Best of our wild blogs: 16 Aug 14

Large-tailed Nightjar In Singapore
from Francis' Random Yaks, Articles & Photos

banded file snake, hunting @ pulau semakau shore - Aug 2014
from sgbeachbum

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Over 24,000sqm of land to be acquired for Thomson-East Coast Line

Kelly Ng Today Online 15 Aug 14;

SINGAPORE — A mix of industrial and residential sites along with parts of a golf course will be acquired by the Government to build the Thomson-East Coast Line (TEL).

Of the over 24,000sqm of land to be acquired by the Singapore Land Authority (SLA), about three quarters of it will come from Laguna National Golf & Country Club, an area that still comprises less than 1 per cent of the club’s total land space.

Speaking at a media conference on the TEL yesterday (Aug 15) SLA Director of Land Sales and Acquisition Thong Wai Lin said some acquisition was unavoidable given how Singapore is densely built-up.

“What we try to do is to work very closely with LTA to keep the acquisition to the minimum, by making sure the design of the station, the construction, the alignment itself as well, would ensure acquisition is kept to the most minimal,” she said.

Also to be acquired to make way for Amber Station on the nine-station line are six semi-detached houses along Amber Road and a three-storey apartment block on Tanjong Katong Road.

Eight partial lots will also be acquired, including industrial plots at 3 Changi South St 2 and 10 Changi South St 3, which are managed by JTC Corporation.

Laguna National, which is building a 200-room five star hotel, welcomed the news. “With one of the stations less than 500m from our front door, our members, future hotel guests and staff will find accessibility and convenience tremendously improved,” said Mr Patrick Bowers, the club’s CEO and managing director.

Mr Bowers also highlighted that playing areas and golfing holes would not be affected by the land acquisition.

In response to TODAY’s queries, JTC Corporation, which would see some of its carpark lots and driveways affected by the land acquisition, said it will work with the LTA and its two lessees to assess the impact and, if necessary, explore alternative arrangements and possible relocation options.

In contrast, affected residents at Amber Road and Tanjong Katong Road reacted with greater furore.

Many were shocked when they heard the news for the first time after SLA and LTA officers served the notices yesterday. Residents have been given 18 months to move out.

Mr Hue K Y, 64, who lives with his family of five on Amber Road, said the announcement was like “dropping a bombshell“. He was upset that the authorities had not consulted residents on the plans and wanted to know if they had considered alternative locations for the station, such as a park space behind the row of houses.

Mr Hue also felt the 18-month notice period was “too tight“ as he had spent more than five years looking for his current self-designed house. The family has lived there for the last 14 years.

Mrs Chong, who spent S$1m renovating her Amber Road home, said her family expects fair compensation and hopes the authorities will take into consideration the costs of renovations and relocating.

Mr Sim Chiang Lee, 79, who operates Sin Aik Provision Shop on Tanjong Katong Road, was upset that he would have to give up a business that he spent more than four decades building up.

“We probably don’t need an MRT station here, residents in this area don’t usually travel by MRT anyway,” he said in Mandarin. Mr Sim owns another three units in the same apartment block, which will be fully acquired to build the line.

The SLA will be discussing with landowners on the submission of claims next month and it will announce their compensation award in six months.

Golf course to provide most of land acquired for new line
Kelly Ng Today Online 16 Aug 14;

SINGAPORE — A mix of industrial and residential sites along with parts of a golf course will be acquired by the Government to build the Thomson-East Coast Line (TEL).

Of the more than 24,000 sq m of land to be acquired by the Singapore Land Authority (SLA), about three-quarters will come from Laguna National Golf and Country Club — the area acquired, however, comprises less than 1 per cent of the club’s total land space.

Speaking at a media conference on the TEL yesterday, SLA director of land sales and acquisition, Ms Thong Wai Lin, said acquisition was unavoidable, given how densely built-up Singapore is. “What we try to do is work very closely with LTA to keep acquisition to a minimum, by making sure the design of the station, construction and alignment would ensure acquisition is kept to the most minimal,” she said.

Also to be acquired to make way for Amber Station on the 31-station line are six semi-detached houses along Amber Road and a three-storey apartment block in Tanjong Katong Road. Eight partial lots will be acquired too, including the industrial plots at 3 Changi South Street 2 and 10 Changi South Street 3, which are managed by JTC Corporation.

Laguna National, which is building a 200-room five-star hotel, welcomed the news. “With one of the stations less than 500m from our front door, our members, future hotel guests and staff will find accessibility and convenience tremendously improved,” said Mr Patrick Bowers, the club’s CEO and managing director.

In contrast, affected residents inAmber Road and Tanjong Katong Road reacted to the news with greater furore. Many were shocked when they heard the news for the first time after notices were served by SLA and LTA officers yesterday. Residents have been given 18 months to move out.

Mr Hue K Y, 64, who has lived along Amber Road with his family of five for the past 14 years, said the announcement was like “dropping a bombshell”. He was upset that the authorities had not consulted residents and wanted to know if they had considered alternative locations for the station, such as a park space behind the row of houses.

Mrs Chong, who has spent S$1 million renovating her Amber Road home, said her family expects fair compensation and hopes the authorities will take into consideration “the costs of renovation, finishings and relocating”.

Mr Sim Chiang Lee, 79, who operates Sin Aik Provision Shop on Tanjong Katong Road, was upset that he would have to give up a business that he had spent more than four decades building. “We probably don’t need an MRT station here. Residents in this area don’t usually travel by MRT anyway,” he said in Mandarin. Mr Sim also owns three units of the apartment block in Tanjong Katong Road that will be fully acquired to build the line.

The SLA will be discussing with landowners on the submission of claims next month and will announce their compensation award in six months.


Thomson-East Coast Line, connecting North and East, ready by 2024
Saifulbahri Ismail Channel NewsAsia 15 Aug 14;

SINGAPORE: The country's sixth rail line - the Thomson-East Coast Line (TEL) - will be fully operational by 2024, the Land Transport Authority announced on Friday (Aug 15).

