy head of the legislative affairs commission of the NPC standing committee, told Xinhua.

Chinese authorities finally seem to recognise the scope of the problem. In March, 24 people were arrested for trafficking in wild animal parts and 4,500 products confiscated in police raids across nine provinces, state media reported. In January, authorities in the southern province Guangdong crushed six tonnes of confiscated elephant ivory in a public ceremony to discourage smugglers.

Last summer, customs officials in the northern Inner Mongolia region arrested two Russian nationals for smuggling 213 bear paws into China in the tyres of a van – their load, state media said, was worth more than £250,000.

Earlier this month, three Chinese nationals were arrested in Namibia, after they were found trying to board a flight to Hong Kong with 14 foil-wrapped rhino horns and leopard skins hidden in their luggage.

China to outlaw eating of protected animal species
Ben Blanchard PlanetArk 29 Apr 14;

China will jail people who eat rare animals for 10 years or more under a new interpretation of the criminal law, state media reported, as the government seeks to close a legal loophole and better protect the natural environment.

China lists 420 species as rare or endangered, including the panda, golden monkeys, Asian black bears and pangolins, some or all of which are threatened by illegal hunting, environmental destruction and the consumption of animal parts, including for supposedly medicinal reasons.

Consumption of rare animals has risen as the country has become richer, with some people believing spending thousands of yuan on eating them gives a certain social cache.

"Eating rare wild animals is not only bad social conduct but also a main reason why illegal hunting has not been stopped despite repeated crackdowns," Lang Sheng, deputy head of parliament's Legislative Affairs Commission said, the official Xinhua news agency reported late on Thursday.

The new interpretation "clears up ambiguities about buyers of prey of illegal hunting", the report added.

Knowingly buying any wild animals killed by illegal hunting will now be considered a crime, with a maximum penalty of three years in jail, Xinhua said.

"In fact, buyers are a major motivator of large-scale illegal hunting," Lang said.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Stephen Coates)

Read more!

China’s water is even worse than its air

BLOOMBERG EDITORS Today Online 25 Apr 14;

In recent months, Chinese leaders have pledged drastic steps to clear their nation’s smog-choked air. The bigger question, though, may be how far they are willing to go to clean up its water.

Say one thing for the lung-burning pollution that regularly blankets Beijing and other cities: At least everyone can see the problem. In contrast, a recent benzene spill that poisoned the water supply of Lanzhou — a city of more than two million people — was terrifyingly odourless and colourless. If anything, polluted water poses a more insidious threat to Chinese people than dirty air does.

Seventy per cent of the groundwater in the heavily populated north China plain has become unfit for human touch, let alone drinking or irrigation. Because the area encompasses several of the country’s largest farming provinces, crops and livestock are exposed to dangerous contaminants as well. The nine in 10 Chinese who say they are highly concerned about the safety of their food and water have reason to be alarmed.

The authorities have shown they can restore blue skies, at least temporarily, as they did during the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Cleaning up China’s water will be more difficult, time-consuming and expensive. Industries that pollute water are not concentrated in a few places, as coal-fired power plants are, but spread out across thousands of localities. And dirty water is harder to assess than gritty air; discharges have to be measured near the source. In any case, industry accounts for only half of water pollution. The rest comes from millions of small farmers and livestock producers, whose fertilisers, pesticides and waste runoff leach undetected into the water table.

COMPREHENSIVE REFORMS NEEDED

The sheer scale of the problem demands root-and-branch reforms — the kind that Chinese academics and activists have long promoted, but the government has been reluctant to make. A new environmental law, for instance, may include tougher penalties: Violators who ordinarily pay cheap fines and then continue to pollute would be subject to daily, unlimited penalties and possible criminal charges. However, this law is in its fourth draft and still undergoing revisions, and there is no guarantee the stronger penalties will survive to the final version.

Even if they do, they will be of little use unless China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) is given greater power. As things stand, so many agencies have a say in environmental oversight, it is almost impossible to take strong, swift action.

Groundwater monitoring alone is overseen by three different ministries, as China Water Risk, a non-profit watchdog based in Hong Kong, points out, and this makes enforcement slow and ineffective. Talk of merging ministries or responsibilities into the MEP has so far gone nowhere.

Another barrier to progress is that many officials remain uncomfortable enlisting ordinary citizens and environmental groups in the battle against pollution — something that, given how broad the problem is, could be critical to success.

