Palm oil, logging firms the usual suspects as Indonesia fires flare anew
mongabay.com
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Singapore makes room for allotment gardens as urban farming takes root
Rina Chandran Reuters 16 Apr 19;
SINGAPORE (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Rain or shine, every day for the past year, Kanti Kagrana walks a short distance from his son’s flat to Singapore’s HortPark, a national park where he grows chillies, eggplant and spinach in his allotment garden.
Kagrana, a 60-something native of India, is among a growing community of urban farmers in Singapore, which introduced allotment gardens in November 2017, modeled after England’s program which dates back to at least the 19th century.
Singapore now has more than 1,000 allotment gardens in a dozen of its national parks. Each is a raised planter bed measuring 2.5 meters by 1 meter, and can be leased for three years for S$57 ($42) annually.
“I enjoy gardening, but there is not enough space in my son’s flat,” said Kagrana, who has two plots.
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Malaysia: Animals vs humans = tragedy all round
SIM LEOI LEOI The Star 16 Apr 19;
An elephant may be pretty hard to miss but that has not stopped this majestic animal from becoming roadkill along certain highways in Malaysia, such as the Gerik-Jeli Highway in Gerik, Perak.
In June 2017, the carcass of a two-year-old elephant was found beside the highway, a victim of a collision with a car driven by a teacher who had panicked upon seeing a herd of the animals.
About two months later, a 10-year-old bull died after it was struck by a bus on the same stretch of the Gerik-Jeli Highway.
Early in January last year, a female elephant died in the same area, believed to have been electrocuted by a live wire close to the Seri Banding army camp.
Reports of such incidents as well as those of animal encroachment are on the rise as the wildlife in Malaysia contend with humans for space – and food.
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Malaysia: To save the Malayan tiger, poachers could be shot on sight
SIM LEOI LEOI The Star 16 Apr 19;
Just minutes into an interview with The Star, Datuk Abdul Kadir Abu Hashim is upset.
The Wildlife and National Parks Department (Perhilitan) director-general has held many press conferences to report the seizure of animal parts ranging from tiger skins and rhino horns to pangolin scales with his composure intact. But at this one-on-one interview, he is finding it difficult to talk about the damage that poachers’ snares inflict on wildlife in the forests.
“The animals either die or are injured when they are caught in the snare. Sometimes, we have footage or pictures captured by our camera traps showing the animals gnawing off a foot to get loose.
“In the worst cases, we will tranquillise the animal and bring it back to our centres to be treated. Usually, they die in a week or two,” he says.
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Sharks more vulnerable than originally thought
Newcastle University Phys.Org 15 Apr 19;
A study of small-scale fisheries operating from Kenya, Zanzibar and Madagascar, has revealed the massive underreporting of sharks and rays caught annually in the region.
Dominated by requiem, hammerhead, ground and hound sharks, the total annual catch of these vulnerable species equates to around 35,000 tonnes.
Led by experts at Newcastle University, UK, and published in the academic journal Biological Conservation, the team say the study highlights the substantial underreporting of catches by small scale fisheries and the urgent need to expand efforts globally to assess their impact on vulnerable species.
Impact of small-scale fisheries
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Airborne plastic particles blanket remote mountains: study
Marlowe HOOD, AFP Yahoo News 16 Apr 19;
Paris (AFP) - A secluded mountain region thought to be free of plastic pollution is in fact blanketed by airborne microplastics on a scale comparable to a major city such as Paris, alarmed researchers reported Monday.
Over a five-month period in 2017-2018, an average of 365 tiny bits of plastic settled every day on each square metre of an uninhabited, high-altitude area in the Pyrenees straddling France and Spain, they reported in the journal Nature Geoscience.
"It is astounding and worrying that so many particles were found in the Pyrenees field site," said lead author Steve Allen, a doctoral student at the University of Strathclyde in Scotland.
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Punggol Northshore, Tengah housing estates to trial turning rainwater into water for cleaning
Tiffany Fumiko Tay Straits Times 14 Apr 19;
SINGAPORE - Two upcoming housing estates will help conserve water by harvesting rainwater for non-potable uses like washing common areas.