The previously-announced Eastern Region Line and the Thomson Line will be joined to form the single, continuous line, which will span about 43 kilometres with a total of 31 stations, seven of which will be interchanges.

Transport Minister Lui Tuck Yew, speaking at a visit to the soon-to-open Marina South Pier Station on Friday, said that when fully operational in 2024, the TEL will serve about 500,000 commuters daily. This could rise to 1 million passengers daily in the longer term.

The East Coast part of the TEL is budgeted to cost $6.8 billion, bringing the total cost of the TEL to about $24 billion. The Land Transport Authority will also build Singapore's first underground bicycle parks at MRT stations. They will be located at Marine Parade, Marine Terrace, Bayshore, and Sungei Bedok stations.

FROM THE NORTH TO THE EAST

The line will provide direct connectivity for commuters in the north and the east of Singapore - starting at Woodlands and heading south through the Central Business District, then turning east at Gardens by the Bay station and travelling along a East Coast stretch that will be fully underground.

One of the nine stations on this stretch will serve as an interchange with Downtown Line 3 Extension (DTL3e) - a 2.2km line consisting of two stations, meant to improve accessibility to the Changi Business Park and Expo areas.

The East Coast stretch will also cover areas not currently served by the rail network such as Siglap, Marine Parade, Upper East Coast and Bedok South. Seven of the stations, from Tanjong Rhu to Bayshore, will be ready by 2023, while remainder of the line, as well as the DTL3e, will be completed the year after.

Also scheduled for completion in 2024 is a new 36-hectare depot, touted by the LTA as "the world's first four-in-one train and bus depot". The new structure, which is the size of about 60 football fields, will be able to house a total of 220 trains for the TEL, DTL and East West Line, as well as 550 buses.

"Making the elevated train depot is a very hard thing to do, because trains are very, very heavy. So, this is typically not done in many parts of the world, where there is more supply of land. So, this will be a challenge," said Dr Park Byung Joon, Head of the Urban Transport Management at the Singapore Institute of Management (SIM).

Construction of the East Coast stretch is expected to start in 2016. To build the line, the Government will need to acquire six landed properties along Amber Road and one three-storey apartment along Tanjong Katong Road, as well as nine part lots elsewhere. The Singapore Land Authority on Friday gazetted the properties affected by acquisition, and said it would work closely with landowners throughout the process.

CONVENIENCE A CONSIDERATION

The LTA said that with the TEL, someone going from the East Coast to Orchard MRT station will have his travel time cut by half an hour, from 75 minutes to 45 minutes. A Republic Polytechnic student will be able to travel to Marine Parade in an hour, 20 minutes faster than the current bus ride would take.

Also, stations along the TEL will see longer underpasses of up to 400m long, as part of efforts to improve "first and last mile connectivity", particularly for the elderly and children, the LTA said.

However, the Thomson-East Coast Line comes with some challenges, said the Transport Minister. "The corridors along Tanjong Rhu and Marine Parade areas are very tight, and this is made more difficult by the extensive network of utilities structures and services that are in the area. Significant sewage and canal diversions, as well as complex road works, will be required for the construction," Mr Lui said.

- CNA/es

Better compensation for land-owners affected by Thomson-East Coast Line development
Saifulbahri Ismail and Olivia Siong Channel NewsAsia 15 Aug 14;

SINGAPORE: Some property owners affected by land acquisition from the development of the Thomson-East Coast Line can expect better compensation. Property analysts say this is because of recent changes to the Land Acquisition Act.

Amendments passed in Parliament last week (Aug 5), saw the removal of the "betterment levy" - a fee imposed on the compensation a land owner gets. This fee is equivalent to the rise in value of the area around the acquired land as a result of developments.

Six landed properties along Amber Road, and a three-storey apartment along Tanjong Katong Road will be acquired by the Government, to make way for construction of the eastern part of the Thomson-East Coast Line.

The Singapore Land Authority (SLA) says all efforts have been made to minimise land acquisition. SLA's Land Sales and Acquisition Director Thong Wai Lin: "So far we are acquiring only for the Thomson-East Coast Line this portion of the eastern region line we're acquiring 24,136.4 sq m, the bulk of it is from Laguna Golf and Country Club. So, about 6,480 sq m are from the residential, and industrial properties, and we're only affecting 15 residential properties, nine strata units, and six landed properties."

Laguna Golf and Country Club says authorities started engaging them about the acquisition since April this year. The Club says none of the holes are affected, and believes the new MRT Line will be a boost for members, guests and staff.

Affected residents have been served notices by the Singapore Land Authority. Many say the notice came as a surprise. One affected landowner, Mr Sim, told us he was "heartbroken": "I spent the last 50 years on this business and now they ask you to move, you have to do so."

Property analysts expect affected owners to be well compensated. Said Mr Desmond Sim, Head of Research at CBRE Research: "The thing about land acquisition is that the new law that has been passed, is that it allows land acquisition to be on full market value. They have disregarded the reduction of the betterment value. So I think those people affected by this land acquisition will be better compensated going forward."

Next month, the Singapore Land Authority will meet with affected land owners on the submission of claims. They will know the compensation award in six months.

- CNA/xy


Single MRT line to link East Coast to Woodlands
Xue Jianyue Today Online 16 Aug 14;

SINGAPORE — By 2024, residents living along the island’s east coast can take a continuous MRT ride to the Central Business District or up north to places such as Woodlands, without having to switch trains or hop onto buses.

Apart from greater convenience, travel times will be slashed too: For example, it will take only 45 minutes, instead of 75 minutes by bus, to travel from East Coast Park to Orchard. To get from Woodlands to Marine Parade, it will take about an hour, compared with 80 minutes by bus.

Yesterday, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) announced that the Thomson Line and the Eastern Region Line will be renamed as a single line — the Thomson-East Coast Line (TEL).