The authorities have allowed local journalists and environmental activists to expose some polluters. However, they are wary of protests against specific factories, or even civil lawsuits. Last week, a court ruled that residents could not sue the city’s water supplier over the spill in Lanzhou.

Chinese Internet giant Alibaba Group Holding now offers US$10 (S$12.60) handheld kits that buyers can use to test their local water, then upload the data to a digital map. Such information could greatly aid the task of naming and shaming offenders — and it is precisely the sort of transparency the government needs to encourage, not restrict.

Chinese leaders understand the scope of the challenge, and they have said they will spend almost two trillion yuan (S$400 billion) to combat it. They have made local officials responsible for preserving the environment as well as promoting economic growth, which should encourage more determined enforcement efforts.

Officials have talked about introducing tiered pricing for water usage by industries, while raising discharge standards and fees. They are also encouraging the consolidation of small farms into bigger, more efficient plots that use less fertiliser.

However, China’s water problems are too big and too dangerous to leave any weapons lying on the table.

Northern China already confronts a drastic scarcity of water and pollution further reduces the supply.

Chinese leaders should worry less about what may happen if they unleash regulators and the public on polluters, and more about what will happen if they do not. BLOOMBERG

Read more!

China strengthens environmental laws

Amendments to country's environmental protection are first in 25 years and will remove limits on fines for polluting factories
Jonathan Kaiman theguardian.com 25 Apr 14;

Chinese legislators have passed the first amendments to the country’s environmental protection law in 25 years, promising greater powers for environmental authorities and harsher punishments for polluters.

The amendments, which the Standing Committee of National People’s Congress passed on Thursday after two years of debate, will allow authorities to detain company bosses for 15 days if they do not complete environmental impact assessments or ignore warnings to stop polluting. The new law will come into practice on 1 January.

Since China’s environmental protection law was passed in 1989, the country has become the world’s second-largest economy and its biggest carbon emitter; decades of breakneck economic growth have left many of its rivers desiccated and its cities perennially shrouded in smog.

Over the past year, the Chinese government has begun to emphasise environmental protection in its official rhetoric. The new law “sets environmental protection as the country’s basic policy,” state news agency Xinhua reported.

At an annual parliamentary meeting in March, premier Li Keqiang said that the government will “resolutely declare war against pollution as we declared war against poverty”.

Yet environmental groups say that China’s greatest environmental problems arise from a gap between legislation and implementation.

“If you look at China’s air pollution or water pollution control laws, they’re pretty good compared to global standards,” said Ma Tianjie, program director for mainland work at Greenpeace East Asia. “But no matter how good [the laws] look on paper, the true test will always be the willingness of local authorities to enforce them.”

The amended law will remove limits on fines for polluting factories, which are currently so low that many enterprises prefer to pay them than take long-term anti-pollution measures. It will also encourage “studies on the impact environmental quality causes on public health, urging prevention and control of pollution-related diseases,” Xinhua
reported.

“Local officials may be demoted or sacked, if they are guilty of misconduct, including covering up environment-related wrongdoing,” the newswire reported. “If offenders' behaviors constitute crimes, they will be held criminally responsible.”

This month, Chinese environmental researchers concluded that nearly 60% of the country’s groundwater quality is either “relatively poor” or “very poor”. A separate official report claimed that 16% of the country’s land is polluted, some of it with chemicals such as arsenic and mercury. Earlier this month, dangerous levels of the carcinogenic chemical benzene were detected in the northwestern city Lanzhou’s water supply, triggering a run on bottled water.

Reducing the country’s noxious smog has also become a challenge for growth-minded local officials. On Thursday, the UK shadow climate change minister Baroness Byrony Worthington led a well-attended "training course" for Chinese mayors on strategies for combatting air pollution.

“Every single person we’ve met so far has mentioned the words, ‘smoggy weather,’” said Worthington, who is on a four-day trip to China representing Globe International, an organisation of legislators focused on sustainable development. “They fear that the external world is pointing and laughing at this stage which China’s environment has
reached – it’s a kind of loss of face.”

Read more!

Agreement reached on deep sea mining

David Shukman BBC News 25 Apr 14;

Plans to open the world's first mine in the deep ocean have moved significantly closer to becoming reality.

A Canadian mining company has finalised an agreement with Papua New Guinea to start digging up an area of seabed.

The controversial project aims to extract ores of copper, gold and other valuable metals from a depth of 1,500m.

However, environmental campaigners say mining the ocean floor will prove devastating, causing lasting damage to marine life.

