Best of our wild blogs: 8 Dec 17

Changi shore littered by failing shore protection system
wild shores of singapore

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Contractor behind 2016 Christmas Eve flood in Thomson among 14 fined for drainage offences by PUB

Channel NewsAsia 7 Dec 17;

SINGAPORE: Fourteen contractors - including the company responsible for contributing to the Christmas Eve flood in the Thomson area last year - have been fined by national water agency PUB for various drainage offences.

Sato Kogyo was fined S$14,000, the heftiest among the 14 contractors, according to a press release by PUB on Thursday (Dec 7).

The company was found to have altered the public drainage system across Upper Thomson Road (near Lorong Mega) without PUB’s approval, as well as constructing a temporary diversion drain along Jalan Keli opposite Thomson Plaza without notifying the agency.

These acts contributed to the flash floods that happened in the area on Dec 24, 2016, leaving businesses in the area knee-deep in flood water and with damages worth thousands of dollars.

In addition to the 14 contractors, two Qualified Persons (QP) - appointed registered architects or professional engineers responsible for selecting compliant materials and products for a building project - were penalised as well.

“With many construction projects taking place near or next to the public drainage system, it is important that contractors exercise due diligence to ensure that their works do not affect the functioning of the public drainage system. Drains must be kept free-flowing so that they can convey stormwater away quickly during heavy rain to reduce flood risks,” said Mr Ridzuan Ismail, PUB’s director of catchment and waterways.

The other contractors fined for altering and discontinuing drainage systems without approval were Choon Hoe Construction, Boon Tian Contractor, Tiong Seng Contractors and Woh Hup, Hup Seng Lee and Woh Hup. They were fined S$3,000 each.

According to the release, seven companies were fined between S$2,000 and S$4,000 for obstructing the drainage system without approval.

They include Shimizu Corporation, Ssangyong–Hyundai Joint Venture, Tiong Seng–Dongah Joint Venture, KH Foges, Chye Joo Construction, Lum Chang Building Contractors and Evan Lim.

The 14th contractor fined was KJS Construction, which failed to remove the support structure in the drain after completion of the construction project at Singhealth Polyclinic, and as a result, obstructed the drain flow. It was fined S$1,500 for not carrying out work in accordance with the code of practice.

Contractors must seek PUB’s approval before carrying out any works that will interfere with the public drainage system.

Unauthorised alterations may affect the functioning of the public drainage system, as the drains, canals and rivers are interconnected.

Offenders may be fined up to S$50,000 for works affecting the public drainage system, and up to S$20,000 for unauthorised alteration of the public drainage system.
Source: CNA/kc

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Uni students push for use of green starch bags

Made of tapioca flour, the bags are biodegradable and safe if eaten by animals
Samantha Boh Straits Times 8 Dec 17;

Tired of seeing Singapore's waterways clogged up by plastic bags, and equally weary of their growing pile of reusable bags, two undergraduates from Nanyang Technological University (NTU) have banded together to try to convince event organisers and retailers to switch to starch bags.

While they look and feel like plastic bags, starch bags are made from tapioca flour, which makes them biodegradable in both water and soil, said Mr Matthew Ong, 24, a student at the NTU School of Art, Design and Media.

He added that they can also be safely eaten by animals.

"People will argue that everything here is incinerated, but there is still the problem of wind-blown litter, he said.

"Even if people don't intentionally litter their plastic bags, the bags may get blown to somewhere inaccessible or into our waterways. But for starch bags, they will dissolve over time."

He started a company, Green Boulevard, with his friend, Mr Jacob Koh, 24, and they have been promoting the use of starch bags, which are imported from Jakarta, since June.

CHANGING BEHAVIOURS

The intent is commendable and honourable. If you cannot eradicate the use of plastic bags overnight, then better to give people environmentally friendly options.

MR EUGENE HENG, founder and chairman of Waterways Watch Society, of the effort by the NTU undergrads.
The pair noted that while the use of reusable bags has gained traction, too many of them are given out at events organised here.

For a standard reusable bag made of thick plastic to have a lower carbon footprint than a regular plastic bag made of high-density polyethylene, it must be reused at least 11 times, according to a 2011 study by Britain's Environment Agency.

Cotton reusable bags have to be reused at least 131 times.

"They are given out way too freely and they cannot be reused (for other events) because there is customised printing on it. What is the point of using reusable bags if it is going to be thrown away after one use," said Mr Koh, who is studying at the NTU School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.