It also gave details of the alignment of the nine-station eastern stretch, which will run from Sungei Bedok to Tanjong Rhu and include places such as Katong Park, Siglap and Bayshore.

Construction will start in 2016. Of the nine stations, seven are targeted for opening by 2023, while the Bedok South and Sungei Bedok Stations are slated for operations a year later.

The alignment of the 22-station northern stretch was announced previously; the line will serve areas such as Shenton Way, Havelock, Mount Pleasant, Upper Thomson and Woodlands South.

The eastern end of the Downtown Line will also be extended by two new stations to link up with the TEL, which will be fully underground.

Speaking to the reporters on the sidelines of a visit to the Marina South Pier Station — which will be opened by the end of the year — Transport Minister Lui Tuck Yew said: “The Thomson Line and Eastern Region Line had been planned to run as one single line ... So, rather than having two separate names ... and to make it easier for commuters, we have decided to re-name (the lines) as the Thomson-East Coast Line.”

He added: “A single line, instead of two separate lines, will allow us to reap economies of scale and operational efficiencies from having common systems and trains.”

The 31-station TEL is budgeted to cost about S$24 billion. Mr Lui noted the construction challenges adding to costs for the eastern stretch, such as the extensive network of utilities structures and services. Significant sewage and canal diversions, as well as complex road work, will be required, he said.

Consisting of seven interchanges, the line is expected to serve half a million commuters daily in the initial years and up to twice the figure in the longer term.

On the fact that the TEL’s eastern stretch will serve several areas dominated by private properties, LTA CEO Chew Hock Yong noted that it is inevitable that MRT lines will run through high- and low-density areas to link up the population centres.

He added that he hopes the new line will encourage car owners living in these areas to switch to public transport. “We certainly hope to see (the) Singaporean population (being) less reliant on private cars, because there is only so much we can grow the road space,” he said.

He said that with the addition of the TEL, commuters would have the option of using another MRT line if there is disruption on a particular stretch.

Dr Park Byung Joon, head of the urban transport management programme at SIM University, said the new line would help reduce congestion on the East-West Line, given that the TEL’s eastern stretch runs almost parallel to the East-West Line.

Property analysts were divided on the impact of the new line on property prices. Some felt the noise and inconvenience caused by the construction of the line — which the LTA has pledged to minimise — would adversely affect the value of nearby properties. And when the stations are completed, properties that are near the line may also have issues with noise and privacy.

Others pointed out that prices of nearby properties would go up, given the increased convenience and connectivity.

The value of properties located within walking distance from a station is likely to rise the most, said Mr Nicholas Mak, executive director of SLP International Property Consultants. Owners of these properties looking to sell their units could increase asking prices by 5 per cent to 10 per cent, but these would be subject to other market forces, he added.

$6.8b East Coast line by 2024
Christopher Tan The Straits Times AsiaOne 16 Aug 14;

SINGAPORE - A new addition to Singapore's expanding rail network was announced yesterday - a 13km, nine-station line tracing the east coast shoreline which, for the first time, will allow picnickers to get to East Coast Park by MRT.

Extending from the recently announced Thomson Line - which has now been renamed the Thomson-East Coast Line (TEL) - it is scheduled to be completed by 2024.

Transport Minister Lui Tuck Yew revealed the plans yesterday at the Marina South Pier station - an extension of the North-South Line which will open soon. He said the eastern leg of the TEL is expected to cost $6.8 billion.

Mr Lui said the line will "run almost parallel" to the East-West Line and the future Downtown Line 3, adding: "When completed, rail capacity along the East-West corridor will increase by about 45 per cent."

Travel pattern studies have shown that this corridor accounts for the bulk of morning peak period volume.

First announced by then Communications Minister Yeo Cheow Tong in 2001, the eastern leg of the TEL will go through areas such as Tanjong Rhu, Marine Parade and Siglap. It will serve several residential estates, such as condos in Tanjong Rhu and Bayshore, Housing Board flats in Marine Parade and Bedok South, and low-rise developments in Amber and Tanjong Katong roads.

Schools near the line include St Patrick's, CHIJ Katong, Tao Nan, Victoria School and St Andrew's Autism School. The line will also serve commercial and recreational facilities, such as the Singapore Indoor Stadium and Parkway Parade shopping centre.

Land Transport Authority chief executive Chew Hock Yong said there will be an underground walkway from Parkway Parade to the Marine Parade Community Building two streets away.

Using existing pedestrian underpasses, commuters will be able to get to East Coast Park, which is currently not near any MRT line.

The line will be the first in Singapore to offer underground bicycle parks at stations in Marine Parade, Marine Terrace, Bayshore and Sungei Bedok.

Stations from Tanjong Rhu to Bayshore will be completed by 2023, while Bedok South and Sungei Bedok stations will be ready by 2024 - along with a massive depot to be built next to the existing East-West Line depot in Upper Changi.

The facility will hold 220 trains from the East-West, Downtown and Thomson-East Coast lines, as well as 550 buses.

At its eastern tip, the TEL will have an interchange with Downtown Line 3, which will extend by 2.2km and have a station in Xilin.

This extension will be completed by 2024. The TEL may eventually be extended to join Changi Airport's planned Terminal 5.

Tenders are expected to be called next year with construction starting in 2016.

The project will require more than 24,000 sq m of land to be acquired. The Singapore Land Authority said residential and industrial properties account for only about a quarter of that. The rest will be from the Laguna National Golf and Country Club.

Mr Kevin Kwee, the club's executive director, said the grounds-keeping building, nursery and service areas will have to be moved.

But overall, the development "should be highly positive" as the club will have access to two MRT stations - Xilin and Sungei Bedok.

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Malaysia: Severed dolphin head draws outrage from Miri folk

The Star 13 Aug 14;

MIRI: A severed head of a totally protected dolphin was found floating in Sungai Miri here, adjacent to the South China Sea, outraging citizens who are demanding swift punitive action.