The company, Nautilus Minerals, has been eyeing the seabed minerals off Papua New Guinea (PNG) since the 1990s but then became locked in a lengthy dispute with the PNG government over the terms of the operation.

Under the agreement just reached, PNG will take a 15% stake in the mine by contributing $120m towards the costs of the operation.

Mike Johnston, chief executive of Nautilus Minerals, told BBC News: "It's a taken a long time but everybody is very happy."

"There's always been a lot of support for this project and it's very appealing that it will generate a significant amount of revenue in a region that wouldn't ordinarily expect that to happen."

The mine will target an area of hydrothermal vents where superheated, highly acidic water emerges from the seabed, where it encounters far colder and more alkaline seawater, forcing it to deposit high concentrations of minerals.

The result is that the seabed is formed of ores that are far richer in gold and copper than ores found on land.

Mr Johnston said that a temperature probe left in place for 18 months was found to have "high grade copper all over it".

For decades, the idea of mining these deposits - and mineral-rich nodules on the seabed - was dismissed as unfeasible because of the engineering challenge and high cost.

But the boom in offshore oil and gas operations in recent years has seen the development of a host of advanced deep sea technologies at a time when intense demand for valuable metals has pushed up global prices.

The mine, known as Solwara-1, will be excavated by a fleet of robotic machines steered from a ship at the surface.

The construction of the largest machine, a Bulk Cutter weighing 310 tonnes, has just been completed by an underwater specialist manufacturer, Soil Machine Dynamics (SMD), based in Newcastle, UK.

The plan is to break up the top layer of the seabed so that the ore can be pumped up as a slurry.

The agreement with PNG now clears the way for Nautilus to order a specialist vessel to manage the operation. Mining itself could start within five years.

Environmental campaigners have long argued that seabed mining will be hugely destructive and that the precise effects remain unknown.

Richard Page, oceans campaigner for Greenpeace, said: "The emerging threat of seabed mining is an urgent wake-up call for the need to protect the oceans.

"The deep ocean is not yet mapped or explored and so the potential loss of fauna and biospheres from mining is not yet understood.

"Only 3% of the oceans and only 1% of international waters are protected, which makes them some of the most vulnerable places on earth - what we desperately need is a global network of ocean sanctuaries."

According to Nautilus, the mine will have a minimal environmental footprint, covering the equivalent of about 10 football fields and focusing on an area which is likely to be rapidly re-colonised by marine life.

Mr Johnston said: "It's a resilient system and studies show that life will recover in 5-10 years. An active venting site 1km to the southeast has the same bugs and snails and the current will carry the bugs and snails to the mine site. We expect it to recover quite quickly."

But this will be the first attempt to extract ore from the ocean floor, so the operation - and the company's assurances about the impacts - will be watched closely.

So far, 19 licences to search for seabed minerals have been awarded by the International Seabed Authority, the UN body policing this emerging industry.

The International Seabed Authority (ISA), which has welcomed the Nautilus Minerals agreement with Papua New Guinea, is currently drawing up guidelines for the environmental management of future seabed mining.

Michael Lodge of the ISA told the BBC: "This is a very exciting opportunity and we are looking forward to learning from the tests of the new machine, which is a world first and should give us some valuable insights into technical feasibility and environmental impact."

Read more!

Rich nations' greenhouse gas emissions fall in 2012, led by U.S.

Alister Doyle Reuters Yahoo News 25 Apr 14;

OSLO (Reuters) - Industrialized nations' greenhouse gas emissions fell by 1.3 percent in 2012, led by a U.S. decline to the lowest in almost two decades with a shift to natural gas from dirtier coal, official statistics show.

Emissions from more than 40 nations were 10 percent below 1990 levels in 2012, according to a Reuters compilation of national data submitted to the United Nations in recent days that are the main gauge of efforts to tackle global warming.

Still, with emissions rising elsewhere, experts said the rate of decline was too slow to limit average world temperature rises to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times, a ceiling set by almost 200 nations to avert droughts, heat waves and rising seas.

In 2012 "the success story is the declining emissions in the United States," said Glen Peters, of the Center for International Climate and Environmental Research in Oslo. "Europe is a mix with slow GDP growth offset by a shift to coal in some countries."

Total emissions from industrialized nations fell to 17.3 billion tonnes in 2012 from 17.5 billion in 2011 and compared with 19.2 billion in 1990, the base year for the U.N.'s climate change convention.