The duo have approached event management companies to offer them starch bags as an alternative. They are offering to customise designs which can be printed on the bags, and have also contacted some retailers.

While it is still early days for the pair, they have already received $10,000 in funding from NTU, under the CoLab4Good Fund, which helps fund ground-up community projects.

The NTU Office of Admissions and Financial Aid has also pledged to use the bags, instead of reusable bags, for future events.

Professor William Chen, director of NTU's Food Science and Technology Programme, said this is part of efforts to educate prospective applicants on the application of food science and the importance of sustainability.

The bags will be used in the fairs organised in NTU as well as those at junior colleges and polytechnics.

Mr Eugene Heng, founder and chairman of Waterways Watch Society, said it will be an uphill task to convince people to switch from plastic bags to starch bags, and that the pair will also face competition from producers of reusable bags.

The cost of a starch bag is more than two times that of a plastic bag.

"The intent is commendable and honourable. If you cannot eradicate the use of plastic bags overnight, then better to give people environmentally friendly options," he said.

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Malaysia: Six new insects found in Sabah

ruben sario The Star 8 Dec 17;

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah’s reputation as a biodiversity hotspot has been reinforced with the discovery of six new insect species in the pristine Danum Valley near Lahad Datu.

The discovery was made by a team of “citizen scientists” who visited the 438sq km conservation area, which is about twice the size of Penang island, as part of the inaugural Taxon Expedition recently.

Three of the newly discovered insects, all tiny beetles living in rainforest leaf litter, were published in the Biodiversity Data Journal on Thursday.

The other three, belonging to the family Elmidae (riffle beetles), will be published next year.

Taxon Expeditions director and biologist Dr Iva Njunji said scientists have estimated that over 80% of the world’s animal and plant species are still undiscovered.

Although the work of taxonomists – whose job is to describe and name these species – is appreciated by the general public, funding for taxonomy is dwindling, she said.

“Moreover, the areas hosting most of the unknown biodiversity are under threat ... time is running out,” Dr Iva said, adding that recruiting citizen scientists as extra hands means that unknown species may be discovered faster.

“For this type of work, you don’t even need to be a trained taxonomist,” she said.

Members of the inaugural expedition used the “Winkler extraction method” in which dead leaves collected from the rainforest floor are sifted, revealing tiny soil-dwelling insects.

Joint expedition leader Prof Menno Schilthuizen recognised three of the insects as new species.

Under his guidance, the participants studied, photographed and drew the specimens in the expedition’s field laboratory, extracted the insects’ DNA and prepared a draft for publication.

They also came up with the names for the new species. English teacher Sean Otani from Japan decided to name one Colenisia chungi, after Malaysian entomologist Arthur Chung.

The names of the other two beetles, Clavicornaltica sabahensis and Dermatohomoeus maliauensis, refer to the studied sites and were suggested by staff and rangers of the Maliau Conservation Area during the farewell party for the expedition.

All the samples collected have been deposited in the insect collection of Universiti Malaysia Sabah, and the data has been published online as a resource for other biologists working on Borneo’s biodiversity.

In March, Taxon Expeditions will again head into the Maliau Basin with a new group of participants.

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Indonesia: Researchers Should Also Consider Economic Value from Peat Restoration

Netral News 8 Dec 17;

JAKARTA, NNC - The Peat Restoration Agency (BRG) expects peat researchers to assess the economic value of peat restoration.

Head of BRG Nazir Foead on a research presentation and workshop of Archipelago-Care Society said this is a good opportunity for peat restoration researchers to make a scientific study in terms of ecology, social justice and certainly from the economy. So it can provide benefits for the community and for investors in this wise, the banking sector.

He hoped the economic studies will be strengthened so that it can be the main foundation for the government in this case the Ministry of Economy to take policy.

In addition, it encourages the investment community that wants to be involved in the economic program in providing benefits for the society. "We want investors and the banking industry to participate in providing investment funds, basically the availability of investment funds is many," said Nazir.

But investors are very cautious in determining which investment they want to give. "They are looking for the right one and certainly have a good economic value," he said.

According to Nazir, President Joko Widodo wants to involve cultivation in the defense of food, plantations and alternative community resources in the peat restoration. "So in 2018 there should be a massive activity that is not just an example project for cultivation in food security, if possible the size of the implementation is not in small numbers, and certainly by looking at the various potentials in the region."