A Sea Scout leader, Vincent Loks, yesterday alerted The Star to the incident after he lodged a complaint to the Marine Fisheries Department upon being informed of the gruesome discovery by a diving instructor.

“The dive master managed to take photos of the severed head before it was carried away by the current. It is clear from the photo that the head of the dolphin had been purposely cut off.

“I have heard from some people that there had been cases of dolphins that were illegally caught near the shores of Miri and slaughtered for their meat,” he said.

Loks said he had lodged a complaint to the Marine Fisheries Department and its deputy director Johari Ramli said the department would investigate.

“Johari said dolphins are totally protected under the Wildlife Protection Ordinance and that capturing or killing of the marine mammal is an offence.”

Datuk Sebastian Ting, who is chairman of the Piasau Camp Nature Park Society, reacted with shock when informed of the discovery.

Sungai Miri runs through the Piasau Camp, recently declared a totally protected area by Chief Minister Tan Sri Adenan Satem.

The place is where rare hornbills were discovered living within the city, a very rare occurrence considering the fact that hornbills had never been discovered living in their natural state so near to an urban centre before.

“If there are people actually catching and killing these rare and beautiful creatures, swift action must be taken to stop such senseless killing.

“We are trying very hard to promote Miri city as a place where nature and humans can live side by side and prosper together.

“There is simply no excuse why anyone should catch or kill any dolphin,” he stressed.

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Best of our wild blogs: 15 Aug 14

First public walks at Sisters Islands
from wild shores of singapore

What we’ve been up to in August 2014?
from Neo Mei Lin

Singapore Common Bugs
from The Singapore Writing Homemaker

Elephant poaching soars as Sumatran forests turn into plantations
from Mongabay.com news by Morgan Erickson-Davis

Indonesia cracks down on illegal burning, investigates more suspect companies from Mongabay.com news by Morgan Erickson-Davis

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Six new precincts among plans to enhance Sentosa’s appeal

Kelly Ng Channel NewsAsia 15 Aug 14;

SINGAPORE: Sentosa is calling for ideas to boost its appeal to visitors and its plans include creating six precincts, which will have distinct offerings that cater for different groups, out of its existing clusters.

For example, the Palawan Beach precinct will be dedicated to family-centric activities, while the Siloso Beach stretch will feature “thrilling and adventurous recreational activities for the young and energetic”.

The Imbiah Lookout precinct will feature nature and heritage, and the Fort Siloso and Siloso Point area, which includes the preserved coastal fort and the Underwater World Singapore attractions, will offer visitors a “learning journey”.

The two other precincts singled out for enhancement are the North-South Link cluster, which connects Resorts World Sentosa and the beaches, and the Siloso Beach area.

The planning directives for each of the precincts were detailed in an Expression of Interest document (EOI) Sentosa Development Corporation (SDC) posted last month on the government procurement website GeBIZ, which was first reported in Chinese newspaper Lianhe Zaobao on Thursday (Aug 14).

SDC divisional director for property Benjamin Chia said the company is seeking consultancy services to “map its near- and mid-term development plans for the different precincts”.

“The outcome of the consultation process would be a suite of localised development projects within these precincts for SDC to evaluate and decide whether to embark on,” Mr Chia added.

Other plans include a “well-choreographed and comfortable” walking experience along the North-South link precinct. The consultant will also need to come up with proposals to enhance connectivity on the island, between the precincts as well as within them “to entice guests to walk and enjoy the island”.

The project will be carried out in three phases and a different firm will be appointed as the consultant for each phase. Subsequently, these firms may form strategic partnerships with SDC to support precinct-planning over the next five years.

Submissions will be evaluated based on a firm’s financial standing, resources and expertise, as well as track record. The EOI closes on Friday and shortlisted firms will be called to tender their proposals after evaluation.

Sentosa has surpassed the 20-million mark in terms of annual visitors, its latest figures showed.

Between April 1, 2012, and March 31 last year, a total of 20.5 million people visited the island. New attractions include a new night show called Wings of Time, which debuted at Siloso Beach in June.

Other offerings in the pipeline include Singapore’s first Madame Tussauds wax museum, which is slated to open later this year. Next year, visitors can look forward to KidZania, an indoor theme park for children, and the world’s first double swing bungy.

- CNA/cy

Six new precincts among plans to enhance Sentosa’s appeal
Kelly Ng Today Online 15 Aug 14;

SINGAPORE — Sentosa is calling for ideas to boost its appeal to visitors and its plans include creating six precincts, which will have distinct offerings that cater for different groups, out of its existing clusters.

For example, the Palawan Beach precinct will be dedicated to family-centric activities, while the Siloso Beach stretch will feature “thrilling and adventurous recreational activities for the young and energetic”.

The Imbiah Lookout precinct will feature nature and heritage, and the Fort Siloso and Siloso Point area, which includes the preserved coastal fort and the Underwater World Singapore attractions, will offer visitors a “learning journey”.

The two other precincts singled out for enhancement are the North-South Link cluster, which connects Resorts World Sentosa and the beaches, and the Tanjong Beach area.

The planning directives for each of the precincts were detailed in an Expression of Interest document (EOI) Sentosa Development Corporation (SDC) posted last month on the government procurement website GeBIZ, which was first reported in Chinese newspaper Lianhe Zaobao yesterday.

SDC divisional director for property Benjamin Chia said the company is seeking consultancy services to “map its near- and mid-term development plans for the different precincts”.

“The outcome of the consultation process would be a suite of localised development projects within these precincts for SDC to evaluate and decide on whether to embark on,” Mr Chia added.

Other plans include a “well-choreographed and comfortable” walking experience along the North-South link precinct. The consultant will also need to come up with proposals to enhance connectivity on the island, between the precincts as well as within them “to entice guests to walk and enjoy the island”.

The project will be carried out in three phases and a different firm will be appointed as the consultant for each phase. Subsequently, these firms may form strategic partnerships with SDC to support precinct-planning over the next five years.