U.S. emissions fell 3.4 percent in 2012 to 6.5 billion tonnes, the lowest since 1994, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said on April 15. [ID:nL2N0N71SJ] The fall was linked to low natural gas prices, helped by a shale gas boom and a shift from coal, a mild winter and greater efficiency in transport.

In the European Union, emissions dipped 1.3 percent in 2012 to 4.5 billion tonnes and were 19.2 percent down from 1990 levels, the European Environment Agency said.

WEAK ECONOMIES

Road transport emissions declined in some EU nations such as Italy, Spain and Greece that are suffering prolonged economic downturns. Emissions rose against the trend in Germany and Britain, with more coal used to generate electricity.

Among other major nations, emissions dipped in Canada in 2012 but rose in Russia, Japan and Australia.

The overall decline in emissions by industrialized nations is not enough to offset a rise in world emissions, driven by emerging economies such as China, India, Brazil and South Africa which are using more energy as their populations get richer.

Global emissions surged to 49 billion tonnes in 2010 from 38 billion in 1990, according to the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Governments aim to agree a pact to slow climate change by the end of 2015 to succeed the U.N.'s Kyoto Protocol, which binds only some developed nations to cut emissions until 2020.

The IPCC says that it is at least 95 percent probable that human activities, rather than natural variations in the climate, are the dominant cause of warming since the mid-20th century. Even so, opinion polls show that many voters are doubtful.

Corinne Le Quere, professor of climate change at Britain's University of East Anglia, said far tougher action was needed to reach the target of limiting global warming to 2 degrees C, with global cuts of about 3 percent a year.

"It requires a transformation in the way we use energy," she said. "In the short term, there are a lot of gains to be made in energy efficiency - in buildings, appliances, transport."

Industrialized nations' emissions have fallen since 1990 partly because many manufacturers had shifted operations abroad to emerging economies with lower costs, she said, meaning there was no overall reduction in emissions.

Counting greenhouse gases emitted to make products consumed in rich nations - from cars to washing machines - emissions by industrialized nations had risen an estimated 6 percent since 1990, she said. Data submitted to the United Nations, however, only cover emissions inside each country.

(Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

Read more!

Best of our wild blogs: 25 Apr 14

Trees for Birds: 2. Macaranga bancana (Common Mahang)
from Bird Ecology Study Group

Youth Dialogue on Climate Change Summary Report
from ECO @ COP

Job: Full-time Teaching Assistant (FTTA) for Undergraduate Courses for Life Sciences (deadline: 23 May 2014) from The Biodiversity crew @ NUS

Read more!

Mantis shrimp's 'armed' power

Feng Zengkun The Straits Times AsiaOne 24 Apr 14;

SINGAPORE - The future of medical devices such as hip implants and prosthetic limbs, and even body armour, could literally lie in the arms of a tiny sea creature.

Researchers in Singapore have found out why the tiny mantis shrimp is able to strike its prey at the speed of a 5.56mm rifle bullet while suffering little to no damage to its club-like arms.

The team identified not only the arm's components but also how its inner arrangement improves its ability to absorb forces without harm. This work could lead to incredibly damage-resistant products for people.

The team, led by Assistant Professor Ali Miserez and graduate student Shahrouz Amini from Nanyang Technological University (NTU), published its findings in the prestigious scientific journal Nature Communications in January.

The findings put researchers globally one step closer to replicating the material. But the team - from NTU's School of Materials Science and Engineering and School of Biological Sciences and elsewhere - said this would likely take at least three to four years.

While the components are easy to find and reproduce, said Prof Miserez, "the challenge is to reproduce the structure with the same level of organisation that you would find in the natural system".

The mantis shrimp arm's key element is a mineral called fluorapatite.

This is also found in shark's teeth. More importantly, it is very similar to the hydroxyapatite in human teeth and bone.

"You would need to have the proper tests and controls, but there is no reason why it wouldn't be biocompatible with people," said Prof Miserez. "It's almost the exact same thing we already have in our bodies."

Biocompatible implants would address bone loss from wear and tear, as well as toxic and immunity reactions from fine particles in metal implants.

The shrimp's arm also contains calcium sulphate, a common chemical used in plaster of Paris, and calcium carbonate, which exists naturally as chalk and limestone and also helps form mollusc shells and stony corals.

The sulphate helps the fluorapatite become more crystalline in the arm's outer layers, adding to its hardness. The fluorapatite in the inner layers, on the other hand, exists in a softer glassy form, which helps the arm absorb forces like a cushion.

"With these findings we can take calcium sulphate - which is easy enough to buy - and use it to try and crystallise fluorapatite to create strong and biocompatible materials," said Prof Miserez.