In the research presentation activity the researchers describe a variety of community economic alternatives that include agriculture, livestock, fisheries, forestry and potential commodities as well as adaptive in integrated wetland peatlands.

Action research is still being done so that in the end this results as a comprehensive scientific recommendation and can be accounted for as a breakthrough in the acceleration of peat restoration.

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Chinese ban on plastic waste imports could see UK pollution rise

Chinese restrictions from January will hit UK recycling efforts and risk plastic waste being stockpiled or ending up in landfill, warn industry leaders
Sandra Laville The Guardian 7 Dec 17;

A ban on imports of millions of tonnes of plastic waste by the Chinese government from January could see an end to collection of some plastic in the UK and increase the risk of environmental pollution, according to key figures in the industry.

Recycling companies say the imminent restrictions by China – the world’s biggest market for household waste – will pose big challenges to the UK’s efforts to recycle more plastic.

Analysis of customs data by Greenpeace reveals British companies have shipped more than 2.7m tonnes of plastic waste to China and Hong Kong since 2012 – two-thirds of the UK’s total waste plastic exports.

Pressure is growing on Thérèse Coffey, the environment minister, to take urgent action to support and build the UK recycling industry to meet the challenges created by the China ban. But when asked recently, Michael Gove, the environment secretary, said: “I don’t know what impact it will have. It is ... something to which – I will be completely honest – I have not given it sufficient thought.”

Stuart Foster from Recoup, said there were indications in 2008 and 2012 that the Chinese market might be restricted in future but no action was taken in the UK. He said the restrictions on the export market should be an opportunity for the UK to develop its own infrastructure and create a circular economy in plastics.

But there was no robust plan in place to cope with the impact of the closure of the biggest market for waste in the world and the restrictions would lead to stockpiling of plastic waste, more incineration and the risk of more landfill.

“Whatever happens we need to maintain control of the material because the bigger worry is about leakage of plastic into the environment,” said Foster.

China’s dominance in manufacturing means that for years it has been the world’s largest importer of recyclable materials. In 2016, China imported 7.3m tonnes of waste plastics from developed countries including the UK, the US and Japan.

But this summer the Chinese announced they intended to stop the importation of 24 kinds of solid waste by the end of this year, including polyethylene terephthalate (Pet) drinks bottles, other plastic bottles and containers, and all mixed paper, in a campaign against yang laji or “foreign garbage”.

The Chinese have also increased quality controls for all other waste including cardboard, something other markets are likely to follow, which will also put the British recycling industry under huge pressure. The impact could see local authorities reducing collections because they are not economically viable.

Simon Ellin, chief executive of the Recycling Association, said the government was asleep on the job and the situation was a shambles. “If the government is serious about waste and recycling, they need to invest and come up with a coherent plan for the recycling industry,” he said.

Ray Georgeson, head of the Resource Association, an advocacy body for the recycling industry, said the lower-grade materials would have nowhere to go.

“Can you imagine the press coverage if local authority recycling rates drop by 5 or 10% because the plastics have no market to go to?” he said.

Lee Marshall, chief executive of Larac, which advises local authorities on recycling, told Greenpeace the fee at sorting plants may increase for councils because the sorting would have to be done to a better standard for new markets, or the price they get for any materials may decrease.

This could lead some councils to stop collecting some types of plastic, such as meat trays and yoghurt pots, for recycling. “While councils don’t like turning materials off … if the economics are such that it does cause them a problem, that’s a decision they’ll have to make,” he said.

Marcus Gover, chief executive of Wrap, said the restrictions posed “substantial challenges” and urgent action was needed to secure a thriving recycling supply chain for plastics and paper to benefit the UK economically and environmentally. The quality of UK recycling has to improve to meet higher standards put in place by China and other markets, he said

Many believe the restriction of the Chinese market should be opportunity for the UK to develop its recycling infrastructure and forge a link with the UK manufacturing industry to utilise more recycled plastic.

But many experts said the government was not taking action.

Foster said: “If you could get the link in place with UK manufacturers making plastic products, so that it makes business and environmental sense to use the recycled content and at the same time build up the recycling infrastructure in the UK, this is a real opportunity.

“We need the right policy put in place. But unfortunately because of Brexit ... we have other priorities.”