Submissions will be evaluated based on a firm’s financial standing, resources and expertise, as well as track record. The EOI closes today and shortlisted firms will be called to tender their proposals after evaluation.

Sentosa has surpassed the 20-million mark in terms of annual visitors, its latest figures showed.

Between April 1, 2012, and March 31 last year, a total of 20.5 million people visited the island. New attractions include a new night show called Wings of Time, which debuted at Siloso Beach in June.

Other offerings in the pipeline include Singapore’s first Madame Tussauds wax museum, which is slated to open later this year. Next year, visitors can look forward to KidZania, an indoor theme park for children, and the world’s first double swing bungy.

Sentosa to get major facelift
Janice Tai The Straits Times AsiaOne 17 Aug 14;

SINGAPORE - Sentosa will be given a makeover in the next five years in a bid to draw more locals and tourists to the island.

Attractions and activities for visitors will be grouped according to themes and given designated areas within Sentosa.

For example, the Palawan Beach area will be for family activities with its upcoming Family Entertainment Centre, while Siloso Beach will offer lively beach bars and adrenaline-pumping rides for the adventurous and trendy. Imbiah Lookout will give nature and heritage lovers the greenery and serenity they seek.

Sentosa Development Corp (SDC), which manages the island, is calling for developers to indicate their interest in developing the island on the Government's online purchasing portal, GeBIZ, in an exercise that ends today.

According to SDC's project brief, six existing sites, which make up a third of the island's land area, have been earmarked for transformation - the North-South Link Precinct, Fort Siloso and Siloso Point, Siloso Beach, Palawan Beach, Tanjong Beach and Imbiah Lookout.

SDC also asked developers to submit ideas on how space on the 500ha island can be better used and how people can get from one area to another more easily.

"We would like to gain insights into innovative ways of enhancing infrastructure, landscape and lighting, as well as strategies for more efficient land use," said Mr Benjamin Chia, divisional director of property at SDC.

Experts say having themed zones, each with its own distinct identity, will be crucial as the island, which already has 33 attractions and nearly 200 food and retail outlets, is getting more crowded. "It will help distribute the crowd according to age group, and allow better land and infrastructure planning, such as having more child-friendly facilities in areas that are meant for families," said Dr Michael Chiam, senior lecturer in tourism at Ngee Ann Polytechnic.

The five-year plan will be executed in three phases, starting with the North-South Link Precinct and ending with Imbiah Lookout.

Once work on the North-South Link Precinct is done, visitors should be able to walk easily from the North-South boulevard to the beaches and other zones.

The Fort Siloso and Siloso Point Precinct, which houses the country's coastal defence installation, will be a draw for history buffs. Beach lovers who want to see more of nature in a tranquil setting can head to Tanjong Beach.

The last time the island received a makeover was in 2006, when a new walkway and a children's splashing zone were added to Palawan Beach. That mini rejuvenation alone came with an $11 million bill.

SDC said it is unable to estimate the budget for this project as the developers have yet to be appointed.

Visitorship to the island has jumped since Resorts World Sentosa opened in 2010, rising from 6.1 million in 2008 to 20.5 million last year. Figures could go higher with the opening of long-awaited attractions such as wax museum Madame Tussauds this year and Singapore's first bungee jump facility next year.

"These changes are all exciting and good, but I hope the crowds will be better managed as there is always a bottleneck at the tram stations," said social service executive Cheryl Ong, 27, who goes to Sentosa for beach volleyball every week.

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Palm oil in west Africa: Grow but cherish your environment

Companies wanting to make palm oil face angry environmentalists
The Economist 16 Aug 14;

FOR half a century, Indonesia and Malaysia have accounted for the vast majority of the world’s exports of palm oil. But now investors are flocking to west Africa to secure land for rival plantations. Environmentalists say the forests of South-East Asia have been massively despoiled and are warning west African governments not to follow suit. A growth-versus-conservation battle is in the offing.

The oil palm is native to west Africa, but most of today’s production is small-scale; exports barely exist. Yet restrictions on logging and the acquisition of land in Malaysia and Indonesia are pushing investors into Africa, where concessions for new plantations are more freely available. In the past decade, politicians in west Africa and countries of the Congo basin have leased out around 1.8m hectares of land for palm-oil plantations, according to Hardman, a London-based research company. Another 1.4m hectares is being sought. Foreign companies sniffing around include groups such as Wilmar, Olam, Sime Darby, Golden Veroleum and Equatorial Palm Oil.

Demand for palm oil, whose annual global production is valued at around $50 billion, is soaring; consumption may triple between 2000 and 2050. The oil is taken from the oil palm’s red fruit and is used in roughly half of all packaged supermarket products, from margarine and ice cream to shampoo and cosmetics. It is increasingly used as a biodiesel, too.

But Africans are fast learning that it is a controversial business. Malaysia and Indonesia have been castigated for the environmental damage caused by palm oil. Deforestation has increased carbon emissions and destroyed the habitat of rare breeds of animals such as orangutans. Africa faces similar problems. A recent academic report noted that more than half of oil-palm concessions in Africa infringe on the habitat of great apes.

When a new concession is signed, civil-society organisations often complain that land has been “grabbed”. Weak land titles and hazy lines between customary and state ownership can result in local peasants being booted off their land and becoming impoverished, they say. Equatorial Palm Oil is just one company facing criticism. In Liberia, among other countries, the palm-oil industry is being hampered by such issues. “The country is producing very limited quantities of palm oil and indeed has very limited planted area, yet concessions were granted as early as 2006,” says Doug Hawkins of Hardman.

Some of the would-be investors in African palm oil do indeed have shoddy track records. Two years ago Newsweek’s “green ranking” of the world’s 500 biggest publicly traded companies judged Wilmar, a Singaporean group which owns plantations in Nigeria and Ghana, as the least environmentally sound. Potential investors in west Africa are becoming nervous. In 2012 Norway’s government pension fund pulled out of 23 palm-oil firms deemed “unsustainable”, including Wilmar and Golden Agri-Resources, though both are members of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil. This Swiss-based coalition of growers, processors, food firms, investors and green charities, with a secretariat in Malaysia, tries to persuade the palm-oil industry to cherish the environment.