The scientists plan to further study the arm's structure, chemistry and mechanics, and how the shrimp is able to strike so quickly. They will also use computer simulations to examine exactly what happens to the arm when it hits an object.
- See more at: http://yourhealth.asiaone.com/content/mantis-shrimps-armed-power#sthash.qEr2c5Op.dpuf

Read more!

Truck sinks into ground along Upper Changi Road East

Today Online 25 Apr 14;


Tipper truck sinks into road along Upper Changi Road East. Photo: Don Wong

SINGAPORE — A section of Upper Changi Road East caved in yesterday morning, causing a tipper truck to sink in, where it remained trapped for more than two hours.

The driver was not injured and no other injuries were reported. The Land Transport Authority (LTA), which is investigating the incident, said the “depression” had appeared in the centre lane of the road at about 8.30am. Part of the passing truck slipped in, leaving its front wheels hanging in the air.

Two lanes of traffic were closed while the truck was recovered and the LTA deployed traffic wardens to divert and guide traffic flow. “The LTA is currently carrying out reinstatement works,” a spokesperson said in a statement.

The incident took place near construction works for the upcoming Downtown Line 3.

“We will also continue to monitor underground construction works in the surrounding area. This incident is not expected to impact the construction progress of the Downtown Line 3,” the spokesperson said.

In March last year, excavation works of Downtown Line Stage 2 caused an underground water pipe to rupture, resulting in a sinkhole on Woodlands Road. Earlier that month, a sinkhole had appeared twice on the same spot on Clementi Road. Other sinkhole incidents included one in January last year on Keppel Road that trapped a car for more than an hour.

Following the incidents, Transport Minister Lui Tuck Yew said in Parliament in April last year that the LTA would step up its monitoring efforts, such as by installing more extensometers to monitor for movement in soil and rock, and checking for voids under pavements or roads near excavation sites.

It would also work with utility agencies and companies to check their underground structures and records, as well as carry out any necessary removal or rectification works.

Truck falls into road "depression" along Upper Changi Road East
Olivia Siong Channel NewsAsia 24 Apr 14;

SINGAPORE: The driver of a tipper truck found himself stuck with his vehicle in a large hole along Upper Changi Road East on Thursday.

The Land Transport Authority said a "depression" appeared at the road's centre lane around 8.30am.

The truck, which was passing by, fell into the hole and tilted on its side.

No one was injured.

To ensure the safety of motorists, two adjoining lanes were immediately closed to traffic while the truck was recovered.

Traffic has been diverted and LTA said it has deployed traffic wardens to guide traffic flow.

Reinstatement works are ongoing and LTA is investigating the incident.

The depression is located near a Downtown Line 3 construction site.

LTA said it does not expect the incident to impact the construction progress of the MRT line.

It added that it will continue to monitor underground construction works in the surrounding area.

- CNA/de

Read more!

Malaysia: Turtle killings the work of syndicates - Dept

The Star 25 Apr 14;

KOTA KINABALU: Wildlife officials suspect that syndicates are behind the killings of turtles in Semporna, Labuan and Kudat in the last two months as they have found few leads on the incident.

Sabah Wildlife Department director Datuk Dr Laurentius Ambu said yesterday that there was growing suspicion that syndicates were involved.

“It did not look like the work of local fishermen or villagers,” he said.

Dr Laurentius said they were still gathering information over the killings.

“When we asked fishermen around the areas, they said they do not know anything. When we ask the larger fishing companies, they say they only use nets which allows trapped turtles to escape,” he added.

Dr Laurentius said some companies even said that they used turtle excluder devices to ensure that none were trapped and killed when they go fishing.

“We are concerned. It looks like there’s a syndicate here that is killing our turtles for commercial reasons,” he added.

In March, 60 turtle carcasses were found strewn in separate locations around Pulau Tiga in northern Kudat.

Four more green turtles were found in Semporna on April 17, followed by two hawksbill turtle carcasses in Labuan four days later.

Dr Laurentius said wildlife officials and the Tourism, Culture and Environment Ministry would discuss with members of the Eastern Sabah Security Command (Esscom) on ways to prevent syndicates from carrying out their activities.

On the seven-metre whale shark that died after being caught in fishing nets near a coastal resort in Kota Belud district on Sunday, Dr Laurentius said: “The villagers had already buried it when we arrived about two days later. So, we will leave it there for now.”

Read more!