Mary Creagh MP, chair of the Environmental Audit Committee, said: “This ban could mean a double whammy for council tax payers if the price of our exported waste falls and the cost of UK disposal rises. The government should show leadership and invest in more reprocessing facilities at home to reuse these valuable materials, create green jobs and prevent plastic and paper pollution.”

A Defra spokesperson said: “We are continuing to work with the waste industry and the Environment Agency to understand the impact across the sector of the Chinese government’s proposed restrictions on waste imports.

“We are also looking at ways to process more of our recycling at home as part of our resources and waste strategy.”

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Study finds ways to avoid hidden dangers of accumulated stresses on seagrass

Debra Nowland Phys.org 7 Dec 17;

A new QUT-led study has found ways to detect hidden dangers of repeated stresses on seagrass using statistical modelling.

The research, published by the Journal of Applied Ecology, found cumulative maintenance dredging which affected the light on the sea floor increased risks on seagrass survival.

It found, globally, seagrass meadows can be at risk of collapse from accumulated effects of repeated dredging and natural stress.

*Seagrass provide shelter and food to marine life, including at-risk species like dugongs and green turtles

*Globally, hundreds of millions of cubic metres of sediment are dredged annually

*Dredging repeated every 1, 2 or 3 years, or for three months or more duration, needs careful management to avoid a loss of resilience

*Latest research builds on recently released research pinpointing 'ecological windows' for timing of dredging

"Our model predicts ahead of time how much repeated stress is too much," Dr Wu said.

"Our results show dredging can be successfully managed to maintain healthy seagrass meadows in the absence of other disturbances.

"The research isn't about stopping dredging.

"It's about being able to predict how resilient the seagrass will be by incorporating environmental conditions such as storms, cyclones and run-off from agriculture."

Dr Wu said port authorities and coastal developers could use the research to support a risk-informed management strategy.

Coastal development is commonly associated with dredging, which presents a hazard to ecosystem health via stressors including light degradation and water quality reduction.

"Generally, dredging repeated every one, two or three years, or of three months duration or more, needs careful management to avoid a loss of seagrass resilience," Dr Wu said.

Dr Wu said the development of a risk modelling approach, based on a Bayesian Network, was a tool increasingly applied in ecology.

The findings of the study are specific to hazards and environmental conditions for individual sites.

"For instance, dredging repeated every one, two or three years on a Halophila meadow at Hay Point was predicted to be at risk of losing resilience," he said.

"We developed 960 hazard scenarios including frequency of dredging durations of between one to six months and the level of light stress and the month when dredging occurred."

More information: Paul Pao-Yen Wu et al. Managing seagrass resilience under cumulative dredging affecting light: Predicting risk using dynamic Bayesian networks, Journal of Applied Ecology (2017). DOI: 10.1111/1365-2664.13037

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Best of our wild blogs: 7 Dec 17

17 Dec (Sun): FREE Sea Angel R.U.M. Monthly Ubin Mangrove Walk
Restore Ubin Mangroves (R.U.M.) Initiative

23rd Dec (Sat): Herp Walk @ Bukit Timah Nature Reserve (Holiday Special!)
Herpetological Society of Singapore

Living rocky shores of Pulau Ubin
wild shores of singapore

10th Singapore Raptor Watch Report
Singapore Bird Group

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Incidents of fallen trees and branches at their lowest since 2001: NParks

Samantha Boh Straits Times 6 Dec 17;

SINGAPORE - Despite online chatter, which suggests the opposite, incidents of falling trees and branches have dropped to their lowest level since recording began 16 years ago.

Though at least five cases of toppled trees and falling branches were fingered for causing traffic jams and damaging vehicles last month (November), the 361 incidents reported this year is a decline of more than 85 per cent from 3,000 in 2001, the National Parks Board (NParks) said.

The number is also less than half of the 800 recorded last year, and involved mostly snapped branches, rather than uprooted trees, NParks added.

NParks credits the plummeting figures to its tree management programme, in which trees are inspected and pruned rigorously, and those in danger of falling are replaced.

"We are also currently developing modelling techniques to better understand the behaviour of trees under varying environmental conditions, said Mr Oh Cheow Sheng, group director of streetscape at NParks, which manages about two million trees along streets, in parks and on statelands.

NParks has also been replacing storm-vulnerable species, such as the rapidly-growing Albizia and Spathodea trees, in forested areas next to roads.