Some commercial growers in west Africa have faced protests by locals. In certain cases, the police have been accused of using force to quash them. Last year Herakles Capital, an investment fund in New York, had to slim down its plans for a plantation in Cameroon that is said to be ten times the acreage of Manhattan.

Many investors say they have become more sensitive towards villagers’ worries and will clear forest only if it has already been “degraded”. In Gabon, for instance, Olam has returned much of the land allocated to it by the government because it was unsuitable for agriculture. It says it is developing less than half of the terrain it has retained, setting aside the remainder for community use or conservation purposes. The group says it is not developing any plantations in areas that are already permanently inhabited.

“If Liberia could get compensation for its forest being one of the last in sub-Saharan Africa, then we would take it,” says Liberia’s finance minister, Amara Konneh. “Of course we are worried about the ecological consequences. But we have to grow the economy. We have to create jobs for our own people. How we do it sustainably is where we are struggling.”

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Africa: Poachers Force Massive Rhino Evacuation

Tia Ghose LiveScience.com Yahoo News 14 Aug 14;

Hundreds of endangered rhinos will be evacuated from one of the largest national parks in Africa, according to the South African government.

The evacuation effort aims to protect the rhinos in South Africa's Kruger National Park from poachers, by moving the animals away from regions of high population density to safer areas.

The move comes in response to the country's rising problem with illegal poaching. Last year, poachers killed a record 1,004 rhinos in South Africa — more than double the number slaughtered in 2011 and astronomically higher than the 13 killed in 2007, according to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). More than 60 percent of the slaughtered rhinos lived in Kruger National Park.

The growing demand for rhino horn comes mainly from Asian countries, where locals prize the ivory as a status symbol and sometimes use it in traditional medicine for ailments ranging from gout to rheumatism. [Black Market Horns: Image from a Rhino Bust]

Threatened species

Black rhinoceros are considered critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which means the animals face an incredibly high risk of extinction in the wild. The IUCN categorizes white rhinos as "near-threatened," which means they may be at risk for extinction in the future. In total, about 21,000 rhinos from both species lived in South Africa in 2012, South African environment minister Edna Molewa said in a statement.

With the evacuation, officials aim to move rhinos from the park's vulnerable eastern edge, where poaching is rampant, to safer places across the country. Though the rhinos' final homes haven't been decided yet, the government is considering other national and provincial parks, safer spots in Kruger National Park, private reserves, and even other countries. The evacuation will also break up dense rhino populations into less populous groups; the dense groups face higher mortality rates and breeding pressures, Molewa said.

"The complimentary approach of strategic relocations from the Kruger National Park and the creation of rhino strongholds will allow the total rhino population size of South Africa to continue to grow," Molewa said in a statement.

Other approaches

The government is also stepping up its use of DNA analysis to tie rhino horn back to individual slaughtered animals, which in turn could help officials nab poachers. The country arrested many more poachers in the 2013/2014 financial year than in previous periods, according to the South African Department of Environmental Affairs. One notorious poacher, Mandla Chauke, was sentenced to 77 years in prison, department officials said.

But South Africa has other tools to fight the poaching problem. Last year, the government proposed selling all of its confiscated rhino ivory, in hopes that flooding the rhino horn black market would lower prices and reduce economic incentives for poaching.

This isn't the first time that rhinos have been evacuated. In 2011, 19 rhinos from East South Africa were airlifted to another region to protect them from poachers.

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Central America braces for drought-linked food crisis

Anastasia Moloney PlanetArk 15 Aug 14;

Low rainfall linked to the El Nino weather phenomenon has led to drought in parts of Central America, causing widespread damage to crops, shortages and rising prices of food, and worsening hunger among the region's poor.

An unusually hot season and extended dry spells have brought drought to areas in eastern and western Guatemala and El Salvador, southern Honduras and northern and central Nicaragua, destroying swathes of bean and maize crops, the region's staple foods, and putting pressure on subsistence farmers and food prices.

"Extremely poor households across large areas of Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras, and El Salvador will experience a rapid deterioration in their food security in early 2015.

"Atypically high levels of humanitarian assistance, possibly the highest since Hurricane Mitch in 1998, will likely be required in order to avoid a food crisis," said a recent report by the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET), run by the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

Thousands of families in the region have become too poor to buy enough food for survival because poor harvests are pushing up prices of staple foods while coffee producers are hiring fewer seasonal coffee pickers and paying lower wages because of a coffee leaf rust or roya epidemic across Central America.

In Nicaragua and Honduras, red bean prices rose by up to 129 percent between January and June 2014, according to FEWS NET.

Other livelihoods in Central America, including fishing and livestock breeding, have also been hard hit by the recent drought and the El Nino weather phenomenon, FEWS NET said.

El Nino, which can last more than a year, significantly raises surface temperatures in the central and eastern areas of the tropical Pacific Ocean, a phenomenon linked to major climate fluctuations around the world.

In response to the drought, the Guatemalan government has said it will begin distributing 4,000 tonnes of food aid to more than 170,000 families affected by the drought from early October, using government and United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) food reserves.

One of the poorest countries in Central America, Guatemala already struggles to feed its population, particularly those impoverished indigenous communities living in rural areas.

Around half Guatemala's population of 15 million lives in poverty and the country has the world's fourth highest rate of chronic malnutrition, which affects almost half the children under five, according to the WFP.

In neighboring Honduras, the government is distributing food, including rice, beans and flour, and vitamin supplements to 76,000 families, many subsistence farmers, affected by the drought.

(Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, covers underreported humanitarian, human rights, corruption and climate change issues. Visit www.trust.org)

(Editing by Tim Pearce)

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Study blames humans for most of melting glaciers

SETH BORENSTEIN Associated Press Yahoo News 14 Aug 14;

WASHINGTON (AP) — More than two-thirds of the recent rapid melting of the world's glaciers can be blamed on humans, a new study finds.