Malaysia: Society fights for a green Earth

Sim Bak Heng New Straits Times 25 Apr 14;

THE Green Earth Society (GES), which is less than two months old, organised an environmental forum recently.

The forum highlighted the problems of pollution, environmental degradation and destruction due to development, and the importance of environmental conservation and preservation.

Several speakers were invited to present their views, followed by a question-and-answer session.

The interactive forum and the good response from the floor showed that the guests were eager to know more about environmental issues affecting their surroundings and the steps taken by the state government to address them.

Malaysia Environmental Protection Society president Nithi Nesadural gave a lengthy presentation of what the Earth will ultimately become if people continue to pollute the environment.

He quoted facts and figures to convince the guests that it is now a wake-up call to save the environment.

He expressed his worries that some fauna and flora may disappear from the earth sooner than later, and the future generation will have to rely on historical records to view the extinct species.

Another speaker, Dzulkefly Ahmad, criticised the uncontrolled development in Iskandar Malaysia, especially that involving coastal and mangrove swamps.

He revealed that a lot of mangrove swamps along the Johor Straits have been earmarked for development, despite the importance of mangroves in checking against coastal erosion.

Coastal development is nothing new in Iskandar Malaysia.

In fact, it is set to become the trend of the future.

Most of the projects launched in Iskandar Malaysia, which are targeted at foreigners, are basically waterfront developments offering a scenic view of the Johor Straits.

While the forum has highlighted the problems, it is not enough just to end there.

The GES has a lot of follow-ups to do such as relaying the issues highlighted during the forum to the authorities.

Otherwise, it is as good as shouting loudly from a sound-proof room which serves no purpose at all.

GES founder and chairman P. Sivakumar set up the non-governmental organisation because he could not bear to see how some developments are carried out at the expense of the environment.

He once told me that he did not even dare to pluck a leaf or snap a tree branch.

It sounds a bit far-fetched but this is what environmental conservation is all about.

It takes just minutes to chop down a tree but years to grow one.

In the case of mangrove trees, it is even harder to grow back due to the presence of tidal waves.

Dzulkefly pointed out that traditional fishermen along the Johor Straits are losing their livelihood due to dwindling catch.

They might be asking for compensation. But even if they managed to claim a big sum of money, this is not helping them to solve the problem.

The fact is that it is getting more and more difficult to make a living as fishermen anymore.

The birth of GES is the first step in the right direction.

I wish them every success.

Read more!

Malaysia: Underground water may not be safe

hemananthani sivanandam The Star 25 Apr 14;

PETALING JAYA: Experts have urged the Selangor government to conduct feasibility studies before pumping underground water to overcome the shortage in the state.

Association of Water and Energy Research Malaysia president S. Piarapakaran said the state government has to analyse the chemical content in the water of former mining pools that it plans to pump.

“Have they done analysis on the carcinogenic (cancer-causing) materials there?

“Abandoned mining pools also have low-level radioactivity,” he added when contacted.

Piarapakaran said that minor tapping of groundwater in rural areas would not usually have an adverse impact on the environment. But large-scale projects would need environmental impact assessment.

Piarapakaran also cautioned that tapping underground water could cause land subsidence and drop in groundwater levels.

“This will encourage the people concerned to dig deeper.

“As our groundwater recharge is directly related to rainfall and the amount of forest cover in Malaysia, large-scale projects can have a huge environmental impact,” said Piarapakaran.

“Another possible problem is an increase in peat fires during dry seasons as the groundwater levels will be getting lower due to extraction.”

Water and Energy Consumer Association of Malaysia secretary general Foon Weng Lian agreed that detailed studies must be done on tapping underground water to avoid negative impact to the surrounding environment.

“Where are all the reports and feasibility studies?

“Use of underground water has to be carefully studied and planned because the impact will be long term,” said Foon.

On plans to seek the help of Thailand’s “Royal Rainmaking Centre” to harvest rain at the Sungai Selangor dam, both Foon and Piarapakaran said it was a good idea.

“It is better than traditional cloud seeding that we are doing now to increase rainfall in the water catchment areas,” said Piara­pakaran.

On Wednesday, the Selangor government announced it has approved a RM10mil allocation to build infrastructure to facilitate the transfer of water from sources such as former mines and ponds into Sungai Selangor.

Mentri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim also announced that water rationing would only be lifted in stages when the water level at the Sungai Selangor dam goes over 40%.

According to the Selangor Water Management Authority website, the level at Sungai Selangor Dam stood at 39.26% as of 8am yesterday.

Read more!