For instance, a plot opposite the Bukit Batok Nature Park was cleared recently by the agency over safety concerns. It had been covered with Albizia trees, which are vulnerable to storms and more prone to falling because of their brittle wood structure and shallow roots. NParks is replanting the plot with native plants.

Other enhancements to the tree management programme, introduced in May last year, include pruning and crown reduction before periods of more severe weather events, such as the storms which slash the island during December's northeast monsoon. This is done on top of normal tree pruning.

The critical role of tree maintenance was brought to the fore after a 40m tall tembusu heritage tree in the Singapore Botanic Gardens fell and killed a woman in February. St George's Church at Minden Road had a 30m tall tembusu tree on its premises inspected after the incident, and had it chopped down when it was deemed unhealthy.

During tree inspection and pruning, a detailed visual tree assessment is first carried out of the root collar - where the stem and roots meet - trunk, and canopy of the individual tree.

Where necessary, a second-level advanced tree inspection is then conducted involving the use of specialised diagnostic equipment such as the resistograph and tomograph.

A resistograph is a tool used to drill into the tree's trunk. The resistance the drill meets is an indication of whether there is decay - decayed wood would offer less resistance.

A sonic tomography measures the speed sound travels through the wood. Sound travels slower through decayed wood than healthy wood.

"We will continue to review our tree management regime to ensure that it remains robust and comprehensive," said Mr Oh.

Botanist Shawn Lum, a senior lecturer at Nanyang Technological University's Asian School of the Environment, said even with regular inspections and maintenance, an accident can still happen due to unexpected natural elements, such as a sudden strong gust of wind, or a long bout of heavy rain that loosens the soil.

"There are so many variables that it would be impossible to have zero tree falls or fallen tree branches...but what can be done is to keep them to a minimum, he said.

"The alternative is to have a treeless city."

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Sand mafias and vanishing islands: How the world is dealing with the global sand shortage

The growing scarcity of sand in parts of the world is a serious issue, and one that has been linked with everything from organised crime to natural disasters
Josh Gabbatiss The Independent Online 6 Dec 17;

Sand seems like a limitless resource, but mounting evidence suggests this is far from the case.

We use sand as a key ingredient in the production of glass, electronics and – most importantly – concrete, but the growing need for construction materials means in some parts of the world, supplies of sand are dwindling rapidly.

Sand and gravel are now the most extracted materials in the world by weight, and since these products take thousands of years to form by erosion, demand is beginning to outstrip supply.

The United Nations Environment Programme estimated that in 2012 the world used nearly 30 billion tons of these materials just to make concrete – enough to construct a wall 27m high by 27m wide around the equator.

While much has been made of the impact infrastructure developments such as roads and buildings have on the surrounding environment, little attention has been paid to the impact of extracting raw materials such as sand to build that infrastructure.

As scientists wake up to this new problem, it is becoming clear that sand scarcity is an issue with significant sociopolitical, economic and environmental implications.

Dr Aurora Torres, an ecologist at the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research, is one of a handful of scientists investigating this issue.

Two years ago she began to research sand scarcity in depth, and soon found the problem was far bigger than she initially thought.

“As we were digging into this topic, we started to find lots of conflict across the world, and lots of evidence that sand is becoming increasingly scarce – especially this year,” says Torres.

Torres and her collaborators outlined their findings in a recent paper in the journal Science titled “A looming tragedy of the sand commons”.

Historically, sand has been a common-pool resource extracted and used locally. But a combination of regional shortages, increased regulation and appreciation of sand mining’s environmental impact has turned sand from a local product into an expensive, globalised commodity.

The trade value of sand has increased by almost six fold in the last 25 years. In the US alone, where sand production has increased by 24 per cent in the past five years, the sand industry is worth nearly $9bn (£6.7bn).

Though sand extraction rates are high across Europe and North America, the biggest consumers of sand are fast-growing Asian nations.

“Where it tends to happen is India, China, places where you have rapid and large amounts of construction,” says Dr John Orr, an engineer and expert in concrete structures at the University of Cambridge.

Singapore, meanwhile, has become by far the world’s largest importer of sand, adding 130 square kilometres to its land area over a 40 year period. The island nation has achieved this by dumping millions of tons of sand into the ocean.

As these countries expand, constructing endless roads and megacities, their demand for sand continues to grow. So enormous is China’s appetite for construction, in fact, that between 2011 and 2013 it used more concrete than the US got through in the entire 20th century.