Scientists looking at glacier melt since 1851 didn't see a human fingerprint until about the middle of the 20th century. Even then only one-quarter of the warming wasn't from natural causes.

But since 1991, about 69 percent of the rapidly increasing melt was man-made, said Ben Marzeion, a climate scientist at the University of Innsbruck in Austria.

"Glaciers are really shrinking rapidly now," he said. "I think it's fair to say most of it is man-made."

Scientists fault global warming from the burning of coal, oil and gas as well as changes in land use near glaciers and soot pollution. Glaciers in Alaska and the Alps in general have more human-caused melting than the global average, Marzeion said.

The study is published Thursday in the journal Science.

The research is the first to calculate just how much of the glacial melting can be attributed to people and "the jump from about a quarter to roughly 70 percent of total glacier mass loss is significant and concerning," said University of Alaska Fairbanks geophysicist Regine Hock, who wasn't part of the study.

Over the last two decades, about 295 billion tons (269 billion metric tons) of ice is melting each year on average due to human causes and about 130 billion tons (121 million metric tons) a year are melting because of natural causes, Marzeion calculated.

Glaciers alone add to about four-tenths of an inch of sea level rise every decade, along with even bigger increases from melting ice sheets — which are different than glaciers — and the expansion of water with warmer temperatures.

Marzeion and colleagues ran multiple computer simulations to see how much melting there would be from all causes and then did it again to see how much melting there would be if only natural causes were included. The difference is what was caused by humans.

Scientists aren't quite certain what natural causes started glaciers shrinking after the end of the Little Ice Age in the middle of the 19th century, but do know what are human-causes: climate change, soot, and local changes in land use.

There is a sizable margin of error so the 69 percent human caused can be as low as 45 percent or as high as 93 percent, but likely in the middle.

"This study makes perfect sense," said Pennsylvania State University glacier expert Richard Alley, who wasn't part of the research. "The authors have quantified what I believe most scientists would have expected."

Not all of the human-caused melting is from global warming from the burning of fossil fuels, but climate change is the biggest factor, said Ted Scambos, a scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center.

The study showed that it took time for global warming and other factors to build up and cause melting. That lag effect means the world is already locked into more rapid melting from the warming that has already occurred, Marzeion and Alley said.

Science: http://www.sciencemag.org

Man-made warming becomes main cause of glacier retreat, study says
Alister Doyle PlanetArk 15 Aug 14;

Man-made warming becomes main cause of glacier retreat, study says Photo: Mariana Bazo
A view of the lake formed by meltwater from the Pastoruri glacier, as seen from atop the glacier in Huaraz, September 19, 2013.
Photo: Mariana Bazo

Man-made greenhouse gas emissions have become the dominant cause of melting in glaciers from the Alps to the Andes that is raising world sea levels, a study said on Thursday.

Human emissions accounted for an estimated 69 percent of loss of ice from glaciers from 1991-2010, overtaking natural climate variations that had been the main driver of a retreat since the mid-19th century, researchers wrote in the journal Science.

Until now, scientists have struggled to quantify the impact of human behavior on glaciers because the frozen rivers of ice take decades, perhaps centuries, to respond to rising temperatures and shifts in snow and rainfall.

The study published on Thursday used historical observations of glaciers around the world, except in Antarctica, twinned with computer models to simulate all factors that could explain the retreat. It found that natural variations were not enough on their own, meaning man-made greenhouse gases played an increasing role.

"This is more evidence of human influence on the climate," Ben Marzeion, of the University of Innsbruck in Austria and lead author of the study, told Reuters.

The scientists estimated that human influences accounted for only about 25 percent of glaciers' total retreat since 1850 - meaning that natural swings in the climate, such as changes in the sun's output, have long been dominant.

LITTLE ICE AGE

Many glaciers grew during a period known as the Little Ice Age from 1350 to 1850, perhaps caused by a natural decline in the sun's output or sun-dimming volcanic eruptions.

Michael Zemp, head of the World Glacier Monitoring Service at the University of Zurich, said snowfall declined after around 1850. Rising temperatures from about the 1890s, when wider burning of coal meant more greenhouse gases, hastened the thaw.

"The big majority of glaciers have been retreating over the past century," he told Reuters. "We even have an accelerated retreat in recent decades." Glaciers have also varied widely - many Alpine glaciers advanced in the 1970s and 1980s.

Thursday's study estimated that water from melting glaciers has contributed a total of 13.3 cm (5 inches) from 1851-2010 to rising sea levels. Without human influences the rise would still have been 9.9 cm (4 inches).

Zemp said that greenhouse gases already in the atmosphere meant that glacier retreat and related sea level rise would continue for decades, even if emissions were to stop now.

Melting glaciers, especially in the Himalayas, also supply water vital to millions of people. A Chinese newspaper said that Tibet was warmer over the past 50 years than at any time in the past 2,000.

Pinning down a human influence on temperatures has been easier. A U.N. scientific panel said last year that it was at least 95 percent probable that mankind was the main cause of higher surface temperatures since 1950.

(Editing by Ruth Pitchford)

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Best of our wild blogs: 14 Aug 14

Colourful life on boulders of Punggol
from wild shores of singapore

"Action Plan to Reduce Marine Trash in Singapore" by Green Future Solutions
from wild shores of singapore

Strange Horizons: Past, present and the probable future
from The Long and Winding Road

Pink-necked Green-pigeon uses abandoned munia’s nest
from Bird Ecology Study Group

Butterflies Galore! : Psyche
from Butterflies of Singapore

Pacific Reef Heron in Singapore
from Francis' Random Yaks, Articles & Photos

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Help fund non-govt efforts to map haze

Feng Zengkun The Straits Times AsiaOne 14 Aug 14;

LAST week, Singapore passed a ground-breaking transboundary haze law designed to punish companies that cause fires overseas, leading to haze here.