National Development Minister Lawrence Wong said in a Facebook post on Saturday (April 13) that the Housing and Development Board (HDB) has developed several innovative water-saving initiatives, including the UrbanWater Harvesting System.
"HDB has centralised and integrated the detention tank, rainwater harvesting tank and the treatment system so that surface run-off from the entire precinct can be collected, stored and recycled," he wrote.
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Where are all the electric vehicle charging points?
Accessible infrastructure and incentives for drivers can push more to choose electric vehicles, says Sustainable Energy Association of Singapore’s Sanjay C Kuttan.
Sanjay C Kuttan Channel NewsAsia 14 Apr 19;
SINGAPORE: The need for a robust Electric Vehicle (EV) ecosystem in Singapore has become increasingly compelling.
Countries around the world have reached a landmark agreement to combat climate change and intensify actions needed for a sustainable low carbon future at the 2015 World Climate Change Conference (COP21) in Paris.
There is also a ubiquitous acceptance of the United Nations’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals, one of which states the aspiration for affordable and clean energy to become more common in attaining greater sustainability.
MOMENTUM IN SINGAPORE THROUGH THE YEARS
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Malaysia: Population survey on orang utan, pygmy elephants ready by 2021
Olivia Miwil New Straits Times 14 Apr 19;
KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Wildlife Department is expected to release the latest population of orang utan and pygmy elephants by 2021.
Its director Augustine Tuuga said the survey, which recently received RM1.5 million fund from the Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC), would help the state plan conservation efforts for the two species in the future.
“The last studies on both animals were done in 2003, in which the orang utan survey was conducted with a non-governmental organisation, Hutan, while Borneo pygmy elephant population data was provided by World Wildlife Fund (WWF).
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Indonesia: Heavy sedimentation threatens lakes in East Kalimantan
N. Adri The Jakarta Post 14 Apr 19;
Excessive sedimentation and deforestation are endangering three great lakes in East Kalimantan, namely Semayang, Melintang and Jempang.
Research conducted by the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) found the lakes had received at least 100,000 cubic meters of sedimentation each year since 2004.
The heavy sedimentation has led to the disappearance of nine smaller lakes.
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Singapore's yearly waste weighs the same as 530,000 double-decker buses, and that's not sustainable: Masagos
Michelle Ng Straits Times 13 Apr 19;
SINGAPORE - Singapore generated 7.7 million tonnes of waste last year, equivalent to the weight of 530,000 double-decker buses. It is an amount that is not sustainable in the long run, said Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Masagos Zulkifli.
In addition to reducing waste and moving towards a more sustainable consumption, adopting a circular economy approach in the way Singapore use its resources is key, he added.
"Our vision is to turn our trash into treasure and reuse and recycle our resources for as long as possible," said Mr Masagos, during his address on Saturday (April 13) at the public screening of Closing the Loop, a documentary on the circular economy - an economic system that aims to minimise and transform waste into resources.
He stressed that the amount of waste disposed of in Singapore has jumped seven times over the last 40 years and that Semakau landfill is projected to run out of space by 2035.
The Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources' $45 million Closing the Waste Loop R&D initiative launched in 2017, which funds projects that adopt circular economy approaches, is one solution, he added.
But, at the individual level, more can be done in homes to close the waste loop. He cited composting, a process that converts food waste into a nutrient-rich material that can be used to fertilise edible plants and veggies, as an example.
"If enough of us do this, we can reduce the number of rubbish trucks needed to transport our rubbish to the incinerator. This will reduce carbon emissions and help mitigate climate change. In short, there are immense possibilities to make a difference," said Mr Masagos.
Organised by Keppel Group in support of Earth Day 2019, the public screening of the full-length documentary saw over 1,000 people turning up at the Eco Lake Lawn in Singapore Botanic Gardens on Saturday (April 13).
The award-winning documentary highlights examples from around the world on innovative applications of technology, process improvements and labour solutions to reduce waste and pollution using circular economy solutions.
Keppel Land's chief executive Mr Tan Swee Yiow, who was present at the screening, said: "A circular economy is beneficial as it places less demand for natural resources. The Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources has designated 2019 as Singapore's Year Towards Zero Waste, and this screening is timely, in support of efforts to raise awareness of the need to conserve resources."
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