This means that, at national and local levels at least, these regions are facing a genuine sand shortage. According to Pham Van Bac, director of Vietnam’s Department of Construction Materials, the country may well run out of sand by 2020.

Moreover, as sand becomes big business, the sand trade has attracted criminals.

“Because sand has suddenly become a very valuable resource, ‘sand mafias’ have appeared operating the sand mining business,” says Torres. This problem has been particularly noted in India, but according to Dr Pascal Peduzzi in a UN report titled “Sand, rarer than one thinks”, illegal sand mining operations have become widespread thanks to weak governance and corruption.

“In the past year there have been hundreds of people murdered because of conflicts between sand mafias,” says Torres.

Despite this alarming turn of events, it is still difficult to imagine how sand can be in short supply when the world’s deserts apparently contain a never-ending supply of the stuff.

But not all sand is created equal. The fine grained sand of the Sahara, for example, does not make an appropriate building material. Instead, sand miners must look to the banks of local rivers and coastlines, and this brings a whole host of environmental and human problems.

Sand extraction in Kenya has been linked with damage to coral reefs, while in India it threatens critically endangered crocodiles and in Indonesia islands have literally vanished due to excessive mining.

Sand extraction causes coastal erosion, destroys ecosystems, creates environments that facilitate disease transmission, and even sows the seeds for natural disasters.

“One of the more clear impacts on human systems is the increased vulnerability to natural hazards such as storms and tsunamis,” says Torres. This has been demonstrated in Sri Lanka, where research has revealed that intensive sand mining prior to the 2004 tsunami made the waves more devastating than they otherwise would have been.

“The beaches disappeared, and so there was no natural barrier stopping the flooding,” says Torres.

Sand’s common-pool status has made it difficult to monitor or control its extraction. Nevertheless, with such potentially catastrophic outcomes, some nations are under pressure to regulate their sand mining.

Earlier this year, the California Coastal Commission made moves to end coastal sand mining in the US by closing down operations in the Monterey Bay area that have been linked with beach erosion. Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom, who participated in the talks to end mining, described the resulting agreement as “an historic victory for environmental conservation nationwide”.

But where will the US, and other developed nations that are becoming squeamish about sand mining, extract their building materials if not from their own land? One option increasingly being used in the UK is to mine sand from the sea floor. Another is to import sand from elsewhere.

When she first heard about the scarcity of sand, Dr Mette Bendixen, a coastal morphologist at the University of Copenhagen, thought immediately of her work investigating how the coast of Greenland responds to climate change.

“Because of the warming temperatures we have melting of the Greenland ice sheet, and with that melt comes huge amounts of sand and gravel,” she says.

For Greenland, Bendixen thought, exporting sand could be a way to develop an economy that is in need of a boost. She envisioned a burgeoning industry that would enable the people of Greenland to become independent from the Danish subsidies they currently rely on, all thanks to sand.

But sand is heavy, and expensive to transport long distances. What’s more, whether sand is extracted from the sea bed or from Greenland, the environmental issues are simply being shifted elsewhere.

As outcry about the effects of sand mining increases in countries like India, pressure is mounting to find alternatives for use in construction.

Recycling concrete by crushing it down into rubble is a possibility, but not one that works for rapidly developing countries that lack the old infrastructure to tear up.

Finding sand alternatives is another option, but a complicated one. Sand is a special material because it has historically been so abundant and cheap. Producing a replacement with those qualities is difficult, but projects are under way to produce such a material.

Orr was enlisted to help with just such a project back in 2014, when Indian researchers based in Goa approached him to work on an initiative that would address two of their country’s most pressing concerns: the lack of sand and the abundance of waste plastic.

“The idea they had was: why don’t we use some of this waste plastic, shred it up and make it into the right sized particles to make concrete,” says Orr.

“We ended up using plastic sand essentially, which is actually a by-product of recycling industry procedures. They shred up plastic, and that can be put into the concrete mixtures,” he says.

Besides plastic, wood and various other concrete alternatives have all been suggested, but none have yet caught on in any significant way. Ultimately, as sand stocks diminish and prices soar, developers will be forced to find alternatives.

If sand scarcity is to be addressed in a serious way, those involved in the issue agree that a major challenge is making people aware that it is an issue in the first place.

“A large discrepancy exists between the magnitude of the problem and public awareness of it,” wrote Peduzzi back in 2014.