The Bill received a unanimous vote from lawmakers. But they and other experts also expressed concern about the lack of information to identify errant companies, and noted the problems involved in enforcing penalties against companies with no presence or assets in Singapore.

While these difficulties are not insurmountable, they do underline the challenges ahead and the need for cooperation with regional non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to gather evidence on the ground.

Under the new law, Singapore can fine companies for fires on their land if the resultant haze affects Singapore. Haze in Singapore has been largely blamed on farmers in Indonesia - and some in Malaysia - using fires to clear land during the June-to-October dry season.

To identify errant firms, the authorities can overlay satellite images of fires and smoke over concession or licence maps showing which firms are in charge of land plots. They can also use weather information like wind direction and strength to gauge fires' starting points.

But foreign governments have been reluctant to share official concession maps.

Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Vivian Balakrishnan acknowledged the point last week, saying in Parliament: "Civil servants tend to be very protective of data, and they say, 'no, we cannot share official concession maps' or 'the maps are not ready'."

The law's provisions help Singapore to sidestep this issue by allowing prosecutors to rely on other, non-official maps deemed reliable by the Singapore authorities.

But such non-government maps are rare, and even those currently available are patchy.

Dr Balakrishnan has said, for instance, that there are maps put online by the non-government environmental group World Resources Institute (WRI).

The WRI's Global Forest Watch initiative gets most of its concession maps for Indonesia from the Indonesian Ministry of Forestry, which maintains these maps as a matter of public record.

However, the maps are widely regarded as incomplete and out-ofdate in many cases.

The WRI also sources maps from the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), a non-profit consortium of plantation firms, traders, retailers, green groups and others that promote palm oil supply from estates that do not harm wildlife or cut primary and high-conservation-value forests to expand.

After last year's record haze pollution in the region, when several palm oil firms were blamed for the fires, RSPO palm oil-growing members agreed to provide the RSPO with their concession maps by September this year.

But when asked, the RSPO said it did not have current data on the proportion of land its members hold, out of all of the palm oil plantations in Indonesia and Malaysia.

It said only that RSPO-certified plantations of members made up 13 per cent and 20 per cent of the total planted area in Indonesia and Malaysia respectively, based on public, 2012 land use data.

The members also have non-RSPO certified plantations.

In any case, data on plantation land may be of limited use. During the blazes in Indonesia's Riau province in February and March, fires on the two largest burned areas were started outside concessions, or on land occupied by small-scale operators within the concessions. This was the assessment of the Centre for International Forestry Research.

Without comprehensive maps, Singapore will find it difficult to identify the firms in charge of land where fires occur.

And even if companies are prosecuted, it may be difficult to enforce penalties against those with no presence or assets in Singapore, said Singapore Management University's associate professor of law Eugene Tan.

Officers or partners of companies accused under the law will be served notice in person when they enter Singapore. They can also be ordered to stay on the island to assist in investigations. Failure to comply could lead to fines and even jail.

To give the law more bite, Singapore should help fund the efforts of NGOs to come up with accurate concession maps.

According to Dr Balakrishnan, "there's this element called ground-truthing. What you really need is someone with a camera phone on the ground to say that, 'This is the fire and this is occurring here and I saw this person'."

He added: "Information gathering is sometimes best done through a non-government channel, so you don't invoke issues of sovereignty and other political sensitivities, but at the same time sufficient transparency and information is put into the hands of consumers."

Legislation is no silver bullet, and a "full menu of options" is needed, he added.

If nothing else, the law can have a deterrent effect if the threat of penalties can lead to good behaviour. That's because suspected firms' officers face fines or jail sentences when they come to Singapore, if the firms do not help with investigations.

Firms might thus want to make public maps of the concessions they hold, to pre-empt suspicion.

"Companies that refuse to volunteer their maps are likely to come under greater scrutiny from the public and NGOs," reckoned the Singapore Institute of International Affairs.

So far, fortunate weather has kept the haze away from Singapore during this dry season. But more than luck - and the new law - will be needed to keep the skies blue.
- See more at: http://news.asiaone.com/news/singapore/help-fund-non-govt-efforts-map-haze#sthash.FiE8eqwp.dpuf

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Malaysia: Twice daily cloud seeding ops for Sungai Selangor dam

rahimy rahim The Star 14 Aug 14;

PETALING JAYA: Cloud seeding operations have begun over catchment areas for the Sungai Selangor dam with twice-daily runs since Aug 1.

State exco in charge of infrastructure and public amenities Dr Ahmad Yunus Hairi said the operations, which were carried jointly by the Selangor water management board (Luas), Meteorological department and the air force, were carried out using salt or sodium chloride solution.

“Based on records, the amount of rain over the dam has improved to 181.65mm from 69.52mm in June and 73.05mm in July. This is a positive development,” he said in a statement here yesterday.

Other mitigation measures, added Dr Ahmad, included reducing the rate of release of water from the Sungai Selangor dam and the Sungai Tinggi dam from 700 million litres to 500 million litres daily.

The Sungai Selangor dam’s water level continues to hover near the critical level despite rain over the past few days, with water levels only increasing from 32.03% of the reservoir’s storage capacity on Tuesday to 32.10% yesterday, a mere increase of 0.07%.

Sungai Selangor supplies raw water that meets some 60% of the Klang Valley’s needs. The Sungai Selangor dam as well as six other dams in the state are managed by Luas.

The treatment of raw water is conducted by plant operators including Puncak Niaga and Sya­rikat Pengeluar Air Selangor Sdn Bhd.

Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor Sdn Bhd is in charge of the water supply distribution systems in Selangor and the Federal Terri­tories of Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya.

Malaysia Meteorological Depart­ment spokesman Dr Hisham Mohd Anip said there would be isolated rain throughout the month as the country was facing the southwest monsoon, which typically brings hot and dry weather.

On Tuesday, the Selangor government had announced that water rationing would not be imposed.

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