A recent up swell of interest has raised its profile since then, but Torres warns that this issue goes beyond a mere lack of sand. “The challenges we are going to face in mining of many different resources are not a matter of absolute abundance, or of scarcity,” she says. “It’s going to be more about the implications that this is having for climate change, environments and consequences for human systems.”

We are unlikely to completely run out of sand, but quite aside from the diminishing stocks the devastating impacts of sand mining mean this is no longer something that can continue unchecked.

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Malaysia: Perhilitan wants stiffer punishment in place for poachers

Esther Landau New Straits Times 6 Dec 17;

KUALA LUMPUR: The Wildlife and National Parks Department (Perhilitan) wants the government to put in place stiffer punishment on the illegal possession of tiger carcasses.

Its director-general Abdul Kadir Abu Hashim said the department is in the midst of proposing the amendment for Section 68(2) (c) of the Wildlife Conservation Act 2010 (Act 716) so that poachers will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

“We are now in the midst of amending the act where the punishment for the offence will be increased and the minimum period of imprisonment will be introduced (as now there’s no such provision in the current act),” Abdul Kadir told the New Straits Times when contacted.

Abdul Kadir was commenting on the one-month prison sentence slapped on a 43-year-old man for illegally possessing the carcass of a tiger (Panthera tigris) in an oil palm estate in Gopeng, Perak last year.

On Tuesday, Wong Chee Leong, was fined RM100, 000 and his motorcycle confiscated by the Ipoh Sessions Court.

Abdul Kadir said the current act only carries a maximum punishment of RM500, 000 or a jail term of no more than five years, upon conviction.

He said the department will engage with the judiciary and the Attorney General’s Chambers to address this issue, strengthen its enforcement and even conduct an awareness programme with stakeholders.

“The punishment for any charges is fully up to the discretion of the court and that is the process of the justice system,” he added.

It was reported that Wong had earlier pleaded not guilty to the charge. However, he changed his plea to guilty in the Sessions Court on Tuesday and he was subsequently sentenced.

Wong had appealed for a lenient sentence as he was just a helper at a fish farm and needed to support his family. His counsel also argued that he is a first-time offender and that it could not be proven that he had killed the animal or had the intention to trade it.

The carcass, the counsel argued, was given to Wong by the locals and that it was meant to be used to feed the fish in the farm where the accused worked.

According to Southeast Asia TRAFFIC acting regional director Kanitha Krishnasamy, a one-month jail term for transporting a carcass of the national symbol on a vehicle sends an extremely worrying message to would-be offenders.

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Malaysia: Setiu paddy farmers in dire straits after floods wipe out crops

ADRIAN DAVID New Straits Times 7 Dec 17;

SETIU: Recent monsoon floods destroyed the crops of 26 paddy farmers at two villages here, with total losses amounting to approximately RM52,000.

Chief spokesman for the paddy farmers of Kampung Buluh Hilir and Kampung Buruk, Che Aziz Che Hamid, said that the losses cover 80 acres out of the 300 acres of crops which could not be harvested in time.

“This is due to the earlier-than-expected rainfall which flooded the paddy fields, destroying the crops which had yet to be harvested in time. It has caused a lot of hardship for the affected farmers,” he said.

Aziz added that the farmers had anticipated the torrential rain, but could not finish harvesting the affected area before the floodwaters came.

“Some of them had begun harvesting their crops since Nov 11 when their paddy had matured, but they did not manage to complete their job before the monsoon hit,” he said.

Aziz blamed several other factors which have added to the farmers’ misery. Among them are pathways that were damaged by the floods; and the unsystematic mobilisation of harvesting machines which have disrupted the harvesting process.

“Additionally, the farmers faced difficulty in marketing their harvested crops owing to complicated procedures and inadequate buyers. This had an effect on sales and revenue for the farmers,” said Aziz.

He added that many of the affected farmers are desperately trying to harvest their flooded fields in the hope of salvaging some of their crops. The farmers are attempting to salvage whatever they can after putting in a lot of work planting the paddy.

“Some lucky farmers may be able to push their lower-quality harvest at lower prices on the market, rather than suffer total loses.

“They also fear the second wave of monsoon flooding, which may lead to heavier consequences and losses,” he said.

Aziz added that he hopes the authorities will step in to offer some form of compensation to reduce the financial burdens of the paddy farmers.

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